Second Detention [Kenna, Scratchet and the ViTs]

[Scratchet]

Scratchet listened for a moment as Kenna began to talk from the sidelines. She was quickly disinterested, her gaze wadering elsewhere. Getting out of here wasn't going to be as easy as she had anticipated. No one was whom she considered to be an ally was here, and no unsuspecting Curtis-boy to believe she was tame enough to be set free.

As she was looking up at the dragons perched above the cave, noticing two familiar faces she had once bothered before, she felt something bump into her leg. Crest twitching, she side stepped a little and cocked her head to see Asvora in her field of vision. Another blithering Viking child! Perfect.

In the brief moment that the human girl was sprawled on her back from bumping into her, Scratchet immediately put her foot against her before she could get up. A somewhat triumphant smile her mouth twisted into that signature smirk. She applied a little pressure with the foot, just to make sure she couldn't escape that easily. She wondered how many more children there were.

"Hey Meddler, your kids are pretty incompetent. I have two of 'em now!" She commented out loud, still muffled by the boy's jacket. She shook him playfully, feeling his weight rock from side to side slightly. "So, about that freedom..."

She couldn't say anything further, as with a sharp bang a mine was flung, but it was so fragile it detonated in mid-air. It was more than enough to spook the Nadder, who jumped, releasing both Troutface and Asvora and backing away from the where the explosion had taken place. It had been very close.

She snorted a little, flustered now she had lost both her hostages. Her head darted from side to side, keeping an eye on her surroundings in case another one was flung at her. Some clever idiot had somehow managed to obtain the explosive devices, and use them as a throwing weapon instead! She knew she'd have to keep an eye out for that one... If she could see him.

But someone did reveal themselves! It was a another Viking child! She had a strange, different sort of helmet than the Orange Boy, and definitely could be seen as a threat. The human paused for a moment, as Scratchet took a few steps forwards, growling. Was it her that threw the mine? Scratchet assumed so. The air wasn't moving in the right direction for her keen sense of smell to detect Varin.

The girl began to recite poetry to the dragon, in dragonese, which made the Nadder pause in confusion. Poetry? How odd. At least she was At the poem is about her, and is good-

"Waitwhat." Scratchet interrupted, crest raising in shock. "Being colourblind is NO excuse for calling me blue!" She began to advance again, her nostrils flaring. The girl continued her verses, but Scratchet didn't need to hear the entire thing to immediately be full-on offended.

She lunged, aiming to snap at Sylica, but missed, sacrificing her target to the blindspot for the bite. She began to give chase, but she paused as soon as she began, snorting and observing the pathway. Scratchet wasn't going to forget that easily that the arena was peppered with mines.

Luckily for the dragon, her vision, though not being her best of senses, was still better than a human's. She could see the dimples in the pathway, indicating explosives. It took her barely seconds to calculate a path before full on charging, stubby nose horn bowed and ready, in case she decided to use that axe.

No one insults a Nadder, and gets away with it.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

As Kenna started her long and bafflingly presise reasoning as to why she could/couldn’t just let Scratchet out, she realised that Scratchet wasn’t listening anymore and was looking around to work out things. Kenna kept it up though (though she threw in a load of obviously rubbish lines so that the dragon kept thinking she was talking even though she technically wasn’t.

Kenna looked up with Scratchet to and saw all the dragons above looking back at the field. She wondered who inperticular the nadder was interested in. As Kenna looked down se saw Asvora on the sprawled on the floor in front of Scratchet, then Kenna internally swore as the dragon put her foot on the girl.

Scratchet sent gloats to the Blacksmith, but Kenna was more looking at the boy that was in the corridor behind Scratchet. He had been mad, and had dug up a mine. Kenna couldn’t help but admire the boy for his enginuity and complete insanity. He threw it at Scratchet, though it blew up before it got to her.

It did startle the dragon who let both its captives go. Before either of them could properly react to what had just happened, Sylica showed herself to them both. Scratchet started to advance on her when she started to recite something in dragonese. As Kenna heard the poem go through, she found it both funny and shit scary. Especially when she heard the word blue. “IDIOT GIRL! She’s turquoise, not BLUE! Are you TRYING to get yourself KILLED?”

The dragon started to advance on Sylica and then lunged at her. Kenna was relieved when she missed, and then the dragon started to chase her. Then Kenna realised that Scratchet wasn’t going to stay below. She jumped up onto the walls and started to run along them. Then she remembered, Ulrika was up on the walls.

