AN – Wow thanks so much for the reviews guys. I was literally dancing to 'I'm so excited by the pointer sisters' after reading them. Every review is like a happiness pill and it makes me feel great. Writing a fic has got be the best decision of my life. XD
Anyway, sorry about the late update. I had some bad writers block. Had to let it stew for a couple days to sort out how I wanted a few things to go. But here it is :)
I hope you enjoy.
Oh and also, I bought an art book yesterday for httyd2 when I was browsing forbidden planet with a friend. It's awesome, I highly recommend it. It has some nice pics of itchy armpit in there. The flooding I planned actually fit the pictures, how about that haha. There is also an adorable pic of a baby night fury in there. I can't stop looking at it's just so cute *squeal* _
Anyway, sorry about the late update. I had some bad writers block. Had to let it stew for a couple days to sort out how I wanted a few things to go. But here it is :)
I hope you enjoy.
Chapter 13
By the time Hiccup and Ruffnut were in the general area of the cavern, it was pouring down. It was hard to see much through the deluge in front of them causing them to squint and fly low in their search for it. The hailstones mixed in with it painfully hit against Hiccups wings.
They narrowly dodged a lightning bolt when they saw the cavern, illuminated from the light the strike had given off. They quickly sped over to the entrance. Hiccup dived down at an alarming speed to make sure Toothless was okay.
Toothless was standing up against a wall on his hind legs. Even in this position, it came up to the base of his neck. He was shivering badly and his eyes looked dazed. "Toothless, we're here. You okay to fly?" Hiccup yelled worriedly.
He didn't know what they'd do if Toothless was too weak from the cold to get in the air.
"Y-yeah," He shivered, "Just hurry and get the tail on before I pass out and drown."
Hiccup hadn't learnt to hover yet so he kept flying in circles until he tossed Ruffnut in the water.
"Wah that's c-cold," She complained when she surfaced. She quickly swam to toothless. "I-I need to get to your t-tail. Can y-you hold it up?"
He gave nod and started swimming in the water with his stiff limbs, holding his tail at the surface. She got to work unfolding and attaching it.
Then she wrapped the string around her ankle and climbed onto his back. He gave a bit of a growl, still not too comfortable by the thought of a human riding him.
"Hey it's okay. I won't h-hurt you Toothless, I'm just t-trying to help. You know that." She comforted.
The rainfall was making the water rise surprisingly fast. Maybe it had something to do with the other caverns connected to this one. Ruff could only hope it didn't get any worse. Without any ground to take off from, toothless dived down, Ruffnut holding onto his neck tightly. He then quickly swam up and flapped hard.
Ruffnut quickly pulled open the fin with her leg and he became airborne. "It's working! She cried, until she pulled a bit too hard and they went crashing into the water. They tried again a few times with the same results.
Maintaining the right tension was difficult as she had to keep her balance at the same time. She also struggled to match his real tail fin movements. On the fourth try, they ended up crashing into Hiccup.
Now they were all in the freezing water. Suddenly, they heard a loud creaking sound. Before they knew it, a wall above them collapsed, making a wide hole that gushed water. The sheer pressure of it caused a whirlpool effect on the rising water.
"Damn it, we haven't got any more time to get used to the workings," She cursed. "Hiccup, get on Toothless and get back in the air. I'm gonna steer the fin by hand by holding onto the tail."
He gave a quick nod as he struggled to stay above the churning water. He forced his way through the strong current to Toothless and climbed on his back.
"What are you doing!?" Cried Toothless, he'd been too concentrated on not drowning to translate Ruffnut's words.
"I'm using you as land to lift off. Ruff is going to hold onto your tail and operate the fin directly by hand." He quickly said before leaping into the air.
Before Ruff could get to that however, they'd come around to the gushing water and it pushed them down deep under with painful force. Ruff looked around under the water, but human eyes weren't meant for seeing submerged in liquid.
It was all a chaotic blur. She didn't know how far down she'd been pushed but her ears and sinus hurt with the pressure. The depths were murky and dim but she could just make out a much darker silhouette coming towards her.
