Beep! Beep! Coming through with another update! :D

Thanks for the reviews on last chapter guys! They absolutely make my day. 3

Enjoy… *drumrolls* *ba da ta!* *cymbals* chapter 8!

"Holy yak, it is!" Snotlout exclaimed in shock. "Why is it on this dragon…?"

"Munga. He must be forcing Hiccup to train dragons…" Fishleg's mused thoughtfully. "But I don't know why this dragon is out here if it was captured."

"And why is there a scrap of cloth on its neck?" Tuffnut asked in puzzlement.

"Hiccup tried to ride it." Astrid said firmly, without any doubt hinting in her voice. "He probably trained it, and climbed on. Something- somehow he was stopped."

Ruffnut rolled her eyes. "Obviously."

Astrid had a hand placed on her chin thoughtfully as she studied the piece of cloth. It was difficult to see how large a piece it was or any other smaller details from how far away she and the others were flying. The Changewing was quite upset, and didn't want them getting closer. But thankfully, it was remaining somewhat calm at seeing these human's riding dragons. It reminded it of how the human back on the island had tried to ride him…

Astrid peered closer, her eyes widening as she caught the color red on the green cloth. "Guys…" she said slowly. The others glanced over at her quizzingly. "Is- is that blood?"

The others directed their gaze back to the dragon, each giving a little gasp of recognition.

"Oh my Thor…" Fishleg's whispered.

"Why would there be blood on Hiccup's shirt?" Snotlout asked in a bemused tone.

Astrid's heart quickened, now knowing that her worst fear had come true. Hiccup was hurt… to some extent. If he was bleeding…

Astrid looked over at Snotlout and the twins, quickly barking out orders. "Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, stay here and help the dragon. Fishlegs, you're coming with me."

Snotlout straightened up quickly. "What!? No! You can't leave me here with a Changewing! Hiccup's the only one who can even kind of train them!"

Astrid looked over her shoulder as she and Stormfly began to fly away, "Hiccup probably already trained it! You just have to tame it!"

Snotlout slumped in the saddle with a groan, glancing over at the dumbstruck twins in irritation. "They always get to do the fun stuff." Snotlout grumbled under his breath.

The twins looked over at him silently. Snotlout turned to them, also remaining silent for a few moments.

The Changewing was struggling to remain in the air, so Snotlout knew they had to get that medal band off of its wing somehow. He'd have the twins do that. He'd rather not stick his hand's- which he preferred to keep intact- where they didn't belong.

"Tuff, Ruff, get the band off its wing. I'll tame it."

"WHAT!?" both twins shouted in unison. "WHY US!?"

"Just do it!" Snotlout shouted back. The Changewing hissed in irritation, looking from the twins to Snotlout and back again. It looked like it was contemplating sizzling them into fried Berkians.

"Ugh…" Snotlout groaned. "Where's a Hiccup when you need one!?"

…

The island was quickly growing closer, and Astrid couldn't help but curl her lip in disgust. The place looked terrible. A mix between a swampy mess to nothing but heaps of rocks. How did anything grow on this island?

Around the edges of it was nothing but sloppy mud where Astrid could distinctly make out tall slick sea grass. Towards the middle of the island it got stonier and harder terrain. Right smack in the middle was a large mountain like heap of rock. Actually, this island was pretty big. Maybe even bigger then Outcast island- not that that comforted Astrid any. The bigger the island, the more men there bound to be living on it.

"So… what's the plan?" Fishleg's voiced tentatively. "Back there you didn't really seem to have one, so I was just wondering if maybe…"

"I don't know, Fishlegs." Right now, all she wanted to do was zip in there, grab Hiccup, and high tail it. When Stoick arrived, he could do the dirty work of getting rid of Munga. But Astrid's top concern was Hiccup. The blood she'd seen on the scrap of his shirt hadn't helped rid her fears either.

Astrid pulled Stormfly to a stop, landing on a little plateau on the side of one of the rocky sea stacks surrounding the island. Fishlegs and Meatlug landed beside here, Fishleg's sliding off to stand beside her.

Astrid peaked around the edge of the sea stack so she had a good view of the island without being seen. She slipped her hand into Stormfly's saddlebags, pulling out one of Hiccup's spyglasses.

She placed it over her eye, quickly glancing about the island. There was something that caught her eye almost immediately, and she hurriedly tossed the spy glass to Fishlegs. "Look! Do you see that?"

Fishleg's hesitantly placed the spy glass to his eyes, moving his head slightly in search of what she was pointing towards. He smiled and nodded his head emphatically. "A kill ring! I bet that's where they have Hiccup train the dragons."

Astrid nodded, grabbing the spy glass from him and looking through it again. "That's our best bet. Now there's a large overhang of rocks right next to it… see what I mean? I bet we could creep up from the opposite side of that cliff… it looks mostly unoccupied. And with this haze that clouds around this island, it'll be easy to do it without being seen. We can wait up there until we see Hiccup- if he isn't already there."

Fishleg's nodded, still smiling slightly. "I'm glad to see you have an actual plan."

