Greetings, fellow humans and humanoids!
In case you're wondering, I've added "friendship" in the genres. I think that, because of the bonds of Hiccup and Toothless, Hiccup and Blizzard, Blizzard and Dawny, it feels like there are loads of friendships in here. :)
Also I apologize for the long wait, but I can't really argue against being forced to go on vacation . . . heheh . . .
Thanks for reading! Advice/criticism/praises are always appreciated!
-Mitti
- - § - -
Stumbling, Blizzard tilted down in a swaying, precarious manner until she fell down on her chest and cheek with an ugly-sounding crack coming from her chest. Dawny shrieked, and Toothless hissed in surprise as another sound came from Blizzard.
A scream of pain.
- - § - -
"Blizzard!" Hiccup cried in a horrified manner, immediately kneeling down next to his unconscious friend. Her face still had the pain etched all over it, yet her mouth had closed from the scream she had emitted. Considering the cracking sound coming from her torso and her pain-filled cry, she had most likely broken a rib.
Toothless nudged Blizzard's leg, and she whimpered in what sounded like fear. Her eyes, albeit closed, were narrowed as if to shut her eyes even tighter from something that was haunting her. The Night Fury brought his nose to her leg again, and this time she shouted.
"NOO!"
The trio jumped. Dawny was the first to recover, and hummed gently as she approached the splayed-out blood redhead on the stony ground. Blizzard breathed in shaky breaths, and when Dawny made a clicking sound close to her ear, she thrashed out her arm toward the UnderIce. Said dragon flinched away.
Hiccup gulped. He had no clue what to do . . . she seemed to be unconsciously attacking them whenever they got too close. Besides, if she moved too much her ribcage - since the damage to it was impossible to wholly know - could enter a much more critical stage.
"Oh gods," the brown-haired boy said, stuttering a bit with an unstable voice. "Toothless, could you try to get her laying down on her back?"
A simple, most likely unnecessary request, yet Toothless complied with relief of at least attempting to help the injured girl. He purred soothingly, attempting to calm Blizzard enough to let him move her, but she merely muttered in a sad voice:
"Pleas . . . I'm sorry . . . I'm so . . . so sorry, Mothe . . ."
Unbeknownst to both dragons, yet noticed by a wide-eyed Hiccup, a single tear leaked out of the girl's still-closed blue eye, falling quickly down her drained-of-color cheek and dripping onto the bluish-gray stone floor.
- - § - -
I had no clue what happened.
The strange, dizzy feeling of incredible hearing and sight filled me again, making my head feel as if it was to burst. Although I knew I had the undeniable miracle of that excelled vision, it was pitch-black around me as I floated in an endless abyss. I wondered if I was going to be sick (it certainly felt as if I would) until I heard it all over again.
The Voice.
His voice.
"Your destiny has been chosen out of those that are of lesser importance to you. There are the immortals known as Spirits, who are to control their specified element and keep the world in wholehearted peace of nature . . ."
"No," I whispered, but my voice was ripped away from me as soon as it exited my mouth. I felt captured, dead. Something was wrong.
Very wrong.
I had a feeling this wasn't going to be my average nightmare.
As the Voice continued, I put my hands over my ears and tried vainly to shut him out. The voice swirled around me in a taunting way, continuing to drawl out what had been "written in stone" as my destiny, torturing me in the worst way.
Then, just as abrupt as it had come, it vanished with a whispering wind that died down after the quick gust that chased my nightmare away.
I expected to awaken. I vaguely remembered seeing Hiccup's shocked face when I felt the unmistakable and pronounced feelings of a nightmare coming upon my mind. I wasn't sure what had happened after I whispered the dreaded word; whether I was caught of had fallen was a mystery to me.
However, the opposite happened.
Still within the binds of my dreamlike state, a light resurrected from the darkness and shone in front of me. My feet touched the cold stone floor of the tunnels, but I saw no crystals wedged in the walls.
