Astrid Pushed herself off the ground, her lungs still burning from the lack of oxygen and feeling a bit lightheaded. She looked around in her dazed state, finding Gobber struggling to get up and the twin entangled with each other underneath the rack of shields.
She let out a moan as she stood up, her back aching a bit thanks to the slam against the wall. She hurried over to Gobber, helping him up and leaning against a workbench. Bekan walked in at this point, after giving the damage to his shop a good glance he helped his friend, meanwhile Astrid went to the twins.
She tried to lift the heavy rack with shield, finding it rather heavy. Luckily the twins helped her and, as soon as it was high enough, quickly crawled out from underneath it. They dusted themselves off and turned to Gobber, who was inspecting his leg.
"Clean in two," Gobber muttered as he rubbed the now half peg-leg with his thumb. He took the ties that connected the prosthetic with his stump and loosened them, the broken leg falling on the floor. "I don't suppose you have any spares here?" Gobber asked Bekan, who also curious to what kind of weapon could cut a clear piece of wood this clean.
"We have a small stock." Bekan said as he turned to a trunk in the back of the forge. Prosthetics weren't uncommon in Viking culture, so smithies usually had quite a supply of them. He rummaged through the trunk. Bekan quickly came back with a wooden peg-leg, similar to Gobber's old one. "Here you go, should fit nicely."
Gobber fitted the prosthetic, tying it tight against his stump. He leaned lightly on it, getting a good feeling for the new leg. "It feels good." Gobber said as he leaned on it, the leg feeling rather similar to his old one. "What do you want for it?"
"It's on the house." Bekan said with a smile, taking the old prosthetic and throwing it on a stack of old weapons and tools. "You'll need it for the chase."
"Right." Gobber said as he looked around the forge, inspecting the damage that had been done. A full stack of shield had been tipped, breaking some. A workbench had been damaged, a thick cut from Astrid's axe in it. Tuffnut had ripped the leather of the bellow with the sharp spikes on his shoes. "We'll pay for the damage." He said with a softer tone, ashamed to have destroyed the workplace of a fellow smith.
"Don't worry about it." Bekan said with a widening smile, showing the strip of silver. "Your target already covered that."
"The assassin paid for the damage?" Gobber asked, shocked and surprised at the same time.
"Yes, and its Nordic silver." Bekan said with a smile. "More than enough for the damages."
"That's quite generous of him." Gobber said as he inspected the silver. "Not many people respect smithies that much."
"This wasn't my normal customer though." Bekan said as he inspected the damage to his bellows, finding that they needed to be replaced completely. "I think he was a blacksmith himself."
"A blacksmith?" Gobber asked surprised. "What makes you think that?"
"His experience." Bekan said. "In the time he was here he managed to repair his own and three of my weapons." He walked over to the workbench, grabbing the two of the mentioned weapons to show to his friend. "The craftsmanship is stunning."
Gobber took the weapons, inspecting them with care. They were sharpened with expert precision, almost inhumanly so. The assassin they fought seemed like a young lad, and this kind of work would be difficult to do even for someone who had been into this line of work as long as Gobber.
"Gobber?" Astrid asked softly, not sure how to bring the subject that she wanted to add into the conversation. Sadly enough, her question fell to deaf ears as Gobber continued to inspect the blade. "Gobber?" She asked louder, this time earning a reaction, but only the smith waving it off as he further inspected the blade.
"Gobber!" Astrid yelled, startling the smith to the point where he dropped the weapon. Gobber picked up the weapon and handed it back to Bekan, before quickly turning back to Astrid.
"What is it?" He asked calmly, not wanting to upset the girl, knowing she had a short temper.
"It's Hiccup." Astrid said softly, almost inaudible.
"What?" Gobber asked. Even though he heard her answer, he still thought that he misheard it.
"I said it's Hiccup." Astrid said louder. "He's the assassin."
The twins had now also heard it, and they also had trouble understanding it. "Hiccup?" Tuffnut asked. "Yea, as in, our Hiccup?" Ruffnut added, both of their brains working over hours to try and find the parts they missed to jump to this conclusion.
