Finding you

Chapter 11: Revenge

Hiccup's POV

"Zephyr!" Astrid cried out as she and Stormfly landed by us and she elegantly jumped off the dragon before throwing herself down beside our barely conscious daughter. "Hiccup, what happened?"

My blood boiled in my veins as an image of Dagur was painted bright red inside my mind. He wasn't going to get away easily after attempting to assassinate my daughter. "One of Dagur's men shot her."

"Oh my gods ..." Astrid whispered as she focused her attention onto Zephyr. "Sweetie, I need you to stay awake for me, alright? We're going to get you some help, don't worry."

"M-mom ...?" Zephyr erupted into a serious of coughs, which lead to a small stream of blood trickling from her lips. My vision turned red as I shot up from the ground, fists clenched so hard my knuckles had paled.

"I'm going to find Dagur and make him pay," I growled as I climbed atop Toothless, who seemed to be attempting to keep Zephyr awake by carefully nudging her arm with his snout. "Just stay here with Zephyr, please."

Without as much as a single protest, Astrid's eyes were filled with determination before she gave me a confirming nod. "I will. Now go make those Berserkers pay for what they've done."

"With pleasure. Toothless, let's go." I activated Toothless' tail fin and with a flap of his wings, we were up in the skies. We flew down to the beach, where the battle was still raging on, regardless of the many efforts I noticed Snotlout and Gobber had made as Toothless and I landed in the cold sand.

Toothless arched his back in a cat-like manner as he growled, eyes scanning for any potential attackers as he positioned his long tail protectively in front of my body. I let my eyes wander across the busy battlefield, searching for a familiar head of fiery red hair.

Then, on the other side of the beach, a battle cry so loud I could hear it from afar echoed over the battlefield. I whipped my head towards the source of the sound. I recognized that voice, that maniacal cry and before I knew it, I was glaring at the back of Dagur's head. I growled as I tightened my grip around inferno before turning towards my dragon. "Toothless, I need you to stay away from the fight, bud. I don't want you getting hurt."

The dragon huffed in displeasure, but nonetheless followed my command and stayed away from the chaos on the beach, instead opting for defensive attacks from the height of the wooden walkway leading up to the village. With a fire of determination flowing through my veins, I stormed into the fray and wove my way through the fighting crowds as my eyes were glued onto Dagur.

A roar came from beside me, forcing me to turn and face the large Berserker it was coming from. The soldier began swinging his axe at me and I narrowly avoided the large, double-edged weapon. I watched the soldier for a moment, analyzing his fighting style before I launched an attack upon him.

As the soldier raised his axe in preparation for slamming it down into me, I slashed him across his stomach, leaving a nasty burn and a rather deep wound, which gushed out dark blood. A cry escaped the soldier as he rapidly backed away from me, allowing me to continue on my mission to fight his Chief.

I came up behind the Berserker Chief, who seemed to be enjoying himself as he knocked down one of my soldiers. I raised inferno and without so much as a warning, I slashed the Berserker Chief across the back, which left a pretty nasty burn.

Dagur cried out in pain as he struck down his previous opponent and turned to me first with a sneer on his face, which was twisted with pain. The moment the Berserker Chief realize who was standing before him, any trace of anger, suffering or pure rage simply melted away, leaving only a wide grin followed by a short version of his signature laughter. "Well, well, well. If it isn't little Hiccup Haddock himself!"

"You shot my daughter and now you're going to pay!" I roared and without thinking twice, I swung my sword in a wide arch before it eventually met the handle of Dagur's own weapon.

In some strange and twisted way, Dagur's already unnaturally wide grin had managed to stretch even further as our eyes met in a storm of clashing emotions, which nearly emitted sparks from all the hatred we felt for one another.  "We'll see about that one, brother."

Astrid's POV

"Honey, it's going to be alright, I'm here." I attempted to soothe my daughter as I gently stroked her hair. There wasn't really much I could do for her at that point other than to keep her conscious until Gothi managed to get there. I had nothing around that could help be patch her up and there was no way that I was risking leaving her for even a second in her condition.

A series of coughs rippled through Zephyr and once again the phlegm that accompanied it was laced with blood. I desperately scanned the area for any sign of Gothi, but I couldn't find anything or anyone for that matter. Desperate to help my daughter, I turned to Stormfly with a deep crease in my forehead. "Stormfly, I need you to find Gothi and bring her to us, alright? Please, try to make her understand that this is urgent."

The dragon immediately obeyed and shortly after took off, leaving only me and my severely wounded daughter alone in the town square. I kept talking to her, making sure that she was staying alert and was listening to what I was saying, even though she struggled to form sentences through the immense pain I could see that she was in.

Suddenly, a loud groan escaped Zephyr as her eyes widened considerably. I raised a brow at her as I tried to figure out what was happening. Zephyr kept on groaning and moaning, but I couldn't catch a word she was uttering, which left me in complete confusion as I attempted to decipher her limited speech.

A groan louder than any of the ones before escaped her as she forced her arm up, seemingly pointing at something behind me. I knitted my brows together as I turned around and suddenly my head started spinning before a stinging pain spread across my forehead, followed by an unfamiliar, yet warm, wetness that dripped down the side of my head.

I almost managed to open my eyes and remain in the moment, but everything just ended up fading away as I felt myself slowly slipping from reality.

***

I sat up in bed with a groan, my hand flying up to my stinging forehead, which had now also been accompanied by a horrible headache. As my palm met my forehead, I was surprised to find the sensation of fabric there instead of the raw, bleeding cut I had been expecting from all the pain that was thundering through my slightly spinning mind. It seemed the wound I had gotten as I passed out had been treated, which I supposed was a good thing.

I blinked my eyes fully open and found the room that surrounded me to be completely different from the one I had expected. I was in a somewhat familiar, small, stone cell which contained no other than a bed in one corner, a bucket at the foot of said bed and another bed on the other side of the room, which was the only thing that differed from the last time I had been in a similar room.

Another bed. I whipped my head around — which caused my previously fading headache to come back full force — and found myself gasping at the sight before me. In the bed across the room, laid Zephyr, who was looking pretty beat up, although she had been bandaged. At least they had patched her up a little. I attempted to comfort myself, but I knew it was useless.

We had gotten kidnapped by the Berserkers and the chances of us ever getting to see Berk again were getting slimmer by the minute. Gods, did I despise the Berserkers, or most of all, their Chief; Dagur the Deranged.