Hello, everyone!

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS! Okay, got your attention. The next update will not be in two weeks, but one week! Also, check out Unheard Whispers for an ES spinoff, "The Adventures of Noodles the Babysitter"!

I also want to thank give an extra special thank you to everyone. A lot of you reached out and checked up on me and/or left incredibly supportive reviews, and I really, really appreciate that. Ironically enough, it's hard for me to express how much that means to me...but still, thank you all so much. You're all the best.

I also want to thank Tista2018, CrisDLZ, Flopy, TheFuriousNightFury, NightShadow9558, Surprise Crayfish, ObiBen213, Eisnap33, FyrandTheGryffinclaw, Varghul, Samateus-Taal, It's Like I'm Not Even There, Laluzi, JustANormalHTTYDFan, Viperclaw14, TheWhisperingWarrior, Crysist, and all anonymous guests for all of their awesome reviews! Also, a special thanks to my beta Crysist for smashing through this in like two hours with me! I apologize for not responding to the reviews in time—I promise that I will once I get time!

Without further ado, I hope you enjoy this beginning of ends, and have a wonderful day!


Chapter 27

Toothless

Streams of soulfire flowed like water across the source's form, streaking through it like dazzling auroras. Like the flow of tides and wind, the godly fire spiraled towards the growing sphere of light centered at its forehead. It swelled with vivid light, gleaming like a star in the night.

Our nestmates—myself included—all halted in our counter-song and gasped with horror. The humans of Berk and even those upon the floating-trees fell silent in terrified awe.

More and more of the source's captives were beginning to glow with soulfire. More and more were being forced to bring it forth.

More and more were being led to a quick death.

I knew it intuitively, instinctively, without having even realized it. To use the godly magic in such a way, for such a godless creature, defied the very nature of soulfire. Soulfire brimmed with the very being of its user…and the source was forcing empty vessels to bring it forth. They had become nothing but containers fulfilling a mindless task, and there was no doubt in my mind that it was dooming them in doing so.

Hiccup was already on my shoulders, having shaken off the recoil of breaking free of the song. I growled, and he echoed it.

Those were our nestmates up there. The King's nestmates.

I was sick and tired of not being able to help them.

"Our nestmates!" I roared, standing tall and flaring my wings. "We must break them free! Force them away from it, back down here, and never stop singing the counter-song! Hold them down if need be! Have our human nestmates help!"

"Understood!" our nestmates shrieked with equal parts outrage and fear. They flung themselves forth, crying out the counter-song for all they were worth as they raced towards the growing sphere of soulfire lighting the heavens.

A stone sunk into my stomach at seeing them flying towards the enormous flock of song dragons. If they sang the counter-song at its edges, they could be safe—but it was simply impossible to think that our nestmates could free that many dragons.

Not alone.

I glanced up at Hiccup, and he met my stare. The spark flashed between us.

Without even speaking, we'd both come up with the same idea. I cracked a smile, and Hiccup returned it—only for the connection to suddenly cut off as a human paw grabbed him and forced his attention away.

"Hiccup," the King gasped. His skin was pale, his eyes gleaming with real fear.

"I know," Hiccup said. He took the King's paws in his own. "It won't be like last time, alright?"

The King wrenched Hiccup close to him, drawing a shocked gasp from my brother. "Thor be damned if it is."

Hiccup had stiffened for just the slightest moment, fear turning his fingers to claws—and then he relaxed, returning the embrace. The King released him and turned to me, placing a paw on my forehead.

"Keep each other safe," he commanded us. His eyes settled on mine. "I know you can."

Where were you?! he roared at me in my memories, from that horrible morning the two of us stood on these very cliffs, gazing out to sea, our family ripped apart.

"We will," I growled, nodding deliberately.

The King nodded, even as fear-scent drifted off of him and reluctance made his determined expression waver. "Is there anything we can do to stop it?"

"Keep the dragons that are still free out of its control," Hiccup said. He lifted up higher and faced our human nestmates, "Even just holding onto them can help snap them out of it. Get them down here if you can—just don't hurt them!"

The humans cried out in understanding and scrambled, all of them searching for nets or contraptions that they could use to throw nets. I saw one wielding the very same thing that Hiccup had used to shoot me down a lifetime ago, and couldn't help a worried glance at my tail.

"And what about us?!"

Astrid broke off from the crowd, a wide-eyed Stormfly at her heels. The others joined her, human and dragon nestmates alike. She crossed her paws across her chest. "What, think you're gonna ditch us?"

"Help our nestmates up there," I said, nodding up towards the source.

"Right," Hiccup said. "You guys know how to break dragons free—we need as much of them away from the source as possible."

Astrid nodded. She put her paw on Stormfly's shoulder, and Stormfly stooped to allow her to climb on. "We'll keep close to you," she said.

"As will we," 'Eret' mumbled to himself, eyes locked on the shadow-nest. The Color-Shifter was much the same, standing crouched and ready like he expected the shadow-nest to lunge for him.

"Alright!" Snotlout whooped, already resting on a very nervous Hookfang's head. "Time for some action!"

