Chapter 21: Hiccup s Plan
The Shadow Lord had quickly regained the upper hand over the Monstrous Nightmare and the Deadly Nadder. Astird and Snotlout had their dragons pounce on the larger dragon to buy Hiccup time to get Fishlegs to safety. Unfortunately, their distraction was starting to turn against them.
Hiccup saw the dark dragon gaining the momentum, and urged Toothless to push himself as fast as he could to get back into the fight. The Shadow Lord had taken out two of their dragons and three members of their group. So far, they've been lucky that none of them have been killed, and he was determined to keep it that way. He was also determined not to have Astrid or Snotlout taken out of the fight, either. He could not afford to lose the number's advantage he had over the dragon.
The Shadow Lord broke free from the Monstrous Nightmare's entanglement, and he bore his sharp, pointed teeth towards it. The dragon had fire in his eyes, and death on his mind. He twisted himself into position, and swung his tail like a whip. Astrid and Snotlout saw the attack coming and was able to fly away to a safe distance. However, Hiccup did not see what the dragon was in the middle of doing until it was too late. He had arrived only to have the massive tail come crashing into Toothless' rib cage.
"Whoa!" Hiccup yelled at the same time as Toothless howled as they spiraled downward. Hiccup leaned into Toothless's neck as hard as he could, as he closed his eyes to keep himself from getting dizzy. He had no time to do anything else as they hit the water like a rock.
Astrid saw Hiccup and Toothless hit the water; and it was, as if, she had hit the side of a mountain. The way they hit the water was sickening. If it was just Hiccup who landed in the water, there would be no doubt that he could have survived the fall, but Hiccup hit the water, back first, with the full weight of a Night Fury on top of him. There was a better chance that he could have been killed upon impact, and the thought of Hiccup dead was like a bucket of icy cold water being poured over her head. "Hiccup!"
The wind was knocked out of him, but that was the extent to his injuries. The impact had unlatched his artificial foot from the saddle's pedal, and now he found himself holding his breath under water. He looked over to see Toothless coming to his senses. He looked at him with his yellowish eyes as to ask what the next move was.
The truth was that Hiccup had no idea what to do; the Shadow Lord had outsmarted them in every way up to this point. The only thing he knew was that they could not stay hidden under the water. Toothless may be able to survive underwater for an extended time, but he couldn't.
Hiccup noticed that something below had caught Toothless' attention. He looked down into the blue depths of the ocean. At first, he could see nothing but an endless abyss, but then he could faintly make out a shadowy outline making its way up from the depths. Eight tentacles were swerving through the water like sea serpents.
Could this be the mythical Monstrous Strangulator that attacked Ivar's ships? He remembered hearing stories about this sea dragon when he was younger. This dragon lived in caves, and had eight tentacles like a squid. If he remembered the stories correctly, this beast was virtually blind. Based on the movement of this dragon, that rumor seemed to be true. The dragon was attracted to all the commotion up above the water.
An idea suddenly dawned on him; he now knew a way to take down the Shadow Lord. It was a long shot, and if it failed, they would have to face the wrath of two dragons instead of just one. It was a risk that he was willing to take. If things went wrong, there was no negotiating with the Shadow Lord, but there was a chance that the Monstrous Strangulator might be intelligent enough to be reasoned with. With his air running out, he had no choice but to make the move.
The Shadow Lord searched the water for the Night Fury. The dragon had not yet reemerged, and he had begun to wonder why. Unable to see anything, the dragon had to bring an eye right up to the edge of the water. As he did, an image of the Night Fury's face appeared through the water with a giant grin on his face.
Puzzled by seeing this image instead of his own, he brought his left eye even closer to inspect the image. As he did, a blue puff of fire speared out of the water and hit him right in the eye. The Shadow Lord roared in agony as he backed away from the water. That gave Toothless the opportunity to zip out of the water and take to the sky.
Astrid's heart leaped the second she saw Hiccup and Toothless coming out of the ocean and flying towards her and Snotlout. For the briefest moment, she had feared the worst. Hiccup may be skinny, and a little awkward, but he definitely had the Viking determination flowing through his veins.
Hiccup and Toothless, drenched to the bone, made their way towards the others. "For a minute there, I thought you were food for the fishes." Snotlout welcomed them with his normal sarcastic charm.
Astrid scowled towards him; telling him that she was not in the mood for his sarcasm. She had come uncomfortably close to losing someone she really cared about. Snotlout's humor was not a welcomed at this moment.
