This is a fanfic and I make no money from this. Original copyrights belong to Dreamworks and Cresedia Cowell
Chapter 20
"You've been quiet since we left the harbor..."
"I'm sorry, Tannlaus. Just... I gave in. I gave in, again." Kari looks to her mate. "I'm going to lead them through the mist."
"NO! You can't... You mustn't." Pausing he bounds in front of her, blocking her way.
"I must, the Chief was right... I'm responsible for all this, I need to make it right."
Tannlaus shakes his head, "Chief?" He tilts his head, to get a good long look into her eyes.
"He isn't acting much like a father... The ships will be ready in no time, and then there is no stopping this madness." She shakes her head, "I can't lead them someplace safe, someplace away from the nest, they won't rely on me until we reach the mist. I could sink their ships in the harbor, but then they would have no way to evacuate if the queen does show her forces." She very nearly collapses to her belly, letting out a frustrated sigh. "I can't ask anyone else to go, and these... Stupid... VIKINGS!!! she roars to the sky."
"You have never thought of them as 'them' before..." Tannlaus gives her a sad look, "I might not agree with their intent, but they are your pack. Dysfunctional or not."
"Ryder... Yes, I'll call her mother... Even Gobber has more right to be called father... But no. The Chief chose his village over me... I won't call him father, not any more. I'm tired of trying to prove myself. I do this to make amends, not because I'm his child." With a growl, a snarl and a blast of plasma, Kari levels what's left of the mead hall doors. Her claws struggle, but dig deep furrows in the stone archway, Kari the Shadewing disowns Stoick the Vast, this act against common sense makes all things equal... May the gods watch over the innocent.
Tannlaus watches as his mate damages her claws in the act, but does nothing to stop her. "What does it say?" he asks simply when she is done.
"I hope it will be a reminder to the Chief, just what he's lost. Assuming we all live through it." She squares her shoulders, flutters her wings into a more comfortable position then stalks deeper into the village, looking for the other dragons. Nearest the mead hall is Astrid's home, and sitting outside the blond is scrubbing her Thorntail companion with a stiff horsehair brush.
"Kari!" The happy Thorntail calls, "You look upset... What's wrong?"
"I need you to relay to the others, I'm going to..." Tannlaus suddenly wraps his wing over her, in silent support. "We..." she looks to her mate with a nod, "are going to lead these fools to the Queen..." Before Azure can say anything, "I want you and the others to stay away... Take your humans away from here, go back to the ice-nest, maybe... I don't care where, but get them away from here... I don't see any way we can win against her..."
"Then you need us!" Azure squawks. "You can't go against her by yourselves!"
"No! I can't have you risking everything just for me. Please, just go..." Turning quickly, Kari takes flight, heading towards the harbor. Tannlaus looks at his Thorntail friend with a look of regret before taking wing and following.
****
Stoick looks out over the deck of his ship. The smaller Night Fury, his daughter, sits quietly brooding. Looking back at the ship commanded by his brother-in-law Spitelout, he can clearly make out the shape of the larger Night Fury. A strong wave tosses the longship, as it cuts through the sea easily. His foot slips on the wet deck, but brushes against a damaged timber. Glancing down, the words Stupid Chief can still be made out. The rest of her message sanded away in the rush to prepare for the raid. Glancing at the large reptile, he sees nothing of the child he thought he knew. A chill settles in his bones, 'This is all I ever wanted... Going out on an adventure with my son by my side... None of this is right.' The first wisps of mist begins reaching out for the longboats. "All right! Stay within the sound of my voice!" He calls back to rest of the ships. Reaching out to gently lay his hand on Kari's side, rewards him with a warning growl. Calmly he withdraws his hand, a brief look of surprise flashes on his face before he speaks, "Lead us on..."
Even before reaching the fog, an oppressive pressure has been building in the young female. "Tannlaus?" she calls.
"I feel it, love." he calls back, unable to see the blush and grin the word brings to her face.
She closes her eyes, focusing on the 'sound of crickets'. The pressure builds the closer they get to the heart of the fog, the volcanic island, the Queen's nest. I feel you, little one. Soon, you will be mine again. Kari growls at the whisper, just at the edges of her mind.
