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━━ chapter twenty-three
the night fury slayer

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    GRIMMEL continued to sip at his stolen beverage with a leisurely tongue. Valkyrie crouched, glowering through the brim of the dragon eyes of her visor, squinting to see past the flames of Hiccup's sword. Hiccup eyed him with the same care, feet shuffling on the floor. He wasn't who Valkyrie had been expecting. She had been imagining someone horrible and big━somebody much like every other enemy they've faced. But Grimmel was far from that. He was lean, he was skinny; he was the size of a fishbone. 

      Grimmel the Grisly glanced briefly down at his drink, brows furrowing as he gave it a swirl, as if the brew had not settled to his liking, "But please," he met Hiccup's gaze lazily, caring little for Inferno's firey stance, "let me finish my drink."

      In the shadows, Fishlegs under the dark blankets stirred at the sound. Hiccup glanced back━he tried to be subtle but it was enough to catch Grimmel's attention. With no moment waisted, still sipping the last drops of his drink, the master Dragon Hunter flung out a crossbow. The bolt flung across faster than any of them could act, and in seconds, Fishlegs was down, the arrow struck out against his side under the blanket.

     Valkyrie froze, horrified. 

     "F━Toothless!" Hiccup fixed his mistake, sprinting to their friend. Grimmel watched on, taking a final sip of his drink. Once he was finished, he tossed it to the side, spinning the crossbow up to set another bolt against the trigger and aim it at the young chief.

     Val kept herself still, knowing it wasn't right to drop down right now, even if she wanted to. To her left, Hott shifted on the beam, as if going through a similar predicament. Valkyrie set her gaze onto Fishlegs━he did not move, slumped in the dark with Hiccup standing over him, his wary stare turning into a livid glare.

     "What did you do to him?" he demanded as Grimmel took slow steps towards Hiccup, the crossbow in a still and straight aim. 

     "Eh ..." he peered at the chief's chair by the fire, "nothing that he won't sleep off."

     Then, Grimmel sat down in it. 

     Valkyrie flared up with fury. At the way he smirked in the ghastly glow of Hiccup's sword, Grimmel knew exactly what he had done━the insult he stated with no hesitance, no thought. He thought Hiccup unworthy that he sat down in his chair in his presence. In such a lazy way━leaning back and running his fingers along the wooden armrests. "May I?" he asked with no mean of wanting Hiccup's answer. He had already taken it, and taken it with no respect.     

     Hiccup said no word, but his hands clenched around his hilt tighter, as if imagining how hard he could strike it across Grimmel's head. 

     "Chief Hiccup?" Grimmel the Grisly crossed one leg over his other, setting the crossbow on his knee. It didn't shift from its view of Hiccup. "Do I say Chief━" he hiccuped! And the chief's glower harshened. "Or do I call you Hiccup? What do you prefer?"  

      Grimmel glanced around, as if searching for something. He arched a brow, turning back to Hiccup to ask, "Where is the lovely lady Valkryie, mmh? I've heard quite sweet things about this small family of yours━you won't introduce me, Hiccup? Such bad manners."

     Hiccup didn't answer. He just kept his blade fixed, and his glower deadly. Valkyrie has rarely seen him so livid━in the glow of his Inferno, he could almost be considered terrifying. She wondered whether she looked similar. He dared taunt Hiccup with their daughter? Who did he think he was?

      With a sigh, the master dragon hunter peeled off his dark black hood revealing whisps of white-grey hair. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" Grimmel scoffed lightly at Hiccup's lack of response. "well, your father knew of me. Now, there was a chief! One of the greatest dragon hunters to have ever lived..." he peered Hiccup up and down. His lips quirked up into a mirthful smile. "What would he think of you?"

      He chuckled at this, shaking his head. Valkyrie reached back for her mallet, feeling better to have her fingers wrap right around its hilt. She glanced to meet her brother's gaze, and could feel his scowl from here. "He had it right, you know," said Grimmel the Grisly, "making it his mission to destroy the beasts so that you could grow up in a better world."

      Hiccup gritted his teeth, "He changed his mind."

     "And look where that got him."

     The chief's scowl faltered at the horrific jab. His breath hitched, but he swallowed it deep, returning with an even darker glare than before. Grimmel watched him, as if Hiccup's reaction was but a disappointment. 

     "So," he waved a hand dismissively with his elbow propped against the armrest, "let's get to the point. I am the Night Fury killer."

      Valkyrie's eyes widened. She thought she heard Hott breath a gasp. Hiccup staggered, feeling those words like a blow to his gut. 

      "I've hunted every last one of them," continued the Night Fury Slayer, "but yours. You are going to give me that dragon, or━"

     "I will never give him up," snapped Hiccup with a seething fury. 