She hummed out into the water, hoping he'd hear her. Luckily he had and swam over to her awkwardly, dragons were meant in to be in the sky after all; they weren't very good swimmers.
Her lungs were burning when he grabbed her. He started to swim toward the surface of the spinning water as she crawled down to his tail. She latched her legs on tight and grasped the prosthetic in her hands. Toothless propelled himself from the whirlpool and ruff opened up the fin. Hiccup gave a relieved shriek, he was worried they wouldn't re-surface.
Ruffnut was coughing and gasping for breath as she desperately tried to focus on mirroring Toothless' tail. The two dragons beat their wings hard, trying to get out of the cavern as quickly as possible and into the open air. Although the situation was dire, Toothless couldn't help but feel elated.
He was flying!
After several days of being grounded he was finally flying. It felt good to feel the freedom of it, even if the Viking latching to his tail was rather uncomfortable. They finally breached the entrance but the sight was shocking.
Lightning rained down in ways the two Berkians had never seen. It hit in multiple places, spreading out like the branches of trees. The thunder roared louder than ever before, threatening to shatter their eardrums. The wind tore through the sky's almost as strong as a hurricane. The rain was painfully heavy and the hailstones were the size of hazelnuts.
It all made it extremely difficult to fly. They couldn't see anything past a few meters in the rain, except the bright lightning. They immediately dove down to take shelter, being careful not to be thrown off course by the weather.
They landed at their previous camping sight by the waterfall. It was quickly flooding, so Ruffnut gathered up her supplies including the honeycomb, rope, sinew and remaining fabric; before hoping onto Toothless' back.
They ran across the island, making their way up to higher ground. For some strangely timed reason, Ruffnut remembered the strange roots of the trees. They had all been projecting from the ground, perhaps it flooded like this quite often and that's how they had adapted.
If that was the case, the best place to go would be somewhere the trees didn't have roots like that. "Hey guys, keep going until the tree roots aren't coming up from the ground any more. I think it won't flood there." She shouted to the dragons.
Hiccup was surprised she'd figured something like that out before him, even though he'd not really paid much attention to the way the roots grew. So they kept running. Eventually they came to a rock pyre that stretched out a small distance.
The trees on the ground continued to contain the elevated roots, but at the top of the pyres, the trees looked more normal.
The water wouldn't reach there.
Looking up at the side of it appeared to be an opening, perhaps a cave or a small groove in the side. Hiccup flew up to check it out, struggling to balance against the winds and hail.
It was a shallow cave, he could see the back of it from where he was, but it was facing away from the wind and was dry inside.
"We can take shelter here." He yelled down to toothless.
Toothless got Ruffnut's attention and pointed his head to his tail. She got the message, passed the supplies to Toothless for him to hold, then latched onto it again before he took off and they flew up to the small cave. Ruff shivered a bit and took off her over clothes to dry.
Toothless started washing himself to get the water off his scales. Hiccup soon did the same thing, just keeping to the modest parts. When Toothless was dry, he lit up the ground so they could warm up. Now that they had shelter and were safe, they all started to calm down.
Toothless, noticing Ruffnut wasn't licking herself dry decided to go and do it for her.
"Eww! Toothless stop! That's disgusting!" She protested as he covered her in saliva.
He was halted from his actions when hiccup pulled him away by the skin of his lower neck.
"She can dry off by the fire, humans don't lick themselves clean." Hiccup stated.
"Is that why you were so reluctant when I gave you a bath?" He asked in a peeved tone. What was with these two hatchlings about tongue baths?
Ruff sat down close to the smoldering ground and warmed her hands in front of it. Hiccup came over and led down beside her, with Toothless following suit.
Once they had warmed, they led down next to each other for warmth and comfort like siblings, before drifting off to sleep, exhausted from the ordeal.
They could only hope the storm would be over once they awoke.
His mind was hazy and deaf to the world. He couldn't see the world around him but he could hear and feel it. It was wet and cold, air blowing harshly against his damp and salty hair.
