A/N: Another update today! :D I'm so excited to write this chapter and the next. Heehee ;) :D I've been planning this for a while, a friend gave me an idea for the latter part of the chapter so i'm happy to finally write it! Anyway...here's Chapter 11!
I stare up at the large dragon as it hovers above the ocean, watching, waiting. For what I don't know. In way a way, I never want to know what was going on in its mind, and yet I do. If I knew, we could keep him away for who knows how long. The biggest mysteries I didn't have answers to. How did Hiccup know this dragon? Why did this dragon continue to return?
But then it hits me, the sooner we would start to figure out the answers, the sooner the issue would be resolved. I take my eye off the dragon and talk to Hiccup who is staring at it beside me, "What do we do? What's it want?"
Hiccup hesitates, "I...I don't know."
"C'mon Hiccup," I knew he was lying, he had to be, "you recognized it last time. You can't tell me you don't know what it wants."
"I just..."He looks at me, "yes. We've met before. A mission. But this isn't the time to talk about it."
I frown.
He looks to the ground, "I promise, once this is over I'll tell you everything you need to know."
My stare hardens.
"I promise."
I'm satisfied, "Alright. What do we do?"
For a moment, Hiccup thinks, "Get everyone who was in the academy and bring them here. We can come up with something."
I nod, keeping my numb wrist against my chest and running past the people as they come out of their homes to assist everyone else. Then, the dragon screeches, heading to the homes and firing fire at every single one. I gasp, "Its destroying our homes. Gotta get the academy."
First, I manage to track down Fishleg as he leaves his home and stares at the dragon, "Fishlegs!" He looks at me, I can't run much longer, but stop in front of him. Thankfully I didn't have an attack, and in between breaths I speak "Hiccup wants everyone at the food storage. We're going to try to come with a strategy to get rid of this thing. The academy may not exist, but we need those skills right now."
Fishlegs nods, "You got it." And he runs off towards where I had just been with Meatlug following him. I smile, one down.
Next is Astrid. She is running with the crowd towards the fires, "Astrid. Hiccup wants us," She looks at me, "he believes we can come up with a way to get rid of this thing."
She hesitates.
"Its just once Astrid," I smile, "its the only way we can save Berk from burning to the ground."
It takes a moment, but Astrid smiles, running past me with Stormfly following her. Now the twins. But I knew where they would be. I run up a hill, its getting harder and harder to breath, but I persist. On the top of their house are the twins, staring at the chaos as it unfolds, "Wow," I can hear Tuffnut say, "look at all that fire."
"Yeah. Its wicked."
"I could watch it all day!"
"Ruffnut! Tuffnut!"
They don't answer at first.
"Guys!"
"What!?" The both respond.
"Hiccup needs everyone at the food storage."
"Just a second," Tuffnut answers.
"Now!"
"Okay..." Ruffnut says, and they jump on their Zippleback and fly towards the food storage.
By now I'm starting to feel dizzy, its hard to breath. I try to steady my heartbeat, closing my eyes and imagining the world as if it were nothing but a home of peace. I shouldn't have run...I know I shouldn't have.
When I get back to the food storage, i'm out of breath again, wheezing and coughing. Hiccup is already speaking, gesturing to different places and pointing up towards the sky. I stand beside Snotlout, who elbows me, "Where were you?"
"Walking."
"That's a bad idea," He blurts out, "you don't sound too good. Who told you to do that!?"
I look at Hiccup, but don't say anything. But looking was enough.
"Why'd you send her walking? She can't breath now because of you. First, you kill your own father because you can't train Toothless, then-"
"Snotlout!" Astrid exclaims.
Hiccup glares, "I did not kill my father."
"Uh, yes you did. You're horrible training skills-"
"Can we just focus on this!?" Hiccup exclaims, angry.
Was that possibly why Snotlout wasn't getting along with Hiccup? Sure they rarely got along, but I look at Snotlout and I see something in his eyes. Not just anger, but hatred. Despite Snotlouts own actions in the past, he never truly hated Hiccup. I try to push it out of my mind. focusing back on Hiccup as he speaks, "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Does the dragon have any other weaknesses?"
