Fair warning. This chapter has some mild gore in it. You have been warned.
Well, here's part 2 of the fight! I hope I do everyone justice! Thank you for all your marvelous reviews and I hope that you enjoyed your Halloween! (for those of you that celebrate it, that is) Now, onward to the next chapter!
Astrid was doing a splendid job of distracting herself from thinking. Nothing like a good fight to get the blood flowing and the mind occupied! Her movements from ship to ship only served one purpose, to destroy the bells. No reason as to why she was doing it made its way into her thoughts. She was too busy making sure that a stray blade didn't make its way to join her thoughts inside her head to think too much.
Regardless, after destroying the first ship, she made her way to the second. Her body just seemed to know what to do and she did what it asked of her. After landing with a resounding thud on the next ship, she rolled under a couple of axe strikes from the now ready berserkers. She still had her sword that Hiccup had given her, but she really needed an axe. So, after rolling underneath the two blades, she grabbed a hatchet off one of their sides and cut into their belts.
With a strangled yelp, both men dropped their axes and instead grabbed their falling pants. Astrid had enough time to roll her eyes and think "Men." Before kicking both of them in the rear and sending them overboard. Turning around, Astrid could make out about twenty more berserkers between her and the bell.
This is going to be difficult. She thought before she hefted the hatchet with one hand. The weight was lighter than what she was used to. Her aim would be off. Throwing it wasn't going to work. It was then that she saw the steering rudder of the ship and the berserker manning it. He was a huge man and he was a far better target than a measly rope holding the bell aloft. Astrid grinned real big before crying aloud in her best war cry, then stabbing the deck with her sword. The berserkers were a little confused, but it didn't matter. Astrid's battle cry was all the welcome they needed for a good fight. Roaring in turn, all of them rushed at her with battle craze in their eyes.
Astrid acted fast and threw the hatchet at the big berserker manning the rudder. Her aim was true and his head sprouted a new weapon, causing him to slump over the control bar and fall to the deck, wedging it between him and the side of the ship. Her plan seemed to work as the ship turned a harsh right and rammed into another one sailing next to it.
The ancestral sword that Hiccup gave her stayed firm in the deck, rooting Astrid to the floor. The angry berserkers, however, did not share that luxury. After the sudden change of direction, most flew off the side of the ship. The lucky few that did not fall to the ocean were jolted across the deck and met various wooden objects with their faces.
Smiling in triumph, Astrid jerked the weapon free from the deck and looked for her next target. Unfortunately, the only ship left close enough for her to reach was the lead ship. So with all haste, she ran across the deck and jumped across onto the lead ship. After rolling to a stop, she got up and saw that the berserkers were ready for her this time around. Five of them were spaced out and had their axes at the ready in front of her. It was weird, though. None of them made a move towards her at all.
It was during this thought that a shorter berserker stepped out from behind the others and looked at her with curiosity in his eyes. Astrid had heard stories of this particular Viking. Dagur the Deranged was known far and wide for his love of violence and war. His father barely kept him in check and was the sole reason that Viking tribes were scrambling for alliances against the berserkers when his father finally travelled to Valhalla.
His demeanor changed as he pulled something from his ear. Astrid noticed that it was pieces of cloth that he and his berserkers on the ship were wearing in their ears. It started to make more sense to her why they were ringing the bells with such fervor and the slow reaction time of their fleet. Her revelation had to wait, however, when Dagur began to speak.
"So you're the bride to be! I would say that I am sorry for interrupting your wedding, but you see, I didn't get an invitation. A little rude if you ask me. Still, I came to give you my congratulations! Even went so far as to get you a wedding gift!" Dagur spoke grandly, but he motioned at one of his men and a heavy net was thrown over her, knocking her down onto the deck and wrenching her sword out of her hand. "I do hope you like it. I think it looks great on you!" Dagur smirked.
Astrid grunted in frustration and effort as she tried to work her way out of the net that was clearly meant for holding dragons. Her attempts to free herself was immediately squashed as the five berserkers that had watched her land all gathered around her and bound her hands and feet. Panic began to set in as she saw a white cloth being brought to her mouth. So with her last few moments of unimpeded speech, she yelled as loudly as she could. "HICCUP!"