"Kari? What's wrong?" Tannlaus calls, at the sounds his mate is making.
"This was a mistake!! Coming here! I can feel her!" Her voice laced with panic. Her tail lashes out, striking the main mast with a resounding crack. Fractures and splinters form under the assault. Her wings pump, nearly knocking a Viking from the deck and into the churning sea. Her growls and snarls become more urgent and panicked, as she uselessly shakes her head trying to clear her thoughts. In the wild surge of activity, she knocks weapons overboard, trips her father twice, and snaps at Gobber, catching the tip of a wooden finger between her teeth.
"Look out! Night Fury!! Get Down!" Gobber shouts before Stoick's ship is rocked by the sudden addition on the deck.
Stoick tries to approach the enraged and panicking dragon, nearly getting slapped by an errant tail for his troubles. Bounding over the confused chief, Tannlaus pounces his mate, driving her struggling form to the deck by pinning her under his weight. Thrashing wildly, matched by enraged roars and shrieks, he has difficulty keeping her pinned.
"What's wrong with her?" He hears the chief ask, having his question answered when she lets loose a plasma blast in his direction, crimson eyes staring into his very soul for a moment before returning to their normal amethyst.
Tannlaus takes an opening, his teeth seeking her throat. Clamping down, he fights the instinct to extend his teeth, and pinches his mates windpipe in his powerful gums. Her eyes grow huge, irises becomeing thin slits as fear and confusion make her lash out, striking the main mast with her tail, sends more cracks along its length. Her thrashing grows sluggish, and eventually still. Tannlaus gently releases his grip, worry evident in his eyes as he places his head to her chest. The steady drum of her heart and slow sound of her breath gives him some relief, only to be pushed aside by the Chief.
"Secure her! Lash her down and muzzle her! Try to reinforce the mast!" Personally taking a leather strap as wide as his hand, Stoick steps around the growling male. Gently he places his open hand on Kari's unresisting form. His touch firm but tender, Tannlaus growling eases only when Stoick carefully wrestles her form into something resembling a comfortable position. Ignoring the warning growl, he slips the muzzle around her head, then strokes her forehead in an open display of compassion. With Gobber's help he secures a heavy wooden yoke around her neck and chains it to the deck, bringing the length of metal across her back and securing her wings and legs at the same time.
Tannlaus watches the chief make no overt moves against his mate, instead it seems he is taking deliberate care not to cause any more harm than necessary to secure her. The hairy two-leg makes noises he knows are directed to him, but without Kari, it is just so much noise. The ship lurches with a crunching of stones and pebbles, as the flagship beaches itself. Looking over his shoulder, the massive volcano rises against the drab gray sky like a nightmare given form. A lone red tail quickly draws into a hidden entrance, the Shadewing knows is there.
"We're here." Stoick calls back quietly, the sound of thousands of insects fall silent all at one as the man jumps onto the black pebble beach. With a wave of his hand, the ship moor themselves and begin disgorging their contents. It takes less than an hour before the first of the catapults are assembled. The Vikings of Berk being old hands, start gathering large rocks to use as ammunition, as the second and third finish construction. Before midday, the rest of the siege engines have taken up position. Drawing a circle in the beach, "When we crack this open, all hell will break loose."
"In my undies... Good thing I brought spares" Stoick barely manages to hide his grin at his best friends levity. "All right, form ranks. No matter how this ends! This ends tonight." With a clenched fist, the catapults begin their assault. The sound of stone against stone resounds along the beach with a thunderous boom. Tannlaus lies curled up against his sleeping partner, as the Vikings pound away against the stone fortress. With a rumble, a weak point in the wall gives way, and a tunnel into the very bowels opens up. The final catapult launches a ball of flaming straw into the dark opening. From his place at the entrance of the tunnel, Stoick sees hundreds of dragons. Dragons of every type covering every inch, giving it the surrealistic appearance of a living thing, like the throat of the world itself. Waving his hammer he sounds the charge, storming alone into the dark maw, only to have every dragon flee before him.
