Riders of B E R K

Part 18: You've been waiting for this for years...

Hiccup snapped his head round as he felt her death grip around his middle slacken and her body slide suddenly to the left.

"ASTRID!" he screamed as she slithered off the dragon. Instinct took over and he grabbed at her-unfortunately with his broken left hand. He bit back on a groan of pain as he snared her wrist in a less than perfect grip and felt the sharp pain in his shoulder as her body swung free over the yawning, lethal drop. "Toothless!" The dragon instantly flipped to the right, jolting Astrid up and allowing her body to slam into Hiccup. The boy wrapped his arm ferociously around her as they banked down abruptly. He hugged her tight as the dragon corrected and they swooped down, before pulling up and landing hard.

Hiccup was breathing hard as he wrenched his metal leg painfully from the control pedal and stared in horror into Astrid's slack features. She was pale and limp and he hesitantly lifted a hand and pressed a finger into her neck. After a horrifically-long second, he felt the swell of her pulse and he breathed a tiny smidgeon easier: she was alive. But she was limp and unconscious and he hugged her to his body, staring into her face.

"Astrid?" he murmured. "Astrid, please wake up!" But she was unresponsive. He stroked her face tenderly, his long and sensitive fingers relishing the feel of her smooth skin, her silky hair. "Please," he breathed. But she was still. Then he looked up and saw a flash of red: there was something in her arm. He picked it up: it was a dart, like the one they had removed from Stormfly. His eyes hardened and then he froze.

They were a very long way from the main part of the base and there was no rapid transport back to the base. He was on crutches and could barely make the journey himself: he couldn't carry her. And she needed help now. He took a shuddering breath: there was only one option. He clipped his prosthesis back into the tail assembly and shifted Astrid snugly against his body, cradling her head against his chest and feeling her hair brush his neck.

"I need your help, bud," he said quietly. "We're both gonna get in so much trouble for this but we have to do this. I'm so sorry...but we have to get Astrid to the infirmary." The dragon crooned craned his neck to inspect his rider with one luminous eyes. He could hear the desperation in Hiccup's quiet voice and feel the tension in his rider's voice. Then they walked to the steel door and Toothless warbled: he had never left the Pens except under guard. Hiccup punched in his code and the doors cracked open-and then they walked out.

He knew that alarms would have gone off the moment a dragon was out of containment without proper authorisation. Especially Toothless was tagged four ways from Sunday. So he directed the dragon to the long corridor heading for the main part of the base. "Now, bud-run! We need to get help!" And the dragon responded, his powerful and agile shape accelerating to a loping gallop as they sped down the corridor. Hiccup's hand locked on the saddle as they sped along but he kept worriedly checking Astrid, feeling her shallow breathing and nuzzling against her in a confusion of emotions. His grip was sure and strong as he directed the dragon onward. He could feel his anxiety rising and he knew what would happen when he got back to the base. He glanced at her: she was worth it.

They sped through the door to the main containment area and Hiccup could see the red alarms flashing now. They were alert to his transgression and he had little time. He galloped Toothless up the nearest stairwell with astonishing agility to the first level where the infirmary was sited and he cantered the dragon along the main corridor, to the astonishment and shock of everyone they encountered. There were shouts and gapes of shock and a flurry of people reaching for their wrist-coms, calling for security.

"Nearly there, bud," he murmured, then thumbed his own wrist-com. "Hiccup to Gothi. I've got a casualty-Astrid. I think she's been shot with one of the darts they used on Stormfly. She's unconscious and...gods, I don't know if she's okay! Please...you have to help her!"