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THE COLLISION
(Day 5 - Morning)

It feels like he bounces off every rock in the gorge on his way down. At last, he slithers to a stop in a spray of muddy water. Hiccup just lies there for a moment, cheek to the wet ground and eyes squeezed tightly shut, hoping the world will stop spinning soon.

Gradually, a long low vibration filters into his ringing ears. Toothless is growling.

Aching in every bone, Hiccup pries himself up onto one elbow and blinks away the worst of the dirt. The narrow ravine has tipped them out into a shallow, swampy-looking pool - more of a giant puddle than anything. A few feet away, a crumpled form is half-submerged in the muddy water, limbs splayed loosely around her.

Hiccup's breath catches. Rapunzel.

Just beyond her, his Mutt is crouched low, green eyes flashing, wings mantled in a hostile display. Toothless' tail lashes back and forth, churning up the brown water into a froth.

Standing at the edge of the pool are two girls and a boy. Tributes.

The boy is shielding the younger girl with his body, a makeshift spear gripped in both hands. She peers out from behind him, wide-eyed. Hiccup realizes with a jolt that they're the sibling pair from District Five, still alive somehow. The other girl he remembers from the parade. Her long curls were twined around green branches, then, in the usual District Seven tree costume. Now, they hang limp around her face, soaked with rain.

There's an arrow on the string of her bow, and she's sighting it directly at his Mutt's throat. Her eyes are wide with terror, but her grip on her weapon is perfectly steady. "Emma, stay back," she whispers, fingers curled against her cheek on the draw.

Hiccup realizes, as his beautiful Mutt shakes the mud from his wings and prepares to spring, that she cannot possibly miss this shot. His stomach goes cold…

"Don't shoot!"

Rapunzel! Hiccup's heart lurches. She's alive - alive! - and half-risen to her knees in the muck, her hands outstretched and pleading. She's so covered with mud that her hair looks almost brown, but her voice is strong. "Please," she cries again, "don't shoot him! He won't hurt you!"

The girl with the bow hesitates, confusion flashing across her face. Hiccup seizes that split second and dives for Toothless, throwing his arms around the Mutt's neck.

"Toothless, stop!" he shouts, hoping his weight will be enough to slow the enormous animal if he lunges. "Down, bud!"

There's a moment of jumbled confusion, shouting and splashing and the offended snarls of his struggling Mutt. "You've gotta trust me," he whispers, as Toothless shifts angrily from foot to foot. "C'mon, bud."

Hiccup squeezes his eyes shut, skin prickling in anticipation. She'll fire any second, any second now… Astrid is calling his name from somewhere up above - she must be climbing down the cliff - and he can hear the boy with the spear yelling, "What the hell is going on?"

But precious seconds pass, and they're still alive.

There's another rattle and splash of rocks into the pool. Astrid leaps the last few feet to the ground and lands in a crouch, axe out and ready. "Hiccup," she says, tension in every line of her body as she stares past them. "Don't move."

Like an idiot, he looks anyway. Oh.

The arrow is still on the string, but now the girl is pointing it at him.

"How…how are ye doin' that?" she demands. "Why isn't it attackin'?"

Oh, boy. Hiccup swallows hard. Right, no big deal, just gotta think of a quick, simple -

"It's you!"

All eyes turn to Rapunzel, who has wobbled to her feet. She's smiling. He's never seen her smile before. It lights up her whole face, even through the smears of dirt. "You're alive," she exclaims, visibly delighted, then hesitates. "Don't you remember? The training hall…"

The curly-haired girl's brow unknots as sudden comprehension dawns. "Miles o' wheat," she whispers. The point of her arrow wavers, then drops ever so slightly. "What's happened to ye?"

"Wait. You know her?" The boy is still pointing his spear in their general direction, but he's looking at the archer in bewilderment. Astrid splashes up to stand by Hiccup's shoulder, her axe gripped in both hands.

For a long moment, they all just look at each other, across the shallow, muddy water, rippling with reflected branches. Six children and one Mutt. The silence stretches out like a prayer.

And then, a high eerie shriek rings out from somewhere in the trees. It crescendos, bursts into a cackling sound almost like inhuman laughter, and fades away.

Toothless snarls and pulls free of Hiccup's arms. "Toothless, no!" he shouts, but the Mutt whirls away from the unknown tributes, lifts his head and bares his teeth at the cliff. From high up the rocky slope comes another cackling wail, and another. Louder this time. Closer.

Hiccup swallows. "You know," he murmurs, feeling a little faint, "I think I might have a theory about the theme for these Games."

He casts an uneasy glance at the girl with the bow, but she's staring up the slope in dawning horror, weapons held loosely in fingers gone slack. The growing chorus of strange ululations rises and harmonizes. A little shiver runs up the gathered tributes' spines, almost as one.

"Jack?" the little girl says, reaching up to tug at her brother's sleeve…

And then, Astrid moves. She shoves her axe through her belt with a short, sharp motion, and lunges to grab Hiccup's arm. "Are you all stupid?" she snaps. Her face has gone white. "You think that climb's going to slow them down? They're coming!"

With that, she bolts into the trees, dragging Hiccup by the wrist so hard that he's nearly pulled off his feet before he manages to match her pace. Behind him, he can hear a burst of shouts and splashing as the other tributes follow…and the wild stampede begins.