A wave of hundreds swam past the Vikings, never once do the humans make contact, nor do any dragon make move to attack. Tannlaus hears the voice of hundreds all crying for freedom and fleeing out to sea. A cold knot fills him with dread.
"Is that it?!" Gobber asks, surprised by the apparent victory.
Tannlaus roars, his voice carries across the beach "RUN!!! She is on the move!!" But his warning falls on deaf ears. With the thunderous rumble of the world coming to an end, the mountain side crumbles and falls away. The largest dragon Stoick the vast had ever seen was nothing in comparison to a monster this gobsmackingly huge. "Odin, help us..." he whispers in prayer.
He can just make out a voice amongst the screaming masses, "Back to the ships!"
"No... NO!!" He shouts out, some of the tribe freeze in their steps purely on instinct to the Chief's command. A gout of crimson flame belches from the open maw of the demon-dragon, a blast so large it could wipe a village from the map in a single pass. The ship moored on the beach go up in flames, like dry tinder under the dragons fiery assault.
"Smart that one is." Gobber notes with dismay.
"I was a fool... Fire the catapults!!" Catching Spitelout on the arm, "Get the others to the far side of the island!"
In answer, a volley of stones sail through the air and bounce off the thick hide of the Queen-monster. Lashing out, her massive maw scoops up a tower and crushes it to tinder in her massive teeth.
Gobber limps to his friend's side, "Gobber! Go with the others!"
"I'm stayin' In case ya' might be thinkin' o' doing something crazy!"
"I can buy the men a couple o' minutes if I give that thing something ta' hunt," he explains.
"Well then, I can double that time!" The smith grasps his friends hand in a silent pledge, bringing a proud smile to the Chief's face.
Turning to taunt the behemoth, "Come here! Fight me!!" Stoick shouts.
"NO! Fight Me!" Gobber seconds, each moving in different directions to draw it's fire.
Stoick takes a sharpened stake from the beach, and with his considerable strength throws the makeshift missile, bouncing just under the pale eye of the she-beast. Turning her massive head, Stoick hold no illusions of surviving the encounter.
The demon-dragon rears up, the inrush of air feels like a typhoon, then the pause as she charges her fire seems to drag for endless seconds before a blast of stone and fire strikes the titan from behind, finding the hide mostly hidden by her coral-like fringe. Her bellows of surprise and pain echo across the beach. "Good job, Fishlegs!" The feminine voice calls out, even muffled behind her mask Stoick recognises Valka anywhere. "Break it down!"
The large teen, sitting atop a Gronkle zips past Stoick and Gobber, leaving both men with their mouths hanging open. "Every bit the boar-headed, stubborn Viking you ever were." Gobber offers in awe. getting a silent nod from the Berkian chief.
Valka calls out, "Fishlegs, Snotlout, get in it's blind spot and make some noise! Keep is disorganized. Astrid, Twins try to get it mad. Find out if it has a shot limit!" With a surge the teens break off and find their positions around the titan. Swooping low, Valka calls out, "Stoick! Where are the kids?"
"Kids?" Stoick stands confused for a moment, a look of terror crosses his face. "Hiccup!" Turning to his flagship, the fore is a blaze, the aft broken away and had sunk to the bottom of the bay. For the first time he can hear the panicked cries of a Night Fury. Rushing into the surf, Tannlaus surfaces roaring in frustration, before diving back under the waves. "Oh Thor! NO!"
Tannlaus dives again and again, with the water passing over his form as easily as air. In the murk of the bay, he cuts through the water effortlessly, stopping only when he reaches Kari. Thrashing she can't break free of the restraints she finds herself in. Chest burning, her eyes fill with fear when Tannlaus can't find purchase to break her free. The larger dragon suddenly finds himself pushed aside by the massive Viking chief. With hand wrapped around the thick wooden yoke, he twists and with the splintering of wood breaks Kari free.
Grasping her father by the arm, Kari leads the twin bolts of black from the sea. Tannlaus landing on the black pebble beach, Kari landing on a larger black boulder after dropping Stoick next to Gobber. Tannlaus bounds to his mate, nuzzling her, "I thought I was going to lose you!"
