𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►chapter eighteen; hiccup
❝ counter attack! ❞

     HICCUP felt a surge of confidence.

      With Yrsa safe on the ground with the others, he could examine the Queen Dragon properly with a keen eye. Toothless's wings flapped with immense strength against his legs, sending wind gushing behind them. He glared at the beast with the same ferocity as his rider, the both of them working as one. Hiccup's feet moved in the stirrups without him having to think. It was like he was at the sea stack maze again, just trusting his instincts and Toothless to get them out of there, and here he was doing the same thing; it might be the only way they'd make it to the end of the battle alive. 

     He was swooping them around when his eyes caught something that sparked a plan in his head. Hiccup's eyes widened, taking notice of the long, leathery webbed flesh at the Queen's sides. "That thing has wings!" he announced to Toothless. "Okay!" he leant forward in the saddle with a set of his jaw. "Let's see if it can use them!"

     He pulled back and Toothless extended his wings. Turning his body, they dived back down to the creature with a shriek. Hiccup could feel Toothless ready a shot; it vibrated in his throat and chest, bringing forth as much power as he could as they drew closer and closer━

     Hiccup pulled up at the last minute and Toothless let go.

     The blast sent the dragon off her feet. She moaned as she hit the shore, blinking away the waves of purple fire that set dust exploding all around her. The Vikings below covered their eyes, swiping away the rocks and dust with coughs. They peered, gobsmacked at the beast who slowly pushed herself back up. With a fresh menance, she unwrapped her leathery wings, extending out two longship boat lengths, at the very least. 

     Hiccup glanced over his shoulder as he and Toothless took a head start to the mist shrouded sea stacks. "You think that did it?" 

     Oh, it did.

     His eyes widened to see her rise up on her hind legs. With a geyser of wind, she launched up into the sky, sending Vikings stumbling off their feet. She followed Hiccup and Toothless with a slow pace, but she didn't need to be fast to catch up. Her mighty wings matched her mighty weight━at each flap, she gained striking amounts of distance. Soon, Hiccup and Toothless were only just keeping ahead of her saber teeth. 

     "Well," Hiccup managed, trying to keep down the building fear in his chest, "she can fly."

    Toothless growled in reponse and gave a harsh flap of his wings. They dived down between the sea stacks, weaving in and out, only just missing the slamming jaws of the Queen as she dived after them. She slammed through sea stacks, and they crumbled around Hiccup and Toothless into the ocean. They only narrowly missed one falling sea stack, diving under crumbling rock and shooting past the beach.

     The Vikings all stood watching, in gaping shock at the scene before them. As Hiccup and Toothless raced past, there were cheers from the teens and a cry of, "Take 'em down!" from Yrsa. Hiccup saw that the Devilish Dervish had rejoined her, hanging with the other dragons as they, too, stopped to watch the battle. 

     Hiccup gritted his teeth as he heard the dragon slam through the sea stacks behind him, not at all fazed. He glanced up at the clouds, and secured his plan in his head. 

     "Okay, Toothless," he said, switching back his tail with a click, "time to disappear."

     They dipped down and then up. Hiccup's hair flattened against his scalp as they fired up towards the grey clouds above. "Come on, bud!" he shouted, egging the dragon faster. "Come on, you can do it!"

     He could hear the dragons growls and the flaps of her wings behind him like a deadly song, getting closer and closer to the verse that would be his end. Hiccup wouldn't allow it. He urged Toothless even faster, listening intently━

     The song changed to the rasp of drawing fire, and Hiccup shouted, "Here it comes━!"

     Heat seared his arms and his cheeks. Toothless spun and dropped down away from the firestorm, zipping underneath it and back up further into the grey clouds. Soon, the island below and the people on it seemed like nothing but a drawing on a map. Out of the ash and the grey came glimpses of the collossal dragon following Hiccup and Toothless; a image of her wings, or her six beady eyes, or her menacing teeth. She was a monster in every child's nightmares; in every grown Viking's nightmares, and Hiccup was sure to remember her until his old and wrinkly days. 

     With a defiant yell, Hiccup and Toothless reached the cover of the clouds. Sweeping into its smoky dephts, they could see the Queen dragon stretch her wings in the break between, tilting her head in search of the rider and his Night Fury friend. Her wings beated gusts of wind that parted the clouds, and Hiccup did his best to steer them clear of that. 

     Hiccup counted for the right moment, soaring around in circles until the dragon was purely covered in the sea of grey clouds. Leaning close to his saddle, Hiccup murmured in Toothless's ear, "Now, bud..."

