[Hally] Oh No You Didn't!

[Scorn]

DATE & TIME : September 10th, night
WEATHER CONDITIONS : Chilly down in berk, very cold in the mountains, also it is foggy.
CHARACTERS INVOLVED : Scorn, Hally.
PREVIOUS THREADS ? None.

The night was dark and cold, at least up in the mountains. Down in the village it was likely much warmer, but dragons didn't care about going down there except for food and such. As one could guess, it was much colder in the mountains then it was on Berks land below. The caverns were dark and damp from a recent rain. Outside was ice and snow, coating the mountains with a dangerous cape of white.

It was on this night that the dragons were hunting, the villagers below lay unaware.. Leading the hunt was Scorn, along with a few stray dragons that joined in.. He didn't care if he hunted alone or with others, it was his stomach being filled that he cared about. As he flew low, he set fire to the pasture, sending some sheep running in their fence.

Swooping down, he clawed at two sheep and took them up in his claws. They made an awful noise as he flew high into the skies, and with one simple light of himself on fire, despite it being painful, their cries ceased. He landed upon the mountain with his front claws digging into the stone, and let out a mighty roar. His sheep were his to eat, the other dragons were all still hunting below. From where he was perched he could see the flame, could almost hear- or rather imagine- the cries of the villagers below.

Taking one sheep in his jaws, he bit into it and let the juices flow between his fangs before swallowing it whole. He left the other sheep for later. It wouldn't be wise to go down to the village just yet. No, not with those lousy vikings awake and rampaging.

Slinking to the back of his cave, he set fire around himself and lay down, the dead sheep under his claw. Then he looked around himself, watching the shadows of the dragons that dwelled deeper in the caverns, then his eyes were drawn to the opening, where he could smell the smoke starting to rise. "Ha... Stupid humans." He muttered as he started to chew on the second sheep.

[Halldor Frodison]

Halldor was in the Great Hall when he heard the news. He had already had a hectic day, and he was ready to wind down and relax. It was quiet here, most people went to bed early after a hard day of toil. He was drinking from a tankard of ale when he heard a bang and a cool night breeze, signalling a viking had entered.

But he heard the stomping of more than one pair of boots. He turned to look in the direction of the great hearth in the middle of the room to see an angry group coming towards him. He recognised them as the farmers in the hills, who looked after the majority of Berk's livestock and crops. They didn't look pleased. He set down his mug sturdily on the table and stood up to meet them.

He opened his mouth to greet them, but they got to him first: "It's that dragon again!"[/color] Said one angrily.

"It took two of our sheep!"
"It set fire to my field!"
"It brought it's friends and terrorised the Yaks!"... And so forth, until it was a cacophony. Halldor raised a hand to try calm them and get a word in, but to no avail.

He looked over them once before bellowing over them. "Silence!" They all ceased their complaints at their superior. He looked at them once again.

He was fully aware of this rampant dragon recently. He was glad the beast hadn't struck when the Hysterians around, it would have caused some... Diplomatic issues. "The Nightmare?" He asked for confirmation. They nodded. He mentally groaned. That was the last kind of dragon to deal with. A stubborn agressive kind. He knew them well, he used to have one, after all.

"I'll organise a party in the morning." He assured. It was too dark and risky to go out now into the mountains at night. But the farmers weren't convinced. They insisted angrily. They were almost like Nightmares themselves. They argued their cause, shouting over each other, with the common argument that they had dragons to help.

He sighed. "Fine. Let's at least go see what this dragon is like. Then we can decide what do to." He replied to them, leaving them with an air of contentment. They dispersed to collect their dragons and weapons.

Thus they set out to find the dragon. Some stayed behind to tend to the fire and fend off any wild dragons looking for opportunities. Luckily one of the farmer's dragons was brawn enough to chase and follow the dragon to it's lair, so the dragon and farmer lead the way, with Halldor second and the mob behind.

A light fog beared down on them, and it was slowly becoming difficult to see. Lighting a torch would be no good, and they shivered slightly but kept moving, trying to avoid falling over ledges in the night. Halldor wanted to grumble about how dangerous this was, but he held his tongue. They were here now, and he appeared to have little choice in the matter.

The dragon stopped and started rumbling a growl. They had arrived. A growing tension grew with the farmers, eager to show this dragon. Halldor turns around and spoke in a harsh whisper, though it was probably no use, they were Vikings, even if farming was their profession.