When Astrid returned her gaze towards her, Hiccup could not help but feel that he was in for another bruised shoulder for scaring her like that. That was an issue that they would have to work out. Hiccup quickly took charge. "Yeah, that was a little close for comfort."
"So what now? The dragon's outsmarting us at every turn," Astrid asked.
"I know what to do. I'm going to get the Shadow Lord to chase me. I need you two to cause as much commotion as you can above the water. Hit the water with as much fire as your dragons can muster."
"What's that going to accomplish?" Snotlout replied with a raised eyebrow.
Looking downward, Hiccup could see the Shadow Lord already coming to his senses and was ready to take the momentum in the fight. If this plan was to work, Hiccup could not allow the dragon to start dictating the direction of this fight any longer. "No time to explain; just do it, and be careful!"
"Right," Astrid agreed. She had no idea what he was thinking, but she trusted him with her life. He may not look it, but he had a natural talent for strategic warfare. What he lacked in physical strength, he more than made up for with intelligence.
Hiccup and Toothless swooped downward towards the Shadow Lord. The first thing he had to do was to get his attention and then get him to follow him. He had to buy his friends time to attract the Monstrous Strangulator to the top. Getting the dragon's attention proved easy after performing a provocative fly-by across his line of sight. The Shadow Lord let out a frustrated roar before chasing after them.
"Okay, he's taken the bait. Let's keep him distracted for awhile." Toothless gave an affirmative moan and pushed himself to fly as fast as he could.
When the Shadow Lord followed after Hiccup and Toothless, Astrid and Snotlout had an opening to do their job. "Okay, here's our chance. Let's go!"
"Alright, I hope he knows what he's doing," Snotlout muttered.
The two of them swooped down on their dragons towards the water. Astrid led the way, urging her Deadly Nadder to unleash a fire ball at the water. Snotlout followed, as his Monstrous Nightmare unleashed a river of fiery magma. Together, they continued to bombard the water with fire.
On shore, the Vikings were watching the battle with great intent. The Shadow Lord was chasing after Hiccup while the two remaining young Vikings were shooting fire at the water. Stoick knew his son well enough to know when he was seeing another one of his crazy ideas, but this one was crazier than the rest.
"What are they doing?" Ivar said. When it came to battling a deadly dragon, he was the best strategist around. What he was seeing seemed to be nothing more than foolish child's play with a dragon.
"I don't know," Stoick admitted. "I do know that my Son is up to something."
Hiccup and Toothless were having difficulty keeping ahead of the Shadow Lord. It appeared that the dragon was faster than he had let on before. The dragon must have been playing with them this whole time, but now, things were different; the dragon had enough of the games. Looking back at the Shadow Lord, Hiccup could see the hatred and the determination in the dragon's eyes.
Working together, Hiccup and Toothless swerved to avoid being caught in the snapping jaws of the Shadow Lord. When swerving stopped working, they flew up towards the sky. They did whatever they could, to buy Astrid and Snotlout time to do their job.
While Hiccup and Toothless were distracting the giant black dragon, Astrid and Snotlout continued to disturb the water with fire. Snotlout was quick to lose his patience at this seemingly pointless task. "I don't get this; what are we supposed to be accomplishing? My dragon is quickly reaching his shot limit."
Astrid had no response. Her dragon was reaching his limit as well. However, Hiccup had his reasons, and she had come to trust him implicitly. As she urged her dragon to unleash another breath of fire at the water, she began to notice movement underneath the water. Whatever it was, it was coming up to the surface with great haste. "Something's coming up! Lookout!"
They scattered away from the water as eight giant tentacles and a large tail stretched out from the water. This new giant dragon let out a terrifying squeal as he waved his tentacles in the air.
"Whoa!" Snotlout laughed, as he and his Monstrous Nightmare hovered safely out of the reach of the giant dragon. "That is the ugliest dragon I've ever seen! It's like the second dragon of Grendel, or something!"
All of Vikings on shore gasped at the sight of the tentacles reaching out of the water off in the distance. There were few who had ever seen a dragon like this. "What in blazes is that thing?" Gobber asked out loud, although not expecting anyone on the Island to know.
However, there was one among them who did know of this dragon. "That's a Monstrous Strangulator! That's the beast that attacked us on the way here!" Ivar exclaimed.
