Chapter Twelve: The Monster is Loose
You may want to look back at Chapter Seven to refresh your memory on the Black Typhoon. For her abilities and who lives with her.
I've been looking forward to writing this chapter for some time now…
Two weeks have passed since Hiccup lost the race to Claudette. By now both he and Toothless were back into their respective bodies. With each passing day, the villagers of Berk feared the arrival of Dagur and his dragon army. He may be insane, but they knew that he wouldn't attack until he felt for sure that he was going to win.
Knowing that Dagur could attack any day now, and Hiccup knew that Dagur will be on his way soon, they requested that Alvin and the Outcasts come on over as reinforcements. They came to Berk heavily armed, and with more food.
Hiccup introduced the new routine that was now Berk's daily lifestyle. They were days of rigorous training and work to be done, with very little time for anything fun.
Alvin was shown the tunnel network, and spent several hours navigating his way through their complex network astride Blade. The one-eyed Chief took about an hour longer than Hiccup to familiarize himself with the tunnels.
Now on Berserker Island, they were readying the ships with weapons and the fierce dragons, the only dragon that would be flying for now was the Black Typhoon, as she wouldn't fit on or in either of the ships.
"My dear Berserkers, today is the day we set sail for Berk, and put an end to them! Now to the ships, we leave now!" Dagur announced. So the Berserkers set sail into yet another needless war. However, underneath Dagur's nose, there was a plot for a mutiny against him. As of right now it was something to talk about, as the Berserkers couldn't agree on what method to use to overthrow their insane Chief, and the good former Chief simply loved too many of the ideas to settle for just one. So, for now, all they really hoped for was that Dagur will meet a frightful end during this battle they wanted nothing to do with and was none of their business.
Also, there was the fact that earlier that day, right before sunrise, the former Chief had found a Terrible Terror. It was the same dragon that Chief Hiccup would send him to deliver messages from Berk. So the former Chief took the small dragon and sent a letter to Berk.
"Ow, OW! Chief, you got mail!" Snotlout called out.
"That's the dragon I send to Berserker Island." Hiccup told himself. The Terrible Terror unclamped its jaws from Snotlout's arm and gently perched on Hiccup's shoulder. Hiccup took one quick look at the message and the handwriting, and then ordered Helga: "Round up the people and their dragons into the Great Hall, I need them to hear this."
"You got it, Chief!" Helga replied. She saluted him with her mace and set out to do her job, while Hiccup and his gang of riders headed for the Great Hall.
Hiccup watched as the Vikings and dragons filed into the hall, the letter was still in his grasp. He waited until he was sure that he had their undivided attention before reading the message for them:
My friends of Berk,
I assume that you from your alliance with the Outcasts that you know that Dagur had escaped from his prison, but please let me tell you something that you may not know. A while back he returned to Berserker Island with a massive grey dragon with black spines. I do not know what dragon it is, but I am certain that it is of the Strike class.
Upon arrival, he forced us to accept him as our Chief or he would use this Strike class monster to destroy our village. We had no choice but to surrender, and ever since he regained this title, we've been forced to train for a battle we want nothing to do with.
It doesn't matter whether or not we want to fight you and your fearsome dragons and your warriors, what does matter is that Dagur will be attacking you soon. By the time you receive this message, I am sure that the armada would have set sail with your island and with a horde of other dragons. I apologize for not sending you this note when it would've been more convenient to you, but I found the Terrible Terror at the last minute.
Goosefoot, Former Berserker Chief.
"Vikings, we're going to arms! Snotlout, Fishlegs, Gothi, you two take the children and your dragons to shelter and guard them. Snotlout, I don't want to hear any complaints from you. I need you and Hookfang to be the main muscle to protect them. Now dragon riders, I want you to station yourselves at the exterior of the inner wall around the island. Ground fighters, try to keep the killing to a minimum, the men you'll be fighting want no part of this war, and I want as many of them to go home as possible for that. Now, Claudette and Whoshadow, I want you to team up with Stoick and Shadowrath and bring down Dagur if you can. Now, TO ARMS!" Hiccup announced. He put on his flight mask and mounted Toothless.
