The Skrill paused again. "We must trust in them. As difficult as that may be for some of you right now. They have our best interests in mind but it's not all about just us."
"And it's worse than we ever thought." A familiar voice said. Hiccup's eyes widened and his scales rippled along his body.
"Color?" Hiccup looked around for her. He heard her walk up to him and he could see her outline. "Why aren't you showing yourself?"
"I don't want you to see me." Her breathing was labored. He listened to her ragged breaths for a moment.
"Toothless, go get my surgical kit." The Night Fury moved quickly. The more Hiccup inspected the he realized that while she was cloaked, her blood was giving away more of her outline than he'd be able to see normally. "Everyone clear out." Hiccup ordered. "And someone go get Dusty."
"No." Her voice strained trying to get loud. "I don't want him to see me like this."
Hiccup took a moment. "Go get him." He overruled. "Spark, keep everyone at bay. They try to get past you, zap em'." The Skrill nodded.
"You heard him. Everyone off this shelf now." The Skrill demanded.
"Dad, keep the humans away. They may spectate but from a distance.
"Aye." Was all Stoick said before taking his leave.
With everyone gone Hiccup took a second to himself.
"I'm sorry." Color whimpered. Hiccup instinctually put his hand on her head.
"Save your strength. We can talk once I get you fixed up." Hiccup gave her an intense look. "I need you to decloak. I need to see you."
She was whimpering and crying as her scales slowly changed color back to their normal green. Hiccup grit his teeth at the sight of her. Her body was a mess of claw marks and bites. Blood everywhere. Half her head nearly skinned to the bone. One of her antennae was completely missing. Her bottom lip cut open, exposing her teeth, the only saving grace being the flesh of it still hanging on. She stood there shaking until Hiccup broke himself from the sight. He rushed to her side and helped her lay down.
"I'm…" She tried to speak but Hiccup clamped her mouth shut.
"Save your strength." He cooed. Just then Toothless showed up lugging a big trunk with him. He dropped it and looked Color then Hiccup. Before he could speak Hiccup interrupted him. "Go get me water. The stuff reserved for the humans to drink." He nodded and sped off again. Hiccup grabbed the trunk and yanked it closer to him. He ripped open the lid and began to take out what he needed.
When ready he took a deep breath and turned around. With a muzzle on hand he crawled up to her snout. Slowly and carefully he pressed it against her face, getting it to sit in place.
"Take deep breaths." His voice shook. "This'll make the pain go away and get you to fall asleep." Just as he was turning back Hiccup was shoved away, finding Dusty pressing his snout against Color's. He moved back to his things and saw Toothless place a bucket of water down.
"This is what you wanted, right?" Toothless asked. Hiccup nodded.
"Start cleaning her. I can't see what's bleeding and what's not."
Toothless set to work. Being as gentle as possible he began to lick her clean. He shivered as the taste of another dragon's blood coated his mouth. Meanwhile Hiccup emptied a pouch of herbs and things into the water. With a quick mix he moved the bucked close to Color. He spotted a set of claw marks that looked fresh and were still oozing slowly. Dunking a cloth into the water he cleaned the spot as best he could before beginning to suture it closed.
As Hiccup was moving from the first injury to the next he felt a poke at his back.
"What should I do to help? Dusty asked.
"Just stay by her side, and do what you can to keep her warm." Hiccup gave him a polite smile.
"Is she going to be okay, or should I be…" The large Nadder trailed off.
"I don't know." Hiccup whispered. "But." He shook his head. "She has the strength to get here on her own and I'm sure seeing you while she was falling asleep made her want to fight." Hiccup reassured him.
Hiccup finished the first side, doing all he could for her. He ordered Toothless and Dusty to help flip her over and as they were doing so Hiccup checked her underbelly for damage. He had a sigh of relief not seeing any new cuts or bites. He gave her wings a once over and saw that one of them had a nasty cut in it. He made a note of it and continued to close up the various wounds. Lastly he cleaned the massive patch of missing skin from her head and sowed her lip back together.
"Okay." Hiccup swallowed. "I think she's going to be okay. I think it looked a lot worse than it actually was. I hope." He huffed. "Toothless go to our nest and move some of our bedding off to the side for uhm, Color and Dusty to… To lay." He rubbed his eyes.
"Are you okay?" Toothless pressed his nose into Hiccup's hair.
"I'm fine. Tired, stressed out. Just, please."
Toothless left them and Hiccup trudged back over to his trunk and plopped down in front of it. He looked at his hands and arms covered in diluted blood and little flecks of the healing herbs and things clinging to his skin. Fingers thoroughly pruned. He put his things away, every item slightly sticking to him. Adding another layer of bloody fingerprints to the jars and things he'd used dozens of times. He finished packing up and waited for Toothless to return.
Hiccup was shaken awake by Toothless. "Gotta keep pushing, still have to move her." Hiccup shook himself awake and stood slowly.
"Okay, let's uh, try to get her on your back Toothless. I think it'll be the easiest way to move her." He moved to Color's side and started to push her over so she was in her belly. "Alright bud, I need you to lay in front of her, and make yourself as low as possible. I want to just slide her up your back." Toothless planted himself down and braced himself. "Dusty help me get her lined up." They positioned her with her head resting on Toothless' back between his hind legs. "Okay, that's actually a great start. I need you to get behind her and start to push and I'll keep her steady." The brute of a Nadder started to push, doing all he could to get her on top of Toothless. But eventually he lost steam. "That was pretty good." Hiccup complimented. "Bout half way."
"She's heavy, I don't know if I can get her any further." Dusty huffed.
"Okay. Uh?" Hiccup waved for his father.
"What is it?" The large man ready to help.
"I just need you to keep her in line while we push."
"I can do that." Stoick nodded. Hiccup readied himself behind Color.
"Give it everything you've got." Hiccup told Dusty. The dragon got into position, Hiccup counted down, and they pushed with all their might. With their combined efforts they were able to push Color most of the way onto Toothless. Hiccup took a moment to compose himself and checked their progress. "That might be good enough? Bud, would you lift your back legs first, see if you can't wiggle a bit to try to get her a bit further on." Toothless slowly got his feet properly under himself and lifted as Hiccup asked. Hiccup braced Color as Toothless swung his hips and slowly she slid slightly more forward. "How does she feel on you Toothless? Will she fall off getting her to our nest?"
"If we go slow it should be fine. I'll let you know if I think something is off."
"No time to waste then. Let's get her moved so she can start healing."