Chapter Text
The rain made the fight hard to follow.
It ran into Astrid’s eyes and turned the ground under her boots to mud. Smoke hung between the huts and walkways, thick enough that Hunters kept appearing and disappearing through it. One moment there was only rain and burning wood. The next, a blade came out of the smoke, or a rope snapped tight across a path, or a shield pushed through where there had been nothing.
The Edge was burning.
The air stank of wet smoke and hot metal.
Flame arrows had struck the side of Snotlout’s hut and the lower railing beneath it. In normal rain, most of them should have gone out. These did not. The fire clung to the wet boards in low, stubborn patches, burning where the arrows had split against the wood and spreading under the railing instead of dying.
Astrid saw the oily shine beneath it.
Monstrous Nightmare gel.
Snotlout. Of course.
A jar had cracked somewhere under his hut. Gel had run down between the boards and into the supports below, carrying the fire with it. The rain only smeared it thinner. Flames crawled along the wet planks, caught the rope bindings under the lower bridge, and sent black smoke gathering beneath the walkway.
Astrid swore under her breath and caught the next Hunter’s blade on the haft of her axe before he could force her back.
Snotlout was going to hear about this if they made it through the next five minutes.
The Hunters were already inside the defences.
The Night Terrors had raised the first alarm from the lookout posts. Now their cries cut through the rain in short, sharp bursts, moving from tower to tower as more Hunters came over the walkways.
Hiccup’s voice had been cutting through it minutes ago, sharp and clear from somewhere near the clubhouse.
“Fishlegs, sandbags!”
“Snotlout, stables!”
“Ruff, Tuff—Loki away!”
The orders had landed at once. Fishlegs had gone for the release ropes, Snotlout had turned Hookfang towards the stables, and the twins had looked at each other through the rain with the same sharp, delighted grin.
Tuffnut had rubbed his hands together.
“Loki away,” Ruffnut had said, like it was the best order Hiccup had ever given them.
Then they were gone, sprinting for the travel line.
One group of Hunters was pushing towards the stables, flame arrows already buried in the upper boards. Another had reached the bridge lines between the huts and was hacking at the ropes to split the riders apart. Above her, one of the bridge ropes snapped, the sound heavy and dull from the rain. Two more were under the clubhouse walkway, driving iron hooks into the lower beams so they could pull the supports out from beneath it.
Astrid looked up and saw Fishlegs on the bridge above them, soaked through, one hand locked around the rail while the other dragged at a release rope.
“Meatlug, now!”
The first sandbag dropped onto the mud beside the nearest Hunter and burst open across his boots. The second hit the lower beam and split over the hooks, spilling wet sand over the rope and metal. Fishlegs hauled again, face tight with effort.
Three more bags fell together. One struck a Hunter across the shoulder and drove him to his knees. The others burst against the supports, dumping enough weight over the hooks to bury the rope beneath wet sand and torn sacking.
Meatlug moved in before they could clear it. She lowered her head and spat a thick line of molten rock across the ground between the Hunters and the supports. It hit the mud with a hard hiss, steam rolling up around her jaw, then began to set around the fallen hooks and loose rope.
One Hunter grabbed the rope and pulled.
It did not move.
Fishlegs stared down at it for half a second, breathing hard. “That actually worked.”
Then his head snapped left.
“Snotlout!”
“I see them!”
Hookfang dropped between the Hunters and the stable doors, claws digging deep into the mud. He could not blast properly, not with the doors behind him and terrified dragons inside. Snotlout swung down from the saddle before Hookfang had fully settled, axe already in his hand.
“Snotlout, wait!” Fishlegs shouted.
Snotlout hit the ground, slipped, caught himself against Hookfang’s shoulder, and charged anyway. The first Hunter turned towards the stable doors. Snotlout caught his blade with the axe head and shoved it wide, shoulder driving into the man hard enough to knock him back. Hookfang snapped at the second Hunter and forced him away from Snotlout’s side, smoke leaking between his teeth because he could not risk a full blast.
The stable doors rattled behind them.
Something inside shrieked.
Astrid drove her elbow into the Hunter in front of her and forced him back a step, eyes already searching through the rain for Hiccup.
She saw Toothless first.
He was not with Hiccup.
That was wrong enough to make her look twice.
He was above the upper bridge, cut off by his own group of Hunters. Three of them were trying to drag a weighted net across the posts while two more jabbed at him from the side with hooked spears. Toothless dropped hard through the smoke, wings snapping open at the last moment. His plasma blast struck the ground in front of them and threw mud, steam, and broken boards up around their legs.
