Come Darkness, Come Light

Chapter 24 - Stealth Mode

I swept my hand in front of my throat sharply, telling him Absolutely not! without saying a word. I suddenly wished I could use thought-speak. It would make communication on missions so simple.

Hiccup moved back into place against the wall, waiting for me to move. I peeked around the corner, taking a few seconds to just listen. Sound echoed quite easily in here, so we should be able to hear someone coming. The only voices I could hear were those coming from the camp outside, though. Whoever was in the cave wasn't talking. Deciding it was now or never, I crept out of our tunnel and pushed ahead, keeping close to the wall. Hiccup waited a few seconds before following. I felt extremely exposed, but there was nowhere to hide. The cave was barren save for the torches mounted on the walls.

We approached another set of tunnels, one on either side of the passage. Hiccup called out to me, halting my progress. *Mom, on the right.* He warned. I followed his line of sight, seeing a single hunter guarding the tunnel entrance, his back turned to us. I wasn't sure what he was trying to keep out of the main cave, but we were lucky he was facing the other way. One shout of alarm and we were in serious trouble.

I had a hunch that the tunnel ahead of us on our left also had a single guard, so I gestured for Hiccup to go take care of the one we could see. He nodded, showing no signs of fear at the prospect of facing his first hunter, and dashed to the opposite side of the passageway. We moved forward together, and on my signal lunged from our hiding places to subdue our targets. As expected, when I rounded the corner there was one man standing guard, his back turned to me. I sprinted up to him, maneuvering him into a chokehold before he could see me coming. Based on the muffled sounds of struggling I heard behind me, Hiccup had done the same.

The man I had a hold of scratched at my arms, unable to do much else in his current position. His attempts to get free were futile, since my armor protected me from any harm and my grip was unrelenting. Blood rushed to his face as he continuously failed to bring in oxygen, and eventually his legs gave out and I was able to force him to the ground. After a few more seconds, I felt his muscles go lax, and I let him drop to the ground in a motionless heap. He was still alive, just passed out.

I turned to see if Hiccup needed help, but he was handling his man just fine without me. Due to his shorter height, my son had leapt onto the hunter's back and wrapped his legs around the man's torso. He was pressed up against the cave wall—an effort by the hunter to break his hold, I suppose—but his chokehold was just as strong as mine had been. Years of training and flying gave a boy some muscle. When the hunter finally fell to the ground and passed out, Hiccup stepped off of him and looked my way. I couldn't see his face, but I could practically feel his smug grin from here.

Our attention was quickly diverted further down the tunnel when we heard quiet muttering coming towards us. The two hunters were walking side by side, too engaged in their conversation to notice us yet. Hiccup took off in their direction, completely ignoring my frantic signal to wait for them to walk by. I cursed internally, running after him.

Just as one of the men heard our approach and looked over with a confused scowl, Hiccup grabbed one of his daggers out of its sheath and threw it with unbelievable precision right into the hunter's thigh without breaking stride. The man gasped in shock and pain, bending over to clutch his leg. His companion was frozen in place, struggling to get his hatchet unlatched from his hip. Hiccup went for the injured hunter, grabbing the man's head and slamming a knee into his head. I simply swung out my staff, striking the second man in the jaw and sending him spinning into the dirt. I'd hit him in the perfect place, knocking him out instantly. Hiccup had already delivered a solid punch to his man's cheek, and threw one more to finally knock him unconscious.

I stared at the bleeding lump, then turned my wide-eyed gaze to Hiccup. I wasn't sure whether to be impressed or concerned. Hiccup yanked his dagger out of the man's thigh. The hunter might end up dying of blood loss, but I had a feeling that was the last thing on my son's mind. I shook my head to clear my thoughts, then pulled Hiccup away. We would talk about his spontaneous attack after the mission was complete.