Night Rider

Deadly Nadder

We flew though the air on Toothless's back. The night air cooled me to the bone and I wrapped my arms around Hiccup's unnaturally small waist for warmth and comfort. It was so peaceful being up here with him, like all the worries in the world had disappeared. I smiled and leant my head on his back, but all too soon, Toothless touched the ground of Berk.

"We need to find that wounded dragon." Said Hiccup, sliding off Toothless then helping me down.

"What happens if it's not on Berk?" I asked.

"Then we find him tomorrow." Hiccup said clearly as he wondered towards the closest houses. Toothless followed silently behind him, sniffing the air. I set off in the opposite direction after watching him leave and deciding that I shouldn't go the same way as he did. I wish I had Toothless - I had no idea what I was going to do when I found the dragon, at least Toothless would offer protection. But, I guess Toothless offers protection to Hiccup from the Berkians and Stoick.

I made my way to the docks. All of the dragons seemed to have gone, and a lot of the vikings had retreated inside to repair their property and houses. The docks were clear, unless you count the blood, blackened boats, dead fish, a few viking men, a dragon's tooth and water. I set off again before they noticed I was there and started to ask me questions.

I walked to the Forge, checking behind and inbetween the houses as I went. A few vikings approached me, but non spoke to me when I gave them the 'death stare' with my axe in my hand, which I was grateful for. I hadn't seen the Monsterous Nightmare yet, luckily for me...

"Hey, Astrid!" Said Gobber. "What brought you here?" He asked. Gobber clearly hadn't seen any of the battles where me and Night Rider were involved, because he spoke to me like he normally did - not like I was a traitor or a completely different person like everyone else had today. But soon enough, he would find out too and then I would be a traitor to everyone... I wonder if Gobber would still sharpen my axe in the future? Or would Hiccup do it for me? Can Hiccup still do blacksmithing?

"Have you seen a Monsterous Nightmare around here? A wounded one?" I asked.

"I have seen a lot of alive ones, but not a wounded one. Do you want to finish its useless life? I bet that after all of these years your itching to sink that axe of yours into something other than trees." He asked, not looking up from where he was repairing a sword.

"Something like that." I answered, before I dashed out the Forge before I got held up anymore. Gobber liked to talk, but I couldn't risk being held up by him for much longer.

I checked the rest of the houses, the Great Hall, and I even checked Mildew's house but there was no sign of the Monsterous Nightmare, or its blood. Everyone I asked hadn't saw it - I didn't dare ask Stoick or anyone close to him (except Gobber). I was just about to check the sheep pen, but I heard a scream.

"Nadder!! Deadly Nadder!! Help!!" Someone screamed. I could tell they were shouting, but it was hard for me to hear because we were so far apart. I sprinted towards the sound and into the dense forest. I heard them scream again and slightly changed the direction in which I was running in to follow the sound.

Eventually I came to a clearing with a blue Deadly Nadder in it, advancing upon a viking lying on the ground.

"Bucket!" I shouted, before charging at the Nadder. It whacked me with its tail (fortunatly its spikes were down) and I flew backwards into a tree. I groaned and scrambled up again.

"Look out, lass!" Screamed Bucket. Just in time, thanks to the warning, I ducked and the spikes flew over my head and into the trees behind me. A few more vikings had appeared now and were attacking the Nadder. Mulch had helped Bucket to his feet. Not wanting to harm or kill the dragon (I still couldn't bring myself upto kill them, even if they did almost kill Hiccup, Bucket and Toothless) I stood and watched the attack happen. Quite a few vikings, possibly 10, excluding me and Bucket had now gathered and teamed up against the Deadly Nadder.

One, two, three vikings had been knocked down, four! A heard the screech... the screech of a Night Fury and the Nadder cocked its head and flapped its wings. Before it could take off, the remaining 6 vikings had pinned it down at the legs, so it was unable to fly. Unfortunately (or fortunatly depending on how you look at it) the 6 vikings couldn't hold down the Nadder, and soon enough there was only 2 vikings left - the other four had ran to take cover when they heard the Night Fury growing louder each time it called. One of the remaining ran away in shock, and the other was pushed to the ground. The Nadder prepared to fire.

"Stop!" Screamed Hiccup. He jumped down off Toothless who landed gracefully after him a few seconds after. Hiccup ran and stood between the Nadder and its victim. This confused the Nadder, and it didn't fire at the viking anymore. "Drop your weapons." Hiccup said. "Drop them!" He repeated when no-one did.

"Do as he says!" I screamed. That made them drop the weapons. I smirked. A small victory. Hiccup held out his hand infront of the Nadder, but it backed off. He was going to train it! I thought. I got excited by this - I had never seen it done.

"Come on, girl." Said Hiccup, moving slowly to face the Deadly Nadder again. This time however, it whipped its tail out and produced the spikes. Hiccup hesitated then said:

"Let's get rid of these spikes shall we?". He slowly stretched his hand out, and he touched the tail. I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. The viking which the Nadder had almost killed earlier was still lying on the ground, watching Night Rider and the dragon intensly. Hiccup smoothed down the spikes on the tail, and patted its side. "Now that wasn't too hard was it?" He said to the dragon.

Toothless went over to it and sniffed the Nadder. He seemed to approve.

"Do you trust me?" Night Rider asked the Deadly Nadder. The Nadder turned her head in a questioning way.

"Please trust me." Said Hiccup. He held out his arm, his palm facing the nose of the dragon. He turned his head away and closed his eyes. His breathing was heavy and Toothless stood on guard, just in case. I tightly gripped my axe.

Yes! The dragon pressed its nose against Hiccup's hand. I was so relieved!

"Is she okay, bud?" Hiccup asked Toothless. Toothless replied with a happy yelp. He then came over to me, flicked me up on his back unexpectedly and carried me over to the Nadder. My breathing got faster. Was he trying to get me killed?

"Relax!" He said, smiling at me. I tried to calm my breathing, but I was still terrified. He slowly grabbed my hand and pulled it up, my axe dropping to the grassy ground with a clatter.

"Rider..." I said in a shakey voice. I was petrified of the dragon, but I tried not to show it.

"It's okay." He replied. I felt something scaley on my hand. I looked up. I was touching it! I was really touching it! I smiled. He released my hand, but I still kept it on the dragon.

"She is your now. Get on her back and follow me!" Hiccup said, gliding away on Toothless effortlessly. That was a bit fast. I had just touched it, now he wants me to ride it? To train it fully?

"Hey." I said to the dragon. She made a noise in response. I wasn't sure if that was good or bad and it made me hesitant. I patted her side, like Hiccup did, and carefully hoisted myself unsurely onto her back. Hiccup watched from above and the vikings watched in shock.

"Okay." I said to myself. "Okay." I grabbed onto her horns (or would you call them spikes?) and said:

"Up, Stormfly."

Stormfly is in the game!!

Published on 18th September 2017

The chapters start to get longer soon. :)