A New World, Complicated

Chapter 14: What Flies Beneath (Hiccup)

"Now I really want one."

"So, how do we deal with this thing?"

"Stand back, everyone!" We all looked up to see my dad diving down on Thornado, clearly thinking this was the way to try and deal with this dragon. "Thornado's got something to say to this beast!" The large Thunderdrum shot out a sonic boom, but it didn't faze the Whispering Death for more than a split second.

"I don't think it's got its listening ears on!"

"All right, let's run this thing out of here." Those with dragons flew up to stand at my dad's side and help him at least get the rogue dragon back into the ground. Toothless suddenly emerged from the hole and started roaring and growling at the Dragon Riders. They pulled themselves back from the line of fire just as the Whispering Death dove at Toothless.

"Toothless!" I watched as it tackled my Night Fury, then as he fired back with several plasma blasts that missed. Toothless tried to fly and get up to the Whispering Death, but because he couldn't control his fake tail fin on his own, he was only able to get himself a few inches off the ground. As much as I hated the idea of entering a fight that could endanger my dragon, he was more likely to get hurt, or worse, by not being able to fly away.

"Toothless can't fly without me! He's a sitting duck!"

"Gobber, man the catapults," my dad ordered as he landed, "and when that thing is clear of Toothless, fire!"

"Dad, wait!" I ran over to Toothless. "Just let me help you, bud." As soon as I tried to mount him, he tossed his head to throw me away. "What? Toothless, wha-what's wrong?" I asked in complete disbelief. He looked back at me a couple of times before roaring loudly and bounding away.

"What was that all about?" Reign asked, appearing at my side.

"I have no idea." The Whispering Death suddenly shot out a couple of spines, and one got lodged in Toothless' leg. He growled in agony as he tried his best to stay as far in the air as he could go.

"Gobber!" Following the command, Gobber launched a couple of boulders right at the dragon, sending it back down into the ground. Once we were sure it was gone, I ran to Toothless and looked closely at his leg.

"Oh, no, you're hurt!" I hesitated to pull it out, but Toothless looked back at me with those big, affectionate eyes, telling me it was okay to get the spine out of his leg. He sniffed where the hole of the spine was, then took off out of nowhere, bounding up toward my hut to look out over the edge we lived on. "Toothless, wait!"

"Where's he going?"

"Probably running away to lick his wounds," Snotlout snorted.

"It's not funny," I snapped back. "He could've been killed. He can't fly, remember?"

"And whose fault is that?"

"Seriously, did you just go there?" Reign snapped, coming to my defense as usual.

"Hey, I call it like I see it."

"Um, does anybody want to talk about what in the name of Thor just happened?" Fishlegs diverted.

"A dragon fight. Just another day on Berk."

"Uh, not really. It seemed like there was way more to it than that."

"He's right. The Whispering Death singled Toothless out."

"And Toothless wanted that dragon all to himself."