Chapter thirteen
Coming around
Cutter felt like he had been hit on the head by an anvil, his head was pounding, his legs felt like they wouldn't support him if he stood up, his wings ached, and he couldn't feel his tail, but he knew he was alive. He thought it was the end for him seeing as he had blocked the Green Death's fire holes with his spikes, which meant that he was at the heart of the explosion. He could hear a voice calling to him,
"Ok mum, I'm up" he murmured, and as he finally opened his eyes, he realised that it was actually Leyla who was with him, who was trying to stifle a few giggles at what she had just heard.
"Welcome back Cutter" she said joyously as she hugged him, Cutter liked the hug, but this one felt different to him, like something was missing, he noticed he was in a cave he didn't recognise, he saw a puddle just by his head and staggered to his feet to look at what was different. The sight he saw was enough to make him start to panic, his breathing deepened as he looked again, and it was true: all his spikes, which he always kept in pristine condition, were gone! Even the ones on his head! "Yeah," Leyla confessed, "you lost all your spikes in the explosion, but I did some research and you don't need to worry, they will grow back in a few weeks. Now come on, everyone is waiting," She then rushed to the cave entrance and gestured for him to come with. Cutter took a deep breath before clumsily walking forward, and as he exited the cave and into the sunlight, he saw a tremendous sight.
Outside the cave, literally everyone was there! All of the Rescue Riders, Grumblegard, Zeppla, the Golden Dragon, Laburn and Cinda, Fathom and Gill, the mama Ironclaw, the Songwings, even the Flyhoppers!
"He's awake!" One of the Flyhoppers called Oscar exclaimed, here comes the "clown" thing again, Cutter thought as Oscar opened his mouth to continue, "Cutter the Courageous is awake!"
"Cutter the what!?" Cutter exclaimed in confusion, he knew that Oscar was royalty, but he always called him the Clown, never by his name! Everyone rushed over and welcomed him back, lastly came Joules, Burpy and Toothless, as well as a very familiar dragon!
"Welcome back young fella!" The small brown dragon called as he walked forward to join Toothless, and they were very much the same size! "That was a very brave thing you did, sacrificing yourself to save your friends," Toothless was smiling at the dragon in an adoring sort of way, making Cutter realise,
"That dragon you said you knew," he exclaimed, "it was Toothless! Wasn't it?!" The old dragon smiled at this,
"Yes, Cutter, Yes it was. And you asked me a question last time we met, and it's Wodensfang"
"Huh?" Cutter was confused again, what was he on about?
"My name, it's the Wodensfang" Oh, now that made sense.
"Y-Y-You have been out for d-d-days!" Toothless pointed out, as he flapped back to Burpy, "T-T-Toothless found you"
"Yes he did indeed," Grumblegard agreed, "so we brought you here, best place for healing out there,"
"Thank you everyone," Cutter smiled, as everyone smiled back at him,
"Yeah, sorry about your spikes though," Aggro piped up, resulting in Cutter jumping around, fear plastered on his face,
"What's wrong with my spikes!?" Everyone was a little shocked at this, before Cutter dropped the terror act and burst out laughing, resulting in everyone else joining in, young and old. As night fell, they all made their way back to Huttsgalor, with Burpy riding Aggro, Joules riding Burple, and because of his weakened state, Cutter hitching a ride with Grumblegard.
As they all arrived, they were surprised to see that the whole town was lit up with lanterns and the Vikings were all partying like mad. Burpy and Joules knew what was going on; whilst Cutter was unconscious, Chief Duggard had explained that the whole tribe wanted to welcome Cutter home with a celebration, so Burpy agreed that he would send Toothless ahead of them when they were going to return. So here it was, the celebration of Cutter's bravery.
"Wow!" Cutter exclaimed as he jumped off of Grumblegard's back, "whats going on?" He then realised that each lantern was decorated with paintings of… him.
"Welcome home Cutter!" Duggard announced as he approached the group. They were all quick to join in with the party, there was plenty of fish and lobster, and Burpy was even surprised to see an apple-bobbing stall being run, so he obviously had a go and succeeded first try. Everyone in the village was there that night, even Magnus was unable to miss out and even had to openly announce that Cutter had saved them all. Joules could tell from his face that Magnus would probably prefer to be swimming with sharks than this, and couldn't help but snigger.
"So you know why you can't stay here, right?" The Wodensfang asked his green friend, who nodded sadly, he knew that if the Wodensfang was alive, then he had traveled in time once again. Toothless knew that he was somewhere out there, and he couldn't stay in case he ended up running into himself,
"T-T-Toothless understand," he agreed, before adding "T-T-Toothless misses y-y-you," the old dragon smiled on hearing this before bringing the little dragon in for a dragon hug,
"I miss you too, old boy," he whispered, "I miss you too." He then let go of Toothless before stretching his old wings and taking flight,
"T-T-Toodleoon, Wodensfang" Toothless called after his mentor, who turned in the air and called back,
"Toodleoon, Toothless. And remember you have more than Burpy and Joules to fight alongside." And with that, the Wodensfang flew into the night, and Toothless knew that he would never see him again.
The next morning, Burpy and Joules woke up nice and early, and so, surprisingly, was Toothless. They stepped outside for some fresh air and noticed that the Vortex has reappeared, they all knew what it meant, it was time to go. They all gathered their things, with Burpy now having retrieved his sword, and waited for one last thing: the Rescue Riders. The riders were soon up and they all gathered in the yard of the Roost to say their goodbyes.
"Thank you so much, you guys" Burpy thanked them, "you lot have changed the way we were doing things for the better, and you saved Toothless's life. So thank you."
"I will miss riding with you, Cutter," Joules added, "I hope your spikes grow back soon," Cutter smiled at them as this was said. Toothless slowly flapped over to the twins before giving them both a small lick on the cheek before rushing back to Burpy's hood,
"T-T-Toodleoon," He said forlornly, much to the confusion of his friends.
"Wait, I thought you would want to stay here." Burpy asked, "this is the perfect place for you," but Toothless sadly shook his head,
"N-N-No, this Toothless' home b-b-before Hiccup died, it will eventually h-h-happen."
"Don't worry Toothless," Leyla announced, "I believe that you will find that place you are looking for, eventually" she then smiled at them all, "good luck you three, and know that we are always ready to lend a hand if you need it" Burpy nodded in agreement before holding out his hand to Joules, who grabbed hold of his friend before all of them rushed through the Vortex and allowed the darkness to sweep them away into the next universe.
A few days later, Leyla finished writing her first story in her Dragon Diary, as she put down her pen, Cutter walked up and sat next to her,
"How goes the writing?" He asked, and Leyla smiled as she looked at her friend, who already had the starts of spikes growing out of his head and tail,
"Just done, Cutter" she announced as she showed the dragon her work, and as Cutter read his friends story, he smiled once again before saying,
"You should read this to all of us, it's amazing!" And that night, as they were all gathered around a little fire in the yard, Leyla opened her Dragon Diary and began to read,
"If you have ever visited the isle of Berk, then if you are to sail into a fog bank that is directly south of the island and keep going until you come across an unusual amount of sun for the Viking empire, then you would have reached the village of Huttsgalor. A rare few Vikings from the barbaric archipelago have come across this part of their world, same for the dragon's."
The end