chapter 18

'I hope Hiccup is alright..' I thought as I laid in the cage the Vikings locked me up in.

There was no point in transforming to get out of the shackles. It would just make them question how I got out of them without damaging them in any way.

I sighed and closed my eyes to get some rest, but they shot back open a second later as the cage opened. A few Vikings came in and rolled the platform I was on out of the ring and to the docks.

I looked around for Hiccup as they were taking me through the village, but I couldn't see him anywhere. That made my fear skyrocket. I shrank into the platform with my earplates flat against my head.

'What's going to happen to me? Are they gonna kill me? Push me into the ocean to drown?'

They got me onto one of the boats and the chief came up to me and grabbed the shackle around my throat.

"Lead us home, Devil." He ordered me as the ship left the docks.

I whined and shrank back as much as I could.

'This is worse than death..he's making me take them to the Nest!'

~~~HTLANF~~~

Once I got my emotions under control, I went out to a cliff that looked over the docks. My anger rose a bit when I saw Kala loaded onto one of the boats, but I took a deep breath to calm down.

I stayed there watching the boats leaving. I was so focused on keeping my eyes on the one leading everyone to their doom that I didn't even notice Astrid walk up to me.

"It's a mess. You must feel horrible. You've lost everything. Your father, your tribe, your best friend…" She listed off. I glared at her.

"Thank you for summing that up. I had no idea I lost my best friend and was exiled from Berk. Thank you so much Astrid." I could feel the sarcasm dripping from my words.

Astrid sighed. "Look. I get this situation is not the best, but you could at least drop the sarcastic attitude."

I rolled my eyes and sighed as I looked at the shrinking boats.

"None of this would have happened if I had just killed him in the forest..but if I did that then my life wouldn't have changed for the better.."

"It would have been better for everyone if you did kill him though. The rest of us would've. So why didn't you?" She asked.

"I already told you why."

"There's more to it than just your life changing for the better. Why didn't you kill Toothless?"

I groaned and ran a hand through my hair. "I don't know. I couldn't."

"That's not an answer."

I glared at her with my fists clenched.

" Why is this so important to you all of a sudden?"

Astrid crossed her arms with a determined look in her eyes.

"Because I want to remember what you say, right now ."

"Oh, for the love of–I was a coward! I was weak! I wouldn't kill a dragon!" I exclaimed.

"You said 'wouldn't' that time."

"Whatever! I wouldn't! Three hundred years, and I'm the first Viking who wouldn't kill a dragon!"

"First to ride one, though."

'First to fall in love with one, too..' I thought.

"So..?" She asked.

I sighed and looked at the ocean again. "...I wouldn't kill him because he looked as frightened as I was. I looked at him, and I saw myself."

"I bet he's really frightened now. What are you going to do about it?"

I stayed quiet for a bit messing with my vest. I shrugged as I looked at her.

"Eh, probably something stupid."

Astrid stifled a laugh. "Good. But you've already done that."

My eyes widened as an idea popped into my head and I smirked starting to head to the Kill Ring.

"Then something crazy!"

" That's more like it!" Astrid shouted excitedly as she followed me.

'Don't worry Kala. I'll save you. I promise.'

~~~HTLANF~~~

As we slowly sailed through the fog, I tried my best to tune out all the Vikings that were sailing to their doom. Although, after a while it was because the ringing in my head got worse the closer we got.

As we drew nearer and nearer, my brain grew fuzzy to the point that all I could think about was the noise in my head. It got so bad that I didn't even notice I actually did lead the boats to the Nest.

~~~HTLANF~~~

I told Astrid my plan and she ran off to get the other teens. When she was doing that, I went into the Kill Ring and let out all of the dragons and got materials we would need to hold on.

The Monstrous Nightmare nudged me in greeting when it was let out and I smiled.

"Hey. Wanna help get Kala back?" I asked it as I scratched its snout.

It purred and nudged me again. I smiled wider and hugged it.

"Thank you."

The Nightmare pulled me closer with its talons as a way of hugging me back. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the moment.

~~~HTLANF~~~