A/N: Wooh boy here we go. This one's a doozy. Some mild warnings for descriptions of injuries, if you are sensitive to that.
Chapter title from Imagine Dragon's song I Bet My Life, which is so Hiccup and Stoick it hurts. Give it a listen.
Chapter 39: I Bet My Life On You
Stoick had made a mistake.
Stoick had made possibly the biggest mistake of his life.
Stoick had made possibly the last mistake of his life.
"Back to the ships! Around the island, go go go!"
"These are closer!" Spitelout shouted back, waving an arm and leading a group towards the small number of ships they'd moored this side of the island.
"No!" Stoick shouted, reaching out an arm. The giant dragon, the one nearly as large as the mountain it had burst from, the one Hiccup had tried to warn him he couldn't fight, turned its head and shot a stream of fire at the ocean and the ships, decimating those in its direct path and setting fire to the rest. Stoick held his breath as his people stopped just short of being roasted alive.
"To the other side of the island, I said!" Stoick bellowed, hanging back now just enough to make sure all of his people escaped the immediate area. Gobber caught up with him.
"Let's go!" He shouted.
"No," Stoick said. "Go; make sure everyone gets out of the way and into the boats. That thing is just going to follow unless I give it something else to fire at."
Gobber balked. "Are you crazy? You'll get yourself killed!"
"It's my fault everyone is in danger. If I die to get them out of it, then so be it."
"You can't beat that thing on your own!" Gobber said, gesturing to the giant who was now eating what had once been a prize trebuchet.
"No, but I can buy them some time."
"You stubborn son of a bitch," Gobber grunted, shaking his head. "Alright, fine. I can't let you get yourself killed on your own. Might as well double the time, old friend," he said, clapping Stoick on the shoulder.
"Stoick laughed, "Aye, fair enough."
Xx
Aggravating a giant dragon enough to keep its attention but not enough to get killed was delicate, dangerous, maddening work, and Stoick wasn't sure how much longer he could keep it up. The army would be back to the boats by now, and if they could just get back to regroup and come up with a real battle plan...but he and Gobber were fast running out of steam, which was really not good, as the giant beast now had Gobber's full attention. He was in retreat, but the queen was ignoring Stoick's attempts at getting her to chase him long enough for Gobber to get out of harm's way.
His best friend was going to die, and it would be all his fault.
A blast of something small and fiery hit the side of the dragon's face and it looked up, roaring. Stoick too looked up, just in time to see a small group of dragons emerge from the mist. At first he thought it was a few of the wild dragons who had retreated when they cracked open the mountain, but then he got a better look and heard the shouts.
"Thor's beard, that boy is every bit the stubborn, boar-headed idiot you ever were!" Gobber exclaimed as he limped to Stoick's side, cackling.
Hiccup.
He sat behind Astrid on her Deadly Nadder and was shouting orders to the other young adults of Berk. Snotlout astride a Monstrous Nightmare, Fishlegs on a Gronkle, and the Thorston twins arguing on the twin heads of a Zippleback.
"What the…"Stoick mumbled. "How did he even get out of jail?"
Gobber stepped forward and shook his hammer-hand at Hiccup as he shouted, "HICCUP HORRENDOUS HADDOCK THE THIRD! YOU HAD ONE DAMN JOB AND THAT WAS TO DISABLE THE GODSDAMNED FAILSAFE, YOU LAZY, COTTONHEADED—"
Xx
Hiccup chuckled as his father pulled a still-shouting Gobber to safety. He saluted and turned back to his newly recruited dragon riders. "Okay, Legs, breakdown. What do you think?"
Fishlegs' calculating stare didn't leave the beast below them. "A lot of eyes, but small, especially compared to nostril size. Relies on hearing and smell. Damage both. Armored tail and head for crushing, avoid both. Big wings but clearly hasn't used them in a while, bulky body means it's not an agile flier, and honestly the wing muscles look atrophied. It probably hasn't flown in a long time."
"What do you think about shot limit?"
Fishlegs shook his head. "Difficult to say. Based on body size and flame size and temperature I'd say high. Mid-teens at least."
They hurled another volley of shots at the beast as they lapped its head then looped back into the sky.
"Okay, game plan," Hiccup directed. "Snot, see if you can take out at least a couple of eyes. Burn or batter, up to you. Ruff, Tuff, make it mad. Waste its firepower, but not all of it. I have an idea and it needs to have some fire left for it to work. Legs, Twins, confuse it. Make some noise and keep it distracted. Astrid will work on taking out its sense of smell. Twins, if you can get some explosions in its ears, damage its hearing. Basically, I need you two to be as annoying as godsdamned possible."