They scattered, but only for a second.
Another Hunter came at him from the left. Toothless twisted away, tail lashing low, teeth bared as he drove the man back from the travel line.
Astrid looked past him.
Still no Hiccup.
Barf and Belch came in from the other side. Barf filled the space beneath the bridge with gas, thick enough to turn the smoke green. Belch sparked it before the Hunters could push through. The blast rolled across the path and sent them running backwards, coughing behind their shields as fire licked along the wet ground and died out in patches of steam.
Above them, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were on one of Hiccup’s travel lines.
Both twins had clipped themselves to the same pulley, bodies low, knees bent, hands locked tight around the grips as they shot from the upper bridge towards the dome. The line sagged under their weight. Rain ran off their helmets and whipped from the rope as they picked up speed.
A Hunter reached for the support post below them.
Tuffnut dropped the weighted line. Ruffnut caught the other end as they passed over him. The rope snapped tight across the Hunter’s chest and pinned his arms to his sides before he could lift his blade.
“Pull,” Ruffnut said.
Tuffnut pulled.
Together, they dragged him backwards off his feet. He hit the platform hard, and Barf and Belch landed behind him before he could roll clear. Ruffnut dropped from the pulley, boots skidding on the wet boards, and wrapped the line twice around the frame of a fallen net trap. Tuffnut locked the knot with both hands and shoved the Hunter’s knife out of reach with his foot.
Toothless fired again, the charge building in a sharp whine before the blast cut through the rain and drove another group back from the bridge.
Astrid’s eyes darted past him.
Still no Hiccup.
Fishlegs had moved along the bridge and was still dropping sandbags, Meatlug sealing the path below him with molten rock whenever the Hunters tried to push through.
Snotlout was at the stables, both hands locked around his axe as he tried to hold off three Hunters with Hookfang snapping beside him. The twins were still on the travel line, swinging back towards the stable platform while Barf and Belch swept underneath them.
Then the stable roof caught.
It went up in a low rush where the flame arrows had struck the upper boards. Smoke pushed out beneath the eaves, thick and black, and the shrieking inside changed at once.
Snotlout looked back.
“Get them out!” he shouted.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut heard him from above the platform. Tuffnut unclipped first and dropped hard enough to skid on one knee. Ruffnut landed beside him a second later, already pulling at the door bar.
The first dragon hit the doors from the inside.
The bar jumped in Ruffnut’s hands.
“Move it!” she snapped.
Tuffnut grabbed the other end and hauled with her. The doors burst open before they were ready, knocking both twins back as a smoking Deadly Nadder shoved through the gap, wings half-spread and eyes wide with panic. Two smaller dragons forced after it, claws scraping across the wet boards.
Barf and Belch landed across the front of the platform, blocking the path to the doors while the twins dragged the bar clear. Hookfang swung round and drove a line of smoke across the path, not flame, just enough to force the Hunters back from the opening. Snotlout planted himself in front of the doors again, axe up, while Ruffnut and Tuffnut shouted the dragons out into the rain.
Hiccup was not with any of them.
Astrid’s grip shifted on the axe haft. She checked again, faster: clubhouse, lower bridge, huts.
A Hunter came at her from the smoke. She caught the strike on her axe and shoved him away, boots slipping in the mud before she found her balance. Stormfly hit the ground behind him with a shriek and snapped her tail round. A burst of spikes drove into the mud and boards around the Hunter’s feet, close enough to make him stumble back without hitting him. Astrid did not wait to see if he tried again.
She pushed forward through the smoke, wiping rain from her eyes with the back of her wrist. The lower path was half-hidden behind steam from Meatlug’s rock and black smoke from Snotlout’s hut. The bridge above sagged on one side. A rope snapped somewhere overhead, and the loose end dropped into the mud beside her boot.
She checked the clubhouse first. Then the lower bridge. Then the line of huts.
Then she saw the flash of his flaming sword through the rain.
Hiccup was near his own hut.
He was going back for the Dragon Eye.
It could not fall into Hunter hands.
He had made it almost to the lower path with his shield locked open on his right arm and Inferno burning in his left hand. Rain had flattened his auburn curls against his forehead and darkened the two small braids tied at the base of his neck. His armour was slick with water, fitted close across shoulders that had broadened since Berk, his stance lower and steadier than it used to be.
Two Hunters had him boxed in against the mud and the hut steps, but he was holding them back.
