I'm so sorry this took so long. The internet has been going on and off. Anyways, enjoy!
Toothless ran through the forest as if his life depended on it. He ran and ran and ran for all he was worth. This couldn't be happening, it just couldn't. There was no way it would have come to this.
But it has.
'Stop! Why do you run?! Go back and ATTACK!'
Toothless flinched so hard he almost tumbled to the ground. That voice was so commanding and harsh, it hurt. Toothless shook his head and tried his best ignore the voice.
'Why do you try to run from destiny?' the woman's voice asked again.
Toothless growled. 'This is not my destiny.'
'Oh, really? Come now, you are my son! You were born for this!'
'I am no son of yours.'
'Don't be so naive. You are mine.'
Toothless felt her influence try to cloud his mind. She had tried this while he was in Hiccup's room. He had panicked and burnt most of the room. She then spoke in a sickeningly sweet voice, telling him to go on a rampage against the village. Toothless almost did it. He jumped out the window and was prepared to fire at the closest moving thing when he caught himself and ran into the surrounding forest. She had been trying to get the better of him ever since.
Toothless mentally pushed her back. She kept resisting with words.
'Now is that the way to treat your mother? Honestly, I thought I had taught you better.'
'You taught me nothing!' Toothless snapped back.
In Toothless's anger, he unknowingly let his guard down. The women took the chance to pounce on his mind. A small struggle commenced that was clearly noticeable as Toothless shook his head violently and shot random blast in the sky and in the surrounding forest. After some time Toothless was finally able to subdue the unwanted influence to the back of his mind.
'Toothless? That's what they call you? That is an obvious offense and you shouldn't just take it! the voice yelled in another attempt to get him mad.
Toothless took a breath and tried to stay calm. She was starting to get real annoying. 'I like the name.'
'He scarred and disabled you!'
'He helped me fly again.'
'But you need him to fly. A clear disadvantage."
'I am perfectly content with that.' Toothless replied coolly
The woman sighed in exasperation. Toothless imagined if she were here in person, she'd be throwing her hands up in disbelieve. 'You are supposed to be a powerful, fear inspiring creature capable of mass destruction. Now look how low you've gone! Allowing a human, and a Viking no less, to ride you!'
Toothless was getting tired of hearing the woman's screams. He mentally attacked the part of his brain she was occupying. He stomped on, crushed, clawed and burnt her connection to a crisp. He then threw it out of his mind and shielded himself from any other metal attacks that may come.
Toothless huffed and turned to go back to the village, when a twig snapped behind him.
Stormfly landed just outside of Gothi's house and Hiccup was off in an instant with Astrid right behind him.
"Gothi!" Hiccup called out as he came inside.
Gothi looked over to her unexpected visitors.
"Gothi, has Toothless come by at all?" Hiccup asked urgently.
Gothi shook her head.
Hiccup was disappointed. He was hoping that Gothi had seen Toothless and could point out to them were he had gone. Hiccup turned to Astrid.
"Let's go. Maybe we can find him from the air."
Hiccup turned to go, but Astrid caught his shoulder.
"Wait a minute Hiccup. Maybe Gothi knows about what's going on." Astrid looked to the village elder and asked "Do you know anything about Diana, Meridia, and a crazy old man?"
Gothi looked to both of the teens in turn with squinted eyes. She turned and motioned them to follow. Hiccup and Astrid gave each other a confused look before following the elder to the back of the hut.
Gothi was thumbing through her shelves full of herbs, scented oils, and old books. Gothi settled on an old book bound in green leather. She opened the book and thumbed through the pages, then handed over the old manuscript over to Hiccup.
Hiccup gingerly handled the fragile volume and began to read the script with Astrid reading over his shoulder.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
After Diana, the moon goddess, was locked away in her own moon, Meridia, Diana's sister, presented the other gods with a stratagem of her own design. She knew that Diana would eventually find a way out of her celestial prison, so she proposed that she herself should be locked away in the sun. At first, the gods were appalled by her idea, at least, till she gave her full plan.
