Astrid was frozen. She was unresponsive to everything. She didn't even react when Arbiter walked up next to her. He grabbed her chin in order to look into her eyes.
"Rage, shock, sadness ... No guilt. Huh ... I guess you were telling the truth." Arbiter observed about her. Astrid just stared at him as if she was unable to comprehend his existence. The Arbiter pulled out Astrid's dagger again and I tensed up. Was this it? Was he going to kill us all now that he had gotten his information?
Arbiter looked into Astrid's eyes before saying "I think I'm going to leave your dagger with Freya instead. I don't trust you to not try to stab me in the back while I'm walking away.". He then threw the dagger at me and it landed in the soil by my feet. I quickly grabbed it with my feet as I saw Arbiter walking to Helios. I moved my feet around the stump as far as I could and dropped the dagger. I then shifted the other way to grab the dagger with my hands. I quickly cut through my binds and stood up, cutting the gag out of my mouth. Arbiter was already mounted on Helios's neck and was several feet above the clearing. Now it was Astrid's dagger against a massive dragon and Arbiter's plate armor. I sighed and walked over to Astrid to free her from her binds. I cut the binds off of her hands and she fell to the ground. The gust of wind from Helios's wings knocked me down as well. As it's massive form climbed up over the cliff I could see a dark shape fall off of it. It hit the ground and made a muffled grunting sound. I started laughing as I realized what it was.
"Why are you laughing?" asked Astrid still kneeling on the ground. I didn't answer but instead turned her head to look at the dark figure. It seemed to grow taller and skinnier until the figure of a small, scrawny boy was defined in the blackness.
"HICCUP!" Astrid yelled as she got up from her position and bolted towards him. I could hear the muffled sound of Hiccup's voice trying to calm Astrid down before the forceful hug that Astrid gave him turned into a tackle. Astrid didn't seem to be phased by the fact that they were on the ground but Hiccup let out a muffled groan. Astrid heard this and got up and helped Hiccup to his feet.
As soon as she took the gag out of his mouth he started "You, milady, are such a hypocrite! You threatened me so that I wouldn't ...". Hiccup didn't have time to finish his statement before Astrid pulled him into a kiss.
"Ok ... well ... I'm going to go get some firewood to make a signal fire ... so ... you two ... can just relax ... I guess." I said awkwardly as the passion of their kiss only intensified. It didn't take long to find enough dead wood to start the makings of a fire. I entered back into the clearing to find Hiccup and Astrid sitting close together and holding hands on one of the stumps Arbiter had used to interrogate Hiccup.
"Thanks for the help you two." I said half sarcastically and half teasingly.
"Your welcome and thanks for getting Arbiter all wound up before he interrogated me. That really helped things, allot." Hiccup said as Astrid began to twirl the point of her dagger against a dry log.
"Oh I forgot about your plan to make peace with Arbiter. How did that go again? Oh thats right you got thrown off of a cliff and now he is headed back to Berk to destroy the armory." I replied getting angry with him.
"He had his dragon catch me and we are all still alive so ..." Hiccup retorted but was cut off by Astrid.
"Enough you two!" Astrid yelled "We just fought a massive dragon and an agent of the empire. I think regardless of what happened, us being alive and whole is extremely lucky and we should be grateful. So could you two please stop bickering.". Astrid had traces of the fury and shock left in her voice from when she thought Hiccup was dead. We both came to the conclusion that going against her wishes was not something that should be done right now, not if we didn't want to be knocked unconscious again. The fire started and Astrid reclaimed her spot next to Hiccup.
"Ok so what's the plan." Astrid asked breaking the silence.
"Well ... I only got so far as to build a signal fire and hope our dragons can track us." I said.
Hiccup was gazing up at the stars and said "I don't think he would have taken us that far from Outcast Island. That venom only lasted a few hours before so this island can't be more than two hours flight from it. I would think he took us east to that chain of small islands we mapped six months ago. Which means that to get back to Berk we would have to ...".
I interrupted Hiccup by saying "... follow the direction Arbiter left in.".
"Well ... ya ... but we couldn't be sure that he wasn't leading us in the wrong direction." Hiccup defended.
"Lead us in the wrong direction? When we have no way of following him and even if we did what would it matter? You heard him, it's why he didn't kill us, we aren't a threat to him so why would he care if we follow him or not?" I stated getting agitated again.
"Ok ..." Astrid mediated, calming things down once again "We know where we are so when our dragons find us do we head back to Outcast Island and get Toothless or head back to Berk.".
Hiccup silently thought about this for several seconds before he answered "Back to Berk. Toothless is smart enough to evade the Outcasts and Berk is going to need us to help drive Arbiter off or put out the fire's he will cause. But that is if our dragons find us soon. If we built a good raft we could get home by tomorrow at noon.".
"I don't think any of us are in any sort of condition to be building a raft tonight. Plus you can't have a signal fire on a raft and our dragons wouldn't think to look for us at Berk when we were carried off by an enemy of Berk." I pointed out.
"Do you have a plan that will get us home faster?" Astrid commented.
"There is no point getting home faster if we will be useless when we get there. We need dragons if you are hoping to help drive Arbiter off and that probably won't be enough. An the only thing the raft will accomplish is getting us there just in time for the raiders to arrive, which we won't be of any use repelling because we will have exhausted ourselves building and sailing the dam thing.".
