Author's Note: Yay, for free wifi at hotels!
Alright, drum roll please...
This is the chapter y'all been waiting for! Eeee! I originally intended for this to be two chapters, but I took pity on you guys so, enjoy!
Astrid's POV
The sky was just beginning to lighten at the edge of the horizon. Morning was coming.
Astrid and Toothless surfaced from their dive and and began treading water, trying to remain silent, hidden among the burning wreckage of the ship. The darkness of the night helped too, but that wouldn't last long.
Astrid found herself looking up at the stars in amazement after so long trapped in that musty, dark ship. She probably would have enjoyed the fresh air too, but the smoke from the fires still burning clogged the atmosphere. The water was cold, but it wasn't freezing. It was the middle of the summer, after all.
She busied herself with staring at the stars, trying to get a good idea of their position, so they could head for land. It was difficult to concentrate, though, especially with the cacophony the Berserkers were making in their search for the two fugitives. Most of the dragons flew off, although she saw a few caught in the nets of the Vikings, but it seemed like all the Berserkers had managed to make it safely aboard other vessels. She felt ill thinking about the two cages with dragons she hadn't managed to free before the ship sunk. She doubted that anyone else had bothered to free them. Which made it all the worse as she watched someone hauling that shriveled, twisted old man out of the water to safety aboard one of the other Berserker ships.
Dagur's screeches had been piercing the air for quite a while now. She had mostly tuned them out, but she still noticed when they suddenly stopped. She gripped Toothless' saddle, keeping a wary eye on their surroundings. The sun's rays suddenly made an appearance far away on the horizon, turning the rest of the sky a lighter blue. Then she heard the insane Berserker chief's voice again, although this time he sounded considerably calmer and more reasonable.
"Astrid, I know you're out there. You and my night fury. You should really just turn yourselves in now. We're nowhere near land – trying to swim is no use! You'll just drown. I am your only hope of survival."
He could be lying. But then again, he could be telling the truth. It was about a fifty-fifty chance, either way.
Was that a chance she was willing to take? She remembered her resolve: escape or die trying.
She tilted her head back up to look at the sky, desperately trying to see any remaining stars, but it was slowly transitioning to daytime blue, and the stars had faded. But then something else caught her eye.
It was the approach of an enormous flock of dragons. She could only just barely see their silhouettes against the rising sun, but they were of all shapes and sizes, flying together in their direction. She gasped.
"Toothless! They're here! They're finally here for us!"
The night fury turned to look at the approaching figures. He looked back at Astrid and whined, as if telling her that it was probably just a random flock of migrating dragons. But a smile was slowly spreading across her face.
"Toothless, random flocks of dragons don't fly in battle formation."
A plan immediately began forming in her brain.
"Okay, here's what we need to do. We need to distract Dagur and the Berserkers so that they won't see the riders coming. That way, they'll have the element of surprise." She took a deep breath.
"DAGUR! We're over here!" Her yell caught the Berserker chief's attention immediately, and he began jumping and screeching while pointing in their direction. A net was launched which enveloped the two, and they were swept underwater as it was pulled back in to the boat. When they were finally yanked into the air and slowly dragged up the ship's side, Astrid sucked in an enormous breath of air, gasping and heaving. Her hair dripped into her eyes as she looked at Toothless, and whispered, "When they get us up on deck, make as much noise and create as much chaos as you can. We have to keep them focused on us!"
"I knew you would see sense!" Dagur called down to them. "I mean, trying to escape with a dragon that can't fly?" He doubled over with laughter.
Then the net flopped over the side of the boat, and they landed on the deck with a wet, squishy, plop. Before anyone could blink, Astrid had cut through the ropes with her axe, and she and Toothless let loose on the Berserkers.
Hiccup's POV
From where he perched on Stormfly, Hiccup directed the assault against the Berserker fleet.
Oddly enough, one of their ships was already sinking when they arrived, and absolute chaos seemed to be taking place on the ships still afloat. He squinted hard to try and see what was happening, but they were still too far away. Whatever it was, it was very helpful because the Berserkers still hadn't spotted their approach.
He made the hand signal for the first attack.
