As promised, the next chapter after just one day. It's very sort and is a flash back.
Happy New Year!
Chapter 9: You Don't Punch Like An Old Women
...
(Yesterday; back in the cave):
Tuffnut hung onto the witch's cloak as she made her escape out of the chamber where his friends were. The witch tried to push the blonde Viking boy off her, but he would not let go. They struggled with each other until she tripped, making Tuffnut fall as well, and the two tumbled down the ramp of the witch's secret tunnel together.
When they stopped, they reached another part of the tunnel where the ground was more level, where an orb of light sat on one of the rocks. Tuffnut rose to his feet with a groan, then shrieked when he saw the orb. He remembered Hiccup mention something like them in Bork's story.
The witch rose back to her feet as well, dusting herself off.
"Witch of Fireworm Island! I, Tuffnut Thorsten, am here for the truth!" Tuffnut proclaimed boldly. The witch turned, her face still shrouded by her hood.
"You stay away from me!" she demanded, her voice crackly and almost hissing. The witch side-stepped, not removing her gaze from the blonde male Viking, until she made it to the glowing orb on a rock.
"Please sorceress! If you'll let me see your wicked face, I'll leave," Tuffnut tried to beg, stepping a bit closer.
"You dare insult me!?" she snapped a bit louder, holding the orb. "Leave this place before I smite you where you stand!" But Tuffnut did not back up.
"But I came here to discover the truth. And I am not leaving until I know!" he protested, stomping closer, trying to pier under her hood to see her face. The witch tried to back away from him more. Then Tuff's attention was diverted to the orange, glowing sphere in her arms. "Woah, what are these things made out of anyway?"
The witch whipped herself further away from him. "I told you to keep away from me!" she screamed. But Tuffnut payed her outburst no mind as he tried to get a better look at the orb.
Tuffnut reached out to touch it; his fingers just making contact. "Are they some kind of energy or magical glowing…" Tuff was cut off, as the witch reeled her right arm back and hurled her fist into his left cheek.
Tuff stumbled back a bit from the blow. But he smiled, intrigued. He was impressed.
"Woah, good punch. Almost as good as my…." Tuffnut stopped himself as he really thought about how that punch felt. He had been punched, slapped, kicked, and even clubbed by a lot of different kinds of people in his eighteen years of life. He knew what it felt like to be kicked by toddlers, clubbed by elder Gothi's staff, slapped by a mild-aged man, and has been beaten in many different ways by his own sister. And he knew what being punched by an old women was supposed to feel like, and this witch did not punch like one.
"You don't punch like an old hag," Tuffnut said with a stoic face, taking more steps closer to her.
"C-come any closer and I-I'll do more than that," the witch warned timidly, backing away from him as he got closer. "I'll turn you to stone."
"You punch like my sister."
"I-I'll peel your skin off l-like an onion."
"Or Astrid."
"I'll grinned your b-bone to make my bread. I-I'll…" Tuffnut cut her off by grabbing her shoulder and, with his other hand, whipped her hood right off her head.
Tuffnut knew already, but was still shocked by what he saw. As he looked into her deep, fiery, hazel eyes.
After a heart beat or two, the witch yanked herself from Tuffnut's hold, knocking her glowing orb to the ground. Also knocking Tuff's helmet off his head. Tuffnut watched in surprise as the sphere gave a paper-like crinkle sound when it fell, before a Fireworm crawled out.
"No, come back!" she yelled to the little dragon as he started to crawl further down the tunnel.
Tuffnut looked bewildered, down at the sphere, no longer glowing whatsoever, on the stone floor. He kicked it once before picking it up. And sure enough, it sounded and felt like paper.
But before Tuffnut could even voice a word on what was going through his mind, his shoulders were pulled from behind him and shoved into the cave wall. Tuffnut's uncovered head hit the stone.
The witch stepped back, waiting a moment to see if the blonde was unconscious, but Tuff was only dazed as he laid on the floor of the tunnel. Thinking of no other solution, the witch reached into her sleeve and pulled out a small rag with a bottle. After dropping a few drops of liquid from the bottle onto the rag, the witch brought the rag to Tuffnut's mouth and nose.
Tuffnut, still spinning from the blow to the head, hardly struggled as he breathed in the bitter smelling fumes, and he eventually passed out.
The witch stood before the now unconscious boy, feeling an odd mix of annoyance, frustration, and fear. But she always felt like that when strangers came to her island. But for the first time, she felt something she hadn't before. As she looked at his face; eyes closed, face relaxed, and completely out, she looked closer at him and saw how peaceful he looked. And then she felt guilty for doing what she had to him. But she shook herself from that because she knew what had to be done.
"Forgive me. But you and your friends need to leave."
And so, after picking up his helmet and pulling her hood back on, she grabbed Tuffnut by the ankles and started to drag him down the tunnel, out of the cave, and back to her hut.
Flash Back over.
