The darkness was an everlasting one. The giant of a man's dark hair seemed to float around his head in the halo of black curls as he floated down towards whatever the darkness had available for him.
Sparkling bubbles trailed past his lips as he opened his mouth. Water… he was underwater. His heart lunged into his chest as the man suddenly floundered underneath the undulating waves that rocked the debris that was scattered across the storm-laden surface of the water.
Quickly, Krogan arched towards the surface. His body swayed and undulated as the waves battered his frame the closer he got to the burning orange of the surface. His hands found purchase, scrabbling against a plank of wood, as he drudged his soaking body into the open air with a gasp. His lungs had once felt ready to burst. To explode from the feeling of water pressing down on him on all sides.
Panting, his once burning lungs stung as his gaze rapidly turned around the carnage surrounding him. Pyres had been built upon the Monstrous Nightmare gel-laden ships, the schooners made for cruising at swift speeds- the swiftest of any other fleet in or out of the Barbaric Archipelago itself.
They were rigged to explode.
Krogan blinked, icily gazing onwards as the conflagration of burning wood of the hulls of the ships began to grow so heated that the metal underneath the wood began to melt. Liquid slag dripped into the hull of the schooner closest to him, and that was it. Krogan dove.
Underneath the water, a shockwave went off at the surface, knocking him down into the rocks below. The water was shallow, and the blow knocked the air from his lungs.
He went to gasp, water filling his lungs as he was flung to the shore. Pebbles cut his cheeks as he landed harshly on shore. The man coughed, spit, and hacked. The fluid in his lungs drooled past his lips as he gasped in air through aching lungs.
Each of those ships was going to explode, and despite his aching sides, the man shoved himself into gear. Get out. The rest of Drago's forces on this mission were already dead, if they hadn't already abandoned the ships at their disposal.
Perhaps this was an internal sabotage? Master would love to hear about that, came the thought at the back of his mind as he kicked himself into a run. First, his hands dug into the pebbled ground, and then his feet were digging hard into the rocks as he took off from there. Good. Good Thor. Run. Run faster.
Then there was the rain. The rain poured down from the clouds, drenching him thought with a sharp crack and a shriek of the sky splitting open. The fire ravaged beach was replaced by a forest, however his drive to continue to flee continued harder. The need to flee was replaced by the need to survive.
The Hunters wouldn't take him back alive. He could feel the shadows pulling in close on his vision. The crack of thunder across the sky as the brilliant flashes of lightning screamed through the air.
He turned his head to the sky, and then turned around. A net grasped at his arms and shoulders. It wrapped around his body and held him in a grasp of something other than love.
He screamed in pain as the barbs of metal dug into his flesh.
He fell. Circling, his neck cried out as he rolled over it and landed on his back, the tangles of the metal-barbed net snaring into his flesh, cutting his skin and tearing his body from the outside in. Krogan howled in pain, as darkness overwhelmed his body.
"You were supposed to capture the Haddock, not him!" Johann shrieked. His voice was akin to the shrill shriek of a distressed hawk, circling for food as its legs began to stretch out for its prey.
"What did you expect from me?" Krogan asked, standing to his full height with his eyes narrowing into slits. "It doesn't matter either way, now does it, sire! Both our lenses and the boy are gone because of him!" He pushed his chest out, and stalked forwards, reaching out to wrap a hand around the other's throat.
"Grab him." Johann ordered. A hand gripped onto Krogan's arm. "You know what to do with him. Discard of him if you have to. I already have the Employer's permission to do so… and have a replacement in line…" the brunet sneered down at Krogan as he was tugged to the ground.
"Looks like your usefulness has ran out, has it not?" A voice sneered from above him. "Do we want him able to run if anyone gets their hands on him?" The deep voice chuckled.
"No, Breton, I've had some changewing acid with his name on it for a while." A new voice stated. Approaching swiftly, the sound of footsteps echoed on the stone floor as Krogan was tugged down, held in place.
