Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Arena

Hiccup
Astrid. Is. Here. Which means the others must be Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins. I was panicking mentally, but somehow managed to keep a straight face. They can't know who I am. "Nice to meet you." I responded, managing to string together a whole sentence without stumbling. "And y-your friends are?" Astrid pointed to each of them in turn. "Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Do you have a name?"
Uh oh. I hesitated a bit too long, running through random names. "Um..." She sighed. "We told you our real names. What's yours?"

"You c-can call me Dragon. I'd ruin my...mystique if I told you my name." I improvised, hoping she'd buy it. All I got was glares from the gang. Ooh, alliteration. "I said, real name." Astrid said firmly. "Emphasis on real. None of us care about your 'mystique'." I affected a hurt expression, forgetting that she couldn't see my face through the mask. "It's v-very important to me."

"Fine, Dragon. So what got you here?"

Fishlegs
"I w-was trying to rescue the t-trapped dragons." 'Dragon' answered. "Alvin's been..." He made a noise that sounded like a Zippleback's hiss. "Sorry, m-meant capturing. Capturing them." He was an odd character. He spoke Norse worse than Silent Sven after he broke his vow of silence. Like he knew the words, but had forgotten how to say them. That is, assuming he was male and not a girl with a really deep voice.

The dragon armour and the mask looked exactly like Johann had described them, so for once the garrulous trader didn't make the story up. And the refusal to say his real name... He was hiding something, I was sure of it. Astrid knew it too. I doubted his 'mystique' was really that important, and it's not like names could kill.

Snotlout was terrified (typical, but then again THE MAN RIDES A FREAKING DRAGON) and the twins were fangirling over his armour. "Is this real dragon skin? Like, not metal?" Tuffnut asked. The Dragon Master snorted. "N-not skin, scales. They shed them. I j-just attached them to my armour. Fireproof, which is handy w-when dragons forget you're not one of them and flame you."

"Something's wrong." Astrid whispered to me. "He's probably some kind of spy." She paused for a second, making sure no one was listening. The Dragon Master was thoroughly distracted by the twins, who could be unintentionally useful sometimes. "We need to get his mask off. As long as he's wearing it, we have no idea who he really is." Then, for the third time, the door thudded open. Six Outcast soldiers stood outside. "Get up, all of yer!" their leader yelled. "Alvin has decided to test ye in the arena. Ye'd better hope yer scaly friend can really control the beasts."

Friend? Hah. We can only hope that he's the real deal.

Hiccup
The Outcasts dragged us into the arena, the gates slamming shut behind us. Of course Alvin chooses trial by dragon. Typical Viking. Dragons are scary and deadly, blah blah blah, I'm a thick-headed idiot.
I cast a quick look behind me, assessing the situation. Only Astrid was armed, but she had been top of dragon training. Well, actually that was me, but I'd had an unfair advantage. I turned to the Vikings. "W-whatever happens, don't attack the dragons."
That idea didn't get a good reception.
"You're insane." Snotlout said flatly. "If we don't defend ourselves, they'll kill us. I have no idea where you grew up, but we've been raided by them for three hundred years."

His statement was interrupted by the sound of cage doors opening and the screech of an angry Monstrous Nightmare. I sighed. "What is it with Vikings and Nightmares?" The poor dragon charged at us. Her roar must have seemed terrifying, but she was just scared. "Stay back or else!" I stood my ground, staring her in the eyes. Then fire surrounded me as she tried to scorch me. I heard a horrified gasp from one of the Vikings, but disregarded it in my focus on the frightened dragon. "I am not here to hurt you." I said softly, reaching out to her the way I had to Toothless all those years ago. She started in shock. "You are Dragon Friend?"