He could hear bird song, although he did not recognize any of the bird-calls. He felt hard poles beneath him and several ticklish paper-like objects brushing against him in the breeze.
Why wasn't he in his soft bed? Was he even on Berk? He carefully opened his eyes to the bright sunshine that held no warmth. As his vision came into focus, he realized...he was in a tree! How did that happen?
He briefly looked down and felt vertigo at how up he was. He definitely couldn't have climbed up here with his large size and weight.
His memories started coming back to him of the night before. They had been returning from the nest, but then there was a storm. He remembered the cries of his men and the chaotic panic that transpired.
He remembered the island he saw before blacking out. Was he on it now? Where were his men? Were they alive? He slowly got into an upright position, being careful not to fall out the tree. Looking down, he couldn't see the ground.
Just a flood of water several meters below him. Scattered remains of wooden ships had been caught in-between the roots and trunks of the trees. He saw some of his men dangling over them, hopefully alive. Looking around he saw he wasn't the only one to have ended up in the trees. One of the washed up Vikings let out a groan as they awoke.
"Oy! Can you hear me?!" yelled Stoick.
The Viking looked around confused for a moment before looking up. "What you doing up there chief?"
"I just woke up here. That wave was pretty high" He replied, "Can you see how deep the water is?"
"Hold on," the Viking said before taking a look down. The water was too murky to see the bottom so he slid into it.
He couldn't touch the bottom with his feet, so dived down a few meters before hitting the ground.
"It's about three meters deep chief," He reported. Three meters wasn't much, but he didn't have any other way of getting down.
He leapt quickly trying not to think about how little the water would break his fall. He felt jolts of pain through his legs when he landed, but luckily they were still intact.
He assessed the damage from below. "Wake up the others if they're still alive. We need to repair the ships before the debris sinks and rots."
"Yes chief," Replied the Viking and proceeded to shake his peers awake. While looking around at this strange new island, Stoick noticed something interesting about the bark on the trees. It was damp up past the water line by almost a meter.
Had the water drained some after the storm? He wasn't sure how quickly it drained but hopefully they'd be able to make a fire by nightfall at least.
The water was freezing and if his men weren't already dead from the shipwreck, they would end up dying of hypothermia.
He heard splashes as others awoke and jumped down from the trees.
"Where are we chief?" Asked one of the Vikings. "I've never seen this island before."
"I don't know. I've never seen it either." He replied as he looked around and above. Apart from the flood, they were surrounded by tall tress with orange foliage. The flora and wildlife calls weren't familiar at all.
Looking at the ships, he could see they were damaged beyond repair. They had been reduced to drift wood. Their only hope of getting off this island would be to salvage what they could from the wreckage and harvest wood from suitable trees to rebuild their ships.
It would take several days. Their food and water supplies had gone with the ships so they'd need to hunt and forage for some food.
He cupped some water in his hands and had a taste. It was salty. They'd have to find a fresh water source as well. He gave a shiver and looked around for anywhere to take shelter from the engulfed land and cold.
Nothing.
He'd have to send out a few search parties for the necessities of their survival.
The Viking that had been waking the others came back with a small group of ten including his brother. He gave a relieved sigh at the sight of him. But still, only ten of his men were left. He'd left Berk with fifty men.
After the nest he'd had thirty-two.
The storm had claimed twenty-two of his men. He wondered if any of the remaining men and himself would even survive this situation.
Would they ever see Berk again? No, he couldn't think like that, he had to remain positive. He was the chief, he had to keep his men's hopes high and give out the appropriate commands for their survival. They looked up to him for support. What good was a support that gave way to despair so easily?
"Alright, we'll split into teams of two. Team one will go hunt and forage for some food. Team two will look for shelter. Team three will find a fresh water source. Team four will gather the debris from our wrecked ships. Team five will gather wood from hard wooded trees. Mark trees on your way to help find your way back. I'll be in the hunting team. Three people will be in the wood gathering team." He ordered confidently.
He couldn't let his fear and uncertainty show.
