Hey guys, I'm BACK!
Road Trip was so much fun but I am very happy to be back writing
Disclaimer: I do NOT own HTTYD and all rights go to DreamWorks Animation.
Chapter 11: The Calm Before the Storm
We didn't have to go far to reach Astrid. She was only halfway through the forest when we spotted her. Toothless caught her just as she jumped over a log.
"Oh, Great Odin's Ghost! Oh, this is it! Ahhh!" she screamed as Hiccup and Toothless carried her off the ground and dropped her off at the top of a really tall tree before they themselves settled on it while Stryka and I hovered near them.
"Hiccup! Get me down from here! Zenna! I swear to Thor I'll make sure your parents and the whole village know about this!" she shouted at us angrily.
"You have to give us a chance to explain!" Hiccup pleaded with her.
"I am not listening to anything you two have to say!" Astrid retorted.
"Fine with me. See you in the afterlife!" I had to admit that this was rather amusing and pretended to leave.
"Zen!" Hiccup sounded desperate. "I'm kidding!" I laughed with Stryka.
Geez, can't a girl have a little fun every once in a while?
Hiccup tried a different tactic.
"Then I won't speak. Just let me show you." He said to the blonde girl dangling on a tree branch for dear life below him.
"I'd do what he says. Unless you wanna stay stuck there for the rest of your life or worse, I'd get on the saddle with him." I said to Astrid, nonchalantly reclining back on the saddle.
"Please, Astrid." Hiccup pleaded again. I watched Astrid as she struggled to decide.
'Take your time…We're in no hurry…' I thought, grinning deviously.
Finally, Astrid gave in and climbed onto Toothless' back. Toothless growled a warning and Stryka rumbled at him in a scolding manner.
"Alright…Now get me down." Astrid demanded.
"Toothless, down. Gently." Hiccup asked nicely.
"Three…" I started counting down as Toothless opened up his wings as a breeze began to blow.
"…two…" I whispered to Stryka who figured out what her mate was gonna do next and sighed.
"See? Nothing to be afraid of…" Hiccup grinned while his Night Fury had a mischievous smirk.
"…One."
Then, bam!
Toothless took off!
"And there it is!" I smiled as I watched my friends go up higher into the air. Stryka whined at me.
"Let's go make sure they don't kill themselves!" I said knowingly as we flew up.
"Toothless! What is wrong with you?! Bad dragon!" Hiccup shouted over Astrid's screams of terror as Toothless went higher.
With his dragon going loco, there's no way Hiccup will be able to use the tailfin to make him stop. The Night Fury was now in total control.
"I-I'm sorry. He's not usually like this…" Hiccup apologized weakly as I flew with them.
"You might wanna hang on." I advised him as Toothless began to drop.
"Oh no…" Hiccup moaned as they headed for the ocean.
I made sure Stryka and I were right behind them as Toothless' stunts continued. Now he was continuously dunking himself, Hiccup and Astrid into the water.
"Toothless, what're you doing? We need her to like us!" Hiccup exclaimed as water dripped off of him. I could see Astrid freaking out.
'Any minute now, she'll snap.' I thought, smiling mischievously.
And Hiccup will finally have a chance to impress her.
I saw Toothless fly up and level out.
Oh boy…
"He's gonna corkscrew!" I yelled to Hiccup just as his Night Fury began to spin in the air.
"And now the spinning…" my friend drawled amidst Astrid's yelps.
"Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile." Hiccup said sarcastically as I joined him up on the clouds with Stryka.
'Oh, you'll be thanking him later my friend…' I shook my head as I caught Astrid's eye.
"Just apologize already." I told her.
Then Astrid finally breathed out, "Okay! I am sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off this thing…" she buried her face in Hiccup's tunic and tried not to look down.
That apology was exactly what Toothless, Stryka and I had been waiting for.
Toothless stopped spinning and leveled out, taking my best friend and his long-time crush on a most romantic flight above Berk. For once, Astrid was acting all girly while admiring the clouds and the beautiful sunset as the sky was painted soft oranges and pinks. At night, the moon shone, the stars twinkled and the aurora borealis lit up the night sky.
I managed to catch Hiccup's face light up as Astrid wrapped her arms around his waist. I chuckled to myself as I admired the view with Stryka.
"Alright…I'll admit, this is pretty cool…It's…amazing…He's amazing…" Astrid patted Toothless gently as we flew over the ocean.
"Don't forget her." I said jokingly, gesturing to Stryka who gave Astrid a gummy smile. "How long have you two been hiding them from all of us?" Astrid asked me and Hiccup. "About a month and two weeks, give or take." I replied before looking at Hiccup with a mischievous smirk.
"You saw everything?" he blushed. "Oh yeah." I grinned. Stryka and Toothless rumbled in amusement.
We continued flying in silence when Astrid said, "Hiccup, your Final Exam is tomorrow…"
As she was saying this, I saw Toothless' and Stryka's ears prick up.
"Uh, guys…" I said noticing that the two Night Furies were beginning to look nervous.
"You do realize you're gonna have to…kill a dragon…" Astrid whispered to Hiccup.
"Guys…" I said nervously as Stryka and Toothless continued to act all fidgety.
"Don't remind me…" Hiccup sighed. Finally I decided to hiss at them, "Guys!"
At that exact moment, Toothless and Stryka both did a banking turn and began to take us to who knows where.
"Whoa! Toothless, what's happening?" Hiccup tried to steer Toothless in the right direction but he was dead set on his course. "Stryka, what's going on? Where're you taking us?" I asked my dragon uneasily.
She and Toothless just kept going.
When they flew into a smoky cloud bank, we were startled by the huge swarm of dragons flying in the same direction we were going. And each of them had either a bunch of fish or livestock of some kind in their claws.
