Capture

My first fan fiction. Please leave feedback in the comments or on my message wall and be honest.

Chapter 1- Temptation

Flies and bees buzzed around the waterhole. Birds took off into the air when a red Nadder landed nearly on a patch of grass and lowered her head into the water. The cold touch of the liquid refreshed the Nadder, tired after flying for many miles. After it had drank, the dragon went in search of some berries. She wandered past some dried up shrubs and glided over oak trees until she finally found what she was looking for: a berry bush. Just as the hungry dragon was about to chomp down on the small, juicy fruits, she heard a deep, angry growling. The Nadder’s head spun quickly around- after taking a mouthful of berries (and a few thorny branches) of course. She was looking straight into the eyes of a male TitanWing Razorwhip. The TitanWing growled again, louder this time, and snapped its jaws at the Nadder, who was eyeing the Razorwhip. He didn’t seem as if it needed any food; it was quite obese and there were remaining strands of bloody meat stuck between its teeth. The Nadder was scared of provoking the large dragon so she flew off, disappointed. She spent the next few minutes scanning the neighbouring area for any other berries-unsuccessfully- but then- no, it can’t be. Yet there it was. She caught an ever so gentle waft of something in the air, a smell pleasant to her: the smell of chicken. She instantly flew in the direction of the scent. It was like losing a penny to find a pound (or cents and dollars for most of you)- it seemed to good to be true.

That‘s because it was.

Dragon Hunters aren‘t particularly intelligent but they are far from clueless. they have charted a weakness for every single dragon. Ryker wanted Nadder spines so Nadder spines they would get him.

Four stocky Hunters sat on logs in a circle. Much to their uncomfort, they were smeared in chicken.

“Like we couldn’t just go in with our axes and hack the beast down,” one of the Hunters grumbled as he wiped meaty slime of his forehead.

“For the last time, we wouldn’t overpower the beast. Do you remember what that Nightmare did to Filla and her four other back-ups?” Another Hunter pointed at a scowling, long-haired woman with a mauled face who snorted in response.

“I don’t want to be covered in this gloop” the first one moaned. “Why does Ryker never do the dirty work. Or Viggo?”

“Treat them with some-”

“Shhh! The beast is coming.”

Chapter 2- Rage

The Nadder landed in a clearing close to the place were the Hunters were. Just as she was about to stride towards the chicken, she stopped. She could also smell sweat and human flesh. Something rustled. The Nadder knew she had walked into a trap. After sending a spine flying into the bushes where the humans were hiding, she spun round and started flying away. She had only flew a few metres off the ground when she felt a nasty stab in the back and a Hunter yelled angrily. The Nadder’s adrenaline rocketed up. She spiralled madly into the air and scorched the ground with blinding (but random) blasts of magnesium. She sent two spikes into the gut of a Hunter aiming his bow at it. The Hunter gasped, clutched his impaled and bleeding belly and fell to the forest floor, his bow with him. The Nadder was about to ram head-first into Filla when, as suddenly as when she had started her rage, she stopped, swayed and crumpled into a spiky, red bundle on the ground.

“OI! OI!”

The Nadder woke to a short and pudgy hunter shouting at her through the bars she was imprisoned in. Her cage was in a large wooden room that looked like the inside of a ship but there was no rocking motion or sound of water. Blank-eyed dragon heads were on the walls along with blood-stained weapons.

“Finally! Come on! Eat this up!”

He emptied a bucket of slightly rotten fish right in front of the Nadder’s nose. Normally, she would walk away huffing at food like this but now, she was famished. She hadn’t eaten anything except for a mouthful of those berries for three days now.

She tried to snarl at the Hunter but found that her mouth was muzzled shut (much to the Hunter’s amusement). Embarrassed, tired, scared and hungry, she turned her back on him and started eating the fish.

The Hunter readied his heavy shield. Gathering up his courage, he poked the Nadder’s tail and, sure enough, it flicked a spine into the shield. He did it again, a bit harder. She dragon spun round with blazing eyes. she growled at the sadistic Hunter and flicked two more spines at him, which embedded into his shield.

