A/N:
I dunno why, but I have the hardest time making myself write a chapter that has high-octane fights. At least, that's the case with this chapter and the ones before and after. Thanks to Deadly-Bagel for sticking this out with me as my beta buddy, and thank you, my dear reader, for the massive compliment in deciding that my story is worth your time.
Epclaymore, Haha, yes, drama island indeed. The tribe has spoken, and someone will be voted off the island.
Toothlessgolfer, I too would like to think that the Skrill could learn to let it go and give peace a chance, but to misquote Stoick, "Dragons who kill without reason cannot be reasoned with." In my storyboard, I initially had Hiccup and Toothless use the Skrill eggs to barter for their freedom to escape, but I think I like this alternate plot better.
Dragonrider's Fury, you've probably guessed it by now, but you're about to see how Hiccup and Toothless are about to go all MacGuyver on us with the gemstone, sticks, and iron bands. Also, as you and toothlessgolfer both noted, yes, it sure is convenient that the gemstone attracts lightning, but we'll soon see how this deus ex machina plays into the bigger picture.
Zapped
A few weeks ago, Toothless had learned some basic knot-tying skills from the Thorston twins. In retrospect, it should have been no surprise that they would have set him to the task of trying to tie his dragon's legs together while sleeping.
It didn't go so well for Toothless, though. He of all people should have known to avoid brushing against Hiccup's paws, and when Hiccup was startled from sleep to see his rider with a very guilty grin on his face and a length of rope in his hands, he discovered that he could tie his rider's wrists and ankles together using the limited manual dexterity afforded by his teeth and a couple claws. Good times.
As amusing as that was, Hiccup was very glad that Toothless knew his knots, as his nimble fingers and opposable thumbs were necessary to construct what they were calling the "Lightning rod". The gemstone that had forced their souls to swap bodies just might be their secret weapon in dealing with the Skrill. When they had been struck by lightning up in the clouds, it was clear that the gemstone took the hit for them as evidenced by the burned hole from the lightning punching through the leather to get to the stone. Hopefully, with this thing mounted at the end of a stick that Toothless could point in any direction, they could be sure of it protecting them from lightning strikes from all sides.
A quick ransack of the Skrill's nest had turned up a sturdy stick with three prongs extending out at one point, which
Hiccup was able to quickly trim to size with his teeth, resulting in a stick with a cradle for the gemstone to rest in. Toothless was able to bend three iron bands from the saddlebag with his bare hands to form them around the gemstone, securing it in its wooden cradle, and some leather lace lashed the iron bands to the stick. In the end, it looked a little like a walking stick with a large gemstone mounted on top.
It looked like the invention of someone with too much time and not enough purpose in life, but the hope was that the Skrill's lightning would go through or around the metal bands to hit the gemstone without destroying anything; otherwise, this would save them from only one lightning bolt. Toothless even made an "improvement" when he realized that the handle of his belt knife could be lashed to the stick as well, so their lightning rod now featured a blade extending past the gemstone for… for…
{What do you even plan to do with that little blade anyway?}
"If we not able flee and must fight, this give me range. More safe than knife in hand."
{So, your plan is to poke one of them enough to make them even angrier?}
Toothless shrugged. "They will know I not harmless. If die, then die fighting."
Hiccup sighed. Toothless being Toothless.
He stopped, though, and studied his rider, whose eyes were set in steely determination. He had to remind himself that this was someone who had known only fighting for his whole life. Except for the past few months, he was a dragon, and dragons did everything in a very physical way. It was not uncommon for them to fight until one of them died or was forced to retreat whenever there was a contest for food, mates, or nesting grounds. Often, they would even fight just because they were bored. On top of all that, most of his life was spent in the Red Death's thrall where he was made to attack in the raids.
Even just hatching was a battle he could not afford to lose as his eggshell would have suffocated him if he didn't manage to break through on his own. Though it seemed so out of place in the body of "the village fishbone", Hiccup had to remind himself that he was looking at a battle-hardened warrior who had fought for everything in his life since the day he hatched. Inside, he was a stone-cold killer through and through. No hesitation, no mercy, no remorse. His mind was that of the one dragon that all Vikings were told to hide from.
Toothless gave a little smile. "Not worry. We good. You strong, have fire." He hefted the stick in his hands and a wide grin split his face. "And Skrill not have fire now."
