Wheeze. This chapter is inconsistently longer than I anticipated. And I didn't want to split it into two chapters, because … no one needs to see this nonsense update so often. So here's an obnoxiously long chapter.
"Windshear! Hold on girl, I'll get you outta there." Sparing no expense, Heather unhinged her double axe and hacked feverishly at the jade-green lock. The Razorwhip thundered in response, swinging her iron plated head against the cage. The dark-haired woman's ribcage ached from falling off her dragon. They knew better than to get caught in a hunter's trap, but there was undoubtedly, strength in numbers. Each crash of her blade against the reinforced metal sent sparks flying in all directions. She yelled upon delivering her blows, convinced it'd buff her strength just enough to dent the cage.
Tail swinging like a whip, Windshear threw her whole body against the side, eager to help add to the enthusiasm of her rider. The cage had been rigged perfectly without a single hunter in sight. However, it wouldn't be long before they arrived to see what had sprung their well-laid trap. Trying to disguise her exhaustion, the rider produced a metal pin from her satchel, jamming it into the keyhole impatiently. "Just give me… one… second. Ugh!" Delving into the concentrated task, she didn't notice the huntress emerge.
The Razorwhip protectively growled, issuing a warning that could not be fully followed through in her current confines. Heather whirled so quickly she almost staggered.
"You!"
Aqua held up an ornate key, a creation of her own development, to fit perfectly into one keyhole. "We've got to stop meeting like this." Without a hint of humor in her greeting, the huntress wiggled the key provokingly. "I'll give you the key…"
Heather sensed a "but" coming from miles away. "Or I'll just take it!" She was taking no chances, adrenaline hurling her forward and into the target at full force. Literally rolling with the assault, Aqua fell purposely to her back. Closing her hands around Heather's axe handle to keep the blades from shredding her to pieces, the huntress pushed with all of her strength. She continued to rock back until she could bend her knees and drive her boot soles into her attacker's midsection, tossing her off with ease.
The dragon's anxiety amplified tenfold at seeing the huntress draw her own weapon. It snapped to life, extending into a featureless rod. Neither were fooled by its simplicity, especially when she swung it at such a neck breaking speed that the impact against Heather's weapon vibrated all the way up her arms, to her rattled skull.
Aqua leapt forth, using one hand to cartwheel. Her opposite arm built up the momentum in her weapon from the somersault to strike.
The Rider staggered back, slipping down an incline. She recovered and retaliated instantly. Her blade took out a chunk of stone where her opponent's head should have been. Heather's reflexes rivaled the huntress, both trading blows of equal caliber. Eventually, only the raven-haired woman intrepidly assaulted her opponent, getting progressively more frustrated as the small, nimble hunter evaded her strokes. If her plan was to sap her stamina, it was working. Windshear's urgent bellows grew distant and Heather's focus pinpointed to one thing.
"Stop!" Heather ran up a slant and sprang agilely off the edge, axe raised above her head "Moving!" She missed, but it was enough to distract from her actual plan of attack. Tackling Aqua down with a battle cry, the Rider toppled off almost immediately from the unprecedented shaking of their surroundings.
At first it was just one wobbly rock that had slid down to where they were. A few more lurched and tumbled down in rapid succession, prompting both contenders to focus on their own balance rather than mauling each other.
The canyon began to crumble and the two girls stumbled into one another. Growling, Aqua grabbed her current companion by the wrist and sprinted, narrowly dodging the crushing boulders that destroyed the plateau they had been standing upon a second ago. "Let go! I can run myself." To prove that very point, Heather raced past Aqua with a scowl painted darkly on her features. She'd have to do more than yank her away from some falling rocks to gain any semblance of civility.
Both skidded to a stop upon seeing mountainous stones slide into their path, barring them from escaping. A sturdy pillar, disturbed by the shift of terrain, cracked at the base and sloped dangerously to the side. "No!" Heather yelled. Simultaneously ducking to avoid another blast of wreckage, the two searched for a slot of an exit. Heather made to run for the lethal cascade of rubble, but was held back with a yelp. Aqua snatched her hood and pulled her down to hunker near a slanted column.
