Fly On Your Own

Chapter 14

        The sun had begun to paint the clouds golden colors as it started to slip away into the night. Hiccup and I had remained completely silent on the flight back to Berk, feeling guilty after ripping Toothless away from the Hidden World. He was a king there, he had his mate, and now... he was just stuck with us. Toothless purred sadly, and Hiccup and I exchanged a glance, the same thoughts entering our minds.

We landed in a field back on New Berk, and I pat Shriek to let her go back to the stables. Hiccup stared off into the distance, clearly deep in his thoughts. I reached out and squeezed his hand quickly, just as tears were beginning to well in his eyes. I began to feel the overwhelming emotional weight on Hiccup right now, and pushed away as he moved around the front of Toothless.

"It's okay, bud. You belong there, with her. We don't." Toothless grunted softly, as though he didn't understand. "And that's all right. We'll find a way to--"

Before Hiccup could finish, there was a strange dragon call in the distance. The two of us turned toward the bare field of grass, attempting to find whatever dragon had made that noise. Toothless' head suddenly perked up, and only a few seconds later, the white head of the Light Fury emerged from the grass. Smiles spread onto Hiccup and my faces as we looked at her.

"Hey!" Toothless licked Hiccup's cheek, then bounded over to meet his mate excitedly. I came back to Hiccup's side. resting an arm on his back. With the exception of Grimmel still lingering out there in the world somewhere, things were actually starting to look up.

"She followed us back." They greeted each other, then tackled each other into the grass, causing the two of us to laugh.

"We might not have to say goodbye after all." Toothless looked from the Light Fury to Hiccup, as though urging her to approach. "That's it..."

Before she could, a dragon squawked behind us, carrying... Ruffnut? How did she escape?

"Ruffnut?"

"Miss me?" She spread her arms wide, as though expecting us to shower her with affection upon her return.

"How did you escape?"

"I annoyed them until they let me go." She still wasn't wrapping her head around the issues we had.

"Wait, wait. Grimmel let you go?"

"So dumb. They couldn't handle me. See, everyone thinks Tuffnut's more annoying, but..."

"Ruffnut, focus! Were you followed?"

"I never look back, Hiccup."

The two of us looked to each other, growing increasingly alarmed. Grimmel wouldn't just let her go. She must have said something that tipped him off that we had a new island, and knew she could lead him and his entire armada back here. We could be in serious danger, sitting ducks waiting to be shot.

"Toothless! Toothless!"

The Light Fury roared and took to the air, but only a few seconds later, something struck her in the neck, and she began to plummet. Toothless dashed after her, trying to save his mate in any way possible, but Hiccup and I knew he was headed straight into a trap. We ran behind the two dragons, trying to get him to turn around.

"Toothless, come back!" Hiccup begged.

My heart stopped as Grimmel came into view, aiming a crossbow at Toothless. Without a moment of hesitation, he fired another tranquilizer, this time into Toothless. The Night Fury teetered back and forth before collapsing onto the rock he'd stood on, defeated by something so simple.