How To Train Your Dragon -

Parasite

"Hiccup!" He heard his name shouted, as she was dragged away the Tarantulas hissing with victory. He could only watch her disappear into the forest, claimed by the shadows, and claimed by the demons. Having to witness it right in front of his very eyes made him feel a little lightheaded, somewhat nauseous, and it all made his shudder. He felt as if he had just been traumatized, and all due to Astrid's absence.

He turned his attention to the remaining others.

Toothless looked as if he was sharing his traumatized spirit and broken heart, he was the only one who could understand him - especially how he lost the girl of his dreams. He had told the dragon about his childhood, about how she never treated him so badly like others did, but he felt as if it was a mistake because now - now they were sharing the pain, and he felt that was the worst thing he could have done to the Night Fury.

Fray, on the other hand, appeared to have his attention mostly on studying his now ransacked cottage, the broken windows, the holes in every wall and ceiling, and his shattered trophies. He seemed to be showing the least care that they had fortunately survived, or the fact that they had lost someone of their group. From that moment on, he considered the hunter selfish, and understood how obvious it must have been that he was a loner.

"Um... hello?" Snotlout called, still lying paralyzed on the ground, "could somebody help me, if it isn't too much trouble!"

The hunter strolled over to the motionless young viking and picked him up, twisted and stretched his limbs hard to a painful range - as the young man made several yelps in result - until he placed him on his feet. Snotlout stretch a little big himself, caressing his sore muscles.

"Gee, thanks."

Hiccup knelled down and checked on Ruffnut, who was lying motionlessly on her back, her eyes open wide with her pupils shrinking and growing repeatedly. He touched her wrist to feel for a pulse, and touched her face. She was alive, thankfully, but in some type of unconsciousness - almost dead to everyone around her, but she would live.

"It's okay, Ruffnut's alright," he announced, and Snotlout began to complain.

"She's alright, what about Astrid? - What about us? Those things just tore through this cottage with ease and took her, now she's probably gonna wind up just like everyone else. No where's safe, what are we gonna do?"

"We're going after your friend," Fray said, both boys glanced at him in shock.

Snotlout agreed, but Hiccup was a little unsure why this hunter would want to save a teenage viking girl from a horde of the bugs. Though despite he wanted to know why, he listened on content.

"Okay, but how? What'd we do if we run into any more of those big bugs?" Snotlout asked.

Fray sauntered to his storage room and began to collect a few weapons. He placed three auto-reload crossbows on the desk, with plenty of effect arrow ammunition chambers by the weapons' sides. He piled some more of his hunting equipment, a few bladed weapons, nets, and bolas, but also began add a few small, wooden boxes aside - all of which were filled with dynamite sticks of TNT.

"Explosives?" Hiccup pointed out, "What do we need those for?"

"Just an precaution, we may run into something we haven't seen before, and it's all best we be prepared for the upcoming dangers," the hunter told them, "now I want both of you strap on a explosive canister with you, and collect whatever weapons you can carry."

"Are you sure we'll need the explosives for a rescue? I mean, I'm sure a few crossbows and swords can be just about enough."

"You're going to have to trust me, young blood," Fray told them, "Do you trust me, or not?"

"Well, yeah, okay I trust you, but... how are we even gonna find her? She could be anywhere in the woods by now, how will we know where to look?"

"Don't dragons have an sterling sense of smell?"

With that question, Hiccup glanced over to the Night Fury, whom was too surprised to be the subject in the hunter's interest. Regardless of how odd it seemed, he understood immediately what he was getting at.

Toothless could track down Astrid.

It seemed crazy, but it was more than possible and accurately likely to work. But he needed to hurry, need to save her, so with that, he agreed with the hunter. Toothless can find and lead them to her, all they needed to worry about was staying alive along the way.

Hiccup approached the Night Fury, placing a hand on his scaly head and looked into his yellow eyes - the dragon nodded and understood the intention, and from what he could see, he wanted to help Astrid too. He smiled, knowing that his best friend would at least be with him as they tried to help, they both knew the risks, and together, they would go through it.

He turned to Fray, whom was collecting equipment, not yet waiting for an answer. But when he glanced back up to the boy, he nodded, "Alright. Let's do it."