Once the rumbling storm of dust settled, Heather was the first to stand. Covering her mouth with her arm and squinting in the darkness, she coughed to expel the bits of powder clinging to the back of her throat. "This can't be happening…" Running her hands along the solid walls surrounding her, Heather ran around the perimeter, feeling for anything bigger than a crack to squeeze past. "Gods…" A thick sheet of jagged stone obscured the sky, capping them inside an enclosed dome of blackness. Spinning as hopelessness pinched her expression, the dark-haired girl refused to accept defeat. She swung her axe, chipping a minuscule piece away from the stone. When that failed, she slammed her fists onto the cold, hard surface.
Climbing was futile, as the unsteady pieces would send her tumbling back down to square one. She hadn't even noticed that her legs liquefied under her, sinking her gradually to the ground. Heather swallowed, re-evaluating her tactic in her descent.
"Don't forget, this is your fault." At this point, Aqua was just drawing amusement from stoking the girl's volatile flame.
"My fault?" Heather sat up straight, a barrage of insults at the ready.
"If you weren't swinging your axe around like a Smokebreath with a shiny new toy, the canyon might not have collapsed." Aqua presented as a matter-of-factly.
"You…you started all of this! You trapped Windshear, lured me to the canyon, and you're going to say this is my fault?!"
"Why don't you yell louder to bring down what's left on us?" Her current company huffed, looking around. "If I had gold for every time you riders and your dragons have made something collapse on me." They were sealed in by the demise of the canyon. Neither even dared to light a warm fire for fear of oxygen depletion.
Heather hated to say it, but upon feeling the resistance in her lungs to suck in air, she began to hope that maybe they'd be uncovered by nosey dragon hunters. Her heart cinched at the automatic thought of Windshear. The Razorwhip was counting on her to return, and the notion of leaving the dragon alone was more painful that she could bear. Even her resentment had waned to pave way for tremendous concern. The more she dwelled on it, the deeper a hole drilled into her chest.
A soft hiss of frustration interrupted her pervasive thoughts. Slightly lifting her head from her hands, Heather observed for a fleeting moment as the huntress awkwardly tried to re-do a buckle on the strap across her back. In spite of facing the other way, the raven-haired woman could tell that her company's countenance was twisted in pain. Lips pursed, she assessed the red stained bandage on Aqua's shoulder, which was obviously giving her trouble in trying to properly reach the strap.
"Stop moving." The snowy haired huntress frowned; breath hitching as there was a tug on the leather strap she'd been fiddling with. Heather reached over her shoulders from behind, taking the leather strap and carefully looping it under her injured arm. Swiftly, she fastened it to Aqua's form, unwilling to sit there and watch her fumble about. She then repositioned it out of habit for a comfortable feel, slipping her fingers under to gauge the fit.
"Um." If she had to venture a guess as to what was running through her companion's mind, it wasn't good. "Thanks." Stiffly expressing her gratitude, Aqua dipped her chin at an angle to catch a glimpse of her assistant, who was now pushing the strap away from her injured shoulder.
"Don't mention it." Muttered the girl, "I mean it. Don't." Suddenly disconcerted to an alarming degree, Heather vied for a change of subject. "So wh-what is this life debt you seem to owe to Viggo?" If they were going to die, there might have been no harm in prying, or she just really didn't want to linger on the "moment" that had been exchanged. "Must've made a heck of a good first impression…" She was fishing blindly as she completely withdrew her hands from the hunter's back.
"Not really. I tried to kill him." Agreeing to indulge in the change of subject, Aqua finally graced her with a reply.
"Wait? What? You had him and didn't kill him?" Her eagerness was apparent, learning that they could have been spared a world of problems with his premature death. Fist clenched, Heather resisted the urge to slam it against the nearest wall, "I mean, why didn't you?" Was it a change of heart? Or was it by the powers of influence?
"Kids, you know?" Aqua sat down against the cavern wall, "Not too great at cold-blooded murder." A splintered shard of wood had been her weapon in her impulsive dive of ambition ten years ago. "Clumsy hands. Flimsy resolve." She counted on each finger the reasons for her failure.
"What about your family?" Genuinely wondering of their whereabouts, Heather tugged at her braid.
"What about yours?" Aqua reflected, figuring she had answered once, and this was a give-take conversation they were conducting.
