Through A Dragon's Eye (A Httyd Fanfiction)

Chapter Fifteen: Dragon Fight

I wake up to the sound of loud voices. Cheers rattle my ears and give me a headache. I groan and try to curl up and go to sleep again before a hand grabs me by the collar of my shirt and drags me out. I stumble as I am released. My head is still swimming from the arrow wound earlier today. The cage has never looked so inviting.

I am shoved to what looks like the outside of an arena. Evlrock is there and he smiles at my approach. "Pick a weapon," he says, gesturing to a rack of weapons behind him.

"What for?" I ask suspiciously.

He grins. "For fighting a dragon."

I recoil and stumble back. "You know I would never hurt any dragon," I growl.

"Well, you'll just have to figure out how to not die then," he says, his smile growing wider. I sigh inwardly. He's setting you up. He wants you to train the dragon. My reasoning voice says. But I don't have a choice. I remind myself.

I notice out of the corner of my eye Hunters concealed everywhere, and I walk purposely past Evlrock and grab a sword. While it is much heavier than my daggers, I know it'll work for what I have planned. I am escorted inside the arena and my hands are unbound. A great metal gate is the only thing standing between me and the crowd outside. And the inevitable fight that comes with it.

The gate starts to slide upward with a loud rattling noise. I tighten my grip on my sword nervously, trying to steady my breathing. Train the dragon. But, train him/her so they won't know how to train them in the future. The voice in my heads instructs me. I take a gulp of air. The guard behind me shoves me and I stumble into the arena. The crowd roars at my entrance and the gate shuts behind me with a clang.

The arena is in a circular shape and has a metal mesh as a roof. Beyond the mesh is the crowd, a group of Dragon Hunters by the looks of it. I can feel their watchful eyes as I survey the arena. Also among the crowd is a couple of Evlrock's men and Viggo himself. His gaze is the most piercing, even more than Evlrock, who is sitting next to him.

In front of me a metal gate similar to the one I had just come through. The growls coming from the cage and the occasional rattling of the gate make me believe the dragon behind it is the one I'm going to tame. I start to wonder what type of dragon I'll "fight". Will it be a Whispering Death? Or a Quaken? Or, maybe a Scauldron?

The gates start creaking up, revealing the dragon behind them. "A Monstrous Nightmare?" I ask out loud. Either they don't believe in my abilities, or they have absolutely no experience in training dragons. I think, smirking. Then, I frown. But, it's going to make it harder to conceal what I'm doing.

The Monstrous Nightmare itself is a pretty large specimen. I almost think it's a Titanwing at first. The markings on its wings and underbelly are a beautiful golden color. The rest of his body is a mixture of orange and red making him look like a big ball of flame. A name for him pops into my head. Afternoon.

He approaches me quickly, clearly aggravated by my sword. I ready my sword and aim it at the Monstrous Nightmare. There is a collective intake of breath from the crowd as I prepare to throw. I throw it, fast and hard, and I strike my target, missing the Monstrous Nightmare entirely. To the crowd, it probably looks like I had just thrown my sword at the dragon and missed. I silently pray in my mind that it hits its target, but it falls just short of the center link of the mesh that I had been aiming for.

The sword falls to the ground with a clang, and I gulp nervously. This isn't going well. I try inching towards the sword, bit the Monstrous Nightmare intercepts me. "Hey there boy.." I whisper urgently. "It's ok, I wasn't aiming for you.. I was aiming for the chain link." I point up to it. The Nightmare growls and comes closer. I try again desperately. "See? If you break that, you can escape." The Nightmare tilts his head at the word escape. He looks up at the link. Then back at me as he sees me moving towards the sword again. Growling, he sweeps the sword away from me with his tail and glares at me as though saying Don't move or I'll kill you.

I hold up my hands in surrender. "Fine, suit yourself." I sit on the ground, trying to look and sound calm. "Just tell me when you're done deciding."

The only problem is if the Monstrous Nightmare does decide to attack me, I'm doomed. The Monstrous Nightmare looks at me almost inquisitively, as if saying, Why don't you try to kill me, dude? There is a moment of awkward silence where neither of us attacks the other. Starting to realize that this probably looks suspicious, I slowly get up again. Then, suddenly, I charge. The dragon is taken back by my sudden approach, so I am able to jump on his head and wrap my hands around his horns. He struggles under my grip and the crowd gasps.

As I am shaken to and fro, sweat starts to bead my brow as I barely holding on. Then, the dragon starts to tire, and I use my remaining strength to push his horns to the ground. I am surprised when I end up doing it on the first try. The crowd cheers at my victory and Evlrock scowls, clearly confused. The Nightmare almost instantly calms down and nudges me as I release it, and I hope no one notices. I put on a scared face and say, "Whoops." Then, I back up, slowly reaching for my discarded sword and jump onto the dragon's head again. This time, I am facing forward, ready to ride. "Fight me," I whisper to him. I don't think he needed motivation. Roaring, he tosses his head around, trying to throw me off. Flames shoot from his mouth, but fortunately, his body itself doesn't heat up. I glance at Viggo and Evlrock again. Evlrock's scowl is becoming deeper set on his face while Viggo seems to be thinking.

As I wrestle with the Nightmare, I "lose" my sword by stabbing it into the center link. Next, I direct the Nightmare's flames towards the already weak center link. For some reason, the link is not reinforced with dragon-proof metal, which is fine by me.

Sooner than I had hoped, the center link breaks and the sword falls down. I glance at Viggo and see dawning come over his face. As I manage to calm the Monstrous Nightmare again, he is already shouting orders at his men. I shout, "Fly, Afternoon, fly!" He takes to the sky, spreading his huge wings. He clearly likes his new name and also wants to escape. Such a big guy like himself should never have been cooped up in the first place.

We burst into the sky and I hear arrows being released below us. "Dodge! Up! Forward! Left, no your other left!" I instruct Afternoon. He follows my directions, expertly avoiding all the arrows. "Now," I whisper to him. "Let's blow this popsicle stand." He roars in agreement and we race away, Evlrock's furious shouting growing softer and softer behind us...