The air whipped about in a frenzy as Hiccup went from ship to ship, guiding toothless to take out the bells. He had purposefully stayed as close as he could to Astrid as she worked her way across the fleet. Some things never change, and her amazing…ness was the same. Hiccup thought that what she was doing seemed completely impossible, but she did it anyway.
Of course, thinking too much about her own accomplishments almost got him a full serving of crossbow bolts to the face. Toothless grumbled at him to pay attention and Hiccup had to concentrate. There were 5 bells the he could get to and unfortunately, they were all ringing as fast as they could.
The bells were having a weird effect on Toothless. He wasn't getting disoriented, but he was getting more and more angry and hard to control. He was still responsive when it came to getting close enough to attack, but he was sluggish when dodging small projectiles. Hiccup had enough trouble as it was deciding which ones he had to dodge and which ones he could stay still and not hit in flight as it was.
Righting Toothless for another pass, Hiccup lined him up and watched as another plasma blast struck true. "Four more to go, bud! We got this!" Hiccup went to climb in the air, but saw another boat aiming directly at them. Making a split decision, he angled Toothless under the water. Again, Toothless was slow to react and it almost cost both of them dearly. The bolts were almost on them when they slid underwater with a splash. A sharp and burning pain sprouted from Hiccup's right leg above the knee, but freezing cold waters soothed it immediately after. Looking down, he saw that a stray bolt had decided to take up residence there.
Toothless switched from flight to swimming immediately. He shook his head side to side for a minute before looking back at his rider. Upon seeing his rider in pain, Toothless roared in shock. He groaned underwater as Hiccup ignored it and angled the foot pedal to swim underneath the ship. Hiccup may have gone underwater to avoid the bolts, but he could still hit one of the bells.
Finally getting to the other side, Toothless shot to the surface and broke through the water, shooting a plasma blast at the bell on his way up. Shocked berserkers ran into each other in panic, trying to find the terror of the skies. Hiccup's leg twinged in pain as he used his legs to stay on his dragon's back. Still, he had three more bells to hit before he could even think about taking time to look at it. His people needed him.
Seeing the next two targets, he twisted Toothless into a corkscrew and avoided some incoming fire from the berserkers. Toothless fired off a shot mid-roll and struck the side of the bell, causing an awful whining and screeching sound as metal blasted itself apart and melted to the deck below it. Sometimes the pure force of Toothless's plasma blasts surprised Hiccup. This was one of them. He was so distracted by the damage that he didn't move fast enough and Toothless screamed in pain as one of his wings sprouted a crossbow bolt.
Hiccup yelled in fright before veering off and away from the ships. "You alright, bud?" After getting a small, but pained nod, Hiccup patted the night fury's neck. "Just hold out for a couple more, bud. Don't worry, we'll play these two safe. Let's climb!" Hiccup directed Toothless into the clouds and finally turned to dive at the final two bells. They were separated by a bit of distance, so he'd be chancing the last one a bit. But the berserkers were getting too close to Berk. They would be landing any minute now.
The bells tolled loudly and Hiccup was sure that everyone was hearing the last two in tandem, but the wind screeched past his ears too fast for him to hear anything but Toothless as he screamed in anticipation, the fire burning in his chest. Hiccup could feel the heat below his saddle. "Now, bud!" Toothless seemed to hear him and released a blast at the ship they just ran away from before turning to their right to finish off the last one. They lost a lot of speed when turning, so the bell could be heard clearly now. It rang loud and fast on the lead ship.
Hiccup grit his teeth and lined Toothless up, but just before he could give him the signal, he heard something that froze his blood in his veins. "HICCUP!" That voice that should never sound as distressed as it was now found his ear and caused him to jerk bodily on Toothless, making his best friend miss the bell and hit the berserker ringing it instead. Hiccup turned Toothless immediately to find where it came from and saw Astrid being tied down by five berserkers. Hiccup saw red. Toothless gave an angry roar and they both spun around to get to her.
Unfortunately, Astrid was shoved next to Dagur and it prevented them from blasting everyone away from her. Crossbow bolts whizzed by them, hardly registering through their haze of anger and rage. Hiccup flew around the ship once before changing tactics and heading to Berk. There was no stopping the berserkers from landing, there never really was. He just had to get the dragons back in this fight. He had one last bell to take out, but Astrid and Dagur moved to stand right next to it. So instead, he landed on the beach and tried to get off of Toothless, but his leg refused to move. Toothless couldn't fully retract his left wing either. All in all, they were not in very good shape to meet a berserker invasion by themselves.
