Disclaimer[]
This story is written by WrathOfTheNightFury, please ask me before using any of the characters of this story in your work or editing anything in this page that is not a grammar mistake. There may be slight violence and/or gore, but I won't go into much detail. There may be use of bad language, but only slight, like nerd, or idiot. There will be bullying, and a little romance, so do not read this if you are sensitive to any of the above.
Key[]
- Flashbacks, dreams, letters and prophecy - Italics
- Foreign languages (Like Latin, French, etc) - in bold, translated to English. Keep in mind that the characters do NOT understand anything written in bold, it was only translated for you, the reader's benefit.
Prologue[]
Thousands of miles away from Berk, the inhabitants of the sun-baked plains of Virnia were gathering. These people were Vikings, Vikings that had sailed away from the archipelago years ago. The Virnians now regarded this as a legend, saying that Vikings were a myth. The old people who warned the others that their ignorance would be their fall, were laughed at, and regarded as dreamers.
The entire village had turned up to this gathering. An old man sat on a flimsy wooden chair, the crowd standing in front of him. The man was shriveled up like a prune, six feet tall, with grey hair and deep black eyes. There were a few people standing in a line next to the man, holding children. There were four children, none of them more than a year old. The children did not know it, but this was meant to be the most important event of their life. A man formally walked up to the old man on the chair and handed him a baby.
"This is the son of Iyogar, the fisherman, exactly a year old, born on 1st January." shouted the man "Speak, great Willnow, and tell us what this baby is called, and what his destiny shall be."
A chuckle rose up from the crowd. Everybody knew that Willnow had long since forgotten the art of looking into the future, the event was only conducted due to tradition. It did not really matter what Willnow said anymore, the people just turned up to have a laugh at the old soothsayer's expense, although the huge banquet later was also an encouragement. Willnow's assistant Grafro, a little man with a grey eyes, grey hair, and even grey skin, was the only one who gave the soothsayer any respect at all these days. The disrespect from his would-be followers had made Willnow resentful, all he ever predicted now was death.
Willnow's brow creased as the son of Iyogar was brought to him. There was a long pause.
"Lorang!" he shouted suddenly, making the crowd jump. "Lorang is his name. Live in dread, family of Iyovar, for this child has brought a curse upon your household. It will not thrive, nay, much the opposite. This child has brought doom upon your family. YOUR END IS NIGH! Beware, Iyogar's family, beware...." Willnow lowered his voice, "Beware, beware," he whispered, jerking his body around violently, "Beware."
Silently, Grafro lifted one year old Lorang and gave him to his father. Even the crowd was stunned, but only for a moment.
A female voice floated up from the crowd, "Look at this silly old man." she said, scornfully, "He cannot look into the future. He's just trying to scare us for the fun of it, trying to give our children nightmares. Shame on you, old man." The crowd started jeering and shouting, ruthlessly hurling insults at Willnow. This hurt his pride, resulting in the next two children's fates even more grim. The second child, whom he named Flamian, was destined to die a very painful death at the age of three, and the third child, a girl, Aquilion would contract a deadly disease that would wipe out all Virnians.
Grafro brought up the fourth child. The fourth child was sickly and pale looking child, not particularly good looking. His hair was as black as night, on the outside, he was a regular child, somewhat underfed. However, his eyes told an entirely different story. They were dark green, with an unsettling depth to them. It gave the feeling that this particular boy was much more intelligent than he seemed. As the boy was handed to him, Willnow's body jerked. He was suspended in the air by some unknown force, holding the child high above his head.
"This is Flareoan, son of Gunther, the blacksmith." said Willnow, but his voice had changed. It had a rich, resonant quality that had not been there before. The crowd was silent, it seemed that the soothsayer was finally chanting a true prophecy.
"This boy," he said, "Is destined to be great. After he comes of age, he will have the capability to lead Virnia with his steady hand. But wait, no, I see a great evil rising, the boy will not have time, nay, he will not. The timing is crucial, or else, no it does not bear to think about, no," Willnow's voice changed into a scream, "Noooo, NOOOOO!" he screamed, and collapsed onto the floor.
The crowd rushed forward to help him, the Virnians, however much they disrespected the soothsayer, knew that he had seen something bad. The screams had sounded genuine, and the signs, the clouding over of his eyes, his suspension in air.... the Virnians were not superstitious people, but this was a special case.
As the crowd rushed around him, Willnow croaked, "My hut, take me to my hut, and tell Gunther to meet me there."
An hour later, Willnow was sitting in his house, with Gunther sitting opposite to him. Willnow said, "Gunther, today, I have seen a lot, and learnt much more. I have learnt more than I could if I went a lifetime without meeting your son. Flareoan. The boy has shown me evil, evil that you could not dream of. But you, Gunther, you must protect him. As I said before, he will be great. Aye, very renowned the name Flareoan shall become. But there is a danger, a great danger, and he must be protected. Do not let this boy outside your sight unless you are sure that he is ordinary."