The twins grinned at each other. "We can do that!" They said in unison, and dove whooping towards the dragon.
"Go!" The others obeyed and Astrid turned Stormfly towards the boats. "Once Toothless and I get back, clear the area on my signal. It'll get messy," Hiccup told Astrid as he scanned the carnage below. "There!" he pointed, and Astrid nodded.
"Be safe, babe," she whispered, and Hiccup accepted her kiss before he jumped from Stormfly's back and landed on the deck of the burning ship in front of his bound and frightened dragon.
Xx
He should never have left Berk. Well, he should never have come to Berk. He should never have let himself get wrapped up in the internal politics of a small village in the middle of nowhere so far from home. He should never have said anything when he saw Astrid in that tavern all those months ago. But how was he to know?
How could he possibly have known that the hot blonde he'd once drunkenly made out with on shore leave was also the sacrificial lamb of a scared village, or that the guy she was having relationship trouble with was both the widely-feared Dragon Master and the long lost son of her village's chief?
He'd just wanted a quick payday.
Eret did not want to get eaten or burned alive by a dragon the size of a small kingdom. This was way above his pay grade.
And surely once the Berkian chief returned (or, didn't return) the Berkian warriors would get back on their remaining ships and sail home. Or at least that's what Eret kept telling himself as he ordered his men to ready their ship to set sail.
"Rolar, be careful with that moorinaaaAAAAH!" The ground was gone. Eret screamed as something yanked him high into the air and over the ocean. Whatever it was tossed him and he went flying upwards and caught sight of a flash of bright blue before landing squarely on the back of a Deadly Nadder behind a blonde braid and a dirty blue tunic.
Astrid turned and grinned at him. "Well hello sailor; long time no see!"
"What-wh-what. What the-"
Astrid laughed. "So, greatest dragon wrangler alive, ready to learn how to fly a dragon?"
Eret looked around, still stammering, as they left his ship behind and circled back around to the other side of the island, the side with the giant killer dragon.
"What the hell is going on?" Eret demanded, gripping the saddle behind him for dear life.
"I need a spare rider," Astrid explained, and then, to his increasing, horror, handed him the reigns. "Have you ever ridden a horse before?" she asked.
"Well, yes, a while back, but—"
"Good, same basic concept. Stormfly's pretty intuitive. If all else fails just tell her what you want her to do. She's a smart girl and understands most Norse."
"Um, okay?" Eret gulped. What was happening and how did he make it stop? The dragon turned its head and squawked at him. Astrid then stood up in the saddle and climbed behind him. "Okay," she said, balancing precariously and pulling an axe off the back of her saddle and strapping it onto her back. "So here's the plan: you're going to drop me into the nostrils, then you're gonna stay close enough to fire some spike shots at the eyes but far enough back not to get eaten. If you can't figure out what that distance is then don't worry, Stormfly will. You're gonna keep an eye out for me and Snotlout and pull us out of there if things get dicey, or when you hear Hiccup's signal."
"Wait, what signal?" Eret asked as they circled far closer to the giant dragon's giant head than he had any desire ever to be.
Astrid just grinned at him. "Oh, you'll know it when you hear it." And then she jumped.
Off a dragon.
In midair.
Into the nostril of an enormous behemoth dragon.
"Damn, if that girl wasn't married…"
Xx
Astrid landed and rolled into the wet sticky nostril of the dragon queen and stuck her knife into the flesh beneath her. The dragon snorted, trying to dislodge her, but she pulled her axe off her back and hacked hard into the skin of the inner nostril. The dragon howled and Astrid beamed at the adrenaline rush. Using her knife and her axe to secure her balance she began slashing and hacking at the dragon's skin and the scent of blood filled the cavity. If the smell was overwhelming for her, it must be doing a number on the dragon, who kept shaking and snorting to try to dislodge her. Well big girl, nostrils this big were just an invitation for a biting fly.
x
There was too much fire and not enough time. Even with the muzzle off, the heavy wood and metal restraints secured Toothless to the ship. Hiccup couldn't get his dragon free. Toothless's head was too wet to muster enough firepower to do more than weaken some of the chains, and Hiccup's sword wasn't enough to cut through the heavy wooden collar. The ship was already starting to sink, and if the smoke inhalation didn't kill them both, his dragon would drown.
x
Stoick heard the Night Fury's frantic roar and finally spotted them. He'd been looking since he saw the Nadder fly over the boats and Hiccup drop from it. There, on one of the burning ships that had escaped the worst of the dragon queen's wrath was the Night Fury and his loyal rider attempting to free him. Stoick had completely forgotten about the captive dragon in all the chaos, but for Hiccup of course he was a top priority.