He tilted his head back with a shriek. Panic slammed into his body as his heart began to rapidly flounder in his chest.
"NO! NO!" He could barely hold the cries of despair from his throat as the glowing green fluid began to overwhelm the orange light of the fire. It spilled down his cheeks. Ripped his flesh. He could feel it burning and his throat desperately trying to cope and understand what was happening to allow him to yawp or screech as the burning ripped into his flesh, destroyed nerves and rended his skin.
He thrashed, hard enough to send a man screaming and flying into a wall; he heard the crunch as his voice finally came to him.
Krogan screamed, his voice shredding up several octaves as he smashed his face into the unforgiving floor. Agony spasmed through his mind, rending his head open. He gargled on his own blood, and spat up crimson onto the stone underneath his body..
His frame convulsed and writhed as his voice pitched into a shriek. A shrill that punctured his ears as finally, water, icy cold water was poured over his head.
He gasped, hacking and coughing as the acid fizzled and popped, solvating with the water on his face as it sloughed off with bits of his skin. He could feel the bare, rawness of his eaten-away flesh. His eyes went wide, darkness splattering through his vision. Splatters of white and black marred everything he looked at as his head writhed against the floor.
"No- no- no, no, no," he mumbled. "No! I can't see! I can't see! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?" Krogan hacked on his own words, tears tightening his sore throat. The giant of a man lifted his head, and he screamed once again. His face was raw. He could feel the warmth of blood dribbling down his cheeks and into his eyes.
"No one will be able to use you now," the more commanding voice stated simply. "You're lucky. I don't want you dead. Merely helpless. I'd chop a leg off if I could, but… that's too obscure and cruel, even for me."
As Krogan tried and struggled to sit up, a hand gripped onto his face, ripping into his tormented flesh, it only caused him to reel away and-
Krogan sat up, shrieking in pain. His hands flew to his freshly bandaged face, which only brushed against his wounds and made them sting. But the sharp agony from… whatever that was, had started to withdraw back into his mind.
His heart was still hammering in his chest, too loudly to hear the feet that were already arriving. A hand was already placed to his back, as with the first moment of feeling the fact that he wasn't alone, Krogan balked, and smashed the back of his head into the wall behind him. Pain flared from the back of his skull, but he ignored it.
His fist connected with something hard as he flung it into the void, using his opposite hand to anchor himself to the wall. His fingernails dug into the wood as heart heard something drop to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Oh-" someone called out.
"Don't focus on him, Viggo will be fine, Fishface." Another voice snapped. Krogan tilted his head back into the wall, opening his maw to bare his sharpened fangs. Spittle dribbled down from them and onto his chest as he opened his mouth.
His fist connected with something hard as he flung it into the void, using his opposite hand to anchor himself to the wall. His fingernails dug into the wood as heart heard something drop to the ground with a heavy thud.
"Oh-" someone called out.
"Don't focus on him, Viggo will be fine, Fishface." Another voice snapped. Krogan tilted his head back into the wall, opening his maw to bare his sharpened fangs. Spittle dribbled down from them and onto his chest as he opened his mouth.
"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Krogan screeched in reply, as he arched his spine against the wooden wall. His chest heaved, heart pounded too loudly for him to hear anything other than the sound of the other's voices being like the annoying whine of an obnoxious mosquito in his ears.
"K… Kr…. Rogan… Krogan!" The voices began to focus as his mind began to cool, and he lashed out at the next hand that began to try and touch him. "Krogan! You're okay! You're okay!"
Krogan opened his mouth, peeling his lips away from his teeth. A loud hiss shredded past his maw. His heart still thudded and fluttered heavily deep in his chest, where his body shivered.
"Easy, easy…" A set of hands were placed on his shoulders. The voice is Haddock's from what he can tell. "What's wrong?" Again, Krogan swallowed, not replying as he tilted his head back into the wall.
A set of calmer footsteps approached, and Krogan's mind clicked with them. Viggo.
