The Other-worldly Protector

Chapter 27: The Cost of Victory

The axes came crashing down on the barrels, each hunter raising theirs and bringing it down with a grunt.  The hatch would be unblocked in moments. Then one hunter raised his palm, making the others stop. "Do you smell that?" he asked.

Few hunters turned to a short, broad-shouldered one. He ground his teeth. "It ain't my fault!"

"Not you! It's... ZIPPLEBACK GAS!"

The crackling spark was barely heard, overpowered by an explosion that shook the already burning ship and threw the hunters back. An orange zippleback swooped out of the billowing flame cloud. Then immediately the rest of the dragons burst out of the ship like a huge colourful geyser. A blue nadder emerged from the mass of dragons, a girl perched on the orange scales of her back.

Stella circled the ship as Kiara took in the situation. Her eyes took a moment to adjust after being in the darkness below deck. What she saw was complete chaos.

Through the swirling blanket of smoke, Kiara squinted at the hunter ships. Both ships' decks were covered in flames, and patches of charcoal black where the hunters had managed to extinguish them. They had been quick to abandon their buckets of water the moment Zack and Zen's explosion went off and were now shooting at the swarm of dragons.

"Robbie!" Kiara called, "We need to herd these dragons away!"

"On it!" Robbie dove down, roaring at the other dragons to swoop away.

A jubilant roar drew Kiara's eyes to the right. At once she caught sight of her dragon, who looked a little exhausted but otherwise unharmed. "Whiplash! You're okay!" Her relief was reflected in the dragon's excited eyes. "What happened? You're not hurt, are you? Wait.. you did this?!" Kiara asked, sounding impressed as she motioned to the half-burnt ships, but before the dragon could answer any of her questions, Kiara gasped as a sudden realisation made her heart skip a beat: no nightfury. "Where's Hiccup?! Oh no! Did Toothless get shot? Are they captured?"

"Whoa, whoa, one at a time, Kiara. I'll fill you in as soon as—"

"GRRRAAAOOO!" an agonised roar cut through the chaos.

Kiara's head snapped to the sound. Her vision focused on the dragon who'd just been shot, everything else becoming a blur. She watched, horror-stricken as the hobblegrunt fell from the sky. "HANNA!" she hollered, leaning over Stella's side, unable to do anything else as she was too far. Her stomach sunk into a pit of hopelessness. They got her. There was no chance of a second rescue. She was gone.

Not having the strength to watch as the nets were thrown, Kiara turned to the right to meet the blue eyes that never failed to comfort her. Only, Whiplash was no longer hovering there.

-

The hunters threw their nets at the falling hobblegrunt. The last thing they had expected was for the dragon to bounce back up to dodge the ropes. But that's exactly what happened.

"What the..." They watched dumbfounded as the dragon hung in the air —without flapping her wings! Confused mumbling broke out among the hunters as they stared up, not believing their eyes. Some arrows were shot but the dragon just moved aside, her wings still drooping uselessly either side of her. "Witchcraft!" a hunter exclaimed, which resulted in him being shoved aside by their leader.

Stepping forward, Ryker narrowed his eyes, and through the sooty smoke spotted a faint outline above the hobblegrunt. "Changewing," he hissed and mounted three arrows on his bow, that way at least one would hit his unseen target. He drew back. Took aim. Released.

The arrows arced towards Robbie as he struggled to manoeuvre the hobblegrunt to safety. He turned upon hearing the whistle of arrows ripping the wind and shrieked, eyes wide as saucers.