As I cautiously approached the mystical light that was miraculously shining in front of me, I noticed that it looked a lot like the sun when it shined through the least impenetrable clouds that hovered above Depth Island. Choppy rays of strained golden light filtered down from who-knows-where, but as soon as I saw the shadow I knew my nightmare wasn't over.
Far from it.
Shadow materialized from the sunlight, blocking out most of it so I could only see his faint outline. "The girl shall come," he said in his venomous killer voice. He took a step toward me, and I took one back, eyes wide. "The girl shall DIE!"
He lunged. I screamed.
"NOO!"
I wasn't sure what to think when he disappeared in a wisp of smoke. Because, unlucky me, the dying sunlight and tunnel disappeared as well. My feet's rest was soon air again, as I let my mind wander, hoping that this mirage of incidents would soon be over.
Hoping soon proved to be futile.
Next up I appeared on the beach, my senses feeling slightly more normal but nonetheless downright weird. The sand was white between my toes, and the moon shone high above the sky in a waning crescent form. The air around me felt soothing, yet had a sharp chill to it that made me know that there was something else to this vision.
I looked down the peninsula of the sandy beach. With the white moon as my sight, my heard jumped in my throat as I saw a small, wooden boat that looked ready to collapse by even the smallest waves. It stuck out like a sore thumb, because the soft sky and relaxed beach were peaceful, while the boat looked precarious. Dangerous, even.
I soon figured out why.
Sobs infiltrated my ears, making me flinch and seek out the crier. I did not have to search long; slumped halfway behind the boat was a figure draped in a heavy black cloak. I took a few unbalanced steps toward the strange sight, and determined that the figure was a woman from the feminine-sounding cries emitting from her.
I tensed up, wondering if I should help this person. She seemed to be in a sorrowful state, so perhaps she had gotten lost on her rickety old rowboat. Maybe she was going to die here.
Where was 'here', again?
I looked around for any scenery that gave away the answer, but, not to my surprise, I was greeted with a hazy background that fitted perfectly for a dream such as this. All that was clear was the beach, the ocean, and the moon that shone dauntingly.
The woman stood. She could not see me; this must have happened in the past.
Looking up at the beach with deep brown eyes, she said with a choked-up voice, "I'm sorry, my sweet."
I took a sharp inhale, not bothering to listen to the unnatural sting of pain that resulted from it. 'That's what she called me . . .'
"My stormy Blizzard."
And without a second word, the woman sobbed a heart-wrenching cry and jumped into the ocean.
My eyes were wide when I saw her sink immediately. The water was much deeper than my eyes had believed. Yet that was the last thing on my mind as I realized who this woman was; with her black cloak and her big brown eyes and the softness of her voice.
That was when I felt tears in my own blue eyes.
"Please!" I screamed in the air, piercing it with a shrill voice that did not seem to belong in this dark landscape. But of course it didn't.
This was supposed to be a quiet death.
"I'm sorry!" Tears willingly flowed out of my eyes as I threw myself onto the ground, as my legs were unable to support my weight any longer. "I'm so . . . so sorry," I choked out with a strangled voice that was thick with depression. "Mother."
The woman who sang me lullabies when I couldn't sleep.
The woman who affectionately called me 'My stormy Blizzard'.
The woman who abandoned me on Depth Island, and then drowned herself afterwards. Why?
I had no idea.
The beach disappeared from my sight, but instead of leaving me into a dark and peaceful world like it usually did in between visions, I was instantly aware of a new place; a forest. The leaves on the trees were black, while the bark was the darkest shade of brown my mind could muster. The ground was dried mud and dirt, with just hints of dull green moss scattered around.
I heard someone shouting in the distance, but it was droned and I could not for the life of me make out any words. The shouter was male, but did not sound like any man I knew. Not my father, brother, or Hiccup.
But then I saw the worst.
I shrieked and screamed when I saw the broken UnderIce dragon sprawled out in front of me. Tears streaked my cheeks and fell to the dead soil below as I fell straight to my knees and approached Dawny with a sickening feeling of dread churning my stomach.
"D-Dawny?" I whispered.
Two dull silver eyes, glazed and missing that breathtaking spark, gazed up at me.
