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justpeaxchy · 1 month ago

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The Hunt.

Hiccup x reader

Prologue: Being a kidnapped dragon hunter isn't fun. You are a living testament to that. Things seem to turn around for your good, though, much to your luck.

Warnings: descriptions of a few wounds, mentions of blood, being cuffed with a rope, and feeling overwhelmed.

A/n: oh yeah, it's all coming together. (If you know where that's from, ilysm.) New fic..I think. Extra notes: Reader is female in this one and will have a fake name throughout the story... you'll still be able to pick whatever name you wish for the real one, though.

Winter wasn't here yet, it was only clearing its throat - for the most part. Yet, the cold that pierced against your skin would've said otherwise. It felt as though millions of icicles were endlessly stabbing on your body, leaving you to helplessly attempt to wrap your bruised arms around your quivering figure, desperately clinging to the non-existent warmth you earnestly craved for.

The distant sound of waves from the outside crashed against your ears, making a repetitive movement to the begrimed box you were in. That's what you called it, a box. In actuality, that's all it really was. A gigantic box with metal bars, meant for animals. Or, more specifically, dragons; the one species that actually deserved to be in that cage you were forced in. It also smelled rancid in there.

Probably because of the enormous reptiles that were stuck in the same room as you were.

One of them groaned out in discomfort, the the chains that held them down being the only thing that restrained them from blowing the ship up into smithereens. Your eyes warily flickered over its struggling form, the iron muzzle on its mouth being brought together by a measly buckle on the back of its head. Dragons could be so intimidating, and yet, all it took was a few shackles to restrict their confidence.

Your wrists silently cried out in pain as you took your gaze off the beast that was a cage in front of you, wincing at the rope that pricked your besmirched skin. You were used to being the one that tied things up, not the other way around. It brought massive pangs of aching, that's for certain. If only you put some extra effort into getting those ropes on the dragons you were meant to hunt, you figured you wouldn't be in this predicament.

You wondered if they noticed you were gone. They've had to. It's been three days so far, from what little information you gathered by the nuisances that forced you into this box. Your tribe wasn't the biggest, but it was enough to earn the title of a 'tribe.' Your father would have to come sooner or later anyways. It would only be a matter of time before he came crashing into this ship with one of his own, saving you from this monstrous place. That's what you've been telling yourself since you were unwillingly put in a cage, meant for the very thing that brought you here.

It was painfully ironic.

The nuisances that tied your hands hadn't even glanced at the wounds they caused you. They'd taken your only two weapons: your bow and arrow, as well as your dagger, leaving you defenseless - something you despised. Thankfully, they didn't put a muzzle over your own mouth, allowing you to pester them whenever you had the opportunity. That, however, did not make the stinging soreness leave your body; cuts littered across your fingers and your arms, one charming scratch located on your cheek, and weakened legs that refused to cooperate much. You were living the perfect dream.

If that dream ended up being a nightmare you visualized as a child.

Men's voices were heard from above you, coming out as muffled utterances to one another. You brushed it off as normal, not wanting to increase the aggravating headache that clung onto you, attempting to push away the hunger that yelled its complaints from within your stomach. Shifting uncomfortably in your spot, you glimpsed at your tattered clothes, noticing a few blemishes of dried blood in a few places. You grimaced at the sight, miserably wanting to clean off your cuts and bruises and find a new pair of clothing. You hated being unclean, despite the job you were set out to do.

The dreadful thoughts of worrying whether or not the cuts you bore would get infected abruptly came to an end when you heard the same men's voices - although this time, it seemed to be more frantic, much more louder than it had been previously. You narrowed your eyes in suspicion, feeling a spark of hope that your father had come back as you tried to get a glimpse of what might be happening above, the cracks of the hatch door not providing you any evidence as to why they were suddenly shouting warnings to one another.

Before you could try and vainly investigate any further, the echoing sound of swords colliding against one another made you flinch, the familiar yells of war cry being one of the loudest things you heard. The other commotion was despicably familiar. Threatening roars were heard, impossible to ignore, but it wasn't from the dragons that were trapped in the cages with you. "That's definitely not good.." You muttered, your voice raspy from not drinking enough water over the course of three long days.

The ship seemed to rattle at a larger rate, causing you to stumble as you tried to stand up with your feeble legs; your body was doused in inadequate strength, weakly being able to lean against the gelid bars of the cage. The tumult above never came to a pause as you felt your heart pound from within your chest, desperate to know who came to invade the ship. You thought your questions would be answered as the hatch door quickly opened, allowing you to see a man frantically running down the creaky wooden steps with panicked features.

You smacked your lips at the realization that it was just another one of the hunters, blowing a stranded piece of your hair out of your face as you watched him briefly scan each of the cages, double-checking them all to make sure all of the dragons were still in their original spots. He didn't even glimpse over at your direction, his focus strictly remaining on guarding the dragons as they began to roar, trying to escape from the chains that blocked their way to freedom. You were peeved by the man's actions, furrowing your brows at him as you mentally scolded him for coming by himself.