“Ryker makes it look so easy,” the Hunter thought to himself.

The Nadder went to the very back of the cage- where the Hunter couldn’t poke her.

But what he could do is throw stones at her and shout- and that’s exactly what he did.

For the second time, she raged. She shot a spine into his foot (which made him yelp and cry out) another at her leather muzzle, grazing her chin in the process.

“NO!” the Hunter gasped. He dragged himself to a bell in the wall and rang it desperately.

The now unmuzzled dragon roared and sent a powerful blast at the whimpering Hunter. He blocked most of the fire with his shield (his wooden shield) but he couldn’t move his limp, stabbed leg out of the way and it burnt into a black crisp. The Hunter fainted and his flaming shield set fire to the room- and the Hunter. Smoke curled up, suffocating the flapping Nadder. She heard footsteps and in half a dozen seconds, five hunters burst into the room. Two of them dragged the nearly-dead Hunter shouting “Borr! Borr!”. Two of them started attacking the flames with barrels and buckets of water of water and the fifth one ran over to the Nadder, put two purple-headed arrows to his bow, and the Nadder saw blackness.

Chapter 3- Helplessness

She knew what to expect this time when she woke up. Yup, she was bound up in chains. Her mouth was muzzled- in metal this time- and her tail and legs was chained to the wall. Despite just waking up, she was exhausted. She slumped down and tried to suck a berry from between her teeth which had been stuck there since the whole berry incident. After a minute of lying virtually motionless, she tried to stretch her wings but found that the cage was to small to even to that. She also found she has a neighbour. A dragon sneezed when she had stretched her wings; a tip of her wing had tickled its nose. The Nadder looked at the dragon. It was a funny shaped dragon but one she had never seen before. It walked in four short legs , had blunt, thin spines all over its back, a small club on its tail and a long, bumpy snout.

It was a Windgnasher, but the Nadder didn’t know that. This one in particular was dark blue.

The Windgnasher was also heavily chained, but not quite as much as the Nadder. It was also smaller so could just manage to stretch its wings.

Out of no-where, some slightly drunkard singing broke out outside of their cage.

“Oh, and they slayed the dragon, oh! Put the body in the wagon, oh! And the heroes drove back home, to a feast of dragon bone!”

The two dragons growled simultaneously.

“Shu’up.......Windy and......New Thing.

Those newts are stupid and fat. I’ll smack ‘em with my bat. And it‘s all...”

The singing got quieter and quieter as the Hunter went further and further away.

“Windy” sniffed the air and settled down to sleep. The Nadder did the same.

A breath of air over her neck awoke the Nadder. She was being sniffed by Windy through the bars. He was a Windgnasher, after all. The Nadder snorted in amusement and rolled onto her back Staring at the claw-marks on the ceiling of the roof.

Half an hour later, a grumpy woman came in, opened the door to the Nadder’s cage, unlocked all the chains, grabbed the Nadder by her muzzle and dragged through underground passages and doors.

”Listen here.” The woman twisted the Nadder‘s head so that it was inches away from her face. Their eyes met and the woman had pure anger and sadness in hers.

“You burnt my brother when he was workin’. I hope that Rumblehorn will kill you.” and she punched the confused Nadder‘s eye with grief-powered strength.

A door that the Nadder hadn’t even noticed was there opened. Two men took off the muzzle and pushed her on.

The Nadder entered a vast arena, with a hundred or so people sitting around it- cheering or booing. Half way down the arena, a metal gate stood. The Nadder saw a beastly dragon through the bars of the gate. It was a black Rumblehorn. One of its three horns had half of it snapped off and it’s yellow eyes dadhes round madly and fiercely. But behind the anger, the Nadder sensed an aura sadness and pain around the gladiator. She tried calling to him softly but no one would hleads her over the roar of the commentator.

“Dearest Vikings and Viqueens, you have come to a promising fight. Both of these fiery, feisty, fighting fiend have great potential. Who will be victorious today? Will it be Shattersword- the grim, melanistic Rumblehorn who almost beat a Triple Stryke on his second fight. Or will it be the newbie..er.....”