Fishlegs answers, "The only one noticeable is heights. As you can tell, the dragon doesn't fly very high and any attempt to drives it back closer to the ground."
"Is there any way we can discover weaknesses?"
Hiccup looks at me, "I don't think that will work. We used a weakness against it last time. I doubt it will fall for anything like that again."
"Then what do we do?" Astrid again.
We all look at the monster as it dives towards us, bearing its teeth, getting ready to fire. Everyone runs, ducking out of the way just in time. That dragon came out of nowhere. It pulls up, turning and heading to the ocean.
"Why is it so angry?" Astrid asks, "Hiccup. What are we going to do? We have no options."
Hiccup hesitates, "We do have one."
"What is that?"
"If we can lure it out to the ocean, and make a line so it can't get to Berk without coming at us, we can fire at it and scare it off."
"I don't know," Fishlegs says, "this dragon seems pretty stubborn. It may not fall for it..."
"We have to try," Hiccup notes, "if we don't. It'll burn Berk to the ground."
Everyone agree's, the twins smirk, "Does this mean we get to blow stuff up?" Tuffnut asks, smiling.
Hiccup groans, "No Tuffnut, we're not blowing anything up."
"Well that's no fun,"
"Why can't we blow stuff up?" Ruffnut crosses her arms over her chest, "i mean, its not we're hurting anyone and-"
"That's it!" Hiccup exclaims, "Ruffnut, Tuffnut. You guys are geniuses!"
"Of course we are," Tuffnut responds, "we knew that."
"Hiccup, what are you thinking?" Astrid looks at him.
For the first time in a while, he looks back at her and smiles, "That we can save Berk."
It took minutes to explain the plan, push the dragon towards open sea, take some barrels full Zippleback gas and blow them up with firepower to scare the dragon off. I thought it was a good plan. I could see the look of determination in Hiccups eyes. The courage in Astrids.
Things felt normal again.
"I can't drive," I say quickly as everyone else mounts their dragons. I speak softly to Hiccup, and show him my arm.
His eyes widen, "Maybe you should stay here."
"No," I shake my head, "I can be of some help. I have one good arm. But you're going to have to drive."
"Sure," That was easier than I thought.
Hiccup jumps on Toothles and I follow, getting on Toothless the best I could with one working arm. Hiccup starts barking orders, "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, gather all the Zipplebacks and start filling the barrels. Snotlout, the three of us are going to distract the dragon. Keep it away from Tuffnut and Ruffnut. Astrid, Fishlegs, gather the barrels you can find. When we're ready, Toothless will fire a plasma blast into the sky."
Everyone starts their jobs; Hiccup guides Toothless below the dragon, and then when we are behind it Snotlout begins to mock the dragon, "Hey, ugly." Hookfang fires at the beast, "Oh i'm sorry. Did we hurt you?" He ends by talking like the beast was two, then snickers and flies away. The orange dragon screeches,
"Toothless, plasma blast!" Toothless fires at the dragon before it can react to Snotlout's mocking. The plasma ball hits the orange dragon, and it turns. I swear its glaring, "Toothless, sky!"
We fly high, but not high enough to push the dragon to fly back down to the ocean. Maneuver after maneuver, we manage to barely escape the dragon as it fires.
"The goo!" I exclaim, "its firing goo."
"How much longer on the barrels?"
I look over towards the twins, there are several Zipplebacks breathing gas into the barrels, "They've finished some. Do we start now?"
"Not yet, just a few more minutes."
"Hiccup I don't know how much longer we can last."
Hiccup smiles, "The dragon must have a shot limit. If we wait until it can't fire, then we can signal the twins and get rid of this thing."
"Have you kept track?"
"6. Goo and fire, but that doesn't include the homes."
"It shouldn't be long then."
"No."
Suddenly I feel dizzy. I blink a couple times, and try to clear my mind so its blank.
"Alright toothless," I hear him say, "lets give him a headache."
I can feel the dragon suddenly turn, heading in the direction we had been coming from. Toothless growls, diving up suddenly and then down. My eyes are closed, my good hand grasping at Hiccups waist as we continue these odd maneuvers.
