Author's note: Sorry for not uploading sooner. With Christmas and New Year plus me being on holiday it's been a bit hectic, but I've finally found time to write this chapter. Hope you enjoy!
Narrator's perspective
"We're sorry sir," the man pleaded, dropping down to his knees. Another continued "We couldn't get the boy. We found him by the forest, with a girl, but they saw us coming and fled. We pursued but they disappeared."
"You fools!" the angry man shouted, swiping an arm across the table, knocking everything to the floor, "Do you have any idea what this boy could mean for our business?! He could ruin everything that I've spent the past ten years building up. All that time and money wasted, all because some morons couldn't capture the one boy that could ruin everything!"
He glared down at the desk, the only remaining item being the map he was studying. "I can't accept any failure."
One of the four other men stepped forward, pleading to his employer, "Please sir, we won't fail you again."
The angry man took on a quiet tone, his face becoming cold and steely, "No, no you won't."
He unclipped the holster on his belt, pulling out a revolver. "No, sir ple…"
He pulled the trigger four times.
Hiccup's perspective
So, hot. Why is it so hot in my house? Did Dad turn up the heating?
I rolled over onto my side and felt something prickly pushing into the side of my face, finally forcing we to fully wake up. I pried open my eyes, looking for the offending spiky object. I looked down and saw a tiny shrub growing out of the ground. Wait, why is the floor orange and why is there a shrub in my room? I looked around, finally realising why I was so hot.
"Oh, shit." I stood up, the vast plains of the desert meeting me with hot, deadly arms. I knelt back down to where Astrid was still sound asleep, leaning against the rock formation we had landed at last night.
Shaking her shoulder gently I whispered, "Astrid, you need to wake up." "Ugh, mum, go away, I want to sleep." She sleepily replied. This time I shook more vigorously, becoming slightly agitated. "Fine Mum I'm awake." She opened her eyes a fraction, adjusting to the bright sun, not yet quite realising where we were. She rolled over to face me, "Wait, you're not my Mum Hiccup." "And we're not at your house Astrid," I said gesturing to the open plains before us.
"Oh, shit." She swore
"Exactly what I said." I put my hand out and she took it, pulling herself to her feet. Now we had the opportunity to take in our surroundings in detail. Spread out in front of us was what appeared to be an endless abyss of orange plains and small dark green shrubs, bushes and cacti. It stretched out to the horizon front of us and to our left, but to the right, the plains dropped off about 3 kilometres away and then reappeared about 60 metres later. "That must be a canyon," I pointed out to Astrid, both of us squinting in the desert sunlight. She nodded and we turned around to observe what was behind us. The rock we leaned on for the night went up about five metres with a base about 2 metres across. Behind it were several similar-sized rocks and way out on the horizon we could just make out what looked to be a rocky mountain range. But to was way too far to travel.
We finished observing our surroundings in silence and faced each other. "Ah, Astrid." I pointed to the wings and tail still present on her back. "Oh come on, why couldn't you just disappear!" she shouted at the offending objects while twisting her back to get better view. "I think you might be stuck with them," I said
"Not helping Hiccup." She glared at me
"But to be honest, I think we have more pressing issues to discuss," I spoke while gesturing to our surrounding. Astrid spoke "Right, yes, sorry Hiccup. First order of business is to take inventory of our supplies." She knelt down to my bag that was still zipped up, leaning against the rock. She unzipped it and began taking out items, "Two bottles of water, one full, one empty, two ham sandwiches, two bananas and," she tipped the bag upside down, my pocketknife falling out of it. We both looked at each other, smiles on our faces. "I don't even remember putting that in there," I spoke, trying to remember when I would've needed my knife in my bag. "So at least we have a knife to use." Astrid said, putting all items minus the knife back into the bag, continuing "Next order of business is to build a shelter. I think we build in the shadow of these rocks, keep it out of the sun." I added "I'll dig a hole and expand it at the bottom as we'll need a place to sleep and it'll be cooler underground. I will start digging and you look for four sticks about the same length. Oh and Astrid, you need to use your wings to shade you from the sun." "Ah, Hiccup. I don't even know how to move them, they've just been flaying around uselessly." She reminded me
"Ok, I'll show you. It's easy." She walked over to me "So pretend your wings are like an extra set of arms. Moving your arms is easy, right?" she nodded "Move your right arm out your side, then try to copy that movement with your right wing." She did as I said and moved her right arm out, her right wing slowly following. "Hey, that's cool," she cried, repeating the process with her left arm. I smiled proudly and continued. "Now bring one arm over your head, as if you were trying to block rain." She did this and her wing followed, repeating the same thing with her other arm. "Now bring your arms down and try to do the same thing but only moving your wings," I instructed. At first nothing happened, but then she managed to start moving her wings simultaneously, bring both over her head. "I did it!" she squealed like a child at Christmas. "Nice job, now use your wings to shade you from the sun. Dragon scales don't burn." I beamed