"Why?" asked Gunther "Why does it matter if my son is ordinary."
"Pray that your son is ordinary," came the reply, "For if he is, we are safe. If the boy shows any kind of specialty, then all our lives are in danger, and there is a very high possibility that he will die very young."
"But why, are you telling me all this, I do not believe anything that I haven't seen with my own eyes." said Gunther. "The prophecy..." Willnow replied, "It is the source of all this trouble, but it is a huge burden to carry, are you sure you want to take it upon your shoulders?"
"If it is about my son, I must know it." said Gunther. Two more times, Willnow tried to change his mind, but Gunther was adamant. "Alright." The soothsayer relented. A bright green light filled the room, and words rang through it, words of prophecy. The green light died down, and Willnow fell to the ground, dead.
Chapter One: Flare[]
A man walked into a hut. The man was tall and muscular, with flaming red hair and jet black eyes, those of a hardened killer. It was evident that this man enjoyed torturing things younger than him. he was carrying the limp body of a Skrill. He walked to the back of the hut, staring into the darkness present there. "My lord, this Skrill will be a perfect addition to our collection." he said.
A voice, coming from the darkness, said, "Did you get the Flare?" The voice was laced with venom.
The man said, "Sire, this Skrill-" "Did you get the Flare, Dorann?" the voice asked again, this time more forcefully.
"No sire, please forgive me." said Dorann, pleadingly.
"No?" asked the voice, incredulously, "No? The great Dorann, the famed Hunter, cannot bring me Flare?" Dorann took a step back, afraid for his life. "Go!" said the voice, "Search the skies, comb the land, scour the seas! Bring me Flare within a months time. Do not fail me."
"No sire," said Dorann, "I will not fail you this time. The Flare will have nowhere to hide, nowhere to run." He walked out of the cave.
"I want all troops, land, air and water, looking for the Flare" Dorann ordered. One of his men tried to object. "No arguments." he shouted, "We shall not rest until we find it."
In his bed, Flareoan woke up with a start. He realized that he had been dreaming. Still, he felt unsettled, the men in his dream were looking for him, there was no doubt about that.
"It was only a dream." he told himself, "Nothing to be worried about."
"What would you be worried about, dear?" asked his mother, stopping her work at the forge.
Realizing that he had spoken aloud, he quickly said, "Nothing mom, I just misspoke." He did not want to spoil the chances of his going out that day.
Flareoan's parents were really protective of him, they had not allowed him out of the hut until he was almost 11. He had heard rumours of a prophecy about him, and when he had first stepped out of his hut, it was clear that the other Virnians were disappointed.
Lorang had told it to him outright. "I grew up listening to the story of a boy around my age who had an unknown prophecy about him." he had sneered, "I knew that this mysterious Flareoan, the one that did not come out of his hut, was the only other contender to lead the Virnians. Now that you have come out, I realize that I shouldn't have worried. With your puny muscles, there is no way anyone would vote for you." It was true, Flareoan was not much to look at. He had a scrawny body for an 18 year old, and no visible muscles. His face was good-looking, with his green eyes and black hair, but neither did that matter to the Virnians, nor did his intelligence.
Flareoan ran out of the hut as fast as he could. He needed to get out of the hut before his mother could come up with anything to keep him inside the hut. His father had stopped protecting him now, though every time Flareoan thought about it, he felt as if there was something odd about his father's words. "He is not extraordinary in any way, it is safe for him to go out now." his father had told his mother. Flareoan had no idea why it mattered if he was extraordinary, but he went along with it. Otherwise his mother would probably have tried to keep him in the hut until he was 13. His mind buzzing with questions, Flareoan walked towards the Training stadium.
It was a cloudy day, and Flareoan could see Virnians and dragons alike going about their daily business. He passed the river, Pelastus, and saw Iyogar and his band of fishermen working with their Scauldrons and Monstrous Nightmares to catch fish. To his right, Gronkles were felling trees, and their woodcutting owners, led by Markshaw, were chopping the wood up. Rumblehorns were carrying the chopped wood to various craftsmen, who with the help of their Razorwhips were making wares to sell in their shops. Terrible Terrors were everywhere, carrying Terror mails. Just up ahead, their was the leader's hut. A sign hung above the entrance, saying: All dragons can help us in one way or another.
Someone shouted from behind Flareoan, "Hey, Flare, wait for me." "Oh, hello Sife." said Flare. Sife, who was actually called Siphon, was Flareoan's friend. He was a few months older than Flare, just enough to be in the earlier Naming Ceremony. Sife was a dark-skinned, brown-eyed, strawberry blonde boy. He always stood by Flare, and was the only one who did not have a look of disappointment when they saw him. "So, are you excited about tomorrow?" asked Sife.
"The Trials? No." said said Flare miserably, "I am going to fail, and fail miserably."
"Come on, look on the bright side." said Sife.
