Chapter 24: Escape from Outcast Island

Hiccup could not be any more relieved to be on the ground than he was right then. Has he was softly lowered to the ground, he stumbled onto his one good knee, as the clamp part of his prosthesis was missing. As he struggled to find the balance he needed to stand on one good foot and his wooden peg-leg, Stormfly gently lowered Bitwolf to the ground. As soon his hands were on the ground, the young Viking rolled himself backwards onto his back before climbing to his feet.

By this time, Stoick, and all of Berk's and the friendly outcast Vikings were gathering around them, leaving just enough room for the Mood dragon to land so Astrid could dismount. Hiccup had just managed to find the perfect amount of his body weight to distribute to allow him to stay standing when Toothless plowed through the crowd of Vikings, and hopped his way towards him. The sight of his dragon hopping towards him was enough for him to lose his concentration on standing up, and he nearly toppled forward.

"Whoa!" Toothless arrived just in time to lower his head to prevent him from falling to the ground and to give him the support he needed to stand. "Thanks, buddy!"

"You're alright, son?" Stoick asked, relieved to his son safe and sound.

"Yeah," Hiccup replied, looking down at his damaged prosthesis. "But I'll have to find a way to build a stronger leg."

Gobber chuckled in his usual quirky manner. "Well, with our reinforcements arriving, we pretty much have everything under control. Victory is ours!"

Alvin's Vikings were the last thing they needed to worry about. "Uh, the danger is not over! We have to evacuate the village immediately! The mountain's about to..."

The ground began to rumble and shake. Fighting the Earth to stay on their feet, all the Vikings looked up at the volcano to see black dust shooting up into the air. The mountain had blown its stack as a large black mushroom cloud quickly expanded in the sky, blocking the sun and not only pouring darkness over the village, but releasing a light drizzle of ash onto the island.

"...blow," Hiccup finished his sentence with a sarcastic tone.

"Stoick, our boats are docks to the south; they're just a half day's journey from here," Spitelout announced.

A large piece of ash danced its way down only to land on Stoick's nose. He wiped it off, only to have it leave a gray streak across the bridge of his nose. He looked up at the top of the mountain to see lava starting to drool down the mountain. "Evacuate everyone in the city; get as many Vikings onto the backs of dragons as we possibly can. There's no telling how long we have before the full eruption. We have to fit everyone on the boats and get as far away from the Island as fast as possible."

Chaos immediately ensued. There was a mass rush out of the village, in the direction of the ships. At the same time, any dragons that did not have a rider on them were coming to the grown to get one. In all the rush, Astrid lost Hiccup for a brief moment. When she found him, he was helping several young Viking children on top of Toothless. "Hiccup, what are you doing?"

"Toothless and I are grounded with my broken prosthesis, besides, we need to get the children to safety pronto."

"But what about you? You can't possibly outrun the lava with only one good leg!"

Toothless moaned, as to agree with Astrid. The dragon was not thrilled about the idea of leaving Hiccup behind like this. They may not be able to fly, but he was lightning quick running on the ground as he was flying in the air.

"Don't worry about me; I'll be fine. I'm more worried about the children. In all the confusion, we can't afford to accidently leave any of them behind," Hiccup replied helping a young Viking girl up onto the saddle, along with the other two children that had already been mounted. "Toothless, you have to get these children to safety. You can always come back for me after you get them to the ships."

Astrid let out a frustrated moan before she commenced helping the last two remaining children in the group loaded onto Stormfly's back. "Stormfly, you do the same!"

"I will, Camicazi!" The dragon replied.

Hiccup gave her a puzzled look, as if to say, 'What are you doing?' He didn't have to say anything for her to know that he wanted to protest her decision, but he knew better than to try and stop her. "I'm not leaving you behind."

There was a large exodus of Vikings pushing their way towards the shore. They were not racing against the lava, lava was always easy to outrun. They were up against a full eruption which may or may not occur. If the eruption happened, a large, black mass of searing, hot smoke would quickly engulf half of the island at the speed of a blink-of-an-eye. They had to be well away from the island before the eruption; there was no outrunning a volcanic eruption.

Everyone, who went by foot, was keeping a fast, steady pace. The falling ash was already starting to affect everyone's breathing, causing occasional coughs and grunts. The ash could be just as deadly as the eruption itself. Breathe too much of it in, and you would suffocate.

To the sky, some Vikings were on the backs of Berk's dragons as they sped past them, on their way to the boats. Even the wild dragons on the Island were fleeing in the same direction, to escape the pending doom. Bitwolf wish he had a dragon he could ride right now. Since joining the Berk tribe, he had not really clicked with any one dragon on the Island. Perhaps they were all disgruntled by his actions several months earlier. The dragons were not willing to forget very quickly. Right now, though, having a dragon to ride would make this trek a whole lot easier.