Something was wrong...something was terribly wrong. My eyesight comes back, my suddenly its getting hard to breath. I pray it doesn't happen now, that I don't have a attack. It would be awkward and totally odd to have one in the middle of the battle.
"I don't think it can fire anymore," Hiccup notes, "that's eight. Toothless, time to give the signal." I open my eyes, Toothless fires into the sky. Several riders and their dragons grab a single barrel as we finish our half, "Trap time."
We flip over the dragon, so the orange horror has its back to the wide open ocean. Everyone gathers above, with Toothless continuing to distract the dragon.
Now its almost impossible to breath. We were barely over land, but I was scared. Scared that something bad was going to happen to me, scared that I was going to have another attack. If not, I was coming mighty close. I didn't know where anyone else was anymore, not Astrid, not the twins, not Fishlegs...or Snotlout.
Then, I couldn't breath. A stabbing pain shoots from my wrist up my arm, and that's all I can focus on. My head is growing foggy, my eyesight dizzy. I can't hear anything but ringing, all I sense is Toothless under me as he hovers mid air. I wanna scream, I want to speak. I want to just get out of here and go home. I pray this isn't it, that life for me doesn't end here. But what was I to do?
Seconds feel like minutes, my lungs feel like they're going to explode. Everything is beginning to feel like jello. My legs underneath me are hanging on either side of Toothless, but they do not hold me steady like they usually do. The ringing gets louder, my head is now pounding. I press my hand against my forehead, and I gasp for air. One last attempt to breath; even if it wouldn't happen.
Then I'm falling, and the darkness engulfs my entire world.
I don't know how long my eyes remain closed, but i'm pretty sure i'm dead. I have to wake up, I have to try. But I can't, I just can't.
The light isn't finding me, I'm trapped in the darkness. Why can't I find the light? I couldn't leave the world yet. I had so much I hadn't done.
Suddenly, I hear something. An explosion. A screech. A group of people celebrating in victory. Could this be in a dream? Where was I?
My eyes open and the light finally returns, I look around, my eyesight is blurry but its beginning to focus. I blink, my chest is hurting. Its abnormal, sure I felt out of breath before or my eyesight would be a little blury, but not this bad. My chest had never hurt before.
It takes me a couple seconds to realize a few things outside my aching body. One, I can feel something underneath my head, its propping it up. Second, the air has grown cold. And yet, something warm is keeping me from freezing.
When I come to, I start to hear voices.
And one face appears above me.
Snotlout.
He's looking at me, that desperate, concerned, sad look I saw in him often when something was wrong. Or when he would look at me while he was pursuing Ruffnut. I groan, "Where am I?"
"Berk," He responds right away. I laugh, but start coughing halfway through, "don't do that! Are you trying to kill yourself? You just had a heart attack!"
"Heart...attack...?" I don't remember anything.
"Don't you remember?"
"No."
"You fell off of Toothless and almost died!"
I think, maybe its familiar but I can't remember exactly what he's talking about. Or what I'm doing here, "I don't remember."
The look on his face grows more concerned, he turns to someone, "Someone get Gothi!"
"I...don't...need Gothi," I try to sit up. A pain shoots through my chest, my wrist is in pain as well. I let me body fall, my head resting against whatever was propping it up, "okay...I do."
The pain in my chest is bad, its hard to breath, but in time I find myself breathing easier and easier. But the pain in my wrist isn't gone.
"Did...we drive it off?" I ask, staring up at him.
"Of course we did," Snotlout answers boldly, "that thing didn't stand a chance against Hookfang and me. It was scared the moment is saw us."
Of course I'm tempted to laugh, I want to so bad. Despite the previous problem when I laughed, I laugh a little, "Funny..."
"You really shouldn't talk," Something shifts below me. That's when I realize something. My heads rested against the step near the Great Hall...and Snotlouts arms are around me. It feels warm...but weird. He didn't do this normally.
