DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING
A.N.
Man, this chapter is longer than I wanted it to be. The next chapter was supposed to be part of this chapter, but obviously that didn't happen.
Yeah...I'm not so sure about the writing in this one. With all the nameless dragons and nameless riders (to Toothless anyway) things can get a bit confusing. Plus, something about this chapter just didn't seem to flow as well as the last one. Sorry about that.
And hey again Eva. I wish I could respond via pm, but you're a guest so...anyway, thanks for the critiques! One was just a typo, which will be corrected ASAP. But I thought that Toothless's conclusion was sound. He heard Astrid and Hiccup (after their own surprise about the queen) arguing about telling Stoick a few chapters ago, and I imply that Toothless is intelligent enough to make conclusions. Also, Toothless was a bit frantic at the time, so his mind is purposely jumping from conclusion to conclusion. He doesn't dismiss the idea that he will be killed, but he is trying to make sense of his odd surroundings. And he recognizes the meaning of "dad" but it'a still a foreign word to him, and he applies some of Hiccup's mannerisms to his own thoughts. But I'll definitely make things more clear next time. Thanks for telling me! :) oh and hel is the Norse form of hell, by the way!
As always, I hope you all enjoy this chapter , though!
An explosion rocked the sky, momentarily shaking Toothless out of his despair. His head turned back to the Queen's rampage, and he was stunned by what he saw.
Smoke was curling from her skull, evidence of a recent fireball impact. He was briefly left wondering who had launched it, but the question was soon answered. A group of dragons flew into view, buzzing around the Queen like bees. But there was a voice coming from the dragons...a human voice...a voice that sounded like...Hiccup?
It was Hiccup! At the sight of his rider, Toothless stopped paying attention to the devilish flames that were demolishing his boat. Hiccup had come back for him after all...He was here to rescue Toothless! Gratitude became like a hot coal in Toothless's stomach, burning warmer than he had ever felt before.
As he watched, he noticed that Hiccup was riding a different dragon-a Deadly Nadder by its appearance. The boy looked extremely focused as he looked behind him, his brown hair blowing blowing in the wind. He was talking to the other dragons-but that didn't make sense. Dragons didn't just automatically know the Viking language. How could they understand?
It took a second for Toothless to realize that all the dragons had riders-teenagers, just like Hiccup.
The boy was yelling orders to the other riders, all of whom didn't seem very acclimated to their dragons. They teetered a dangerously on the creatures' backs, but whatever training they had received was ultimately sufficient. The children were able to yell with joy and pride as they managed to bank and soar, turning back toward the Queen to attack.
Toothless wished he could join them.
He also couldn't believe that Hiccup had actually taught other Vikings to ride dragons. The idea had seemed so impossible, especially after his recent encounter with the boy's stubborn people. But somehow...somehow Hiccup had convinced the dragons to trust the humans, and the humans to trust the dragons. It was absolutely amazing!
A moment later, Toothless also saw Stoick's expression as he watched the Viking children fly, and it became an even more amazing moment. Hiccup's father was absolutely stunned, almost like he had been hit across the forehead with a human weapon. But Toothless wasn't sure if the man was angry-the surprise had apparently overcome all other visible emotions.
The dragons broke formation to attack the Queen from different angles. A pair of skinny children on a Zippleback flew around her head, screaming what sounded like insults. In response, she released a tongue of flame, but the dragon managed to maneuver safely out of the way. Another, more robust boy hovered on a Gronkle by the Queen's ear, clanging a hammer against a shield. He probably intended the loud sounds to disrupt her concentration, and her confused expression indicated that the plan was working. However, the noise would also hurt the dragon he rode, so the distraction would probably not last for long.
Even the Monstrous Nightmare that Toothless had fought was there, working with a burly boy that urged it to claw the Queen's face.
Meanwhile, Hiccup flew the Nadder toward Toothless's location on the sinking boat. He fearlessly jumped off of the other dragon's back, landing nimbly on the only part of the deck that was not completely consumed by the massive conflagration.
"Go help the others!" he yelled to Astrid, whom was still on the back of the Nadder. She nodded briefly before flying toward the Queen to aid in the fight.
