Heather Together Chapter 7
Hiccup didn't stay ungrateful for long. Starting the next day, he took Heather with him on his morning rides on Toothless' back. As he regained his strength, the rides grew wilder. She had to hold onto him very tightly to avoid falling off. He never seemed to mind.
On the fourth morning after he awoke, she helped him unsaddle Toothless and feed him his daily meal. Suddenly he caught her by the hand. "Heather, I was talking to my dad last night," he began. "He told me about how you took care of me when I was out of it. I wanted to thank you."
"You're welcome," she said, a bit surprised.
"I don't want to embarrass you or anything," he went on. "I know there are other things you could have been doing, maybe things you'd rather have been doing."
"Like fending off Snotlout and his amorous advances?" she smirked.
"No, like trying to do something to get your parents set free," he said.
"I... I couldn't do anything about that," she stammered. "All the Outcasts want is you, and you were kind of unavailable."
"I'm available now," he smiled. "Let's see who else might help us."
The seven teens met in the training ring. Heather explained her situation.
"I knew you were lying about something!" Astrid exclaimed. "There was just something wrong with the whole story!"
"I couldn't tell you the truth right away!" Heather protested. "I didn't know if I could trust you."
"Well, now we know we can't trust you," Astrid shot back.
"Look, guys, we can fight over this later," Hiccup cut in. "Right now, Heather's parents are in danger. Whether we like her story or not, they're not to blame. I think we ought to at least try to get them out of there."
"That sounds like fun, and really dangerous," Ruff said. "I like that stuff, but only if I can come home afterward. This sounds like a one-way trip."
"Outcasts, not pirates? That's too bad," Tuff decided. "Pirates are cool. Outcasts are losers."
"Most Outcasts are pirates!" his sister said. "An Outcast is just a pirate who got caught."
"Like I said, losers," Tuff nodded.
"Well, I'm not afraid to go!" Snotlout announced. "I'll be right behind you the whole way, Astrid."
"That reassures me, because I'm not going, at least not with her," she said firmly. "Flying into battle next to someone I can't trust is a bad move."
"You can trust me, can't you?" Lout leered at her.
"As far as I can throw you," she replied. "Some day, I'd love to find out how far that is."
"What about you, Legs?" Hiccup asked.
Fishlegs squirmed. "There's something on Outcast Island that I'm very allergic to. I don't know if it's the catapults or the crossbows."
"Fine, I guess it's just the two of us," Hiccup sighed. As they left the ring, they heard Tuffnut singing,
"Hiccup and Heather, sittin' in a tree,
"K-I-S-S... uhh, what comes after S-S?"
"Do you have a plan?" Heather asked him.
"I have a general idea," he nodded. "It has something to do with going in at night so they can't see us, finding your parents, and leaving."
"The trouble with that," she said, "is that it's kind of a big island, and we don't know where my parents are."
"Okay," he nodded. "Then how about a plan that goes like this...?"
o
It was well past midnight. Alvin was waiting impatiently at the ramshackle pier when Savage's little ship finally docked.
"No boy?" he demanded.
"No boy, and no girl, either!" Savage snapped back. "She never showed."
Alvin grunted. "I thought she cared more about her parents than that. That shows you even I can be wrong sometimes, eh, Savage?" He slapped the smaller man on the back, which nearly knocked him off his feet. "What do you think? Should we kill them ourselves, set them adrift, or feed them to the dragons?"
"You won't do any of those things," came a young-sounding voice from over their heads. The black dragon was hard to see at night, even when it landed right in front of them. "You wanted the boy who trains dragons? Here I am. But I won't work for you unless Heather and her parents go free."
Alvin stared suspiciously at him. "You don't look big enough to train a dog, boy!"
Hiccup slid off the dragon, followed by Heather. "Aren't you the one who used to say, 'It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog'? I can handle dragons well enough. See? I handle this one just fine." He patted Toothless.
