Chapter 8
Hiccup walked up slowly towards his house, alone. His mind was recalculating the whole strategy, making sure that everything would work. Subconsciously he pleaded with four teens to do as their told.
"Hello 'iccup."
The dragon conqueror stopped dead in his tracks at the sound of the rough voice that came from in front of him. Alvin took the bait. Suddenly there was a thud further in front of him that can only be explained by a dragon landing.
"Hello Alvin."
Surprised, the Outcast leader spun around to see a young blonde Viking stationed on top of a blue Nadder. Suddenly, there was a big explosion over at the edge of the forest that caught his attention. Flying above was a Gronckle and Nightmare both watching the Outcasts running and screaming out of the woods chased by a pair of teens on top a Zippleback laughing and giving each other a fist-pump. Alvin grunted angrily and turned to see Hiccup running off further into Berk.
oOo
"What am I going to do, Gobber?" The Berk chief and his blacksmith friend were outside the Great Hall. "I never see him anymore besides sleepin'. He won't talk to me."
"Have ye ever considered talkin' to ta boy?"
A loud explosion off on the right interrupted their conversation. Smoke was rising; three teens were riding their dragons. The sapphire Nadder came rushing towards them.
"Sir," the leucous female addressing him had concern etched into her face, "it's Alvin."
The chief's eyes grew wide for a moment before narrowing. "Gobber, rally up the villagers for a counter attack." Then he ran toward the building mayhem.
oOo
At the sound of Astrid's voice, Hiccup turned and ran. He would need to get as close to the docks and Toothless as possible if he hoped to stop Alvin. It wasn't until he realized he hadn't fallen yet did it strike him that he could virtually see where he was going. In his mind, he could somehow discern his surroundings and what path to take. See Astrid, I told you I had this place memorized.
Alvin had seen Hiccup run off and, of course, chased him but where was the boy going? The large Outcast with a round beard ran along the outskirts of Berk in an attempt to be unnoticed. He assumed that Hiccup walking alone to his house would have been the perfect opportunity to snatch him; apparently not, but no time to change plans now, he was here and wouldn't leave without his dragon trainer. The man ran faster trying to cut off the boy from wherever he was going. As the road ahead of him came to a dead end, he turned to the left in the direction of his prey. However, he was now disorientated. The barbaric man (coincidentally) stopped in front of the path towards the docks as he tried to relocate the boy; here he came. Alvin hid behind the nearest building, waiting for his prey. Just as Hiccup approached he jumped out and grabbed the teenager. The walking fishbone immediately tried to wiggle his way out of the grasp, walling his arms and kicking but not it the direction of his captor. The thrashing suddenly stopped out of knowledge that it wasn't hitting anything. Hiccup didn't face the large man. Alvin, curious, waved a hand in front of the dragon conqueror's face; he didn't respond. A large smile grew on Alvin's face as he chuckled. Yep, something definitely went wrong.
oOo
Stoick, Gobber, the dragon riders and some villagers bombarded the attack of Outcasts. It was rather refreshing to exercise muscles through hitting, punching, kicking and other tactics not used since the last dragon fight. With a large village against a group of approximately ten Outcasts, defeating and capturing them did not take long especially with the newly fond use of scaly companions.
"Astrid!" the Viking chief called out to the blue Nadder flying by, "Where's Hiccup?"
"We're supposed to meet him at the docks once we're done here." The girl flew off towards the other teens.
Stoick scanned amongst the captured Outcasts, eyes widening in realization of the true weight behind that statement when he couldn't spot their leader.
oOo
Alvin glanced around; he could hear explosions in the distance knowing that it meant that now was his time to easily escape. There, at the bottom of the docks was a small row boat perfectly ready for leaving. Grasping his prize securely, he ran down the docks.
oOo
Astrid and the other teens flew to the harbor. There they spotted Alvin, carrying Hiccup, running down the wooden plank; Toothless chasing towards the ramp after them. What happened? When hearing a sucking sound next to her, she turned to see the twin's Zippleback preparing to fire. "What are you doing?!"
"Hiccup said destruction." Tuffnut excitedly answered.
