Mousedom: Dangers & Dragons (part 10)

Hiccup wanted to club Prince Stephan. Just one swift blow to the head. What was that kid thinking? Going "self-sacrificing" at the last minute! It had been tricky enough to land in that courtyard when the trees were still pretty close to the walls, but now? Now he'd be lucky if he could even lower a rope to the foreigner.

And the fact that there was a girl holding him in a death-grip (he was pretty sure he'd lost a rib or two) wasn't helping.

Urging Toothless to land a safe distance away, which turned out to be something of a neighborhood park, Hiccup turned to the girl who still had him around the middle. "We, uh, we landed," he tried, but the girl's face remained pressed into his back. "You can let go now."

She still didn't budge.

Inwardly cursing the Prince and wondering if Stephan had actually said the girl's name or not, Hiccup sighed and managed (albeit awkwardly) to slide out of the dragon's saddle. The amazing part was staying upright as he landed on his mechanical leg, but then he supposed that the girl's feet helped with that. But she still wouldn't let go.

Hiccup tried pulling at her hands and prying at her fingers, but nothing worked. Even twisting to get a different angle only ended up with the fabric of his tunic crinkling and pressing uncomfortably into his skin.

Eventually he sighed. This was going to be a long rescue.

~~°o°~~

Not for the first time this trip, let alone today, Prince Stephan was questioning his own sanity. He'd just sent two of his new friends flying away (albeit one was screaming as they went) from the encroaching evil trees and their leader—the psycho with a sword. Meanwhile, he'd stayed behind. Unarmed. And not remotely wearing protection.

Yeah, there were hundreds of ways this could go badly.

Blondie's evil grin broadened. Clearly he knew it too. "Let's see," he said, not caring that Stephan was matching his steps to keep a distance between them. "If you face me, you'll definitely never see your family again. Now wouldn't it be better if you could see them one more time first."

"Not happening, fake prince," Stephan snapped, keeping his arms out to the sides as he continued to lead Blondie in a circle, hoping he wouldn't run out of space. "If you were actually able to defeat me, you'd prove it by giving me a sword-fighting me, man to man!"

Granted, it was probably not a good idea to taunt a psycho that has become a menace to multiple empires, but it kept the attention on him and that's what Stephan was counting on.

The evil prince of Dreamworks let out a growl of disagreement. "I could give you an entire arsenal but fighting you, man to boy," he spat, gesturing to himself and then the young prince, "wouldn't even hold a contest."

"Because you'd loose," Stephan suggested, smirking. Never had he been so happy that he'd had to deal with Princess Melody's uncanny ability to egg people on. It had always been something of an irritation when she directed her talents at him, but right now it was the best inspiration he could have asked for.

It may have worked too well, or maybe Stephan was having a little too much fun standing up against an adult, and Blondie's quick reflexes tried to kill him. Stephan had barely escaped the blade piercing his chest. A hiss escaped him as it cut through his left arm, steadily dampening his shirt just below the shoulder with crimson.

He pressed down on the wound with his right hand, glancing down to check that it wasn't too deep a wound as Blondie let out a vicious chuckle. "Well, well," he chided, and Stephan shot him a glare. "Disney royals don't bleed blue after all."

Stephan forced himself to stand straighter again, letting go of the wound which stung against the soft breeze. He was pretty sure the bleeding hadn't stopped, if anything this was probably getting worse, but there was no way he was going to let that smug expression stay on Blondie's face.

~~°o°~~

Astrid couldn't believe what she was seeing. The amount of protections this guy had on his house made Mildew, that crabby old hermit back home, seem sane. That or the two would get along a little too well. She cringed at the thought.

Urging Stormfly into the air, she took in the battle field. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were drawing fire on the north side, being idiots as usually but at least she could count on their stupidity. Snotlout was focusing efforts on the front door along with Fishlegs. And the family of psychos was battling the south. There was no sign of Hiccup or Toothless, not since he'd shouted for Astrid to cover the prince. Bad timing on that one, no sooner had she looked up when it started raining sea creatures-more specifically, eels. Which sent Stormfly into a panic.

Now that her dragon had calmed down, she was finally able to see the real problem. Inside the courtyard, a good dozen or so trees were moving-that's right moving-angrily towards the center of the yard, where two golden haired males were matching each other's steps. The taller of the two was dressed in clothes that made her grimace, but he had a dangerous air about him and the sword he held. The shorter, most definitely Stephan, looked determined but there was already a pretty bad gash on his forearm. Astrid frowned.

A strange noise came from below and Astrid felt heat pass very close to her face. With a gasp she angled Stormfly away from the wall, they'd stayed still a minute too long. Dodging blasts from the numerous laser guns, Astrid worked loose the axe she'd strapped to her back. If she couldn't get to him, she sure as Thor's hammer wasn't going to leave him without a weapon.

With a quick shout of the Prince's name, she let the instrument fall.

~~°o°~~

"Stephan!"

He looked up, barely noticing that Blondie did too, and found a battle axe quickly plummeting towards him as the blue dragon swooped overhead. He had to jump to catch it, and it turned out to be heavier than he'd thought, but it couldn't have come at a better time.

"Thank you, Astrid!" he shouted.

"Look out!" was her response as Stormfly banked hard to the left and narrowly avoided being hit by a laser beam. Stephan pulled his attention back to glimpse the anger in Blondie's lunge and barely managed to spin away from the blade.

Just a practice, Stephan told himself as he managed to block another swing. Just like an exercise against Dorian.

