NFF-Hiccup's encounter with the god of night chapter 10
A/N:
I noticed the previous chapter error when I started this one, so now you know why it took me so long
End A/N
With Astrid released, Hiccup now had a front seat view of Toothless and Shadewrath's brawl. It was a ferocious stalemate, Shadewrath did not dare take physical form while Toothless fired round after round into his gaseous body, while Toothless became ever more frustrated at the ineffectiveness of his shots.
Knowing that physical battle would not work, Hiccup would try talking to him; Hoping that his typical pacifistic approach would prevent the harm done between two of his closest friends.
The ship battle was still approaching, cannons and Ballistae almost in range of each other.
But the ballistae were not trained on Edward, instead they were trying to find the right way to hit the battling Night furies; hoping to bring one down.
Hiccup flew in front of the confused Shadewrath, pulling his head left to be heard by Shadewrath, "Calm down! You're fine, it's just me and Toothless, no one is trying to hurt you."
His voice could be heard faintly by the berserk Night Fury; thankfully Shadewrath hadn't tried to take him out, again thanks to Toothless' barrage.
Shadewrath slowly recovered, helped by focusing on Hiccup's non aggressive actions. Hiccup himself was a nervous wreck in spite of his actions; he knew that Shadewrath could kill him easily; one fury blast enough to tear his body into ribbons from sheer concussive force if Shadewrath went for a killing shot.
Hiccup's assumption, that Shadewrath could recover, gradually began to become true; especially with the unseen help of the God of Night.
The god slowly influenced control over the rebellious Fury, suppressing violent urges. Eventually the dragon became physical, before responding to Hiccup, "H-Hello there, don't know what came over me there, shouldn't have used that shot. Are you ok?"
Hiccup was incredulous; the Night Fury that he was so worried about only cared about him? This was quite a show of empathy for which he never could have expected from Shadewrath.
Their feelgood moment was interrupted by a ballistae bolt between the both of them.
Hiccup flinched and Shadewrath's form became vague again, the anger at the shooter of the bolt reversing his earlier calm.
The god of Night had been happy with the progress of Shadewrath but stopped dead when he observed the bolt. Shadewrath's anger peaked again and he worried that the Night Fury would kill Hiccup as a result. The good news was his allegations were briefly subdued as Shadewrath turned and pursued the ship. The bad news was that Shadewrath was not in the mood to spare anyone.
Hiccup had no option to calm Shadewrath now that his rage was directed at the ship. Hiccup had no way to interrupt Shadewrath with a blast; since that would mean injuring his friend. The only option he had was to save the crew however possible. He dived after Shadewrath, determined to make sure he didn't follow through in this state of rage.
Edward was not sure what he was seeing; the Night Fury, after exhausting its first shot on the ship, became… ghostly? He had never seen anything like it before, allocating it as part of the magic that resided here in the archipelago. There had been some kind of showdown, first with one chasing the ghostly Night Fury and then another coming face to face.
This had been distracting him from the battle. He looked back and saw his target; now within the ship cannon's range. He pulled the ship around for a broadside, before noticing that the ghostly one was coming straight at the target. He ordered his gunners to standby, hesitating for fear he might hit their allies accidentally.
He saw the same Fury that had faced aforementioned ghost Fury diving right behind him, and slowly overtaking. Then, with interested eyes for the outcome of this latest stunt, watched as the initial Fury prepared the shot.
Then, in extremely mysterious circumstances, the pursuing fury overtook the charging one and then pulled up, intercepting the shot with its own. The countermeasure wasn't enough; such a powerful shot dispersed a bit, but the majority still hit the defending Fury.
Edward kept watching in horrified curiosity as the body fell, gradually transitioning to Hiccup's hybrid form.
Shadewrath was struck by turbulent, conflicting emotions. He gained the ability to turn gaseous when angry and after having used primitive magic, but the same force could not decide what to do with him now, what kind of transformation he should undertake.
The following events surprised all; Shadewrath's form started flickering and morphing into random shapes, following his huge onset of guilt and sadness. The changes became increasingly amplified until they stopped; with Shadewrath now three times the size he was before. His body evidently couldn't take the stress of such a strange warping of reality and so he fell unconscious.
Snotlout saw Hiccup fall out of the sky. The initial causes could be ignored due to the far greater threat of Hiccup's untimely death. Snotlout contemplated his options, before deciding to save Hiccup; a hint of irritation at having to save 'useless' evident even with his choice made.
He turned towards the falling dragon boy and pursued him with all speed. He couldn't make it before Hiccup hit the water, but the body floated for long enough for him to be able to rescue it. He absently internally cursed that Astrid wasn't there to see it.
He was interrupted by a flash of blue scales that took the floating boy before launching up in the air. When he looked up he saw a familiar face; Astrid herself. Although Snotlout knew she shouldn't be here, so he shouted up. "Really babe? You just can't let Snotlout embrace his heroic side, can you!?"
Astrid gave a snide smirk before replying, "what heroic side Snotlout? You mean when you're trying to get attention?"
