A/N-Back again! This is probably the biggest chapter in the book, importance wise. Only 5 left after here, and while there's still a little action left, it's about time to start winding down before the next book! And from here, begin the acts that will reverberate through the entire rest of the series.
As always, read and review!
Chapter 31
Aftershocks
As soon as I was finished with Brutus and his motley crew of hard-headed soldiers, I left the Great Hall through a handy shadowy exit, and once outside, reformed into a double-sized Night Fury. Lifting off the ground and taking to the air, I could already see where the battle was going: the Vikings had already managed to push the remaining half of the land army to the edges of the cliffs surrounding the harbor and onto their ships again. Unfortunately, the boats were well armed, with massive javelin launchers and trebuchets flinging boulders the size of a Nightmare's head into the village and cliffs. The dragons seemed to be doing well, especially as the armor that the Vikings had created took a whole lot to puncture.
However, looking around, I did see casualties here and there. Nobody I really knew, and most of them were only injured, though that meant they were down and out for now, and at least one or two dragons had been hit by arrows or javelins that had managed to find the chinks between the armor. To my grim satisfaction, there were many more Crusaders lying on the ground, not all of them just injured either.
I dove into the fray, diving and twisting between the separate fights, knocking groups of enemy soldiers to the ground with small blasts of indigo fire, and taking out the ship-bound machines systematically. After a short while, I managed to spot Hiccup and Toothless, themselves using the Night Fury's famous dive-bomb to remove weapons both on the ships and in the hands of soldiers. I flew toward them.
"Hiccup!" I yelled, catching his attention. He turned and, seeing me, waved over to an empty airspace so we could talk for a moment. Once we got there, I grinned. "I have a bit of a plan," I said. "Not too much different from what we were doing, but it has to be done faster. We need to take out the javelin launchers first, since they have a better chance at skewering an air attack, and we're some of the few who are fast enough to avoid them, and once they're gone, the dragons are pretty much safe." Hiccup looked at the ships. "What about the trebuchets though?" he asked. I shook my head. "Right now, they're less dangerous. They don't move as fast, and so far I've seen them mostly hitting the side of the cliff. Plus, for the dragons at least, broken bones are easier to heal than a spear wound in the wrong place." Hiccup nodded, looked down at Toothless, and they turned toward the ships again. They took the ones on the left side, I took the ones on the right.
Keeping my shots carefully controlled, I aimed for the launchers, blasting them one after another and watching the explosions rip the machines apart, vaporizing in an inferno of indigo and orange. Ship after ship was disabled and after about 10 minutes, we had managed to take out every single launcher on the ships. We were now at the entrance of the harbor, past the ships, and I signaled Hiccup with a quick barrel roll in the air, pointing my right wing down at a trebuchet and telling him it was time to take those out. He nodded and bent down to say something to Toothless, and they shot upward for a second, only to spin around at high speed and aim for the nearest catapult, the signature Night Fury scream echoing throughout the harbor. I followed their example, rocketing upwards to gain height, then flipped over and screamed downward, gathering another fireball in my throat, and as the ship neared and the men on it fled, I fired. Nothing but splinters was left.
We had started out in the back of the fleet this time, working our way to the front. The trebuchets met the same fate as the javelin launchers, and as we neared the front of the fleet, back by Berk, it seemed like everything was working out okay. I was wrong.
As we reached about the third ship from the island, we flew up to gain air again, and dove, taking out more trebuchets. I swept past my target and began to circle to gain height again, when I noticed someone moving much more calmly than the rest on the lead ship. I banked to see who it was, and froze for a split second. That was my mistake. The person was the priest Attonius, and while we had been busy with the ships in the back, he had prepared a new sort of weapon, one not so easily removed with high-powered fireballs: he was holding a massive handheld crossbow, and was aiming it not at me, but at Hiccup and Toothless, who were still busy gaining height to take out another trebuchet. They didn't know, and they didn't have time to move.
I dove down toward Attonius, screaming out "TOOTHLESS! LOOK OUT!" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Toothless look over at me, then where I was heading, but by then, it was too late. I was still well over 500 feet up when the priest fired, the two-foot, broom-thick arrow screaming through the air. I flared and watched, helpless, as it found its intended target. Between the armor plates protecting Toothless' neck and chest, the arrow pierced, the shot of an expert marksman. Toothless let out a scream of agony, but the arrow didn't stop with him. It kept moving, spearing up through his side and through Hiccup's one good leg, pinning both of them together. Both screamed in pain, and lost control of their flight. The momentum of their height and angle caused them to turn toward the island, spinning out of control before they hit the water, skidding across the surface and plowing up across the one small beach in the area, sending up a massive spray of rocks and water onto the docks before they stopped moving. They didn't move after that.
