I Am Dragonblood: Secret Uncovered {Book Three} (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Ten - Grimmel

'I can't believe it,' Hiccup muttered. He was in his house standing by the fire, staring into the heart of the flames. Toothless was in the Great Hall, probably stuffing himself with fish, and Astrid was leaning on the wall, the firelight playing over her pale skin. 'All these years and there have been other Dragonbloods here, and I never even suspected.'
    'Well,' Astrid said, pushing off of the wall. 'You were pretty busy trying to keep yourself hidden.'
    'True,' he paused, hearing a creak near the door. Probably a Terrible Terror, he thought. 'I'm sorry I never told you, Astrid. I really should have. But... I just couldn't.'
    Astrid came and stood beside him, her shadow flickering next to his winged one on the wooden wall. 'It's been a hard year on us all after... You know.'
    Hiccup's hands clenched tightly. He did not want go there, did not want to revisit the guilt, the hurt, the grief that he had locked away so it could not resurface. 
    Astrid noticed the tension that had suddenly stiffened his body. 'Something happened, didn't it? Something you haven't told me.'
    'I don't want to talk about it.'
    'Hiccup, tell me,' Astrid insisted. 
    'I said I—'
    'He doesn't want to talk about it because he killed his father,' a new voice said from the shadows. Into the firelight appeared a gaunt, pale man, his slim frame moving like a ghost through the half light. Hiccup raised his wings threateningly and fumbled for Inferno, never far from his reach. 
    'I did not kill my father,' he told this tall human. 'The Alpha made me, there was nothing I could do.'
    'But it was still you who shot him, hmm?' He picked up a jug of mead and poured it into a wooden mug, sniffing it suspiciously before taking a sip. 'I hope you don't mind if I help myself, I've come quite a long way to find you again.'
    'Who are you?' Astrid asked as Hiccup lit his sword, holding it out in front of him. 
    The slim man thumped the mug back on the table. 'Hm? You don't know who I am? Well, let's get to the point. I am the Night Fury killer. I have hunted down every last one except yours. You are going to give me your dragon, or I will—'
    'I will never give him up!'
    The grey coated person just looked at him with familiar pale eyes.  'Suit yourself. I can settle with a half Fury.' He whipped a compact crossbow from his back and fired, a small dart shooting from it and burrowing through Hiccup's flightsuit into his arm. The Dragonblood stared at it a moment then ripped it out, tiny drops of green liquid forming on the tip of the needle. 
    'What did you do?'
    'You'll see soon enough,' the pale man whistled like he was calling a dog and strode towards the door, his grey coat swishing around him. Something crashed through the roof, sending sharp splinters of wood down into the room, and a dragon that Hiccup recognised as a Deathgripper clawed its way through the jagged edged hole. Hiccup swiped at it with Inferno, missed and instead hit a beam. The flames from his sword licked up the dry wood and grew high, catching the walls and filling the burning room with smoke. 
    'Run!' Hiccup pushed Astrid towards the door and slashed at the dragon, smashing a vial in a contraption on its head. He turned and stumbled out after the Viking, his body stiff and uncooperative. 
    Astrid was bent in a coughing fit ahead of him, gasping through the smoke. 'Hiccup?' She croaked, sensing him behind her. When there was no answer she turned and saw him standing utterly still, muscles tense. 'Hiccup!' She ran back and shook his shoulders, seeing the pupils of his green eyes slits, so tightly focused that they were only a thin black line. 'Hiccup?!'
    A chuckle behind her spun her round. The pale man was watching. 'He's not going to answer you, none of them are.'
    From the shadows of the night figures emerged, all with wings raised. She recognised Flitt, the white haired girl, and Skelly, the Boneknapper boy. Their eyes were exactly like Hiccup's. 
    'What have you done to them?!'
    The pale man spun a dart between his fingers absentmindedly. 'Oh, no need to worry about that yet.' He slipped the dart into the crossbow and aimed it at her. 'Run. Go. Shoo. Scarper.'
    Astrid ran as the Dragonbloods closed in on her, zombielike and stiff, their eyes unseeing. She ran to the Hall, seeing flames lighting huts and dragons taking to the air. Screams of trapped and scared Vikings ringing in the air. 
    Hiccup could only watch as chaos ensued around him as he and the other Dragonbloods were led down to a ship. His village was burning, his people were burning, his island was burning and he could do nothing about it. 
    And the worst thing was, he was hardly aware of it. 

***

    Astrid

Astrid struck her axe into the table before her, gaining the attention of the jabbering Vikings. 'All of you, shut it!' She yelled, silencing them. 'Our village was attacked, the Dragonbloods taken, our Chief kidnapped! We have a new kind of enemy to face! And all you can talk about is... Is... Sheep!' She glared at Sven, who had a sheep under one arm. 
    She took a breath, trying to calm herself. 'This enemy—'
    'Grimmel the Grisly,' Eret put in from her right. 
    '—knows where we are, knows we have dragons and has a means to controlling them.'
    Eret took up the speech. 'Now that Grimmel knows where we are and knows we have a Night Fury, he will stop at nothing to destroy us. Mark my words, he will be back.'
    'I see only two options for us. We either stay and face possible eradication, or... Leave. Disappear from the map, go somewhere we and the dragons will be safe.'
    The crowds erupted into shouts and waving fists, making them look like an angry patch of Dragon Nip. In amongst the chaos a midnight scaled Night Terror zipped down onto the stage, bright aqua wings like splash of sky in the shadows of the Hall. 
    'Bolt?' Astrid asked, one eye on the increasingly riled Vikings. 
    The Terror blinked her brown eyes and Shifted to human. 'Yes?'
    'You're still here.'
    'Apparently, I am.'
    'But... How?' Astrid said. 'I thought all the Dragonbloods had been taken by Grimmel.'
    Bolt pushed her brown hair out of her eyes. 'I was chasing down a Terrible Terror who had stolen Squishy.' She stroked the head of a pinkish Hobgobbler who had stuck its head out of her pocket. 'He must have thought I was a regular Terror.'
    'Right,' Astrid muttered, distracted by the crowds. 
    Bolt lifted Squishy from her singed pocket and put him on her shoulder. 'Oh, and I saw some Hunter ships headed this way from the the east.'
    'Hunter ships?!'
    'That's what I said.'
    Astrid groaned. Not more enemies. 'Listen up, people! Bolt here has spotted Hunter ships coming this way. I vote we pack up what we can and leave to find a better place. Some of us will go out and look for Hiccup, we cannot leave him!'
    The Vikings listened to what she said then started yelling out again. 
    'How do you know they're Hunters!'
    'We can't believe a Dragonblood!'
    'They lied to us!'
    'Our Chief lied to us!'
    The blonde Viking rolled her eyes in exasperation. What had she expected? They were Vikings, they had stubbornness issues. 
    Bolt Shifted back to a Night Terror, Squishy fluttering down beside her, and they both screamed loudly. Dead silence followed, only broken by the baaing of Sven's sheep. 
    'Thank you,' Astrid whispered to the Terror. 
    'I agree with Astrid,' Eret called out. 'Leaving is the best option.'
    'I agree with both of you,' Valka said. 
    The Vikings in the crowd glanced at each other, muttering among themselves. 
    'I'm with her, who else?!' Tuffnut yelled, springing up from his slouched position.
    The murmurings transformed into a rumble of agreement. 
    They were leaving Berk.

1364 words, yeek!