Ayeee! Look a chapter. Another short one... ahhaaa... I'm sorry. I really am. ANYWAY. THE CLIMAX HAPPENS NEXT CHAPTER. THEN FLUFF. This story is coming to a close soon. I want at least 20 chapters, but there may be a few more if I keep just doing short chapters. I know that you guys would like longer chapters, but then it would take me longer to post because I literally write chapters in a span of two days. So this is what two days takes me, cause I'm busy all the damn time. Ughhh.

Also, forgive me in advanced... I start Creative Writing II this week. So I can't promise frequent uploads, but I'm going to really try my best to get this concluded for you guys soon. Thanks for all the support. I appreciate every. single. one. of you guys!

-Ash

I buried my face in my hands as I came to the realization of how screwed we were. No tail equals no flight. No flight equals no air advantage. Well, this was the worst case scenario I guess. Glancing around the room I tried to see if there was any sign of the tail anywhere. Of course, there wasn't. I sighed. "They must have taken Toothless' tail off somewhere else in the building."

Astrid crossed her arms in a huff. "And what do you expect us to do? Go find it?"

I chewed my lip with a shrug. "Well that'd be the ideal case."

"There's no time for that. Alvin knows we're in the building, and there are guards right outside that door," my father stated with a shake of his head.

Nodding in response, I decided to take one last check around the room. While there was no sign of Toothless' tail, there was a window. I glanced back at my girlfriend (girlfriend?) and father with a hiss. "Soooo, what are the odds of us surviving a dive out of this window?"

"Slim. We'll have to go out the door and prepare to be ambushed," Dad said with a growl.

"But is that the best idea?"

Astrid meandered towards Toothless before she blew a stray blonde hair out her face. "Got any other ideas to, ya know, not die?" she asked before placing a gentle hand on Toothless as he crooned.

I hummed in thought while resting my hand on my chin. Trying to come up with some solution was proving to be difficult. Clicking my tongue, I glanced over at Dad. "Alvin has other dragons—that can fly right?"

"Of course, what kind of question is that?"

The corner of my mouth twitched. Noticing Astrid's eyes widened with worry, I gave her a reassuring smile. "What if I were to just take one of them? Since my dragon is out of commission in the flying department?"

The blonde gave a snort. "Oh really? And how do you plan on doing that? We're basically trapped in here. There's no way you're going to be able to get past the guards."

My eyes searched the room for the answer. When I found it, I burst into a giant grin. I tiptoed around the unconscious guards and snatched a rope that the workers had used to restrain the dragons. After giving the material a good tug between my hands, I faced my father and Astrid. "This should do."

Dad scoffed at me. "And what are you going to do with that?"

I pointed to the window.

My father's eyes widened.

"Really? You're going to try to scale the building? Are you trying to get killed?" he growled as he strode towards me.

"Dad, I can do this. I'm the only one light enough to go down the building," I paused before turning to my girlfriend who had narrowed her eyes at me, "no offence Astrid. You're muscle, I'm not." I turned my attention back to my father. "I'm better at this than you think. I just need to get to the floor below so I can get to the cages."

Astrid glared at me. "This place is heavily guarded, Hiccup, how do think this is going to work?"

"Well, I'll grab a dragon and then fly it back up to this window. After that someone can take over for me, and—"

The blonde held up a hand. "Woah, take over for you? Who do you think is going to take over for you?"

I threw the wound up rope over my shoulder before trotting over to her. Taking her hands in mine, I gave a sigh before I spoke. "Honestly, you."

Her eyes grew to saucers. "Me? How do you expect me to do this?" she exclaimed as she clenched her hands over mine.

"You've ridden Toothless. You know how riding a dragon works to some degree. It's not even that complicated, especially since you won't to work a tail. You'll just have to steer. Please. I believe in you, Astrid."

She gazed at me, gears obviously turning in her head as she thought this through. Astrid let out a defeated sigh. "Fine, but if I screw this up then it's on you."

I released her hands to hold mine up in defense. "Deal. You can punch me if something goes wrong."

She cocked a brow at me.

