Chapter Nine:
Inside of the camper the entire power supply was knocked out by the sudden jolt from the Bewilderbeast. Gobber quickly reached for the emergency flashlight and flicked it on. The light flickered out of the camper window before Gobber moved it to illuminate the camper itself.
Meanwhile Hiccup and Toothless hovered above the camper and the Bewilderbeast. Hiccup saw the flashlight turn on, "No, no, no, turn the light off. Turn the light off!" He muttered to himself. Toothless grumbled in response. Sometimes humans were too naïve for their own good. The Bewilderbeast flared its nostrils as it saw the light for a brief moment. It roared and moved around to the other side of the camper, shaking the ground with each step. She continued to search for her the humans that had stolen her baby.
The Bewilderbeast had already frozen the door of the camper shut, trapping Valka and Gobber inside. And, just because things just had to get worse…the Bewilderbeast then pushed the camper towards the edge of the cliff. Inside of the camper Gobber shouted to Valka. "Grab onta somet'ing! She's gonna try an' push us o'er the cliff!" Valka nodded and grabbed onto the handle of the mini oven while Gobber grabbed onto the legs of the table that were bolted to the floor of the camper. Outside, Toothless watched as the Bewilderbeast continued to push the camper and then tossed his head to slap his ear on Hiccup, pulling his friend out of his horrified trance. "You're right, bud. Let's go before she pushes them all the way off the cliff."
Toothless flapped his wings twice and then flew towards the colossal dragon. He fired a single shot just above the Bewilderbeast's left eye. The Bewilderbeast roared and tossed her head from side to side, which knocked her tusks straight into the camper, puncturing it. The Bewilderbeast jolted back, trying to free herself from the camper. She pressed her one giant leg onto the roof of the camper and pressed down, effectively pulling her tusk from the metal and crushing the top of the camper. Inside, Valka and Gobber shielded their eyes as the pressure from the Bewilderbeast's foot on the ceiling caused the wires to spark. The windows shattered. The Bewilderbeast nudged the camper again, sending half of it over the edge.
She roared again and fired ice up into the air at the Night Fury. Toothless expertly wove to dodge every shot before firing back. In the distance, Hiccup could hear Astrid call out to him. Without turning his head to face her, he called out, "Get my mom and Gobber outta there! We'll keep the Bewilderbeast busy!"
Astrid and Snotlout landed on the ground with their dragons, having left Fishlegs to tend to the twins in the High-Hide. Astrid climbed through the broken windshield and into the half of the camper still on the ground. She called down, "Dr. Haddock, Mr. Van Owen? Are you alive?"
"Yes!" "Fer th' moment!" The pair responded at the same time.
"What do you need?"
"Rope."
"Snotlout brought some. Anything else?"
"And two double-bacon cheeseburgers with everything!" "No pickles on mine!"
Astrid rolled her eyes. They were definitely okay for the moment. She climbed back out to meet Snotlout. She glanced briefly at the sky and saw that Toothless was firing more plasma blasts at the Bewilderbeast. Hiccup was steering the Night Fury away from the camper and the Bewilderbeast was steadily following. The Bewilderbeast roared and tried again to freeze the Night Fury and his rider, to no avail. Toothless laughed, or attempted to anyway. Hiccup chuckled at Toothless' sad attempt at laughter.
The brief victory was short lived and the Bewilderbeast froze Toothless' tail fin. Toothless flapped his wings extra hard, but he was losing altitude, and fast. Astrid watched in horror as her boyfriend and his dragon plummeted through the trees.
"HICCUP!" Astrid started after him but Snotlout grabbed her wrist and pulled her back. She wretched his hand backwards and Snotlout screamed in agony.
"Dr. Hofferson! We need to get Hiccup's mom and uncle out of the camper. I can't do that by myself. We'll go after Hiccup then. Otherwise you're condemning Valka and Gobber to death." Astrid scowled and glanced briefly between the camper and the forest. The Bewilderbeast had flown off for the moment, which would give them enough time to get Valka and Gobber up to safety before she decided to come back for another round of retaliation.
Astrid turned to her Nadder. "All right Stormfly, to the sky. If that Bewilderbeast comes back keep her busy. Hookfang," Astrid walked to the front of the camper and motioned for the Monstrous Nightmare to follow her. "Bite here and pull." The Monstrous Nightmare obliged and the dragon's brute strength kept the camper from sliding further down the cliff.
Snotlout tied the rope to a nearby tree trunk and gave the remainder of it to Astrid. Astrid climbed into the camper through the broken windshield once again. She tiptoed through the camper, stepping over broken glass and miscellaneous supplies. She peered over the edge of the second part of the camper to see Valka and Gobber hanging on for their lives. "I brought rope! Catch!"
She tossed the rope down and Gobber grabbed it with his good hand. "Didja tie this t' anything, lass?" Astrid nodded. Gobber pulled on the rope to test its fidelity anyway. He reached across the width of the camper to hand the edge of the rope to Valka. Valka reached her arm out, and as she did her weight shifted against the mini-oven's door and it opened. She screamed as she fell, smashing into the rear windshield of the camper. Luckily, the glass was reinforced so she didn't immediately break it. As she tried to push herself up to sitting, however, the glass began to crack.
