Well, this took a long time to write, almost twice as many words as my other chapters. I won't keep you away from the chapter, so read on then.
Stormfly writhed underneath his weight, Hingejaw's oppressive heat bearing down unbearably on her as each shift in his weight made her wince. He bared his teeth as he leaned his face in close so that she could see the pale indents in that little white scar he had under his eye, growling, "Go on then, spit some fire at me. Try it."
His snout was inches from her's, so she did the sensible thing and lunged, biting down it. Hard.
Her jaws made a satisfying, solid impact against his as her teeth bit through his scales and skin and struck the bone underneath. Hingejaw roared with pain, jerking his head away as she squirmed and tried to weasel away, but he only clamped down harder, snarling, "You… you little bitch."
"That's not a nice way to talk to your girl," she hissed through a coating of his blood on her teeth, splattering his scales with steaming red flecks.
Hingejaw glared back at her, visage contorted in fury. Stormfly looked with no little pride at the ring of red teeth marks, each half an inch deep, bored past his scales and each with a trail of blood that slid down the sides of his face and dripped down the curve of his neck. "You think you're funny? You think screwing with me is funny?"
"Actually-" Stormfly barely had a chance to react before he bent down and sank his own teeth into her shoulder above her wing, she roared in pain and tried to kick him away but he had her legs pinned down by his own, a clawed foot around an ankle and digging into her knee. He snarled as he stepped off her and lifted her like a ragdoll with his jaws.
She grimaced as she felt a tearing, burning pain arc across her as it felt as if her own weight was tearing her apart, Hingejaw biting down hard on her, his teeth shearing through muscle and sliding against bone. She felt her own blood, hot and viscous that drew long lines down her scales, her eyes became clouded with tears as she affixed his, seeing in them a furious, burning hunger and fire, and she spat vehemently, "You want me to beg, huh? To sob and beg for mercy? Is that what turns you on?"
Hingejaw gave a grunt and threw her to the ground, her blood dripping onto the snow where each sanguine drop melted through the pristine powder into its own little crater. "Yes, it is."
She tried to struggle to her feet to at least look him in the eye but he knocked her over, pressing down on the jawbite around her shoulder, making her snarl and twist in pain. He grinned, "I want you to know, that I'm going to enjoy every moment of making you scream."
Stormfly narrowed her eyes at him, or rather at a point in the sky next to his head. And she said, slowly, deliberately, "Screw you."
A tiny whistle, almost inaudible at first, but climbing steadily to a low scream. Hingejaw looked around in confusion, before his face slackened in realisation as the Nightfury's roar came to a crescendo.
Hingejaw began to spread his wings to take flight but it was already too late. A soft boom and an explosion later, a blossom of smoke and blue light exploded on Hingejaw's back, sending him rolling away into the snow and colliding against the trees on the side of the Glade.
Stormfly smiled and nearly cried for joy, a soaring feeling in her chest as if her heart wanted to break free. He came for me, he actually came for me.
Toothless' shadow spread its wings as it tried to slow its descent, but he obviously couldn't fly solo. He spiralled out of control, tucking his wings in at the last moment as he smashed a hole through the canopy, landing in a shower of snow and broken branches.
A smile, and she laughed, despite circumstances, "Nailed the landing."
His mouth still stung and the acrid taste of fire hung on his tongue as he disentangled himself from the wreckage of broken canopy and with a shiver he shed a coat of snow and needles. He looked around, a clearing in the forest, walled off, smoke curled up from Hingejaw's form at one side as he-
There she was.
Stormfly was on the ground, a ring of toothmarks bored deep into her right shoulder from where burning red blood dripped and struck the snow, mixing with the colourful wildflowers trampled under her scales. She tried to get to her feet but one of her legs was bloodied at the knee and couldn't seem to straighten out properly as she fell face first into the snow, scrabbling back up to her feet.
His vision seemed to tunnel in on her, the bloodied and battered Dragon just meters away, the world seemed to melt away, the trees, the snow, the sky and the smoke all faded away. It was just him, her, and the distance between them.
She called out in a hoarse voice, "Toothless!"
He choked at the sound as he loped towards her side, beginning to babble even before he reached her side, "You're hurt! Did he do this to you? There's so much… so much blood, what do we do? What do we-"
Stormfly pressed her crown against his, smiling, "You came for me. I didn't think anyone would, but you came for me."
"Well I uh-"
She pulled away and he realised that her teeth were filmed with blood. The Dragon in front of him had scales that were bruised and beaten, one of her legs was held at an angle and blood coated her front as she struggled to stay afoot. She was infinitely beautiful, even now, perhaps more so, fierce, adamant, inextinguishable as she pressed her head against his.