[Ulrika]

Ulrika could hear a commotion happening on the further side of the arena. The boards were high enough so she couldn't even see the Nadder at all! She decided to stay where she was, keeping her centre of gravity low.

She was curious as to what was happening, though. She advanced further until the line ended, slowly making her way towards the centre of the arena. She looked down in time to see Troutface come bolting around the corner. As his hand held onto the corner, it rocked the board she was on slightly, making her crouch further, placing her hands on either side for stability.

She then looked ahead. If she kept to just this portion of maze, she would have limited space to work with. She observed the gap between her and the board across the corridor. She began to wonder if she could make it if she tried to jump across. She looked back, wondering if it was even possible to do a run up.

Then again - If Grima could run up a Zippleback's neck to airtackle her, surely she'd be able to do this? She didn't see herself as inferior to Grima in the way of athletics. She gave a determined look. She could do this. She began to test the boards, getting used to their rigidity and their form, since the top was all chipped and uneven, eroded by dragon claw, tooth and fire. Soon enough she was confident to move along the boards with a somewhat normal center of gravity.

She was ready. She plucked up her vast amounts of courage, and began to run towards the void. She'd jumped over gaps before - some with even further, deadlier drops. She was confident in her ability. She finally sprang into the air - her eyes were trained on the other board, her legs and arms out ready to latch on and hopefully land on the other side.

But something was wrong. She was falling to fast. Her legs kicked slighlty and hands began to reach forwards. Don'tfalldon'tfalldon'tfall-

Whack - Ulrika managed to latch onto the edge of the board by her elbows, to which she gasped in pain as the rough splintery edges came in contact with the joints. She briefly hung there, before her legs set to work, scrabbling up the board. She sat at the top, her shins on either side to keep her balanced. She checked out the inside her of elbows, which were now a raw red colour. She frowned, painfully plucking out the odd splinter here and there, oblivious that she was in the middle of a lesson and an angry Nadder could come charging at her at any given moment.

Just then she heard Troutface call out there was no dragon. Ulrika shrugged. Oh well, no dragon was just good for her. She could show off her epic skills on the boards for the rest of the lesson then-

Then Troutface let out a girly scream that echoed around the arena. ...Or maybe there'd still be a dragon after all. She wobbled to her feet. She was now on new terrain, so she'd have to re-accustom all over again. She could hear a commotion coming from where Troutface had screamed. At least it wasn't her in a pickle for once. She decided to stay where she was. She could probably anticipate something like this.

The drama apparently increased. She could hear the warbling of the dragon, and saw Kenna walk around the arena so she could see Scratchet and converse with the beast. Had something gone wrong? Suddenly there was another bang from where the action was taking place. And more angry dragon noises.

Ulrika huffed. "And people think that *I* have a problem with dragons." She muttered. At least she had the sense to stay back and not blatantly march right into a dragon. She usually tended to turn tail when a dragon got all antsy.

Some more noises, including Kenna angrily yelling about something to do with the colour Blue, then the beast finally revealed itself in all it's mischevous glory. It was indeed a turquoise-coloured dragon. And it seemed mighty ticked off.

Scratchet paused as she noticed she wasn't the only one above the boards. How weird. The boards were a lot bigger than the humans. There was an odd pause and both parties regarded each other.

Ulrika was the first one to make a move. She tilted her head slightly. Ulrika had seen a lot of Nadders. This one was slightly off in some ways. She frowned. Then realisation dawned.

"Is that why you're so famous, because you have a weird-ass face?" Ulrika asked, raising her voice slightly so she'd be heard. That was the most noticeable thing - compared to the long curved horns of normal Nadders, this nose horn was short and blunt.

If Scratchet wasn't angry before, she was now utterly ballistic. The dragon let out an angry scream before charging straight at Ulrika, leaping over the boards with much more ease than Ulrika could ever achieve.

Instantly recognising the imminent danger she was in, and realising that actually jumping across the corridor was a terribly bad move since she could now only go sideways and not back, she immdieately took to her feet, ignoring the stability of the boards now, just hoping to get away from the speeding angry dragon behind her. She only just managed to turn a corner away from the dragon, but the boards were wobbling all over the place with the dragon almost right behind her-

Something caught in her heels, making her trip. Her hands instantly came out to break her fall, but she realised the distance to the floor was a lot greater. As she fell she managed to push herself away from the board to avoid breaking her nose or horribly gashing her face, before twisting her body like a cat to land on her side, where there would be less of an impact.

