It was…boring. Astrid was getting increasingly uncomfortable, shifting uneasily on Frazzle as she tried to get comfortable. Jen hadn't said a word, but Astrid could feel her gaze on her back as she stared intently at the older girl. The others around were also looking pretty bleak, looking at Stoick expectantly as they waited for the chief to do something. They had been flying for what seemed like forever, and Astrid was on-edge. They hadn't been getting anywhere, they had encountered absolutely no other islands.
She could feel the precious seconds ticking away that she wanted to cling to. She had no idea what Hiccup was doing right now, and what might be going on. She had a feeling that something wasn't right. She couldn't sit still, and she felt like something was happening that wasn't supposed to. She felt like Hiccup, having a weird feeling and going with it. Maybe more of him rubbed off on her than she was aware of.
The people in front looked pretty bleak to say the least. They all seemed to be somewhat impatient, and Astrid guessed that at least half of them were regretting coming out here. Maybe Jen would be put into that category, she had stopped talking a few hours ago. So far, she had taken to looking out over the frozen ocean with something close to boredom. Astrid felt responsible for this adventure, and she was frustrated as she saw that most of the people were letting all of the dragons do the work. The people who really were searching were at the front, and a group of people were blocking the blonde girl's way forward.
She slumped down where she sat, glaring down at Frazzle's back dejectedly. At least the dragon had stopped being to annoyingly-scared the whole time. There was that. She supposed that she would just have to look on the bright side of things for now. Hiccup was usually too much of an optimist, she wished he could be there to balance her out.
Maybe-
A loud roar made Astrid jump out of her skin, turning with wide eyes at the source of the noise. The other people around her jumped also, some even ducking out of habit. The dragons merely perked their ears, Hookfang and Meatlug both chirping with recognition. Astrid's eyes slowly widened, a large smile spreading over her face as she sat a little straighter. "STORMFLY!" She yelled happily, her familiar Nadder flapping furiously over to her.
The dragon looked worn-out, but she quipped loudly as she caught sight of her rider, flying over as she weaved through the others. One by one, the search party stopped, taking to hovering in the air as they watched Stormfly come to a stop in front of Astrid. The blonde hesitated for a moment before she looked behind her at Jen. "I'm going to jump onto Stormfly's back, you stay on Frazzle, okay?" She asked. The smaller girl's eyes widened with something close to fear as she eyed the jumpy dragon. Clearly staying on the weak Nightmare alone was not on her list of priorities. She opened her mouth to disagree, but Astrid was already standing up slowly, tongue sticking out as she braced herself.
Hiccup had done this so many times. She could do it too. Taking a deep breath, she jumped forward, the wind whooshing past her for a few rapid seconds before she landed neatly onto Stormfly's back. The dragon staggered slightly under her weight, but started up against nonetheless, looking over at Astrid happily as she did so. The girl chuckled, reaching down and patting the Nadder's neck affectionately. "There you are, girl." She cooed.
Suddenly, she looked up as she realized that Stoick had flown up to her, a frown creasing his face as he looked at Stormfly anxiously. "I thought you said that Hiccup had Stormfly." He said, blue eyes flickering over to meet her's. "Where's Hiccup?"
It took a moment for Astrid to realize what Stoick was talking about. But when she finally landed on it, her stomach dropped and fell down to splat on the ice. "Odin." She grumbled, leaning forward to look at Stormfly steadily. "Stormfly, take us to Hiccup. Now. It's important, girl."
The Nadder didn't seem too keen on flying all the way back to wherever she had come from, but she shook herself roughly, turning around to the other direction and starting back. Astrid glanced backwards to look at the others, and realized that they were all following her now. Swallowing a lump in her throat, she patted Stormfly once more on the neck, breathing out of her nose.
She wasn't nervous about being up front. She was worried about Hiccup.
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Ludi started, snapping out of her trance as she dove back into the cloth bag just as soon as the first Night Fury launched itself forward. Yelling loudly, Hiccup dropped to the ground, the dragon mistiming its jump as it smashed into the wall right behind it. The smaller dragon was wailing with fright and confusion, stumbling around as it looked from Hiccup to the other dragons. It seemed at a loss of what to do, and could only manage to walk in something of an oval as it yipped loudly.
"Shadowclaw!" Nightflight and Toothless were trying to shove their way through the others, Nightflight having been the one to call out. The other Night Furies were pressing forward, trying to get into the cavern as they pushed and shoved. Toothless had no idea what was happening as of right now. They had been playing hide-and-seek with Shadowclaw, when all of a sudden they heard a loud yell. Toothless had insisted they go and check it out.
Nightflight's ears flicked back and forth as she quickened her pace, Toothless stumbling after her. "We have to find Shadowclaw!" She yelled back at him. "He could be anywhere right now, and we have no idea what's going on!" Toothless gave a snort to show that he heard, frantic eyes already scanning the crowd.
The small dragon couldn't have gotten far. They had only counted to five.
"What's going on?" Toothless hollered to the nearest dragon he could find.
It was Asher. When the Night Fury turned, his eyes were like chips of ice. "The human!" He snarled. "He found his way in here. The ambush could come at any moment, we have to-"
"What ambush?" Toothless spat crossly. "We have no idea whether or not an ambush is coming even! We should be driving it out, not killing it! Has it done anything to us? We should let it go!"