"A Monstrous Strangulator?" Stoick repeated underneath his breath. It was a mythical dragon that most wrote off as a bed time story. It was only when Ivar recently arrived to Berk when Stoick started to believe that there might be truth to their existence. Ivar had come to the village, and claimed he was attacked by the beast. A part of him did not believe him, but now, he was seeing the beast for his own eyes. "Legend says that they are supposed to live in caves, not under water."
"Aye," Ivar replied. "I've heard the same thing, but perhaps there is an underwater cave nearby. What I'm more interested in knowing is what your boy is thinking? Now he has two dragons to worry about."
Stoick could not give him an answer. He had no idea what his son was up to, or how his son even discovered the monster. He could only hope that his Son had not made things worse for all them by bringing this monstrosity to the surface.
"There he is!" Hiccup said, looking down towards the tentacles and tail flailing in the air. "Are you ready, Toothless?"
Toothless looked up at him with the corner of his eye and moaned. The dragon knew what the plan was, and was ready to give it a try. Toothless was starting to tire, and was willing to try anything, at this point.
"Here we go!"
Toothless made a sudden dive straight down towards the water. The Shadow Lord followed in pursuit, unleashing a stream of fire at the Night Fury as he did. The Night Fury manuvered around the flames as he continued his dive
As the water approached, Toothless straightened out until he was flying with his belly nearly slicing through it. Hiccup looked back to confirm that the Shadow Lord was still behind them. The dragon was taking the bate, but he was a little too close for Hiccup's comfort; his jaws were just about close enough to grab Toothless' tail fins. "Hold on, Toothless. Just a little longer!"
They pushed hard towards the tentacles. As they did, every nerve in Hiccup's body was on edge. Everything rode on this plan. If this did not work, the Shadow Lord would only get angrier, but he would have unleashed another menace. Fighting the Shadow Lord was hard enough, but taking out two dragons would be impossible. Everyone's lives were on the line here, and he could feel that pressure weighing on his shoulders.
"Wait…" Hiccup warned. For this to work, this had to be timed perfectly. He was basing the timing on the speed in which the tentacles were moving. If they acted too early, the Shadow Lord will have time to abort, and survive.
They were just about in the reach of those tentacles when Hiccup gave the order. "Now!"
On cue, Toothless fired a puff of blue flames at the tentacles. Letting out a painful squeal, the Monstrous Strangulator parted his tentacles with just enough room for Toothless to slickly maneuver through to avoid touching them and the dragon's tail.
They had made it safely through; thanks to Toothless' small stature. The Shadow Lord's eyes widen, when he saw the tentacles in front of him, coming for him. He had traveled too close behind Toothless to know what the Night Fury was doing, and now it was too late for him to manuver around the tentacles. The tentacles snapped towards him, mistaking him for the aggressor.
A tentacle wrapped itself around one of his hind legs. The Shadow Lord fought with the tentacle and went to chew on it to break free when another tentacle wrapped around his neck. The Monstrous Strangulator began to chock the dragon while wrapping another tentacle around the snout to prevent it from shooting fire. The dragon used his remaining tentacles to strategically strengthen his grip on the dragon.
Fully caught into it's grip, the Shadow Lord whined as he jerked around, desperate to break free as it began to slowly pull him into the water. He cried in desperation as his left wing and his entire left side were now in the water. He flapped his right wing wildly to the best of his ability in vain hope of breaking free. The Monstrous Strangulator's grip on him was too strong.
Hiccup looked back to see the pleading eyes of the Shadow Lord. The dragon cried, and begged for help. Hiccup could not help but be heart broken by the dragon's desperate pleas. Everything inside of him wanted to help the dragon, but he knew that the Shadow Lord was pure evil, and would not return his act of kindness. He could do nothing but watch the dragon struggle for his life.
Seeing that the giant black dragon was putting up a strong fight, the Monstrous Strangulator raised its poisonous stinger at the tip of his tail and commenced trying to sting the dragon. When he found that the dragon's scales were too strong, he began searching the dragon for weaknesses by jabbing his stinger. Finally, it was successful when it was able to sting the dragon in right wing. The poison took almost immediate effect, as the dragon ceases his moaning and struggling. The dragon's eyes were fluttering uncontrollably.
The fight in the Shadow Lord quickly diminished, and the Monstrous Strangulator pulled the dragon under the water. The Shadow Lord quickly disappeared under the water. With the dragon now fully submerged, the Monstrous Strangulator had no further problems in pulling the dragon down to the bottom of the ocean, and to his underwater cave, where it would enjoy a large feast.
