Here is an updated, less gruesome Chapter 11. Enjoy!
High Asgard, Day 6 since hiccup's Departure
Hiccup strode up to the door of his training room, called Ragnarok, wiping the fresh blood from his lips. Asgeirr had certainly thrown that cup hard, and he wondered if his nose had been broken. But it didn't really matter. He vowed to be ready for it next time. Stopping in front of the stone walls and thick door, Hiccup noticed a few changes from the previous day. The first was that above the door hung a wooden board which had letters etched in it. It said:
DAY 1, PHASE 1.
Hiccup stared at the sign for a minute. This was to be his calendar, apparently. It made him feel so far away from the end when he realized that he would probably be staring at one of these boards every day for the next several years. The thought was disheartening, and Hiccup pushed it from his mind before turning to examine the second change. Standing on either side of the door were two golden-clad guards, who wore the standard golden helmets and mail that he had been seeing ever since he arrived in Asgard. They each held a spear, and were standing as sentinels beside the door, quiet as death.
Hiccup did not even bother to try and talk to them, for he knew they would never answer. So instead he walked right up to the door and grabbed the knob.
Prepare your mind, he thought, as he twisted the handle and stepped into the room.
Immediately the horrible stench from the day before came to his nostrils, clogging his senses. He gagged, trying to eliminate the noxious fumes from entering his body and poisoning his mind. However, it was impossible. The smell was too intense. Once more the blood red color of the room began to affect his eyes and fog his senses, making him seethe with anger and hate, recalling distant, unpleasant memories of pain and a savage growl that sounded more beast then human, he stepped forward, trying to focus. The Wolf was standing in front of him, a smile on his ugly, hairy face.
"Welcome back, Riddari," it said, almost pleasantly.
Hiccup took an uncertain step closer to The Wolf, trying to master his thoughts. His mind was already getting foggy, and simply hearing the voice of The Wolf began to drive him into the same mindless rage from the previous evening. He desperately tried to blot it out, but then The Wolf suddenly sprang into action. Faster than Hiccup could see, he slammed his sharp claws and fist into Hiccup's chest, sliding through the leather armor like it was paper. The hand pierced his heart.
For a second all Hiccup felt was the decrease of air as he became unable to breathe. Then he felt a stab at his heart, his pulse vanished. Then pain. Complete, utter pain. He opened his mouth in a silent howl of agony, as The Wolf, with his hand still inside Hiccup's chest, stepped forward and spoke once more, using the hand buried in Hiccup's chest to hold him upright.
"Feel it, Riddari," he whispered. "Feel your pulse stop. Feel the life that was a few seconds ago coursing freely through your veins begin to seep away, taking your miserable life with it. Your heart is destroyed, and refuses to continue with your brain's desperate struggle for life. Feel it as the pain increases, slowly reminding you that you are to die. Feel it seep away, Riddari. This is what it feels like to cease to be, to be gone for all eternity."
Hiccup's vision was blurred, and he could barely hear The Wolf's voice in the fading blackness of his brain. The pain he felt in his chest was slowly fading. His mind seemed to drop into a great black hole of endless time and space. Everything he loved, everything he held dear, was slipping away from him. He saw his father smiling at the door of his house, welcoming him home. He saw Toothless sitting with a big goofy dragon grin, trying to convince him to give him more fish. Fishlegs was clapping him on the back, and Tuffnut was shouting random things. He saw Berk form above, and felt the wind whistle through his hair as he flew into a red sunset. The sky shimmered, and the smiling face of Astrid filled his vision. With a sly grin, she leaned in to kiss him, and then all went black. Hiccup lost connection to his body, the pain fading away and his eyesight waning into darkness.
And Hiccup died.
Hiccup felt like he was floating through the air, on mindless clouds of time and space. The blackness of death took him, but something was changing. Instead of the starry visions, a face appeared. It was The Wolf, and it was laughing at him.
Hiccup was abruptly jerked back to life. The pain in his chest once more took hold as his mind came back to his body. With a cry of both pain and shock, he fell to the floor in front of The Wolf. His chest was now fully healed, and The Wolf had his hand on the wrist buckler, having used it to restore Hiccup.
"Remember what it feels like to die, Riddari," The Wolf growled, as Hiccup twitched on the floor. "You shall experience it often. I am here to make you feel pain, and pain you shall have. Get up."
Hiccup forgot about the horror of death, and was once more filled with mindless rage. The Wolf became like a demon that haunted his thoughts. The red eyes and yellow fangs of the beast seemed to laugh at him from every corner of his mind, and it to mock his very existence. With a cry of fury, Hiccup leapt to his feet. He had lost his mind, and the only thing remaining to him was to kill The Wolf.
He bared his teeth in a snarl similar to that of his trainer's.
"I'm going to kill you," he growled.
The Wolf smiled.
"You will try, Riddari," he mocked. "You will try."
Just outside Berkian Waters, Day 6 since Hiccup's Departure
"Uhh, guys, I think Ruffnut and I are on the wrong head."
"No Tuffnut, you're not," Astrid snapped, not even bothering to turn around and look at the twins. "You're just upside down, like last time."
"Oh." Tuffnut said, realizing that Astrid was right. "Hey Belch, turn us back again."
"I liked being upside down," Ruffnut growled, as Belch tried to turn back up. "Barf, stay upside down."