She and the others will make Diana's prison almost indestructible, and since nothing is without its weakness, they will give the prison its own weak spot. This weakness is that the bonds holding Diana to the moon will become more and more fragile during a solar eclipse, when the moon moves in front of the sun. Meridia will be bound to her sun in the same way that Diana is bound to the moon. This way, Whatever may cause Diana to escape, if she ever does, will also release Meridia.
The gods agreed that they should not take the risk and did as Meridia instructed.
What the gods did not know was that there was another reason to Meridia's plan. She hated having to banish her sister. Her life was never the same after. She missed her sister dearly and felt guilty for having to do what she did, Meridia also felt she could have prevented everything. If she had paid more attention to her younger sister and showed her the appreciation the humans had for the night. The was their time to rest and they loved a nice rest after a hard day of working.
Meridia's feelings of loss and guilt were too much for her to take. She felt like the only way she could pay for her neglect to her sister was for her to be locked away also, and that's where she now resides; alone and waiting for the day she and Diana are set free to try to make things right again with her sister. To show Diana that she had also suffered those many years in imprisonment.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Hiccup took a soft intake of breath. next was the poem in the astronomy book, except the last five lines were missing and there were notes scribbled in by the poem.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Ask not the sun why she sets - - To give her sister her time
Why she shrouds her light away - - To let her sisters lights shine in all their beauty
Or why she hides her glowing gaze
When night turns crimson gold to grey
For silent falls the guilty sun - - She can only feel guilt for what she did and will only speak to Diana
As day to dark does turn
One simple truth she dare not speak: - - She tricked the gods into locking her up
Her light can only blind and burn - - This is how she feels about her light after the incident
No mercy for the guilty - - Meridia made sure she was not spared from her own punishment
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Hiccup turned the page and was met with another poem.
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
For the beauty of each hour
Of the day and of the night
Hill and vale and tree and flow'r
Sun and moon and stars of light
For the joy of family love
Brother, sister, parent, child
For the love from our birth
Over and around us lies
For this we strive and yearn for
For this we desperately need
This family love that we all crave
To keep from planting bitterness' seed
~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~
Hiccup was going to read more, but suddenly there was a loud explosion from outside. He and Astrid ran to the window and looked outside. The endings of a plasma blast could be seen disappearing over the trees farther up the hill.
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled. It had to be him, it had to be.
Another plasma blast was shot through the trees. Hiccup and Astrid ran to the door and quickly jumped on Stormfly.
"Let's go girl!" Astrid said quickly and Stormfly was soon in the air and flying to where the blast had come from.
A few more blast were shot till they suddenly stopped. Astrid and Hiccup circled above the surrounding forest to try and see if they could find Toothless from the sky. Hiccup searched the ground for any sign of his friend, but it was hard to get a remotely clear view since the forest was thick there.
"It's hard to see down there! We should land and search from the ground!" Hiccup shouted over the wind.
"Right." Astrid affirmed with a nod. She brought Stormfly down to a clearer spot than the rest and landed with practiced ease.
Hiccup and Astrid jumped off and began to look around. He couldn't see anything that suggested where Toothless may be.
"Toothless!" Hiccup yelled. "Toothless where are you bud?!"
Hiccup heard a soft click and turned to see a net fall on top of Stormfly. It was the same net that had been used on Toothless a few nights back.
"Stormfly!" Astrid yelled as she ran to the aid of her dragon.
Figures in black cloaks came running out of the surrounding foliage. They all had a weapon of some sort from axes to swords and even a mace. Astrid reached for her own ax, but grasped nothing. She silently scolded herself for being so stupid. In the rush of the morning Astrid had forgotten her ax by her bedside. Despite this, Astrid ran at the figures blocking her way to Stormfly determined and angry.
Hiccup ran into the surrounding forest and went around everyone and stealthily creeped up to Stormfly. She was panicking and trying to shake the net off, but every time she moved she would make a pain-filled squawking sound as the net zapped her. Hiccup came up beside Stormfly slowly and made sure she could see him, Hiccup didn't want to startle the Nadder even more.