"Yes, our Hiccup." Astrid groaned. "It all makes sense, Skullcrusher went to Stoick's home, he could smell his room. The Nightfury, that has to be Toothless. It all make's sense." Astrid argued, before grabbing the blade out of Gobber's hands, "And this, could this be Hiccup's work?" She decided not to add her ideas about the drawing in the sand, she didn't need the twins annoying her with her opinion about that matter.
Gobber inspected the blade again, with the new insight. He indeed found that it could be linked to Hiccup's craft. Sure, this was more skilled and more experienced, but he would have gained that in the past years. It still had the same flair to his work, and the sharpening was done in an odd angle, one that would make it harder to do, but also more effective. Something he had caught Hiccup experimenting on when he was still his apprentice.
"Well light me on fire and call me a Nightmare." Gobber muttered silently. "This is Hiccup's work."
The twins still tried to piece everything together. "So wait, we've been beaten by Hiccup?" Ruffnut asked with disbelief. Her brother was standing next to her, thinking. Something that the Thorson siblings didn't do often.
"But it can't be Hiccup." Tuffnut said with triumph. "Hiccup had both his legs."
"O my gods." Astrid said, realization sinking in. "Hiccup lost a leg."
"That's not what I meant." Tuffnut said, confused about his statement being turned into something else. He turned to his sister and asked "Was it?" but she merely shrugged.
"Okay, as much as I would like to believe that it's Hiccup," Gobber began, ignoring the twins. "how can we be sure?"
"The scar on his chin." Astrid said with excitement. "He has it's, I seen it, it's exactly the same."
Gobber rubbed his chin, thinking heavily. "I'm heading back to Skullcrusher." He said, before pointing to the teens. "You three are heading into town and are going to catch the assassin, Hiccup or not."
Astrid had a tight grip off her axe, she was certain it was Hiccup, and she wanted answers. She was pissed that he had left them for six years, she was angry that he got himself a new life. She had spent countless days, hoping he was alright, praying for his safety. And what did he do? Risk his life being some assassin that travels the world and murders raiders.
And he had beaten her, Hiccup Haddock had beaten Astrid Hofferson. She was absolutely, utterly pissed. And he would pay.
She stormed out the door, the twins sparing each other a glance before casually jogging after her. Interested in the wild blondes actions. They themselves could be destructive, but they had learned through the years that an angry Hofferson could be more dangerous than dragons.
Hiccup jogged through the town. The small fight had left him a bit exhausted, mainly because he had spent most of the day in the forge, working hard. He approached the tavern with speed, and hoped to find Ragnar inside. The town was busy, man and woman filling the streets. He passed through them rather quickly, but it still slowed him down.
He dived into an alley, hoping to escape from the masses and to reach the tavern more quickly. He stopped for a second to catch his breath, hoping to find his friend quickly. But upon leaning over and resting on his knees he saw something on the ground, small droplets of blood.
Something was off, he felt it, and he had a feeling it involved Ragnar. He followed the blood, having to pass through another busy street and a smaller path, but eventually finding himself in another alley. He could spot Ragnar, sitting on a crate, talking to someone who had her back to him.
He walked over to the two, Ragnar spotting him quickly. Hiccup didn't bother with the girl on the chest. "We got trouble." He said sternly, immediately catching Ragnar's attention.
"What's the matter?" Ragnar said as he turned his face to Hiccup, the wound visible on his cheek. Hiccup pointed at it with a confused expression. "Bar fight." Ragnar said calmly, touching the crust that was on his cheek.
"How is there already a crust on it?" Hiccup asked confused. It would take some time for such a wound to slow down in bleeding, let alone form a crust. And he had seen Ragnar long enough that day to know he had to get it rather recent.
"She helped me with that." Ragnar said calmly. "Some alchemical salve." He said as he mimicked smearing salve across the wound. "But what was the problem?"
"Berkians." Hiccup said sternly. This caused Ragnar to give a strange look to the female, to which he still hadn't paid attention. He turned to her, and after seeing her immediately extended his blade and pointed it at her. Causing Heather to rapidly raise her hands.