Hiccup nodded and forced a gummy smile.
Outside, the Skrills were frantically clawing at the rocks that blocked the entrance to the cave, trying to force their way in. Well, they would be more successful once they figured out to stop madly scrabbling at the rock and actually–
{Look, I figured it out! Hook both wing claws around rock and pull back, then push aside. This works much better.}
{Good. We will be inside soon and we will protect our eggs.}
{And kill the black dragon!}
{Yes, kill him!}
{Strike him with lightning and watch him flop around like a fish!}
{Burn him to ash!}
{Eat his heart!}
{Not long, now.}
Hiccup sighed.
Toothless gave a hard stare at his dragon. "Make fireball big. Very very big."
Hiccup whined at that. The plan was to shoot at the rocks blocking the mouth of the cave to clear a way out and escape before the Skrills could enter and force a fight. A weaker blast would be sufficient to clear an opening, but it could be made powerful enough that the rocks thrown by the explosion could injure or even kill the Skrills who were currently trying to force their way in. That would hardly be a good start in negotiating–
He let out a little yelp as something twisted one of his sensor lobes. "I know you, Firefly. Big fireball. If kill them then good. If not then we fight. I not think we can flee. We kill them or they kill us. Not can do this Firefly way and make enemies into friends."
Hiccup sighed and nodded. He knew that Toothless was right. As fast as he was, he would be tossed around in the stormy winds in which the Skrills seemed to be very much at home. Unless they suddenly changed their tune and allowed him to fly away, a confrontation would be inevitable.
He prepared to gather fuel in his throat for a fireball. He literally lacked the imagination to think up another creative way out, so he had to trust Toothless… just like how Toothless, when he was a dragon, always trusted his rider.
"Wait!"
Toothless unfastened his tethers and slid down to flatten himself under Hiccup's belly.
"Fire not only burn. It push. Very hard. I know. I use fire in cave like this before. Fire push on all parts of me so hard I think it crush me as land-strider. Lay on me, and close eyes. Scrunch nose. Flatten lobes to head. Fire is very loud and will try squish you like bug.
Hiccup nodded and lowered himself down on top of Toothless. It made sense. A Night Fury's fireball could knock down a sturdy observation tower, and if all that explosive power was confined to a little cave…
"Big fire," came the muffled reminder from below. "Very very big. We good."
Hiccup pulled fuel into his mouth. The banshee shriek of a Night Fury on a fire run was not particularly loud, as they weren't flying, and it would probably go unnoticed by the Skrill outside. He let the fireball grow larger and larger, pushing his limits of comfort and safety. With his teeth retracted, he flung his head and let it out. The fireball shot straight down the tunnel towards the pile of rocks as he hastily covered his face with his paws while pressing himself down over Toothless.
BOOM!
The blast was deafening, even though Hiccup flattened his ear lobes. True to Toothless' prediction, he could feel the fireball trying to crush him from all sides, but it was over in an instant. Without wasting any time, he stood so that Toothless could hastily mount up.
{Are your tethers secure?}
"Yes."
Hiccup shook himself and thrashed around to test things out. Satisfied, he ran forward. He could tell that the Skrills were still recovering from the blast, so he shot straight out and opened his wings. Looking around, he could see the male Skrill on the ground with what appeared to be an injured wing that prevented flight. The female was unharmed and regained her stability in the air. Both were fuming mad.
Hiccup angled up into the sky, but the strong winds kept tossing and flipping him around. Against all known machinations of the physical world, the Skrill quickly closed the distance, hardly affected by the buffeting winds. She grazed past, shooting out a lightning bolt that went straight into the gemstone on the stick. Hiccup and Toothless roared and cackled at their little victory.
"It work!" Toothless howled. "It really work!"
The Skrill flew into the clouds to refill and shot past them again with another lightning bolt that was also nullified, to her bewilderment. Abandoning that approach, she shot straight at them, and Hiccup barely managed to pull the leading edge of his right wing away from her snapping jaws.
"Not good up here!" Toothless shouted. "Need fight on ground."
{But there's a second Skrill down there. Only this one can fly.}
The Skrill came at them again, and before he knew it, Hiccup found a claw in his left shoulder. The Skrill lunged her toothy maw forward, but a reflexive swipe of his claws at her neck forced her to twist around to flee.
"Better two down there than one up here!" Toothless shouted.