And the boy was failing. Their ship was burning and starting to sink, and Hiccup was clearly struggling to free his dragon from the restraints. Stoick watched the panicked young man grab his dragon's face and touch their foreheads together and tell him something. A reassurance, maybe.
Gods, Hiccup wouldn't leave his dragon to die alone.
Stoick leapt onto the nearest ship and from there to the one on which Hiccup and Toothless stood, ignoring the slight singe of the flames he jumped through.
"Move!" He pushed Hiccup out of the way, and even the Night Fury was too stunned to protest as Stoick grabbed the wood collar and pulled it apart.
"Dad?!"
The dragon shook its head and its huge green eyes met Stoick's; confusion and curiosity there. Stoick turned to look at his son, and for a brief moment their eyes met. Hiccup's face was a picture of worry, confusion, and relief. And then the dragon grabbed him by the back of his collar and leapt the distance to shore. Stoick watched as the dragon dropped his son safely on the beach before making to follow.
He heard a cracking of wood above him and the mast crashed onto the deck. The ship pitched, and Stoick was underwater. His feet skid on the wet deck and he sank away and below the ship, his heavy armor pulling him down. He tried to swim up, but his armor and cloak weighed him down. He couldn't see; the world above the water was blurry fire against grey skies. He heard a muted splash and then a huge dark shape appeared above him. He thought it was more ship debris sinking to crush him but the shape moved behind him, and Stoick thought he caught a glimpse of green. He flew out of the water, sweet air filling his lungs and he was dumped onto the gravel beach.
"Dad!" Stoick pushed himself onto his hands and knees, coughing up water, and saw Hiccup's terrified face alongside a soaking Night Fury. "Dad, are you okay?" Stoick placed a hand on Hiccup's back and allowed the boy to help him to his feet. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed! You-"
Hiccup was silenced as Stoick wrapped both arms around the boy and hauled him to his chest in the tightest, fiercest hug he had ever given. Hiccup was stiff at first, and then tentatively his arms rose to return the embrace. Stoick buried his face in his son's hair. "I should have listened," he rasped. "I should have listened to you. About the dragons, about that great beast, about all of it." Hiccup pushed back and Stoick could see how confused and conflicted the boy was. "I'm sorry, Hiccup."
Hiccup stared at him for a long moment, eyes wide and filled with longing and hope and fear. He threw his arms around Stoick's chest and muttered, "I'm sorry too." He pulled back too soon, glancing anxiously at the dragon queen. "Dad, I have to-" He stepped back, but Stoick grabbed his hand. "Son, you don't have to do this." Hiccup's eyes met his and for a brief moment so much passed unsaid in the meeting of eyes and the squeeze of a hand.
And then Hiccup was pulling away. "I have to," he said, and was mounting his dragon before Stoick could say another word.
"Hiccup!"
"Get out of here, Dad!" Hiccup said over his shoulder as dark wings extended and lifted, and then they were in the air, taking Stoick's heart with them as Hiccup disappeared into the mist.
Xx
Astrid hadn't had this much fun in a long time. The queen scabbed quickly but Astrid's cuts and gouges were definitely doing serious damage to her sense of smell. This much scar tissue would do its job. The one problem was that it was getting increasingly hard to hang on. Astrid had to keep herself steady with the weapon in one arm while hacking with the other and her arms were starting to give out. She was covered in blood and snot and slipping was becoming more of a concern. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Hiccup and Toothless take to the sky and soar off into the fog surrounding the island. Not long, now.
"Eret! Stormfly!" she shouted. She heard her dragon's answering cry and pulled her weapons out of the queen's flesh. She stashed them both and took a running leap at her dragon as she passed by. Stormfly caught her in her talons and Eret helped pull her up onto the saddle. "We need to grab Snotlout!" Astrid shouted over the dragon queen's pained screams. Snotlout had done serious damage to some of her eyes, but her thrashing was going to throw him off her head. Astrid pushed in front of Eret and took the reins. "I'll fly, you catch Snotlout!"
