The next morning, I was so sore that I was almost willing to endure punishment for staying in bed. But I didn't want more pain. My dad was busy, so I didn't bother to disturb him to say bye. Today's lesson was on Catrys. They had the hottest fire known. I was disliked even more after my victory. I did the same thing that I had done yesterday, and afterword, Brim, Falcon, and Eagle came to me and gave me a beating that they were going to take out on the dragon, but they couldn't. 

Orchid came up after that and as I was starting to get up, she helped me up. That was very unexpected, but then she punched me in the face hard enough to knock me over. "That was for yesterday, and that," she kicked me in the shin, " was for today. Don't start a war that you can't finish. You may be the son of the blacksmith, but I come from the greatest line of warriors. My dad was very disappointed when he found out that he had a daughter instead of a son. It has been my only goal, for my whole life, to exceed everyone's expectations and be a better warrior than my dad. This is my chance. Don't screw it up for me. You won't get another warning." Then she stormed away. 

I starting to get up again when I heard more footsteps coming toward me. I looked up, expecting the others, but it was Orchid's mom. I doubled my efforts to get up, but that just made the pain worse. I felt a gentle hand on my back, pressing me down. I complied, quite willing to lay down. She started washing my face with a cool cloth. I smiled. "Thanks." I croaked. She smiled. "I saw you struggling, so I decided to come help. Heaven knows that you need more kind people in life." She was still washing me. I grinned. "Doesn't everyone? How can you be the mom of such a violent girl? Not that she-" 

"I know what you mean, and I take no offense at that, and I'm pretty sure she wouldn't mind either." 

I smiled. "Yeah, but still, I don't want to test it." 

She didn't say anything, so I stopped talking. When she was done cleaning me, she broke the silence. "You should go home now." I nodded and made it too my feet. I was extremely grateful, and I tried to express it, but she just shooed me away. I heard the twins bickering behind me, and I started running. I didn't want to risk getting beaten again. The twins and Brim just did it for the fun of it, but at least Orchid only did it for a reason. I made it back to the forgery, and started to work on sharpening a sword so my dad wouldn't be mad at me for being late. When my dad came in, he got straight to work and didn't say anything.

We didn't talk as we worked, and I went to bed before we could talk. The next day we studied Hendrets, who are the most venomous, and we had to fight it. I knew it's weakness, so I did the same thing as before. I tried to avoid the others after training, but Orchid still found me. I stopped walking when she stepped in front of me. "Are you trying to ruin my life? I told you to stay out of it, and you still are interfering with training. You had your warning, so now you will get it. Simple as that." 

"Well, at least your dad isn't plotting to kill you." I snapped.

"He will ruin my life if I fail." 

"Probably, but he isn't figuring out how to end your life. Maybe ruin it, but not end it." 

"I don't care." She punched me in the gut, then in my face. I fell backwards, and tried to get away from her. She kicked me repeatedly, then left. Only a few moments later, Brim and the twins found me. 

I just leaned against the wall, hoping that it would be short. They were all sporting injuries from training, and they were mad at me. I heard someone else coming, and looked around. My dad was coming, and he was talking to the chief. I didn't hear what they were saying because they stopped when they saw us. I hung my head, to hide my emotions and the bruises. 

The chief talked first. "Brim, Eagle, Falcon, what are you doing?" "Nothing Father." "Messing with him sir." Brim glared at Eagle. Then my dad spoke. "You are late again for work. Get to the forgery. Now!" My dad was mad for no reason, but I didn't have time to ponder it. I ran beck to the forgery and began my work. My dad had saved me from another beating. One bad beating was enough for one day, probably more, but that wouldn't happen. I didn't care if Orchid would beat me again, I had found something that I was good at, and I wasn't going to be bullied into failing it.

When I had gone to bed, it was quiet. I woke up to screaming and fire. A dragon raid! I didn't want to go outside, because it was to easy for an unfortunate accident to occur, but if I stayed in here I would get in trouble. I decided to go work at the forgery, so then I would be useful. I was fixing weapons as fast as I could, but they just kept coming. There was one sighting of a dragon so terrible that the strongest and bravest would quake in their boots.

"Drail!"

It blasted the catapults and they were destroyed, and the Drail flew away, leaving us to deal with everything else. The Vikings fought hard all night, and as the sun started to peek out, all the dragons left. I was never alone the entire night, so I was exhausted. I went straight to bed. when I woke up, everything was quiet. The village was never this quiet, so I knew something was wrong. I want outside, and there was nobody around, so I went to the Great Hall. Everyone was there. There were some losses during this raid, and I was wondering who. I pushed m way to the front, and stared in shock.

