Chapter 4

Hi everybody! I'm quite proud of this chapter, I got some inspiration back by watching the cartoon 'Redwall' again, it's really a thing from my childhood I loved!

When the old man struck Hiccup hard enough to knock him, Astrid's first move was to rush to attack the old bastard, but she was stopped immediately by Ryker who passed an arm around her neck and tightened his hold. Hiccup was on the ground and Toothless threw himself at the bars of his cage, unable to roar because of his muzzle, but his eyes were full of despair and anger. Ryker leaned down to speak in Astrid's ear.

"Not a wrong move, girl."

"For your own good, and his well-being, you should listen to my brother," Viggo murmured.

The chief paid attention to her. "Was she raised by dragons?"

"No, she just..."

"I wasn't, you old trash! Next time why don't you just talk directly to me?"

Ryker tightened his hold around her neck, but the chief made a gesture for him to stop. Ryker released his hold; the chief slapped her hard, not enough to knock her out but Astrid still saw a few stars. For a man of his age, he was still incredibly strong! "She'll still need to be tamed it seems. Let's take them to the arena."

"Should have listened to me, girl."

"Shut up."

Viggo took Hiccup on his shoulders while Ryker pulled Astrid along with him. Heather followed and Astrid felt spite at her, she was really like a little dog following her masters around. She took a look at Hiccup who was still unmoving, but he was breathing. The dragons looked miserable and wary; Stormfly's wing was still limp. It had been treated and with some luck, it would heal.

She looked around to see a big village, with many dragon skulls, and also damages caused by dragons. Wait…Dragons would seldom attack human villages since they defeated the Red Death, so why did it seem like a big attack occurred recently in this place? That village was bigger than the one they had on Berk, in fact the island seemed bigger than theirs. Mountains could be seen towering over the village, covered with thick forests which were almost glowing in red with its autumn's colors. That would provide a good hiding place if they managed to escape. Soon, she was brought to the center of the village and she gasped when she saw the arena. It was way bigger than Berk's arena, in fact it was probably one of the biggest buildings she ever saw.

"The games will begin very soon, and many will come to see those. You and Hiccup will be stars," Viggo claimed proudly.

"The games?"

She was pushed inside and saw a huge battle ground surrounded by high walls above which she could see bleachers. At the top of those walls were chains, designed to stop dragons from flying away.

"An arena for dragon fighting?"

"Not only," the chief proudly declared: "it's for different type of fights, we have human fighting, wild boars, bears, wolves and of course dragons. It can give a good variety of combats. But until now, we never had wild children."

He approached her: "You weren't raised by those beasts, but you still have a good tale from what I know. I heard you were also a good fighter."

"Want me to prove it?"

"Yes. In fact, you're having an audience already."

Villagers were already gathering in the arena to see what would happen. The chief seemed satisfied, he turned to his soldiers: "Put the boy and the dragons in cells, you'll send the kid in when he'll wake up. Give the girl a weapon."

"I'm not fighting for you!"

"Then I'm killing your dragon. A Nadder is easy to replace, it won't be much of a loss."

Astrid's face twitched, she hated that man! Yet she knew that she couldn't do anything. She was trapped, surrounded by people who would kill her if she tried to hurt their chief. So she just watched them leave while one guard threw an axe at her.

"What's your name?" Asked she. "I don't even know who is holding us hostage."

He turned toward her one last time: "Heimal, the Blood-thirsty."

That name…She was pretty sure she heard it once, but when? The arena was closed behind him and Astrid found herself standing all alone in the middle of the fighting ground; above her, people were acclaiming the arrival of their chief who stood before his throne:

"Me, Heimal the Blood-Thirsty, give you the enjoyment to watch the girl who tamed dragons and their prince! A ferocious maiden, who fought grow men and the Red Death itself! The Dragons' Princess!"

Cheers and applauds followed, people were excited, and Astrid felt very small beneath that crowd. She was almost like a prey, being eyed like that with nowhere to hide. She wasn't really a warrior to them, just an entertainment. Now she knew what dragons might have felt like when they would make them fight back then on Berk.

