Attention:
This chapter is intense
Disclaimer: I own nothing except the antagonist
The Banshee lay in the middle of the aperture, the dim light shining on its back. Its breathing began to increase in speed as it came back to consciousness. Its eyes burst opened, growling at the empty sight for food. Though not all energy was restored, enough was enough for retaliation. Lifting up off the ground, it launched itself and clung to the ceiling to peek its head through the hole. It dashed through it, flying up and out into the daylight. The sky was covered with an overcast of dark grey clouds; though it was mid afternoon, the faint sunlight did no harm to the Banshee's fragile skin.
This was a once in a life time opportunity to hunt during the day, and a once in a life time hunt for a one of a kind prey.
Hiccup mounted Toothless right outside of the Haddock house and the steps to the Great Hall. Astrid was following him, seemingly still worried about his plan.
"…but you can barely walk." She continued.
Hiccup on top of Toothless now, "I don't have to walk," he pointed to Toothless indicating that he'd stay on him. "I just need to pay attention."
"You need your rest, Hiccup." She kept on going.
"I thought you were fine with this?" he asked feeling a little betrayed.
"I am, but… your plans haven't always been… thought out straight."
"Have they ever failed?"
"Define fail? Because a Viking's fail and a Hiccup's fail are two completely different things." Hiccup ended up smiling at Astrid.
"Don't worry; I'll be fine; I promise." He patted Toothless' head then looked over to the others nearby. "You guys ready?"
His friends all mounted on their respective dragons nodded their heads, Stoick on Thornado nodded his head, and Astrid—now on Stormfly—nodded as well.
The Banshee swooped down and landed silently on the ground right behind the Haddock house. It perked its ears looking for the right heart beat.
Toothless turned his head towards the house, growling with his teeth bared. He jostled Hiccup in doing so and Hiccup gasped in surprise.
"What's wrong with him?" Tuffnut asked stupidly.
"Maybe he's excited." Ruffnut gave an opinion.
"No, he senses something." Hiccup replied.
Over a hundred heart beats could be heard just on the other side of the house. A large group no less, probably over half of the population; the Banshee reasoned. However many there where, it wasn't faltered by their numbers. It only needed to hear one familiar sound, just…
There!
The closest one!
The Berkians started to shuffle out of the Great Hall and crowd around the riders. Many wanted to see the plan succeed, everyone wanted all of the riders to come back unscathed. Some actually wanted to see this Banshee up close, but knew that probably wouldn't happen.
The Banshee climbed the house and on to the roof. It slithered across it until it perched itself on the carved out wooden dragon head overlooked the crowd…
And its prey
A scream echoed off of the crowd and all heads looked up; Hiccup veered his head around and glanced up as well. His eyes widened and his heart began to race. Everyone's eyes were wide with fear, their hearts too racing a mile per second; no one thought they'd actually see the creature, let alone see it during the day.
Its shadow cast itself over the faces looking upon it; black leather-like wings attached to boney arms with three long, sharp claws at the ends. Its feet sported the same, allowing it to launch itself where ever and whenever it wanted to at unthinkable speeds. Its teeth, white, sharp fangs hanging out over its lower jaw were the most vibrant of its colors. Its chest rose on the intake of air and lowered when air wasn't needed.
Nobody would have a peaceful sleep for awhile.
The Banshee moved its eyes across the crowd of people further in the back, then up to the ones on dragons closer to the front before finally landing them on its target. It just waited there, staring at Hiccup, lingering until he turned his eyes away…
All eyes were ether glued to the Banshee or bounced between Hiccup and the creature; Stoick doing just that.
"I-I thought, you know, th-that that thing comes… at night… or something, yeah?" Tuffnut blurted out, his thoughts getting all tangled.
"It must be desperate." Astrid said.
"For what?" Snotlout asked. Astrid glanced down at Hiccup,
"For food."
Stoick furrowed his eye brows as the reality hit him. He already knew, but when it came time for the situation things were different.