"What bright side?" asked Flare, "I am hopeless at sword fighting, axe-throwing, and all other kinds of physical activities."
"I can't be sure." said Sife, "But I think that there may be something that you are good at, or the soothsayer would have thrown you out."
"The soothsayer, Willnow, died the day he judged me." said Flare glumly, "Maybe it was a sign from the gods that he had committed a grave mistake."
"Stop being so glum, we'll find a way." said Sife. Flare did not say it, but it was heartening to see someone who had faith in him. He reached the entrance of the Training stadium. Flare took a deep breath and stepped inside.
Chapter 2: Training for the Trials[]
The Training stadium was an arena, where the younger Virnians were trained. The teacher, Qiord, was a very buff man, he had blue eyes, but they became red when he was in battle. His blue dyed hair would be stained red with blood when he was in battle. A truly terrifying person indeed, he was in charge of teaching the children the art of battle.
As Flare and Sife stepped inside, Qiord shouted, "Hey, come out here, we're having one on one battle today." He cleared his throat and continued, "All of you know that tomorrow is 31st December, the day of the Trials. Tomorrow, you shall prove to us that you have what it takes to earn a respectable dragon. As is the custom, I must inform you of the tasks a day prior to the starting of the Trials. But first, you must finish your training. I have you know that, everything, I repeat, EVERYTHING you have learnt in all your training will be needed tomorrow."
"Sir," sneered Lorang, "What happens to people who cannot complete the Trials?"
Quietly, he whispered to his friend Andro, "I hope that the are tortured, it would be nice to see it happen to that Flareoan filth." He said spat out the word Flareoan with loathing, as if it was some sort of garbage.
"The failures?" said Qiord, "Well, they will be presented with Smothering Smokebreaths, or worse, Night Terrors. They will get the most low down jobs, but they shall still remain a Virnian, Smothering Smokebreaths are very useful during war." "Aww!" said Lorang, crestfallen, and looking at is genuinely disappointed face, anyone would have taken pity on him.
Qiord shouted, "Aquilion will fight Ghria, Siphon, you're up against Andro, and Flare, you'll be battling Lorang."
Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh, thought Flare. Lorang was Flare's height, with merciless blue eyes, which sparked with such joy when he tortured something, that you would have easily believed that it was harmless fun. He dyed his blonde hair black, and had a tattoo of a skull on his left shoulder. Lorang was the best at everything physical, he could defeat Flare with a flick of his weapon.
Lorang snickered and said, "I don't even need a weapon to beat you, I will just use my hands to throttle you. Get ready for the worst fight of you life, nerd."
"Oh, you finally realized that you should stop me from talking, or you would probably start blubbering after hearing what I have got to say about you." said Flare, trying to sound more confident than he felt. What he said wasn't strictly true, of course, but he figured that if he made Lorang mad enough, he would not be able to defend himself.
"Pick up a weapon, punk." said Lorang, "And get ready to lose like you've never lost before."
Not liking his chances, Flare picked up a sword and a shield from the weapon stack. He did not like the sword, it was too heavy for him, he sometimes tended to swing so hard that he fell over, but it was the sword he was most comfortable with. The shield was battered, but it had served him well, protecting him from getting knocked upside the head by Lorang's favourite battleaxe. It was that battleaxe, the one Lorang named Blood, that he picked up now. It was against the rules to favour one weapon over another, and to name weapons, before you passed the Trials, but Lorang was confident of passing them. So, whenever Qiord wasn't around, he clearly called the axe Blood, and he had threatened all the other Virnians into agreeing to not pick Blood.
Qiord shouted, "Weapons at the ready.... size up your opponent and.... fight."
Lorang charged towards Flare, his axe raised high above his head. In a tenth of a second, Flare had listed all the different maneuvers he could use right now. If he had been good at swordfighting, this would have been very useful, but he could not perform any of the maneuvers he had thought of, so he did the only thing he could do. Just as Lorang was about to swing Blood, Flare dived to the side. Lorang, however, had been expecting this, only the fact that Flare had lifted his shield saved him from losing the fight even before it had even begun. Flare quickly got to his feet, only to see Lorang swinging at him again, which he blocked with his shield. He attempted a stab, making a grave mistake. Lorang had been practicing a new trick that he had invented by accident, when his sword got stuck in Blood's handle. Lorang raised the rubber handle, and the point of the sword sunk into it. Flare let go of the handle, and Lorang took Flare's sword and threw it back into the weapon pile. Desperate, Flare threw his shield at Lorang, and to his surprise, it connected. Lorang had been gloating over his supposed victory, and had not noticed the shield flying towards him. All it did was aggravate Lorang, and he charged, determined to murder Flare. The now weaponless Flare could do nothing but wait for his impending doom.
Qiord shouted, "Lorang beats Flare." "But sir." objected Lorang, "I did not even touch him yet." "The rulebook says that if a person is disarmed, he has lost the match." said Qiord. Even Lorang knew batter than to argue with Qiord, so he sat down grumbling, waiting for the other battles to finish.