I had to tell him, I had to try. If I died now, I wold have many regrets, but one would not be finishing what we were speaking about earlier, "No pity..." I murmur looking up to the sky, "Snotlout...I'm-"
"Stop talking. You might have another attack," He interrupts.
But I can't listen, "I'm...dying..."
That takes him by surprise. His eyes widen and he shakes his head, "You're not dying. You just need Gothi. Don't talk nonsense."
"I'm not..." I manage to say, and look over at my arm. The orange discoloration has grown, now all over my wrist and extending a little up my arm. I catch my breath, waiting several minutes before talking again so I speak fully, "...dragon shot goo and..." I swallow, "...it got on my arm. Gothi said...it did something to it...but she...didn't know how...serious," Now was the hardest part, the part i didn't like to talk about, "...she said i'd get sick, die slowly. Or..." I look at him, he's looking at me like he does...when he's concerned, confused, "die quickly."
There. I told him. Finally. After all those weeks of not saying anything, of letting anger and hurt and disappointment stand in my way. I had overcome it. It didn't stop me. I pushed past it.
I made it.
"That's, that's funny," Snotlout forces a smirk, "dying because of a goo spitting dragon. What a story..."
And then there was that.
I glare at him, and after a few seconds he looks at me...and the smirk is gone, "You're being serious, aren't you?"
I nod.
"No...you can't die!" He exclaims, "that doesn't make sense. You can't die."
Something in me wants to comfort him, but I know I can't. All I can do is lay there and watch as panic unfolded. I feel like crying, i feel like letting myself die to keep the suffering minimal for the both of us. But I know there will be suffering no matter what.
I try to stay positive, but I can't, watching him panic scared me. I didn't want him to panic, rarely did he. But I was angry, angry that I couldn't do anything to stop this.
And then I can't breath again. Its not as bad as before.
"Stay with me," He exclaims, "don't die. Just hang in there. Gothi will come."
My lungs feel like they are going to explode, a pain shoots through my wrist. I had one more thing to say, just one more thing before I could leave this world in peace.
The most important thing ever, "Snotlout..." I manage to gasp, I look up at him, "...i love you."
My eyes close. The last thing I hear is his voice calling my name.
Penny!
I stare up at the large dragon as it hovers above the ocean, watching, waiting. For what I don't know. In way a way, I never want to know what was going on in its mind, and yet I do. If I knew, we could keep him away for who knows how long. The biggest mysteries I didn't have answers to. How did Hiccup know this dragon? Why did this dragon continue to return?
But then it hits me, the sooner we would start to figure out the answers, the sooner the issue would be resolved. I take my eye off the dragon and talk to Hiccup who is staring at it beside me, "What do we do? What's it want?"
Hiccup hesitates, "I...I don't know."
"C'mon Hiccup," I knew he was lying, he had to be, "you recognized it last time. You can't tell me you don't know what it wants."
"I just..."He looks at me, "yes. We've met before. A mission. But this isn't the time to talk about it."
I frown.
He looks to the ground, "I promise, once this is over I'll tell you everything you need to know."
My stare hardens.
"I promise."
I'm satisfied, "Alright. What do we do?"
For a moment, Hiccup thinks, "Get everyone who was in the academy and bring them here. We can come up with something."
I nod, keeping my numb wrist against my chest and running past the people as they come out of their homes to assist everyone else. Then, the dragon screeches, heading to the homes and firing fire at every single one. I gasp, "Its destroying our homes. Gotta get the academy."
First, I manage to track down Fishleg as he leaves his home and stares at the dragon, "Fishlegs!" He looks at me, I can't run much longer, but stop in front of him. Thankfully I didn't have an attack, and in between breaths I speak "Hiccup wants everyone at the food storage. We're going to try to come with a strategy to get rid of this thing. The academy may not exist, but we need those skills right now."
Fishlegs nods, "You got it." And he runs off towards where I had just been with Meatlug following him. I smile, one down.
Next is Astrid. She is running with the crowd towards the fires, "Astrid. Hiccup wants us," She looks at me, "he believes we can come up with a way to get rid of this thing."
She hesitates.
