.
THE SACRIFICE
(Day 4 - Noon)
The cannon shot is so loud that Hiccup fumbles his grip on their canteen. It drops into the stream with a splash, and he dives for it, catching it just before it can bob out of reach.
Behind him, Astrid rubs at her ringing ears. "That was close," she says. "Do you think - "
A second blast reverberates through the trees.
They exchange a look, and - as one - clamber back up the bank.
As they climb, Astrid quietly unstraps her axe from her back, gripping it at the ready. One cannon nearby could be any sort of death, but two suggests trouble - the kind of trouble that might keep spreading. Gamemaker trouble, in the worst case.
Toothless shifts uneasily as they reach him, half unfurling his wings with a rustling of leathery scales. Crouching low, Hiccup absently strokes his Mutt's flank. "Easy, bud," he murmurs. "Shh. It's all right."
They wait, and listen, in nerve-wracking silence. But the cannon doesn't fire again.
Finally, Astrid straightens up. "C'mon," she says. "We should get moving. Whatever that was, I want to get away from it, now."
"Fair enough," Hiccup admits, and they strike out through the bushes with Toothless ambling along behind them.
They're still within earshot of the stream when the Mutt's earflaps prick up suddenly. It stops in its tracks, tilting its head to listen. A moment later, they hear it, too.
The muffled sound of someone sobbing.
"Don't," Astrid starts to say, but Hiccup is already off and moving, pushing his way through the trees. The Mutt follows him, as usual. Astrid makes a face, and follows the Mutt.
She catches up just as they emerge into a small clearing. "Hiccup, slow down," she snaps, and grabs his arm. "This could be a…trap…"
Her voice trails away.
The nearest body is a girl, sprawled on her face at their feet. Blood has soaked the back of her jacket, and her curly hair is a clotted mess.
In the middle of the clearing, a boy lies spreadeagled on his back in the grass. There's a bandage wrapped around one of his hands, like a sad joke. The flimsy gauze is red with blood, as if he clutched at the knife buried to its hilt in his side before he died.
A girl is kneeling next to the dead boy with her face buried in her hands. Her shoulders hitch painfully as she weeps, a long aching keen of grief.
"Oh, my god," Hiccup whispers. He looks ill.
At the sound of his voice, the girl sits up with a frightened gasp. Her face is blotchy and red from crying, and the long hair Astrid remembers from the interviews is gone, hacked off unevenly. It wisps around her face and straggles in wet strands against her tear-streaked cheeks.
"I - I," she stammers, trembling.
"What happened here?" Astrid says, stepping forward. She's heard of tributes breaking down after a kill, but she can't imagine this shivering girl murdering two Careers.
The girl's hands flutter up to touch her ruined hair. There's a cord twisted tightly around her wrists, sunk deep in angry red bruises. "H-he cut me loose," she whispers, faintly, as if it hasn't quite sunk in yet. "He…they were fighting, and…" A tear drips off her chin. "And…"
"And what?" Astrid demands. How many Careers are even left in these Games? Three? Less than three? It's insane, unheard of. "What the hell is going on in the Pack?"
"Astrid!" Hiccup is giving her that reproachful look again. Why does it bother her so much?
"Sorry," she says, grudgingly. "But…we need to know what we're up against."
"I know," Hiccup sighs, and reaches for his belt knife. The girl, still watching them like a wary deer, flinches back.
"It's all right," Hiccup tells her, in that soothing voice he uses with spooked animals. He steps carefully around the bodies and crouches next to her. Very gently, he cuts the twisted cord from her wrists. "This is Astrid, and I'm Hiccup," he tells her. "The Mutt's name is Toothless. He's not going to hurt you, and neither are we." He glances at Astrid again. "Are we?" he says, but it's not really a question.
Oh, god. He wants to add this girl as an ally?
"Hiccup, don't you get it?" Astrid protests, and gestures desperately at the bodies on the ground. "This is what happens when you start playing the hero!"
"She's right." The girl's shoulders are slumped, despair in every line of her body as she rubs her sore wrists. "Please," she whispers. "It's not worth it. I don't want anyone else to…"
"No." Both girls whip round to stare at Hiccup. He swallows, once, and squares his skinny shoulders…and the nervous flutters seem to desert him. "I think it is worth it," Hiccup says, chin set obstinately. "Helping each other, even…even if it kills us…it's about the only good thing left for us to do." He looks at the still face of the Career boy. "And…I think he knew that, or he wouldn't have done what he did."
A shiver runs up Astrid's back. She's never heard him speak like this, never seen such a fire of conviction in his green eyes. For a moment - just a moment - he looks like his father.
Somewhere far up the slopes, a muffled boom rings out. Toothless lets out an eerie sighing moan.
Astrid makes a face. "Fine. Let's just go," she says, shortly. Three cannons is more than enough for one day. "What's your name, anyway?"
"Rapunzel," the girl says, and hesitates before adding, "Wait. Please." She glances at the sky, still clear of hovercraft. "Could you…stay here? Just for a minute."
They stand by the body and watch in silence, as Rapunzel quickly packs up the remnants of a camp at the edge of the trees. Then she kneels, and gathers up something golden and shining from the grass.
It's a roughly severed braid of yellow hair.
With great care, Rapunzel wraps it into a soft coil. She folds the boy's bloodied hands over it, and brushes her fingertips - just once - over the smudged bandage.
Then she gets to her feet again. "Thank you," she whispers.
To the boy? To them? Astrid shakes her head - it doesn't matter. "Come on," she says, and leads the way down the slope, with a jerk of her thumb at Hiccup. "He can explain on the way."