As Hiccup made his way towards Stormfly, Astrid began to fight the hooded figures that she unfortunately recognized. The first one coming at her was yelling a war cry and getting ready to swing his sword at her neck. Astrid ducked under his swing and punched the guy's stomach. He let out a pained "Oof!" and hugged his belly. Astrid grabbed his sword and pushed him into a lady coming at her from the side in one fluid motion. Astrid checked behind her for anyone and was just barely able to block the ax aimed at her.
Meanwhile, Hiccup was trying to calm Stormfly down. He was crouched by her head and was whispering some comforting words to her as he tried to reach his fingers in between the harmful ropes to give her a comforting scratch. Stormfly had calmed down a bit, but not enough for her to stop struggling against the net.
"It's going to be okay Stormfly. Don't worry and calm down, I can't help unless you're totally calm." Hiccup soothed. He was finally able to reach his hand in and scratch Stormfly on the back of her neck. The dragon churred and calmed considerably. Once she stopped struggling, the net quit shocking her and Stormfly was able to calm a bit more.
"Okay Stormfly, let;s try to burn the net." Hiccup Suggested in a soft voice.
Stormfly instantly complied and shot a sparky stream of fire out. The fire blast didn't burn through the ropes for some reason, but it did hit a cloaked man that was trying to get behind astrid as she dueled the ax wielding female. In truth, Stormfly was aiming for the guy and would have blasted him weather Hiccup had suggested it or not.
Astrid, at the moment, was focusing on not getting chopped to pieces and didn't notice the screaming man with the burning robe as he ran past and started rolling in the dirt. The lady she was fighting swung her ax down only to have it stopped by Astrids borrowed sword. Their weapons became locked as both girls began pushing the other.
"You know," The hooded lady grunted, "You would've made an excellent Lunarian."
"Is that what you guys call yourselves?" Astrid replied as she suddenly went with the way the other girl was pushing her and was able to roll away as the Lunarian's ax dug deep in the ground.
"As a matter of fact, yes." Another deeper voice answered from behind.
Instinctively, Astrid quickly moved to her right. where she was, a large mace crashed to the ground. Astrid turned and found a bulky figure lifting up his mace once again. By him, the lady had finally managed to pull her ax out of the ground. They turned to Astrid and she, in turn, made a defensive stance.
Hiccup was puzzling over the net. why hadn't it burned? Was a Gronckles lava blast the only thing that could destroy it?
Hiccup felt something sharp poke his back. His blood went ice cold as a menacing voice whispered in his ear, "Hello again boy."
Astrid had just dodged another swing from the mace when she felt a sudden and sharp pain in her thigh. Astrid cried out in pain as she tumbled to the ground. She looked to her leg and found an arrow sticking out. Astrid looked to where it had come from and locked eyes with a Lunarian girl sitting in a tree. Her hood was down probably, Astrid guessed, to get a clearer shot. Her skin was deathly pale from lack of sunlight and her dirty blonde hair was cut just below her jaw. Astrid couldn't pick up anymore features since she was so far away. The archer pulled her hood over her head again and began climbing down her tree.
Astrid looked back to Mr. Mace and Miss Ax. They were taking their sweet time strolling over to her. Astrid glared at them. If they think just one lousy shot could bring Astrid Hofferson easy prey, then they had another thing coming.
Astrid got up in a crouch, putting most her weight on her uninjured leg. Miss Ax laughed
"Isn't that cute." She chuckled. "The little missy thinks she can make a last stand. Aw, it just warms my heart."
Astrid sneared at her. that lady was definitely going down.
Before either of them could make the first move, a commanding voice shouted, 'Stop torturing injured animals you two! You're above that."
Astrid looked over to where the voice had come from and gasped. She saw another hooded man who was holding Hiccup in front of him with a sword pressed firmly against his throat.
"C'mon boss. Not even a little fun?" Miss Ax begged.
"No." the boss said in a tone that left no room for arguments. He looked down to Hiccup. "You've been causing us a lot of trouble boy. That trap was meant for the Lunar Dragon, not some stupid Nadder!"
