Hope you're ready, because I'm not sure I am.
Into the Fire
I awoke with a start, embraced in a warmer hold than I had been in weeks. It was nice here. Keeping my eyes shut, I listened to the world trying to figure out what had woke me. Initially, Astrid's slow breathing was all I could hear. Slowly but surely noise from the outside world seeped in through the walls. There were muffled shouts, hurried talking, and the sounds of footsteps on gravel.
Groggily, I sat up, almost immediately regretting it as my head started to spin. As the heavy furs fell off me, I rubbed my face and took in the room for the first time since waking up. Astrid appeared unphased by whatever had woken me and continued to sleep, I could just about see the rise and fall of her chest from my place on the floorboards. The candles I lit the night before had burnt themselves out, leaving piles of wax where they once stood.
I moved my gaze up to the window, noticing the dark sky beyond. It was not so black that one could see all the stars, only the brightest managed to shine through. Out of the corner of the frame I could see the slightest hint of the deep blue fading into a hazy orange.
From somewhere outside there was a loud clatter followed by a yell, it sounded like someone had dropped a stack of wooden objects. Astrid bolted upright, evidently that ruckus was enough to wake her.
"What time is it?"
"Too early." I yawned.
She also broke into a yawn. "W-what's going on?"
I shrugged, but then realised that she probably couldn't see me in the dark corner. "I don't know... Want to find out?"
For a moment she seemed to think about it, then threw the covers off her legs. "Why not. Let's go."
A second later I found myself being pulled to my feet, which was helpful as I wasn't sure I would've been able to leave the warmth of the furs under my own willpower. I took the lead and peeked out of my bedroom door, looking for my dad's usual spots. He was nowhere to be seen, which I relayed to an impatient Astrid, despite this we still crept downstairs quietly just in case.
Fortunately my dad was not hiding behind any of the supporting pillars, which granted us the freedom to talk again. While he wasn't here now, there were signs that he had been here recently. The fire crackling in middle of the room was a obvious signal, but not unusual for this early. Even though the life of a chief was always busy, stressful, and tiring, my dad had never been able to sleep for long. On a normal morning, it was not out of the ordinary to find him sat at the table staring at the fire in contemplation.
However, something was out of place. On the table was a half finished plate of chicken, knife and fork strewn nearby as if they were thrown down in a rush. There was only one thing I could think of that would have caused my dad to abandon his breakfast, and it wasn't helping to settle the feeling of unease that was twisting my stomach.
I dodged around Astrid and pulled open the bulky front door.
The view outside was reminiscent of the scenes caused by any of the many previous dragon raids, most of which I was forced to take no part in, except, this time the sky was clear. Vikings scrambled around the path just outside the house carrying parts, weapons, or dragging carts. It was a hectic operation, so hectic in fact that no one seemed to pay us any mind as we both steeped out the door.
"Come on." I said, pulling Astrid down the steps and into the flow of people.
Initially we were buffeted by the crowd, causing a few nearby Vikings to notice our presence and drawing some cries of, "Hiccup?!" and, "What're you doing out?"
Not wanting the increased attention, I once again tugged my trailing companion forwards. We weaved our way between the huffing and puffing Vikings, trying not to stay in the same place in the crowd long enough to draw suspicion.
After about a minute or so we broke ranks from the seemingly endless flow and slipped down a small alley between neighbouring houses. This allowed us to pick up the pace. We ran to the cliff edge that lay a short distance behind the houses.
It was early dawn for sure, the sun was still yet to rise. The only hint of it's existence was the small band of crimson sky that rested just above the ocean's surface. From our high vantage point we could see what had got the Berkians so riled up, silhouetted in the morning's red haze was a single tremendous mass, very clearly flapping two wings which could rival the size of some small islands. The sight of this didn't come as a surprise to me, it was the only thing that could've stirred this much fear in this many Vikings, but seeing it didn't exactly bring me any joy.
I felt a tug on my arm and looked over to see Astrid pointing down at docks below. Rather confused I followed her finger a stared down at the assembled ships. They had vastly changed since we sneaked onto the dock, whereas yesterday the place was practically abandoned, it was now a hub of activity. Vikings bustled around delivering the things we had seen them carrying before, looking like a colony of tiny ants from our position on the cliff edge. Several of the ships now had catapults on their decks, whilst others were filled with baskets of supplies. What Astrid had wanted me to see was located on the furthest ship out, right on the end of one of the dock's long spindly arms.
