In Lieu Of A Tail

12. Sarcasm And Nightmares

Hiccup snapped awake to a familiar scream, Aurora. He and Toothless got up quickly, neither had a plan- Hiccup had been working on one before he drifted off, and had fallen asleep thinking about statistical possibilities of success – but nothing mattered in that moment. Toothless was angry at the Vikings and about ready to tear their throats out, clearly whatever they had done was reminding their sister of times best forgotten. Hiccup had just fastened himself to the saddle and secured his mask when the second scream wrenched itself from his little sister's throat, they took off without delay, both knowing exactly what would happen if they didn't rescue her. Hiccup formulated snippets of a plan as they arrowed across the forest, pasting them together somewhat haphazardly into something that he prayed to the Gods would work. They were thirty seconds away from the village when they heard the sound of Astra's signature blast exploding, probably on impact against the wall of the jail.

"Huh, terrified screams, didn't see that one coming(!)" It seemed that Hiccup's impeccable sense of sarcasm would never fade.

Toothless didn't spare any energy to reply or even roll his eyes, instead focusing on diving towards the ground and through the hole that had been melted into the wall of the jailhouse. Wait, melted?!

"Well, Astra's pissed." Toothless deadpanned.

"Clearly."

They had no more time to chat as they rounded a corner and came across a scene that made them both more furious.

Aurora was sitting on the ground with her knees pulled up close to her chest, her eyes flickering between glassy and terrified, her head jerked and her eyes widened as she grasped around her for something to hold on to, her left hand found dirt and her right brushed against the smooth scales of a star-speckled reptile, she moved towards her right – curling in on herself. Said reptile curled her tail closer to her hatchling, her sister, as she brandished her wings and teeth, snarling at the guards in front of her.

There were three young warriors preventing their escape. The first wore dark colours, and a dark blue tunic that was had a brown leather belt with an engraving of the Berkian Crest on the buckle. He wore an iron helmet with a horn pointing from either side atop his short, black hair. His face displayed a mix of anger, spite and complete disdain at what he saw. The other two were almost identical, save for the colours of their tunics and the slight variations of how they kept their hair. The girl wore a yellow tunic and had three thick, blonde braids: one either side of her face and one down her back. The boy wore a grey-blue tunic and left his blond hair long, free and straight. Both twins – for that is, of course, what they were – wore a metal helmet identical to their sibling.

Snotlout raised his bludgeon and the twins pointed their wickedly sharp spears at the dragon, only for all the weapons to be shot out of the hands of their respective owners from behind.

They turned, and came face-to-face with a beyond angry midnight black Night Fury, and its tall-looking rider in scale-covered armour with a terrifyingly dragon-like mask who now had another thing to hate about them.  One thing you have to remember about Night Furies – and their riders – you don't threaten their families if you want to survive. Unfortunately for Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, that is exactly what they had just done – not that they knew that.

Toothless shot a plasma blast at their feet, knocking them over as Hiccup leapt from the saddle. Astra fired a small bolt of fire at Snotlout's helmet, knocking him out cold on impact – it probably wasn't fatal. If it was, she would have saved several other Chiefs and their Heirs the trouble of dealing with him – to say nothing of trouble saved for herself – and if it wasn't he'd still wake with an awful headache. Serves him right, she thought, watching as Hiccup simply crouched to the ground to avoid the twins' infamous head butt – which knocked them both out, He deserves much worse for even thinking of threatening Aurora.

"Good riddance." Toothless growled, glancing at the unconscious Vikings. "Now we should get out of here."

"Agreed." Hiccup muttered. "Can you two cover us?" He asked, gesturing to Aurora.

"On it." Astra replied, placing herself between her and Toothless's riders and the opening. Hiccup somehow managed to get Aurora on Toothless – despite her disastrous state of mind- and Astra nuzzled her rider gently, reassuring the girl of her presence.

As soon as Hiccup was on Toothless, and had fastened himself and Aurora to the saddle, they went through the passages carefully and quickly, stopping only to pick up Aurora's confiscated gear from the room Hiccup knew it would be in, before exiting the cells through the gigantic hole Astra had made, taking flight immediately and zipping above the clouds in the blink of an eye. The guards that had been stationed there were knocked back into the walls and out by the great gusts the dragons made with their wings.

Astra turned on wingtip, quickly shooting a very explosive fireball at the weapons storage before turning back to follow Toothless and catching up. She smirked gleefully at the sound of the explosion.

"What did you blow up?" The Night Fury sighed.

"Oh, nothing. I didn't blow anything up." Astra said in the most innocent voice she possessed. Toothless rolled his eyes.

"What did you blow up? C'mon, tell me."

"Ugh, fine." Astra muttered. "Their weapons storage, but they deserved it!"

"So much for a low profile," Hiccup groaned.

"Hey, it's not my fault they shot us out of the sky!"

"True." Toothless observed.

"Yeah! I—"

"But it is your fault that their weapons storage is on fire." Toothless finished.

"They should not have threatened Aurora. Retribution, brother. I actually think they deserve worse than that but I'm not raising Hel or bringing a few very aggressive, and territorial, dragons here until I know Aurora is okay and we are off of this Gods-forsaken Isle." 

She was only partially joking about the last part, Toothless knew. She probably wasn't going to ask a few of the more aggressive dragons she knew to destroy the majority of the island, but she wouldn't be upset if that were to happen – in all honesty, she'd probably cheer them on. But Toothless also saw her worried glance at Aurora, whose eyes still remained glassy, and knew that the Star Fury had been hoping her rider would interrupt with something about how she would shred the Vikings with her sword first, to make it easier for any dragons who wanted to set the place on fire.

"Fair enough." Toothless replied, looking at his sister with concern in his eyes.

It was going to be a long night for all of them, and he had already started planning about what he was going to do to help when they landed. Namely – lighting the fire, going fishing and being there however he was needed. He already knew he would have to force Astra and Hiccup to eat something, and that they would eventually get Aurora to eat something, but it would take time. Time that he hoped they had, but he had a sneaking suspicion that a search party would be sent for the two riders and their dragons, he prayed to any Gods that were listening that they would at least have some warning so that they could hide.

AN: Yay! Two updates in two days! Thanks again to my Beta: fuzzyellie!
Happy Birthday BB69 and Tuna!
Until next time!