Ch.6: Taking Down the Queen
It has been more than 2 days since Hiccup and Toothless left for the dragons' nest and Rapunzel was getting worried by every passing hour. She has been spending most her time on her balcony feeding Mari, waiting to see any sign of Hiccup and Toothless. She hardly slept at night because of nightmares about Hiccup and Toothless getting hurt.
Her parents noticed her change of behavior. She wasn't as happy and cheerful as usual and they the reason to it. Rapunzel rarely ate and she often cried her eyes out. She only acted normal when she was either with Mari or with Serenade. Speaking of the dragon, Serenade, along with Flamewing and Tailslash were also worried. They owned Hiccup and Toothless their lives and they saw Toothless as either their leader or best friend.
The King and Queen knew that something had to be done, so they decided to do the only thing that came to mind, which was probably pretty crazy or insane – follow Hiccup and Toothless to the dragons' nest. When they told Rapunzel their idea, she was beyond happy.
It took them an hour to dress up and pack some bags for the trip as they didn't know how far the nest was, but at least they knew which way Hiccup and Toothless flew.
Speaking of the said duo, Hiccup and Toothless have just flown over Berk. They made sure to fly high enough so they couldn't be seen and were nearing Hellheim's Gate. Hiccup was in deep though and sighed.
"Toothless, I want to tell you that no matter of the outcome of the battle, you'll always be my best friend," said Hiccup and patted the Night Fury on the head.
"You'll always be my best friend, too. I just hope we get out of this alive," said Toothless.
Hiccup smiled and leaned forward to give his dragon a gentle hug.
Toothless purred before he tensed up, his ear plates stood on end and dove into the cloud cover.
"Toothless, what's wrong, bug," asked Hiccup.
"Keep it quiet," said Toothless.
Suddenly, a Monstrous Nightmare emerged out of the dense cloud. Soon, hundreds of dragons emerged out of the cloud, carrying food they got from raiding villages in their talons.
"It looks like they're hauling their kill," whispered Hiccup, not wanting to attract the attention of the dragons.
The dragons dove in formation, plummeting through the thickening fog and wavering between towering, craggy sea stacks. They emerged at the base of a massive volcanic caldera, glowing with rivulets of lava. The flock of dragons fell into rank, funneling through a crack, and zipping through a winding tunnel. It gave way to a vast, steamy inner chamber, tiered with pocket–like shelves. All breeds of dragons laid about, nested in hordes. The arriving dragons flew in and dropped the food into a central pit which was glowing red and shrouded in mist.
"What Stoick wouldn't give to find this," Hiccup asked himself.
Toothless peeled away from the procession and landed on a small shadowy shelf to keep a low–profile. Hiccup peeked around and saw that the dragons were still dropping food into the pit.
"It's good to know that all of the food is being dropped down a hole," muttered Hiccup.
"There's more to it," whispered Toothless.
Then, a Gronckle flew in and opened its mouth, and dropped a small fish into the pit. Suddenly a loud roar was heard and the dragons hid in fear, and that's when a huge head shot out of the pit a snapped its huge jaws at the Gronckle. Hiccup knew what that was – the Queen Dragon, also known as the Red Death!
The former Viking knew that the Queen would be big, but not this big. That thing just swallowed a Gronckle whole in one bite!
"So that's the Queen," Hiccup whispered to Toothless in shock.
"Yup," whispered Toothless and turned to Hiccup. "Still wanna fight her?"
"Of course I do! Only you and I can stop her," whispered Hiccup and Toothless nodded. "Let's draw her attention."
Toothless spread his wings and flew before roaring at the huge dragon.
"Hey, overgrown sausage! Your reign of terror is over," shouted Toothless.
Most of the smaller dragons stared at the Night Fury in shock. Why would he do something crazy? That's when they spotted the human on the dragon's back. They couldn't believe it! No one has ever lived after an encounter with a Night Fury, yet this boy was riding one.
"How dare you turn against your Queen," asked the Red Death and Hiccup understood what she said due to his ability to understand what dragons say.
"Just because you're a Queen doesn't mean you're tough," shouted Hiccup and the Red Death looked at him.
"So you brought a human with you," asked the Red Death when she looked at Toothless. "Very well, I'm satisfied."
"Not in million years! I won't let you hurt a hair on my human! He's my best friend and together we'll bring you down," exclaimed Toothless, much to the shock of the other dragons.
"You heard what he said. Show us just how tough you really are," challenged Hiccup and Red Death growled.
"If you wanna fight, you got it," roared the Red Death and she charged at Hiccup and Toothless.
