Reckless... Or Selfless?
A HttyD Fanfiction
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Rated T for Graphic/Detailed Blood and Injury... Also, there's references to cannibalism. Like, it's actually kinda obvious...
Genres are Hurt/Comfort/General
Set in Race to the Edge, mid-Season 2, after Ep.9
Warnings- Head canons, such as the cousin-relationship between Hiccup and Snotlout will be displayed. Also, possible Hiccstrid later on.
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Having a slowly dying person in your arms after being attacked is bad enough. Change the details to, I don't know, maybe a RAPIDLY dying cousin, trapped in an unstable icy cavern with a CANIBALLISTIC dragon, after being ambushed and currently hunted by Dragon Hunters, with ABSOLUTELY no means to call for help? Welcome to Snotlout's amazing weekend.
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CHAPTER EIGHT: Fire & Ice
"Ryker, sir!" A hunter stepped forward, as the man turned to the soldier. "It's the Monstrous Nightmare that belongs to the Dragon Riders... Sir, he just turned himself in."
The Dragon Hunters' leader stared, eyes wide and beyond shocked. "What?!" He blurted, and the soldier scratched the back of his head. "Well, sir, he just... Flew down, and roared before collapsing..."
Ryker stormed out, whizzing past the troop.
Indeed, the large dragon wasn't fighting. At all. He just lay there, wings helplessly by his sides, tongue slipped out the front of his muzzle. Two hunters stood by his flanks, tranquilliser darts in hand, but utterly confused, not needing them in the least.
"What is this?" He growled, pointing to the Monstrous Nightmare, who looked up at him, pupils dilated as he moaned pathetically.
"Sir... I believe he has given up. Without his rider, he is useless."
Ryker glared. "I thought that was the Night Fury, who only has half a tail!" The soldiers nodded. He sighed, staring long and hard at the massive beast, defeated and mournful, laid before him. Not fighting, not roaring, not even moving, at this stage. Perhaps these riders were their dragon's entire world, and life. It seemed crazy and hideous to think about, but just seeing the normally stubborn, destructive and proud Monstrous Nightmare, he couldn't help but think on It.
He knew dragons could have certain emotions; fear, sadness, anger- he didn't know they could have relationships, and he had drilled himself into believing that...
...But what if he was wrong?
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Toothless withheld a snarl; he just felt so useless.
Being a Night Fury, that was the strangest sensation to him; he rarely ever felt this way.
Because, well, he was a Night Fury. He was the most dangerous and powerful of all dragons, and the slayer of the mighty, terrible False Queen known otherwise as the Red Death.
He sulked over to Snotlout, who was nursing his broken arm while trying to keep Hiccup warm. They didn't want to move him, else they make his situation worse. Snotlout had given up his shirt to try and keep him from bleeding out, and was on a dangerous level of hypothermia himself. Toothless was even considering lighting fire to something in order to get the cave warmer, but they didn't want to risk it.
The Night Fury shivered. But not from the cold, but his thoughts and the realisation that came with it. Before, it hadn't been so bad, but now, he remember how he reacted when he thought Hiccup was dead.
Oh, he remembered.
Simply comprehending how he had reacted was horrifying. He had been ready to kill everyone, and destroy without thought. Never before had he felt that way, and now... He looked back at all the crazy dragons he had seen, heard of or fought before; now he questioned the Red Death. The Skrill had him theorising. The legendary Doomfang from the stories made him curious, not angry. And most importantly, he couldn't look at the other dragon in the cavern in the same way ever again...
The Deathsong was sat against a wall, silent with her head down. Toothless wondered what was going through her head and heart. Was she always like this? Had she once been an ordinary dragon with a normal diet? Why was she... The way she was?
He decided now wasn't the time. He would ask her, but only if they got out of here... If. Not when- no matter what he said, that was a lie, he couldn't confirm.
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It happened so fast; one minute, she was sulking against the icy wall, secretly aware of the Night Fury curious staring her way, and the next 42 seconds later, there was chaos.
Her heart rate sped into action, as suddenly a hissing noise, followed by a loud explosion erupted into the air, and the ground shook like an earthquake had hit; and she really hoped that wasn't the case.
And thankfully, it wasn't.
