The Search For A Dragon: Final

Sorry for the late post. But! You guys just made the goal for 80 power stones last night. Congrats! For that, I give you this bonus chapter. And not to spoil anything, but consider this a prelude to meeting our old lightning friend. Enjoy the chapter!

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"So why are we back in the forest again?" I asked Helga. I was pretty worn out from the other day. It turns out that being thrown from the tail of a Gronkle isn't the most pleasant feeling in the world.

"Because you said you'd help me look for the Night Fury," She stated.

"I don't remember saying all that…" I grunted while massaging my aching back.

"Shh! I think we're close," She said as we walked deeper into the forest.

We continued until we found ourselves in a cove-like area, though we saw no sign of the dragon.

"Well, it looks like there's nothing here. Let's try again tomorrow—Whoa!" I shouted as the dragon flew past me out of nowhere.

"See, I told ya," Helga said with a smug, matter-of-fact smirk.

Grumbling to myself, we crouched low to the ground to observe the dragon. It appeared distressed as it tried to fly out of the cove.

"I remember it trying to fly away yesterday, but it couldn't for some reason… hm," Helga pondered.

"Probably because of that," I pointed to its tail. "Looks like one of its fins is missing, so that's probably the main reason."

We watched it for a while as the dragon grew frustrated at its failed escape attempts and started shooting balls of blue fire.

"Okay, I'm getting bored now. We've been watching it do this for about an hour now. Can we go? We've already missed some lessons, and I don't want Gobber to throw us into a dragon's den… well, more than he already has," I yawned and started to stand.

Sighing, Helga groaned as she also got up and stretched her back.

"Alright, I guess that's enough monitoring for one day, but we'll be back," She said.

"Ugh, why can't you come yourself?"

"Hey! I may be stubborn, but I'm not crazy like you."

"You're right… You're insane." She glared at me for a moment.

"Masochist."

"Pig head."

"Training freak."

"Clumsy oaf."

"That's it!" Helga yelled before pouncing on me.

"Whoa, hey, wait!" I tried to stop her, but it was too late. We fell over the edge that we were on and tumbled into the cove.

"Argh, my back! Damn it, Helga. Look what you did," I groaned.

"Not my fault," She asserted.

"Yes, it is. Now get your fat butt off me. You're heavy," I grunted.

"Hmph. It's rude to comment on a lady's weight." She grinned and pressed deeper into my back, causing me to groan in discomfort.

"Usually, I wouldn't… But who thinks of you as a lady, you barbarian?" I smirked.

Helga remained silent and started to get up, which made me grin. Just as I was about to stand up, she came crashing back down on top of me again.

"Helga…" I growled in frustration.

She burst into laughter. I was about to yell at her when I remembered where we were. Spotting the dragon, I noticed it was watching us intently. Immediately, I stood up, knocking Helga off my back as I kept my eyes on the dragon.

"Hey! What was that… for?" She paused, glancing toward the Night Fury as I stood between her and it.

"We need to get out of here, now!" I whispered to her, not taking my eyes off the dragon.

"It looks kinda hungry, don't you think?" Helga murmured as we stared at the dragon.

"Yeah, and we could be its next meal. So let's get out of here while we still can," I said, slowly walking backward and nudging Helga along with me.

The Night Fury never took its gaze off us. It watched us all the way, until we reached the cliff face and began to climb out of the cove.

"That was close and slightly terrifying," I said as we finally left the cove.

"Agreed. At least we know it won't attack us on sight, right?" Helga added.

"Let's not push our luck," I said, turning to her before pausing. She had a thoughtful expression on her face. "Helga… I know that look. What are you planning?"

"Nothing much…" She glanced to the side, avoiding eye contact.

Sighing, I turned around and started walking back to the village. It was getting dark, and I could hear thunder rolling in the distance.

"If you're planning on keeping an eye on the dragon, just be careful, and if you really need to, at least bring me along," I said as I quickened my pace.

"Fine…" She huffed and quickly followed after me.