"Toothless?!" I gasped, unable to stop myself.
The Night Fury appeared to be strapped to the ship somehow, it was hard to tell exactly how he was restrained from such a distance.
Before Astrid could so much as nod in confirmation, we were reminded of our short time limit. This time by a series of loud clunks that emanated from the gears of the two large mounted catapults as they sluggishly rotated to face the incoming danger. The Queen was still far out of range of these rock-slinging monsters but it was definitely our cue to leave.
We slid back between the houses and began to sprint towards the Arena. This was made particularly tricky by all the obstacles in our path. We swiftly dodged around people and jumped over the things they'd dropped, granting us a few yells of disgruntled Vikings.
Once we passed the turning to the dock things became significantly easier. No one appeared to be giving the Arena any thought under the current situation. All the better for us. We ran across the lengthy wooden bridge, stopping only when we reached the open gates.
I made my way inside with the intentions of preparing for the others, however these plans were quickly thwarted. As it turned out we were not the first to arrive. Frozen in place, about to pull open the third set of doors, was Fishlegs. We must have just missed him entering as it was clear that he'd only been here a matter of minutes.
"Oh. Hi you two." He greeted nervously with a small wave. "I couldn't sleep and... I thought we could use the head start." He said as if trying to justify his earliness.
"You weren't wrong. Glad you're here." I said as the doors were carefully pushed open by a quizzical Stormfly.
Upon seeing the scene outside her doors, the Nadder instantly made her way to us and allowed herself to be fussed over by Astrid. I left the pair alone and went to help Fishlegs with the final set of doors, behind which patiently waited Meatlug.
The next to join us in the Arena was a rather harassed looking Snotlout. Apparently his dad, Spitelout, had given him a fair bit of trouble this morning by holding him up. He was subjected to a long conversation about how 'Stoick's plan is bad', and how much better his dad's plan would be; And Spitelout waisted no time in deluging his convoluted schemes. Under the pretence of forgetting his axe, Snotlout had returned to his room, only to climb out the window.
This story amused everyone but Snotlout, who somehow seemed more irritated by our laughter.
We were quickly brought back to the reality of the current situation when Tuffnut cleared his throat behind us. "You weren't kidding about the size of that dragon." It appeared the twins had sneaked in without anyone noticing.
I felt my smile fade and nodded gravely. "Yeah... It's-it's something alright."
The group fell into an uneasy silence, suddenly brought back down to earth.
Deciding that we weren't going to get anywhere at this rate, I broke the ice. "We haven't got long before that thing reaches Berk, a-and it's up to us to stop it. Those catapults aren't going to harm something like that, they'll only make it mad... Well mad-er."
"And I'm guessing you have a plan." Stated Astrid, hands on hips.
"I thought about this a lot yesterday-" The twins scoffed but I continued on. "Despite the incredible progress you guys have made, there's only so much you could learn in one day and inside such a cramped space no less."
Snotlout butted in. "You think we can't do it?"
"T-that's not what I'm saying. You guys have only just learned to fly, and no matter how hard you try, we're still going to need all the help we can get. So our first move should be to try and distract the Queen, then while she's isn't looking, I free Toothless."
Now was Fishlegs' turn to interrupt. "But Hiccup, we don't know where they took him."
"Ah ha, that's the one bit of good news this morning. Astrid spotted him down on one of the ships. You just have to keep the Queen occupied long enough for me to rescue Toothless, and then I can come and help. We'll stand a much better chance this way."
"And what makes you think you'll make any difference?" Said Ruffnut.
I was slightly taken aback by the question. "W-well, he's the fastest dragon we have, a-and I've had the most experience... That's, that's got to count for something, right?" When she didn't look convinced I spoke up again, raising an eyebrow. "Do you have a better idea?"
Ruffnut shrugged, which I took to mean that she didn't.
"Alright then. Everyone mount up, I'll join Astrid. Let's go see what we're working with." I said, sounding a lot more confident than I felt.
Everyone clambered onto their respective dragons and attached themselves with rope. I perched myself behind Astrid, choosing to stay unconnected to the Nadder as I knew I might have to bail pretty quickly if things heated up.
