.
The Final Battle: Never Surrender
Elsa found herself washed up on a rocky shoreline. Her eyes pried open with a groaning moan. She felt the prickling stones against her cheek and the waves splashing up her legs. The beats of war sounded off in the far distance. The Queen lifted herself up; her allies needed her. She briefly checked herself over; just some battle damage on her well-crafted armor and a few cuts and bruises—nothing major.
Looking up at the endless volcano, she prepared to traverse the mountainous formations. Her hands still hurt too much to create any mode of transport; the first thing she tried to manifest came out embarrassingly sloppy. For now, she had to walk.
As she followed the sounds of battle, there was only one thing in the back of her mind. "Please, Jack…please be okay."
Tragically, she did not know that after the devastating typhoon that separated them…Jack was still lost somewhere deep below the ocean, lifelessly floating in the darkest depths of its abyss.
Away at another location of the great volcano, Hachiman led Rapunzel through the war zone of fire and ice.
Projectiles of flame came right at her but the Warrior God blocked them with wide, smashed-together blocks of earth. She proceeded around him, shooting down one demon after another with her crossbow. Along the way, her mentor caught up and sliced through the enemy like soft fabrics. Hectic duels raged on all around them.
As they ran forward, a red squadron charged at them from the side. Hachiman cut them off by bending out a curved wall of stone that they all smacked into. Rapunzel leaped onto it. With her momentum she slid down to the pointed end, shooting down more targets. The two heroes continued sprinting through the chaotic battlefield.
Keep moving, she kept telling herself as hot magma flew overhead. That's how you stay alive.
The temperature was not as infernally awful as what Merida and Bunny experienced. Hachiman and Rapunzel had the army of crystal-ice to contradict the sizzling heat.
An arrow jammed into a devil's center, but not all the way. Rapunzel dodged its smoldering claws and kicked it straight through. The pierced gem popped out on the other side. As its red glow faded to hollow lifelessness, the creature collapsed into a pile of molten rock. The Lost Princess dived through its smoke and rolled up to her feet to smack away another savage with the butt of her gun.
This was not like fighting Dark Elsa's abominable snow creations. Rapunzel had to be careful not to touch these demonic soldiers directly, for the burns would be fatal; hence why she preferred to stick with her crossbow from a distance, instead of up close with her daggers for this particular battle. Luckily, her slim fitted armor kept her well enough protected along with the added layer of Elsa's power. Her long hair was a huge disadvantage though. She had to be mindful of it at all times, and could not use it like a whip or lasso like she normally would.
Hachiman made it a priority to watch over her, as well as direct his troops. He saw a trio of knights getting horribly outnumbered off to the side, so he branched off to intervene.
Close by, Rapunzel shot at multiple oncoming targets from her position on an elevated stump of stone. Reloading was fast. Simply pulling back the handle on the side saved her precious, life-saving seconds. When she stepped off, she felt something cold bump her ankle. A decapitated helmet had rolled to her feet. She let out a sharp gasp.
Then she looked around, noticing the true brutality of war. Demons were screeching out as they were lanced through the heart. Lone knights were gruesomely melting away by the burning warriors. Some were cut down by flaming swords, others savagely torn apart by the limbs. They were losing men by the dozens. None of her many adventures with the Big Four could have ever prepared her for this. After being locked away in a tower for most of her youth and sheltered in a royal castle afterwards, she now finally understood as fire snaked throughout all the fighting, the impaling, and the dismembering. This was war. This was hell.
Distracted by the horrors, molten stragglers snuck up on her from behind. Fortunately, they were crushed under the weight of a gravelly panel before reaching her.
"Rapunzel?" Hachiman worried.
"I'm fine, I…" she looked away, blinking her watery eyes to snap back into focus. "Are we losing?"
"It may seem that way, but…" Heavenly gold feathers began to sway down around them. He directed her up to the skies, "Definitely not."