The resulting argument was too much for Astrid to handle. She sighed and lay down on Stormfly, feeling the beat of the dragon's wings as she pulsed as fast as she could towards the Bog. Her axe was digging into her back, but she ignored it, blotting out the discomfort just as she was blotting out the twins constant bickering. The air whistled past her hair, and she relaxed into the warm afternoon sun. Then something passed over her eyes and slid onto her head.
She sat up with a start, feeling her head. Instead of hitting the skin of her forehead, her hand clanged against the cold metal of a war helmet. The air shimmered in front of her, and Stormfly swooped into the midst of a battle, where flying arrows whizzed and war cries echoed. A large, menacing castle loomed in front of an army of roaring dragons, and screams of dying men filled the skies.
Stormfly roared, a savage bellow that Astrid didn't think her dragon had in her. Then she twisted through the skies, flying above the action to where the black shape of a Night Fury loomed in the fading light of day. Stormfly cruised up next to Toothless, who Astrid realized was now a massive size. He was at least triple the size of Stormfly, and he appeared to be scowling at the result of the battle below. Hiccup was on his back, garbed in dark red and black armor with a masked helm. He looked like a menacing fighter.
He turned his head, and then snapped up the mask of his black helmet, revealing a big, Hiccuplike grin.
"Still alive, Milady?" he asked.
Astrid tried to speak, but she couldn't. Instead, words came unbidden to her lips.
"Of course," she laughed back. "I'm not going to getting killed any time soon, I hope. How does it look?"
"It looks like we've got it," Hiccup replied, looking back towards the battle. "But the western wall seems to be holding stronger than the others. I think Toothless and I will need to take care of it." Hiccup snapped his mask down and looked at his dragon. "You up for this, bud?" he asked the Night Fury. Toothless roared in excitement, shaking the air around the three riders.
Astrid tried to scream, "Don't go to the west wall!" But again, she couldn't say anything. Hiccup tugged on Toothless and the pair dove into the clouds, the roar of the Night Fury echoing in Astrid's ears.
Astrid shouted something to her dragon, and Stormfly twisted and followed Toothless through the skies, swooping through the white blur of the clouds and into the thick of a battle below, where nets flew and arrows buzzed past angrily. Toothless dodged through the projectiles easily, and the wind from his beating wings blasted Astrid, who was flying right behind the Night Fury.
As had occurred in all of Astrid's previous visions, Toothless weaved his way past the combat and dove through a thick cloud. Bursting into the clear on the other side, Astrid saw the Abyss that was destined to swallow Hiccup.
Toothless roared the horrifying Night Fury scream, which caused Astrid to grit her teeth and try ignore the discomfort in her ears. Then the black dragon fired a plasma blast, which smashed against the wall and caused men to scream and shout in agony. Stormfly added a few blasts of her own to the fray, while Astrid was desperately trying to warn Hiccup that bladed weapons would soon be fired at him. But words would not come out. She was helpless, having only the power to observe as the volley of bladed missiles was fired from the wall, creating a cloud of deadly obstacles in their path.
Stormfly shrieked and began to avoid the weapons. In front of her Toothless was doing the same, but the Night Fury's large size was a disadvantage. He was doing wonderfully, evading the weapons with smooth efficiency, but then, as Astrid always saw, the fateful shot struck home.
Black blood poured from the Night Fury as he was diced into pieces by the missile. Detached wings and legs flew in different directions, and a stream of hot blood was flung back into Astrid's face. She had nothing to block it with, and it smacked into face and body with a loud splat. It felt like liquid fire had been poured into her armor, and Astrid screamed in pain as it leaked into the eyes of her helmet and onto her face. It burned like acid.
She sat up on Stormfly with a scream, clawing at her face, where the helmet no longer existed. The pain from the hot blood was slowly fading, and Astrid was being brought back to reality. Stormfly squawked in alarm, and twisted her head to look at her rider.
"Astrid!" Fishlegs shouted, flying up next to her on Meatlug. "Are you all right?"
Astrid sat very still, gasping for breath.
"Astrid!" Fishlegs shouted, concerned.
Astrid slowly turned to look at him. They were still flying over the sea towards the Bog, and no dragon army, fortress, or Abyss was in sight. She took a deep breath and calmed herself.
"I'm all right," she replied. "I just – had a nightmare."
Fishlegs didn't look convinced.
"You look terrible, Astrid," he stated. "What were you dreaming about that made you pale as death?"
"Nothing," Astrid snapped. She was getting annoyed at Fishleg's inquisitiveness, and just wanted to calm down and think over what she had just seen.
Fishlegs shook his head.
"I don't get it, Astrid," he said, as Meatlug veered away. "You've been acting really weird since Hiccup left. Was it the strange rider you were dreaming about?"
"No," Astrid replied, plowing her hand through her blonde hair. "I really don't want to talk about it, Fishlegs. We'll have Hiccup back tomorrow, and then you won't have to worry about your dumb promise anymore. So forget it."
"She doesn't want to talk about it!" laughed Tuffnut, who was still cruising behind on Belch. "She must have been dreaming about her and Hiccup!"
Ruffnut chuckled, and the twins immediately began to mock Astrid and Hiccup's romantic life. Astrid did her best to ignore it as the three dragons streaked towards the Bog. She needed to see Hiccup as soon as possible, and make sure that he never, ever, went near a battle or an Abyss.
Chapter 11 update complete! A big thanks to mh10anthony for pointing out the issues with this chapter.
NatB.