"Aye," The Vikings shouted back with vigor, fueled with motivation from their chief's undaunted attitude to the hopeless situation. They decided who would be in each team and split up. Luckily, they still had some good weapons with them. The hunting and gathering parties took those. The others took smaller weapons for protection, like daggers.
Toothless woke up to the smell of damp musky air.
The storm had stopped and he heard the wildlife come to life with the dawn. The burning coals had died down so he relit them from his position. He lifted his wing to see the hatchlings cuddled together beside him. He gave a snide grin as he went to give hiccup a lick across the face. He yelped awake at the sudden moisture and after quickly looking around, he settles on toothless and gave an unimpressed look.
"What did you do that for?!" He cried.
Toothless ended up laughing, waking Ruffnut, "Huh, what? Morning already?" she yawned.
Toothless leaned down and gave her a slobbery lick as well.
"Eww, Toothless! What did I say about licking me? It's gross!" She yelled back in a playful tone as she leapt on him and licked him back.
Toothless was applauded at the action and scampered off to the back of the cave and gave a growl, proceeding to wash himself off like a cat. Hiccup and Ruffnut ended up rolling in laughter at his reaction.
"Yeah, yeah. Very funny." He remarked at them. "Come on, let's get out of this cave and see what condition the islands in. We need to get back to work if we're to get out of here. We also need to find some food."
"Y-yeah okay." Giggled Hiccup, trying to get over his amusement.
They approached the edge of the cave and looked down to see the layer of water surrounding them. Hiccup glided down to see how deep it was. It only came up to the tops of his small legs making it as high as Ruffnut's knees. Toothless followed after him, steadily gliding with Ruffnut on his back. She was using the string on the fin for now, being careful not to pull it too much.
"Right, you and I shall hunt some deer while Ruff does whatever she wants for now." Said Toothless.
"Okay." Hiccup agreed. He went up to a tree and started carving out some runes with his claws.
She read them and gave a nod, "Okay, I'll go and look for some wood suitable for a bow then. It would be good to have a long ranged weapon out here. I'll return here by noon."
Hiccup gave a nod and set off with toothless to catch their meal. They'd bring them back for skinning since they needed more fabric for a saddle.
"I expect the deer will be in the upper levels like us to stay out of the deep water." Explained Toothless. "Keep vigilant with your ears and nose. Don't rely on your eyes until the actual hunt."
"I have caught one already you know."
"Sure, but how smoothly did that go for you?" He grinned.
"Uh, point taken. It noticed me too soon and I had to chase it down, damaging its leg in the process. Not to mention the sloppy killing when I ripped into it's neck."
"I'll teach you how to hunt more effectively. Imagine how much pain a suffering that deer would have gone through had it gotten away after the leg injury." He stated, making Hiccup look down in guilt.
"It's best to make a nice clean and quick kill. Night furies are natural born predators that rely on sneaking into close range before we strike. We like to stay silent and undetected until the last moment when it's too late for them to bolt. You leap straight for the neck and pierce into the windpipe. Tearing into the jugular is messy and spreads blood everywhere; attracting scavengers. You don't want to fight others for your kill."
Hiccup listened to his advice attentively. He didn't want to let him down.
After a while, Toothless stilled. Hiccup froze with him and focused his senses to search what had grabbed Toothless' attention.
He smelt the musk of a deer and the sound of bark being stripped off a tree. They waited for it to move a bit so they could listen to its leg movements in the water; learn its direction.
They crept to the right a bit to be down wind.
"Stay low, and don't step out of the water. Just glide with the flow to restrict the sound. Keep your breathing and heart rate under control. Keep a constant eye on its gaze and continue to listen out for any other animals nearby that may alert it." He whispered.
Hiccup followed his lead, moving as smoothly as he could with the water. They hid behind tree after tree on their gradual way up to the deer. From what he could see, it was a young buck. With the grass submerged, it was feeding off the bark of a tree. With each strip it took, it looked around and swung it's ears back and forth. It was on high alert.