Still, he had to do something. Astrid was a hostage and his people were all still trying to make it to shore. The dragons were all in the water and out of commission for the moment. His options were very limited, but he still had Toothless. He could do this. If he could get Dagur to bring Astrid out and talk to him, he could rescue her, hit the bell, and call the dragons to Berk's aid. It was a sound plan. It would work…probably.
His hopes were all dashed as the lead ship beached and all the berserkers rushed off of the deck and began to charge at them. "Of course. They're Vikings. What did I expect?" Hiccup thought about drawing the sword that Astrid got him, but decided against it. He could barely lift it with two hands. How in the world would he actually fight with it? As he saw the snarling and running horde of berserkers charging up the beach, Hiccup gulped.
It was right then that a strange, but powerful battle horn was sounded behind him. It rolled over the hills and sounded so massive that there was no way that it could be carried around on a person. It wasn't as loud as the bells or as terrifyingly blatant, but it pervaded a sense of unwariness. Hiccup had no idea what was going on, but he saw the faces of the berserkers drop from enraged to curious, then all the color drained from their faces and fear set in.
Curious himself, Hiccup turned in his saddle and saw something that both shocked him and confused him. There, marching down the hill to the beach at a slow walk was a small army of draugr. At their head, leading the slow, but eerie charge was Hrothgar the Bold.
When the bone that he had taken as payment from Hiccup had begun to glow red hot with fire, he knew that he was needed. It was quite unexpected to get his prized possession back, the tooth of his first dragon kill, much less have it glow underground with heat that even the dead felt. So, he gathered his Vikings and made an impromptu speech.
Granted, it didn't take much to convince his dead brethren to go sightseeing. So they left their slumbering homes and started their way to the village they had all helped build. Hrothgar had to admit, he did not expect to see all the buildings decorated with dragon decorations or even painted. He was proud, however, to see that the great hall that they had built into the stone was still standing.
The village elder had been the first person that they had met and to say that her reaction was a shocked one would be an understatement. Hrothgar did not know what possessed him to remove his prized dragon tooth which had been missing for so long and give it back to her, but he did anyway. It was then that he saw what had caused his obvious involvement. Eight ships were slowly making their way towards the shore and all of Berk seemed to be absent.
The boy had done well. Hrothgar had watched him flit from one ship to the next, hitting the bells and moving on to the next ones. He never wavered in his drive to stop them from ringing. Now, that wasn't to say that the draugr understood what was so important about the bells, but obviously war had changed since his day. The slow march he had forced his eager horde of decaying Vikings was more to make them take in their surroundings and watching his descendants than anything else.
However, as he saw Hiccup land and ready himself to defend his village by himself, an unexpected swell of pride came up from his chest. "That's my descendant! Are we going to let him defend our home by himself? The Hel we are! Sound the attack!" Hrothgar motioned for the horn to be sounded and marched over the hill. It didn't matter that his sword was gone and he was walking into battle unarmed. He was dead, what did he care?
Their presence had the imagined effect on the Vikings. They all about soiled their trousers and stumbled to a stop. Hiccup had turned around and Hrothgar almost chuckled as he saw the boy's jaw near hit the sand on the shore. Still, he had a job to do. Three other ships had landed and their inhabitants were all flooding out of the ship, only to stop in fright on the shore next to their shocked kindred.
Hrothgar growled from his throat and yelled a battle cry that shook dust from his almost gone lungs, then started to jog towards the invaders. His warriors joined in on the battle cry and a thunderous moan rattled the air and filled the hearts of men with dread. However, one jumped down from the ship, carrying a yellow haired shield maiden by her bound hands. "What are you scared of? They are just bones! We kill dragons! FIGHT BACK!" With that, the spell was broken and the enemy charged back at them.