Leaving the atrocious ship was your only priority, but it was hard to ignore the very obvious mistake he made. It proved itself not to be the most intelligent plan as another figure appeared at the entrance of the hatch, swiftly running down the steps with a weapon that glowed with a threatening amount of flames, wasting no time in making the foolish man fall to the ground. The other stranger kicked his weapon in a distance where he wouldn't be able to grab it right away, hastily going over to the cages with a pair of keys he must have stolen, freeing each dragon as expeditiously as he could while the hunter groaned in pain on the floor.

The stranger with the flaming sword was agile in unbuckling the muzzles and chains, nimbly going to another cage as soon as he was done with a previous one. He didn't notice you yet, too engrossed with freeing the dragons out of all things. It wasn't hard to figure out that he was apart of the group you've heard about, the one that was on a mission to 'save' all trapped dragons. It brought a bitter taste to your mouth. That, however, would have to be pushed aside. For now.

You tried calling out for their attention, but combined with the screeches and roars of oversized reptiles and your hoarse voice, it was no surprise that it went unheard. Anxious that you wouldn't be seen, and therefore have no way of escaping, you continued to yell out as loud as you could: "Hey! Over here, flaming sword person!" Oh, how you wished your hands weren't tied together; you could've at least made some extra noise against the bars if they hadn't been.

You doubted the stranger would ever look over at you, all until another person sharply sprinted down the steps, a familiar set of armor adorning their figure, one that appeared to have the same material as the other stranger. In the dim lighting from above, you managed to see a distinct difference in the color, though. "Alright, they're all down and the dragons are freed!" Stranger number two shouted, dodging a dragon as it bolted up next to her, breaking through the wood to finally escape. The rest of the dragons followed, roaring in triumph.

"Good. We need to get going then." Their voices came out slightly muffled, the helmets they wore covering their entire faces as they got ready to leave. Much to your relief, Stranger number two scanned the area one more time, doing a double-take when they noticed you. They frantically tapped on the other's arm, gesturing over to your form as they both looked over at you in surprise.

"How could you have missed that? And, look! There's a whole other dragon over there in front of her!" Stranger number two, who sounded like a young woman, pointed to the dragon that still remained in its cage in front of yours, whining to be free. Shaking her head, the stranger ran over to your cage, inspecting you from where she stood while the other one worked on getting the dragon free, rambling out their apologies in the process. "Are you alright? Can you walk?" The unknown woman asked, not making any immediate move to get you out of the cage.

You cleared your throat before responding, "I'm alive, and it'd be a pretty big struggle for me to walk right now.." Your eyes watched as she turned to the other stranger, who now had freed the dragon. It was quick to leave, darting up in the same way the others had done, not glancing back at the people who helped it even once. She beckoned for them to come closer and, as you listened more carefully and looked them over, the other stranger appeared to be a young man. For a moment, you didn't entirely know that because of his muffled voice.

It sounded a bit odd.

He was about to unlock the cage for you, but the woman extended out her hand, stopping him from continuing any further. He seemed just as confused as you were by the slight tilt of his head, the helmet hiding any other evidence of what he was thinking. "Hold on. Are you..one of them?" She cautiously asked, silently questioning if you were also a dragon hunter.

You were startled that she asked you such a thing, being that you were in a cage. You felt your mouth become even more dry at the sudden confrontation, the small bickering between the two strangers that now occurred going deaf to your ears. Of course you couldn't tell them the truth, they'd probably abandon you here like the rest on this ship. And you knew the only way they must have gotten here was on a dragon, the very creature you were set out to kill. You wondered what your father would think of you if you rode on the back of one of those things.

Being faced with the decision of lying directly to them about who you really were, you internally apologized to your tribe, finding that being alive was much better than having to stick with the identity you placed on yourself because of your job and be left for dead because of it. Your heart ached at the thought of your father, wondering what his reaction would be like when he found out what you were about to do. Not wanting to get stuck down that spiraling hole of worrying, you lifted your head and spoke, raspy voice and all:

"No. I'm not."

When they looked at you as though they didn't understand what you had said, you gave a more detailed answer, "I was..kidnapped, and they, uh, put me down here with the dragons. It's been three days." Your answer was true, for the most part, but you hoped they wouldn't interrogate you any further. An excruciating long second of silence passed as you waited for one of them to open the cage door, beginning to think your response wasn't good enough, until the young woman took a step back. The first stranger took that as his confirmation and he rapidly unlocked the cage, allowing you to take your first wobbling step of freedom.

"Wait, let me get that off you." He gestured towards the ropes that entrapped your hands, speaking with a softer tone as though he were helping an injured animal. You weakly nodded as he pressed a button on the handle of his sword, the flames dying out in a matter of seconds before he carefully began to cut off the man-made prison for your hands. The moment you felt the ropes fall off, you sighed out in content, grateful your wrists could finally breathe. "Alright, she can ride with you, Astrid."

You glanced at the young woman, who you knew now as Astrid, who quietly agreed as she took careful steps closer to you, lifting one of your arms to wrap it around her shoulder, giving you the much needed assistance to walk up the not-so-stable stairs, which were halfway destroyed by the dragons who flew out of there. The other stranger, who's name you still didn't know, walked beside you as well, making sure you wouldn't trip in any form.