"Remember, we're only going to assess the dragon, this is a Monstrous Nightmare. Someone get a bucket of water just in case, and dragons at the ready." Someone passed him water, and a shield, and he cautiously approached. Through the darkness he saw a gaping maw into pure night. It was rather ominous but he could hear the crunching of bones and the odd rustle.

He decided to speak up. It was probably useless, but some dragons enjoyed to converse with intelligent beings before eating them, as he had read in stories. "Dragon! Show yourself!" He spoke loudly in Dragonese, holding himself at a stance, in case he had to jump out the way. "We have been at peace with the Dragons for three hundred years! What brings you to set fire to our farms? And bring such rage to our island!" He called, keeping his voice steady and true, with an air of confidence. The only way to tackle a Nightmare was to be just as firey as the opponent, if not more.

He wished he could talk the dragon to leave them alone. But he knew that he'd be lucky if that happened. He readjusted his grip on his shield and expected the worst.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

Kenna couldn’t sleep. She and Mr Pickles had gone off for another quick mining excursion, her supplies were low again. They were on the second day of it now and both she and Pickle had been exhausted from all the work so they’d actually gone to bed relatively early.

As it turned out that’d been a bad move cause now she’d woken up and couldn’t get back to sleep. Pickle’s snoring in the other room hadn’t help. Eventually she had given up and, still wrapped in her thick blanket, went out into the open for a bit of fresh air.

She looked out at the foggy night and pulled the blanket in that little bit tighter; she knew Pickle wouldn’t be pleased if she caught a cold or something. It was quite peaceful, apart from the noises that Trolley made. Kenna smiled, “Like Dragon, like rider,” she muttered.

Kenna then noticed something in the dark of the woods and fog. Lights. Torches were moving towards the mountain. She wondered why people were coming over, had something happened. She watched the direction they seemed to be moving in and resolved to find out what was happening.

She moved as quickly as she could with her heavy fur blanket coat back into the cave and dropped it as soon as she stepped into the living quarters before running into where she’d been sleeping. She pulled on her trousers and boots before grabbing her shirt and jacket as she moved back into the main room. She paused as she was about to slip the shirt on. If Mr Pickles had been awake when she’d run in then…

She then heard a loud snore and sighed with relief before continuing to dress, it would have been an awkward moment. Once her thick coat was on, she grabbed her hammer and Pickle’s shield and then moved out, she had a feeling she’d probably need some level of protection.

As she got to the entrance of the cave, Kenna could still just see the torches in the distance, though it was far now and her eyesight with the fog made it hard for her to make things out. She heard movement behind her. She looked back and saw Trolley was awake, “Stay here.” she muttered to it then she jogged out into the night.

Kenna ran along the bottom of the mountain as she started to get a better view of the lights, they seemed to be going toward the base of the mountain, as they could have taken routes upwards if they wished. The light disappeared for a moment, which scared Kenna for a second, but then she saw that a chunk of mountain was straight ahead of her and she realised they must be on the other side of it.

Just before the light got back in view again, she hear a loud clear voice call, “Dragon! Show yourself!”[/color] Halldor? she thought to herself as she heard his voice. She looked round the edge. She was not very far from them or the cave entrance so the light from the torches gave her a good view of the second in command.

Kenna listened and watched, she wasn’t going to run in on this. Her turning up would just be a distraction, one they probably didn’t need. Anyway, she’d like to work out what was going on first. She did unconsciously tighten her grip on her shield, she had a feeling it was a good thing she’d brought it.

[Scorn]

Sitting in the cave was the dragon.. Memories of times past were filling his mind as he lay there, stewing about all the times humans had hurt him. They deserved this. They deserved what they had coming to them. Clawing at the dead sheep with one talon, he crunched on the bones of the sheep he had eaten, gnawing on them with a sickening crackle. His eyes went to the cave entrance once more as he saw flickering flames in the distance.. Inhaling just a little, the scents of dragons and humans entered his nostrils. A growl emitted from his vocals, he had had quite enough of humans. He looked at them as they approached, having a clear view of them as they readied a bucket of water. Yet.. Something surprised him, near infuriated him.. One of them spoke in his language.

