Jarik POV...
The entire kill ring had been changed, with numerous banners and flags flying in the morning sun. Sitting in the stands surrounding the ring was the entire village of Berk, everyone having turned out for the event. At the backside of the ring on a raised platform stood Stoick, between two statues with a huge smile on his face. The crowd of Vikings continued to cheer as he prepared to speak.
"Well, I can show my face in public again!" he yelled, drawing some more cheers. "If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Hiccup would go from being, well... Hiccup, to placing first in dragon training... I would've tied him to a mast and shipped him off for fear he'd gone mad!" the crowd roared in approval from his words. "Yes! And you know it!"
While he was certainly making everyone happy with his speech, the way he was putting it was not very encouraging, and not helpful to Hiccup at all. I frowned in distaste at it, Ahsoka and Mara sharing the same feeling. Stoick laughed before continuing on with his speech, growing more serious.
"But here we are. And no one's more surprised... or more proud than I am. Today, my boy becomes a Viking. TODAY, HE BECOMES ONE OF US!" he roars, and everyone cheers in approval.
I give Hiccup a sympathetic look, seeing how burdened he truly was. What Hiccup was doing... being an outcast, and defying the social norm in order to do what he knew was right was a very brave thing, but also very tough, knowing his father most likely wouldn't support him. Mara puts a comforting hand on his shoulder, and he accepts it with a look of gratitude. Astrid then approaches us with a look of concern and worry etched onto her face.
"Be careful with that dragon," she warns.
Hiccup glances at her before looking back at the stands, watching as Stoick walked over to his stone chair, sitting right at the front to give him full view of the arena. "It's not the dragon I'm worried about," he replied grimly.
I nodded in agreement, understanding exactly what he was talking about. What he was about to do was definitely going to draw outrage from the village.
"Don't tell me you're going to do what I think you're going to do," Mara says with a worried gaze.
Hiccup sighs, but his expression is firm, and he's made up his mind. There's no going back. "I have to, Mara. I have to put an end to this."
Astrid eyes him, dubious, and Mara looks back at the crowd of Vikings, obviously afraid for her friend.
"I have to try," he continues. "Mara, Astrid... If something goes wrong... just make sure they don't find Toothless," he pleads.
"We will Hiccup," Mara promises, and Astrid nods her head.
"Toothless will be fine Hiccup," Ahsoka reassures him with a gentle smile.
Astrid steps a little closer, anxious. "Just... promise us it won't go wrong," she pleads.
Hiccup eyes us all, and I can see in his eyes that he's unable to make the promise. Before he has a chance to answer, Gobber suddenly rounds the corner. "It's time, Hiccup! Knock him dead," he exclaims cheerfully, oblivious to the conversation or emotional fear bleeding off of Hiccup.
"Good luck out there Hiccup... we're behind you," I promise him with a comforting grin.
He smiles lightly at me in gratitude, and Mara gives him a quick hug before separating. Taking a deep breath and steeling himself, Hiccup puts his helmet on and enters the ring. Once he enters, Gobber closes the gate behind him and hobbles up towards the stands. Ahsoka and I prepare to follow, glancing back at the two girls. "Will you be staying here?" Ahsoka asks them.
Mara nods her head. "I will mom."
"Same here," Astrid says with a firm nod.
With that being said, Ahsoka and I walk up into the stands, moving through the crowd and head over to where Stoick is sitting in his chair, Gothi and Gobber standing beside him on his right. We both stand on his left, watching Hiccup with concern in our eyes. I share a glance with Ahsoka.
"Something's going to happen soon," Ahsoka says grimly, and I nod my head slowly, returning my gaze back to the arena.
"I know. I feel it too," I replied softly, both of us sensing flickering warnings through the Force for what is about to occur.
We watch as Hiccup looks around the gathered crowd of cheering vikings, obviously very afraid. How nobody else can see that is beyond me, but they probably think its nervousness from having to face a Monstrous Nightmare dragon. Stopping by the weapons rack, he picks out a shield and tiny dagger, which I snort lightly at, to quiet for anyone but Ahsoka to hear. his choice of weapon did not surprise me in the slightest. Not like he planned on using a weapon anyways.
"Hrmph. I would've gone for the hammer." Stoick mutters.
"I'm not surprised at all," Ahsoka remarks with an amused grin, hiding her true feelings as well as I was.
Having picked out his weapons, he turns towards the heavy bolted doors just beneath our spot, and steadies himself, taking a deep breathe. Opening his eyes, he stares forwards with a determined gaze. "I'm ready," he declares loudly.