The fresh air was your own sip of pure cold water; it brought a faint sense of relief, reminding you that you were still actually alive and would make it out of that ship as such. That peace was short-lived, however, once your gaze settled on the dragons that were still there, although these ones had..saddles. You never imagined the day where you'd meet a dragon rider, nonetheless get rescued by them. You swallowed down the nerves that started to arise in you at the sight of the difference sizes of dragons that stood before you, all of them having someone sitting on top of them as though they weren't completely dangerous.

Your eyes flickered over the ship once more, noticing a Deadly Nadder without someone on it, concluding that probably belonged to one of the people who helped you. Glimpsing at Astrid, though, you figured that was most likely her dragon due to the similar color of armor she wore. "Okay, guys, let's head out!" Stranger number one yelled, signaling for the other riders to leave, which they all did with skeptical glances thrown your way, the freed dragons following close behind. One of them, however, who sat on top of a Monstrous Nightmare, didn't hesitate to voice out his thoughts as he stayed on the ship with them; "Uhm, who's that? You guys just magically come back up here with..a girl? Instead of a dragon? What--"

"She was locked up in a cage, Snotlout. She said she was kidnapped, so we're gonna take her to Berk to get her wounds treated." The young man sounded irritated at first, briefly shaking his head in disappointment at the words the other dragon rider, 'Snotlout', said. He turned his focus onto Astrid, giving a short nod, "Make sure she's fully secure on Stormfly." With that, he took a few steps forward as Snotlout left, calling out for what you assumed to be his dragon: "Toothless! Time to go, bud!"

It was silent for a moment, only for a hauntingly familiar roar to sound in your ears, freezing in your spot as you witnessed a Night Fury appear from behind a cage on the far end of the ship. It was early in the morning, so there wasn't any natural lighting to see the dragon completely, the lamps that hung over a few of the cages being the only reason why you were able to make out its form. Its sleek scales blended in with the darkened sky, dorsal plates faintly glowing in a light blue as it bounded over to the three of you. Large emerald eyes cautiously looked over your figure, as though seeing if you were worthy of his trust, and all you could do was try and become as perfectly still as the pieces of wood that littered across the ship.

The Night Fury huffed, examining you from where he stood next to the first Stranger, looking just as skeptical as the other riders. "It's alright, bud, she...she didn't hurt us. She's not an enemy." You could easily pick up on the hesitation in his voice, knowing that he probably didn't trust you completely - rightfully so. "C'mon, let's go." At his command, Astrid also led you to the Deadly Nadder, lightly patting the dragon before she turned to help you mount it. You intended not to appear as uneasy as you felt, but you didn't do such a great performance. It also didn't go unnoticed by Astrid.

"It's okay, she won't harm you.. her name's Stormfly." She said, hoping to make you more comfortable with the dragon, which did not work at all. Hearing your silence, she continued to guide you up on the back of Stormfly, nodding towards the first Stranger once you were fully settled. She was much more skilled in mounting the dragon, making you even more discomfited. Glancing over at the other dragon rider who had now flown up in the air on the Night Fury, you questioned to yourself why he was so willing to help you. Berk, from what you've been told, was an island full of dragon lovers. That's what you called it, at least.

It made your skin crawl with disquietness.

"You might want to hang on. As tight as you can, okay? I know you're a bit..injured, but once we're at Berk you'll be able to rest there." Astrid brought you out of your hateful thoughts towards the dragons they rode, causing you to begrudgingly wrap your frail arms around her torso, not knowing what to expect. Not a minute later, the Deadly Nadder sprang up from the ship, vigorously flapping down her wings as she propelled herself up to the sky, deftly making long and husky strides towards the rest of the group. You yelped at the sudden impact, not fully comprehending if you were squeezing Astrid at that point. She didn't seem to mind, though, focused on getting closer to the other dragon riders.

The wind rushed past your unruly hair, leaving behind a piercing cold pang across your face as you desperately used what little strength you had left to hang onto the stranger that seemed more at ease than you were, barely only knowing her name. You narrowly heard her speak to you, as she slightly turned her head to glimpse back at your panicking form, "What's your name?"

Despite being on the back of a Deadly Nadder, your mind told you not to even mutter out your real name. Your last name, Arne, would be a dead giveaway as well, so you struggled to come up with a quicker response. Thankfully, you grabbed a hold of the lingering idea in your thoughts, shouting out your answer over the gale that surrounded your senses:

"Thyra! My name is Thyra."

She acknowledged your answer with one of her own, making sure you were able to hear, "I'm Astrid, you've probably heard that by now." Returning her focus forward again, she allowed you to be consumed by your worries once more. Your father certainly did not come back yet, and when he found out you weren't on the same ship as the one you were held hostage in, you pondered on the possibility of him setting out search parties for you.

Instead of hunting down dragons, he would have to go on a prolonged hunt for you.

Suddenly, you thought coming with this group of dragon riders wasn't as good of a plan as you predicted it to be.

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