Toothless flew out of the way of her jaws and went through the tunnel they came in with the Red Death right behind them. They flew out of the volcano, but the Red Death didn't stop her chasing and when she got outside, there was a huge hole into the volcano with all the dragons flying away. The battle against the Red Death was now outside the nest!
The Red Death stepped on the beachside. Toothless flies up and then swoops down at full speed and shoots the Red Death with a Plasma Blast, which slightly dazes the huge dragon.
"That thing has wings. Okay, let's see if she can use them," said Hiccup and looked at Toothless. "You ready for this, bud?"
"Let's bring her down," said Toothless and he flew upwards once again.
The Red Death recovered from the Plasma Blast, only to see Toothless firing another Plasma Blast at her to bring her down on the ground.
"You think that did it," Hiccup asked his Night Fury.
"I kinda doubt it," said Toothless.
A second later, the Red Death got back up to her feet and unfolded her huge wings and flew after Hiccup and Toothless.
"Well, she can fly," said Hiccup and Toothless snorted.
Hiccup and Toothless maneuvered around the sea stacks as to try to make the Red Death follow them, but she only smashed right through the sea stacks. Hiccup then looked at the clouds above them and came up with another idea.
"Okay, Toothless, time to disappear," said Hiccup and Toothless flew towards the clouds.
The Red Death followed the duo upwards and inhaled before unleashed a huge steam of flames, which Hiccup and Toothless avoided. They got into the clouds and she lost a track of the Night Fury.
Unknown to any of them, three dragons just landed on the beachside of the Dragons' nest and four people got off their backs. These were Rapunzel, King Fredrik, Queen Ariana and Cassandra, who got off Serenade, Flamewing and Tailslash. They looked around and saw the huge hole on the wall.
"Whoa, what do you think made that," asked Queen Ariana.
"It's pretty hard to tell," said King Fredrik.
"Whatever it was, it must've been pretty big," said Cassandra.
The King and Queen nodded and turned to Rapunzel, who was looking around desperately.
"Rapunzel, what is it," asked Queen Ariana.
"Where are Hiccup and Toothless," asked the princess.
Cassandra was about to reply when a light in the clouds caught her attention.
"What's that up there," she asked, gesturing to the clouds.
The Royal Family and the three dragons looked up and saw the purple blasts. They immediately knew that these were Toothless' Plasma Blasts. Suddenly, there was a huge stream of orange flames. Rapunzel was about to say something when she saw her biggest fear yet. Hiccup and Toothless shot down from the clouds, with the Red Death hot on their tail. What really scared her was Toothless' incinerating prosthetic tailfin. Rapunzel was about to get on Serenade's back and get up there when her father stopped her.
"Rapunzel, don't do it," said King Fredrik softly.
"But look at the size of that dragon. They need help," argued Rapunzel.
King Fredrik was about to say something when they heard a hissing sound. They looked up and saw the Red Death forming green gas in her mouth, signaling that she was about to fire. They all got worried, but then, they heard "NOW" from Hiccup. Toothless spun around and fired a Plasma Blast into the dragon's mouth, igniting the gas. The Red Death spread her wings, but because of the damage they took from Toothless' blasts while in the clouds, the wings started to rip apart.
Toothless spun around and flew out of the way. With her flight out of control, the Red Death crashed onto the beachside, not too close to Rapunzel, her parents and Cassandra, exploding from the inside.
Hiccup and Toothless barely managed to avoid the flames. Hiccup was too focused on the incoming fire that he nearly forgot about the tail. He glanced up and saw the tail heading their way. He tried controlling Toothless' tail, but the prophetic tailfin had ignited, making it useless.
"No. No," said Hiccup as the Red Death's tail smashed right into them, throwing Hiccup off the saddle and down into the flames. "Toothless!"
"I'm coming, brother," shouted Toothless as he dove after Hiccup and protected him with his wings right before the flames reached them.
Ashes were falling everywhere, and the Royal Family, along with Cassandra and their dragons were looking around for any sing for Hiccup and Toothless.
"Hiccup! Hiccup," shouted Rapunzel.
"Where are you," asked Cassandra loudly.
They continued looking until Queen Ariana spotted something black in the distance.
"Look over there," she shouted and gestured to the black silhouette.
Rapunzel gasped and ran towards the black figure, which she very well knew was Toothless. Her parents, Cassandra and the dragons followed the princess and gasped when they saw Toothless.
The Night Fury was lying motionless on the ground. When Rapunzel got to him, she saw that the saddle was empty and burned along with the prosthetic tailfin. She fell on her knees and put a hand on the dragon's snout and broke down in tears. Her parents have seen her cry before, but not this much.