Hollow eyes stared at the one who rallied the troops and Hrothgar angled his steps to make his way towards him. He didn't know who had attacked or why they were here, but to be frank, he didn't care. No one attacked his home while he was there, even if he was dead. The first burly living warrior reached him and swung a hammer at him with both hands. Hrothgar caught the hammer in one hand and ripped it from the hand of the man who attacked him. Without missing a step, he backhanded the man and sent him flying over his comrades.
As he marched, he calmly swung the hammer back and forth, clearing a path between himself and the leader. His brave warriors had all left their weapons behind and were wading through the enemy, hardly caring that a sword stabbed in their chest or an axe in their shoulder. Hrothgar swung his hammer to the left when a warrior jumped over his swing and swung his sword across his chest. It passed through his shoulder with a solid THUNK before lodging itself in his sternum. Hrothgar didn't feel anything, but instead started to laugh. His wheezing and shuddering laugh provoked his allies to start with him.
Their unholy laugh swam through the ranks of the living and terror spawned anew at their chests. Cries of "They can't be killed!", "They are demons!", and his personal favorite, "It is Ragnarok! The dead have risen for the end of the world!" rang out in the air. Panic flooded the battlefield and Hrothgar loved it. The battlefield was something that he had missed. Granted, being dead killed the thrill of wondering if you would make it out of the battle alive or not, but it obviously had its perks.
The leader of the band of intruders seemed the only one not affected by their unstoppable march. He tightened his hold on the captive girl when a shot rang out from behind Hrothgar. Sure enough, the final bell had been hit by Hiccup and with a loud crack, it had splintered apart. Then a shadow passed above the battle and Hiccup's voice carried over the frightened cries of the men. "Let her go, Dagur!"
So, the runt's name was Dagur. A smile would have made its way to Hrothgar's mouth if he still had lips. Instead, he punched another Viking daring enough to get close to him, sending him flying right over Dagur's head. Dagur turned to see Hrothgar's hollow stare and bare skull boring into his soul as he marched toward him, batting his men aside left and right.
It was then that Hrothgar cursed the ingenuity of Dagur. "If you can't beat them down, burn them!" Dagur released the blonde girl and wrapped some cloth from his belt around one of his crossbow bolts. Sure enough, he used sparks from his sword and a stone to light it on fire. Hrothgar tried to get to him as fast as his undead bones could move, but moving quickly was something that you obviously lost when you died. Apparently, muscles help you move faster and pure force of will can only get you so far. So focused was Hrothgar on Dagur, that he missed the couple of Vikings that were charging him from behind.
It was only when he was bowled over and on his back did he realize that he had been tripped and pinned to the ground by no less than four blades through his skeletal frame. Whether it was lucky that he was down or absolutely frustrating, Hrothgar saw flaming bolts fly across the air and start to set his warriors aflame. He watched as already dead flesh caught fire almost instantly and melted away from still moving bones. "NOOOO!" Hrothgar grabbed the blades protruding from his chest and pulled them all out. He stood up and realized that he was now a target for the enemies still firing from the ship. So he grabbed one of the Vikings near him and used him to shield him from the flames.
Rage was something that most all warriors felt in battle. It drove them and made them more dangerous in a fight. However, something worse than rage threatened to bubble to the surface within Hrothgar. It was so powerful and came so quickly that it scared the dead chieftain. He knew what going berserk felt like, but this power came from something else, something much more dangerous. Tales of enraged draugr and their terrifying rampages ran across his mind. No, he would not succumb to that rage. It was not what Berk needed right now. So, with as much willpower as he could muster, he squashed the rage building within him and instead focused on the battle in front of him. It was then that two things became readily apparent to him. One, the skies were now filled with other dragons and carrying dripping wet Berkians over the battle and to safety. And two, he was not the only draugr to feel the unnatural rage that boiled within him, but he was among those that did not lose their minds to it. His warriors that had travelled from their own graves to help aid Berk now posed one of the most dangerous threats to them. "Bags. Why is nothing ever easy?"
Stoick had been busy. When the attack had started, he had stayed with the catapults and helped man an appropriate counter offense. However, the berserker tribe was scarily accurate with their weapons and targeted the catapults first. Those first few bastilla bolts that flew into the catapults were expected, but after each and every catapult was hit by their assault, Stoick truly feared for Berk. With all the dragon riders swimming back to shore and no support from the catapults, they would be slaughtered. His entire tribe, wiped out by a foolish decision to let the village ride their dragons into battle. What was he thinking? Those things were only done in tales of the gods and heroes. His pride and confidence had overruled his common sense and it might very well spell the doom for all the people that depended on him.