Sandman's giant hawk soared up above. It was the only source of pure light amongst the darkness. It clutched onto bundles of red devils, and then dropped them to their demise. Riding its back, Sandy cracked out his incredibly long whips of gold all across the battlefield.
North and Toothiana flew in.
"What's the report?" Hachiman asked after slicing away a demon.
"Bunny and Merida have closed the portals. No more will be coming down the summit." North informed.
"This is all that's left. It's just us and them." Tooth finished.
"Excellent. No sign of the beast either. Hiccup must have it under control."
"Hope so," Rapunzel mumbled.
"Then let us finish this, my friends!" Nicholas raised his blade and rode off.
They all scattered. Toothiana instructed Sandman to circle the perimeter. He did so, his hawk sweeping up masses of molten stragglers. North cut in through the hordes laughing and hollering as he sliced and diced away at any devils that lunged at him. Hachiman told Rapunzel to stay close as they made their way through the warring jungle of flames and frost. Five knights led the charge, clearing them a path. The Warrior God slashed through the enemy and stomped down to shoot up sharp, towering pillars of earth all across the war zone that hurled several groups of demons into the air.
Fighting alongside him, Rapunzel saw—truly saw what was the Warrior God. He attacked with the ferocity of a thousand white tigers, but with the precision of a skilled samurai of his immortal age. The young woman could only imagine what glorious combatant Hachiman must had been in his prime. He called out patterns and unified sections of his army on the fly as only a master general could. The ancient and honorable deity was truly deserving of his title.
He had fought countless battles over the centuries, and faced unbelievable odds such as these. For him, this would be just another legendary tale to be told. She only prayed to live through this to be able to tell it with him and the rest of her friends. And it seemed as though the mighty god beside her was already answering her prayers with his very actions.
The way Hachiman blasted through the enemy waves like an unstoppable force of nature would have been more than enough to strike fear into the savages if they were not so soulless. But it was equally great enough to strike hope into Rapunzel's racing heart. She then gazed up at the Guardians fighting from above. She had made an astonishing deal of amazing friends and powerful allies in her incredible adventures with the Big Four. There was indeed hope that they could actually win this.
They all fought with everything they had, demonstrating powerful acts of bravery and skill. They concentrated all their efforts on the battle. So much so that they did not notice the massive tsunami many miles out that would inevitably reach them.
Somewhere among a pile of bones, Hiccup laid there on his back. His eyes were closed and his breathing was growing dangerously slow. Echoes of the far out battle whispered passed him. But he did not listen to them, for something else was speaking to him, or rather…someone.
Son?
The voice was deep and commanding, the likes of a grand chief who could rally armies, and yet it spoke softly.
Come on now….
It encouraged him. A fatherly voice that he would never forget.
Get up…
It spoke to his very soul.
You can't join me just yet. Your friends still need you…your 'family' needs you…
The young Viking's spirits were lifting, but his body still did not move.
So get up…get up, Hiccup!
His eyes popped wide open and chest shot up, gasping for air. He sat himself up, breathing heavily. After a necessary moment to calm himself, he scanned his environment, finding himself in a rocky wasteland that was far from the peak and far from the ocean. The haunting field of bones had reverted to just plain stones. He got up to his feet; every bit of movement hurt his sore body, but he toughened through it.
Standing tall, he painfully realized he could not move his arm. It burned intensely at the shoulder. It must have been bashed out of its socket when he collided with the mountain. Hiccup walked over to a large formation, bracing himself for what he had to do. After a long and deep breath, he rammed his shoulder into the solid stone. An agonizing shout escaped his mouth and rang up the mountains.
He grimaced and began panting profusely, but he felt movement in his arm once again. It had popped back into place. He then tucked away the flaps of his wingsuit, and drew his sword when done. Hiccup faced the sounds of war, ready to rejoin the fight.
He heard his proud father one last time.
Good…now go get 'em, son.
The end of his lips curved into a humbled smile. He set off on his journey to find the others.
"Think she knows we're here?" Bunny asked as he searched through the mist.
