"ASTRID!" I shouted.
Oh man, here we go again. Why couldn't we just do something easy for once? Just one time, I wanted a dragon we could shoo away and be done with it.
I watched as Stormfly fell from twenty feet up, crashing into the ground with a visible cloud of dirt and grass. And to make it worse, I never saw Astrid stand.
"Come on, buddy!" I shouted to Toothless, who was still glowing deep blue. "Astrid needs help!" Toothless folded his wings and arched his back, getting ready for a dive when the Flightmare whipped in front of us and roared. It spread its wings and tried to blind Toothless. Like it did to Stormfly. "Toothless, DOWN!" I shouted, shoving downward on his saddle. Just as the Flightmare became a sun-like point of light, Toothless dropped underneath the dragon, avoiding its glare. For a moment, my sarcasm kicked in as I thought it was convenient we had practice with this dragon for the last thirty minutes.
The Flightmare roared again and dove after Toothless. We had no time to help Astrid or Stormfly, and if we bluffed, the dragon would just swoop in to claim its catch. This thing was way too smart to keep pulling the same move over and over. I had to come up with something crazy within the next split-second, or Astrid and Stormfly were probably dead.
We were maybe three seconds from reaching Stormfly when I rolled in with my peg and nudged his saddle to the right. Toothless, I hope you trust me on this one, I thought. There was no time to tell him what to do. I just hoped he wouldn't balk, or else we'd be in trouble too.
Toothless leaned into the turn and whipped right. I rolled backwards with my peg to let him hover. Sure enough, he grunted in curiosity, but didn't object when he saw the Flightmare still on its downward track. As it neared us, I shouted, "Plasma blast!"
I felt the faint shock rolling through my right leg as Toothless unleashed a blue fireball, aimed directly at the Flightmare's side. I saw the look of surprise on its face as the fireball met its side before the dragon could react. The dragon cartwheeled downward, but a little off its original track. It crashed into the ground, kicking up another plume of dirt.
"Way to go, buddy!" I shouted. Toothless looked back at me with a knowing grunt. And one of his goofy "toothless" smiles. His mouth and eyes were glowing white, giving him an almost ghostly look. "C'mon! Let's get to Astrid!" He started on a dive again and landed maybe ten feet away from Stormfly. I dismounted his back and said, "Battle ready." Toothless immediately leaped between the Flightmare and Stormfly, making sure I had enough time to get Astrid out of this mess.
"Hiccup!" she shouted as a glowing blue Night Fury approached her. "Stormfly is gonna be fine! Get the Flightmare out of here!"
I nodded at her, not wanting to argue. We were running out of time and dragons. "FISHLEGS! WHERE ARE YOU!?" I shouted. I knew he and Meatlug were slow, but they couldn't be this slow, could they?
A dull thud behind me caught my attention. I turned around, finding Fishlegs atop a bright green Meatlug. "Can we please get all this over with?" he begged.
I launched into my plan without even asking if he was ready. "We'll will stay with Astrid and Stormfly. Find where the river gets closest to the ocean and have Meatlug block it off with rocks. Come back here, and Toothless and I will dig out a new channel for the water to flow away from Berk, while you guard."
"I…I don't know if I can do that. I mean, the Flightmare is gonna attack, isn't it?"
"Just do it," I said without emotion. "The sooner we can get this done, the sooner the Flightmare will leave."
"But won't the water in town dry up? I thought we didn't want that to happen."
I was losing my patience with Fishlegs. We couldn't keep arguing like this. "Okay, we can stay here, let the Flightmare do its thing and kill a bunch of people on Berk."
"All right! All right! I'm going," he said. He and Meatlug took off after about a second.
I figured Fishlegs and Meatlug would flee at the first sign of trouble, which was gonna happen quickly if I didn't keep the Flightmare distracted. We even trained for situations like this in the Academy. And Fishlegs still had yet to complete a goal for one of these scenarios.
I watched Meatlug following the river for a few seconds when she landed. Out of the corner of my eye, the Flightmare was slowly getting its bearings back while Toothless was watching it intently, making sure it didn't attack anyone or start heading toward Berk. And Astrid was still kneeling over Stormfly's head, trying to coax her dragon into standing up.
Meatlug pulled in a breath and a second later, a bright splash appeared in front of her. A small cloud of steam rose from the river as she pulled in another breath. Another splash and more steam.
The Flightmare roared in alarm, getting my attention. Toothless looked at me urgently and gave a short roar, alerting the Flightmare. If I had to guess, Toothless was gonna be the Flightmare's first target because the dragon saw him as the greatest threat.
