My eyes opened slowly and I felt dizzy as my pupils adjusted. When they did, I saw two faces I thought I'd never see again.
Right in front of me were two of the most important people in my life, Astrid and Toothless.
“Is this real?” I said in a coarse whisper, squinting in the light. It might have seemed dark to Astrid but for me it was like being in daylight compared to the dark abyss of unconsciousness.
A tear escaped Astrid's eye. “Yes!” was the only thing that she said before she wrapped me in the tightest hug she'd ever given me. I put my shaky arms around her too, my eyes welling up with tears at finally being given something other that punches.
I wanted to say so many things that were going through my mind at this point, but I just said one thing: “Thank you.”
She pulled away from the hug, wiping her eyes. “For what?”
“Being here.”
She smiled and was about to say something, but Toothless interrupted her and started licking all over my face, covering me in Night Fury saliva. I laughed and wrapped my arms around his neck, my eyes starting to well up with tears again.
Even though I'd told Astrid to stay on Berk, I wasn't angry at all. I was happy to finally be given something other than violence.
“Let's get out of here,” she said as she helped me to stand up. I stumbled almost immediately, having practically forgotten what it was like to walk in freedom.
As we made our way slowly towards the door of the cell, part of me felt that this was too good to be true. Savage might be brutal and completely nuts, but he was clever. Why had it been so easy for Astrid to find me and Toothless? Did he know she was here? Did he have a plan to capture her too?
I immediately blocked this out of my mind. No, I wouldn't let anything happen to Astrid too.
But maybe there was nothing I could do to stop it?
A few more steps and we were on our way down the tunnels. But, of course, fate never makes things easy.
Just as Astrid reached for the door, it slammed shut, almost cutting her fingers off. This was so sudden and unexpected we weren't sure if it had actually happened or not.
“Ha ha!”
Behind the door came the sound of someone cackling maniacally, and a little window opened to reveal Savage's grinning face. Astrid hadn't seen him without his mask before, so she didn't know it was him until now. Despite his black, beady eyes, she never forgot a face.
“Savage!” she yelled, punching and kicking the door. “Let us out RIGHT NOW, or-”
“Or what?” he asked smoothly. “You'll break your knuckles while trying to break down this door? Well, I'm afraid to say that that would inconvenience you more than me, dear Astrid.”
Toothless growled menacingly, but withdrew himself immediately as the end of a crossbow was pointed at him through the small window. From the marks on his legs and tips of his wings, I could see that he had suffered from a crossbow during his stay here, and didn't intend on being shot again.
As Savage pointed the crossbow at Toothless and grinned at Astrid's fury, I felt a large pain inside me: guilt. This was my fault. I had given myself up to Savage in order to protect the villagers of the now destroyed island, only to have them killed anyway. I had been beaten. Toothless had been scarred as well. And to top it all off, Astrid was now in Savage's clutches as well.
This was my fault.
I tried to block out the feeling, knowing that this was exactly what Savage wanted, but it was hard.
Since Savage had arrived a few minutes ago, I had been silent, so when I finally said something, everyone was rather shocked.
“I,” I said, slowly bending down and reaching towards my prosthetic foot. “am the Chief...” I silently knelt down and started fiddling with the strings connecting my prosthetic to my actual leg. “And a Chief...” In one swift movement, I removed my metal foot and stood back up again. “Protects...” I wobbled a bit from the lack of support on my left side, but I gained my balance quickly. “HIS PEOPLE!”
I rammed my prosthetic into the wooden door, causing it to splinter almost immediately. I had made my metal leg out of Gronckle Iron, the toughest metal known in the archipelago, and it wasn't long until there was a gaping hole in the door.
“STOP THEM!” yelled Savage, shooting his crossbow wildly in the commotion.
Knowing what I was going to do, Astrid had grabbed her axe and had been chopping at the door too, and once there was a hole big enough, Toothless had shot a plasma blast through it, knocking out three soldiers at once.
I hurriedly put my prosthetic back on and, with one strong kick, Astrid got rid of the remains of the door, meaning we could easily get through.
“STORMFLY!” yelled Astrid.
Stormfly, who had been half-sleeping behind the rock waiting for her rider, heard her call despite the distance of the tunnels. She shot down the big metal door separating the Whispering Death tunnels to the man-made ones and as quick as lightning she was by Astrid's side.
