Broken Prophecy: How to Train Your Dragon

THE BROKEN PROPHECY Chapter 16

This is a fanfic and I make no money from this. Original copyrights belong to Dreamworks and Cresedia Cowell

Chapter 16

"My Queen! The dragons you selected for tonight's raid stand ready. Will you be leading them again?" a young Flametongue rasps. The orange and brown male, her lieutenant, understood that if the Queen wished she could take what she wanted from his mind, but instead she let him have some semblance of free will.

Red eyes pierce the dark. Thin feline slits glow with an unholy light. The flames and the glow of the volcano nest flicker against scales the color of night. A wicked smile grows across her face, "Yes. Tonight we end the two-legs. We take the island and feast on what remains. But... I want it understood... The largest is mine alone. I will feast on the hairy leaders entrails before the next dawn."

"Yes my Queen Kari." 

Stalking her way through the steam vents and tunnels of her home, the Shadewing-queen appraises her 'troops...  Followers? No that would imply they have free will.'  Pausing she thinks, 'Slaves?  No, that would mean they work under duress...   Drones?  Yes, my drones.  They exist to exert my will and my will alone!'  The thought brings her a malicious grin.  A lone Stone-biter stands near the lip of the magma lake, with a twisted smile the Shadewing-queen slaps the grey-brown dragon with her tail.  With a cry of alarm, the Stone-biter feels her will restored just before her body strikes the molten stone below.  For minutes, the Shadewing-queen watches as the hapless dragon flounders in the fiery lake.  "Only the oldest dragons with the thickest hides can withstand my domicile."  The dragon's screams of pain and anguish fills Kari with joy.  "Live because I wish it.  Die because I will it."

With a snap of her wings, Kari retreats deeper into the labyrinthine cavern. A distressed squeak catches her attention. "Why? Why Kari does this?"

With a groan of frustration, "Haven't you been eaten yet? Go, while I feel merciful." Her crimson gaze fall upon a cowering shape in the corner.

"Swift is happy Kari sees again, but... Kari isn't Kari." The wyrmling sounds equal parts confused and distressed.

With a dark chuckle, "Maybe you aren't as stupid as the rest of your ilk." With a stride that eats up the distance between them, her great broad head falls even with the tiny terror. "I could devour you now. Or blast you to pieces..."

"W... why don't you!" The tiny green and brown lizard shouts. Kari sits back, surprised by the small creatures audacity. "Go on... Eat me... Blast me... Swift is Kari's friend, but Kari is kind and gentle, not this."

The larger dragon rears back, filling her throat with the gas she would charge into her blue-purple plasma. The tiny dragon closes its eyes, shivering in fear of the end. An end that never comes. Cracking one eye open, it sees a look of frustration, confusion and rage flash across Kari's features. Swallowing back her gasses, she sneers at the wyrmling, "Begone from my sight! I will devour you the next time I see you." Turning, she lightly bounds deeper into the fiery depths of her domain. 'Am I not done with you yet!? Still you resist! Why? There is nothing here for you!'

'It's my life...' The thought comes, like a whisper.

A dark chuckle escapes her lips, 'Not for much longer, my dear Hiccup. I can feel you nearly gone. When that happens this body will be mine forever!' The Shadewing looks skyward, up through the central vent into the darkening sky above the volcano's crater entrance. 'Soon! Soon those annoying two-legs... those 'Vikings' from Berk, will be gone. Then those to the west and the south are next. This whole archipelago will be free of those two-legs.  With them, the Aesir and Vanir aswell.'

'The Meatheads? and the Bog-Burglars? Why?'

"My Queen! The moon rises. Are we to take wing?" her lieutenant calls into her chamber.

Glancing into the lake of molten rock below, she spies her old body, 'sleeping'.  Stretching her wings, the feelings of youth and an energy yet untapped brings a dark smile to her lips.  "Yes! Take to the skies, and tonight we end those who dare to stand against me!" With a powerful flap of her wings the queen-Shadewing takes to the air. Letting warm updrafts lift her effortlessly into the night sky, leading a force of forty dragons to the small island of Berk.

Hiccup, trapped within his own head, can do nothing to stop the madness he knows will ensue. 'I'm nearly spent. It took everything I had to stop her from hurting Swift. She's right, I don't have anything here. My Father tried to kill me, Gobber betrayed me, the rest of the village saw me as a burden.'  A single thought flashes to the sleek form of another Shadewing, bringing a pang of guilt. The Shadewing-queen hangs between the greens and purples of the skyribbon, and the liquid black of the sea below. Wind moving across smooth scales, and rippling muscles make minor adjustment to her flight. 'I wish this feeling would never end. This is freedom!'

'Then let go, little one. This can be the last thing you feel! No more pain, disappointment or loneliness. Just oblivion!'

'Why not... I have nothing...  Am nothing, and no one will mourn my passing.'  Passing the first of the old chief statues, whose fire filled mouths mark the safe path to Berks harbor, Hiccup feels himself fading. A strange chill seems to surround him, a numbness. No more fear, no more pain, just cool numbness, and an odd itch, almost a tingle in the back of her mind. Letting go... just slip away... But, the tingle grows stronger, drawing more of her fading attention back to the here-and-now.  'I just want to go... fade away... What is that!'  Becoming more aware of her surroundings, the 'tingle' has a familiar feel to it. A sound carried by the wind, faint but growing stronger, reaches the young Shadewing. A song... Strange and other-worldly. A song Hiccup had never heard before, but stirs something deep inside.

"What is that?!" Nearly screeches the Queen, her flight veers unsteadily. Shaking her head, she feels her control slip as she alights atop the mead hall's stone edifice. The great hall carved from the very rock itself, two massive doors sit closed below her perch. Her head turns to and fro trying to locate the source of the strange song, a song that seems to be trying to rob her of her new body. She opens her mouth to roar in defiance, but instead Kari's voice joins the song. Impotent rage erupts from the titan, as she finds herself pushed forcibly out of the Shadewings mind.