The dragon roared again, leaping into the air and heading on a beeline, straight toward Fishlegs and Meatlug. Protecting its food source was priority, not following it. As I hooked in with my peg, I saw Meatlug tense. Seconds later, she took off, a silhouette of Fishlegs on her back. The Flightmare sped toward Meatlug and rammed head-first into her, sending Fishlegs spiraling off her back. He landed, rolled a few times and was still after that. Meatlug crashed into the ground with a loud groan about thirty feet away from Fishlegs.
"Oh, no," I whispered. The Flightmare resumed its track toward Berk, maybe about a half-mile out of town. I knew the time we spent distracting it was the perfect amount of time for people to start wondering whether anything was gonna happen or not. They'd come out of their houses exactly when the Flightmare would arrive and begin wreaking havoc. I assumed Stormfly and Astrid were still on the ground, and I knew it was gonna be a miracle if Fishlegs and his dragon could get back up within several seconds. Which left just me and Toothless. We were about fifty feet behind the Flightmare.
"Come on, buddy! It's just you and me!" I shouted. Toothless picked up the pace, and without waiting for my cue, he shot a fireball that exploded as it hit between the dragon's wing and side. It gave a muffled roar as it splashed into the river. It must not have been very deep over here, because there was barely any spray from the water beneath it.
Toothless landed about ten yards behind where the Flightmare had crash landed. A small amount of water was trickling over a gap in the makeshift dam Meatlug had created. "Fishlegs! You've gotta finish blocking the river!" I shouted in his general direction. Waited. No Fishlegs, no Meatlug.
"I…I can't," came a weak reply.
"Go to Meatlug," I said to Toothless from his saddle. He galloped over to her. Fishlegs had crawled to Meatlug and was cowering in fear next to her.
"I can't..." he said again. "It's g-gonna kill us."
"Yes you can," I said. "I need two more shots from Meatlug. It'll block the river and Toothless and I can cut a new channel."
"I…um…think Meatlug is out of shots," he said meekly.
I glanced at the Flightmare, who wasn't moving in the stream, which was formerly a decent-sized river. The water behind the partial dam Meatlug had created was now flooding over the land, creating a pool of glowing water.
"Fishlegs, you've got to try. No one else but you and Meatlug can do this. Even if Snotlout, Ruff and Tuff were here, you'd still be the only one who could save Berk."
"I can't," he said again, hiding his face slightly behind one of his hands. "I saw what happened to you when it shot you with that fog."
"That's just great!" I shouted. "We spent all this time practicing for something like this, and all it gets us is that you're scared! What are you gonna tell everyone else? 'Oh, I couldn't do what I needed to, so sorry you lost your family to the Flightmare. I'll try harder next time.' Is that what you wanna say to the entire town?"
"No, just…" Fishlegs took a deep breath and groaned in exasperation. "Fine. After we're finished blocking the river, I'm leaving."
"Not until Stormfly gets back up," I countered. But Fishlegs didn't hear me. He and Meatlug had already taken off, headed back toward the makeshift dam. And about twenty feet away from the Flightmare.
I remembered Astrid's comment about Stormfly being fine, she just needed a little time to gather herself. Toothless and I could do a better job of keeping the Flightmare at bay while near the dragon. We could keep it away from Berk, away from Fishlegs and away from Stormfly. And we could cut a new channel for the river to flow out to sea. Fishlegs, thankfully, had done something right and chosen a perfect spot in the river. We only had about fifteen feet to get to the coastline. There, the water would spill over the cliffs guarding the ocean, leading the Flightmare away from Berk.
"All right, Toothless," I said, jumping off his back. I guided him over to a point about five feet away from the dam Meatlug had created, where water was spilling over the river bank. Pointed to a spot across the river. "Plasma blast," I said quietly, not wanting to alert Fishlegs, Meatlug or (most importantly) the Flightmare.
Toothless shot a fireball exactly where I was pointing. The ground exploded in a spray of mud and water as the river began filling the cavity almost immediately. That blast got us about three feet closer. Twelve more to go.
"Again," I said, pointing slightly closer to the coastline. Toothless unleashed another fireball, where there was another hollow explosion. Nine feet left.
"Come on, buddy," I said. "Again." Another fireball. Another hollow explosion. Another three feet. Six feet left.
