How to Train Your Dragon: the Novelization

Chapter 14: I'm Not One of them; Dragon and Viking United pt.2

Back in the Arena

Hiccup and the Nightmare stared each other down, both at the ready to attack. Hiccup's sword and shield were now at the ready; only a single bead of sweat strode down the boy's cheek. The Nightmare's maw was dripping with saliva as it exposed its elongated dagger fangs. The air stood still, with the two locking each other's eyes in a dangerous glare, as if by standing still, the two were gonna go and gut each other. Well, mostly the Nightmare looked like he was gonna gut someone; Hiccup was doing his best not to faint in this situation.

And finally… it happened.

Hiccup charged forward, heading straight for the Nightmare, ignoring the shouts from both his father and Astrid. Astrid, who looked in fright at this scene, was able to get back on her feet, as she watched what was happening. When she saw Hiccup charge at the Nightmare, she thought that he had lost his mind. Unable to move from her spot, all she could do, was look at this scene with fear in her eyes, and shouted out in a panic, "HICCUP, NO!"

The Nightmare lunged at him with his wing, but Hiccup anticipated this. He immediately jumped on the wing, and ran up it, hopping onto the Nightmare's nostril. Before Hiccup had done so, the Nightmare was about to shoot out its napalm fire gel. However, the moment Hiccup slammed his feet into the dragon's gnaw, it closed tightly, causing the flames to go off in its mouth. As Hiccup hopped off, he leapt towards the wall, and slammed his blade, as he hung on the wall, looking back at the Nightmare.

The Nightmare was able to cough up its own flames, but now realized that it was all out. Hiccup saw this to an advantage, as he took the last of his Garlic Grass grenades, "This had better work."

He then fired it right at the Nightmare, but before it could make contact with the face… the dragon anticipated this, and swatted the grenade aside, smashing it into the wall, and the contents sizzling away into smoke. It didn't work as Hiccup would thought, but he would have to make do with the beast's latest movement. However, Hiccup wasn't fast enough as he jumped back down, racing down the dragon's back. However, the Nightmare swatted him off with its tail, sending him skidding on the ground.

Hiccup groaned as he slowly started to try and getting back up. But before he could do so, needle-pointed claws raked the side of his right arm, as the dragon slammed him into the hard floor. Its fangs were fully bared, ready to tear open the young Viking's chest. The blinding pain flashes through his body, and his mind had gone blank.

Stoick saw this as he shouted out, looking in fear for his boy, "HICCUP!"

The villagers all paled at this scene, but none could have been paler than Astrid, and Draco from the rocks.

Hiccup thought that this was the end. Before Hiccup could ever show them what he had learned from the dragons, and what they were capable of doing together.

Hiccup closed his eyes, readying himself for his bloody send-off to either Valhalla or Helhiem. Boy, he hoped it wasn't Helhiem.

Gobber and all the other Vikings could only watch in fear, as the Nightmare was about to tear him apart. But suddenly, the veteran's fears were tossed aside as he heard it. A high-pitched screech echoed across the sky. Immediately, Gobber knew what it was as he shouted, "Everybody, get down!"

Like a bolt out of the blue, a bright orb of white blue-hot plasma exploded on the side of the cage, blowing it open as if it were made of straw. Something shot past the Viking crowds, and bolted right into the cage, a pitch black blur of unknown speed. Smoke filled the ring, causing both Hiccup and everyone else to cough uncontrollably. Before the Nightmare could figure out what was going on, a black shadow slammed into its side, and the weight was taken off the young Viking's body.

As the smoke cleared, shocked exclamations pour out of the stands, and everyone scrambled forward to try and make out what is going on. But as it did, everyone saw, the Nightmare was now duking it out… with a pitch-black dragon that they had never seen before.

"Night Fury," was all the stunned Gobber said as he saw the smoke cleared.

Hiccup had regained his footing as he saw Toothless fighting the Nightmare. It was a no-holds-barred showdown, a duel to the death between the two most feared species of dragons in this part of the world.

Fangs bared, Toothless tore away with his teeth and claws at the Nightmare in a relentless assault. The larger dragon tried to fight back, but despite its size, the Night Fury had proven to be a better fighter, due to the fact that he was faster and more agile. With his sweeping strikes from his tail and plasma bolts of ultimate destruction, Toothless effortlessly fended off his opponent.

However, the Nightmare got lucky as it bit Toothless at the neck, and was now about to tear the Night Fury's head off. However, that didn't happen as Hiccup ran towards them, and grabbed the Nightmare by the horns, holding onto it. And with his right foot, he kicked the lower right side of the Nightmare's jaw. This struck a pressure point, causing the dragon to lose control of its jaw. Now freed, Toothless back off, as Hiccup jump off, but noticed that the bola cannon that he had made for his dragon was attached to his saddle.

Hiccup ran up to him, and pulled the cannon off, as he took aim at the recovering Nightmare. And then, with a pull of the lever, he shot a bola net right at the Nightmare, in which entangled the dragon completely. The Nightmare tried to get free of the restraints, but to no avail. With that done, Toothless ran up to the dragon, and delivered a mighty head butt, knocking the dragon out cold as it fell to the ground unconscious.

Hiccup dropped the cannon, and walked over to Toothless, gently patting him on the head. "Good work, boy," he said to him, in which made Toothless purr in delight on a job well done.

However, that was short lived, as he heard the Vikings began to roar with bloodthirsty intentions.

