I'll Find You

Chapter 24: Meeting Luna

The following morning, after breakfast, Astrid decided it was time for Hiccup to meet Luna. She was a little nervous about how it was going to go bearing in mind how long it had taken for her to gain Luna's trust.

It was mid-morning by the time Hiccup and Astrid reached the clearing where Luna spent her time when she wasn't with Astrid. They stopped in the treeline.

"Stay here, I'll signal for you to come out," Astrid whispered to Hiccup.

She walked out into the sunlight, "Luna, come here girl!"

From his vantage point behind a tree, Hiccup could see a pair of blue eyes appear from the bushes. What he wasn't expecting was the dragon the eyes belonged to. As she stepped out from her hiding place into the light, Hiccup had to stop himself from gasping. Pure white, with soft pale pink patterns on the wings, scales that had an almost iridescent shimmer in the light, a perfect, beautiful and graceful dragon.

As soon as Luna saw Astrid, she bounded forward and knocked her over, "Hey girl! Miss me?" Then, as Luna started to lick, "Luna! You know that doesn't wash out!" Astrid eventually managed to get back on her feet again after a few minutes, "One evening! That was all you were alone for! Not a month!" She was smiling though.

"Luna, you've heard me talking about Hiccup, right?" Luna looked at her in a puzzled kind of way. Astrid turned her head towards where HIccup was standing, "Ok Hiccup, you can come out now."

Hiccup walked out of the shadows slowly, letting Luna adjust to his presence, "She's beautiful!" He breathed softly, "How did you manage....?"

Astrid laughed a little, "Almost exactly the same way you did with Toothless!" At that moment, there was a crashing through the trees coming towards them, "Speak of the chaos..." Toothles bounded into the clearing before slamming the brakes on as soon as he saw Luna.

"...And here it is!" Hiccup finished, trying as hard as he could to not laugh at his best friend. Toothless had obviously been in a hurry - he was panting and had a strand of ivy tangled around one of his ears.

The two dragons stood nose to nose for a few minutes, before they each decided that the other was fine. They started to play together, loosely following Astrid and Hiccup on their way back to camp.

"Just a small question - how did you get in here without being caught?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup chuckled, "I was wondering how long it would be before you asked me that question! There's a small hole in the caging under the water on the north-west corner of the island."

"A hole?" Astrid was curious, "How far under? What sort of size?"

"Big enough for Toothless to fit through, but not much bigger. And far enough under that I only just had enough air to make it out without losing consciousness."

Astrid was silent for a few minutes, plans starting to flick through her head at high speed, "Hiccup?"

"Yes?" Hiccup had seen that look before and he wasn't entirely sure if he wanted to know where this was going.

"Do you remember when we'd been caught by Viggo in that chain-covered trap when we had to rescue the twins? The time when we didn't have Changewing acid with us?"

"Do I! That one was too close for comfort!" The memory of that day was still etched on Hiccup brain, "Why? What are you thinking?"

"Nothing, just an idea that probably won't work so it's not much use saying it out loud really if it's not going to-"

She was cut off by Hiccup ducking down and kissing her, taking her by surprise. When she was able to breathe again, he looked at her, "Now, let's hear it!"

"Well, I was just thinking that if we used all the dragons here in two waves, we could maybe make that hole a bit bigger, that's all."

Hiccup looked at her, "What dragons do we have here?"

Astrid looked through the trees and saw the clearing where she had drawn the Book of Dragons out all those years ago, they were getting close to camap now,  "Nadders, Nightmares, Gronckles, Zipplebacks, Timberjacks, Scauldrons, Changewings, Thunderdrums, Rumblehorns, a Flightmare, a couple of Singetails and Luna. Plus the other dragons that have been sort of trained but don't have a rider."

Hiccup was trying to get his brain around this new information, "Wait wait wait hold on - you've trained Changewings?! Singetails?! And a Flightmare?! I feel as though I've missed a lot!"

Astrid laughed, "You have!"

They had arrived back at camp at this point. Hiccup was thinking about Astrid's plan. It had the potential to work. Granted, the dragon-proofing on the caging was more refined and stronger than what the Hunters had used in the past, but it had to have a weakness somewhere. With enough dragons, they should be able to blast a hole large enough for them to get out.

He kept his thoughts to himself until later that afternoon, when he called Astrid over to where he had been sitting and thinking.

"I've been thinking over what you said earlier about using the dragons that are available," He began, "I think it might be our way out of here!"

He went on to explain the plan in an overview, wanting her opinion and input on it. They settled on a plan and decided to tell the others what they had thought out.

When they were all gathered, it was Hilda who asked the somewhat obvious question, "What are we here for?"

Hiccup looked at her, "To discuss a plan to get out of here."

There was suddenly a spark of interest as Hiccup's words registered in everyone's ears.

Astrid started, "So, We will be split into two groups, one led by Hiccup, the other led by myself. The first group will go down and blast the chain for as long as they can. The second group will give the first group a one minute headstart before they go down and relieve the first group. The first group will then surface, breathe, count to a minute, then go back down again. We'll keep this up for as long as we can."

Hiccup took over at this point, "We're not trying to blast a gargantuan hole in this thing, it just needs to be big enough for the largest dragon here to fit through it. At present there is a hole just large enough for Toothless and I to fit through. It needs to be big enough for a Timberjack to fit through."

Astrid finished, "Any questions?"

Ingrid put her hand up, "When are we going to do this?"

"As soon as possible - preferably either today while it's still light or tomorrow. I don't want to do it at night because the dragonfire is going to light up the water at night - and I want to get it done with as little drama as possible." Hiccup answered.

"Any other questions?"

There were none. Caleb had learned to keep his mouth shut. Finally.

It was decided that the plan would take place the next day. Hiccup was also conscious of the fact that he had two and a half days to get back to the others before they went to plan B. Now that he knew Astrid was alive, he really wanted to stick with plan A.

For now though, he put his worries to one side and focused on getting the two teams ready.

Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

Tomorrow, they would hopefully be free.

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Aaaaaand chapter 24!

Was it good? Bad?

See you next time,

SomeRandomHTTYDFan

PS. I have exams starting today so EEEEEEEEEK!!!!!