"Again." Toothless grunted and went through the motions of shooting a fireball, but nothing came out. He had reached his shot limit. And strangely enough, I still had no idea what the shot limit for a Night Fury was. "Come on, Toothless, you can do this," I encouraged. He tried one more time. Same result. It looked like he was launching a fireball, except nothing came out of his mouth. And we still had six feet left. Toothless looked at me as if to say he was sorry.
I heard a high-pitched roar come from the Flightmare, alerting me and Toothless. Glanced in its direction, where it had righted itself. And locked eyes with Toothless. "Oh, no," I mumbled. Toothless was out of shots. There was no way he could defend us against the neon-blue dragon about twenty feet away. And to make it worse, I couldn't see Fishlegs or Meatlug.
A hoarse roar sounded from somewhere in between Toothless and the Flightmare. It sounded like a Gronckle, but I could only make out a silhouette. "Get 'im!" Fishlegs shouted. A bright orange flash appeared as a large fireball slammed into the Flightmare's chest, sending it toppling back to the ground. That silhouette looked way too much like a rock, but it was Meatlug.
"I thought you, uh…" I started.
"I taught her how to do that," Fishlegs said with an inflection in his voice that sounded like an ear-splitting grin.
"How to look like a rock?" I asked. "I thought Gronckles were already good at that."
Fishlegs ambled into view, the bright-colored water reflecting off his skin. He had a huge smile on his face. "No, how to calm down like that," he corrected. "Meatlug was really nervous the entire time. The same thing happened when we did that stealth drill earlier today." His dragon waddled forward and nudged him in the back with her snout.
"That's really good, Fishlegs," I said. He beamed. "Look, I need you to bring Astrid and Stormfly…"
"Did someone say my name?" Astrid shouted. Fishlegs jumped when she said that. She rode in on Stormfly, who was beginning to lose her orange color. The effects of the water were wearing off. Toothless, however, was still his vibrant blue that I was beginning to really appreciate.
"Um, Astrid!" I said, trying to get over my loss for words. "Okay, I'll make it quick. I need you and Stormfly to finish cutting this channel toward the ocean." I pointed in its direction as Astrid gave me a confused look.
"What channel?" she asked. "It looks like a pond here." I whipped around, noticing the water was beginning to spill over the dam and head toward Berk again. Not good.
Without thinking, I splashed my way into the standing water. A few steps in, I lost my footing because of the drop from the river bank. Resurfaced, and started feeling my way around, searching for the channel. My peg found it, and I stepped forward. "This way!" I shouted, pointing over my head and toward the coast. "Toothless is out of shots." I waded forward until my right foot smacked into a wall. Climbed out and said, "This is as far as we got. Can you and Stormfly finish it?" Just to make sure, I glanced at the Flightmare. Still not moving, but it was breathing. For some reason, I didn't want to kill it, just send it away from here. For good.
"Easily," she said. "Just stay out of the way. Fire won't work here."
I clambered out as Astrid gave Stormfly the command to extend her tail spikes. Stormfly swooped in low and dragged her tail through the water, sending up rooster tails of bright blue water and mud. A small trickle of water began flowing over the cliff.
"I think one more time oughta do it!" I called. Astrid and Stormfly banked around and got ready for another swipe at the ground. Astrid's dragon started into a shallow dive just as the Flightmare leaped in front of them and pulled in a breath. A small amount of fog came out of its mouth as Toothless rammed it in the side with his head, causing the dragon to tumble about ten feet away. Astrid yelped in surprise, as all of this happened within a second. Toothless roared at the Flightmare, standing almost exactly where Stormfly was going to start digging.
"Get Toothless out of there!" Astrid shouted as Stormfly backed up for another shot at the channel.
I ran over to Toothless, who was still on edge. "C'mon, buddy, follow me," I said calmly, trying to guide him away from the Flightmare and Stormfly's path. Toothless never looked at me, just intensified his growling. I had to think of something, because the Flightmare wasn't going to stay down for long, even with all the abuse we had put it through. "C'mon, Toothless," I said again, putting my hand on the back of his neck. I was trying not to alert him like I did when the battle horn first sounded this evening, but Toothless jumped anyway. He wanted a piece of whoever had startled him so much.
Instead of panicking, I knew I could sacrifice a few seconds and a little bit of sanity with what I had in mind. Toothless shrieked as he jumped and whirled in my direction. I leaped backward, away from him, trying to guide him away from Astrid's path. I put my arms up like I was going to stop a charging yak and thought, This is stupid, Hiccup. I made direct eye contact with Toothless, telling him I was ready to fight. He jumped straight for me as I rolled onto my back.