She gave a yell as she noticed at the last second that a certain curly-haired rival was in her way of falling. She ended up landing on him, sending Grima hurtling to the ground with her.

After a moment of getting her bearings, she realised she was awkwardly lying on top of Grima. He looked like he had the breath knocked out of him, which distracted herself from the current weirdness of her position.

"EwwEwwEwwEww" She quickly rolled off him, soon smirking that it had to be him of all people to get crushed. She teasingly poked him in the cheek, the tables had turned. She was once again oblivious there was a rampaging dragon nearby, but in it's blind rage it had ran headlong into the exterior wall of the arena, somewhat bringing the mischevous dragon back to it's senses.

For some reason, Ulrika lingered more than she should've. She found Grima's misfortune rather hilarious and wanted to make the most of it, since it was nearly always her who'd get beat up all the time. She jabbed him in the cheek again, not really bothering that he was trying to recover.

"Heh. 'Thanks'." She said, making it clear that she didn't mean it at all and was just trying to rub his fail in even further than she should do. Scratchet could still be heard, but she was probably chasing down some other vikings now. She wasn't really bothered about the dragon, now that she'd been able to escape her once, she was naively sure she'd be able to multiple times now.

She went to poke Grima again. Surely he'd be recovered enough now for some sort of funny reaction.

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

Grima’s logic had been sound, while he’d heard explosios all about the place, he had not hit a single one, though it may have been because others set them off. He was sending half his attention to what was around him in case the dragon turned up and the other half on Ulrika. He kept her in eyesight as much as he could, but keeping at enough of a distance that she didn’t see him. He was just musing at the madness.

He saw Troutface run pass, not noticing either of them. She looking at an unconnected part of the boarding, and Grima realised what she was about do, half marveling, half worrying. He was going to stay by her until something happened that meant he’d need to worry more about himself. After what Grima could only guess was her building up her courage, and testing of the boarding, she started to charge.

Even as she jumped Grima knew it wasn’t enough, He was about to run to her when he stopped himself. Why would he save her? And anyway, the distance wouldn’t be life threatening…not for Ulrika. That girl’s survived so many angry dragon attacks the idea of her getting badly hurt was unthinkable…and yet he did.

She slammed into the board and caught onto it with her elbows, gasping in pain. Grima smiled, thought so. As she started to get up Grima realised he’d have to move to keep an eye on her. So he started running round the walls, trying to regain sight line as soon as possible. Then he heard Troutface’s shout. The boy was an idiot, the dragon had probably already le-

The scream cut straight into him. He hated the startled feeling he’d get from things like that. But he got it. It was then he started being able to see Ulrika again. She was standing there as the noises from the edge of the arena reached the two of them. He moved himself so he was at the end of a corridor, knowing that if she did move he’d have problems trying to keep line of sight again.

Grima couldn’t see Kenna walking around the edge but he could hear her, the dragon and the explosions. He also just heard what Ulrika muttered, meaning he had to stifle the laughter that wanted to escape his lips. That kind of line from Ulrika just sent something through him. Grima could just hear the poem Sylica was reciting and Kenna’s reaction to it. Grima did know enough about Scratchet to know that what she’d said was a bad move.

From the opposite end of the corridor to Grima, Scratchet appeared on the top of the boards and saw Ulrika. They both looked at each other and there was a long silence. And then Grima heard the biggest insult he had ever heard come from Ulrika’s mouth come out of Ulrika’s mouth. If anyone had seen his face they’d have seen it go even whiter than it already was.

He pulled out the stone he’d picked up as Ulrika started to run in his direction, he knew what he had to do. He moved back, realising that she was going to turn the corner, and when she did he threw the pebble. It hit her in the foot and sent topelling down. Instinctively he ran to catch her, but forgot how much momentum she would have by the time she got to him.

Grima’s legs caved in on him as she landed on him and they both hit the floor. He was too out of it to notices that she was onto of him, or that she was poking him the first time. He did hope that she’d run off so he could recover properly, he was winded and slightly confuddled. As he started to get proper bearings she poked him, laughingly thanking him. She didn’t care he’d just saved her again. Why would she the ungrateful brat.

When Ulrika poked him again she grabbed her wrist and yanked her into him. Though her back was technecly to him (or atleast his head) he could still aim with his other fist at her stomach and so he did. She deserved that for her amusement at his predicament…he knew he’d used up too much energy in that action though.