"Calm down!" Ragnar quickly said as he jumped between the two. "She's from Berk yes, but she's with a boat." Ragnar said proudly.
"Boat my ass, she was there when I killed Alvin." Hiccup said. "The only way to get here this fast is by dragon."
Ragnar froze, trusting his friend completely, and turned to Heather. Who wore guilty smile. "Did you come here by dragon?" Ragnar asked calmly, earning a nod from the raven haired girl. "Are you here to look for us?" He asked, again earning a nod from Heather. "Shit." He muttered slow and softly.
Ragnar pushed Heather gently against the crate, gently forcing her to sit down. He then turned to Hiccup, who was pacing around in circles. "So Berk truly is on our tail." He said.
"It looks like it." Hiccup replied. "They must have used a Rumblehorn." He muttered. "They'll be able to track us anywhere!" He said with a hint of distress.
"Hiccup, calm down." Ragnar said as he grabbed the boy's shoulders, stopping him from walking around in circles. "It'll be fine, we've handled worse."
Heather meanwhile, hadn't been doing nothing. Knowing that she wouldn't come far if she ran, she decided to listen closely to the conversation. "You're Hiccup?" She asked with surprise, earning a look from the younger hooded man. "You're the one everyone's talking about?"
"The one everyone's talking about?" Hiccup asked surprised.
"Yea, everyone loves you." Heather said excited, she had heard a lot of stories about his young man, and she felt the need to explain everything. "You fought the Red Death, you rode a dragon."
Hiccup felt joy inside, he wasn't remembered for being a nuisance, he was remembered for the things he did. Although his memory about the fight with the Red Death was foggy, he did remember shooting Toothless out of the sky, and training himself and his dragon to fly together.
"Do the others know who I am?" He asked Heather, who shook her head. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely, we're here to hunt you down." She said, a bit too jovially for Hiccup and Ragnar's liking, but okay.
"What do we do?" Ragnar asked, wanting to leave the subject at with his friend. "Do you wan't to try your luck with your old tribe?"
Hiccup stood still, still not sure what to do exactly. "I'll first need to think about it." He said. "And I don't want to do that here."
"We got fast dragons, the Rumblehorn will slow them down." Ragnar said, hoping to give Hiccup a bit more ease. "We'll just have to fly a good day out, for them, before setting up camp."
"That could work." Hiccup said softly, still contemplating his options. But all three were broken from their thoughts by a loud thud behind them.
Fishlegs had waited long enough, he was not doing this, he wasn't comfortable with it. He didn't know the people of this village, there was nothing interesting and there weren't even dragons to study, it was boring. To his left were drunk Vikings lying in the gutter of the street, some trying, but failing, to get up. And others just completely wasted. To his right was a busy street, full of unknown, strange people that he didn't know.
Back at Berk he would be comfortable with such a job, just sitting around and waiting for something to happen, it was calm, easy and especially not stressful. But he wasn't so sure about it this time. Maybe it was the strange village, or at least the strangers in the village. Or maybe it was the enemy they were after, he had to admit that the stunning display of the assassin's skill had left him a bit scared of their foe, and they seemed like rather deadly individuals.
The fight that he could hear inside the tavern was slowly dying down, and after a few moments, bruised and wounded Vikings limped out of the building. Fishlegs inspected them carefully, hoping to not find the assassin with them.
He didn't, but he also missed Snotloud and Heather. The group slowly dispersed into the street, some of them waiting and resting, others heading home. He waited for a few minutes before he headed in. He walked to the door, it opening automatically because of another limping Viking who wanted to go home, again not Snotlout.
He kept the door open for the man, receiving a soft thanks, before heading in. He was immediately met with the scent of smoke, sweat and alcohol. Three scents that weren't uncommon in Viking taverns, but strength of the last two indicated a proper fight. That, and the fact that most of the furniture lay at the sides of the room, most of it smashed to pieces. A few passed out Vikings still lay in the room, and he carefully looked for his friend.
"If they stay the night they're paying for it." The bartender said as Fishlegs walked passed him. "So get your friend and family now or let them be."