He looked at her punched eye.

“Blackeye! The Nadder with nasty raging fits in which she destroyed her muzzle, burned a hall and killed two good Hunters- may they rest in victorious and well deserved peace in Valhalla.”

“Thank you, brave men, for the good you have done,” the crowd chorused.

“That wrenched Nadder‘s gonna win,” an old, wrinkly man shouted. “But she don’t deserve it!”

Shouts of agreement echoed throughout the spectators.

“OK! Have you all set your gambles with friends, nemeses or both? Well, you have 10 seconds! 9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1.......BEGIN!

And the gate was lowered.

Chapter 4- Redemption

Shattersword charged at his opponent the second the gate was low enough to jump over. He hit “Blackeye” with two rocky fireballs which slammed into her legs, knocking her down. Shatterwrord was charging at the fumbling Nadder, horns lowered, but, just before he reached her, Blackeye rocketed off int the sky- or as far as she could without smashing into the chain that closed the arena’s ceiling. Shattersword followed. Blackeye suddenly spun round and sent a magnesium blast straight into the Rumblehorn’s face. Most dragons would be almost knocked out and have a singed face from a blast like that so that was the reaction Blackeye had expected but Shattersword merely shook his head in pain and frustration and flew back to the ground.

“Well, that didn’t go as well as expected for Blackeye.”

Blackeye has totally forgot about the commentator and audience. These sadists captured dragons then either killed them, sold them or forced them to fight each other as entertainment. They shot her, chained her, caged her, made her a dragon gladiator. And what did she do to them? Well, she killed two Hunters and burnt a room but that was to protect herself from them.

For the third time in this story, a fire burnt within her soul. It took all of her self-control to not fly around in a frenzy, shooting spines and blasts at any humans. She suddenly stopped and bowed to Shattersword- who also stopped, confused. Blackeye raised her eyes and made eye contact with him. Then she quickly glanced of at the commentator.

“Hmm. Something strange is going one. Could Blackeye be surrendering so quickly? COWARD!”

“COWARD!” The crowd echoed and catcalled.

Blackeye was postively trenbling with fury.

The crowd began murmuring amongst itself. A group of young women threw some rotten apples onto the stage. Then, faster than anyone could react, the two dragons spun round. Shattersword blasted the commentator’s seat and the same time that Blackeye sent an three arrows into the stands, one onto each of the apple-throwing women’s hair. Screams erupted like volcanoes. Shattersword and Blackeye stood back to back in the middle of the arena, blasting any archers before they could hit Blackeye (they usually bounces off Shattersword’s think plates of armour). Soon, there were only a few axe-wielding Hunters left. Shattersword charged through them. He placed his foot on a fallen Hunter’s chest.

“NO! HELP!”

“TORRI!” one of the two remaining Hunters called in a comically deep voice.

He started climbing onto Shattersword’s neck but Blackeye knocked him out cold with her tail.

Shattersword stepped off the Hunter, who immediately sprang to his feet.

“Ha! This Hunter right here won’t be def-”

Shattersword’s club rammed and into his head and he crumpled unconscious. The remaining Hunter, Duster, ran away, dropping his axe. Blackeye tripped him up with a well-fired spine. He fell, grazing bees knees the stony floor. He tried to ha d his whimper and whispered, “Please, Odin.”

The two “savage beasts” walked over to him as he braces himself for the fire that would end his life. But it never came.

Shattersword looked at Duster and then at the lever to unlock the chain over the arena. Dusted understood. But would he do it? A debate against himself flashed through his brain.

Your not doing this. You‘re no coward.

First off, you kind of are. Second, what if you’ve always been wrong.

But everyone has always told me how horrifying dragons are.

How many times have you attacked a dragon for no reason composted to how many times a dragon has attacked you? YOU are the horrifying monster. Those people are brainwashed.

But all the famous Heroes fight dragons!

They are only considered Heroes because the beards and poets are biased. Also, dragons are intelligent. They have figured out what the lever works.

Yes they are intelligent, but so are most serial killers. They’ll just manipulate me and then killed me.

