48 All Hell Breaks Loose

With Toothless and Hiccup still hidden in the small alcove behind a curtain, Boron made his way past King Joric's men at the top of the staircase to see what had become of the last two missing noblemen of Elydonia. It was from there that he first heard the arguing.

"I am not going up there without my bodyguards" the first one demanded "I don't trust the Dame and her puppet king."

"Yes well, we don't trust you either" Boron replied as he descended the stairs "but you may take two of your bodyguards if it will shut you up."

"Humph; the King has developed some courage at last" the first sneered.

"Well I don't trust you as well" the second accused the first "so if you're taking two bodyguards, then so am I."

"Alright then but hurry up; everyone's waiting for you and they're all tied up while you two fuss like schoolboys."

"You had better watch your attitude Your Majesty before some horrid accident befalls you" the first threatened.

Boron marched behind the two grumbling men along the hall to the Kings rooms with a broad smile on his face as he was so looking forward to seeing the looks on their faces when they rounded the corner ahead only to find Joric's men, a few Vikings and a Gronckle waiting for them. He began to wonder how they would react because all the others had been all very different and quite unpredictable. Their reactions ranged from flight, fear and fainting, to battle and bribery but unfortunately he never got to find out for as they reached the halfway point of the hallway, Meatlug sneezed.

"What the hell… IT'S A TRAP!"

That was all Hiccup and Toothless needed to hear; Joric had managed to take out most of the gentry without much trouble, but these last two and their bodyguards were definitely going to be a problem.

"Come on Toothless; let's get out there" Hiccup cried as he leapt into the saddle.

The six men had all drawn their weapons and were preparing to rush back at Joric's guards at the top of the stairs, but they were not expecting the large black dragon that came charging out from behind the curtain. Hiccup made the most of his surprise advantage and used the Night Furies size and speed to knock all six men over and with a few sweeps of his long tail. Toothless soon had them all disarmed and trapped between the top of the stairs and the outside of the Kings rooms, but it was too late to stop news from getting out about the invasion of the castle. Several castle guards had heard the nobleman shout out about the trap and had rushed upstairs only to witness the scuffle and see the dragon. Rather than stay and fight, they had all run off to raise the alarm.

"FISHLEGS" Hiccup called out "TELL SNOTLOUT; PLAN B."

"Well that should make him happy" Fishlegs mumbled to himself as he and Meatlug ran back to the watchtower stairs.

Hiccup and Toothless rushed to the end of the hallway where the dragon spread his wings and glided down to the floor below while knocking over most of the fleeing guards with his back legs as they ran down the main staircase. One detail Hiccup did not know, was the floor they had flown down to had two passages; one leading to the east wing and the other leading to the west wing and these two passages led to the guests rooms where the Courtiers of Bolthorn resided and at each door stood two guards. All of these guards stood and stared straight at Toothless.

"Ohhhh crap" Hiccup declared to himself.

As quickly as he could manage, Hiccup looked all around and took in his new surroundings. The east and west passages appeared to be dead ends but there must be servant's stairs he thought. On either side of him, the main staircase became two and hugged the walls to the next level down.

"Alright then" Hiccup made his decision and turned Toothless into position for a single plasma blast down the east corridor. The plaster covered wall at the end of the passage exploded in a cloud of dust and debris.

Upstairs the library door flew open and one of Joric's men rushed in.

"Message from the Dragon Riders sir; Plan B."

"Right" Joric glared at Dame Incontinentia "time is most defiantly up so here's what you're going to do; I am going to take you downstairs where you will call for your commanders and then you will order them all to stand down and return the men to their barracks."

"Or what?" the Dame replied.

"OR WHAT? ARE YOU CRAZY?" Joric shouted "THERE'LL BE A HUGE BATTLE AND PEOPLE WILL DIE; THAT'S WHAT!"

"And what are you prepared to do in order to prevent this… battle."

Joric stared at her dumbfounded.

"What on earth are you talking about? You've lost; as in, you can't win."

"Then why should I tell my commanders to stand down?" the Dame appeared to be gloating.

Joric turned to the former King and asked in desperation "Boron; will the Commanders listen to you?"

"I doubt it; you may have noticed that even the guards have no problem telling me what I can and can't do so the Commanders will defiantly question me if I countermand the orders of these four."

Joric turned back to the smug smiling Dame in absolute frustration.

"If you don't call off your forces, then most of them will die. Is that what you want?"

"Of course not" she replied uncaringly "but how far are you willing to go to prevent their deaths? Will you agree to… an arrangement with us?"

"I don't believe this" Astrid threw up her hands "are you so cruel that you would gladly bargain with the lives of your own men for power; just to get your own way?"

"I would not expect a barbarian child to have any understanding of Nobility and Politics, so why don't you just keep quiet and let the adults talk?" Dame Incontinentia declared and sealed her own fate.

"Right, that does it" Astrid drew her knife and strode over to the wide eyed Dame.

"Wha… what… what are you… What Is SHE DOING? SOMEBODY STOP HER!"

With a single precise and rapid movement, Astrid slit the rope that bound the Dames ankles and lifted the woman to her feet.

"You and you" Astrid pointed to two of Joric's men "take Dame Pruneface here up to the top of the watchtower."