The hut was only a short distance behind them, half-hidden through the rain and smoke. The steps up to it were clear for one moment, then blocked again as one of the Hunters shifted sideways.
Astrid started running.
The first Hunter swung for his ribs. Hiccup brought his shield down hard and knocked the blade away, then stepped inside the man’s reach before he could recover. His shoulder drove into the Hunter’s chest. His boot hooked behind the man’s knee, and the Hunter went down hard in the mud.
The second Hunter came in from the side.
Hiccup twisted away from the first swing. The blade passed where his neck had been a moment before. He caught the next strike on his shield, shoved it wide, and brought Inferno across low.
For half a second, Astrid saw the opening.
He could have cut under the man’s guard. He could have ended it there.
Instead, Hiccup turned the edge away and drove the heat of Inferno across the Hunter’s path, close enough to force him back without cutting into him.
Astrid ran faster towards them, axe raised.
The first Hunter tried to get up.
Hiccup saw it. He turned sharply and drove his boot into the man’s chest before he could find his feet. The Hunter hit the ground on his back, breath knocked out of him.
Hiccup stumbled half a step in the mud, caught himself, and dragged the back of his wrist across his cheek to clear the rain from his eyes. It left a dark smear of mud along his cheekbone.
He was already turning back to the second Hunter, shield high, Inferno up, rain hissing against the flame.
Astrid was close enough now to see the mud streak across his cheek. Close enough to see his right hand tighten inside the shield grip. Close enough to see the rain running over the Night Fury mark on his armour.
Then a hand came out of the smoke behind him.
It clamped over Hiccup’s shoulder and yanked him backwards hard enough to break his stance. His right arm dropped with the shield. His left arm pulled wide as he tried to twist free.
“Hiccup!”
His head snapped towards her.
Their eyes met.
The blade drove in low, beneath the back plates of his armour.
Hiccup’s body jerked around the impact. His mouth opened, but no sound came out. His fingers loosened around Inferno’s hilt. The flaming blade slipped from his left hand and hit the mud beside his boot. The flame hissed once, then went out under the rain.
The Hunter kept hold of his shoulder, drove the blade deeper, and turned it once before pulling it free.
For one breath, Hiccup stayed on his feet.
The Hunter let go and ran for the hut.
Hiccup tried to turn after him.
His left hand moved to his stomach first, fingers slipping against the wet armour. Then his right followed a moment later, awkward with the shield still dragging from his forearm.
Blood seeped through the gaps beneath the lower plates of his black armour before his fingers could cover it. It ran between them, dark against the wet leather and dragon scale, over his knuckles and down towards his wrist.
His eyes were still on her when his knees hit the ground with a thud.
His mouth moved once, like he was trying to say her name.
The impact jolted through him, his shoulders pitching forward, but he stayed upright. His hands pressed harder against his stomach, fingers slipping against the wet leather and scale as blood seeped between them and ran over the heel of his hand.
He looked down at it.
For one second, he looked confused.
His mouth opened. His chest hitched as he tried to pull in a breath.
Only a thin, broken sound came out.
His whole body shook.
“Hiccup!”
Astrid was close enough to hear the broken sound when his grip started to fail. His fingers slipped against the blood-wet armour. One hand dragged lower, leaving part of the wound uncovered.
Then he tipped backwards.
His right arm fell with him. The shield struck his prosthetic foot once more, then hit the mud beside him with a dull clatter.
Astrid skidded through the mud and went down hard beside him. Her knees hit first, then one hand, mud splashing up her wrist and forearm. Her axe slipped from her hand and landed somewhere beside her, half-buried in the mud. She did not reach for it. Inferno lay in the mud near his boot, blackened now, rain striking the unlit blade.
She reached for his stomach and stopped with both hands hovering above him, shaking over the blood.
His hands were still there, but they were loose now. His left hand had fallen across the soaked front of his armour. His right lay lower, dragged sideways by the shield still locked to his forearm, fingers slack and no longer pressing. Blood moved beneath his left hand and ran past his right, warm and dark and still spreading.
“Hiccup.”
His eyes were open.
They stared straight ahead past her, fixed on nothing. His mouth was slightly parted. Rain caught in his lashes, but he did not blink. The smear of mud along his cheekbone was still there, darker now against skin gone pale from the cold and the blood loss.
Astrid put both hands over the blood-slick gap beneath the plates and pressed down.
It was warm under her palms. It pushed between her fingers almost at once, slicking her gloves and running over her knuckles. She leaned her weight into it, but her hands slipped against the wet leather and scale, and the blood kept coming.
Pressure. Keep pressure.