"No, Toothless, go! Go! Get out of here!" he shoved at his dragon's bulk, trying to get him out of this place. But the Night Fury refused to budge, still under the impression that Hiccup needed his protection. He was only going to get himself killed by staying there, was all that Hiccup knew at this point.

By now, soldiers were pouring out of the stands into the ring. Those with weapons were drawing them, getting ready to take down the boy's dragon. This was all going so wrong, was all that Hiccup had on his mind. He looked to see the General grabbing a mighty battle axe off the rack from before, and brandishing it.

"NO! Dad, he won't hurt you!" He didn't hear him, and proceeded to attack in an attempt to kill Toothless.

Perceiving a real threat, Toothless dashes forward to attack. On the way, his tail swept aside flanking personnel, and his claws tore gashes into an unlucky few in his way. Pouncing, he knocked Stoick the Vast down, his fangs bared.

"No! NO!"

He opens his mouth, getting ready to unleash another ball of plasma at point-blank range. Until Hiccup shouted, "Toothless, he's my father! STOP!"

At the young Viking's command, the Night Fury hesitated, and looked at Hiccup in innocent confusion. The Night Fury looked down at Stoick and back at Hiccup, in realization that his human friend was the son of the man that relentlessly hunted them all down. At that moment, a number of men slammed into his side, knocking him off Stoick. One of them executes a grapple on Toothless' snout, forcing it shut. Mobile water cannons and tear gas guns are brought out to subdue him further. The rest take ropes and bind him, immobilizing the Night Fury.

After the confusion was all over, and Toothless pinned down, Stoick walked over to his son. Stoick looked to his son, completely shocked as he pointed to Toothless, being restrained by the other Vikings, "What were you waiting for? Kill it!"

"I…" Hiccup weakly started, but then lowered his head as he confessed, "… I can't. He's my friend."

"Your friend?" Stoick nearly shouted in anger, "What's wrong with you?" he then pointed to the Night Fury, "It's a dragon! If it weren't for us, you'd have been eaten alive! By Loki's Horns, have you really gone mad! It's a dragon! You're a Viking!"

"I don't care!" HIccup finally shouted out, looking defiantly to his father. After all the anger left his voice, Hiccup sighed in relief, until he finally answered, "I'm sorry, Dad. But… but it just doesn't feel right. Even if I did kill a dragon… I wouldn't feel like myself."

After hearing that last comment, Stoick huffed angrily at his son, and walked over to Toothless mumbling incoherently. Until finally, he stopped as one of the Vikings held out Toothless's head, getting his neck out clearly. "Here!" Stoick shouted as he raised his axe, "This is how you do it, and how you should feel about it!"

"No… no, please! STOP!" Hiccup shouted, trying to reason with the Vikings ignoring his plea. "He's not gonna hurt anyone!"

Astrid, herself close to crying, is holding me back, trying to console him, "Hiccup, no… you can't do anything now…"

But before the Viking chief could kill the dragon, a massive fire blast struck the axe, blowing it up and sending Stoick flying to the walls. Everyone looked up at the cage… and saw a mighty strong and very PO'ed Golden Fleece Dragon appear.

Draco immediately destroyed the chain cage top, and roared furiously, getting into the arena, causing much confusion. Some of the Vikings backed away, while most of them charged right at him. However, his tail proved to be a force to be reckoned with. Even his wings flung Vikings all over the place, as those outside the arena were watchign this amazing battle taking place. The Vikings were all frightened at such a dragon coming into the scene. But that didn't mean that some weren't prepared to deal with this beast.

In the confusion, Hiccup shouted to Toothless, "Toothless, Run!" the Night Fury, now ignored by the other Vikings looked to his friend, almost pleading him not to tell him so. But Hiccup's face became a frightened visage of anger as he shouted, "GO, YOU STUPID REPTILE! BEAT IT!" Hurt by those words, Toothless looked at Hiccup saddened, until finally, he threw off all the Vikings pinning him down, and got out of there, heading for the exit, and knocking over the Vikings that tried to get him… until he was out of sight and out of there.

Draco turned his attention to Hiccup as he finally spoke to them, "Astrid! Get Hiccup out of…"

But he was cut off, as hooks shot up, tearing into his wings. The sheer pain of it caused Draco to arch up and roar, but not in anger. To some Vikings, mostly the teenagers, this cry was of pain and fear. Most unheard of by the teens, but went unheard of by the adults, thinking that they needed more hooks into the beast. They shot hooks at the sides of the beast, tearing into his unarmored flesh, as the dragon once again bellowed in monstrous pain. Syn and Fishlegs were a few of the teens that couldn't take it. Especially Syn, as she buried her face into Fishleg's gut, trying not to show any tears of this, but Fishlegs understood as he cradled her in his arms, also trying not to stand it. But the two who took it hard the most, were Hiccup and Astrid, as he saw his mentor being brought down to the ground. The viknigs swarmed the dragon, using the chains to bind the dragon to the ground of the coliseum. And in this moment, the mighty Golden Fleece had been brought to the ground, in utter defeat, and possibly about to be executed.

Rage and grief consumed the boy; summoning the last of his strength, he broke free of Astrid's grip and tackled one of the men cruelly maltreating Draco. He could no longer think straight, and he lost all grip with reality. Snatching one of the ropes, he verbally and physically assault him, before he was subdued himself.

Stoick shoved the axe away, as he glared daggers at Draco. His voice spoke out as he looked to the dragon, and ordered out; a mix of betrayal, disappointment and anger in his voice, "Put It in with the others…"

Next Chapter: The Makings of Greatness; Something Stupid and Crazy