Hiccup and I exchanged a glance. We spared one final moment with the King and to our nestmates.

Dragoness of the Moon, let them stay safe.

We launched away from our home, back out over the ocean, back into this horrifying, new unknown.

We swept towards the source, curling higher and higher up into the sky. The drafts from the soulfire threatened to fill my wings and billow us backwards. With gritted teeth, I swung my tail to and fro as Hiccup shifted his weight from side to side. It was only with his help that I was able to skirt up the mountain of auroras, breaching through the remnants of smoke and fog drifting through the skies.

After what felt like hours ascending, we leveled out at the source's head, where the sphere of soulfire grew and grew at its forehead. The both of us sang the counter-song as loud as we could, and even with that, I had to shake my head every few seconds to clear it of fogginess. With a growl, I channeled what little magic I had left into my fire and spat a fireball directly at its center.

The magic-fueled fire exploded. Fog swirled about around it.

The soulfire remained undisturbed.

"Dragon of the Sun," I cursed, even though I had been expecting it. "Source! Stop! You'll kill them all!"

The source tilted its head just slightly towards us. A chill raced down my spine. Hiccup tensed and shivered.

Its stare was almost palpable, a sudden and horrible feeling of being watched, of being sucked under the freezing ocean, of the very breath being ripped out of one's lungs.

"You," it hissed. "Liars…"

I bared my teeth. It wasn't going to listen to us, no matter what we said.

Hiccup cut his counter-song off and said, "Can we reach it inside the soulfire?"

"What about you?" I returned. "You'll be hurt!"

Still pinning us with its stare, the source continued to sing. The soulfire just kept coming. As quickly as we had reacted, our nestmates must have run out of fire...right? Soulfire worked outside of shot limits, but surely it didn't grant its user infinite firepower?

My counter-song wavered. I glanced down at the song dragons, flicking my eyes back and forth and furrowing my brow. With growing horror, I watched as new stars sparked to life. New bursts of godly light. New dragons using soulfire.

The source was somehow spreading the knowledge of it.

I growled deep in my chest. "Fine!" I spat. "You want soulfire…I'll give you soulfire."

Deep within me, something shifted. A sudden rush of energy prickled through my scales, both ice-cold and blazing-hot. My wings regained their strength and the soreness in my limbs receded. It was different from last time. It felt right this time.

My scales shone blue all the way down my spine, reflecting brilliant light against Hiccup's body. He met my eyes and flattened himself against me.

The source had only just lurched away when I dove. I reached out with my claws, pounded into the shell of soulfire…and began to tear away at it. The source screeched with pain and fury, throwing its head and sending us sailing.

Hiccup stopped singing. "Watch out!" he screeched.

I flipped upright. Sudden, burning heat lit at my tail.

I swerved away just before a beam of soulfire the size of a floating-tree blazed past. It curled up into the heavens before exploding into an array of auroras, shimmering like a heat mirage in the distance. The sky around it darkened even more so, and if one looked closely enough, it would appear as if that portion of the sky had simply vanished.

The source threw its head back and bellowed its commanding song again. Hiccup curled close to me, clenching his paws around my ears, and I leaned into him. More fires lit below, and the source's form began to glow even brighter.

I tucked my wings in, singing the counter-song as loud as I could. Skirting over the source, I threw my paws out and snatched some of the soulfire condensing at its forehead. The source bellowed, whipping around with horrifying speed.

I let the soulfire fizzle out in my claws, lost forever, and it screamed.

"Why?!" the source raged. "Why do you despise me so?! All I wish is to be myself once more, to be free again!"

"This isn't the way!" Hiccup shouted. "Source, I know you don't want this! I know you don't want to be a monster!"

"Liar!" the source wailed with heartbreak. "Stop it! Stop lying! I won't let you deceive me once more! I won't feed into your lies, your false compassion!"

I twisted round, dove, and managed to snag another breath of soulfire off the surface of the source, leeching it away in a brilliant aurora.

Streams of fog burst from the source's form. They gave chase, forcing us to twist and curl back and forth. Hiccup clamped tight to me with his paws, struggling just to hold on as he threw his weight from side to side, guiding me out of harm's way. We darted in stomach-lurching twists and turns until, finally, I'd had enough. With a growl, I shot straight up into the empty sky. I whipped back around to face the fog, flared my wings, and flapped for all I was worth. It was exhausting, but I managed to create a big enough gust that the streams dissipated. With a snort, I pulled my wings in and allowed us to drop several winglengths to regain our speed.

"Source!" Hiccup called. "We do care. We care about you, and also everyone down there. Look at how you're hurting them!"

The source turned its chilling stare on us. "Stop it!" it cried. "You're a liar! A liar! You yourself have felt this suffering, and yet you withhold its cure from me! You would rather leave me to rot as this!"

The soulfire flared along its form. A sudden, sharp blast of wind rushed into us.

It hit us like an invisible stampede—a solid, physical thing forcing us away.