"NNNNNOOOOOOOO!" I screamed in rage and agony, feeling as if I was ripping in two. Two of my best friends had possibly just gotten killed, and their murderer was below me. My own rational thinking and reasons for withholding my own power evaporated, and, hanging still a couple of hundred feet above the ship Attonius was standing triumphantly on, I flared my wings again, felt the fireball rising in my throat, and fired down at the center of the ship.
The huge fireball found its target, detonating on impact and ripping through the deck of the ship, blowing out the sides and exploding within, causing the entire structure to explode outward in a whirlwind of flames and shockwaves. I watched for only a moment, not caring anymore as the men on the ship, priest included, were thrown hundreds of feet to splash down into the frigid waters as their ship was ripped in two. Within second the remains of the ship as at the bottom of the bay.
Still lost within a cloud of rage and immense pain, my mind blanked out for a while as I went on a bit of a rampage. Later on Stoick informed me I ended up destroying about half of the ships in the harbor and severely damaged several others before I finally began to calm down. As I did, and my mind cleared, I immediately raced over to the beach where Hiccup and Toothless had crash-landed. They were losing a lot of blood, but I could see them still breathing raggedly. I sighed in a small bout of relief, as there was still a chance they could survive, and raced to find Stoick. Across the docks and up on the cliffs and pathways, mostly as a result of seeing what I had done in my blind anger, I saw soldiers raising their hands and dropping their weapons in surrender. We had won, but for a moment I didn't care at all about that. I raced over the docks and finally found Stoick, who was giving orders to take the soldiers who were still alive and restrain them in the Mead Hall for the moment being. He saw me land and turn human for a moment, and smiled. "Great job Hawken!" he congratulated, "Yer plan worked perfectly! We won after..." his voice trailed off when he finally recognized the look on my face. His tone grew dangerously serious. "What happened?" he asked carefully. "Hiccup and Toothless were shot down!" I nearly yelled in despair. In response I heard gasps ripple through the crowd around us, and Stoick tensed visibly, his face turning into a mix of shock and horror. "Where is he?" he asked sternly. "Where is my son?!" I turned and started to run toward the beach again. "Hurry, he's over here! I don't think they've got much time left!" I ran across the dock as fast as I could, ignoring the ramp that led to the small beach and instead jumped clear of the whole thing, landing hard in the pebbles and sand and racing again to the pair, soon followed by Stoick, Gobber, and the teens, all trailing basically the rest of the village behind them. Up above I heard shouts of "Hiccup!" and "What happened?!" as everyone noticed where I was heading and followed.
There, laying on the beach crumpled and ragged, was the beloved pair, Hiccup moaning and trembling in agony and Toothless grimacing from the same pain, but trying not to cry out so as to keep Hiccup calmer. I was glad to see they were still hanging on, but the amount of blood running across the sand and into the bay, and still pouring from their wounds where the arrow had pierced through told me that if something wasn't done immediately, they wouldn't be here for very long.
"Hiccup!" Stoick and Astrid yelled at the same time running up next to me. Hiccup turned and opened his eyes just barely, then gave a bone-chilling scream of agony after he did so. I ran forward, kneeling down next to them, and saw a number of joints where there weren't meant to be any; the number of broken bones from the crash was staggering. I looked Toothless in the eyes, and placed my hand gently on his head. ::Please,:: he whispered, barely able to keep the eye contact, ::kill us now. We won't survive these wounds anyway. Spare us the pain.:: I sat there, shocked, not believing what I was hearing from him.
Shaking my head, I stood up with determination and looked toward the Vikings behind me, healers finally reaching us and running forward. "No," I said quietly, and looked back at Toothless. "I am not going to let you two die!" I moved away from the healers as they knelt down and began to try dressing the wound. I looked closely at the arrow, and thought about what I had learned about medical problems in my own world. I turned to Stoick. "The arrow needs to come out, and something needs to be put in place to stop the bleeding!" I said. He nodded and directed the healers to start with that, as I found the teens and told them to help me hold Hiccup and Toothless still, as the removal of the arrow was going to be even more agonizing than it already was. I turned to the one teen who wasn't helping just yet, Fishlegs, and told him to go to my house and ask my mother for medical supplies. He nodded and headed off immediately with Horrorcow.