Fishlegs took the advice and walked towards the first unconscious man, finding it to be someone older and balder than Snot. Luckily, he spotted Snotlout's fur cape from underneath a broken table. He calmly walked over to him, lifted the broken table from him and looking at him.
He was probably far away, his body was covered with bruises and he would probably walk limp for a few days. He softly hit him on his cheek, hoping to wake him up, but he was indeed far, far away. He grabbed an arm of the bulky boy and lifted him on his back, dragging his sorry ass towards the door.
He stopped before going outside, looking around to see if Heather was somewhere with the unconscious bodies, but not finding her. He guessed that she escaped before or during the fight.
He pushed the door open with his foot, dragging Snotlout's body with him. He had expected people to look at him surprised, but they all passed as if it was a regular day. They probably knew what was going on thanks to the abundance of bruised Vikings along the road.
Fishlegs decided that it would be best to just get to the forge. His friend could help him lift Snotlout towards their dragons, where, if he didn't wake up, they could tie him to his Nightmare and fly him home. He slowly dragged his body up the road, looking around as he did to not bump in to anything.
He slowly made his way into an alley, carefully concentrating on not dragging Snotlout across sharp rocks, fearing that he might cut open his entire back. He turned looked behind him, and felt relief and utter fear. For he did find the missing member of their gang, Heather was sitting a little down the alley on a crate, calmly looking around. But he also found their two targets, both of them standing in front of her.
This time, it wasn't only Snotlout's body that hit the ground in a state of unconsciousness.
The thud alerted our heroes, and the two quickly looked at the origin of the sound. They found not one, but two beefy boys lying on the ground, both unconscious.
"So, that answers the question 'Are there more'." Hiccup said sarcastically. "How many more are there?" He asked Heather.
"Gobber, the twins and Astrid." She said, smiling when she saw Hiccup's facial expression change when she said Astrid. It was a small change, but noticeable for a trained eye. For a split second he showed a look of hope, happiness, and love. She giggles softly, just soft enough for the two assassins not to notice. If only he knew how much Astrid wanted him to be with her.
"What do we do with them?" Ragnar asked as he walked up to their two unconscious hunters, inspecting the two. "I punched him, but the other just passed out" he said as he pointed to Snot and then to Fishlegs.
"I say we leave them." Hiccup said calmly. "She's here to help them." He added as he pointed to Heather.
"Yea, I guess." Ragnar said as he looked back at Heather and Hiccup. "Should we leave?"
"Now we can still calmly walk away, we don't have to run or anything." Hiccup said, wishing for an easy escape for a change.
But he just eliminated that chance. As soon as the last word left his mouth he heard yelling down the street, a yelling that he was, although the version in his mind was outdated by a few years, very familiar with. An angry Hofferson was charging through the streets, axe probably in hand, and was heading straight towards them. And she just had to peek down the alley.
She stopped dead in her tracks, a white knuckled grip on her axe. Hiccup swore that if looks could kill they would need to make a pyre for him. She wasn't so much angry, more determined, but he felt like she was determined to kill him.
Ragnar immediately knew what to do, grabbing the small axe from his side and jumping up, hooking it behind the side of a roof and using it to pull himself up. Hiccup quickly followed, extending his hookblade and pulling himself onto the roof.
Astrid ran to Heather, who was also slightly scared of the level of 'determination'. "Heather, that was Hiccup!" Astrid yelled. "Get him!" She added before running back to the streets, spotting her target running across the top beams of roofs, and giving chase. Heather quickly followed after slapping consciousness back into Fishlegs, waking him up from his wonderfully calm dreams.
Hiccup and Ragnar leaped from roof to roof, something that wasn't all that easy to do. Most roman buildings would have relatively flat to shallow roofs, lined with sturdy red clay tiles. The Viking building on the other hand, had steep, slippery roofs, either made form weathered wood or thatch.
Astrid followed in the street, the crowd parting for her, allowing her to catch up with her targets. People were staring in awe to the men who traversed the rooftops, jumping from roof to roof and turning on a dime.
The found the twins with her, also giving in to the chase. Together they followed their two targets, but they were forced to split up as soon as they saw their targets do the same.
