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“Astrid, look out!”
Astrid jerked her head to the side just in time to see the net come flying towards her. It tangled itself around Stormfly’s wings, causing them both to fall like a rock. Astrid managed to disengage herself from the saddle, but what did that help? She was still falling.
“Hiccup!” It was almost a reflex; calling out like that, but as soon as she did, it was a matter of when, not what. In less than a heartbeat she felt her arms being grabbed by a Night Fury. As they circled back toward the splintered structure that had attacked them, Toothless looked down at her and Hiccup’s muffled voice came from above.
“You okay, Astrid?”
“Yeah, I’m fine. Thanks.” And they moved on. Astrid was ready to face what ever met them. She knew she was safe.
~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~0o0~
Valka watched in horror as the gentle, protective beast she had lived under for twenty years was brutally murdered right before her eyes. And there was nothing she could do. She closed her eyes and her grief turned to fury as she heard the Challenger bellow out its victory call, summoning all the wild dragons to its command. Valka turned Cloudjumper towards the place she had last seen Drago; he would pay for the pain he had caused.
As she flew in his direction, however, Valka heard Drago shout something and saw him point his staff directly at her. She barely had time to glance back before the Challenger spewed its icy breath right behind her. Valka tried to jerk Cloudjumper out of its path, but she immediately felt an unusual weight hanging from her dragon’s tail, making it almost impossible for him to maneuver.
Valka held on as best she could, but, with Cloudjumper doing all he could simply to stay aloft, he couldn’t dodge the dragons that were flocking to the new Alpha’s call. Valka saw a tail headed straight for her, and there was nothing she could do. The tail hit her square in the chest, knocking her feet off her dragon and making her claw at his scales to keep from falling.
Cloudjumper unintentionally circled back near the Alpha, and it made ready to attack them again. Cloudjumper jerked to the side, causing one of Valka’s hands to lose its grip on the scales. Almost immediately her other hand gave out and she was falling.
Fear gripped her chest. Under normal circumstances, she would have called out for Cloudjumper immediately, but not this time. She was alone. No one was coming to rescue her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the ground coming closer at an alarming rate. Then suddenly, it stopped. Something hit her, knocking the breath out of her lungs and wrapping around her. She was still moving, but not downward, sideways. Valka glanced quickly at the face of the person who was saving her and then caught her breath. Emerald green eyes. She had seen those eyes before, a long time ago, but she’d given them up, they didn’t belong here. Valka would never have dreamed of calling out his name, she had no right. Yet here he was, swooping in and saving her.
They crashed into the side of the mountain and Stoick reached out his ax to slow them as they skidded down the wall. Valka felt herself being spun out and pulled back in, just like a dance. She was spun into his arms, and even though she knew she had done nothing to deserve it, Valka was the safest she had been in twenty years.