AW#10
The mountain loomed up in front of us, jagged and forbidding. Even from the air I could hear the dragons chirring from inside the mountain. It sounded like a warning, they knew we were coming!
Well really we sound have expected that, how could I not, after living with them an entire winter. Dragons were smart, at least over all. Some seemed about the same level as a dog, while others I thought could give people a run for their money, like Toothless for example.
A cloud of dragons burst from all the nooks and crannies of the mountain, like a flock of birds. I was just like that night months ago when all of this got started, they were fleeing. Which meant that the queen was coming. My stomach churned at the thought. 'Get it together Astrid, you can do this'. The dragons from the mountain continued flying, they didn't even really pay attention to us at all.
I watched Hiccup and Toothless wing their way up to the peak of the mountain. 'come on Hiccup, that thing is going to be coming out of that.' I called the rest of the dragons back with me, wanting to keep a little distance from the rocks that were sure to come showering when the thing burst out. The black blur that was Hiccup and Toothless was now circling the peak of the mountain, and that made me so very nervous.
The burst of smoke, flame and pulverized rock exploded from the mountains side, just below me and I saw the giant head begin to take shape from out of the cloud. I could vaguely hear Hiccup screaming something, but couldn't understand what.
A blue bolt of Toothless' flames hit the monster in the head….'Ahh, so that was it.' I signaled the dragons with me to attack. The thing roared as it was hit in the head by multiple dragons flames all at one time, the blast of the lone thunderdrum that had joined our motley gang seemed to cause a lot of confusion to the monster. It cause a good deal for some of the other dragons as well. The Gronckles in particular seemed very sensitive to the noisy blasts, but mostly as long as they stayed out of the direct blast most were okay.
The creature roared its displeasure, and reared up through the side of the mountain snapping at anything that might be close. Toothless hit it several more times while I led the changewings and other nadders in together to spray the flaming acid at its face, trying to pull up in time to avoid snapping giant jaws and the resulting explosions of acid and flame. The gronckles spit their lava like flames on the top of the monsters head some of it hit where the acid was still burning, and there were some new explosions where the lava hit unburned acid.
The stench was awful, it smelled like burning hair and gave off an acrid smelling smoke, which made my eyes sting. I didn't know that dragon skin could burn!
The thing continued roaring and was now spewing a noxious flame at everything as it stretched rock encrusted wings out and rose into the air to chase its tormentors. Most of the dragons fled at that point, taking off into the sea stacks for their meager protection. Toothless continued firing at it and the monster seemed to decide that he was the biggest threat. Stormfly was hesitant, obviously wanting to help Toothless, but being quickly outstripped in speed.
"Up Up Up Stormfly, we can hide in the clouds and try an ambush from there." I patted the beautiful blue scales under me while Stormfly chirred at the remaining dragons. There were 6 dragons still following, I was happy to count 2 changewings in that number, they just might give us the explosive power that we needed.
I could see the monster of course, but couldn't see Toothless and Hiccup and looked desperately to find them coming under us.
"Perfect! Come on guys, aim for the wings as she comes under!" The dragons didn't really respond as all their attention was on the huge monster heading our way, even if they hadn't heard they seemed to have the same idea as I did, wait until the monster was under us and then pour everything we had on it. "Go!" I screamed, trying to encourage all the dragons to scatter before the queen knew where we were. Hiccup seemed to have spotted us and was coming back around, while the monster thrashed in pain, and added Toothless' flames to the explosions as the rest of the dragons scattered.
The monster was struggling to keep in the air, its wings were on fire! It was angry though, and I could see it inhaling to flame some more. Fear gripped me as I realized that Stormfly and I were in range. "Up, higher!" I yelled, as Stormfly seemed to have the same realization and began squawking in panic, she listened, thankfully. I looked back to see Hiccup flying towards the things face!
"Hiccup! No!" I felt my heart in my throat! I couldn't breathe!
Toothless fired right into the things mouth igniting all the gas that was building in its throat. The small black streak that was Hiccup and Toothless skipped by the teeth and disappeared to the other side of the things head.
The monster was panicking and thrashing. I saw its entire body expand from the gas exploding inside it. It gave a groan and tried to extend its wings to slow itself down. The wings that had been burning all this time gave way under the extra strain.
The explosion was huge.
Stormfly and I were buffeted by the wind created by the explosion. It was hard to stay on Stormfly's back much less keep my orientation straight, so I just lay against Stormfly's back and held on as tightly as I could, while praying to the Gods that we would all survive this.
*
*
I think that I must have passed out. I am on the ground with my face pressed against the rocks and something sharp against my shoulder. I slowly push myself up, feeling the stiffness and heaviness that came from laying in one awkward position for too long. It was grey and smoky all around me and I dizzily wondered where Stormfly was.
"Stormfly?!" I called into the murk. "Stormfly! Where are you?"
I heard some shuffling near by, and suddenly wondered if it was wise to be announcing my presence. Despite most dragons being quiet friendly when not under the influence of the queen, not all were, and some were outright vicious, though not many, I doubted there would be any people close by.
Stormfly's distinctive blue scales and spiked fringe materialized out of the smoke and I felt my stomach unclench in relief. "Stormfly!" I cried joyfully running to her. "Do you know where Hiccup and Toothless are at?" Stormfly tilted her head and chuffed at me uncertainly, she seemed nervous.
Stormfly turned and started walking into the smoke, and looking back at me expectantly. Not knowing what else to do I followed her. What I thought was smoke, was not, or at least not just, it was also fog. I wiped my face when the droplets started dripping from my hair to find that the water wiped away was pink, which made me shudder in revulsion. "Liquid dragon guts in my face… fantastic!" I muttered to myself sarcastically, and turned my attention back to following Stormfly and making sure I didn't breathe through my mouth.
There were some dark shapes looming in the fog ahead of me that turned out to be a group of our dragons from the Island. I smiled to see some of the familiar faces and gave several affectionate scratches as I move though the group. My happiness at seeing my dragon friends was immediately dulled when I realized what they were in fact guarding.
Toothless was wrapped around Hiccup very protectively, and Hiccup appeared to be unconscious, at least I hoped so. As I got closer and knelt next to him I could see that he was still breathing, even if it was shallow and irregular. I couldn't help but gasp and fight the urge to vomit when Toothless unwrapped his wings. Hiccup's left leg was a bloody mess, and I had little doubt that he would keep it, and certainly not under my care. There was a large bruise on his face and surmised that something in the explosion hit him and he fell off of Toothless… The poor dragon was crooning at me, and I recognized the dragon form of guilt on his face.
"Oh Toothless… you tried to catch him didn't you?" I asked rubbing a hand over his snout in an attempt at comfort. Toothless warbled a reply that I took to be a yes.
The first step had to be getting the bleeding to stop, and then I was going to take him to Berk. Getting there with a dragon that couldn't fly and a severely injured Hiccup was going to be hard.
I swallowed hard as I tightened the belt another notch around Hiccup's leg, and wrapped another blanket around him. I was going to fly with Hiccup on Stormfly, a nightmare I called Jorma was giving Toothless a ride on her back, he looked rather disgruntled about the whole thing, she seemed quite pleased.
I was leading us back to Berk. I had told Hiccup that I wanted to go home, this is not the way I wanted it to happen. I held Hiccup tighter and tried halfheartedly to convince myself that the stinging in my eyes was just the wind.