The first sign that came with the falling ice was the tilting ground that was trembling and risking decimation. Next came the cracking outside. Only then, did she realise what was happening. The front side of the complex was collapsing, which meant two things to her; One, this whole thing was about to literally fall apart, and two, they had to get out.
'Toothless!' She roared at the dragon, who had frozen. 'This entire thing is about to fall! You need to fly Snotlout out of here! I'll carry Hiccup!'
He growled, on his feet. Snotlout was looking around, panicked, and for good reason. 'I can't fly on my own!'
She groaned, remembering that. Oops... 'Can Snotlout control your tail? Does he know how to? Because I'm afraid your rider isn't exactly in a place to do so!' Toothless nodded. 'Then we need to move, quickly!'
As she slithered over to the humans, she hissed, hearing another huge crack followed by an awful shudder. Snotlout didn't resist as she gently slid Hiccup down onto her back, using a rope Toothless had taken from the Mining Complex to hold him in place (tying it on had taken a lot of effort, and had been a nightmare in itself). She pushed away the slight hesitation and fear for his cousin's life in his eyes, and what could have been a temptation to take him back.
Toothless ran over to Snotlout, not waiting for his response as he growled, and threw him onto his back. The adolescent winced, but managed. As the Night Fury looked at the Deathsong, Snotlout tested out the tail, eventually getting the grasp of it.
Four more tremors shook the cavern, before the ground slid violently, and a huge groan escaped the structure. Snotlout screamed, as the dragons were maliciously thrown forward, along with the wall.
The wall shattered, ice chunks flying outwards, and the dragons waited no longer.
Air swallowed them, as they broke out of the cavern. But fate wasn't going to let up that easily, now, was it? No, it wasn't...
Which was exactly why it was now raining ice chunks, that could easily kill them.
Now, that was just messed up.
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"ARRGGHHHHHHH!" Snotlout screamed against the sound of Toothless' roars, as they nearly got hit brutally by a ice chunk larger than a Typhoomerang.
Being a Night Fury, a bit of dodging was no biggie. Flying through a heavy downpour of falling ice chunks was. He pushed himself to the limit, weaving in and out of the deadly rain; if he couldn't get out of this, he feared the worst. He tried to see the Deathsong, carrying his precious Hiccup, but the ice blocked his vision.
Just as they nearly got killed again, he cursed whoever or whatever caused this in the first place- because he knew very well this wasn't a natural cause. There was no way that the mining complex could have been frozen naturally like that. Perhaps it was the work of the gods; because, well, of course that made complete sense... Yeah. It didn't.
He shoved aside the bitter thoughts, and nearly cried for joy when he realised he was almost out. Even if his hearing was deafened by Snotlout's screams of terror, it still made his heart leap for joy when he escaped the fray.
Oh boy, was Hiccup going to be proud!
Hiccup.
Oh gods. Hiccup.
Turning around, he searched frantically for his rider, panicking when he saw no Deathsong, and definitely no Hiccup.
Snotlout appeared to have the same dreaded thoughts, although he might have just been concerned for how he was shirtless out in the open sky. Which actually worried Toothless; sure, it was definitely much, MUCH warmer out here than in the cave, but it was still cold, and the winds were probably already giving him even more chills.
He looked at the remains of the complex, which wasn't much, just some remaining, huge ice spikes jutting out the water. He could see boards of wood and ice shards littered on the island, and much was destroyed in the fall- his toxic green eyes focused on the calming downpour.
Toothless was a Night Fury. He could go back in there, no problemo.
And just as he rocketed forward, about to enter the fray- 'WHAT, are YOU god-damned DOING?' -when he stopped.
Whirling around, he felt like he could die right there and then.
He sighed in relief, the sight before him one of the best he had experienced in what felt like an eternity. The dragon soared over to the Deathsong, carrying Hiccup, still unconscious despite all the previous commotion.
'We need to get him back to Dragon's Edge-' The words seemed to come out automatically, and Snotlout soon said the same thing, unaware of his first move. '-Now.' He tried to ignore the Deathsong's hesitation and fear. He knew she didn't want to encounter the other dragons and riders again, not now, not ever. 'We have to.' He growled for emphasis, and she nodded.
They had just turned, about to leave, when a dragon's roar entered their field of hearing, a Monstrous Nightmare's.
Hookfang.
