XXX.

The dragon trap's domed roof opened above her, its toothy edges facing upward to a sky inundated with warring dragons.

In the haste to reach the Vigilante's stronghold, someone must have forgotten Astrid's imprisonment in one of the dragon traps, and thus pulled hers out onto the battlefield alongside all the others. It left Astrid frustratedly staring upward, wishing for an axe in her hand and a means to escape. For while the mouth of the trap opened up to the world, she knew as soon as she tried to clamber up its metal sides and slip out, it would clamp shut tightly again, perhaps even snapping its teeth on her.

This is ridiculous, Astrid fumed, wanting to punch something. Trapped in a cage with an open door.

A Zippleback twisted above her, not too far from the lid of the trap, and let out an enormous stream of green gas. As soon as another dragon neared, the Zippleback's second head lit a spark, sending its attacker howling away. Showers of sparks rained down toward Astrid; she dived with a somersault roll to the edge of the trap for shelter. Cold metal walls greeted her when she stood herself back up again.

Wait is that…

"Ruff! Tuff!" she shouted out as loudly as she could.

Twin tails of a Zippleback flashed away back into the mayhem.

This time Astrid did punch something. The trap's steel wall. And immediately regretted it.

Yet again she searched the perimeter of the round enclosure for some escape, some way to leave without triggering the mechanism that would snap her limbs in two did she try to jump out. Nothing. She understood more about the battle waging above her than how to safely leave this trap, and she only had the small perspective of a prisoner staring up at body clashing against body.

Fires erupted in the skies. Each dragon contributed a different explosion, each unique to its kind – Monstrous Nightmares horrendous orange-hot spirals, Typhoomerangs tornado-like spark showers, Zipplebacks their distinct green gases and enormous subsequent explosions, Gronckles a barrage of shooting half-melted boulders. Even a bright purple-blue burst at one point flashed across the sky like a streak of angry lightning… could that possibly have been Hiccup and Toothless?

Maybe we're going to win this, she thought, hopeful, neck craned upward and intently watching the skies for another sign of a possible Night Fury blast. If Hiccup and Toothless have escaped, then the Berkians have gotten the main thing we came for.

Then fire met rocketing ice.

What is that?

An entire slab of dragon scales covered her vision of the world. The entire sky turned gray as one single claw passed over her trap. It became the sky. The talon lifted over, and then stretches, stretches, stretches of body followed. If something that enormous could be a body.

That thing has to be larger than the Red Death we fought five years ago, she recognized in horror.

Whose side is it on?

Terrified screams of men and dragons answered.

I need to be out there fighting! As if one woman's presence could turn the tide of a battle against such a beast.

But I can. What if we can defeat it in the same way as the Red Death?

A torrent of dragons flashed over her, nothing more than green and blue and yellow and red-orange blurs running like a sky-high river over her head. And like a river they growled and burbled and roared out angrily, a rapid of dragons, ready to pull any under their path and drown them in their unforgiving rushes. Tails splashed like whitewater, fire burst forth like sudden sprays. Astrid ran out to the center of the dragon trap and waved her hands wildly, shouting desperately through the mayhem to be recognized – yet even she could not hear her own voice.

No one else would be able to hear her either.

This is futile.

Then something hurled down and hovered right above her, just out of reach of the trap's gaping jaws.

Hookfang.

Snotlout, staring down. Somehow – she would never understand how – her peer had noticed her. Astrid could not see his blue eyes widened in incredulity, yet she could imagine the reaction all the same.

And Hookfang simply hovered, hovered, hovered over her, the flow of the battle and rushing dragons wreaking havoc in a background behind them, Hookfang a strange static element amidst it, and Astrid could not tell if Snotlout were shouting anything or not, but the next thing she knew, a chunky orange-yellow Gronckle was hovering beside him, Fishlegs staring down worriedly at her enclosure as well, and there were two of them hoping to rescue her.

"Get me out!" she shouted in the futile hope they could hear her now. "But watch it! It snaps shut!"

She could see them frantically pointing somewhere right to her left. What are they planning?

Astrid watched Fishlegs' solid brick-like form brace himself in the shoulders before Meatlug let out a blast. The rock which she had been holding in her jaws shot forward, smashing against some part of the trap, the metal screaming out in deafening rings at the impact. Astrid instinctively threw her arms over her head and cringed. A horrible booming snap resonated; the trap had clamped shut.

But when she opened her eyes, there was still a trickle of light splashing on her hair.

Meatlug had aimed the rock at the trap's outer wall, and now it was lodged near the ground between the two jaws, keeping the maw cracked open slightly and allowing Astrid a means to climb out without being severed in two.

She rushed gratefully toward the wall when the boulder shook. And then in a sudden snap the trap crushed the granite and encased Astrid completely in darkness.

She shuddered at the close call.

The explosions from outside echoed strangely distantly, now that she again was isolated in total darkness and shut off even from the sound of the outer world.

Son of a half-troll rat-eating…

She heard something cranking.

A sliver of light, like a bolt of lightning, glowed above her.

It grew.

And then a head popped out from the side of the trap, near to where the boulder had exploded, and shouted, "It's safe! Get out now!"

Astrid did not need to think to respond. She hurled herself through the crack and tumbled onto snowy ground.

Free.

She turned around to thank her rescuer.

"You!"

"My name is Eret," the tall, muscular brunette protested. He stood alongside Fishlegs and Snotlout, both of them having landed and dismounted from their dragons since Astrid's dragon trap completely shut.

"Yeah, yeah, son of Eret, I remember," Astrid said dismissively. In truth, she had almost forgotten about the young dragon trapper in the midst of life's recent events, but now that he again stood before her, she wondered how he ever could have slipped her mind. She pulled herself onto her feet and walked up to grab an unused axe lying on the ground. Whoever had died would not need it, and it certainly felt wonderful to Astrid to be armed once more.