Astrid and Tuffnut followed Hiccup, while Ruffnut ran after Ragnar, who now approached the docks. He jumped from roof to roof, before sliding down the side of one, landing with a roll to keep his momentum. He still heard heavy boots behind him and quickly rounded a corner, but felt himself being pulled by his clothes.
Ruffnut went around the corner quickly afterwards, but there was no one there. She quickly continued running, hoping to find him again, fearing Astrid's wrath if she didn't.
Meanwhile, Ragnar found himself pinned down behind a wooden stall, Heather covering his mouth with her hand. She slowly peeked out to see if the coast was clear before getting off him.
"You don't have to thank me." She said with a grin as she dusted herself off. The momentum of the pull had led to the two rolling a bit, before it ended with her on top of him. Ragnar also got back on his feet. Heather already had a plan and grabbed Ragnar by his hood, dragging him with her.
"You can ask me to follow, you know?" Ragnar complained as he followed her, being lead into a fishing hut. Heather slammed the door close, the insides being lit by small holes in the roof.
"Explain." She said sternly, standing in front of the door. "Everything."
"What do you mean?" Ragnar asked innocently, which didn't really work with his attire.
"Okay, start with the fact that your partner is the heir of Berk." Heather suggested.
"Well, that's really quite the story." Ragnar said as he scratched the back of his head.
"We have time." Heather said calmly, sitting down in front of the door.
Meanwhile, Hiccup was still running through the village, well not really through. He was running across the rooftops, finding it a lot more difficult than in Rome. The rooftops were smaller, and they had a lot less space to walk, or run, across. Luckily enough, they did have more materials on them to hold on too. In Rome they would have beams, windows, and a few other things to hold on to. In Viking society the homes were richly decorated with large pieces of wood, rope and other materials. It made climbing a lot easier.
He could however, still hear the heavy footsteps behind him, so he was still being chased. Although he was able to shake some of his chasers, usually they would him rather quickly again. They had the advantage, they had multiple men and even though they had split up he still had enough people behind him to worry about.
He had shaken them once successfully, but upon re-entering the town from the alley he had hid in he was spotted by Fishlegs, who was apparently also joining the chase. Probably being forced to by Astrid.
Hiccup however, didn't really care for how many people followed him, as soon as there were more than two he would have to start using more clever tactics, one of which was slowly whittling down the enemies morale.
He had used the trick before, but on Romans. He knew Vikings would be even easier, since they cared a lot less about carefulness in their chases. He set up his plan carefully, having seen a street with a dead end nearby. It wasn't too hard to get towards it, they had been running around the village in circles for most of the chase, since the village wasn't that big.
He ran across the roof of a home, hooking his hook blade behind the large wooden dragonhead on the front of the building. He swung his boy sideways, flinging himself around the head and landing on the ground with a roll. He was honestly surprised that his hood had stayed on for the entire chase.
Astrid and Tuffnut rounded the corner quickly after him, they had been running at the side of the building when he leaped down, and had quickly altered their paths to chase Hiccup. Both parties were significantly slowed down by the full street, Hiccup less than the Berkians. He was able to easily dodge any Vikings that stood on the street, pushing them aside and jumping over and underneath them. Astrid, Tuffnut and, in the back, Fishlegs had a harder time to pass through the crowds. Their way of passing the oncoming people only consisted of dodging and pushing away, but because Hiccup left a small path, their distance only grew slightly.
He quickly changed direction, careful to always round the corners using his good leg, since the prosthetic could sometimes slip, or worse, sink in and get stuck. He ran into the street, it ending with a thick wooden wall, part of a palisade that shielded the east side of the village. Astrid and Tuffnut quickly noticed that they had finally trapped their opponent, and slowed down to a stop. Tuff quickly grabbed his spear, and Astrid her axe. They had hoped to resolve this peacefully, but the incident at the smithy had left no room for discussion with Astrid. She was taking him down.
And it looked like the Hiccup now realised his predicament, standing before wooden walls that rose to the height of a normal building. Held together by rope and planks. She knew the boy was keen, even better at escaping than he was before. But now he looked ready for a fight. With the retractable blade, which was still retracted, in one hand, and the extended hook in the other he looked ready for anything.