Nothing seemed to happen, but he watched with a grin as a thin ripple in the water led from where they were positioned to the ships of the armada. Then Scauldy burst from the surface in a massive explosion of water right next to the ships. The scauldron's enormous mouth opened wide, revealing Ruffnut standing safely inside, howling the Hooligan war cry. She grabbed the side of Scauldy's head and swung around to position herself on his back, then they bent down and sucked up an enormous mouthful of water which they used to bombard the ships.
That had been Ruffnut's idea.
Then, Fishlegs and Snotlout, who had secretly circled around to the other side of the fleet, began bombarding the Berserker ships from the other side at the same time that Tuffnut (who was riding Barf and Belch with the help of Bucket) came flapping in, chased by what appeared to be an enormous fog bank. The smothering smokebreaths set upon the fleet with enthusiasm.
Hiccup was now close enough to see what was happening on the decks of Dagur's ship. He was starting to rally his Vikings, retaliating to the attack.
And – Astrid and Toothless! They were being pinned to the deck and dragged below and out of sight.
"Snotlout!" Hiccup yelled. "I need you to get over here and cover me! Bring some other riders, Astrid and Toothless are one this ship!"
"I gotcha, princess!"
Hiccup was too agitated to retort or even care about Snotlout's friendly-ish barb.
Snotlout and three other riders swooped down on the deck, blasting left and right, clearing a path for Hiccup and Stormfly, and they landed gently on the ship. Stormfly took off ahead of Hiccup, clearly excited about seeing her rider again. Hiccup followed as quickly as he could, knowing that he had probably torn a stitch or two, yet unable to bring himself to care.
He was finally going to see Astrid and Toothless again.
Astrid's POV
Astrid was dragged down to a new cage. She noted with satisfaction that the bars of this one were simple metal, definitely not dragon proof. Toothless was pulled further down the hall, out of sight. She could hear the sounds of fighting clearly from where she was, but she didn't know what was going on or who was winning, and it was driving her crazy. Then she heard the sound of a dragon roaring and Snotlout shouting, "Snotlout! Snotlout! Oy, oy, oy!" and she could have burst into tears.
She stood at the door and gripped the bars, waiting impatiently for someone to find her and free her. Then she saw Stormfly come bounding down the hallway and she cried out in relief that her dragon was fine. Stormfly was able to burn down the iron door of her cell (courtesy of the deadly nadder being the hottest recorded dragon), and she rushed out to wrap her beautiful dragon in a hug.
That was when she heard his voice.
"Astrid?"
She stiffened. She heard that voice all the time in her head. She had memorized that voice. She loved that voice.
"Astrid? Astrid, are you okay?"
She spun around.
It was Hiccup. He was walking down the hall towards her, staggering a little and grabbing his middle, but it was Hiccup.
It was Hiccup.
He was alive.
She ran to him and pulled him into a hug, crying and laughing at the same time. He started laughing too.
"You're alive? You're really alive? Oh my gods, Hiccup, oh Thor, you're alive!"
"Yes, yes, but are you okay? Are you okay – Astrid? Are you crying?"
She pulled back a little, just a little, and reached up, putting her hands on either side of his face, feeling every little thing, drinking in his existence. He looked down at her and –
Oh, Thor, he kissed her.
Hiccup's POV
Thank goodness she kissed him back, because for a second there it seemed she wouldn't, and that would have been very awkward. But when he pulled away, she shook her head violently and pulled him back towards her. For a few moments, they stayed there like that, forehead to forehead, as tears streamed down her cheeks. Then, still without moving away, she opened her eyes and said, "Oh, gods, Hiccup, I thought you were dead."
"I'm so sorry we left you here so long, it took me a while to heal – "
"No, you don't understand, I thought you were DEAD, Hiccup, DEAD. I thought I would never see you again, and I didn't… I couldn't…" Her voice broke, and for the first time Hiccup really pulled back to get a good look at her. Her eyes were puffy and red and her voice, which he hadn't really processed before, was husky and raw as if she had been…
And then Hiccup remembered that sound which had woken him up that morning almost a month ago, when the other riders had thought he was dead and saw him on Berk. They had all been crying. Real, heartbroken, sobs.
"Astrid, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." And this time his voice broke. He closed his eyes.
And then he whispered, "I love you." The silence drew on for so long, he had to peek. She was crying silently, and then she was hugging him so hard that his stomach screamed and he winced.
Immediately, she loosened her hold and asked, "Are you alright? What's wrong? Are you okay? Hiccup?"
