Set Fire to the Rain

Chapter 14

By the time Freya awoke, The sun was high in the sky. A soft groan escaped her as she forced her eyes open. The first thing Freys saw was big blue eyes staring back at her. Freya stared in confusion before looking around, images of last night flashed through her mind as she remembered what happened, and a frown formed on her lips.

"It's time for me to go. I have to go see Hiccup." She mumbled to herself. Starfire gave a soft coo, leaning forward to press his muzzle against her cheek.

"I don't want to, but I have to, for Hiccup." Freya sighed, turning her head to rest her forehead against the dragon's snout.

The Lightfury huffed, his hot breath fanning over the girl's face, as he pulled back and gave her a look, he didn't want her to go. Freya stood and dusted herself off, "Do I look okay?" Starfire awkwardly avoided eye contact and smiled at her, "Oh great, dragon pity." She sighed, walking out of the cave, "I'll be back soon." She said as she walked away, back towards the village.

Starfire began to follow her, not wanting to leave his human alone with the same people that hurt her. Freya sighed and turned around, "You can't come with me. I'll be fine. It's almost healed already. I'll whistle if I need you to rescue me. Now, stay here." She said, patting his head. Starfire still wasn't satisfied with the answer but didn't make a move to follow her when she started to walk away.

The whole village surrounded the arena to watch when Hiccup would finally become one of them, a Viking. The crowd was cheering Hiccup's name loudly, excited chatter filling up the space until Stoick spoke and stood in front of them. "Well, I can show my face in public again!" Stoick laughed, looking at all of them before quieting them down.

"If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from, well, being Hiccup to placing first in dragon training, I'd have tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad!" Everyone cheered and laughed in agreement.

Freya slowly slinked into the crowd catching the eye of Hiccup and Astrid, who motioned her over, "Where were you? You didn't come home last night. What happened to you-" Hiccup started questioning her but was soon cut off by Freya

"I fell asleep with Starfire. Don't worry about it. You need to focus. Do you have a plan? Mine didn't go well."

Hiccup watched his father, then turned to the girls, "It's not the dragon I'm worried about." Hiccup murmured.

"What are you gonna do?" Astrid asked him.

"Put an end to this. I have to try. Astrid, Freya, if something goes wrong, make sure they don't find Toothless." He begged.

"We will. Just promise us it won't go wrong." Astrid said, furrowing her brows.

Before Hiccup could answer, Gobber walked up to the trio. "It's time, Hiccup. Knock 'em dead." Hiccup took a deep breath and walked inside the arena. The door closed behind him as he walked further into the ring, his heart pounding erratically against his chest. Freya and Astrid found Wren in the crowd and sat beside him.

Hiccup walked over to the weapons set and took a shield and a knife. Every second that passed made Freya tenser. Hiccup took a deep breath to calm down before nodding, "I'm ready." He said.

The metal door suddenly flew open, and the Monstrous Nightmare burst out. The metal on the door started melting from how hot the dragon burned. The events from last night and all the noise must have severely angered him. The dragon screeched and flew to the stone wall around the arena, trying to find a way out. It blew fire at the Vikings sitting outside, but thankfully they avoided it. The monstrous nightmare hung upside down on the bars, then stopped when it finally realized there was no way to escape.