Freedom and Fury

IV. The Dragon Riders

"Toothless!" A voice called out as they neared the other side. The black dragon in question suddenly bound forward and leaped from Raven's view. She ran forward to catch up with him, jumping through the underbrush and seeing who had called Toothless's name.

She stared on with growing horror as Vikings surrounded her, for what purpose she didn't know. One thing she did know was that she had a taste of what Thorn called "freedom," and she wasn't about to give that up just yet.

She growled, her eyes becoming emerald slits and her body arched, backing away from the strange humans. One of them -a female, she could tell- approached her cautiously, throwing her long, hooked staff to the ground and crawling on all fours. Raven snarled louder.

She waved her hand, the dragon's eyes following it in surprise, and Raven rolled onto the ground as the human rubbed her hand gently across the Night Fury's chin.

Raven was appalled at how the human seemed to command her like a herd animal. She jumped up, shaking her head at the buzzing feeling, and growled at the woman once more.

A deep, booming growl erupted from the four-winged dragon as he moved right behind the woman.

Raven snorted, her eyes narrow and untrusting. "Where are your chains, slave?" She spat at him.

"We have no chains. We are free," he replied, moving so that the Night Fury could see the other dragons. A Deadly Nadder, a Gronkle, a Monstrous Nightmare, and a Hideous Zippleback were the ones she could name, plus a beetle-looking dragon with a club tail.

"'Free'? How could you be free when Vikings control you?" Raven asked, glancing at the humans surrounding the group.

"They're our riders." the Nadder spoke, a female by the sound of her voice.

"We own 'em our lives." The Nightmare spoke next. With all the dragons talking, Raven missed the human approaching her until he was right in front of her.

"Hey, bud," he said, startling the Night Fury. She backed away, baring her teeth in defense. "Whoa, hey, I'm not gonna hurt you," he said.

Raven only growled louder. She didn't trust any of them, much less the humans, but right now she had no other option but to stay here.

"It's alright, bud." Bud? Raven snorted and drew her head back in disgust. Did he really just mistake her for a male? He seemed to take her body language as a hint. "Not a boy?" Raven shook her head. "A girl, then?" Raven nodded. "Okay then, girl, just take it easy. We're not gonna hurt you."

The strange thing was, Raven actually believed his words. These humans hadn't really done anything that her masters did, and she saw no chains near them.

"Hiccup," another Viking approached and pointed to the navy dragon's body. "Look at those scars." Raven took his hushed tone as awe, puffed out her chest, and spread out her wings proudly. Her scars were her pride, the mark of her status as a prized fighter.

"Who would do such a thing?" The male, Raven guessed his name was Hiccup, asked.

"My guess would be dragon fighters," yet another Viking spoke. "See those scars on her neck?" He pointed to said area. "I've seen those before. Dragon fighters would take a thick wooden collar and tie their dragons up so they couldn't escape. They also bound their wings with those metal clasps." he pointed to her wings.