The Rebirth Of A Dragon

Hiccup's Point of View

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The sky split around us in streaks of smoke and ash.

Luna roared beside me, her body a blur of black against the burning sky as we darted through the stone spires that jutted like shattered teeth from the mountain's crown. Below us, the Green Death gave chase-slower, heavier, but relentless. Her wings churned the air like thunderclaps, her fury boiling hotter with every second.

We had pissed her off.

Good.

She charged after us, crashing through the towering stone columns we used for cover. One after another collapsed behind her, shattered by the sheer weight of her hatred.

Luna swooped beneath a falling boulder, flipped midair, and fired-her plasma strike cracking against the queen's exposed belly. I followed with one aimed at her already-damaged shoulder, tearing deeper into the patch of missing scales we'd blown away earlier.

The queen shrieked and twisted, her massive head snapping toward me.

She inhaled.

Flames built in her throat.

I didn't even need to speak.

Luna and I banked to opposite sides as a torrent of fire burst from her maw, slicing upward like a burning wall. But to us-it might as well have been slow-motion. Clumsy. Predictable.

We darted around it, smoke trailing our wings.

"She's burning herself out," Luna growled through the bond.

"And losing patience," I added. "Which means it's time to shift the stage."

She glanced toward me mid-flight, eyes gleaming.

I pointed with a flick of my snout toward the roiling sky above-the dark clouds that hung like a storm waiting to collapse.

"We need space. She's too close to the mountain. We'll force her higher."

Luna snarled in agreement, folding her wings and climbing in a corkscrew around a collapsing pillar.

I pulled back into formation beside her and grinned.

"It's time we take her where we belong."

We rose together.

The winds howled louder as we broke above the shattered ring of stone. The volcanic spires fell away beneath us, and the world shrank until it was only sky and storm.

The clouds above churned like a living beast-black, thick, and full of cover.

Perfect.

"She's not smart," I muttered, "but she's old. She'll feel the shift in pressure, the cold, the pull to retreat. We can use that. Make her think she's in control again."

"And then strike," Luna finished, already grinning in that wild, feral way I adored.

I turned in the sky, hovering for just a moment as the queen's massive body broke through the last of the stone towers.

She rose after us, slower but surging upward, smoke trailing from her jaws. Her injured eye cluster bled dark, viscous fluid that dripped with every beat of her wings.

"Let her come," I whispered through the bond. "Let her feel like she's chasing prey."

The first tendrils of cloud kissed my wings.

Luna vanished into the mist beside me.

We were ghosts now.

Shadows.

And the queen... the queen was blind.

The mist clung to my wings like silk, the sky above a sea of shifting black. Only Luna's presence beside me-her warmth, her rage-kept me grounded in the storm.

Below, the Green Death thrashed upward, wings battering the air as she entered the gloom. She couldn't see us. Not truly. But she could feel us. Two streaks of death circling above her head, darting past in short bursts of shadow and flame.

We were everywhere.

And nowhere.

I shot past her left flank, leaving a trail of plasma in my wake. She turned too slow. Luna struck her right side, just beneath the jaw, and vanished again into the mist.

The queen roared, the sound broken, rattled. The cold was getting to her. The pressure. The confusion.

"COWARDS!" she shrieked into the storm-her voice booming, ancient and gravelly, like stone grinding against bone. "You dare strike from the dark like maggots?! SHOW YOURSELVES!"

Luna laughed in the bond, wild and sharp. "Poor old lizard's finally getting chatty."

"She'll regret that," I growled.

We kept moving-coordinated, relentless. Like predators playing with a half-blind beast.

Then she did it.

She whipped around and spat a wave of flame through the clouds, a wide arc meant to flush us out. It wasn't fast. Wasn't precise.

But it was close.

Too close.

I turned hard, but the edge of the fire caught me-just a lick of it against my side. A flash of heat.

I dipped for a heartbeat, wings stiffened from reflex.

Smoke curled along my flank.

Pain should've followed.

But it didn't.

I glanced at the burn-red, raw, but not bleeding. I knew it was there. I just... couldn't feel it.

Not now. Not with everything in me on fire for something else.

"Luna," I called through the bond, tightening my spiral above the queen, "her wings. It's time."

Her response came like thunder. "Together."

We broke formation.

And struck.

I dove down from above, claws extended, plasma charging in my throat. Luna mirrored me from the opposite side. We passed on either side of the queen's torso, unleashing twin blasts of fire directly into the delicate joints where her wings connected to her massive frame.

The queen screamed.

Her body jerked midair, tilting off-balance. One of her wings faltered for just a breath. That was all we needed.

"NOW!" I roared.

We pulled up and looped sharply-then tucked our wings and dropped.

Straight down.

The queen, maddened by pain and fury, didn't hesitate.

She followed.

Claws extended. Fire curling in her throat. Her ruined wing joint still smoking.

"COME BACK HERE, YOU FILTH!" she howled behind us. "I'LL TEAR YOUR BONES FROM THE SKY!"

Clouds ripped past my wings, wind howling in my ears, but my focus stayed fixed forward-Luna beside me, and death behind us.

