Chapter 21: Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Fire
Jolt and Hiccup discussed ideas for an escape attempt, and they both agreed that they needed to free the dragons first. Hiccup knew where there was a tunnel that led to a cell just outside of the dragon containment cells. The entrance to the tunnel, unfortunately, was by the main entrance to the Outcast Fortress. It was heavily guarded, and they would have to use extreme caution to get to the entrance.
Since Hiccup was already dressed as an Outcast, he had to be the distraction so that Jolt could sneak up behind and brain the six guards that were watching over the gate. It was a risky venture, but Hiccup had shown that his disguise worked before, especially when the guards didn't actually know who he was. Hiccup was scared that it wouldn't work, but he had done stupider ideas before. Hiccup shuddered at the thought of the chicken egg heist. Who knew that angry chickens could actually be harmful? Hiccup and the teens figured that one out the hard way.
In fact, just living with the teens was usually a stupid idea, as they were constantly getting into trouble, especially the twins. They were always up to something, some harebrained scheme that was bound to get them into trouble, and Hiccup had learned rather early on to roll with the punches, and he also learned how to get himself out of a situation, and he was an expert in worming his way out of most any situation. Gobber and his father were the only exceptions, as Hiccup tended to shut up around them rather fast because he respected their authority, but everyone else was fair game.
Hiccup walked over to the guards, trying to act like he had a purpose for being there, his leg hidden beneath his long pants. He kept his head down, and tried to just walk through, but he knew that he was going to be stopped.
"Wow there son, what be your business," asked one of the guards.
"I have a message for Alvin from one of the captains. He didn't give me a name," said Hiccup.
"May I ask the nature of this message?" asked the same guard, who Hiccup guessed was the head guard.
"Top secret. He said not to share it with anyone but Alvin. Now if you'd please let me through, the message is quite urgent," said Hiccup, playing the part well.
The head guard looked suspicious. He found it hard to believe that a captain would send a top secret and urgent message through a fifteen year old boy. It just wasn't safe. Of course, he didn't get to think long before he was brained with a large stone from behind. The other guards looked confused, but they swiftly followed.
"Man, what took you so long? They were almost on to me," said Hiccup.
"Sorry, I accidentally ran into a small group of guards. They're all sleeping rather nicely now, thanks to me, but you played your part well. You had me pretty well convinced," said Jolt.
"Yeah, well, time for sentiment later. Now let's get to the door and get everyone out of here," said Hiccup.
Jolt nodded, and they walked silently to the location of the secret entrance. The door was almost invisible, carved so perfectly out of the rock that it blended into the cliff face. With a firm push and a slide, the door swung open on perfectly balanced hinges.
"Got to admit, whoever built these door were quite the designers," mused Hiccup.
They walked single file through the tunnel in silence, commenting once or twice on the design of the tunnel system. Hiccup used the memory of the map that he had drawn and managed to find his way around fairly well. They almost got lost once or twice because the maze of tunnels was so intricate, so complex, that one could almost get lost without moving, but luckily Hiccup had a good memory and led them through well.
When they finally reached the dragon holding cell door, it was easy to push open from the inside. Luckily no guards walked by, or they would have been chicken feed.
They crept their way into the holding cells, where somehow there were no guards. Hiccup managed to pick the locks on their two dragons cells, and they greeted their dragons warmly.
"Hey bud, I missed you," said Hiccup, hugging Toothless tightly.
And I you. We need to find the others and get them out of here. The Outcasts are growing bolder by the day, said Toothless.
"Agreed. Now let's free the others," said Jolt.
"Not so fast," said an all too familiar voice. The two boys turned around to see a smiling Millicent.
"I'd like to see you fight against my own minions. A useful skill my dragon managed to glean from the Red Death, the ability to control dragons. Unfortunately they don't respond nearly as well as they do with your method, but it works just the same," said Millicent again, pulling a lever behind him.
Four cells opened up, and they released a Whispering Death, a Monstrous Nightmare, a Nadder, and a Changewing. Their eyes were all the same color, dark as night, just like Millicent's were.
"So, what's your genius plan Hiccup?" asked Jolt, brandishing his staff.
"Um, stay alive? I don't know! They're under some sort of spell. It's four on four, so Jolt, you take the nadder, I'll take the Whispering Death, Toothless, you take Monstrous Nightmare, and Spark, you take the Changewing. Go!" said Hiccup.
Jolt raced for the Nadder immediately, who tried to kill him immediately by hurling a handful of spikes at him. His faster than normal reflexes, thanks to Spark, kept him alive and allowed him to dodge the spikes, but only barely.
"Ok, so you don't like me. I get it. We can change that though," said Jolt, trying to sound calming. The words flew right past the Nadder, and it charged right at him.
It seemed to be devoid of all emotion that dragons usually showed, like the dragon's mind had been taken out and something else had been stuffed back in its place, which was likely true, as Millicent had mentioned that he could control dragons. He needed to find a way to break the spell, but how?
He continued to try and gain the dragon's trust instead of killing it, but it was getting harder and harder as the dragon was getting more aggressive by the second. He needed to just get Millicent out of the Nadder's head, and there was only one way that he could think to do that, knocking out the dragon. A task much easier said than done.
Normally, knocking out a human is fairly simple, you knock them over the head, and they go out. No harm done. To knock out a dragon, you would have to hit it pretty hard over the head to get any kind of response. Luckily they had another weakness that jolt could exploit, but he would have to get close enough to touch it to figure it out.
He dodged a blast of fire from the Nadder, and rolled around until he was in the Nadder's blind spot. Going back to the day that he knocked out Toothless, he scratched it right under the chin, in that one pressure point that would knock them out cold. Of course, Jolt didn't think that when he knocked it out that it would fall forward, pinning him to the ground.
