Chapter Three: The plan
The man hadn't said much.
But what he had said made Hiccup contemplative.
It was true, in the narrowness of the volcano, where the queen could disappear any time he couldn't fight her. But here, outside…that was different.
Here she would be exposed.
But how could he, a little scrawny Viking and one dragon, even if it was a Night Fury, get that beast out of there. And more importantly, what would they do once she was out here?
Unwillingly Hiccup thought of his old home.
There was this man. His name was Sven.
He was old, big and beefy. He would sit around in his house all day and would let his wife serve him everything. He never moved a bit.
The only exception was, when children were playing in his garden. Then he would jump up, infuriated, and chase them, until they wore so scared, they wouldn't come near his house any more.
He thought about that. And then it all connected.
He had to infuriate the Red Death, like the kids did it with Sven. That way they could bait her out of her pit.
Still the question was: How do you infuriate a dragon the size of a mountain, without dying in the process?
Well, he had to find out.
He kicked against a fee rocks on the ground. They rolled different ways. Toothless, who had been dozing in the shadows for a few minutes, looked up. And then something connected again in Hiccups brain and he smiled widely.
"Toothless, I have a plan!"
.
.
It was at dusk. Everything was still quiet at Helheim's Gate.
The sun was near touching the horizon, when Hiccup mounted Toothless.
Taking deep breath, he went through the plan one last time in his head.
This was stupid, it was mad, it was suicide and it was exactly what needed to be done.
"Won't go too bad!" he told himself and gave Toothless the signal to fly.
Together, rider and dragon soared higher and higher to the hidden entrance.
It was very empty and unguarded. Probably the other dragons were still out hunting.
They glided through the dimly lit tunnels and towards the center, the heart of the volcano.
Hiccups knuckles where white on the hilt of his saddle and he tried to breath calmly.
They reached their destination.
As Hiccup remembered, stone columns ringed the pit, holding the ceiling.
The pit itself was filled with the reddish-orange light of the lava and mist.
No sign of the beast so far. Good.
He looked up. The top of the volcano was still open; he could see the daylight faintly.
He prayed that it wouldn't be the last time he saw it.
He leaned forward and patted Toothless head. "You ready bud?" The dragon gave a small roar that could have meant: "As ready as I will ever be!"
"Me too mate, me too."
With that they launched themselves into the air, flying straight at the first column.
.
Toothless plasma-bolt hit the first column at its thinnest spot. It crumpled like nothing.
The second and third column fell as easily.
The hall trembled.
Column four and five were blasted into pieces.
Now the ceiling shook hard and huge boulders broke free, falling down all around them and also into the pit.
"Good, that is very good." Hiccup mumbled as Toothless ducked under a giant rock and destroyed the next column.
Hiccup watched it break into pieces.
But there was still no sign of the beast. Where was it? These loud noises should make it curious, shouldn't they?
His gaze flew over to the last columns. The cave was instable as it was but that still was no guaranty that his plan would work.
He begged that his plan would work.
Toothless let go two mighty plasma-bolts. They hit the target and the columns went down. The very same moment Hiccup pulled Toothless up and steered him towards the upper entrance of the dragons den.
While doing so, he glanced behind him. He wasn't too sure, if he saw right.
But he was pretty sure he saw giant nostrils and jaws rising from the pit.
But with falling boulders all around him, he was a bit occupied not to die by being flattened and squashed to grease by big rocks.
He egged Toothless to go faster.
And prayed.
.
For a horrible second, nothing happened.
Then, there was a crack. And then another.
And another.
More and more cracks appeared in the walls all around him and zick-zacked across the ceiling.
With the next one, a mighty bluster echoed through the cave.
And then the ceiling came down.
It took all their combined flying skills and Toothless experience, not to get smashed by falling boulders.
Hiccup steered as well as he could and Toothless occasional fired one of his infamous bolts at the boulders that came their way.
But Hiccup was now sure that he didn't hear just Toothless shriek in the darkness.
Somehow they made it out of the den and into the last rays of sunlight.
With heavy wing beats Toothless catapulted them high, before be stopped and they hung weightless for a few seconds in the air.
Time slowed down.
Hiccup gazed underneath them at the collapsing volcano.
That had worked better then thought. What now?
The decision was taken from him when the volcano exploded.