"Good work, Flare." said Qiord, "You survived almost a whole seven minutes against Lorang, and even managed to hit him. That is your new best."
"Luck." Flare said, and sat down on the seat farthest from Lorang.
The final results were, Lorang defeated Flare, battle time was seven minutes. Sife defeated Andro, battle went on for almost twenty minutes. Aquilion had defeated Ghria, battle lasted seventeen minutes.
"Alright." shouted Qiord "Everybody, listen up, gather around."
Flare went up to Qiord, and sat down on the seat beside him, keeping a safe distance from Lorang. "Tomorrow is the day that you shall be officially accepted as a Virnian. To do this, you must pass the three stages of the Trials. The first one tests your fighting skill. You must start the stage with only a bow in your hand. Then, you have to enter, and shoot the mannequins. Behind the mannequins, there will be automatic crossbows shooting at you, and they won't stop until you hit the target a sufficient amount of times. The crossbow arrows will be tipped with paint, and the number of marks will signify your skill. The more skilled people will be chosen as guards, warriors, blacksmiths and the tasks related to war, while the less skilled will be chosen to do more peaceful jobs. This is the least important stage.
The second stage will test your physical prowess, there will be an obstacle course, and you must complete it as fast as you can. This stage will determine your position at whatever task is assigned to you, the faster ones will have higher positions, and slower ones will have lower. The scribes, however, do not have these positions, you can only become a scribe if you fail the third task, which is why we have so less." "I'm am definitely going to be a scribe," thought Flare gloomily.
"The third task." Qiord continued, "Is a riddle. There are many answers to this riddle. If you choose a more obvious answer, you shall get the mediocre dragons, like Gronkles. Depending on your choice of answer, you can also get stronger dragons, like Razorwhips, or even stronger, like Whispering Death. You can also get Night Furies, or Deathgrippers, but only one person has ever got one, and he cheated."
Well what do you know, thought Flare, perking up, it seems that I may do well after all.Qiord was not finished. "The dragons will be in their eggs." he said, "So you will need to take care of them and train them."
He went to the back of the stadium, and came back with a woman following him. "He said, "I would like to introduce you to-" The woman raised a hand to stop him. "I," she said, "Am perfectly capable of introducing myself." "Who do you think you are, girlie?" sneered Lorang, who had clearly not learnt to respect his elders, "I am going to bash you."
The woman called, and a Triple Stryke flew into the room, it's stinger brushing Lorang's neck. Lorang's pupils dilated with fear.
"Don't get too full of yourself, Lorang." said the mysterious woman, "Qiord has told me all about you, you overconfident, self-centered bully. I am Mirihana, the Dragon Trainer."
Chapter 3: The Dragon Trainer[]
Flare stood still, surprised. He believed that knowledge was power, so had been reading books about dragons for a long time. He had learnt enough to guess that Mirihana was definitely very talented. The Triple Stryke was very difficult to tame, they had a huge mistrust of humans. This lack of trust was not without reason, for the seas bordering Virnia were Dragon Hunter territory. The stinger of a Triple Stryke was very valuable, and due to this, the Triple Strykes were one of the most sought after dragons near Virnia. These dragons had adapted to this, by developing a huge mistrust for humans, and even a hatchling can bite very hard. Feeling a new degree of respect for the Dragon Trainer, he raised his hand.
"Yes, child." said Mirihana, "What is your name?"
"Flareoan." said Flare.
"What is it?" she asked.
"I was just wondering," said Flare, "That even if we do get one of the more powerful dragons, they will still be significantly harder to train, right?"
"Yes." said the Dragon Trainer, "If you want to train a more powerful dragon, then you will have to be patient, determined and persistent. This is probably the reason why most Virnians don't have very powerful dragons. They do not have the time to train one."
She made a hand signal, and the Triple Stryke moved away from Lorang.
"I hope you have learned your lesson, boy." she said harshly, "The next time will be much worse."
Too scared to even speak, Lorang nodded. Lorang was a bully, a coward at heart. He only liked to bully people weaker than him. those stronger than him, he tried to make an ally, but this Dragon Trainer was having none of it.
"It will be a waste of time to teach you how to tame and form a bond with it." Mirihana said, "But I will give you the basics."
"To form a bond with a dragon, you must show it that it can trust you. The relationship with a dragon is that of love and trust. You must be willing to trust your dragon with your life, and the dragon must trust you. When you fly, you are one, and you must trust your dragon to keep you safe. On the other hand, in battle with other humans, the dragon should trust you enough to follow you into battle. There is an example of an unbreakable bond, a bond that even an Alpha's control could not break."
"That's impossible." said Lorang, "All dragons follow their Alpha."
"Yes, but I have traveled far, and I have come across Vikings-"
"The Vikings are a myth." Lorang interrupted.
