Giving Fantasia: The Taking Fantasia Sequel

Chapter 105: Chase the Wind. Touch the Sky.

Chapter 105: Chase the Wind. Touch the Sky.

Lana snapped open her beer can. 

She took Wendy's finger, stuffed it inside the opening, and sliced her skin against the aluminum edge. 

Blindfolded and chained, Wendy could only writhe as Lana ground her finger in bloody circles. She paused only to rinse Wendy's cuts with the alcohol before sticking a second finger in the can.

Merida and Robin hammered their prison bars as Wendy screamed. The mermaids took turns battering them with Ariel's trident. When that got boring, they poured beer down Wendy's corset.

Hiccup watched. The mermaids were too tipsy to notice him, but he still surveyed from a remote corner, hidden from view. 

Silently, he studied Wendy. Years of dragon training had made him empirical. Like dragons, Hiccup knew that people acted most naturally when observed from afar... 

Wendy was a mystery. Hiccup had witnessed her ability to destroy. She had destroyed his father, at least she'd contributed to his downfall. However, she also bore the name of the person that had saved Toothless.

Hiccup didn't know what to think. He couldn't decide if Wendy was good or bad. So, as he would any dragon, he observed.

The prisoners were held in iron castings  and Wendy was strictly bound. Her wrists were restrained, but the mermaids had freed Wendy's fingers for torture.

That confused Hiccup. He'd seen Wendy take down dragons. He'd seen Wendy work shadows in her hands. Why wasn't she fighting now? True, the lights were dimmed and Wendy was blindfolded, but she wasn't even trying. She'd...given up.

"Aw, are you going to cry? Are your fingers hurt?" Lana pressed the beer can to Wendy's mouth. Cordelia extended Wendy's head, forcing her to swallow. "Drink the whole thing and we'll stop! Come on dearie! Drink!"

Wendy gagged. She tried to spit the beer but more was just poured down her throat. Helplessly she swallowed, then vomited, and was forced to drink again. The mermaids even collected the emesis, forcing her to drink that too.

Hiccup left, unable to endure the torture a second more. Lana's joyful shrieks followed him from the barricade and into the Fantasian metropolis. 

Hiccup stood a moment, just to stare. The land was dark. Dark with ash, dark with shadows, dark with nightmares, and dark with soot. Mesmerized dragons flew in mindless semi-circles. Red and yellow embers rained slowly from the sky, glowing over fleshy, smelly graves.

Hiccup scanned the graves. The haps of peeled skin and twisted bones belonged to Fantasians, Otherlanders, and dragons. 

Ruber – King Ruber – was slaughtering everyone. 

And Drago didn't seem bothered. Drago had assured Hiccup that this was righteous. This was vengeance. This justified Chief Stoick's death and The King's murder.

Drago assured Hiccup that when King Arthur and his guardians died, there would be peace.

"Peace." 

Hiccup remembered his father – the strongest Viking with a heart of gold. He remembered The King – a man who sacrificed everything for love.

Hiccup found Toothless amongst the mesmerized dragons, scavenging carcasses. He listened to Wendy, crying for a boy named Peter. 

Hiccup reached inside his pocket. The note he'd found on Toothless' saddle crinkled. Hiccup closed his eyes, envisioning Wendy's signature on the note.