The door bolt to the Nightmare's pen is slowly raised, and the crowd grows quiet. After a few moments, the doors get violently blast open with a stream of sticky fire, coating it in flames. Following the explosion was the Monstrous Nightmare as it teared out of its cave like an angry gundark, roaring defiantly. The Nightmare's entire body was lit of with fire, and it immediately jumps into action, climbing up the walls and chains, hissing at the provoking crowd and blasting fire. While most Vikings see a bloodthirsty dragon, I can feel across the bond for Ahsoka's predatory instincts What she sees is an angry, yet terrified animal that just wants to escape its prison, and she does her best not to scowl, face remaining impassive. I share the sympathy.
It's only when it sees there to be no place of escape that the dragon spots Hiccup below it. the Nightmare descends, slinking to the floor with a low growl. It stares down at Hiccup with narrowed, angry eyes, and advances forwards. The crowd waits in anticipation. With the Monstrous Nightmare's eyes locked upon him, Hiccup backs away slowly and deliberately drops his shield and dagger, stepping away from them. The dragon glances at the dropped weapons and pauses slightly, confused, but still wary. The Vikings all mutter to each other.
Stoick frowns in confusion. "What is he doing?" he asks. Me and Ahsoka both share a worried glance. This is when things got tricky.
The dragon presses closer, a suspicious look on its face. Hiccup extends his open hand, and it snarls. However Hiccup remains calm, making sure the dragon could see his entire body and moved slowly, outstretching his arm carefully. The dragon continues to pace, and it glances up at Hiccup's helmet, the suspicion clear. I releaize what it meant, and Hiccup realizes as well. He then reaches up and removes it. Looking up at the crowd, specifically Stoick warily, he takes a breath to acknowledge the point of no return, and then tosses the helmet aside. It hits the ground with a loud clatter.
"I'm not one of them," he tells the dragon.
The Nightmare's pupils widen, a sense of calm overcoming it, and it glances back at the crowd to gauge their reaction. Stoick leans forward quickly, his eyes widening in a slow-building rage. The crowd gasps in shock as all eyes turn to him, the Viking chief's anger building. "Stop the fight," he demands.
"Stoick-" Ahsoka says in warning.
"No!" Hiccup calls out, his voice firm and demanding attention. "I need you all to see this."
Everyone grows restless as Hiccup continues, calmly holding his hand out to the Nightmare. The dragon begins to respond, slowly calming down as it sniffs him curiously. "They're not what we think they are. We don't have to kill them," Hiccup says.
Every head turns to Stoick, who then gets up from his chair and grabs his hammer. I widen my eyes in alarm, moving to stop him.
"Stop!" Ahsoka exclaims, reaching an arm out.
"Stoick no!" I shout at the same time, but it was too late.
"I SAID STOP THE FIGHT!" the viking chief roared, slamming the hammer into the iron bars with enough force to badly dent them. The sound rings around the arena, and my gaze whips towards the dragon, sensing its sudden spike of anxiety and alarm. Hiccup was in danger.
3rd person POV...
The echoing clang of the hammer against the arena rung through every bar, resonating through the ground, and through the Monstrous Nightmare. Spooked, the Nightmare's pupils return to slits and snaps at Hiccup's outstretched hand. Hiccup yelps and springs backward, but the spell is broken. The Nightmare reacts to Hiccup's sudden movements and blasts another stream of fire. He screams in terror and barely dives out of reach. Mara gasps in terror, watching with transfixed eyes.
"Hiccup!" she yells.
Hiccup scrambles around the ring in a desperate attempt to outrun it, but the Nightmare pursues viciously. It snaps its jaws and sprays fire, continuing to spring from ground to wall. Stoick shoves Ahsoka and Jarik off to the side angrily and pushes through the crowd, rushing to the doorway. "Out of my way!" he roars. The two Jedi quickly rush after him, shoving Vikings out of the way as well.
"Hiccup!" Astrid exclaims in fear. She searches for a way through, grabbing an axe off the wall and wrenching the gate open with Mara's help. The two girls slide underneath the gate, desperate to help their friend. A narrow stream of fire narrowly avoids Hiccup as he continues to dash around the ring, evading the Monstrous Nightmare. Panicking and desperate, he goes to the weapon rack in an attempt to arm himself, but the Nightmare quickly destroys the rack and knocks him away.
Stoick wrenches the grated door to the arena and jumps through, Jarik and Ahsoka following. The Monstrous Nightmare is only a few feet behind Hiccup when Astrid makes her move.
"Hiccup!" she yells.
