Chapter 8

Escape

Hiccup's POV.

"What do we do now?" Heather asks looking around. It's been another two days.

"We wait." I say smirking at the surprise on her face.

"I figure it's about six days for them to come up with plan and start to execute it." I stand and walk to the cell door. "I just need a sharp piece of metal." Heather follows me to cell door before looking at the edges. "I say one thing about the Outcasts they sure can build a cell." I mutter before a guard comes up.

"Alvin wants you." He says opening cell door and pulling me out. I follow the guard watching the route we take outside. I'm shoved roughly into a room to find Alvin scowling at a map.

"Want to tell me why your little dragon is ambushing my patrols?"

I smirk knowing why. "He's weakening you."

Alvin turns to me scowling. "Why?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Why do you think?"

Alvin grabs me by the throat choking me. He glares at me. "I think you are holding out what you know." I struggle to draw a breath and shake my head. I start to tug at this hand and see spots at the edge my vision. "I think that I need show your little pet what happens when it messes with Alvin the Treacherous." I throw a weak punch at his belt. I'm thrown down gasping for breath curling up into a ball.

I speak hoarsely. "You probably won't like what happens."

I draw in another shaky breath before Alvin kicks me the stomach yelling for the guard to take me back to my cell. The guard drags me back there curled up in pain. He deposits me in the cell smirking when he hears Heather gasp in shock.

"Hiccup!" She exclaim kneeling down next to me. "What happened?"

"Sarcasm is my default response." I groan out smirking as I uncurl my hand. "I took a chance." I say reveal the small five inch long metal piece. Heather smiles at me.

"You are insane." She says shaking her head.

"But it's a good insane." I say uncurling my bruised stomach.

"Not all the time." Heather says seeing a bit of blood drip from my shoulder.

"If you keep opening this it's going to get infected." I bite my lip and stand up.

"Now if we time this right. We can get out past their patrols before they notice we're gone." I say watching the guards pass. A second group passes and I quickly start picking the lock. I feel my way through inner mechanisms. It's clicks open and I smirk opening the door. I limp out only to have Heather put my arm around her shoulder help me walk forward.

"Thanks." I mumble weakly. She simply pulls me forward. I direct us through the tunnels and find the cage I'm looking for. I see the Gronckle look up at me happily.

"What are you doing?" Heather asks me panically.

"We need help and he's going to give it to us." I say unlocking the cage and patting the dragon happily. I climb on it's back and hold a hand out to Heather. She hesitates before we than hear some guards yelling and she quickly climbs on. We fly through the tunnels quickly occasionally pausing to let a group of guards pass us. We burst out of the entrance into open air only to be quickly shot down without warning. We fall to the ground and I move quickly removing the net only to be grabbed and turned around to see Alvin grinning at me.

"Not so smart after all are we?"

I simply shrug. "Can't blame a guy for trying." Half a dozen guards surround us quickly.

"Actually since this is my island I think I can." He tosses me to a guard and grabs Heather. "But seeing as you are too valuable to harm further. I think I'll just continue with Heather." She screams and I jam my foot in the groin of the guard holding me.

"Ah!" He let's out a high pitched squeal and I grab the dagger off of his belt and jam it into his neck. The blade slides in easily letting his blood spill onto my hands. I watch his eye grow dark before pulling out the blade with a disgusting suckinng sound. Spinning around I hulr the blade at Alvin. My aim is off and it stabs into his hand instead. He drops Heather howling in pain. He glares hatefully at me only for a plasma blast to impact a group of three guards next to me. I look up to see Toothless jump down and charge another blast. I grab Heather's arm and jerk her up and towards the angry dragon. Toothless blasts the other two guards and let's me get on. Heather climbs on behind me and Toothless leaps into the air leaving a screaming Alvin behind. We get in the air and avoid several nets only an arrow to tear the fabric off Toothless's tailfin. We crash into the dark lands avoiding several trees along the way. I quickly get off and look at the tail fin. I poke a finger through and trace the tear along the fabric.

"They landed of there!" I jerk my head up and climb onto Toothless again.

"Lose them bud." I whisper and he leaps into a tree curling around us. I hear them walk under us and grumble before moving on. After a moment Toothless looks up and let's us down.

"That was close." I say getting Heather to nod "Are you alright?" I ask looking around for more Outcasts.

