Author's Note: Whoaaaa, we're almost at twenty favs for this one-shot collection! =D And we just went over 7,500 views! Dang, you guys are awesome. =) I really wasn't expecting this one-shot collection to receive this much attention. X)
Hey, everyone and welcome back to yet another edition to "Sticks and Stones!" =) Ah, finally, it's Friday. I thought the week would never end. School's been meh, I'm tired, but it's pretty much the weekend now, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in. =D
Anyway, here's part four for "A Mission Gone Wrong!" =D I hope you guys enjoy it!
Summary: After finally escaping the tunnels, Hiccup and Toothless find themselves face to face with a familiar foe. Astrid and the other Dragon Riders launch out their plan, and an Outcast solider that had been captured by the twins reveals something shocking. Something that may bring an end to Hiccup's life. (ROB.)
A Mission Gone Wrong, Part Four
The Whispering Death was as swift as the wind. It was fast, and that made it difficult for Hiccup and Toothless to escape the angered dragon. Although Hiccup and Toothless had both dealt with Whispering Deaths in the past, they both still found it a bit frightening whenever they encountered one.
Hiccup knew that if he had a chance, he could train the spiked dragon. It would take some time, but the young viking was willing to attempt it if things came to that. But Toothless seemed adamant on trying to escape it. Perhaps it was due to his original encounter with a Whispering Death, so Hiccup hung on tight to the saddle horn, gripping it tightly as Toothless ran through the many tunnels and caves. Each one led to a new part of the caverns that Hiccup and Toothless had never ventured through. The two would hide behind a rock formation, use the shadows as their advantage if they could, but the Whispering Death always found them. These caves were its caves. Only it knew how to navigate them, unlike Hiccup and Toothless, who had no idea how the cave was laid out.
Despite the fact that their situation was rather precarious, Hiccup still managed to rack his brain to try and come up with a plan to escape. Running wasn't doing anything; the Whispering Death would only track them down. It had the upper hand; the caves were its territory…
Wait!
The Whispering Death knows these caves…we could use it to our advantage. It could lead us out of here! We just need to lure it to do so…thought Hiccup brightly. He patted Toothless' head.
"Hey, Bud? Do you think you can fly?" asked Hiccup. In an instant, Toothless spread his wings, barely grazing the narrow walls, and lifted himself off of the ground. Hiccup nodded with satisfaction, and he turned to the Whispering Death that wasn't too far behind them.
To get a Whispering Death to lead a Night Fury and young teen out of a network of caves was something that only Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third would come up with. It was crazy. Insane. Perhaps even demented to some, but Hiccup was determined, and using the Whispering Death to lead him and Toothless out of the tunnels seemed like the only way they would ever escape.
"Okay, Bud, we need to get this guy in front of us," said Hiccup. "Think you can—WHOA!"
Toothless suddenly flipped upside down, and Hiccup could feel the blood rush to his head, making him feel dizzy, but the dizziness only lasted for a brief moment. Toothless bravely skimmed under the Whispering Death and flipped right side up, grunting in triumph.
"Nice going, Toothless. But next time, give a warning," said Hiccup with a small smile. Toothless only crooned innocently.
The Whispering Death suddenly realized that its targets had disappeared. But before it could turn around, Hiccup told Toothless to fire a plasma blast above him.
"Be careful, Bud," said Hiccup. "We just want to get him to fly outside."
Toothless fired a bright purple plasma blast above the Whispering Death. It crashed against the rocks above, but they did not fall. Instead, the shot that Toothless had fired seemed to last a while in the air, giving the tunnel light. The Whispering Death screeched and darted down one of its many holes to escape the brightness, and reappeared from a tunnel on the ground, right in front of Hiccup and Toothless.
"Do it again, Bud!" Hiccup shouted, and Toothless complied, shooting a plasma blast between them and the Whispering Death, once again creating a bright purple glow in the room. The Whispering Death screamed and dived down a tunnel but this time, it didn't come back up.
"That must be the way out," said Hiccup. "Come on, Toothless!"