"Just not too hard though," I added.

Astrid chuckled with a nod before removing the rope from my shoulder. "Alright then, let's do this."

So maybe this wasn't the greatest idea in the world, but it was the only one I had. My hands trembled as I clutched the rope like my life depended on it. Because it did.

I glanced up at Astrid who peered down on me from the window. "You good?" she called down.

A nod was the only response I had as my throat was clenched with fear. The true struggle was the slow shimmy that I was doing down the rope. I wasn't lying when I said I was light, so this proved to be more difficult than I originally thought. My toothpick-like body didn't stand a good chance in a strength challenge, yet there I was.

My father held the rope in place on the other side of the window as Astrid monitored both of us from the windowsill. "Hiccup, take it slow, okay?"

"If I go much slower—my muscles will give out," I struggled to reply. This was for survival. Astrid's, mine, my dad's, and Toothless' fates were all resting on me during this moment. I couldn't let them down. Not after all they've sacrificed for me.

With a burst in motivation, I stretched my feet down as far as they could go before crawling my hands down halfway. An inch worm motion probably wasn't the best method, but it was the only one that was working for me so I rolled with it. I continued my caterpillar shuffle down the twine while feeling the sting of fresh rope burn on my palms. Battle wounds.

At least that's what I'll tell anyone if they ask.

"You're doing great, Hiccup. You're almost to the balcony. You okay?"

I caught my breath before speaking. "Yeah, I think I have some nasty burn though."

Astrid grinned down at me. "Hey, it's only fun if you get a scar out of it, right?"

While barking a laugh at her comment, I dared to look down to see how close the platform was below me. I was only a few feet away. I could jump down and make it. Or that is what I had hoped. After scooching down the rope a little more, I finally made my decision.

I let go.

My body dropped down towards the balcony below, along with my heart. I'm too young to be having heart palpitations like that. But hey, they happened. I heard Astrid gasp loudly from above me, and suddenly I realized that this may have not been that great of an idea.

I prepared for my landing and felt the bone shattering pain that shot up my ankles as I hit the tiles. Luckily no bones were harmed during this stunt. The momentum from my actions was too great, and I was forced to tuck my arms in and roll over to my back. Suddenly, my body was limp and heaved out breathes. I placed a hand over my chest to prove to myself that yes, my heart was in fact still beating. Thank God.

After a quick gaze into my palms, I noticed glowing red whelps appearing on them. Great, this was pain I'm just going to have to brush off. People need me, and that's what's important. I glanced up at Astrid before forcing a smile and a painful thumbs up. The blonde nodded before returning the gesture.

I stood and stared over the edge of the balcony. What was this even for? Did the workers need a relaxing balcony smoke after torturing dragons for hours? My eyes searched around the ledge before noticing a bit of dried blood on the railing. I shuddered at the thought of what grotesque activities happened here. It was time to get to work as I strode up to the door. When I placed an ear to the entrance, I heard nothing on the other side. So I hoped for the best.

Slowly, I opened the door only to see a blank hallway before me. I began tiptoeing in and tried to make myself as flat against the wall as possible. This is one of those times when I wished I had superpowers to shrink. I just wanted to be small, tiny, minuscule… more than I already was.

We had all been to the dragon cages already, so the challenge was finding them again in a place that I was completely unfamiliar with. I trotted through the halls, trying to find anything that I could possibly recognize. While glancing up, I noticed something I hadn't before. A sign to where the dragons could be.

Like, literally. A sign. These rooms were labeled this entire time. Are you kidding me!?

I slapped a hand to my forehead before dragging it down my face. This is ridiculous. What kind of idiots need the halls of a secret facility labeled? Are there more than just these guards? Do they have regular visiting hours? What the hell!?

I groaned at my own stupidity before making my way in the direction of dragon cages.

"You're not supposed to be here."

My feet froze in their movements, and my heart immediately dropped.

Because I enjoy cliffhangers is the reason I obviously am incapable of writing long chapters. I like to hurt people, I think. Why is this so short on here!? This is like 5 pages on word. Ugh.