"I'm fine." She says looking at me. "That was incredible."

I nod and look at the tailfin again. "I need a needle, some thread, and a piece of strong fabric." I say before looking around. Moving silently and carefully we sneak into the nearby Outcast village and I find the forge. Heather and Toothless keep watch while I search for what I need.

"Hurry." I hear Heather whisper fearfully. I pull open a drawer to find a bunch needles and grab a few before taking a piece of leather and a spool of thread. I run out the back and jump on Toothless.

"Find us somewhere quiet bud." I say quietly and he takes out the way we came.

Meanwhile at the docks of Outcast island Trader Johann's vessel pulls up to the docks. There's a group of excited vikings greeting him.

"Yes, yes, I have many wares to sell to you." He says putting down the gangplank.

"May I suggest the dragon riders!" Astrid bursts out from under deck slamming her axe into the neck of the first Outcast letting fall off deck limply. Stormfly follows her out and hit the next to with her tail into the water. Astrid let's loose a war cry and charged forward swinging her axe. Half a dozen Outcasts fall before they get a response started. Stormfly follows her forward lashing out at offending vikings. Ruff and Tuff follow her out brandishing a spear and staff respectively.

"Charge!" They shout charging forward. They quickly making their way to the closest dragon defense tower. Their plan was rather simple. Take out the closest tower to allow Snotlout and Fishlegs to charge in and attack the prison. After that fight through and free Hiccup.

"Take down the tower!" Astrid shouts getting Stormfly to fire on the base of the tower. The twins take part blasting the base. The tower collapses allowing them to take to the sky. They fly towards the prison to find dead Outcasts blasted apart. Astrid land and finds the only intact one. She finds the hole and smiles grimly.

"He's already escaped." Astrid says getting the rest to look at her in surprise.

"Well there's a dagger hole here and Outcasts blown apart. What do you think happened?" Astrid asks looking at them. The rest look around finding nothing.

"Let's get out of here and into the sky." Astrid says getting on Stormfly.

"Where are you Hiccup?" She asks quietly as they take to the sky. Back on the eastside of the island.

"What's going on over there?" Heather asks looking towards the village. I finish the patch job and look up smiling.

"My friends are here." I say getting Toothless to perk up. I hop on and Heather follows me quickly.

"We need to go before I lose anyone else." We get into the sky and Toothless flies towards the village.

"Plasma blast bud. Let'em know we're here." I say and he blasts a tower apart. I see the rest attacking a different tower and fly over to them. I blast past the twins and hit the tower collapsing it. This gets the rest of their attention and pointing off of the island where a tower was destroyed. We fly back to the island as fast as possible making conversation rather impossible. I can barely keep my eyes open when we make it there. Toothless lands and I slide off of only to be tackled by Astrid.

"Hiccup. I was so worried." She says quietly while hugging me close. I hug her back after the shock wears off.

"I'm sorry." I whisper back before letting the terror and exhaustion and pain take me over. I fall to my knees and follows continuing to hug me. I hear the rest of the gang come over and look at me.

"What's wrong with Hiccup?" I hear Snotlout ask only to be hit but Ruff and Tuff at the same time.

"He was captured by the Outcasts for a week what do you think happened to him?" Ruff asks clearly glaring at him.

"It's okay Hiccup I have you." Astrid whispers in my ear. That breaks my last wall down and I start to cry silently. I let all of the fear the pain and hate for Alvin pour out. She just holds me tightly saying.

"It's okay." I briefly hear Heather introduce herself to the other before they decide to go make camp. Hours later I finally stop crying exhausted.

"Come on the others should have camp set up." Astrid says pulling me to my feet. She puts my arm around her and I limp slowly back to camp Toothless and Stormfly following us. We walk in to see the rest of the gang crowding Heather. I sit down and Astrid looks from Heather to me raising an eyebrow.

"I was put in her cell. She's the one who tended to my arrow wound." I say grabbing her hand.

"And she's okay with the fact that we ride dragons?" Astrid asks as we watch as Barf and Belch approach her from behind getting to tense up. After a moment she relaxes giving each head an equal petting.

"She is." I say nodding.

"Alright you need to eat." Astrid says giving me a chunk of bread and some roasted meat. I eat it slowly as to not upset my stomach after having eaten so little over the last week.

"I would have thought that you would be starving?" Astrid says watching me eat. I nod.