     Toothless reared his head back, gaining power within his vibrating chest. They dived down and Hiccup aimed the both of them right for the gigantic, leathery wings━

     BOOM!

     The first shot hit its mark. 

      The singing dragon cried out a change in its verse, screeching in alarm as the impact rocked her stable flight. Hiccup and Toothless darted around quickly, nothing but dark blurs in the grey. 

      CRACK!

      Four more shots left. The monstrous dragon searched the dephts for them, but saw nothing in her small eyes. She couldn't hear where they were, and the ash riddled with the air muddled her smell. Hiccup and Toothless might as well be invisible. A third shot━blast!━a fourth━crack!━a fifth━spots of blood appeared on the wings of the mighty creature, broken apart at the flesh. 

       She was growing furious. Hiccup could see gas billow out of her mouth even before she let loose the fire with a horrendous roar. Wild, with no aim and no care where it went, Hiccup and Toothless rushed away from the colums of billowing, explosive fire. It lit up the dark in clouds of red, white and orange, stinging at his eyes and his nose. 

      Hiccup tried to see where the firestorm was heading, but it was chaotic, unable to be controlled. He yelled, "WATCH OUT━!" as it neared him and Toothless, catching the Night Fury at the tip of his prosthetic tail. Hiccup watched as it burnt away right before his eyes.

     They had run out of time.

     "Okay, times up!" he said, heart racing and lungs smogged with ash. "Let's see if this works!"

     Leaning back, Hiccup's head spun as they arched over. Toothless's burning prosthetic left a trail of smoke as they went, getting smaller and smaller as it withered away. They dived down to the Queen.

     "COME ON!" Hiccup yelled, catching her attention. "Is that the best you can do?!"

     Toothless roared a cry that Hiccup didn't need to understand dragon to know it was similar. They darted dangerously close, shooting past her bloodied gums and back down to the island. 

     Just as Hiccup hoped, she followed. 

     Toothless folded his wings back, trying to gather enough speed to stay out of reach of the Queen's jaws. The clouds parted beneath them, getting thinner and thinner as they returned. Hiccup clung on with tight, rigid fingers to the saddle, eyes narrowed and body clenched. 

     But she was growing close━too close for Hiccup to feel comfortable with this plan, and Toothless's tail was failing. He clicked back the stirrups, but they were loose in their movement. He didn't feel the jolt of the Night Fury's muscles. 

     As if feeling this, too, Toothless trembled. Hiccup could hear a worried cry from the back of his throat. Behind him, the heat of the Queen's breath left burns on his back. "Stay with me, buddy!" Hiccup ignored them to focus on his dragon, doing his best to let him know that he was here, and that he wasn't going to let them get killed (hopefully). "We're good! Just a little bit longer!"

      Hiccup closed his eyes, listening to the song that started behind him. A drawing of breath; a high-pitched rasp that told him everything he needed to know.

      "Hold, Toothless..." he waited, eyes clenched shut. The rasp grew louder and louder━, "NOW!"

      Toothless spun onto his back and let loose his final blast. 

      An explosion started in the root of the Queen dragon's mouth. Her eyes widened, surprised to feel her own gums and tongue burn away from her flame. A dragon's scales was fireproof, but the inside? Far from it.

      Toothless's tail chose this moment to give way as the clouds finally thinned out enough to see how close the island was. The Queen shrieked through the burning of her throat, lungs and stomach, flinging her wings out. But they gave out, too. The wounds Hiccup and Toothless had created earlier finally started to really show. At the sheer wind and drive of the fall, the flesh began to rip and part like it was just merely fabric. Hiccup twisted his body with a yell, turning them back over and with a extend of Toothless's wings, they shot through the open jaws of the Queen and out through the holes of her wings as she descended━faster and faster━

     Hiccup didn't see or hear her skull hit the rocks of the island. But he felt, saw and heard the blast that followed. A massive cloud of firestorm exploded around them, chasing Hiccup and Toothless as they desperately rushed through the maze of spikes along the creature's back. They tried to use the momentum, the wind, anything to get them out of there ...

     And they might've.

     They were so close.

     But in checking how close the fire was, Hiccup didn't see the great, big clubbed tail soar down until it was on them.

     The impact shuddered through Hiccup's bones, and he blacked out. Toothless screeched in alarm, spinning his body around as his rider fell into the firestorm. Beating his wings, he dived into it with him ...

     And they disappeared amongst the raging explosion. 

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟
╰───►yrsa

    THEY were searching for him even before the fire died down. 