Hiccup knew that Toothless was right. Already, he was flagging, having been worn out even before he started fighting the erratic gusts. Besides, it was anyone's guess how long the lightning rod would protect them, so he folded his wings and dropped, touching down in a clearing.
The male Skrill on the ground rushed in and learned a similar lesson about how ineffective his lightning was. The female joined her mate and the two immediately attacked Hiccup. He had to remind himself that these were dragons, not humans, and these were the berserkers of dragonkind. There was no compromising, no declaring war before attacking, no laughing and shouting, "Haha, I have you right where I want you, so I shall now spend an inordinate amount of time gloating over you while your rescue comes unbeknownst to me!" as the dragon trappers often did. There was only a swift death to the weaker force.
He tried to dance around them and lose them in the forest, but they were faster than they looked. All caution was thrown to the wind on both sides, and Hiccup fought with all his might, nothing held back. He could feel rage washing over himself, sharpening his sense and channeling all of his strength into his assault, but he had a handicap, and the Skrill knew it. Toothless was riding on his back, and a single bite or a swipe of a wing from either of them could kill him instantly.
Hiccup dodged a swipe of a Skrill's wing at Toothless with a sudden leap to the side, but the claw managed to snag the leather straps tethering him to his dragon. At the same instant that Hiccup watched his rider sail off his dragon, he felt a twinge of lightning and his entire body floundered and spasmed. Teeth came down around his neck and haunches.
It was over and he knew it. He could feel claws in his shoulder, and he knew the killing bite to his throat was about to come. He had only one thing to say to his killers.
{After you're done with me, please spare my rider.}
The Skrill in front of him lunged forward and Hiccup felt the top of his head smack against a rock before all went black.
########
########
"Hiccup!"
Hiccup lethargically blinked his way into the waking world, and the first thought that came to his foggy mind was about the terrible dream he had in which he was attacked by a couple Skrills and died.
His next thought was about how odd it was that he was lying on his back. He never slept on his back, either as a human or a dragon, as that was a recipe for a stiff neck in the morning.
A white-hot stream of fire blazed in front of him and he closed his eyes against the heat. Everything suddenly came back to his addled mind. He had thought he was dead, but that clearly was not the case, and while his neck hurt a lot, he found he could still inhale.
"Hiccup! Wake up!"
That was Astrid's frantic shouting.
What in Thor's name is she doing here?!
Off to the side, a Deadly Nadder side-stepped a snap from a Skrill, and her tail gave a quill-laden riposte.
{Rise up and fight, Firefly!}
That was Stormfly!
Hiccup rolled to his paws and found that he could stand, even though it felt like his left-rear leg was on fire from the inside.
It was at that moment, as he saw a fresh bleeding cut on Astrid's shoulder, that he realized the stakes. He was not just fighting for his life, or for Toothless, but also for his wife and her dragon. If they lost this fight, their child would have no parents, and the entire tribe would be devastated. If anything happened to Astrid...
Toothless had always been a brawler, one who never shied away from a fight. That fighting spirit remained in the Night Fury's instincts, even with Hiccup at the helm, and it was a constant battle against the rage and fury, to wrestle it to the ground and force it to submit to his more peaceful ways.
However, as he looked on Astrid's frantic expression and sensed the true terror she was feeling, a rage like none he had ever felt exploded into a roaring inferno. The former rage he had subdued in days past was a whimpering welp compared to what he felt pushing against him, but he did not fight it this time. Instead, he opened the door and stepped aside, embracing his role as a passenger instead of the helmsman, watching with awe as the rage blazed hotter and hotter.
He was not Hiccup. He was a Night Fury, the unholy offspring of lightning and death, ferocity given form. Those who he loved were in danger, and he would deliver death to all who opposed him.
A scalding hot breath left the Night Fury's mouth as his claws sank into the grass, and it felt like his whole body was afire with the sheer fury burning within. He drew a deep breath, feeling the air enrich and empower his muscles as it splintered and crackled in his throat.
The Night Fury did not roar at the Skrills, but a snarl drifted from his throat, soft and sharp, a gentle whisper of certain death. He stared down his prey, absolutely motionless, inhaling the fragrance of fear wafting from them. He took a menacing step forward and his prey shifted their weight uneasily. Another step and they retreated a pace.
