The Outcast Lands EXTENDED EDITION

Chapter 8

The witch observed things unfold from a safe distance. She was curious to see that the dragon had yet to make contact with the Vikings. Perhaps, there was still a level of distrust in the dragon than she had supposed. However, the dragon’s distrust was not enough to resolve her curiosity.

 A large male Viking hid in the shadows as he approached the witch. “How's our guests doing?”

 “They’re well on their way, but we have an interesting development.”

 “What is it, old woman?”

“The dragon is watching them. She seems to be... curious... about the strangers.”

“You mean… ”

“Yes, it’s her. She seems to be overcoming her fear to study these Vikings.”

“It’s probably because of the boy. Hiccup the Horrendous has a way with dragons,” The Viking replied. “Let’s see if we can get the dragon to reveal itself to them.”

The witch knew what he wanted from her; he was her son, after all, even if he refused to accept the fact. Her son did not believe much of anything, whether it be in the gods, or in the giants, whom she served. He held to no spiritual beliefs whatsoever; only hatred for the Roman Empire kept him going. Hiccup the Horrendous and the Vikings of the Berk were the key to bringing the Romans to their knees.

She raised her walking sticks into the air and began her chant. The large Viking stepped in front of her, interrupting her spell before she could get too far. “Oh, and I don’t need to remind you that I don’t want Hiccup the Horrendous harmed. The others are… expendable.”

* * * *

“Okay, everyone on your feet; rest time’s over!” Stoick announced.

All the young Vikings stood to their feet. It was a little harder for Hiccup with his artificial foot to get up. The moment he tried to stand up, the wooden frame cracked. “Just great!” He was hoping that the leg would hold up until he got back home to Berk, but that was not going to happen.

Astrid saw the situation with his leg and offered him her hand. “Need a hand?”

“Thanks,” He said, taking her hand.

She helped him up onto his feet, releasing the strain on wooden frame. “Are you gonna be able to walk?”

“It should be fine to walk on, for now,” Hiccup replied, trying to convince himself more than her. In actuality, he had no idea how much more it was going to be able to last.

Toothless stood up, when he saw everyone else standing up. An unexpected noise caused his ears to twitch. The dragon sniffed the air and smelt danger coming towards them at an alarming rate. He stiffened his body, bore his teeth, and growled in the direction the smell was coming from.

“What’s wrong with him? Tuffnut asked.

“There’s danger nearby?” Hiccup scouted the area intently, knowing that Toothless was never wrong about these kinds of things. The dragon had a very sharp sense of smell.

Stoick already had his ax in hand, knowing Toothless almost as well as his son. He knew this was a possibility, but after having that long stretch of calmness, he had hoped it would have stayed that way. Yes, these kids had proven themselves in grave situations, but they did not have their dragons this time. They still needed much more practice when it came to handling weapons. Astrid and Bitwolf were probably the only ones who were competent enough to use their weapons. As for Hiccup… that went without saying.

Stoick stepped out and focused his vision through the forest, trying to see anything that could be lurking. Lunging at him from a bush was a wild beast, unlike anything he had ever seen. He used the handle of his ax to hold the beast back by pressing it into its throat. The beast snapped wildly at his face. It had large jagged teeth and a lizard-like forked tongue. The creepy thing was: the beast had no eyes.

Stoick gritted his teeth as he used the handle of his ax to throw the four-legged creature to the ground. Now, with a better view of the monster, he could see that it was a dragon class creature, but with no wings. Its lower jaw and belly were black while the rest of his scaly-hide was purple. Tiny horns went down from its head all the way down to the tip of its tail. Four more of these creatures came out of the forest, and pranced around the group of Viking.



“Skullions!” Bitwolf snarled as he kept his doubled-headed ax in front of him. “These pack animals are predators through-and-through. They cannot see or hear, but they've got a very keen sense of smell. They have one extended claw on both of their front paws which they use to slash the tendons in the legs of their prey. Once they fall to the ground, they eat them alive.”



“I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Fishlegs moaned.



A Skullion lunged at Toothless, but the dragon swung his tale, hitting the beast several feet away. Another one ventured to stalk him, but all he had to do to make the creature reconsider was to breathe a puff of flames in its direction.



“Let’s do this, Toothless,” Hiccup said reaching for the saddle.



Before he had the chance to climb up, a Skullion pounced on top of him, pinning his shoulders to the ground. Its extended claw on each foot came within inches of both of his ears. Hiccup looked up into the creature face. It's drool dripped from between its pointy teeth. Since it was unable to see, it smelled him to confirm that it had its pray pinned to the ground.



Before it had the chance to begin feeding, Toothless grabbed the nap of its neck with his jaws; his muffled, furious growls made it abundantly clear that he was enraged. With the snap of his neck, the Night Fury slammed the Skullion into the trunk of a tree. It let out a loud yelp, and desperately crawled away from the dragon.

Snotlout was keeping the monsters away with a large hammer. Any Skullion that dared tried for his ankles got a whack in the head. Bitwolf screamed like a rabid dragon as he charged at one of the beasts. He swung his ax wildly, that no creature would dare to consider a frontal assault on him.



A lone Skullion came leaping out of the forest, behind the Vikings. Astrid barley had the time to duck under the lunge, but the creature ended up knocking the ax out of her hands and out of her reach. She had no choice but to risk breaking from the group and retrieve her weapon.



The only advantage they had over the pack of Skullions was that they were keeping together. While grouped together, it made it difficult for predators to kill them. That was why beasts like the Skullions tended to try to disperse them, so they could pick-off a weaker, more susceptible prey. Of course, without a weapon to defend herself with, she was already in grave danger.



