Chapter 22

The metal bars were warmer on my tongue than I had expected. Probably because I had been chewing on them for a while. Weird? Sure. But I had always been the odd one, and when you were a dragon trapped inside a cage, there wasn't a whole lot to do.

We'd been left alone. If I hadn't been able to hear the ship echoing with footsteps, I might have even thought that they were all gone. Not that it would have mattered. I'd already tried to fit through the bars, but they were just small enough that I couldn't force my skull through. I was beginning to suspect that Eret had known about me even before he set foot on the Raiders' land.

I smacked my head against the bars. Again. Forget being kidnapped; I was going to die of boredom before anything terrible happened.

"Can't you just blast it open?" Snotlout asked. "Toothless could."

"Oh, great idea, Snotlout. Maybe the tenth time is the charm. It's not like every other time I've tried it's been completely useless!"

I didn't know whether or not to be glad that he couldn't understand me. On one hand, he didn't know I was insulting him. On the other hand, this was Snolout's fault. He was the reason this was happening.

You know what? I think I'm going to go with 'not glad'.

I howled. My thrashing tail was between two bars, and thumped loudly against each one. My wings unfurled as much as they could – maybe about half their length. Who knew?

Snotlout had watched my little tantrum, but now he stared at a corner. A damp spot was there, being . . . damp. Exciting. But there wasn't much else to look at. There was me, him, my cage and its table, and a ragged old bear pelt on the floor that I think was supposed to be Snotlout's bed. That was about it. There wasn't even a sign of rats.

When I heard the footsteps in the hall, I ignored them at first. There were lots of sailors, and lots of them walking down this hall. But then the steps stopped in front of the door. Metal – keys – jingled. I smelt the food even before the door opened.

"Chow!" Eret nearly sang. A small of me wanted to growl, but I did want that fish . . .

He tossed some biscuits and a salted fish in Snotlout's direction, and slammed a mug of water down on my table. Grinning, Eret said, "You can share the water with the dragon."

Straining his cuffed wrists for emphasis, Snotlout asked, "How am I supposed to eat this?"

Eret shrugged. "Be creative. And here's one for you."

He dropped a fish in front of me, so that its tail was inside the cage. I yanked it fully inside before he could change his mind.

"Hungry, huh? I –"

As Eret reached with that finger, as if to scratch behind my ears, I lurched towards it with my teeth showing. I had the fish now; I didn't need to play nice.

Unfortunately, Eret seemed to find it funny.

"I'll see you two later," he said, as he walked towards the door. "Don't look so down, Snotlout. We're not going to keep you forever."

Snotlout didn't say anything.

The door closed, and the lock slid into place.

I narrowed my eyes, and sniffed. Oh. Raw. Like a dragon would eat it. I mean, I guess it could be worse. It's not like Toothless never made me eat raw fish before, way back in the day. Good times, that.

Still didn't mean I wanted to eat this.

I poked it. It felt like a raw fish. A bit of water dripped out of its mouth. Freshly caught, then. At least my captors had put some thought into my dinner. Too bad I couldn't just blast and cook it with fire.

A thought struck me. A plasma blast would destroy my lovely fish, but Night Furies . . . they didn't just have one type of flame. They had another, didn't they? A softer kind. A gentle one. I took a deep breath, felt the air swirl in my chest, and let my chest muscles move into place. The Night Fury's plasma shot was sharp, and quick. Like a bark, or a shout. But that wasn't what I wanted.

I stared at the fish, and breathed.

The colour was more whitish-blue than my typical purple flame, kind of like a star. It came out in a full stream, lighting up my face and the metal around me. Fish scales cracked as water vaporized from underneath them, and then they curled and grew black along the edges. Better. This might even be edible.

I stared. Some of the scales had charred and gone black; others glowed red. I cocked my head. Something was stirring in the back of my mind. Something blurry, but important. I swallowed hard. I needed to think . . .

The ship bumped. The mug rattled, and some water sloshed over the lip. At the same time, Snotlout, who had been trying to pick at his food like a dog, heaved forward. His head crashed into the floor, grazing the corner of his plate, which tipped upwards and came back down with a quiet clang.

That unleashed the flood. The dark confines of our prison were replaced with another room; the smoking fish under my paws grew into embers. I could taste the molten metal inside my mouth as I stared into the forge. I had worked with metal all my life. Maybe even more than dragons, I knew metal. And to work the metal, you always had to heat it . . . The plasma blast was too much. It was too fast. The heat didn't keep. But this, this other fire . . .