(OOC: Okay, since Sylica's and Mhire's accounts have been deleted and we're very inactive now, Red and I are going to start chipin away at this one by ourselves. If any of you want to post in here please say so and we'll wait for you, but if we get no replies by Friday we're going to go though out four chars again.)

[Scratchet]

(Since Sylica's been deleted I'm taking liberties with her actions to better the purpose of the Evil Nadder of Dastardly Awesome)

---

Sylica had fled, and Scratchet was quickly on her tail. The Nadder soon lost her however- the girl was quick and seemingly oblivious to the mines dotted down the alleyway, caring more about escaping the maws of the beast. Scratchet decided to take a more wary approach, not wanting to get hurt or risk her valuable hide.

To worsen the chase, this particular corridor was narrow, and the dragon's binocular vision was slightly impaired as she could not fully twist her head to see what danger lay ahead. She irritably took a few paces back and tilted her head - there was always the possibility of going up. There wouldn't be any mines up there, would there?

It never occured to Scratchet that another Viking-In-Training would think this way, so it surprised her to see a yellow-grey coloured human above the boards with her, originally expecting free reign up here.

There was an awkward pause as Scratchet processed this. How did she get up? She can't fly. The tame dragons were out the arena. How well could she move? Scratchet stared at the girl; the girl stared back. Her original objective of hunting Sylica down was postponed. As ideas came to mind, playing with the idea of testing just how this girl came to be above.

She snapped out of her musings when the girl cocked her head to the side, pointed at her (which Scratchet also took with hostility) and asked why her 'face was weird'.

Scratchet snapped. The stupid girl had struck her in one of weakest points - the insecurity of her underdevelopment. It was a curse for the Nadder, automatically being lowest ranked in social packs, of which the bold Nadder had abandoned long ago. She hated it, and hated to be reminded of it. And it was spoken with such an accusing tone! She couldn't help the way she was! She wasn't at fault!

Scratchet screamed, too enraged for words. She leapt over the boards at the girl, who had began to run along one of the narrow edges.

But she was much too slow- the turquoise Nadder was quickly gaining up on her. She was about to take a fatal snap at the girl when she fell off the boards just in the nick of time!

Scratchet only registered this fact too late - the cold stone wall of the arena drew closer, and now there wasn't enough room to slow down her bolting charge.

She crashed head first into the wall, slipping down almost comically into a heap on the ground. There she lay motionless and slightly dazed for a moment or so. The crash had made her snout throb in pain, but the sensation reeled her back from blind rage into a steady train of thought once more.

Her breath rattled, horribly angry still, but more composed. As she got her bearings, she began to think about a change of tact.

Smoke bubbled out from her nostrils, before shaking her head, snapping herself out of that idea. "Not yet... I'll need it soon enough..." Her eyes darted towards the oncoming corridors, in case one of the human teenagers came into their path.

She didn't want to be caught off guard, and finding herself in an awkward crumpled position she began to writhe until she got into a place to which she could get up again easily. All the while she was muttering possibilities and reminding herself of the arena's characteristics and counting the children she had met so far. There were bound to be others.

Finally to her feet, she shook herself and observed the pathways before her. There were still traces of mines dotted here and there.

Scratchet made a gurgling noise in her throat, glancing up to the caged heavens. "Yes, that's right. The children can't escape any more than you can. No need to be hasty, they ALL anger you so. You have the time to make them pay. Plenty of time..." She continued to mutter under her breath. The words gave her confidence, and her clawed toes flexed against the stone ground. Haste was no longer a key here. She'd run into those Viking-In-Trainings once more, and then they will all suffer her wrath, regardless if they insulted her or not.

She had forgotten the notion of escape for the present, now hell bent on vengeance. These kids needed to be shown their place. No one gets their way with Scratchet.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

As Scratchet saw Ulrika, Kenna was silently swearing to herself. A lot. She knew Ulrika’s track record when it came to dragons, she knew her track record at losing her stuff to. Fenrir didn’t like her to the extent that he was just hostile rather than trolly. And that said a lot about Ulrika and dragons. Scratchet had already had the annoyances of half the ViTs doing the stupidest things around her, she wouldn’t need much to snap...and Ulrika rarely gave that little.

And then she heard the fatal words. Kenna personally had never understood why people and dragons felt that the shorter horns that Scratchet was a ‘deformity’, she’d always found it a nicer look to the ones with the ‘fully grown’ horns. She did however know that asking someone ‘why her face was weird’ is like asking a berserker that has an inability to grow a beard ‘why does he have a baby face?’.