I screeched as my wings buckled in, sending us head-over-tail. Hiccup struggled to hold on and nearly slid right off from the sheer force of the spin.

When it was over, I flipped upright and snapped my wings out, breathless and reeling. Hiccup slumped against me, gasping for air.

"Welp, damage control's a no, then," he groaned.

The source had pushed us far, far away from it—so far that we were close to the shadow-nest, blown completely out of Berk's bay. I could still feel its freezing, pinpoint stare on us as it craned its enormous head to look at us. Even at our distance from it, I could still clearly hear its voice.

"You say I'm not a monster," it murmured.

I felt its stare vanish as it turned away, ducking its head as if ashamed.

"...how I wish that were true..."

It roared the song. Multicolored sparks lit up on the horizon, along the shadow-nest…and beneath the waves directly below us.

"Not good. Very, very not good!" Hiccup shouted. I pumped my wings, racing up into the sky as the water exploded right underneath us. A tusk rushed past us on our left and right. I pounded my wings, gritting my teeth when freezing water sprayed at my underbelly. I could feel his breath wafting over us, sickeningly close.

The young King missed ramming into us by mere winglengths, his ascent out of the ocean stopping meters away from my tail. He fell back into the water, sending a tidal wave into the shadow-nest and the invading floating-trees. Blank amber eyes locked on the source, and he boomed the song.

It was too much. I began to sway. The source was bad enough—the last thing we needed was a King singing the song as loud as he could.

"It is fine!" Hiccup gasped, clasping onto me and humming the counter-song. "It is fine, Toothless!"

I picked up my own counter-song. The buzzing within my mind never quite faded—but with Hiccup here with me, I was able to shove it aside, if only enough to concentrate. Holding it at bay or not, though, we needed to stop him now.

The young King's scales beamed with neon blue light, much like my own. He opened his mouth, sending a swath of steam billowing from his maw. Hiccup hissed with pain as it curled over us.

I lurched away as fast as I could and, in frantic desperation, spun around in a circle in desperate search for something that would help. There were still some dragons trapped on the shadow-nest, and as the young King began to glow with soulfire, so too did they speckle the darkness with prismatic stars.

The freed dragons were another story. Glancing back towards the source, horror struck me at the sight that met me: more dragons joining the swirling song dragons...and the shadows of dragons, stark against the light, as they fell. Our freed nestmates were quick to catch some of them and carry them to safety, but some slipped past, landing on the floating-trees below. Still, more sparks added to the ranks of the song dragons; even with the counter-song, even with the source's commanding song being less potent, our nestmates were right next to it.

The song was too powerful with two beasts singing it. Without someone there to physically block it, flying out alone and scattered, our nestmates were slowly succumbing to it.

I shook my head, sending a wide-eyed look between the source and the young King below. "New plan! We have to stop him!" I hissed.

"Right," Hiccup groaned. Then, with a sudden gasp, he lurched on my back—and for a horrible moment, I thought he was going to jump off. "Look!" he said. He pointed out towards the horizon.

So brilliant was the source that it seemed to suck all the light around itself, making everything else seem unfathomably dark in comparison. It was easy to forget that, for the briefest moment, the sun had been rising just before the battle. Now the sun was inching up into the sky, a golden disk casting weak light into the darkness…

…and the moon was rising to meet it.

An odd sort of joy and apprehension filled my heart at the sight. "Please hurry," I whispered, before tucking my wings into a dive.

We swooped right in front of the young King, crying out the counter-song as loud as we could. His eyes might have flickered, his voice might have hitched—but he continued to amble forward, undeterred. With each puff of air he breathed, scalding steam blasted over us. I inched to the side, waited for him to pass close by, and let us drop directly onto his forehead. Hiccup slid off of me and planted his paws firmly against the scarred, sagging scales of the young King.

"Soulfire!" both of us gasped between loud bouts of the counter-song. "Soulfire!"

This time his song did pause—for a moment. The young King was simply too loud. Just as his elder had used his enormous voice to protect his entire nest, the young King's call dominated over all else. Dread filled me at the prospect—that we could scream our scales off, and all for nothing—

Hiccup froze, snapping towards something behind me with wide eyes. The King jolted.

A hoarse roar ripped through the cacophony.

"SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!"

I whipped around, my fire already blazing between my teeth. Hiccup put one paw on my shoulder, nearly climbed on, and hesitated with his other on the young King.

The monster had managed to leap the short gap between the shadow-nest and young King's tusk. He swung his claw-stick high over his head, advancing further up the young King's tusk—and straight towards us.

"Soulfire," Hiccup gasped, frozen between staying with the young King and leaping onto my shoulders.

The young King's eyes wavered between wild fear and blank obedience. We continued to sing the counter-song. The shadow-man advanced, still roaring at him—or was that command directed at us?

The shadow-man advanced too far for my liking, too close for comfort. I opened my wings and threw my shoulder at Hiccup, crouching low. For good measure, I added an urgent overtone to my counter-song.

"Soulfire," Hiccup said as if in a trance. He snapped out of his rigid stupor and, with one last glance at the young King, he leapt up to safety.