This could work.

Snotlout watched me from his corner as I breathed on the bars. It wasn't as quick as the plasma blast - it wasn't nearly as fast – but eventually, the bars began to glow red. It started in the center of the flame, and then grew outwards slowly, like a flower opening its petals. I was vaguely aware of the heat radiating from the bars, but my scales shielded me from most of it. The pair of bars I was focusing on turned ruby, and then became hotter still, until it seemed to be trying to imitate the colour of my fire.

"What are you doing?" Snotlout asked.

I ignored him. There. This should be hot enough. It certainly looked it. And felt like it, too. The heat had spread through the metal of the cage, so that even the floor below me was hot enough to be uncomfortable. Now, what I needed was the hammer. I didn't have that, but I did have something else.

My tail curled against my side. I could feel how hard, how strong it was, especially compared to the rest of me. It was like a pure chunk of muscle.

"Here goes."

It was tight, but there was just enough room so that I could whip around, extending my tail at the last moment –

And immediately regret that decision.

"Okay, ouch! That hurt! Wow. Definitely not one of my brighter ideas." In a moment of self-pity, I licked the sore spot.

"Uh, what was that for?"

"If you're not going to help, Snotlout . . ."

The room still smelt more like burning metal than the fish I had barely touched. I dipped a claw in the fish's juices and scribbled symbols. Maybe I should write my eulogy. Here lies Hiccup. Still a dragon.

But that could wait. There had to be something stronger. It couldn't be a full-body charge; there wasn't nearly enough room for that. But there had to be something. Toothless –

That was it! I moved back so I was up against the opposite bars, took a deep breath . . .

Screek!

The fire blinded me. It slammed into the red-hot bars, and split off into purple motes, which rained down like dust settling after a storm. They left orange pinpricks on the ground, which scattered as I stepped forward to examine my handiwork.

Nothing. The bars were still there.

Snotlout had stood up, understanding what I had been trying to do. Upon seeing the bars intact though, he slumped against a wall. His forehead smacked into the wood. Again. Again, and again. Each time, the chains around his wrists rattled.

I watched him for a long time. His restraints gleamed with light. It should have been attractive to a young, bored dragon's eyes, but I didn't really care. I was ready to sleep. I was just . . . finished.

Snotlout skulked over. He tried to watch me from the corner of his eye while simultaneously staring at the mug of cold water. Didn't know how he was planning to drink that.

"Want some?" he asked cautiously.

I didn't answer.

He twisted and did some weird thing where, despite his bound wrists, he tried to reach around his waist and grab the mug anyways. I doubt he could hear it, but I could hear the metal links sliding against cloth and each other, see the sharp flash of light –

Wait a second. The link. The metal links.

My claws snapped out and snagged a section of the chain. Snotlout froze. I could almost feel his heart pounding. I ran my paw over the chain. It was metal. Probably the same metal my cage was made out of. But the links weren't nearly as thick. My cage had been made to hold a dragon – and not just any dragon, but me: a Night Fury.

Snotlout's cuffs were meant to hold a human.

"Stay still," I hissed. The more I tugged, the more nervous Snotlout became. What I wanted was for his back to be facing me, so that I had clear access to the chains. But, for some reason, he didn't seem so happy to trust me. You'd think that I had sold him out to a bunch of dragon hunters, or something.

I finally got what I wanted. Snotlout watched uncertainly over his shoulder. I spread the chain wide, so that nothing overlapped. This could be it. These were thin. Built to contain a regular, non-fire breathing Viking. Not me.

I took a deep breath, and let go.

Snotlout only screamed a little bit.

But when the dust cleared, the chains were still there.

"It didn't work. It . . . it didn't work." My legs were suddenly too weak to hold me, and I collapsed onto my stomach. "I thought it would work."

Snotlout wasn't speaking. I could smell sweat. Guess I made it too hot.

Then, he grunted, "Uh, Hiccup, I could really use a hand!"

What was he talking about? For a bright moment, I thought maybe I had been mistaken, that the chain did break. But I quickly proved that wrong. So . . . not too sure what was happening.

I stared. I couldn't read his face since he wasn't looking at me, but his shoulders were positioned oddly. Like he was being squeezed between two walls. I followed them down to his arms, which were straight and stiff. A bead of sweat clung to one, tracing the edge of a large, bulging vein.