Did I knock him out? He thought swiftly, as his hands lowered, going to grasp onto the arms that were attached to the hands on his shoulders.
"That's it, there," Hiccup sighed deeply when Krogan's roughened fingers brushed against the slightly scratchy fabric of Hiccup's shirt. It stuck against his calluses and the scars on his hands, and the fresh stitching on the underside of his palm was hard and slightly painful when it pressed into Hiccup's arm.
"They-" he rasped out. He swallowed thickly, his eyes blindly floundering around the darkness. He blinked, and his eyelashes brushed against a scratchy bandage, and hesitantly, he let go of Hiccup.
His fingertips first brushed along the familiar bump of his nose, then he moved his hand down slightly, shivering as he let his right hand drop to the floor… no… it was soft. Blankets. A few pillows, maybe, underneath both him and the blankets.
The man shook himself off, his fingers shifting up the bridge of his nose, following the bandages up to his forehead, and then where they completely wrapped around the crown of his head.
"What-" he started to mumble, his voice shaking slightly.
"Fishlegs-" Hiccup's voice trailed off, and Krogan shifted, wincing as pain sliced up his arm from the gash in his palm.
"Where is she?" Krogan asked softly. His heart throbbed in his chest, his voice cracking as he shifted against the blankets underneath his hands. He blinked slowly, tilting his head back with a gasp.
"Why-" he cut himself off as he felt something shift. A smooth, metallic snout shoved itself up underneath his free hand. Sighing deeply, Krogan took a deep, even breath through his nose.
"The bandages are like that to protect your eyes." Fishlegs stated simply, almost nervously. "Do you… know what happened to them? Why do they have cataracts? This isn't naturally caused blindness…"
Krogan said nothing as Fishlegs rambled. He blinked, his eyes fluttering underneath the bandages. The darkness was somewhat soothing.
"They wanted to dispose of him, for some reason," Viggo blurted. "Any recent failures, my dear?" Viggo's clothes rustled against each other as he drew nearer to Krogan.
The giant of a man turned his head up to stare at the man, at least where he thought he was. His brows cinched, lips pulled away from his teeth.
"That is not your story to tell, Grimborn." Krogan stated. His throat wobbled thickly, as he turned his head away. "It was acid. That took my vision." He then continued in reply to Fishlegs's question.
Fishlegs hummed at Krogan, and Krogan again heard shifting. He felt his heart jump in his throat, as he turned his attention towards where the leader was still sitting in front of him. He took a deep breath in, and then out, trying to steady his own thoughts again.
"What time is it?" Krogan asked softly. "I apologize if I woke you all up with my…" he swallowed thickly, rubbing his fingers against his Razorwhip's nose.
She needs a name, he thought. I cannot keep referring to her as if she is mine to own.
"It is no worse than when the Twins wake us up every morning." Astrid- the first thing she's said to or at him since he'd awoken. "It would only be about an hour since that time." Krogan felt his throat tighten at her slightly terse, if not sarcastic comment.
Why do I care about what she thinks? He thought. Once I am healed I am going to be gone on the wind anyways. I've survived worse on my own, and I don't need help.
However, some small part of him shifted in discomfort. He swallowed thickly, trying to push that side of him away, into the back of his mind.
"Look, Krogan, it's no issue, no matter what Astrid seems to think-" He could feel Hiccup's stare as it drizzled past him towards his significant other, who scoffed. "I thought you were hurt. Viggo thought you were hurt, and of course we're going to help you." Hiccup patted Krogan's shoulder, and the man swallowed thickly, his stomach turning in his abdomen.
His Razorwhip cooed softly, and Krogan heard the sound of her scales scraping against the floor as she moved closer, placing her head in his lap. Instinctively, Krogan placed his hand on her head. She crooned as he ran his fingers against her snout absentmindedly.
The thought barely occurred to him in the back of his mind.
"How do you have the energy to be kind, Haddock?" He questioned. His throat wobbled slightly, and his eyes stung. His heart started to beat faster against his ribs.