Snotlout kept his internal agony suppressed behind a face of indifference. She was also out of range now, her original deceleration only temporary for her climb.
There was still the problem of Shadewrath's oversized body, which Toothless now watched fall to the ground; the brief catches of wind on his massive wings helping him to avoid the same fate as Hiccup. He was in two minds; helping Shadewrath would be the nice thing to do, he had no other subjects to save (Hiccup had already been rescued by the girl). But on the other side why would he? Shadewrath had forced Hiccup to throw himself in front of the shot, Hiccup was now injured thanks to Shadewrath's actions.
He had to calm down, Shadewrath's attack hadn't been intentional and now he lay still and injured, needing help. He would need something to carry the large body, but he could find it easily; especially with a boat force nearby.
Having put his mind to rest about the issue of Hiccup's assailant, Toothless first glided close to the downed Night Fury; where he wouldn't help just yet. Instead he simply uttered forgiveness of Shadewrath's attack for the sake of giving honour to the unfortunate member of his own species.
Next he would have to gain the assistance from the ship. He decided to go to Edward, since he was the only one of the 'British' forces he knew well. He landed with a loud thump on the wooden deck, in front of the steering wheel where he saw his target.
His comedic attempts to get Edward to go was both unsuccessful and unnecessary; Edward had already seen the anomaly and was contemplating whether to turn his ship. The presence of Toothless subconsciously made him pull down on the left side of the wheel to turn the ship left.
The gunners, who had initially been surprised as the ship veered to cause their targets to fall out of sightline, rushed to staff different cannons in hope to catch the enemy ship by surprise even if they were turning.
This disturbance below caught Toothless' attention; he leaned over an opening to see men rushing by. He rushed back in surprise and almost cowered next to Edward.
Edward gave a shy smile at the childish behaviour of a creature known in tales to be overly violent, before acknowledging his current proximity, "I guess this is how Hiccup feels, having his dragon close by…"
Toothless gave him a disgruntled look. Edward apologised, aware that he assumed the dragon couldn't understand him; clearly the Night Fury had a lot more intelligence than he knew about. "sorry about that, let's get your giant friend on board."
He tied the wheel in place while setting up enough cranes to lift the spectacular bulk of Shadewrath from off the ground where he landed, helped by the ship's carpenters who he summoned from below deck.
Viggo was only now recovering, and the world around him looked very different; for starters the hated Night Fury could not be seen in the skies, instead the men that had sheltered under the deck were now firing at a hideous Zippleback.
He slowly stood up and acknowledged the situation; the Zippleback was hard to kill, due mainly due to the strange flying pattern of the riders. Also, the flagship of the many weird boats coming to get him had swerved, making for a large pile of black on some soil nearby.
There were still many ships coming after him though; some with odd metal ends jutting out of the hull, glinting in the sunlight. Others didn't have such objects, instead multiple tubes stood on swivel joints, all pointed at him by strange-clothed men.
The new British fleet composition needed a new leader, and Harold was ripe to take the position; He was a disciple of Edward, having learned a lot from this man.
He though was far more interested in the capabilities of his new weapons; a gifted strategy master who had pestered Hiccup for hours about the abilities of the plasma bolt launchers while they were fitted.
Now he was ready to make Edward proud.
He was leading a merchant ship, strange choice for a flagship, but he had faith in these new weapons, in fact they were already coming into the effective range. Realising this, he turned for a broadside, exposing the rows of launchers mounted on deck, before giving an order, "find the ship in your range-finders and FIRE!"
There was a brief moment of frantic activity before the shots went off in unison.
The blue bolts came closer to their target before striking the sides with incredible force; Many of the ship's men were knocked off, destined to meet a watery grave, had a god not intervened.
Night took in the view of the first salvo and knew he must get someone to respond, for he, like his Night Fury creations, did not revel in killing consciously. Thus, with 2 of the 3 night furies inactive, He communicated with Toothless, "TOOTHLESS! I need your help right now!"
Toothless startled for a moment, before giving his reply to his creator. "What is it, God of Night? Hiccup is safe, and Shadewrath will soon be as well, is there anything else you want me to do?"
Night winced at this forced acknowledgement of his status, "you know that I don't care much for positions, but that doesn't matter now; what matters is that there are men in the freezing sea that need rescuing before they drown."
Toothless was reluctant to rescue their enemy but nodded in acceptance of the honour behind the duty. He launched off the deck to the astonishment of Edward and plucked the struggling men from the water, ignoring their surprise in favour of getting the task done.
He graciously dumped them on a nearby shore, four at a time, until finally finishing this short distraction. He came back overhead to watch how the situation had changed.
Viggo had taken the blast without falling off, and now the shear adrenaline coursing through his veins removed any semblance of tiredness from him. He did not appreciate being fired upon first and ordered his ballistae to shoot at anything that strayed into range. They attempted to bring down Toothless, even while he was clearly taking the drowning crew, but had little affect since every shot curved away; thanks to Night's protection.
