A/N-Quick reply to guest reviews:
King Cringleton-Thanks for the support. The story won't ever be stopped (I write it mainly for my own enjoyment), but it's disheartening when even my original tale, as crude as it was, got more views per chapter than any book following it. And none of them have very high reviews; no more than 37 at the highest on any while many other far shorter or terribly longwinded tales are in the hundreds...
That said, other details: Jezebel will get more of an introduction and description in further chapters, and we will see the serpent again, but I won't disclose his full involvement.
Chapter 14
Devil's Awakening
As February prepared to draw to a close, winter had taken Berk with both hands, and was holding tight. An average of three feet of snow sat upon the ground, the only clear places (like the cove) being kept so thanks to the dragons. Things were warmer usually back home, but I was still stuck being bogged down by school work. My midterm tests were mostly over, thank goodness, and while college work never seems to lighten up, somehow it just managed to get done faster, which was a very, very good thing, as life had gotten harder in other areas.
I had been training with the teens for a minimum of 2 hours a day, and not only had Thuggory and the Meatheads finally shown up, but the teens I was accustomed to hanging around with were truly starting to get formidable in our sparring, made no less so by the fact that we no longer used practice weapons.
SCHEEEWWWW! "Whoa, Astrid, watch the wings will you!" "I thought we were trying to take you down!" "Yes, however I'd like to try and get through this without irreparable damage; we will have an actual war coming soon!" Astrid snorted. "And? You can heal." "…..point taken, but still…." SCHWINNGGG!
The blades at the end of my tail caught Hiccup's blade as he brought it underhand and parried it away, while simultaneously my own sword blocked a swing from Astrid's axe. She had her sword out in her other hand as well, though, and as I spun away from the medieval weapon in her right hand, she swung the thin blade in sideways, forcing me to literally flip backward to avoid getting caught across my right wing.
Hiccup was still in the fight, however, and as Astrid kept me busy, he sheathed his sword and drew Framherja in one swift movement. Taking aim as I stood up from my backflip, he fired in a thunderclap blast, point blank at my head.
The bolt hit, and with practiced ease I redirected the energy and fired it into the lake in the cove. Then, I stepped back and sheathed my own sword, a smile stretching across my face. "Well, congratulations you two! Against anyone else that feint would have taken their head off, and you would have won." "And don't forget we'll have the dragons with us as well, so pulling off tactics like that will be easier with cover fire," Hiccup mused. "That's got to count for something as well."
"Unfortunately, don't forget Jezebel has her possessed dragons as well," Ember pointed out from where she sat nonchalantly next to the fire we'd built. Hiccup sighed. "So that's no real advantage," he muttered. He glanced around the cove, and his eyes landed on Toothless, who was lounging not far from where Ember sat. "But, we do have our armor, so dragons can't burn us as well. We're better defended, hopefully." I nodded. "So long as they don't catch you on an exposed part."
A slight sting caused me to look down at my hand, where Astrid had managed to get in a lucky cut, and I healed over the wound before looking around at the gang. "Well, in any case, you two are at least adequate for battle. Ruff, Tuff, you're up next!"
The twins leapt to their feet from the rocks they'd claimed for the afternoon, and charged me with their double-bladed spears. I smirked, thinking this was going to be incredibly easy if they just went for me head on. However, a second before they were within reach they both split off and went opposite directions, swinging their weapons in at me from different angles. I pivoted and flashed my swords, catching each spearhead and deflecting them outward. Ruff and Tuff used the momentum of my parries to spin the other end of their weapons inward, the bottom blades aiming for my now mostly exposed sides. To avoid, I leapt upward, bringing my blades in and downward, catching the middle of the spears with the flats of my blades and shoving down and out, forcing the pair to stumble back, out of balance, before they regained their footing. I grinned and crossed my swords in front of me, waiting for them to come in again.
I went through the whole gang one by one, rather easily fending off Snotlout and Fishlegs, which was a little concerning. However it's a little harder to defend yourself from a sword if your weapon of choice is a blunt object, like Snotlout's hammer or Fishlegs' mace. In surprise attacks, they'd be alright however. Thuggory, who had only just recently joined us of course, was a bit rusty but held his own. Ember and Cami on the other hand lasted just about as long against me as Astrid and Hiccup had, so I decided for the most part that we were ready. Not that anyone stopped practicing, especially Snotlout; he still had it in his head he would someday manage to get at least one good hit in on me.
We flew back toward the village after we were done, and Hiccup and I immediately headed straight for the forge, Ember tagging along with us. After many, many attempts and lots of time to practice, we'd nearly completed the preliminary armor sets that the gang needed, each one fitting at least the dragon belonging to the wearer: Snotlout had Nightmare armor that could burn with Fireworm, without setting him on fire, as did Thuggory (though his color was a bit off), Fishlegs' Gronckle armor was as hard as rock, Astrid had a colorful outfit adorned with sharp ridges to go along with the rest of her outfit and her dragon, and the twins had armor that, fittingly enough, was blunt-force resistant and shock absorbing, good for the explosions Barfbelch was well known for making (not that they cared about the safety part though; what's an explosion to a couple of teens who threw each other against boulders for fun?). Camicazi's armor was very lightweight, and had managed to retain the color changing aspect of Stormfly's scales, though they tended to change with Cami's moods rather than her ride's now. In any case it would be distracting, just how she liked her fights.