"I did say that," Alvin nodded. "Back in the days when rigged dogfights were enough to keep me happy. I'm seeing a rigged fight, right here and now. Why are you joining me?"
Hiccup shrugged. "Let's just say my father and I aren't getting along, and I'd like to try something different with my life. Something with a little less 'yes sir, no sir,' and a little more 'I ride the dragon, so I make the rules'."
"If you work for us, then Alvin makes the rules," Savage interjected.
"I expect that," Hiccup nodded. "But I have a feeling Alvin can find better uses for dragons than my father can."
"Can you teach my men to ride dragons?" Alvin demanded.
"Sure, if they're willing to do it my way," Hiccup said casually. "It's not that hard, once you know what you're doing."
"What are your terms?" Alvin asked through narrowed eyes.
"I want a free hand with the dragons," he answered, counting on his fingers. "Heather and her parents go free. I want to report directly to you – no underlings between me and the big boss. I want an equal share of any plunder we take. And when we take over Berk, the girl named Astrid is mine."
Alvin chuckled in a low, menacing way. "I think I can work with someone like you. But first, you've got to prove that you can keep your promises. I want to see you train a dragon!"
"Deal," Hiccup shrugged. "Take me to a dragon and I'll train it."
A small procession wound uphill from the docks to the outdoor dragon cages. Four crossbowmen led the way, followed by Alvin, then Hiccup and Heather riding Toothless, then Savage, with four more crossbowmen bringing up the rear.
They came to a cage whose sole occupant was a Deadly Nadder, chained to the floor with two chains running through an iron ring around its neck. "That thing has killed three of my men so far," Alvin stated. "Do you think you can train it?"
"Nadders aren't that hard," Hiccup said off-handedly as he slid off the saddle. "First, you have to unchain it."
"Unchain that monster?" Savage was incredulous.
"I said I want a free hand with the dragons!" Hiccup demanded. "Chaining them up makes them mad, and you can't train an angry dragon. Now unchain him!"
Alvin nodded to two of his crossbowmen, who hesitantly reached through the bars and pulled pins out of two of the floor links. The dragon leaped to its feet; the chains slid through the link in its collar until they fell free. It shook its head, raised its spikes, and glared at them.
"That's better," Hiccup nodded. "Now let me into the cage."
"Hiccup, are you sure?" Heather hissed. "That dragon is still mad!"
He patted her hand. "I'll be fine." He turned back to Alvin. "Now, do you guys want me to train that dragon, or don't you?"
"Either you're very brave or you're very stupid," Savage said. "Let's find out which." He opened a small door in the cage just long enough for Hiccup to slip inside, then slammed it shut.
The Nadder glared down at Hiccup through its left eye. He showed it his empty hands. "Hey, there, big guy! I'm your new friend!" The dragon responded by lashing its tail and sending a shower of spines straight at him. He'd expected that, and jumped to his left, which not only got him clear of the spines, but brought him into the dragon's blind spot.
"Some friend," he said out loud. "I have to move fast. Rub the neck, right there... yeah, you like that, don't you? I'll just rub you in that special place, right... there!" The dragon went limp and collapsed on the floor.
He wiped his hands on his vest. Ten Outcasts stared back at him with varying levels of shock and awe.
"Any questions?" he asked off-handedly.
"How did you do that?" Savage asked.
"You wanted me to prove I could train dragons," Hiccup shot back. "I've proved it. Now let Heather and her family go."
"All right," Alvin rumbled. "We'll turn Heather and her parents loose right now. After all, now that I've got you, we don't need them any more. But I want both of you off that dragon! I don't want you taking off as soon as her parents are loose."
"Fair enough," Hiccup said.
As Heather dismounted, she whispered, "This wasn't part of the plan!"
"Be ready to move fast," he mouthed back. The procession moved into a series of tunnels, lined with barred cells on both sides. The four crossbowmen took the lead, followed by Heather, then Alvin and Savage, then Hiccup with Toothless behind him, then the other four guards.