With Hiccup secured, I let my fire pool in my maw. The shadow-man broke into a sprint, his claw-stick raised high above as if to plunge deep into my soft spot, his eyes mad and glinting in the wavering sparks of soulfire.

The young King's scales stopped glowing. I let loose my flame and leapt up into the sky.

At that very moment, the young King lurched in place, reared backwards, and wailed, "ALWAYS-THERE! HELP ME!"

I swerved just out of the way of a swinging tusk—and nearly threw my head back and groaned. Had the young King waited even a single moment, my shot would have struck true.

Now, the shadow-man ripped his claw-stick out of the young King's tusk, having thrown himself down and used it as leverage to hold on. The young King settled down and took several frantic step backwards, his swinging tail shooting just over the shadow-nest. His terrified eyes settled on his captor.

"Always-There," he sighed, drooping with relief. Averting his eyes, he pinned his crown back and lowered his head. "Please help…me scared…me bad…me sorry!"

To the young King's growing despair, the shadow-man didn't even look at him. He sneered victoriously up at us and bellowed, "Well, it looks like you can cure them after all!" He narrowed his eyes. "Which means you can get that under control." He gestured behind him, towards the source.

I snarled. Hiccup tightened his claws on my shoulder and took a deep breath.

"YOU!" he shouted below. The young King glanced back up at us, his eyes gleaming with the growing soulfire. Hiccup rose taller on my back and flared his wings, making himself all the more bigger and noticeable. Raising his voice, he layered his words not with a commanding overtone—but with one full of compassion. "WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS!" he roared. "Please, listen to us!"

The young King's jaw parted with shock and confusion. He turned towards us, his full attention locked on us.

The confident grin faded from the monster's lips.

"Us friends!" Hiccup shouted. "Us help you! You are good!"

Now the young King's eyes were filled with disbelief. "Me…good?" He turned to his captor, flicked his eyes down, and then risked meeting his eye. His voice filled with naïve hope, "Always-There, me good?" He returned his eyes to us and took a step closer, carrying the monster closer towards us. "Me good?"

The shadow-man's expression filled with rage.

He raised his claw-stick, stepped to the base of the young King's tusk, and howled, "SUBMIT! SUBMIT! SUBMIT!"

The claw-stick struck scales this time, burrowing deep into the young King's scarred and battle-worn hide.

"No!" Hiccup and I snarled. We dove.

The shadow-man had only just yanked his damned weapon out and looked up when I rushed over him and snapped a paw out, flinging him off of the poor young dragon. He went sailing backwards, back onto the shadow-nest, and I gave chase. We pounded into the wood at the same time. I flared my wings, whipped my tail, and screeched a battle cry.

Hiccup rose upright and flared his wings. "We are not yours!" he commanded him, his voice raw with exhaustion and determination alike. "Don't you see? You will never control us! You will never control him!" Baring his teeth, he rasped, "Never again!"

"No!" the young King whimpered. "No hurt Always-There!"

The shadow-man sneered and lurched to his feet. His eyes flicked behind us, and a twisted grin made its way up his maw, casting grotesque shadows across his face in the ever-building soulfire.

The source, lost in its own suffering, continued to roar its commanding song. It nearly drowned out the monster's next words.

"Is that so?" he rumbled. He thrust his claw-stick towards us and screamed, "FIGHT!"

The two of us swiveled towards the young King. He lifted himself higher out of the water.

Wide, young amber eyes fixated on us, back to the shadow-man, and returned to us again. "No hurt," he begged.

"No hurt you," I said, separating the words as distinctly as I could. I stared pointedly at the scales just besides his tusk, which still gleamed with blood in the strengthening soulfire.

"Us help you!" Hiccup said, layering his voice again with compassion. "Us friends!"

"…friend?" the young King breathed. He dragged his gaze back towards the monster. "Always-There…"

For the first time, the shadow-man didn't seem so in-control. He flared his horrible cloak, thrust his claw-stick at us, and commanded with outraged bloodlust, "FIGHT!"

The young King whimpered, drawing away. His eyes, begging for guidance, settled on us again.

"You good," Hiccup tried to soothe him. "I know you are."

"…me…good…?"

Sudden, rapid footsteps pounded towards us. The young King flinched away, hiding behind a paw.

"SUBMIT!" the monster roared, swinging his claw-stick above him, making him seem to tower high above. "SUBMIT! SUBMIT!"

Hiccup pressed close to me, claws digging into my scales. "No," he growled.

"No!" I said.

The claw-stick swung towards us. I ducked out of the way, and as I did, Hiccup rose onto my shoulders and snapped his paws out.

He clasped the claw-stick in his paws, his face inches from the shadow-man's. The monster wrenched his paw back—and I reared and snapped my front paws out, shoving him back. For the second time, he was thrown backwards and away.

Hiccup lowered himself down again. He stared at the prize clasped in his paws.

He turned towards the edge of the shadow-nest, and the young King shrunk away, eyes huge and terrified as they swung between us and his fallen master.