"Stay close once we are free of the Arena. We need to be able to hear each other." I informed before giving the signal to take off.
One by one the dragons and their riders swooped through the two gates, out into the open sky. I heard Fishlegs yelp as he exited, now a lot further from the ground than he'd ever been before. Even Astrid tightened her grip trying subtly to hide her own fear. We all hovered in a diamond formation, Astrid and I headed the group, while Snotlout and the twins formed the centre, and Fishlegs brought up the rear.
"Everyone ready?" I called over my shoulder.
A general murmur of agreement echoed back to me. Satisfied with the response, I nudged Astrid and she in turn nudged Stormfly. We set off, rather slower than they'd being flying yesterday but that was due to the tighter formation. Being almost wing to wing and head to tail didn't leave much room for error on the part of the dragons.
In the time we had spent since we had last laid eyes on the mountainous dragon, she had closed almost all the distance between itself and Berk. She had actually decided to land in the waters not far from the docks, whether to give herself a better shot or something else entirely, I wasn't sure. The water, that was deep enough to float any ships the Berkians had crafted, only reached to just under the colossal dragon's knees. The boats were rocking as she waded through the sea, filling the air with knocks and bangs as they bumped into one another. As we watched from the sky, several boulders flew from the decks of the ships. Most missed, but one or two managed to bounce harmlessly off of the Queen's thick scales.
We dived down over the many masts of the agitated fleet below. There we're a pair of identical whoops as we picked up speed and zoomed out to sea.
"Look at us! We're on a dragon. We're on dragons! All of us!"
"Ruff, Tuff, watch yourselves!" I said as they started to drift away.
A moment later we were almost on top of the Queen, it was even more terrifying up close than I remembered. Astrid pulled back and we began a wide sweeping circle around our foe.
"Fishlegs, break it down!"
"Okay. Heavily armoured skull, and tail made for bashing and crushing. Steer clear of both!" He paused, waiting as we came around the front of the dragon again. "Small eyes, large nostrils. Relies on hearing and smell!"
"Any weaknesses?"
"Not from the outside. M-maybe it has some kind of shot limit!" He finished, grasping at straws.
I thought for a minute as we continued to circle the Queen, like some particularly organised houseflies, while it crept ever closer to the docks, and to Berk.
"Alright. Ruff and Tuff make it mad! See if that thing does have a shot limit."
"That's my speciality!" Cried Ruffnut.
"Everyone knows I'm more annoying. See?" Tuffnut proceeded to invert his head of their dragon.
"Anyway. Fishlegs, Snotlout! Hang in it's blind spot and make some noise! See if you can throw it's aim off." I then addressed everyone once more. "Just keep it distracted. I'll be back as soon as I can!"
"We've got you covered!" Snotlout shouted back as we all broke formation.
Stormfly turned her back on the others and swooped down to the dock, hovering a few feet above the planks. The decks of all the ships were a mass of motion as Vikings fled from the horror that was slowly approaching. Some however had decided to stay, continuing to load and fire the catapults. Included in these people were Stoick and Gobber.
They stopped to watch as I slid carefully from Stormfly's back and dropped down, stumbling slightly from the impact.
I steadied myself and looked up as an enormous fireball sailed overhead. "Go and help the others!" I shouted as the shot exploded on a distant sea stack.
Astrid pulled Stormfly around and launched back into the fray. I, on the other hand, started running towards Toothless, scrambling across the now empty decks and leaping from ship to ship. I could feel the stares on the back of my head as I pushed on.
The air was filled with yells from both land and sky as I finally skidded to halt next to Toothless. He stared at me, eyes wide as dinner plates. He was fixed to a heavy wooden board almost as wide as the ship was. On this board were a couple anchor points that held the chains that kept his restrictive collar in place. Big upside-down U-shaped iron bars were also planted into the wood to stop the Night Fury from moving his body, or spreading his wings.
I pulled the muzzle off of the poor dragon, who immediately began to roar, trying to get me to leave him as the battle drew closer.
"Not this time!" I grabbed a discarded sword and dug it into the points that held the chain to the board.
The metal clinked but stayed firmly attached. As I worked there was a sudden sound, like the air was being torn apart. I spun on the spot just in time to see another giant fireball smash into a neighbouring ship and explode with terrifying force, knocking me to the floor.