Astrid shook her head with a lopsided smile. "And you doubted me… when don't I come up with a brilliant plan?"

…

Hiccup's eyes flew open when the loud crank of the door jolted him into full awareness. He was in the same position he'd been in when Munga had tossed him in the cell, and honestly, Hiccup could tell why. He was so sore and his limbs ached so bad he wasn't certain if he could move… especially in his sleep.

"Up!" was the only word Lares said as he gave Hiccup a kick in the legs. Hiccup couldn't contain the cry of pain that escaped him at the jarring of his wounded leg. He dragged himself to his feet, groaning from the pain it caused.

Lares grabbed Hiccup by the arms, twisting them behind his back. Hiccup gasped as his ribs expanded, surprised by how painful breathing had become. He was sure now- he'd definitely broken a rib or two.

Hiccup was rather dazed as Lares led him back down the passage way and into the open air. He gasped heavily, thankful for the fresh air at last, but blinked heavily against the bright sunlight. There was a bit of a haze covering the sky, but it looked more like a mist then actual clouds. All the same, the natural light was much brighter than the dim torch light in the dungeons. Munga stepped forward, looking Hiccup up and down with hate in his eyes.

"This time, you'll do it right." He growled, then with a nod of his head towards the arena sent Lares on his way, Hiccup in tow. Hiccup stumbled heavily, his leg shooting white hot pain coursing through his body.

Up above on the rocky ledge that hung over the entrance from where Hiccup had just exited, Astrid and Fishleg's were waiting. They watched with a careful eye for any signs of Hiccup or dragons.

So far, they'd seen two dragons', loaded with chains or in cages, locked into the training ring. But besides that, no other signs of Hiccup. Astrid bit onto her lower lip, concern gnawing at her stomach. Where was Hiccup?

"I see him!" Fishleg's declared in a loud excited whisper, afraid of talking too loud for fear of an echo. Astrid followed the direction he was pointing in, her heart skipping a beat at what she saw.

Hiccup was practically being dragged towards the arena. Astrid noticed the bulky white bandage that wrapped around Hiccup's leg, and how Hiccup wasn't putting any weight on it. He'd hurt his leg somehow… or to be more precise- someone hurt him.

Hiccup was struggling against the beefy man who was holding Hiccup's arms behind his back at a painful angle. Astrid swallowed in anger towards these men. How could they- how dare they be so cruel!?

"Plan, Astrid?" Fishleg's whispered behind him. "He- He looks hurt…"

You think? She felt like saying, but didn't because she knew Fishleg's was just as worried as she was. She swallowed again, watching as the man shoved Hiccup down the ramp and into the stone and chain arena. Hiccup was now out of sight, hidden under the bridge like overhang that ran over the top of the gate.

"Y-yes…" she paused, then sighed. "Not really." She stopped again, watching as a large burly man stood up onto the bridge over the gate, waving a hand into the air.

"RELEASE THE THUNDERDRUM!" the man shouted loudly, and immediately two men standing to one side on the outside of the arena began to crank open a door. Astrid still couldn't see Hiccup, although she could see the door that was slowly cranking open.

"Oh no, a Thunderdrum!" Fishleg's whispered in horror. "Th-That's not good. It looked like Hiccup couldn't even run…"

Hiccup couldn't run. And Astrid had a feeling he wasn't going to train the dragon for that Munga either, so left only one thing that would happen…

No.

"We need to get down there-"

Fishleg's interrupted her, "But look at all those men, Astrid! There must be close to a hundred. A hundred against three Vikings and two dragons? And Hiccup's wounded so…"

Astrid took a deep breath, watching as a large blue Thunderdrum pounced out into the open arena, it's large head swiveling from side to side in search of a victim. The poor dragon had a large medal band wrapped around it's jaw, forcing it shut. Astrid gave a little gasp when she saw the Thunderdrum, not really believing her eyes.

"Thornado!" she gasped. Fishleg's returned his gaze to the dragon, his jaw dropping when he realized the same thing she did.

"Thornado!? What's he doing here?" Fishleg's exclaimed in shock.

Astrid sighed in relief. "Thank goodness… just Thornado! He won't hurt Hiccup. He'll probably help him."

Astrid turned back around, grabbing her battle axe from it's scabbard on her back on the way. "Come on Fishlegs. We're going to go down there, and rescue Hiccup and Thornado."

Fishleg's hopped to his feet, scurrying after her, "How?"

Astrid climbed onto Stormfly's back, turning around to relay her instructions. "You and Meatlug are smaller. You two will go down to the gate, and open it. I'll distract the others." She reached into one of her saddlebags, pulling out a small sword, handing it to Fishleg's. "You might need this."

Fishleg's eyes widened as he took it from her, quickly strapping it to his belt. "uh… not sure if I can do this!" he said nervously.

Astrid's eyes hardened when she heard a loud number of shouts coming from below. They had to go now, or go never. "We have to." She whispered, before Stormfly leapt into the air, diving towards the arena below.