"Hiccup, are you crazy!?" Astrid shouted.
"Just finish it!" I shouted back. As Toothless's head filled my vision, I heard the dragging sound of Stormfly's tail pulling through the water and mud. Toothless snarled at my face, his teeth mere inches away from my nose. I had to be crazy and lure him into a fight so that we could finish the channel. We had no time to waste, and this solution, no matter how suicidal, was the first one that popped into my head. It was stupid "Viking sense" at work.
Toothless snapped his teeth a few times in front of my face, telling me he was ready to kill me at any moment. And I felt just as scared as when he tackled me earlier tonight. Even though this time, what I did was intentional.
"It's okay, bud. It's me," I said calmly, placing my left hand on Toothless's leg. He growled directly into my face, then his eyes turned from angry to realization. He had tackled me twice and was ready to kill me both times. Although this time, I kinda deserved it.
I let Toothless get over himself again, keeping my hand on his front leg, letting him know I was here. Letting him know he was gonna be okay. He backed away from me slowly. I stood up and wrapped his neck in a hug and said, "I'm sorry bud." He probably had no idea what I was apologizing for, especially when he was in his wild mode. But I felt like it needed to be said. I pulled away from him slightly and saw his ghostlike eyes staring at me in apology. "It's okay, Toothless," I said quietly, stroking his cheek.
"I thought I told you to try a little less when you want to scare someone," Astrid said to me as Stormfly landed. Her dragon began using its mouth and the ground to clean her tail. Can't forget, Deadly Nadders are as vain as they are, well, deadly. It looked like Stormfly was about to work herself into a panic as she tried to clean the mud off her tail.
"Yeah, well, I don't think I had a whole lot of choice on that one," I said. "Is the channel ready?" She nodded. "Where's the Flightmare…yeah, don't answer that," I said as I caught myself. My hand met my forehead.
"Hiccup, why do you look for things with your mouth?" Astrid said with a wry grin.
The Flightmare was about twenty feet upriver of the channel. There were only a few small puddles of water left downstream of Meatlug's dam. And the pond that had formed while we were cutting the channel was almost gone too. We just needed for the dragon to wake up, see the river and follow it.
I let Toothless go, and he loped over to the channel to drink. Great. Just the last thing we needed. If the Flightmare got its senses back and saw Toothless, we'd be in huge trouble. But luckily, Toothless finished and grunted at me, walking back in my direction. He rubbed underneath my right arm, asking for attention, like there was nothing pressing at the moment. And because he knew exactly how to break my will, I gave in. I knuckled gently into the top of his head as he murmured in contentment. And not thirty feet away, there was a dangerous wild dragon who was gonna wake up at any moment.
After maybe two minutes, the Flightmare stirred with a groan. It righted itself and lumbered to the river, unmindful of the dam we had just built. Unmindful of the new channel that had been cut to keep it away from Berk. The dragon began drinking from the river as Toothless tensed and growled audibly. It didn't sound loud enough to reach the dragon, but I wasn't gonna take any chances right now. I was too exhausted from lack of sleep and the last thirty minutes to ask for another fight.
"It's okay, bud," I said, stepping directly between him and the Flightmare. I scratched gently underneath his chin. Toothless shut his eyes and sighed in relaxation. I turned slightly, trying to get his vision and attention away from the Flightmare. Astrid and Fishlegs followed my lead and backed their dragons away from the river, allowing the Flightmare to follow the water, just like it always did.
The Flightmare glanced at the direction the water was flowing and took off. As it neared the channel, it turned left and headed out to sea, following the newly mixed brackish water that was glowing. I sighed in relief, happy this little chapter was over now.
As the Flightmare flew away from us, Astrid raised her arms in triumph and shouted, "YEAH! TAKE THAT YOU…!" Toothless, probably excited from Astrid shouting like that, roared as she shouted that last word. Her voice was drowned out because of Toothless, but I had at least some idea of what she was saying.
We stood there in silence, letting Arvendole's Fire bathe us in a blue glow. After a few minutes, Fishlegs asked, "So, take care of the dam now or wait for morning?"
"Morning," I said almost immediately. "I just wanna get some sleep right now."
"I agree," Astrid said. She found Stormfly, who was still preening.
Fishlegs got on Meatlug's back.
"C'mon, bud, let's get home," I said. I climbed onto Toothless's saddle, clicked in with my peg, and we took off, headed east. Following the now-empty river bed.
