The Tour

Surprising News and Dragon Duels

When Mal came back down she handed Evie her bag of clothes for later. The group went outside. The gang watched as Hiccup, his wife and his friends saddled their dragons. Once they were all done Mal transformed. When Mal opened her eyes and saw she was now a dragon she noticed a problem. How on earth was Ben supposed to get up on her neck? "Mal can you lower your head down for Ben?" Hiccup asked. Mal did as he asked. The chief then helped Ben on by giving him a leg up. Finally after much scrambling and swearing Ben made it onto his girlfriend's neck. "Now Ben you are going to be riding without a saddle so it's going to be really scary. But you should be fine as long as you don't do anything to tick Mal off you should be fine. If you do make her mad... well she's your girlfriend so you figure out what will happen." Hiccup said, walking towards Toothless and mounting."Alright is everyone ready?" Hiccup took a quick look around and saw that they were. "Then let's go." Hiccup said as he and Toothless ascended into the air. All of the other dragons followed suit, Mal went a little slower because of Ben. "Mal you can go a bit faster if you want." Ben said. Mal did as he'd said and pretty soon she had caught up to everyone else. Mal listened as they talked and laughed and told stories. She growled when anyone mentioned anything embarrassing about her, and hummed in contentment whenever Ben would assure her or tell her how magnificent she was. Everything was great. Until it wasn't. Out of nowhere a volley of yellow fireballs came shooting towards them hitting the tip of Mal's left wing, causing her to drop Ben who was thankfully caught by Toothless. Mal, now angry, dove down to investigate what was shooting at them. She landed in a clearing with the others hovering above her. Then Mal saw it, a huge grey and yellow dragon twice as large as she was. It had two very large and sharp horns on its head, with red beady eyes and long jagged claws. Its body was covered in thick scales, with black spikes going down its spine, and it was angry. But then again so was Mal. The dragon roared when it saw Mal. Mal roared back in challenge, before taking a defensive stance in preparation to fight. "What is she doing?" Evie asked. "She's challenging it." Astrid answered. "What?! There's no way she will win that thing is twice her size!" Jay exclaimed." She's going to be okay." Ben mumbled to himself as he watched what was unfolding below.

Mal and the other dragon had started circling each other and were searching for each others weaknesses. The yellow dragon was first to attack sending a ball of fire in Mal's direction. It missed but only by a hair. Mal roared before unleashing a green fire ball of her own catching her opponents tail, causing it to howl in pain. Mal rushed forward and bit it's leg while it was distracted, drawing first blood. The other dragon now outraged, released a jet of yellow fire that caught Mal's back leg. Ben winced when he saw that. Mal, now limping charged at the yellow dragon. Butting her head against her opponent momentarily stunning it. It blinked slowly 3 times. Then it rushed forward and took a deep bite into Mal's shoulder causing her to roar in pain, and collapse. The yellow dragon started closing in. "Mal get up!" Ben screamed. But Mal didn't even twitch. Ben and the gang watched as the dragon got closer. Be was about to look away when he caught Mal's eye as she winked? At him. Right before the yellow dragon grabbed her neck, Mal rolled out of the way and released a giant stream of green fire, which hit the yellow dragon's horns knocking one off. Mal's eyes met the yellow dragon's and started to glow, never looking away and never blinking. The yellow dragon held her gaze for a few moments before looking down in submission and slinking away to the surrounding forest to lick his wounds.

After it was safe to land, Hiccup led the other riders to the ground below. Everyone was cheering for Mal. Then Mal collapsed her inner dragon withdrawing into her soul leaving her naked, unconscious and bleeding profusely out of her left shoulder. "Mal!" Evie shouted before going to her best friend, the others following close behind."Ben give me your shirt." Evie commanded. He did so. Evie quickly slipped it onto Mal's unconscious body. "Jay give me yours."Evie ordered again. Jay wordlessly handed it to her. Evie ripped the shirt into strips and tied then around Mal's shoulder creating a tourniquet to stop the blood flow. "She's lost quite a bit of blood, we need to get her to a doctor as soon as possible." Evie said. "Right."Hiccup said, mounting Toothless once again. "How are we supposed to get back I no longer have a dragon to ride on." Ben said. "Here, you can take Stormfly and you can keep Mal with you. Stormfly is a good dragon and will get you back safely." Astrid said. "How are you going to get back?" Ben asked. "I'll ride with Hiccup." She replied. "Right then, we should go." Ben said before mounting Stormfly. With that the group wordlessly flew back to Berk.

