13. Anything Grows

Hiccup found Toothless wandering the village when he got back.

Now that Antonio had “tamed the beast” the dragon was apparently quite popular with the town. Hiccup caught him trotting at a leisurely pace, being followed by a gaggle of kids who all seemed captivated by him. Random villagers would hand him snacks, which he voraciously accepted. And various passerby would stop just to pet him for a moment.

Judging by his smug expression, he was clearly enjoying this attention.

As Hiccup approached, the Night Fury warbled in excitement and bounded towards his rider. Briefly spooking the old woman who was petting him.

He gave the dragon some affectionate scratches. “Hey there, Mr. Big Shot Celebrity! Someone’s popular!” As he continued to pet his friend, a trio of teenage girls ran up to them.  All three of them cooing at the Night Fury.

“Oh my gosh, he’s so cute!” “Can we pet him?” “He’s like a dog with wings!” As the girls doted on him, the dragon regarded Hiccup with half-lidded eyes and wiggling eyebrows.

Smug Lizard…

Leaving Toothless to his adoring fans, Hiccup headed to the forge. Ignacio was still sleeping off the party, and hadn’t given the boy anything to do. So he figured he’d finally start work on that new tail-fin, to keep his mind too occupied to worry about Mirabel.

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As he finished the tail-fin’s blueprints, Hiccup noticed a sizeable group of people walking by the forge. Carrying a very congratulatory looking banner. He figured it was for a birthday or something, and got back to work.

A short while later, he was hammering away at some metal to construct the skeletal structure for the tail-fin. Abruptly, lightning flashed. And the bright sunny evening was drenched in cold rain. The shift in weather didn’t surprise him, not anymore. Instead, he wondered just what had upset Pepa this time. Knowing how…volatile the woman could be, he figured it would blow over soon enough, and got back to work.

He finally had to put his work on hold when a cactus exploded from the floor.

Removing his safety gear, he stepped outside to see the town was absolutely covered in plants. And even more greenery was sprouting at a rapid pace. He saw people starting to panic as vegetation spurted from the ground, the walls, anywhere. No place was safe. He found Toothless where he’d left him, making frantic screeches at the plants appearing around them. Hiccup tried to soothe him, while feeling pretty frantic himself.

His confusion caused his nose to crumple as he ogled to invading flora. He knew of only one person who could do this, but why would she? Was Isabela tired of pretending to be nice, and starting a hostile takeover?

He looked into the distance to spot Casita, where the plants seemed to be coming from. Was this the house’s doing? All sorts of vines and strange flowers were bursting out of it, and if he squinted his eyes, he could swear he saw two people moving about on the house’s rooftop.

A yelping diverted his attention, as he looked to see some poor guy had gotten punched in the nose by a vine. It wasn’t just him either, the plants were getting out of control. Flowers overtaking wagons, cacti mangling market stands. Toothless took a particularly pointy aloe leaf right to the backside. It was madness.

He watched in fear as a tangle of huge thorny vines burst from the ground, completely covering someone’s home. With her child inside.

The townspeople scrambled, looking for an axe or a hatchet or a larger than usual kitchen knife. Anything to break the child free before the vines could do more damage. The little boy, no older than three, was crying his eyes out. And his mother was trying her best not to breakdown with panic.

A thought then struck the boy.

Unlike the houses on Berk, these houses weren’t made of wood.

They wouldn’t burn.

Wasting no more time, he shouted for everyone to back away from the vines. It took a few tries. But eventually the uncharacteristic authority in the teen’s voice compelled the crowd to obey his command.

He knelt down to a gap between the vines, and spoke directly to the wailing child. He spoke softly, and calmly. “Hey, kiddo. I’m gonna get you out of here, but I need you to move back. Okay?” The toddler’s crying softened to sniffles, but he still looked unsure. Hiccup tried his best smile, despite his stress, to reassure him. “It’s gonna be okay! You need to be brave now, like a big kid. You’re a big kid, right?” Hesitantly, the toddler nodded, and stepped back a safe distance.

The child secured, he turned to his reptilian friend. Intensely pointing at the menagerie of vines. “Toothless, plasma blast!” The dragon immediately began charging his flame, and Hiccup quickly had to correct himself. “A SMALL ONE! A small blast, bud! We don’t need any collateral damage…” Ceasing his original charge with a grumble, the dragon started a much smaller burst and shot the pulse at the vines. Resulting in a miniature bright purple explosion.

Upon being struck, the vines erupted into flame. Disintegrating into ash like paper caught by the ember of a candle. Just as Hiccup thought, these houses made of brick and stone wouldn’t burn to cinders. The very moment the path was clear, the child’s mother rushed in and scooped him up in a crushing hug. She thanked the scrawny teen profusely, both parent and child crying buckets, as he awkwardly tried to assure her it was fine.

These people really weren’t accustomed to danger, were they? Hiccup was used to dealing with life-threatening circumstances every week.

With that issue taken care of, the boy and his dragon scurried around the town. Seeing who else needed assistance. Luckily, there weren’t too many more hazardous situations. And no new plants were sprouting either.

It would be quite the cleanup, but it seemed the worst of it was over.

Then the ground gave a massive shudder, buildings rumbled, people fell to the ground...

And Hiccup was swallowed into the earth...

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The feeling of weightlessness. The air blowing through your hair, the wind rushing in your ears. The strange sensation of the ground not being planted firmly below your two feet. It wasn’t new to Hiccup. In fact, he loved it.

One of the few remaining good memories he had of Berk was that first test flight he attempted with Toothless. He was hopelessly in love with the act of flying.

Hiccup was not flying.

He was falling.

In an instant, he was dropping down a deep, dark pit. A crevice that definitely hadn’t been there before.

Thought evaded Hiccup in this time, too stunned from the abrupt shift for his mind to properly register what was happening. Only one, primal question remained present in his subconscious.

“Is this how I die?”

Suddenly, a shadow blotted out the bright light of the surface world that was rapidly distancing itself. The shadow, a large reptilian figure, dived towards the boy with record breaking speed. Grabbing hold of him with his claws, Toothless quickly spread his wings. Catching an updraft, and rocketing the two back to the light. The dragon clutched his friend tightly as they hit the ground and tumbled to a stop.

Hiccup didn’t even have time to catch his breath, as another quake hit. He quickly stood, leaning on Toothless as he tripped a bit, and tried to get his bearings.

In front of them was a ginormous crack in the ground, splitting throughout the entire town. Hiccup shuddered as he realized that’s where he’d just been, and he gave Toothless a grateful pat.

People were panicking, even more than they were with the plant fiasco. And when he heard that mighty boom, and turned to see one of the majestic and imposing mountains protecting the Encanto just…split apart. Like it was nothing. That’s when he knew.

The magic was dying.

Stricken with fear, he hopped onto Toothless’ back. The Night Fury understood the objective without needing to be told.

They had to find Mirabel, and make sure she was okay.

They had to make stops along the way. Pushing people out of the way of falling debris, helping villagers up out of holes or from under fallen rubble. Just helping where they could.

As the quakes got more drastic, Hiccup knew they didn’t have any more time to spare.

They pushed through the frenzied crowd, Toothless effortlessly bounding over wreckage and weaving through the damage.

They saw their destination approaching, the house on the hill.

Just a bit more.

"Come on, bud! Come on!" At his rider's urging, Toothless sprinted even faster.

They were almost there-

And then Casita fell.