Captain Fury: Pirate of Berk

30: The Battle for Berk

The Battle for Berk.

Hiccup didn't have time to react as his boots kicked above the drop and the rope pulled taut across his throat. Suddenly, the entire world was about the pain in his throat, the desperate need to breathe and the fact his vision was beginning to grey at the edges. He lifted his shackled wrists to claw at his throat but the rope was far too tight.

If he had been in his right mind, he would have thought: Why is it that NONE of my schemes never work as planned? But as he was strangling and his wild eyes fell on the shape of his father, mentor and son, all he could manage was: I'm sorry, bud.

Thuggory stared for all of half a second before moving, kicking ferociously back to slam the executioner aside and preventing the man pulling the second lever that would drop him down to the same fate. He moved as close as he could to the choking Hiccup, his movements limited by the short noose, and stretched out with his shackled hands to try to grab the other man's and hold him up. Fingers made brief contact and Hiccup stretched desperately, feeling the slightest ease on his neck. However, the crew acted as one, attacking their guards to distract them and allow Fishlegs and Elias to duck under the gallows and position themselves under Hiccup's kicking legs to ease the pressure slightly on his throat.

"KILL THEM!" Magne roared as he jerked Astrid closer. Stoick stared in shock as the Hofferson guards attacked his own men and Magne gave a nasty leer at the sight of his coup finally coming to fruition. "And arrest that...man!" His lip was curled in a sneer as he indicated towards the Governor. Stoick snatched at his sword as men began to scramble on the dais.

"TREASON!" he roared. "TO YOUR GOVERNOR!" Standing behind him and breathing hard, his face streaked with tears, the little boy stared in horror at the sight of his father kicking desperately and hanging from the noose. And then suddenly Arild escaped from Gobber, his face suddenly determined, his arm swinging round and his little dagger digging hard into the man's side.

Magne bellowed like an ox and his grip on Astrid loosened enough for the woman to urgently rip his hand and dagger away from her neck and tear herself free, hammering an elbow into his throat and sprinting forward to leap from the platform. She waved Arild to withdraw to safety as she galloped forward towards the gallows, elbowing a Jorgensen soldier roughly aside.

"HOFFERSON! Kill the Jorgensens!" she roared and sprinted on, punching another man and grabbing the sword from her hand. She could see Hiccup up ahead, his face deep purple as he strangled, still moving jerkily, his green eyes wide in a final silent plea. She ducked under a swipe, parried the strike at her head and kicked her attacker in the midriff twice before stepping over his groaning body, aimed and threw the sword with all her might.

Astrid had practiced with the axe and the sword since she was five and she had maintained her skills and honed them throughout the years. And now she used very ounce of skill as she flung the metal, tumbling hilt over point until the keen edge sheared straight through the rope and released the dying auburn-haired man. No longer suspended, he vanished through the trap door.

Hiccup hit the floor with a slam that would have knocked the breath out of him if he had any. But as he impacted, the noose loosened and he took a huge, painful gasp and sucked the air into his screaming lungs. Lying on his side over Fishlegs and Elias, who were struggling to get up, he pathetically gasped, his lean shape heaving with every desperate breath. His vision was still blurred and hearing very echoey as he became aware of fingers prising the rope from his abused throat and hands on his body. Head lolling, body unresponsive, he felt like a rag doll as Fishlegs pulled him to his knees.