"He's done it!" One of Berk's Vikings yelled in triumph. All the Vikings, on the beach, cheered in victory. All except for Ivar, who stood there in complete shock. He had just seen the impossible: a young boy has defeated an invincible dragon. Never in his wildest dreams did he think such a thing could or would happen. The boy was much more than he appeared on the outside. The boy, indeed, had a heart of a warrior.
When the water became peaceful once again, that was when Hiccup dared to believe that the fight was over. The Shadow Lord had met his fate. It was an ending he wished he could have avoided for the dragon, but in the end, the dragon had chosen his own fate.
"We did it, Toothless," Hiccup said with a heavy sigh of relief. The noise, Toothless made, told him that he was also glad that it was over.
Hiccup looked back to see all the Vikings on the Island cheering. He was too far away to, physically, see them, but he knew his father and Ivar had been watching the fight. Most of the conflicts that Hiccup found himself in had been resolved, except one; and that was his conflict with Ivar the Fearsome. With everything out of the bag, it was time to bring that conflict to a close; he could only hope that his father will stand behind him this time.
He flew Toothless to the island where the adults were more than willing to clear space for them to land. Toothless carefully landed in the clearing among the Vikings, folded his wings, and drooped them to the ground to allow Hiccup to dismount.
After getting his artificial foot unlatched, he jumped off Toothless' back only to find himself surrounded by Vikings who were quick to give him pats on his back. It was not long before his father had come out of the crowd to great him. "You did it, my boy! You saved us all!" he said enthusiastically before embracing him in a bear hug which nearly cut off the air to his lungs. "I had no doubt about it!"
"Thanks, dad!" he managed to reply after his father released him from his embrace.
Stoick stepped aside to allow Ivar to step forward. Hiccup could not read the expression on his face to get a feeling about what he was thinking. After everything he had just seen, Hiccup could only hope Ivar was more open to the dragons. Of course, knowing him, he could just as easily be furious at him for being the one to defeat the Shadow Lord. "Well boy, that was something else, though I am still trying to figure out how you were able to make friends with a Night Fury."
"Let me show you," Hiccup said stepping aside to allow Toothless to step up. "Ivar the Fearsome, meet , stretch out your hand and touch his nose; he won't bite."
Ivar was reluctant, but his pride would not allow him to turn down this challenge from the young hero. Ivar refused to show fear to anyone. He cautiously stretched out his right hand towards the Night Fury's face. He was half way there when Toothless' eyes narrowed and he let out a threatening growl.
Ivar pulled his hand back in fear of losing his hand. When he did, Toothless's mood immediately lightened-up and the dragon made some sort of coughing sound. After a few seconds, it dawned on Ivar that the dragon was not actually coughing, but laughing. Never in his life did he even imagine a dragon capable of laughing.
"Uh, sorry about that; Toothless is a bit of a prankster."
Toothless grinned before closing his eyes and bowed his head further down to show submission. Ivar tried once again to place the palm of his hand on the tip of the dragon's nose and this time, Toothless allowed him to do it. It was a feeling like no other for Ivar. This wasn't the first dragon he had touched; he ended up killing those dragons that he had touched, soon after. This was completely different, though. This was the first time he actually paid attention to everything that came with the sensation of touching the cool scales of a dragon. "Magnificent creature! I never knew that a dragon could have such a personality. I am Viking enough to admit that I've been wrong about dragons, and about you, young Hiccup."
"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice came from amongst the crowd of Vikings.
Hiccup turned to see her pushing through the adults. When she had broken through, she ran into him, nearly knocking him down in the process, and hugged him. Hiccup was stunned by the open display of emotions. Astrid was not one to show emotions to anyone. She ended up surprising him again when she gave him a passionate kiss across the lips.
Hiccup found himself blushing as all the Vikings chuckled. A sudden change came over Astrid in the middle of the kiss, and she broke it off abruptly. She was blushing, as she quickly regained her composure.
"So, you must be his g—"
Hiccup was about to interrupt him before he used the word 'girlfriend'. Astrid hated being called that and who knew how she would react to Ivar calling her that. However, she managed to beat him to the punch. "I'm his girlfriend."
Hiccup looked at her with a surprised, but pleasant look. To hear her call herself his girlfriend was like a dream come true. After everything that had happened, something had changed inside of her. Perhaps, their relationship was arriving to a new level.
The moment those thoughts entered his mind, she punched him on the shoulder. "Ow!"
"Don't let it go to your head."