Strongly Believe in Your Fateful Dreams

Chapter 23: A Turn For The Worse

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All the preparations were done & the dome was set. The King Fergus, Queen Elinor, Princes Hamish, Harris & Hubert & Princess Merida sit in their thrones from above the dome. The four lords have their own, too, with their men not far behind.

"Heirs to their starting points!" Elinor cheers.

"Aye! Heirs! T-to your starting points!" Fergus staggers behind his wife.

The crowd cheers as the four heirs enter the dome. They pick up their chosen shields & weapons. Macingall got a hammer, Macintosh got an axe & Dingwall got a spear. As for Hiccup, he took a small knife. The four lords laugh at Hiccup. He ignores them.

"Ready?" Gobber calls out to the heirs.

"Ready!" the four heirs call back.

Gobber gestures to the men in charge of the dragon's doors. They turn the cranks & the four fearsome dragons burst out. The crowd cheers for the heirs they support as these contenders scattered around the dome. This dome was about 4x bigger than the one in Berk so there's a lot of space to run around.

The Gronckle went after Macingall, the Zippleback went after Macintosh & the Nadder went after Dingwall. Unfortunately, the Monstrous Nightmare ended up chasing Hiccup. He runs away, of course. But with a plan in mind.

From time to time, he looks up at Merida who watches him with concern & hope that his plan would work. I won't let anyone down... I promise, he thought.

And like that, Hiccup stops running & faces the dragon who was menacingly moving closer. Hiccup lets go of his knife & shield & puts his hands towards the dragon.

"What is he doing?" Stoick asks himself, watching his son.

Merida watches him, hopeful & concerned. You better know what yer up to, Hic, she thought.

"It's okay, it's okay," he says, backing up as the dragon approached.

The three lords pause to ask Hiccup what he was doing but they get ignored. Hiccup removes his helmet & throws it away, "I'm not one of them," he says. The dragon stops walking & looks at Hiccup.

"Stop the fight," Stoick says, standing up from his seat.

"No!" Hiccup yells. Everyone's eyes widen in shock at his actions.

"I need you all to see this," he places his hand on the now-calm Monstrous Nightmare, "They're not who we think they are. We don't have to kill them," he says.

Merida's eyes brighten as she smiles, thinking that Hiccup's plan worked.

"I said stop the fight!!" Stoick shouts in anger, smashing the dome's metal bars with his hammer.

This angers the Monstrous Nightmare & it chases Hiccup again. It begins to breathe fire. The three lords have defeated their dragons just in time to escape.

"Hiccup," Merida sighs & decides to help him. She takes her bow & arrows & takes off. She tries to shoot her arrow but the dress was too tight for that.

"Curse this dress!" she says. She stretche her body, causing the beautiful gown get ripped. She enters the dome & shoots an arrow at the wild dragon.

"Merida?" Hiccup says, seeing what happened. He spots Merida being chased by the dragon.

However, a hammer is thrown at the dragon's face & it turns around to Stoick. Hiccuo runs to Merida's aid.

"Are you okay?" he asks her. "Aye," she removes her white hood, letting her curly red locks down.

The Monstrous Nightmare's cries are heard as it began to chase Hiccup again. He yells in panic.

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However, somewhere in the woods. A grotto, to be exact, a Night Fury awakens from his sleep as he gets a feeling that his best friend was in danger. He struggles to get out for he could not fly without a rider. He manages to get out of the grotto & decided to run towards Hiccup.

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Hiccup falls flat on his back trapped under the dragon's talons. He hopelessly curls up under it until a certain cry was heard in the distance.

"Merida!" Elinor cries hopelessly as she watches her daughter get caught up in the middle of this mess.

The cry was heard again & everyone looks that way. This time, however, it came with an ebony-colored dragon with menacing green eyes, a saddle & a prostethic tail. It jumped & shot the metal bars, causing smoke to envelope the inside of the dome.

It was unclear to everybody what was under the smokd but the black dragon landed exactly on the Monstrous Nightmare. The red dragon was disoriented & lets go of Hiccup. He was able to run to Merida.

"You called Toothless?" they yell to each other. "No!" they say in sync.

"He came because you were in trouble, Hic," Merida gasps in realization.

Everyone watched as Toothless becane victorious & shooed the Monstrous Nightmare away. Vikings went in the dome in an attempt to defeat Toothless. Hiccup saw their weapons & told Toothless to leave. However, the loyal dragon did not do so.

Stoick ran towards Toothless. "No, dad! He won't hurt you!" Hiccup cried helplessly, trying to save his father without hurting Hiccup.

However, Toothless saw Stoick as a threat & so pins the chief down. "Toothless, stop!" Hiccup exclaims but Toothless ignores his orders. He breathes in, getting ready to fire.

"NO!!" Hiccup yells at Toothless. The dragon, in turn, closes its mouth & looks at Hiccup, as if saying Sorry about that.

As Toothless was about to release the chief, a viking punches him & he falls down. Other vikings jumped to him & pins his head down.

"No! Please, just... just don't... Don't hurt him..." Hiccup said hopelessly as he was blocked by Gobber in running towards the dragon.

Guards also stopped Merida. "Let me go!! I order you to do so!! They need my help!" she cried out.

"Merida!" the King & Queen run to the princess' aid.

The guards let go of the princess & she turns to the two of them. "I'm fine, mum," she says.

"Put it with the others," Stoick orders the vikings that caught Toothless & they net Toothless for easy carrying.

Stoick apologizes to the King & Queen. "It's alright, Chief Stoick It's not your fault," said Elinor.

"Aye, my friend. It is not yours but your son's," said Fergus.

"I know. I'll try to control him better next time," said Stoick, grabbing Hiccup's arm, who gave a last glance at his best friend. This could be the last, you know, after all that's happened.

"Yes. I'm just glad that no citizen was hurt," said Elinor, taking Merida, the Triplets & Fergus with her back to the castle.

"You've got some explaining to do, Merida," said Fergus.

"Yer startin' to sound like Mum now," Merida says jokingly. However, Fergus responds to her with a glare. "Yer not jokin'," she sighs.

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