Astrid kicked and shoved as much as she could, but to no avail could she break free from the Tarantulas as they dragged her into the darkness of their lair. After being pulled through the sticky, web-covered inners this dark cave, she was thrown down into a large pit, she rolled down the slimy walls of the hole and in the center of it.

She quickly recollected to her feet, although unarmed she stood ready to fight if she had too, but there wasn't a single bug in the pit with her. She inhaled and exhaled heavily as she listened to the surrounding sounds from above her, she could hear the all too familiar hissing of the bugs, but also whispering voices that silently echoed in this cave. It was silent gossips, laughter and crying that appeared to be passed through verbal from ghosts, or so it seemed.

She further scanned the area, taking a step forward, only to feel the tip of her boot tap a round, bulbous object on the ground. She looked down to find a slimy sphere planted on the surface, it was large, round, and ex-banding and reducing repeatedly - almost as if it were breathing. It rather disgusted her, but disturbed simultaneous to her discovery of the object's identity. It was an egg.

She turned her attention to the rest of the pit, finding it filled and littered with numerous eggs all over. Hundreds of large, bulbous orbs laid along the entire filthy surface, some coated with webs while many other stuck independently on the walls and ground. Many of these eggs were vibrating, as if there was something inside its core, moving and twitching to be born. She didn't want to find out what was exactly in them, and to be frank, she would prefer to get out of this hellish nightmare of a place.

She hurried turned away and started for the wall, she attempted to climb it but only ended up slipping back down into the pit. The Tarantulas had been quite clever to dump her in this hole, she was beginning to feel like a fish in a bowl - there was no escape, just the slippery walls that only made her swim in circles.

Suddenly, she heard a squish, followed by a liquid leaking out a small, enclosed hole. Astrid spun around in time to witness a small creature burst from the egg, and to make things worse, it jumped at her. She caught the small, slimy creature before it could attach to her, tossed it on the ground, and stomped on it with her boot.

All the bugs inside the cave - as if simultaneously - screeched and shrieked so frighteningly, she almost went deaf. Astrid slapped her hands again her ears, shielding them from the shriek. She dropped to her knees gripping her head, praying and pleading it would stop, and as if someone had heard her, it all fell silent.

She sighed in gratitude as sat up, only to come face-to-face with a Tarantula, gritting its teeth at her, it would be obvious if it was angry with her. It stared at her for a minute, and then roared in her face, which gave her just the motivation. She tried for a sprint, but the bug jumped her, pinning her down with its larger form, pressing her face into the slimy webbing.

Astrid propped herself up and hurried crawled to escape, but a bug - one of the small zombie-makers - fell on her back, between her shoulder blades, and immediately she panicked.

She yelped, snatching a the insect that was already wrapping its skinny legs around her, fearing what she hoped wasn't inevitable at this point. Remembering the other victims she had seen, Gobber, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and even their entire village, she didn't want to endorse the same fate. She didn't want to be a mindless puppet.

One minute she was struggling to break free from the bug on her shoulders, the next she fell motionless. It was as if she had just been knocked out from her blind spot, all of her body and mind appeared to just suddenly shut down, completely. She was just a helpless, almost dead-like body, lying in the middle of the pit of eggs, a insect taking a good hold of her.

She felt herself twitch - a small static shock run through her whole body, through her spine and all of her limbs. Her right arm lifted, as if an invisible string was controlling it, and pressed her palm on the ground. Her left arm repeated the motion and both arms propped her up, while her feet took better footing and picked up her drooping body. Her eyes opened, as if she had just awoken from a deep sleep.

Astrid tried to move, tried to twitch even a finger but couldn't - her body was against her, she knew that well enough to be true. She could only stand there like a statue, horrified as she found herself unable to move, but also helpless in thought. The bug had merged its will with her mind, it had a greater will than she, and she couldn't overcome it.

Once again, the strange, spooky whispering from the darkness and shadows of the Hive, but she couldn't turn her head to see anyone. Only one voice could be heard - speaking into the core of her mind, telling her things.

"You are one." The deep, bone-chilling voice told her, "You belong to the Hive."

Hey everyone, sorry for such a late update of Parasite, lately was I thinking nobody was really interested in a horror story about mind control bugs in the category about dragons. But considered the reviews I got, which I am grateful for, I got just the motivation I needed to get back on the saddle.

Thanks for reviewing, and Happy 4th of July!