Tampered With (HTTYD Fanfic)

Attack

Stormfly flapped her wings several times before settling them into a glide, the breeze ruffling their papery lightness ever so slightly. Hundreds of feet above the sea, Astrid was enjoying the mid-afternoon weather. It was a cooler day, and the partly cloudy blue sky told of the perfect wind conditions.

Astrid and Stormfly had set off from the Edge early in the morning a day after her talk with Hiccup. He had wanted to get a terror mail to his dad, so Berk would know she was coming. She hadn’t argued with that.

So, before the sun came up, as the stars were barely beginning to wink out, they’d started. The trip to Berk would take all day, the pair would arrive sometime near sundown, and Astrid had wanted to start as soon as possible.

The flight had been rather boring so far - which was a good thing. They had spotted a couple of merchant ships heading to the market islands, but other than that, the only things to break up the monotone journey were their meal and water breaks.

Astrid had stopped to water Stormfly three times and had eaten herself as well. Breakfast, snacks, and lunch. Now, with the sun halfway between noon and sunset, she figured it was time to water and feed Stormfly again.

There were no islands in the perfect vista of ocean in front of them, so Astrid landed on the first sea stack they came across and fed her Nadder, as well as let her have some water from her waterskin. Then they were back on their way.

Astrid munched on an apple and tried to find shapes in the clouds, her only way to keep herself from napping while Stormfly worked. Boredom would not get the best of her.

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An hour passed, and the sunlight changed, indicating that sunset was on its way. Astrid leaned forward and patted Stormfly. “Only about an hour to go,” she told her dragon. Stormfly grunted in reply.

About five minutes later, Astrid began to see the telltale humps of land on the horizon, sea stacks and islands that were landmarks on the way to Berk. This seemed to invigorate Stormfly, because the Nadder Head sped up the smallest amount; Astrid’s hair blew more wildly in the wind.

Ten minutes later, the dragon and Viking were in the midst of the small pillars of land, and Astrid’s boredom was chased away as she and Stormfly began a familiar flight routine, trying to incorporate all of the sea stacks into some kind of flight display, ducking under some, spiraling through holes or winging all the way up to the top of one, simply for the thrill of diving back down.

This pattern continued until Astrid could see the smallest speck on the horizon, like a dragon’s tooth, poking up from inside the ocean.

Berk, she thought happily. Stormfly settled into a glide again, and Astrid began undoing the bindings she had with her saddle bags, ensuring they wouldn’t have fallen off on the trip.

The sky began turning orange, and the sound of waves washing up against the rocks was lulling and comforting.

Then there was another sound.

A metallic sound.

Like a winch being wound up.

Stormfly cocked her head, and Astrid sat up straighter. If her dragon had heard it, that meant that she wasn’t hallucinating.
But as soon as she started listening carefully, the sound stopped.

Stormfly barley moved her wings, the small flaps she did make, soundless. The sea stacks passed by ominously, and Astrid half expected Dragon Hunter ships to lurk behind every one.

But there were none. Astrid had half relaxed; half accepted that there were no enemy ships around, when she heard a small click. Astrid saw a small glint to her left, and barely leaned back in time.
A small, cunningly crafted grappling hook curved up, over Stormfly’s head, before clacking into her horns and getting tangled up in her headdress. The rope attached snapped taut, and Stormfly’s head was jerked back, the abrupt motion nearly throwing Astrid off.

It’s only tangled in her horns, Astrid thought. It could’ve been way worse. All she had to do was untangle the rope, right?

Astrid scooted up Stormfly’s back, till she was sitting even with her dragon’s shoulders. She reached for the grappling hook and started to unwind it from Stormfly’s horns. Her dragon fanned out her headdress, then pulled it back in, shaking her head in a desperate attempt to rid herself of the restraining rope.

Astrid shook her head in disgust. “Stormfly, hold still!” she shouted over the noises her Nadder was making. “Hold still!”

Stormfly obeyed, stilling her head, and Astrid undid three loops in the rope. Stormfly seemed to have made it worse by moving so much.

A whistling sound started up, and Astrid knew that the hunters must be shooting arrows at them, trying to hit them out of the sky. Another loop came undone.

A small, needle-like projectile pricked Astrid’s neck. She jumped a bit, startled by the sudden burst of pain. She set the coils of rope she’d formed down in her lap and reached back and felt around the spot she’d been hit in. A moment later, her fingers found a small feathery thing.

A dart, Astrid thought. She yanked the small object from her skin, holding it in front of her, the bright pink feathers mocking her for not seeing them sooner.

She threw the dart away in frustration.
Someone pulled on the rope from below, and Stormfly began violently shaking her head around again. Astrid reached forward.

“NO!” she ordered sharply, seizing two of the Nadder Head’s horns and forcing them still. She could only see two loops left. Or was that three? Her vision blurred.
Astrid blinked several times and shook her head, trying to clear it. She grabbed the rope and hurriedly undid the last two loops holding Stormfly in place.

Throwing the grappling hook into the ocean below, Astrid was dimly aware of another one wrapping around her waist, but the blurriness had returned, Astrid felt the overwhelming sense to sleep.

Stormfly took off, and Astrid was yanked from the saddle, falling to the sea far below. Her dragon stopped and spun around, searching for Astrid. But she waved her dragon away.

Go, she mouthed, before the swirling depths of darkness overcame her.