Snotlout watched Astrid and her dragon swooping down to intercept him. He took a stumbling running leap but at the last minute the dragon bucked and he went flying off course. "Astrid!" he shouted, tumbling through the air. He heard Ruffnut screaming but she and Tuffnut were too far away to catch him.
Holy shit, he was going to die. He'd leave Ruffnut a widow at nineteen. And Grufflout, his poor little boy, would grow up never knowing him.
Shit, he'd die having never told his dad how much of an asshole he could be.
"Gotcha!" His breath was knocked out of him as something hit hard against his abdomen as it caught him out of midair. Snotlout could see Astrid's dragon's feet dangling below him, but the heavy, beefy arm holding onto him definitely wasn't Astrid's. He looked up, expecting to see Fishlegs or maybe even Stoick, but—
The sparse sunlight glinted off the sharpest chin and jawline Snotlout had ever seen. It glistened off black hair that fluttered in the wind. And then Eret turned deep, warm brown eyes on Snotlout and gave him a proud dashing smirk that would melt even the iciest heart. "Are you okay there, mate?" he asked, his voice husky and smooth like honeyed almonds… "Mate?" Eret's eyebrows furrowed. "You okay?" Gods, those rippling muscles…
Shit.
Snotlout shook himself out of his thoughts and stuttered out an answer. "I'm uh, I'm fine. Great. Thanks." Eret hauled him into the saddle where Snotlout sat dazed and confused and contemplating a wild but possibly very beneficial conversation with his wife.
Xx
Stoick could not bring himself to stray too far from the battlefield. He and Gobber stayed out of the line of fire but leaving to meet with the rest of the tribe on the island's other side was out of the question. These young warriors, hardly out of adolescence, Hiccup's generation, were risking their lives on dragonback to defeat an enemy seven generations of their ancestors had failed to even locate.
All because they followed Hiccup. They believed in Hiccup.
But where was he?
A wet dragon head couldn't light its flame, everyone knew that. After his full submergence to rescue Stoick Toothless would obviously need a short flight to dry off and rebuild his firepower, but Hiccup had been gone for longer than it seemed he should. Astrid and Snotlout were off the Queen now, who had her head low, shaking her head and snorting as she attempted to gain her bearings after the damage the youths had done to her nose and eyes, all while Fishlegs and the twins continued to bombard her ears with loud noises. All of it was ultimately just distraction tactics, just buying time for Hiccup and Toothless. But they had flown away from the island and into the mists, and for a horrible moment Stoick couldn't help but wonder if maybe Hiccup wasn't coming back.
No. No more doubting him. Astrid was still here and Hiccup would not abandon his wife. His dragon-Toothless, had risked his own life to save Stoick. They would be back. They had to come back.
The air seemed to still as from the distance they heard the high angry roar of a Night Fury. It echoed through the sea stacks and rocks and arrived hauntingly on the shores of the island. Everything seemed to stop. Even the dragon queen looked up at the noise.
"Clear out! Clear out!" Astrid was shouting, and she and the twins as well as the circling Monstrous Nightmare all made a retreat from the queen's chunk of land.
"Fish, let's go, now!" she shouted again, but the Gronkle was spinning and shaking its head.
"I've lost control of the Gronkle! Fishlegs exclaimed as the discombobulated beast spiraled towards the ground. Stoick took off running on instinct. Fishlegs and the Gronkle crash landed and the Gronkle bumbled away into the skies away from the queen, still looking confused. Stoick reached Fishlegs and helped him to his feet. But the noise had caught the queen's attention.
"Go! Go!" Stoick pushed Fishlegs towards Gobber and the safety of the rock formation they hid behind. He pulled his shield and hammer from his back and banged on the shield.
"Here beasty! You want someone to fight? How about a real supper, eh?"
Out of the corner of his eye he saw Gobber pull Fishlegs to safety, but he now had the queen's full attention. He danced to the side, distracting her while the other youths made their escape, but then her mouth opened wide, green gas bubbling in the back of her throat as she prepared to fire.
Take care of them, Stoick prayed. He'd dare not ask for a miracle; he didn't deserve one.
Just as the first flicker of light appeared at the back of the throat the high pitched scream rent the air.
The blast of purple light that slammed into the dragon's head and sent it stumbling to the side was blinding. Stoick watched the black shape soar back into the sky, a blur against the cloudy sky.