A few seconds later, Toothless' head moved and slowly opened his eyes. He looked up and saw Rapunzel crying and felt bad for the princess. He softly crooned, gaining her attention. Rapunzel looked at the Night Fury with a sad expression, her eyes red from crying.
"Oh, Toothless," said Rapunzel softly and buried her head into the dragon's neck, and started crying once again. "He's gone. He really is gone."
She felt Toothless shaking his head, pulling away from Rapunzel. He opened his wings, revealing Hiccup in his paws! Rapunzel didn't know what to think. She quickly pulled Hiccup into a hug and placed her ear over his chest, and felt his heartbeat.
"He's alive," said Rapunzel quietly and her eyes were immediately filled with tears of joy, and looked at Toothless. "You brought him back alive!"
Her parents and Cassandra smiled and were happy that Hiccup was alive, but then Cassandra noticed something terrifying! Serenade, Flamewing and Tailslash roared in happiness. The dragons often had nightmares about the Red Death, but not anymore. Hiccup and Toothless have done the impossible. They defeated the Red Death!
"Thank you for saving my boyfriend," said Rapunzel in happiness to Toothless.
The dragon nodded and put his head in the princess' lap.
"It's good that he's alive, but we have to do something about that," said Cassandra as she approached them and gestured to Hiccup's left leg.
Rapunzel looked at what Cassandra was gesturing at and gasped when she saw that Hiccup's left leg was gone. Fear immediately overwhelmed her.
"We need to take him to Corona and fast," said King Fredrik when he saw Hiccup's leg.
"But how? Serenade, Flamewing and Tailslash are not big enough to carry Toothless," said Rapunzel as tears began forming in her eyes.
"We need to do something," said Queen Ariana.
"I've got an idea," said Rapunzel as she laid Hiccup on the ground and wrapped her hair around Hiccup's blooding left leg. "I could at least try to close the wound."
"Are sure about this? It's true your hair can heal wounds, but this wound is the biggest one yet. What if it only closes it partly," asked King Fredrik.
"Then I won't stop until it's completely closed," said Rapunzel sharply.
Her parents, Cassandra and the dragons looked at her in shock. Rapunzel has never been sharp to anyone, especially her parents! At that moment, they knew that Rapunzel truly loves Hiccup.
Rapunzel sighed and began singing:
"Flower gleam and glow,
Let your power shine.
Make the clock reverse,
Bring back what once was mine.
Heal what has been hurt,
Change the fate's design.
Save what has been lost,
Bring back what once was mine.
What once was mine."
When she stopped singing, she unwrapped her hair from Hiccup's leg, showing that the wound had closed completely, much to everyone's relief.
"Okay, the wound is closed, but how are we gonna take Hiccup and Toothless back to Corona," asked Cassandra.
King Fredrik was about to reply when the four of them and the dragons heard wings flapping, but Rapunzel didn't pay much mind to it. They looked up and saw hundreds of dragons of different species landing not too far away from them. Serenade, Flamewing and Tailslash took defensive positions, but the dragons didn't pay them much attention as they were looking at Hiccup and Toothless. Rapunzel looked up from Hiccup and noticed the dragons, who then bowed down.
"Do they know us," asked King Fredrik.
"They're not bowing to us," said Rapunzel as she acknowledged the dragons. "They're bowing to Hiccup and Toothless. They took down that huge dragons and now the dragons consider them their new leaders."
"Dragons are truly amazing and mysterious at the same time," said Cassandra.
"That they are," nodded Queen Ariana.
The dragons lifted their heads and smiled at Rapunzel, who held Hiccup tightly. She knew what they were trying to say.
"You're gonna help us out," asked Rapunzel and the dragons nodded. Rapunzel smiled, and so did her parents and Cassandra.
"Well, looks like we'll be returning to the kingdom with hundreds of dragons," chuckled Queen Ariana.
"It sure looks that way," said King Fredrik.
"And maybe when Hiccup recovers, he could train the dragons and everyone in Corona will have their own dragon," said Cassandra and Rapunzel smiled at the idea.
"I like the sound of that. Now, let's head back home," said Rapunzel as she got on Serenade with Hiccup still in her arms.
King Fredrik got on Flamewing while Queen Ariana and Cassandra got on Tailslash and flew after Rapunzel, followed by the hundreds of dragons, one of them, a Typhoomerang, caring Toothless on its back, on their way back home.
To be continued…
Hey, everyone. I'm back with another chapter. It looks like Corona will be having lots of dragons. The next chapter will be posted sometime in February. I hope you all had amazing holidays! I'll see you all next time. Until then, have a nice day!
R&R