My story had spread throughout the dragons as it had through the Vikings. Every dragon I had ever met knew of me. The story of the only human to ever befriend a dragon seemed to be a popular tale, and dragons often visited the Edge just to confirm that I was real - and pay their respects to Toothless. The Red Death's direct influence had spread much farther than we'd thought, and he'd inherited all of that once we defeated her. Dragon Friend was my official title. Much more pleasant than 'Dragon Master', 'Dragon Conquerer' or even 'Dragon Overlord'. Like I ruled them. Nah, they held tyranny over me with their deathly buckets of water (looking at you, Sharpshot, I know the whole thing was your idea).
Dragons trusted me. I was more one of them than I had ever been a Viking.

The Monstrous Nightmare nudged me. "Are you here to free us?" she asked. "Yes." I answered decisively. "What's your name?" She paused, staring at a spot behind my head. "Kizar. And there's a Viking behind you with a sharp thing."

Astrid
'Dragon' spun to face me. "W-what do you think you're doing?" I held up my axe. "Killing it before whatever spell you put on it wears off!" I hissed. He glared at me. "She is not an it. Leave her alone if you value your life. And her name is Kizar." The dragon turned, blasting the other three doors in quick succession. Two were cages, the dragons imprisoned there joining us in the arena. The third led to a dark passageway. "That w-way."

"He's crazier than the twins! You want us to follow a dragon into a cave?" Snotlout interjected. Ruff and Tuff looked offended. "No one's crazier than us!" Ruff exclaimed. "Does it blow stuff up?" Tuff was poking at Kizar. She snapped warningly at his hand, jerking her head towards the dark passage. "Kizar's right, we n-need to move." the Dragon Master commented. "C-come on!" he added, already inside the cave mouth.

* * * * *

We'd only been walking for five minutes, and the tunnels already seemed endless. The journey had also been longer because the Dragon Master insisted on freeing every dragon we passed. All of them, even the Whispering Deaths and the lone, dehydrated Scauldron. All of us were on edge because of the proximity of so many dragons, but we couldn't risk alienating our only ally - and the person stopping said dragons from eating us.
The silence was oppressive, so I tried to strike up a conversation. "What are you looking for down here?"

"I h-have to free them. And I...still haven't f-found Toothless." was his response, distracted by the cage he was opening. An overexcited Gronckle barrelled out, almost hitting me as it passed. The mysterious man snarled something to it, and it calmed down. Then it nudged at me as if looking for food. Or maybe I was the food.
"Who's Toothless?" I asked, dodging a Whispering Death's flailing tail. "My f-friend. Oh, and don't try to k-kill him." Well, that was interesting. What kind of person would befriend the Dragon Master? Probably a crazy one.

Dragon after dragon joined the odd parade. Occasionally one of them would playfully butt us, and the Dragon Master would hiss at them in warning. "Some kind of communication." Fishlegs muttered. "But how? Did he train them to respond to signals?" Typical Fishlegs, always wanting to know how things worked. "Sounds hostile to me. Maybe he's scaring them off?" I whispered, only half focused.

A/N: He's speaking Dragonese, and the sounds aren't actually hostile. He's just scolding them. Example: "Stormfly, stop it! We need them to like us!"

The end of the tunnel contained only one cell, heavily barred and bolted. I wasn't sure I wanted to meet whatever was in there. It evidently needed a lot of security to keep it locked in. The Dragon Master fiddled with the mechanism, growing under his breath in an unnervingly accurate imitation of a frustrated dragon. He pulled what looked like an unfinished sword handle out of his belt, scaring the life out of me when a blade shot out. The sword then set on fire. Snotlout squeaked in terror. "What the Helheim is that?"

"My sword, I-Inferno." he answered absently, slashing through the lock. The metal-plated door swung open with an ominous creak, revealing a sight more terrifying than any draugr. A dragon, black as night with burning emerald eyes, stood poised to strike in the doorway. It was a completely unknown species, sleek and lithe like a cat. Compared to this, Monstrous Nightmares seemed tame. Then the Dragon Master did something entirely unexpected.

"Toothless!"