They slowly stepped forward, Astrid holding her axe low to the ground, and Tuffnut holding his spear in a defensive manner. However, the next part surprised both of them, as a green gas poured from the back of Hiccup's handle, with which he created a nice circle around him. Astrid sniffed the air, smelling the pungent smell of the gas, but she couldn't place it quite. Tuffnut however was quicker than her, which didn't happen often. "It's Zippleback gas." He whispered to her. "But it smells just a bit differently."
That showed, because they soon saw a small spark fly from the handle of the blade. It flew through the air and landed inside the green cloud that surrounded Hiccup's feet. It lit aflame rapidly, creating a small and short circle of flames at the base of his feet, but the next part was strange.
The gas, which was known to explode and then quickly disperse, behaved differently. Instead of quickly dispersing into the air around him thanks to the blast, it created a thick white cloud, rapidly expanding around the boy. It took less than a second for his entire body to be hidden behind the cloud. They waited not a second before jumping in, finding that their target was gone. Astrid quickly ran through the cloud of smoke, finding Hiccup hanging from the wall above her, his hook blade hooked behind a piece of rope. She didn't stare long, as he quickly jumped off to the side and continued along another rooftop. Astrid pulling Tuffnut out of the smoke and following him.
Hiccup saw the determination in Astrid's eyes, and knew that he wouldn't shake her off his back so easily. He chose for the bolder move, a broad daylight escape using a dragon that was famed around the archipelago. The entire archipelago would know of his presence in a few weeks, but most of the islands already heard rumours about the assassins, and if they didn't believe them then they wouldn't believe this one either. Berk would know who he was, but they would anyway as soon as Gobber and the gang returned.
He grabbed his whistle, which was a small wooden carving of a Nightfury, made out of bone. He blew softly, producing a sound that people weren't able to hear. He continued running, knowing that his escape would be imminent.
Meanwhile, in the woods at the side of the village, a large black dragon, that was playing tug-of-war with another dragon, heard its rider call. He dropped the branch they were using to play and turned to the town, waiting for a second whistle. The Skrill besides him also turned to the town, carefully listening for the sound that he also heard.
It sounded again, confirming the beasts their suspicion. They spread their wings and quickly took to the sky, slowly climbing to good heights.
Gobber had a slight limp in his walk, partly because of him having a different foot and partly because he got beaten up pretty badly, by his own apprentice no less. This was also part of the reason he was so grumpy. He approached the clearing where there dragons stayed, Skullcrusher was calmly drinking a bit of water from the pond.
He stopped to rest, the small fight has already left him a bit exhausted, and limping the path to their dragons through thick foliage didn't help. He leaned against the Rumblehorn, who merely puffed a bit of air as reaction to the weight against his shoulder.
"Calm down Skullcrusher." Gobber said as he looked at the sky. "I'm just a wee bit tired."
He closed his eyes, the gang would hopefully be back after a while, a freshly captured assassin, or Hiccup, in their midst. It wasn't how he had hoped to reunite with his former apprentice. He had guessed it would be a lot different. Either the boy would just show up on Berk one day, wearing a stupid smile and carefully walking through their village. Or they would meet at the gates of Valhalla. He especially glad that he was wrong about the last one.
But this was something he had never expected. Although he was still sceptical about one of the Assassins being Hiccup, it was certainly something he hadn't guessed. The little lamb that no one cared about, suddenly an experienced warrior of a far land. Able to defeat some of Berks best fighters.
It was certainly something that matched Hiccup. Disappear as a runt, reappear as a master of various skills. If anyone would do it, it would be Hiccup.
Gobber's thoughts were broken though, as he heard two pairs of wings beating in the distance. He opened his eyes, seeing two saddled dragons climbing up into the sky, but without riders.
He looked closer at the dragons, directly noticing that they weren't theirs. They were two rare species, almost never seen around the archipelago, and they flew together, without riders. Gobber however knew what this meant, either the assassins were captured and the beasts were helping or fleeing, or they tried to escape with their dragons.