The noises emanating from Scratchet weren’t even words, it was just a scream. “Get out of there you idiot girl!” as calm as Kenna normally was with Ulrika, that line had stabbed into her like (though not as powerfully) it had Scratchet. What person can be so stupid and live this long around dragons?

Kenna could tell that Ulrika would not be able to out run that and she was in real trouble now. She was about to call the Vikings round the edge to go in and help when Ulrika lost her footing and fell into Grima who was below her. She smiled slightly, realising he must have saved her. The dragon then crashed into the wall at the edge of the arena and collapsed in a heap on the ground below.

A part of Kenna wanted so much to slide down and run to her but her problems with heights wouldn’t have let her do it even if she hadn’t been smart enough to know Scratchet should not be approached right now. As the nadder seemed to regain her bearings and thoughts, Kenna looked out at the other ViTs. Grima and Ulrika seemed to be the nearest to Scratchet and they seemed to be fighting between each other, which was normal. Kenna knew that meant neither was too hurt right now.

She was still walking around the edge of the arena from the stands, trying to keep as many things in her eyeline as possible...wondering who was going to mess things up next.

[Ulrika]

As Ulrika folded in two from the throw Grima gave her, she still managed to plant her elbow into his ribcage as she did so. She saw him move to take another punch, but she reacted in time to retreat and roll away, dodging the potential blow. She looked up just in time to see Grima crawling towards her. Still on the floor, as soon as he was close, she decided to not waste the time to shift around and use her arms.

With one motion Ulrika's foot came sweeping up, connecting with Grima's face. In the time it took Grima to recover she shifted herself to prepare for whatever onslaught would come next. The idea that a very angry dragon was in a heap not far away didn't even cross her mind.

While Ulrika thought Grima was recovering, it turned out he had only been preparing all along! Which caught Ulrika off guard when he jumped on her. She was sent sprawling backwards as Grima threw his weight onto her. She raised her arms, half in preparation of a block, half lashing out at her opponent, undecided on which stance to take. The hesitation cost her dearly - Grima took her arms and pinned them to the ground trapping her.

She struggled, but to no avail. She couldn't escape. That just made Ulrika's mood sink even lower. She gritted her teeth, looking up at him, wondering what he was going to do now.

"SCREW YOU GRIMA!!" Ulrika spontaneously yelled, almost suprising herself. She followed the outburst by spitting in his face, hoping it'd loosen his grasp for her to be able to escape.

---

Sorry it's uber short >_< as most fight posts are tbh

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

Grima glared as her elbow went into his ribcage and the pain accompanying it. He sent another shot hat her but this time she saw it coming and pulled her arm out of his grip and started to roll away. Grima turned and started to crawl after her to grab the ungrateful girl and hit her again. Just as he got to the rolling girl she kicked him in the jaw and he flew backwards a bit.

He spat out a bit of blood as he moved from a crawling position to a crouching position, he was going to take her down now! He jumped at Ulrika and landed on top of him, she did a sort of flail that showed her indecision, he grabbed her arms and pinned them to the ground. It meant his arms weren’t usable, but neither were hers. She struggled for a bit, then looked at him in a way that confused him slightly.

She then shouted at him then spat in his face. It had started him, but that startle had caused him to tighten rather than loosen his grip. He glared at her and then spat in her face in return, with a bit of his blood going on her face with his spit. He was about to decide what he was about to do to where when he heard a noise nearby. He remembered the dragon. They’d been busy fighting and they’d forgotten about the Nadder!

“How about with finish this after we’re not having to think about a rampaging dragon you insulted!” he let go of her arms and sat up, he started to get up and wipe his face of her saliva. She would get her for that later. But they needed to think about they’re surroundings for now.

[Ulrika]

Ulrika grimaced as she tried to avoid the return spit, but it obviously failed, since she couldn't escape. She snarled at him, almost like some sort of feral creature, trying to struggle free once more.

But then they both heard the dragon noises not far away, near the arena's edge. Both parties froze briefly at the sound, before Grima broke their stalemate. He proposed they continue this quarrel afterwards. Ulrika huffed - he was right, and she knew it, but she wished he wasn't.

He finally released her from his clutches and got up. With her free hand she also wiped Grima's spit from her face, making a noise of disgust. "I didn't insult it! It was already angry!"[/color] She protested, staggering to her feet, before cutting herself off and freezing as if she had turned to stone.