"I'm alright, now." Kari looks back to her father, then the irate queen.
"Hiccup... Kari. I'm sorry."
Kari watches as Gypsum and Fishlegs lose control and come crashing onto the black beach. "I'm Okay!" Fishlegs calls, just before Gypsum gets rolled over, crushing the large teen into the beach, "Not so okay!"
"What is Snotlout doing? Where is Volcus?" Kari asks shocked, as Snotlout has somehow managed to find himself on top of the queen's face, balancing just above her three eyes. Astrid makes a quick pass of the giant's head, tossing something to her stranded teammate. With an impressive swing, Snotlout brings the broken remains of Astrid's axe down, and cleaves into the monster's largest eye. The roar of rage and pain is deafening. Snotlout loses his grip and slips from the beast's face only to plummet toward the rocky terrain below. With an audible 'oomph!' he is caught by the twins riding their Twin-soul dragon. "They need to get out of there, or they are going to get themselves killed!"
"You have a plan?" Tannlaus asks following Kari into the air.
"No plan! But she seems too angry to try and take me over again... We need to really get her mad." The paired dragons climb higher and higher until they are nothing more than specs in the distance. For a moment, Kari can enjoy the wind in her face and the power in her wings. Snapping back to the here and now, she spins on her wing then tucking them tightly into her sides she drops like a stone. Opening her mouth she begins building up her gas for a shot, more and more she charges the biggest bolt of her short life, the familiar screech as she reaches her top speed is echoed by Tannlaus immediately behind her. The moment she breaks through the thick grey cloud cover she takes her shot. The bolt of purple-blue plasma strikes just behind the massive beasts neck driving her to her knees. The mirrored shot from her mate slams into the beast's shoulder, pushing it the rest of the way by driving it's great bulk onto its side.
Once more, the beast releases a world ending roar before rearing up and extending its wings to chase the twinned black blurs. "Well, she has wings... Let's see how well she uses them!" Kari nods to her mate, and begins racing him to the cluster of islands and sea stacks off the coast. Every time the behemoth seems to be gaining, the pair weave in and around obstacles that slow and wear down the monster.
"Kari! It's time to disappear!" Tannlaus calls out, arching his back he begins to climb back toward the darkening clouds above. Kari follows closely, shadowing his every move.
"Where are you!?" The Queen roars, "I will end you both!" Her nearly incoherent screams of rage are more than enough for the two Shadewings to target. The twinned screeches of the Shadewings flight rival the Queen's own roars, but with the percussive punctuations of paired blasts sound like Thor himself sending his wrath against the ancient dragon. The monster screams in pain as the thin membrane of her wings get hit repeatedly, blasting holes in the giant sail-like structures. The ebon dragons strike like daggers, quick and precise, their shots further damage the ancient dragon's wings. She turns suddenly, "I see you, little gnats! Jormungar will not be felled by the likes of you!"
Kari and Tannluas dive through the clouds, wings folded tight they plumet with all the speed gravity can give them. The ancient dragon plummets in chase, slower but with an unstoppable drive. Kari risks a glance back, the black void of the Queen's open maw fills her vision. Deep in the back of her throat, Kari can just make out the buildup of gases in anticipation of an attack. "Tannlaus! NOW!!" Both dragons turn, spinning to face their tireless hunter. With the perfect synchronicity they each launch a blast deep into the Queen's throat, igniting her fire early.
The raw shock and pain of her own flame used against her surprises her enough to miss the tiny black specks flashing around her. Opening her wings to arrest her rapid descent, is met by more pain as the thin membranes tear and rip away from her fingerlike supports. Her impact into the rocky ground ends suddenly and with total finality. A ball of fire, consumes the massive beast, but neither Shadewing is far enough to fully escape the blast. The shockwave buffets Tannlaus, dazing him for a momnet but he recovers in time to see Kari getting tossed into the falling dragon's tail, with a sickening crunch.
"Kari!!!" Tannlaus roars as his mate disapears into the hellstorm of flame below.