The Green Death tore through the sky like a mountain with wings. Her roars shook the heavens, and her body burned at the joints from our last strike. Yet she kept coming. We let her. Each beat of her wings closed the gap.

This was the trap.

We wanted her angry. Blind. Predictable.

And now, we were right where we wanted to be.

I felt Luna's breath in sync with mine, her body pulsing with energy just a few feet to my right. Her mind touched mine-not words, not thoughts-just the sensation of readiness. A bond beyond flesh, beyond reason.

Then came her voice.

"Behind us. She's building it."

I didn't need to look. I could feel the temperature spike behind us.

The wind shifted.

And then came the voice.

"NOW I HAVE YOU!"

Her words scraped the clouds like thunder. Her breath drew in deep, expanding her chest, her throat glowing a deep orange as fire gathered behind her teeth. I heard the rumble in her core. I knew that rhythm.

Gas. Compression. Ignition.

Like every other dragon-she had a tell.

So I turned.

Luna did the same.

We flipped mid-air, wings snapping wide, facing her just as she opened her mouth to release her final breath of fire.

And we fired first.

Two beams of plasma-mine white-blue, hers violet-black-sliced through the air and slammed directly into her gaping maw. Her flames hadn't even left her throat yet.

But the gas had.

The instant our plasma hit, I saw her pupils constrict.

She knew.

And then-

BOOM.

The shockwave cracked the sky.

Her head snapped back with a whiplash so violent it nearly twisted her neck. A chain reaction of fire tore through her throat, igniting the compressed gas still building inside her. Flames shot out from her mouth, nose, even the raw wounds in her sides. Her body twisted violently, wings flailing.

Her roar died on impact.

And in its place-only the scream of fire.

We veered sideways as the queen lurched midair. Her wings caught the updraft for half a second, then tore as the explosion traveled down her joints. One of them-already weakened from our earlier strikes-snapped. The membrane tore like paper.

She dropped.

Luna and I split wide, circling around her descending form. Smoke followed in her wake. Fire spilled from her limbs. One eye socket had caved in from the internal blast. Her body spiraled.

The ground came fast.

And she hit.

CRACK.

The entire island shook beneath her weight. A pillar of fire exploded upward from the impact, rock splitting and ash spewing into the clouds. The sound was deafening-like a volcano erupting from within a dragon's corpse.

The queen didn't rise again.

Not this time.

I hovered there, wings outstretched, watching the crater where her body had slammed into the earth. A pool of black smoke rose from the impact. Her massive frame twitched once-then went still.

Silence.

And then-

A roar broke the silence.

But it wasn't hers.

It was Luna's.

Not one of rage or threat.

No-this one was something else entirely. Wild. Free. Exultant.

A scream of release.

Of victory.

Of liberation.

She circled above the smoking ruin, her form sleek and powerful against the soot-gray sky. Her wings cut through the wind with pride. Through the bond, I felt it all.

The years she'd spent with that voice in her head.

The chains she couldn't break.

The fear she buried beneath instinct and power.

Gone.

Burned away with the corpse below.

"She's gone," she said, softly, through the bond.

Her thoughts weren't vengeful. Not anymore.

They were still.

And for Luna-that stillness was new.

I flew beside her now, our paths drawing closer until our wings nearly brushed.

She didn't look at the crater anymore.

She looked at me.

"She ruled me," she whispered. "Every breath I took... I wondered if it was mine. Or hers. But now?"

She looked forward again.

"Now, I'm mine. Ours."

I didn't answer. I didn't have to.

Because she already knew.

She turned in the sky and nuzzled her snout against my neck, scales brushing scales. Her breath was warm-steady now, not ragged like it had always been after battle.

"Thank you," she murmured. "For setting me free."

"You did that yourself," I replied. "I just made sure she watched."

We hovered together over the burning wreckage of the past.

And it was Luna who said it first:

"No more chains."

"No more control."

"No more fear."

Her voice trembled slightly. But not from weakness.

From relief.

From peace.

From the sudden, overwhelming realization that we could finally begin again.

She turned her head toward me and asked with a playful glint in her eyes, "What now, Alpha?"

A grin curled through my bond before I even spoke. "Now? We build something real. Something that lasts."

"Without chains."

"Without masters."

"Just us," I said.

"And Astrid," she added after a beat.

I laughed.

She huffed affectionately.

We both glanced down once more-not at the dragon who had once ruled her-but at the ashes that remained. They were already fading in the heat, curling into the sky like ghosts.

Let it burn.

Let all of it burn.

The island. The queen. The past.

We flew higher.

The smoke didn't chase us anymore.

And for the first time since Luna had opened her eyes in a world ruled by queens and fire-she was free.

"I'll probably nap for a few days," she teased as we coasted into the clouds. "You'll carry me, right?"

I snorted. "I'll build a throne on my back for you."

"Mate," she said, mock-serious, "I already assumed you would."

We passed through the final layer of smoke, emerging into blue skies, sunlight catching on our scales.

I glanced over at her.

And for the first time, she wasn't looking behind her.

Only forward.

No more watchers.

No more warlords.

No more Green Death.

Only us.

And a future untouched by fear.