The dragon was just on the other side of the boards. She could hear it's footsteps and it's warbling. Did the dragon hear her? She made a hesitant step away, trying to quietly retreat from the Nadder. She didn't hear any sign of detection from the other side of the board, so she made more confident steps away.

Bang!

Ulrika stepped on a mine, creating a nice loud explosion, sending the girl flying forwards. She broke her fall with her hands, but they got badly grazed in the process. It took her a few moments to realise what just happened before adrenaline started to pump through her veins.

They had to go. Now. She turned around to see the Nadder on the boards, the explosion giving away their location.

"There you are."[/b][/color] Scratchet hopped down into their alley.

"Grima run!" Ulrika cried, scrabbling to her feet and propelling herself into the boy to get him going. He was after all the slower of the two. The dragon was all ready for a chase, but this time around it didn't seem as hasty to get them, knowing that they can't escape.

Ulrika was used to escaping dragons, and her most used method of escape was to try and get lost in the wilderness by taking sharp corners and unexpected turns. In the maze with plenty of junctions, it would be easy to lose the Nadder, but it wouldn't be permanent. She could hear Grima behind hear, as well as the Nadder. She grabbed the corner of a board to help fling herself around the corner Troutface-style.

It wasn't long before she hit another mine, this time she couldn't anticipate it in time to break her fall correctly, skidding across the ground after the initial blast. Everything hurt now, she barely had the time to make a move when she felt Grima yank her arm up and bring her to her feet.

She had to keep running, but she didn't know how long this chase would last. If she caught another mine, she'd be done for.

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

Grima was about to retort to her idiocy when they both froze at the sound on the other side of the boards. He wondered what they should do, not realising that Ulrika was about to step on a-

Bang![/color]

Grima’s head spun to her as she flew to the ground. He knew he had to run now, but he was split between running and going to get Ulrika up first. The appearance of the nadder turned his hand. He was already running before Ulrika shouted to him and her pushing him almost sent him off balance. Almost but not quite.

Ulrika had already gotten ahead of him as, despite her shorter legs, she was faster than him. He kept turning his head back every few seconds to see how much the dragon was gaining on them. “I guess and apology is out of the question?” He shouted back to the angry dragon, getting to the corner, “she didn’t mean to offend you, she’s just seems to spew out insults whenever she talks.”

He turned the corner behind Ulrika, “We’ve been trying to house train her but we’re starting to think it’s irremovable.”[/i] from the top of the cage he could just hear some of the dragons laughing at his comments.

He looked down just in time to see Ulrika step on a mine and slam into the floor. He slowed as he got to her and pulled her up. They couldn’t afford a fall like this; he knew Scratchet was bearing down on them. What were they going to do?

[Scratchet]

Scratchet stalked slowly, honing on her hearing to try figure out where the young children were. She trod carefully, she was sure there were some nearby... The girl that she chased fell down somewhere around here... She could hear voices further ahead, and quickened her pace, but being careful not to set off mines. She got nearer the voices, when suddenly a sharp bang rang out, allowing the Nadder to pinpoint their location easier through the panels. She immediately hopped over the boards, spotting two of the Viking-In-Trainings.

"There you are."[/color] She said, a smirk of malice on her face. This time she wouldn't get away. She wouldn't allow it. Both of them naturally began to run. Scratchet hestitated a moment, realising a sudden change in the events. These people were running away from her! Usually Vikings would be trying to subdue her or make her flee instead. Was she really intilling fear into these kids?

Well, they had a right to be. Scratchet wanted payback. She gave chase, the yellow girl suprisingly fast on her feet. The curly black-haired boy lagged behind, occasionally shouting out something about apologising for the girls actions. She snorted angrily, making no comment in response. He then made a comment against the girl that suprised the Nadder, making her falter her steps slighty, before letting a horribly sinister laugh escape her throat.

The yellow girl hit a mine, but Scratchet had another idea, since Grima was already there to bring her to her feet and continue running. She wasn't as fast as before though, reaching her limits. Excellent. She hopped back up onto the boards, where she could see where they were going to go. Ulrika wanted to almost make a u-turn to throw the dragon off, but Scratchet's decision proved well enough, knowing they were trying to lose her.

She hopped down, blocking them off, and before Ulrika could slow to turn around the dragon had unbalanced her with a simple push of the snout and pinned her underfoot. She had her now! But what do to with her...

