The Great Beyond

Chapter 2: Eye of the Beholder, Pt. 2 (Hiccup)

                My eyes darted back and forth between Dagur's ship and the sinking one full of my friends. Reign had told me not to worry about them, but their screams and begging told a different story. Not to mention that her stubbornness probably convinced her she had a better handle on the situation than she really did. As strong as Reign was, there was only so much she could do.

"Isn't this exciting?" Dagur taunted, cackling from his ship. He held the device in one hand with a confident grip around it. "What will he choose, ladies and gentlemen? Saving his friends, or capturing his mortal enemy, his brother?"

As Dagur finished his rambling, a plan popped into my head. His ship wasn't moving fast enough to go very far, I could probably still catch him if I went back and opened the cage. I landed on the part of the ship still sticking up.

"Hiccup!" I heard Reign call out, relieved.

"Move back from the door!" Once everyone was out of the way, Toothless and I jumped down, hanging onto the side of the boat. "Toothless, plasma blast!" He did as told, but the cage didn't budge, instead only turning bright red before fading back into mint green.

"Dragon-proof bars? Ooh, fascinating!" Fishlegs marveled, forgetting, for a moment, that him getting out of the cage was the difference between life and death.

"Whoever built this ship really knew what they were doing." The sinking ship suddenly lurched as more of it went under, throwing everyone to the side.

"Whoa! You know what would be more fascinating? Getting us out of here!" The ship lurched again, this time in the other direction, causing Fishlegs to slam against Snotlout. I ran up to the door of the cage and started to pull on it.

"Toothless, now!" He kept firing at the cage, but the door refused to budge. "We need more firepower. Guys, dragon calls."

Everyone cupped their hands around their mouths and let out their dragon calls, attempting to call the spooked creatures back. Last we had seen them, it was dark. Now, the sunlight illuminated almost every crevice of the land. The longer we waited to get them out, the further away Dagur got.

Suddenly, a long, slithering creature shot up onto the top of the cage. I flinched and covered my face as it lunged in my direction, attempting to bite me. Toothless fired plasma blasts at it as I moved out of the way.

"Why'd it have to be eels?"

I tried my best to pull the door open as Toothless shot at the eels, scaring them off so they wouldn't continue to attack. Unfortunately, he missed the ones below us, and I felt one of them latch onto my metal leg and start to pull.

"Toothless!" I cried, trying my best to shake the creature loose. Thankfully, Toothless fired a blast at the eel, scaring it off. "Thanks, bud." I untied my leg and tried to use it to pry open the door of the cage. It budged a little bit, but I still couldn't get it open.

"Uh, Hookfang, help us!" Snotlout cried, as though that would summon his dragon. "I'm important."

"Shriek!" Reign slammed her shoulder against the door repeatedly, attempting to get it to swing open.

"Stormfly!"

"Barf, Belch, get your butts over here!" The ground slipped out beneath me as the ship listed completely vertical. I hung onto the bars of the cage, hoping my grip wouldn't fail me.