The dance of the moon and stars (M/c x snotlout)

Constellations of a divided heart

We lifted up into the sky, leaving Snotlout and Astra behind. He's been acting differently; sincere, kind, and thoughtful. His confidence wavering and his hard demeanor fading. I've known him since I was very young, and never seen him act quite like this.

I remembered his face flushing red, reeder than it was when he was mad. My hands tightened and then I remembered myself. We were flying into battle.

I leaned back against the wind, angling Toothless and the others up. It was hard to fly up, the dragons beat their wings against gravity clenching their teeth with effort. Even the riders had a hard time flying up, heavily breathing in the thin air. We disappeared into the foggy clouds, momentarily separated from each other.

The white tufts of cloud spun around us, White just like her scales and hair. I shook away the thoughts and let them drift away into the wind and drop into the ocean like a stone.

We flew into position, angling ourselves just so, that was until Hookfang came soaring in. He looked at all of us in turn and hovered in his place. Without thinking I signaled to the others with a flick of my wrist.  All of them tucked in their wings and dove, shooting through the air towards the ships like raining arrows. We tucked close to our dragons, if we sat up we would get thrown from their backs to the wind, and it would be painful too.

Toothless opened his mouth wide and fired several shots at the flanking vessels before helping Astrid take out the lead ship.

The twins spun around, diving in front of the line of ships to make a wall of fire. First blowing out a cloud of highly flammable gas, then ingnighting it with a spark. The ships lurched to a stop, the fronts singed.

Arrows flew past my head that I was only half aware of. My mind was still back on the edge ...with Nyx's sister. I took a deep breath trying to center my thinking.

Toothle- Nyx's eyes glanced up at me, knowing I wasn't thinking straight. My eyes flickered back to Astrid and Stormfly who were circling around to the leading ship to land.

She had Stormfly shoot her spines at some of the hunters still aboard the ship, then landed on the deck, leaving long claw marks imprinted on the wood. The men ran, some oven going as far as throwing themselves overboard.

She rolled her eyes and slid off her dragon, pushing her hair back from her face and quickly striding towards the stern of the ship. Her power was clearly shown in her gait.

I pulled Nyx in to land on the ship next to Stormfly and raced after Astrid. Once I was alongside her I had to jog to keep up with her speed walk. She slid down the stairs into the hull of the ship.

The air was dim and humid, but smelled of the sea. I looked to Astrid for instruction but she had already begun to walk deeper into the ship to search for Viggo. I walked after her, eyes searching the dark shadows for anyone who might have been hidden. Turning a corner we found the dragon room.

Full of teal-green bars with small rooms-if you can call them that- with bearly enough space for a dragon to turn around. They seemed empty, then we saw the labels stamped into the bars of the cages- symbols of dragons, but not any dragons. Our dragons.

One for a Nightfury, one for a Gronkle, a Nader, a larger one for a Zippleback, and one for a Monstrous Nightmare. They were stocked with fresh food and tubs of water in the corner, even wing clips and muzzles.

And there was one cell at the end of the hall different from all the others, it had a few cups in it, chains attached to the floor and a cloth on the ground, one for humans. One for us. I touched the rough stone-like bars of the cell and looked at Astrid. She has horror plastered on her face and a sick feeling twisted in my gut. We had to get back to the edge.

"Are you going somewhere?" We turned around to see Viggo leaning against the exit door frame, a wide smile had spread across his face.

I swung out my sword and gripped the handle tightly, my knuckles turning white against the dark brown leather. With a click and a swoosh the blade was ignited, flickering against our faces.

"Ah my dear Hiccup. Where's the love?" He scoffed. "Well I suppose Relationships can be complicated, am I right?"

"We were just leaving." I growled. "And you will let us through, one way or another."

***

"Where is he going?" I stared at the large red Monstrous Nightmare as he lifted off into the sky.

"To help them." He nods in the direction of the ships, where we see the tails of the other riders' dragons disappearing as they lift into the clouds.

"What?" I pushed away from his grasp, even though I wanted to stay tucked neatly into his lap forever. "We need to go help them!" I exclaimed, standing up to point at where the group had started to dive bomb the ships.

I spread open my wings and he stood up.

"We are helping them, by staying right here and protecting the edge." He took a step forward.

"No! You're lying." I spat. "You're just saying that so I'll calm down and stay back as my Brother and new friends get captured by hunters. So I'll stay with you. Well I'm not a hopeless, weak little dragonet you think I am. I could go blast those ships to oblivion right now!"

Then in the quietest voice, "Why don't you?"

"Huh?"

"Why don't you fly off and leave me here? I don't have a dragon to fly after you. If you really thought I was that bad you could fly away, maybe even fire a shot at me too while you're at it." His voice started to rise to a talking level. I tucked my wings back in. "But you know I don't think that about you." He took another step forward. "I think you're amazing and beautiful and strong. But right now the best thing we can do for them," he gestured out to sea. "Is to stay right here and take care of eachother." He walked up to me until he was standing right before me. "They'll be ok."

I stared into his gray blue eyes, they were detailed and complex with interweaving caustics highlighting them. They were so beautiful, and they made me feel uncomfortable about my eyes, maroon red pupils and Violet iris. I looked away from his, deciding to change my gaze to the ocean where Fishlegs and the twins fighting off the flanking ships. I saw Hiccup and Astrid land on the front boat and rush off below deck.

I flinched and looked back at him, his hands gripped my wrists hanging at my sides and he held them up, pressing my hands between his.

"I would never think you were weak or incapable." His voice was stern and honest. "And I would never lie to you." I gave a nod, feeling my eyes grow wet with tears. I took a deep breath, shaky with emotion.

"I know, I'm sorry." He pulled me into an embrace.