As far as the Berkians knew, the Night Fury was the most powerful of all dragons, capable of flying faster than all known dragons, and the most loyal to its rider. None of them had ever imagined that there would be a dragon capable of matching it. But there was, they had just never seen it.

They say that the Night Fury is the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, but did anyone ever stop to question the legend and ask; if the Night Fury is the child, then what were the parents like?

Hundreds of miles to the south of Berk, a single dragon flew over the raging sea. Behind it, sailing on the wild waves, was a fleet of ships, determined to catch up and kill the huge beast. The dragon was injured from arrows piercing its hide and from having boulders smashed into it. It was tired, its energy almost spent, and being hunted. But despite its dwindling energy, it pressed on. It would not let these humans defeat it.

It was time to change tactics.

With a sudden lurch, the dragon shot further up in the sky and turned to face its enemy head on. It let its fire build in its stomach and lungs and dive-bombed the fleet. Explosive blue fire erupted from its mouth as it came within rage, and it burnt three ships in quick succession, roaring in triumph as the humans screamed and jumped overboard. The Vikings on board shouted at the black dragon in rage, and the leader screamed to press on the attack.

The moon rose behind the dragon, illuminating it in the night sky. The humans looked up to it in fear as it reared its head and appeared to glow in the eerie light. The ferocious beast was larger than the Night Fury they had seen in months previously, but had the same sort of black scales. Its wings sparkled in the light from the speckled silver scales on their underside and its eyes glowed a spooky silver.

They watched as it bared its fangs and its throat started to glow. They all heard the crackle of electricity before it shot out of its mouth at the ships. With a dramatic BANG, the ships exploded and the dragon roared again.

The black and silver dragon could feel itself weakening as it used up more of its precious energy. It desperately wanted to finish the job and obliterate the remainder of the fleet, but it surrendered the fight and flew off into the night towards the only form of land. It wasn't even certain if there was land in that direction, but it had to try. With a defiant shriek, it flew away from the broken ships. The crew were almost certain it meant 'you cross me again, I will destroy you all'.

The black beast flew for hours, becoming even more uncertain of the promise of land the further it went. It kept dropping out of the sky and towards the sea as the hours ticked by. Its eyes closed some time before dawn while its body kept pushing on further north. It was close to collapse as the sky began to lighten to a deep blue, and finally, its wings gave out. The dragon fell out of the sky, and landed on a sandy beach that only Thor knew where. Somewhere deep in the dragons mind it thought,

I made it. I'm not going to die today.

The huge black dragon lazily opened its moon-like eyes and looked around. It sniffed the air, and was glad to detect that no humans were around. It slowly stood up from its position on the ground and shook the sand from its body. It appeared to be on a beach right next to a forest with no civilisation in sight. That was good for the dragon. But it was still weak and out on the open. It had to find shelter before the night began.

It shoo out its cramping wings and assessed its body, covered in cuts and bloody wounds that were already healing. If it was during any other time in the lunar cycle, or even on the night of the full moon it could have healed within minutes or hours, but thanks to the new moon that night, it would have to tend to its wounds for the next few weeks.

It huffed in annoyance and looked back at its surroundings. It decided that it shouldn't waste much time and walked forward, intending to find shelter and food before nightfall. All day it walked through the forest – it was too tired to fly anywhere – before it came to a very small clearing in the forest. Something foreign moved against its talons, and when it looked, it discovered a broken and rotten rope on the ground attached to a weighted ball. It recognised this thing, even I its broken state. It was a bola.

It made a rumbling noise in its throat in curiosity ad it thought of why something like this was here. Did a human manage to knock a dragon out of the air with this and it fell here?

Frankly, it didn't care that much. The scent of human on the rope was practically non-existent, meaning that whoever came in contact with this hadn't been round for months.

It continued its search for a place to rest. Shortly it came to a ledge covered in tree roots and dirt. Down below was a very secluded cove with a small lake and plenty of cover. Looking around, it also found that there was a way for it to climb down, as well as a narrow path for a human to walk through to get to the ground. It was the perfect spot.

The huge black dragon climbed down and assessed the area more closely. It thought to itself

Yes, here is a good spot. I could even make a temporary nest to sleep in.

The sun traveled across the sky before dropping towards the sea in the afternoon. In the hours that had passed, the beast had been able to construct its own camp and managed to catch itself enough food for a while. Now all it had to do was wait for darkness, then it would begin.

Hours later, the sun disappeared below the world and night took over, it was nearly time. The black and silver dragon gazed at the sparkling stars while it waited for midnight. Eventually, the time came, and the pan started growing. It fell to the ground and writhed in agony as pain wracked its body. When it could feel its bones begin to shift and break to change into its new form, the screaming started.

Its wails of agony were heard from miles around, and it hoped that there were no humans nearby to hear it. Unknown to it as its wings and tail shrank into its body and its scales fell off, that nearly every Viking in the nearby village heard the screams.

No one slept well that night, their nightmares filled with the shrieks of a dying dragon and the terrified and pain filled screams of a human.