"Has to. She closed the portals behind us." Merida answered, walking beside him.
The hunters wandered through a moving mist. They could not pinpoint their location due to the dense shroud. Thankfully, it was much cooler in this cryptic area than the hellish temperatures they endured just moments before. Therefore, it was safe to assume that they were on higher ground, and that there were no more stragglers in the vicinity.
Merida brought up the hood of her burnt and partially shredded cloak over her head, adjusting to the cold breezes. She loaded an arrow onto her bow, ready for any sign of the cunning witch. Her mate still held onto his two long boomerangs. Then rocks shuffled to the ground nearby. The two jumped into position; one ready to throw, the other to shoot. But the mist cleared, revealing nothing there.
"She's close…" the archer looked.
Then, a canine silhouette suddenly dashed by behind them.
Merida spun around and fired into the unknown. A sharp whimper cried out.
"Got her!"
"Let's go!"
They chased after the fox, tracking her out of the mist and onto the edge of a cliff. The canine looked back at them before jumping off. They rushed over for a clear view. A spark of red light closed in on itself. She had escaped through another one of her portals, but to where?
Bunny squatted down to further examine the bottomless pit, while Merida turned around to scan the shrouded area. Her bright eyes squinted into the eerie mist at the hint of something strange lurking deep within. Then, with no warning, a speck of rapidly growing red light reflected off of her widening pupils.
"Look out!" She tackled her partner out of the way of a powerful energy beam.
The two were quick to get back on their feet and go on the offensive. A thin dome of dark magic blew away all the surrounding mist. The witch revealed herself in human form with burgundy hexes raging around her hands and this time, she was not running. She dashed right at her oncoming hunters.
An explosive arrow met her path. From the smoke leapt out a nine-tailed fox. As it charged onward, the mythical creature caught a thrown boomerang with its sharp jaws and snapped it in two. The canine lunged at the bunny, but the hare somersaulted right over, quipping out a witty remark.
Kitsune quickly shapeshifted back into a woman to deflect another arrow with her energy shield. The Guardian returned to attack, but the witch whipped around to catch him in midair with a confining hex around his waist and slammed him down. Turning back into a viscous dog, she pounced right onto the fallen rabbit; only to be blasted out of the sky by an explosive arrow. Kitsune rolled over onto her paws and evaded a few more shots with her canine agility.
The fast creature changed back into its human form in order to fire back. Merida dived out of the way of red beams as she unloaded several more arrows at once. The witch blocked them with a magic barrier and ducked out of the way of a spinning boomerang. In the blink of an eye she was after Bunnymund in her large fox form.
Kitsune did not yield. In a flash, she shapeshifted from fox to woman and back again as she fought the warrior maiden and the skilled Pooka, teleporting all across the terrain through her magic portals. But the two allies kept up with her, staying on target. They were light on their feet, moving all around the rocky field in battling this witch that never stayed still.
This was Bunny's first exposure to Kitsune, so he could not notice a difference in her frantic fighting style. But Merida did. Kitsune was far more rash in her hectic movements. She was reacting as opposed to taking control of the situation as she normally did. Her graceful calm and irritatingly confident demeanor was completely absent. She was panting and grunting as she attacked. Merida even spotted some sluggish sways in between her sparks of lashing out like a wild animal. She was tired and wounded. Every action she made in this fight screamed of desperation, and in a way…that made her far more deadly.
Merida finally pinned her down to a massive rock with an arrow through her sleeve. Kitsune tried to yank herself free but Bunnymund already spun in, about to deliver the final blow. There was only one way she could withstand the hit. She shapeshifted into a fox, tearing herself loose.
"Crikey!"
The Pooka was head-butted to the ground and snarling fangs came for his furry little tail. The large nine-tailed fox chased after the tall, humanoid rabbit. They scampered all around Merida who had an explosive arrow ready.
"Hold her steady!" She commanded, following them with her aimed bow.
"What does it look like I'm doing!?"