The queen recovered, and to Stoick's horror, it again set its sights on him. He turned to run but stumbled on the rocky beach and fell to his knees. The queen roared as it stalked toward him. Another roar sounded from much closer, and dust and gravel flew as Hiccup and Toothless landed right in front of Stoick, between himself and the dragon queen.
Toothless lifted his wings and arched his back menacingly, and a blue glow started in the middle of his back and spread along his spine, like a fire churning from within.
And when Toothless roared, it was unlike any roar Stoick had ever heard from any dragon before.
The queen answered with an equally deafening roar, but before she could even finish Toothless interrupted with a roar more ferocious and angry than before, lifting onto his hind legs and pounding the ground with his front feet. Even the queen seemed unsure of how to react. In the momentary silence, another sound began to fill the air. Like thunder, or the rumbling of an earthquake without the movement of the ground; a churning hum filled the air. And then a roar pierced it. And then another.
And then from the mists surrounding the island burst forth a swarm of wild dragons the likes of which Stoick had not seen since they broke open the mountain and the dragons retreated. Except they weren't retreating now. The swarm of dragons surrounded the queen and began firing everything they had at her, from all species, all directions. She tried to fight back but there were too many attacks coming from too many directions for her to even get her bearings.
Stoick stared. Hiccup was laughing in triumph from Toothless's back and even the dragon looked satisfied when Stoick got close enough to look.
"What's going on?" he asked, flabbergasted. Hiccup grinned at him.
"Loyalty. You earn a dragon's trust and there's nothing they won't do for you." He looked to the wild dragons. "And dragons fight back in self defense. I told you, they follow the queen because they don't have another choice." He rubbed behind Toothless's ear. "We just gave them a new choice for alpha."
"Hiccup!" The other dragon riders landed beside them. Astrid was grinning from ear to ear. Her clothes and hair were still damp from a quick dip in the ocean to wash off the dragon blood, and her clothes were still stained. "It's working, I can't believe it! You started a dragon revolution!"
Stoick stared at his son. "You did all this," he said, stunned. Hiccup's smile faded. He had that nervous look back in his eyes.
"Well, I mean, I had help."
"One problem, though," Fishlegs interjected, joining them from his hiding place. "It doesn't matter how much firepower we throw at that thing if it's fireproof!"
"Only on the outside," Hiccup said his eyes narrowing in determination. "Unfortunately I don't think we can just let nature take care of itself on this one. That thing is an ancient, greedy, parasite and we can't let it keep destroying life for both dragons and Vikings. I'm taking it down."
"No!" Stoick grabbed Hiccup's hand and his son looked at him. "Hiccup, you don't have to do anything. Regardless of how this turns out we can still leave. Return to Berk. Leave Berk for better places, even. But you don't have to risk your life to beat that thing."
Hiccup's brow furrowed but Stoick could still see the fear. "This is my fault, I have to fix this."
"No it isn't!" Stoick shouted, his voice breaking and he held Hiccup's hand tighter in both of his own. "I'm the one who demanded you take me to the nest. I'm the one who rushed into a battle I couldn't hope to win with no plan. I'm the one who didn't listen to your warnings!"
"No!" Hiccup snapped, certainty in every hard line on his face. "I'm the one who lied, who never talked to you, who didn't try to work something out! Maybe if I had really said something sooner we could have ended this a long time ago."
"Hiccup."
"Dad, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
Stoick shook his head. "Hiccup, I'm sorry. But don't do this—"
Hiccup looked away, licking his lips in a way Stoick recognized as an old tell for his anxiety. "I've done a lot of things wrong. We both have. And I know the person I am is so far from the person you wanted me to be, but I'm trying to do the right thing, and yeah I may be trying to do it the Hiccup way, and maybe that's not the path you would have wanted for me—"
"Hiccup, stop." Stoick tugged on Hiccup's hand just hard enough to make the boy reluctantly climb off his dragon. He fixed his son with a hard look and tried to push down the lump in his throat. "I'm proud of you, son." Hiccup's eyes widened. "I always was. Sure, you couldn't fight dragons, but you were creative, and tenacious, and I was proud of that even if I wasn't very good at saying it or showing it. I didn't want you to fight because I loved you too much to lose you. But I was proud then and I'm proud now." Hiccup looked as if he might say something but tears were forming in his eyes and he faltered. "In spite of everything that has happened; because of everything that has happened, Hiccup, my boy," Stoick's voice failed him and he took a shuddering breath. "I meant it. You are my son. You have always been my son. You will always be my son. And I love you." His voice broke but Hiccup still heard it. A silent sob shook him and Stoick could see years of desperation and pain fall away in the slump of Hiccup's shoulders. "My boy, I love you with all that I am; no matter what happens and no matter who you are or who you become. And I'm so, so sorry that it took me so long to get here and say it. I'm sorry for everything my silence drove you to do. I'm just…I'm sorry."