She took off for her weapon, hoping to get it and get back before they caught her. It was only after she gotten her weapon back in hand, that she realized the beasts had done this all intentionally; she had fallen for a trap. Five new beasts leaped from their hiding places, nearly knocking Hiccup and Snotlout to the ground in the process, and attacked Astrid.



“Hiya!” Astrid swung her ax, aggressively, in front of her. The attack only served as a delay attack, and it even made things worse for her, causing them to start to spread around her. She could not let them completely surround her, or she was as good as dead.



She ran into the forest as fast as she could, as the five Skullions chased after her. “Astrid!” Hiccup shouted, wanting to come to her rescue, but it was taking. Toothless everything he had to keep him safe. The monsters were doing everything to prevent him from having the time to climb up onto his dragon's back. More Skullions had joined the fight, and there were now eight of them encircling the group of Vikings.

Astrid dashed through the woods, dodging trees until she accidentally tripped on a rock sticking out of the ground. She rushed to get back onto her feet, but by then, it was already too late. The beasts had fully surrounded her.



They circled around her, preparing themselves for the kill. With Astrid’s nerves on full alert, she kept the blade of her ax in front her, looking in all directions for the first beast to make its move. She was ready to go down fighting; if she had to die, she was going to take as many of them with her as she could. Yet, there was still a tiny part of her that prayed to Odin or Thor to help her survive this.



The dragon-like monsters could wait no longer. The first Skullion lunged for her only to have a dragon come out of nowhere and stomp him into the ground. The dark-blue dragon lifted her paw and swatted the struggling beast away. From that point on, the dragon had the full attention of five of the lizard-beasts.



Astrid stood there, frozen in-place with confusion and terror. She had no idea what this dragon’s intentions were, or where it came from; but there was always the possibility that it may be coming for her next. She watched as the dragon, which looked slightly bigger than Toothless, take on all five creatures.



A Skullion leaped for the dragon’s throat, but it raised its right, sharp claw and not only swatted it way, but left deep gashes down its rib cage. The dragon stared down at the beasts with curled lips and bared fangs. It let out a terrifying roar out of extreme anger.



The dragon unleashed a massive blanket of flames at the smaller beasts, causing them to scatter to a safe distance. One of them managed to sneak close to the dragon’s left ankle, and it used one of its extended claw to slash it.

The dragon roared in pain, and reacted violently towards the foolish beast who slashed at its ankle. It snapped at the Skullion, grabbing it by the back, wither her teeth. It hoisted its neck up and lifted the defenseless beast high off the ground. With a whip of its long, extended neck, it threw the beast deep within the forest.



One of the Skullions made a defeated sounding howl. The four others heard the cry of their alpha, and obeyed. They retreated into the forest, in search for easier pray.



The dragon posed ready for more battle if the call of retreat proved to be a trick. When the beasts disappeared within the forest, it realized that this was no trick; they had given up. The dragon turned to face Astrid, still growling as it stepped towards her.



Astrid was terrified, and did not know what to do. The very dragon that took on five Skullions was now setting its sight on her. She contemplated whether it was sound strategy to attack first or let the dragon make its move. A year ago, she would not think twice about attacking first, but she had come to learn a lot about dragons, thanks to Hiccup.



Deciding not to provoke the dragon, she waited to see what the it would do. It came up to her cautiously until it was at lunging distance. Instead of attacking, she closed her mouth, sat on its hind legs and tilted its head curiously. The dragon smacked her mouth around as if it had a bad taste in her mouth. When on all fours, the dragon was only a little bigger than Toothless, but sitting on its hind legs, the dragon appeared very tall; she, barley, came up to its chest. The structure of the dragon’s face made it almost obvious that the dragon was female.



Before her very eyes, the dragon’s scales began to change colors from a dark blue to a golden-yellow. The dragon looked down at her with a friendly curiosity. What kind of dragon was this?

* * * *  

At one second, Hiccup and the others were fighting for their lives, and in the next, the Skullions were retreating back into the forest. All the Vikings were looking at each other with bewilderment, but Hiccup was more worried about Astrid.



“Astrid!” Hiccup ran in the direction where he had seen Astrid run; Toothless followed closely behind.



“Hiccup?” He could hear his father’s concern for his running from the group, but the only thing that mattered to him was to find Astrid and help if there was still time.



“Astrid?” Hiccup called out, praying to the gods that she was still alive.



“Over here,” her voice answered back, not too far up ahead.



A heavy burden instantly lifted from his shoulders the moment that he heard her voice; she was still alive. He ran in the direction her voice had been, and found her standing there with her ax on the ground. Sitting there in front of her was a good-sized golden dragon. “Uh— what’s this?”



“I think she’s friendly,” Astrid replied, still not willing to take the chance and go to pet the dragon, yet.



Toothless stood beside Hiccup and became immediately curious about the dragon. The fact that he had not growled or sensed danger told him that the dragon did seem to be friendly. When the other Vikings caught up to Hiccup and Toothless, they were quickly entranced by the docile dragon sitting in front of Astrid, as well. The dragon looked at all of them, including Toothless, and remained passive, as if it already knew that it could trust all of them.



“What kind of dragon is that?” Snotlout asked, not expecting anyone to really know.



“I’ve never seen a dragon like this before,” Bitwolf replied, perplexed by this beautiful dragon in front of them.



“I’m a Mood dragon.”



The shock and awe on everyone’s faces could not be any more apparent. That feminine voice came from the dragon’s mouth. “Did that dragon just talk?” Tuffnut finally managed to speak first through the shock he was experiencing.



The golden dragon stood up on all four legs and looked directly at Tuffnut, who had asked the question. “Yes, I can speak Norse as well as Dragoneese.” The dragon looked towards Astrid. “I’m Stormfly.”