During the whole flight back, Mal didn't stir at all. Nobody said anything, even Snotlout, and if they saw the tears running down Ben's face they didn't mention it. Finally after what felt like an eternity they landed in front of someone's house. The people cheered upon seeing their Chief return. But were quickly silenced when they saw an unconscious and clearly injured Mal in Ben's arms. "Where's Gothi?" Hiccup shouted. A short elderly woman with gray hair stepped forward. "Gothi we need your help." Astrid said. Gothi turned around and beckoned the group to follow her into her home. Upon entering the home Gothi motioned to a padded table for Ben to lay Mal on. Ben did so albeit reluctantly. "Gothi tapped Hiccup, prompting him to explain what happened. As he did Gothi's eyes widened in shock. She motioned for the boys to leave the room as well as Jane, Lonnie, and Ruffnut. Which they did although Ben, Jay,Carlos, and Doug protested loudly. Gothi removed Mal's shirt and gasped at her shoulder, the tourniquet was already soaked through with blood. Gothi went to prepare a salve, boil some water to disinfect the wound,and get a needle and thread. "Evie how'd you know what to do when Mal collapsed?" Astrid asked as they waited for Gothi to return. "Well I grew up on the Isle so injuries were pretty common, whether it be from bar fights, gang rivalries, or just simple violence. So if you wanted to survive you had to learn to take care of injuries pretty quick or else you were as good as dead. The first time I ever had to do a tourniquet I was 5 .It was for Mal who was also 5 at the time, she had jumped off of a rusty slide and cut her knee open pretty deep. We've been best friends ever since." Evie said. Astrid was about reply but at that moment Gothi re-entered the room carrying a pot of hot water, some clean cloth strips, a jar of salve and a needle and thread. Gothi took off Evie's make shift tourniquet and examined the wound, it was staring to turn green and had pus pockets festering with infection and still bleeding. "Oh my Thor!" Gothi exclaimed. As did Astrid for a different reason she had never heard Gothi speak. "Astrid soak these cloths into that hot water. You, blue haired one, hold your friend down. We don't want her thrashing around even if she is unconscious." Gothi instructed as both girls hurried to do as she'd asked. "Here you go." Astrid said handing Gothi the cloth strips. Gothi pressed the cloth strips to Mal's shoulder causing her to twitch slightly. Evie readjusted her grip on Mal. After Gothi had popped all of the pus pockets and drained all the infection from the wound she dabbed at Mal's shoulder with another piece of cloth. Then she applied the salve to the wound. "Now I must stitch the wound closed, this thread is designed by Hiccup to dissolve once her wound has healed. However it is going to take both of you to hold her down, we must pray that she stays unconscious for this." Gothi said as she threaded the needle. Astrid looked away as the needle went into Mal's skin. Evie didn't. She was used to injuries like this and far worse on the Isle. Mal's body twitched again. Both Astrid and Evie readjusted their hold on Mal. Mal's body continued to twitch as each stitch went in but finally Gothi was done, she applied more salve to the wound before wrapping it in a piece of cloth so that the stitches would not come loose. Evie put Mal's shirt back in place as the rest of the group came back in. Ben immediately went to his girlfriend and was both relieved and saddened that she was still unconscious. "When will she wake up?" Ben asked." That's hard to say, a wound of this magnitude would effect everyone differently. But for her it will probably be a few hours. I've stitched her up but it is important that she doesn't transform before her wound is healed which it should be within the next 2,3 days or so, she should thank her lucky stars that she's part fae, otherwise she might not have made it.If she does transform before she is healed she could reopen the wound." Gothi warned as all of the Berkians mouths opened in shock. "Yes, yes I can speak, I just usually prefer not to." Gothi said irritated." Now, take that girl home and put her in a bed somewhere, she's going to need to rest.Now off you go, I have dragons to feed." Gothi said referring to her many terrible terrors that were all balled up in a corner sleeping. "Than you elder Gothi." Hiccup said. Everyone else echoed te sentiment before leaving. Ben insisted on carrying Mal all the way back to the Chief's home.  Ben placed Mal in her bed as he and the others crowded into the room Mal and Evie shared, praying for her to wake up.