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Damian stepped out from behind the wall to face the deadly Nadder, ready to take it down.
“Step out of the way Damian, I’ve got this!” Lila strutted in front of him with her shield up and mace back ready to be thrown. As she released it, it flew harmlessly past the dragon’s head, the noise alerting it to their position.
It followed the mace before whipping its head back around to shoot a blast of fire at the two. They ducked out of the way and began running through the maze as if knocked down all the walls. Damian debated pushing Lila back towards the dragon to rid him of her, but goodness knows how much more annoying she would get afterwards.
As they ran through the enclosure, he saw Mari up ahead trying to hassle information on something out of Sabine. She was an idiot, doing it every time they were in the ring as of a few days previous. He and Lila ran past the oblivious girl, and cringed as her head was almost taken by the dragon. Sabine took that as her cue to lock the dragon back up.
Damian bit back a yell as Dupain-Cheng had once again ruined his chance at defeating the dragon. The girl was insufferable. She screwed everything up. All he wanted to do was train and become an expert dragon killer. He was top of the class, which wasn’t hard because of the absolute morons the rest of the group was, which was great, but it only seemed to hinder his growth. Why had Bruce even allowed her to join the dragon training in the first place?
He stormed out of the building only faintly registering that Mari was once again slinking off into the woods.
It was a few nights later as he found himself roaming the city unable to sleep that he ran into Dupain-Cheng acting suspicious.
“Dupain-Cheng, what are you doing? If you don’t come out now I’m going to go in.” He banged on the door a few times for extra effect.
She squeaked and slipped out the door holding it shut behind her. He leaned over to see if he could catch a glimpse of what was inside.
“What do you need Damian?” A nervous giggle followed her words.
“What are you hiding in there?”
“Nothing! Nothing!” She waved her arms in circles as she was lifted up by the back of her shirt.
Damian stared at her feet hovering above the ground for a moment before she was sucked through the doors and disappeared. He followed slowly behind, unsure of what would be waiting for him. But instead of a horror awaiting him, the building was empty. As he exited the other end of the building, the field was empty, no footsteps could be found either.
The rest of the night he found himself trying to figure out what Dupain-Cheng was hiding from him. As the morning approached and she still hadn’t returned he slunk off assuming she would be at dragon training later.
Dupain-Cheng did show up for dragon training; they were facing the Deadly Nadder once more.
He rolled out from behind one of the barriers and lifted his shield and ax to draw the dragon over. As it’s head lowered to stare him in the eye he lifted his ax to hit it, only for it to collapse and start, almost purring. He sent a nasty glare towards Dupain-Cheng as she scratched the dragon’s neck before herding it back into the stall. Sabine congratulated her and patted her on the back.
He was done with this. That was going to be his strike. He was supposed to get the recognition for that, not her.
Damian stalked off down the path, before turning and heading into the forest in the direction she always went. He found a nice large rock and sat down to wait for her, by conveniently sharpening his ax for her to see. A rustling of leaves alerted him of her presence and he bit back a smile as he waited for her to notice him.
A gasp table him when she did. “H-hey Damian, what are you doing out here?” She drew out the e for an obnoxiously long time.
“I wanted to see what the girl who killed a Night Fury keeps running off to do? And what’s in that basket?”
She stuttered over her words for a moment before giving up. “Just follow me. I’ll explain it to you.” She took off following a small path cleared from her walking it so often.
Damian narrowed his eyes, but followed after wanting to see what secret she was hiding. After a short walk, they came to a hidden lake. The area seemed oddly devoid of wildlife, as if there were something dangerous in the area.
He hesitantly stepped into the area, his guard raised. Dupain-Cheng was looking around as if to try and find something.
“What did you bring me here to show? There’s nothing here.” He turned around to head back to Berk, but jumped back when faced with a dragon. “What is that Dupain-Cheng?”
“Uhhhhh… surprise?” She shrugged. “His name is Toothless and he’s a Night Fury.”
She walked over to the dragon and offered it the barrel of fish to calm the dragon. It snatched a few fish and backed up from where he stood with his ax.
“Drop the ax, he’s scared of weapons.” She said calmly as she watched him size up the dragon.
“Are you insane? That thing could kill me in an instant. I’m not dropping my weapon!” He pointed the ax toward the dragon.
It jumped back and hissed at him suspiciously. Dupain-Cheng stepped forward to calm it down and sent him a glare.
“Okay, okay, down goes the weapon.” Damian stared at the dragon as he walked a few paces and set down the ax nicely against the a rock and then he returned to where he previously stood.
The dragon lowered its guard slightly and Dupain-Cheng gave it some praise. When she stepped away from the dragon he went to grab her to take her back to Berk.
“This is insane Dupain-Cheng. I don't know what you think you’re doing, but it’s about time we head back to Berk.” He said gruffly.
The dragon seemed displeased by the statement and jumped up, picking up the two of them, Damian much rougher than the girl.
“Toothless what are you doing?” Her warning voice called out.
Both let loose a scream as it jumped into the air and started flying out of the divit. With Dupain-Cheng on its back and him dangling from a front leg he was sure he was going to die. He felt the dragon lift him higher up into the air and he shut his eyes for a moment.
After a few moments of flying he found himself with the wind knocked out of him and stranded on a tall tree that was drooping from the weight of the dragon.
He scanned the area to try and find a way down. The dip of the tree made it difficult, especially because of the temperamental dragon bending it.
“Get me down from here. Control that dragon of yours.” His comment seemed to anger the dragon.
It grunted and turned its head away as if it were expecting an apology. He mirrored the actions not wanting to apologize to the dragon.
“Toothless, we can’t hold him hostage forever.” Dupain-Cheng attempted to reason with the dragon.
“Get me down from here.” At that point he had managed to swing himself up onto the branch so he was sitting instead of awkwardly hanging on it.
Dupain-Cheng reached out her hand as an invitation for him to climb onto the dragon's back. He scoffed and refused it.
“It’s the only way down.” She said sternly.
“I don’t trust that thing.”
“I do, so trust me and Toothless can get us down from here in seconds.”
He hesitated before grabbing her hand and climbing onto the back of the dragon. It jumped off the tree and he found himself grabbing Dupain-Cheng to keep himself from flying off.
Instead of going to the ground it decided that the best course of action would be to take the two on a joyride. Their screams of terror resounded through the nearby forest, scaring the surrounding wildelife.
The beast flew up into the sky before making a quick turn and diving down. As they reached the water it jumped in and out of the waves, as if it were a dolphin.
He coughed out what seemed to be buckets of water after the third dive in before yelling out an apology. “Okay! Stop this dragon, I’m sorry!”
Its ears perked up and it stopped the descent into the waves. Dupain-Cheng took back control of the dragon and guided it through pillars of rocks, chipping a few on accident. As the path cleared, they flew upwards breaking above the cloud layer. Clouds painted pastels created a floor below them, and a deep blue sky sat above them. The sun was partially concealed by the clouds below them. The scene looked as if it could’ve been painted.
He found himself admiring the scene and trying to stick it in his memory to paint down later. The whole experience was surreal, then almost as soon as it started, it was over and Toothless was landing gently back in the field they started in. He sadly got off the dragon, and turned to grab what he had left before leaving to go back to Berk.