Except it wasn't his soon-to-be brother-in-law. And if he lost here it wouldn't result in gentle teasing. There was alot weighing on whether he made it out of there and it didn't help that he wasn't really all that knowledgeable about fighting with an ax. But I've been in situations like this before, his brain tried to rationalize. It was one of his father's favorite ways to teach-throw him a strange weapon and let him figure it out while defending himself. Then explain it.

Stephan narrowly missed the blade as it came at him again only to even more narrowly duck in time to avoid a tree branch. Apparently the enchanted trees had gotten over their fear of fire.

"You can't beat me, you little brat!" Blondie spat. "And I don't have to keep you alive to get your throne!"

~~°o°~~

Glaring at the man across from him, Stephan shifted his grip, spinning the axe in his hands as he continued to match Blondie's movements step for step. If nothing else it helped him take in his surroundings. There were still battles going on at all sides of the outer walls. Spontaneous shots of fire let him know that at least two of his new friends were still battling the lasers and robots that Vector continually summoned on his strange looking keyboard.

Meanwhile, powered by something darker than technology, Blondie's collection of foliage henchmen were still closing in. Honestly, he'd thought Queen Snow's account of being chased through the forest had been a little exaggerated when he'd first heard it. First thing he was going to do when he got back was write her a letter of apology for not believing that a tree could be menacing.

But even that thought brought some reassurance. These were trees. He was holding an axe. If nothing else, he could always force his way free of them. Now if only Blondie wasn't so good with a sword.

"Why do you want my kingdom so badly?" Stephan asked, searching for means of distraction. "You could take over numerous places out here!"

It was true, sort of. There were at least three kingdoms, two Lordships, and numerous towns and cities along with them. But the towns and cities had one thing different-elected officials and offices that only held for four years. Clearly not something Blondie would want.

"By taking your kingdom, I will gain the power of the Disney Empire," Blondie sneered. "And with that power I will invade Far Far Away-taking back the kingdom that is rightfully mine!"

"You won't get away with it," Stephan said, fully aware that they were barely five feet from each other now as he avoided reaching branches. "The other kings and queens will stop you."

The man scoffed, his buoyant hair bouncing with a toss of his head. "The newer ones are too young to take me on," he said. "And the seasoned ones are too old!"

"I know of at least one who could beat you blind-folded," Stephan snapped, his ire growing even as he thought of one particular firey redheaded princess (whom he wished was along side him at the moment). "And Mickey won't allow you to abuse the bridges between Disney and Dreamworks!"

"You think so?" Blondie growled.

"I know so."

"A mouse is no match for me!" He lunged, the sword aiming dangerously for Stephan's chest.

The young prince spun away and brought his axe down upon the blade with all the strength he could muster. To his complete shock, the sword snapped. Or, well, shattered more like. Pieces of metal littered the ground between them.

Stephan's wide-eyed gaze snapped up to see the surprise turn to rage on the fallen royal's face as Blondie surveyed the short piece of metal still attached to the gaudy golden hilt. It was still sharp, with an added jagged edge now, and leveled right at the young prince's abdomen.

Okay, the prince thought slowly, so maybe that was a bad idea.

~~°o°~~

"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted and hopped off Stormfly, spotting the scrawny boy trying to make his way back from a nearby street with Toothless following him. Her eyebrows shot up in question at the sight of a petite brunette clinging to him tightly, her accusing glare only reduced slightly when she saw the mildly harassed look on the boy's face.

But Hiccup's expression changed instantly as his eyes locked with Astrid's. "Where's Stephan?"

"I couldn't get to him," she said, looking back the direction she'd come in.

"What?!" Hiccup yelped. "Astrid!"

"I gave him an axe," the blonde defended, crossing her arms. "It was impossible to get close! Those trees are at least ten feet tall!"

A burst of flames shot up by the house that had become a battle ground, pulling the attention of the two Vikings and their dragons. Toothless let out a roar of concern and made jerking motions towards the fight.

"My dad is going to kill me," Hiccup groaned, staring at the scene in something close to despair.

"C'mon," Astrid urged, rolling her eyes at him and went to climb back onto Stormfly.

"I can't," Hiccup said, gesturing to the girl still crushing him with her hold. "She'll break another rib if we fly."

Astrid raised an eyebrow at him, slowly fighting her amusement when she realized he was serious. Then she rejoined him to inspect the younger girl curiously for a moment. With a quick movement, she'd gotten the girl to let go with a squeak. Pink faced and flustered, the brunette adjusted the glasses on her nose and the skirt she wore while frowning at Astrid.

Hiccup stared at her. "How did you do that?"

The taller girl just smiled and climbed back onto her dragon. "Let's go," she said, patting Stormfly's side. "We've got a friend to save."

Hiccup nodded, his face set with determination, but his eyes landed on the girl he'd been forced to rescue. Now that she'd calmed down, the brunette looked like one of those people who was too smart for their own good.

"Uhh... Stay here," Hiccup told her an climbed into Toothless's saddle.

Now this girl was raising an eyebrow at him, but as soon as he'd hooked mechanical foot into the stirrup Toothless was shooting into the air and he didn't hear the snort of disbelief, "As if."

Both dragon riders were so focused on the scene they were racing towards, they failed to notice the small form running after them down below.

A/N: Well... I really hope that all makes sense. Just a bunch of choppy little segments... Then again, it is battle time-and very little makes sense in battle.