Meanwhile, in Astrid's home, Hiccup woke up on Astrid's bed, still slightly moist from his sea crash. Sitting up, Hiccup investigated how bad the damage was to his stomach. Although it was huge, and blood could be seen flowing, it had been bandaged by someone Hiccup did not know; since he had never been inside Astrid's house before. He even worried for a moment he had been captured by Viggo.
A door opened, and Hiccup's Fury eyes snapped onto the newcomer, Astrid. His claws dug into the bed by instinct before he came to his senses and realised what he'd done "Thor damnit, sorry about that Astrid."
Astrid didn't answer, taking Hiccup's expectant wait as an opportunity to close the distance until she was face to face. Hiccup was getting tired of this game already, "what do you want Astrid, I'm still needed out there, even with the injury."
Astrid finally showed emotion, "NO! you stay right here. You apologise for holding me back, and maybe, just maybe, I'll let you off without more cuts and bruises."
Hiccup didn't respond for a moment; she shouldn't have been there, although she was just trying to help, his indecision was pushed aside as Astrid raised a hand to strike. Hiccup responded quickly yet casually and without resorting to anger; he grabbed the offending hand by the wrist and pulled it down to her side, before starting a plea, "Astrid-"
He was cut off when Astrid tried again to strike him, in slight desperation. Hiccup countered it again and pleaded again, with more urgency this time, "Astrid! I need to get back to-" She went off again, shouting, "you apologise, or else you don't go out." And then, astoundingly she raised her hand to strike for the third time, her wrist guards allowing her to slide out of Hiccup's grip.
The punch almost got to its destination before Hiccup grabbed it again, although this was not as perfect as it had been before. His claws cut her wrist due to the improper position. Hiccup didn't notice this and took Astrid's suppressed cries of pain as cries of hidden sadness.
With such a probable motive in mind Hiccup attempted to gain the moral high ground, "look, I am sorry Astrid, and hopefully you can fully forgive me later on, but I-"
His speech was cut off as she shook her head furiously, before blurting out the truth, "NO! I'm not sad, I'm hurt! You cut me!"
Hiccup's day was getting pretty bad, unluckily for him it was about to get worse.
Night felt the confirmation of one of those closely linked to him using magic. Having investigated this occurrence he found out it was none other than Hiccup; his compassion towards Astrid had accidentally caused special venom to be secreted from the base of Hiccup's dragonesque claws into Astrid's bloodline, where nothing special told her of what just happened.
Hiccup, meanwhile, couldn't bear the fact that he had accidentally hurt Astrid, and stayed to console her. It was then that he heard a voice in his mind, 'my boy, you've accidentally infected Astrid,'
Hiccup's mind went wild with the meaning of that sentence, 'have I poisoned her, could she die?' The god of Night thankfully gave a, 'no' and continued, 'she will most likely just become a hybrid of the first pure dragon that she touches.'
'surely not!'
'I'm afraid so. By the way, she went off.'
Astrid had enough of Hiccup's shock and decided to mount Stormfly to get away from it all, but she was interrupted before she could lay her hands on the dragon. "Astrid wait! Don't touch Stormfly!"
Astrid retracted her hand due to the strange nature of the command but regarded him with extreme suspicion. Hiccup continued, "you have to listen-" Astrid put her hand on Stormfly, "great, now you're a shape shifter. Congratulations."
Astrid, confusingly for her, did not have the hybrid features of Hiccup; since she had not lost her human form to death. Hiccup would have to coax it out of her, He came closer and instantly she responded by going into a fight stance, now with a spiny tail. Hiccup brought this up to her, "if you want proof, just look behind you."
Astrid gave a quick glance, but that was all that it took for her to notice the difference. She looked again and saw it, swaying slowly, spines extended.
She panicked.
Spines flew in all directions as Astrid tried to rid herself of her new tail. She even resorted to trying to cut it off with her axe but hesitated when it brought her pain.
Hiccup had been watching this with frightened curiosity; his wide eyes accentuating this fact. He watched until one spine came towards him, making it necessary to bring up his coat of scales to deflect it. And he winced when she came at it with her axe. Thankfully she stopped before major damage could be done.
Hiccup sighed, this was indirectly his fault, and he needed to do something to reconcile her, "tell you what, since I did this to you… *sigh* I apologise, and you can come into battle and show them your bravery"
This lit Astrid's face up, she even hugged Hiccup, "thanks Hic! Why didn't you say something like that in the first place?"
He started a smart-ass reply, "maybe, just maybe it was because you tried to punch-"
He got a well-deserved slap for his troubles.
He soon recovered and gave her the encouragement to leave before shifting into his Night Fury form and flying away. Astrid followed, her excitement to joint the battle clearly shown on her face
Snotlout was re-orienting himself, looking for a gap in the defences he could use to make a pompous entrance
Ruff and Tuff were still dodging projectiles, their ability to trick opponents almost unrivalled.
Edward was waiting by the edge of the ship; watching both Shadewrath's unbelievable form and the actions of his next-in-line leader.
Viggo was regretting his life decisions, a feeling that got even worse when he saw a night fury and Nadder flying back, as well as the circling Night Fury who had returned to his post after landing on the ship. He gathered himself, drank a large cask of mead and roared in challenge.
End of chapter