TWEEKERZ A/N:
- HOW WAS EVERYONE'S THANKSGIVING? Mine was bomb! I ate turkey, potato salad, pumpkin and apple pie, baked potatoes, cookies, ham, pizza, mac n' cheese, cheesecake, tamales, empinadas, stuffing, apple cider and menudo! Yum! Happy Belated Thanksgiving everybodyyy. And Happy Holidays!
- That aside, all right, so this time I didn't take such a long-ass-mother-fucking-time to update! I'm fucking cereal! I'm such a procrastinator I'm not even kidding. I tick myself off sometimes, agh! D:
- For all the people that have reviewed this little story and added it to their alerts/favs, I thank you all sooooooo effing much! I'm glad you all enjoy the angst and Toothless' shitty behavior towards such a sweet, sweet boy like Hiccup. It's rather strange…I usually make shitty stuff happen to innocent characters. Hah! I'm a sadist like that! Haha! Why am I laughing!
- I was listening to The Time (Dirty Bit) by Black Eyed Pease when I was writing this, if you wanted to know. I find stuff like that interesting when an author lists it, but iono, that's just me being a lamer. There are certain songs that I type to and usually the fast paced ones are the songs that really get me typing super duper fast. CUZ I'M. HAVING. A GOOD. TIME. WITH YOU!
- Anyway, thanks! Please read, enjoy, and review! Review! Ole, ole! Tamale!
Chapter 9
Hiccup sat slouched against the dirt wall, the occasional spindly twig poking into his back. His chest was heaving and his breath was coming out in short gusts of air. He brought up his hand and swiped his palm across his forehead, grimacing when random dirt clods fell from in between his fingers and smeared across his face. He felt filthy and grimy, and the sweat beading down the sides of his face and down his neck didn't add to the situation. He had been spending the better half of two hours trying to claw his way out of the ditch that held him captive, however all attempts at escape had been futile.
"Dammit!" Hiccup cursed, pounding his fist into the ground. He bit at his lip and thumped the back of his head against the dirt wall, his eyes fluttering shut as he tried to calm himself. He felt frustrated and how he wouldn't give to punch something—anything to make the circumstances better than they currently were. His food supply was also slowly dwindling; he had come down to the last block of cheese, a thin strip of dried meat and a half loaf of bread- Hiccup decided that he'd have to ration his food. Thankfully, there was still a canteen of water left and if he only ate small portions from the meat, cheese and bread, it should last him for another two days tops.
"But where will I be in two days time?" he grumbled to himself, furrowing his brow. What if Toothless never found him? What if the dragon didn't make it in time? "If he even notices I'm gone."
Hiccup's heart sunk at the thought. He tried convincing himself that there was still some spark of hope he had left for the dragon, that Toothless would eventually notice his absence and come looking for him, but the more he pondered, the less confident he became. Toothless hated him now; there was no way in hell the dragon would scout him out. Even if he did, Toothless would never make it in time.
Hiccup shook his head and swiped the fringe from his face, mussing the dirty strands of auburn hair about his sweaty forehead. He had to stop thinking like that! If he only thought negatively, who knows what kind of funk he'd get himself into? He'd lose all hope, that's for sure, and he wasn't about to give up yet.
Hiccup titled his head up and stared at the darkening sky above. Night would be falling in another three hours, give or take, and if he didn't get himself out by then, he'd have to face spending the night. Hiccup sighed and rolled down the sleeves of his tunic, a course shiver wracking through his body. The air seemed to be more frigid and chill in the shade of the ditch, and the occasional harsh gust of wind only made him colder.
Speaking of ditches…
"Who made this thing?" he whispered. The walls surrounding him were crudely made and littered with deep gouges; the walls were not entirely straight either. Hiccup ruled out the theory of a human having made it, so could an animal have? Hiccup frowned, a small shiver traveling up his spine. No, there wasn't an animal on the island that could dig a burrow this deep and this wide, unless you took the dragons into account, but none of them ever exhibited this type of behavior. When the dragons integrated with the people of the village, Stoik had implanted a strict diet for the winged creatures to prevent future squabbles: they would eat fish and other marine creatures from the reserve, with an occasional feeding of leftover deer and fowl from the mess hall. Since that ruling, and through Hiccup's guidance, the dragons hadn't stolen anything from the village, not even a single sheep! Since the village was feeding them daily, the dragons felt no need to scourge for food like they used to. Taking that into consideration, why would any of them feel the need to seize prey in the forest?
Besides, Toothless never dug 15-foot-deep craters, not that Hiccup knew of anyway.