"What are you doing . . . ?"

His arms began to shake from strain. The chain began to shake too, and I finally understood. Alone, I was too weak, as was Snotlout. But together?

Screek!

There was no loud crack when the chains gave. The whole affair was rather quiet. Snotlout was unprepared for it, and the speed at which his arms swung out almost sent him to the floor. He slid along the tabletop, tripped up at the edge, and hit his elbow. My cage wobbled and shifted so that a tiny corner was suspended over air.

"I'm free," he said, breathlessly. "We did it. I'm free . . . Ow! Hot, this is very hot!"

He blew on the manacles encircling his wrists. They weren't red, but the broken chain-links were, and metal tended to let heat spread . . . Yep. He was getting burned. Sure enough, the manacles hissed when he poured the mug of water over it.

Hey! I had wanted some of that.

Snotlout rubbed his wrists, whimpering like a wounded dog. The chains still made that annoying clinking sound whenever he moved. Almost as bad as those bells we used to tie around the sheep's' necks.

I tapped on the bars. "Uh, a little help here."

"Right. Don't worry, Hiccup. I got this. You hear that, cage? You're going down."

He bounced around the table, elbows close together as he held up his fists. They hid his eyes. Don't tell me . . . He couldn't possibly be thinking of –

Crack.

Yes. He was.

I think he groaned. That or tried to imitate a dying elk. But, he wasn't tearing up. Good for him. Of course, my admiration was lacking since I had just seen Snotlout try to punch through a metal cage.

To his credit, he admitted, "That wasn't a good idea."

"Well, you got to start somewhere," I said. Neutrally. Didn't laugh even a little.

And it struck me. Our little interaction. How normal it was, even though this was anything but normal. Is this really all it took for me to forgive someone? Practically nothing at all? The twins were right; I was too nice.

"Come on, Hiccup. Use your brain," I muttered. I needed Snotlout right now, but that was it. Our relationship was one of necessity. Yes, he was my cousin, but that just made the entire thing worse. I didn't know if I could forgive him.

"Hi-ya!"

The mug bounced off the cage.

" . . . I need something harder," was all Snotlout said.

For all the noise he made, Snotlout didn't attract much attention. I guess, in a way, it made sense. If Eret had done his research – and he appeared he had –, he should have expected Snotlout to act out. Plus, who cared if he was throwing a temper tantrum? As long as we stayed in the room, and on the ship.

Right now, Snotlout was trying to pry the room's door open with his plate . . . oh, the plate just broke. Great. What brilliant idea would he come up with next?

He fell flat on his face. "I give up!"

So much for that.

"Nothing you tried would have worked," I said. "We're not going to break through that door on our own."

He couldn't understand me, of course. He just laid there with his face flat against the ground. Probably the same reaction he would have had if I could speak proper Norse.

We waited a long time. Snotlout slowly migrated from the door to the other side of the room. One hand rested on the wall, as if to steady him against an imaginary storm. But based on the boat's rocking, it was actually nice out. Perfect for flying.

Then, we heard it: footsteps stopping outside our door. I stared at Snotlout, who was advancing.

The knob turned.

"Snotlout . . ."

My whine made him grin. He put a finger in front of his lips. "Relax. I'm going to use my head."

"Your head? Really? Because that's gotten us so far-"

The door opened. Snotlout lunged . . . and slammed his forehead into the other man's skull.

" . . . Oh. That's what you meant."

A few seconds later, and Snotlout was in possession of the man's belongings: a weird, woollen hat, some jerky, and a bola. All of which, I'm sure, would be very helpful. Especially since Snotlout didn't seem to know what a bola was.

"Hey, I get it." With the chain looped around one finger, Snotlout spun the bola experimentally. "It's one of those chain-ball things."

"Flail," I corrected. "And it's actually a bola."

The spinning stopped. Snotlout tilted his head to one side thoughtfully, while staring at me.

I said, "Please tell me you're not thinking what I think you're thinking . . ."

Snotlout held the bola high above his head, and began to spin it.

I swallowed hard, and backed up.

With a true Viking roar, he brought the iron ball down with a clang that I knew every man on this ship had heard. The ball bounced off the cage with a few sparks, leaving a sizable dent, before smashing into and leaving a smaller dent in the table. It took him a few tries, but eventually, the cage warped enough that I could fit through.