Guilt racked Stoick's heart and he almost let it take him over. It was a pained groan from underneath the destroyed catapult in front of him that brought him back to the present. Shaking his head, Stoick left the thinking about his own faults for later. His village may be in trouble, but he would help them in any way he could until he stopped breathing. So he set to work freeing the Vikings trapped underneath the catapults.
Halfway through his task, Stoick heard the loud peals of thunderous bells decrease. Casting a short glance in the direction of the still approaching ships revealed his son flying about and destroying the bells as fast as he could. Some other ships were sinking or crashing into others and yet one more seemed to have broken away from the rest of the armada and changed course to veer at the cliffs just beside the docks instead of the beaches on the other side. Letting a roar of pride fill his lungs, Stoick redoubled his efforts to free his people. Telling them to help him and then go to the armory to arm themselves for the defense of Berk.
Finally freeing himself from the task, Stoick ran as fast as he could to the Armory to help distribute weapons. Gobber had apparently stayed and stood stock still in his forge, mouth agape. Stoick ran up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders. "Gobber! Snap out of it! We have to fight! We need weapons, stop staring and arm us!" He shook him for good measure, but Gobber barely moved, his color looked a tad pale and his eyes continued to look past Stoick. "What are you looking at?" Stoick turned to see what had shaken Gobber so much and froze just like his battle brother did.
Forty or so berserkers were all huddled close to their ships as they looked in total fear at the approaching twenty or so corpses. Stoick had to blink and then rub his eyes to make sure that Loki wasn't playing a trick on him. Sure enough, draugr were walking on the beach, going to fight berserkers and leading them was his son, atop Toothless. Stoick's mouth soon followed Gobber's on the path to the ground, but seeing his son sitting in front of all those berserkers made him snap out of it. "Gobber! We have to help Hiccup! Berk needs us! HE needs us! And WE need weapons!" Stoick punched Gobber in the face, snapping him out of his stupor.
"AGH! Stoick! Are you seeing this?" Gobber seemed to see Stoick for the first time.
"Yes, now we need to go!" Stoick reached around his friend and grabbed a hammer. "Now arm everyone! I'll meet you there!" Stoick turned and started running towards the beach when he noticed that the dragons were back in the action. They were carrying their now very wet riders back into the village to get more weapons. Yes, soon this fight would be over and the berserkers would never harm his village again, if he had anything to say about it.
Finally making his way into the fray, Stoick ran directly passed the now flaming draugr and into the fray. Swinging his great stone hammer back and forth, crushing and bashing berserkers wherever he could reach them, he cut an amazing swath into the berserker's lines. His focus was on the now abandoned Astrid, who was using her legs to trip and kick berserkers in the head, taking them out of the fight.
Even tied up, the girl still fought. The spirit of a Valkyrie truly housed itself inside of her. Stoick had almost reached her when a loud whistling sound filled the sky and a plasma blast cleared the area directly in front of Astrid. Soon an upside down Night Fury flew feet above the ground and Hiccup caught Astrid in his arms before righting Toothless and continuing on. Stoick laughed loudly, seeing his son rescue his new daughter in law. Yes, the boy truly was his son.
Stoick turned his attention to Dagur, who was lighting crossbow bolts and sending them into the attacking draugr. With a roar, Stoick threw his hammer and hit Dagur in the leg, sending him sprawling on the floor. Then before he could get up, Stoick was on him. He picked up the other chieftain by his scrawny neck and pinning him to the side of his boat. "Call them off, or I wring your neck until it snaps." Stoick icily seethed at the smaller man.
Dagur seemed to contemplate for a moment before smiling. "I don't think so, Stoick. Or did you forget? Berserkers don't surrender."
Stoick tightened his grip, but images of Hiccup and the other children of the village sprang to life in his head. Dagur was the same age as Hiccup. He had never before failed in carrying out his duties to his people. Being able to kill a threat to them should have been easy. But he just couldn't carry out his threat. It was like killing a child. So instead, Stoick leaned in closer to Dagur. "Then let this be a lesson. Come back to Berk and the dragons will burn you to cinders." After that, Stoick slammed Dagur's head into the boat and rendered him unconscious. Holding the now limp leader of the berserker tribe in his hands, he roared again and threw him onto the ship. "Your chief has fallen! LEAVE MY ISLAND!" Stoick shouted at the scrambling berserkers.