Gothi rode with Fishlegs as the children ran for the shelter. Snotlout was grumbling to himself during the whole trip, but Hookfang didn't seem to mind the task at hand. The Monstrous Nightmare was optimistic, maybe some dragons will find the shelter and he could give them a good mauling… like how Gothi's pack of Terrible Terrors mauled Snotlout when he tried stealing some of her medicinal herbs.
As the children filed into the cave that provided their shelter, it was now an excruciating waiting game. Their young minds will worry if their parents will make it through this battle. They've been told the terrifying stories of Dagur the Deranged from Hiccup and Snotlout at their own request. Granted, the stories were slightly different based off of who told them, but the children still found the story of how Dagur got his hands on his own Skrill to be quite scary in either version.
To pass the time, they told stories of their own adventures with their parent's dragons while cuddling with whatever prized plush toy they dragged along with them. It wasn't that they needed the toys to comfort them; it was the fact that they were sentimental and dragons were prone to burning buildings to the ground.
The salty sea air smelled great to Dagur as he and the Thunder Queen had Berk within their sights. What he smelled wasn't really the air, but rather the blood he expected to shed during his attack. He stroked the Black Typhoon's head, feeling the power of the lightning she had stored inside her. Like the Skrill, she could take in the lightning, but she could also shoot spines, fire plasma, and deliver thunderous blasts with her wings.
Now that Berk was near, Dagur howled to signal the armada to release the Thunder Queen's dragons. Night Furies, Skrills, Timberjacks, and other dragons took to the skies at screaming speeds, and flew straight for Berk. Dagur would've flown with them, but he wanted to make sure that the Berserkers actually made it to the island rather than turning the ships around. He won this fleet and he sure as hell was going to put it to good use.
With the dragons approaching Berk, Toothless signaled the solo dragons to take to the skies. After they got a head start, Hiccup gave the order for the dragon riders to take flight… and let the battle begin.
Right now, the dragons weren't paying any mind to the armada, they needed to drive the dragons away from Berk, so with their attention on the dragons, the armada drew closer to the island without trouble, but they were not to thrilled to see the latest addition to Berk's guard.
Aric raised his head above the armada, and well into the sky as far as the Berserkers were concerned. To see a massive Bewilderbeast towering above you for the first time, and with a clear scowl on its face…
…It was reported that some of the Berserkers shat or pissed their pants.
Aric blew a great stream of his icy breath in front of the ships, and several small ones to capture the Skrills in the air. Once the Skrills were turned into ice cubes, it was Brünhild's task to take them into the tunnels for their safety. Everyone on Berk now knew that Toothless hatched with these dragons; they were good dragons being commanded by one bad man. Yes, the only bad guy in this fight was Dagur the Deranged.
"What in the name of Loki is that?" Dagur asked himself as he looked down from the Thunder Queen's back and at the Bewilderbeast. He didn't see that coming.
After seeing what Aric had done to her beloved Skrills, the Thunder Queen raised her immense wings to full height and extension, and delivered a wing blast that sounded like a full thunderstorm down upon Aric. Waves of water crashed over Aric's head and the Bewilderbeast was knocked off his feet by the sheer force of the blast.
"Have I ever told you that I love you?" Dagur asked the Black Typhoon after seeing her display of strength.
Aric did get back on his feet in time, but he kept in mind that the dragons that came with the Berserkers nested with the Thunder Queen, and she was not going to tolerate him turning her dragons into ice.
Now after battling through the horde of Night Furies and Skrills, Shadowrath and Whoshadow were finally close enough to the Thunder Queen to begin their attack. Whoshadow recognized the bastard who stabbed her foot. Instantly, she went into full rage.
"And I shall smite the wicked and plunge them into a fiery pit!" Whoshadow roared with inconceivable rage. The crazed, vengeful, Skrill barreled towards the Thunder Queen, lightning sparking all over her body. As she was about to fire to exact her revenge, the Thunder Queen had turned, saw Whoshadow coming, and delivered a wing blast that would've made her the envy of all Black Typhoons! It sent Whoshadow and Claudette well over one hundred meters away easily.