"Ok you made your point Freya. We will wait and see if our dragons find us." Hiccup said.
"Ok but then what?" I asked.
"We ... fly back to Berk." stated Hiccup unsure of why I was asking.
"And do what? Watch Arbiter destroy all the weapons we will need when the raiders arrive, try to stop him and have him kill us, or just wallow around because he has already destroyed all of them?" I stated in a rant now.
"What would you have us do?" Hiccup asked getting aggravated at me.
"To be honest I have no clue but I am sick of you making plan after plan against Arbiter and continually expecting it is going to work. We flew to dragon Island trying not to engage it and they chase us. You try to communicate with them and he shoots you in the chest and tries to abduct you. You try to get the Outcasts help and they break your alliance. You try to save the Outcasts and we get captured. I'm not good at making plans Hiccup you are, normally. However, you need to accept certain realities." I explained for him.
Hiccup calmed himself and cooly asked "Like what?".
"The weapons are as good as gone. Arbiter is stronger than all of us combined and we can't win if we fight him, especially not as tired as we are and not without Toothless. If we try to get in his way he will probably kill us and when the rest of the riders try to defend the town he will try to kill them too." I said.
Before Hiccup could reply we heard the roar of a Nightfury in the air. It could only belong to one dragon because Toothless couldn't fly without Hiccup. Within seconds Starfire swooped down and landed in the clearing. I smiled and walked up to her to greet her but she pounced on me. She sat back so that I was vertical but secured in her paws. I tried to squirm out of her grasp but she held me tight. Starfire started licking me as a way to check for wounds.
"Starfire ... Ugh ... I'm fine ... Eww ... YOU ARE ... EMBARRASSING ME ... quit it!" I stated in duress as I tried to escape her licks. I finally managed to get out of her grasp only to have her bite the scruff of my clothing and put me back in the same position. I twisted around at her and glared. She got my meaning and she set me down on the ground. I looked at her with disapproval but my scowl melted into concern as soon as I remembered what Helios had done to her. I heard a squawk and Stormfly landed next to Astrid and began using her massive eyes to look Astrid over instead of licking her.
"Why couldn't you just do that." I scolded her and she snorted back at me. I noticed she wasn't showing me the left side of her body, which was the side that Helios hit. I tried to circle around her but she kept moving away from me and using her wing to block my vision. I finally grabbed her saddle and moved my way around her as she wouldn't move and drag me around. I lifted up her wing and saw that there was a patch of scales missing from her flank. I looked closer and moved my fingers along her now vulnerable ribs. There was nothing wrong with her other than the missing scales. Her wound was one of pride and vanity.
"They grow back you big cry-baby." I said shoving her head playfully. Starfire moaned and then covered up her flank and lay down, pouting.
"What do you think you are doing? We've got a massive dragon heading back to Berk. There is no resting now." I said getting up on her saddle. Starfire huffed in annoyance but she ultimately got to her feet and walked over to the cliffs edge.
"Hold up. I'm flying with you." Hiccup said, walking over to me.
"You worked out a plan now, Cliff-jumper." I said jokingly, my mood improved now that I was reunited with Starfire.
"No but when I do it will be easier to execute if I'm on the back of a dragon that I am familiar with ... and Cliff-jumper? Really?" Hiccup replied.
"Don't worry, if you don't come up with a different type of plan than you have all day you are sure to have a different near death experience and that can become your nickname." I replied, lifting him up onto the saddle. "And one other thing just because you ride Toothless doesn't mean you know the first thing about riding on Starfire. So ... I'm going to give you some advice you once gave me. You may want to hold on to me." I suggested and Starfire jumped off of the cliff. I could tell Hiccup immediately understood what I meant. Starfire leveled out and we soared forward at great speed.
"You call that a lift off?! That was the opposite, that was falling. I thought I trained you how to lift off properly?" scolded Hiccup from behind me.
"Yes I do call that a lift off but I also call it fun. You trained me how to take off the boring way. You won't get any of that boring stuff on Starfire." I stated with a smile. It felt so good to have the wind flowing against me again. "Oh and by the way, even though I was lying about how good my vision was back in Berk, now that I know what it is like after being shot with one of those arrows, I was definitely in better shape to fly than you." I commented.
"And now that I know that you lied in the presence of the chief to go on this mission, I'm sure he will find some horrible punishment for you when he finds out." Hiccup retorted.
I mentally kicked myself at the fact that I let my tongue slip a little too much and then said "But he is not going to find out right Hiccup. Hiccup? Hiccup?". He didn't speak again for the rest of the flight. I spent the flight weighing the pros and cons of dying in battle or living and eventually receiving a punishment from Stoick the Vast.
Authors note: I should have explained this at the end of the last chapter but I forgot. In case any of you are not understanding Helios the alpha let me explain. Helios get's his food from the sun like a plant. He takes in large amounts of water and produces his food by photosynthesis and he expels the oxygen created in this process in his breath. That is why his breath augments existing flames and why Freya felt refreshed after it breathed on her. (I know there are more nutrients and chemicals needed for photosynthesis but then again this is a fantasy world with dragon. Not much needs to be scientifically accurate just scientifically plausible.). I couldn't have someone explain this in the story because it would be even less likely than this dragon even evolving in the first place if a Viking or citizen of the 'empire' knew about photosynthesis.