"Believe what you will." said the Dragon Trainer, "I have come across an extraordinary bond, one between a Viking boy about your age and a Night Fury he calls Toothless. Their friendship is so strong, that the boy, Hiccup Haddock, was able to free his dragon from an Alpha Bewilderbeast's control. Toothless then challenged the Bewilderbeast, and won. He is now an Alpha."
"That is impossible." said Lorang again, "I don't believe you."
"Once you get your dragon." Mirihana said angrily, "Fly on it south, and you shall come across a group of islands, where humans and dragons live in peace. Land on the islands, and ask for Hiccup, the chief of Berk, and you will believe what I have seen with my own eyes. But that's besides the point. What I was going to say is you trainees should fly."
"What?" said Sife, not believing his ears.
"Yes," said Mirihana, "If you fly, you will finally realize how much skill it takes to fly on a dragon.
"Huh." said Lorang, "I am the best at everything in this class. Dragon flying? Pffft, easy."
"If you think so, why don't you go first, boy." the Dragon Trainer said, "Stinger will take you."
She pointed at the Triple Stryke. Not feeling so confident now, Lorang strode towards Stinger and commanded, "Fly, you stupid dragon." Stinger snorted and suddenly shot up into the air. Then, the dragon turned upside down.
Lorang, hanging on for dear life, screamed, "What is it doing?!"
"Stinger is a girl." said Mirihana, and offered no further explanation. Lorang could not hang on any longer. He fell down onto the grass. Embarrassed, he scurried over to his seat. All the others tried, but they went pretty much the same way as Lorang's. Sife was the first one who did not fall, after some time, Stinger landed him. Aquilion was the only person who had a bit of control over Stinger, he did not try to throw her off, instead, he flew a steady flight. After the flight, Aquilion sat down, her face glowing with happiness.
At last, it was Flare's turn. Nervous, he climbed up onto Stinger's back, and he immediately went back to his upside-down position.
Trying to ignore the sounds of laughter ringing up from below, he whispered, "Please fly, Stinger, please let me at least be good at one thing that the Virnians value."Something about the boy's words made Stinger feel sorry for him.He suddenly turned the right way up, putting an abrupt halt to the laughter. The dragon flew straight and fast, with Flare on his back. Out of nowhere, some barriers came up. Flare instinctively pulled hard to the left, and then right, and suddenly up. Due to the adrenaline flowing through his veins at that moment, he may have found something he was actually good at. To Flare, it was just a pull to the left, and then a push, but to the watchers from below, it seemed like an impossible task to avoid the barriers. After a while, Flare gently eased Stinger back to the ground, and got off him.
"It seems." said Mirihana, "That Flareoan is a natural at flying."
"It was just beginner's luck, no big deal." said Lorang.
"Well, he did much better than you, Lorang, so shut up." said Aquilion.
This shut Lorang up, and Flare's heart leaped. He had thought that Aquilion had never even noticed him. He knew that he had a huge crush on Aquilion, but he could never summon up the courage to talk to her. A loud roar startled Flare. He looked up to see a strange dragon flying above him. He had not read about that dragon in any of his books, he was sure about that. The dragon swooped down into the Training stadium in a blur.He had come down so fast that Flare had not even seen him. The dragon looked at them for some time, and then disappeared in a blur. "Impossible." said Mirihana, "Sonicflares are one of the rarest dragons ever."
"Sonicflares?" said Flare, doubtfully, "I don't think they are recorded in any of the books in Virnia.""Yes." said the Dragon Trainer, "The Sonicflares are the most little known of all dragon species. This species is powerful enough to be a worthy rival of a Deep Flame. They are one of the fastest species, and have powerful and precise shots of plasma, with no known shot limit. Their only known weaknesses are that they tend to trust humans a bit more than they should, and they can be easily subdued with catapults. This is because they have a very aerodynamic body, and not much of a defense. If someone manages to hit it even once with a boulder, it becomes greatly weakened, and cannot fly very fast. But it's presence here is disturbing. Class is dismissed, off you go boys."
Chapter 4: The First Trial[]
The rest of the day proceeded without events of interest. Flare's sleep was disturbed by dreams of him failing the Trials. The next morning, it was time for the First Trial. Trying not to look nervous, Flare walked up to the entrance of the cave. Lorang, as usual, was smug and sure of himself.
"Ha." he said, "This Trial is going to be easy."
"Alright then, Lorang." said Qiord, "You can go first."
Lorang swaggered into the cave, grabbing only a bow and arrow on the way in. After a while, Lorang came back out of the cave without a mark on him.
"Good job Lorang." said Qiord, "Perfect score for you."
Just as Lorang was opening his mouth to boast, a voice from behind him said, "Don't get too full of yourself though, kiddo, remember that."
Immediately recognizing Mirihana's voice, Lorang fled, remembering what had happened to him last time.
"What was that all about?" asked the Dragon Trainer, smiling. As an afterthought, she added, "Flareoan, why don't you go next.
Now positively scared, Flare said, "I- I- I'll try my best."