"Stay here and watch. I'll kill this one and you'll kill the next one we find. I want you to learn the technique." Hiccup gave a nod and stayed where he was, making sure the deer didn't catch sight of him. Toothless was silent. He blended well with the dark murky water and the way in which he moved was so subtle it didn't look like he was moving at all.
When he was within two meters he froze and closed his eyes. The deer gave a brief glance at him before going back to feeding. He looked like a log. As soon as the deer went for another bite and let it's guard momentarily down, toothless leapt.
He grabbed the deer's throat just as it started to back up from the sudden noise and appearance of the dragon. It gave a shriek of terror as he bit into its windpipe and held on until it suffocated, going limp in his jaws.
Toothless pranced over to hiccup proudly with his kill. "That was amazing, it didn't even notice you when it looked at you! And the kill is so clean, theirs barely any blood staining the fur." Toothless dropped the buck to give his reply.
"That's why I'm teaching you this method. It's far more efficient and also keeps the skin in good condition for Ruffnut to work with. Now I'm gonna go hide this at out base. Start the hunt without me. I'll find you once it's hidden. Maybe you will already have your kill done when I get back" He grinned before picking the buck back up and ran off to their base.
Hiccup watched him disappear and got to work. Eventually he heard some splashing water. He froze and sniffed the air. There was a stag up a head! Could he take on such a large prey?
He crept over to a better position as to be hidden. He wasn't completely downwind, more to the right of it. But the position was better where he was. The deer was facing the directly downwind area, keeping an eye out for sneaky predators.
He moved in slowly, trying to slow down his pounding heart. The closer he got, the stronger the smell of the delicious deer became, exciting him. But he forced himself to focus on remaining silent.
He was within three meters when something unexpected happened.
The stag suddenly gave out a cry and reared up, startling Hiccup to giving away his position. He stumbled backwards as to stay out of the stag's way. As it turned around he caught sight of an arrow!
Humans!
Panic rushed through him, humans were on the island. But they may not have seen him yet, he had to run! But luck wasn't on his sight.
His heart plummeted when he heard the shouts, "DRAGON"
He stared at where the shouts had come from and to his horror, there were three Vikings. What was worse is that standing among them was his father. What was he doing here?
"NIGHT FURY!" He heard his dad shout. He scrambled to his feet and went to bolt in the opposite direction when an arrow hit him in the base of his tail. Before he knew it, someone was one him. Then another jumped on him! He was so dead.
Stoick and his men had come across a stag.
It was a great find.
They stayed downwind to the left of it, moving into medium range. He signaled for one of his team members to aim his bow and arrow at it. When they had a clear shot, they fired. It gave a shriek. He'd missed its vital point, he'd have to quickly shoot it again or they'd be chasing it down. But before he could fire the second one, he spotted something unexpected. They hadn't been the only ones hunting the stag. He alerted Stoick to the dragon. Stoick recognized it to be a Night Fury. Whether it was the same one that had been on their island they couldn't be sure.
Stoick and the other Viking rushed up to it while he fired an arrow as it tried to get away.
Stoick held the night fury down, holding his head tightly under the water. He punched it a few times until it went limb. It wasn't dead yet, just unconscious. He checked it over and noticed the scar n it's left hind leg. It was the one he'd given it. This was indeed the same night fury that had been on their island. That meant the other night fury, and maybe Ruffnut, was here too.
"You two go after that stag, I'll take the dragon back so I can properly contain it."
"Don't you want to kill it?" Asked one of the men.
"Not yet. I want it to lure the older one out so I can make it suffer for what it did to my son." He replied, anger and anguish in his voice.
"Yes chief," they both said before running off in the direction the stag went.
Toothless was making his way back to Hiccup after dropping off the stag in a tree at base.
He hadn't heard any other dragons on the island so he figured it was a safe spot. He followed Hiccup's scent in the air until he came to an area that didn't smell right. He gave a low growl when he smelt humans. He could smell hiccup and a male deer had been there not too long ago but the scent of three male humans were also mixed into the air.
