2 Astrids Rescue

Snotlout and the twins were safely away (although in this case safe was a relative term) and Astrid believed that she and her dragon had also put enough distance between themselves and the angry monster behind them to be out of immediate danger, but there were many things about the greenish grey giant with the blood red thorns that were unknown, and one of those vital pieces of knowledge was the immense capacity of its lungs.

The giant did not snap its massive jaw to snatch the Nadder and its rider from the sky, nor did it sweep its giant claw to swat them as they flew by; the beast simply stood its ground, opened its cavernous mouth and began to inhale. Slowly at first, the breeze in Astrid's face simply began to change from the forward motion of her dragon to the increasing rush of wind that was moving past her and into the ever expanding lungs of the monolith. Her expression began to change from grim determination to genuine terror as she felt her dragon's forward momentum diminish to the point that they were now slowly moving backward toward the jaws that would bring about her total destruction. Desperately she coaxed the panting Nadder to fly faster but this only slowed the progression they made back towards the mouth of the monster.

Stoicks despair was almost complete; the other Vikings had stopped fleeing as they had been ordered, to watch their children fighting the giant dragon from the backs of beasts that the Vikings had all come to exterminate, and were attempting to do so just ten minutes ago. Stoick had expected to die in battle before now but instead he was left standing on the shore too far away to be of any help, and watching a young girl being pulled into the jaws of a beast whose existence he still found hard to believe. He even doubted that this dragon had any right to exist.

The shocked crowd of onlookers just stood and stared at the drama unfolding before them when suddenly a few began to notice something, a very familiar something. That something was a distant sound and it was the very sound that every Viking had come to fear every since the first time they had heard it. It was a distant whistle that grew into a high pitched whine, that grew into a screaming growl and it still struck terror into their hearts; it was the sound of the Night Fury. Every other time they had heard this sound, the Vikings would not have had any hope of seeing the attack as the Night Fury had only ever struck under the cover of the darkest nights, but now in the daylight they searched the sky expecting to see much more. To their surprise, they still could not see any visual sign of the slender black beast until a few noticed a small dot in the distant sky that moved at such a high speed, no one had thought it possible before that day. The noise grew to a deafening roar as the black streak, wings folded back to its side, flew straight at the giants head. With a loud explosive thud, the Night Fury sent out a powerful shot of glowing blue plasma flame that exploded on the mighty beast's lower jaw with such a force, that the giant dragon was briefly stunned.

The shockwave of the Night Fury plasma blast hit Astrid and her dragon less than a second later pushing them away from the giant dragons gaping mouth. The Deadly Nadder was both stunned and exhausted as it tumbled down toward the beach while Astrid flew almost straight up into the air tumbling over and over. The Night Fury spread its wings wide to slow its flight, banked back and flew straight up; as its upward momentum slowed the dragon turned back toward the ground and once more pulled its wings into its body and began to rapidly pick up speed as it dropped toward the ground. Astrid too, was now falling back to earth as the plunging Night Fury spread its long black wings and levelled off again, while setting itself on a high speed course to intercept the falling girl. With a speed and agility such as Stoick had never seen before, the dragon caught Astrid deftly by her left leg and sped away from the dazed giant behind them.

Stoick the Vast could do nothing but stare from atop his rock near the still burning ships, as the battle unfolded before eyes. Impressed as he was with the dragon handling skills Astrid had shown, the demonstration that his son was now giving was truly amazing. The Night Fury that the boy was riding was missing the left side of its tailfin and the artificial replacement that Hiccup had made was being controlled by the boys foot movements and a series of metal rods and leather straps connecting the tail to the stirrup, so to achieve all the deft manoeuvres Stoick was witnessing, both rider and dragon needed to truly act as one. As the Viking Chief watched in awe, the dragon flicked the girl hanging beneath it into a gentle half turn and caught her again by the left arm while holding her waist lightly in its powerful rear claws. The dragon spread wide its wings and slowed itself down so it could lower Astrid on the pebbles at the pace of a brief sprint, safely well away from the giant beast.

It appeared to Stoick that next to no time had passed between Astrid being saved and the Night Fury's complete and total disappearance back into the clouds; its speed was so great that it would take to the sky and become nothing but a tiny black dot in a matter of seconds, but of course it also took no time before the Chief could once more hear the sound of a Night Fury attack dive. Toothless and Hiccup were defiantly coming in faster this time and Stoick doubted that lightning could match them for speed. The blue flash of the plasma blast attack hit the flank of the giant dragon so hard that it actually fell to one side, but this did not hurt it however and they only succeeded in making the beast even angrier.

Then for the first time, Stoick saw that this was not merely a giant beast that stood in front of the mountain, but a true dragon in every sense of the name as from along its body, the monster unfolded the mightiest pair of wings he had ever seen. This was a creature that stood ten times higher than the mast of his longship and from where he stood, it obscured his view of the mountain from which it had emerged. The fact that it had wings and was now taking to the air right before his eyes, filled Stoick with such dread that he was temporarily frozen to the spot. All hope was now gone; there could be no escape, for even if the Vikings somehow managed to beat the odds and leave the island, the monster would surely follow and destroy them. A lump formed in Stoicks throat as all seemed lost and his son's valiant efforts would surely come to naught in the end.

Toothless and Hiccup sped away from the lumbering giant and headed out over the bay where huge twisted pillars of rock lay in front of them; remnants of the former island cliff face now long eroded by wind, rain and stormy seas. They rose to over one hundred feet high and although some looked quite frail and ready to topple over in the next high wind, most of the sea stacks stood firm and solid prepared and ready for whatever the next thousand years of wild weather could throw at them in anger. Stoick could see Hiccup leaning forward in the leather saddle firmly attached between the shoulders of his dragon. The two darted left and right, up and down, even rolling completely over to avoid striking the sea stacks while keeping barely out of the reach of the flying mountain behind them. The giant dragon was naturally incapable of making the same complex manoeuvres, but it also had no need to as it smashed through even the largest of the rock towers as if it were made of soft sand, and its progress remained unimpeded as it sought out its prey with no thought of diversion.

Although Stoick had given the order for his people to escape to the far side of the island, most now stood with their chief watching intently as the giant beast flew out over the water slowly picking up speed and closing the gap on the much smaller Night Fury that was being slowed its constant need to change direction, just to avoid the rocks its pursuer simply pushed from its flight path without flinching. The other five dragon riders also stood with their Chief; they cheered and punch the air as Hiccup and Toothless raced by, feeling proud of what had been achieved today. Early that morning they had all leant how to ride on a dragon, and then they had ridden to rescue the tribe; so far they had all survived and the young Vikings felt so confident and such a rush of excitement, that they began to feel sure that they could not loose. Stoick however possessed no such confidence as his experience in battle was telling him that anything could occur at any time, and the slightest slipup or change of luck could put a warrior into a position from which there could be no recovery.

The head of the pursuing giant struck one of the sea stacks that Toothless had just flown around, with a loud crashing thud and the Viking crowd were forced to turn away as dust and rock rained down upon them. The Chief's heart began to race at the thought that one wrong turn could put the tiny heroes in range of the beast's massive jaws when, as if they were aware of his fear, the dragon and its rider changed both direction and tactic turning skyward as fast as Toothless could lift them, but certain death flew close behind them in pursuit.

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