A twenty-year-old woman with beautiful golden hair and angry azure eyes was held, prisoner. It took five guards to drag her ruffly through the cave-like corridor decorated by dragon's blood, broken weapons and god's know what else. Inconsistently spaced cages on either side emitted snarls and hisses from inhuman inmates. One of the guards got too close to one cage in particular and a giant red claw snagged at the Viking's armour. The guard screamed as the others watched and laughed at his misfortune. The woman rolled her eyes with a dizzy triumphant smirk. The biggest and meanest looking guard huffed and ordered for the group to keep moving with a wave of his hand (The battered and scarred guard later rejoins the party, glaring at his peers). The sudden movement jerking the girl back.
She was a warrior. She would fight.
She would kick, scream and claw the attacker's eyes out.
But being bound, gagged and dazed from a previous blow to the head, limited her options. Instead, she was dragged backwards by the scruff of her tunic until they reached one of the deepest points in their cave system. It was so deep that no natural light had ever touched the cold still air, only the torches unevenly scattered on the walls, and the torches the guards carried.
She was thrown into a stone cell with the metal bars slamming behind her, echoing a doomed clang.
She would have gotten up and charged at them, but she didn't have the energy. Everything hurt and she didn't think she could stand if she tried, at least without being sick. Instead, she sat there removing the gag with rope bound hands and giving her jailers a hazy glare. The biggest one stepped forward.
"Ya' name's Astrid ain't it?" A towering man with a dirty jet black mess of a beard and beady eyes asked through a gritting accent. He wore grimy armour decorated in sharpened dragon bones and a traditional Viking helmet that held five crooked horns. Astrid glared hardened at the man but she said nothing. "Don't worry ya pretty little head, once ya chief agrees ta' help us Outcast rid the world of the Demon Rider, ya'll be sent home, not a scratch on ya."
"Then not a day after he's gone I'd be fighting for my life and tribe against you. I know who you are Alvin the Treacherous." She snarled weakly. She lowered her head. "Chief Stoick knows you better than anyone, I don't think he'd risk a deal with you to chase after a phantom. A fairy tale. There's no such thing as a Demon Rider, Shadow Raider or Dragon Master! No one - no thing - is crazy enough to side with those beasts! Let alone ride the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself! It's a story to scare misbehaving children!"
"Then explain how they got smarterer!"
"They were always smarter than you!" She retorted bitingly without thinking. Alvin hissed through his few yellowed teeth, only barely restraining himself from reopening the cage. He needed Stoick's best warrior alive and - hmmm somewhat - healthy for his plans to work.
"I 'ear the devil's 'ad gotten smarter while raidin' ya' home too. 'Eard they don't steal food no more."
Astrid's glare intensified, her head was finally sobering up and she was not happy. She knew he was pointing out the fact about their arena where they kept dragons, prisoners. Every time they managed to rebuild the thing and finally catch a dragon to practice training, the dragons came back to collect their own. Because of this, she never had the honour of completing dragon training or killing a dragon.
Astrid said nothing, so Alvin finished with saying:
"You should feel honoured, without Stoick's wife or his runty son around, you were our best option." He and his followers then left the battered girl alone in her cage. The fiery lights flickering farther and farther around the corner until the barest of Helheim's glow was left for her to see by.
Only when she was sure they were gone and she was alone did she let herself process what just happened.
'So I was captured while practising my survival skills in the forest. I feel like such an idiot! I should have been able to take them! There were too many of them. Even I couldn't take on ten Outcasts at once.' She reasoned with herself. 'I could have been safe at home and they wouldn't have me to blackmail the chief with... but nooo, I just had to get out of the village for a bit as Snotlout was being... well, Snotlout, again... though this time he might've gone too far.' She started to feel her eyes threaten tears when she remembered what he said.
"... At least I still did better than Useless Hiccup who got himself killed."
She slammed her fist against the stone wall, it hurt but she didn't care. She just lay down and let herself succumb to the welcoming darkness of sleep.
YOU ARE READING
Trapped (HTTYD)
Fanfiction"This is Berk. We have fishing, hunting, and charming views of sunsets. The only real problems we have are our enemies; Dragons. They plague the Archipelago like the Scourge of Odin. They took away many of our fellow Viking, including my childhood f...