I was right about the arrow removal being horrible. As soon as Stoick cut off the base of the arrow in order to make removal as little of a hassle as possible, Hiccup began screaming and struggling, and the worst was yet to come. Astrid and Snotlout grabbed hold of Hiccup, keeping him as still as possible, while the twins and a couple of other Vikings held down Toothless' head and legs, and a couple more got in place holding down the powerful tail. Good thing too, for as Stoick began slowly pulling out the arrow, and the healers put in cloths to clog the hole behind it, Toothless let out a glass-shattering shriek and began thrashing around, the weight of all of us barely holding him in place.
It took five full minutes to remove the arrow safely, and luckily by then Fishlegs had returned with the first-aid kit I was hoping for. However, even with the cloths in thick bundles and plugging the wounds on both sides, the pair was both still losing blood, and the kit wouldn't do me any good if that wasn't stopped. Already Hiccup was starting to look pale. Stoick turned to me, complete defeat and agony written across his face as well. "Even with everything in place, they're nae goin' te last long," he said quietly, and turned to look back at his son. Gobber placed his good arm around Stoick's shoulder, trying to give comfort where none could be given.
I stood there, staring at the pair, racking my brain to try and figure out a solution as my eyes jumped from Hiccup to Toothless and back again. To take them to my world for surgeons to patch up would not only take too long and basically destroy the peace we had managed to gain hold of again, but it would be too expensive for us and I doubt anyone in my world knew how to operate on a Night Fury. Tears began to well up in my eyes as I pulled my gaze away from the pair and looked at Astrid, who met my gaze and mirrored my look, tears already running down the face of the usually stone-strong warrior and dripped onto the grayish-white pebbles of the beach. To add to the downcast mood, clouds began to cover the weak sun and a slight wind picked up, threatening hypothermia on top of all else we were dealing with.
Wind...white...
Suddenly, a flash of memories hit me: first the day of the races in the Viking gathering fest the year before. That day I had first changed into the Shadow Dragon, a species that was completely made up and with a power that shouldn't exist. I could turn into dragons that didn't actually live in this world, and therefore wield at least some of their strengths. Another flashback hit me then, a story I had read once, with a dragon in it that actually did have a chance at saving Hiccup and Toothless from the brink of death.
"Move out of the way!" I yelled, pushing back to the front of the crowd and standing by the pair, I looked around at the people crowding us. "And give me some room while you're at it!" "What is it?" Gobber asked, curiosity piqued. I smiled, already beginning the changes. "I know of a dragon that may be able to help here," I said. ""But that's a fatal wound," Astrid cried. "It would take a miracle to heal that!"
By then I was already standing on all fours, covered in snow-white scales, with a long tail reminiscent of Toothless' and massive wings also matching his own. As I finished the last changes and details in a hurry, I essentially looked like a snow-white Night Fury with horns on my head instead of ears. "I remembered when I first turned into the Shadow Dragon," I said. "It's a dragon that doesn't actually exist, and came from a story I had read. This one is also from another story, made up, but it still seems to have worked." I looked at Astrid and Stoick, who had come closer again. "If I'm right, the Wind Fury is supposed to have a fire that heals instead of burns. I don't know if it will work, but it's our only shot." The two nodded, and shooed the other villagers away from the scene, save for the healers, who weren't convinced yet. I looked at them, and gestured for them to move away. "Everyone needs to move away in case something goes wrong," I said. They were still reluctant to move, but another glare from me and a slight snarl had them getting out of the way plenty fast.
I padded up to Hiccup and Toothless, who both looked up at me. "I don't know how well this will work," I said quietly, "or whether or not this will hurt, but it may be your only chance. Are you ready?" Hiccup, who was amazingly still conscious, gave an agonized glance at me. "It can't hurt any more than this," he strained. "Just get it over with!" I nodded, and began to focus on the task of breathing fire, concentrating as I found the right mental path to the action. Lord, I beg of you, please let this work, I prayed silently, then I opened my mouth and let out my breath.
Nothing happened. At all. "No," I whispered, "this has to work!" I focused harder, concentrating as hard as I could, channeling as much energy as I thought I could toward the blast, but still nothing happened. "Come on," I hissed, despair starting to creep into my mind. "Hawken, I don't think it's working," I heard Astrid say. "Maybe there's another way, but we need to think-" "We don't have the time to think!" I snapped, whirling toward her. "This is the only chance we've got!" I focused back on the pair, and drew every ounce of energy that I had, every bit of strength in me, every breath I had, into the effort of making the fire that I needed so desperately, and tried to fire again.
