So sorry I made you all wait a few days for this chapter. I was working to update "I'm Your Brother!" and I forgot about this story for a while. And I left you on an awful cliffhanger, too...so...here's chapter 23! I hope you all enjoy it! :D
Astrid stood there for a moment, her vision seeming to go in slow motion as she watched the arrow tear through the wind. For a second, she was worried she hadn't aimed properly. The Gemsho was moving so fast, that that single arrow was the only chance she would ever have of freeing her friends from the bondage of fear the murderous dragon held them all in.
However, the arrow struck the dragon's stomach, and the creature shrieked; a loud, piercing sound that made Astrid and the others fall to their knees, clasping their hands over their ears. As it finally subsided they looked up to watch as the Gemsho struggled with the arrow prodding its abdomen, until it finally crashed to the ground, silence following the moment.
For a few minutes, no one said anything, listening to the sudden silence that seemed louder than their pounding hearts and deep, heaving breaths.
"Did we just…?" Snotlout asked breathlessly, pointing to where the dragon had once flown. "Did we just...kill a dragon?"
Astrid nodded hesitantly, the situation finally catching up to her. "At least I did, anyways," she said, still catching her breath. "I don't know if you guys were dragged into it or not."
"Yeah...we were," said Tuffnut, staring off into space, his facial expressions unreadable. "That was…"
"Don't say cool," said Astrid, "because that was anything but cool."
"So...should we...go to the crash sight?" Snotlout offered. "Y'know...just to make sure the dragon is actually...dead?"
It was so weird, speaking of killing a dragon and ensuring its death, but Astrid still nodded, and lead the way, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout following her closely, taking their weapons, using great caution should the Gemsho still be living.
It took them roughly ten minutes before they made it, and once they did, they saw the Gemsho laying on its side, the arrow still deep in its scales, the ground stained green from the dragon's blood. Astrid and the others stared at it in shock for just a moment, before they realized the startling truth.
It was breathing.
The Gemsho was still alive.
"Oh man," Ruffnut muttered, shaking her head as she took a step backwards, copied instantly by Tuffnut, who did the same.
The Gemsho's eyes shot open, and the riders shrieked, jumping back a step as the Gemsho regarded them with an evil gleam in its eyes. Then, suddenly, the eyes full of anger were changed, replenished by fear and terror. It skidded away from Astrid, Ruffnut, Tuffnut and Snotlout as best it could with its leg slashed, tail stabbed, and arrowed abdomen.
"MERCY!" it cried, covering its face with one of its paws, its jagged, curved claws retracting. "Have mercy on me, please!" it pleaded pathetically. "Get rid of the arrow, please! Let me live! Save me!"
"Oh, so you can what?" Astrid snapped, holding her axe a little tighter so that her knuckles were white, her fingers almost blood red. "Make other people suffer? Destroy the lives of even more Berkians?"
"No!" the Gemsho lamented desperately. "I want to live! Please save me!"
"You are a monster," Astrid spat the words out as if they were venomous. "Why should we save you after all you've done?"
"PLEASE!" the Gemsho whined. "Please, don't harm me further! I fear you, I really do, I fear you! Please help me! I'm suffering!"
"Oh, and what of the people you made suffer?" said Astrid. "Avril, Hiccup...what about them? Where's their help?"
"PLEASE! HELP ME!" the Gemsho pleaded with Astrid and the riders. Astrid felt heated with rage, her blood boiling with anger as she remembered all this unforgiving creature had done to her friends. Her little sister, Avril; her best friend, Hiccup, slowly dying from the deep, infected gash the Gemsho created. The monster of a dragon didn't deserve even death. In Astrid's mind, it deserved something far worse.
She took a step forward, her fingers drumming her axehandle, just slightly.
"Astrid," said Snotlout, and she froze, turning back around to face the boy who called her name. "This isn't how we do things," he said. "Just let it die on its own. You don't need to do anything else."
"Hiccup is dying because of this animal, Snotlout," said Astrid in a voice that was silently daring the Jorgenson to argue with her. "Are you siding with it now?"
"No," said Snotlout determinedly. "But you don't need to do anything else. Let it die slowly."
"NO!" the Gemsho screamed. "End my life! Make it quick, if you aren't going to save me! It hurts! IT HURTS! Help me! Save me! Help! Please! I beg of you!"
Astrid shook her head, taking a step backwards to stand in line with her friends. "No," she said, shaking her head more violently. "A creature like you doesn't deserve life. A creature like you doesn't hardly deserve a punishment such as death. You made my little sister suffer, and you're killing one of my dearest friends. What punishment do you deserve?"
"MERCY!" the dragon shouted again. "Any one of you, help me! End my misery! Put an end to my suffering, please!"
"Yeah, not happening," said Ruffnut. "Never."
"I agree," said Tuffnut. "No one can get away with hurting my friends."
"No one hurts my cousin," said Snotlout. "And those who do have to pay the price."
"You have no right to do the things you have," said Astrid. "Where do you get the gall!?"
"I didn't mean it!" said the Gemsho. "Forgive me!"
"You said it yourself," said Snotlout. "In your horrid, sick mind, it is fun to watch people suffer. Why should you plead?"
"PLEASE!" the Gemsho cried, its voice shriekingly terrifying. "Please save me…" Its voice suddenly trailed off, lowering dramatically before it stopped altogether. Its head lolled limply on the ground, its eyes glazed over, no light or life in them. Astrid and the others looked over the body of the dragon, and came to the same conclusion.
The Gemsho was dead.
The nightmare was over.
For most of them…