When the team decelerated to a halt, Claudette told the crazed Skrill: "I know you want to exact your revenge on the bastard who had the audacity to stab your beautiful foot, but you still need to keep your wits girl. Now let's try it again. Stoick and Shadowrath can't take a Black Typhoon one-on-one."
So, Whoshadow turned around and gave it another go, only to find that Stoick had called for Eret, Helga and Tuffnut, and Ruffnut for backup. Not to mention, Sapphire had joined them. So Claudette decided that it would be best to pursue them, and zapped any dragon that got to close to their friends.
Hiccup teamed up with Astrid and Valka, their main job was to keep the opposing dragons from destroying the village. Plenty of the other dragon riders, including Alvin and Blade, were doing the same task… Hiccup's position was just special.
A pair of the Thunder Queen's Night Furies flew straight at Toothless. The smaller of the two locked claws and were about to duel, but then they caught each other's smell and time just seemed to freeze around them.
"Shadeghost, is that you?" The dragon asked Toothless.
"Mother?" He questioned. The dragon, Lady Anora, looked over to her mate and called out: "Zephyr, it's Shadeghost!"
"Shadeghost?" Hiccup questioned.
"Yeah, it's the name I had before 'Toothless' and that was Lady Anora, my mother and your daughter's namesake!" Toothless replied. Lady Anora had Toothless' eyes but she was more of a dark grey than black. As for her mate, he was almost as black as Shadowrath but he had yellow eyes.
"Well, your folks sure are an attractive couple." Hiccup stated. Lady Anora and Zephyr eventually turned their attention to another dragon rider, and chased them into the tunnels where they would get lost.
The Berserkers made it past Aric and through the walls, and several of them were captured and imprisoned on the spot. They fought the people of Berk and the Outcasts, but it was mainly for show. Otherwise Dagur would've interfered with the Thunder Queen.
Speaking of the Black Typhoon. She was doing a wonderful job of keeping the other dragons and dragon riders away from her and her rider. She favored blasting them away with her wings, but at times she'd send them a spark of lightning or a plasma blast, especially if she found a dragon rider in pursuit of one of her beloved dragons.
The Thunder Queen also kept her eyes on the Bewilderbeast, he tried to control her, but as another Alpha species, she was immune to Aric's special ability. However, she could do very little as far as keeping Aric from breathing his icy breath at her.
In a way to help the other dragons, Aric constructed a glacier, where dragons could fight on land without being on the island. It was a lot of work, but it went smoothly with the aid of another Dragonstone he had. Unfortunately, something went wrong with it; during the construction of the glacier, it got a large crack in the middle. The crack was only fifteen feet wide and fifty feet deep, but it could spell disaster for anyone unfortunate enough to fall through it.
However, the glacier worked. The dragons were using it to fight their opponents, and to rest their wings at the same time. Among those dragons were Barf and Belch, and Helga was showing who was the boss of the glacier by flailing her mace in every direction, sounding her own battle cry, and avoiding the large crack, as she struck dragon after dragon.
Gobber had also joined the Glacier Club on Grump's back. Grump was a bit of a mace menace himself, as he knocked dragon after dragon in their heads by using his tail and an occasional blast of fire.
So far the battle was all fun and games, but then Dagur caught sight of Hiccup and Toothless and now it was time for him to attack! The Thunder Queen began pursuit of them, and fired a plasma blast! It knocked the panel off of Hiccup's shoulder armor, and it revealed the Dragonstone he had stored inside it. Toothless turned around, Hiccup used the stone to conjure fire, and throw the flaming orbs at Dagur and the Thunder Queen. He struck her face a few times, but then another Skrill came around, and locked claws with Toothless.
Now with Toothless focused on not getting zapped by the Skrill, Dagur ordered the Thunder Queen to fire at Hiccup again. This time he was knocked off of his saddle, and the Dragonstone was dislodged from his armor.
"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup screamed as he was plummeting down to the glacier. He opened up his flying-squirrel suit and chased after the stone in hopes it would save him if no other dragon could.
Hearing his rider's scream, Toothless charged up a powerful plasma blast, and threw the Skrill off of him. He was flapping wildly to reach his rider, but Hiccup got a good head start.
