Chapter 11: The Final Fight

As I circled the queen, I thought of possible ways to defeat the dragon.

She was ginormous, with six small eyes and huge nostrils. A crown of spikes jutted out of her head. A huge spiked ball was at the end of her tail. I noticed her small wings.

If we could get her in the air, we might have a better chance in a sky battle. I quickly decided against the idea since the other teens had only met their dragons this morning, and probably couldn't handle a battle in the sky.

I watched Snotlout's dragon fire into one of the queen's eyes. She roared in pain and snapped at him. Snotlout barely managed to dodge her attack. Then I had an idea that just might work.

I leaned forward on Toothless, I ran my plan through my head. Yes, there were many ways it could go wrong, but it was our only hope.

Toothless flew as close as possible to the queen, where Hiccup had somehow managed to fall off his dragon and onto the queen's head.

"Come on! I have a plan!" I yelled to him. He jumped on Toothless behind me and we raced off. I gathered all the riders and told them the plan. Hiccup found his Nadder and we all took off.

"Fishlegs and Snotlout cover the eyes!" I yelled. They went to opposite sides and waited for the signal.

"Twins and Hiccup go to the nose!" For once, the twins listened and went with Hiccup, and waited. Then Toothless climbed higher into the sky.

Three. Toothless stopped and stayed in midair for a split-second.

Two. She started to dive, letting out the signature Night Fury whistle.

One. Toothless let out the biggest plasma blast I have ever seen straight towards the queen's open mouth. The riders shot into their assigned spots the second Toothless's shot hit the huge dragon.

The dragon went down, screaming. The riders flew up into the sky to escape the flames, and I followed them.

The queen was still alive. I could see her breath heavily. I knew she would probably die soon, but I didn't want to take any chances. I could sense Toothless agreeing with me. We flipped in the air and dove back towards the queen.

But before we could do anything, the queen exploded. I was so caught up in the fire blinding my eyes, and trying to get out of the dive, I didn't see the huge spiked tail heading our way.

I felt a huge jolt as the tail slammed into us and the weightlessness of flying without Toothless. I saw Toothless fighting to get her balance, then realize I wasn't on her back. She looked towards me, with fear in her eyes, and started to dive after me.

I wanted to yell at her to save herself, to not go after me, but my vision blacked out before I could.

Pain.

That's all I could feel. I took a deep breath, then realized my mistake as searing pain traveled through my whole body. I moaned, and I felt hot breath on my face. Opening my eyes, I saw Toothless's green eyes staring back at me.

"Toothless!" I whispered hoarsely. She was obviously excited, wiggling around the house.

Wait.

This was my house. Toothless was in my house!

"Does Dad know you're here?" My voice was so hoarse I wasn't sure if Toothless could hear what I said. Toothless ignored me and started swinging on the rafters. I sighed and started to get up.

I pulled my blanket off and I gasped. Toothless ran to me and started to purr, obviously sad.

I looked at my left leg. From the middle of my shin up, my leg was covered in bandages. But the bottom half of my shin and my foot- was gone. I looked up at Toothless, who purred and rubbed her head against me. I winced when she touched my left arm; every square inch was black and blue. That was where the queen's tail slammed into me.

I sighed and shifted a bit. Even that small movement hurt horrendously. Looks like I'm not going anywhere anytime soon.

Toothless suddenly raced out the door. She came back in a minute later, dragging Dad in by the back of his shirt. He saw that I was awake and rushed to the bed.

"Astrid! I'm so glad you're awake!" he said, grabbing a cup and filling it with water.

He handed it to me and I asked, "How long was I out?"

"Two weeks." I spit out the water I had just drank.

"Two weeks?!"

Dad nodded solemnly. "For the first few days we weren't sure if you would make it." He put his hand on my shoulder. "Your leg was burned off, there wasn't anything we could do."

I nodded and looked towards Toothless. She looked very upset. She probably hadn't flown since the fight. "What happened?" I asked.

Dad sighed and pulled a chair close to my bed. "After you and your friends fought the beast- yes they're all ok," he said after seeing my fearful expression. He continued, "We had a hard time finding you after all the fire burned out. That black hide made it even harder." He glanced at Toothless. "When I found your dragon, she was just laying there, barely alive. I didn't see you, so I assumed-" Here he stopped, taking in a deep breath. "But then she lifted her wings, revealing you." He reached out to pet the Night Fury, who licked his hand. "Gothi was still at Berk, so we got your friends to bring you and your dragon back." Then he winked at me. "A certain someone was very anxious about getting you back."

I rolled my eyes, knowing exactly who Dad was taking about. I was about to respond when the front door slammed open to reveal and panting Hiccup. "Tuff said you were awake!" he exclaimed, before noticing Dad and going red. "Sorry, I'll come back later..."

Dad jumped out of his chair. "No, I was just about to go talk to Gobber about getting some prototypes of prosthetics!" He walked out the door and winked at me.

"What was that about?" Hiccup asked, seeing the wink. He walked over to the chair my dad had just vacated and sat down. From up close, I could see many burns and bruises on his face, but didn't say anything about them.

I glared at the door as it shut behind him. "He was explaining to me how the battle ended after I went down," I explained.

"Oh..." Awkward silence filled the room. I used my arms to push myself in a sitting position.

"Is everyone ok?"

Hiccup sighed, "Ruff broke her arm and Snotlout got a pretty bad burn but everyone's going to be fine. You were the worst by far, though."

I gave him a half smile. "That's me."

He frowned. "Are you Ok?"

I shrugged. "I will be. I'll have to make a prosthetic, and-"

I was cut off by Hiccup's lips on mine. I raised one of my hands to run through his hair and kissed him back. After a moment, he leaned back and smiled. Then he punched my arm lightly.

I grimaced and said, "What was that for?"

"That was for scaring me." Then he leaned forward and kissed me again. "That's a thank you!"