I yelled and scrabbled out of the way as the flaming mast of said ship came crashing down, right through the wood where I had just been standing. I felt the planks beneath me lurch dramatically as both ends of the ship began to tip, now disconnected from one another. The board that held Toothless was on the other half of the ship, and to make matters worse, it was beginning to slide towards the disturbed water that was now filling the void between us.
"No!" I cried as Toothless yelped a moment before he plunged into the icy depths.
Without thinking and without knowing why, I dived in after my best friend. I swam down and down following the bubbles that trailed up, until I reached the seabed where the dragon and his prison now rested.
I tugged hopelessly at the chains that restrained the Night Fury, having even less strength underwater than I did on land, and that wasn't saying much. I could feel my heart pounding in my head as my lungs screamed for air. Redoubled my efforts, I tried once again to free Toothless. He attempted to roar again, trying to dissuade me but only bubbles rushed out. My head span as I finally gave in an opened mouth, resulting in a lung-full of water. It couldn't end like this, could it?
As those piercing emerald eyes, filled with fear, began to fade into blackness I felt a tug on the back of my clothes. I was rising up and up.
Next thing I knew the surface had broken and I was placed down carefully. I began to cough violently as air rushed into my lungs. Through blurry and watering eyes I saw a large figure standing before me.
"D-dad?" But they had already jumped back into the ocean.
I pushed myself up weakly and moved over to the edge of the dock, waiting in anticipation for the reappearance of my saviour.
A full minute passed, and I was starting to lose hope. But then a large volume of bubbles came to the surface, and a second later the water burst open. Toothless launched free from the grasps of the ocean, carrying in his paws an absolutely drenched Stoick. The dragon dropped my dad then landed himself, flicking his head with a roar as if to say 'Come on!'.
I started to move but felt a hand close around my arm. "Hiccup!" It was my dad. "I'm sorry... F-for everything."
"Yeah, me too." I sighed.
"You don't have to go up there." He cautioned, with more care in his voice than I had ever heard.
I climbed up onto Toothless' saddle and looked back. "We're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard."
He grasped both of his hands around mine. "I'm proud to call you my son."
"Thanks, Dad." I replied sincerely and he stood back.
Toothless readied himself as I clicked my feet into the stirrups. I opened the tail fin to it's maximum and the dragon beneath me pushed off from the dock. We rocketed straight up and away from the smouldering wrecks of the blasted ships.
"He's up!" Shouted Astrid.
It took me a moment to adjust to the scene in front of me, it had change a lot since I had been dropped off by Stormfly. Not only was the Queen now close enough to be stepping on ships and sinking them as if they were made of paper, but Fishlegs was nowhere to be seen. The rest of group appeared to be resorting to more drastic measures, for example Snotlout had somehow managed to find himself on the dragon's head, without his own dragon.
He seemed to be entertaining himself by hitting three of the Queen's six eyes with a stone club. "What's wrong? Got something in your eye?" He mocked.
The reaction was immediate, the dragon reared it's head and tried to shake the stubborn Viking off. Snotlout clung on for dear life, dropping his club in the process.
"Get Snotlout out of there!" Astrid yelled to the twins, who were miraculously still in the air.
They made a beeline for the marooned Viking, casually dodging a fireball as they went. That's when I noticed something. The Queen definitely didn't seem to have a shot limit, she had been slinging shots almost constantly while I fought to free Toothless, but the interval between shots had definitely got longer.
In her momentary distraction Astrid had missed the huge mace-like tail that the Queen had widely swung in her discomfort. It was rushing up to meet her. In a blind panic she forgot the most important rule of flying, trust your dragon. Stormfly, who had spotted the danger an instant before Astrid had made an attempt to pull away. The startled girl then leaned in the opposite direction.
This caused the Nadder to hesitate, just for a fraction of a second, but that was all it took. I watched in slow motion as the ball of blunt spikes clipped Stormfly's side, sending her spiralling away as Astrid was thrown from her back.
Instinctually I kicked Toothless into motion, and we dived, quickly picking up speed. As the wind whipped my face I urged the Night Fury faster.
She fell in front of us right as we passed. I turned around the best I could, scanning the water below us. "D-did you get her?" I said, terrified.
