Unbreakable
The middle of a war is not the best time for one boy to discover that he is not unbreakable. Sequel to 'Starlight, Star Bright'.
Chapter 29: Checkmated
A/N: Um...lots of actionnnnn huh :D Don't ask where the witch has gone, we'll deal with her later. Sorry for not posting anything on Christmas, things happened unexpected. And uh, sorry for promising you guys a minor spoiler for Unbreakable and not delivering. The holidays were really crazy this year. It'll be up tomorrow, I expect, on my Tumblr. (writerofberk). Please feel free to check it out. And I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and I hope they have a Happy New Year! (I'll probably be too busy to post again until after the New Year, so...)
The twins took off quickly, and I breathed a sigh of relief when they were gone. With their inability to keep up with what was going on around them, they'd only be a liability when we got to Outcast Island, and I was eager to get them out of the way as fast as I could. The Outcast ships didn't move the whole time we rested there on the sea stack, Astrid fretting unnecessarily over the arrow in my shoulder.
"We should get it out, Hiccup," she said for probably the hundredth time, just before we took off. "I have a knife, and we could snap out the shaft, and—
"Astrid, look." I swung one leg over Toothless' back, throwing another edgy glance behind me, at the stationary ships. "I appreciate that you're trying to help me, but really, I don't want to risk it, okay? If something goes wrong, I might not be able to help rescue Dad and Gobber. They're the important ones on this mission, okay? Fret about me all you want when we get back to Berk. I'll get the arrow out then."
"I'm just saying, if we meet up with Outcasts," she pointed out, "and they see the arrow, they're going to go straight for your shoulder once they realize it's weakened."
I knew she was right, but I was not going to admit to that. "It'll be fine. And remember, the plan is not to attack the Outcasts, but sneak in there quickly and quietly."
For half a second, I expected Snotlout to make some joking comment about wanting to blow off Outcast heads, and then the truth hit me again, over and over like a repeated blow. I realized then that whatever hope I'd tried to harbor was misplaced, because Snotlout was definitely gone. I had seen it happen myself, and he was too far away now to be rescued, even by Hookfang. He would have drowned by now, if the arrow hadn't killed him first.
I tilted my head down, staring at Toothless' saddle, but Snotlout's helmet slid off my head with a clunk, landing on the worn leather. I picked up the helmet again, barely paying attention to steering Toothless now as I examined it. Even Snotlout's head was bigger than mine, and strangely, this just made me even sadder. I slipped it back on my head. It would get in the way in battle, but that didn't matter. I owed it to Snotlout, who'd given his life for me.
My cousin, who I barely remembered. And I would never get the chance to make new memories with him.
It was lucky that Astrid jerked me out of my reverie right then by pointing to Outcast Island, drawing nearer and nearer on the horizon. I probably would have cried if she hadn't. I lightly nudged Toothless with my knee, and we started a slower descent, heading straight for the beach. The early morning air was sweet on my lips and for a moment, everything simply fell away as we dived. For a moment, my dragon and I were one, as free as the wind, as limitless as the sky. And then everything came rushing back and Toothless snapped out his wings, pulling us up into a glide at the last second, landing lightly on the deserted beach.
I kept waiting for Outcasts to at least spot the dragons in the sky and start panicking, and pour out into the town square, but they stayed shut up in their homes. Maybe they were waiting for us to let our guards down? And then what? Ambush? I considered these options as I started for the prisons, but seconds later, I flung out an arm to stop Astrid, Fishlegs, and the dragons from going any farther. This was unnecessary in Toothless' case, because he stopped the moment I did. But Astrid plowed into my arm.
"What is it?"
"Get back to the beach." I lifted my eyes to the empty watchtower again. Alvin always had people in that watchtower. Sometimes, it was as little as one person, but there was always someone in there. If the watchtower was empty, they had clearly abandoned the island. But why? My brain worked furiously at this question.
Astrid took a few steps back, but before listening to me, she just had to question me. "Why?"
"Go." I tried to inject some force into my voice, but I wasn't very good at telling people what to do. Leadership was not something that came naturally to me. "There's nobody here."
"How do you know?" Astrid's voice was barely above a whisper, and I suddenly realized mine was, too. The terror of facing the island I had tried so hard to escape made it difficult to talk as I normally would.
"The watchtower's abandoned," I explained, figuring it'd be easier just to answer her questions than ignore her and get her angry with me. "Alvin's not here, now go."
Astrid started for the beach, moving to tug Fishlegs along with her, but the bigger boy was frozen, gaping at something just ahead of us. While Astrid and I had been speaking, the Outcasts we spoke of had been working. They dropped down, completely surrounding us, and a wire cage fell over our heads. I tried to yell for the others to run, but it was too late, it fell too fast. The Outcasts surrounded the cage now instead, circling it in that grim, predatory way that only Outcasts could. I tried my hardest not to be scared.
A few others outside of my line of vision started trying to subdue our dragons, and when I heard Toothless' moans and roars of pain, I bounded to the other side of the cage and kicked the nearest Outcast in the shins, reaching for the key ring on his belt. Unfortunately, my kick wasn't very powerful and they grabbed me before I could grab them, pinning me to the wall of the cage and smacking my head against the bars repeatedly.