He walked into the cave picking up a bow and arrow on the way in, absolutely dreading what would happen to him in there.
Inside the cave, there was a long corridor. The corridor was riddled with crossbows. Just looking at it, Flare was sure he could never shoot all of them, let alone dodge their arrows. Suddenly, a thought struck him.
He took an arrow from his quiver, and threw it through the hallway. All of the crossbows shot at it, each one hitting its mark exactly. This made Flare even more certain about his doom.
"There's no way I can get through all those." thought Flare, "But what if...."
A plan unraveled in Flare's mind. There was a lot of luck involved, but it was a hope, and a hope was all Flare needed.
He threw another arrow into the path, and then another. One by one, he threw all of his arrows into the path. Once he was out of arrows, he picked up all the arrows he could reach without triggering the crossbows, and threw them back in. Finally, Flare threw his bow and his quiver too. Now weaponless, Flare walked into the corridor, hoping with all his might that his plan would work.
The crossbows fired, but there were no arrows to fire. All the arrows had been used up in shooting the arrows that Flare had thrown in. His elation growing, Flare, jogged towards the exit. Just as he was about to finish, an arrow hit Flare square on the shoulder.
"Oh well." Flare thought, "I suppose I couldn't get a perfect score. At least I got a good score."
On the other side of the cave, Flare saw a strange sight. There was the Sonicflare he had seen earlier streaking across the sky, followed by a hail of arrows. None of the arrows hit their mark, each one fell just a little bit short. Flare had seen the Sonicflare in action before, and it had been much faster then. It was almost like... the dragon was taunting the archers.
Laughing, Flare walked back to camp. As he did so, some thoughts clicked into place.
In my dream, that hunter was hunting for 'The Flare' wasn't he? And I thought that he was referring to me, Flare thought, What if he was talking about the Sonicflare! There was also that voice in the darkness, it was speaking in a language I feel that I should know, but I don't. Very strange.
"Amazing job, Flare." said Qiord, cutting into Flare's train of thought, "A job well done indeed."
Flare noticed Lorang, who had sneaked back in, seething with anger. He mentally noted to not go near Lorang for the rest of the day. Someone tapped Flare's shoulder. It was Mirihana.
"We need to talk." she said, "In private, while the others take the Trials."
"Alright?" said Flare, half-scared.
They walked a distance away from the others.
"You haven't seen the Sonicflare around again have you?"
"Why?"
"This is not the natural habitat of the Sonicflare. They come from far North, where the Vikings, including that boy Hiccup live."
"In that case, yes, I saw it today. It was being chased by arrows."
"Then it is just as I feared." said the Dragon Trainer with a sigh, "Alright, you are dismissed."
"This day has been full of strange occurrences." thought Flare, "I wonder what this is all about."
Flare went back to the entrance of the cave, keeping a safe distance from Lorang. He stood and waited for the others to end. While Aquilion's turn was happening, after Sife's turn, Sife came up to Flare.
"See," he said, "I told you that you would do very well in the Trials."
"Yes, I suppose you did." said Flare, "And you were right."
Once all the students were done with the Trials, Qiord said, "Good work everyone, now go home and rest. You will need all your energy for the next Trial in two hours."
Thankfully, Flare walked back home with Sife in silence.
Chapter 5: The Riddle With Many Answers[]
Two hours later, Flare walked to the location of the second Trial. Qiord was waiting for the Trainees there.
Qiord shouted, "There is a twist to the Trials this time. Dragon Hunter boats have been spotted near the coast, so we have changed the plan. The second Trial is an obstacle course, there are no changes in that. However, we have changed the format. All of you will start at the same time, instead of go one by one like usual. Also, at the end of the course will be the first part of the riddle. The moment you complete the course, you must begin the third Trial. The Trials are more difficult due to this, but it will save time."
Just great, thought Flare, The Dragon Hunters had to show up today.
He gasped, realizing something. Those archers, they must have been Dragon Hunters!
"Ready... set... go!" boomed Qiord.
Flare ran. In front of him, he saw a complex obstacle course.
"It's going to take me so long to get through all of this" Flare thought in despair.
He could see Lorang, Sife, and all the others weaving their way through like nobody's business.
"I'll make up for the lost time during the third Trial." Flare promised himself.
He set off through the course. At each obstacle, he would pause, and then cross it. It was painful to watch. Slowly, but steadily, Flare defeated obstacles, far behind the others. Slowly, the obstacles became harder to cross. Still, Flare gauged each one before passing it.
Long after the others, Flare reached the end of the course. There were six pedestals, five of them empty. Flare walked up to the last pedestal. There was a piece of paper on it, with the following words:
Fix your torch to the end of the road,
Look not at what lies ahead,
For at the tip of the mountain of death,
Lies a secret soaked in red.
"The obvious answer to this would be Mt.Frost, the highest mountain." thought Flare, "But the paper said to not look at what lies ahead. So then I would assume that we have to look behind the mountain, in the valley."