"I am but if I eat too quickly I'll just throw it back up. Learned that the hard way." I say before taking another bite. Astrid looks at me worriedly before nodding. After another five minutes I've eaten all that she gave me and I feel my eyes growing heavy.

"C'mon let's get to bed." Astrid says standing up and walking over to Stormfly. She sets up the sleeping bag next to the fire and then helping me take off my leg. I glance at the rest of the gang only to find that they are conversing with Heather.

"Don't worry about them. Worry about yourself right now." Astrid says getting my attention. Disappearing for a moment she reappears with my medical bag and small bucket of water.

"Let me take a look at your wounds." She says and I peel my shirt off and reveal the collection of bruises and smaller cuts. She gasps before shaking her head and beginning to clean the smaller cuts. While she's cleaning my chest and back I look at my hands still coated in dried blood. I recall the light dying in the nameless guards eyes.

"Let me guess." Astrid says getting my attention. "Your default reaction in pain is sarcasm." I look at her smirking slightly as she brushes a tender bruise causing me tense and inhale sharply.

"Sorry." Astrid says cringing slightly. "There's a just…"

I finish for her. "Too many to avoid?" She nods. She clean the rest of the cuts gently before taking the dirty bandage off of my shoulder and cleaning it. She takes a small jug from my bag and puts a soothing salve on it before placing a clean bandage over the wound. With that done she rolls up my pant leg and see's the angry red skin glaring at her.

"How much pain are you in?" Astrid asks looking at me seriously. I chuckle nervously.

"It's not too bad?" I say uncertainly. She narrows her eyes at me and I give in quickly.

"It hurts but only when I do something with it and turns back to a dull ache when I rest it." I say quickly getting her to smile. She gently cleans the wound before frowning at it. I watch inspect it more closely before her frown deepens.

"Did you clean this while captured?" She asks quietly.

"Yeah with all of the medical supplies I had in my room in the main hall." I say sarcastically. She glares at me briefly before shaking her head.

"We need to go see a healer." I look at her frowning.

"What's wrong?" I ask unhappily.

"I just want to make sure it's healing correctly. I don't have much experience dealing with major wounds." Astrid says before putting a healthy dab of salve on it and bandaging it.

"Now let's get some sleep." She says tiredly. I look at her fully for the first time since I saw her again. She coated in blood and looks exhausted. There's a few tears in her clothing and a few scratches on her shoulder guards. I nod and crawl into bed. She quickly follows after shedding her battle skirt and shoulder spikes.

"Uh, I don't mean to interrupt but where is Heather going to sleep?" Snotlout asks hesitantly. I look at Astrid who simply shrugs.

"She and Ruff can share and then Tuff and you share." Snotlout grimaces before nodding.

"Okay. Thanks cuz." He says before walking back to the other group. I look at him surprised before looking to Astrid. She smiles innocently and I raise an eyebrow.

"I may have told them that if they made your life more difficult than it had to be after we got you back I would ensure that Snotlout couldn't have children and that Ruff and Tuff were shaved bald." She says smirking more and more as she explains. She turns over and snuggles in closer. I hesitantly wrap and arm around her waist and she moves in closer.

"Goodnight Hiccup." She says sleepily.

"Goodnight Astrid." I say back and we fall asleep blissfully.

The next morning we wake up slowly and I pull the soft and warm body next to me closer. Astrid begins to wake up and turns over.

"Morning." She says smiling at me sleepily. I smile at her.

"I missed this." I whisper before thinking. She looks at me surprised but smiles nonetheless.

"Me too." She says back getting me to blush more. I take a sniff and can smell the body odor mixed with the coppery scent of blood.

"We should probably take a bath." I say getting her to raise an eyebrow and respond.

"That's pretty bold Hiccup. Asking to take a bath with me." She says frowning a little.

I sputter.

"W-w-w-hat?" I almost shriek out.

"I-I D-d-didn't mean it like that!" I say almost yelling feeling my face grow hot. She bursts out laughing.

"You should see your face right now. You look redder then a tomato." She says in between small fits of laughter. I glare at her trying to myself under control. I decide to snipe back.

"If that's the case then let's go." I say smirking at her. That gets her to stop for a moment looking at me before she blushes slightly and punches me in the shoulder.

"Ow." I say rubbing the spot. She gasps slightly before looking guilty.