"Never again," Hiccup whispered, holding the claw-stick out.

It slipped from his paws, rolled to the edge of the floating-tree, and plummeted into the ocean, where even the gods could not see it.

The young King watched it fall, his eyes huge and head lowered, and dragged his gaze up to us. "…you?"

Hiccup leaned hard to the side. I twisted, opened my wings, and launched into the sky. With a quick turn, I faced the young King—and the monster, who had fought his way to his feet.

I met the shadow-man's eyes and threw my head with a snort. As much as I wanted to continue tossing him around like the carrion he was, we needed the young King's help. Swiveling towards the cowering young King, I let my snarl fade and soothed, "Come on."

The young King flicked his eyes towards the monster that had filled his life with suffering—so much so that he scarcely knew it for what it was. That the very act of showing kindness was baffling to him.

"STAY!" the shadow-man bellowed with rage. He advanced at shocking speed towards the young King. "SUBMIT! SUBMIT!"

"No!" Hiccup and I said.

The young King inched away from his captor. "…no," he breathed. He looked down, down to where the claw-stick had met its end in the freezing waters. His eyes filled with wonder. "…no?"

I fluttered away from him, back around the shadow-nest…and the young King followed. The shadow-man watched, seething, his paws empty. With a sneer, he turned to his shadow-nest and roared, "Restrain them!"

The shadow-nest was in uproar, the cowardly underlings upon it frozen with fear. Only some snapped to attention, but it was enough for weapons to be turned towards us.

With one final, calculating look, the monster retreated within his shadows, disappearing from sight.

"FIRE!" a human cried, his voice tight with fear.

I flung us backwards, and the young King leapt playfully towards us. The flaming-rock that had been aimed for him sailed right over him, unbeknownst to him.

"No! No!" the young King gasped with delight. More humans prepared weapons—and the sound caught his attention. He turned to the floating-tree that drifted closest to him, slowly inched a paw up, hesitated….

...and then, with a gleeful smile, he swatted it aside like it was a stone he was playing with. It smashed into the shadow-nest, sending a wave of collisions through it. The humans aboard screamed, and some even fled the moment they could get their feet beneath them, sprinting across the connections between floating-trees.

"No! No!" the young King sang.

"Good!" Hiccup shouted. "Now—"

"Me good! Me good!" the young King said joyfully. He swatted at the floating-trees again, just because he could. A stone pillar caught his sight, and he swept his tail through it and smashed it, laughing joyfully all the while.

Hiccup cringed. "Um. Okay! Hello! You—yes, you!"

"No!" the young King chirped.

"Yes!" I said. "Now, listen!"

He didn't, but he did follow us as we made our way back towards the source, beaming with pride. The fact that a giant, glowing fog monster was looming just within reach seemed to be an afterthought to him. He followed after us with the bouncy energy of a yearling, trusting eyes settled on us.

"Do this!" I shouted, and began to sing the counter-song.

The young King listened for a few seconds, puffed up his chest, and bellowed it for all he was worth. I cringed, and Hiccup wrapped his paws around my ears. Yet despite the pain, relief washed over me.

The counter-song is no cure, the old King had once told us. But I believe it is enough of a deterrent to keep the song away from my nestmates…

The source abruptly stopped singing, turning towards the young King. The soulfire swirled and swirled within it, making it seem almost solid. The majority of it condensed at a shell-shaped sphere just at its forehead, where I knew its "true" form was tucked away.

...simply because my voice is extraordinarily loud for a dragon.

The "nest" of song dragons was enormous, their voices cacophonous when joined together. But their volume was not nearly that of a dragon as enormous as the young King.

In mere seconds, the song filling the air was replaced by our counter-song.

The song dragons stopped spewing soulfire. They began to flutter, swerving away from the young King—who was standing close enough to the source that they began to flee their captor. Our remaining nestmates latched onto those that they could, dragging them back to Berk, back to safety. Still, I could see that more had fallen to the floating-nests below, and that some were even being dragged out of the water by some Vikings. Rage and horror burst through me with the realization that I couldn't tell if they were alive.

Yet despite it all, within seconds, the tides had shifted. The source had been too distracted to intervene our rescue of the young King, and now it was left exposed. It twisted its massive head around, searching for its victims, and then let out a screech.

I tucked my wings in, dropped onto the young King's tusk, and braced myself against him.

Movement caught my sight. I whipped backwards just in time to see humans—several humans—leaping from the shadow-nest atop the young King's back.

"Why you—!" I snarled, twisting towards them.

"Alright, let's get a move on!" Came the giddy voice of...of 'Eret'?

"Is he our friend now?!" Crowed…Stormfly...?

Of course Stormfly was here. Why not?

Not a moment later, a blast of freezing wind ripped through the air. The song dragons were flown astray, swirling head-over-tail in the wild winds. Many landed directly on Berk, and many more fell all the way down towards the dozens of Viking floating-trees, joining the ranks of their fallen. There they stayed, clambering onto the closet solid ground they could find—whether it be Berk's cliffs or a floating-tree.