The Night Fury roared and followed the Whispering Death down the tunnel, it was a few feet ahead of them, but Hiccup and Toothless managed to stay as quiet as they could so they wouldn't be detected. As the two flew after the Whispering Death, Hiccup once again felt the agonizing dizziness, the strange pain in his leg, and breathing became incredibly difficult. Hiccup groaned and shook his head in an attempt to get rid of the increasing discomfort.
Stop…stop! Hiccup mentally shouted to the pain in his mind, but it seemed to take that as an encouragement to further torture the young viking.
Hiccup was unaware that he and Toothless were approaching the exit. The Whispering Death had already breached the surface, and Toothless was beginning to fly toward the exit. Hiccup opened his eyes, the pain suddenly gone, which left him rather annoyed with the reappearance and sudden disappearance of the strange discomfort, and smiled when he saw the wonderful sight of moonlight up ahead. The exit was calling to him, beckoning to him, and the light from the moon seemed to grow even brighter as he and Toothless neared it.
"Come on, Bud, faster!" Hiccup encouraged, and Toothless didn't hesitate; he was just as excited to finally be out of the caves as Hiccup was. The Night Fury beat his wings, going as fast as he could go. The exit grew closer and closer and then…freedom! Hiccup and Toothless breached the ground, bursting into the clean, brilliant night air.
"YEAH!" cheered Hiccup. And Toothless roared happily. They made it! They finally made it out of that horrible cave! Victory tasted sweeter than honey, and at the thought of food, Hiccup realized that he was hungry. So did Toothless.
"Let's head back to meet the others, Bud," said Hiccup with a smile. "Then we can head back to Berk and eat something."
With that pleasant thought in mind, Hiccup and Toothless turned around, ready to fly off. If only Hiccup's thoughts weren't so focused on food, would he have realized that hidden catapult in the bushes. In a horrible instant, a net shot out from the bushes below, snatching Hiccup and Toothless from the air. Toothless screeched as his wings were bound together, and Hiccup hung on tightly as the two of them fell to the ground once again, this time more painfully than the last.
Then he showed up. Hiccup gritted his teeth and forced his bright green gaze to glare at the large man standing above him. Alvin the Treacherous.
"Well, well, well, look what we have here," the Chief of the Outcasts sneered. "A Night Fury and his rider. This night couldn't get any better."
Hiccup grunted. "What do you want, Alvin? Or did you come for a breath of clean air unlike the one on Outcast Island."
Alvin ignored Hiccup's snarky comment and answered the first question. "What do I want? Simple. Train my dragons, and you and your Night Fury will get to live."
"I'll never train a dragon for you," Hiccup said vehemently. How stubborn is this guy? I've told him several times before that I won't train his dragons, and yet he still has the nerve to capture me or my friends to try and get me to do so…'
Instead of whipping out a sword or threatening the young viking further, Alvin simply chuckled. "I'm afraid you don't have a choice, boy. Your life is already on the line."
Hiccup blinked in bemusement. What did Alvin mean? His life wasn't on the—
Suddenly, an unbearable amount of pain coursed through Hiccup's entire body. He gasped for air; his lungs felt like they were being crushed by a fist. The world began to spin and black spots dotted his vision. A knife felt like it was being pierced in the back of his head, and Hiccup lost all train of thought. His senses disappeared. He couldn't move.
The last thing he heard before unconsciousness snatched him away was the worried roar of Toothless…
And the sound of dragon fire being blasted in the east.
…
"Go get 'em Stormfly!"
Astrid smiled as her dragon fired a sparking, colorful magnesium blast at a catapult, exploding it to smithereens. The plan was working perfectly, and the Dragon Riders had managed to destroy half of the weapon supply that the Outcasts had brought with them. The entire tribe seemed to be on the east side of the island much to the Riders' luck. Maybe Hiccup and Toothless were already making their escape, although Astrid hadn't seen them appear in the air yet.
The Hofferson girl had never felt happier. She and her friends were a few steps closer to saving Hiccup, but a part of Astrid wondered…why were there so many Outcasts on one side of the island than on the others?
As Astrid pondered this, the twins suddenly appeared in front of her. Barf and Belch nearly rammed into Stormfly, which spooked the Nadder a little. Once Astrid calmed her down, she looked at the twins with a frown.