"Its just once Astrid," I smile, "its the only way we can save Berk from burning to the ground."
It takes a moment, but Astrid smiles, running past me with Stormfly following her. Now the twins. But I knew where they would be. I run up a hill, its getting harder and harder to breath, but I persist. On the top of their house are the twins, staring at the chaos as it unfolds, "Wow," I can hear Tuffnut say, "look at all that fire."
"Yeah. Its wicked."
"I could watch it all day!"
"Ruffnut! Tuffnut!"
They don't answer at first.
"Guys!"
"What!?" The both respond.
"Hiccup needs everyone at the food storage."
"Just a second," Tuffnut answers.
"Now!"
"Okay..." Ruffnut says, and they jump on their Zippleback and fly towards the food storage.
By now I'm starting to feel dizzy, its hard to breath. I try to steady my heartbeat, closing my eyes and imagining the world as if it were nothing but a home of peace. I shouldn't have run...I know I shouldn't have.
When I get back to the food storage, i'm out of breath again, wheezing and coughing. Hiccup is already speaking, gesturing to different places and pointing up towards the sky. I stand beside Snotlout, who elbows me, "Where were you?"
"Walking."
"That's a bad idea," He blurts out, "you don't sound too good. Who told you to do that!?"
I look at Hiccup, but don't say anything. But looking was enough.
"Why'd you send her walking? She can't breath now because of you. First, you kill your own father because you can't train Toothless, then-"
"Snotlout!" Astrid exclaims.
Hiccup glares, "I did not kill my father."
"Uh, yes you did. You're horrible training skills-"
"Can we just focus on this!?" Hiccup exclaims, angry.
Was that possibly why Snotlout wasn't getting along with Hiccup? Sure they rarely got along, but I look at Snotlout and I see something in his eyes. Not just anger, but hatred. Despite Snotlouts own actions in the past, he never truly hated Hiccup. I try to push it out of my mind. focusing back on Hiccup as he speaks, "Does anyone have any ideas?"
"Does the dragon have any other weaknesses?"
Fishlegs answers, "The only one noticeable is heights. As you can tell, the dragon doesn't fly very high and any attempt to drives it back closer to the ground."
"Is there any way we can discover weaknesses?"
Hiccup looks at me, "I don't think that will work. We used a weakness against it last time. I doubt it will fall for anything like that again."
"Then what do we do?" Astrid again.
We all look at the monster as it dives towards us, bearing its teeth, getting ready to fire. Everyone runs, ducking out of the way just in time. That dragon came out of nowhere. It pulls up, turning and heading to the ocean.
"Why is it so angry?" Astrid asks, "Hiccup. What are we going to do? We have no options."
Hiccup hesitates, "We do have one."
"What is that?"
"If we can lure it out to the ocean, and make a line so it can't get to Berk without coming at us, we can fire at it and scare it off."
"I don't know," Fishlegs says, "this dragon seems pretty stubborn. It may not fall for it..."
"We have to try," Hiccup notes, "if we don't. It'll burn Berk to the ground."
Everyone agree's, the twins smirk, "Does this mean we get to blow stuff up?" Tuffnut asks, smiling.
Hiccup groans, "No Tuffnut, we're not blowing anything up."
"Well that's no fun,"
"Why can't we blow stuff up?" Ruffnut crosses her arms over her chest, "i mean, its not we're hurting anyone and-"
"That's it!" Hiccup exclaims, "Ruffnut, Tuffnut. You guys are geniuses!"
"Of course we are," Tuffnut responds, "we knew that."
"Hiccup, what are you thinking?" Astrid looks at him.
For the first time in a while, he looks back at her and smiles, "That we can save Berk."
It took minutes to explain the plan, push the dragon towards open sea, take some barrels full Zippleback gas and blow them up with firepower to scare the dragon off. I thought it was a good plan. I could see the look of determination in Hiccups eyes. The courage in Astrids.
Things felt normal again.
"I can't drive," I say quickly as everyone else mounts their dragons. I speak softly to Hiccup, and show him my arm.
His eyes widen, "Maybe you should stay here."