    Grimmel rose from the chair, laughing as he brushed Hiccup's sword aside. The young chief kept his gaze on him, carefully turning in the spot as the Night Fury slayer glided around the room towards Fishleg's limp body underneath the dark blankets. "You wish dragons to live free, among us, like equals? A toxic notion, my boy. History has shown that we are the superior species. What if word of your misguided ideas were to spread? It would be the undoing of civilisation as we ..." his words trailed off slowly as his gaze noticed the edge of Toothless's prostetic under the blanket, shifted to show that what it connected to where not scales, but dark, charred wood, "... know it ... hmmm ..."

      "Oh, no," whispered Hott under his breath. 

     Grimmel smirked and kicked the blankets. Fishlegs stirred. Valkyrie was relieved he was alive and okay━well, sort of ...━but it couldn't be worse timing. Their pudgy friend sat up, eyes lolled and his words slurred, the leather hood of the Night Fury toppling off and revealing their secret. "Did we get him?" muttered Fishlegs groggily before dropping back down, unconscious.

     In his momentarious incredulity, Hiccup swiftly leapt forward and snagged Grimmel's crossbow in the hook of his blade, throwing it to the side. "Now!" he shouted. 

    Valkyrie leapt up to her feet, grabbing her mallet and spinning it in her hands as she showed herself. To her side, Hott jumped down, landing easily on the wood below. He rose, a Deadly Nadder made of fire in the light. Gobber appeared by the door, blocking Grimmel from the obvious exit while Valka joined her son by his side, elegantly dropping and landing as if she had wings. 

     "Sorry to barge in!" announced Gobber, raising his axe prosthetic menacingly.

     Grimmel glanced around at them all, not looking at all fazed at being surrounded. Valkyrie pointed down her mallet, fuming with heavy breaths like she held boiling Windstriker hot-air. 

     Hiccup surged forward, breeching his lit sword into Grimmel's face to gain his attention. The master dragon hunter looked down at him, amused by the chief's anger. "You think you can come into my home, sit in my father's chair, threaten my dragon and my family?!" Hiccup shook his head, his gaze holding even more fire than his own blade. "This is Berk," he seethed. "And we have defended our way of life from far worse than you."

     "Ooh!" chuckled Grimmel, mocking, "a fighting spirit! I love it." Then, his smile dropped, replaced with a dangerous glower. "Only, I'm afraid you're mistaken. You've never seen anything like me."

     Bringing his fingers to his lips, Grimmel let out a shrill whistle that echoed out into the home. 

     Valkyrie heard them too late.

     A horrible screech above made her jump, only just missing something drop down beside her. It landed onto the wooden beam she set herself upon with a painful, stenching hiss of steam. Valkyrie's breath hitched, watching the wood burn away before her very eyes. The ceiling creaked, Val glanced up, and her eyes widened, horrified to see the roof above her melt━the wood disappeared, boiling like a blister before peeling away, dripping with acidic saliva of the glowing eyes above; glowing eyes, glowing red and black scales and long, piercing sharp tusks of a horrific dragon. 

      The support beam beneath her broke away. 

     Valkyrie let out a short scream, covering her head as she crashed down to the floor. Embers followed her amongst patches of acid that burnt holes right through the wooden boards. Fires sparked and she coughed, wincing as she supported a flare of pain right up her side. 

     "Val!"

     The growl behind her sent chills up her spine. Low and vibrating, it sounded as if a million small dragons were purring together to create a loud, bone-shaking snarl━bouncing off the dragon's slender tusks that seemed to drip with the acid it fired. Valkyrie watched the dragon━a Deathgripper, she realised in shock━stalk up towards her, eyes slitted and fixed on its prey. It walked through the growing fire and broken beams. Valkyrie shuffled back, glancing around for an escape.

     Hiccup started towards her, "Valkyrie, look out!"

    The Deathgripper flung up a long, armoured tail. Its tips extended━snapping out like a trap to reveal a long, deadly pincer. Valkyrie cried out in alarm and scrambled away, her back hitting the stone of the house walls as the pincer struck the ground where she had been only seconds before. 

      She pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the pain to reach out for her brother's extended hand through the flames. She took it, her dragon armour protecting her from the fire as she was dragged right into it and out the otherside. Hott held an arm around her, the siblings staring at the large Deathgripper as it swung its tail in a low arch, narrowly missing Hiccup who leapt away. It tore through the wooden sculptures of Stoick's, laying havoc on the weapon wrack and clatting Valkyrie's basket of flowers onto the floor. She watched them shrivel up and turn into ash, a lump rising in her throat. 