"Who, among our champions, will step up to fight her? First blood wins!"

A door was opened and a few people stepped in. She took the axe and readied herself. One young man advanced first, showing his mace to the crowd who acclaimed and cheered. He was in his twenties, tall and broad, she would have to wear him out first, and then give a deadly strike. He rushed toward her and she dodged the first blow and parried the next. She simply dodged and parried at first, but took big steps in every direction possible. He was forced to move around a lot. Wear him out, force him to lose his breathing…She gave him a punch in the chest to cut off his breath. A kick in his stomach followed. The man was soon out of breath, his moves got sloppier. He was about to crush her head with his mace but she swiftly slipped to the side and slammed her axe into his ribs. She cut slightly through his leather armor and the guy held his side in pain.

What?!

There was no blood, maybe one of his ribs had cracked, but it wasn't supposed to happen! She sent the axe right in his side! He should be fatally wounded! She put her hand on the blade and her eyes widened: it was blunt! They gave her a training axe! That weapon hadn't been sharpened to kill at all!

"YOU COWARDS!" She yelled at the top of her lungs.

"What did you expect? We aren't here to fight to death! First blood, he said," snarled the guy.

"If you want blood…"

She rushed at him with a savage yell and the guy just had time to parry. She attacked a few time and he retaliated each time, but he never managed to hit her. First blood! If the mace crashed against her, it wouldn't be first blood! That thing was heavy! It could kill her, while this stupid axe could do nothing! She lowered her head to avoid a blow and sent her axe as hard she could in his stomach. The man's body bent slightly. She threw herself back and slammed her weapon in his head with all her strength. The blade was blunt, but it was still metal. The young man fell in an ungrateful position, completely knocked out. A few drops of blood adorned her training axe. People in the crowd either cheered or booed, but she didn't care, she just looked at the chief with a disgusted look.

Another champion advanced a woman this time, old enough to be her mother. She was swifter then the guy, and though her sword was blunt, she could still hurt Astrid. She wouldn't be worn out of breath so easily, she was slimmer. Astrid had more difficulty to dodge or parry, she had to be offensive now. She attacked the woman's flank but the champion hit her with her elbow and Astrid's head snapped to the side. A violent blow hit her waist and she lost balance. The woman kicked her and she fell on the ground. With a yell, Astrid's opponent was on her to crash her sword on the girl. Astrid rolled to the side. Carried by her rush, the woman crashed the weapon on the ground instead. Astrid sent her axe toward her opponent's head again while getting back on her feet. The woman turned her head toward her. The axe landed right in her nose, breaking it and making it bleed profusely. The blow unbalanced her opponent who stepped involuntarily and clumsily. The woman gave Astrid a look of pure hatred but the girl ignored her.

Astrid's cheek and side hurt from the earlier blows, she was panting heavily. She had spent days in a prison; she got beaten, manhandled, so she wasn't in the best shape to fight. Yet it didn't matter, she still had strength! She wouldn't give up. Before the next champion could come, a man at Heimal's side stood and spoke to the crowd:

"A true warrior and a true wilding! But another one needs to show us his value! We saw the Dragon's Princess, we shall see her Prince!"

Astrid's gut contorted: Hiccup! Guards seized her and dragged her behind a caged door. She saw another door opening, and she saw Hiccup being pushed in the arena.

O o O

When he had woken up, Hiccup had felt dizzy and numb. Yet they had hardly given him time to rest. They had told him he was in the prison under the arena, and that if he wouldn't fight, the dragons would suffer and maybe die. When he had been dragged toward the fighting ground, he had seen Astrid getting hurt by a woman. He had tried to yell, but one of the guards put a hand over his mouth. He had struggled and fought against the man, but the guards managed to hold him and restrain him. Yet Hiccup had been relieved to see Astrid hitting her opponent hard.

"First blood is the winner," they told him. "Good luck, boy!"