Air blew from her puffed cheeks at the mere mention of family situations, "It's complicated." She thought of her brother, who she had recently come to terms with, and then their missing father. Presuming he had been dead for so long when the opposite was urged to be true was hard to take in. "Windshear is my family. I'd do anything for her." It was terrifying the lengths she would go to for her Razorwhip's protection. She'd claw her way out of this cave with raw, bloody fingers and torn nails if she had to.
"She's your family by something not quite as convenient as blood. I can respect that." The two exchanged a glance that one could almost deem as understanding. "I never did comprehend why blood was so important." Speaking with no empathy, as a child who had no remaining relatives, Aqua pulled out her collapsed weapon and examined it.
"It means you're connected—intertwined in a way that no one else could ever be in the whole world. It's pretty special." Heather piped up immediately, proposing an insight to family.
"Does that connection negate the love you've developed with others you aren't related to?" It was a concept she pondered, having been in the company of two brothers for the vast majority of her life. She tilted her chin up, formulating an example, "Say your brother, whom you hardly know or would have cared for if he weren't your brother, tried to slay your…" She gestured vaguely, "Windsmear."
"Windshear." Yes. That. "I-I wouldn't let anyone hurt her. Even him." Brother or not. "Besides, he wouldn't do that." They were speaking in hypotheticals. "And what do you know about love anyway?" Her biting tone resurfaced, imagining what cruelty the huntress was capable of and the atrocities committed at such a young age.
"Love is known by when it hurts to say goodbye." Silence settled and Heather lifted her brows in mild confusion. Aqua, as well, caught the shift in energy and spluttered in defense, "I read that in a book." One of her favorites, in fact.
"Actually sounds nice." The huntress opened her mouth, nearly offering to lend the volume to her, but quickly caught herself. "So uh," She coughed lightly, trying to keep her mind occupied from the lack of oxygen. Heather pressed a flat palm against the stones that encircled them, rapping on a few to test their sturdiness. "You were found by the hunters as a kid?" Gauging whether that was better or worse than being utterly alone, the woman tried to shift one of the smaller rocks. "Ugh!" Clumps of dirt quickly filled the gap she created.
"Mm." Aquaria confirmed.
"No offense, but what use would a bunch of hunters have for a kid?"
"They're tiny and inconspicuous." Heather stopped her self-assigned task out of request for her to elaborate. The rider's face scrunched on the right side in trying to picture the various definitions to encompass those two words. "I was a spy, more or less. I also ran the more… undisclosed errands. " She had started off as a messenger of sorts, before able to prove herself in a more worthwhile fashion.
"And they'd trust you with those? You'd think that a high-ranking member would be entrusted with those kinds of dealings."
"You'd be surprised how effectively you can manipulate a grateful child with no one else to go to." The dark-haired rider frowned, placing her younger self in Aqua's boots. Heather was no stranger to solitude, and the yearning of acknowledgement from at least one soul would have been treasured dearly. "No one ever really looks twice though." Especially at children, "And if I were caught, none of those high-ranking people you mentioned would be troubled by it." What a strange subsistence.
"Were you ever caught?"
"Yes. Once."
Never again.
0_0_0
Heather was starting to pace, fidgetiness getting the best of her in a cramped space. How long had they been down there? The time of day was indeterminable. An educated guess would constitute about eight hours. Their wide topic of conversation had dwindled from the lack of food, water, and oxygen. As well, while Aqua had remained motionless in energy conservation, Heather did the exact opposite. Even now she was shoving herself against the jagged surface of an immovable boulder.
Aqua repositioned her chin on her hands, sliding her eyes away from the Rider in sheer secondhand embarrassment. "Not like this…" In the silence of the enclosure, anything—even a whispered prayer of imploration—was audible to inattentive ears. "I…" The huntress adjusted her gaze.
"I'm going to lose her too."
Barely gasped out on a stifled sob, those words alone tuned a string inside of Aqua's heart and struck it pointedly.
"No." Heather met her eyes, resonating with a sentiment entrenched within her soul. "No you're not." Never imagining she'd have a speck of anything in common with a hunter, the woman watched as Aquaria drew her weapon.