Because of how long we'd been working with the scales from Toothless, both Hiccup and Ember wore armor of pitch black color, pliable and extremely flame retardant but also hard to puncture. And Hiccup, being the inventive type he is, had managed to incorporate the extra Night Fury scales into the others' armor to help strengthen those that were of a softer form or provide some flexibility to ones like what Fishlegs wore.
We were still working out the bugs for the set that Thuggory was to wear, including incorporating more of Silverwings' scales, when the loud sound of beating wings approached the forge window. ::Hawken! Toothless! They're coming!::
Out of seemingly thin air, Spitfire appeared to materialize, eyes wide and frantic. "What's going on?" I asked, dropping the scales in my hand into their designated holding basket and walking over to the window. The others in the forge followed me.
::They're coming, just over the horizon now,:: Spitfire explained, beginning to blend back with the ground out of nervousness. ::Dozens of huge ships, lots of weird dragons like I've never seen before, and these other flying, uh, machines.:: He glanced out to the ocean. ::Oh, and the sea serpent was there too. I spotted them while patrolling.:: The Changewing looked up at me, cringing slightly as he apparently expected me to explode at the bad news.
I only sighed, pressing a hand to my forehead and bracing the other against the shelf below the window. Then, I turned around to face Hiccup and Ember; Toothless of course understood what Spitfire had said, and his eyes were already wide in concerned anticipation.
"Guys, Spitfire just informed me that Jezebel and her army are almost here," I explained. "What?!" Hiccup exclaimed. "No, no, that's not good. We still need another day or two to finish Thuggory's suit!" He looked down at the arm brace he held, the one we'd only just completed, fingering the clasp that held it on.
"Well, then we need to get it done as fast as we can," I returned, strapping on the weapons I happened to have with me and walking out the forge's front door. "I need to go find Stoick, Bertha and Mogadon, and let them know about this. We need to start getting our defenses up pronto."
I morphed Night Fury and took off across the houses in the village, and skimming along the roads, searching for the three chiefs. I ducked into the Great Hall, but they weren't there, nor were they up near the livestock pens. Finally, I found them down at the docks, helping bring in a large catch.
"Stoick!" I yelled out, flaring my wings to land and vaguely noticing that Spitfire had followed me. Stoick turned, as did Bertha, as I touched down and morphed back. "Spitfire just informed me that Jezebel and her army are on their way, two, maybe three days out if we're lucky. Less if she decides to send in her dragons first." Stoick's eyes widened, before they hardened and he nodded, pointing back up toward the village. "Tell Gothi to gather the children and elders and have them head for the mountain caves. She will know where to go. I'll start putting up defenses down here with the help of our allies here." I nodded and took off again, Spitfire once more right behind me.
As I landed, I turned to face Spitfire before I went to knock on Gothi's door. "I have a very important job for you," I told the Changewing. "Go with Gothi and the children, and if anyone happens to find them you will be there to protect them."
::But I want to stay and help fight,:: the young dragon whined. I knelt down in front of him, looking straight in his eyes with as much seriousness as I could. "No reason to fight if we come back to find no one left to protect," I said quietly. "Do you understand that?" Spitfire glanced at the ground, before nodding. ::Alright, I'll go with them,:: he agreed. I smiled and stood up, knocking on the village elder's door. She opened it almost immediately afterward, looking up at me with a questioning expression.
"Stoick sent me to tell you to gather the children and the elders in the village," I said. "Take them to the shelter caves in the mountains. Jezebel is nearly here." Gothi nodded, turning and heading back into her house to gather together a few essentials, before walking back out and closing her door, waving at me to move out of the way. I smirked at her forwardness before turning and flying off to the forge, though not before I made sure Spitfire followed the old woman and stayed with her.
Naturally Hiccup and Ember were still hard at work, and Toothless was heating up the last pile of Silverwings' scales, for the face mask on Thuggory's suit. As I landed outside, they all stopped and turned to me.
"What's the news?" Ember queried. "Stoick and Bertha are setting up perimeter defenses and Gothi is taking those unable to fight up into the mountains," I reported. "Mogadon I believe is going to be helping Bertha, and alerting the villagers. Oh, and Spitfire is going with Gothi to protect that group."
"And as for us?" Hiccup asked. I nodded grimly. "We'd probably better have all our armor on when Jezebel reaches our shores. I don't know why, but I have a bad feeling that possessed dragons and her personal army aren't the only things Jezebel has up her sleeve."
"That feeling is called common sense," Ember retorted. "And don't forget she's got that last seafaring worm with her too." I nodded. "No, I don't think I'll be forgetting him."
As Hiccup began molding the scales into form and pounding the substance flat for Thuggory, the scales giving off silvery flashes each time he struck them, I looked out the forge, to the south. There wasn't any visual of Jezebel and her lackeys yet, but the cold Arctic wind sweeping down from the north and blowing over the island still managed to bring a more than ominous chill to my spine.
Honestly, I was glad that in my paranoia I had gotten all my school work done early, as for the next few days I was going to be very, very busy, and would probably miss at least a day or two.
If I managed to return to school at all after all this, that is.
A/N-Next chapter. Next chapter, and we begin the battle. These will be some of the longest chapters yet, so hope you'll stick with me through the ride!
As always, make sure to leave a review, let me know hat you think or what predictions you might have!