"Yay," Snotlout said hoarsely, panting fiercely. The arm holding the bola dropped as if someone had removed the bone.

"We can rest later!" I snapped. "We got to get out now."

Despite my size, I was faster than he was. Not to mention much more light-footed. Maybe it was the extra weight of the bola, but Snotlout was worse than a boar. By the second turn, we had been spotted, and there was now no less than four burly men chasing after us.

"Aha! Got you." someone cried as they stepped out in front of us –

"Nope!" Snotlout slung the bola forward, striking the man straight in the face. Then, with his shoulder, he easily forced the larger man side.

"I like this," Snotlout said, gazing at his bola fondly. "Think Berk's ready for a weapon upgrade?"

"Snotlout. Escape. Now!"

A sudden burst of light erupted in the corridor. Someone had opened the door to the deck, and there were five figures shrouded in the light. One of them, hatless and taller than the others, leaned down.

Eret.

"Uh oh," Snotlout said.

Eret sighed. "Why do you have to make things so difficult? Men, grab them."

We tore past them. But with people behind us, and people guarding the way to the deck, there wasn't anywhere for us to run. Not unless we wanted to head deeper into the bowels of the ship.

"Hiccup, what's the plan?"

"Uh, Snotlout, I'm the dragon here. Coming up with a plan is your idea!"

His clever plan was to run into a room and shut the door. And then hold it shut with his body. His heels dug into the ground every time someone pounded, and he gave way a little more each time. We could hear our pursuers on the other side, coordinating themselves for an attack.

"Now would be a great time for one of your crazy ideas," Snotlout said.

Yes, it would be. The rather spacious room we were in was one meant for food storage; it stunk strongly of salt. And where there's food, there might be a knife . . .? Nope, not here. Fantastic. But we did have salted fish, hardtack, flour, rum . . .

Flour?

Slowly, an idea – a crazy idea – began to form. Oh, Snotlout and the twins would like this one.

The flour was being kept in a cluster of crates in the corner. I hopped onto the top one, ripped it open with a bit of fire and teeth, and sneezed as I caught a noseful of powder. I leaned back, flapped my wings hard – had to get a lot of air in there . . .

"Hiccup?"

I barked at Snotlout, and drew up flame in my mouth. Then, I tapped the top of the crate. Immediately, Snotlout's eyes went wide, and he dove for the shelter of a few barrels. With his bulk no longer in the way, the door gave way at once. Six or seven men tumbled in, scrambled to their feet and spied me –

Just as I fired straight down.

I am so glad dragons are fireproof on the outside.

It all happened in slow motion, but I still couldn't move nearly fast enough to escape the explosion, but the force of the imploding crate threw me out of the way. The entire thing had bulged, before shattering into a thousand little pieces around a hot, orange flame. That was enough for Eret's men. They nearly trampled each other getting away as the fire rolled along the ceiling. I lay on the ground, half-stunned, half-mesmerized. The crate's tattered shell lay everywhere; one sharp-looking shard stuck out from the ground just a few inches away. The flames themselves had vanished quickly. With them gone, Snotlout, covering his head, felt it fit to peek from behind his scorched barrels.

"That was awesome," was all he said.

"Look," I said. Along with terrifying Eret's men, the explosion had blasted a small hole in the hull. I could smell – see – the outside world.

We didn't need to speak. We could hear Eret outside, demanding loudly to know what had happened, and where we were. But by the time Eret had arrived in our room, we were already poised to go.

Eret ran towards us. "Stop -!"

We jumped.

Review Responses:

Anonymous: Thank you! I'm glad you're liking it.

Idea Guy: Haha, good idea, but I think Hiccup would be offended. He's still a human on the inside.

HMP:Toothless is indeed a great father. Especially the time he threw Hiccup off a building.

Oh, because I'm evil. That's pretty much why :)

Guest: Maaaaybe.

guest22: I still don't know where I'm going with the Hiccup/Snotlout friendship, so we shall see.

a random person: Thanks! And yes, lots of people will/have noticed they're gone. The problem for Berk is figuring out what happened to them.

Flicker Guest: It is a bit of a problem for them, isn't it? No Toothless in this chapter, but rest assured, Toothless is most certainly pissed with Hiccup's disappearance. The real danger is that he might rampage and go after people like say, non-Berkian Vikings.

Jazz: Lol well you know I don't watch the series.

According to the wiki, yes, Night Furies are the smartest dragon.

pfft: It IS odd, isn't it?