Chapter Text
White Mountain Island is a cold island right outside the archapelago.
This island has always been covered in a white blanket of snow, the worst of it making its home at the top of the mountain right in the middle of our island.
Where are we you might ask?
The White Mountain Tribe.
The Vikings of the White Mountain Tribe have made their home here for the past three hundred fifty years, long before a terrible snowstorm took over the island and claimed it over the past two hundred years.
We never left, we're Vikings. We aren't the type of people to just give up when faced with a problem.
We've adapted to our new environment, making due and surviving on this island of year-long snow.
Our only issue?
The dragons have adapted as well.
A loud horn sounded throughout the village as a loud roar burst through the night sky, snow swirling throughout the sky as pure white dragons flew straight for the village.
Quickly pulling her brown cloak on, a black-haired teen pulled herself out of her house, ignoring her tired mother's irritated rambling as she stormed out into the cold air, one hand clamped down on her bow as she slung her arrows over her shoulder.
Here on White Mountain island, not only are we covered in snow all year round, but we are also home to a unique type of adapted dragons, snow-white scales and piercing blue eyes. These dragons have adapted not only to the cold weather but seemed to have a new look to blend in with it.
"Hey, Serana!" A voice called, the figure of another teen in a black cloak had approached the so-called Serana, pulling her hood off her blond head of hair as she spoke.
"Nice wake-up call, isn't it?" The new arrival started in amusement, almost like this was how all their mornings started. She wasn't far off.
"Only you would be wide awake this early Ember." Serana spoke, stifling a short yawn as the Vikings from the village charged past them, the white dragons closing in on the village quickly.
"Gotta be ready for anything and everything at any time~!" Ember responded in quite an enthusiastic tone, holding her sword tightly in her hands before charging off. Serana could only scoff at her friends early morning, ready to go wakefulness.
Just as her friend charged away, the white spines of a deadly nadder shot straight for the black-haired teen, the girl thankfully seeing it in time to narrowly dodge the spines and charge away from the dragon. She couldn't fight close up like this, she needed cover.
Running towards the dining hall, the raven-haired girl ran to the back of the building, going for the ladder she had built into the wooden wall and moving quickly to climb up towards to roof.
After reaching the top she only allowed herself to hesitate for a moment, watching the raid below her play out. So far only five Deadly Nadders, three Gronkles, two Zippleback, and one Monstrous Nightmare. It could definitely be worse.
Thank Thor that it wasn't.
Pulling out an arrow she placed it carefully on the quiver of her bow, aiming for the closest dragon to her, a different deadly nadder currently being fought off by the chiefs heir, a well-muscled teen by the name of Alvor Yver.
Letting the arrow fly, it stabbed straight into one of the white scaled dragons pale blue eyes, the dragon letting out a pained screech as Alvor took the chance the plunge his axe into the already wounded creatures violently shaking, but lowered head.
Make that four Deadly Nadders.
Alvor turned his head away from the now dead dragon, glancing up to the roof to shoot Serana a smirk. "Morning princess~" he called to the teen in a flirtatious tone, despite the current raid going on around them. This only earned the young man a short scoff from Serana in return.
"Alvor, Dragons." was all the teen said in response to which the male simply snorted in retaliation.
"I hear ya, I hear ya!" He yelled back to the blue-eyed girl, knowing full well that saying anything else would simply cause him to be dismissed by the other teen without a second glance. "I will see you after then~!"
And with that, he left the girl to her own devices as he charged off into the fray once again, this time to help Ember drive away a pissed-off-looking Gronkle from one of the storage houses...
It was then the loud yell could be heard bellowing through the village. Despite the roars of dragons and yells of fighting vikings, the voice of Chief Vanderbilt could be heard clearly. "SNOW FURY'S"
Snow Fury's, white scaled demons of the night. As far as everyone is aware there is more than one on the island. Though we have yet to see more than two at a time in a raid.
Just as the yell sounded out, the shape of a single white dragon swiftly moved through the sky, firing a blue-coloured plasma blast at one of the catapults before flying out of sight once more.
No one has killed a Snow Fury before, thankfully no one has been killed by one in over twenty years either.
And no one in the tribe is stupid enough to waste time trying to shoot one of those beasts down.
Serana was forced to swiftly duck down as the Snow Fury flew back in, staying just far enough out of reach of the fighting Vikings as it shot another plasma blast into the village that had successfully hit a house just beside the dining hall.
Thankfully it was just one Snow Fury. But it was not holding back in the slightest.
But then again it's a dragon, what could she possibly expect from it?