The Nadder shot spines at the guards running after them, who obviously weren't good at shooting while running. Stormfly, however, had a very good shot.
I mounted Toothless and Astrid quickly got up on Stormfly's back too, and she lead the way to the opening of the tunnel. Because Toothless' tail had been removed, he couldn't fly, so he had to run as fast as he could to keep up with Stormfly. He was slowed further by having to turn round occasionally and shoot a plasma blast, but he still managed to keep up.
“STOP THEEEEEEEEEEEEEM!!” Savage practically shrieked as we exited the tunnels.
As we approached the edge of the island, I thought for a second. How were Toothless and I going to escape if he couldn't fly? Had it all been for nothing?
The Night Fury spun round, his mouth glowing blue, and I took out Inferno, so we were ready to fight if we had to.
“Look out below!”
Wait, was that-
“MOM?!” I shouted in surprise, as a blaze of fire appeared around us and we saw Cloudjumper fly past. Once we were completely protected by the flames, Mom brought Cloudjumper to a half just above us.
“Need a lift?” she asked cheerily.
“What do you think?” I grinned as the Stormcutter picked Toothless and I gently up in his claws.
Astrid had gone on ahead a little way and was waiting for us out of arrow range, and when she saw Mom, she was just as surprised as I had been.
“How did you find us? And how did you know we were in trouble?” she asked.
Mom laughed. “When you and Hiccup both disappeared at almost the same time without saying a word, something had to be up. And a mother can always find her hatchling!”

Cloudjumper glided gracefully back to Berk, with Mom, Astrid and I on his back. Stormfly was flying alongside him and he was holding Toothless in his claws. Some might have thought he didn't like being held in a Stormcutter's grip, but my dragon was enjoying being able to glide through the air without needing to use any energy.
“Who is this Savage?” Mom asked me as she dabbed at the cut on my cheek with a wet cloth.
“He used to be an Outcast, then switched to a Berserker, and now he's ended up with his own tribe!” I replied, wincing every now and then at the sharpness of the cloth. “And as you can see, he likes violence- ow!” She accidentally pressed down too hard and I pulled away from her hand.
“Sorry,” Mom said as she continued more gently. She gave the cut a quick wipe and stuck a bit of cloth on it and the burn with some sort of paste that smelt like thyme. She proceeded to bandage up the cut on my arm and smiled at me. “You're strong for holding out that long, you know, Hiccup.”
At this, Savage's words came echoing back into my mind.
You are WEAK. You always have been and ALWAYS WILL BE!
I shook them out desperately, not wanting to believe them. But a part of me still thought I wasn't the chief Berk deserved.

As Cloudjumper landed on Berk, a group of Vikings immediately came and surrounded us and a flood of questions could be heard.
“What happened?”
“Are you all okay?”
“Why is your face beaten up, Chief?”
Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins and Eret pushed through the crowd, followed by their dragons.
“Was it Drago? Is he back?” asked Fishlegs, turning white.
I shook my head. “No, although I wish it was. We'd know how to fight back. But unfortunately, this was someone completely different.” I took a deep breath. “Savage is back.”
To my shock, the riders all started laughing. All except Eret, of course, because he didn't know who Savage was.
“Savage?!” Tuffnut said through tears of laughter. “That guy's butt was kicked years ago! Even if he did come back we'd just kick it again!”
“Yeah, that guy's pretty dumb without Dagur or Alvin!” Snotlout added.
“You call THIS dumb?” I peeled off the cloth off my burn and showed it to them.
They immediately went silent.
“So his butt wasn't kicked?” asked Ruffnut.
“Not even close,” said Astrid.
“He's back, and he's worse than Dagur or Alvin ever were.” I stuck the cloth back on my cheek again, the cold air of Berk starting to make it sting. “Not quite as bad as Drago, but close.”
“Is he coming to Berk?” asked Snotlout.
“He wants revenge, that's for sure, but I don't know if he's actually coming to Berk yet,” I replied, my mouth fixed into a determined line. “But if he does, it might not be at night like Alvin, or with an armada like Dagur. It could be in broad daylight for all we know. Which is why we need to be ready,” I took a deep breath. “Berk is going under siege. No one goes in, no one goes out.”