The joy of Hiccup's arrival abruptly ended as Toothless looked at his rider, immediately coming to his senses. He had just jumped onto a burning boat, and the boy was not fireproof. If Hiccup failed to remove his bindings, they would both die, and Toothless's capture would have been for nothing! He wasn't sure if that was a risk worth taking, and he really didn't have time to decide.
So he looked at the boy pleadingly, a part of him urging Hiccup to leave, and the other part hoping desperately to be freed, obviously despite his better judgement. His rider apparently only noticed the latter part, however, and he began pulling off Toothless's restraints.
"Okay, hold on. Hold on," Hiccup mumbled as he pulled the leather muzzle off of Toothless's head. He then grabbed a nearby wood splinter and shoved it between the chains, hoping to pull the metal apart with applied force.
Toothless could hear the fight continuing in the distance, but he wasn't focusing on that. Every ounce of his being went into his constant hopes for escape-hopes that the boy's strength would somehow break the bindings.
Unfortunately, ;ittle progress was being made. Now that he was here, Toothless knew that Hiccup wouldn't leave, even if the situation was hopeless. The boy would go down with his best friend.
The trained dragons must have provoked even more of the Queen's violence , because she stomped toward the ships, her mace-like tail swinging recklessly. It smashed into the adjacent ship , knocking its mast toward the two friends' boat. It fell toward Hiccup with a defeated creak, but luckily, the boy managed to jump out of the way at the right moment.
Sadly, their troubles were not over yet. The Queen was too close to them, and she raised her foot above the boat, casting a very dark, large shadow on the two friends. It hovered there for a moment, almost like she was taking satisfaction in this particular footfall, and then let it drop. The heavy paw splintered the fragile wood, easily breaking the boat in two and submerging it.
Toothless was suddenly trapped in a world of bitter cold and peculiar darkness. He could see mutating orange light in the distance, and debris floating down beside him-but he was sinking far quicker than anything else in the water. It occurred to him that he was drowning-just like he had expected to. These ruthless chains were dragging him to the sea floor, hoping to give him a death filled with painful pressure and exploding lungs. Panicked, he roared, but the sound was muffled by the water, and he only succeeded in wasting the little air he had left to breathe.
So the Queen had managed to kill him after all.
But Hiccup still swam down toward the dragon, determined to free his best friend. It was a useless effort, though. Toothless knew that the chances of breaking the restraints were even less underwater, and he wished his friend would surface-would live to see another day. He shook his head at his rider, hoping to express that it was too late for him-that Hiccup must leave. But his rider seemed to be stubbornly set on dying today, because he refused to abandon Toothless as he continued to descend.
The boy pulled wildly at the chains, but as Toothless expected, they remained firmly attached. Hiccup's lungs were smaller than the dragons, and he was running out of air even faster. His efforts soon stopped completely as he slipped into unconsciousness, and Toothless watched with horror as his motionless rider floated in front of him, apparently suffocated.
With both dragon and rider immobile, the water was a horribly quiet and depressing place, especially given the circumstances of that immobilization. The dragon had never felt so guilty before. Hiccup was dying-dead-and it was all his fault. His rider looked so frail floating there like that...he was just a child...he didn't deserve to die this way…
The dragon waited for death, wishing to join his rider in the next life.
All of a sudden, an unknown force yanked the boy away, quickly speeding him toward the surface. At the sight, hope replaced Toothless's guilt, and optimistic thoughts filled his head. Maybe Hiccup was alive after all, and he had swam to the surface!
The dragon felt no sense of betrayal at his own abandonment. There was only relief, and he encouraged the departure with a garbled roar.
He was alone now. That was okay. That was how it was supposed to be, and he closed his eyes.
As he sat quietly in the water, he felt something rush at him. Toothless opened his eyes to see Stoick swimming in front of him, his expression fierce-though the target of that fierceness was inscrutable. Apparently, Hiccup had not left on his own. He had been pulled away-saved by his father. That was one of the only things these two very different creatures had in common-their protectiveness of Hiccup.
They stared at one another intensely for a moment, and Toothless began to suspect that Stoick was there to kill him. There wasn't much sense in it, especially since the dragon was about to run out of air anyway. But revenge often drove humans and dragons to do incredibly stupid and unnecessary things, and Toothless had caused Hiccup's near-suffocation. The idea that Stoick wanted to kill Toothless himself made some sense.