The Guardian led the creature to a stone wall and bounced off of it, flipping through the air and landing on the canine's back. Bunny choked his arms around her neck and steered it right towards the aiming archer.
"Yuh ready, Red!?"
"Aye!"
Just a mere few feet away, she unloaded her arrow. Bunny let go, sliding off as the explosion consumed the fox. It fell back hard and was met with a successive amount of more explosive arrows. Merida paced forward, firing one after the other with a stern expression on her face. The mythical creature was blasted through the stone wall.
Merida and Bunnymund strode through the dusty hole in the rock, finding the fallen witch on the other side. The fire and smoke cleared to reveal pale red eyes and raging hexes.
Merida already knew what came next. "Oh no,"
Kitsune formed a protective dome out of her dark magic.
"Get back!" She pushed her partner ahead of her.
They both ran back through the opening in the stone. The witch expanded her dome into a massive blast that brought down the wall right over the two allies, along with leveling everything else in its radius.
Merida and Bunny were lost under the rubble, and Kitsune had vanished yet again.
"Over here!"
Broken rocks shuffled about. As they were pulled back so was the pitch-black darkness, revealing the group of young dragon riders. Stormfly was the only dragon presently with them. She helped remove the last block of stone that was too heavy for everyone.
"Whoa…" the big one uttered.
"C'mon let's pull them out," said Astrid.
They found the two allies under all the debris. Bunny had a protective arm over the archer, and luckily a large rock fell on top of another at just the right angle so that they were not crushed. The blonde Viking pulled out Merida by herself while the rest had the much taller Pooka.
The redhead opened her eyes. "Huh?"
"It's okay, I got you."
Seeing as it was Astrid, the Scotswoman nudged herself away, "I'm fine," and dusted herself off.
Standing upright she saw everyone struggling with the Guardian.
"Stop! It's his foot."
They looked down at his leg. His foot was trapped under a heavy stone. Merida and Astrid went over to help lift it. Once the pressure was off, Bunny woke up with a loud shout at the pain.
"Don't move too much," Merida told him, "Your ankle might be sprained or worse, broken."
"Nah Red, I can walk, it's-" he tried to move his injured leg. "OW! Okay yeah, it's bloody wrecked."
"You'll live. Quit your weepin' now." she said smiling.
"Ah, bugger off." He scoffed away.
The warrior princess looked over at everyone else. "None of ye lads are lookin' too good."
"We took a hard hit." Fishlegs mumbled painfully.
"I think I broke my brain…" Tuffnut groaned, rubbing his head.
"You barely noticed. It's been broken since birth," Ruffnut snickered.
Then a large shadow cast over them. Cloudjumper came down, sending away dust and debris with the steady flapping of his massive wings. After landing, Valka slid off. "I saw the red explosion from the skies when I was looking for you all. What happened?"
"Princess over here got her butt kicked by the witch." Snotlout obnoxiously blurted out right behind Merida.
Without even having to look, she elbowed him right in the nose. He dropped to the ground, and Merida casually walked up to Valka. "They're all hurt. Yuh need to get 'em to Punzie."
Hiccup's mother agreed. "And what will you do?"
She got rid of one of her quivers, seeing that it was empty. Now she was left with one remaining on her side that held only a handful of plain arrows, and the larger quiver strapped to her back that contained about a dozen explosives. The archer drew out one of her plain ones, and stated determinedly. "I'm goin' after that stinkin' mutt."
"Not without me you're not." Bunny groaned as he tried to move.
She dropped to a knee beside the hare. "You, go get healed up. You're no good to anyone legless."
The Pooka pouted down. He hated to admit it, but she was right.
Merida patted his shoulder, grinning into his nature-green eyes. "Oi, ye did good, partner. I'll make sure to give that manky witch an arrow straight to the knee for yuh."
A smile formed under his little pink nose. "Better not miss."
"When do I ever?"
His clear, white rabbit teeth shined as he grinned happily at her confidence, knowing she indeed would not miss. "Go on. Get outta here, Red before it gets too embarrassingly cheesy between us."