He then saw something he had previously missed earlier. The draugr were no longer fighting the berserkers, but instead fighting each other. It seemed that even among the draugr, true berserkers fought like madmen and turned on any that approached them. It was a good thing that the tribe named after such warriors rarely carried the same trait. They were a danger to both sides of battle and rarely survived long enough to make a name for themselves. Angnir was perhaps the only one that Stoick knew to this day. That's when he remembered what had happened earlier and a profound sadness settled in his heart.
Battle was to be celebrated in any Viking society. Glorious deeds of valor and strength added more and more honor to your families and tribe. However, Stoick had always refused to celebrate happily with the rest of the village when skirmishes like this one happened. Today, as all times before, he mourned the loss of his villages. However, he also mourned the loss of one of his close friends and the loss of an entire family from the tribe, the Hoffersons were now extinct.
Astrid finally took a deep breath after Hiccup had untied her. She was extremely grateful that he had rescued her, not that she would ever tell him that. Instead, she settled herself behind him and punched him in the arm. After hearing his shout of pain, "THAT was for letting me get captured!" She tried to sound angry with him.
"I'm sorry, I was a little busy! I had to take out five different ships! Not to mention that I had to dodge crossbow bolts while flying throu-". Astrid couldn't take his rambling anymore and hugged him from behind, running her hand along his chest and laying her head against his back.
"This is for everything else." Astrid remembered the other times she had used this particular phrase and liked the effect it had on him. He shut up and she didn't have to act girly or anything. She was merely repaying a debt. Yeah, that was it. It was amid her myriad of thoughts that she heard a grunt of pain come from Hiccup. Sitting back up, she inspected him and saw the bolt in his leg. "Hiccup!" She moved her hand towards the bolt.
"Yeah, obviously didn't do too well on dodging, huh? Guess I got to work on that one. Toothless is hit too. I don't know if we can keep flying too much longer, but there is one more ship with a bell on it and I want to get rid of it before it decides to ring some more." Hiccup's voice wavered a little bit and Astrid could easily detect how tired he really was.
Astrid looked at the last ship curiously. It had peeled off from the others early on and headed for the cliffs instead of the docks. It was also travelling at an extremely slow pace. As they flew closer, they could hear shouts and see fighting on board. Maybe a mutiny? She continued to watch the ship until she recognized what was going on.
She gripped Hiccup extremely tight and pointed. "That's my dad! He's alive! We have to help him!" Astrid was in hysterics. Her father, who she was certain died at the very beginning of the fight, was fighting three berserker warriors with one hand! She felt so relieved and proud of him at that moment. It was ridiculous. Of course nothing could kill Angnir Hofferson! He was her dad!
Hiccup swung Toothless in low and shot a plasma blast at one of the berserkers, knocking him off the ship. Astrid made her move then and dropped off of the dragon's back and grabbed an axe that was laying on the deck and throwing it at one of the other warriors. He went down with a groan of pain and the last one was overpowered by Angnir as he clubbed him in the head with a piece of rigging from the ship.
"Dad!" Astrid started to make her way to Angnir when he turned and roared in rage at her. She faltered in her step. Finally getting a good look at him, she realized that he was in pretty rough shape. He still had the bastilla bolt through his right arm and it hung uselessly at his side. His body had numerous cuts and was bleeding pretty badly from the looks of it. He was covered in blood and seven or eight crossbow bolts protruded from his chest and stomach. A sword was lodged in one of his legs and an axe was stuck in his shoulder. However, what scared her the most was his eyes. They were vacant and wide with rage.
Astrid had never saw her father look like that before. She was so shocked that she stopped her running towards him and started shaking her head. "No….no…NO!" As a warrior, she knew that there was no recovering from the wounds that he had. No matter what Gothi did, he was too damaged. By all rights, he should already be dead by now. Still, he started a slow, but very aggressive walk towards her. His breathing was heavy and his blonde beard was covered in blood and saliva leaked out of his mouth.
