Rise of the Brave Tangled Dragons [COMPLETED]

Chapter 4

        Hiccup awoke shivering. He reached out a hand to search for his half of the cloak. When his hand couldn't find it, he opened his eyes to look for it. For a moment, Hiccup wondered if he had opened his eyes. It was totally dark. "Merida," he whispered hoarsely. "Are you out there?" The only sound that answered him was the yawn of a dragon and the jingling of the saddle and reins as Toothless stretched. "Hey, buddy." Hiccup patted Toothless's scaly hide. Toothless purred and nuzzled Hiccup in the chest. A groan came from Hiccup's left. "Merida?"

        A grunt was followed by the sound of rustling skirts. "What?" she croaked in the darkness.        

        "Can you see?"

        A pause. "No. Can you?"

        "No." Hiccup crawled forward on his hands and knees, groping for anything. His hands came in contact with cold, wet snow. He continued searching through the snow, plunging his hands further in up to his elbows. Then, his face ran into a wall of snow. Hiccup's hands felt the wall to see how solid it was. "I-I think we're snowed in."

        "What?!" Hiccup heard Merida scramble to get up. "Are you sure? Where are you?"

        "Hold on," Hiccup said, crawling back the way he came. "I'll come to you." He had only gone a few paces when his hands touched something soft and fleshy. With a yelp he jerked back his hands.

        "Hiccup!"

        "What is it?"

        "Something just grabbed my hands."

        "Oh. That was me."

        "Oh."

     "Wait," Hiccup said. He crawled his way out of the snow until he felt soft cloth beneath his hands. Merida's skirt. He sat down next to the princess. "Toothless, plasma blast!"

        A high-pitched whine preceded a blinding flash of blue light and an explosion. Merida covered her ears and closed her eyes to the dust dislodged from the ceiling. When she opened them again, she saw a ray of white light coming through a hole that Toothless had made in the wall of snow. "Again!" Hiccup ordered. After this plasma blast, the snow fell away from the entrance, and the two teenagers were blinded by the sudden light. 

        Hiccup was the first to get up and scale the mound of snow at the mouth of the cave. Light gray clouds covered the entire sky. While it wasn't storming, the wind still howled with a vengeance viciously stinging Hiccup's face. He shivered and rubbed his wet arms. As far as he could see, there were only mountains. Merida came up beside him already wearing her cloak again.

        "Wow," she breathed. She looked at the pile of snow beneath her feet. "Who knows how long we've been in here," she muttered.

        "Then, we'd better get going. Toothless!" Toothless appeared at Hiccup's side. The Viking boy climbed up onto his dragon, Merida doing the same. Not quite sure where they were going, they continued to fly straight on. Eventually, Merida spotted a bit of green between two peaks on their right. Toothless flew with renewed vigor at the thought of finally breaking out of the cruel wind's icy grip. The mountains ended abruptly and a vast forest spread out below them. Far in the distance, Merida spotted the sea and what appeared to be spires of a castle rising high into the sky. 

        "Let's head to that castle and see where we are," she said. Hiccup pulled on the reins, leaned forward in the saddle, and heard a snap come from behind him. Toothless let out a squawk and faltered in his flight pattern. Merida tightened her grip around Hiccup's waist. Hiccup wiggled his foot in the stirrup striving to gain control with the tail, but the tail wasn't responding. Toothless flapped his wings awkwardly as if he didn't know how to use them anymore. Slowly, they were losing altitude. Hiccup saw the trees below getting closer and closer. There was no doubt now; they were going to crash. "Hang on!" he yelled to Merida, as if she wasn't doing that already.