Astrid Struck

Chapter 9
The End

At the last second Toothless pulled up and avoided the shiny tip of the dragon's talon entirely. Now its entire stomach was open to attack, which Toothless took full advantage of and tore a few deep gashes in the tough under belly of the giant. Why had I doubted Toothless any ways?

The entire body of the thing burst into flames however and we were forced to descend quickly below it. The flange at Toothless's rear end didn't seem to have the desired effect, so I looked back as we twirled out of control to the burnt remains of it. Directly behind it the Monstrous Nightmare descended towards us.

Streams of blood ran from its stomach and raced past myself and Toothless's face, and I realized that the wounds would likely be fatal. I only had to repair the flange and save our lives.

Crawling back Toothless as quickly as I could I tore off a sleeve of my shirt and made my way back to it. The heat of the beast behind us made it nearly unbearable to continue forward, but in search of my life I did.

My face felt as though it was slowly being turned into a mushy mask rather than my natural skin, and I feared that I'd burst into flames if I got any closer as I arrived at the very end of Toothless's tail. Working quickly, I took the detached piece of cloth and wrapped one end around the containing lower bracket. I then took it up to the upper and pulled it tight in the center.

I looked down and saw the city quickly approaching and I knew that there was no avoiding it for the either of us. Buildings and streets drew ever closer us, and I had to finish this now.

I saw faces looking up at us from below fearfully as we fell directly towards them. Some ran, others knew there wasn't much of a change to get out of the way and stood still hoping and praying.

Instantly returning to my work and tightening my grip on Toothless's thin tail, I pulled the longest end of the cloth towards the opposite. Looping one I threaded the other threw it and instantly turned away to alter the lever into the correct position: down.

Finding a building directly at Toothless's face I grabbed onto his side with my hands and jumped forward with my feet towards the lever as it hung over the edge of his side. Falling below him back I knew that I would not be able to make the jump, but what else was I to do. Even if I did hit it we may not be able to avoid the collision anyways.

Beginning to see the bottom of his stomach I reach my right hand out towards the loop of a lever. My fingers and everything yearned for it hopefully, and at the very tip of my longest finger I felt the metal make contact. I latched on and pulled it down.

The twirling stopped and we began to level out forcing my finger to strain at the holding of my entire weight. I saw the giant dragon behind me strike the ground violently sending masonry and dust everywhere in the darkened nighttime city scape.

It was likely dead, but I realized that I had lost connection with the flange sending me spinning to the ground. Buildings raced past me on each side and the ground neared ever so quickly, and I knew that there was likely no escape from the fate that had been given me.

My feet struck the ground first and their joins were forced up into my pelvis before I was vaulted back up into the air violently in a cycle motion and landed on my heals stopping my forward momentum. Flopping to the ground one last time with my face I felt the pain that enveloped my body for the first time in full with a subsiding amount of adrenaline.

My leg felt as though it has been sliced into thousands of pieces and my entire body felt as though It had been landed upon by a giant boulder.

I would not have to live with it very long though, as everything went dark.


Astrid raced over to Hiccup's side and assessed the wounds that had been inflicted all over his body. His eyes were closed and blood oozed freely from his leg where the bone has snapped out. He was still alive anyhow.

He dropped herself down onto him and pressed down upon his leg just above where it was open. "You're going to be ok, Hiccup." She told herself reassuringly as she considered his face.

She leaned towards him and placed her lips onto his, and then kissed him. Blood taste filled her mouth, but she didn't care at the time.

People arrived there soon after and began to tend to his leg with her still applying pressure until somebody took charge and took him away. Only then did Astrid allow herself to cry.

Hopefully he would survive, but either way he'd never be able to walk again. Hopefully for Astrid's sake he'd find a reason to continue on with life.

Thankfully, he did.


A/N: Well, that's it. I really didn't have the time to write this chapter, but I did it. Please review and if you catch any problems please let me know about it.

Thanks,
Cornys