The Night Fury's ears perked, eyes narrowing slowly. "So you support it?" He snarled.
Toothless opened his mouth to flash something back, when suddenly Nightflight zoomed forward to stand beside him, swinging her tail forward to clamp over Toothless's mouth. "Of course not, Asher." She said flatly, giving the dragon her own sharp glare. "Don't be any more stupid than you can help. We're just trying to find Shadowclaw."
Without another word, Nightflight spun around and marched back, Toothless shooting Asher one last glare before following suit. A yell from up ahead made the Night Fury stop, ears flicking up as he strained to hear over the chaos. "Search the cave! Make sure there are no others!" As soon as the words were spoken, more dragons started to turn and race back through the cave, pushing past Toothless rudely as they did so.
But it left more room to breathe. Toothless finally came out from the tunnel and made his way into the cavern. Fleetfoot, Flightwing, Mistyeyes, and Stormtail (gosh darn it suck at names) were the only ones left not counting Toothless and Nightflight. The were all furious, and Fleetfoot started to creep towards the small thing on the ground.
Toothless started as he realized that the small thing on the ground was actually the human. Odd. When he thought of humans, he always thought of burly, strong men that could snap a Gronckle's head off at birth. This thing was a twig! He looked like he could barley pick up a boulder without capsizing. He tilted his head to the side, slowing to a stop as he looked at the small thing with something close to sadness.
The thing reminded him a lot of Shadowclaw. It was way too small to be attacked, and Toothless opened his mouth to shout at Fleetfoot to stop, when he thought better of it, shutting his mouth with a snap. "I found him!" Nightflight puffed. Toothless started, turning around and blinking as Nightflight bounded forward, Shadowclaw in tow. "Should I take him back?"
A yell made Toothless whip back around, eyes wide. Fleetfoot had leaped forward, turning to the side and swinging his tail over to smack into the human's chest, sending the small thing toppling over, holding its stomach tightly. Toothless felt sick all of a sudden, grimacing as he watched the scene unfold. Fleetfoot jumped forward, pinning the human to the ground in between his claws as he roared loudly. The human flinched, curling in on himself as he covered his ears.
When Fleetfoot started to suck in a deep breath, Toothless couldn't stand it any longer. "Fleetfoot!" He yowled, rushing forward. He heard Nightflight curse under her breath, but he paid no heed to it. "Stop!" He yelled loudly, aware of all of the dragons' gazes trained on him skeptically.
The dragon jerked around to face him. His eyes were burning as he closed his mouth with a snap, still pinning the human down as he looked over at Toothless. "I knew it." He growled thinly. Toothless skidded to a stop, blinking as he straightened, trying to hide the fear that was coming to him in waves. "You're soft when it comes to humans. You aren't the big dragon you used to be. You ran away from us like a coward. And then when we welcome you back, you rush to the defense of a small, insolent HUMAN?" The last words rang through the cavern, bouncing back in an eerie echo as Toothless shuffled his feet.
"We shouldn't kill unless we HAVE to." Toothless mumbled.
"And where did you learn that rule?" Fleetfoot growled.
…Toothless could honestly not remember.
His eyes flickered down to the human, pity filling his heart as he looked down. Face and arms were covered with scrapes and gashes from both the rock and from the dragons attacks. It was bleeding, and Toothless saw that the human had a small metal contraption strapped onto his leg. Briefly, Toothless looked down at his own tail, blinking slowly as he realized that they were like the same.
His thoughts were cut off as the human opened its eyes, round with fear and confusion. It obviously didn't know where it was, or what was going on. "I didn't get the rule from anywhere." He snapped, catching the human's attention. "It's something called common sense! All we have to do is drive it out! That way nobody will suffer anything and it will be over quicker!"
The human's eyes flashed down to his tail.
"And what about the others?" Fleetfoot roared, hackles raised as he looked at Toothless challengingly.
The human's eyes widened.
"WHAT OTHERS?" Toothless roared. "WE HAVE NO PROOF THERE ARE OTHERS!"
"Humans don't travel singularly!" Fleetfoot growled. "That is something called common sense also! How are we supposed to trust you staying here to live with us if you can't even stomach a small human like this one dying? Or any human for that matter!"
"Did you forget the one that sliced your tail?" Nightflight spoke up, pacing forward. Her eyes were critical as she looked at him. Toothless's ears flickered back and forth uneasily. "You must have forgotten what they do to us. Don't you see, Toothless? We have to kill them, otherwise they will find out where our home is and then wipe the Night Furies out completely! We've spent too long building up our home here, it's too late for anything to get out. We wouldn't have anywhere else to go."
"I'm not being disloyal!" Toothless flashed, getting uncomfortable.
There was silence in the cave, before: "Prove it." The command came from Mistyeyes, the smallish Night Fury looking at Toothless steadily. "Prove that you care more for your own kind than for humans." She turned, blinking over at Fleetfoot. "Let go, Toothless can be the one to attack the human."
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A/N: I can't seem to find a good ending for a chapter and not make it a cliffhanger! I'm sorry! DX
Anyway, hope you liked.
And I hope you review :3