She set about to look for sticks while I identified the best place to build a shelter. In between two of the rocks I found a place that would be shaded from the sun at all times throughout the day, minus mid-morning when I calculated the sun would only peak through. I transformed into my dragon and used my paws to start excavating the sand and dirt, a small pile forming nearby. After 20 minutes or so Astrid returned with four sticks, and me almost finishing the hole. It went about a metre down then expanded slightly into a bulb sort of thing, just big enough for me and Astrid to sleep in. I turned back into a human and climbed out of the hole. I bent forward and took my shirt off. "Astrid, give me your shirt." I told her
She gave me a surprised look, "No." "Astrid, I need your shirt to make a cover for the shelter, we don't want it heating up when the sun does hit it. Do you want to get burned?" I persuaded
She reluctantly took off her shirt, leaving only her tank top underneath. I began ripping the shirts into two large fabric sheets each, pulling a long thread out of one of them to sew them together. "Astrid, could you use the knife to cut a spike of a cacti?" She nodded and promptly returned with a spike. I tied one end f the thread to the needle and began to sew the fabric into a large sheet, stopping only to pull out another thread to continue sewing. Had finished in about half an hour and proudly displayed my creation to Astrid. We dug four small holes around our shelter and buried the end of each stick in them. I created a small hole in each of the four corners of the sheets and put it on top of the sticks, creating a sort-of roof to finish off our shelter.
We dusted our hands off and I spoke, "Now that's done, we need to look for water. We've only got one bottle. So, I suppose I need to show you how to fly."
"What? Hiccup no. AAAHHHH!" she screamed as I picked her up in my claws and put her down on the highest rock, a good 12 metres above the ground. "Hiccup, get me down from here!" the girl cried. "Oh, come on Astrid, you have wings too. Don't you just want to fly?" I queried. "Well, I get the feeling you won't bring me down, so fine. Let's give it a shot," she let out an exasperated sigh, knowing she had been defeated. "Great, let's just start with gliding. Just extend your wings as far as they will go, and keep your tail out, that's your key to balancing. To turn, lean in the direction you want to go. Balancing the turn with your tail will come with practice. Just copy me first." I turned into a Night Fury, extended my wings then leapt off the top of the rock, gliding down and landing. I turned 'round to see Astrid extend her wings and push herself off the rock.
She was doing pretty well until a gust of wind came in, catching on one of her wings. "WWAA! HICCUP!" the wind had turned her off her original course and she was now heading back towards the rocks. I transformed into a dragon and took off after her. She wrapped her arms over her head, ready for the impact, not yet noticing that I had already caught her and was just touching down on the ground. "You can look now Astrid," I said, sitting down next to her.
"Oh, thanks Hiccup," she said after lifting her head out of her hands
"Right, let's try again."
"What?"
"Oh, come on Astrid. You can't give up after one go."
I picked her up in my claws and flew her to the top of the rock again. "You were doing very well up until the wind blew in. Do the same thing this time and let's hope no wind comes in."
I glided down again to give Astrid another demonstration. I saw her take a deep breath and extend her wings, then jump off. She managed to make it further this, only stumbling a few metres above the ground. She landed on her feet, but the momentum of flying kept her going forward. She tripped on a shrub and landed on her front. "Ooofff." I walked over and pulled her up. "Nice work Astrid, you're learning fast," I said as we walked back to the shelter. "I'm parched, pass me the water," she said, taking a seat against the rock. "We have to find a source of water. I didn't see anything as I was coming down." I said, passing her the water. She chugged some down then handed it to me. I did the same while she spoke, "Well, the plants need water. Let's cut up the roots and see if we can squeeze some water out of them." "Great idea Astrid."
I picked up the knife and pulled a reed looking plant out of the ground then walked back to Astrid. I began to cut the stem and roots into small parts then handed them to Astrid, who squeezed them over the empty bottle. Our joy and amazement, a semi-clear liquid trickled out and into the bottle. It didn't have any smell, so we assumed it would be safe to drink. We repeated this process until we had half bottle full of water and a pile of about 40 plants next to us.
By now the sun was setting, illuminating the desert in an orange and pink glow. Astrid and I sat at the top of the tall rock and watched it set. "You know Astrid, that was some great gliding. But you'll soon have to learn how to continuously fly if we ever want to find our way home." I spoke softly, still staring at the setting sun. "Well, it's a good thing I have a great teacher."
The sun had set and we were both tired. We came down from the rock and climbed into our shelter. I laid down facing up at the fabric roof. Astrid rested her head on my chest and was quickly asleep. It took me longer, I was thinking of not when, but if we get home.
Author's note: I'm trying to improve my writing of dialogue and descriptions in this story and I think I'm getting better. Anyway, hope you enjoyed, please review and tell me what you think