Chapter 23

Snotlout fell straight down. I opened my wings, and glided above him. Lucky for us, the ocean was calm, but it was cold; I didn't need to be a teenage genius to figure that out. When Snotlout breached the surface, I could hear his teeth chattering.

I looked around. I didn't recognize these waters. There were ice floes, so we had to be in the northern country. But as for land, I didn't see any of that.

Dread pooled in my stomach. What now? I could hear people scrambling on deck; no doubt, they had seen me. I was a black blob in the middle of a blue sky.

"Think, Hiccup . . ."

I looked. For the first time, I saw the ship we had been trapped on. It was much bigger than I had expected, more like a Roman warship than any of our ships. But that was the key, wasn't it? A big ship like this would never have been able to sneak up on the Raiders' island. There had to be a smaller boat, a lifeboat or something . . .

Perfect.

I folded my wings and dove, smashing my body and claws into the hull. They sunk in, holding me steady as I eyed the ropes holding one of the smaller crafts in place. I would have to be quick, precise, like a true Night Fury.

Above me, someone peered over the rail. "He's on the hull!"

Well, here goes nothing.

The first shot grazed the back rope holding the small boat up. Practically before the rope had time to react, my second shot snagged the front rope. With both ropes hanging on by the seams, the boat swayed dangerously. Each swing made the ropes fray more, letting the boat swing further, which frayed the ropes even more.

And within a few seconds, they gave.

It fell on an angle, bow-first, so that the bow went under, and scooped up some water when the stern hit. The boat seemed to shudder, as if affected by the cold, but it floated. I sprung and landed neatly in the middle while Snotlout swam towards it.

He pulled himself up easily, using all that Viking strength he had been blessed with. He grabbed a pair of paddles, and rowed.

It took him a whole five seconds to get the boat moving.

We were doomed.

Click. Click. The sounds of a dozen bola-shooters reached my ears. They were all lined up along the deck's length, and I would bet my freedom that they were all aimed at us. But, before we were bombarded, Eret cried out, "No! You could sink them. Drago will murder us if the Night Fury drowns."

Remind to thank this Drago person if I ever met him.

Eret's huge ship began to turn. Snotlout rowed as fast as he could, but I knew Eret would overwhelm us given enough time.

"Not on my watch," I growled. I hopped onto Snotlout's head, squared my shoulders, and aimed.

This time, I targeted the sails. They didn't burn up like I had hoped, but each hole meant the ship moved that much slower. I stared at one of the booms. Maybe if I broke that, the entire sail would collapse.

But when I made a move to strike it down, the flames seemed to catch in my throat.

Snotlout heard my coughing, and asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm out of fire. Snotlout, I'm out of fire!" He couldn't understand my words, but my frantic squeaking said enough.

Snotlout worked hard, but he was only one Viking, and for all I had slowed the ship down, it wasn't enough. The bowsprit of Eret's ship was nearly above us now, and there were men descending ropes strung down the hull. They weren't very intimidated by my hiss.

Snotlout threw the paddles down. "I don't know about you, but I'm going down fighting . . . Hey, where's the ball-chain thing!"

"Guess you lost it. That explains how you were swimming with that thing."

As the enemy got nearer, I backed away and tried to hide. Even as a human, fighting wasn't exactly something I was good at.

I still wasn't used to smelling aggression. The spiciness electrified my body, and if I had hair, I'm sure it would have been standing on end. But, instead of those, I had nubs and tendrils on my head, which opened and stuck straight out. I couldn't get enough air through my nose, so I opened my mouth to breathe, and the bitter taste of Snotlout's fear rolled into my throat.

The tendrils on my face moved back and forth, as if they had a mind of their own. Then, stopped. And things . . . fell away. I was still there with Snotlout. I was still staring at the ship, but it felt distant, like I was just dreaming. Even my fear was at arm's-length.

And I heard something.

Danger, you?

Something shifted, like I was standing on the back of some invisible beast. There was a force curling around me, almost like a snake, but I wasn't alarmed. And what I heard next, I didn't hear in words, but in calm and rumbles that my brain translated into words regardless.

Danger, yes. We come.

"Snotlout," I said mindlessly, "Do you hear something?"

He didn't listen. I didn't expect him to. In fact, he seemed to be staring directly into the ocean.

I blinked. "Wha -?"

Then, a mountain broke though the waves.

It grew before us, right between Eret and us. The waves it created forced us far apart, nearly capsizing both vessels. The force tossed us both against our craft's stern, and the aftershocks were so great that Snotlout couldn't stand.