I nearly lost my concentration when a stream of glowing, almost mist-like flames shot out of my mouth and hit Hiccup and Toothless straight on. It had worked! Finally! As the flames hit, they spread out like a fog across the pair, spreading out to the sides and seeping into their wounds and flowing around them, until both Hiccup, Toothless, and a good deal of the beach were nearly hidden from sight under the drifting, glowing white "fire." I finally stopped breathing out, and simply watched for any signs of the miracle I had prayed for.
The results were instantaneous! A relieved smile grew across my face as I watched the edges of the arrow wounds begin to close in, and the blood stopped seeping out. Slowly they closed completely, sealing with barely even scars to reveal they were there. The healing power didn't stop there, though, as scrapes and cuts sealed up, and the broken bones reset themselves, and an audible grinding could be heard as they strengthened good as new! Life began to seep back into the pair, color returning to Hiccup's skin and the shine of Toothless' scales redeeming itself. But even then, that wasn't all I had done, as without even realizing it, the fire I had used had enacted another pair of miracles.
SPROING! CRACK! SNAP!
Everyone jumped in surprise as loud cracks and snapping springs were heard, and we all looked toward first Hiccup's prosthetic leg, then Toothless' missing tailfin. Hiccup's fake leg had split in two from the force applied to it, and as it fell to the ground, from Hiccup's stump, the rest of his leg was regrowing. At the same time, the tailfin on Toothless had suffered a similar uprooting, as the black fin that had originally been there reappeared, stretching out slowly as bones elongated and the leathery skin stretched again between them, until it was good as new.
I stood there, speechless, as the Vikings behind me began to point and whisper, then cheer, as they watched these unintended miracles go to work. Hiccup, finally strong enough again to start thinking about what was going on around him, followed the fingers down to his leg. he yelped in surprise, and promptly fell off Toothless. "My-my leg..." he fumbled for words. "I don't... it's back! And Toothless! Your tail!" Toothless turned to look, and had about the same reaction as Hiccup, nearly squishing the boy in the process. "Hey, hey, watch it!' Hiccup protested. "I'm down here!" ::Sorry,:: Toothless apologized, though it went unheard, but not misunderstood, as Hiccup grinned, and hugged his friend as best he could. They looked over at me, words failing them again.
I heard steps behind me, and turned my head to see Stoick running up to Hiccup, grabbing him into a bear hug. "My son is back!" he exclaimed, laughing and hugging him some more. Hiccup tried to extract himself. "URK! Dad... can't breathe..." he gasped. Stoick looked down, then set Hiccup down again in apology, only to watch him fall over again as he failed to balance on the "new" leg. Stoick instead looked to me, and I was taken aback again as I saw tears going down Stoick's face. "What?" I exclaimed in mock surprise. "Stoick, you're actually crying?" He laughed and nodded. "We can't always live up te our names, can we?" he joked. The his face went somber again. "Ye save my son from death, again," he said, then gestured to the captive Crusaders also behind us on the decks, who were just as wide eyed as the rest of us. "I think ye also changed a few minds here too. I don't think I can ever repay ye enough, after all ye've don fer us." I smiled and shook my head, ignoring a sudden bout of lightheadedness. "None needed," I replied. "I saved a friend, and I've had plenty of good times with all of you. There's no payment of any form necessary." I turned to face Hiccup and Toothless again, who were swarmed by the villagers and the teens now, Astrid and Hiccup both crying into each other's shoulders from relief. I smiled, glad things had finally worked out after such a horrible day as what we had just gone through. I nodded in satisfaction and turned to look back at the Crusaders. "Now, let's focus on dealing with our little..."
As I took the first steps back toward the docks, my adrenaline-charged system began to truly calm down, and as it did so, I felt myself begin to fall apart. I felt the ground beneath me quake, and the world began to swim and grow dimmer and dimmer, and I didn't even notice myself falling. As my vision blacked out, I realized I had made another mistake of sorts. In the story I had read, Wind Furies required years in order to save up enough of their healing breath to use even once, likely, I now realized, because of the taxing physical requirements of producing such a power, especially on a whim like I had just done. As this last thought passed through my head, I passed out, splayed unceremoniously on the beach.
