Fly On Your Own

Chapter 1

    I looked down at one of the many ships as I dangled from the mast, safe under the cover of night for now. The growls and squawks of trapped, confused dragons echoed from below, tugging at my heartstrings and making me wish I could just jump down now and free them. My hands remained steady as I waited for the sign of life from our side, ready to spring into action. A soldier paced the deck with a dim lantern, keeping watch. Hopefully, he wouldn't notice the figure lurking in the fog.

A bright flame ignited from the misty clouds on the deck, drawing the guard's attention behind him. Someone emerged from the darkness, creeping closer to the source of the lantern light. The guard whipped around suddenly, watching as a large, dark form slunk down the bars of a cage, staring him down with bright green eyes. The scales on the creature's back began to glow a bright blue, contrasting the relatively earthy tones of the boat.

The guard lunged forward suddenly, swinging his spear out at the figure, who blocked it with his blade of fire. Flames clashed back and forth, sometime coming a little too close for my comfort before the lantern was dropped. The fire consumed the planks of wood below, but the figure and the creature walked through as though it were nothing.

"Aah! Demon!" the guard cried. "You're a demon!" The figure lifted up his mask and attempted to assure the guard he was a human being. "But you walked through fire!" The man explained his suit, I'd assume. I couldn't hear his soft words all that well. "Oh, I know a demon when I see one. No human legs are that skinny!"

He tried to turn and run, but a large, flaming dragon and its rider landed in his path.

"Think that's a good entrance?" the rider shouted. "Get a load of this!" His cocky smile faded as the flames of his dragon reached the one area he'd forgotten to gotten to cover with scales.

"Aah! I knew it! More demons!"

"Ah, that's really just a nitwit who forgot to fireproof his butt."

"Guys, no! Not yet!" Sudden sparks caused a cloud of green gas to ignite. A two-headed dragon emerged from the smoke, its two riders balanced on each neck.

"Behold, your worst nightmare!"

"Behold!"

"Along with his sister, who insisted on coming."

"That's my intro?"

I rolled my eyes as I watched the plan completely unravel. I'd expected Snotlout and the twins to somehow mess it up, but this early in the plan was something new for them.

Fishlegs suddenly launched himself from the mast and extended his arms to pull out the wings that were part of our suits. But he didn't quite get it, so he ended up skidding across the deck on his face.

"Sorry, still getting the hang of my wings."

"Fishlegs, again with the baby?" Hiccup sighed. "This is a raid."

"I couldn't find a sitter!"

"Demons everywhere!" The guard shot up and attempted to run. "It's the end of the world!"

I took that as my cue, and swung down from the mask with my feet out, slamming them against his back and sending him into the bars of one of the cages, knocking him out cold.

"Reign." I cracked my knuckles and turned as Hiccup made his way toward me, looking slightly annoyed as he retracted the blade. "I had him right where I wanted him."

"And now, I have him right where I want him." He sighed at my stubbornness, but seemed to know it was better in the end he was out.

"Okay, we screwed that up, but at least nobody else knows we're here."

I shook my head before we all split off to free the trapped dragons. As I made my way over to my section, I passed Ruffnut, who had been tasked with releasing the smaller dragons.

"Look at this weirdo." She scoffed at a little dragon, pushed back into the corner of its cage in fear. Bet it's super dumb." Ruff reached out and attempted to pull the door open, but it wouldn't budge. "Why can't I get this cage open?" I sighed and reached over, sliding the lock out of place.

"It slides." Ruff scoffed again.

"Obviously."

"Attack!" I turned around to see a group of guards heading for us, eyes dead set on Toothless.

"Get the rescues out of here!" Hiccup ordered.

"Get the Night Fury!"

I refused to leave him behind, instead pulling my sword from its sheath and clashed it against that of a guard, keeping Hiccup from being run clean through. Hiccup kicked a guard, sending him tumbling right to the twins.

"No running on the deck! It's slippery. You could fall."

"Step aside! Let me handle the tough-guy stuff."

Quickly, I ducked down to avoid a spear sticking through my brain, then swung my sword out and pushed that guard back before yanking my shield from my back and using it to defend from the guard from behind me. Hookfang ignited himself and sent several guards scattering, attempting to get away now that they realized they'd been outnumbered and overpowered.

"Look out! No, no!" Fishlegs ducked at the right time, causing two of the men running at him to just hit each other. As Hiccup and I fought off guards and freed the dragons, we were backed right into each other, throwing us off for a second before having to get back to fighting.

"I thought this was supposed to be a stealth mission," I hissed.

"Yeah, they always start that way." I turned around to see Astrid and Stormfly come down to pick up a guard running at us.

"Look out!" she warned.

"Thanks, Astrid." I waved up to her as she dropped them down into the water. With the guards around us cleared, Hiccup and I raced over to the last few cages we could see and opened then, setting the trapped dragons free and hopefully ready to follow Toothless back home. Having the alpha of all dragons really helped us out in these cases.

"Move out!" Hiccup ordered. "We've got 'em all!"

I called for Shriek and she skittered down the mast, allowing me to jump up on her back. We were about to take off, when I glanced back at Hiccup and noticed he hadn't even gotten up on Toothless.

"Babe, come on. We've gotta go." He looked around frantically, and I noticed his dragon hadn't come over to him yet.

"Toothless, we've got to go!" Just as he put his blade away, more guards got back up and began to close in on him. I drew my sword again, feeling threatened by the number of them against the number of us. "Hey, guys..."

Toothless suddenly came bounding through the crowd, knocking all the guards over and rendering them motionless. He seemed eager, maybe even a little impatient, but something told me it wasn't about leaving. He wanted to show Hiccup and I something, but we just didn't have the time. We had more than one reason to rush home, after all. Hiccup jumped up onto his dragon, and we took off.

"Ha ha! You always have my back, bud."

As we followed the others, I looked back at the ship again. What had been on there he wanted us to see so badly?