He squeezed her a little for reassurance and said, "I'm fine, just not totally, one-hundred percent healed yet."
She nodded, then slowly said, "I love you, too. I didn't realize it until – Toothless." Suddenly her tone changed and became urgent and worried. "Hiccup, we need to show Toothless you're alive."
Terror gripped him. He didn't realize he had strengthened his hold on her, until she forcefully loosened it a little, and began helping him down the hall.
"What happened? Is Toothless alright?" He asked breathlessly.
"He's alive," she answered. "Stormfly, go open Toothless' cage. Hiccup, Toothless stopped eating when he thought you were dead."
Hiccup screwed his eyes shut. He knew Toothless didn't have any other family, his dragon must have thought he was all alone again. "Oh no, bud," he whispered.
"I got him to eat again, but he's… grieving."
Pain flashed through Hiccup. Pain and guilt – how could he have left his friends in Dagur's clutches so long? Then he saw the bright flash of Stormfly's fire burning through the bars on one of the cages, and a dark shape huddled within – was that Toothless?
"Bud! Toothless? Hey, bud, it's me!"
A dark head raised from the huddle on the floor. Hiccup started walking even faster, ignoring the pain in his side.
"I'm here! I'm okay! Hey, bud, is that you?"
The shape rose entirely from the ground and stood frozen, staring in his direction. Hiccup couldn't help it. He broke away from Astrid and started running.
"Toothless!"
The dark shape began bounding towards him, and as it flew out of the dark room, Hiccup could clearly see that it was his night fury, a little thin and haggard, but the same old friend. Toothless made a little sound of pure and unadulterated joy right before they crashed into each other.
Hiccup ended up lying on the ground on his back, staring up at Toothless above him. Toothless licked him once, wildly happy, then sat back and stared at him with an indecipherable expression. He took a big breath of air, then nodded towards Hiccup with an expression that was simultaneously fearful, joyous, and expectant.
"Come again, bud?"
Toothless took another big breath of air and then seemed to gesture at Hiccup with his head as if saying, "Now you do it." So Hiccup took a big breath of air, in and out, then smiled at Toothless.
"Is that what you wanted?"
And then Toothless was all over him, licking and nuzzling.
When Hiccup finally managed to sit up, he wrapped his arms around Toothless in an enormous embrace. The dragon laid his head down in Hiccup's lap, and stared up at him with big adoring eyes for a moment. Then his breathing slowly started to get faster and more erratic, until he was gulping in big breaths of air, his whole body shaking.
Alarmed, Hiccup laid his head down on top of Toothless' head, scratching behind the neck as he did so, reassuring, "Hey, hey, it's okay, bud, I'm here now."
Astrid, who had been watching the love fest with a huge smile, simply drinking in the fact that Hiccup was here, alive, walked over and sat beside him, threading her hand through his free one and leaning against him.
They stayed there like that for a while, with Stormfly prancing in circles around them, until Toothless was still and calm again.
Toothless' POV
His human was here. His human was alive.
Toothless reveled in the simple feeling of Hiccup's hand scratching his neck, the light pressure of his head resting on Toothless' head, the sound of his voice. A flood of emotions was overwhelming the dragon, so much that he couldn't breathe.
But Hiccup could breathe. His human was still breathing, and Toothless could show him how sorry he was for leaving him. He would never ever leave his human again. This thought, along with Hiccup's actual presence slowly calmed him until he was perfectly content to just sit there like that forever, just him and his human and apparently the blond girl who wanted to mate his human. Her eyes were still leaking, but she didn't seem to be sad anymore. Sometimes it was so hard to understand humans.
And then the sound of that deranged human's voice cut through this moment of happiness.
"This can't be happening! GaaaaaaaAAAAAH!"
The group huddled together on the floor twisted to look at Dagur. The crazy man's mouth fell open as he saw Hiccup sitting there with them, alive and well. He made a squawking noise.
Toothless rose up and spread his wings like an enormous shield in front of Hiccup as he turned to face the human who would had hurt Hiccup. The blond girl, too, jumped up and moved in front of his human.
Hiccup twisted and tried to stand, but he fell back to the ground with a cry of pain. A dart of fear shot through the dragon. What was wrong with Hiccup? Hadn't he said he was alright?
So he fully faced the man named Dagur and roared as loud as he could.