The Impossible Boy (HTTYD)

Chapter 6

Hiccup:

"Where are you taking me," I struggled against the ropes that bound my wrists and the bolas around my wings without success. Silence.

Finally, we emerged from the forest. I looked back longingly, I needed to get back to my stuff and leave this wretched island. She shoved me again. Though it was still dark outside, my dragon eyes allowed me to see a large arena. I think I passed over it earlier; it was awful. I saw a bunch of teenagers training to kill dragons, and a big beefy guy instructing them. He didn't seem like the sharpest knife in the draw, but whatever.

She pried open the gate and shoved me through. "No, no, please!" Visions flooded my eyes of dragons being slaughtered, and I feared the worst. The floor was hard, cold metal, and the ceiling was lined with a dragon-proof chain. Dragon-proof metal is easy to detect - it has a slight greenish tinge.

We approached one of the cages, and she peered inside to confirm its vacancy. Nodding, she opened the door with an ear-splitting creek and shoved me inside. Reaching toward a piece of rope on the wall, she tied my hands and wings to the floor. I quit trying to convince her otherwise, she clearly did not care.

She stood up, towering over me. "We'll deal with you later." She took a few steps backward, keeping eye contact, and slammed the door shut.

***

I sat and waited. And waited. And waited. God, I don't know how long I waited, but I knew one thing: I miss my dragon. Toothless was so sad when I left, and I fear what Alvin is doing to him when I'm gone.

Well, if I'm already here, I might as well do something productive. So, I decided to get to know the other inmates. "Hello? Anybody there?" I called out. Maybe one of the other dragons had some form of a plan to escape.

"Hello?" A small, timid voice echoed from the cage beside me. "Are you the weird viking-dragon hybrid that just walked in?"

"You could say that." I sighed. "Do you know how to escape?" I could hear rustling, as if they were shaking their head. "What's your name?"

"I don't have one. I've been here since a mere hatchling. Never met my mother or my father. They of course didn't give me a name." Welp, that's depressing.

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"What about you? You're- weird."

"Oh, yeah. My dragon, Toothless, he's a Night Fury, said he rescued me as a babe from vicious vikings. I lived with him for a while on our own island, rescuing other dragons from trappers. Eventually, I guess because I spent so much time with I'm and the other dragons, I just... became one. I learned to speak in Dragonese and grew wings, my tail, ears, etc. Sometimes, I can shoot small fireballs from my hands, but they're still meager. It's a more recent... development." It felt good to get that out. I rarely talk to anybody except Toothless,  who already knows my backstory, and Alvin, who simply does not care. "What do they want with us?"

"To kill us because we steal their food. We only do it because we have to! Otherwise... we'll be eaten. Our queen, she forces us to steal food for her. We are only giving small amounts to keep us alive and fit for battle. Many of us, though, are captured, like me. The vikings train against us. Most do not last long."

A dragon queen? So that's why there are so many dragon raids here! Oh, it makes perfect sense now! We talked for a while and I got to know the other dragons: a Monstrous Nightmare, Gronckle, Zippleback, Nadder (the dragon whom I spoke with), a few Terrible Terrors, etc. They'd been trapped here for so long... I wonder if I will even escape at all.