This journey to the shore was proving to be more treacherous than they had hopes. Trees tops were slowly catching on fire from the increasing heat, and a lot of fallen tree tops on the ground was forcing them to do some strenuous climbing. Bitwolf had just finished climbing a large tree trunk when he noticed movement to a small distance off the trail.

Curiosity got the better of him, as he cautiously weaved through the trees to see what the movement was. He didn't have to go very far off the trail to see that the movement was from a dragon. One of Alvin's Timberjack's had somehow gotten itself in a bind. Perhaps the chaos of the volcanic eruption had caused the dragon to get confused and get himself in this strange predicament. The chopped off tree tops had made that spot in the forest so thick, and somehow the dragon had gotten himself entangled in that small area, unable to extend his wings to escape.

"That must be one of Alvin's beasts," Gobber said as he walked up to join Bitwolf.

"We can't leave it here to die; we have to help it."

Bitwolf was surprised when Gobber hesitated. "That beast is too wild; there's no telling what Alvin did to the beast. If that dragon gets his wings free, he could just as well use them to cut you in half."

It was true, he didn't know if the dragon was under the same kind of spell as the Furious was, and would return his act of kindness with a quick and violent death. A few months ago, he wouldn't have considered helping and would have allowed the mountain to have the dragon. Somewhere down the line, he had become a new Viking. Given the chance again, he would not go along with his father's plan to rule over all the tribes.

The past was the past, and who he was and what he did no longer mattered; what mattered was who he was, now. He was not the type of person to let a helpless dragon burn to death; he didn't wish that kind of ending on anyone. "I'm helping him."

Before Gobber had the chance to stop him, he raced towards the closest tree trunk. If he studied the pile up correctly, this one trunk was the sole culprit of this dragon's predicament. If he could move this one trunk far enough, it may give the beast enough space to be able to break itself free. He first tried to push it with his two hands out in front, but it wouldn't budge.

Gobber watched the young Viking struggle for a minute before he sighed and shook his head. "Oy, you're doing it all wrong, lad! You gotta' put your back into it!"He stumbled to the trunk, placing his back up against it, besides Bitwolf. The young Viking did the same. "Now push!"

Together, they used their legs to push their backs into the trunk. Gobber, having a peg leg, stumbled slightly, but he managed to put enough weight on his peg to dig it into the ground a bit; it was just enough to give him the strength he needed. With their combined strength, the tree trunk started to budge.

It didn't have to move much; the slight movement was enough for the dragon to wiggle itself free from his trap. The Timberjack swung his neck throwing all the trunks behind him. Now free, the dragon spread out his razor sharp wings. Two Vikings had duck to avoid being sliced in half by the dragon's wings. After enjoying the sensation of stretching every muscle it had in his wings, he swung his neck towards the Vikings.

The dragon growled, baring its teeth, as it fixed its moon-slit eyes on the two Viking. Neither of them made any sudden movements; at t his close range, there was no fending off an angry dragon. This was the moment of truth; was the dragon intelligent enough to recognize what they did for him and return their gesture by not killing them? Gobber was already formulating a plan to get Bitwolf out of the way if the Timberjack decided to attack. He had full intention of distracting the dragon long enough to keep the young Viking safe.

The dragon stared at them with murder in his eyes. It let out a few snorts, before whipping its neck away from them. With a solid flap of its wings, it hoisted itself upward and punctured through the flaming tree tops to the open sky above. As the dragon broke through the tree tops, it sent large, burning branches falling to the ground.

"Whoops! Time to go!"

Astid used herself to help Hiccup walk. With his arm wrapped around her neck, they had synchronized their walking to be able to keep a steady pace ahead of the lava, which has already engulfed the village. The heat from the fire around them was suffocating. The sweat, from their brows, were irritating their eyes and causing them to turn red.

They had no idea how far behind everyone else they were or how close to the shore they were. For all they knew, the chaos could have had them turned around and heading in the wrong direction. Neither of them would listen to their doubts and continued to press forward, anyway.

Almost as soon as they put those feelings aside, they came across a large blockade of stacked tree trunks in their path. With the lava fresh on their heels, there was no walking around this mess. They had no choice but to climb.

The look on Astrid's face told Hiccup that she was thinking the same thing. There was no way was going to be able to help him climb this mess; he was on his own. "So what now?"

Hiccup shrugged, as if there was nothing to be concerned about. He could sense that she was thinking about his ability to climb this pile with his damaged prosthesis. Truth be told, he had his doubt that he could climb it, but he wasn't about to tell her that. "We climb."

Astrid prepared to climb when she gave him one last look. "I'll be fine, go!"