Spotting a hammer, she picks it up and hurls it with all of her might at the Monstrous Nightmare, smashing it square in the face. The dragon is knocked to the ground with a pained cry, and shakes its head, furiously diving after Astrid. The Viking girl dashes to the side, now finding herself desperately trying to escape its reach. Luckily, Mara tok action and activated jumped through the air, grabbing onto the dragon's horns in an attempt to wrestle it to the ground. however the Nightmare reacts, violently flinging her off and into the wall.
She shakes her head, and looks up to see the dragon charging at her, mouth wide open. Thinking quickly, she ducks her head, the Nightmare missing her by mere inches, and leaps up, activating her lightsaber at the same time. The violet blade leaves a small scratch on its face, causing the dragon to roar in fury, and mid-jump she pushes off of the wall to land in the center.
Just then, Stoick wrenched open the gate to the arena and waved his arm. "This way!" he cries out.
"Mara! Come on!" Jarik yelles.
Mara deactivates her lightsaber, and rushes back to the entrance with Astrid, and they both make it through. However the Nightmare was now shivering with fury at the wound inflicted on it, and jumps up with a screech, blasting the doorway before Hiccup could reach it. With nowhere to go, he scrambles towards the center of the ring, but it pounces on him and snarls viciously, preparing to finish him off.
"Hiccup!" Mara cried out in horror, reaching forwards. Ahsoka held her back just as Jarik prepared to charge in there himself and take on the Nightmare, pulling out his own lightsaber hilt, but not yet activating.
A sudden growing shriek builds all around the arena, and everyone stills at the familiar, yet terrifying sound. Those that knew who it was all stiffened in shock and nervousness. The two eldest Jedi looking up in dread.
Moments later, Toothless bounds over the crowd and unleashes a massive plasma blast, exploding a hole through the chain enclosure. He flies through it and disappears in the boiling smoke. The Vikings all rush to railings in time to see a flurry of wings cutting through the dissipating smoke.
"Somebody get in there and help him!" a Viking cries.
Rolling out of the smoke are Toothless and the Nightmare, locked in a toothy, vicious fight. The Nightmare arches its back in an attempt to bite his head, getting on top of Toothless. Said Night Fury roars in retaliation, using his feet and front paws to block the dragon's bites before kicking the Nightmare away. He rolls to his feet and plants himself between Hiccup and it, roaring protectively. The Nightmare snarls, circling them as it tries to find a way to Hiccup. However Toothless lunges at it several times to head off, finally unleashing a furious roar. Frightened and seeing it was outmatched, Nightmare relents and scurries away. To everyone's shock and horror, Hiccup immediately gets to his feet and grabs Toothless' head protectively, trying to shove him away.
"Alright, Toothless, go. Get out of here!"
The crowd is gob-smacked, growing livid. Vikings begin pouring and clambering through the enclosure, dropping into the ring with their weapons.
"Go! GO!" Hiccup pleads, however Toothless wasn't having it, snarling at the Vikings defensively, finding them a danger to Hiccup.
"Take it alive!" someone yells.
Stoick grabs an axe and charges into the arena. Astrid calls out to him, panicked. "Stoick no!"
"Dad! No! He won't hurt you!" Hiccup yells upon taking notice.
However Stoick quickly is stopped in his tracks by an unseen force, and growls angrily, glaring back behind him to see Jarik with an outstretched arm. "Ahsoka go!"
Ahsoka nods and rushes into the arena, Mara right behind her as Jarik uses the Force to violently pull the Viking chief back. With a war cry, Stoick turns around, using the momentum to swing a fist aimed directly for Jarik's head. Reacting quickly, Jarik holds out his left arm and catches the fist, bringing his right arm to help hold back the Viking, struggling even with his mechanical arm against the chief's insane strength. Astrid watches with wide, terrified eyes.
"We are not, your enemies Stoick!" Jarik strains to say, enhancing his strength with the Force and slowly forcing his arm back. "Think about what you're doing!" he pleads.
"You've thrown in your lot with dragons?!" he roars. "I SHOULD'VE NEVER LET YOU ON MY ISLAND!"
Pulling back his fist, Stoick kicks out with his foot, catching him by surprise and sending Jarik flying backwards into the rocky ground with a pained cry.
Back in the ring, the Vikings were preparing to all tackle the night Fury when Ahsoka and Mara came between them. Ahsoka shoved her hands out, unleashing a massive Force burst that blew everyone away, before the two activated their lightsabers, holding them out defensively.