Toothless looked down and crooned. I took that to mean that we caught her. We skimmed the tops of the remaining ships, slowing down as we reached a safe part of the dock. Dropping down low, Toothless manoeuvred himself to let Astrid down carefully.
With the sky now devoid of friendly dragons, Ruff and Tuff having just landed back safely bringing along Snotlout, we once more launched upwards.
"Okay. Time to see what that thing's made of!" I had to shout into the wind as we climbed.
Toothless roared in agreement pushing on. Up and up we flew, higher than any Viking had been before, I was sure of that. We stalled and came to a stop before tipping over to face the distant Queen. For one peaceful, death-defying moment we hung suspended in the air.
Then, glacially at first, we began to fall. I tucked myself close to the dragon, switching the tail fin's position so that it collapsed inward as I felt wings furl on either side of me. In mere seconds we were already travelling faster than I ever had before. We cut through the sky with the characteristic whistle that used to settle fear in the hearts of the most fearless Vikings.
As we rapidly approached the water below I pulled myself yet closer to the Night Fury's back, pressing hard into the saddle. As we passed the cliff edge where Astrid and I had gazed down at the fleet, I clicked the tail open. Slowly, we began to level out. I had to fight to keep my eyes open as we screeched past the dock at unimaginable speeds.
There was the typical cry of, "Night Fury! Get down!" as we passed overhead.
Toothless released a shot of hot plasma that streaked ahead. It slammed right into the side of the Queen, perfectly hitting it's mark. The force of the blow caused the mountain of a dragon to stumble and plunge into the sea. There was a incredible spray of water as it tumbled, followed by a huge wave that spread in a circle around the downed dragon.
The wave crashed into the many ships causing them to rock violently. Some of the closer, unfortunate ones were sunk by the sheer power of the water.
"You think that did it?" I asked my companion, looking over my shoulder.
The monstrous Queen looked absolutely enraged by the attack, unfurling her humongous wings as she got back to her feet. There was a deafening whoosh of air as she took to the sky, flapping aggressively attempting to catch up to us. As I watched I saw gas beginning to fill her mouth as she prepared a fireball.
"Get ready!" I called to Toothless.
I waited until the instant she lit the gas. "NOW!" Toothless barrel rolled as the fireball blazed past us, washing us in it's dreadful heat.
"We've got to get out of the open!" I clicked my feet into a new position and the tail followed suit.
We fell once more, aiming to hide within the many sea stacks that Berk was surrounded with. The only things we had up on our opponent were speed and agility, so we were going to use them.
As we approached the towers of rock, I began to get a feeling of déjà vu. Flying into an area of dangerous sea stacks at high speed, felt very reminiscent of the training I had put us through back on that overbearing island. Except this time I was being chased by the single cause of all Berk's dragon problems.
A feeling of exhilaration grew in my chest as we swooped into the stony maze, flying as one. We twisted, turned, looped, and twirled our way through the many structures that lay in our path, each motion accompanied by a clink of the tail fin. All the while the Queen smashed her way through each and every tower with her armoured head, matching our manoeuvrability with sheer brute force.
She was quickly getting bored of our slipperiness and sent another jet of flame blasting through the rocks. We only just managed to dodge the flame by diving low to the water and putting a sea stack between us and the Queen. We had to change plan again, this wasn't going to work for much longer.
Taking our chance in the cloud of dust and smoke, I urged Toothless to go back on himself. He turned hard and launched back in the other direction, back towards the dock. I clung on tight as we barely missed the giant jaws that tried to close on us as we flew over the Queen. We ditched the previous idea of flying within the sea stacks, instead resorting to flying over them.
With my improved visibility I spotted a small cave, almost at sea level, in the side of the main island. I angled the Night Fury towards the opening, checking behind me that the other dragon was still occupied with us and not the rest of Berk. I hoped that we could gain a small break to recover and think of a proper plan to deal with the threat.
We slid to a stop inside the cave, and not a moment too soon. The opening was suddenly covered as the Queen tried to ram her head in after us. All the light left the cave and I felt the island tremble but the entrance held strong, with only a few pebbles falling from the ceiling.
I was under no illusion, I knew it was only a matter of time before her shot recharged and we'd be out of time, so I had to think quickly.
"Come on Hiccup. Think!" I banged the side of my head into my hand, but I was drawing a blank. I couldn't think of anything to do. "I-it must have a weakness."