"What do you mean?" Hiccup's hand gently rubbed into Krogan's bare arm. The man shivered softly at the touch.
"Snotlout can you get him a blanket?" Hiccup asked. There was a grunt, and then the sound of a mutter from the dark-haired young man, who then was scuffling against the floor a bit of a ways away.
"I…" how did he explain this tactfully? There were plenty of questions to be asking himself, but this one was the one question that had to be the most important. "Am I not your enemy?" He swallowed thickly.
"Yes, at some points you are." Hiccup replied, trying to speak over the noise that the Jorgenson was making as he shuffled around in the background. "Viggo, shut up. You are not going to help in explaining this." Came the low hiss from Hiccup's throat.
Apparently, that seemed to irk the ex-Dragon Hunter Chief, who grunted, and shuffled back somewhere into another part of the room they were in.
"Hookfang, light the center console, please?" The voice of Snotlout echoed through the wooden room, despite the fact that he was trying to whisper.
"Then what is your point?" Krogan prodded. "What's the point? How can you show me, of all people, any sort of kindness?" His eyes narrowed slightly. He licked his lips. Again, the throbbing of his heart in his throat.
After a moment, there was a hiss, and a low rumble. The crackling and warmth of the fire began to spread across the room, as finally, the stout one's footsteps returned.
"I got the bear pelt and the rabbit pelt one." This time, the young man's voice was closer, and the sound of Hiccup's metal leg was shifting against the ground.
Now that Krogan was aware of it, he could smell the riders dragons. He could hear hands nervously scraping against rough scales- Ingerman's Gronkle, and the soft, cooing snores of the Night Fury, curled up at his best friend and rider's side now that everything had calmed. Astrid's Nadder was next to her, hovering by her rider and companion, and there were two Monstrous Nightmares.
Odd, Krogan thought to himself. I can also smell the hints of static from a Skrill, too. Pushing it to the back of his mind, he dragged his hands back to his face, rubbing at his cheeks for a moment.
"Let me ask you something, Krogan," Hiccup began. "Do you think you are undeserving of kindness?" Krogan heard and smelled the young man's curiosity as the boy leaned forwards, his clothes rustling against each other.
He swallowed thickly, shuffling his knees as hands gently placed a blanket over his shoulders. Krogan gave a wince and let out a sharp gasp as pain stabbed into his thighs.
Am I deserving of kindness? Krogan thought to himself. His fingers clenched, as he tugged the fur blanket down into his lap. He swallowed thickly, turning his gaze down.
The image of his own hands. Gripping a weapon. A spear, a halberd. Whatever the weapon was, it didn't matter what it was. It was made to hurt.
His hands should have long ago been dripping with the blood of all of the innocents he had killed.
"No." He replied. It came out of his throat on instinct. It was the sound of the voices at the back of his head jeering at him.
You are right, they hissed. You are undeserving. Just as He has stated you are. Blood for blood. You spilt that of those innocent. You shall pay.
It took a moment before Krogan realized the unnerving silence that had overtaken the room. Everything had paused, and the only sound he could hear is Hiccup taking a breath; Snotlout's heart in his chest.
His own blood rushing in his ears.
"Hello?" He said quietly. His heart began to throb in his head. "Was that… a rhetorical question?" He lifted his head slightly, and swallowed. He wanted to see. He reached up to pick at the bandages.
"No." Fishlegs replied, "I assume."
Krogan heard Hiccup swallowing. The smell of shock, of muted horror- a scent that was unpleasant in most ways, sharp as the stinging sour taste of lemon, mixed with sharp stabs of the sickly sweet smell of rot and purged fish.
Krogan wrinkled his nose in mild disgust. He could feel his hands shaking as Hiccup's fingers around Krogan's wrist.
"Why… exactly do you think like that?" Hiccup said. His curiosity was still there. Morbid curiosity. Horror. Confusion. Hiccup's other hand shifted, down.
"Does it have to do with this?" His fingers found purchase on Krogan's chest. Pressing against the old scar there on his breast. The scar that still burned when Hiccup's fingers pressed into his flesh.