The human asked why he had disturbed the peace and brought rage to the island. A dragon laugh emitted from his chest, not a genuine laugh but more of a growling grumble. He glared at the human, stepping forward quickly, leaving his sheep behind him. "You dare ask why I do this!" He growled at the human. "Your kind deserves this, for all they put me and my kind through. Peace? There is no peace, not for most of the world!" His growls became roars as his body set itself on fire, he roared in pain as the flames went over his scars.

Yet his savage roar sounded as he spread his wings and lunged forward, still flaming, and aimed straight for the human who had spoken to him. His jaws opened and he breathed fire at the rest of them, to keep them back. This was his battle with this human, for this human had picked the fight. It was only then, when he was ready to kill, that something else caught his attention...

A far off scent, something nearby, hiding perhaps... He forgot about his anger to the human, venturing forward and past them, towards the human who lay in wait. As he spotted her a low growl emitted from his vocals. His flames on his body had gone out a short while ago, leaving him cloaked in darkness. His eyes narrowed as he landed in front of the girl, roaring at her with a snarl. "Foolish girl! Don't you know not to go into a dragons lair!"

[Halldor Frodison]

Halldor ground his teeth, anxious and ready as he could hear the sickly crunching of an eating dragon in the darkness before him. He tensed as a deep, sinister rumble of laughter echoed from the hole in the mountain.

The dragon replied, and Halldor could hear worried murmurings behind him. He slowly blinked, not wanting to shake his head or roll his eyes in case the dragon saw him and took it the wrong way. The farmers had wanted to come, there was no way backing out now! Besides, they even had dragons with them, Halldor had no such partner. Not anymore.

The dragon replied, angry. It lit itself on fire, lighting up the cave. Halldor didn't even have time to reply in time and jumped out the way as the beast went for him. He fell to the floor, but turned around in time to see the other Vikings taking to the airs or reaching a reasonable distance of safety. He quickly got to his feet, the dragon eyed him down.

But then something seemed to distract the dragon, turning it's head the other way. He couldn't see what the dragon was looking at, but it pulled from their fight to investigate. Concerned for the safety of the village and the lands, he followed the dragon cautiously, trying to remember where the blind spots were for these dragons. He previously owned one, so it wasn't difficult.

Halldor hid behind a rock as the dragon began to growl. It had spotted something. It began to speak, and he listened. He heard her talking to someone. A girl? He froze. There weren't any female farmers who had joined them. No one else should be lurking around these areas, especially at this time of night. He cons But he remembered that Kenna was out on her mining trips.

He had to get Kenna out of danger. Though she was a sort of bully to him in the past, and a pesterer of the present, she was still a great asset to the village, and frankly, he cared about her.

He came out from behind his shelter, shield at the ready for a potential spurt of liquid flame. "Hey!" He called out. "I thought Nightmares were the last to leave a fight?" He taunted.

He was feeling slightly afraid, afraid for Kenna. He was unsure how she'd fare in a dragon attack, it is so rare to get a rogue dragon on Berk these days… But he was brave and he had a nasty deal with a dragon at hand.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

Kenna silently groaned when the dragon started being high and mighty about humanity’s darkness. Whatever he was, he did not know, or didn’t accept that there was relative balance between humans and dragons on the island. Not total balance, but then only fools and zealots expect total balance.

The dragon then roared and shot out of the cave it had been him. She recognised what he was doing, the nightmare wanted to single Haldor out and take him on one on one. That wouldn’t be good if it actually came to it, though she knew that Haldor could fend him off if worst came to worst.

Then the dragon disappeared into the darkness, worrying Kenna slightly, while her eyesight wasn’t very bad, she knew that while the dragon was flameless she had no chance of seeing it, and she didn’t like not knowing where it was. She trenched up and looked to the air. Then she heard the wind move in front of her as the nightmare landed right in front of her.

While Kenna knew how bad an idea it was to aggravate a Monsterous Nightmare, the cocky lass side of her naturally kicked in when the dragon called her ‘foolish girl’. Kenna knew she would not be able to take on the dragon one on one, but she was not some defenceless maiden either, her father had taught her the most important thing a blacksmith in a combat heavy environment should know. How to defend oneself.

She smiled, hiding as much of her body behind her shield while standing, while being in a stance that meant she could either run or crouch down for better cover if either action was needed. “I wasn’t in your lair.”[/i] at that point Haldor shouted at the dragon, “And I didn’t go for the ‘weakling’ before finishing off the main danger, ‘gerrrl’.” Oh I’m soooooo dead,[/i] she thought in a joking way as that last word took it’s time to finish.