Chapter Three
When Hiccup woke up it was dark, nearly pitch black. His head hurt, and he blinked frantically, trying to reassure himself that his eyes were, in fact, open. Two blurry shapes loomed over him, and he gasped, scrambling backwards.
He ended up inhaling a mouthful of dust and leaned forward, sputtering and coughing.
“Just relax, it’s me.” Astrid’s voice echoed in the darkness, and she patted him on the back until he could breathe again.
Where were they? The ground felt hard under his hands, but it wasn’t cold or wet. There was no snow anymore. When he glanced up he could see a few faint strains of light rippling overhead. Aside from that it was completely dark, hard to see anything other than vague shapes. The air felt different too. It was warmer and staler than it had been a moment ago.
“What just happened?”
“We fell down a hole I think.” Astrid stood up and stepped back. “A big one. Come on, get up.”
The other blur turned out to be Toothless. The dragon lowered his head and licked Hiccup’s arm, covering his skin in sticky dragon spit.
“Ugh. Yes, thank you. I’m alive.” Hiccup climbed to his feet, feeling a bit shaky. In the faint light coming in from the top of the hole high above them, he could almost make out the others. They were walking around, looking a little dazed, coughing and choking on the dust that was slowly settling around them.
Eventually Snotlout sat down on the ground beside Hookfang, leaning his back against the dragon’s side. The burly Viking started whining, more to himself than anyone, clutching at his ankle. The twins walked over to the opposite side, trying to climb up the wall by grabbing tree roots and rocks that were sticking out of the dirt. Ruffnut was actually climbing Tuffnut and attempting to stand on his head while stretching for another root. Then they started arguing about who was heavier, and Ruffnut reached down to smack her twin.
“You alright, Hiccup?” Fishlegs gave him a wide smile. “You landed pretty hard. Lucky I had Meatlug to cushion my fall.” He looked over at his dragon who gave him a huge, toothy grin and looked very pleased with himself.
“I’m okay.” Hiccup looked around, blinking, trying to get his eyes to adjust better. “How did a hole this big get here?”
“This is some kind of tunnel we’re in.” Astrid looked deadly serious. She gestured up at the thin stream of light above their heads. “It collapsed on us, and now our way out is blocked. It’s too heavy for the dragons to push away. And I don’t think they have the room to launch themselves anyways, not without injuring us. I tried to follow the other side of the tunnel to see where it goes, but it’s blocked too. We have no way out.”
The twins came over, both of them covered in dirt from head to toe. They had given up their attempts to climb the wall.
“How did we miss something like a giant tunnel in the middle of our forest?” Tuffnut said. “I would have explored this thing ages ago if I knew it was here. Do you think there’s treasure in here somewhere? Maybe we can find a map.”
“Good thing we fell in.” Ruffnut had her hands on her hips, surveying the caved in ceiling with a satisfied expression. “Now we know where it is for next time.”
“There might not be a next time.” Astrid’s jaw tightened. “We only have so long before the oxygen in here runs out.”
In the silence following this statement Snotlout’s whining seemed a lot louder. Ruffnut shoved her helmet down over her ears. “Yeah, and he’s using up all of it complaining,” she growled.
“I can’t help it,” Snotlout said pitifully. “It’s my leg, I think it’s broken.”
“You twisted your ankle.” Astrid rolled her eyes. “Fishlegs already checked it for you.”
“I think it’s more serious. Maybe you should check to make sure.”
Hiccup felt extra irritated by this, due to having fallen for the third time that day, and the throbbing headache behind his eyes. He was going to turn and deliver some kind of scorching remark, but one of the twins saved him the trouble.
“I’ll help.” Ruffnut strode over. Leaning forward she plucked something out of Snotlout’s pocket and shoved it in his mouth. “That should cure your complaining.”
The twins laughed, and Hiccup had to bite his lip to stop himself from joining in. Snotlout looked ridiculous. His expression was sullen, and the handle of his toothbrush jutted out between his teeth. His eyes followed Ruffnut as she strode back over to them, glittering with irritation. Hiccup wondered if those two would be fighting once they got out of here.
Something made him jerk his head up suddenly. He realized he’d been hearing something, a soft, hushing sound. Even over the noise of Tuff and Ruff laughing he could hear it. It was coming from all around them. He held up his hand, waving at the others, telling them to be quiet. The laughter trailed off, and the Vikings stood in silence for a moment, most of them looking at him quizzically.
From around them came a hushed, murmuring noise, and the twins both stopped smiling. Everyone was looking around, up at the pile of rubble above them, down at the floor. It was impossible to tell exactly where the noise was coming from. It was coming from everywhere and nowhere. It surrounded them completely.