Hiccup's lip was wobbling and he looked ready to cry. "I love you too, Dad," he mumbled, his voice strained like he was holding back too many emotions. The dragon queen's roar interrupted the moment and they both looked at her. The wild dragon army was intense in their counter attack but the queen was so massive there truly was only so much even they could do, and already a few injured dragons had fallen or retreated.
"You don't have to do this," Stoick repeated, but Hiccup's gaze was fixed on the dragon.
"I'm the only one who can stop this." Hiccup looked over his shoulder and Stoick followed his line of sight. The chaos of the battle had brought the curious and confused warriors of Berk back to spectate from a safe distance, and they looked on with awe. "Keep everyone out of the way. It's only going to get worse from here."
"Hiccup!" Astrid came running up from Hiccup's other side and Hiccup pulled his hand from his father's grasp so he could take his wife's face in his hands and kiss her tenderly.
He rested his forehead against hers and said softly, "Whatever happens, know that you are the love of my life. I would never have made it this far without you."
Astrid's face broke. "Hiccup-" He silenced her with a kiss.
"I have to try, milady."
"Hiccup, I know this sounded like a good plan but look at that thing; everything we've done to it and it's still in fighting shape."
"She's right, Hiccup," Stoick cut in. "Son, you could die."
Hiccup kissed his wife one last time before turning to his father. There were still tears in his eyes but that same hard, determined look on his face. The stubborn teenager who still snuck out after being grounded, but this time with purpose. "If anything happens to me, you take care of her."
Stoick nodded. "She's the daughter-in-law of a chief and will be treated as such." He looked at Astrid. "And I owe her that much and far more." He looked back at his son and to his surprise found him smiling.
"And besides, we're Vikings. It's an occupational hazard."
The smile didn't quite reach his eyes, but then Hiccup was pulling his helmet out of his saddle bag, ripping the dark fabric out of it before putting it on, and with one mighty flap of wings, they were in the air.
All of Berk watched the Night Fury disappear into the clouds before diving down to unleash a volley of plasma blasts that outraged the dragon queen. Even the other dragons knew now was the time to scatter. The queen tried snapping at them, but no dragon was faster or more agile in the air than a Night Fury, and just as she turned her head to look where one blast came from, she was hit by a blast from the other direction. Even from the ground and from a distance, keeping track of Hiccup and Toothless's movements were near impossible.
Sure, they had all seen the Dragon Master and his Night Fury in action before during raids, but they excelled at staying out of sight in the darkness of night. Seeing the proficiency of their midair acrobatics in broad daylight was something else entirely, made even more impressive by the knowledge that it was a combination of Toothless's flying and Hiccup's control of the tailfin and the communication between them that resulted in such in-sync aerial mastery. They dove in, fired, and got out.
"Astrid!"
Stoick turned to see Arvid Hofferson pushing his way through the crowd. Astrid ran to him and they threw their arms around each other. "Astrid, my sweet baby." Arvid noticed Hiccup's counter attack. "What in Thor's name is your mad boy doing?"
"Trying to make it mad," Astrid explained. "Get it in the air. Hiccup and Toothless are the superior fliers, they have an advantage in the air."
One more blast to the wings seemed to do it. They watched the huge leathery wings of the dragon queen spread and its knees bend as it prepared to take off.
"Brace yourselves!" Astrid screamed, right before the dragon took off with a gust of air that nearly knocked them off their feet. They all watched as the queen followed Hiccup and Toothless into the darkness of the clouds, where the pitch black dragon would easily be able to disappear.
Xx
Staying out of sight while also dodging attacks was what Hiccup was good at, and up here it was more important than ever. Stay out of sight, fire on the queen whenever the opportunity presented itself; make enough attacks and enough noise coming from enough different directions that the queen couldn't figure out where they were.