"Hiccup, what is that?" Snotlout squeaked.

I stared, only able to croak, "It's a dragon."

And dragon it was. Covered in thick, white scales, and black-tipped spines like a hedgehog, the massive dragon seemed to go on forever, bigger than even the Red Death had been, and there was still part of it under the waves. I thought it was roaring at first, but soon realized the dragon was silent. The thunderous noise I heard was simply a deluge of water pouring off its body back into the ocean.

I smelt something behind us too late. Something large and scaly swooped in, armed with not one, but two pairs of wings. A clawed foot opened, and closed around me and in that same second, a dragon snatched up Snotlout. The dragons, along with an entire flock, flew towards the behemoth before us, before making a sharp turn upwards.

"Whoa."

Sharp cracks, sounds I associated with ice, reached my ears. I had no idea where it was coming from – the dragon carrying us were flying away from the giant dragon, back towards where they had come from. Although the dragon had a firm hold on him, Snotlout was clinging to her leg as if his life depended on it.

"Can somebody tell me what's happening?" he said.

"I . . . I don't think they want to hurt us. Right, guys? Little help here."

But of course, nobody understood me. Snotlout's frightened eyes scanned each and every one of the flock. Then, they widened with shock. "What is that?"

He seemed to be looking at something on my dragon. My neck wasn't long enough for me to see what. When I stretched, all I could see the pale underbelly of the Stormcutter holding me, and flashes of his beating wings (only one pair now; the other seemed to be tucked under the larger pair). He smelt like pine, like frozen earth, and of strength. Didn't know you could really smell strength until now. Maybe it was because he was so big – at least twice the mass of Toothless, but I think Toothless still had the larger wing-to-body ratio.

We flew a long time. The dragons hummed and purred, sounds that I was starting to understand meant Here! Flock, here! I'm here! Sometimes, one would lock eyes with me, and purr directly at me. Snotlout was mostly ignored, but honestly, I think he was happy with that.

Then, we arrived. At an island with a bare beach, but whose centerpiece was a pointed citadel made of green-blue crystals. There were gaps in the wall, guarded by rings filled with sharp edges, but easily passable to anything with wings. As the flock took us inside and we flew through narrow halls filled with shadows and dimly glowing crystals, I remembered a similar place: the orange-tinted maze leading to the Red Death's layer.

But they didn't set us down in a volcano. The dragons stopped in a dark room, where light shone through the crystal walls and painted it black and blue. The Stormcutter put me down gently, and leaned in to sniff. His eyes were dilated, with the top lids hidden beneath a huge horn-like growth that started at his nose and grew well past his cheeks. A small, bony crest divided the growth in half and on either side of that and behind the horn, was a large, spiked fin.

"Hi," I said.

He cocked his head to one side, then to the other.

They weren't so nice letting Snotlout down, but Snotlout stayed on his feet. He hit the ground nearly at a run, arms making those large circles that meant you were on the cusp of falling over. He took a second to grab his bearings, and then jumped with a yelp. Dragons lurked around him, flat-faced with teeth that stuck out of their lower jaws. The Stormcutter, balanced on his feet and lower wings, arched his back defensively. The blue-tipped spines on his back almost seemed to glow.

Snotlout stumbled in a tight circle, trying to keep his eyes on all of them. "Okay . . . uh . . . we come in peace? Magic dragon taming would be nice around now! Hiccup, you listening?"

Something moved. The Stormcutter had lowered one of his wings. Something crawled off it and now . . . now I knew what Snotlout had been staring at before. There was a creature . . .? No, no. That was a person. But they . . . she - smelt like a she – was wearing some sort of mask. It was blue, and decorated with striped spines at the top, as well as two tusks on the cheeks. I was assuming those were her cheeks. There wasn't any hole for her mouth, and that threw me off.

The black patches that marked her eyes stared at Snotlout. Her head turned suddenly and . . . what was she? I knew she was human, but it was like looking into the face of an insect.

"Uh, hi?" I said.

She shifted again, and something stirred behind her shoulder. Short and hooked, it was some sort of staff, and for the first time, I noticed she was holding a shield in her other hand.

My legs moved of their own accord. I darted out from the Stormcutter's shadow, not an instant before she reached for me. I curled around Snotlout's ankles, and strength seemed to leech through his skin and into me.

The stranger was low to the ground, almost on her hands and knees, still staring as if shocked at how fast I had run. There was nothing I could detect in her scent that told me if we were in danger. But she smelt wild. Feral. More like dragon than human.