Unless an animal bigger than Hiccup dug it.
Unless this ditch was some sort of clever trap to catch unsuspecting prey.
Unless he was the main course.
"Damn," he hissed, widening his eyes as he stared frantically towards the sky. Whatever made this ditch would surely be coming sooner or later. "Crap, crap, crap! What should I do? Should I yell or—no, that would only attract predators. Um, oh Gods, um, uhhhh. No!"
Hiccup frantically pulled at his hair, tapping his forefinger against his temple. "Think, think, think!"
Hiccup stood up then, his equilibrium a bit wobbly with only one foot to balance his weight upon, and clasped his grimy hands behind his back, leaning his back against the dirt wall. If his hunches were correct, and most likely they were, Hiccup needed to find a way to escape, and fast. Whatever dug the burrow was bound to come back and check up on it, and he really didn't want to stick around when that happened. He turned round and placed his forehead against the soil and let out a shuddery breath. Placing a hand against the wall, Hiccup gripped the dirt and looked up, determination glinting in his eyes.
He was going to get out, one way or another.
Drawing away from the wall, Hiccup placed himself at the center and further observed the burrow. He hadn't had a chance to study his makeshift prison- he had been far too busy trying to claw his way out. The soil was too loose for him to get a handle on anything sturdy enough to haul himself up, and many of the tree roots poking out on all sides of the burrow were too brittle and thin for him to hold onto. Perhaps if he were to purposefully collapse one side of the ditch…?
"Yeah!" Hiccup quipped, a smile worming its way across his lips. If he continued to gouge at one side of the burrow, he could somehow collapse that part of the wall, enough to give him a slope to climb over. If he angled this right, he could possibly escape with his life intact! All he'd have to do was get out of the way in time when that part of the wall collapsed. With hope resonating in his body, Hiccup immediately began to set to work, his fingers gouging into the dirt and soil in front of him, but before he could get any further, Hiccup halted. He immediately dropped his hands, entranced by the single trail of wispy smoke slowly trickling from a meager hole in the wall. The teen raised an eyebrow, jade eyes quivering in panic, before taking a shaky step back.
Okay, that wasn't right. Why was the wall smoking?
Hiccup landed on his backside when a bit of the wall began to crumble, dirt and soil sliding away to reveal a shallow cave roughly the length of himself. The fissure was dark, so dark that Hiccup could hardly see inside it. The young Viking shuffled backward, the heel of his only foot digging into the dirt and gaining him leverage; he tried to ignore the dread churning at the pit of his stomach. The sinuous trail of smoke continued to leak from the cavern, tainting the air with a charred odor that Hiccup grimaced at.
Toothless' sonic blasts usually smelled like that.
Just when Hiccup was going to take another step closer, a set of luminous red eyes flashed from within the fissure, painting the surrounding area a candid vermilion color. The red optics were slanted and harrowed, staring back at Hiccup so venomously that he quivered on the spot, too terrified to scream, too afraid to move. The boy's limbs began to shake, his fingers jittering at his sides as he tried to swallow down the lump in his throat. His body was shaking so badly that his teeth began chattering, the occasional nip to the tongue causing him to squeal in pain.
When Hiccup felt balmy, bitter breathe fan across him, he screamed.
Toothless' body tensed, horned ears perking up at the shrill cry resounding across the forest. The Night Fury growled, a trail of steaming smoke escaping from his nostrils and mouth. That scream was familiar, a sound that always managed to instinctively set him attentive, which explained the intuitive build-up of fumes in his chest. The dragon trudged along the forest bottom, green optics narrowed and scanning the expanse of foliage ahead of him.
Two hours had passed since leaving the village and he had occasionally stopped to pounce upon an unsuspecting rabbit, chewing the small creature to bits in that powerful maw of his, before spitting the bones out. He wouldn't be surprised to find a trail of rabbit remains painting a path in his wake, but he really didn't care if he managed to stain the forest floor in carnage. During his trek, sometimes Toothless would find himself forgetting why he was even scourging the woodland in the first place, however, that scream managed to bring his earlier reasoning to the forefront.
Hiccup.
The Night Fury snarled at the name. It was very tempting to just forget about the boy and venture back to his cavern to sleep the rest of the day away. It wasn't his fault if Hiccup somehow allowed himself to get lost in the forest—Toothless was no babysitter, to a weakling Viking child at that! The very thought of it had the dragon barring his serrated teeth, a rumbling growl welling in his chest.
Still, that scream was rather interesting. Perhaps it was Hiccup?