"Everyone! You need to knock them out! It's the only way to get Millicent out of their minds!" he yelled from under the Nadder.
"Little busy here!" said Hiccup, who was amusingly jumping through the Whispering Death's rings of fire like a jump-rope, trying to move closer. Spark was having trouble keeping track of the Changewing, and Toothless was getting rather fed up with the flaming Monstrous Nightmare.
Jolt squirmed his way out from under the Nadder, who was just starting to come around. The Nadder looked extremely confused, its eyes back to their usual color.
"Alright boy, I need your help. It's okay, I'm not going to hurt you," said Jolt, sticking his hand out gently, the way that he had seen Hiccup do. The Nadder shied away at first, but he warmed up to Jolt and nuzzled his hand. Jolt moved around back to stroke the Nadder's tail, and the dragon quickly grew to like the young viking.
Jolt jumped on the Nadder's back, and they rode off to help the others. Jolt knew that he first had to help Spark, which was an easy enough. He had the Nadder shoot a blast of fire at where the Changewing was last, using a continuous stream to search for the invisible dragon. When an outline showed itself, Spark shot out a massive bolt of lightning, paralyzing the dragon and knocking it out cold. The dragon was revealed, and it flopped to the ground.
"Two down, two to go," said Jolt.
He hopped off of the Nadder and mounted Spark, and the three of them ran off to help their friends.
Hiccup almost got to the Whispering Death, even scratched it under the chin, but that didn't seem to work, and the dragon only got more aggravated, flinging Hiccup against the wall.
"Note to self, never do that again," mumbled Hiccup to himself. He got up, dazed, but he shook it off. He had another idea, a crazy idea, but he knew it would work.
Hiccup whistled to Toothless, who had just subdued the Nightmare, and he bounded over to Hiccup.
"Alright bud, blast there, there, there, and there," said Hiccup, pointing out the spots on the roof that were the weakest. Toothless blasted these spots, and Spark joined in as well, cutting out a large chunk of the ceiling above the Whispering Death. With its horrible vision, it never saw the metal coming down until it was too late. The huge dragons collapsed on the ground, completely oblivious to the world.
Quickly, before Millicent could do anything, the boys and their dragons freed the other Berk dragons and led them out of the ring through the whole in the ceiling.
"Go with the dragons, I'm going to go free the others!" said Hiccup.
"Don't go alone!" replied Jolt.
"I know the tunnels better, and I can move faster!"
"Doesn't matter, I'm not letting you go off on your own. Spark can watch out for the dragons," said Jolt.
"You're right. Toothless come here," said Hiccup. He quickly pulled a tool out under Toothless's tail fin apparatus, and fiddled with the machinery until he had disconnected the pedal. He attacked a gear and a rod to Toothless's other tail fin, and soon Toothless was able to fly on his own.
"I know you don't like it Toothless, that you always want to fly with me, but I need you to watch over the other dragon, make sure they get home safe, got that. Oh, but make sure that the teens' dragons stay here. We'll kind of need them to get home," said Hiccup.
I understand, but I will not leave the island, and neither will Spark. We will stay, but we will direct the others home. Stay safe.
"I will, now go!" said Hiccup. "Come on," he said again, gesturing to Jolt. They ran to the door outside of the ring and shoved it open, closing it behind them. They raced through the network of tunnels, finally coming upon the teens' holding cells.
The teens all looked dejected, tossing rocks at the walls of their cells, occasionally trying to use their powers to escape, but Millicent was too smart for that. He had made the doors much more sturdy, and the teens had no chance of escape. Hiccup and Jolt heard a massive explosion coming from one cell.
"Well, at least we know where Ruffnut and Tuffnut are," said Jolt. The other were easy to identify, and with a deft movement, Hiccup picked each lock on turn.
"Alright, here's the plan. We're going to take the tunnels out of here, and then we're going to fly like Hel home as fast as we can. Got it?" said Hiccup, back to his usual leader self.
"What tunnels?" asked Fishlegs, as usual intrigued by every little detail.
"There's a massive tunnel network through the mountain from some other civilization that lived here. I happen to know most of them, and I can find my way around well. So just follow me, and don't branch off! You will get lost very quickly," explained Hiccup quickly, before running off toward the tunnel entrance.
They ran through the tunnels, following Hiccup. They kept going, but they were in the tunnels for a long time. Hiccup cursed.
"Loki take me, I think we took a wrong turn. I have no idea where I am," said Hiccup dejectedly.
"Well, we'll just keep pushing. This tunnel has to lead somewhere, right?" said Jolt.
Hiccup nodded, and they pressed on. Soon, they came upon a massive cavern, almost as big as the Great Hall itself. But that wasn't what was weird about it. What was weird about it was that there were people milling around, houses and mess halls, almost like a small village.
Hiccup guessed that they were in the heart of the mountain, seeing as no other place on the island could have a cave this big.
Someone saw them enter the space, and soon enough, a dozen or so warriors surrounded the group. They threw their hands up in surrender, not knowing what was going on.
"State your name and your business," said one of the warriors.
"My name's Jolt Hawkson, this is Hiccup Haddock, those two are the twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorston, that guy is Snotlout Jorgenson, that's Fishlegs Ingerman, and this is Astrid Hofferson," said Jolt.
The warrior's face grew grim and angry. "You say your name is Hawkson?"
"Yes," replied Jolt.
"Come with me. Oh the chief is going to love this," said the warrior, calling over his friends to shackle the group and lead them to the largest building.
"Well, out of the frying pan and into the fire, huh," said Jolt.
As much as I would like to take credit for the title of this chapter, I'm afraid that the credit has to go the J.R.R. Tolkien's the Hobbit. This was the name of one of the chapters, and it happened to fit the idea that I wanted. Don't forget to review.