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"I told you we'd get chewed out," I whispered to Helga as Gobber was berating the both of us.

"Whatever, at least we didn't have to get beat up by dragons like the others." She snickered while glancing at the other teens who were groaning in pain.

"He's been going on for an hour…" I deadpanned, only to receive a shrug from Helga.

Looking over to the others, I saw them eating their dinner, my face turning into a frown. 

"I'm hungry…"

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Finally, after another hour, Gobber finally stopped talking. I felt like my ears were about to bleed from the number of words the man spewed out.

"Oh my gosh, he's finally done!" I practically cried and immediately snatched a chicken leg away from Snotlout before he could grab it and scarfed it down.

Snotlout looked at me like I was a monster when I did that.

"Alright, now that I'm done with you two…" He paused as he took a book out of his pocket. "The Dragon Manual. Everything we know about every dragon we know of is here in this manual."

My eyes widened as I realized Gobber was about to start explaining more things for many more hours. That was until a huge thunderclap interrupted him, causing him glanced toward the large door of the Great Hall.

"Well, I guess that's it for tonight. Get some rest. You'll all need it," he said with a cryptic laugh.

"Alright, well, I'm outta here," Snoutlout announced.

"Me too."

"Same here."

The twins also got up, followed by Fishlegs, leaving me, Helga, and Astrid.

"I've already read it, so I'll be leaving too. See you guys tomorrow," Astrid said as she left the Great Hall.

Now it was just Helga and me left, aside from a few Vikings sitting around, but they'd be leaving eventually.

"Well, since I haven't really been allowed to look at stuff like this. You want to check it out with me?" Helga asked as she slid the book between us.

"Might as well," I replied as I opened the book to its first page.

"Alright then, hmm. Okay, let's see here… Strike class. Fear class. Mystery class? I thought there were more dragon classes than this, right?" Helga asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I mean, we haven't seen all the dragons that exist in the world, so it's possible," I said with a shrug.

"Mmm, Thunderdrum, Timberjack, Sqauldron…" She continued listing dragon after dragon as she flipped through the book. "Kill on sight, kill on sight, kill on sight…"

She was flipping through the book, page after page, until my eyes landed on one particular dragon.

'The Skrill…' I thought as I glanced out the door at the rain, the Great Hall shaking from the thunderclaps.

"I think it's time for me to go now, Helga…" I told her as I started to get up.

"Aw, come on. We were just getting started," she whined.

"We can study together more later, but for now, I'm heading home. See ya tomorrow." With a wave, I left the Great Hall.

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"Helga, dodge!" I shouted as I tackled her just before a blast of flames could reach her. "What are you doing?!"

"I was just asking Gobber about Night Furies," She told me, looking at me like a confused owl.

Groaning, I quickly pushed her aside as the dragon shot at us again.

"Go, go, go!" I shouted as the dragon began charging at us. We were in a maze of some sort, with Gobber instructing us from the top of the arena.

"Today, you'll be learning about attack! So, I've prepared this big boy for you all. The Deadly Nadder! Quick and light on their feet. You'll have to be quicker!" He shouted as everyone scrambled through the maze, trying to avoid the dragon.

"I'm seriously starting to question your methods of teaching us, Gobber!" Fishleg's shouted as he barely blocked a few spikes shot at him by the Nadder.

"You're just now questioning it?!" I yelled as I dodged a blast of flames from the dragon.

"Find its blind spot! Every dragon has one. You'll need to find it, hide in it, and then strike," Gobber yelled at us.

He was forcing us to fight in the rain, as the storm still hadn't passed, even after a day. The rain fell slightly lighter than yesterday, but that wasn't saying much, as it was still pouring rain, with lightning and all.

As I turned a corner, I found myself face to face with the dragon. It stood still, staring at me, inspecting me. That was until I smashed it in the face with my shield disorientating it for a few moments before using the wall to leap over it.