Then out of nowhere, Gobber's words came echoing back to me, like they had before. "It's the wings and tails you really want..."
I slapped myself. "Of course!" While the Queen did have an armoured tail, it's wings were most definitely not protected. "Now we just need an opening..." I mumbled to myself.
As the head pulled out of our only way out, readying itself for another strike, a brilliant glare shone into the cave for a brief second before being blocked again. Toothless winced and turned away. I rode out the shock wave again, blinking out the bright light that remained in my eyes.
Another revelation hit me, and my brain whirred into action. The light, the cave, it had all reminded me of the first time we had found the nest and been too afraid to enter. Back when we had left that cave, which stunk of salt, Toothless had been temporarily blinded. Something about his eyes adjusted poorly to sudden brightness, maybe it was his nocturnal nature or maybe all dragons shared this. Either way I was sure that the Queen would be effected in the same way, she had spent all her time deep underground in a cave.
It was the best idea I had. "Do you trust me bud?" I said placing a hand on his head.
He lifted his head and crooned back to me, making his signature gummy smile.
I grinned back at the dragon. "Get ready! When she pulls back, blast us out of here."
This didn't take long, the Queen still seemed very adamant to catch us. With an almighty explosion the colossal head that was obstructing our exit was blasted away and we used the cover of the chaos to escape. We initiated another climb as an ever more irate monster lurched after us. As expected the shot had not managed to cause any damage through her impenetrable scales.
As we gained more and more height, the sun was drawn further out of it's hiding place behind the horizon. I stopped Toothless right as it reached it's fullest and waited as the Queen lumbered along behind us.
Once it reached our level it took a bite at us, but Toothless swiftly avoided the attack. I pulled him around and flew directly towards the sun, I knew that he would be also blind during this whole operation so I needed him to trust me completely. As we distanced ourselves from the Queen I looked back to see her roar in pain as her six eyes blinked madly. It was working.
I led close to Toothless and leaned very deliberately so he knew to turn around. Guiding the blinded Night Fury was a lot easier than I anticipated, he seemed to know exactly what I wanted him to do and executed it to near perfection. As we closed in, flying with the sun behind us, I lined us up for a shot on the underside of the Queen's vast right wing.
"Now!" I called and the shot fell.
It whizzed though the air and successfully made contact with it's target. This caused the owner of said wing to release a thunderous roar and flail around, trying to catch us with sheer luck. Fortunately we were already far out of range, drifting around for another attack run.
This time the target was the top of the left wing. The resulting blast caused more erratic behaviour, this was starting to get more difficult.
Right as the Queen appeared to recover, we whistled overhead, aiming straight for the sun once more. "One more shot on each wing ought to do it!" I shouted over the awful din our assailant was making.
We attacked from below for a second time, this time aiming for the left wing again. As the plasma rumbled towards it's target, I felt my heart drop, the shot was going wide. Then by some miracle one of the Queens volatile movements brought her back in line. I breathed a sigh of relief as I watched the shot land.
It was clear to see the damage we were causing now, holes were beginning to form in the wing. I wasn't sure one more shot would be enough but we were starting to push our luck, the longer we spent up here increased the chance we'd be hit by a stray flailing limb.
We finished our barrage with a final shot to the top of the Queen's right wing, bringing the total number of shots fired at this dragon to six, shots that I had personally seen take out entire buildings, this was one tough beast. We narrowly dodged the mace-like tail as we rounded the dragon one last time. Toothless let out a resounding roar as we passed the Queen's head, trying to draw her attention to our position once more.
Tipping over, we dived again, heading directly for the ocean below. However, this time Toothless continued to flap, powering us to new untold speeds. Our foe was hot on our heels and we plummeted towards the sea, I guessed all that mass had it's advantages when falling.
As we ripped through the sky, I heard a now too familiar sound. A build up of gas, much faster than I was expecting. Had the time we spent attacking her actually allowed her to recover her shots? I didn't have the time to think about it, having my plan forcefully initiated.
"Hold, Toothless." I yelled to the nervous dragon and he fought to keep pushing forwards.
I waited a moment longer before calling to the Night Fury. "NOW!" I repeated the order from before, this time wanting Toothless to ignite the gas before the Queen could launch it.
Nothing happened.