"Sorry I forgot you're hurt." I shake my head.

"Nah you're just violent." I say smirking at her. She glares at me before getting out. I sit up and see that the rest of the gang is still asleep.

"C'mon let's go before they wake up." Astrid says offering me a hand.

"Why thank you Milady." I say grabbing it. She widens her stance and pulls me up. I groan as I feel all of my body protest the movement.

"Milady. I missed that." She says smiling. We walk to the nearby creek and she sets me down sitting on a rock next to a pool. I take my shirt off and she grimaces looking at my black, purple and green body. After that I take my pants off tossing them in the pool before carefully sliding in as well. After a minute I look up to see that Astrid is still there. I grow very self conscious very quickly.

"Are you just going to stay there watching?" I ask while grabbing my pants.

"Yes. Someone needs to make sure that you don't drown." She says nodding. She takes out a dagger and grabs a smaller branch before starting to carve it. I shake my head and grab my pants. I scrub them clean before putting them on the same rock that I was sitting on before and doing the same to my shirt. After that I soak in the water for a few minutes enjoying the relaxing neutral temperature. Beginning to move again I scrub the blood off of my lower arms and clean the accumulated grime off of myself. After another few minutes of cleaning I dunk my head under water getting my unruly hair wet. I come back up and clear the water from my eyes only to see Astrid looking at I had done something funny.

"What's so funny milady?" I ask shaking the water from my hair.

"Your hair looked so funny all flat like that." She says amusedly. I fling a little water at her. She jumps back glaring at me slightly.

"Not funny Striker." She says using my new last name. I smirk at her and stick my tongue out at her.

"So afraid of a little water are we Sharp?" She glares at me as I splash water at her again. Without thought her hurls her stick at me. I duck as it goes straight over my head and skips on the water a few times before hitting the other side. I look at her raising an eyebrow. She smirks at me crossing her arms.

"Alright you win milady. Now would kindly help the cripple out of the water?" I ask holding a hand out to her.

"Okay." She says grabbing my hand. Without warning I plant my foot and pull her in. She shrieks as she falls in. I float back laughing as she struggles to get a foothold in the slippery bottom. She finally gets one and full on glares at me.

"I'm gonna get you for that." She says lowly an evil look on her face. I shake my head.

"Gonna have to catch me first." I say gliding back quickly. She narrows her eyes at me and jump shoots forward. As she get closer I duck under the water and push off of the bottom. Moving underwater carefully I go behind a rock and pop up of air.

"Hiccup?" I hear her ask in confusion. I slip back underwater and sneak up behind her. Deciding to have some fun I brush up against her. She jumps looking down only to see nothing there as I had pushed off back to another rock. I do it twice more before I hear a frustrated growl.

"I know you're doing that Hiccup and if you don't come out right now I'm going to give another bruise." I snicker before going under one more time as she looks away. I slip up behind her and grab her sides. She spins around and hits me in the jaws knocking me back with stars in my vision.

"Hiccup!" She shouts worriedly. I feel her catch me.

"I'm so sorry." She says worriedly. I shake my head trying to get rid of the stars.

"It's okay. Probably should have seen that coming." I say rubbing my jaw. "Man you have a mean right hook." I shake my head and look at Astrid who is looking at me worriedly. "Odin's beard I can take a punch from Alvin but you manage to almost knock me out with one hit." I say smiling slightly.

"Hiccup I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. It was a reaction." She looks guilty and I chuckle a little.

"Well I kind of deserved it." I say laughing a little.

"What's so funny?" She asks looking curiously.

"If Alvin ever hits me again I get to say that my girlfriend can hit harder than that." I say snickering a little. She thinks a for a moment before laughing a little as well.

"I'll get out so you can wash and I can dry out a little." I say hesitantly getting out of her arms.

"Okay." Just go behind the pile of rocks and dry out. You shouldn't have your leg on while it's wet." She says nodding. I get out and crawl behind the pile of rocks. The spot is right in the sun and I'm sitting on some particularly soft grass. I start to drift off to sleep quickly and end up napping. Sometime later I feel someone poking my chest.

"Go away sleeping." I mutter out and roll over.

"Alright lick him Toothless." I hear the person say my mind not processing what they said until a large warm and wet splashes across my face. I jump up into a sitting position wiping at my face. I glare at Toothless slightly.

