The Great Beyond

Chapter 40: Defenders of the Wing, Pt. 2 (Reign)

              Erratic breaths and wild heartbeats created a pounding cacophony in my ears as I stared down a man dressed all in black, prepared to launch right at me. The only stability at the moment came in the form of Hiccup's back pressed against my own, the two of us cornered together by the threat of termination. It took the entirety of my willpower not to push him aside and lunge after Mala myself, but I so desperately wanted to—something Hiccup figured out as the two of us stood there.

"If you grab another blade with your hand—"

"Relax," I hissed, "I wasn't planning on making things worse. Besides, the wound's technically still healing." I glanced down at my palm, taking note of the pink line of tender flesh that crawled across the dead center. For the most part, the pain had disappeared, but gripping my sword for too long caused bright red blisters to bite across the scar.

I nearly fell forward when Hiccup cried out in surprise and started to back up. I whipped my head around slightly to see Mala backing the two of us closer to her people, the carved blade of her weapon fatally close to Hiccup's throat.

"I warned you, Hiccup Haddock. I warned you not to betray me," Mala bellowed, her light green eyes filled with white-hot fire.

"That's a very nice axe, Mr. Throk," I heard Fishlegs quiver. "Is Throk a family name?" Throk responded by pushing the large weapon closer to Fishlegs' center. Frantically, my eyes flashed over to Heather, ensuring no one had tried to harm her yet. She had two Defenders on either side of her, but they hadn't dared to move.

"Look, I'm all for winning friends and influencing people, but this mission has gone talons up," Tuffnut griped, his hands stuck up in surrender.

"Way up," Ruffnut affirmed.

"Two talons up."

"Will you two cut it out?" I snapped, my patience with the twins officially spent.

I tried to formulate some quick plan of escape, but before I got the chance, Mala ordered her people to seize us, and I was forced to relegate back to instinctual response. Hiccup and I separated, and with a complete disregard for any sort of logic, I rushed to Shriek's side, getting her to crouch down and prepare to scream as I removed my sword and shield from their places. Upon noticing his rider was trapped between two spears, Toothless opened his mouth wide, the purple glow of a plasma blast coming out strong and clear. Hiccup took one look around at the scene, the chaos around him, and clenched his fists.

"Stop!" Perplexed, everyone lowered their weapons slightly, the fervor of battle no longer our driving force. "Okay, look, you're right, you were tricked, but we were tricked, too. Okay? Viggo used us as a distraction so he could steal your Eruptadon, but without us knowing."

"We don't work with the Hunters," I jumped in, reinforcing that message yet again. "They're our enemies."

"And yet, our Eruptadon is gone, our village is in peril from the lava flow, and your leader holds me in front of his Night Fury."

I hesitated, trying to form some sort of reasonable response as Hiccup urged Toothless to stand down. From a purely outward view, she had a point. These Defenders of the Wing certainly had no reason to trust us, not with every circumstance that had occurred since our arrival. Word of mouth wasn't a trustworthy mode of convincing, but at this point, it was all we had.

Before I got the chance to come up with something, Hiccup stepped in, relying on a far more tried-and-true method.

"We'll prove it to you," he asserted, his tone indicating he wasn't going to give Mala much of a choice. "We'll go rescue your dragon and bring it back. I'll even leave some people here to help you fight the lava."