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THE SHORE
(Day 5 - Noon)
They run down the mountainside in a panic, an undignified rabble of frightened children, skidding and stumbling, herded by the shrieks of the unseen Mutts.
Every gasp of cold air sends a stab of pain through Rapunzel's side. She's staggering along, fueled by panic, half-falling with every step as gravity pulls her onward, her boots throwing up gobbets of mud and soggy leaves behind her. The lake, she thinks, desperately. The plan hasn't changed. She remembers it, has to trust it. They could still survive this, if it works.
She doesn't want to die like this. Not like this.
Those shrieks are shrieks of hunger.
"Downhill! Keep going, come on!" It's Hiccup, shouting somewhere up ahead. "Get to the water!"
And suddenly, there it is, glimmering ahead through the branches. Rapunzel crashes through a stand of damp bracken, moving too fast to slow down even as twigs lash at her face, and finds herself in the open air again, on the pebbled shore of the lake. The slopes of the mountains soar up and away in every direction around her, thick with trees, and out there, shimmering like a mirage on the water…
A small rocky outcrop of an island. Rapunzel's heart leaps into her throat, tight with hope.
Astrid is already ahead of her, running with strong, sure strides. She reaches the edge of the water and plunges in with a gasp, but no hesitation. Hiccup follows her in up to his knees, wincing and swearing at the cold.
There's a cry from up the slope. Rapunzel turns back to look. The little girl, lagging behind, has fallen, ankle twisted under her. Her brother is already running back up the hill, shouting something frantic and indistinct.
The first of the Mutts bursts into sight, galloping down the slope. It's an awful shaggy four-legged thing, tawny and speckled brown, with a heavy, blunt head and jaws that look built to crush bone. As it lopes downhill toward them, its yellow-fanged maw gapes wide and lets out that chilling cackle of laughter.
A hissing snarl answers it. Toothless is balking at the water's edge, hunkered low and baring his teeth at the oncoming mutts. Hiccup has grabbed him by one wing and is desperately trying to pull him into the shallows, but he might as well be pulling a boulder. "C'mon, bud, we can't stay here!" he pleads, bracing his feet and yanking as hard as he can.
The redheaded girl has reached the shore. She turns back, bow in hand, strings an arrow and looses it. The first Mutt drops, hitting the ground and flipping hind legs over front to land in a limp heap, almost at the little girl's feet.
At the same moment, her brother reaches her. She stretches out her arms, face running with tears, and he swiftly scoops her into his arms as if she was a tiny child and carries her the last few steps down the slope.
"The water!" Rapunzel shouts to them. Stones crunch and shift under her boots as she begins to wade out, freezing water soaking her legs. "We have to get to that island!"
Terror and despair twists the little girl's face as her brother sets her down. "Jack, I can't swim!" she wails.
The boy has gone pale. "We'll think of something," he says, gripping his sister's hand tightly, but sweat has broken out on his skin. How would either of them have learned to swim, in their district?
Treading water, Astrid shouts breathlessly, "Hiccup, get out here! Hurry!"
Hiccup is still tugging at his Mutt's wing. "You can't take 'em all, bud! We have to go!"
More shaggy, speckled Mutts are emerging from the fringe of the woods, slinking cautiously now, with their flashing eyes fixed on the archer and her arrows. Their shrieks have quieted, but they hoot softly to each other, paws padding on the stony beach. Rapunzel realizes with a jolt that the creatures are fanning out to surround them. At their back, there is nothing but the cold water of the lake. And the shore offers no shelter, only a scatter of bleached driftwood…
A light clicks on in Rapunzel's head. "That's it!" she cries, and splashes out of the water to grab a weathered log. She braces her feet and starts to drag it across the stones, shouting, "Help me, quick!"
The other tributes stare at her - and then a delighted grin splits the boy's - Jack's - face. "C'mon!" he shouts, and suddenly all three of them are working as one, scrambling to roll the log across the beach and into the freezing water. Behind them, the redheaded girl fires off a few last arrows - one, two, three - dropping Mutts with each one, then splashes into the water after them.
The lake rises around their waists, their shoulders, sloshing and soaking their clothes…and then, with one last push of booted feet, the log bobs out into the waves with all four of them clinging to it in a shivering, gasping huddle.
"Hiccup!" Astrid's voice rises in a desperate scream. Teeth chattering, Rapunzel twists around to see the older girl swimming back toward shore.
The hooting Mutts have closed in, jaws snapping at the wings of their larger cousin as Toothless turns in snarling circles and swipes at them with his heavy claws. He strikes one of them a blow that knocks it into the shallows of the lake, and it screams and scrambles out again, soaked tail tucked tightly between its legs.
Hiccup seems to have given up arguing with his Mutt and has climbed onto the great black reptile's back, clinging to his neck. There's something in his hands - a length of rope? She barely glimpses it before a Mutt launches itself at Toothless. He roars and knocks it aside, but another is already lunging from their other side, and its sharp teeth close in the scaly skin of his neck. Blood spurts across the sand, and Toothless shrieks.
Rapunzel hides her face against the slick wet side of the log, gulping back tears, unable to watch…
…but she can't help hearing Emma's gasp. A shocked expletive from Jack. And a single shout of breathless triumph from high overhead.
"Yeahhh!"
She opens her eyes, and gasps. They're in the air.
Toothless has taken flight, broad wings beating wildly - and somehow, impossibly, Hiccup is still on his back. She can see the boy's pale hands gripping a rope looped around the Mutt's neck, and hear him whooping - half in terror, half in delight - as they circle overhead, once, twice, then coast away over the lake.
Behind them, the Mutts pace the water's edge, whining and moaning. They watch the tributes hungrily, but not one of the creatures will set paw in the chilly water.
Rapunzel heaves a shaky sigh of relief, and looks around at the awestruck faces of her fellow tributes, bobbing on the waves. They're shivering and soaked, but safe for now.
"Come on," says the redheaded girl. Her ruddy curls are plastered to her head, but she's grinning from ear to ear. "Let's get tae that island of yours."
Slowly, with all of them kicking, the makeshift raft begins to move.