She didn't move right. She seemed to be hunched at the shoulders, which didn't move as she paced. Or maybe it just looked that way because she was covered in leather armour. And when she walked, it was sideways like a crab, with one leg passing in front of the other. She kept a good distance from us, with her staff and shield in front of her chest defensively.

"You better let us go. I'm in a really bad mood right now, which means I'm in a perfect mood to kick some butt!" Snotlout pounded his fist into his other palm for emphasis.

But the moment the two hands made contact, a deafening growl rang out from the Stormcutter. The stranger raised her staff, hooked at both ends I could see now, and hit it against the ground. It rattled and one by one, every dragon around her lit its mouth up with flames.

Snotlout gulped. "Just kidding?"

My own chest was tightening. When I inhaled through my nose, the air seemed to boil in my lungs. What did she want from us?

With the dragons' eerie, orange fire in the background, the stranger fell forward onto her hands. Her tattered, red cape lay along her spine and spilt onto the ground, almost like a tail. With a flick of her wrist, the staff and shield were discarded. Hands free now, she skulked towards us on all fours – not crawling, but using her hands and feet, and her back resembling the humped, sloped one of a bear.

We backed away. My wings extended in an instinctive bid to look bigger. Her expression never changed – yes, I know it's because she was wearing a mask! A mask utterly devoid of emotion, or anything that made it human.

"Whoa, okay, stop! It'd suck if I had to hurt you . . . Not that I would!" Snotlout quickly added, as some of the dragons began to growl. "But, uh, you're getting a little close."

"An explanation would be useful right now," I added.

That was a mistake. At the sound of my voice, her attention turned back on me. We had backed up, but she moved too quickly. She was right in front of us, body small and compact almost like a Gronckle. With fingers spread, she reached for me again. But she didn't touch me. Her hand stopped in front of my snout, and moved in an odd curve toward the ground.

I stared at the hand, then at her. "What are you doing?"

She hesitated. Then tried it again. Tried it a couple of times. That gave Snotlout enough time to recover from the surprise of her approach, and he pushed me back with his foot. I'm guessing he was just as confused as I was, and that's why he didn't kick her instead.

She didn't like that. When Snotlout's foot moved, it was like she just remembered he was there. She slunk back out of range. Still on all fours.

"Yeah, that's right. Stay back!" Apparently, that itty-bitty victory was all it took to restore Snotlout's confidence. "That goes for all of you. We have places to be."

I sighed. "Really, Snotlout. Way to make friends."

He strutted forward, me following. But the stranger slid into his path, unarmed, but starting to straighten up.

"Can you move?" Snotlout snapped. "We have to go."

In answer, the Stormcutter reared up behind the stranger, wings black with shadow. And there went Snotlout's confidence. He nearly stepped on me as he tried to move away.

"What do you want?" he demanded, voice wavering. I took my place beside him, and slid my teeth out. Just in case.

This time, she reached for Snotlout's face, fingers wide and spread, feeling the air like a cat's whiskers. Snotlout stared at them, breath catching in his throat. With each inch of space that vanished between them, all the sound in the room was sucked deeper into a void, so that our ears thrummed with absolute silence.

And he broke.

"Get back!" He stumbled backwards, arm flying out and smacking her in the face –

The Stormcutter shrieked. He threw himself at Snotlout, jaws wide –

"No!" I ran forward, and shouted at the dragon to stop –

I realized too late that my fire had returned.

The plasma blast slammed into the back of the Stormcutter's throat, sending him reeling back as if he had been punched in the face. His tail crashed into the stranger's legs, sweeping her right off her feet.

The other dragons began to growl.

"Run!"

We tore past the fallen stranger and the Stormcutter checking up on her. Behind, I heard at least a dozen dragons take flight. Without scales to protect him, Snotlout felt the heat first. He screamed, and folded his arms awkwardly over his head as he tried to protect it and sprint at the same time.

The way was rocky and filled with spikes, much better for climbing and flying than running. Even I seemed to have an easier time than Snotlout, but pure adrenaline kept us ahead.

Until he tripped.

His foot had caught when he had tried to vault over a barrier, propelling him onto his stomach instead of his feet. A red Hobblegrunt landed on the same barrier, and its long neck curved down, bringing its teeth close to him. I leapt onto Snotlout's back, faced the dragon, and growled my fiercest growl.

I don't know if it was my threat or shock that held the Hobblegrunt still, but it gave Snotlout enough time to find a shard of crystal, whip around and bash it against the dragon's face. It screeched in pain, and then came back with a mouthful of fire that Snotlout just barely avoided.