I ground my teeth together, trying just to think through the pain. All I knew was that Toothless needed me, and I couldn't get to him. It wouldn't be the first time I'd failed him. But the harder I struggled to break free of the Outcast's iron grip, the harder he would hit my head against the cage. Eventually, the blows caught up to me, and a ringing started in my ears, my vision turned black and I blacked out.
It was dark when I awoke. Completely dark. I couldn't see my own hand in front of my face, and it was cold as Hel down here. I rubbed at my eyes, proving they were open, but then that opened up new worries. Alvin had threatened to blind me before. He wouldn't have done it, would he? My heart started beating uncomfortably fast as I reached out for the sides of the cell, feeling around for the cool metal walls. It felt more like wood, and the cell was smaller than I remembered. I was in the dark, and I was in a small space, and I was alone. For a moment, I gave myself over to fear, dropping my head onto my knees, wanting to cry everything out before forcing myself back into the game.
But there were other people besides me involved in this, and they were more important. I had to keep myself together, and I had no choice. If Astrid and Fishlegs had been captured, I needed to find them as soon as possible. My eyes didn't even hurt, though, so I could only assume that if Alvin blinded me, he'd done it painlessly, and painless wasn't his style. He liked to drag things out, as I recalled.
I put my hands down on the floor, readying myself to stand, but almost immediately I was distracted. The floor didn't feel like metal, either. It was soft and damp, earthy. Dirt. My cell had never been open to the ground before. Alvin had always felt like that would risk me digging my way to freedom or something, so he'd never given me the option. What was I doing now, in a wooden cell with a dirt floor? And more importantly, was digging my way to freedom even possible?
There was the sudden sound of creaking wood that made me glance up, and a tiny square of golden light, very far above me, made my eyes water. I could see somebody peering down at me from all the way up there, watching me in the blackness, and I suddenly realized: I was in the same sort of cell that Eret had been in from my dream the other night. Did that mean Eret was here?
Using the dim light from the door above me, I searched the cell, crawling on my hands and knees, calling Eret's name. He didn't answer me, and the cell really would have been too small for more than one person, anyway. I listened to the sounds of somebody descending into my cell, their footsteps getting increasingly louder as they got closer.
Alvin was coming for me. I struggled to keep calm as he at last arrived, all his grimy, treacherous glory. He still looked worse than I had ever seen him, and currently, in the dim illumination, he also looked greatly annoyed by something.
"Well, come on, then!" He ordered, grabbing me up by my collar and physically hauling me up the ladder that was practically invisible in the darkness. How he knew where the rungs were, I had no way of knowing, and I had no intentions to ask. He hurried up into the sunlight, physically throwing me away from him the first chance he got. I was instantly up on my feet, as desperate to be away from him as he was to be away from me, but I fell back down again.
What? That wasn't right. I looked down at my legs – I don't know what I was expecting, maybe to have lost another one during my brief unconscious spell – and I found an empty trouser leg where my prosthetic was supposed to be. "What…what…" I lifted my eyes to Alvin's, so overwhelmed by something so simple.
Alvin smiled mockingly at me. "The Outcasts who transported you felt you were too, how shall I put it…rough with your leg. They decided to take it to avoid taking risks. I really wasn't in any hurry to stop them. So." He grabbed me up again, half-dragging me across the dirt, but I kicked my one leg and struggled to get away.
"Let me go, let me…wait, stop!" To my surprise, he listened – in all his rough manhandling, my helmet had gotten torn off. And it was Snotlout's helmet. I didn't want to leave it behind for anything. I practically slithered my way over to it, grabbing it up again.
"It's a helmet," Alvin replied stonily, promptly beginning to drag me again. "How much sentimental value can be in it?"
I glared at him with as much venom as I could muster, but we had reached our destination now; Astrid, Fishlegs, our dragons, Dad, Gobber, and for some strange reason, Eret and Ruffnut and Tuffnut were all gathered there, their hands bound, each one watched by a heavily armed Outcast.
"Ruff, Tuff!" I called, wishing I could run to them. "What are you guys doing here?"
"Oh, about that…" Ruffnut shrugged. "I meant to ask you what Nightmare duty was, only I forgot until we were already gone. We decided to turn back around and ask you, only we ended up arguing, so I had to hit him, and by the time we got back to where you guys were, you were gone."
I tried not to groan in frustration at them, and Alvin quickly recaptured my attention.
"Hiccup," he gave me a cuff around the head, which hurt badly enough on a regular day, but seeing as one of his men had recently knocked me unconscious, it hurt even worse. "In case you hadn't noticed, you have something I want. Or, more like, you can find something I want."
"I won't help you." I tried to sound braver than I felt. I needed to be brave for the people in front of me. They all looked so terrified.
Alvin dropped me on the ground and began to circle me, making me feel even more vulnerable. "I thought you might say that," he nodded. As quick as thought, he had grabbed Fishlegs from his Outcast guard and pinned him, a knife at the blonde boy's throat. "So I decided to give you a bit of motivation. For every time you defy me today, I'll kill somebody you see gathered here."
Toothless. Dad, Gobber, Astrid, Fishlegs, people I could barely remember. Ruffnut and Tuffnut, too stupid and well-meaning to ever stay away.
"Understand?"
I met his eyes. This wasn't a joke. He wasn't playing around. I could read his thoughts, as clearly as if they were written on his face. He had checkmated me.