She looked back towards the mentioned leader; Alvin was getting closer to the box. "Hiccup?!" She yelled, concerned.
"Astrid?" He knew what she was thinking. "Just do it!"
Alvin, fully aware of the teens' presence, ran faster towards a now glowing crate. The twins flew down soaking the area with the gas.
"But-" she was still uncertain.
"Astrid, if we don't, Alvin will get away with Hiccup and/or put him in worse danger." Fishlegs explained.
She looked down to Toothless who was at the top of the docks looking over and watching with sad and scared eyes. He simply nodded. Alvin was now running as fast as he could and firmly holding Hiccup. The twins, done befogging the area with the Zippleback's fumes, returned to the rest of the group.
The Outcast leader's contumacious pride kept him going. He would win, nothing will stop that. He tried to not breathe in the green gas thickly surrounding them. Barely able to see five feet in front of him, he just could make out a wooden crate in his way. A little woozy from the gas that he did inhale, the large man jumped over it and in the midst of doing so, it violently exploded. The dragons fired also causing a large eruption of destruction, fire and smoke.
Astrid watched as the wooden box, containing several dragon eggs, erupted and each teen's dragon firing their own shots, Toothless included. With the amount of gas, everything fulminated. Smoke was everywhere, it could be compared to the last major fulmination they all experienced and just like last time, they waited for it to dissipate and see what happened. Slowly and surely the smoke towards the top began to clear and reveal a gaping hole in the wooden ramp, right where the crate used to be. Her heartbeat began to quicken.
oOo
Stoick had joined Toothless' side and watched as everything turned into fire and smoke with his son in the midst of it all. The brevity in waiting for the smoke to clear was agony. He couldn't take it anymore and ran down to find his son. "Hiccup!" he yelled; Toothless was following him.
Stoick stopped at the giant gap in front of him. Stunned, he breathed deeply and tried to keep back the oncoming tears. Hiccup. Toothless' bark caught his attention and he turned to see the Night Fury motion across the hole. He sat upon Toothless' back and jumped across. The two continued on the path towards the bottom where they were quickly joined by Astrid.
The greenish smoke was still clearing. Rubble and wooden planks were everywhere. The three scanned they area, looking for a sign. Suddenly Toothless began to growl. There was a low groan from the other end of the dock. Something large was trying to stand up though it was wobbling back and forth, lethargic from what it experienced. It could only be defined by one word: Alvin. The three ran over, Astrid and Toothless stopping short as a furious Stoick continued and punched the nefarious man, causing him to fall to the ground. He then grabbed Alvin by the front of his cloak and raised him.
"Where's my son?!" the red-haired chief demanded.
"Come, Stoick, you don't need that runt. You should be thanking me, I did you a favor." Stoick raised one hand high and in a fist, aimed at the abhorrent face.
Astrid, who had been watching the whole thing, heard a scratching noise to her left side and abruptly turned to her head to see Toothless digging through the charred piles of wood, using his nose to pry around. Suddenly he stopped, reared his head back and barked then continued his search, moving even faster than before. "What is it?" Approaching his left side, she peered over his shoulder to see what he was looking at. Again he stopped, and retreated his head. There was Hiccup's prosthetic, a darker gray than usual with black smudges here and there; but what concerned her was the smoke vapors that rose from it. If this being metal is smoking then…..Astrid quickly joined in and began furiously tearing apart the pile of charred wood. She didn't care if her hands got burned from touching the wood- in which some spots was still burning and glowing red- she had to find Hiccup. Suddenly her fingers ran along something soft; she paused and looked- his dusty, dirty, ash-filled, brown auburn hair. With new vigor, she dug faster; Toothless by her side also contributing. Both stopped when they had completely uncovered him. His body was quiescent and lax; limp and unconscious. His skin was pale causing the various and numerous burns scattered on his body to appear predominantly red. Astrid gently brushed the hair out of his face; his skin was hot to the touch. "Oh, Hiccup," She whispered. The smoke was now clearing to allow the last rays of the vibrant red orange sun to shine on a safe Berk before dipping over the horizon; along with Astrid's joy.
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