After seeing Hiccup getting shot out of his saddle, Valka, Stoick, and Astrid were flying after him with Toothless, but Toothless was the closest one to him. In the meantime, the action enraged Claudette and Whoshadow. So they made for another approach to take Dagur down. Whoshadow was nearing Dagur, ready to snatch the dirty bastard with her claws; but once again, the Thunder Queen turned, saw them, and gave them a wing blast! This time she sent them into the outer ice wall, and upon collision, Whoshadow lost consciousness.
Now, Hiccup had fallen into the crack, there was no way that Toothless could save him now, he simply could not fit! With a mere twenty feet more to go before collision, Hiccup caught the Dragonstone, but unfortunately, he hit a beam of ice with his head, and ricocheted to the floor, blood spilling from his head.
"NNNOOO!" Astrid screamed. All at once, she, Valka, Stoick, Toothless, Sapphire, and Midnightfire gathered where Hiccup had landed, all on the same side of the crack. Looking down they saw Hiccup's still form from the glow of the Dragonstone.
"Hiccup!" Astrid called to him.
No response.
"HICCUP!" Stoick boomed. The other dragon riders caught this and gathered with them to see what was going on.
Again, there was no response.
Toothless roared with obvious panic and worry.
Nothing, not even movement came from Hiccup.
Toothless called over a Terrible Terror and sent the small dragon down to Hiccup to see what had happened to him. The Terrible Terror flew down and bit Hiccup's good leg, but he didn't give a reaction to the bite. The Terrible Terror moved over to Hiccup's head, and got the information she was looking for. She flew back to the top, landed, looked at Toothless in the eyes, and bowed her head mournfully.
Even the Vikings knew what that meant. Astrid fell to her knees, hands clutching at her chest over her heart, and she screamed into the air. Toothless roared a few more times at Hiccup before he finally had to admit his brother-in-arms fate. He threw his head up and released the most sorrowful roar imaginable, before he too collapsed. Now dragons normally don't cry, but as he was looking down into the crack, Toothless was sobbing. Midnightfire clung to one of her mother's forelegs and wept; Stoick and Valka clung to each other crying in each other's shoulders, Gobber turned to Grump and screamed into his hide, and other Vikings removed their helmets with their tears flowing.
"What was that sound?" Snotlout asked. The sound in question was Astrid's scream mixed with the roar of a Night Fury with a shattered heart.
"I don't know, but it sounded worse than the shrieks of the Skrills we had to chase off." Fishlegs replied.
"If that's the case, I'm going to take Hookfang and investigate." Snotlout told them. He and Hookfang took off at the highest speed a Monstrous Nightmare could muster. They were gone for a short while before returning.
As Snotlout dismounted, he turned to Fishlegs; his eyes were turning red and welling up with tears. He clung to Fishlegs in an embrace and blubbered: "Hi-Hiccup i-i-i-is dead!"
Gothi was stuck by so much sudden grief that she swooned.
"Are you serious?" Fishlegs asked after Gothi hit the ground.
"YES!" Snotlout wailed. Hookfang hung his head in sadness too.
Seeing the commotion from above, Dagur landed the Thunder Queen on the other side of the crack, where he found the Haddock family in sobs. He looked down into the crack and let out a victorious howl.
"At last! I have defeated Hiccup! BERK IS NOW MINE!" He exclaimed, throwing his hands up in the air. Toothless looked up and snarled at Dagur.
"You are the reason he is dead, and I swear to Loki, Thor, and Odin, you will pay!" He snarled. He was about to charge up a fatal plasma blast, but the Thunder Queen threatened to give him a wing blast, not to mention, her dragons were grouping around her.
"You Berkians better start packing now." Dagur told them. The Thunder Queen was ready to get hostile, but there was no need for it. The Berkians and Outcasts gathered their needs children, and an unconscious Whoshadow and Claudette. Now, they were forced to flee. Their destination… Outcast Island.
TO BE CONTINUED…
You mad, Bro? Look back at the Author's Note at the end of Chapter Four, you can't say I didn't warn you.