It does, cried Krogan's mind. But I am not ready. I should not speak. His shame began to well inside of his head, digging a pit straight down into his stomach. Krogan took a deep breath through his nose. He swallowed deeply.
"Yes." His eyes averted their gaze slightly. He was shaking slightly. He wanted to shiver. A tingle ran down his spine. He could have heard a pin fall. He began to shiver heavily.
"Krogan, you don't need to tell me everything about it." Hiccup said quietly. "But, you…" Krogan could feel and hear Hiccup's discomfort.
"Were you told this?" Hiccup asked. "You're not… you are deserving of more than that, Krogan."
Am I? He asked himself. He could feel his heart pumping in his chest. Terror was screaming in his head.
"It is all I have been told. My whole life." His throat constricted slightly. He blinked. Once. Twice. Again. His throat bobbed. Desperately, the giant of a man turned his head to the wall, facing to the side.
He could feel Hiccup's hands tightening on him, before they gently brushed against Krogan's forehead.
"It is okay to be upset, Krogan." Fishlegs soothed. "You… you deserve this. Weird doing this because you are hurt. You needed help." Fishlegs turned slightly, Krogan could hear the man shifting slightly.
"Oh." Was all Krogan could say. His throat was tight.
Viggo knows all of this already. Krogan thought. He knows more. Everything.
"Why do you trust him?" Krogan stated. His voice grew deeper, gravelier. He felt his hands shake as he pet his fingers along the Razorwhip's head. She crooned at him again, and he felt his hands shaking. They wouldn't stop shaking.
"Krogan what are you-" Viggo got cut off by a sharp hiss.
"You know what he's done, Hiccup." Krogan stated, speaking a little louder than what he should have to speak over top of the other man. "You know what he can do. How he can manipulate people. It is what he does best." Krogan laid his head against the wall with a hiss. He tried to focus on the scutes that made up the Razorwhip's horn.
"We gave him the benefit of the doubt." Fishlegs stated. "And he was in a situation similar to you."
Krogan heard Astrid make a small noise.
"I still don't entirely trust him." Astrid huffed.
"I am right here, Astrid," Viggo started to pull out.
"And Viggo, you abandoned me!' Krogan snapped. "If you were alive, why did you never say anything?" Krogan turned his head up slightly, his teeth baring. "And don't give me any of the it was too dangerous bullshit! There were men that would have still followed your every word and kept things quiet if given the chance!" Krogan sat up, the blanket pooling further around his thighs.
"Easy, Krogan," Hands wrapped around his side. "You shouldn't be standing unless you have help-" Hiccup's worried tone made Krogan sigh deeply. His head throbbed painfully.
"Krogan I-" Viggo's voice was nothing more than a tired rasp.
"You weren't thinking, were you?" Krogan shifted upright, and his throat constricted. "You never think about anyone but yourself!" He didn't want to cry. He shouldn't cry, not in front of the dragon riders, but his heart was screaming at him. He could feel the symptoms.
Why does it hurt?
"Viggo, I think it would be best for you to leave." Hiccup sated, and with a sigh, Viggo's feet left, scraping against the wood as they did so. A snarl echoed from his Monstrous Nightmare as they too left.
Krogan's lips twitched up off of his teeth. He could feel his throat wobbling as his own hiss was cut off from the back of his throat. He quickly clamped down on it, though, as Hiccup placed a hand on his shoulder.
"Do you want some help bathing?" He asked. "We had to… remove most everything because it was bloody and covered in dirt but…" Hiccup trailed off at the end of his sentence, and Krogan lifted his head with a shaking rumble in the back of his throat.
"You-" he started. His face reddened in embarrassment. "I-" the giant of a man couldn't get the words to come past his lips correctly. He stumbled over his own words in hesitating horror, as he slowly reached down, brushing his free hand against his abdomen. Up to the middle of his waist, right below his belly button, was wrapped completely in bandages. His thighs, down to the middle of his legs as well… he could feel them there too.
