Taming Hearts

Chapter Fourteen: What Matters

"ADDIE!"

The anguished and terrified cry of a father in distress was haunting to all that heard it, young and old. There were horrified shouts all over the crowd but that sound seemed to permeate everyone's eardrums. His eyes watering with the pain, Hiccup tried to get back up but simply couldn't place any weight on his stump. He could do nothing except drag himself, which hurt almost as much but was at least doable.

Fortunately for him, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, who were running up to check on the girl's condition as well, seized the father under the arms and yanked him up, supporting him between the two of them so that he could get down there as fast as possible.

But they soon stopped because something quite surprising happened.

The dragons weren't with their riders in the stands because they were simply too big to all fit. They perched atop cliffs above the arena or flew around. Several didn't even bother to come. But Lily didn't want to miss her rider's activity so she had been watching from far above. When the Gronckle began to pursue the little girl she so liked, it seemed like every ounce of gentleness drained out of her in an instant, leaving only raw power coupled with fury at the hostile dragon. Quick as a flash, she dived toward the arena. And if she had been even one millisecond later, her rider's life would have prematurely ended right there. The large dragon crashed into the Gronckle, attempting to rip it to pieces with her teeth and claws. It howled in pain and one of the most intense dragon fights anyone had ever seen (at least between two trainable breeds) broke out. Lily considered igniting but her rider was a bit too close and she knew that the human's skin wasn't as fireproof as hers.

The humans stood outside the maze, which was beginning to collapse. The other girls' dragons swooped down and retrieved them before all the walls crashed to the ground with a loud racket, leaving only the dragon fight and the tiny girl visible in the wreckage. Miraculously, nothing had fallen on Adrianna so there was no fear of further injury. Assuming she was still alive, of course.

Ordinarily, the Thorston twins would have adored the sight of the dragons ripping into each other but both were rather fond of the Haddock girl and her personal safety trumped their enjoyment of the spectacle. Hiccup tried to pull them forward but his weight on their shoulders made the going slower than any of them would have liked. Meanwhile, Astrid was enlisting all the dragons she could call to help pull Lily and the Gronckle off of each other. Stray blasts of fire flew everywhere. One nearly set Hiccup's hair on fire, another landed mere inches from Adrianna's left hand. And quite a few made it all the way to the spectators outside the arena, igniting Horst's sleeve. The man quickly extinguished the flame with a canteen he kept on his belt but he would later have to be treated for the burn on his arm.

Within seconds, Toothless, Stormfly, Thornado, Hookfang, Meatlug, and Charger all came pelting downwards toward the scene. Toothless arrived first, just in time to dive in front of a lava blast from the Gronckle. Yet again, Adrianna escaped certain death by inches. Unfortunately, the same couldn't be said for Toothless' prosthetic tail, which immediately caught fire and was completely destroyed. Hiccup's heart, which had stopped beating entirely when his daughter was in the path of said lava blast, began to pound in his ears. He tried to pull himself from Ruffnut and Tuffnut but both hung onto him as tightly as they could.

"Let go of me!" he bellowed. "I have to get to Addie-"

"No!" Ruffnut tightened her hold on his arm a bit more, a tiny spark of maternal instinct taking over her brain. "You could get killed."

Charger's behavior was the most surprising of all the enlisted dragons. Erick watched in horror as his Nadder began to join Lily in the fight against the Gronckle. While the other dragons focused on pulling the two dragons apart, Charger seemed to want to protect his rider's friend almost as much as Lily. Erick took off toward the arena to stop his dragon from killing the other or hurting Adrianna in the process.