The source stretched its jaw open, nearly filling the whole sky. The soulfire began to condense within...and aimed directly at us and Berk. Horrified screams came from all directions, both from dragons and humans.

The young King boomed his counter-song even louder, his voice turning shrill with fear.

The brilliance of soulfire consumed my vision—all but for one thing. Just above, barely perceptible, the sun and moon inched closer together. The soulfire was so bright that it drowned their light out, making it seem as though it were still night. Their edges just barely touched.

The source snapped its head towards them.

"No—" I gasped.

Its entire form surged in a blinding burst of light. The auroras that made up its body spewed up into the sky like a waterfall, raking across it like a thousand white-hot talons.

Soulfire was the fire and magic of the gods.

It pierced the heavens, filling my vision with white.

o.O.o

Astrid

The song dragons were cacophonous.

All of Stormfly's time playing tag with Hookfang really paid off. She darted in and out of the very edges of the flock, shooting after those that strayed too far with surprising ease. Wrangling the song dragons away was no easy task, though; we all quickly learned that it would take at least two or three dragons just to break one away and force it down.

Then holding it down was a problem—Berk only had so many nets to spare, and I noticed with a mixture of happiness and exasperation that some villagers were actually hesitating to throw their bolas at our dragons.

The heat was intense, leaving my skin with a sunburn in the middle of the night. It was so bright that, at times, I had to cover my eyes or risk filling my vision with hundreds of luminescent spots.

Around and around we swirled, picking off song dragon after song dragon. Stormfly sang the entire time, never letting up except to pant for breath.

"Astrid!" Fishlegs cried from somewhere above us. Meatlug and two other dragons chased a song dragon around, only for it to slip away and sink back into the mass of them. "This isn't working!"

"Well, it's gonna have to!" I shouted. "Hiccup and Toothless are counting on us to—"

A screech from above—and a rush of wind slammed into us. Stormfly and I screamed as we tumbled through the sky. I tightened my grip to a death-hold, straining to hang onto the flimsy rope as everything turned into a confusing blur.

We settled out far over Berk. Stormfly cried out, and within moments, everyone's dragons responded, regrouping back towards us. A sigh of relief left me at seeing that everyone had someone managed to hang on…all except for one.

"Where's Eret?" I demanded.

Not a second later, the ocean filled with vivid light and exploded into mist. The young Bewilderbeast breached clear out of the ocean, his scales glowing like the sun and eyes blank and glazed over.

Flitting just above him, barely noticeable against the bleak sky, I saw a flash of movement.

"Those idiots," I groaned. "C'mon, girl! We gotta give them backup!"

"What?!" Ruffnut shouted from below. I glanced down, but the literal mountain of fire made it kind-of hard to see her or her brother.

"You guys keep helping!" I shouted. "C'mon, Stormfly!"

With a squawk, Stormfly broke away and zipped towards the armada.

Hookfang and Snotlout casually descended on our left, and the twins and Barf and Belch on our right. Stormfly seemed absolutely giddy, chirping cheerily at them.

"Yeah, I don't really know why you thought that'd work," Snotlout mused.

Buzzing came from above—Meatlug and Fishlegs. I hung my head and groaned.

"Fine," I ground out. "Let's just help out and…and…"

Shouting was coming from below on the armada. I squinted. It was on one of the central ships, and there were a bunch of men fighting…something. The strangest thing was, many of them seemed to be hitting an invisible wall—or, rather, they seemed to be getting hit by an invisible wall.

"Don't tell me that's…"

Ruffnut dangled off of Barf's spines to get a better look, to the Zippleback's clear horror. "Eyup," she said. Belch quickly snatched her by her scruff and set her back to safety, which she completely ignored. "It's our attractive downer."

"Eugh," Tuffnut groaned. "Tue-moi."

"Those idiots!" I groaned. "Of course they went on a solo mission!"

"Y'know…he's really bad at this," Snotlout said.

"Oh, like you're any better?" Fishlegs shot back.

"I am! Actually!" Snotlout said. He lunged forward. "Let's light 'em up, Hookie!"

Hookfang was looking at Meatlug. She rolled her eyes and nodded.

All of our dragons clutched their wings in and dove. The armada swept up towards us—and very quickly went up in our flames. Stormfly landed besides Eret, and I leapt off my back and unsheathed my axe. The three of us stood back-to-back, bracing ourselves against the army.

"Hey," I said.

"Fancy seein' you here," Eret said, slightly out of breath. A man with some sort of bear mask charged him, and he ducked aside, kneed him in the gut, and knocked him down. The man groaned on the ground for a second—and then suddenly lifted up into the air all on his own before being flung astray.

The colorful dragon winked into sight for just a moment and disappeared again. So that made four of us standing back-to-back.

"Yeah, well—" A man charged me, only for Stormfly to snap her tail at him and send him flailing. "Oh, c'mon, Stormfly, I totally had that one."

