In Lieu Of A Tail

10. Road Trip From Hel

"You know I'd be perfectly safe on my own, right?" Aurora called from where she was securing her supplies on Astra's saddle.

"I know that," Hiccup grumbled back, "Excuse me for wanting to visit my friends and spend some time with my little sister."

"You know I'm almost as tall as you, right?" She replied.

"Whatever. Besides, I don't want you to fly too far that way alone, it's the more barbaric side of the archipelago."

"I know you have a huge thing against Berk." Toothless growled at the name. "Yes you too Toothless, but I'm not even going near it!"

"What if there's a storm and we have to go out of our way?" Astra inquired.

"He isn't gonna stay behind no matter what I say, is he?" Aurora asked.

"Probably not." Fyredart answered, appearing from nowhere but obviously listening the whole time. "He is notoriously stubborn about everything."

"You shouldn't eavesdrop, Fyredart, it's rude." Fyredart snorted in laughter, Hiccup often tried to teach him some form of politeness, he didn't seem to understand that such efforts were in vain, as the Terrible Terror simply didn't care. "But he is right, I'm coming with you."

Aurora sighed, then smirked. Hiccup smiled right back, knowing exactly what she was going to say.

"Race ya!" She called, hurrying to secure everything and take off.

"You're on!" Toothless replied, as Hiccup was too busy tying his supplies down.

Both dragons took off within seconds. They roared their goodbyes and, with great gusts of wind from mighty flaps of their wings, they zoomed up, into the afternoon sky to catch the high-speed wind currents, both riders screaming in delight at the speed.

**********

Not long after their departure from Freja Isle, the riders encountered a storm. Hiccup glanced over at Aurora, raising his eyebrows.

"Shut up!" She yelled over the wind as they manoeuvred around the storm. "I think you jinxed it Astra."

"I didn't jinx it, I called it. There's a difference." Astra growled back.

"Oh yay(!) Looks like we're gonna have to fly over Berk after all." Hiccup groaned. "We're gonna have to be careful."

"I have a really bad feeling about this." Toothless muttered.

"Yeah, you and me both bud."

**********

Berk was silent, as it had been at night for over four years, since the daily raids had stopped mysteriously. The young warriors were taking their turn of patrol. No one saw the old woman standing on a platform at the back of her hut, no one would have thought much of it if they had – she was known to have evenings where she simply stood and stared at the stars.

Gothi reached into her pocket and brought out a single, midnight-black scale. It caught the light of the moon and the stars, becoming iridescent. Gothi frowned and closed her long, slender fingers around it; pulling her hand close to her chest. She stood her staff against the wall of her hut and reached into a nearby pot. When she had removed her hand, within it was grasped a small pile of fine yellow-grey powder. She picked up her staff in the hand with the scale still enclosed in it. Kneeling to the floor, she spread the powder in an arc in front of her. She tossed the scale up into the air and watched it land, a gentle breeze blew and disturbed the dust. Gothi watched all this with curiosity, the way the wind worked to only partially cover the scale, the shapes produced as the dust settled. She looked up, watching for a moving blackness and moving stars. She smiled as she saw them. Soon.

"May the Gods watch over you." The elder rasped, her throat warming at her first words for many years. Her eyes fixed on the almost invisible figures, and she remained watching as the moving stars began to plummet.

**********

The one who spotted them was Fishlegs, he hadn't meant to but he had looked up and noticed the stars disappearing and reappearing in an incredibly unusual manner. His first thought was the correct one: dragons. He tossed a bola with all of his might.

"Dragon incoming!" Was only screamed when he was certain it would hit, but the scream warned the dragon and they swerved out of the way, the other one was hit head on. Fishlegs only knew there was a second one when he heard the grunt upon impact.

The dragon began to plummet, somehow breaking out of the bolas metres above the ground, too close to stop, but close enough to slow down.

The other young warriors were there within seconds, but Fishlegs was there first, he started to bring his hammer down on the creature's tail, but found his strike blocked by a sword. He looked to his right in surprise, to find a very angry blonde readying her sword for another swing.

He stepped backwards to avoid her strike, she turned towards the dragon and leapt over it, flipping as she did and using that momentum to drive back the twins and Snotlout. The dragon knocked Astrid off her feet when she had begun to sneak up on the warrior.

Fishlegs had to admit, he was very impressed that the girl was fending off three of Berk's warriors at once. Her attacks were swift, sure and practiced – she clearly had a lot of experience. Her and the dragon seemed to be working as a team, that was incredibly strange, the thing that was most unusual was that the dragon was nothing like what he had ever seen before. He would have to think about that later, as she was thrashing everyone with very little trouble.

The older Vikings had finally arrived and immediately joined in with the fight, they didn't realise just how embarrassing it would be for them. The girl was still holding them all off, and the dragon was helping her. The reptile wasn't leaving her to fend for herself – though it could fly away easily – and it was careful not to hit her when it attacked the Vikings. The two worked in perfect tandem and seemed to know exactly what the other was going to do next, though no words were ever exchanged.

Eventually Ruffnut was able to succeed in sneaking up on the girl when both her and the dragon were distracted, the warrior was knocked in the head, and collapsed almost instantaneously, her eyes rolling up into her head. She was caught by the dragon, who tried to take off with the girl in its talons, but was overpowered and muzzled. As no one could recognise the species, it would remain alive – for now.

**********

Hiccup watched from high above, not being stupid enough to get involved when he saw there was nothing he could do. He saw Aurora go crazy and start to defend and attack, he saw her winning, and he saw Ruffnut sneaking up a moment too late, not that he could have warned Aurora or Astra. He watched Astra being dragged away from Aurora, towards the arena, and fury flooded his mind as he realised they were going to put his sister in a cold, dark cell. He was especially angry that they were separating the two, and he began formulating a plan to free them. Toothless shared his anger, and vowed to destroy the entire village if they tried to hurt Astra or Aurora, Hiccup echoed the sentiment.

AN: Two chapters in one day, yay!