"Dad! Oh gods, Dad! What are you doing?" Astrid was starting to back away. Angnir's labored breaths were starting to pick up and he was growling at her.
"Astrid! Get away from him! He's not himself!" Hiccup's voice sounded from behind her. He must have landed, because his voice was level with her on the longboat.
"He's hurt, Hiccup! He just needs to see Gothi! She can help him!" Astrid realized that her voice was more pleading than anything else. She had to believe that. It didn't matter what her warrior's sense told her. Gothi could save him! "Just calm down, Dad. Everything will be ok. We're going to take you to Gothi and she will heal you."
Angnir just seemed to get angrier and roared madly again before charging full tilt at her. "DAD! IT'S ME, ASTRID! YOUR DAUGHTER! LISTEN TO ME!" She screamed as loudly as she could, trying to get his attention. It didn't seem to work, though. He held up the piece of ship rigging above his head and jumped at her. "DAAAAD!"
Astrid closed her eyes and waited for the pain…but it didn't come.
A strangled sound was heard from behind her and then something flew by her and the deck of the ship shook as something landed in front of her. Slowly, as if anticipating the strike to still happen, Astrid opened her eyes.
Lying in front of her was her father with a sword sticking out of his left shoulder and pinning him to the deck. His blood started to seep out from underneath the wound. "Father!" Astrid rushed over to him as he struggled, but his efforts got weaker and weaker, his energy leaving him, apparently.
The look of rage in his eyes started to fade and after blinking a few times, they refocused on her. "Astrid?" Angnir looked at her in confusion. "Wha-? URK!" His voice stopped as his eyes flew wide and he finally realized he was obviously injured.
Astrid's hands flew to his face, holding it tenderly and looking pleadingly into his eyes. "Dad! Look at me! It's alright! We're going to get you to Gothi! She will heal you, so look at me!" her voice was laced with desperation. Tears started to form in the crevices of her eyes.
Angnir just looked up at her. He smiled at her warmly and then with a grunt, moved his left hand to touch her face. "It's alright, Astrid. Odin calls me to Valhalla."
Fear throbbed in her chest. "NO! Not yet! You have to stay here with me! I can't lose you! Don't leave me, please!" She frantically hugged his neck as carefully as she could, crying. "Who is going to kill the things that make me cry? You can't die!"
Angnir chuckled underneath her. "I wish I could be with you to see how much more you'll grow, but I won't. You have to listen to me, Astrid. Everything you told me, everything that you want to tell me, everything that you are too proud or too scared to tell others, you have to tell Hiccup now. He's your husband and he will look after you now. You have to trust him, Astrid. He wants to help you, daughter, but you have to let him. For me, let him be there for you." *Cough* "There is so much more I want to tell you, but I guess the most important thing is all I can say." *wheeze* "No matter where I am, I will always love you, daughter. Remember that." Angnir let out a pained breath and spit up some blood on his beard.
Astrid started sobbing, her head buried in his chest, just above the crossbow bolts and below his chin. However, she heard him speak a little more. "Good throw, Hiccup. Thank you for saving my daughter. You take care of her, now. I'm leaving the most important thing in the world to me in your care, so you better make sure that she's happy, you hear me?" Astrid recognized his attempt to sound intimidating, but his breath rattled in his chest and his breath was coming in shorter and shorter gasps.
A small whisper, almost missed by Astrid, came to her as his last breath exited him. "Take care of each other." And with that, Angnir Hofferson, her father, died.
Ok, so I took some artistic license here with the draugr. I had planned the scene where they marched at the berserkers from the start of the story. However, I wanted to add a little to the myth of why draugr are so feared. I apologize if the battles were a little less aerobic than most, however, I wanted to keep this as a skirmish and not a one man battle. So I focused less on one person and more on the positions and actions of both the ships and troops. I plan to revisit the one man army writing style later, but I have a few things I have to do first. I hope that everyone enjoyed this chapter! My brother smacked me around a bit and told me to start posting quicker, so I'm going to try to pump out the next few chapters faster. I hope to see your thoughts and opinions of this story, though. So please review and tell me what you think! I want to make this as best as I can for you guys, but I sometimes need a little advice along the way to help me improve. Thanks again for your continued support!