Two of which then branched off in the direction the deer scent went and one that had headed off with Hiccup. He listened closely for any humans nearby before he trotted along the scent trail to Hiccup. He didn't know what humans were doing here, he was sure he couldn't smell even a trace of them before he'd been trapped in the cavern.
But that didn't matter now, they had Hiccup. He hoped it wasn't too late and he was still alive. He stilled when he began to hear voices. He crept over, remaining hidden. There were several Vikings with an unconscious hiccup. Their noise made him unable to focus on whether Hiccup was still breathing.
He assessed the situation. From the looks of it, the Vikings were shipwrecked. They were tapped here. Only one of them had a sizeable weapon. Most of them were injured and the water was very deep here so they couldn't move about as freely as usual. He'd normally have the advantage of his fire blasts, but his head was wet from crouching in the flooding. The deep water gave him a new advantage though. He could easily dive under them and attack them that way, stating with the strongest and most threatening.
So that is what he did. He dove down and swam over to them, his dark scales blending in with the murky waters.
Without them even noticing his arrival, he clamped his jaws onto the leg of the biggest armed Viking. He heard a yell from above before he dragged them under, the taste of vial human blood in his mouth. He dragged them away from the other Vikings so they could not land a blind hit on him before he pulled himself over the large Vikings body, going for the jugular. But this Viking was a seasoned warrior and grabbed him around the chest. He squeezed Toothless extremely hard before kicking himself to the surface, night fury still in his clutches.
Toothless shrieked out in pain, the force of the man's embrace cracked his ribs and threatened to break his wings. He desperately tried to claw at him with his hind legs and bite at his neck but it only made the grip tighter.
His shrikes ended up waking hiccup, who snapped out of any fogginess in his mind as his survival instincts kicked in. the Vikings hadn't had the chance to tie him up yet and he leapt into the air. He hurtled towards Stoick and bit hard into his arm without hesitation, tearing left and right like a savage dog. Others tried coming to their chief's aid, waddling through the water.
Stoick swung Hiccup off into the deep water, unintentionally giving Toothless the chance to wiggle free and claw a gash in his throat.
Hiccup and toothless quickly started to swim and flap away from the Vikings, but the water slowed them greatly. The other Vikings pounced on them, grabbing at their vulnerable wings. Toothless swung around to bite one of them only to get a punch to the head.
Stoick got back up despite his deep wounds and threw his axe at Toothless, cutting into his chest. Hiccup gave a shocked screech at the sight of the axe lodged in his friend.
Toothless pulled out the axe and cried out to hiccup, "Dive! They can't see and locate us as well!"
They both dived down into the murky depths and desperately swam away from the Vikings, pulling against the ground to propulsion themselves. Hiccup brushed against someone's leg, causing them to stab at him with their dagger. He let out a cry when it hit its mark in the back of his right shoulder.
He scratched the person's leg as hard as he could, slicing into their soft flesh. They gave a cry and fell over. Hiccup, fueled on survival instincts went straight for the man's throat and tore away at it. Blood gushed out and spread out over the surface as he made his getaway.
Luckily, that was the last obstacle as they swam to safety. They didn't stop moving until they were sure they were far enough away and the water was shallow enough to run in.
Their injuries started to catch up to them as the adrenaline wore off. Toothless collapsed with an agonized grown. His chest was killing him, from both the crushing hug and the axe wound.
Hiccups head pounded from being knocked out so harshly, and his shoulder stung with each step. The dagger was still embedded in the muscle.
"We have to keep moving," Hiccup panted.
"I know," Toothless groaned, "but it hurts too much to move. My body won't listen to me any more."
"We don't have time for rest, they could be coming after us as we speak. Come on, get up. You can rest when we are safe."
Toothless gave a growl, "I can't damn it. I'm too injured. Just leave without me!"
"No! I won't leave you to be slaughtered. I'm getting you to safety, even if I have to drag you."
"I'll only slow you down, save yourself!"
But Hiccup wouldn't listen, he gripped Toothless' neck in his jaws and tried to drag him, pain shooting up his shoulder. But toothless was too heavy for him, even with the water lifting some of the gravity effects. He looked around panicked.