She quickly scratched him between the ears before running off, knowing how much he hated it but secretly loved it.
Merida was gone, disappearing into the deep mist.
Valka called onto everyone. "Alright, climb on. Cloudjumper can carry you all."
There was more than enough room on the large dragon's back. The twins and Astrid held onto Bunny, but he still got extremely jittery.
"Whoa, whoa, hold on lady. Ain't there a bloody saddle back here?"
"Your arms still work fine?" She asked standing up front.
"…yeeahh?" E. Aster answered hesitantly.
"Then just hold on tight."
He panicked. "Hold on to what!?"
Cloudjumper took off into the sky.
"AAAAHH!" As he hugged onto one of the dragon's spikes for dear life, he reminded himself never to get on one of these reptilian things again. He always hated flying and this was far more terrifying than North's sleigh.
Kitsune jadedly slid down into a rocky pit. Sweat dripped down her long, pale face, and her wounds ached throughout her slender body. She was unable to fully recover from the enormous toll summoning the Fire God had taken on her. Temporarily healing herself was not enough. She could not keep fighting and running for long. She had to get off this war-torn volcano somehow.
The environment she stood in was spacious like an arena, but was surrounded by towering walls of smoldering stone. A waterfall of lava was up ahead, and beside it was a gap low enough for her to reach. That was her only way out of this pit. She did not have enough strength to conjure up another portal, so she would just climb it.
As she traversed the dry, hardened land, she sensed something.
"OI!"
She spun around to see the archer who was calling her attention. She stood on the wall above, aiming down at the witch. In a split second, an arrow came her way. Kitsune was too slow to stop it. She screamed at the sharp sting that pierced her left knee, bringing her down on the other one.
"That was for me friend!"
Merida leaped off the wall. Nearing the bottom, she stabbed an arrow into the stone to slow herself down. She grinded to a halt just a mere few feet off the ground and jumped off the wall, taking her arrow with her. Now the tip was all jagged and rusty, which was just what Merida wanted. This one would hurt more.
Kitsune grimaced as she yanked out the arrow jammed in her joint with a hex, and faced up to find the leathered-up warrior maiden aiming down right at her face.
"And this one's for me family." She pulled it as far back as she could as she thought of the Big Four and all that this witch put them through.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped.
Kitsune was wounded and cornered, but just before Merida could fire what would have been the finishing shot…
"Merida, yes?"
She turned to see Elsa strut up next to her. The princess nodded to the Queen, speechless by her fierce stance and wrathful glare at the witch. All while still somehow maintaining her royal elegance.
"May I have the honors?"
Merida lowered her weapon and glanced back at Kitsune, almost feeling sorry for her. She bowed and gestured her arm for Elsa to proceed. "She's all yours, me Queen."
Merida knew full well that the one person directly affected most by this evil necromancer's dark sorcery was Elsa. This was her fight and Merida would not dare rob her of that.
The platinum-blonde in her frosty blue battle armor graciously walked passed the freckled redhead. Merida smirked, wishing she could stay to enjoy the show. But she turned her attention to another part of the battle, exiting the arena though the lower gap beside the waterfall of lava.
Elsa slowly approached Kitsune, savoring the moment. The black-haired woman healed her leg up. The Queen allowed it. Restored to fighting strength, Kitsune stood up to face the Snow Queen. But all was not fully restored. For the first time in forever, the witch actually looked frightened.
Standing in the center of this naturally formed arena, Elsa whipped her braided hair back and targeted her eyes on her opponent with her confidently powerful gaze. "Where's your cunning tongue now?" She asked with a raised brow and half-curved smile.
With no other way out, the sorceress responded to Elsa's taught with a desperate attack. The Snow Queen countered.
Kitsune's dark magic and Elsa's power collided into one another in a bashing display of dark-red and ice-blue.
