Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Fire and Fury

Viggo
"WHY did you let that STUPID LITTLE DRAGON get through!"
The sounds of Ryker shouting at yet another hapless soldier obliterated the peace and quiet I had previously been enjoying. "NOW THEY GOT BOULDER CLASS DRAGONS AND BUILT A WALL! WHICH WE CAN'T PASS!"

"Calm down, brother." I sighed, leaning casually against a bulkhead. "He acted on my order, which you once again did not bother to consider." And once again, he gaped at me like a Scauldron out of water. "I suppose," he said, confusion and tightly suppressed frustration writ large across his features, "you had a reason? We had them, Viggo!"

"Yes, we did. But it would have been messy, time-consuming and difficult to take over their little island by brute force. Their wall blocks us out, but we still block them in." My words did not seem to enlighten him. Never mind, he didn't need to understand my reasoning. "Let them think they've won. Did you forget our secret weapon? We can hit them from here and destroy their defenses. Then taking over will be easy, which in your love of pointless violence you failed to appreciate, and it will cost much less in terms of money, men and material."

"You just want to give them hope before we crush them." he said flatly. I smirked, imagining the look on the dragon-boy's face when all his beasts were caged. Including that infernal Night Fury. The part of my mind not devoted to such imaginings was busy calculating how much the rare creature would be worth in market. With its legendary reputation and those fireproof onyx scales, it would sell for several fortunes.

"Maybe. But can you really blame me? You know how much I love a game of cat and mouse."

And just then, just as I'd planned it, a blue-white fireball sailed over the island's wall. The concussive shock could be felt from all the way over here, and the screeches of injured and outraged dragons were even more audible.

Checkmate, Dragon Master.

Toothless
A barely audible whine pierced the air, wailing in a deeply unsettling register that the humans didn't seem to notice. I flicked my head around, trying to shake it off.
Hiccup turned to me. "Bud, what is it?"
The high-pitched noise was still screeching in my ear. "Something's off. Sounds like..."
I didn't have time to finish my sentence before the world exploded.

Omniscient
The blast hits the island like a nuclear bomb. Shockwaves splinter the precariously balanced watchtowers and impossibly high perches. Dragon's Edge is as much in the sky as grounded, and now everything is crumbling down.

The Great Hall was in the direct path of the fireball, and all that remains of it is rubble scattered haphazardly across the original foundations. Splashes of colour dot the chaos, dragons pinned under fallen boulders and friends trying to drag them free. Three Gronckles pull a shattered cornerstone off Hookfang while Meatlug and Stormfly help extricate Sundance from a twisted metal contraption.

"Everyone to the..." Toothless pauses, remembering that the Great Hall now lies in shards around them. "Retreat to the caves!" One by one, the freed dragons fly off in tight formation to the south of the island. Some stay, wailing for missing comrades that don't answer. Most are found unconscious under piles of shattered stone, a few lying in the cold stillness of death.

"Save everyone you can, and get out of here!" Stormfly shouts to a group of lost-looking dragons. "Who knows if that blast could happen again? Go on, shoo!" Meatlug has already gone, dragging a reluctant Barf and Belch away from the destruction as her rider similarly corrals the twins. Hookfang yelps in pain as his left wing collapses, the damaged limb unable to bear his weight.

Three humans and three dragons are left behind as death comes closer and closer.

Astrid
"That was no catapult."
I could hear the shaky note in my voice, and I cursed my weakness. What in Thor's name was that! is the unspoken thought behind the words. Not even one of Hiccup's crazy designs could launch something like that. "We need to figure it out and break it before they can use it again."

I surveyed the scene, part of me awed by the sheer immensity of the destruction. The entire, massive edifice that could house so many dragons had been utterly obliterated. Luckily there were few in it when the blast hit, but I could see colourful bodies lying still where the force of the fall had crushed them. "Is everyone okay? Well, apart from Hookfang."
The Nightmare's wing was twisted at a strange angle, raw flesh showing through where scales had been scraped away.

"No one's dead." Hiccup responded, leaning heavily on his dragon partner's shoulder. "Well, not many." A bitter, saddening note laced his words. The fallen dragons had been his friends.

"Are you kidding! Of course we're not okay!" Snotlout groaned. "Hookfang's wing is broken, and Hiccup's leg is twisted out of shape." I hadn't noticed that, but a quick glance confirmed that Snotlout was right. "You can't fly Toothless without that, can you?" I asked, a sickening feeling of panic threatening to overwhelm me. If Hookfang couldn't fly and Toothless couldn't fly, we were stuck. "The tail switches into automatic." Hiccup mutters, glancing over at Toothless as the Fury growls something. "Shoot. Or at least it would if it wasn't crushed." The tiny, delicate cogs and gears in Toothless' tail would have been the most obvious thing to break.

"So we have one flying dragon," Hiccup gestured to Stormfly, "Who has an injured leg. I can't walk without a working prosthetic, which right now I don't have, and Toothless can't fly without his. Most of Dragon's Edge is only accessible if you can fly, and all of the ground walkways away from the Hall got crushed. Snotlout, your arm is obviously broken and you'll probably start feeling the pain as soon as I point it out to you." Right on cue, the blustery Viking's face paled. "Yep." he groaned. "Did you have to make me realise that?"
"The outlook is grim. In short, we're stuck and will probably die if another of those fireballs hits."

I responded in the only way I knew how.
"Shit."

A/N: Sorry for the profanity, readers.
Here is my apology for my sucky-despite-how-long-it-took filler chapter, in song form!
Hey, over there
Please forgive me
I'm sorry this took so long
And sucked so bad
But I'm dying
And I've got bad writer's block...

If I said my inspiration failed
If I said the fanfic ship ain't sailed
If you think my swearing should be jailed
Would you hold it against me?
'Cause my homework's causing tears
And my will to live disappears
So if my chapters are taking years
Would you hold it against me?

Hey,
You might hate,
Me for my lack of things to write
And this part,
Being bad,
But at least I wrote one, right?

If I said my inspiration failed
If I said the fanfic ship ain't sailed
If you think my swearing should be jailed
Would you hold it against me?
'Cause my homework's causing tears
And my will to live disappears
So if my chapters are taking years
Would you hold it against me?