Excited, Flare ran towards Mt.Frost. He went through the Frost Tunnel, a tunnel made so it would be easier to cross the mountain, and reached the valley.
"Then the paper said that there is a secret coated in red. That must mean where that man was attacked by rogue Bloodtrailers."
Flare hurried towards the spot.
"All this seems too easy." thought Flare, "Wasn't there something else? Right, they said to shine a torch. What does that mean?"
Flare walked up to the kill spot, where the ground was still stained red, and looked around. He saw a strangely shaped shadow at his left.
"Torches make shadows!" exclaimed Flare in delight. He ran to the spot, and saw a second piece of paper. It simply read:
I am seen, and at the same time not seen,
Hurry, for the next prize can be obtained by only one.
What is this nonsense? wondered Flare.
He thought for a while. Suddenly, it struck him.
"It means the river Pelastus." said Flare aloud, "It is dry during the hot months, but it gushes when it rains."
He set off to the river.
After a long time, Flare reached the river. He clearly saw a piece of paper hung up like a flag.
Just as he was about to pick it up, he heard footsteps approaching. He turned and saw a girl with blond hair and blue eyes. It was Aquilion.
"You solved the puzzles too?" asked Flare, surprised.
"No, actually." admitted Aquilion, "The second one had me baffled, but you said the answer out loud, so I came here."
"The paper said only one can obtain the prize."
"It's alright, you can take it."
Flare reached up and took the paper. "There, I have 'obtained' it. Now I can read it out, and both of us can go to the place."
Flare hoped that he sounded normal, and not totally stupid.
He read out loud, "
There are no riddles anymore,
Just two words: Knowledge Store"
"The Training Stadium." Flare and Aquilion said in unison.
Chapter 6: The Final Trial[]
Flare and Aquilion raced to the Training stadium.
Flare's heart was pounding.
If he managed to get a good dragon, no one would dare to bully him!
I'm getting ahead of myself, Flare thought, I should wait till I actually reach the place.
Halfway to the Stadium, Flare stopped, panting. His legs were burning.
"Wait- Wait for me!" Flare panted.
Aquilion stopped and looked back. "Come on, slowpoke!" she said, laughing.
Somehow, Flare got running again.
He knew he needed to get to the Stadium as fast as possible.If Lorang or any of the others saw him, they would probably find out where he was going, and use all his hard work for their own gain.
Huffing and panting, Flare reached the Training Stadium.
He looked at Aquilion, who didn't seem the least winded.
"I must be in pretty bad shape, huh?" he gasped, clutching his side.
Aquilion grinned, "Yes, you are."
Flare stood there for a while, catching his breath.
Then he went into the Stadium.
It was empty.
"That can't be right." Flare exclaimed, confused.
"Maybe we solved the riddle wrong?" Aquilion asked.
"No, I'm sure we were right. It has to be here somewhere." Flare said, "I'm going to start looking.
Flare ran around the Stadium, pulling levers. None of them did anything.
"It's not here." Aquilion said, "If it was, we should have seen it by now."
"Give me five minutes." Flare said, distractedly, "I think I've found something."
Flare was looking at a set of levers at one end of the stadium. He knew there was something wrong with how they were kept, now if he could just figure out what exactly that was... "There's no rust!" Flare exclaimed suddenly.
"What?" Aquilion looked at Flare, confused.
"The levers, one of them is not rusted!" Flare explained, excitedly, "These levers haven't been used for a long time-"
"So someone must have oiled them!" Aquilion exclaimed, realization dawning on her, "It must lead to something, right?"
"It's worth a shot." Flare said, "Do you want to do the honors?"
Flare found himself feeling much more comfortable and a lot less awkward now, while talking to Aquilion. He realized with a gasp, that they had made an alliance, which meant their families would have to work together now.
Then he sighed. His parents would not like that.
His thoughts were interrupted by a low grinding noise. Aquilion had stepped up and pulled the lever.
A wall of the Training Stadium, the one that was built into pure rock, started to move upwards.
"This is it, Flare!" Aquilion said, eyes shining with excitement.
She added, "I can call you Flare right? Because Flareoan is quite a mouthful."
"True, but so is Aquilion." Flare said, distracted.
He was busy trying to figure out how the ancient people were able to make something like this, something that was new to the Virnians now?
"Well, you can call me.. uh, I don't know, I'll tell you when I figure it out." Aquilion said.
"Yeah cool. Can we focus on the moving wall now?" Flare said. Then he cringed, "I didn't mean to be rude."
They walked into the tunnel in the wall. No one else seemed to have followed them.
After walking for a while through a tunnel, they reached a grand entrance. On the gate was a sign. It said: Welcome to the Hatchery. Behind them, the wall rumbled and came down, covering the exit.