"I'm not leaving you damn it," He cried as tears began to fall down his face.
If they couldn't run they'd have to hide. He looked for somewhere, anywhere.
He spotted that one of the trees with the protruding roots had a large gap between some of them. Toothless should just about fit.
"Come on Toothless, just push yourself a bit more and get under that tree. If we can't run, we can at least hide."
Toothless panted and groaned as he tried to get up. Hiccup supported and pushed him towards to the hiding area. Toothless squeezed inside and Hiccup went in right after. They ducked under the water and closed their eyes to mere slits so they could check what was going on outside while making themselves look like rocks.
Stoick was furious. He'd been badly injured by both the Night Furies. He had been right about the younger one luring out the larger one, but it was far quicker than he'd have liked. They hadn't even tied up the younger one yet.
Blood was everywhere.
It made the water even darker and the sunlight showed the highlights of red within the depths. One of his men was floating on the surface, throat ripped out. On closer inspection he realised it was his brother, Spitelout. He gathered his limp body in his arms and hugged him close. The night furies had now killed two of his own family. It was unforgivable.
He wouldn't let them get away with the murder of his people ever again. Despite his injuries and his men pleading to stay behind and rest, he refused.
He'd done that the last time two times they had injured him and they ended up killing someone and getting away with it.
No, this time he'd chase them down straight way himself.
He wiped the tears that had started to form and took the five men that were with him to set off after the blood trail. While jogging along, Stoick was lost in his thoughts. Why hadn't they flown away? He knew that the younger one didn't seem able to fly before but he clearly saw it get into the air before it bit him.
So it could fly now.
But then it seemed as though the older one was now the grounded one. Had it been injured? He didn't get a good look at it, but he wondered whether Ruffnut had something to do with it. Where was she now? Had they killed her? Did they do it on this island? Maybe they could at least recover her body for a proper funeral.
The Vikings stopped when the blood trail seemed to end. But under closer inspection, it flowed under a tree where the blood became more pronounced. Stoick looked in the space under the tree. He couldn't see anything but some dark driftwood and rocks. But there was blood filling this cramp hollow. He asked for a stick and began jabbing inside. He couldn't quite reach with his arms alone and he wouldn't send one of his leaner men in there just in case the night furies really were hiding in there.
He could feel some mass in there but from the lack of movement and sound it was most likely just driftwood and rocks after all. That's what he thought, until he heard a yelp and a rock moved revealing frills that belonged to a night fury. He quickly pulled back as a small figure leapt for him.
Hiccup and toothless had been terrified. They'd been found. Hiccup had forgotten about how much they were both actually bleeding from their wounds and it had given them away. They'd bared with the poking from his dad the best they could but, just when his dad was about to give up, the stick jabbed against the dagger; tearing it out of his shoulder.
"Don't move Toothless," He cried when he'd given himself away from the pain. "They haven't discovered you yet and I can fly away. I'll lure them away from you."
Toothless wanted to protest, but if he did, he'd give himself away. He didn't want Hiccup to be the decoy but there wasn't anything else they could do. He couldn't fly and even running wasn't an option in his condition. So he just stayed still and silent as he watched hiccup dash out the opening to be chased by the Vikings.
Hiccup dodged a punch as he exited. He leapt up and attempted to fly only for the pain in his shoulder to interfere with the movement of his right wing. He came tumbling to the ground.
He immediately got back to his feet and ran as all the Vikings chased after him. He was glad none stayed behind to check if he'd not been the only one in there.
The more he ran through the restricting water, the more his shoulder hurt. It was bleeding profusely and it made him feel woozy from the blood loss. He knew he couldn't hide. Not with the blood making a trail.
He also couldn't fight them. He didn't have too much combat experience and was just a small dragon against six burly Vikings experienced in dragon killing. He had to outwit them instead.
They were gaining on him fast; the injury was making him limb and run slower. He attempted to get of the ground even if just to propulsion himself further, He still couldn't fly with the pain but it at least kept him out of their clutches.