"What should we do with them boss?" a man in a smoldering, slightly burned robe asked.
"I have half a mind to kill them right now." the leader seethed.
Before anyone could make any rash decisions, a girl to Astrid's right interjected. "Sir, if I may, the Lunar Dragon seemed quite attached to them. Maybe we can use them to get him to co-operate."
Astrid looked over her shoulder and saw the archer from earlier. She still had the bow in her hand and a quiver of arrows on her belt.
The leader was silent for some time. eventually, he smiled. "I like the way you think Tarius. You three!" the leader yelled at Miss Ax, Mr. Mace, and the guy with the smoldering robe, "Go get the wagon and load up the Nadder. You," he pointed to Tarius, "Patch her up."
Everyone moved to do what they were assigned. Tarius walked cautiously over to Astrid. Astrid eyed the girl with mistrust. Tarius kneeled down next to astrid and held her hands out to show she wasn't a threat. Tarius then reached into her robe and brought out bandages and a bottle with a gauze in it.
"I'm going to have to pull that out. It may hurt." Tarius grabbed the arrow near the end with both hands and pulled it out of Astrid's thigh. Astrid gave out a small cry of pain. Man, that hurt!
Tarius immediately set to dressing the wound. She placed the gauze where the arrow had been, "To help stop the bleeding and keep away infection." she explained.
As she worked, Astrid decided to get some answers. "Why do you want Toothless?"
"He can free Diana during the eclipse today." Tarius explained simply.
"How?" Astrid questioned.
Tarius looked around to the other Lunarians. They were all busy.
Tarius leaned closer to Astrid, though to others it may look like she was getting a better look at the wound. "Ever wondered why the lunar dragon has such a peculiar way of shooting fire? The explosion at the end of the fire's range is normally pretty bright but now that the moon has enhanced the blast's power, the explosion is bright as the sun or the moon, perfect for creating the third link between the sun, moon and earth. " Tarius explained in a whisper.
"Why do you want to free Diana?" Astrid Asked.
Tarius remained silent as she continued dressing the wound.
Toothless looked over to where the twig snap had come from. The bushes in that area where rustling. He growled threateningly and crouched in defense.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." a voice called out. "Especially since I have this." A familiar man in a dark hooded cloak with celestial patterns of the night sky walked out of the foliage. In his hand he held a sword, and that sword was resting against Hiccup's throat.
Dun, dun, dun! There you go!
I kind of made Tarius up. Her full name is Sagittarius and she is the healer and archer in the group. She doesn't quite like Miss Ax(I can't think of a name for her) and respects Astrid after she saw her go toe to toe with crazy ax lady. She shot Astrid in the leg because she knew the two Astrid was fighting would then take their time to kill her and by then the leader would say something. She didn't answer Astrid's last question because she's been wondering about that lately. She can be one of those characters that help out in the end or just a Lunarian that we know the name of. It's the next writers choice.
Dawnbreaker note: Ahh, it appears to be that The mysterious organization here has a name after all. And apparently the nets are now a bit stronger: bad news for the Berkians, seriously, Nadder's fire is the hottest of all dragons and even she can't melt it now? And were the runes glowing on toothless' back just power overflowing from him because of the moon? who knows.
I just LOVE this story! I mean, the backstory, sideplots, mainplot, characterization, everything is pretty darn good! I just wish that more people would find this story and come to like it like I do!
By the way, sorry I haven't been too active on FF myself for the past few weeks, Since the summer holidays started I've just been working, sleeping and playing games :P
And HEY! HTTYD 2 Is coming out in a matter of days! seriously, can't wait! (although for my misfortune, the release date in Finland is 4th of JULY... so I'm going to have to wait AGES for it... BUT there are some good news as well: My littlebrother has 2 free movie tickets and I sort of tricked him into taking me with him to see the movie =P) Welp, that's all for today! I wish you all enjoyed the chapter like I did and pls Review :)
-Dawnbreaker