They had pushed him and he saw that Astrid had been locked away. He rushed toward her when he heard a ferocious yell. He just had time to see a woman running toward him with an axe. He threw himself aside to avoid the attack. A sword was thrown on the ground and he took it without hesitation. He parried the next blows and attacked. He tried to go for the torso and legs and got the same deception as Astrid when he understood that the sword he had couldn't kill. He hissed in fury, his adversary attacked again and the boy managed to punch her but the woman retaliated with a hard kick and a violent blow. Hiccup fell on the ground and when the woman was about to hit him again, the boy threw a handful of dirt in her face and eyes, stunning her and blinding her. Hiccup threw himself at her with an animalistic yell and disarmed her with a violent blow of his sword before throwing himself at the woman's face. Screams were heard through the whole arena as Hiccup started to bit her ferociously and clawed at her neck. Astrid couldn't help but remember the day he attacked Snotlout that way.

The woman pushed the boy away and stumbled. She certainly never had been bit by an adversary in a fight. Her face was bleeding profusely. Hiccup was about to attack again when a voice spoke: "The Dragons' Prince won!"

First blood, he remembered the guards told him it was first blood only. The man was taken to the healers and he looked up to the chief. It allowed a good part of the crowd to see the blood on his lips and chin and people all commented about his savagery. The chief looked down and for a moment, it almost seemed to Hiccup that he had a proud smile. In fact, Viggo was at his side, and he had the same smile as well. What was wrong with them?! The announcer at Heimal's side spoke again:

"May two champions go forward! I want to see them fight together!"

Astrid was released. She and Hiccup ran toward each other. "Are you okay?" "Are you alright?" The questions were simultaneously asked, and they didn't have time to answer as their adversaries were already there. Two grown men, one with a hammer and the other one with a sword advanced toward them, and put themselves on fighting stances. They teenagers were panting but they did the same. They couldn't refuse another fight, their dragons would perish otherwise. They threw themselves at one another; Astrid attacked the one with the hammer while Hiccup attacked the one with the sword. They parried and attacked, but all the time, Astrid and Hiccup had each other's backs. The guy almost crashed his hammer on Astrid's neck; Hiccup kicked him violently to stop his move. The other one made Hiccup fell on the ground but Astrid his wrist with her weapon to make him release his sword. He did with yelp, not expecting her to attack him.

The wild boy took that occasion to throw himself at his adversary, jumped on him with a roar and bit his face exactly like he did with the woman. The crowd cheered ferociously at this. It pleased them, they had been told those children were wild, and the boy was acting exactly like it. That's what they wanted to see. The man pushed him away and attacked, even though he had already lost. Hiccup dodged his blow and hit him with his blunt sword in the belly. It didn't pierce through, but it was enough to make the man spit some bile and stumble. Hiccup crashed his sword in his face, knocking him out.

Meanwhile, Astrid was facing the man with the hammer. She dodged his next blow and crashed her blunt axe against his foot. The man yelled in pain and Astrid sent her forehead right in his nose. She heard a crack and the man's head snapped back, blood flowed from his nostrils. She sent her weapon in his side out of pure rage, to make him suffer just like they were suffering! They wanted violence, she would give them some! The man punched her and she retaliated with a blow on his other foot. This made the man fall on the ground, his feet were too damaged to allow him to stand. Astrid knocked him out harshly with a furious yell.

Their adversaries were both on the ground; Hiccup and Astrid were panting. The loud sounds from the crowd seemed like poundings in their ears, and the girl slightly stumbled. Hiccup took her shoulder, not wanting her to fall. Would they make her fight again?

"Astrid, what do they want?"

"It's Games to them. They'll have a lot of people coming here for those games and they want us to entertain them."

"They took us for that?!"

It was true that taking the son of Stoick the Vast and the member of an important clan of Berk was really just for their games seemed like a stupid move. It was really a big risk. But now maybe it was also a way for that Heimal to show he feared no one, not even Stoick the Vast.