She chirped at me—and then squeaked with alarm as I charged right under her and flung my axe at the underling that had almost got the jump on her. He parried my axe with his own and kicked at me, trying to trip me. I leapt to the side, spun, and aimed my axe right for the back of his knees. He stumbled away…just in time for Stormfly to snatch him up by his cloak and throw him aside.

"So you decided to just come over here all on your own? You against an entire armada?" I huffed. Another underling came at me. I ducked aside, and they were suddenly flung backwards. A small gust of wind whisking past was the only indication that the colorful dragon was even there.

"It's not just me!" Eret said. He flapped his arm around. "C'mon, where are you?! Let's get above again! Up! Up!"

The colorful dragon materialized in front of him. Eret leapt gracelessly onto his back, and I could have sworn I saw the prim dragon roll its eyes before he opened his wings and took off. Before I could do anything, Stormfly snatched me up as well, throwing me onto her shoulder and launching above.

"Eret, this is ridiculous! Do you have any idea where your men even are? Or if they're even alive?" I asked, eyeing the King dragon. It was just…standing there. Hiccup and Toothless were nowhere in sight—were they above?

"No!" Eret groaned. "But I have to try! I won't stop until I see proof of it!" He grit his teeth and ground out in something that was supposed to be confident but sounded more like a desperate prayer, "Words mean nothing!"

The colorful dragon suddenly took shape in front of us. His eyes locked below, and with a bellow, he burst back down towards the armada.

"Stormfly!" I gasped. She was already on it, speeding after the colorful dragon as fast as she could.

The colorful dragon landed and scrambled to one of the cages that still held some song dragons. The colorful dragon let out a wheezing, high-pitched whine, and began clawing and biting at the bars. Eret fell off almost instantly.

The captives stood rigid, their blank eyes all aimed towards the source. All of them gleamed with magic fire, and some even let it curl from their maws.

"Oh, hey!" Tuffnut shouted overhead. "It's the glum dragon!"

Now that he mentioned it, I did recognize one of the dragons in the cage. It was the huge orange one that always…spent its time with the colorful one…

It nearly broke my heart to see the colorful one all but crying, frantically snapping at the metal, raking his claws against it and pounding his shoulder into the bars. Eret slowly got to his feet—and the moment he was upright, the colorful dragon whipped towards him and screamed.

"Unlock it!" I shouted to Eret.

"Way ahead of you!" he yelped. He spun, snatched up a locking mechanism, and began cranking the lever. The cage began to open across its midline, splitting in half inch-by-inch like a giant snapping-trap. I leapt off of Stormfly and joined in. Stormfly tried to help, too, but couldn't get a grip on the lever, so she just kind-of stood there with her mouth open.

The entire time the cage was opening, the colorful dragon sprinted back and forth, his wings flailing and tail whipping. He let out a high-pitched keen, rearing up onto his hind legs and clasping the metal bars in his claws. The poor thing pulled down with all his might, trying to speed up the process to no avail.

The cage finally widened enough for the dragons to escape. The song dragons trapped within immediately opened their wings and took off. The colorful dragon launched himself after the orange one, knocking him to the ground and humming as loud as he could.

The four-winged dragon actually struggled—and being twice the size of the colorful one, it would be roughly two seconds before he broke away.

"Y'know, I still don't get that," Eret said. He sauntered over to the colorful dragon and said, "Need any help there, big fella?"

That earned him one nasty look. Eret shrugged and leapt for the four-wing dragon's neck, wrapping his arms around it and holding it down.

"Stormfly, c'mon!" I gasped, running forward myself. I leapt for the dragon's tailfins, holding them down as tight as I could, and Stormfly hopped up onto its stomach with the colorful dragon and sat down, looking very proud of herself even though she probably wasn't even half the orange dragon's weight.

The four-wing dragon squawked between deep rumbles. It shifted around…and then went still.

A moment of stillness—and it let out a shriek at the very same time that the Bewilderbeast roared.

"Well, shit!" Snotlout shouted above. "C'mon, guys, we gotta—holy shit, hurry up, hurry up, hurry up—"

The bulking mountain of a dragon raced towards us with alarming speed, lifted a massive paw, and smacked a ship right at the armada's edge. A domino effect of collisions followed, and within seconds, I was knocked flat to the ground. The four-winged dragon slipped its tail out from under me.

The four-winged dragon spun in a panicked circle, eyes huge as it took in the horrible views around us. It settled on the colorful dragon, who pressed close to it with a purr. Then it narrowed an eye at Eret, who awkwardly waved.

"Uh, what's going on?" Fishlegs said. "What's that Bewilderbeast doing?!"

The answer was "attacking a stone pillar" for…some reason.

"I think that's our cue to leave," Eret moaned. As if in agreement, several men across the armada began to run for their lives, trying to put as much distance between themselves, the Bewilderbeast, and the source as they could.

"Then let's get a move on!" I said. "Where would they be, if they're not on deck?"

Eret whirled around, trying desperately to think as the Bewilderbeast tromped closer and closer. The men on the armada had all frozen, staring slackjawed as their former slave had itself a little rebellion party. Some actually tried to stop it, shooting explosives at it—but the Bewilderbeast was moving too fast and too unpredictably as it pranced about, making every shot fly right over it.

