THE TRANSLATOR, httyd.

the translator, ten.

"i'm doomed, aren't i? tell me i'm doomed."

"yeah, you're doomed."

elina watched hiccup frantically walk around the sanctuary, toothless looking at him with one eye open, one eye closed. despite her words, elina was concerned for her friend. he was supposed to kill a monstrous nightmare, and elina felt nauseated just thinking about it.

"not helping, ellie," hiccup said, burying his face with his hands. elina sighed and moved her chair closer to him, and slowly snaked her hands from behind him to hug his waist. she could feel hiccup's muscles stiffen up before he slowly melted into her embrace. their heartbeats synchronised.

elina pulled away after a few seconds and sat back down. the two awkwardly stared at each other, not knowing what to really say or do after the hug. so, elina tapped her foot against the ground and tried to look at everywhere but hiccup, acting nonchalantly. 

she was mentally dying inside.

elina heard the sound of clicking. the dragons were stirring, and they were grabbing all the fish and food they could from the stands. all of a sudden, elina noticed all the dragons flying away. no, not again. she immediately stood up from her chair, her eyes widening, and hiccup furrowed his brows in confusion. "what are they doing?"

elina surveyed the scene. "they're going... somewhere, that's for sure. where are you going, toothless?"

toothless didn't reply, like he was in a trance. elina felt familiar panic worming at her sides. 

hiccup and toothless patiently waited for elina to climb onto toothless as chameleon had already flown away. elina climbed onto toothless (behind hiccup), and wrapped her arms around his waist, not different from the hug before. 

the dragons were easy to find. in the large flock of dragons in different colors, multitude of sizes, elina tried to search for chameleon, but elina didn't know where she was. none of the dragons were responding to her as well, so elina simply filled hiccup in with the information she knew.

"toothless. you've gotta get us out of here, bud," but toothless didn't respond to hiccup's pleads. "it looks like they're... hauling in their kill."

elina swallowed. "then... what about us?"

hiccup shrugged. "that's what we don't know. what we know, though, is how much my dad wouldn't give to find this." 

the two of them watched as the dragons threw their food offerings into a giant abyss. hiccup sighed sarcastically. "it's satisfying to know all our food has been dumped down a hole."

elina's eyes narrowed. "why aren't they eating it?" she tilted her head sideways. then, her eyes widened as her brain finally clicked. "haddock, we need to get out of here. now."

"why? what's happening —" his voice was interrupted by a tiny gronckle dropping just one piece of fish on the ground. 

a beat.

a colossal dragon emerged from the abyss and ate the gronckle alive. elina's heart lurched and she looked away. that dragon could have been flame or chameleon or toothless. elina felt nausea rising to her throat. dead. the dragon was dead. the only thing that was keeping her sane was the hand that gripped hers.

"ellie..." elina breathed heavily as all the other dragons cowered away. seeing his friend's reaction, elina was pulled onto toothless's back as hiccup made sure she was steady on the dragon. "alright, buddy, let's get out of here now!"

all the dragons flew away. the dragon roared. "kill. kill. kill." elina could even hear the chanting of the red death as it chomped at the dragons. elina could hear the dragon's jaws snapping at them, but a zippleback had suffered the blunt instead. rocks fell from the cavern, and elina felt some rocks scrape her cheek. cold blood fell from her cheek to her clothes. elina shivered.

they were in the sky.

"elina?" she felt his fingers brush her bleeding cheek. she didn't move as his green eyes met her brown ones, and elina looked down. he must think i'm pathetic now. "we're out of there now. it's gone."

hiccup brought her into a hug, just like how she had hugged him in the morning earlier. elina closed her eyes and sighed.

"sorry. did you see chameleon anywhere?"

"don't be sorry. and yeah, i saw chameleon. she was returning to the sanctuary. so, what was going on back there?"

elina smiled, then it faded. "it's the... the red death. it's in a situation where it's the queen bee, and the other dragons are its workers. they can't disobey it, or turn against their leader. or they'll be eaten alive.

"but it's not important." for now. "what's more important is that tomorrow, you're going to have to kill a monstrous nightmare." 

elina saw hiccup tensing up.

"hiccup, you have to make a decision. you can't just keep pretending that you hate dragons for the rest of your life. look, the choice that you'll make tomorrow will determine the rest of your life. you can either kill the monstrous nightmare and fulfill your father's wishes, or tell everyone the truth but be true to who you are. and i can't make the decision for you."

elina placed a hand on hiccup's shoulder, and hiccup looked at her. 

"hey, ellie. if anything happens, i want you to take care of toothless, okay?"

elina's gaze met hiccup's. "i'd rather nothing happen to you," she finally said, but hiccup knew that she would take care of toothless no matter what. toothless landed on berk where hiccup got off the night fury.

elina paused for a moment, and looked at hiccup. "good luck, haddock. see you tomorrow." 

then, the girl and the night fury both took off, and elina looked back to see hiccup waving at her. elina gave him a smile (although he probably couldn't see it) until hiccup was out of her sight.

toothless snorted. "just admit you like him already."

"yeah, i do like him. in a friendly way." the words felt wrong as they came out of her mouth.

two eyes followed the direction of their flight.

they should have covered up their tracks.