"Dr. Haddock, don't move! I'm coming!" Astrid called as she swung her leg over the edge and down into the second part of the camper. Gobber had begun to move down towards Valka as well but stopped upon seeing his camera. It was hanging from a lamp from the neck strap and it was slowly slipping.
"Astrid, get Valka, the camera's gonna fall an' break t' glass!" Astrid nodded as she continued to climb down towards Valka. Astrid grabbed the end of the rope and tied it around her waist before continuing. Valka's breathing was labored as the glass beneath her continued to crack.
"C'mon, Dr. Haddock, almost there. Grab my hand, Dr. Haddock!"
The two women reached for one another, missing each other just barely. Above them, Gobber reached for his camera as it continued to slip. Astrid repositioned herself to lean out just a little farther and before putting her hand out again…
"WATCH OUT!" The camera fell. Gobber had missed it.
Astrid grabbed Valka's staff and thrust the end towards Valka who grabbed it just in time. Astrid grunted as she hoisted Valka up into the camper once more. The women hugged one another. "Thank you, my dear."
"Maybe tha' staff is good luck after all!" Gobber shouted down to the pair. "Now le's get outta here!"
Toothless and Hiccup tumbled through the trees. They hit a large branch, which knocked Hiccup off of the Night Fury's back. Toothless called out to his rider and flapped his wings, trying desperately to reach him. With his tail rudder frozen, he couldn't properly maneuver. Hiccup plummeted through the trees and hit his head on the ground, knocking him out. Toothless tried again to gain altitude, but joined his friend on the ground.
The fall thankfully did not knock Toothless out. He turned to his frozen tail rudder and breathed a low blue flame to defrost it. Some of the ice had cut the tail fin before it had totally frozen over and Toothless wrinkled his nose at the sight of blood. Once he had finished defrosting his tail, he decided to find out where his human had fallen to. He trudged through the forest a few feet before stopping in his tracks. He heard a sound of footsteps and perked up, hoping that it was Hiccup walking towards him. To the Night Fury's dismay, a different human approached him. He had a blue tattoo over his eye.
Toothless scowled as the new human approached him. "Well, well, well. What do we have here?" Dagur circled Toothless and upon seeing his injured tail fin, he smirked. "An injured Night Fury, eh?" Toothless jumped away from Dagur, spread his wings, puffed his chest, and growled. "Oh, no, no! Don't worry, Mr. Night Fury. I'm here to help."
Toothless cocked his head to the side and lowered his wings slightly. Was this human a friend of Hiccup's? He had a similar air to him that the Snotlout human had, and that human was Hiccup's friend and a friend of Hookfang. "Good boy," Dagur whispered as he approached the tail once again. He quickly took out his switchblade and jabbed it into Toothless' already injured tail.
Toothless wailed in pain and Dagur laughed maniacally. The Night Fury glanced over his shoulder at his tail. The left fin was torn completely off and his tail was drenched in blood. Toothless growled in frustration and turned back to face the nasty human. He narrowed his eyes. "Today is a good day, Mr. Night Fury. And do you know why?" Dagur asked as he approached the dragon. Toothless fired a warning shot, which caused Dagur to jump backwards.
Dagur recomposed himself, straighten his jacket and then said, "I'll tell you anyway, dragon, even though you're being awfully rude. Today is a good day because in a little while I will have a Bewilderbeast at my disposal and will be in control of all the dragons and then you stumbled into my life. So I'll have your head as a TROPHY!"
Toothless flinched when the deranged human raised his voice. He took a deep breath and fire several consecutive shots at the human's feet. Dagur laughed as he dodged the shots, "Trying to make me dance, are we, Mr. Night Fury?" Dagur's light expression changed completely and he deadpanned at the Night Fury, "I hate dancing." Dagur aimed the gun at Toothless who immediately spread his wings and attempted to fly away. Without his left tail fin, he had no maneuverability and he only got a few feet off the ground before toppling down…
…right onto Dagur, which knocked him out cold. Toothless got back on his feet and shook the dirt and leaves off of himself. He couldn't stay here: he was a downed dragon and this human was a hunter human. He ran off deeper into the forest.
Several minutes passed and Hiccup pushed through the dense brush, calling out for Toothless. "C'mon bud where are you?" Hiccup saw Dagur knocked out on the ground. Hiccup glanced around to see if any of Dagur's men were nearby and when he saw nothing, he crouched down and unloaded Dagur's gun and stole his additional ammo from his pockets. Hiccup noticed blood stains on the ground, and feared the worse. Dagur must have shot Toothless. Oh gods, oh gods! Hiccup thought as he hurried through the forest, following the blood trail.
[a/n] I'm so sorry that Dagur is a bastard, and I needed Toothless to lose his tailfin at some point since that didn't happen in the first installment.