A Life of Lost

Prologue

"No!" I screamed. The sound of arrows flying pierced the air.

"Rune, I have to do this!"

"No! Don't! That's suicide!"

He looked at me grimly. "You know that no matter what you do, I will do this. We both know it."

"You can't... Remember what happened to Astrid?"

"That's why I have to do this. They have to pay for what they've done." With that, he patted Toothless, his Night Fury, and they flew off, into the rows of ships ahead.

"Stop! Come back!" I cried. "It's too dangerous!"

"Don't worry, sis. We'll help." Gustav said, as he mounted his Monstrous Nightmare, Fanghook. "A-Team, mount up!"

The rest of the Auxiliary team saddled up, onto their dragons, before following my younger brother. As they soared towards the Dragon Hunters' ships, they spread into the V formation, then split into two groups. I heard a clang, and saw a Dragon Hunter aiming a catapult in Fanghook's direction. The dragon and its rider were busy taking care of another ship, so they didn't see it.

"Gustav!" I shouted. But it was too late.

The Dragon Hunter pulled back the lever, and a huge boulder slammed into Fanghook's wing. I heard the crack of broken bone, and Fanghook plummeted down, Gustav with him. I ran up the platform to the telescope, and saw that my little brother's leg was caught on one of the saddle straps. He tried to dislodge it, but before he did, they fell into the water with a big splash.

"Gustav!" I zip-lined down quickly, running to the edge of the shore. "Gustav, where are you?"

I scanned the water fearfully. A few seconds later, Gustav emerged, his Viking helmet leaning on the side.

"Come on!" I yelled at him. He was close enough to hear me.

"No!" He shouted back. "Fanghook's still down there!"

"Gustav!" I screamed, but he had already dived back down.

I waited, watching the water for any signs of him returning. Seconds turned to minutes. There was no way he could've held his breath for that long, but I still waited. I was never going to give up on my brother, no matter how annoying or stupid he was. Finally, a piece of leather fabric popped up onto the surface. It floated around the ships, then caught on a wave, which brought it to my feet. I snatched it up before the tide pulled it back out to sea and gasped.

The fabric was the one that Gustav's clothes were made of.

"No!" I cried. "NO! GUSTAV! You mutton head! No..." I sobbed, tears running down my face.

I heard someone land on the sand, and turned to see Toothless. Miraculously, both he and Hiccup were still alive. Hiccup looked at my tear-streaked face and turned to glare at the Dragon Hunter ships.

"Come on, bud." He said, and Toothless took off.

"Stop it! Hiccup!" I yelled at them. I couldn't bear to see another Dragon Rider die. "Get back here right now!"

Toothless flew down at the ship in the center, where I could see Viggo and Ryker standing near the stern of the boat. The dragon blasted the ship several times, but there was no damage, as the sides of the ship were made of dragon-proof metal.

"This is what you get!" I heard Hiccup holler. "First Astrid, now Gustav..." The rest of what he said was lost in the sound of explosions as another ship sunk.

Ryker motioned with his hand, and a dozen dragon root arrows flew towards the Dragon Rider and his dragon. One of the arrows hit Toothless' underbelly, and he twisted and turned in the air, jerking from one side to the other, while he fell. Hiccup patted his dragon's side, and Toothless shot out a last blast. It hit the center of the ship, where it wasn't dragon-proofed, causing a huge explosion. The pair fell into the large clouds of fire and smoke.

They didn't reappear.

"HICCUP!" I screamed.

I raced back to the outpost, running up the platforms, and reaching the stables. I quickly took out Skysoar, my Silver Phantom, an extremely rare Sharp Class dragon, with silver-white scales and huge wings. I jumped onto my saddle, ordering her to fly. Skysoar shot into the air, where her ghostly color helped her camouflage in the clouds. We flew above the fleet of ships, and saw that, to my horror, only Heather and Snotlout were still flying. The others were gone.

"Now, Skysoar!" I said, and she shot a stream of crystal-white fire at the oncoming rows of ships.

Two of them sunk, the other one exploded. Skysoar got ready for another shot, when I heard a scream. Turning, I saw Heather and her Razorwhip, Windshear, tumble down, crashing onto one of the ships. Heather got up and started to fight the Dragon Hunters, Windshear firing at them. But soon, Heather was restrained and nets had been thrown on Windshear, along with many pieces of metal to hold her tail, which could slice through anything. They were brought inside the ship's hull, where I couldn't see them anymore.

A scream rang from inside the ship a moment later, and I knew they were gone.

I turned to look for Snotlout, but, while I was watching Heather, he and Hookfang had disappeared. There was no ripple in the water, no explosions, no nothing. It was as if the Monstrous Nightmare and his irritating rider had just vanished, as if they were never there in the first place.

"Snotlout?" I called, bringing Skysoar lower. "Snotlout! Where in Thor's name did he go?" I muttered to myself, scanning the surface.

Suddenly, I heard a crack, and turned just in time to see a huge boulder, which had been lit on fire, crash straight into us, before everything went black...