"No," I shake my head, "I can be of some help. I have one good arm. But you're going to have to drive."
"Sure," That was easier than I thought.
Hiccup jumps on Toothles and I follow, getting on Toothless the best I could with one working arm. Hiccup starts barking orders, "Ruffnut, Tuffnut, gather all the Zipplebacks and start filling the barrels. Snotlout, the three of us are going to distract the dragon. Keep it away from Tuffnut and Ruffnut. Astrid, Fishlegs, gather the barrels you can find. When we're ready, Toothless will fire a plasma blast into the sky."
Everyone starts their jobs; Hiccup guides Toothless below the dragon, and then when we are behind it Snotlout begins to mock the dragon, "Hey, ugly." Hookfang fires at the beast, "Oh i'm sorry. Did we hurt you?" He ends by talking like the beast was two, then snickers and flies away. The orange dragon screeches,
"Toothless, plasma blast!" Toothless fires at the dragon before it can react to Snotlout's mocking. The plasma ball hits the orange dragon, and it turns. I swear its glaring, "Toothless, sky!"
We fly high, but not high enough to push the dragon to fly back down to the ocean. Maneuver after maneuver, we manage to barely escape the dragon as it fires.
"The goo!" I exclaim, "its firing goo."
"How much longer on the barrels?"
I look over towards the twins, there are several Zipplebacks breathing gas into the barrels, "They've finished some. Do we start now?"
"Not yet, just a few more minutes."
"Hiccup I don't know how much longer we can last."
Hiccup smiles, "The dragon must have a shot limit. If we wait until it can't fire, then we can signal the twins and get rid of this thing."
"Have you kept track?"
"6. Goo and fire, but that doesn't include the homes."
"It shouldn't be long then."
"No."
Suddenly I feel dizzy. I blink a couple times, and try to clear my mind so its blank.
"Alright toothless," I hear him say, "lets give him a headache."
I can feel the dragon suddenly turn, heading in the direction we had been coming from. Toothless growls, diving up suddenly and then down. My eyes are closed, my good hand grasping at Hiccups waist as we continue these odd maneuvers.
Something was wrong...something was terribly wrong. My eyesight comes back, my suddenly its getting hard to breath. I pray it doesn't happen now, that I don't have a attack. It would be awkward and totally odd to have one in the middle of the battle.
"I don't think it can fire anymore," Hiccup notes, "that's eight. Toothless, time to give the signal." I open my eyes, Toothless fires into the sky. Several riders and their dragons grab a single barrel as we finish our half, "Trap time."
We flip over the dragon, so the orange horror has its back to the wide open ocean. Everyone gathers above, with Toothless continuing to distract the dragon.
Now its almost impossible to breath. We were barely over land, but I was scared. Scared that something bad was going to happen to me, scared that I was going to have another attack. If not, I was coming mighty close. I didn't know where anyone else was anymore, not Astrid, not the twins, not Fishlegs...or Snotlout.
Then, I couldn't breath. A stabbing pain shoots from my wrist up my arm, and that's all I can focus on. My head is growing foggy, my eyesight dizzy. I can't hear anything but ringing, all I sense is Toothless under me as he hovers mid air. I wanna scream, I want to speak. I want to just get out of here and go home. I pray this isn't it, that life for me doesn't end here. But what was I to do?
Seconds feel like minutes, my lungs feel like they're going to explode. Everything is beginning to feel like jello. My legs underneath me are hanging on either side of Toothless, but they do not hold me steady like they usually do. The ringing gets louder, my head is now pounding. I press my hand against my forehead, and I gasp for air. One last attempt to breath; even if it wouldn't happen.
Then I'm falling, and the darkness engulfs my entire world.
I don't know how long my eyes remain closed, but i'm pretty sure i'm dead. I have to wake up, I have to try. But I can't, I just can't.
The light isn't finding me, I'm trapped in the darkness. Why can't I find the light? I couldn't leave the world yet. I had so much I hadn't done.
Suddenly, I hear something. An explosion. A screech. A group of people celebrating in victory. Could this be in a dream? Where was I?