Three Snafflefangs began to clamber over the barrier. I spat a fireball at the Hobblegrunt to slow it down, and took off after Snotlout.

"We can't outrun them!" I shouted, eyeing a Nightmare crawling along the ceiling.

Snotlout stopped short.

I skidded to a halt. "Snotlout, now isn't the time . . ."

I saw why. We weren't in a dead end, but there was no way Snotlout would be able to climb to those exits.

Thankfully, I saw something. "This way!"

There was a small nook in the crystal walls, large enough for us to get inside, but too small for most of the dragons. Snotlout crawled inside as I watched his back, hissing at anyone who could hear me. Then, I joined him, practically curling up against his chest. I wasn't sure if it was my pounding heart I was hearing, or his.

It was dark. Dark enough that if I hadn't known Snotlout was here, I probably wouldn't be able to see him. I could barely hear him either; the acoustics of our cavern meant that every loud noise echoed. Our world was filled with dragon barks and heavy landings.

"What now?" Snotlout whispered.

I didn't know. I lay flat against him, even my ears folding back. Maybe if we were still, they would go away.

Things seemed to be getting quieter. But I heard sniffing, and I knew what would happen before it did. Suddenly, the cavern's entrance was blocked by a Nightmare's face. Fire flickered along her snout as she flamed up to see inside.

"A Nightmare. Okay, don't worry. I got this." Oh, yes. Snotlout sounded really confident about that.

Snotlout, on his hands and knees, crawled forward. The Nightmare growled –

Dust rained on us as the Nightmare lunged, only to find her head made her too big to fit. The eyes were hidden from us, but the Nightmare's snout was inside the cavern, nostrils flaring as she sniffed feverishly.

"Nice dragon . . ." Snotlout leaned back as he held his hand out right over the Nightmare's snout.

And the Nightmare was gone. Snotlout blinked. Then, with the giddiness of a kid on Snoggletog, laughed. "See! Told you I could -"

A masked, eyeless face thrust its way into the entrance.

"Wah!" He tripped right into the back wall, barely missing me. The dragons may have been too big to fit, but not the stranger. She entered the cavern, body held so that she seemed to be on the borderline of moving on all fours. I could smell the Stormcutter outside.

"Stay away!" He was groping everywhere. I don't know if he was looking for a weapon, or just trying to figure out where the invisible Night Fury had gone.

In the darkness, it was hard to see what the stranger was doing. She was fully inside our cavern now, blocking all avenues of escape. The shield was gone, but her staff was held within one hand. She shook it, making it rattle gently as she closed in.

Snotlout finally found me, and he gave me a frightened glance. I couldn't tell how the stranger reacted to that. The colours of her mask and her proximity to the ground made it hard to see; all I could clearly make out were the spines on the mask's top.

"What do you want?" Snotlout demanded. He sidled closer to me, and I pressed against him. I still couldn't really make out her face, but I could feel the stranger's eyes on me.

She seemed to study us a long time. Then, she stepped back, and gently laid her staff down.

"I . . ."

Snotlout jumped.

" . . . I mean no harm," the stranger said.

. . . So she could speak. That bit of information just freaked Snotlout out more. He kicked out, sending the stranger scrambling out of the cavern with her staff.

We stood off: us shivering in the dark, her watching emotionlessly from the outside, and with an entire flock of dragons as our audience.

Then, she turned. Her staff rattled and made whooshing noises as she left us, and I could hear the dragons leaving with her. Almost all of them. When I peeked out, there was a Stormcutter positioned on the wall right above the entrance. I got back inside before it could grab me.

I growled at Snotlout. "This is why you're supposed to let me do the talking."

Review Responses:

Jazz: Yep, still no Toothless. He might not show up again for a bit, actually. I haven't decided when he'll make his spectacular entrance.

Guest (#2): Not particularly. The only thing it might have done was "decide" the species of dragon Hiccup turned into.

a random person: Get into trouble, probably ;)

MercurialDestiny: I would say he's closer to his terrible twos than an actual newborn... so if anything, he's more active than usual, but it's mitigated by his still-human, teenage mind. You make an excellent point regarding illnesses, but I don't plan for Hiccup to catch any major diseases.

Not quite. The reason the dragons don't understand him is that Hiccup is still trying to speak Norse. However, because his vocal chords and jaw structure have changed so much, it comes out as complete nonsense to both dragons and Vikings.

Guest (#1): Thanks!

Regality: The news about the series is new to me, but I've been hearing since the first movie was released that they're planning a total of 6 movies.