Chapter 43 – The Last Sacrifice:
Toothless crept forward, realising the danger of the situation.
"There is no way that is happening, and you know it. I don't care what you do, Hiccup stays with me." Toothless growled towards Viggo. Walking over and standing between Hiccup and Viggo.
"Agreed." Valka did the same, limping over to stand next to Toothless.
And gradually, all the riders and their dragons stood in-between Viggo and Hiccup.
"Now Hiccup, what was your answer?" Viggo said rather loudly, ignoring the riders and dragons in front of him, he stood on his toes to look over them all.
"We're answering for you!" Valka shouted, taking a step towards Viggo. Pointing her sword at him, while her bow and quiver were tightly around her.
"Get out of my way." Viggo snapped at the group, showing his first sign of anger.
However, the four members of the Six and their dragons remained quiet, still and confident. Separating Viggo and Hiccup.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Viggo questioned confidently, his hands still behind his back. His eyes however, turned to gaze at Valka.
"Positive." She replied, as Cloudjumper came up beside her.
Viggo smiled at her, then announced loud enough for Hiccup to hear, "I'm taking this as a no Hiccup. Your tribe will be dead by midday. But for now…" He paused for a moment, and directed his gaze at Valka with a quick glance at her wounded leg.
"Let's make the Six become Five." Viggo drew his sword, and stood at the ready.
"Don't…" Hiccup tried to say, but was ignored by the rest of the group. He seemed lost, unsure of what to do.
"Draw." Viggo commanded, his knees bent, and his sword held firmly in his grip to his side. Challenging Valka's glare.
Valka charged with her sword held high, just managing to ignore the pain in her leg from her wound. She swung her sword vertically towards the ground at Viggo.
He laughed at her attempt, and lazily walked to his left. Avoiding her strike.
Cloudjumper began building up a blast, and fired it at Viggo.
In response, Viggo jumped up high. Higher than any ordinary Viking could do. He narrowly avoided the blast, landing on his two feet and resumed the same ready-to-fight stance he had before.
"STOP!" Hiccup screamed.
"Oh, it's too late for that." Viggo spoke as he began advancing towards Valka.
"NO!" Hiccup yelled again, as he suddenly pushed Cloudjumper out of his way and started to run at Viggo.
"GET DOWN!" Toothless roared, as he suddenly leaped forward and landed on top of Hiccup, pinning him to the ground, while unleashing a quick blast of purple fire directly at Viggo. The dragons and their riders all got down on the ground as well to avoid the blast.
Viggo saw it coming, moved slightly out of its way, and swung his sword powerfully right at the blast so that the blade sliced through the ball of fire heading towards him. So the sword took the brunt of the fire, not him. But something completely unexpected happened at that moment, something Toothless had not foreseen.
The sword Viggo was wielding must not be any ordinary sword. For when the blast of Night Fury fire hit, the sword burst into a brilliant white flame while retaining its metal.
"Thanks." Viggo complimented Toothless. "This will do very well." The Shapeshifter eyed the sword for a moment.
Viggo resumed his fighting stance, as Valka stood up and charged towards him again.
Cloudjumper was preparing to fire at Viggo, but when Hiccup pushed Toothless off him and began running at the Shapeshifter, he blocked Cloudjumper from firing.
Valka's and Viggo's swords clanged when they hit, however, Viggo then turned in a circle and swung his sword very quickly. With the intense strength Viggo has, along with the heat of his flaming sword, it sliced right through Valka's. The flaming sword making short work of hers.
Viggo smirked at Valka, and muttered, "Your end."
Within the space of two seconds, there was a loud scream of pain, and before anyone realised what happened, the Shapeshifter's sword was sticking out of Valka's chest.
"NOOOO!" Hiccup bellowed, having charged forward, he brought his sword down as hard as he could against Viggo.
Hiccup was fast, but Viggo was faster. He quickly withdrew his sword from Valka's chest, then barely dodged Hiccup's sword attack by a mere inch and tripped Hiccup over with his legs. However, he did not see the blast of Night Fury fire heading towards him.
Toothless's blast hit him square in the chest, throwing Viggo back several metres and sliding on the black ash across the crater.
He got to his feet, gasping for breath and clutching his lightly bleeding chest and burnt clothing. Mildly injured, but not severely, he quickly transformed into his dragon form.
"This does not end here. Your tribe awaits their doom, and so do all your allies. We will meet again!" He said angrily, before spreading his wings and disappearing into the dark sky.
Hiccup and Toothless turned around and rushed back to Valka, of whom was lying on the ground. Kormak and Vali had ripped off a piece of their clothing each and put their hands on her chest in an attempt to stop her bleeding.
"MUM!" Hiccup yelled, reaching her and kneeling by her side.