My eyes open and the light finally returns, I look around, my eyesight is blurry but its beginning to focus. I blink, my chest is hurting. Its abnormal, sure I felt out of breath before or my eyesight would be a little blury, but not this bad. My chest had never hurt before.
It takes me a couple seconds to realize a few things outside my aching body. One, I can feel something underneath my head, its propping it up. Second, the air has grown cold. And yet, something warm is keeping me from freezing.
When I come to, I start to hear voices.
And one face appears above me.
Snotlout.
He's looking at me, that desperate, concerned, sad look I saw in him often when something was wrong. Or when he would look at me while he was pursuing Ruffnut. I groan, "Where am I?"
"Berk," He responds right away. I laugh, but start coughing halfway through, "don't do that! Are you trying to kill yourself? You just had a heart attack!"
"Heart...attack...?" I don't remember anything.
"Don't you remember?"
"No."
"You fell off of Toothless and almost died!"
I think, maybe its familiar but I can't remember exactly what he's talking about. Or what I'm doing here, "I don't remember."
The look on his face grows more concerned, he turns to someone, "Someone get Gothi!"
"I...don't...need Gothi," I try to sit up. A pain shoots through my chest, my wrist is in pain as well. I let me body fall, my head resting against whatever was propping it up, "okay...I do."
The pain in my chest is bad, its hard to breath, but in time I find myself breathing easier and easier. But the pain in my wrist isn't gone.
"Did...we drive it off?" I ask, staring up at him.
"Of course we did," Snotlout answers boldly, "that thing didn't stand a chance against Hookfang and me. It was scared the moment is saw us."
Of course I'm tempted to laugh, I want to so bad. Despite the previous problem when I laughed, I laugh a little, "Funny..."
"You really shouldn't talk," Something shifts below me. That's when I realize something. My heads rested against the step near the Great Hall...and Snotlouts arms are around me. It feels warm...but weird. He didn't do this normally.
I had to tell him, I had to try. If I died now, I wold have many regrets, but one would not be finishing what we were speaking about earlier, "No pity..." I murmur looking up to the sky, "Snotlout...I'm-"
"Stop talking. You might have another attack," He interrupts.
But I can't listen, "I'm...dying..."
That takes him by surprise. His eyes widen and he shakes his head, "You're not dying. You just need Gothi. Don't talk nonsense."
"I'm not..." I manage to say, and look over at my arm. The orange discoloration has grown, now all over my wrist and extending a little up my arm. I catch my breath, waiting several minutes before talking again so I speak fully, "...dragon shot goo and..." I swallow, "...it got on my arm. Gothi said...it did something to it...but she...didn't know how...serious," Now was the hardest part, the part i didn't like to talk about, "...she said i'd get sick, die slowly. Or..." I look at him, he's looking at me like he does...when he's concerned, confused, "die quickly."
There. I told him. Finally. After all those weeks of not saying anything, of letting anger and hurt and disappointment stand in my way. I had overcome it. It didn't stop me. I pushed past it.
I made it.
"That's, that's funny," Snotlout forces a smirk, "dying because of a goo spitting dragon. What a story..."
And then there was that.
I glare at him, and after a few seconds he looks at me...and the smirk is gone, "You're being serious, aren't you?"
I nod.
"No...you can't die!" He exclaims, "that doesn't make sense. You can't die."
Something in me wants to comfort him, but I know I can't. All I can do is lay there and watch as panic unfolded. I feel like crying, i feel like letting myself die to keep the suffering minimal for the both of us. But I know there will be suffering no matter what.
I try to stay positive, but I can't, watching him panic scared me. I didn't want him to panic, rarely did he. But I was angry, angry that I couldn't do anything to stop this.
And then I can't breath again. Its not as bad as before.
"Stay with me," He exclaims, "don't die. Just hang in there. Gothi will come."
My lungs feel like they are going to explode, a pain shoots through my wrist. I had one more thing to say, just one more thing before I could leave this world in peace.
The most important thing ever, "Snotlout..." I manage to gasp, I look up at him, "...i love you."
My eyes close. The last thing I hear is his voice calling my name.
Penny!