Hiccup felt Toothless shift beside him. The black dragon was crouching low to the ground, a growl rumbling in his throat. In fact, as Hiccup looked around he noticed all of the dragons looked nervous. Hookfang had climbed to his feet, jostling Snotlout, who protested only once and then trailed off in the wake of the strange whispering noises. Beside Astrid, Stormfly growled, her bright eyes narrow in the darkness. Barf and Belch were showing their teeth, and the two-headed dragon had backed itself up into the middle of the opening, eyeing the walls nervously.
Hiccup didn’t blame them. The noise was incredibly eerie. It made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, and goose bumps were crawling up both arms. They were deep underground, so where was the noise coming from?
“What’s happening?” Astrid’s voice was hushed, almost lost among the whispers that slithered in the darkness just out of reach. Hiccup thought it sounded like there were thousands of people trapped in the walls around them, each of them whispering to one another. Maybe they were talking about the Viking children trapped down in the hole. Telling one another they were going to die, or slowly go mad. Maybe it was too late, they were already insane. When you were dying from lack of oxygen did you hear voices? Maybe they were slowly going mad together. Like a group activity. Fun.
The darkness was so complete that it was suffocating, and the whispers made the blackness a hundred times more terrifying. Hiccup could feel chills running down his spine, and he couldn’t stop his hands from shaking. He hoped Astrid couldn’t tell. What type of Viking collapsed in fear at the first sign of something spooky?
Every once in a while the whispers would stop, dying down for a few seconds. Then they’d start up again, rising and falling. It’s the wind blowing through the trees in the forest. It’s earthworms crawling through the soil nearby. It’s tree roots pushing their way down into the earth. It didn’t matter what he tried to come up with, he knew there was nothing that made a noise like that. Nothing he knew of anyway.
He half wanted to press his ear against the dirt wall to hear it better. It sounded so much like voices, he was sure he could hear what they were saying, if only they were a little louder. What did that mean? Had they fallen into some ancient Viking graveyard and now they were surrounded by ghosts? The others seemed to be thinking along similar lines, they were all staring at the walls with round eyes, crowded together in the center of the tunnel. Nobody wanted to touch the walls.
“Do you believe in ghosts?” Fishlegs whispered shakily.
Nobody answered. Even together, and surrounded by dragons, nobody wanted to think about that question too hard.
A low rumble started again, shaking the ground beneath their feet. Rocks and dirt rained down on them, and Hiccup crouched over and wrapped his arms around Toothless’ neck, holding on until the shaking stopped, eyes shut tight, face pressed against his dragon’s cool scales.
The rubble blocking the top of the hole would collapse if the earth kept shaking like that. That would free up the top of the tunnel, which was great. The only downside was that all the rocks would fall on them. Major downside, if they were crushed to death.
After the rumbling stopped, Hiccup sagged against Toothless, relieved that the ceiling hadn’t collapsed on them. Then the whispers started up again and he felt his shoulders tense. When something grabbed his arm he jumped, then realized it was Astrid. She was standing on the other side of him.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
Hiccup wasn’t sure if he was sorry. It wasn’t fun being trapped in the dark in some kind of creepy whispering tunnel, but if he had to be, at least it was with Astrid. And at least she was standing very close to him in the darkness. She turned away from him a little, and he could hear her talking softly to Stormfly, reassuring the dragon. But she stayed close to him. He could feel her shoulder brush his when she moved. Why was it that the only time he got close to Astrid was when they were about to die? It hardly seemed fair.
“Everyone hears that, right?” Fishlegs’ voice was shaky and uncertain. “Is there whispering, or am I going insane?”
“That would be cool. I want to go insane,” Tuffnut muttered. “I’ve never been insane before.”
“It would probably be fun,” Ruffnut said, but neither of the twins sounded as enthusiastic about it as they were trying to be.
In the silence after the whispers died down, Astrid said in a small voice, “We should get some light in here. Maybe we can figure out….” She let her voice trail off, but Hiccup knew what she meant. Maybe they could figure out what that was. The voices. Nobody actually wanted to say that out loud. The only thing scarier than disembodied voices below the earth was thinking about what those voices might belong to.
“Good idea,” Tuffnut said. “Anyone got any flint?”
“We’re with a bunch of dragons, you idiot,” Ruffnut said. There was a dull clunk from somewhere in the darkness. Hiccup thought the twins were probably smacking each other again.
Beside him, Toothless made a low gurgling noise of agreement. The black dragon stretched out his neck and nudged Meatlug. It was a good choice. If Toothless tried to light a fire they’d probably all be burnt to a crisp in a burst of blue light. Hiccup shuddered and patted his dragon on the shoulder.
There was a sharp exhalation in the darkness, and a tiny burst of flame lit up their surroundings, casting long shadows on the Viking’s faces. The fire went out immediately, plunging them into the dark again.
“We need something to burn,” Astrid said.