He knew exactly where to head. He'd use nature against them. He was running for the beehives.
It took a while to get there and Hiccup was purely running on adrenaline. His breathing was ragged as his heart pumped painfully fast in his chest. His legs felt like jelly, threatening to collapse any second. But the Vikings were still on him. They looked slightly winded but were clearly in far better shape. Just because they were big didn't mean they were unfit.
Finally he saw the hives hanging above him on a rock pyre. He'd made sure to keep his head dry during the run so he'd be able to fire the shot. He ran further along the side of the rock until the Vikings were under the hives. Then he turned around and shot up. The Vikings slowed at his sudden action, not understanding why he'd turned and fired now and not earlier. Why had he fired up? Was on their minds as they took a glance. Horror washed over them when they saw the yellow object hurtling towards them. They tried to scatter a fraction too late as the honeycomb hit them with painful force. A couple had been knocked out by the blow.
Hiccup watched as the remaining four got up rather dazed, covered in honey, only to be swarmed in bees. With one final look at his furious father as he fought off the bees' stings, he ran.
He didn't stop until he'd reached the opening of a cavern and settled down deep inside it. He was exhausted, but he needed to remain alert. He was still leaving a blood trail and needed to know when to run again. He needed to get the blood to stop or he wouldn't get a chance to rest.
He licked at it, hoping his saliva would heal it.
But it didn't.
Saliva clearly wasn't as immediate as he thought. He didn't have anything to wrap it with to apply pressure so the only other option would be cauterization.
It would hurt but he had to do it. He turned his head towards the wound and blew his fire. He screeched in pain and licked the burning wound. He hadn't done it for long enough and it was still bleeding. He went to do it again, trying his best to ignore the immense pain the best he could until he was sure the wound was sealed. When he stopped he cried and wailed in pain. The wound was searing hot and felt like it was eating into the rest of his flesh. He got up and limped deeper into the cavern, looking for a pool. The cavern he'd entered was above the flood but he also couldn't risk exiting it in case they were on his trail and saw him. He was no longer leaving a trail of blood, which was good; they wouldn't be able to track him, but he had a severe injury that he needed to cool and treat as soon as possible. If the Vikings didn't kill him the wound would.
He eventually found one and lowered himself into it, breathing a sigh of relief at the cool feeling.
He'd stay for a short while before looking for a good hiding place.
He hoped toothless was doing okay and had dealt with his wounds. He was also worried about Ruffnut. What if the Vikings found her too? He doubted she'd be harmed if she kept her mouth shut about her relationship with him and toothless, but he still couldn't help worrying. If they took her back with them, toothless wouldn't be able to fly off the island. They'd have to rescue her, which meant a possible confrontation.
He hoped it didn't come down to that. He and Toothless weren't in any condition for another fight so soon.
AN- so what did you think? I'm debating whether Stoick should find out about Hiccup or not. Would like to hear your suggestions.
Reviews
concrit – thx for the lengthy review. I'm not going to have that happen I'm afraid since then it would seem like I'm copying the ending of chap 15 of I hear him scream. God I can't wait until they update after that cliffhanger. Why must it always be a 2-3month wait. I know they are a pre-med student but still, waiting gah.
And I'm glad my research into tanning and that paid off. :)
and yes hiccup will turn human later because I mean, there are advantages to being human too. And for Ruffcup to happen he has to be human.
Guest who's dog passed – I hope you're holding up okay. Did you have a funeral for her at all?
MoonlightAngel131 – glad you took the advice, thank for the faves and follows. :) I'll keep an eye out for any stories you write.
Mermaidhorse – glad you are enjoying it. :D
Ice Maiden Olivier – thank you. Can't believe I've gone from sucky beginner to talented writer in two weeks haha. Makes me wonder if I can become a really good writer at this rate of progression. If that happens I may even write my own book.
Thank you everyone else who reviewed. For any questions I didn't answer for the last chap, they've been answered already in previous chapters, just go take a look through the author notes. ;)