"We won those fights, but we'll have to fight again, and we could lose the next ones; I don't know what will happen to us then."

"We have to find our dragons first," Hiccup declared.

"I know, no mistake as long as we didn't find them," she murmured, thinking of Stormfly who was still wounded.

Heimal ordered the teens to be put in cage again. The boy snarled, and Astrid had to do her best not to yell insults at them. She could see not only Heimal but also Viggo, Ryker and Heather. Oh, how she hated them!

The two were pulled inside and both of them yelled when they realized they would be in separate cells, far from each other. Astrid was brutally pushed in a corridor to the left while Hiccup was half-dragged to the right. That prison was probably very huge, and it was dark. A few torches enlightened the place, but there weren't much of those, and therefore the place was full of shadows. A gloomy atmosphere reigned, not only because of the absence of light, but also because of the whimpers and pleas they could hear. Those sounds were made by animals and humans. Hiccup was brought into the cell he occupied before; he yelled Astrid's name and then shouted at the guards:

"Let me be with her!"

"So you can plot to escape? No way."

They left without a word and Hiccup threw himself at the bar and howled as loudly as he could. His friends or his brother would hear him, right? At least one of them…He heard some voices asking what the hell that was, and a very loud one yelling:

"WILL YOU SHUT UP?!"

In the gloomy and quiet atmosphere, this voice felt almost unreal. "I need to get out!" Hiccup yelled at whoever spoke.

"Well, so do I," replied the same voice angrily, "but being annoying will not help!"

Hiccup was about to speak again when a loud metallic sound echoed through the dark corridor.

"SILENCE!" Yelled on the guards. "Stop that shit or I won't give you anything to eat."

The dragon-boy growled but stopped. He wanted to yell at those people, to howl, to defy them, but he couldn't. As long as their dragons were imprisoned, they couldn't take stupid risks, not again. And he couldn't get deprived of food; he would need all his strength if they wanted to escape. But how would they do that. He sat in the dark, his back against a wall. This place had been dug in the ground; those were rocks around him, not stone walls. He took a deep breath, he had to calm down, and think.

If he wanted to escape, he needed to locate his friends first. How could he get to them? For that, he needed to know more, could he speak to the guards? They didn't seem talkative. Maybe the other prisoners could tell him more? Maybe they could help one another to escape; after all they were prisoners as well. He just had to wait for the guards to walk away.

He moved and looked through the bars. Two guards were talking together; they were too close to do anything. As time passed, sounds were heard again, whisper, murmurs, weeping, and pleas again. This didn't seem to bother the guards much though; they were probably used to that kind of noises. Hiccup thought about the person who spoke to him, it was a man's voice, and obviously that man wanted to get out; He wasn't really friendly, but maybe they could work together…

BANG!

He jumped in fright at the loud metallic sound. The boy looked through the bar to see a dark figure advancing. Hiccup hissed almost silently at this sight, he was pretty sure this was Heimal, that chief…If only he could gouge his eyes out! Every misery they went through was his fault since the beginning! The man kept advancing, hitting bars with a war hammer to make whoever was in a cell shut up. The atmosphere was suddenly very silent. The boy got away from the bars; he couldn't get too close to that man and his weapon. He watched the shades on the ground and listened.

The few flames were quivering, making the shades dance on the ground, and the only sound was the one of Heimal's footsteps. No one would speak, everyone was listening and waiting. Hiccup stopped breathing for a short moment and he was pretty sure other prisoners did the same. The footsteps grew closer and closer, that moment seemed to last forever. Then, Hiccup saw him appear. The shadows and feeble shades of light gave him an even darker and terrifying face. He turned toward Hiccup and opened the door. When Heimal entered his cell, Hiccup hissed in fury and fear. He couldn't help it, he feared the man almost by instinct. The tall man gave him a lenient smile.

"Calm down, boy. I don't want to hurt you."

"Liar."