Hiccup and Toothless completely forgot their good-as-new, healed states as they watched their friend fall hard to the ground. "Hawken!" Hiccup yelled, jumping up and stumbling over to the white dragon, not caring at all that once again he was completely unused to his foot, and shoeless to boot (no pun intended). He staggered and hopped across sharp rock shards to the dragon, tipping and falling halfway there, but Toothless managed to jump forward and catch him in time. "Thanks, bud," Hiccup said, and they both limped over to their friend. Hiccup dropped to the ground next to the dragon and put his ear carefully up to his side. Hearing faint breathing, he let out a sigh of relief and slumped to the ground, looking up at his father. "He's still alive!" Hiccup exclaimed, causing Stoick, Gobber, and a number of other Vikings to rush forward.
"Get him up to my house, immediately," Stoick ordered, pointing at the gaggle of villagers. "Lay him on the mat inside, and get Sigrid to look him over. I'll be there in a few minutes." The villagers nodded in agreement, and carefully, they picked up the white dragon, and slowly carried him up the path toward the village. Though Hawken was still a bit smaller than Toothless at the moment, he was still nearly the same shape and a few hundred pounds, therefore making it a slight problem to move quickly. Stoick watched them make their way up the cliff side for a little bit, then turned his attention to Gobber.
"Take the prisoners here to the Kill Ring, and hold them in the cages for now," he ordered. "And of course make sure that they don't have any weapons on them." "Got it Stoick," Gobber said, turning to deal with the task. Stoick started to turn away, and then remembered another detail. "Oh, and Gobber?" The blacksmith turned back again. "Make sure after ye do that ye go an' deal with the soldiers Hawken left in the Great Hall. Put them in the same place." Gobber smirked for a minute, recalling what he had heard inside the hall before he had left earlier, and turned away again, giving Stoick just enough time for one more sentence: "Meet me at my house after yer done, so we can start figuring out what to do."
After the men had all left, Stoick turned to the teens, who were still standing nearby. Astrid had her arms around Hiccup, and the two were engaged in a kiss. "Ahem," Stoick said, catching their attention. The two lovebirds broke apart and blushed, rubbing the back of their heads. "Hiccup, you and Toothless stay here for a moment," Stoick said. "The rest of you, go to Hawken's house and tell his family what has transpired. I know his mother is going to be very worried, but currently Hawken's not going te be able te go back to his own house." He paused for a moment, and looked over the group of teens, specifically Snotlout and the twins. "Better yet, Astrid and Fishlegs, you go, and the rest of you go and keep an eye out on our friend." They nodded, and the group left, leaving Hiccup and Toothless alone with the chief.
Stoick turned to his son, and wrung his hands for a moment. "So," he started, "how do ye feel?" Hiccup smirked and looked himself over. "Eh, well, considering how all this started, pretty okay. A few scrapes from the rocks, but whatever Hawken did worked perfectly." Stoick nodded. "So I take it Toothless won't be needin' a tailfin anymore?" Hiccup looked at his reptilian friend, and a face of slight anxiety made itself known, before he smiled and nodded. "Looks like it. We won't need to worry about spare parts for my own leg either." Stoick nodded and smiled. There was silence for a moment, and Hiccup started to fidget. "Uh, anything else?" he asked. Stoick shook his head. "It's just good te have you back and safe, my son," he answered. Hiccup nodded, looked over at Toothless, then back at his father. "Do you think Hawken will be okay?" he asked. "Whatever he did, it looked like it literally took everything out of him." Stoick stood for a minute, then nodded slightly. "That boy's surprised us more times than I can count," he said, "and you recovered from much worse, so I have little doubt he'll be back te himself in no time. But until then, we will just have to wait and see."
After checking over the pair, Stoick headed up to his house, and Hiccup had to ride Toothless up the path behind him. Since naturally they were both used to prosthetics, Hiccup no longer could walk easy, and Toothless couldn't fly, so for now, they were stuck on the ground and in the saddle, so to speak. Hiccup doubted he would even be able to walk around his house okay, but knowing Toothless' habit of jumping up the stairs and around the rafters, he decided he'd manage as best as he could. The biggest problem for now would be finding all those left socks and shoes again...
In the meantime, the pair along with Stoick had decided that somehow, they were going to pay Hawken back, no matter what he said. Too much had transpired for them to just sit back and feel indebted, but so far, nobody had any idea as for what to do. Fishlegs and Astrid returned soon with Hawken's mother in tow, as Stoick was right when he said she would be very worried, but as everything seemed to be stable, she agreed that being left in one place would be best for the boy, only insisting that she be kept updated if anything at all changed.
For the moment, things were finally calm again, and while Stoick stuck to dealing with the prisoners, Hiccup and the teens stuck to caring for their unconscious friend and making sure nothing at all went wrong. The battle was over, but nevertheless, their hands were still plenty full.