Shaking its head and no longer seeing me in front of it, the dragon began jumping over the wall, trying to find any of us to pick off. It then began knocking over the walls and chasing us more fervently. Somehow Astrid ended up on top of the wall while the Nadder chased her.

I honestly shouldn't have stood still to watch that happen because I was immediately almost crushed by one of the falling walls. Jumping to the side, I looked up just in time to see Helga nearly getting decapitated by Astrid's axe as it lodged in her shield.

"Shit." I jumped up and ran towards them as the Nadder lunged forward. "Astrid, duck!" I shouted, tightening the grip on my sword in preparation to swing.

Just as I was about to thrust my sword forward, Astrid freed her axe and Helga's shield from her arm and swung it hard at the dragon's face, instantly shattering it as if it were made of glass.

"I've got this," Astrid huffed as we watched the Nadder walk in a disoriented manner.

"So it would seem…" I glanced at Helga.

"What's up with you, Helga? I thought this was what you wanted. You're not usually like this." Astrid said, offering her a hand.

"Well, that was true until recently. I can still kill a dragon if I really need to," She replied as she walked out of the arena. "But it turns out, some dragons don't need to be fought."

Astrid looked at me with a questioning gaze. I simply shrugged as we followed our friend out of the arena.

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"Okay, plans, plans, plans… How am I gonna do this?" I thought aloud as I looked at a crate full of various weapons.

I know most of what's going to happen in the future, but some things I can prepare for more clearly than others. Take the Skrill, for example. I know that you can attract them with metal items, but for all I know this is just a regular storm. 

That's not even considering the fact that its been hovering over berk for the last few days. Though it's already begun to pass, Berk. However, if I follow it, I might be able to find a Skrill.

'Argh. This is frustrating to think about.' Sighing to myself, I put the box of weapons back as I exited the forge.

"Hey Kaarik. What are you up to?" Astrid asked as I closed the door.

"Just sorting weapons. Do you need something?" I replied.

"Nah, I just thought I'd hang out with you for a bit since Helga isn't around. You two stick together like glue," She snickered.

"I guess, though it's not like you're any different. How long have we known each other?" I joked, only to receive a playful jab to the shoulder.

Astrid and I talked for longer than I realized before eventually parting ways. It had been a while since I'd spoken with her like that. It was quite nice.

'Well, I'll revisit my plans tomorrow. Hopefully, this storm won't pass too soon,' I thought as I started to head home for the day.

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Third POV

The village was quiet. No dragons were attacking, and most people were asleep. Well, except for one boy, who stood in the rain, listening intently for a certain sound. The noise of rain and thunder was all he could hear, but he waited patiently. 

He stood for hours, listening. His legs began to ache, but this was too important for him to just… give up. He realized he was wasting a perfect opportunity to enact his plans. He missed the first two days, so he couldn't afford to miss another, not since the storm was moving further away from the village. 

So the boy kept waiting and waiting until, finally, he heard the sound. A distant screech pierced through the thunder and rain, reaching his ears. And that was his cue to act. He immediately raced toward the forge. 

Once he arrived, he started pulling out what he needed. He took two swords, a shield, a bow, arrows, bolas, and extra gear for good measure. As he stepped outside, he heard the screeching sound fade away as the storm began to move off.

"No, no, no. I can't let this chance slip by. I may never get another one." He quickly scurried back home, entering it before grabbing a satchel and stuffing it with as much food as he could. 

After that, he hastily wrote a note to his family. He wasn't sure if he'd come back in one piece, so the least he could do was reassure them he'd return safely in the note.

Walking out of the house, he glanced back, quietly muttering something under his breath before rushing towards the docks. Climbing into a boat, he unfurled the sails and began to set his course to follow the storm. He sailed farther and farther until his home was barely visible.

"Goodbye, guys…" His voice, filled with sadness, betrayed the look of resolve in his eyes.

He knew if he succeeded with this endeavor, the benefits to him and his people would be exponential. Taking a deep breath, he steeled his heart as he looked at the storm, the screeching present as ever.

"Let the hunt begin."