The guards looked to the King for confirmation of the order, but he was having a lot of trouble trying to stop himself from laughing at what Astrid had just said.

"Well you heard the young lady" he eventually managed to say "take Pruneface to the watchtower."

The two guards snickered as they led the disgusted woman from the room followed by Astrid and the King.

"Man oh man it's dull up here" Snotlout remarked to the bound and gagged watchtower guards "I mean no offence, but you guys are just… well… boring."

Both the men wriggled in their bonds and moaned angrily.

"Yeah I know; the ropes and all, but you could at least hum a little tune for me and it may even relax the dragons; they look a little tense if you ask me" he gestured to the sleeping, almost catatonic dragons.

Snotlout jumped with surprise when the trapdoor flew open without warning and Fishlegs' head popped up.

"Hey Snotlout" he greeted "I've got a message from Hiccup; Plan B."

"At last" Snotlout jumped to his feet as Fishlegs disappeared back down the tower.

After shaking his dragon by the horns to wake it, Snotlout climbed into his saddle and took off straight up into the air. As soon as he was high enough not to get shot at too easily, the young man flew his dragon over to the outside of the castle walls and then sent a few quick Fire Bursts back at the wall which drew the attention of both the men on the ramparts and the other Dragon Riders.

"Plan B?" Stoick asked as he came alongside Hookfang.

"You better believe it Chief" Snotlout could not hide the joy on his face.

Stoick went to spread the word to all the other Dragon Riders, even though Snotlouts actions made it all fairly obvious. And so all the dragons that had been hidden by altitude and darkness now swept down from the sky screeching, roaring and burning the sky. Barf and Belch in particular, did an impressive job of lighting up the sky while Gauk just did his best to stay upright.

After Toothless had fired a plasma blast down both corridors, Hiccup moved on to the next desperate action. In order to prevent a steady stream of guards and soldiers from storming the Kings rooms and rescuing all of King Jorics captive Gentry, he and Toothless destroyed both staircases that led down to the next floor.

"Okay Toothless time to check the hallways" Hiccup decided.

Both corridors were still filled with dust, smoke and choking guards as the Night Fury bounded down the east hall knocking the poor men flying with both his head and his tail until Hiccup found what he was looking for; a narrow stone servants stairway but just before he ordered Toothless to blast the ceiling and bury the doorway he noticed and easier way – a door with a key in the lock.

"Okay you lot; out" Hiccup ordered the men as Toothless pushed them out of the hall way and the smoke slowly cleared "now go to the top of the stairs and sit down."

As quickly as he could manage, Hiccup rode Toothless down the west passage to herd out the dust covered guards on the opposite side after locking the other door to the servants stairs. The keys jingled in his pocket as Toothless trotted along growling at the frightened men in front of him. Once the guards from both hallways had been move up to the corridor leading to the Kings rooms, Hiccup slid out of the saddle and hurried off to see King Joric, but not before issuing one last warning.

"You men better stay on the floor; you don't wanna make my dragon angry" Toothless growled again as if on cue.

Hiccup ran to the end of the hall and dashed off to the left till he reached the library door, but could not find who he was looking for inside.

"Where's King Joric?" he asked Fishlegs who stood at the door.

"I passed him on the watchtower stairs; he was headed up with Astrid, two guards and a woman with a white face."

"Dame Incontinentia?" Hiccup pondered "but why would they… oh no…"

"STORMFLY; COME HERE GIRL" Astrid called to her dragon as the small group walked across the top of the watch tower.

"W-what are we doing up here?" the Dame asked nervously.

"I don't know" Joric replied as he smiled at Astrid "you'll have to ask the barbarian child."

Astrid smiled back as they approached the edge and looked out over the court yard and the inner buildings all the way to the outer wall and the roaring dragons beyond.

"Look out there" Astrid ordered "and you'll see why King Joric said you can't win."

Dame Incontinentia watched as her soldiers did their best to fire on the circling dragons and riders, who kept their distance and so dodged the arrows and bolts with ease. Occasionally, one of the dragons would fire back but they always aimed at the wall beneath the soldiers just to keep them on their toes.

"So now that I've seen it, do you expect me to change my mind?" the Dame asked.

"Yes" Astrid replied with the same stern conviction she had seen in Hiccup.

"Well I do not feel inclined to do so without a written agreement between myself and Joric."

"Is that your final answer?" Astrid asked.

"It is" the Dame replied.

"Then I've only got one last thing to say" Astrid declared.

"Oh… and what is that?"

"Stormfly; FETCH!"

Anyone who does a lot of traveling will tell you that long trips start out exciting, but soon become tedious and boring and so when you've spend over 50 years traveling through space at the speed of light, you tend to crave a little company and a pet cat is just the thing to cheer up a weary traveler. The down side of being limited to feline company on such a long trip, is their unimaginative and repetitive vocabulary so I do hope that the people from this sector of the galaxy will understand why I did a little tweaking with Moon's mental capacity. I also hope you will all find it in your hearts to forgive me as I had no idea what he was truly like or what he would become. In other words; the incident with the red belt last week has made Moon very angry and he has vowed to take even greater revenge than he had previously planned. I wonder he can be placated with a new scratching post and a bag of cat nip?