“We can use Fishlegs’ stupid vest,” Snotlout said bad-temperedly from his seat on the ground. “It’s greasy enough to burn for a while.”
Fishlegs looked horrified, clutching his vest with both hands. Astrid was already reaching into her pockets though, and after a few seconds of digging she stepped forward and held out a scroll. “Here, it’s only a sheet of facts about Stoker Class dragons. I’ve memorized them all.”
Astrid held the scroll out in front of Meatlug. “Just a small flame,” she said firmly,
Meatlug hesitated, and looked over at Fishlegs, who only shrugged. The round dragon puffed her chest out and took a sharp breath, blowing out a small stream of orange fire. The flames caught the edge of the parchment and licked at the paper, and Astrid jerked her hand back.
“Good. Thank you.”
The flames were eating through the dry parchment rapidly, and Astrid held the paper up over her head, giving the others a chance to look around. There wasn’t much to see, only walls of packed dirt and a cluster of rocks and rubble that had fallen over the top of the hole. The tunnel was wide though, at least twelve feet across. Hiccup tried not to think about what had carved this out of the earth and rock so far beneath the surface. At least the whispers had stopped.
“Look at this.” Astrid reached out and ran one finger down a long, shallow gouge in the dirt wall. “These lines in the tunnel wall.”
The others crowded closer, staring at the walls. There were trails all down the dark soil of the earth, tracks that ran perfectly straight together. Every single wall was like that, all around them. Hiccup couldn’t figure out what it was. It was almost like something had been clawing at the walls. Or…
“Teeth,” Fishlegs squeaked.
The others turned to look at him. Fishlegs was standing in the middle of the tunnel, looking around at the walls with huge eyes. His face had turned nearly as white as the parchment in Astrid’s hand. “Those are teeth marks.”
“What does that mean?” Tuffnut scratched his chin and glanced around. “Someone was chewing on dirt down here?”
Ruffnut laughed. “Eat dirt!” She grabbed her brother and shoved his face into the side of the wall, and he reached back, trying to punch her.
Everyone else ignored them.
“Fishlegs, do you know something?” Astrid demanded. “Tell us!”
Fishlegs closed his eyes, and proceeded to rattle off a series of numbers and statistics. “Attack level, fifteen. Speed level, Eight. Armor strength, twenty. Fire power, ten—”
“What is it?” Astrid hissed. “Stop telling us the stats and tell us what it is.”
“It’s—”
Something burst out of the tunnel wall beside Hiccup. Rocks and dirt flew, and he felt something hard crash into him, flinging him backwards into the wall. He hit the packed earth, and then the breath left his lungs in a wheezing gasp as he crashed to the ground, cheek pressed against the dirt.
Someone was yelling. It sounded like Snotlout.
Rocks were digging into his face and neck; his entire side was one giant bruise. The tunnel swam and looped in dizzying circles above his head, and spots were bursting in front of his eyes. He blinked until his vision cleared.
Dazed, Hiccup scrambled to his feet. In the flickering light from Astrid’s burning torch, he could make out the long, snake-like shape of a new dragon. It was still coming out of the tunnel slowly, oozing out of the new hole it had created for itself in the wall. Its eyes were glazed over patches of yellow, its hide a pincushion of razor-like points. It was a dull green colour, blending in with the walls of the tunnel so effectively that it was hard to see, even with the light coming from the fire. The wings on its back were tiny. They looked too small to be used to fly very well, and as Hiccup watched, the bones of the wings snapped backwards, rotating in an eerie fashion, carving away at the wall of the tunnel as the creature slid out further. They weren’t just for flying then, but for tunneling. They also looked like they could break bones quite effectively.
He backed away, bumping into Toothless, who was growling, showing this new terror his teeth. The other dragons were all doing the same thing. Teeth bared, they moved to circle the newcomer, trapping it in the ring, shielding their owners from the threat. Even though they outnumbered this thing, the dragon in the center was bigger.
The new dragon opened its own mouth, revealing triple rings of deadly yellow teeth. It roared, and the noise was earth-shattering. It blew the Vikings’ hair back, bathing them in hot, foul-smelling breath. The rows of teeth began moving, not up and down as the monster moved its jaws, but in circles, whirring to life, churning around and around in the gaping mouth. This was how it tunneled through packed earth and stone.
Hiccup shuddered, terror making it hard to breath. This thing was deadly.
It would have no trouble chopping him and his friends into mulch. He only had time for that brief glance at it in the flickering light, and then Astrid was moving, her blonde braid streaming out behind her, pulling her battle axe from her back as she ran. She charged the dragon, letting loose a savage scream as she came at it.
Hiccup stumbled back as the monster let loose a bright circle of flame. The Vikings ducked, and Astrid threw herself to the side, screaming as the flames brushed past her, singeing her hair and clothing.