"Stop! You don't have to do this!" she yells out. Mara stands beside Hiccup and Toothless, who was growling, lightsaber at the ready while Ahsoka stands protectively in front of them all. Their lightsabers weren't meant to kill, only put on the lowest setting so that at the worst they'd knock someone unconscious, although painfully so. However the Vikings instead got back to their feet with roar cries and furious glares.
"Traitorous witch!" a few of them roared.
"Take them alive!" another exclaimed, and the rushed forwards again.
The first that got close enough were knocked back by deadly kicks from Ahsoka, and the occasional sting from her swinging lightsabers before being shoved back with the Force. Those that came at Mara were first blown back by the Force, and then she got to work quickly shocking them with her lightsaber. Those who were hit let out various cries of pain as the points of impact stung viciously, the low powered plasma blade causing serious discomfort and light burns. Toothless also used his tail and wings to knock a few of the Vikings back as well, before taking notice of Stoick, who was once again running towards them with his axe. Noticing this, Hiccup tried to get him to stop.
"No, don't! You're only making it worse!"
Stoick raises his hammer as he charges for Toothless, and Ahsoka spots the confrontation, widening her eyes. She moves to unleash a Force burst, but one Viking manages to surprise her with a punch to the face. She cries out in pain, but retaliates with a brutal takedown, grabbing his arm and flipping him over, kicking him away. unfortunately her distraction with that Viking enabled others to get the jump on her, slowly overwhelming her despite her quickness. Jarik rushes into the arena after Stoick, winded from his brief contest against the chief and attempts to stop him again. However another burly Viking quickly tackled him to the ground before he could react. Jarik punches him in the face with his prosthetic, sending the Viking back, howling in pain, but two more quickly replace him.
Stoick and Toothless reach each other, and Stoick swings his hammer. however the Night Fury dodges the attack and pounces, rolling over him and pinning the chief to the ground. "Toothless! STOP!" Hiccup cries out in fear.
He pins Stoick to the ground and raises his head with a snarl, inhaling. The familiar hiss of gas builds, and Stoick braces for the fire attack.
"NO!" hiccup yells in terror.
Hearing the distress in his voice, Toothless swallows back the blast and turns to Hiccup, not understanding. Hiccup stares at him in defeat, emotionally torn, which is when the Vikings pounce on him.
"Get him!" someone yells. Spitelout yanks Toothless off of Stoick by the head and slams him into the ground, more Vikings piling on top of him, as Toothless roared out in distress.
Mara ran for them, but another Viking bashed her in the side with his shield, sending her sprawling, and her lightsaber flies from her grasp. she gets up and blows him away with the Force, but another Viking comes up behind her and yanks on her hair. She yells out in surprise and pain, elbowing him back, causing him to grunt in pain. However a quick knee to the stomach stops Mara's fighting, and she gasps in pain, the breath knocked out of her as another viking helps restrain her. Ahsoka was now the last Jedi standing, and was being quickly overwhelmed, despite her prowess. She blasted three of them away, and slashed another with one of her lightsabers, but one viking swung an axe. she dodged, but was knocked off balance, and another Viking took the opportunity to slam a fist against her back, sending her falling to the ground with a cry of pain. Her lightsabers were knocked from her grip, but she flipped back onto her feet quickly. Unfortunately another Viking tackled her to the ground, and with the assistance of another, was restrained.
"No! Please...just don't hurt them! Please don't hurt him!" Hiccup pleads, but Astrid holds him back, just as torn emotionally as he was.
Stoick gets to his feet, fuming and shaken. A Viking presents Stoick with an axe. He eyes Toothless a moment, then the Jedi family, who were all lined up in a row. It took two Vikings alone just to hold down Jarik's left arm, but he eventually relented, opting to glare at Stoick instead. Ahsoka's gaze was cold with hidden fury, while Mara's face was filled with absolute fury. Coming to a decision, he pushes the axe back into the Viking's hands.
"Put it with the others! And send these Jedi to the prison! Four guards each!" he exclaims furiously, staring at them with contempt. He then turns his burning glare onto Hiccup, who stares back up at his father in terror.
Yeah, a very sad chapter. I still don't know entirely which is more emotional: this or the death of Stoick in HTTYD 2.
Jarik, Ahsoka and Mara all put up a very good fight, but there was only so much they could do with extreme limitations. The most damage they dared to do was a low powered lightsaber, which usually just stings an opponent, kinda like an insect sting, although worse. Add that to the fact there were so many Vikings, they couldn't keep it up forever.
Now comes the rage of the Chief of Berk against his only son, and against their Jedi allies. :(