Poking her head back up shortly after the plasma blast, Serana out up her bow again, producing another arrow and aiming at one of the Zipplebacks who was still up and moving, aiming for a eye on the left head before firing another arrow. The two headed dragons let out a pained shriek as the arrow hit its mark, going straight into its eye. The beast threw open it's wings with a loud roar and propelled itself into the air. Green smoke was soon sprayed from one of its heads, the other sparking the smoke and causing the gassed area to erupt into a sea of blue flames.
Hey, I may not be too good at close combat, but I'm pretty dead on with an arrow!
The fight raged on for a good while before the dragons were beginning to retreat, though it was clear to say they were getting away with what they had desired from the beginning. A lot of our food.
It was safe to say the tribe put up a good fight during the raid, but they just couldn't save everything.
It wasn't long before the village was vacant of all dragons, the last to disappear was the dreaded Snow Fury with a powerful roar as it disappeared off into the distance. The sun had finally begun to rise in the distance, shedding more light on the newly damaged village. Thankfully only a few buildings were hit. Two of the barns had blue flames trailing out from the wooden walls. The remaining animals being quickly ushered out as some of the younger teens moved to help put out the fires.
Taking a deep breath Serana finally headed off the roof of the dining hall, carefully making her way down the ladder and trailing around to the front of the building.
"Well, that was a fun way to start the morning!" The upbeat voice of Ember could be heard once again as she approached Serena. The teen rested her elbow on the shoulder of the raven-haired teen, not taking notice of the disinterested look on the girl's face as she went on.
"I never thought that fight was going to end!" The girl continued on in her usual enthusiastic tone. "It was just the morning rush I needed!"
Serana only gave a short, amused snort. Her best friend was always one to be excited over some of the strangest things, she could expect no less from her blissful, fearless friend.
"It has been a while since the last raid though..." Ember had put in a few moments later, earning a side glance from her friend as they had been heading towards the blacksmith.
"It's not like the dragons have some sort of set schedule," Serana spoke as they approached the forge, Ember carefully putting her sword down as they did.
"Well, I know that!" The brown-eyed blonde couldn't help but scoff at how obvious that point was. "But they usually come at least twice a month!"
"Well, maybe they are finally learning to stop messing with us Vikings." A cheery voice in the forge piped up in amusement. The voice belonged to Knud Estur, the buff, brown-haired man who ran the forge.
Serana ignored the short, audible scoff that came from her friend as she shot a kind smile to the amber-eyed man. "Morning Knud."
"Morning Serana, anything I can do for you?" Knud spoke as he picked up Embers sword, glancing over the blade. "And I'm guessing you need another sharpening for this sword of yours Ember? You should really be more careful."
Ember gave a short snort, directing her eyes away with a bit of irritation. All this caused was an amused snort from the black-haired girl beside her.
Serana made no comment however as she answered Knud's question. "I just wanted to see if you had the arrows I mentioned yesterday?"
"Oh yes, one moment." The brunette man spoke, turning back into his forge to get the requested items.
"You know Serana," a new voice started up as two people approached the forge, causing both girls to look up and spot Avlor approaching with a blonde-haired teen. More specifically his best friend Odvan.
The brown-haired teen had his attention solely on Serana as she spoke, placing his axe down as he continued. "You should really consider learning to use a sword or an axe, upfront combat is a useful skill to know."
"I know how to use a sword Avlor." Serana spoke on mock offence, rolling her eyes as she brushed her black side-swept bangs out her eyes. "I'm not very good at it."
"That's why you should practice," Alvor spoke as Knud returned, the blacksmith handing Serana her desired arrows.
"No thanks Alvor, I prefer the distance," Serana spoke in a disinterested tone, smiling a thanks to Knud before turning away from the forge and walking away.
Ember was quick to follow, as usual, her blonde linked their arms together, letting out a short snort once they were out of earshot. "I can't believe you like that guy."
Serana could only roll her eyes, amused by how nit-picky the girl was with the heir over every little thing. "It's not like I chose to be promised to him." The raven-haired girl spoke as they aimlessly walked through the village, taking note that the fires had already been put out.
"But I mean, can't you get out of it?" Ember pushed, her distaste for Alvor had always been very noticeable. She never tried to hide it.
"I don't have to love him, I just have to tolerate him," Serana responded in amusement, adjusting the sleeves of her leather shirt. "I don't hate him. I don't love him, but I can deal with him."
The tribe has always been this way. A girl was always promised to the heir at a young age, and by the age of eighteen, they would get married. Serana had always known this fact and accepted it without complaint. Despite her friend's views on the issue.
If it even was an issue to get so worked up about.
She wasn't interested in marrying for love anyways, it was really just all about survival to the raven-haired girl.
But oh, how things can change.