She started her climb without any further hesitation. She made quick work over the first two three trunks before checking up on him again. He was not able to make climbing those trunks look as easy as she did, but he was still making progress, even with only one good leg. Seeing his progress, she commenced climbing.

Even he had to be happy with the progress he was making. Having a pegged leg, mountaineering over these thick, tree trunks was not easy at all; there was nothing for his pegged leg to grab hold of for him to put his weight on and push himself up. He was relying mostly on his sub-par upper body strength. He never had very much arm strength in his life; it was only after he lost his leg when he started depending on his arm strength more. It had done wonders in increasing his physical strength, but it was still a far cry in comparison to your typical Viking. He was still the scrawny weakling of the tribe.

Astrid had raced all the way to the top of the pile as if this had been a race to the top. Hiccup had only managed to make it half-way when she stood up on the top of the pile, looking down towards him. That only added more pressure to him to make it all the way up on his own strength.

His muscles began to ach, protesting under great strain. His good knee was beginning to buckle, fatigued from overuse and abuse. A cold sweat began to drench his face as he realized that he was probably not going to be able to reach the top. His muscles were tightening up, getting ready to give up on him.

Astrid could see it in his eyes... he was in trouble. Sensing the situation, she knelt down onto her knees and reached down. "Grab my hand!"

He pleaded with his body to cooperate just a little longer. A few more steps and he would be close enough for her to grab his wrist. He gave everything he had in getting just a bit further up that pile. Finally, he was one step up away, but the step had to be taken with his pegged leg. As he took that final step, all of his strength in that leg gave out and his wooden stump slipped.

"Whoa!" Hiccup yelped as all the progress he had made had suddenly vanished. He found himself back down at the bottom, without the strength or time to try again. The lava flow was pushing its way towards him, as if it could smell blood for the taking. His muscles were spent; there was no way he could make another go at climbing the large pile. The time to find another rout around the pile had already expired; he now found himself trapped with no way of escape.

"Hiccup!" Astrid called down to him from on top of the pile. "Hurry up and climb!"

He looked up at her, and prayed that she was not going to be stubborn enough to listen to him. "Go on without me, I'll find another way around."

She didn't believe him, and she was THAT stubborn, to top it off. Before he could protest, she was already racing back down the pile and leaping down to the ground when she was about the half-way mark. "I'm not going anywhere."

Hiccup looked over to see the lava-flow inching its way towards them; it had both of them trapped with no way of escape. "Uh, maybe you might want to rethink that."

A deafening roar startled both young Vikings. The ground shook, and Hiccup first feared that the mountain was already about to erupt. When the series of shaking kept to a steady rhythm, he realized that it wasn't the mountain causing the ground to shake... it was something alive and very, big.

Furious came plowing through the burning forest, unaffected by the intense heat of the flames around him. Hiccup and Astrid stumbled away from the pile of tree trunks as the gigantic dragon pushed his way between them and their roadblock.

As if their circumstances had not been bad enough, now they had a giant dragon to deal with. With the lava closing in, they had very little hope of getting away if the dragon chose to attack. Perhaps that was what it was thinking, as well. He and Astrid were easy prey; the dragon was never going to get another opportunity like this again.

Furious looked down with his tiny eyes. As he swung his head, Hiccup and Astrid flinched, expecting the attack, but instead, the dragon used his head as a battering ram towards the stack. With one swing of its head, most of the fallen tree trunks had been thrown aside. The dragon roard as he departed as quickly as he came. However, as he left, he used his one of his hind legs to stomp upon the last remaining fallen tree on the path, completely crushing it into splinters.

The two young Vikings were left there, watching as the gigantic dragon stomped off. "Did he just help us?"

Stoick was directing all the Vikings onto the boats, taking charge like any good Viking chief would. However, the main reason that he was still not on one of those boats was his concern for Hiccup. No one has seen him, and yet his dragon was already here at the shore. The fact that Hiccup was not with his dragon concerned him greatly. The fact that nearly everyone was now present and accounted for was only concerning him more.

When the flow of panicked Vikings ceased, that was his confirmation that something was wrong. He turned around and grabbed his brother, Spitelout, by the shoulder. "See if you and a few other Vikings can get Toothless onto the boat. I'm gonna look for my son.

"Right," he replied.

Stoick didn't have to move at all; the moment he took his first steps towards the forest, Hiccup and Astrid came stumbling out. "Thank Odin!" Stoick muttered under his breath.

Astrid helped Hiccup hobble along as fast as they could towards the boats. An eerie red glow swallowed the shadows of the forest as the lava flow and the flames were approaching the shore. Stoick waved his arm, urgently encouraging his son and Astrid to speed it up. "Let's move it! Let's get off this forsaken island!"