Night Fury's Venom

Part 4: New Body, New Destiny

Everyone stared in horror at the thing that now occupied the space Hiccup had been. All of the villagers had seen at least part of the transformation from my annoying but helpful apprentice to a slightly bigger, scary creature. Nobody could escape the fact that there was now some sort of dragon lying in the village. It looked painful, too. At least that's what I got looking at his eyes.

Wait, he tried to tell me something! What was it? Meat Fuzzy? Night Foggy? No Furry? Night Fury? Wait, Night Fury?! Looking over the draconic body, none of it looked familiar, nothing resembled this in the book of dragons. I should know, I train the new recruits how to kill dragons. The only blank entry in the book of dragons was the Night Fury, because nobody had seen it and survived.

Black scales, perfect for camouflaging itself in the night skies. Huge wingspan for its size and a smooth body, it would be able to fly very fast—that was probably how it made that screeching noise when it attacked. Four sets of tail-fins, likely extremely maneuverable in the air. No wonder nobody had ever seen it!

"Night Fury," I whispered in awe. Apparently, I didn't whisper quietly enough, as the name quickly spread through the crowd.

Without warning, the Night Fury shifted, bringing my thoughts back to the moment. Even if it was Hiccup before... that happened, would it still be Hiccup now? Or would a dragon be controlling his body as well? Or what if it was the dragon pretending to be Hiccup, or Hiccup pretending to be a dragon? Oh, my head hurts now—too much thinking. I needed a drink. I needed to change my undies.

First things first, though, now was not the time to take unnecessary chances. "Pin it down! Someone get the dragon-wagon from the arena, now!" Everyone jumped to action at my bellowing, rushing off to the arena or grabbing a limb and pressing it to the ground. I made sure to grab the head, ensuring that he couldn't open his mouth, but not being overly rough—just in case it was still the Hiccup I always loved to tease.

A few minutes later, the dragon-wagon arrived. In reality, it was little more than a wooden cart with wheels and chains, designed to move an unconscious dragon to the arena quickly and safely. When it arrived, we moved the dragon onto it and promptly strapped it down, fortunately still unconscious. Putting a muzzle on the Night Fury, we began the journey back to the dragon arena.

We left the dragon tied down in the wagon in the middle of the arena, and the few experienced dragon slayers that had remained on the island formed a ring around it. We made sure that everyone else had left in case there was a fight.

Everyone except Gothi, that is. Seriously, she could sneak around when she wanted to. I didn't think anyone noticed her until she was standing by the dragon's face, prying an eye open.

"Gothi! What are ye doing?"

She turned around and drew a few squiggles on the ground, which I translated roughly as 'look into his eyes.' As Gothi was the elder of the village, it was always a good idea to do as she asked, no matter how strange it seemed. Kneeling down by his head, I kept my ax-hand ready and reached my hand out.

Then, his eyes snapped open.

(^-^)

Well. That was a weird dream. I dreamt that Bucket woke me up, Dad left to find the dragons nest, and I'd turned into a Night Fury. How strange. My dreams were getting weirder and weirder. Oh well, time to see what horrors lie in wait for me today.

ACK! GOBBER'S FACE! Definitely a nightmare now! My head recoiled back only to be stopped by something around my neck. Flinching, I tried to stand up, only to find that the rest of my body was tied down firmly. There were even chains around my scaly wrists. Wait, scales? Black scales? Oh no. That wasn't a dream, it had definitely happened.