Heart of a Chief, Soul of a Dragon

Chapter 3

 I shuddered as the cold around us intensified. The sea of changing leaves had made a sudden shift into burnt timbers and remains of trees, the smell of smoke still present to sting our nostrils. Despite my gut twisting and turning, the two of us pushed on after reassuring glances at each other. My eyes widened and we turned out of the ash and smoke to find large, spires of ice sticking out from what appeared to have once been a harbor, based on the blasted bits of ships stuck in the ice.

"Stay close," Hiccup cautioned. The place was haunting, the remains of the lives of people who had once been here. It was somehow even more chilling than the air around us. "What happened here?" Toothless growled lowly at a large dragon footprint, imprinted into the muddy shoreline. "Easy, bud."

As we flew over the tops of the ice formation, I noticed the small dots of a group of men below us, armed with sturdy cannons that could launch nets at us. My eyes widened as I snapped my head around.

"Hiccup!" Before either of us could react, they fired a net in my direction.

"Reign! Look out!"

The net tangled around Shriek and her wings, causing her to spiral down and knocking me off. I closed my eyes as I started to plummet and tried my best to turn myself into a screwdriver shape, so that if I hit the water, I wouldn't get ripped in half.

"Hiccup!"

I sighed in relief as I bounced against the hard scales of a Night Fury. I reached out and grabbed one of Hiccup's shoulders so that I wouldn't fall of, as we were speeding quickly toward the ground to save my Thunderdrum. As soon as we landed, I yanked the Gronkle Iron shield off of my back and held my sword in my other hand.

"Stop!"

"Shriek!" I looked around at the men who had captured my dragon. "What are you doing?"

Hiccup pulled out his blade and ignited it with the Monstrous Nightmare saliva, causing the eyes of the men around us to go wide as they stared at the two of us.

"Back again?" A man with tied back, black hair of large stature stepped forward, moving his gaze behind us to get a better look at Toothless. His interest was piqued, a smug and chilling smile crossing his face. "Well, soil my britches... that is a Night Fury. I thought they were all gone for good." He turned around to address his men. "Looks like our luck's had a turn for the better, lads! Don't think Drago has one of those in his dragon army."

The men muttered agreements, while Hiccup and I were forced to look at each other in confusion. Drago? Dragon army? None of this made any sense, but at the same time, none of it sounded good, either.

"Dragon army?"

"Look, we don't want any trouble." Hiccup was trying his best to diffuse the situation.

"Ha! You should've thought of that before you stole all of our dragons and blasted our fort to bits!" I looked at Hiccup, once again confused.

"Wait..."

"What are you talking about?"

The two of us had been staying on Berk the past couple of days while I recovered from being sick. Neither of us would have had the chance to sneak away and do something like this, nor did we have the resources to create giant ice spires.

"You think we did this?"

"Dragon trapping is hard enough as it is, without do-gooder dragon riders sneaking in to rescue them," he scoffed, starting to go off on a rant.

"What do-gooder-" Hiccup stopped as he realized what the man had just said. "There are other dragon riders?"

"You mean, other than your thieving friend from last night? You tell me." The man tried to step closer, but Toothless crouched down more and growled. "You may have an ice-spitting dragon on your side, but we still have a quota to fill. How do you suppose we explain this mess to Drago Bludvist?"

"Drago what-fist? Does anything you say make sense?" I shot a glare of Hiccup as he chuckled. This wasn't the time for making jokes, especially when these people appeared to be unstable.

"He's expecting a new shipment of dragons for his army by tomorrow."

"And Drago don't take well to excuses," one of the men chimed in.

My eyes went wide as the man pulled down his shirt just past his collarbone, revealing a brand burned into his chest, the skin raised in odd patterns to show off just how much damage had been done.

"This is what he gave me last time I showed up empty-handed. He promised to be far less understanding in the future."

"Look, we don't know anything about a dragon thief, or an ice-spitting dragon, or your lunatic boss and his dragon army, okay?" I was starting to get frustrated, officially having had enough of this rambling. "Just give us back our dragon, and we'll go, strange, hostile person whom we've never met." I emphasized the word 'never' to assure that we knew nothing about any of this. The man bowed, almost mocking me.

"Oh, where are my manners? I'm Eret. Son of Eret. Finest dragon trapper alive." The look in his eyes once again turned malicious. "After all, it's not just anyone who can capture a Night Fury."

I tightened the grip on my sword as Toothless gave a warning roar. The men started to aim their weapons in our direction, clearly ready to fire on Eret's signal.

"And this is Toothless. He says we're going. Now." Eret chuckled darkly.

"They all say that. Rush 'em, lads!"

Just as Eret lunged at us, Toothless fired a blast at one of the ice spires to knock it down. It shattered as it hit the ground, causing Eret and his men to duck out of the way. Hiccup took the chance to ignite his blade again and help me cut through the ropes that were keeping Shriek tied down.

"Shriek! Come on, go! Go!"

I jumped up onto my Thunderdrum as Hiccup mounted Toothless, and before anyone could get up, we flew away.

"You will never hold onto those dragons, you hear me! Drago is coming for them all!"

As soon as we were far enough away, I allowed myself to decompress, and nearly collapsed onto Shriek. I was starting to feel woozy again, but I couldn't tell if it was from the loss of adrenaline, or just because this was the most I'd done in a long while.

"Reign? Reign?" Hiccup's voice cracked with panic. "What's going on?"

I waved him off, attempting to keep him from spiraling when it didn't seem necessary. Like Astrid had said, he had every reason to worry, but this wasn't the sort of scenario where it was warranted.

"It's not like that," I assured him. "I'm not in pain. My head just feels a little cloudy."

"Are you sure?" He steered Toothless right up to my side and grabbed onto one of my shoulders, his eyes relentlessly scanning over me. "We should still get you back to Berk. And then you should rest."

I straightened myself, attempting to hold my ground against him.

"Hiccup, really, I'm okay." I reached over and squeezed his hand. "I get it, I do, but... I can't ever forget the way that hurt. This isn't even close to that, and it's not even in the right place. It's my head. I'm okay."

I felt a strong arm hoist me up, and I was set down on Toothless behind Hiccup. Carefully, so that I wouldn't get dizzy again, I leaned forward and rested my head between his shoulder blades as he removed the glove from my hand with the ring on it and rested his own against mine.