The Night Rider

Part 18: The Flight

Astrid took a deep breath and slowly began to open her right eye just a crack. A crack so small that not even the tiniest of Odin's creatures could manage to squeeze through it. Hiccup could see it on her face, the moment it happened. The moment her face went from pinched with fear to laced with amazement.

Her  eyes opened wide and the muscles on her face relaxed and her mouth slightly hung open. Her skin that had been reddened from fear was now back to its normal color. Her iron grip that had been strangling his forearm had now ceased.

Even after Hiccup had removed his hands from her chin she still kept her head up and eyes on the fluffy white clouds which bottoms where pink from the light of the rising sun. Astrid curiously began to reach up at one of the clouds but it was barely out of her reach.

Hiccup shifted his left foot and Toothless's tail shifted into another gear closing the distance between Astrids outstretched hand and the cloud. Her hand reached into the cloud creating a beautiful explosion of small wispy clouds. She looked back towards the masked man that sat behind her and looked him in the eyes.

It was at that moment of eye contact, at that moment of perfect serenity in the clouds outside the archipelago that Hiccup had the feeling in his chest. The feeling he used to have in his chest everyday when he used to look at Astrid. The feeling of...attraction.

"This is..." She began, looking away from Hiccup's forest green eyes and back to the clouds. "Amazing." She said so quietly that he could barely make out what she said. "Look at your hands." Hiccup said with a smile on his face as he noticed what they were doing.

Astrid looked down at her hands which were both placed on top of Toothless's neck like it wasn't a problem. She pulled her hands off the dragons scaly skin but Hiccup caught her hands in his. He intertwined his fingers between hers and slowly replaced them in Toothless's neck.

He made sure that both of her palms were flat against the skin so she could finally see that she wasn't riding a vicious monster. But a kind and living creature. Hiccup slowly removed his hands from hers and she began to slowly trace the outline of one of Toothless's scales.

Astrid brought one of her hands down to the side of Toothless's neck and began to rub him in a soft circular motion. The Night Fury shook his head and let out a soft and rumbling purr at the feeling. Hiccup looked at Astrid and he could almost see the happiness radiating off her.

"See, once you get to know them. There not vicious-." But Astrid cut him off and finished his sentence in her own way. "Ship." Hiccup looked at Astrid in confusion. 'She thinks Toothless is a vicious ship?' He asked himself still confused at her response.

"There's a ship." The muscles in Hiccups back tightened. He remembered the last time he saw a ship this close to Hellhimens Gate. There were multiple openings in Hellhimens Gate that lead in and out of the Archipelago but these waters weren't near one. And that one fact made a shiver run up his spine.

He followed Astrids gaze down to the water and his worst fear was realized. The ship had three masts that were strung up with white sails with red tribal crests on them. Red fists... a dragon hunter ship. Hiccup wrapped his arm around Astrid's waist and he adjusted his foot which retracted Toothless's prosthetic tail making the dragon perform an elegant and speedy dive down to the waters surface.

"Toothless the sea stack." Hiccup said in an urgent voice pointing to a sea stack that was near the hunter ship. Toothless quietly landed on top of the sea stack that loomed high above the ships highest mast. Hiccup dismounted and pulled his spyglass from one of Toothless's saddle bags.

He quickly crawled up to the edge of the sea stack and looked through his spy glass at the hunter ship below. The hunters had come prepared for a fight. The ships deck was loaded with half a dozen catapults, a ballista on the back and dozens of barrels filled to the brim with what he could only guess were dragon root arrows.

There were only two hunters outside the archipelago that came that prepared for a fight. And one of them never traveled without a convoy of other ships. "Who is that?" Astrid asked laying beside him trying to get a good look at the ship. "It's Ryker." He said handing Astrid his spy-glass.

"He's one of the best dragon hunters in and out of the Archipelago." He explained. "He certainly did come prepared for a little bit of dragon hunting." Astrid said as she examined the deck of the ship. "Well Ryker thinks that there isn't a problem that he can't solve with enough fire power."

He said crawling away from the edge and then back to Toothless who was lying on his stomach ready at any moment to spring into action. "What are you going to do?" Astrid asked Hiccup as she saw him pull a hand full of small clay capsules from another of Toothless's saddle bags.

"I'm going to free the dragons that he has on that ship." Astrid interjected. "Look I know your the Night Rider and you do ride a Night Fury but even together you two are no match for that ship down there." She explained. "Your right, we're no match for that ship and it's crew." Hiccup began turning to Astrid to look her in the eyes. "Not without you to help us."