The golden hawk swooped in across the burning battlefield, capturing all the moments of intense action. Both armies were cut down to about half the size they started with, and The demons still outnumbered the allies. The giant bird soared passed Hachiman and Rapunzel who were taking cover behind a crystallized barricade. Splotches of lava splattered against the tall wall. A few knights knelt beside them, removing snapped bits of molten weaponry from the chinks in their armor. The rest of the frozen men marched on.
"I'm almost out." The princess sighed as she shook her crossbow. "How's it looking out there?"
Hachiman peeked over the side of their cover. "We've pushed them back to the edge, won't be long now."
"Cliff-side?" She peeked for herself. "Perfect. Let's send these things straight into the water."
After a nod, the Master General called out to the skies. "Sandy! The edge!"
The majestic bird returned. On its back Sandman swung his hands around, creating several glowing orbs on the ground. From the lights busted out charging bulls and rhinos that tramped through the molten stragglers. They pushed the enemy back further. The Warrior God and the Lost Princess raced out of cover, following the stampede.
Many red devils were pushed over the edge, falling to the waters far below. They could not swim and even if they could, it did not matter. Their flaming essence fizzled away beneath the ocean.
Realizing their downfall, the demons fought back harder. They jumped onto the large animals of magic sand, stabbing, biting, and clawing into them until they dissolved into twinkling dust that filled the air. The devils also wildly threw themselves at the knights, bringing down many beneath their molten spears and swords.
Hachiman noticed they were starting to get shoved back. "Hold strong!"
But dozens of the fiery savages scurried over, ending up on the other side. Now they were getting surrounded.
The Warrior God sent out shifting pillars of earth to clear out numbers of the opposing forces, but his men were dropping fast. The Guardians tried to assist, but they flew in too close. Fire demons got onto Sandman's hawk and North's sleigh, and one tackled Tooth out of the sky.
Rapunzel shot down a straggler in midair that had climbed up a pillar and threw itself at her. It was her last shot. She tossed away her empty crossbow and drew out her daggers. The burning walls were closing in on them.
Then the heroes heard multiple roars. Thankfully, it was not the titanic beast. What came from up the mountain was the cavalry.
Valka flew in with all the abled dragons she had found along the way. About six dozen of them or so.
Stormfly picked off the straggler that was sending Toothiana spiraling out of control. A few other dragons dashed passed the frantic hawk and crazy sleigh, slashing off the unwanted devils. Cloudjumper and the remaining others pried open their jaws, unleashing precise blasts of fire onto the demons surrounding their allies.
"No!" Rapunzel screamed.
"Hold your fire!" Hachiman ordered.
The riders remembered that fire created these warriors in the first place when they fought the titan, but they did not know it would spawn further duplicates. Now twice as many red devils manifested themselves after the attack.
"Ugh, figures," Snotlout complained, "Nothing's ever easy for us."
The dragons all landed. Valka stayed on while the young adults carried Bunny off of Cloudjumper, setting him down on icy ground. The savages turned their attention to them and over half rushed over in a screeching battle cry.
"Now what?" Ruffnut said.
"Attack them head on!" A familiar voice broke out from behind.
The riders looked back to see the young chief limping out of the wrecked labyrinth of crystallized spikes and flowing flames.
"Hiccup!" Astrid shouted ecstatically at the sight of her boyfriend.
"A dragon's hide is fireproof! Those things can't hurt 'em!" he informed his people of Berk.
After her son's helpful tip, Valka twirled her staff, commanding the dragons to go forth and fight! Lumps of fire and lava splashed against their scaly skin like nothing. Cloudjumper landed the first bite, viciously shaking a molten devil like a dog with a chew toy before he tossed it away through the air in pieces. The other dragons laid waste to them all, cutting through them with their claws and crushing their life gems beneath their hefty feet. Stormfly rammed through the red crowd with her horned head, and took out several more with her projectile spikes.
The knights and Guardians took care of the other stragglers by the cliff-side. Hachiman left them to it and bent out a rocky bridge, arching it over the battlefield of dragons tearing through demons. He and Rapunzel ran across it to reach their allies on the other side.