Hiccup turned around, his relief great when he realized that the Thunderdrum was Thornado. The dragon had immediately calmed down, acting quite happy to see Hiccup again after all those years. But Munga was not as thrilled.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" he shouted when all Thornado did was walk over to Hiccup, and bump his large snout against the boy's chest. Hiccup had gasped in pain, but chose to ignore it, instead giving the dragon a hug back.

Thornado growled, turning around and staring harshly at Munga. But with the metal bar around the dragon's snout, he couldn't make any noise at all. He was defenseless, except for his claws of course. But that was all he really had to defend himself and Hiccup with.

"Thanks, Thornado…" Hiccup murmured quietly. "Guess… we should start fighting huh?"

Thornado looked at him, giving a little growl in response. Hiccup pushed himself to stand upright, his leg bumping painfully against his other knee. Hiccup bit his lip, trying to keep from crying out.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, came a loud war like cry from above. Hiccup glanced up in disbelief when he saw the blue Nadder diving quickly towards the arena. Hiccup's jaw dropped when he noticed who was riding it- it could only be one person!

"ASTRID!" he shouted as loud as possible. His throat was raw from the lack of water, so it came out as more of a raspy croak, but it was loud enough to catch her attention. Stormfly came to a halt, hovering right over a large crowd of men grouped around the outside of the arena. Stormfly immediately began flinging her spines at the startled and unprepared men, while Astrid, still gripping tightly to her axe, glanced into the arena for sings of Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" she shouted back, before refocusing her attention onto the men. She jumped off Stormfly's back into the fray, shouting madly. She began swinging her axe expertly, swiping at anyone who got in the way.

"Pst! Hiccup!" came a very loud whisper from the gateway. Hiccup turned around, even more surprised at the sight of Fishlegs standing there, the gate wide open. "Come on!" the large boy said, waving his arm in a gesture to follow him.

Thornado moved towards the door, shoving Hiccup up onto his back when he passed. Hiccup gripped tightly onto the dragon's horn, clenching his teeth against the pain.

Fishleg's crawled back onto Meatlug quickly, and she and Thornado were just about to leap into the air when arrows began hurtling towards them out of all directions. Thornado jerked Hiccup off his back and under his protective wings, the arrows bouncing off the dragon harmlessly. Meatlug had done the same to Fishlegs, although the slightly pudgy dragon was sitting on top of her rider instead of wrapping her short wings around him.

"No, no, no!" Astrid shouted when she noticed what had happened. Stormfly came flying past, and Astrid reached up to grab onto the saddle, pulling herself aboard. Stormfly stopped before the archers, quickly taking them out with her spines.

"Good girl!" Astrid praised. Stormfly landed beside Thornado and Meatlug who were beginning to back away, freeing Hiccup and Fishleg's from their protective stance.

"Hiccup!" Astrid exclaimed in a mix of shock and panic. He was still lying on the ground where Thornado had shoved him, and he didn't look at all well. The first thing she noticed was the large blood stain on his pants leg, where a dirty and equally bloodstained bandage was wrapped. Hiccup moaned, rolling over onto his back painfully, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

Astrid fell to her knees beside him, noticing all the men that were quickly running at them. They'd be under attack at any moment,

"Oh, Hiccup." Astrid whispered. She touched his shoulder gently, surprised by how warm it felt. She hoped he wasn't running a fever too.

"I'm fine…" he wheezed. "Gotta- get out of here." His voice was raspy and sounded raw, and she supposed he hadn't had any water for a long period of time- maybe ever since he'd been captured. That was a whole day ago!

"No, we're staying with you, Hiccup." Astrid stated firmly. "Can you stand up? We have to get you out of here-"

"There's no time, Astrid!" Fishleg's shrieked as a net came flying out of nowhere, trapping Meatlug under it, the dragon writhed wildly, trying to free herself. Stormfly squawked loudly when another net entrapped her, pinning her to the ground.

"I'm fine." Hiccup insisted, pushing himself up. Astrid wasn't even kind of convinced, but she let him. Hiccup saw what had happened to the dragon's, and his look hardened in anger.

"Gotta a sword?" he asked, looking at Astrid. She nodded hesitantly, before grabbing Fishleg's sword and handing it to Hiccup, knowing he'd know how to use it better than Fishleg's anyways. But he was wounded for goodness sake!

"Hiccup, let us fight them off and free the dragon's-"

"Not… enough time." Hiccup said, hanging onto Astrid as she pulled him to his feet. He staggered, but then steadied himself, gripping the sword tightly in both hands. He looked at Astrid, giving a shaky smile before rushing towards the men that were quickly advancing.

Astrid looked at Fishleg's, tossing him a dagger so he could free the dragons. Then, she picked up her axe, quickly dashing after Hiccup with a mighty war cry on her lips.

*evil laugh* THE CLIFFHANGER!

See you in the next chapter! I'm not sure when my next update will be… it might be as late as Sunday because I'll be gone for most of the day tomorrow, but we'll see! Thanks everyone and see you in chapter 9!