Chapter 11-Lost Wounds

Hiccup glanced away from Astrid for a moment. He wasn't sure if talking about it was a good idea."Right probably a sensitive topic," Astrid went to get up. "No-no it's alright," hiccup stopped her, "it happened basically right after I left. It's not that much of a touchy subject."Astrid gave a confused look before getting comfortable again, "oh?""Yeah, it was well, a dragon," hiccup started the tale, of about four years ago.~~~"Where are all the dragons going?" Hiccup questioned, watching as a group of Mitch-match dragons flew overhead, "come on toothless, let's go see what they are up to."Toothless growled slightly, but took off and went after the group of dragons, flying into the midst of them. It wasn't long until there were hundreds of dragons were around them. Hiccup ducked down onto toothless, glancing around at all of them."What..? Toothless do you know what's going on?" He asked his dragon, who only let out a quiet whine in response.They continued to follow with the hoard, and they flew into a thick fog. as toothless glided between rocks and crashed ships, hiccup could see all the dragons had the catch of some poor animal. He was confused, but there was no turning back now. They came upon a large volcanic island and flew in with the rest of the dragons. Hiccup triply began to worry when they made it to the center and felt the warmth of the lava below. While he couldn't see what was down there he assumed it was a magma-filled death. He kept a tight grip on toothless' saddle as they landed onto a cliff edge away from other dragons. Hiccup kept a quiet watch while all the other dragons began to drop all the food they caught into the volcano. He was confused until a gronkle came up and let a single fish out of its mouth. And a huge dragon, the size of the mountain on Berk came up and ate the gronkle whole. Hiccup sat in stunned horror until the monstrosity of a dragon came and tried to eat him and toothless."Toothless go! Go!" He screamed in pure terror as his dragon shot a plasma blast at it to make it stop. But it only did for a moment and they barely took off in time before they were eaten alive. Hiccup looked down as they began to follow the rest of the dragons out. But the huge monster began to fly out after them, its main target toothless and hiccup.Hiccup looked back up as all the other dragons began to scatter out if they weren't caught by the dragon of death's mouth. "Come on bud you got this! Climb! It probably can't fly that far," hiccup reassured toothless, and himself. As they started to go up and up the dragon kept following. They were faster, but it was bigger. Hiccup could hear as it began to charge a fire blast as they made it into the clouds, and they reared to the right. They barely missed getting hit by a huge pillar of fire."Oh great god of Thor help me," hiccup mumbled as they flew further into the clouds."Ok, what do I know. All dragons have weak spots...but I don't have time to find those, so what weakness does every dragon have?!" Hiccup tried to think, but it was a little difficult as they avoided both lightning from the thick dark clouds and fire from the raging giant dragon.As they continued to avoid dangers, one fire blast got so close hiccup could feel it burn the baby hairs off the back of his neck."Ah! Toothless I'm not fireproof like you!" He yelled worried, but that sparked an idea, "that's right, your not-not on the inside! Come on bud! Dive!"As they did the dragon saw them zip by, and it had to turn and start to dive after them. "Wait for it.." hiccup mumbled.Despite the fact they had a head start, the dragon started to gain on them. Opening its mouth to scorch into nothingness. And he repeated, "wait for it."The huge dragon started to charge the fire in its mouth."Now toothless!" And they flipped over to face the huge dragon, and toothless shot a plasma blast straight into its mouth and throat. As toothless tried to move out of the way of the falling dragon, hiccup's hand slipped. Accompanied by the rush of wind from the giant dragon falling past, he fell off his dragon. "toothless!" He yelled out as he began to fall with the large dragon. And as the monstrous thing hit the rocky ground, it exploded into a huge fire. And Hiccup was falling straight into it. Toothless dove as fast as he could as they were both engulfed by seething flames. Toothless wrapped his wings around hiccup as they went through the flames. They crashed to the ground, which knocked out both the dragon and the weak rider.They survived, with only one small cost.~~~"So your...leg was blasted off...? That sounds like it would be excruciating pain," Astrid muttered, she was utterly impressed by the story."Well, I don't remember much after I fell in flames. Just toothless saving me," hiccup said, looking to his dragon, and petting him. Toothless trilled and lifted his head giving him some licks to the face."Ah gross!" Hiccup told him with a short laugh, pushing the night fury's big head away, "but yeah. After that is all kinds meshed together. After a while some dragons came back, I used some iron from a gronkle and driftwood to make something that allowed me to ride toothless to an island I could make a proper leg from.""That's, actually pretty cool," snotlout said, grabbing everyone's attention, "what!? I'm just saying.""No, I just...forgot you all were here too," hiccup admitted.Fishlegs finally spoke up, "who knew dragons