Astrid rushed in to hug Hiccup. "Babe! You're alright!"
"Ow! Not entirely."
"Oh, sorry…" she let him breathe, seeing how hurt he was.
"I could use a little-"
"I got you." Rapunzel quickly skipped in to heal him. She felt the extent of his injuries. "Can't believe you managed to walk all the way over here in your condition."
"What can I say? I'm stubborn…just like my old man." He smiled to himself.
Hachiman helped walkover the rest of the group, including Bunny so that Rapunzel could tend to them next.
"And Toothless?" She asked.
"Yeah, where is he?" Astrid worried as well.
"I…I don't know…" He uttered softly, hoping for his best friend's well-being, wherever he was.
At another part of the great volcano, the Night Fury was trapped under some large chunks of rock. He had fallen into a cavernous ditch. He managed to push off all the debris except one; one heavy slab fell right over his wing, pinning it to the ground. Toothless did not try to force it out in fear of severely damaging it. Then he heard someone coming and snarled at the direction.
"Toothless? Is that you!?"
The dragon's menacing gaze faded at the sound of a familiar voice. Stone pebbles dropped their way down as a cloaked figure came into sight up at the edge. The woman removed her hood. It was Merida. Toothless barked at her, sounding relieved to see her—relieved to see anyone come to his aid really.
The warrior maiden carefully climbed down to the fallen dragon. She examined the predicament, seeing that most of his armor had broken off after what had to of been a truly brutal crash. "Who did this to ye? The Fire God?"
He growled in affirmation.
Merida knew she could not lift the slab if Toothless failed to, though she tried anyway. "Wait, I got it." She reached into her back quiver, pulling out an explosive arrow. The dragon observed curiously as she untied the sack and shook off some of the dust onto her hand. "Just a wee bit will do. I don't wanna blow yuh ta smithereens."
A sound of worry escaped the dragon.
Merida went ahead and sprinkled the special substance down the middle of the stone slab. "Okay, can ye reach it?"
Toothless twisted his neck, looking directly at the spot.
"Whenever you're ready, huff and puff away."
He did so, spitting out a tiny amount of fire to spark the flammable substance. The rock cracked under the puff of smoke. He was free!
Merida cheered at the success as Toothless hopped around in joy. He shook off the loose armor pieces he still had on. Now he was back to just his saddle and attached artificial tail-sail. He spun happily in circles, checking his wing and expanding it out. It was perfectly fine, no harm done.
"Now to get out of here."
The Night Fury tried to crawl up the jagged walls as did Merida, but it was no use. Climbing down was easy, climbing out was quite an impossible task.
The archer looked onto the dragon's saddle. "Well I guess we could try…"
Toothless knew where she was going with this, and was actually not against the idea. Before he definitely would have been. He would have rather stayed trapped in this ditch than to accept the help of this woman. But throughout this crazy adventure, he had found himself letting go of the past. Merida was not so bad, and part of the blame was on him. In fact, it was after that past night where everyone was around the campfire that they both finally settled their needless feud to rest.
The Night Fury nodded, lowering down.
Merida smiled happily, pleased to finally be forgiven and accepted by the dragon.
"Let's ride."
She hopped on to fly him out, checking to see if everything is safely adjusted.
"Okay...Hiccup does this all the time. How hard can it be?" She said to herself nervously.
Toothless just shook his head in amusement and right after he felt her boot slip into the pedal, he took off!
"WHOA!"
They shot up right out of the cavernous ditch.
All throughout the air they zigzagged around, not flying correctly at all. At first Merida was screaming and Toothless was enjoying it. But she was soon getting the hang of it and found herself laughing at the thrill of flight. It felt trickier than horse riding, but by applying improvised versions of those techniques and with Toothless doing most of the work, she managed. She had flown from backseat plenty of times, but it was truly a far different experience being at the helm.
Together they flew in between the mountainous formations that scaled up the great volcano, soaring onward and upward to regroup with their friends and finish the fight.