"No, no, nononono NO!" My arm lashed out in either terror or anger. Perhaps agony, but I'd assume not. "What happened?" I sobbed, stroking Dawny's scaled head with one shaking hand. She felt cold to the touch.
"What's going on?" I demanded at the sky, which was invisible due to the thick cover of leaves. "WHY MUST I GO THROUGH THIS? WHAT DID I EVER DO?!"
I felt as if I was stabbed when silence answered. Pain was swirling around in my head, making me feel disoriented and weak. I hated the feeling of helplessness, and as it engulfed my entire being a small enkindled flame burned within my chest. Rage made me scream out louder, even after my throat was parched and burnt from the insistent shouts. The only thing that quieted me was when the vision faded, leaving only unbearable sadness clinging to my heart.
But then there was something that, in a way, would seem worse.
As the world materialized again, I saw the same forest with the same dead look to it in the background. It made my lungs feel immense pressure, threatening to break me as I panted. My whole torso seemed to be crushed by the binding of a rope, but the feeling lifted as I saw that I was not even in the forest.
Thank the spirits above.
Not that they deserve it.
Rather, I was on a cliffside, staring down at the forest below me. The sun was not yet flashing its brilliant rays that I so rarely saw, as it was early daybreak. The clouds were traced with lavender and colored a rosy pink. The sky shone of relaxed and soothing colors, and was blazed with orange where the sun would soon appear into the world.
I glanced behind me, then did a double take and stared straight at the vast expanse of water that stretched out around me. The cliffside was the only one jutting out into this beautiful water, and had a perfect view of the waves that were crested with white at the top.
The water reminded me perfectly of my eyes that I saw in my mirror shard; while the water around Depth Island looked duller and more drab than my eyes, this water was crisp and clear and simply breathtaking.
When my mind had decided to turn back to the forest to wonder why I was here, I jumped with terror at the figure that had appeared while I gaped at the water.
It was me.
An older me.
I didn't look at what attire clung to my body, I rather looked at myself. This elder me was hugging her legs to her chest (which was not flat; that surprised me, even though it was an obvious thing that I should have known would happen if I grew older) and was sitting so she was staring out into the ocean that had entranced me moments ago. Elder me had the same tousled hair as I did now, but to my close observation it seemed a tad longer. Her skin was as pale as mine, but her cheeks had a hint of rosiness that I had missed last time I looked at myself.
The last thing I observed was her eyes.
That was what tripped me up.
Instead of the pureness of the ocean behind me, the color that had gathered in my eyes (according to my mirror shard), was this unconcealed abyss of black. Despite the light filtering through the sky, no light reflected in those horrifying eyes. They were dulled of any look, and were half-shut as if . . .
And they looked . . .
Upon a closer inspection of my elder self, I noticed that my sides were not moving whatsoever. Taking a cautious step backwards, I also noticed that her facial expressions were not exactly peaceful, but rather silent.
She was dead.
She was me.
I was dead.
So I screamed.
I was wholly tired of screaming by now, but the new terrors kept my voice usable. However, this time no tears stained my eyes or my cheeks; hadn't I known that my destiny most likely involved my death? I should have known that I would die someday.
And I also knew that this was just a vision, where half of the things haunting me weren't true.
I stumbled backwards, but of course that was a bad idea, considering that the cliffside was ending right on my heels. Elder me was looking impassively at me - no, through me - and those empty black eyes were the last things I saw before leaning back just a bit too much and falling down into the ocean.
I never felt the impact.
But I felt a worse one.
Another voice, male again, was shouting something at me. It was younger, so my first guess was my brother, but he was too old for that voice . . .
Until the vision fully materialized.
And the person was Hiccup.
I shrieked when I saw Hiccup; distraught green eyes, usually full of optimism and comfort, were narrowed at me with hatred. I was greatly taken aback; I never even knew he could harbor such an expression. His freckled face was stained with tears, which made me feel as if I was falling all over again.
I didn't bother questioning where we were. All that mattered was that Hiccup, the kind boy that had been willing to be my first and only friend, officially hated me.
