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

Chapter Fifteen - Dragonblood vs Dragonblood

Hiccup glanced at the sky for perhaps the twentieth time in five minutes, his green eyes searching the clouds for a black shape. 
    'Are you sure you don't want me to go and look for them?' 
    He dragged his gaze from the sky and looked at Flitt, who was watching a Night Terror, who was watching Squishy and who, in turn, was watching Hiccup. The only ones who weren't watching someone were Flickering and Nightreaper, mainly because both of them had their eyes shut and were asleep in some long grass. 
    'No,' Hiccup said, returning his attention to his workbench, where he was clearing up after making Toothless's tail fin. 'They'll be back soon.'
    The Deathgripper opened its yellow eyes and growled, raising its tusked head high. Hiccup heard wing flaps approaching and he dropped the hammer he was holding to the ground. Sprinting through the pine trees he skidded to a halt on a grassy cliff top, his heart almost stopping at the sight that met his eyes. 
    Hovering just off the edge of the cliff was a four strutted metal airship, a Deathgripper on the end of each strut and a platform in the centre. Dangling beneath like two fish on hooks were a black and a white Fury, struggling against their bonds and wobbling the strange metal structure. 
    'Toothless!' Hiccup yelled, half spreading his wings and feeling the stitching tear a little. He heard Vikings running up behind him, gasping when they saw Grimmel and the Furies. 
    'Hiccup!' Toothless called back, trying to swing himself round so he could see his rider. His distressed roar brought forth the riders dragons and many of the Berkian dragons, answering their Alpha with their own cries. On seeing the king of dragons chained up they surged forward, angry roars washing over the cliff. 
    'Call them off, Alpha,' Grimmel growled. 'Or the Dragonbloods die.' He reached from his platform to a crossbow mounted on the base of one of the struts, swinging it around to point at the Light Fury. There was no dart loaded this time, but a proper, sharp tipped arrow. 
    'Why are you doing this, nhad?!' Arianwen snarled, looking up at the slim, pale man with a poisonous glare. 'Aren't these poor Deathgrippers enough for you?'
    Grimmel chuckled, pointing the crossbow at Hiccup and fingering the trigger playfully. 'Why am I doing this? Well, there are two answers to that. Firstly, revenge. This Chief and his dragon, they mercilessly murdered my mother eleven years ago.' He smiled, his thin lips stretching into a curved line. 'Though I see she didn't leave you without any battle scars.'
    'What?' Hiccup said. He'd never murdered anyone in his life, let alone eleven years ago, when the dragons were still under the tyranny of... 'The Red Death was your mother?!'
    Grimmel glared down at the one legged Dragonblood, his face impassively pale. 'Yes, Hiccup, that was her.'
    Hiccup was speechless. He had always thought the Red Death had been a dragon driven mad by greed, but now she had turned out to be like him, a Dragonblood. He had killed one of his own kind.
    'Secondly,' Grimmel continued. 'I am here to claim my rightful place as Alpha, that you,' he pointed the crossbow at Toothless, prompting the dragons circling the airship to snarl. 'You so ungratefully took from me.'
    Toothless joined in with the snarling, his sharp teeth bared in a ferocious grin. The flock of dragons began to converge on the airship, too many for the only free flying Deathgripper to handle. 
    'Call them off and send them down to the boats, Alpha.' Again Grimmel swung the crossbow towards Hiccup, the arrow pointing straight at his heart. 'Or your boy dies.'
    The Night Fury looked at Hiccup as if to say sorry. 'Do what he said!'
    'And if there's any trouble,' Grimmmel yelled as his airship began to descend to the fleet of ships below. 'The Dragonbloods die, too!'
    Hiccup watched helplessly as his best friend was taken away and the Berkian dragons were forced into cages. He couldn't fly, he couldn't help them, he couldn't even help himself. 
    'Argh!' He growled, pacing the edge of the cliff. 'We have to get down there.'
    'How?' Tuff asked. 
    'We have no dragons,' Ruff stated. 
    'Well, except for you and Valka.'
    Hiccup looked back at his mother. Yes, she could fly, but she could not carry all of them. His gaze travelled beyond Valka and he saw Flitt, her green and brown flightsuit on and the Deathgripper spidering over. 
    'We'll glide down there,' Hiccup said, gaining confused looks from the Vikings. 'Suit up, gang. We're going down.'