He was maybe scared, but not enough to shut down defiance. He knew he had to be careful, but he wouldn't crawl before their captor! The smile disappeared and Heimal stepped toward him in a threatening way: "Careful, boy. Disrespect anger me, you shouldn't say offensive words to me."

Feeling boldness rose, Hiccup's eyes narrowed and he spat on the man, the saliva landing on Heimal's chin. This stunned the man at first; the feral boy smirked: "No bad word."

"Ah, you're bold, I have to give you that…But you need to learn," he wiped the spit away with a ferocious smirk and took the whip from his belt. Hiccup shivered as the thing unrolled like a snake before him.

The boy tensed and threw himself to the side to dodge the first blow. He lunged at the chief but was hit full force by the strong leather. It made him back away and yell in pain. Another followed hitting his legs hard. The boy rushed to the side and tried to attack again. He lowered himself on his four to avoid the next whip, but then, pain spread over his skull and back. He had received the whip fully. He was stunned and stumbled. A hard kick on the back followed, making him lay flatly on his stomach. A blow landed on his back, another one and another one. Hiccup tried to get up but the next blow stopped him. He managed to grab the whip and pulled on it but he didn't have enough strength. Heimdal pulled on it as well and made the boy rise toward him only to send him back on the ground again with a kick. He landed on his back this time, stunned and in pain. His back! Oh gods, his back was hurting like hell! He rolled on the side to spare himself some suffering, some tears of pure pain rolled down his cheeks.

"You're the one forcing me to do this, you know. I have no wish to hurt you."

Hiccup swallowed the bile and hissed: "Liar."

"You're bold." Surprisingly, no blow followed that. "I'm saying the truth, I don't want to hurt you, boy. I wanted to have you here, I wanted to see your strength, and I must say I'm not disappointed. You're a runt but you're swift, fierce and skilled with a sword."

Hiccup wiped the tears and growled: "What do you want? Is it really about your stupid arena?"

The old man smirked bitterly, rolled the whip again and walked in circle around the boy who didn't try to stand anymore.

"You don't know who I am, don't you?"

"A man who kills dragons."

"More than that. Your father never told you about me, didn't he?"

Hearing about his dad surprised Hiccup.

"You know my father?"

"Oh I do…Stoick had always been too soft, I guess he preferred to forget about me. But I won't let him forget me."

He spoke with a cold, collected voice, but the anger was chilling. Hiccup could feel that the man was a predator, he wasn't the kind to be content in a peaceful life. He couldn't help but tense at the idea that this predator had something against his father.

"How do you know him?"

Still drawing circles around him like a vulture, Heimal stopped smirking, but the bitter expression remained. The boy shifted his position to sit down instead of lying on the floor. He was still suffering because of the whip but he couldn't be pathetic. He was the Dragons' Prince and the son of Calla, Thunder and Stoick the Vast!

"You see, I was pretty unlucky with my children. I had two sons and a daughter. My two sons are dead; they fought to death to protect this island. It was honorable, but I lost them nonetheless. As for my daughter…She also died during battle but it's a different story."

He stopped in front of Hiccup, looking down at the boy.

"You see, my little girl was always stubborn, and she had strange ideas…When she was in age to be married, she chose a man I didn't like, a young chief who was maybe strong but far too tender in my opinion. I forbade my daughter to marry him, but she disobeyed and ran away with him. I learned a few years ago that she gave birth to a son, a runt. And after that, she died in a battle against Outcasts, because her husband wasn't able to protect her…I decided I would claim the child, take him away and raise whether his father liked it or not. But before I could take that baby, he was taken away by a dragon. I hated his father even more for that. He had been unable to protect my daughter and my grandson, as he should have. But then..."

He looked down toward Hiccup: "Then I learned surprising news. Apparently the child wasn't dead…Night Furies raised him, because Thor himself protected him when his worthless father couldn't." He crouched to the teen. "Do you understand boy?"

"Your daughter…And the chief she married…"

"Your parents. I'm your grandfather, child."

Hope you liked it! Heimal's intention toward Hiccup will be explained furthermore. Don't hesitate to review!