     "Hiccup!" she shouted, desperate to reach her husband and get him out of here. She ignored Grimmel's laughter━the sound nothing more than a chilling afterthought. 

      "Wait, no!" Hott pulled her back.

      Valkyrie screamed when acid fell down like a waterfall in front of her where she would've stepped. Above, another Deathgripper emerged. And so did a third, and a fourth. They descended from the ceiling above that withered into nothing━burnt and broken from their acid tongue. 

      "We have to get out of here!" cried Hott, ducking Val under his arm as a support beam collapsed, shattering behind them as they dived to the side. 

      "No," Valkyrie argued, "not without the others━Hiccup! Gobber! Valka━where's Fishlegs? Fishlegs!" She coughed as smoke circulated around them in thick clouds, hiding the Deathgrippers until they were nothing but shadows and terrifying roars in the dark.

     The flames grew into an inferno━so bright and hot even their armour helms couldn't keep out the scorching light. Valkyrie winced as she moved, not sure what hurt more, her side or the glare into her eyes, or even her lungs that seemed to grow heavy with smoke. 

      "Son, look out━!" Valka swiped her staff, knocking Hiccup away before he could be impaled by a striking tail. "Get clear!" They took off running away from the firestorm and dragons towards Gobber who heaved Fishlegs over his shoulder, racing their unconscious friend out of here. "RUN!" He shouted. 

      "Come on!" Hott pulled Valkyrie back onto her feet. She clutched onto her side with one hand and the other her mallet, desperately trying to see where the Deathgrippers had gone. In the flames, they were nothing but ghosts. Her breath caught in the back of her throat, eyes tearful from the heat━or perhaps the sight of her home being burnt away like it was nothing. Everything she had come to call home the past two years. The place she wanted Linnea to grow up in ... getting turned into nothing but ash. 

      "Val! This way!" her brother snapped and she turned to him, in a haze. But at his tug, she snapped back to reality and broke out into a run towards the door. They were so close━until a Deathgripper dropped down right in front of them. Hott yelled in horror and backtracked, the siblings skidding the other way. "Nope! Not this way! Not this way! Definitely not this way━Ahhhhh!" 

      A wave of green, putrid acid sprayed out. Valkyrie ducked her brother down, watching it splatter around them, hiss against their armour, but never touch their skin━thank the gods. But Valkyrie didn't know whether she should thank them yet. With the dragon at the door, and the flames erupting around them, they were trapped inside. 

      "Valkyrie!" 

      She could barely see amongst all the flames and smoke. But she knew it was Hiccup running towards her. Valkyrie let out a small breath of relief and reached out to him, letting herself be supported at his side instead. Valka joined them seconds later, and the group of Vikings stood in a circle, desperately searching for a way out amongst the hellish inferno. 

      "Have my dragon ready when I return!" declared Grimmel's voice into the smoke. 

     Hiccup jumped. He flung out his weapon, keeping it infront of him and Valkyrie who squinted through the fire to see Grimmel the Grisly's gaunt face glower back at them. Hott gripped his mace, glowering right back. 

     "Or," went on Grimmel the Grisly, "I will destroy everything you love!"

     At those words, Valkyrie felt Hiccup grip onto her tighter, as if scared she'd suddenly vanish. Her heart hammered, not sure whether it was Grimmel's threat or the smoke and flames that made her so sick to the stomach. 

      Crash! Another support beam fell. Hott cursed. The flames flared out towards them. 

     "We have to go!" shouted Hott.

     Hiccup agreed. Without a second glance as to where Grimmel went into the fire, he led Valkyrie and the group of them through the destruction of his home. They all coughed and spluttered, waving away smoke and desperate in staying close. The Deathgrippers had disappeared, leaving the entrance open again. They made a beeline for it, stumbling out and into something far worse.

      Valkyrie's breath hitched again. Tears welled up in her eyes. "N━No!"

      Berk was lit up in red. Horrible, burning, hellish red. Like they had stepped down into Niflheim, and emerged into the horror of their worst nightmares. Valkyrie's knees were week, she couldn't speak more━she heard screams and she heard cries. She saw her home light up into a firestorm so bad she could barely see past the first few homes being eaten away to barely anything. 

       I will destroy everything you love, promised Grimmel. 

     The worst thing was, Valkyrie knew that this was only the beginning. 

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     a/n: linnea is perfectly okay i promise! she is safe! she is very much safe! 

     also, i am so emotional right now goodbye. 

     i also have a date on friday that just seems to be met with constant negativity. i can't make it, he can't make it, everything is shut, i'm not even sure i want to go on the date in the first place ... help. he's really nice i promise he's just ... i dunno how to explain it. it just doesn't sit right in my gut.  

     (minimal editing)