"You dare, mock me, child!"[/b][/color] She growled, the girl struggled, but weakly. That last mine really took a lot out of her. But she couldn't escape. Scratchet remembered about the boy and pivoted slightly to throw spines in his path to stop him from coming closer. One spine hit a mine and sent it flying back - to Scratchet!

She already was charging her fire attack and instinctively protected herself from being stabbed in the face by letting rip her 'one-shot-wonder'. It burnt a nice large hole at the top of a few boards, before cutting through the cage bars that were supposed to keep dragons in.

Scratchet didn't notice the hole for now, but she realised that her fire had been used up and had nothing much more satisfying to do the job. She could smell the girl's fear, her breaths rising and falling underfoot.

A wicked smile drew along her face, knowing a way to make her suffer for the things she had said, also on behalf of the other buffoons out there that had angered her. She applied a little more pressure onto her foot, she could slowly see discomfort on the girls face, so applied a little bit more, slowly at a time. The little girl suddenly gave out a sharp cry of pain, which made the nadder shudder, as if she had recalled an old memory. A pang of guilt fleeted through her, before it was swept away by the ebbs of anger.

This'd be it. For once in her life she had the upper hand on someone who had tried to demoralise her. She was not letting go of this standing that easily.

[Kenna & Fenrir]

Kenna watched as all this happen in front of her and was unsure what to do. Why weren’t any the other vits turning up and being some form of distraction? With Scratchet hell bent on Ulrika, can they get away? Should we intervene?

It was then that Kenna saw Scratchet start to charge a shot. She swore, this has not gotten too serious. She was about to call the outer ring Vikings in to subjue the nadder when Scracthet suddenly changed the direction of the shot to go for her.

Instinctively Kenna jumped to her left, but she landed badly and fell flat on her face on the corner edge of the wall. And she fell at a dangerous angle too. She could see through through her right eye the distance below and could feel she was about to fall in…and could do nothing about it.

Completely disregarding the image it was about to give, she screamed as she fell. Fortunately the Viking nearest to her had saw the shot and was close enough to run in and catch Kenna just in time. The catch still hurt her quite badly (though not as badly as crashing into the floor).

“Leave me here and stop her. Subdue her, all of you!” the last line she shouted as he was lowering her. She clenched her eyes shut and tensed herself up, trying to fight off the pain and the fear.

Her session had failed. She’d thought Scratchet would a safe dragon to use, a troller. She’d have done the things the kids wouldn’t expect and they would all be relatively safe. She hadn’t realised that the pupils would be just as unpredictable as the infamous nadder. That they would be dumb enough to insult her with poetry, run straight into her cave and ask her why she was a freak.

The fact the kids were this bad scared Kenna. We weren’t that bad. We didn’t try to get ourselves killed in that way. Run head long into a conflict, yes, not goad the enemy into wanting to inflict a lot more pain than they would have!.

What did Chad have to deal with?

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

Grima heard behind him the Nadder jump back up onto the boards where she had so many more advangages over them. They didn’t need her to have more advantages over them. He knew his pleas were being left on deaf ears, so Grima was starting to see no way out of this.

He glanced up as he ran, seeing the dragons up there, all of them looking quite conserned for the two of them now. Well, all but one head. He looked back down at the path just in time to see Scratchet land in front of the two of them. Ulrika, despide her injuries, had still managed to get ahead of Grima again and so basicly ran into the dragon who sent the girl to the floor.

Grima was about to pull out his sword and run her, but the dragon saw him and aimed her spikes at her. He saw it in time and jumped sideways into the wall, keeping his eyes focused on the dragon. She was charging a shot at Ulrika! At that distance the shot would kill her. Not badly hurt, kill! And Grima knew he was too far to do anything.

Then the he saw the spine fly past him and just missing Scratchet. It did spook the nadder enough to save Ulrika. Grima watched as the dragon shot something more comparable to a Night Fury’s shot than a Deadly Nadder’s.

For the first time in quite a while Grima felt real terror, barely noticing the scream in the background. He watched frozen as the monster grinned evilly down at her prey as she started push down on Ulrika, unable to do anything. It wasn’t until he heard Ulrika’s cry that Grima snapped out of it.

But he knew he couldn’t attack this dragon, it might shoot at him this time. He saw a shard of the exploded mine, grabbed it and threw at her. I hit Scratchet on the nose. Before the dragon even looked up at him he started shouting at her;

“Leave her alone! She’s a idiotic, thick moron who had no idea that the words that come out of her mouth are as mean and stupid as they are and I don’t think she ever will. She shouldn’t be picked on for her brainlessness anymore than you should be teased for your horns. So let her go!”[/b]

He hoped that’d save them, not knowing that the proper Vikings were only a few seconds from rushing in.