     Groups of Vikings pushed their way through the searing heat in search of the chief's son and his dragon, clawing their way towards the corpse of the Queen. Yrsa took to the sky with her own dragon, who had come back to her after being spooked, searching for anything above. She touched back down with no luck, almost tearful over the prospect of losing them. The Devilish Dervish cooed at her fragile state, nudging her head gently against her chest. 

     But Hiccup and Toothless were nowhere to be seen.

     When the fire finally fell away, and there was nothing but ash, debris and flickering embers, did the entirety of the Vikings push in. They tripped over broken boats, catapults and scattered weapons, coughing and spluttering and shouting Hiccup's name. 

     Yrsa's heart was well in her throat, aching as she tried her best to push it back down. She thought back on everything that had happened, and she wished she had done things different. She wished she had been nicer. She wished she had gotten the chance to know Hiccup before now; before she lost him. She might've become a better person. She might've opened herself up sooner. Things could've been different.

      She was growing sick to her stomach as the seconds past on, and they couldn't find him or Toothless. She heard Stoick's shouts over the smoke, yells of, "Hiccup!" through the ash. His feet pounded on the stone, getting more and more desperate it his shouts. "HICCUP!"

      Yrsa felt her mother take her shoulder to stop her, pulling her back as she came to terms with the truth far quicker than her daughter could. The village gathered to a stop, over looking Stoick's wandering figure. "SON!" he bellowed, and even there was a crack to his strong voice. 

     And then, he froze. Yrsa's breath hitched; she coughed, but her eyes widened through the stinging to see their chief stumble in his run to a black lump in the debris. "Hiccup━!"

     Hearing the urgency, Yrsa shoved away from her mother's grip and pushed herself to the front of the crowd. Their murmurs only made it worse for her as her knees began to tremble. Her Dervish helped her reach the front, and when she did, Yrsa skidded to a stop.

     The sight before her, it made her choke back a sob. 

     Stoick had fallen to his knees over the body of Toothless. The Night Fury was still alive, heaving long and painful breaths in his twisted saddle and metal connection rods. But Hiccup? Yrsa searched for him and couldn't find him. 

      His father hung his head, and it dawned on her.

     "No ..." she whispered.

     Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs and the Twins pushed their way in beside her, and they all stumbled as they, too, were hit with the sight. 

     Hiccup was dead.

     Toothless opened his eyes with a slight moan in the back of his throat. He took in the Vikings; all of them mourning a boy that━most of them━before today, would have never thought they'd miss this much already. HIs eyes landed on Stoick, and they locked gazes. 

     "I'm sorry," Yrsa heard the chief mutter, heartbroken and defeated. "Oh, son━" he slumped forward even more, his helmet falling askew. He made no move to fix it, "━I'm so sorry ..."

     Toothless's ears fell back. 

     He unwrapped his wings.

     There, nestled tight and protected in his arms and legs against the heat of his body, was Hiccup.

     Stoick almost collapsed to the ash-covered ground in his cry of, "Hiccup!"

     He rushed forward to his son, pulling him away from Toothless and into his arms. Yrsa's eyes widened. Beside her, Astrid's breath hitched. The crowd was silent as Stoick put his ear against Hiccup's chest, as if they were all waiting to hear his heart beat echo towards them. It was so silent that Yrsa felt like it could.

    And then, Stoick laughed with tearful delight. "He's alive!" he cried. The crowd gasped and stood back. Yrsa's shoulders lifted with her heart and chest. "You brought him back alive!"

    Around them, in the dusty and ashen remains of ships and once a mighty dragon, were laughs and cheers of victory. Vikings threw up their swords, their helmets, their axes and their shields, crying to the gods in their triumph for the survival of the chief's son. Yrsa's hands flew to her mouth, but even then she couldn't hide her grin. It spread to her ears and made her cheeks ache; she might've been crying, but she didn't care. Even the dragons were celebrating; bobbing their heads and letting loose roars. Astrid turned to Yrsa and threw her arms around her for a tight hug. The Twins jumped and went ballistic. Snotlout pounded his fists and Fishlegs clapped his hands.

     In the cheers, Stoick placed his hand on Toothless's snout, "Thank you," he told him, "for saving my son."

    Gobber, who had hobbled up to join them in the cries and applause, gazed over his shoulder and winced. "Well," he said, "you know ... most of him."

𖣯 ✹ 🌷(úlfheðnar) ꏍ ！┈─❟

     a/n: i double posted, sorry not sorry. i'm just in a horrible mood and this book makes me feel better. i guess we're now one more chapter until the end of this part ahaha. 

     (i'm okay, don't worry, just had a panic attack earlier. we're good now)