Slowly, Krogan shifted, placing a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. Gently, the giant of a man gripped onto the younger's arm, and started to push up, trying to give himself enough force to be able to stand.
"Agh- hey!" Hiccup grabbed onto Krogan's arm. His hand couldn't even wrap around his forearm. Krogan felt his Razorwhip friend shift. She groaned as she was forced to get off of his lap, and stood up.
With a croon, a second thing is rolling up underneath him. The wide head is pressed up to his back, and a wing gently pressed against his back.
"Thank you, Toothless." Hiccup huffed, as he shifted his arms, putting one around Krogan's waist. Krogan hissed in pain as he stood completely to his feet. He could feel the fact that his leg muscles were tight.
"Mng-" Krogan tightened his jaw as the blankets finally fell from around his waist.
"Everything is covered, right?" He quickly asked. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks. Along his neck and his ears.
"Yes." Hiccup stated simply. There was a shift of cloth against his leg, as Hiccup brushed his fingers along something that was tied around his wait.
"Snotlout quickly made this until he could ask you for your measurements." Hiccup explained. Krogan's hand went down to the wrap, brushing against the fabric with a quiet noise in the back of his throat. The supple fabric was soft.
"It's woven rabbit fur." Snotlout stated from his left. Krogan shifted on his legs as Hiccup and the Night Fury (of which he could not remember the name of) helped him stand in an at least steady fashion. "My mother gave me several spools of it. I might be able to make you a cloak out of it… if you'd wish me to?"
Krogan felt his hands shaking as one of them reached out and blindly grasped at the air. Searching. Hunting for the already too familiar smooth metal scales of his Razorwhip.
Thorn. Perhaps. That was a nice name. A bit basic, but it was nice. He couldn't see what she looked like, after all.
I can ask about that later, right? He thought to himself. His heart fluttered in his chest in amusement and joy. He lifted his head slightly, and then he nodded absentmindedly at Snotlout's words.
He heard Snotlout's approval, an excited noise in the back of the younger man's throat. Krogan reached again, making a soft clicking noise in the back of his throat. As if summoned, smooth scales brushed against his hand, and he gripped onto his Razorwhip's nose horn. Blinking slowly, he turned his head down. She crooned at him, and he felt her shifting, wincing away from his grip.
The man paused, before he let go. He needed something to grab onto. The giant of a man swallowed, finally focusing back on the conversation at hand.
"Krogan!" He blinked again, and then shook his head slightly.
"My apologies," Krogan mumbled out, lifting his head to angle it so that he hoped he was peering at Hiccup. Or giving him some kind of eye contact. "I was… distracted. Do you-"
"What are your measurements?" Hiccup asked softly, though Krogan could have sworn he heard a sting of annoyance. He quickly swallowed down the sharp stab of panic in the back of his head.
"I am sorry if I upset you, Haddock. I- I did not mean to disappoint you!" He quickly spat out, though his voice was shaking. Trained. His voice was, as well as this statement. His face heated up in embarrassment.
It was silent for a moment. He could hear the Night Terrors screeching in the distance. The waves loudly crashing against the shores of the edge as the wind buffeted the waves into the rocks below. The roar was, for the most part, soothing. The smell of salt carried from the sea breeze today.
He swallowed.
"Krogan, there is no need to apologize…" Hiccup's voice trailed off. "I'm not mad at you." Hiccup's confusion began to leech into the air, and Krogan swallowed.
"You'd need to re-measure me." He said, almost absentmindedly. He knew his measurements. All of them. But they were back in the muggy fog of his mind.
"I was replaced." He echoed hollowly. "My… my replacement… chained me down and poured acid on my face." He swallowed thickly at the tightness of his throat. At the fear that began to pound in the back of his mind.
Again, the silence returned. The Night Fury next to him lifted his head; the giant of a man could feel the muscles shifting in his neck as the dragon moved.
