Neil was left freezing as he continued to look up at the sky and try to understand more of the situation.
After watching for a little over a minute something large fell from the dark clouds. After it disappeared into the forest blueish ray of lighting blots was shot in the direction the object had fallen.
After five rays, everything became quiet.
'Well, that was overkill. After falling from that height and being hit with so many rays like that, the other dragon has to be dead.'
He rubbed his body to try to warm himself up, 'My knives are inside that muddy pool somewhere, along with everything else I own. Thankfully, I have a stash of bark with Monstrous Nightmare gel in the Zippleback's old cave.
He collected the wide tarp-like skin that he had used as a water deflector and began making his way to the cave.
The shivering Cora looked at the direction of the fight and whimpered.
"Don't worry it's moved a good distance from here so we should be fine. Let's go and get warmed up, I'll build a new home better and safer next time okay?."
Whether the fox understood or not it followed him with its ears and head down.
Once they had made it to the cave he grabbed some of the the wood that he had placed there. Since some rainwater entered the cave they were by no means dry, but they were better than the wood outside.
After some effort, two stones, tree bark with Monstrous Nightmare territorial markings, and sticks he was finally able to light a fire. Neil picked a dry spot so he didn't have to worry about the fire being put out by water, but the wind was still a danger.
He hung the tarp on the wall so that it could dry and he did the same with his clothes.
As Neil huddled next to the fire he looked at Cora who still felt unsafe and was sitting at the cave entrance.
"The fall of my shelter was just a matter of time. Without an axe, it's impossible to get good-sized wood members to keep the shelter stable or make a good raft. My daggers have also become very dull and have many chips. As for the cave, I can't stay here since who knows when a dragon will show up and try to make it its home."
The only way that he could see himself getting out of the unknown and as far as he had explored uninhabited land was with a dragon.
"My last attempts nearly killed me. Hiccup really made things look easy, then again it was a movie so fear of the consequences flew out the window. However, finding an injured dragon or trapped dragon sets the difficulty level towards easy mode. In my case, the only injured dragon I've tried taming had gotten hurt because of me so that didn't help. If only I could find an injured dragon I could give it a sho….."
As he thought his last words, Neil stood up quickly and went over to the cave entrance. He looked towards an area that was on fire. That also happened to be where Cora had been looking the whole time.
He patted Cora and tried to reassure her, "Don't worry with this much rain the fire shouldn't be able to spread this far."
'No way the dragon is alive right? If it is and I tame it then it would be great but even if not its hide will still be very helpful….Without my daggers, it's dangerous though… Well, it's not like they would be much help to begin with, I'll just sleep on it and decide tomorrow morning. No use will come out of me getting hypothermia or something else.'
After a while, he and Caro used the dry and warm tarp as a blanket while they slept.
Early the next morning he changed into his damp clothes and walked out of the forest with a determined expression.
He collected 4 rabbits that had been caught by his traps. The rest seemed to have been ruined by the strong winds. He used the tarp as a sack and began traveling towards the white smokey area.
After a 3ish hour-long trip, he finally came upon the torched area. The trees were bare and the ground around them was devoid of any life.
His little hope of the dragon still being alive came crashing down, but as he continued searching the area it began to come back.
Eventually, Neil found his way into a lake that was mostly frozen. It was clear that it wasn't naturally frozen, there were ice sculptures of water splashes everywhere and some had holes going through them.
"Did the other dragon use these to try to form some kind of cover? Pretty risky defending against lightning attacks in a place full of water. Then again, from what I could see last night the dragon seemed to have been knocked out of the sky. It didn't really have much of a choice."
He continued to follow the ice trail until he heard a big splash in the water up ahead. When he turned around to look he could see big ripples in the water.
"Oh shit!"
While running back he slipped on the ice and fell headfirst. As he was getting back up the ice that he was on began to shake violently nearly causing him to fall into the water.
When Neil turned around he saw a 20ft white dragon with black fur on its back and chin. It growled as it looked at him with its purple-colored eyes.
'Injured my ass, what the fuck did you do Neil'
It began to open its mouth revealing a sharp set of teeth and purple tongue. Neil could feel a cold breeze as its mouth began to release a blue mist.
"No wait stop I…"
Before he could continue something happened which caused the dragon to close its mouth and Neil to tilt his head in confusion.