"Good thing I was here to help you open this trap," Eret remarked, glancing at the crank mechanism which he still held in one hand.

Astrid mused, "You willingly helped me. After being so hesitant to help rescue Hiccup from the Vigilante or even sail to Berk back in the day."

"Look, we're in the middle of a battle, and we're fighting on the same side! Is that really so hard to understand?"

"Where's Stormfly?" Fishlegs worriedly asked, cutting off the bickering.

Astrid stared around the battle scene in horror. Now that she had a clearer view of the events, she realized how greatly disarrayed the entire world was. Men collapsed all around her, diving under dragon fire. Often as not, when the smoke of blasts cleared, organs or burning holes rather than men scattered the ground. Above her, dragons were fleeing the enormous Bewilderbeast, which was howling angrily as a swarm of Berkian riders rushed it from two fronts. A disheveled ant's nest made for greater order than this.

How can I find Stormfly in this?

Then Eret suddenly asked, "Your blue Nadder?"

"Yes…"

"I saw Drago capture it only shortly after they locked you in there. I think 'Stormfly' should be in another trap nearby."

"Start looking!" Snotlout exclaimed. Astrid launched herself without asking behind Hookfang's saddle, ready to ride the skies on Snotlout's dragon, at the same time gesturing to Eret to slip onto Meatlug with Fishlegs.

Eret's face immediately switched from certainly to worry. "Uh…"

"Get on! She's a complete rose petal on the inside, cross my heart!"

Before Astrid could see the dragon trapper's decision, Hookfang launched into the skies, leaving Fishlegs, Meatlug, and Eret far below and out of sight. Astrid, finding herself unstable as she and Snotlout flashed through the skies, tottered forward and grabbed onto the dragon rider in front of her.

"Too bad you're not Ruffnut," she thought she heard him say.

"Really, Snotlout, really? You're thinking about this in the middle of a battle?"

Hookfang desperately corkscrewed downward to avoid a burst of fire above their head.

"This is hardly a romantic flight!" she exclaimed.

Above the sound of three hundred simultaneous dragon screeches, Snotlout retorted, "Ruffnut would think so! She loves explosions!"

"Shut up about your hopeless fantasies and stay focused! We're looking for Stormfly!"

Her eyes scanned the rapidly-changing landscape beneath her and keenly stared into every dragon trap they passed.

"There!" Pointing.

Downward dive. A blue Deadly Nadder, tied to the floor in the center of a dragon trap, struggled futilely against her bonds.

"Stormfly!"

Meatlug veered toward the trap as well, noticing Hookfang's descent. Everyone rushed off the dragons, Astrid even launching off from Hookfang's saddle before the Monstrous Nightmare fully landed beside the trap. She charged to the crank mechanisms on the side of the trap and began pulling.

"Careful!" Eret shouted out, running up behind her. "You're not going to say her that way! You have to –" he adjusted a lever "– do this first… and then…"

"Thank you," Astrid answered. "But – didn't you brag you were the 'greatest dragon trapper alive' or something? And now you're helping me release a dragon?"

"I'd rather have your dragon released and fighting that monster –" Eret pointed to the skies, where the Bewilderbeast roared furiously "– than indiscriminately cage everything in sight. Now go!"

Astrid dived into the dragon trap, dashed straight at her dragon, and began cutting bonds with the sharp side of her axe. She heard Stormfly squawk anxiously as she ran up. "I'm sorry girl, I'm so sorry, I'm going to get you out of here, okay?"

Ropes snapped.

Dragons screamed outside.

Suddenly, the voices in the chaos became louder.

What's going on? She whittled against the ropes faster.

"Almost… free… now!"

Stormfly launched to her feet, tumbling forward to Astrid and butting her nostrils fondly against Astrid's chest. The Viking woman, laughing, dropped the axe and threw her arms around her dragon's face.

"Good girl! Now let's get out there and fight!"

Astrid grabbed the axe once more, threw herself onto Stormfly's saddle, and launched out into the skies.

Not even a recognizable instance passed before she was being attacked. Wildly gaping jaws snagged her hair. She threw all her strength into an axe swing, knocking right up against the dragon's nostrils. It howled, retreating backward just a moment, then struck again. Stormfly took defensive measures this time, barrel rolling. Even as Astrid spun and her stomach twirled into knots, her eyes losing focus in dizzying circles, she noticed the form of a Viking on the dragon's back.

"What are you doing? Don't attack me!"

"I d– can't – control!" She only caught half the words, but she understood the message.

Dragon out of control.

Claws reaching out to grab her shoulders from above. Astrid found herself being lifted from the saddle. Stormfly screeched and twisted, forcing the other dragon to release its grip on Astrid. She and Stormfly loop-de-looped around, vision streaming first sky, then ground, then sky again, and they came upon the other dragon from its unprotected backside, and lunged.

With a shriek Astrid pulled Stormfly up. "Don't attack! Another rider!"

Now two dragons trying to fight me? Can't we tell who's who?

Yet then she realized, an eye quickly glancing at the chaos-streamed skies, that nearly every pair of dragons that turned one on another came from Berk.

How and why are they all turning against each other?

Other dragons simply flew downward as though refusing to fight. Gravity pulled down upon Astrid, and Stormfly, too, descended.

"No, Stormfly, no! Stay airborne! We need to fight!"

Astrid leaned in to stare at Stormfly's eyes.

The pupils were contracted to narrow slits, staring straight ahead, almost unblinking, certainly not registering Astrid's worried face nor any of her commands to the dragon.

"Stormfly, no!"