There was only one death. My dad. I didn't know what to do. I had never known such a pain not on my body. I was lost. I didn't really care though. He had never felt like much of a father. He might be dead, but I have bigger issues to worry about. I turned and left. I knew the rules for what would happen to the children if they were orphaned. They would either be put on a ship and shipped away, or they were taken in by another family that had kids the same age. I would find out what would happen to me after training today when the chief talked to everyone.

"You all know the rule for orphans. If a family doesn't step forward, he will be put on a ship and will have to leave, never to return. Does any family want him? Speak now." No one stepped forward. The chief was about to ship me off when Orchid's mom spoke up. "I will." Orchid's dad turned, and stared at her. Then he agreed. Now my fate was in Orchid's hands. The whole family had to agree for me to stay. She just stood there. I was getting very nervous, and I was wondering if I was doomed to sail the seven seas, looking for a new home. She spoke suddenly. "Fine." She didn't sound like she wanted to have me spend the next part of my life in her home, but she didn't want to never see me again. Also, the others would give her a hard time either way, because if she said yes, they would be mad at her for keeping me here, but if she said no, they would be mad because they lost their punching bag. I was glad that she had said yes, because I didn't really want to say goodbye to everything I knew, even if everyone was mean to me.

The chief spoke again. "We have another issue. We need a blacksmith, and they must not have any apprentices, or not have finished their apprenticeship, and they must not be employed or have any ties to their village. Does anyone happen to know anyone who might work?" To everyone's surprise, Nut spoke up. "Actually, I know a guy, who knows a guy, who knows a guy, who meets the standards. He lives on Bramhile, and he would be more than willing to come. Goes by the name of Joel."

Why must this happen to me? 

I was disliked by everyone my age. I was relieved when Orchid's parents agreed to take me in. Now, I had an even lower status, and Brim and the twins made that plain. It turned out that Joel had no need for an apprentice like me, so now I wasn't allowed to work in the forge. I devoted all of my time to studying dragons. One night as I was studying, I noticed that they had nothing on Drails. I hadn't cared much before, but now I was curious. I wanted to learn more about them. I started asking everyone, but none of them knew much. All anyone said was to hide and make no noise. 

Life at Orchid's house was very different, and challenging, but I got used to it. Joel seemed to hate me even more that any of the other Vikings. I was never sure why, but he did. He always avoided me, never talked to me, when he saw me, he tried to get as far away from me as possible. Orchid's dad wasn't fond of me at all after he learned that I was younger than Orchid. I guess he wanted me to be his warrior instead of Orchid, even though she was way better than me. I disliked living there, but I liked Orchid's mom. 

She tried to be nice to me, and yet stay out of trouble. We were almost done with training, and whoever won got to kill a dragon. I wanted to win, just to prove that I could do it. I didn't want to kill a dragon, but I might have to. I wasn't enjoying life outside of anything dragon related, and Brim and the twins still picked on me a lot, and now I couldn't go home without seeing another teen. At least Orchid was not beating me up without reason, but she had a lot more reason to do that. She still was taking no interest in guys, which was good. I was not interested in girls either. I was excited, because there was only a week left of dragon training, and I was winning. I was no more athletic than I was at the beginning of training, but I was doing well. Then came another raid. 

They attacked worse than anyone had ever seen before. Chief Fengil was insistent that I must go fight. 

"Drail!" 

"Get down!" 

I decided to do something suicidal. I started walking out when they started yelling about the drail. I walked towards it. Through all the fire, I saw it. A golden dragon, largest one I had ever seen, largest wings too. I heard people yelling at me, but I ignored them. I walked as close as I could to the dragon, then I dropped any weapons that I had. 

The drail didn't fly away, it was probably wondering why a tiny Viking was coming close, but dropped everything. I did something that I probably shouldn't have done if I valued my life. 

I knelt in front of the most feared dragon ever known. 

Everything got quiet. The only noise was the sound of the fire. Neither I nor the dragon moved. It just stared at me. Then I heard a voice in my head. It was very deep, and not my own. I knew it was the dragon. What do you want, tiny Viking? 

I had no idea what I wanted. I just tried to show him all of my memories, show him that I don't want to hurt dragons, what the others had done to me, all of it. Then I said "I don't know, please help me in any way you can." He didn't respond, just grabbed me with his talons and flew away.