Stormfly lunged forward, roaring, wings snapping open in the small confines of the tunnel, sending a rush of stale air over them. She placed herself between Astrid and the other dragon, warning him away with a snarl.
Astrid had thrown the parchment down when she’d charged the dragon, but they didn’t need the light anymore. Snotlout was on his feet now, apparently oblivious to his injured ankle. His fur vest had caught fire, and he was frantically yanking the buttons off. He dumped the vest on the ground and jumped away; the fire lit up the tunnel. It smelled disgusting but that was the least of their worries.
The dragon was rearing back again, teeth whirring in circles so fast that the inside of its mouth was a blur. It seemed to be aiming its attack at Snotlout a second time. The burly Viking was screaming, stumbling backwards as he tried to yank his weapon from his belt. Hookfang was in front of him, growling, snapping at the dragon as it advanced.
“Whispering Death,” Fishlegs yelled, pressing himself back against the wall. “That’s what it’s called.”
“Yes. Thank you, Fishlegs.” Hiccup tried to snatch at Toothless as the dragon threw himself in front of him. He couldn’t let his dragon be bitten by that thing. “That’s very helpful. I’m glad we’ll know its name as it chews our faces into tiny pieces.”
“You can eat her.” Tuffnut pointed to his twin. “She’s a girl so she’ll taste like flowers and stuff.”
The Whispering Death was moving again, gliding forward, ignoring all of them as it moved toward the center of the tunnel. Ruffnut punched her brother in the arm and turned back to the attacking dragon. She flung herself forward with a yell, launching herself up, curling her arms around the dragon’s thick neck as it went for Snotlout. The Whispering Death shrieked, rearing back, crashing into the side of the tunnel. Ruffnut screamed, but she hung on, her face grim. Tuffnut gave a wild yell, charging forward after his twin, hammering at the dragon’s side with his balled up fists.
Not about to see their owners be squished, Barf and Belch darted forward, biting at the spiny back of the Whispering Death. The monstrous dragon shrieked, throwing its head back as it tried to shake off the twins, slamming them against the walls of the tunnel. It turned and snapped at the two-headed dragon angrily. Hiccup danced out of the way as the tail of the monster whipped past, cracking against the wall beside his head. He winced.
It was hard to fight this thing in the cramped confines of the tunnel, plus only a few of them had their weapons. They weighed you down when you were racing so some of them had left them behind at the arena. This thing was clearly in its element under the ground, it could burrow back into the earth and then launch a surprise attack whenever it wanted.
His earlier words about giving every dragon a chance now sounded naive when he thought about them. If Hiccup tried to give this one a chance it would probably mash him up into bite-sized pieces. Maybe Amma had been right about one thing. Maybe there were some dragons you couldn’t train. Maybe there were some that were just evil and needed to be killed on sight.
The Whispering Death shook the twins off, then turned around and snapped at Barf and Belch again, backing the dragon into the wall. To Hiccup’s dismay, Toothless ran forward and rammed his snout into the side of the Whispering Death’s face. Instead of turning, the Whispering Death ignored the smaller dragon and moved forward again, surging across the ground, going for Snotlout for the third time.
Hookfang surged forward, teeth bared, intent on protecting his owner. There was another loud, whip-crack sound as the Whispering Death lashed its tail forward. It curled around Hookfang’s neck and threw him backwards.
Why did it want Snotlout so badly? Hiccup tensed, readying himself to spring forward. There was tension between them sometimes, it was true, but he was still a friend. Even if Hiccup did want to punch him in the teeth when he flirted with Astrid, he couldn’t let Snotlout die. There had to be a way to stop it.
Every dragon had a weakness, a blind spot, or an obsession with dragon nip. There had to be something. Too bad none of them had a spare eel lying around, but it wasn’t the sort of thing anyone carried anymore, since it tended to get you thrown off your dragon.
The Whispering Death stopped in front of Snotlout, teeth rotating, churning in opposite directions. That was what had created the buzzing, murmuring noises in the walls of the tunnels. Now it was filling the space around them with insidious whispers, paralyzing everyone with terror. The dragon reared its head, showing Snotlout all of its teeth. The Viking had managed to unsheathe his hammer, and now he drew it back, bracing himself, about to launch forward and go in for the kill.
“Wait!”
Everyone turned to look at Hiccup. Even the Whispering Death paused. Hiccup was staring down at the dirt at Snotlout’s feet, at the toothbrush that was lying there. The Whispering Death, with its rows and rows of terrible yellow teeth, had repeatedly gone after Snotlout. Three times. There were so many others attacking the dragon but it wasn’t interested in anyone else. In fact, it hadn’t even hurt anyone else. It had more than one opportunity to attack the other dragons, and even kill the twins. It hadn’t done any of that.
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