"We're still good on firepower, right bud?" Hiccup asked, and Toothless grunted in response. The blue glow may have faded, but the superheated contents of the dragon's flame bladder had not. Another blast to the face and the queen roared in fury. Her mouth opened and she spilled fire in every direction, sending Toothless and Hiccup spiraling and diving to escape the sky-filling flame. Hiccup heard a crackle behind him and looked back to see part of the rig had sustained fire damage. Nothing too bad yet; the edge of the fin was singed but it would burn slowly…however the fraying leather tension cable connecting the pedals to the tail was a problem. It would only hold up for a short time longer.
"Okay, bud," Hiccup said, "Time to give that thing something to chase." They emerged from the clouds and fired another plasma blast squarely in the middle of the queen's face. She roared and followed as they turned into a high-speed dive. Despite her wing span she still couldn't top their speed, although she could stay hot on their tail. They broke through the cloud cover, the ground in sight miles below them.
Toothless growled nervously and Hiccup looked behind them. "Almost bud, almost!" The ground was getting closer, the queen was gaining but not fast enough. "Toothless, hold."
His wings spread, their dive slowed, Hiccup heard the dragon queen catch up and her mouth open wide.
Hiccup squeezed his eyes shut. He thought of the first time he and Toothless had bonded in that cove, that first flight. He thought of his father's pride at hearing of his success in dragon training. He thought of the fights, the years of hiding and surviving and believing his father never cared. He thought of his mother, and of how much he would have liked to patch things up with her. He thought of Gobber, who stuck his neck out for him far too many times for a man not biologically his parent and far more times than Hiccup deserved. He thought of his father's apology, his genuine confessions of love, words Hiccup had lived for so long starving to hear.
He thought of Astrid; of her smile, her stubbornness, the goodness and hope she'd brought into his life. Of that last night together in the dark.
And then he opened his eyes, turned his dragon towards the open mouth of the behemoth behind them as it filled with gas, and shouted, "NOW!"
One blast was all it took. Toothless's superheated plasma hit the gas and ignited it all. The dragon queen's eyes bulged and her abdomen shook with a series of explosions as her entire flame bladder erupted. She tried to slow her dive but she was melting from the inside out, her wings even burning up. Hiccup and Toothless spun out of the way before she hit the ground and exploded, fire racing up her burning body. Hiccup hit the pedals hard and they turned skyward, trying to escape the climbing flames and get out of the way of the dragon's body.
Hiccup heard a snap, then something wrapped around his left leg and pulled. He screamed as his shin snapped and his ankle was pulled from its socket. He looked down to see the leather cable had broken and one half had tangled around his leg while the other dangled loosely. His leg looked completely wrong. His foot was twisted wrong inside his boot, and there was a new knee in the middle of his shin that radiated pain. Hiccup tried to hit the pedal, put the tail fin back in position so they could climb higher, faster, but he could barely even feel his foot, let alone move it. The knob in the middle of his shin shifted in a way that nearly blinded him with pain, and he saw blood darken his pant leg. He tried to move the pedal again but it only sent more pain screaming through his leg and more blood pouring out of his leg as what he realized was his own splintered bone pushed out of the flesh. Even if he could control his leg, the cable was broken, and they were seconds from disaster.
"Keep going!" He shouted to Toothless. He unhooked himself from the saddle. "We're almost there!" He grabbed the cable and unwound it from his leg and caught the loose end and tried to manually pull the fin back into place. They were racing up the queen's burning body, and he could barely think as each motion pushed and pulled the muscles and bone of his leg apart. Just a little further. "Almost there, bud, almost-" He turned around in time to see the giant club of a tail approaching. He yanked the fin but it didn't respond. Toothless pumped his wings. "We can make it, we can make it, almost there, al-"
Hiccup noticed the unusual pattern of scales on the tail before he collided with it.
And then nothing.
Xx
A/N: I'm sorry, but I had to hurt the boy. Also, BILOUT BILOUT, OI OI OI. I'm sorry but how could I see an opportunity for bisexual Snotlout getting a crush on Eret and NOT take it? And hey, he has a crush on Eret, his wife has a crush on Eret...this isn't a bad thing. I know I said I wasn't going to transcribe the movie scene, but I did want to kind of follow the same outcome, but with a lot more happening as there are a lot of other things at play in this story leading up to this moment, and the overall movie plan was kind of the most solid one and the best route for ending up where I want to end up. Sorry to leave you with a cliffhanger, but the next chapter will be up probably Friday or Saturday. I just can't wait a full five weeks to get all of this published. I want to be able to officially say I am done with this story after all this time!