Now Stoick's hands went for the dragon's throat. That was even more ridiculous. Suffocating a dragon that was already suffocating? What satisfaction could he gain from that?
But the hands never touched Toothless's neck. They grasped the wooden harnesses, and using unbelievable strength, Stoick pulled them apart at the hinges. The restraints floated innocently to the sides, almost like they were ordinary debris. But Toothless knew better. He knew how murderous those wooden contraptions were-how durable. But not durable enough for this Viking...a Viking that Toothless now couldn't help seeing as brave.
The two briefly exchanged glances before the dragon shot upwards toward the surface, using his feet to take Stoick with him. Seeing as Hiccup's father had used the majority of his strength dismantling those restraints, Toothless wanted to return the favor. He used his mighty wings as added propulsion to lift the heavy Viking, desperate to reach the precious air-air that was so close now. With a forceful splash, they broke through to the surface. Toothless remained airborne long enough to drop the soaked Stoick onto the shore, where he sat panting for a few moments.
The dragon, meanwhile, landed on a rock overlooking the Queen's nearby rampage. Hatred coursed through his veins as he looked at her. She had tried to kill him and his rider twice now without a second thought-without any remorse.
He thought back to Hiccup's father-a man that he had once thought of as heartless. But he had a new perspective now...a perspective that allowed him to remember Stoick rejecting the axe that the Viking had offered him. On that day, Toothless and Stoick both had the chance to kill one another...but they had chosen not to. The latter knew that Toothless had spared him-spared him despite the belligerence that he had shown. The refusal to fight was uncommon, but Stoick was apparently a moral man. He would not kill something that refused to kill him.
Stoick had probably thought that the mercy had been a fluke, which is why he proceeded to attack the dragon nest. But after he had seen the children riding those dragons...easily trusting their lives to their supposed enemies...well, even the most stubborn views can be altered.
The emergence of the Queen, the bond between Vikings and dragons, and his son's protectiveness of Toothless had convinced him that the feud could end. And that was why he had saved Toothless. It appeared that Vikings could change, after all.
The had a common enemy now: the Queen. All the death, destruction, and hatred-it was her fault. She alone had started the war, not the dragons and Vikings that had actually fought it. The feud had begun with her greedy hunger, which caused her subordinate dragons to steal for her. And of course, the Vikings were protective of their food and had fought back with a vengeance. Thus, the terrified dragons were then forced to seek protection from her...to serve the very creature that had instigated the violence. And she felt no guilt about all that bloodshed. Nothing mattered to her except her next meal.
The Queen was a monster-willing to kill dragon and human alike to get what she wanted. She didn't deserve the power that she had.
Toothless motioned and roared for Hiccup to join him, eager to take flight and join the fight. The Queen had failed to kill him and his rider twice now, and the friends would make her pay dearly for that mistake. His close encounter with death had replaced his fear with anger and determination.
"You got it, bud," Hiccup agreed with a nod, probably feeling the same way. As the queen roared in the distance, he climbed onto Toothless's back and prepared to take off. But Stoick was suddenly next to them, holding Hiccup's arm. The dragon momentarily worried that he wouldn't let his rider go, but that theory was soon proven wrong.
"I'm sorry," Stoick apologized, "for...for everything."
Hiccup returned the apology before Stoick added quickly, "You don't have to go up there."
His rider's next sentence used a few words that were too complex for Toothless, and he could only pick out "We're Vikings." But he assumed that the phrase had greater meaning for the father and son, so he didn't worry about it too much.
After placing his hand over his son's, Stoick said one last thing: "I'm proud to call you my son."
Toothless never had parents-not ones that he knew, anyway. They hadn't bothered to stick around. At the sound of Hiccup and Stoick's conversation-a conversation that betrayed so much love and worry-the dragon could not help but feel a bit wistful. If his father had seen Toothless now, would he have been proud? Would he have been worried? He would never know.
Then Stoick released Hiccup's hand, and his rider turned frontwards. Seeing that Hiccup was ready, Toothless extended his wings, and with a mighty flap, they took off directly into a vertical climb. The dragon had missed his own speed, his freedom of flight, and his rider. He was worth nothing without them.
Whether they were enough to defeat the Queen, he supposed he would find out.