"You came for me."
"I- of course I did."
He felt a flutter as she rumbled a deep, contented growl of contention as she leaned against him for support.
"Touching."
Toothless turned his head towards the snarl. Hingejaw watched them from a distance, his beautiful, viridian and scarlet scales blackened and charred, thin lines of smoke rising from his spikes as he rose. He spread his wings and shed a coat of ash, snarling, "Clipped me good, Runt. Now if you don't want to get your throat gouged out, I suggest you back off and walk away."
He growled, "You promised me you wouldn't hurt her."
HIngejaw laughed without the usual smooth, crystal voice of his, a harsh and mirthless sound rasped from his throat. "Promise? You're such a naïve little kid, I 'lied', you know that's a thing?"
Toothless' teeth shot out with a dry sliding sound. "I'll kill you, I'll bleed you dry for what you did."
Hingejaw stood adamant. "The only promise in this world is that the strong eat the weak."
His crown of blackened spikes rose. "And I eat the strong."
As he reared back to charge, Toothless glanced to Stormfly. "So what's the plan?"
"Aren't you the one rescuing me?"
"I didn't really come here with a-"
A roar.
"How about this, we round this bastard up and we go home."
"Sounds like a plan."
Toothless leaped over Stormfly with a single beat of his wings and collided with a charging Hingejaw, the larger Dragon's weight stopping the Night Fury dead in his tracks and falling to the snow. As he reared his head back to clamp down on Toothless, Stormfly shot a blast of white hot flames that seared his side, before she lunged forward and sank her teeth into his haunch.
He roared and backpedalled furiously, Toothless leaped up against and tried to latch his jaws onto the larger Dragon's throat as Stormfly bit down harder on his leg, trying to pin down his foot with her own claws. He yowled in pain, falling on his side and crushing Toothless under him, before sending the Nigthfury flying back with a kick to the chest and a three clawed scar on his scales.
Stormfly relinquished her bite as he lunged down at her, bobbing to the side as he bit again and again, jaws closing over empty air. Her eyes widened in surprise as one of his legs shot out and swept her's out from under her, making her tumble into a crumpled heap on the ground.
He stood over her, she tried to push him off but he savagely stamped down on her already wounded knee. "You like to run? You like to fight back?"
He twisted his claw and her leg twisted sharply to one side with an audible snap. She grimaced and bit her tongue to stifle a scream, as he hissed she felt hot blood and spittle against her neck, "Here we are again. Don't you get it? There's no other way this could possibly end, you are my property! You're mine!"
A roar as Toothless tackled Hingejaw from the side, slamming hard into the intimidating Dragon. The Night Fury reared his head back, his green eyes wild with fury and a new scar along the side of his cheek and down the side of his neck, dark blood almost inscrutable against black scale. He puffed up his chest, there was a sharp hush, like the forest was silenced and the air was flushed from her lungs as the Night Fury opened his jaws and a blue glow appeared at the back of his throat. She heard a whistle, like a faraway scream.
Hingejaw growled and pounced, biting into black scales and shearing through bone and muscle. A roar. She called, "Toothless!"
He looked at her, his face a contorted visage of fear and pain as Hingejaw pushed him down to the ground, pinning him down with a single claw planted firmly on him. She tried to push herself up with her wings but her right knee screamed out with a blunt, fiery pain that made her spines stand on end, making her collapse and gasp for air. "Toothless!"
"J-Just, don't worry, I got this under," he gave a strangled bated rasp as Hingejaw leaned down. He finished in a voice several octaves higher, "-control…"
Hingejaw glanced back at her and she could almost imagine the twisted pleasure radiating off him. "This one's for you."
His jaws opened and she saw his chest lit from within by an inner glow that travelled up his throat to his maw, angled straight at Toothless' face as he tried to pull away.
Not him, don't…
He wouldn't hurt him. Stormfly wouldn't let him.
She shifted her foot under her body, nearly falling apart as she felt an intense flame arc up her leg, in an instant the world seemed to become hot and fetid, the desperate pounding of her heart and pumping of her blood in her veins the only sound to her as she tried to stay afoot. Hingejaw puffed up his chest and pulled his head back.
No. White spots appeared in her eyes as she took a step, the pain was making her gasp and stagger for breaths she couldn't catch. As she stumbled backwards she felt a dull scraping in her broken knee as mangled bones tried to fit back together.
Stormfly looked up and saw Hingejaw, without a tint of guilt as smoke began to curl from the corners of his mouth. The ends of her's curled and her jaw set in defiance as she looked. "Not him. Don't you dare."