They haven’t killed any of the other guards- just knocked them out- and they had good reason to. And you are a serial killer for dragons. Just do it.

Shattersword growled at him to hurry up, stopping his mental debate.

Sighing and trembling slightly, Duster threw his Hunter helmet off, walked over to the lever and, praying that his morals guided him correctly, pulled. The huge metal clamps around the arena opened up And the chain-web fell on them. The dragons hadn’t thought about this. Blackeye quickly dive into Duster, who thought for a split-second that she was attacking him. Blackeye covered him with her wings so the chain didn’t hurt him.

“Yeah,” Duster mumbled to himself. “I’ve made the right choice.”

The two dragons and one human found their way from under the chain-web. The two dragons nuzzled Duster with their heads and flew off. Suddenly, a door burst open and a dozen or so Hunters stromed in with a dragon. The dragons flapped to go faster and Duster jumper and caught Shattersword’s leg. The Rumblehorn looked down, surprise.

They were flying off when a voice boomed from the arena.

“Woah,woah, woah! Get off there right now, Hunter! For Thor’s sake! As for you, Blackeye, I believe you have left something.

The grinning Hunter signalled to a blue Windgnasher, held by half a dozen chains and with two spears held to its scratched neck.

Chapter 5- Escape

Windy howled at Blackeye for help, and one of the hunters pushed his spear harder against his neck. Blackeye was conflicted, but she knew how horrible imprisonment was and she couldn't leave Windy like that. She gestured for Shattersword to fly away but he ignored her and plummeted through the air (Duster now on his back) at the hunters, shooting fiery rocks at them, but careful not to harm Windy. He landed on the ground and took out most of the Hunters, twice as furious as Blackeye had ever been. Soon they were all dead or unconcious, but Shattersword felt no remorse. By killing these few Hunters, he saved the lives of twice as many dragons. Blackeye looked at Shattersword apprehensively and cawed in amazement of the pure power and deadliness in the Rumblehorn, glad that she didn't feel his wrath in the arena. The three dragons took off and flew away, until Blackeye remembered: she had to free the other dragons. Luckily, they had Duster, and Duster had the keys. All the Hunters were gone now so there were no guards. They dropped Duster and he unlocked the cages one by one. The three dragons guarded him so that none of the dragons tried to attack him, though many tried. He took the muzzles off the ones which had them which made them earn their trust. Now there were about 15 dragons free moving around as much as they could after weeks of being locked up in confined cages.

"Go on, dragons. I'll stay here. I'll talk to my family. Tell them about you all. I'm sorry for all the horrible things I've dome to your kind. I'm ashamed, but now I'll redeem myself, I promise."

The dragons enthusiastically took off thrilled by the feeling of freedom. Blackeye and Windy joined them until they realised that Shattersword had srayed behind and was standing next to Duster, who also looked surprised about this. Shattersword looked at them meaningfully and let out a gentle roar of goodbye. Windy returned the farewell and Blackeye swooped down and landed next to Shattersword. She squawked and touched her head to his, holding the position for several seconds. Then she looked at Duster, squawked again and flew back to Windy.

After flying North for several hours, the company of liberated dragons were started to get weary. Just as they were about to stop on a small, lone islandthey all simultaneously looked up. Something was drawing them forwards, they sped up and soon, a tall island surrounded by ice came into their view. As they got closer, they could see thousands os dragons from dozens of species flying around and a gargantuan white one in the centre of it all. Blackeye suddenly felt humbled and so did the other dragons, judging by them looking down and slowing down. They landed on a large boulder and Blackeye looked around, unable to comprehend to beauty and power of this place. After a few minuted, a masked human made its way towards Blackeye and her company. Many of the dragons snarled and shifted uncomfortably but the human waved its staff, the movements and rattling noise soothing the dragons. The human took off its mask to reveal a middle-aged womans face. Her eyes scanned over the dragons, taking in all of their injuries and said:

"Don't worry, my poor, wonderful creatures. You're safe now. I am Valka and this is my Dragon Sanctuary. Ill protect you."