Lightning And Death Itself Chapter 14
It was their seventh raid since they joined the nest. Hiccup and Astrid joined the flock that was bound for the place with the rocks, and Toothless flew with the dragons who were visiting the place by the lake. As the two groups parted, Toothless had said, "Fly very carefully, and good luck. It's time." They didn't know what he meant by that, and he had flown away before they could ask.
The dragons flew with their usual excited hubbub. They used to fly in silence, fearing the worst when they reached their destination. But now that every flight had at least one Night Fury, they were more relaxed. Casualties were down on every raid. Stealing food from humans would never be a game to them, but at least it wasn't a suicide mission now.
As they approached the place with the rocks, the two Night Furies looked ahead and saw a depressingly familiar island. It was Berk.
"Hiccup, what are we going to do? We can't kill our own people!"
"We'll shoot the catapults right away, before anybody gets onto them. Then we'll shoot out the big torches; that shouldn't hurt anybody. Then... I'll think of something."
"I'm with you," she said. They tapped wings and climbed to get ready for their first diving attacks.
The citizens of Berk had no idea they were under attack until two of their catapults were blown off their foundations in quick succession. The other two were blasted just as their crews were getting to them. The crews turned back and ran for the smithy for some hand weapons.
Some of them threw burning brands into the night-vision torches and raised them to battle height. The flames from the oil-soaked wood would let them see their enemies in the dark. But as soon as each torch was lit and raised, something fast and black would dive and shoot it out. Some of the burning wood flew and landed on the roofs of nearby buildings, adding to the flaming destruction caused by the dragons themselves.
Hiccup pulled out of his most recent firing run. All the usual Night Fury targets had been dealt with; Berk relied more on warriors than on heavy weapons. What else could he do to help his friends? It looked like the humans were concentrating. They needed to be scattered or sidetracked. He dove and burned two warehouses by the waterfront as a diversion. He knew those warehouses were old and seldom used; if they went up in flames, no Vikings would starve as a result. As he watched, a handful of warriors left the battle to fight the fires and keep them from spreading. Excellent.
Hiccup circled the village, identifying familiar buildings and watching the progress of the raid. The Gronckles were making short work of the fish-drying racks, while a flock of Nadders was rounding up some sheep. He recognized a few friends, including Nadder-all-blue-talks-all-the-time and his little sister, Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury.
Then he saw two Vikings running toward them with nets. The Nadders were vigilant; they turned and took off, abandoning their prey until later. But one of the men threw his net and caught one of the dragons. It was his little sister! She struggled against the net as it fouled her wings. Then another Viking ran up behind her with a spear...
"NO-O-O-O!" Hiccup screamed, part in horror and part to drown out the Nadder's final cry. Something inside him snapped. He had never wanted to shoot a human before. He heard Toothless' words echoing in his mind –
"When you see one of your dragon friends taken down by a net or a spear, you'll know what to do."
He checked his approach and escape routes, made sure he wouldn't hit another dragon as he dove, and coldly chose his target. The man was waving the spear in triumph, gloating at what he had done. Hiccup pushed over into a dive, feeling his rage, feeling his power building up, focusing on his target –
IT WAS HIS OWN FATHER!
It was too late to hold his fire. He desperately turned his head and launched the firebolt into an empty patch of pasture, blasting a huge crater. He pulled up and headed out to sea, his mind a black vortex of horror. The raid was still ongoing. The dragons might still need his help. A detached part of his mind hoped Astrid could handle it; the rest of him didn't care.
When the other dragons left Berk, they found their Night Fury circling mindlessly. Astrid pulled alongside. "New-night – I mean, Hiccup, what's wrong?"
"Take me home," he sobbed. "Just take me home." She laid a wing alongside his, and guided him back to the nest and their ledge. When they landed, he couldn't stop shaking, and when she let him rest his head against hers, he burst into uncontrollable tears.
"Hiccup, please tell me what's wrong!" she pleaded.
"My little sister!" he finally blurted out. "She's dead! I watched my father kill her! He laughed about it! And I almost killed him! Oh, gods, I almost killed him!" He collapsed against her again, unable to stop crying. Astrid was dumbstruck. She awkwardly wrapped a wing around him; she knew there was nothing she could say. Just when his life had finally changed from horrible to wonderful...
The other dragons gave them space; word spread quickly that something very bad had happened to New-night-fury. They assumed he was mourning for Nadder-green-follows-new-night-fury, and they were partly right.
Toothless arrived, in good spirits because his raid had gone well. Those spirits vanished when he saw Hiccup sobbing. "What happened?" he asked Astrid.
"Let me show you," she said, and shared TrueSight with him for the first time.
"Oh, no." Toothless blinked hard. "Oh, no." He sat down next to Hiccup and covered him with a wing from the other side.
"I'm so sorry," Toothless whispered; Astrid wasn't sure if he was talking to her or to Hiccup. "This is partly my fault. I thought you were ready for a strike on your old home town. I never foresaw this..."
It took nearly an hour for Hiccup to regain his composure. He struggled to his feet in silence between his two worried friends. Finally, he spoke, through a throat constricted with grief.
"This war has got to be stopped."