Hingejaw hissed around a mouthful of smoke, "I've got to make an example to the little lady. Hope you understand."
Toothless tried to claw him but he steered his neck high out of the way, leaning his weight upon the little Dragon again. "Glad we could come to an understanding."
"There's no need to do anything drastic, if you kill me, two-legs will come looking. They'll find Stormfly and once she says your name-"
"That's the thing. They'd have to find her first, and I plan to keep her very safe once we're done here. Very safe."
As the Nadder drew a great breath in to stoke the coals of a flame, Toothless tried to do the same but every little sliver of air in his chest he tried to store up for a bolt of fire was forced out by the pressure on his ribs.
Hingejaw's chest and throat swelled in size and the cracks between the scales began to glow orange and red. Toothless' struggling became more frantic, he lunged and bit frantically at the legs and scales that were just out of reach, trying to force the insurmountable weight off of him. "Don't-"
A deep growling in Hingejaw's chest as he reared his head back like a snake poising to strike, the underside of his jaw seeming to smoke as the frost on his scales burnt off in thin trails of steam.
I guess this is it. It was a good run… I guess.
Toothless was afraid, he didn't deny it, getting burnt to death wasn't number one on his list of ways to die, which he'd hastily thought of just moments ago. Especially by a Nadder, they had particularly hot flames.
He closed his eyes and looked away, his cheek pressing into the cool snow. At least he should relish the cold before the heat came.
But it never did.
Instead there was a crunching of bone and a strangled gasp. Toothless opened his eyes and saw an amazing thing, the shadow of two Nadders blocking out the Sun's glare above, one with its teeth on the other's throat.
Stormfly had her jaws wrapped around Hingejaw's throat, biting down and making his face contort in pain. She'd trudged more than a dozen metres with one of her legs broken and dragging uselessly behind her. She snarled around the muscles between her teeth, "Not him. Don't. You. Dare."
Hingejaw's eyes widened. Toothless watched in wonder as she twisted his neck in her grip sharply to the side and the fire he'd already primed loosing and carving an arc of snow into water and slush and burning the trunks of a line of trees black. She advanced again, making Hingejaw's grip on Toothless slip off as she forced his neck down. His legs tried to kick her and grazed her side a few times and his wings scrabbled uselessly on her scales.
Stormfly bit down harder, drawing thick Dragon's blood that mixed with the melted snow, one of his claws collided with her side and drew a thick set of scars into her flank to add to the list, but instead of flinching in pain she proceeded another step as she forced his neck lower and he was now stooping, trying to shake her vice off. His jaws snapped uselessly at a target that he could never reach with her grip on his neck.
She growled a wordless word that dripped with emotion, betrayal, hate, defiance, love. Hingejaw landed another kick, before she slammed him into the snow, tightening her bite as he made a strangled face and gave a snarl, "I'll… I'll kill you, bitch."
She bit down again and his face strained for air, soon he could only manage a choked whine, "You…"
And soon he couldn't say anything, instead just kicking and writhing weakly in the snow and slush, kicking it around as Stormfly stood tall over him, face affixed in savagery as she forced the life out of him.
Toothless got up, watching warily as Stormfly made a wild, feral noise like a wolf and Hingejaw's struggling soon slowed to a halt, his strangled gasps disappearing altogether, but she did not relent.
He called softly, "Stormfly, let go, you've won."
But she didn't seem to hear, in fact she tightened her jaw's grip even more, forcing more blood out onto the snow, making Hingejaw's body jerk spasmodically.
"Stormfly."
Her eyes glanced up at him, before flicking back down.
"Stormfly!"
Stormfly seemed to register his words at long last, her bite slackening as looked down, in a mix of horror and fierce pride, at the neck her teeth were buried in, at the blood that flowed over her chin. She let Hingejaw slide out, landing in the white and red, stepping back as the blood that wasn't her's mingled with the blood that was, sliding down her neck and across her chest.
She looked up at Toothless, her eyes wide, her appearance scarred a thousand times and her beautiful scales shrouded in red. She watched him, one moment the image of a proud predator over a fresh kill, the next shocked at what she'd done. "I didn't… I just lost control…"
Toothless slid up to her side, whispering, "It's okay."
"I… I didn't mean to, I swear, I was just so- so…"
He looked down at Hingejaw, lying on the ground, chest rising in sporadic pants. Then back at Stormfly, shaken.
Toothless whispered, "Let's go home."
Welp, this arc is coming to an end in probably a chapter or two, we finally got through this major scene and the climax in the story. Leave a review on what you thought, and until next time, adios.