He threw himself at the nearest Skrill, the female, who almost managed to avoid a set of claws raking bloody gashes along her side. The male swiped a wing at Astrid and she rolled under it, but he continued the motion to whip his tail at her. Hiccup lunged to intercept, causing the Skrill to rear back and roar at him, but that roar was quickly cut off as Toothless thrust the blade on his lightning rod into the dragon's side. A brief spark of lightning lanced the stick before a scrape of the Skrill's leg sent it flying off to the side.
"Ha, I take your lightning!" Toothless crowed.
To the Night Fury, as he mercilessly snapped and clawed at the female, all that mattered was that his prey had one less fang to bite him with.
The male Skrill lunged at Toothless, but Astrid's ax and Hiccup's claws forced him to rethink his attack plan. With a moment of reprieve on that front, Hiccup spun around to see the female snapping at Stormfly's wing. A flash of lightning sent her spasming, but Hiccup's claws into the Skrill's rear forced her to spin around on him. She charged, but a quick sidestep and a set of ragged tears in her flank were her only gain.
{Ignore the land-striders!}
{Kill the black dragon!}
A shout from Astrid made him spin around to ward off the male charging him, and he barely had time to duck away from a snap of the female's teeth. The three dragons twisted around each other in a frenzied maelstrom with Astrid and Toothless trying with little success to contribute much at all.
Hiccup managed to land a swipe along the male's neck, claws dragging bloody tears in their wake, granting him purchase to lunge forward and bite down on the Skrill's wing. A hard twist of his neck rewarded him with a loud CRACK! The Skrill yelped in pain and tore off into the forest. Hiccup turned his full attention to the female, who spun around and took off towards the clouds.
Oh no you don't!
He lunged after her and caught her tail in his mouth, pulling back to slam her into the ground, but that proved to be a mistake. He felt a searing bolt of pain in his head and he flopped down flat. The Skrill started to twist around to bite him, but was instead forced to flee as Astrid charged forward with a battle cry and her raised ax.
Hiccup shook the dizziness out of his head. The lightning blast was very weak, a sure sign that the Skrill was depleted, but she was flying up towards the clouds to refill, so Hiccup took off and gave chase. He flicked his tailfin, and without weight on the control pedal next to the saddle, he heard the telltale clicks of a pair of spring-loaded brackets snapping into position to hold the tailfin open in the neutral position to allow solo flight. His flight wasn't as stable without a rider, his wings burned from the effort, and his whole body felt agonizingly sore, but with a fireball that forced the Skrill to jerk to the side, he managed to catch up and snag her tail again.
He knew he had the advantage as she had no lightning. There would be no mercy, no negotiating, only death.
The Skrill twisted to bite at Hiccup, but he was quick and his claws seized control of her snout. He scrabbled at her hide, ignoring the rain of blood, and started to lunge forward for a bite when he heard a pained scream. Astrid's scream!
Even as high as he was, just below the clouds, he could see Astrid on the ground. She was slumped against the trunk of a tree, her side sporting a gash with a lot of blood seeping into her tunic. Toothless was standing over her with her ax in his shaky hands as he struggled to wield the unfamiliar weapon. The male Skrill that had apparently hit Astrid was already leaping at them with claws outstretched.
They stood no chance, and Hiccup knew it without a doubt. Time seemed to slow down to a crawl as he focused his enraged attention on the scene below, but he knew he hardly had time to give his wings a single flap before it would be too late, nowhere near enough to cover an appreciable fraction of the distance. Not even a bolt of fire would have time to intervene. Before he could even touch the ground, his precious Toothless and his beloved wife would be bloody tatters.
Hiccup hated himself for allowing himself to get distracted chasing down this stupid Skrill. He hated the Skrills who had only hatred in their hearts. He hated that heat from his rage flaring inside of him, impossibly expanding and intensifying, consuming him entirely, hotter than anything he had ever experienced.
As he and Astrid made eye contact from far away, he felt the raw, unrestrained energy of his fury coursing through his body and burning him wholly from the inside out, tearing every fiber of his body apart. He twisted in the air and felt that energy crackle inside like lightning, drawing out every morsel of strength he had to feed the fire raging within.
None of that mattered, though. Nothing mattered except that he absolutely needed to instantly insert himself between that Skrill and those he loved. Nothing mattered except what would happen if he failed.
All that mattered was that he needed to be down there, in front of those who gave his life meaning.
And then, suddenly, he was.