He saw how the dragons turned to the town, searching for something, and ruling out the possibility of only the dragons fleeing.
Astrid had also seen the dragons in the sky, and she knew all too well what it meant. They were planning on escaping. She continued through the masses, which was more difficult because the dragons spread a small bit of panic and fear. Making most of the people already run for cover.
She sped up, hoping to catch Hiccup before his dreaded dragon could carry him off. But to do that, she would also have to be on the top of the roofs, only there she could safely grab him. Hiccup meanwhile had his own plans. For his dragon to safely pick him up he would have to be at a place that was calmer, less in the centre of the village. Like one of the outer catapults that formed a defence for their harbour.
He only had a few houses to pass until he would have to get down again, then it would be a short run towards the trebuchet and an even shorter climb. Toothless would see him quickly enough and pick him up.
Toothless had begun a dive, hoping to spot his rider as he flew across the village, a loud whistle grew as he exchanged altitude for speed. Everyone in the village could hear him, especially those who had a keen ear for the familiar sound.
Ragnar pulled away from the thing that had kept him busy during the rest of their visit to the village, excusing himself when she looked at him with a hurt expression. "I need to go." He said quickly as he turned to the door. "Looks like Hiccup decided we're leaving."
"Wait." Heather said before Ragnar disappeared out of the door. "The offer for the winter is still on." She said with a seductive smile, and Ragnar felt like there was more to it.
"Yea, right, thanks." Ragnar said, a bit taken aback by Heather 'subtle' hint. "You'll hear of me, maybe." And the door closed.
Ragnar found himself back on the streets near the dock, finding Hiccup jumping from rooftop to rooftop a little further, heading towards the trebuchet. Ragnar quickly followed, running through the now emptier streets and catching up to them. He however decided that he would take a different catapult.
Hiccup had jumped down, and was now closing the last bit between him and the catapult. Astrid was still hot on his heels. Following his every step, and she had sped up now that he was on even ground again. She heard a dragon to her right, and upon looking saw the other assassin being swooped up by the Skrill. She knew quickly enough that Hiccup was aiming for the same escape.
She forced herself to run even faster, catching up with him just as he reached the trebuchet. He tried to climb it, but had to stop as he would otherwise be pinned between the wood and Astrid's axe. He rolled to the side, quickly running away to keep the catapult between Astrid and him.
Astrid noticed this and tried to get around the thick pillars that he kept between them, but to no Avail. Hiccup was definitely more agile than she was, and he was able to dodge her with relative ease.
Hiccup knew he couldn't just escape by climbing up the trebuchet, Astrid would grab him and drag him down, probably resulting in his capture. He decided that he would try to make a daring escape, something that Ragnar would probably not approve.
He rolled out of the way of Astrid's axe again, this time heading towards the tip of the arm, where the stones would lie. He quickly jumped on the tip, Astrid's axe blocking the way upwards. She was convinced that he was trying to climb the arm to get to the top, and with the rising whistle of the Nightfury behind her she was certain that she stopped his attack.
But her heart sank as she saw Hiccup crouching down, reaching underneath the arm, where a large piece of rope kept the arm down. His blade was short work of it, and the rope kept that kept the arm down snapped with full force. Astrid had just a second to step back, as the arm, with her axe and Hiccup still in and on it, flung upward and launched the boy into the air. Where he was quickly grabbed and flown away towards the ocean.
She stood frozen, seeing how the small body at the bottom of the dragon swung sideways, pulling himself on top of the dragon.
"Did he just?" Tuffnut asked as he closed up with Astrid. Astrid just stood there, nodding.
"We got to try that." Ruffnut said as she also joined the group. Astrid quickly turned away as the conversation changed into a discussion who could be fired first. Instead, she looked out at the horizon, seeing two black dots grow smaller with each passing second.
AN:
Well, here it is. Took a bit longer than usual. Main reason, I continued watching Dexter again, not a good decision.
Anyway, still thinking about the Blog idea, Tell me what you think. I'm currently thinking about using tumblr. If someone has other ideas, please do tell.
R4y