“Hiccup, look at me.”
His chest did not move.
She saw it and shoved one hand lower without lifting it fully away. Her fingers found the edge of one plate, then the soaked leather beneath it. She forced the heel of her hand down over the place where the blood was coming through fastest and leaned over him until her arms shook.
“Hiccup.”
Nothing changed.
No blink. No breath. No flinch when her gloves slipped against the wet armour and she had to press down again.
A whistle cut through the rain behind her, sharp enough to pull the Hunters out of the fight.
Boots hit the wet boards at a run. Someone dropped from the lower bridge and landed hard in the mud. Another Hunter shouted from the direction of Hiccup’s hut, and two more broke away towards the trees, one dragging a limping man by the back of his armour, the other with something wrapped tight under his arm.
A cut rope swung loose from the walkway above Astrid and slapped against the boards beside her.
Astrid heard all of it.
She did not turn.
“Hiccup, stay with me.”
She lifted one hand from the wound and put it to his cheek. Blood welled fresh through the space she had been covering, running over the front of his armour before she could stop it. His skin was cold from the rain. She turned his face towards her, careful even then.
His head came with her hand.
His eyes did not find her.
“No.”
Her fingers caught around the strap across his armour and closed hard. She pulled him towards her.
His body came too easily. His shoulders lifted from the mud because she dragged him up, not because he helped. His hands slipped from his stomach and fell to either side of him, leaving the wound uncovered. Blood ran fresh over the front of his armour where her pressure had been.
Astrid got one arm behind his back and hauled him into her lap.
His head fell forward against her shoulder. His chin knocked lightly against the edge of her armour before settling there. His left arm slipped down between them, heavy and loose, and his bloodied fingers dragged once over the mud before his hand came to rest palm-up beside her knee.
For one second, the weight of him against her was familiar.
Then she felt the rest of it. The way his shoulders sagged without holding themselves. The way his head stayed where it had fallen. The way his mouth remained slightly open against her neck, but no breath touched her skin.
“Hiccup.”
She pushed his wet hair back from his forehead. Her fingers shook, and the strand fell forward again. She brushed it back a second time.
“Hiccup.”
His chest did not lift.
His hand did not catch her sleeve.
He did not make the small irritated sound he always made when she fussed over him.
Astrid wiped at the mud on his cheek with her thumb. Once. Then again, harder. Rain and dirt smeared beneath her glove, but he did not blink.
“Hiccup, no.”
She pulled him tighter against her.
He was still warm where the blood had soaked into her clothes. His head was still on her shoulder. His body was still there in her arms, heavy and close enough that she waited for the next breath against her neck.
It did not come.
Astrid held him harder, but his body only settled heavier against her. His fingers stayed slack. His chest stayed still. His mouth remained open against her neck, and no breath came.
Her chest pulled in hard, but nothing came with it.
Her mouth opened, and his name caught somewhere before it could come out. For one second, there was only rain hitting his armour and her hands locked around him.
Then she made a sound.
It came out loud and broken before she could stop it. Her body folded over his with it, one arm locked around his back and the other holding his head against her shoulder. It did not become his name. It did not stop when she tried to breathe.
Toothless heard it.
He was on the upper path, watching the last Hunters run through the smoke below him. His claws were dug into the mud. His wings were half-open. Blue light flickered once between his teeth as he lowered his head, ready to spring after them.
Then Astrid’s cry reached him.
The light went out.
His head snapped towards her.
For a second, he only stared. Astrid was on her knees in the mud with Hiccup held tight against her chest. Blood covered the front of Hiccup’s black armour. Inferno lay near his boot, unlit and half-sunk in the mud.
Hiccup did not turn towards him.
Toothless came down from the path hard. His claws skidded through mud and broken wood, and he stopped in front of them with his body low and his wings still half-open.
Astrid did not look up. The sound was still coming out of her, broken now, caught in her chest as she held Hiccup tighter. Hiccup’s head shifted with the movement, loose against her shoulder, and stayed there.
Toothless stared at Hiccup’s face first. His eyes. His open mouth. His chest. His nostrils flared once, taking in blood and rain and leather. Then his gaze dropped to Hiccup’s hand.
He lowered his head and pushed his nose under Hiccup’s palm.
For a second, the hand lifted because Toothless lifted it.
Then it slipped off his snout and fell back against Hiccup’s side. The fingers were loose and bloodied. They did not curl. They did not search for him.
Toothless froze.