Toothless raised his wedged head, ears twitching as he surveyed the forest. The scream had been faint, but if he guessed correctly, it had come from the other side of the island. The Night Fury huffed, thrashing his tail against the mossy earth. The dragon was at a standstill, something he wasn't quite used to doing as of late. Usually decisions regarding Hiccup were brief and simple: leave the boy, ignore him, don't even look his way. However, there was an instinctual nagging feeling clawing at the dragon's insides, something he couldn't quite shake off no matter how much he tried to push the sensation aside.
Another shriek bellowed from the forest, and that was all it took for Toothless' decision to be made.
Hiccup's mouth hinged open as he took a staggering step back, his back pressed flush against the opposite wall. The walls surrounding him shook with a vibration so jilting that dirt clods began raining down upon him, some rather compact clumps of soil smacking against his head.
With bated breath, Hiccup watched as a set of talons emerged from the fissure, their grooved ends gouging into the dirt. They looked sharp, too sharp for them to belong to just any regular island creature. If Hiccup were on the receiving end of those claws, he'd surely be ripped to shreds. Second by agonizing second, the claws clicked and fidgeted against themselves as a set of heavy paws creeped from the crevice, leathery skin tinged a peeling blood-red. The weighted haunches thumped against the earth as the beast slithered out, and Hiccup gasped at the unfamiliar creature before him.
The dragon's snout was narrow and dotted with sharp thorny spindles; each tipped with faded bloodstains. Hiccup knew it was no time for observations, but he surmised that the dragon used those spokes to his advantage when tearing into its prey, thus the stains. Its jaw was hinged open, revealing a set of notched teeth, plumes of smoke seeping from its throat. The beast was a bit bigger than Toothless, not as big as a Nightmare, but at least half its size. Its scaly body was long and slender, almost snake-like, and its tail tapered away into a tiny point, spikes speckled about its rear extremities. The feral fiend, jagged features and all, looked murderous and lethal, the type of dragon that Hiccup never wanted the misfortune to meet.
The young Viking stared across at the creature, his back leaning against the opposite wall. His heart was literally thrashing against his ribcage, threatening to burst free—he placed a hand to his chest, hoping it would quell its frantic beating. At the movement, the dragon growled, bright orange embers trickling from its mouth. Hiccup watched the cinders fall until they mingled with the earthy ground, alighting a stray dirt clod or two.
The boy gulped. This was an entirely different sort of beast, a dragon he was unfamiliar with. Could he even try to tame this creature? If it growled at insignificant movements, what would it do to him if he tried to stand?
Hiccup didn't even have time to decide when the dragon lunged.
The force of the jump (and its landing) literally shocked the earth, sending rocketing vibrations all across the viking's small frame. The dragon's rear talons managed to scrape against Hiccup's good leg as it landed, tearing his leggings in one clean rip. The rush of cool air against his now bare leg caused the boy to shiver, however the cold was least of his worries.
Hiccup stared up at the beast looming over him, anchoring his eyes on the dragon's harrowing glower. Goopy saliva dripped onto his chest, seeping into his tunic and running down his torso. The sensation was revolting, and if that wasn't disgusting enough, the creature's hot breath reeked of rotting fish and stale blood.
Just then, Hiccup realized something.
He was going to be eaten.
He was going to die.
Alone.
Kissing his life goodbye, Hiccup kicked at the dragon's underbelly with all the force he could muster, earning a pained yip from the beast above. With speed that astounded even himself, Hiccup shimmied out from underneath the dragon and slipped away, crawling on his hands and knee towards the opposite side of the burrow.
Hiccup never got that far.
The next instant, he was on his back, a searing pain burning into the flesh of his arm. Hiccup choked on his spit and let out a muffled scream, his terrified shrieks echoing into the night. His arm hurt so bad, so freaking, freaking bad. The boy clutched the appending to his chest, hesitant eyes scanning across the length of his arm.
The entire left sleeve of his tunic was completely ripped off, and what lay underneath nearly made him wretch. A jagged gash, just about the length of his arm, trailed down to his wrist, revealing serrated tissue and rivulets of goopy blood. The blood gushed out his arm, and he realized with horror that he could actually hear it plop onto the ground, further mixing with the soil. He stared in shock at his limb, too paralyzed in fear to even move, to even save himself.
He didn't notice the beast saunter towards him.
He didn't notice how his arm was now coated in a thick layer of vermilion, too unrecognizable to even be an arm anymore.
Hiccup laughed to himself, his vision blurring. He didn't even hear the outraged roar from up above.
The sky exploded.
A/N: Hiccup! Agh! Review!
