Night Rider

Green Eyes

I ducked their initial attack and spun right into the face of one. I hit is solidly on the noise with the butt of my axe and ran away at full speed. They roared after me, their feet booming in the silent forest. My heavy breathing filled my ears and my beating heart was in my throat; Leaves, thorns, thickets and branches hit my face as I ran, making light cuts on my face and arms. I heared them catching me - in a matter of seconds I could clearly hear, and see, two of the three dragons on each side of me, and the third running and snapping at my feet. The moon shone brightly above me, but it wasn't nearly enough light for me to see properly, so a few times I stumbled on rocks or tree roots and had to re-balance myself.

"Ahh!" I screamed as a second volley of thorns shot at me. They landed a metre infront of me, and if I hadn't stopped where I did, they would have hit me squarely. I was surrounded again, but this time there weren't three dragons, there were five. I have never seen these dragons before in my entire life - not even in the Book of Dragons which I had flicked through a few times when I was bored.

They were extremely fast with deadly accurate shooting thorns from their tails and horns-like dangily things. I was unaware of how well they flew, or what they ate, but they clearly had amazing eye-sight, possibly even able to see perfectly in the dark like night-vision. They had really long claws and teeth - most probably for chopping through the branches of trees, vines and... prey. Its scaley body was green, the same as an oak trees, with darker green spotted almost the colour of a spruce. It had large, shiny green eyes and a long face, similar to a Monstrous Nightmare's, but more stream-lined and thin. It had small holes for its nostrils and its ears were cleverly camoflauged as leaves. All the way down its back it had a row of frilly things, identical to birch leaves, in a similar fashion to a Zippleback. Its growl was menacing and torcherous, like a very low dog's growl, but with an edge to it at the end which boomed against my ear drums.

They shot again at me, and I rolled out of the way. I heard a quiet yet distressed squark behind me, so I spun around. A Terrible Terror landed with a thud. It had a huge thorn sticking out from its back as the colour seemed to drain from his eyes, and he waddled in such a way that he looked drunk or unstable. He then tried to fly, but he ended up crashing into the tail of the dragon which shot him. He fell to the ground. Dead.

Don't let them thorn you! I said to myself. It was obvious already to not get hit, but just to see the real damage that made it a whole lot worse.

In my moment of distraction, I felt a metal-like grip seize around my neck, cutting off my air supply. I gasped and choked, as I drew my hands up around the tail which was strangling me, unwanting to touch it just incase I impaled myself on a thorn, which luckily hadn't touched my neck, yet. The tail felt rough like tree bark, and it was as strong as the whole forest - I couldn't remove it from my neck. I coughed and spluttered again, I was in desparate need of air. I screamed. I screamed as best I could without any air in hope that someone would hear me, that someone would come quickly, even if it was Snotlout or the Twins. The dragon drew me close to his face, as if he was inspecting me, but his tail refused to slacken. I forcefully and repeatedly hit my hand against its nose, my legs flailing in the air as I was dragged upwards. The other four dragons surrounded me, tails posed ready to strike. I knew it, I am going to die before I even know the name of the species of beast, before I told Hiccup that I... that I may love him, before Stormfly was accepted. At least I would be joining my parents, right? They would be watching me from Valhalla, struggling with the dragons then giving up. They wouldn't be proud of that - they never gave up fighting; Hoffersons never give up.

What am I doing? I questioned myself. Hoffersons never give up!

I reached to get my dagger from where it lay waiting in my belt. My hand closed around the cool shaft and I brought it out, stabbing it violently into the tail of the dragon. The dragon have a whelp, and I dropped to the floor with a slight thud. My lungs opened themselves again and I took the biggest and fastest breath of air you ever could. I felt like a fighter again!