Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Meanwhile

For the past six years, we had thrived on Dragon's Edge. Found new friends (and enemies), made new discoveries, and grown in number. After the fateful day that I left Berk forever, I had never looked back.

Well, except for a few times. No, a lot of times.

Toothless had taken an evil delight in making me train, and I was much stronger as a result. I'd also picked up some of the dragon's tricks, like silent footsteps and the element of surprise. I'd built a home and a forge and come up with crazy new inventions. WHICH ACTUALLY WORKED! Yes, shocker, I know.
On the whole, my life had changed for the better. Except for this one annoying habit of Toothless'...

Toothless
"Aargh! Toothless, you useless reptile!" 
I snickered. Dumping water on Hiccup's head was undoubtedly the funniest way to wake him up. "Quick, run!" Sharpshot warned urgently, flapping away. I bounded after him, sticking my tongue out at Hiccup on the way. He looked like a grumpy frog, covered in water. "You're all in on this!" he yelled, shaking his fist at the crowds of dragons that had gathered to see the entertaining spectacle.

Soaking Hiccup was one of my favourite pastimes. It had originally been Sleuther's idea, which had been enthusiastically adopted by Hookfang, Sharpshot and myself. We did it at least once a month. "It's almost noon! You should have been up by now." I scolded. "Why does that mean you get to soak the entire room?" he groaned, rolling off the bed onto the floor. "Because it's hilarious." Stormfly responded, poking him with her tail. "Now get dressed, you have work to do." Hiccup sighed. "Great."

"You're all out to get me, aren't you." he groaned as he passed me. I snickered. "Not all of us. We just think it's hilarious."

*    *    *    *    *

"Hiccup?"
"One second."
Hiccup's focus on whatever project he was working on was legendary around the Edge. The entire island had once taken up a bet to see just how much it would take to pull him away from, at the time, his catapult-shield thingy. It had taken a full-on brawl from the entire Nightmare population before he even looked up (don't worry, it was fake).

I waved my tail in front of his face. "Whatever you're working on, put it down. We got a message from Windshear and it definitely isn't good." He dropped the half-finished...whatever it was, rushing out of the forge. "What is it? Is Atali in trouble?" I shivered. "Worse. The Outcasts are kidnapping dragons. Hundreds of them." I grabbed his arm, pulling him along. "You'd better hear what Windshear has to say."

A/N: In this fanfic, Hiccup has no human allies. Windshear doesn't have a rider, and Atali is the Razorwhip queen (protector of the hatchlings).

"They're capturing us by the thousands!" Windshear exclaimed, her voice shaky. "Okay, maybe not thousands, but a lot. I barely escaped. I don't know what they're doing, but it's no good." I turned to Hiccup. "What do we do?"

The Dragon Hunters we could deal with. Blow up their ships, break their outposts, and they were generally easy. Especially since they often only had temporary cages, and hadn't thought that a human might try to free their dragon prisoners. They were always so surprised when they disappeared from their locked cages.

But Alvin? He was an unknown quantity. Even Hiccup knew little about him save for what his father had said in passing once.
We looked at Hiccup expectantly, waiting for a crazy idea.

"Rescue them." he replied.
"You're insane! We can't mount an attack on Outcast Island! Besides, going back to the Archipelago is a risk with all those rumours about you floating around. If Berk puts the pieces together..." Stormfly nodded in vehement agreement. I wasn't sure when she'd come in, but at this point that's irrelevant. "We can handle it." she said, reasonably in my opinion. "You are the one they'll expect to see. They'll be gunning for you. And if they recognise you, they might try and take you back."

"But by that logic, Toothless can't go either. He's distinctive and they'll recognise him. And I don't think he'll let you go without him, would you?" I snorted. Okay, he's right, I would hate to be left out. But it's far more risky for a human on dragonback than any dragon, no matter how recognisable, and I said as much. Emphatically.
"Excuses, excuses. Besides, we don't know what we're up against, and you know that dragons can't open doors."
"But if they figure out that you're..."

"They won't." he interjected. "Vikings aren't known for their intelligence, and I've changed a lot in five years. They're far more likely to blame me for my own death than assume I ran away. And we have to try. We'll just fly in, shoot cages, fly out. Just like we always do." I sighed. Just because it made sense didn't mean I had to like it. "Okay. We'll need volunteers to help with the rescue."

A chorus of dragon voices rang out, offering their aid. I snorted.
"Only five. Stormfly, Hookfang, Barf, Belch and Meatlug, you guys come. Sharpshot, you stay with us but don't participate in the raid. Someone will need to tell everyone in case we're captured." I looked over at Hiccup. "Armour?" He tilted his head in a copy of my own thinking gesture. "The Outcasts don't have dragon root arrows. But then again, unknown quantity. Bring it."

"Here." Sundance stumbled in, metal pieces falling off her left and right. "One Nadder, one Gronckle, two Zippleback, one Nightmare and a Night Fury. Oops, forgot the chest plate. Back in a sec." She returned a few minutes later, curved armour sections sliding to the floor from their precarious perch on her back.

Sundance is a Typhoomerang. What's that, I hear you ask? Well, hypothetical breaker of the fourth wall, they are large (and when I say large, I mean it), fire-loving, I suppose you would call them Stoker Class, dragons that live and breathe flaming tornadoes. Literally, their blast is one. We rescued her and her clutch-mates in a raid on a Hunter outpost, where they were being used as guards and blowtorches.
Okay, I'm rambling.

"Then we're all set!" I announced with a confidence I didn't feel. "Let's go!"