Hiccup & Toothless' Fate

Chapter 7 - Dragons and Salmon

Chapter 7

(Astrid's POV)

When Stoick called everyone outside to drive the dragons off, I nearly forgot about the Dragon Chief.

Nearly.

As I was fighting some Timberjacks, blood dripping from the deep cut on my arm, I heard the unmistakeable sound of a Night Fury blast. Letting out a yell and making a final slash at one of the dragons, I turned around just in time to meet the shockwaves from the blast that was aimed at one of the dragons 10 metres away.

I flew backwards, smacking into the wall of a house behind me. I dropped to the ground, dazed with a pounding headache. But flying into the wall was probably what saved me, as just then, fire poured down from the mouth of a Deadly Nadder, right where I was standing.

Binding my arm up with a piece of cloth and picking up my axe from where I dropped it, I searched for more of the purple-blue blasts. I wasn't disappointed and didn't have to wait long before one exploded next to Gobber, throwing him away from the downed Gronckle he was going to kill. I smiled grimly. Now I knew where the blasts were coming from - the cliff over by the Great Hall.

Throwing caution into the wind, I ran towards the cliff using the small path leading up there. I sneaked towards the edge and ... there it was.

The Unholy Offspring of Lightning and Death itself.

The reason why Hiccup left for Valhalla early.

The Night Fury.

It was busy looking out onto the chaos, blasting near any vikings that got anywhere near a raiding dragon. I readied my axe with one of my daggers in my other hand. If I was going to take down this beast, I needed as many weapons as I could carry. Good thing there was no sign of the Dragon Chief.

Nope. Take that back. I saw something move on the Night Fury's back, the outline of a human becoming visable in the daylight.

I couldn't see his (I assumed it was a he) face because he had his back to me, but I could see that he wore a red tunic, brown pants and brown leather covering his chest, shoulders, thighs, knees and shins. The leather looked hard and stiff, although I could see that it was soft when he moved. I also saw the glint of a sword strapped to his side.

I glanced down at my small dagger and axe. If the Dragon Master was as good as Mulch said, there was no way I could take him with his devil-dragon there. I would have to wait for him to be alone before I went for him.

I never got the chance, because a TitanWing Monstrous Nightmare - black and red in colour - roared into the sky and all the attacking dragons lifted into the air as one, holding all the food they could get their claws on and flying off to the north-west. After a moments hesitation, the Dragon Chief patted the Night Fury's head and they took off after the fleeing stampede of dragons.

I scowled.

Next time. Next time for sure.

xXx

(Hiccup's POV)

Toothless and I spent the whole remaining half-hour of the dragon attack on Berk shooting near any vikings and dragons who got too close to each other. I didn't want to blast any dragons or Berkians so we were very careful.

We had just blasted near Tuffnut and Ruffnut trying to take down a Thunderdrum when a TitanWing Monstrous Nightmare roared and all the dragons flapped their wings and flew away to the north-west, the direction of Dragon's Nest.

Do we follow? They will be going to the nest and the Red Death Queen is there, so that's bad, but then again ... I could discover a whole new species of dragon that we've never seen! I need to see exactly where they're going.

"Come on Toothless. Let's see where they're going."

Toothless growled in disagreement, but lifted his wings flew towards the pack of dragons anyway, staying near the back so he wouldn't be seen. As we were flying over the village, I looked back where we were, suddenly having a weird feeling that we were being watched.

We were.

Astrid was standing there, axe in her hand, dagger clutched in her left fist. A brief flicker of alarm crossed my mind that she had recognised me, but then I felt the leather of my mask over my face and I breathed a sigh of relief. Without the mask, she would have recognised me. With it, however, she wouldn't. The different clothing would have helped too. So, really, I had nothing to worry about.

Except the fog that we were about to be flying into.

I snapped out of my thoughts. Without me realising it, the pack of dragons had flown into the fog bank that Toothless and I had flown past earlier. The nervous feeling had returned, but stronger than ever.

There was an ever-growing buzz of dragon noise as we swerved in and out of dense sea stacks. The fog had grown thicker after a while, but now it was thinning out, revealing a black island with a smouldering volcano. With slight alarm, I realised we had been surrounded by more dragons. The original raiding dragons were going inside the volcano with the others, carrying any food they had captured. Unfortunately, Toothless followed them too. I could tell he was nervous, like I was, but he seemed like he wanted to show me something.

Suddenly we flew through a hole that opened up to a massive cavern. Rock dragon nests lined the walls, dragons resting, eating or talking with other dragons. I couldn't see the floor of the cavern because fog and smoke thickly gathered. Toothless glided over to an empty nest and hid behind a column, both of our hearts hammering. I had never been surrounded by so many dragons. Thankfully no sign of the Queen.

Then I realised what the raiding dragons were doing.

Why on Earth are they dumping their food down a hole?

"They're not eating any of it." I said aloud. My eyes snagged on a Gronckle. It wasn't looking well enough to hunt, but sure enough, it dropped some prey down the hole like so many others. It was only one small fish but the Gronckle looked like it was happy with itself, giving itself a scratch behind the ear after the fish disappeared in the fog below.

There was a roar. Toothless and I - along with every other dragon there - tensed. I clicked open Toothless' tail-fin, ready for a quick getaway. But first I had to see the Red Death Queen - who was undoubtedly down in that hole and making that sound.

And suddenly, she launched out of the hole and sadly ate the Gronckle whole.

She's even bigger then I imagined!!

The Queen stopped, sniffing.

She can smell us!

"Toothless, we gotta get out of here bud." I said. This was bad. Very bad. Toothless launched into the air just as the Queen let out a roar and lunged for us, jaws open wide, ready to put them down the same way the Gronckle went.

The whole cavern erupted with dragons trying to escape the Queen's wrath, heading upwards toward the exit hole at the top of the volcano. So did we, Toothless pumping his wings harder and harder, trying to get away from the Red Death.

Finally we were in the clear, fighting for air space with the pack of dragons. I fearfully looked back. Thankfully the Queen wasn't following us.

"Come on Toothless," I said, patting his head. "Let's go home."

Toothless and I wheeled around and started flying in the direction of Dragon's Edge, dodging dragons that had managed to get out of the volcano. I frowned.

I need to make plans on how to free all these dragons under the Red Death Queen's control. It'll be hard but I might just have an idea.

I smiled grimly. I had 'met' the Red Death and seen what she did. Now I possibly knew how to stop her.

xXx

(Toothless' POV)

I never did get that salmon.