[Scratchet]

A scream followed shortly after the fire. Scratchet paid no attention to it though, as her troubles concerned what was underneath her. Soon enough she felt the girl beneath her go limp as she lost consciousness. At the same time the curly-haired boy began to shout at her, trying to reason to let the girl go.

She was about to retort with a snarky comment, when she heard new noises and smelt a new scent from behind. She turned her head, before a rock was thrown at her face. With a cry she turned around, forgetting Ulrika and trying to seek the new attackers. But then she saw they weren't children. They were the grown-up angry vikings!

She quickly hopped back onto the boards, and she saw what was happening. Her fire had made a hole in the fencing. There wasn't much time to spare, now that angry vikings were deployed, so she hopped over to investigate, swearing under her breath when she saw the hole was too small for her to even squeeze her head through. She didn't notice that Kenna was just beneath her, the Meddler who had got her into this mess in the first place with all the stupid children everywhere. She could hear the voices of the men below, coming in to get her.

Unlike the stupid children, these adult vikings knew how to deal with dragons. The beast had now become the prey. She ran along the boards, and she saw in the nick of time a man trying to throw bolas for her legs! With a flap of her wings she easily dodged the attempt. As she landed with a thud on the boards, the planks began to wobble with the sudden extra weight. Scratchet flapped her stubby wings to try stay balanced, but it was too late! The board came toppling down to the floor, knocking down another one in the process.

There was a pause as Scratchet processed the possibility.

A grin came on her face again. She saw the look of realisation on the Viking's faces across the way. She ran in the opposite direction, crashing into the boards. She was going to bring down the house. Literally. As a last stand of rebellion, she was going to just knock everything over. And if someone got squished, then that's a win. Mines were going off like no tomorrow as the boards fell over, but the weight of them made no movement.

The turquoise Nadder took pleasure in this blight of destruction, but she didn't realise that knocking the boards down would mean the dragon would be in the sight of the Vikings more often, giving them more chance to take her down. With one mighty thrust, a Viking threw a pair of bolas that went hurtling to Scratchet, hitting it's mark and wrapping around her ankles. She suddenly crashed to the floor, and before she realised what happened, a board came crashing down on her head to add to injury and humiliation. She struggled in a dazed state as the vikings got rid of the board and secured her, whilst other Vikings helped get the kids out as quick and as safely as possible. Ulrika had to be carried out by another Viking, in her unconscious state.

When Scratchet came to her senses, she realised she had lost. A small whimper came from within as she watched the last of the children leave the arena.

[Grima, Stahl & Flint]

The dragon noticed the Vikings just before Grima, but he heard their war cry as they ran passed him, even seeing one of them running over a mine and being completely unphased by it. Grima watched as the dragon jumped back onto the boards. Two of the Vikings ran back in the directions they had come in, the third on the other hand ran to Ulrika to check her.

“How is she?” Grima exclaimed, finally shaking off the shock of their appearance and back into action.

“She’s hurt-“ the Viking started before Grima intrupted.

“I know she’s bloody hurt! I saw what happened!” It was plain in his voice how worried he was.

“We need to get her out of here so that Ari can treat to her,” he said, pulling her up on his shoulders, “We’d better get moving towards the door, hopefully that menace will have been captured by the time we get there and we’ll be able to get out.” As they started to move, they heard some crash from a way away. “That didn’t sound good.”

They then heard another crash, and another, and an- “Run!” the man shouted as they both realised what was happening. Grima didn’t need encouragement. The two of them ran down, Grima looking back just in time to see one starting to topple nearby where they’d been.

They turned left, and the Viking stopped just in time to avoid one of the falling boards as it fell down and landed on a mine. The Viking jumped onto the fallen board and ran alone the route it had created to the edge of the field. Grima looked back in and watched as more of the boards fell, though he knew he was now in a safe spot.

He then Stratchet, who had caused all of this, was being attacked by the other Vikings. Grima looked up at the dragons above, a few of them looked worried, while others relieved. He could guess which of his fellow Vikings in training were safe and which weren’t. Stahl was just staring at him blankly. He couldn’t understand why.

”Come on!” the Viking carrying Ulrika shouted, “You need to get out of here!” He looked over to Scratchet one last time as she was being pulled to the ground. He smiled at how they were beating her before running to the, now open, entrance.