"What are you—" Disassembling the rod with a few calculated twists, she slid out what looked like three cylindrical canisters from inside the hollow rod. At a loss for snarky comments, and mesmerized by the ongoing process, Heather squinted. The idea dawned on the rider instantaneously with Aqua using twine to secure two of the canisters to her legs and returning the third to her weapon.
"Absolutely not—whatever it is you're thinking…" Was she really one to turn down the twinkling prospect of escape? With no regard whatsoever to Heather's caution, the huntress aimed her weapon straight up and fired. A single ball of blue flame spouted from the staff's end, exploding against the cavern roof.
Throwing her arms up as cover, the Rider yelled various unheeded phrases of protest, instinctively inching closer as their surroundings shuddered. She craned her head to stare at the jutting ledge of rock above them, sunlight shooting in from the newly created hole. A deft swing of the staff swatted away some falling debris.
"Hurry up!" Aqua held out her hand for the woman to take. While she did not accept, she did edge even closer. With the disturbance in its fragile structure, the cavern began to collapse on itself. At around this moment, from looking between the gap and the huntress, Heather became fully cognizant of her plan.
"What're you going to do? Carry me?" Not caring to keep her voice low anymore to prevent exactly what was happening right now to their surroundings, the dark-haired woman scoffed indignantly.
"We have to get up there… now."
"You're smaller than me, don't—" Heather cut herself off with a shriek at being swept into her arms with minimal effort. "Aqua! Don't you dare!" She shrilled, eyes wide.
Flying without a dragon was certainly a feat she had never accomplished before. The ground beneath her disappeared. Heather pressed her eyes and lips shut to guard from the blowing dust.
The duo soared out of the wreckage, reaching the acme once the concentrated pressure and blaze in the canisters depleted. They seemed to suspend in a hover for a moment before plummeting to the earth. Both trusted their armor, separating and tumbling down the outer side of where they had been trapped. The dome space they had occupied a moment ago flooded, leaving not much more than a mound of dirt.
Sore shoulder radiating down her whole arm from the smash, bang, flops, and tumbles—maybe not in that order, Aqua pushed herself up to a shaky standing position. "I'm starting to understand what Viggo means by reckless…foolish…." More choice words popped into her head, "Impulsive… puerile."
"We're alive!" Heather threw her head back in a laugh, grabbing her companion and pulling her in for a tight embrace. The huntress went as stiff as a board as the berserker woman squeezed. Her foggy blue eyes went wide and round like battle-shields. "It was crazy—no, totally impossible! I can't believe that plan actually worked." She smelled vaguely like metal and fresh flowers. There was no denying the warmth that swarmed her at the gesture. "Oh!" Pulling away, the dark-haired girl studied Aqua's visage.
"Who do you think I am?" She brushed off the excitement, but could not swipe off the red tinting her cheeks.
"Oh yeah!" Heather fixed her with such an intense stare that the huntress was taken aback.
"Wh-what?" Aqua's eyes rolled back, consciousness departing from her body, snatched away by an unseen force.
Technically, it was a seen force. Heather's fist didn't relax even after the huntress crumpled to the floor. She'd punched her with all the spite she'd stored in the past few hours. Not wasting a second, the woman rummaged through the girl's pockets, yielding the object of her search.
"Yes! I'm coming, girl." She bounced up, key in hand, "I am most definitely not sorry for that." With those parting words for the huntress, Heather bounded off.
0_0_0
The joy in Windshear's scrambling over the return of her rider swelled Heather's heart. "I'm so sorry it took so long." Turning the key with a click and popping the lock with ease, the woman laughed in relief. Plated head ramming against the cage door, the dragon crooned happily, curling her muzzle into Heather's embrace. "You wouldn't believe what I had to go through for this." She'd be lying if she said it was absolutely, purely unbearable.
"Let's go." Swinging her leg over her dragon's lowered form, the two took off. Motives in tandem, they moved as a unit, slamming into the cage with an influence that sent it flying over the cliffs and into the sea. Grinning contentedly over the black and blue parting gift she'd left with the huntress, Heather drew her arm back and chucked the key into the azure waves below.
tfw H&A doesn't stand for hiccup and astrid (didn't notice that until later).
tfw huntress finally get punched in the face
Thanks for reading!