"Not on deck," Eret muttered. "Not below, never there…no, we just checked there, and…no, not there or…gods damn it, all that's left is—"

He stiffened. Then he turned to the colorful dragon and grasped his cheekbones in his hands. The dragon snorted with wide eyes and the four-winged dragon leaned down with a snarl, but still he didn't let go.

"Please help me," Eret begged. "This is the last time, I promise you."

He scrambled to the dragon's side and scurried onto his back, and for once, the colorful dragon didn't protest. His orange friend blinked at him in surprise, and the colorful dragon ducked his head and pretended not to look.

"There!" Eret said, pointing to some ships near the front of the armada. The colorful dragon took off. With a startled squawk, his friend followed. I leapt onto Stormfly, and she burst after them.

We were streaking alongside the Bewilderbeast now, and just ahead of it, I could make out the distinct form of a Night Fury. They were luring it back towards the source—but why?

There was no time to find out. Eret pointed out a ship full of closed snapping-traps, and at the very same moment, the Bewilderbeast exploded with sound.

Stormfly was so disorientated that she nearly dropped right then and there. I cried out her name and pulled up on the rope, guiding her as best as I could. She plopped gracelessly onto the ship, where Eret was already cranking open a trap made of solid metal.

"What are you doing?" I shouted as loud as I could. I could still barely hear myself. The colorful dragon had flattened himself down and covered his ears with his paws, and the orange dragon stood protectively over him. Our friends hovered just nearby, although I could see that all of the dragons were struggling to fly straight.

"These are empty!" Eret cried. "I know it, because they're broken—they only open halfway! Look how dinged up they are!"

The trap suddenly halted halfway open. Eret leapt up onto the crank, poked his head in—

—and was punched square in the jaw. He fell backwards with a huge, "Oof!"

A man only a few years older than us sprung out of the trap, saw all of us, and paled.

"C-Captain?"

There was clamoring inside, and several more men poked their heads out of the slim opening.

Eret groaned, rubbing his chin, and sat upright. "Why you—this is the thanks I get for holding out for you?! I should just leave you ungrateful lot here for this kind of treatment!"

"Captain!" all of them shouted with joy, rushing out of the trap as fast as they could. I backed up against Stormfly to give them some room as they all encircled him.

Eret beamed, laughing and checking each and every single one of them for injuries. He teared up, his eyes glistening in the aurora-fire, although he immediately tried to hide it by turning around and gesturing at the colorful dragon. In all the clamor, it was impossible to hear anything anyone was saying—but it was pretty easy to figure out.

Especially when Eret asked where some missing members of his team were, and all of them slumped, hanging their heads.

"I-I'm sorry, Captain," someone said.

Eret grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him close, giving him several firm pats on the back. "Now, don't you go takin' responsibility, you hear me? That's my job." He lifted his head. "And that means we're gettin' outta here, right now."

"C-Captain?" his crewmate that had clocked him asked.

Eret pointed. "Time to put those legs to good work, lads!" He leapt up onto the colorful dragon and glanced at the four-winged dragon—which immediately took off into a hover, leering at him. "Yup, that's not happening. C'mon, lads, don't be shy! We'll catch you if you fall!"

He pointed right at the young Bewilderbeast, who was close enough that I could make out each and every scar that mottled his body.

I eased myself up onto Stormfly, who was busy sniffing at one of Eret's men. They looked between their commander, me, the Bewilderbeast, and the source.

The source chose that very moment to scream at the top of its lungs, sending a sharp migraine pounding against my ears.

The speed at which Eret's men leapt from the ships, out over a sheer drop, and onto a Bewilderbeast spoke volumes of the horrors they had witnessed upon the armada of shadows. All of us hovered within the gap, prepared to catch any of them if they missed their mark.

When the last man had made it, Eret actually whooped, "Alright, let's get a move on!"

Stormfly let out a cheerful squawk, taking us up closer to the King dragon and right over a baffled Hiccup and Toothless. She took us closer to them—

An enormous blast of wind struck us, sending us spinning and spinning. Up and down blended together in a nauseating blur. Stormfly and I screamed, both of us struggling to snatch control back.

A hard impact made my head spin. My ears rang, drowning out the distant roar of the King. Spots swam across my vision as I fought sit up. My vision distorted and my head pounded.

"Is that…the sun?" I wheezed, staring in confusion up at the beaming light towering above.

My entire vision went white.

It burned. Whatever it was, it blazed across the very earth with roiling waves of heat, so much so that my skin began to sting and my eyes teared up. I was distantly aware of Stormfly shaking me off and then sudden relief as she threw herself on top of me, but it only helped so much. I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my head.

It suddenly cut off. Ice-cold replaced the fire, making my hair stand on end. My ears rang, and I shifted out from under Stormfly into…

...nothingness.

The fires spluttered out.

The ocean stopped shifting below.

The heavens disappeared, swallowed into the abyss.

In the damning emptiness, dragons began to wail.