"Hiccup" he whispered, looking down from the Banshee to his son. The call made Hiccup turn his eyes away from the Banshee and towards his father. Wrong move
In the blink of an eye, the Banshee lunged downwards towards Hiccup and Toothless. If Hiccup were by himself he would have been doomed, but Toothless was here. He jumped out of the way right before the Banshee's claws grasped Hiccup, they instead clutching thin air. Hiccup screamed as well as everyone else. The Banshee landed in the spot where Toothless use to be, Toothless now right in front of Snotlout and Hookfang, soon left the spot and pounced again towards Hiccup. Toothless and Hiccup took to the skies immediately, the Banshee following just above the ducked heads of the crowd and the riders. It shrieked its sound wave at Toothless, stunning him for a while, but Toothless ended up descending back down to the village. Hiccup and Toothless weaved in and out of the houses, no further than ten inches from the ground at some points. The Banshee was close behind them, their efforts at making distance failing.
Toothless twirled to get momentum from his turn around a building; the Banshee, coming from the left of them, dove inwards and barely scrapped its claws over Hiccup's back.
Hiccup screamed and directed Toothless back towards the crowd and his friends.
Their heads lifted only to be brought back down again as Toothless barreled down just above them, the Banshee in pursuit.
"Hiccup!" Stoick yelled in terror.
"Destroy the nest!" Hiccup shouted. He and Toothless were doing figure eights trying to keep the Banshee of their tails. From ground view they were all over the place, flying at who knew what kind of speed.
"Hiccup NO, you need help!" his father hollered back.
"DESTROY THE NEST!"
"But—"Astrid tried but was interrupted.
"DESTROY THE NEST!"
"Don't worry, I'll try and help. You have to go do your part!" Gobber shouted to them, approaching from within the crowd and shooing Stoick and the other riders off. Stoick looked down, his eyes darting from left to right. He quickly looked up at the other riders.
"Come on let's go! The quicker that nest is destroyed the quicker we can help Hiccup!" Stoick demanded, he and the others taking off and rushing towards the mountain.
Stormfly turned her head backwards towards the Banshee growling. Astrid pushed her forward,
"No, not yet." She said. Looking over her shoulder it seemed all the dragons were doing that.
The figure eights and head spinning air loops were doing any good for Hiccup. They had to change their tactics and quick.
The Banshee dashed towards them yet again, this time landing on the target. It grabbed a hold of Hiccup' waist via claws and lifted upwards. However, Hiccup's grip on Toothless' saddle was stronger and the foot hold from the latch on the left pedal kept his foot in place.
The clump of dragon, Banshee and Viking came barreling down once again towards the crowd, narrowly them before veering upwards. This time the villagers screamed and ran off in multiple directions.
"Toothless!" Hiccup screamed as the vice-like grip of the claws around his waist were starting to hurt. He made a stupid move releasing his hands from Toothless' saddle bar and trying to peel the claws away. This only furthered the Banshee's success at getting its prey now that Hiccup's left foot was the only reason he was still on Toothless.
Toothless growled and curled downward sharply, flipping over so that the momentum would fling the Banshee forward. It did, and because the Banshee didn't want its prey to lose any blood, it let go of its hold and flung forward; flipping before catching itself. Toothless shot a plasma blast at its back, flinging it unwillingly towards the ground. It screeched from the burst and landed with a thud on the decks, crashing through the upper level and landing down on the lower one.
It shook its head, looking up and seeing the Night Fury get away with its food. It launched upwards, but shrieked as it was pulled backwards. A tether was wrapped around its thin frame, securing it from ascending any further. Glancing down, Gobber was beside the cannon with the end of the tether attached to it. The same cannon was used by Hiccup to catch Toothless when the dragon wars was still going on; back when he was an outcast. A few adjustments made and it did the job nicely.
"Hahaha, you ain't going anywhere!" shouted Gobber happily. The Banshee narrowed its eyes, still in flight, and shrieked its sound wave down towards Gobber and the cannon. Gobber stiffened and dove off to the side, the cannon getting blown apart from the frequency.
The Banshee flew away, twirling to free itself from the rope—it falling freely to the ocean—away it went to catch its prey.
Gobber laid there on his back looking up into the sky.
"Aw, crud." He said.
To be continued…