"What do you two want? You're supposed to be firing down at the Outcasts!" Astrid said.
"As much as we didn't want to stop our destruction spree," said Tuffnut. "We managed to capture somebody."
"What?" exclaimed Astrid.
"He said we captured somebody," Ruffnut said proudly. She crossed her arms over her chest. "And everyone else said we couldn't do anything."
"While we were blasting away at everything in sight," said Tuffnut. "We spotted this Outcast trying to escape. So, we followed him, and Barf and Belch nailed a shot on him and he tripped and fell."
Ruffnut snickered. "The look on his face when he realized that he had been defeated by sixteen-year-olds." She laughed. "It was a classic!"
"We tied him up to a tree, and we thought we should tell you our victory," Tuffnut said. Then, he and Ruffnut high-fived.
A captured Outcast. Maybe he had information on where Hiccup was!
"Where did you guys leave him?" asked Astrid.
"Follow us," said Ruffnut. "But remember, we captured him, so we get to decide what to do with him."
Astrid followed the twins down to the beach. Astrid leapt off of Stormfly and the twins slipped off of Barf and Belch. The twins gestured for Astrid to continue to follow them, and she did so. Six pairs of boots and six dragon feet crunched the sand below as they walked up to a tree with an Outcast that was sloppily tied to it.
"Wow, nice tying job," said Astrid sarcastically.
"Thank you!" said Tuffnut.
Ruffnut elbowed him. "She was being sarcastic."
"Oh," said Tuffnut. He shrugged. "Anyway, this is the guy. He didn't tell us his name, nor did we ask, so we've just been calling him Soldier."
"Because he's an Outcast soldier," said Ruffnut as if Astrid didn't get it.
"Yeah, yeah, I know," said Astrid. She walked up to the man who was actually having trouble getting out of the poorly tied ropes. Amatuer, thought Astrid as she stepped in front of the Outcast soldier. Ruffnut and Tuffnut stood at her side.
"I can't believe you guys actually managed to capture someone," Astrid said.
"We're master kidnappers," the twins said in unison.
Astrid blinked. "Okay…that's a little creepy," she said. The Hofferson girl let the comment drop and she turned her sapphire gaze to the Outcast soldier tied up in front of her. She narrowed her eyes and glared daggers so sharp at him that the soldier probably would have been impaled if those daggers were real.
"Where's Hiccup?" Astrid demanded.
The man shook his head and said nothing. Astrid's face grew deathly calm, and she snapped her fingers. Stormfly appeared behind her, spines extended and shimmering like silver in the moonlight. She squawked and shot one toward the Outcast soldier, right above his head. The man shook with fear and he immediately told Astrid where Hiccup had been taken.
"He's not here," the Outcast soldier admitted. "They took him away."
"Where did they take him, Soldier?!" Tuffnut asked overdramatically as he stepped up to the Outcast soldier.
"Leave this to me, please," Astrid told Tuffnut. The male Thorston stepped back.
"Why did they take him away? And where?" Astrid asked.
"Because," replied the Outcast soldier. "Alvin is going to make him train his dragons."
Ruffnut snorted and she crossed her arms. "Then he is wasting his time. Hiccup would never train his dragons. He should know that by now."
Tuffnut laughed. "Yeah, Hiccup would never do that!" he paused. "Or would he…?"
Ruffnut shrugged nonchalantly. "You can never tell with him. That boy is full of surprises."
"True that, sister."
Astrid held up her axe when the soldier stopped talking. He gulped at the sight of her glimmering axe blade and continued.
"Your friend doesn't have a choice," he said. "Alvin is the only one who has the cure."
"Cure? Cure for what?" asked Astrid in slight bemusement.
At that, the soldier smiled maniacally. "Oh, so you don't know? Well, the cure is for poison. Alvin poisoned Hiccup. And if he doesn't agree to train the dragons Alvin wants by dawn, your friend will die at sunrise."
Author's Note: Oh, poison. That explains all those weird symptoms Hiccup was having earlier...That's not good. =P Hopefully the Rider can get the cure...before it's too late...*inserts cliffhanger music here*
Until the next chapter!
-BeyondTheMoon1203