Chapter 7: The Hatchery[]
Flare walked into the Hatchery, closely followed by Aquilion. After walking through a narrow corridor for a while, they reached a long, domed cavern. Flare heard Aquilion gasp in wonder. He walked into the dome, eyes wide, surveying his surroundings in awe.
They were in a huge cavern made of black, volcanic rock. A circular walkway surrounded a pool of bubbling, boiling magma in the center of the cavern. Five pedestals rose out of the magma, each carrying a different dragon egg.
Surrounding the walkway were five caves dug into the walls of the cavern. Each of them contained a blazing bonfire ringed by five eggs. There was a total of thirty dragon eggs in the room, each unique, each ready to hatch.
Flareoan's mind raced as he tried to calculate the difficulty of such a task. First, one would have to collect the eggs themselves. This in itself was no easy task. Flare saw an Armorwing egg and a Whispering Death egg, which were difficult to obtain, the former due to it's scarcity and the latter due to the deadliness of Whispering Deaths. The task of obtaining the eggs would be made even more tricky due to the requirement that all the eggs had to be close to hatching during the time of the Trials.
Once these eggs were obtained, one would have to find the right conditions for proper development of said eggs, and replicate them at the Hatchery.
Even if all this was possible, how on earth had they obtained a Skrill egg? And the Flightmare egg? As far as Flare knew, only a couple of those dragons even existed in the world!
Flare stood there, stunned, as he realized the true scope of the sights he was seeing. How have they done this? Who even is they? Who would be up to such a behemoth task? And how have they accomplished it? Do they make one of these every year? No, that can't be possible. But then-
Flare was jolted out of his thoughts as Aquilion waved her hands in front of his face.
"Ah- hmm- yes, what were you saying?" Flare managed awkwardly.
Aquilion laughed, "I was only asking if you had decided which dragon you were picking."
"Oh! Uh, no, I didn't get around to that yet." Flare replied, "Have you?"
"Actually, yes." said Aquilion.
She made her way towards one of the caves, and picked up an egg.
"A Raincutter, eh?" Flare asked.
"Yes. I had actually made up my mind already."
"What if you couldn't find one?"
"I'd be happy with a Razorwhip or a Thunderdrum as well."
"I see."
A silence descended as Flare stood, mulling over his choice.
I could, perhaps, go for the Skrill. Or the Flightmare. Both are great choices- but... I don't know.
A sudden rumbling sound interrupted Flare. Again. The door to the cavern was opening.
Flare threw a quizzical look in Aquilion's direction, to which she shrugged.
Qiord paced into the room, followed by the chief of Virnia, Lennis. Their gait was aggressive, eyes blazing with rage. "What are you doing here?" Qiord demanded.
"We- we merely followed the riddle, sir. It led us here."
"Liar." Chief Lennis pronounced, "The riddles lead to many different places, but the Hatchery is not one of them. Which clue was it that led you here?"
"Uh- this one." Flare reached into his pocket to bring out the slip of paper containing the clue. He groped in his pocket, but found nothing. Confused, he looked to Aquilion, "I don't have it. Did I give it to you?"
"No..." Aquilion answered, though she checked her pockets anyway. She too came up blank.
Qiord walked closer to Flare, hand on his axe menacingly. "Tell me how you got here." he said, softly, "And maybe your punishment will be reduced. I like you, Flareoan, but you have forced my hand."
"What are you talking about?" asked Flare, "I followed the clues here. How does that entail a punishment?"
Qiord sighed, "You still do not understand, do you? The clues don't lead here. They do not lead you to the Training Stadium, let alone the Hatchery. Which means there is only one other way you could have reached here."
Realization dawned on Flare, "You think I cheated!"
"You did." Qiord stated. "Now tell me, who helped you. Don't worry about your punishment. That can be reduced, depending on who it was that helped you. Tell me. Now."
Flare looked around desperately. None of this makes sense! Aquilion's head was lowered in shame as she was berated by Chief Lennis himself. She would not meet Flare's eyes.
"No one helped me, sir. I found a clue that led me here." Flare said.
"That is a lie. Tell me the truth, Flareoan. Who helped you.?
"No one. I got here on my own." he said stubbornly.
"I will give you another chance. Who helped you cheat?"
"I told you already, sir. No one helped me. I got here on my own."
Qiord sighed again. "Very well. Child, you have forced my hand. Know that I take no joy in this."
He raised his voice, "Take them away."
Armored guards flanked by Deadly Nadders and Monstrous Nightmares marched into the room, grabbing Flare, restraining him. They gagged and cuffed him. He didn't struggle, he knew there was no point. They were probably restraining Aquilion as well, and she didn't seem to be resisting either.
Flare was dragged out of the cavern, through the corridor, into the Training Stadium.
In all this commotion, Flare was confident he was the only one who had seen or heard the egg hatching. He was the only one who saw the Raincutter emerge. He was the only one who heard its footsteps follow them out. He was the only one who heard its soft cries, as it ran into a corner to hide.
Chapter 8: TBD[]
COMING SOON, I HOPE...