The dragon beneath me squirmed awkwardly and a puff of black smoke trailed from his mouth, something was wrong, he would never ignore me at a time like this. The smoke reminded me of the time when he fell into the water and couldn't light his flame. But we hadn't been anywhere near water after firing the previous shot. Then a terrible something dawned on me.
"Don't tell you've got a shot limit too?!"
I heaved on the saddle as the pitch of the noise behind us peaked. Toothless flared his wings and I clunked the tail fin open. We barely managed to escape the grasps of the flames as we pulled up hard. The fin protested the rough treatment, making some rather disconcerting noises as it was subjected to a great force.
But then we had straightened out, and the fin was still in one piece. We had used all available space, managing to skim the water with Toothless' wing tips. As we blazed across the ocean's surface, my brain wheeled for new ideas after my very last idea had failed. I scanned everything for the smallest of hints.
"Anything. Anything at all." I muttered under my breath as the Queen recovered from the fall and quickly regained her place on our tail. She was nothing if not persistent.
Something caught my eye, a flash of movement at the end of one of the dock's long arms. It was the twins. They were frantically jumping up and down, and waving both hands above their heads. Upon noticing them they started desperately pointing out to sea. I turned to see what they wanted me to see so badly.
Out in the ocean, and slowly drifting further out, was the Ambition. Our long term adventuring companion had somehow been freed from it's grounding, probably by the wave caused from knocking over the Queen. It's sails were raised and it bobbed gently in the waves, it looked peaceful.
Once closer to the ship I realised what they had truly wanted me to see, more accurately, what I needed to remember. The deck was still stacked with crates, which I knew to be filled with Instant Dragons' Fire.
A terrible plan started to form in my head. I couldn't think of anything else. This was the only way.
As we tore ever closer to ship that had brought me so much comfort over the past weeks, I heard that ghastly noise again. This was it. It was now or never. I urged Toothless on, and the gap between us and the Queen widened.
With me clinging on for dear life, the obsidian dragon screeched to a halt on the deck of the Ambition. There were a set of long claw marks left in our wake as we bumped gently into the wooden railing on the far side of the ship.
We turned and stood unmoving in the centre of the deck. This bewildered the Queen for a fraction of second, before she realised that something was wrong. She spread her wings, trying to stop the inevitable collision.
At once Toothless and I saw as our work unfold before us. "Hold." I told the dragon.
The previously small holes in each wing now tore much larger, removing any chance the Queen had of stopping in time.
"Hold!" Toothless shifted uncomfortably.
I waited for the exact moment it became too late. "NOW!" I cried for the third time.
Toothless didn't need telling twice. He rocketed upwards, clearing the deck just in time.
A lot happened in the following few seconds. First, the Queen barrelled into the broadside of the Ambition with an enormous crash, and chunks of wood launched in all directions. Next, as her head impacted the deck her mouthful of gas, meant for us, was sparked into life. Flames billowed out from the sides of her jaw. Finally, and most importantly, these flames coated the ship and everything on it. Everything. This included the multitude of crates filled with the highly volatile Instant Dragons' Fire.
For a moment, we climbed, and nothing happened as the flames ate through the wood.
Suddenly it happened.
The Ambition detonated.
The resulting explosion was unprecedented in scale, caused by a mixture of gas and flammable dust. I felt a pang in my gut for the loss of the ship that had always been there for me. But the feeling didn't last long, quickly overwhelmed by terror.
Toothless may have been the fastest dragon known to Vikings, but stood no chance against the speed of the shock wave that rushed up to meet us.
I watched as the reinforced tail fin shredded like it was made of paper. As the Night Fury struggled on, I too was ripped from the dragon. Blasted by an ungodly force.
For a moment I continued to fly upwards, but as dread filled my stomach I began to fall. Falling back towards the fire.
The last thing I remembered see was Toothless writhing in the air above me, trying his utmost to come back for me. As the heat rushed up to meet me, I made my peace. We had, after all, completed what we set out to do.
Berk was safe.
Well... This has been an adventure. Thanks to those of you who have stuck with me, through my bad upload schedule and all. It's been fun and I really hope this finale lived up to expectations. When I started this chapter I thought I'd really struggle to conclude my story, but as I wrote I found it surprisingly easy. This is not quite the end, as we all know, but I consider this the last proper chapter. So expect an epilogue later today. Until then.