"C'mon bud you know that this stuff doesn't wash out." I fling a little at his face and wipe the rest off. I look around and see Astrid watching with a warm smile on her face.

"What?" I ask curiously.

"The way you interact with Toothless." She says walking over. She gives me my clothes and I get dressed quickly. After that we head back to camp and find everyone up. They are talking by the newly made fire eating.

"Hey guys wondered where you went." Fishlegs says greeting us. Heather grabs two larger flat and thin stones.

"I made breakfast. Hope you guys like fish and bread." She says handing them to us.

"Thanks." I say digging in and enjoying the meal.

"Thanks Heather." Astrid says digging in as well.

"So what's the plan?" Snotlout asks after a minute of silence. I look up and realize that they are all looking at me.

"Well first of all we have to take Heather to her home. Where is that anyway?" I ask looking at her.

"Hilder's Rock. It's a small island on the edge of Berserker and Berkian waters. Trade vessels from both stop there to rest and trade there." She says almost sadly.

"Alright I know it. Should take about a three day flight." I say nodding.

"There's a healer there as well Right?" Astrid asks looking at Heather.

She nods and looks at me. "You should have those wounds looked at." I nod.

"I'm not about to disagree." I say taking another bite.

I'm stiff and sore all over and my stump hurts like hell. But a leader has to be strong and an example.

They all look at me in surprise. "You're agreeing to go see a healer?" Fishlegs asks tentatively. I nod.

"Well you must feel as bad as you look than." He says shaking his head. I rock my head back and forth before answering.

"Kind of. Leg hurts but what else am I going to do." I say shrugging.

"Also we need to vote on a name for our tribe." I say getting the others to nod slowly.

"So I came up with the most logical name for them." I say only to be interrupted by Snotlout.

"The Lout tribe." He says getting everyone to look at him like he's crazy.

"No. The Rider tribe. Small but powerful." I say the others to consider this.

"Who's the chief?" Ruffnet asks looking around the group.

"The chief when needed will be Hiccup obviously." Astrid says getting the twins to nod.

"Hey! What about me?" Snotlout asks looking insulted.

"Were you the first person to train a dragon?" Astrid asks looking at him like he was stupid.

"Did you save all our butts from the Outcasts getting captured in the process?" Tuffnut asks rolling his eyes.

"Do you ride the offspring of lightning and death itself?" Ruffnut asks getting Snotlout to raise his arms in surrender.

"With that decided according to Arcipelago law we are now a tribe." I say smiling.

"Only the heir of a tribe's chiefdom can form a new tribe." I say seeing the confused looks on the others faces.

"Oh." Snotlout says nodding slowly. "So now what?" I shrug.

"We find an island and settle there. Preferably one that Vikings can't get to without a dragon." With that settled I finish my meal and we pack up. I grab my bag and attach it to Toothless's saddle before attempting to climb on.

"Not a chance dragon boy." Astrid says stopping me. I look at her in confusion before she climbs on fitting her foot into the foothold and looking at me expectantly.

"You get on. I'm flying Toothless there before you technically shouldn't even be standing. Now on." She says sternly. I can the twins and Snotlout snickering behind me.

"I can fly my own dragon Astrid it doesn't take that much effort to do so or put that much pressure on it." I say crossing my arms. She looks at my stance.

"How much weight are you putting on your leg right now?" She asks quietly.

"I'm fine." I say shaking my head.

"How much?" She asks and I shake my head. She gets off Toothless and walks up to me.

"I get it okay." She says quietly enough that the others can't hear. "You don't want to seem weak to them. You want to be a leader who is invincible and knows what they are doing. Even when you have no clue what is going to happen next and you're just doing your best to roll with the punches." I look down and uncross my arms.

"I am their leader. If I am weak then they came out here for nothing." I say quietly.

"Even a good leader know when to take a break. Especially after losing a limb and being held captive by the Outcasts. Even your-" I frown sharply. "Even Chief Stoick took a break occasionally. Can you do that for me? Please?" Astrid says getting me to nod. I sigh heavily.

"Okay milady. For you I will do my best to take it easy and heal." With that we climb on Toothless and take off. The others follow quickly Heather riding with Snotlout to her displeasure. Stormfly follows us closely watching over Astrid.

The Rider tribe taking flight for the first time as a whole.