The Great Beyond

Chapter 19: The Zippleback Experience (Hiccup)

                Arctic winds snapped and spat at my face, occasionally threatening to push me off the back of Toothless altogether; that would've been a problem normally, but given the fact Shriek and Toothless were holding a net with a boulder precariously balanced inside, it added a dangerous bonus. Occasionally, I found myself looking to her, all bundled up in her cold weather gear, but it seemed like Dragon's Edge didn't get cold enough for her to start shutting down, even in the snowy mountains.

"All right, guys. Let's drop the foundation right about here!" I called back to Astrid and Fishlegs, whose dragons held the other net. Careful not to throw our dragons off balance, each pair dropped off their boulder, but they kept a hold on the net. "That should work. Perfect location." I looked to Fishlegs, thanking him for his scouting.

"I, for one, couldn't be happier that we're finally—"

"Setting up a new watchtower," Snotlout interjected, rolling his eyes and groaning. "We know. We've been hearing about it for the past... oh, I don't know, week, month... what comes next?"

"Guys, look, this is important." Reign's tone turned stern, staring down all of us with an intense mix of fury and annoyance in her jade eyes. "We've been seeing ships off the northern coast that have absolutely no reason to be there. Now with this, we can send an early warning signal if they come into our waters."

Everyone else knew to just leave it at that as we landed, but just like his dad, Snotlout didn't know when to stop.

"If you're talking about Dagur and Ryker, who I assume we're talking about—"

"Snotlout, you need to drop it," I warned.

"How about this?" he shouted. "Whoever's out there that shouldn't be out there, let's just get on these very effective fire-breathing war machines, and go out and blast them into oblivion."

"Because that's not who we are," I scoffed. "Since when do we go blasting people into oblivion?" Completely dodging the question, Snotlout gave Hookfang's horns a reassuring pat.

"Don't worry, Hookster. He doesn't speak for us." A cry of joy interrupted us, diverting our attention to the twins, who were currently sliding down the side of the mountain on Barf and Belch. "Or them. Definitely not for them."

In their usual reckless and uncaring manner, the twins sped down through the snow, kicking up chunks of the substance and creating clouds of cold dust behind them. The heads of their dragon spat out flames, furthering the danger they were putting themselves and the rest of the island in.

"Those two muttonheads better not bring all that snow up there down on us," Astrid huffed.

"It's not the snow I'm worried about," I admitted, watching as more of the stuff kicked up, nearly covering the danger barreling down the side of the mountain. "It's the ice!"

Reign and Astrid took to the sky, heading for the twins who had been knocked off the back of their dragon and buried head-first in the snow, plucking them out with their dragons and carrying them off to safety. However, in the scuffle, they'd become separated from Barf and Belch, leaving the Zippleback still tumbling down the mountain, the avalanche creeping closer by the second. Of course, the ice wasn't the only issue, proven by the drop-off that trapped the dragon between one bad option or the other. Before anyone would've had the chance to contemplate it, a green flash went tumbling off the cliff; in order to catch them in time, I had to thrust the tail control forward with a great amount of force, but Toothless caught them right in time, and we were able to deliver Barf and Belch back to safety. I flinched as they began to nudge and lick the back of my head.