He tried again, nudging under Hiccup’s palm, careful at first, then harder. He licked the rain and blood from Hiccup’s fingers and pushed his nose into his hand again.
Hiccup’s fingers did not close.
Toothless made a thin sound. He licked Hiccup’s hand again, slower this time, then waited with his nose pressed to his palm.
Hiccup always answered Toothless.
Even hurt. Even half-awake. Even angry. A twitch of fingers. A breath against his nose. A weak shove when Toothless pushed too hard. Something.
This time, nothing happened.
Astrid made another broken sound and folded further over Hiccup, rocking once without meaning to, her arms locked around him as if holding him harder could keep him from going any further away.
Snotlout came through the smoke at a run, axe still in one hand, helmet knocked crooked, rain and soot streaked down his face. He came in looking for another fight. Another order. Another impossible Hiccup plan he could complain about when it was over.
Snotlout stopped so suddenly his boot slid in the mud. His axe lowered a few inches, but he did not seem to notice it. For a second, he only stared: Astrid on her knees with Hiccup clutched against her, bent over him and making a sound Snotlout had never heard from her before; Hiccup’s arms hanging loose; blood on Astrid’s gloves and the front of Hiccup’s armour; Toothless still nosing at Hiccup’s hand, trying to make it move.
“No.”
It came out flat.
He took one step closer.
“Hiccup?”
Astrid did not answer.
Toothless pushed his nose under Hiccup’s hand one more time.
The hand fell back.
Snotlout stared at the hand for a second longer. Then at Hiccup’s face. His mouth opened, but nothing came out.
He had seen Hiccup hurt before. After the Red Death, after the crushed leg and the fever that kept him unconscious for weeks, Hiccup had still been breathing.
This was different.
Hiccup’s chest did not move. His lips were blue. His skin had gone pale grey under the rain, making the freckles across his nose and cheeks stand out too clearly.
“No.”
He dropped to his knees beside Toothless. Close enough to see Hiccup’s eyes open and fixed past Astrid’s shoulder. Close enough to see the mud smeared along his cheekbone and the blood still running down the front of his armour.
“Hiccup, get up.”
No one moved.
“Hiccup, come on.”
Astrid’s grip tightened around him.
Snotlout looked at her then. Properly looked at her.
Whatever he saw on her face stopped him.
Fishlegs reached them a moment later and dropped to his knees on Hiccup’s other side hard enough to splash mud across the front of his tunic. The wet fabric clung to his chest. There was no armour over it.
Nothing between him and a blade.
“Astrid, I need room.”
Astrid did not look at him.
Hiccup’s head stayed heavy against her shoulder. His eyes were still open, staring past her, and blood soaked through the front of her clothes where she held him.
“It’s too late,” she whispered.
Fishlegs went still.
“Astrid—”
“It’s too late.”
Her voice broke on the last word, but her grip did not. She pulled Hiccup tighter against her anyway.
Fishlegs did not answer. For a second, he looked at Hiccup’s face, then reached for his neck, fingers slipping once against the rain and blood before he found the place beneath his jaw.
Astrid felt him go still beside her.
Fishlegs did not move.
“Fishlegs,” Snotlout said.
Fishlegs’s hand slipped away from Hiccup’s neck.
For a moment, he stayed where he was, staring down at Hiccup’s face. Then he turned towards Snotlout.
Snotlout was still on his knees beside Toothless, looking at Hiccup like he was waiting for him to move.
Fishlegs reached for him.
Snotlout folded into him at once, hard enough to knock Fishlegs back a little. His face pressed into Fishlegs’s shoulder, then against the side of his neck, and his hands locked in the back of Fishlegs’s tunic.
Fishlegs wrapped both arms around him.
Snotlout made one rough sound against him and did not lift his head.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut came in from the lower path a moment later, still moving fast.
“The Hunters are back on the ships,” Ruffnut said. “They’re pulling away from the south side.”
Tuffnut had one hand on the axe at his belt and the other still gripping a length of wet rope from the travel line. “Do we go after them, or—”
He stopped.
Ruffnut almost ran into his back.
Astrid was folded over Hiccup, sobbing into the side of his head, her arms locked around him. Toothless had lowered himself into the mud beside them, whining under his breath as he nudged Hiccup’s hand again and again. Snotlout was on his knees with his face buried against Fishlegs, and Fishlegs had both arms around him.
For a second, neither twin moved.
Ruffnut looked from Toothless to Astrid, then down at what Astrid was holding.
“Hiccup?”
No one answered.
Tuffnut’s hand went loose on the rope.
The rope dropped into the mud.