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Toothless spun around, confused for a second, before looking down, just as he heard the sound of annoying-murderous-idiotic-hurt-my-friends-madmen-who-want-to-take-Dragon-Eye-people entered his hearing.
He groaned, ready to go into a fit.
This really wasn't his day.
Snotlout was equally pissed, and started yelling curses down at the Dragon Hunters. Toothless growled, seeing Hookfang being pinned down by Dragon Hunters. Suddenly, he put two and two together.
There was only one thing the hissing noise from before could be made by- the igniting of a Monstrous Nightmare's gel.
He realised that Hookfang had cleverly made a line of his own gel (he didn't dare question how he GOT the gel) on the icy wall, freed a captured dragon to ignite it at his command, allowed himself to get captured, freed his head to give the signal, and presto, brilliant, almost Hiccup-esque plan put into action.
How on EARTH he freaking managed to do it...? Toothless couldn't even begin to think how. Rare show of brilliance from the unlikeliest of dragons.
But now, Hookfang needed him and the Deathsong to return the favour- Hookfang needed his own hero now.
Without waiting, he growled to the Deathsong, and dove straight at the ship, shrieking in fury.
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He landed on deck with a bone-rattling thud, and immediately launched into action, pouncing, lashing and biting.
All his gathered up fury was unleashed, all the hate for what they had done- it all came out.
He could faintly see and hear Snotlout in the background, fighting despite himself. At some stage, Hookfang broke free, because he saw the large dragon throw a soldier overboard with a loud bellow. From there on out, the Dragon Hunters were helpless.
The combined fury and rage of the two dragons and Snotlout was nearly overwhelming; nearly.
That was, until a new, unpredicted, shocking, and absolutely terrifying addition came along to the party.
The one thing the Dragon Hunters had never expected was none other than the Deathsong.
And Odin's Beard, was she mad.
From the sky, she launched a massacre of amber, trapping not only the hunters, but the boats in her death rock. By the time they realised just what was going on, it was basically too late, and only a dozen men or so managed to go overboard before they were trapped. Those men included Ryker, but they decided to let it go.
Not dwelling any longer, mostly in fear of reinforcements, the three dragons and riders sped away, tearing through the air.
Hookfang spent a silent moment, simply staring at the Deathsong. Tons of emotions ran through him, as did questions, but he left them unattended for the time being.
Right now, they had to get back to Dragon's Edge, before Hiccup died.
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"Ryker, sir-" The hunter, swimming up to their leader, coughed up water, exhausted.
"We still have one ship, that we could chase them in-" he paused, coughinh up again. "-The men have already boarded, should we follow them from a safe dista-"
"Don't." Ryker growled. The guard stared.
"Let them go..." He said lowly. "But we do NOT speak of this, EVER AGAIN. Viggo will not be told of this ENTIRE incident."
His men were confused by it, but didn't dare question it, to which Ryker was glad.
He didn't need anyone knowing about his true thoughts, for the Dragon Riders and their bond with their companions.
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A/N:
Whoa... We're already here? I am thoroughly surprised... But of course, in a good way...
I must say, I'm not sure whether or not this chapter turned out how I wanted it, but I'm still proud, despite it all.
PS- Sorry for the long wait- but, good news, the holidays are here now, so there's gonna be two weeks of fanfiction for me! WHOO HOO! UPDATES GALORE!
Last Chapter: Chapter 9- Safe and Sound/Here to Stay
Crystallion12
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SHOUTOUTS:
FabinaForever11- Thanks! One more chapter to go! :)
alejg- I'm afraid I don't know or speak Spanish (it is Spanish, right?), but using a handy tool known as Google, I could translate it, and I must say, thank you so much! I appreciate it, honestly. I'm thinking the last chapter will be quite long, but I can't be certain. I don't care how many times I say it- Thanks so much!
LightningAndDeathItself218- Really? Awwww, I think my heart just burst into a million Toothless'! Thank you... 'Runs through the screen, effectively breaking physics, and bomb dives you in a giant hug'. CUDDLESSS! :D :D :D
xBubbleGirlx- Wow, you guys are all just so amazing! I feel so spoiled... I'm grinning so hard right now, I'm afraid that my mouth will fall off! Thanks so much!
Also, thanks to all of my followers, reviewers, and those who have favoured all my fanfics!
We're almost there... Ah, don't you just love that oh so bitter-sweet feeling?