"It looks like they're hauling in their kills…" Hiccup observed. "What does that make us?" Astrid said fearfully. "Shh…!" I shushed her just as we arrived at our destination.
My eyes widened as we approached this huge caldera volcano, bubbling lava oozing from cracks in the black rock. If all the dragons were headed there then that could mean only one thing…
"The Dragon's Nest…" I whispered as we headed in. "What my dad wouldn't give to find this." Hiccup said.
The inside of the nest was covered in red smoke, the color resulting from the giant pool of magma in the center. Hundreds, thousands, no, millions of dragons roosted in any available space.
Yep, this was the Nest alright…
The dragons that had flown in with us began dropping their kills into the magma pool, much to our confusion.
"Well it's satisfying to know that all of our food has been dumped into a hole." Hiccup said, his voice dripping with sarcasm.
"They're not eating any of it…" Astrid looked on in stunned confusion.
"I don't think they're dumping it…It looks like they're making an offering…but to what?" I wondered out loud.
Then a tired-looking Gronckle buzzed on over to the hole and regurgitated one measly fish. An angry roar then sounded throughout the Nest. I felt Stryka stiffen up and all the other dragons backed off.
Then it appeared.
A giant, monster of a dragon's head suddenly came out of the magma and to our horror, swallowed the poor Gronckle in one gulp!
I gasped and put my hands to my mouth.
"What…is…that?" Astrid breathed out in shock. Hiccup looked just as horrified as we girls were and couldn't say anything.
"I'll take a wild guess and say that is the reason why the dragons have been raiding Berk…" I said nervously.
That's when the thing saw us.
Quickly, Hiccup and I urged Toothless and Stryka to fly for it. The wild dragons were alarmed when the thing tried to catch us and flew around in terrified circles as the thing tried to get us. As we neared our escape, I looked back to see it grab a Hideous Zippleback in flight and ate it next.
After that, I couldn't bear to watch anymore and looked away. That thing wasn't a dragon. That thing was a monster…
"That's why…" Hiccup murmured, seeing how shook up Toothless and Stryka were. "We've always been wrong about you, haven't we?" I asked Stryka who purred in reply.
We then flew back to Berk, away from the Nest, away from…whatever that thing was.
All I could think of was that something told me bad things were gonna happen-soon!
"Whoa! Whoa! It totally makes sense, it's like a giant beehive! They're the Workers and that's their Queen. It controls them." Astrid remarked as we landed back in the Cove.
Stryka looked a little on edge so I was murmuring comforting words to her when I heard Astrid say to Hiccup, "Come on, let's go tell your dad!"
Instantly, my friend and I said, "No!"
"Astrid, they'll kill Toothless and Stryka. We gotta think this through…" Hiccup reasoned with Astrid. "The Chief won't believe us unless we have proof. And the only proof we have are them. And frankly, I don't think the village will accept them warmly." I added, gesturing to our Night Furies.
Astrid looked at us in disbelief.
"Hiccup, Zenna, we've just discovered the Dragon's Nest. The very think we Vikings have been searching for ever since we first sailed here. And you two wanna keep that a secret? To…To protect your pet dragons? Are you serious?" she asked us.
I bristled slightly at Astrid's 'pet dragons' remark. Toothless and Stryka aren't our pets, they're our friends!
But Hiccup and I both said, "Yes."
Toothless and Stryka are our friends. And Hiccup and I will do everything we can to protect them.
For a minute, Astrid stared at us before finally turning to Hiccup. "Okay…So what do we do now?" she asked him.
"Just…give me until tomorrow. I'll figure something out." Hiccup replied.
Astrid nodded and said, "Okay…" before punching him in the arm saying, "That's for kidnapping me." I just shrugged along with Toothless and Stryka (who were both drinking some water) when Hiccup looked at us.
Then to my surprise, Astrid leaned in and gave Hiccup a kiss on the cheek. "That's for…everything else." Astrid mumbled, looking slightly embarrassed and left.
Hiccup just stood there looking confused, dazed and happy all at the same time. I giggled as Toothless and Stryka went over to the two of us and I gave Hiccup a nudge.
He looked at us and saw our mischievous faces.
"Wh-What're you looking at?!" he stuttered, turning beet-red.
"Hiccup and Astrid, sitting in a tree! K.I.S.S.I.N.G!" I sang out as I danced around the Cove with our dragons. Hiccup just rolled his eyes. Then I stopped dancing around and looked at him seriously.
"You'll really be able to figure out a plan?" My question made him tense up but he looked determined.
"Well Zenna, I won't know until I try." Hiccup replied.
I nodded and, well I haven't really done this in a long while, gave him a hug. "No matter what happens tomorrow, Hiccup…I'll be there for you." I promised to him before I let go. Hiccup seemed rather surprised but gave me a smile.
Toothless and Stryka then nuzzled us affectionately.
"Don't worry, bud. I'm not gonna let anything happen to you." Hiccup promised Toothless.
"We won't let anyone and anything hurt you two. We promise." I swore to Stryka.
They gave us those gummy smiles we both love so much and went to sleep before we left the Cove.
It was quiet as we approached the village as we were still shaken up from what Hiccup and I had seen at the Dragon's Nest.
Then I remembered my dream and gave Hiccup a worried look.
"Uh-oh…I know that look…" Hiccup sighed.
"Hiccup…Elias also warned me of the dangers of us befriending dragons…I didn't really know what the dangers were…but now I do." I whispered before adding, "Just…please be careful tomorrow."
Hiccup nodded and squeezed my hand. "I will…I promise." He told me.
I nodded and we both went back to our houses.
Little HTTYD 2 Bit in Hiccup's line in bold print :D
Enjoy!