And I had no clue why.
What was also different than any nightmarish vision, was that he could see me. The full me, the one who just wanted to get out of these relentless terrors.
The words he threw at me were mixed, but his tone was perfectly clear. I shrunk down, trying to enter helpless pleas.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" I cried, feeling the tears that hadn't come when I saw myself on that cliff coming. As they spilled over my cheeks, I saw Toothless in a blurred haze next to his rider.
It was clear that he just as furious as the brunette boy.
When Hiccup finally finished his shouting in anger at me - one of the very few things that would be able to snap my heart into a thousand pieces - Toothless stepped forward in a stoic way, his eyes narrowed into the narrowest slits I had ever seen in a dragons' eyes.
Arching his neck, Toothless, usually so mellow and gentle, was now ready to kill, and that scared me down to the bone. He opened his mouth, blue fire gathering, before spitting the white-hot plasma directly at me.
I yelped in pain, but maybe it was a bit of heartbreak too.
As I saw the two turn to walk away, I cried out, "Hiccup, Toothless, PLEASE!" tears ran swiftly down, making the fire hiss whenever they dripped off my chin. I felt my skin peel around my legs, arms, and torso, but the pain was dulled to just an ache.
An ache of pain, and an ache of my heart that was still lying dead in my chest, making me feel truly lost and gone from the world.
Then, thank the spirits (but they still didn't deserve it) a wind came and whisked the fire away. The pain disappeared with it, but my heart still felt crushed and I had trouble breathing.
Of course, the next wouldn't help.
Why was this world so hellbent on killing my heart and soul?
I was on an island that I didn't recognize, not even from the other nightmares. It had a pretty, jade-green forest consisting of mostly pines and spruces. The air tasted damp, looked foggy, and felt like a knife's blade of cold.
Which meant something was wrong.
I tensed myself up, wondering what could be worse than what I had already seen; my mother, drowning in the very ocean I was said to protect; my dragon dead from an unknown cause; me, dead; my two closest friends hating me.
But naturally there was something else.
I let out a guttural cry of despair, since screaming was impossible to create with my exhausted voice. However, screaming felt like a perfect idea when I saw the next thing to haunt me.
And this would never be erased from my mind.
Hiccup, lying in the middle of the forest, on the ground, twisted in an unnatural way.
With a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth.
Tears gushed up and raced out of my eyes as I stumbled toward him. "NO!" I cried, my voice sounding clogged. "W-what . . . what's going on . . ." I muttered as I delicately put my finger up to Hiccup's throat.
No heartbeat.
"No," I whispered, leaning closer to the now-pale boy. His green eyes were closed, and he had several scars with dried-up blood crusted around them; one on his forehead, one on his cheek, one on his chin.
Brushing his bangs away, I noticed that the one on his forehead was still bleeding just a bit. It looked deeper than the others that marred his hands and neck, since those were the only ones visible to me. I assumed he had many on his torso and legs as well.
Tears still fell from my eyes as I inspected the wound. Although this was a dream, I felt the unbearable straps of depression and shock wrapping me up until I could do nothing but sob next to his still, cold body.
"I'm sorry." I was trembling. "I'm so sorry, H-Hiccup." I looked once more to his silent face. "I know you had such a g-good life, with your father soon accepting you, Toothless, your . . . f-friends, your real friends that would never let anything like this happen to you."
A flash was gone as soon as it had come.
I leaned, once more, closer to the boy, my tears dripping down onto his face. "She loves you."
I had hardly been able to address the quick picture in my mind, or the "flash". A blonde girl, looking about twenty, was sitting next to a brunette that I wrote off as Hiccup. I only saw their backs, but from the way they were sitting on a ledge - similar to the one that I saw myself dead on - they were obviously closer than your average friends.
Those must have been the magic words, because as soon as they slipped past my lips the world turned dark again, and soon I couldn't take it any longer.
This time, for the first time in my life, I screamed out of agony for someone else. The wish to take me instead of him. This unbearable feeling that strangled me.
