The Dragon Rider

Chapter 7 ~ No...

Merida swooped, dodged, turned and dived as she rode Stormfly with Astrid's guidance. As she flew, she could make out the Night Fury freeing a Zippleback from the traps and Hiccup's shout of "Yeah baby!" She smiled to herself which was gone as soon as it appeared when she heard the cries and grunts of Drago. Peering downwards, she saw him waving and hurling his staff like a maniac as he summoned his Alpha from the waters, all chained and restrained. Astrid gasped in shock and whispered in Merida's ear:

"What is that?"

"I've never really known myself," she replied, "I was involved in it's capture though. It's not good, whatever it is."

The two girls could make out the fighting from where they were though; the two Bewilderbeasts fighting and Drago and Stoick engaged in battle. Valka jumped aboard Cloudjumper to attempt to stop the fighting between the two Alphas, unsuccessfully. After a little while - it became clear who was going to win. Drago's Alpha caught Valka's unaware and speared him in the heart with one of his tusks of ivory.

"NO!"

Valka's cry could be heard all over the battlefield.

"No," Astrid whispered and Merida tensed up all over. They watched and dodged the falling debris as Stoick protected Valka from Drago's Alpha. What they didn't count on was Hiccup's attempts to talk to the man who called himself the 'Dragon Conqueror', to try and stop this war peacefully. They could only watch as Drago's alpha took control of Toothless and ordered him to attack Hiccup. The night fury advanced, further and further; Merida just made out a Viking running towards them with a scream of:

"SON!"

"Dad! No!"

A flash of blue. Hiccup was blasted back and Merida's breath caught in her throat. It couldn't have happened. It couldn't. It wasn't possible...

They made for the ground and landed beside Hiccup who was crying over Stoick the Vast's body, still horribly warm in death. His mother was by his side, a hand on his shoulder and something was breaking inside of her; Merida could see it in her eyes.

"Hiccup," Astrid whispered under her breath; she ran to him and sat beside him. Hiccup was still clutching his father and burying his head in his arms. She placed her head on his shoulder and he shot round to look at her disgustedly.

"What are you doing?" he snapped to Astrid's astonishment.

"I was -"

"I don't care!" he screamed at the top of his lungs. "You're not helping! Leave me alone!" When Astrid didn't move for the pure shock of it, he yelled again. "Go on; get out!"

Astrid retreated, shocked and horrified. Hiccup's gaze found Merida's who looked back at him with astonishment and incredulity. How he could say that to her was beyond Merida so she hugged Astrid tight as the blonde cried helplessly into her shoulder, partly for the loss of the chief, partly for the loss of her friend. She was only trying to comfort him.

Drago's alpha had turned his focus elsewhere, meaning the night fury became docile and tame once again. He tried to nuzzle the dead chief's hand but Hiccup shoved his snout away.

"No! Get away from him! Go on, get out of here! Get away!" Toothless retreated with eyes that, if they were human, would certainly have been crying.

"It's not his fault," Merida said quietly as the realisation of what he'd done hit him. "You know that." The dragons arose, controlled once again by the Alpha, all of them this time. They flew to meet Drago and his men, who'd beaten Toothless down by force and was riding him, screaming to the men to meet him at Berk.

"Toothless!" Hiccup cried, jumping up to run after him but Merida held him back by his arms, restraining him.

"Don't."

He turned to her, tears leaking from his eyes involuntarily. Merida nearly broke at that but kept her grip firm. All was lost, she thought to herself hopelessly.

Where would they go from here?

A/N Short chapter this time - the story should pick up from here though. As you can see, the Hiccstrid in this story is slowly but surely diminishing. I just thought it was completely and utterly fake when Astrid 'comforted' Hiccup when Stoick died. It looked like particularly bad acting if I'm honest. Anyway, hopefully I'll get some more updates over the summer :)