A New World, Complicated

Chapter 39: Cast Out, Pt. 1 (Reign)

        My fingers tensed against Shriek's scales, watching the ground below us with an intense focus, waiting for something to happen. My fellow riders hovered around me, trying their best to keep their dragons in the air. At any moment, we could be under attack, and we'd need to be able to scatter at a moment's notice. The closer we got, the clearer the figures on the ground became.

Then, from the wooden structures, boulders shot up in our direction, twirling in the air as they barreled toward us.

"Ambush!" Fishlegs cried, alerting those who couldn't see.

"Plasma blast!" Hiccup ordered. Toothless shot out single blast of purple energy, destroying the oncoming projectile. Meatlug caught the second one in her mouth and clamped down, and Shriek let out a sonic boom to shatter the last one to little pieces. We were expecting the next wave immediately after, but it took a few extra seconds, causing Hiccup and I to glace at each other with furrowed brows.

Suddenly, the next wave shot up unexpectedly, nearly striking the twins on their Zippleback.

"Whoa!" Ruff cried as Barf and Belch spun their riders upside-down. "That thing almost took my head off!"

"It did? Gobber, do it again!" Tuff called down. The projectiles began to come faster than we could handle them, and after Hiccup ducked to dodge an incoming boulder, he gave the order.

"Fall back, everyone! There's too many of them."

I nodded, and turned Shriek around and started to fly back toward the retreat point. Most of the rest of us started to follow, but of course, one person always had to break the ranks. Snotlout continued to hover in the place he'd been, looking down and Gobber and the rest of the villagers we'd gotten to help with the training exercise.

"You fall back! I'm going in to finish this!" Recklessly, he dove down toward the people on the ground.

"Snotlout, that is not the exercise!" Hiccup cried, trying to bring Snotlout back to us. "Wait!"

Gobber hit the dirt as Snotlout swooped in over his head, nearly knocking him over with Hookfang's claws. He fired a shot at one of the catapults, and I shook my head before turning back around. Now, Gobber would have to make a new one, which was just inconvenient. But, thankfully, it looked like Snotlout wasn't going to head back in, so no further destruction could ensue.

My mistake. I heard Hiccup and Toothless quickly turned, and the second my head snapped around, a boulder struck my body and sent me tumbling from Shriek. Adrenaline pumped through me as my arms flailed in the air, attempting to grasp at something that wasn't actually there. My screams ripped up my throat the closer I got to the ground, as though they'd somehow cushion my fall. I saw Hiccup and Toothless dive toward me, and just before I struck the ground, I felt an arm grab my waist, then the world went black.

I opened my eyes to see Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs hovering over me, varying degrees of concern written on their faces. Hiccup's eyes looked as though they were about to pop out of his skull. Slowly, I managed to sit up, disoriented with a throbbing pain in my head.

"Ugh. What... what happened." Hiccup kneeled down and placed a hand on my arm, his expression now intense.

Before he could explain, Snotlout and Hookfang did a loop overhead, and it all came back to me. When Snotlout hit the catapult, it most likely activated the trigger and fired the boulder in my direction. Hiccup hadn't been able to warn me in time, and I fell to the ground. But I think Hiccup had caught me before I actually struck the dirt.

"That's right! That's how Snotlout retreats!" The pair landed and strode in our direction, confident and cocky. "He doesn't. Click, click, boom!" Hiccup's expression contorted, into a sort of anger I'd never seen before. "What? Why are you all looking at me? I mean, listen, I know why you're all looking at me." He attempted to flex his biceps, but there wasn't much there. "What? It's Hiccup's stupid exercise."