"Easy, Toothless." Hiccup mumbled, and then Hiccup's hand tightened around Krogan's spine. The fingers trailed down along his back, rubbing it against the soft, slightly sensitive flesh that had been stitched closed.
Krogan winced sharply at the feeling of Hiccup's hands hitting the gashes that had been torn into his flesh by the Monstrous Nightmare's talons.
"Sorry." Hiccup mumbled. "Savior got you pretty good-" Krogan only nodded slowly, and he turned his head forward.
"Do you seriously think you'd need to help me bathe?" He questioned softly. "It would be a pain trying to get me back into the bandages." His face began to redden in disgust and terror.
"Fishlegs and I have already seen everything, Krogan." Hiccup snorted, gently patting his back. "You'll be fine, and we have to keep those wounds clean, and we thought you would prefer somewhere more private than this, no?"
Krogan nodded slowly, and he turned his gaze downwards, shrugging his shoulders nervously.
"Of. Of course," Krogan stumbled over his words, desperate to get this conversation over with. At the same time, he could feel his heart rising in his chest. The first urge in the back of his mind was to run, get away. There was suddenly too many people around him, too many hands touching him, and he was too cramped in on himself.
Stay put, Thrall, sneered a voice in the back of his head, and despite everything else, he shifted on his feet, pulling away from Hiccup. He stumbled, but the pain didn't seem to puncture his frame as horribly as he thought it would when he took the first weak, stumbling step away from everything.
Out in the blind, Krogan swayed, shifting enough so that he could snap an arm out, shifting until he found a wall, which he dug his nails into. The rough wood underneath his fingertips was hard and painfully sharp as it dug splinters under his nails. He pushed onwards, however, limping towards the feeling of the sun beating down against his skin. It felt divine. Wonderfully so, actually.
He swallowed thickly, and then finally pushed himself outside. If anyone was speaking, he could not hear them. Their words were drowned out by everything else in the background, as were frantic noises from dragons. The only feeling he focused on was the digging of the sutures in his thighs. It hurt. It was starting to hurt.
As he paused, taking a breath against the bone-chilling wind, he gave a small cry of pain. Again. A hand wrapped around his waist, supported his legs, as he was being guided onto a strong, scaly back. He could feel the rough scales against his body, despite the fact that the creature below him complained.
"Krogan! Hey, can you hear me?" Hiccup's voice again shattered the sound of thrumming in his ears. The ringing sound was beginning to wane. The sound that told him to follow; to obey.
To come home.
None of the others seemed affected by it. But he could still hear the cry at the back of his head, screaming in desperation to get him to come back to Him. To master. It had to get its claws dug back into his mind, and now the headache that was beginning to form in his head was also screaming at him.
"Agh-" he cried out, tilted his head back into the arch of the dragon's back. A scream peeled out of his throat as again, the world faded into flames and underwater circling. Voices became muddled.
Deep underwater. Everything was underwater.
They were coming for him.
They wanted him.
The Master knew he was alive. His heart was slamming in his head loudly, the whirring ripple completely overwhelmed him. He pushed his hands against the dragon's back, shove$ himself upright. His lips gasped for breath, as again, a pair of hands held him down.
"No!" He gasped. "I have to go back! I have to go back!" He screamed out, his blood seemed to boil. East. Wind. Burning. The cool chill of ice crystallizing across the surface of the ocean.
"Krogan! Hey! Easy! Lay down! Lay down!" Hands pushed against his chest and shoved him into the dragon's back. "Someone hold him down, please! He's going to rip open his stitches-"
And just like that, again, the creature that hunted him's presence was gone. He gasped desperately, trying to tug off the bandages on his face. They were too tight. They were all strangling him.
"They're coming for me," he gasped. "Don't- don't let him find me, he'll kill me! He'll kill me!" His voice toned up into a shriek of terror as he gripped onto an arm. A cry of pain was let loose from someone's lips.
Tears wet the bandages as he gasped into the wind. Desperate to gather oxygen into his lungs.