could burn from the inside, that is very smart hiccup!""Eh it could have been cooler," Ruffnut was unimpressed.And her brother agreed, "yeah I mean, you didn't like take one of its horns as a trophy!"Everyone gave them a look, but hiccup was the first to roll his eyes and ignore them. "Well, I'm glad you liked the story of me almost dying," hiccup joked. "Well did you also almost die when you got that scar on your eye?" Snotlout asked, half-joking around, "I mean it's a pretty cool scar not gonna lie."Hiccup looked at him and didn't speak for a moment before he went to get up, "that's not exactly an exciting story like the last one.""Oh come on, you tell us the missing leg story but not the cool scar one?" Snotlout questioned, being the nosy one.Hiccup looked at all of them, and they watched expectantly. He sighed and got comfortable again, "fine. But this is it for today. I need a serious nap and all those fish need to go to Stoick.""Fair enough," Astrid smiled at him, glad to be allowed to listen.Hiccup cleared his thought slightly, it still hurt a bit from the saltwater, "it was a year ago, at most, when I came back to Berk to make sure everyone was alright."~~~"I know you don't want to bud but I need to make sure everyone is ok," Hiccup reasoned with toothless, as they flew over the ocean with a small group of Dragons. Toothless growled slightly in response but snorted out a grumble in the end. Hiccup sighed in relief, "Thank you, toothless."And he sat up, looking out seeing they were getting close to Berk. "Ok, everyone, we're just going to do a few laps around. No one is landing, no one is even setting fire-and I'm talking to you!" Hiccup looked to a specific monstrous nightmare. who looked down with puppy eyes like they would never. "Now that you all understand, remember to keep quiet too," hiccup started to lower his voice a bit, "we still don't know what they will do."They flew closer to Berk, over the statues that spoke that they were in the island's territory. Hiccup let out a stressed breath, but they kept going.They started to drift right, going around the village first. Hiccup looked down, seeing people walking among the village. He was glad to see most people were alright but wanted to see if he could see his father, Astrid, or even Gobber. They flew around the island, the rest of it didn't have much. A field or two for food but the rest was forestry and mountain. As they came back around, hiccup saw his dad. Relief washed over him until he heard Stoick scream, "fire!"Hiccup watched as a net came flying at them, and toothless dove out of the way. Hiccup looked back, seeing that a net hadn't caught any of them, he yelled out, "go back! Go back to the edge!"And most of the dragons did, but the monstrous nightmare stayed. Firing a blazing blast at the contraption that threw the net. "Go!!" Hiccup screamed, and the dragon finally listened, hurrying to catch up with the others.Toothless began to swerve around nets. For a minute hiccup thought maybe if they landed they could reason with his dad. But then a metal net came flying from a different direction, hiccup had barely enough time to react. They started to dive, but not fast enough as the net caught hiccup in the face. It must have had some sort of claws attached to make it harder for the dragon to escape. Because it dug deep gashes and dragged over hiccup's eye.He screamed in agony and swatted the rest of the net away. He held his face with one hand, looking down to the village."Toothless," hiccup's breath was shaky, "fire."Toothless looked at hiccup and trilled, being confused. Then he saw the blood dripping from his rider's hand, and painful tears in the eye of the one he could see. His pupils dilated and he looked to the ground and fired two plasmablasts. Before roaring in anger."G-good, l-let's go bud," hiccup stuttered out, And toothless zipped off. The rider looked back at his old home, before turning forward. His dragon looking back at him, and whining. He was worried for hiccup. But then he gave toothless a small ear scratch, letting him know he'd be ok."I should have known," hiccup scolded himself, "Vikings never change."~~~Everyone was staring in silent shock, No one thought it was them that caused it. Astrid had assumed that was from a dragon too by the way it looked. Fishlegs was holding onto meatlug, and the twins actually looked remorseful. Snotlout wasn't looking towards them, he was filled with regret but was not about to let everyone know."Hiccup I...we're sorry," Astrid mumbled, truly regretting that the village would ever do that."It's...you all should go. It's getting late, and the fish needs to go to my...Stoick," hiccup started to close up again. Toothless whined and rubbed into him.Astrid started to stand and toothless moved his tail around hiccup, letting out a quiet growl. As she backed up he started to calm down, and she went over to stormfly and gave her a pet. Then she looked to Fishlegs and motioned for him to take the fish to the chief.Fishlegs got on meatlug, he was going to say something to hiccup but stopped himself. They took off and brought the fish with them. Astrid then dragged the rest of the group out. looking back to hiccup and toothless one more time, "We are sorry hiccup, but we...I don't want to hurt the dragons anymore. Maybe you can change our minds."Hiccup glanced at her but didn't say anything. Astrid sighed and left with the rest of the group.