They stopped. Heather looked around; she saw her mother and father sleeping in the cell next to them. Alvin turned to face Hiccup, with his back to Heather, and began to laugh. He made a hand signal, and the crossbowmen raised their weapons.
"Did you really think I was that easy to fool?" he exclaimed. "I see how you two keep looking at each other. You're on the same team and you're planning to stay that way! But I'm not going to play your game. No, you're going to play my game!
"Heather, I've waited too long for you to deliver what you promised. You were a fool to come back at all! Now you get to choose who lives: the boy or your parents? Run to the ones you want to save! NOW!"
Heather's mouth fell open. Faced with that choice, she froze in place, unable to decide. That hesitation saved her life.
Alvin had assumed that she'd choose her parents. Without looking, he made two more hand signals to the guards behind him, and they turned and fired. If she had taken two steps toward her parents, their volley of bolts would have killed her.
Alvin heard the bolts strike the stone walls and saw the sparks they struck. He saw no body on the floor. "What?" he demanded.
Hiccup moved. He yelled, "Heather, get down! Toothless, fight!" as he threw himself flat. He'd seen what Toothless could do to Vikings back in the training ring on Monstrous Nightmare Day, so rather than give specific commands, he just turned the dragon loose to fight his own battle. The black dragon didn't disappoint him. A swipe of his tail took out all four of the guards' crossbows behind him. Then he leaped over Hiccup, spun, tail-slammed Savage into the wall, and pounded a powerful kick into Alvin's chest. The big Outcast flew through the air over a prostrate Heather and took out the other four guards, who were trying to reload their crossbows and unable to dodge. He finished by snarling at the first four, who ran in terror back the way they'd come.
"Toothless, open that door!" Hiccup shouted from the floor and pointed. A small purple fireball blasted the cell door into molten scrap metal. Heather's parents had just woken up from the commotion, stunned and unaware of what was going on. Heather dashed in and embraced them.
"We need to move! Come on!" Hiccup shouted. He jumped back into Toothless' saddle and motioned for the others to ride behind him. Her parents were understandably hesitant about riding a dragon.
"It's okay!" Heather urged them. "I've done this lots of times!"
"Please, Mr. and Mrs. Ketilsson, we've got to get out of here before more guards show up! I'll explain everything once we're safely in the air." They'd never used the word "safe" in the same sentence as "in the air," but they realized they were being rescued, and got themselves moving in the right direction.
"Hang onto each other, tight!" Hiccup called back. "Toothless, go!" The Night Fury snarled and galloped back the way they came. Two more guards tried to block their way, but a plasma blast at their feet sent them flying. Toothless had to flap hard to get off the ground with four passengers, but he made it. The Outcast catapults lobbed a few boulders at them, but Toothless dodged the rocks and they were soon out of range.
Once they were safely out over open sea, Hiccup introduced himself and his dragon, and Heather gave her parents a quick description of where she'd been and what she'd done since their captivity began.
"Young man, we owe you more thanks than we can give," they began. "We don't even know you, and yet you've saved us, you've taken good care of our little girl..."
"Oh, Mother, please!" Heather burst out. "I'm not so little anymore!"
"No," her father nodded. "No, you're not."
That's a new tone of voice for him, she thought. What did he mean by that?
"Our next stop is Berk," Hiccup told them. "We'll be there by sunrise. I expect you'll be treated a lot better on my island than on that one."
"That wouldn't be hard," Mr. Ketilsson commented. "We don't have much, but is there anything we can give you, to show how thankful we are?"
"Thank you, but no," Hiccup answered. "I did this because it was the right thing to do."
"Do you always put your life on the line for total strangers?" Mrs. Ketilsson asked.
"I kind of did it for Heather," Hiccup said. "She's... special."
Her heart leaped. Mentally she begged him to say more. But he lapsed into silence, and left her with nothing but questions about what "special" meant.