High Tide by Emachinescat (AO3)
Hiccup wakes chained in the bottom of an oubliette, far beneath the earth's surface, entombed in walls of stone. Completely helpless, completely alone, easily the most desperate predicament he's ever been in.
And then it gets worse.
A Triple Cross AU in two parts.
Fandom: How to Train Your Dragon (Animated Movies), DreamWorks Dragons (Cartoon)
Words: 4,334 | Chapters: 1/2 | Rating: Teen And Up Audiences | Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply | Category: Gen, M/M | Part 4 of Bad Things Happen Bingo, Part 19 of Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Hurt
Relationships: Viggo Grimborn & Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Viggo Grimborn/Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless | Characters: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Viggo Grimborn, Toothless (How to Train Your Dragon)
Additional Tags: Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Whump, Captured Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hurt Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Needs a Hug, Buried Alive, Oubliettes, prison cells, imprisoned, Panic Attacks, Fear, Near Death Experiences, Nobody Dies, But We Cut It Real Close This Time Fam, Drowning, Near Drowning, Chains, Enemy to Caretaker, Hurt/Comfort, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III & Toothless Friendship, Unrequited Viggo Grimborn/Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Unrequited Love, Viggo Grimborn Lives, Viggo Grimborn Redemption, Soft Viggo Grimborn, Broken Bones, Episode: s06e08 Triple Cross (Dragons: Race to the Edge), Episode AU: s06e08 Triple Cross (Dragons: Race to the Edge), episode AU, Dragons: Race to the Edge, Episode: s04e06 Dire Straits (Dragons: Race to the Edge), Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III Has PTSD, Resuscitation
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Excerpt below; read the whole fic on AO3! <3
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Upon closer inspection, his cell looked more like a glorified hole or an empty well, perfectly circular and wide enough to just accommodate a Monstrous Nightmare's wingspan.
An oubliette, he thought grimly, squinting up at the ceiling where he could only just make out the outline of a trapdoor, no ladder in sight.
Utilizing his fear became suddenly far more of a challenge. Because it was one thing to be trapped in a dungeon, waiting to be tortured. But a place like this? A hole in the ground? He could think of only one reason that a prisoner would be placed in an oubliette: To rot. A person only buried something if they planned to discard it for good.
He'd been chained down here to die. And this time, there would be no clever escape. Hiccup was smart, and he'd weaseled himself out of more than a few tight spots over the years, but this, chained in a stone-walled oubliette without his prosthetic, deep beneath the surface of the earth, with damp, towering walls too slick to climb even if he had use of his arms and legs…
Unless rescue came swooping down from the skies — which he wanted to hope for, but oubliettes were also notoriously difficult to find if rescuers didn't know exactly what they were looking for — the inside of this hole would be the last thing he'd ever see.
His breath hitched. No! Stop it! Stop panicking and think!
But what was the point of thinking if he couldn’t think himself out of his prison? And what was the point of remembering what had happened when he already knew what was to come?
Hiccup gulped in the deepest breath he could muster, desperate to combat the paralyzing fog — then froze, heart ricocheting against his ribs, as he met some kind of resistance. His chest would only expand so far. It took all his floundering courage to look down, and once he did, he wished at once that he had not.
A heavy shackle — probably one meant for a dragon's neck encircled his abdomen, tight and unyielding. Hiccup, numb with shock, followed the path of its enormous chain to its end, where it had been bolted to the floor. Which was as confusing as it was concerning — chaining him to the floor was both complete overkill and needlessly dramatic… So what was the point?
But this puzzle, at least, gave him something besides the swelling mass of fear to focus on. Whoever had taken him was either over-the-top with their security, obscenely dramatic, or particularly cruel. He could work with that. If he could figure out who had captured him, maybe he could remember what had happened, and then he could—
His whirring mind stalled, fear fraying at the edges of purpose like a moth to old clothes.
And then what? He'd still be stuck here. He'd still die down here.
But at least he'd die as himself, not just a shell that fear had carved open and hollowed out and filled with its own maddening venom. He'd die as Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Dragon Rider and heir to Berk. He'd die as the son of the mighty Stoick the Vast, not unafraid but uncowed by his own fear. He would die, but he would still win, because he would not die a coward.
Easier said than done, but Hiccup had never been one to take the easy way out.