"Oh my gods!" He exclaimed, noticing her clothes beginning to turn red from the amount of blood she was losing.
"AH!" She winced in extreme pain, trying as hard as she could to stop herself from screaming.
"Please-!" She tried to say. "Leave it! Don't waste time attending to me-AH!" She screeched as her body jerked violently in a spasm.
"My Valka, I'm so sorry… I have failed you." Cloudjumper whimpered, looking at her.
Valka glanced at Cloudjumper, "No you haven't-" She coughed, then said, "We did what we came to do."
"Hiccup!" She turned her head painfully to look at her son. "Yo-you need-" She began.
"Yes mum?! What is it?!" Hiccup began to cry, pushing his head onto her arm and nudging her.
She coughed, with some blood coming out. "You need to get to Myrka!"
This surprised Hiccup, Kormak, Toothless and Seaflare to a large degree.
"Why?"
"Spark and Vali will tell you." She stammered, turning slightly to look at them both. To which said dragon and rider nodded in unison. Looking down at her.
"Okay mum, we'll do it-" Hiccup sobbed but was interrupted.
"Let me finish!" She interjected, and she grunted in pain as Kormak and Vali kept the pressure on her open wound.
"There-there's a rumour." She stated, now looking at Hiccup.
"The-" she coughed again, "the last member- of the Six…" She finally got out, before shutting her lips and eyes tight shut, restraining herself from bellowing out in pain.
"Yes mum?!" Hiccup asked, his face only an inch from her mouth to catch what she was trying to say.
"Lives in the snowy peaks." Valka finished.
Hiccup and the riders all exchanged looks of shock and amazement, before turning back to look at Valka.
"And Hiccup-" She coughed violently, wincing in pain once more.
Hiccup looked straight into her eyes, and his tears fell like a stream onto her face. "NO! Don't leave me Mum! I can't do this without you!" He cried desperately.
"Tell Stoick I love him, and I'm so, so sorry to you both for failing to be a good wife and mother." She apologised, now she was in tears.
"DON'T SAY THAT! YOU'RE THE BEST-"
However, Hiccup's words were cut short as Valka's eyes went still, and her head turned to the side. She began to cease all her movement, and the gang realised that Valka had just left this world for Valhalla.
Less than an hour later, far from Viggo's island, on the wharves of Myrka…
"Are you sure that's the last of it?" A uniformed soldier asked a local tradesman of whom was standing on his boat.
"Yes sir. There are no more boxes." The skinny man replied, bowing to the soldier on the wharf.
"Very well." The soldier replied, turning around and swinging his lamp as he began to walk back towards the shore along the wharf. Holding one box with his other arm.
"FIRE!"
The curdling scream echoed around the man's ears so loudly, and so suddenly that he dropped the lamp and box in fright, and spun around.
Immediately, at least twenty flaming balls of fire were launched from towards the ocean and began smashing into the Myrkian Markets ahead of him causing numerous explosions and devastation.
Suddenly, many lights became apparent, and as the soldier looked out to sea, he noticed that an entire Viking Army of ships were launching an attack on Myrka.
"ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! SOLDIERS OF MYRKA WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!" He screamed, and began sprinting for the mainland, but not before tripping over the box he dropped.
The soldier heard another yell of "FIRE!" Though a little fainter this time.
Another round of flaming balls was sent pelting through the air, and the soldier on the wharf watched them as he ran towards the shore, and they bombarded Myrka with enormous damage.
A few moments later…
A worn down and exhausted man lay asleep in a cell in Myrka, when suddenly he was awoken by shouting.
"CHIEF! CHIEF! WAKE UP!"
The man opened his eyes, and just in time too. He saw a flaming ball of fire fly across the sky above of him.
He leapt to his feet and ran to the southern side of his cage.
"What's happening?!" He yelled, noticing his friends and fellow tribesman also looking outside their cells.
"Myrka is under attack!" One of them yelled. "We might be free!"
"You're about to be!" A voice suddenly bellowed from the darkness.
A dragon suddenly began firing electric lightning blasts towards many soldiers who had just come out of the main prison security area.
"SKRILL! GET DOWN!" Everyone in the cells yelled to each other.
"Oh relax. I'm here to save you, not kill you." Said the same voice from before. The men realised it was a female voice, one they didn't recognise.
Just as the Skrill landed and killed more soldiers, hundreds and hundreds of balls of fire were seen from high in the sky, raining fire upon Myrka. Blasts of many different types of colours and sizes. Just as the prisoners realised, those were not coming from ships unlike the ones they saw before.
"SOLDIERS! RALLY TO ME! KILL THEM ALL!" Came a deep booming voice in the distance.
The prisoners realised who it was, it was King Harun of Myrka.