And then I opened bleary, tear-stained eyes to see the top arch of the Depth Island tunnels. I didn't thank the spirits.
Because they don't deserve thanks.
Or anything else.
- - § - -
Blizzard slowly opened her eyes.
The cold, bluish stone floor greeted her for a moment, before the pain did.
Groaning, the blood redhead clutched her side and looked around in a slow, drugged manner. The last thing she remembered was dark spreading out over her vision, making the view of Dawny, Toothless, and Hiccup disappear.
Why was she on the ground?
Where was everyone?
The attempt to sit up was futile, so Blizzard simply had to lay there vulnerably, wondering where her companions were. Last time she had been conscious, everyone had been there and she had been standing.
Had she fallen?
Had someone caught her?
She had no clue.
"Hello?" wincing at how pathetic she sounded, the blue-eyed girl looked towards the wall of the cave. It looked an arm length out of reach, so she slowly inched towards it, pain making her dizzy with every movement. When she reached said stone wall, she awkwardly trudged herself up it until she was in a very clumsy sitting position that still made the right side of her ribcage sting with pain.
"Hiccup?" she had half-expected an answer, but only the monotone glowing of the crystals jammed in the walls answered her. "Toothless?" ditto the former reaction.
"Dawny?" Surely, the UnderIce wouldn't leave her for too long? Of course they hadn't been best friends for too long, but already Blizzard felt a bond that she hoped would never be broken.
However, it was certainly frazzled, as everything was, after this nightmare that seemed to reach the top of her "terrible" list. Normally a nightmare like this just involved herself being attacked by something unknown, or the Voice telling her that her destiny was "more important that the other mortals". Blizzard hated listening to that.
After a moment of silence, she focused on taking deep breaths. For some reason, inhaling hurt much more than exhaling, but she assumed that if she could make it hurt less when she took a deep breath, it would already be on its way to healing (whatever needed to be healed, that is).
The events happened at the same time.
The blood redhead took a daring course; she dramatically breathed in, pain searing her torso, until something made a clicking noise.
That was what freaked her out; she actually made a clicking noise.
"I thought that was Dawny's job," she muttered, but sighed with relief when the pain ebbed away slowly. "I guess I didn't break anything, then . . ."
Since when did she talk to herself?
She didn't answer; a roar did.
Eyes alighting with either remembrance or joy, Blizzard took another deep breath before shouting, "TOOTHLESS!"
A familiar, warm roar echoed once again to her ears, still making her a little nauseous after her mind-whirling adventure of visions. The only thing that disappointed the aforementioned girl was that no loud hum followed the Night Fury's cry, and no human shout bounced around to her head.
Toothless must be alone.
As soon as the black-scaled dragon bounded into view, Blizzard made an attempt at standing, one that she partially completed. She was rather pathetically slumped against the wall on her left side, facing the bounding dragon racing towards her and also keeping all weight off of her right side.
"Toothless," she breathed with relief when the Night Fury, gaze warm and caring, appeared. Blizzard had almost been frightened to see how he looked at her; with either compassion or fury. She was ecstatic to see it was the former.
"Where's Dawny and Hiccup?"
If there was such thing as a mood swing, this was one. Toothless lowered his gaze, looking forlornly back behind his shoulder - and where Blizzard had been leading everyone before her nightmare appeared.
That room.
The Spirit Room.
"They already went over there?" If a dragon could nod, the girl assumed that this was one. "How? I knew Dawny knows the way, but . . ." being bashful, she did not want to add but I thought she would wait for me.
Toothless looked up at her with sad eyes. "What?" no response. Of course not, you idiot. He can't speak, he's a dragon.
"Is she okay?" a slight panic fluttered in her chest as Blizzard attempted to stand up taller, only have the dull ache in her torso keep her hunched down. "Is Hiccup?"
Toothless looked back where he had come from and growled.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," she muttered. "Where are they?"
The dragon jerked his head, motioning 'down the tunnel'.
An idea popped into Blizzard's head. "If I do this, I'm crazy," she muttered, before looking Toothless square in the eye. "I need to try something. I've done it before, but . . ."
