Freedom and Fury

III. The Rescue

The other Night Fury looked terrified at the Viking's words. Raven lunged at him, but her heart wasn't in the action. Instead, it leaped for joy. Here was another of her kind! She wasn't alone after all!

She forced herself to push those feelings down as her paws swiped at his head. He ducked under her attack and ran across to the other side of the arena and scratched at the stone sides. Raven growled, confused. Nevertheless, the promise of food made the dragon lunge again. And again the dark dragon dodged her attack.

"Come on and fight, coward!" She dared to speak, although no Viking could make out her words. She held her ground, digging in her claws and roaring through bared teeth, eyes full of malice.

Their eyes met for only a second, although it felt like much longer. This dragon, this Night Fury, the dragon that made the bravest Vikings run in terror, was petrified.

Raven didn't attack. She stared in disbelief as he continued to claw desperately towards the sky Raven didn't even know was there until she glanced upwards. The hisses and boos of the crowd did nothing to draw the two dark shapes towards each other. Raven kept staring.

Her legs seemed to move on their own, but they didn't spring forward. Rather, they merely shifted her wieght between her four paws until she was following the Night Fury across the arena walls, silent, but nevertheless moving.

His voice cracked the air, calling out in a piercing howl. Raven recognized that sound. It was the very one she herself made her first few nights locked up in the Vikings' cages. A lonely, dying howl that echoed through empty caves and fell silent upon the ears of the humans above.

Raven's fighting spirit had dissolved into bleakness. She didn't know what to think. She didn't know if she could think. She felt empty, and at the same time fueled with a new type of energy she hadn't felt before.

Raven didn't notice the explosion above her until her nose picked up on the smoke's sharp smell. Her head moved up as a shape dashed between the grey clouds. Her eyes followed its form until it descended upon the Night Fury before her, picking him up like prey and dashing through the hole in the arena ceiling.

Raven wanted to chase after them, after her opponent, but as she stared up at the empty sky she felt something stir within her. A new, previously unknown feeling overrode her senses and cooled itself around her mind.

Freedom.

Such a strange word to the fighter. And yet, so familiar. Thorn had spoken of a time when dragons were free, he himself had been so before the Vikings came. Raven didn't remember this time, but the feeling was nostalgic-like nonetheless.

The arena descended into madness at the loss of her challenger. Raven didn't hear it. She called out, that same scream that shook the arena minutes before and pierced through the hearts of the fighting dragons in the caves a lifetime ago. She cried out "Take me, take me, bring me up to the sky, please, anyone, take me..."

Claws latched themselves around her midsection before she knew what was happening. In a single wingbeat, she was carried up through the still-thick smoke, causing her eyes to shut and her lungs to reject the air being drawn into them. Raven coughed and spit, clearing her throat of the smoke before opening her eyes to see what lay ahead.

It was like nothing she'd ever seen before. There was so much... color surrounding her. She looked down upon an endless floor of blue. She had never seen anything like it.

"Is this... the ocean?" She breathed, speaking to herself. It startled her when a voice answered.

"It is," a deeper voice than her own said. It came from above her. Raven looked to see a dragon much bigger than herself, with multiple frills behind two horns branching out from its face. She also now saw four equally-large wings spread out from its sides, something she never knew a dragon could have.

"Who are you?" The Night Fury asked, her voice weaker from fear at the novelty of it all.

"You will see soon enough," he answered. She looked on ahead at a small island breaking the surface of the blue with its green and stone grey.

The dragon descended, angling his body downwards to be pulled down towards the surface of the island. Raven felt her insides leap as he fell, bringing the dark dragon down with him. She could only close her eyes as the island drew nearer to them and brace for the impact.

A gust of wind forced her green eyes open as she realized that her paws were now on land again. The Night Fury bolted forward at once, relishing at the feeling of being on solid ground once again. She ran through the thicket of small trees, eager to see the Viking village that would be on the other side.

Except, it wasn't. The island ended and the blue began once again as she cleared the underbrush. She stared out in disbelief. They reached the island. This was supposed to be her home. And yet, it was empty.

She heard branches cracking and whipped her head around to see the other Night Fury appearing through the growth as well.

"Who are you? Why have you brought me here?" She demanded, snarling.

"I haven't brought you anywhere," he answered, standing taller. "My friends did."

"I asked who you were first," Raven spat.

"My name is Toothless, and-"

Raven cut him off by bursting into laughter. "Toothless?" she asked in amusement. "Who are your friends then? Softclaws and No-fire?" Raven continued to laugh.

The Night Fury huffed and narrowed his eyes. "No. But may I ask what your name is?"

Raven stopped enough to answer "You may."

Toothless grew more annoyed. "Then what is it?" He seemed to be losing his temper, evident through the baring of white teeth as he spoke and the growling undertone.

"Raven," said dragon answered simply. Toothless relaxed and blew out a small puff of smoke from his nostrils. "So where are your friends?"

"Waiting on the other side of the island. I was asked to go look for you," he stated.

Raven chuckled quietly, but not good-naturedly. "Really? You, of all dragons?"

"What makes you think I'm any less a dragon than you?"

"You have no honor," Raven said coldly. "Running from a fight as prey runs from predator. Refusing to attack, always looking for an escape as if you were just put in the arena."

"I was." Toothless's eyes were chilling and narrow. He looked away to avoid Raven's eyes.

"Oh," was her only reply. Her mind was thrown back to the days where the Vikings would put her against foes much bigger than herself, against veterans with more scar tissue than scales. "Then why did you try to escape? Everyone knows the rules. You don't fight, you don't eat."

Toothless brought his eyes back to stare at her in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

Raven sighed and shook her head. "Newcomers," she said aloud with clear disdain. "That's the dragon fighting rule. What you would've learned quickly if they had kept you."

Toothless huffed again and turned his back to her. "Come on, we should be getting back," he started walking back to the group, with Raven in tow.

She thought about his answers. He must've been very new, as he hadn't even head of the fighter's rule before. He had also tried to climb the walls, another rule, "don't try to escape." He seemed very odd to the navy dragon. One could only wonder what his friends were like.