He came sprinting around the corner with hundreds of soldiers at his heels, charging towards the prison cells. Just at that moment, the catapults on the mainland scattered around began to start firing back. Along with thousands of flaming arrows being shot into the air.
Myrka's forces are now fighting back with just as much strength as the attackers. Many dragons were hit and began to fall from the sky.
"We need to get out of here!" The female voice said, more to herself than to anyone else it seemed to the prisoners. Her voice suddenly pulled their attention back to look towards the Skrill.
With all the light from the flaming boulders, arrows and dragons in the air, the prisoners found the source of the voice. There was a woman sitting on top of the Skrill.
"EXTRACTION NOW!" She screamed into the sky.
Immediately, hundreds of dragons flew down from the skies, and began grabbing the cages with their claws, and ripping them out of the ground.
"GET DOWN!" The chieftain yelled in his cage, now lying on the ground with his face head down on the dirt. Fearing the dragons would kill them.
The Skrill came over to his cage and landed on the top of it, and pulled hard. Beating its wings powerfully. The dragon managed to rip it out, and the man suddenly felt the dirt leaving his cage and then he was lying on bars.
Then, one by one, each dragon picked up a cage from the prison area, and flew away with them.
Flaming arrows suddenly came shooting towards them, as the soldiers were near.
"LOOK OUT!" The female voice bellowed.
Suddenly the man was jolted and thrown to opposite wall inside his cage by the force of the move, bruising his back and arms.
"AH! WHAT IN ODIN'S NAME! DRAGON RELEASE ME!" The man yelled up at the dragon carrying his cell.
"Oh would you rather a flaming arrow in your back?!" The woman's voice screeched at him, and suddenly the man finally saw the source of the voice himself up close. This woman wasn't just sitting on the dragon, she was riding it. Plus, she had something on her arm that was glowing a bright light green. "Stay down, hold on to the cage, and shut up!" She ordered.
The man's expression turned from pain to anger.
"HOW DARE-" He began to say but upon glancing behind him he saw more flaming arrows incoming, so he grabbed onto the bars and waited for the dragon to turn.
Once again, the cage moved violently, as the dragon avoided the arrows hastily. However, the man had a firm grip this time and was not thrown around.
After several minutes of flying, the dragon began to descend. And the man noticed they were heading for a large ship with many lights lit around it. Shortly after, the dragon released the cage onto the main deck.
He also noticed there were at least six cages with people inside scattered on the main deck of this large vessel. These were the same cages as the ones in the prison area back on Myrka.
Looking from side to side, he saw heaps of ships around also had many cages on top of their decks.
"I FOUND HIM!" The woman above suddenly yelled, pulling the man out of his thoughts.
A large woman suddenly appeared from inside the ship's command bridge, and she wore a large chiefly belt with a unique symbol on it, and she was carrying a lamp. The man couldn't take in her other features as it was too dark.
"I say, thank you Vali. Come aboard and take him to the room. I'll order a retreat shortly." The large woman replied, walking away to assist some others who were on board the ship.
"What is going on here?! I demand you answer!" The man burst out, slamming his fists on the cage, rattling it loudly.
"Please try to relax, we've just saved you." The woman above called down to him.
The dragon landed next to the cage, and the man yelled in fear and turned in the other direction.
"Spark isn't going to hurt you, you silly man. Now please, relax, and come with me." She said, jumping down off her dragon and walking over to the man's cage.
Vali withdrew her sword and slammed it against the lock of the cage. With that, the cage door fell open.
Dumbfounded, which was unusual for a man like him, he obediently followed her out of the cage.
"What is going on?" The man asked, "where is the rest of my people?!" He added a little more forcefully.
The woman named Vali opened a door to the command bridge, and replied as she was walking, "Your tribe is being rescued. We are trying to save as many lives as we can."
She finally opened a door on the floor of the room, that led downstairs to what looked like a hallway with a series of cabins down there.
"Please, go through here. Take the first door on the left." She told him, holding the hatch door open for him.
With a suspicious look at her, he decided to follow her instructions.
Walking down the steps, he saw the door, and opened it.
What he saw next was the last thing he could have imagined, and someone who he had not seen for a very long time.
He didn't even notice the Night Fury sitting next to his side, his eyes were drawn to those he knew all too well.
"Son?" The man mumbled, staring at the auburn haired young man in front of him.
"Hello dad." Hiccup replied, staring teary eyed at his father, Stoick The Vast. "How long has it been? Many months? Or has it been years? To be honest I've lost track of time. So much has happened since I left Berk."
The two men gazed at one another, while Stoick's eyes drifted all over Hiccup, seeing how much he had grown up, and then his eyes finally rested on Hiccup's blue brightly glowing Night Fury dragon mark.
It was at this point, it occurred to Hiccup that his dad had never seen Hiccup's dragon mark glowing before. They indeed had a lot to talk about.