At this point the Night Fury looked ready to try anything. She puffed breath out of the corner of my mouth, before slowly leaning closer to Toothless.
Well, he should already know your insane. Might as well show that you're a little more off the deep end.
Embarrassed but not giving up, Blizzard ducked her chin down and pushed her forehead forward in a simple, agile motion. To her relief, the dragon didn't move as her red bangs and forehead pressed against his black-scaled one. For a moment nothing happened, and different thoughts coursed through their heads.
What's she doing?
It's not working? Why not?
Of course, then "it" worked.
Feeling a zap on her forehead, Blizzard focused on the energy that was flowing from Toothless. Squeezing her eyes shut, she noticed that a few images, albeit blurry, had slowly come to form in her mind.
Images out of a dragon's point of view.
"Focus," she muttered quietly to the dragon, who offered no response.
The tunnels. Dawny. Hiccup. Quick, choppy pictures flashed in the girl's mind. Shadow. Knife. Dawny's flame. Hiccup unconscious. Running alone.
Blizzard gasped, lurching herself away from Toothless. Said dragon had a look of discomfort on his face, but his eyes were closed tightly and his body was tensed, as if he saw the memories that he had passed to the girl.
Panting, she finally stuttered out, "You mean . . . Shadow attacked you . . . And he got a hold of Dawny and Hiccup?!" her voice was shrill with fear, but unbeknownst to Toothless she just felt her nightmare had a chance of coming true. She never saw Toothless lying motionless on the ground.
Toothless opened his eyes, which were full of anger. Luckily it did not seem to be directed at the blood redhead, as he answered her question with a growl.
"W-we need to help them!" Blizzard cried. "You have no idea what Shadow will do!" In vain, she tried to stand up again, but grunted again when the throb still got to her. "Ow," she muttered, before cautiously leaning off the wall. Her shoulders were hunched over, but when she tried to straighten them a sharp pain tugged at her. She looked down at her torso with a look of rage.
"Someday I'll be the end of myself." the words scared her a bit as soon as they left her lips, but she chose not to show it and tried to take a few hobbling steps toward Toothless, who was eyeing her encouragingly. When her right foot landed, she froze, hovering in what looked like an uncomfortable position.
"Can you help me?"
Toothless complied immediately, and positioned himself on her right side so she could use him as a support. A memory flashed in his mind; he was on the left, assisting Hiccup in walking across the creaky wood floorboards of his house, when he had just awoken after the battle with Red Death. Blizzard felt the memory and flinched, but pushed it out of her mind as she tried to continue forward.
It was agonizingly slow. "I don't think we'll ever be able to save them at this rate," Blizzard said sadly, trying to force herself to go faster. "B-but I can't . . . go any . . ." coughs and pants jutted her sentence into a choppy mess.
An idea struck her.
Well, technically it struck Toothless, but after her mind connecting with his their bond was still in affect, causing them to see in one another's minds for a bit. Why or how this happened, Blizzard had no idea; one day it had just come to her.
"I-I ride you?" her voice was squeaky with surprise. Toothless, eyes dilated and excited, nodded, his ears flopping as he did so. The girl gulped. "O-okay."
Gingerly swinging her right leg over him (and also cringing whilst doing so) she hesitantly set her weight down on the leather saddle. It looked a little scratched up, but considering what they had been through it wasn't looking half bad. Her feet instantly found the proper setting, but unfortunately her left foot was useless for the controller that was built for a prothetic foot. Her right foot was awkwardly positioned atop the other one.
"Sorry if I can't help you fly," Blizzard apologized. "I hope you can run."
The last image of Toothless's mind flashed into Blizzard's; it was him, running through the forest with a racing mind, but in the present one thought appeared overall.
I'm a Night Fury! Of course I can!
- § -
Disclaimer. On basically everything.
How was Blizzard's dream? That was a killer to write. :P
I'm going on vacation again soon (UGH) but I'll try to keep updates, well, up-to-date!
-Mitti