I Am Dragonblood: Fury's Friend {Book One} (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Eight - Defeating Death

THIS KEEPS UNPUBLISHING ITSELF! GRRRR

It didn't go quite to plan. First off, the noise that was meant to disorientate the giant dragon only succeeded in disorientating the dragons Snotlout and Fishlegs were riding. Snotlout's Nightmare banged into into the head of the monster and threw its rider off. Then the Gronckle started spinning and dropped like a stone. The twins went to rescue Snotlout, who was on the Red Death's head (Fishlegs had remembered the name by then) but of coarse they started a fight and their dragon, a Zippleback, swooped down and caught the Viking without any instructions. Astrid's Nadder had been shooting spines at the Death's eyes, only to find that it had six of them. And the wooden stakes that the tribe were throwing at it only made it even more infuriated. 
    Oh, this is going brilliantly, Hiccup thought, watching the scene from Toothless. That thing looked undefeatable, why were they even trying to fight it?
    The Red Death opened its great maw and inhaled slowly. A blue and yellow Nadder was caught in the motion of the air and with a start Hiccup saw it was the one Astrid was riding. With a distinctive shriek Toothless dove down, wings half folded and plasma blast ready. The powerful shot that hit the Death sent it stumbling to the gravel, freeing Astrid and her Nadder from the suction. 
    'Did it work?' Hiccup asked no one in particular. Through the smoke Toothless's fire had caused two great, hole ridden wings unfurled, the mighty down sweep of then hauling the huge beast into the air. 'Ok, I think we've got its attention.' The Death's six eyes locked onto the Night Fury and it let out a roar of pure hatred. With wing flaps that dispersed the smoke it charged after them, bulldozing through seastacks like they were grass. 
    Hiccup looked up at the low lying cloud. 'Time to disappear,' he said. Together they shot into the cloud, vanishing into its gloomy depths. Just as he'd hoped, the Red Death followed, its bulk unmissable even in the combined fog, smoke and cloud. Toothless raced around it, shooting it from all sides so it could not pinpoint him. In a rage the Death let out a torrent of flame, circling around and spreading the fire everywhere. They only just avoided becoming roasted dragon and rider, but at the cost of Toothless's tail. 
    'Ok, time's up,' Hiccup said, eyeing the flaming tail. 'Let's hope this works.' They turned into a dive, the wind whistling through twisted metal and fired once more at the beast to get its attention. It dove straight the after them, jaws opening and gases building to flame them. 'Hold, hold,' Hiccup muttered. 'Now!' Toothless flipped over onto his back and fired. 
    Nothing. 
    He'd run out if fire. 
    Hiccup unhooked the safety line and leapt off of his friend, Shifting in midair. With as much force as he could he blasted a powerful plasma blast into the Death's maw, lighting the gases that had built up, then without looking back he raced after Toothless. He caught his Fury friend and did his best to pull him up, dodging through bony spikes as the Red Death crashed to the ground in an explosion of flames. Almost there, almost there. There was cloud above, flames below and a clubbed tail bearing down on them. 'No, no no no no!' The tail hit his wing and the side of his head, forcing him down and causing his grip on Toothless to fail. 'Hiccup! Shift!' He faintly heard Toothless scream, and did so, feeling scorching heat upon his skin and leathery wings wrap around him. Then everything went dark. 

    Stoick

'Hiccup!' Stoick called through the ash and smoke, his voice rough from shouting. 'Hiccup!!' A dark mound emerged from the gloom, slowly rising and falling as if it was breathing. 'Son.' Stoick hurried over. The mound was Toothless, his saddle burned and metal tack twisted beyond repair. He raised his head when the Chief approached, green eyes watching warily. 'Im sorry,' Stoick choked out, falling to his knees beside the Fury. 'Im so sorry.'
    Toothless huffed and unfolded his wings, revealing Hiccup clasped in his claws. 
    'Hiccup!' Stoick lifted his son gently in his arms, throwing off his helmet to listen for a heartbeat. 'He's alive. You've brought him back alive.' There was cheering from behind, the whole tribe had assembled around their Chief. 
    'Well, most of 'im,' Gobber said, peering over Stoick's shoulder. 
    Stoick ignored him. 'Thank you, dragon, for bringing my son back' 
    Neither the Chief nor the blacksmith seemed to notice the fine outline of scales that rippled over Hiccup's skin. 

    Hiccup

Ow, was his first thought. His second was, OWW! As something that felt like claws dug into his stomach. He opened his eyes to see a pair of excited green reptilian ones staring back at him. A forked tongue began licking him happily. 'Yeah, I'm happy to see you too, bud.' Toothless bounded over a fire pit and up onto a beam like an excitable cat. 'I'm in my house,' Hiccup observed, sitting up. 'Your in my house,' he said to Toothless. 
    'Yes, your dad let me stay in here,' Toothless said from his perch. 
    'And I can understand you.'
    'Look behind you,' the dragon said. 
    Hiccup did and found himself looking at the top of a jet black wing. 'And now I have wings,' he ran his hands through his brown hair, wondering if he had Night Fury ears and spines. He didn't. He did, however, have small black spike on his wrists, like Toothless had on his forelegs. 'What are these for?'
    'Dunno, now come on, I want to show you something. Your gonna have to get rid of the wings, though.'
    Hiccup thought himself back to normal and went to swing his legs out of bed, but he froze midway. 
    Ok, make that one leg. 
    'S rr ,  ho l  h ve  arn d  ou,' Toothless said, which Hiccup made out to be, 'sorry, should have warned you.' 
    'Yeah...' He breathed as he placed his real foot and the metal left one on the floor. He took a few deep breaths then stood up, holding onto the side of his bed. He took a step forward and almost fell, the second step he did but the Fury caught him, then he limped, with one arm over his friend, to the door. With difficulty he pulled it open, only to slam it shut again as a Nightmare roared a few yards away. 'Ok, stay here, bud.'
    Toothless huffed in annoyance but did as he was told. 
    Hiccup again pulled the door open and cautiously peered out. The sight that met his eyes was like a dream to him. Dragons everywhere, not fighting Vikings or stealing food, but perched on rooftops and eating out of baskets of fish or even following certain people around. The Nightmare that had roared swooped in front, Snotlout on its back. In a dreamlike state Hiccup limped out, gazing about in wonder. 'I knew it, I'm dead.'
    Stoick came over and slapped a hand on his son's shoulder. 'No, but you gave it your best shot,' he laughed.

1200 words exactly. Well, not exactly now that I've written this bit XD