The next blow hit her ribs and she couldn't even draw breath to cry out. It seemed endless. Relentless. Blows were raining down from every angle, feet, fists, elbows, knees, what else? She couldn't tell.
After what seemed like an hour, they slowed. People were talking. She recognized a few of the voices as safe, friend, and a few of them as bastard. The bastard that was standing over her kicked her leg and she groaned.
It wasn't what she wanted to do; she wanted to scream and snarl and roar and bite the legs off the men who'd hurt her. Who were they, again?
Oh, right. Dragon hunters. And why her? Ah. She recalled the stupid sticks, one shorter than the rest in Ryker's meaty hand. They'd all drawn them, Hiccup watching anxiously and cursing as his stick showed itself to be a long one. Ruffnut had drawn fourth. It had been short.
They'd wasted no time in dragging her out of the cell into the hall, surrounded by the cells that held her friends. They were shouting, terrified, Tuff had told Ryker to take him instead, but no hunters listened.
Now, lying curled on the floor with blood in her mouth and pain in every inch of her body, Ruffnut wondered why the hunters had done it. Was it just for fun? It seemed a 'Ryker' thing to do.
"Will you give us the Dragon Eye or do you want to draw again?" Ryker asked.
"I don't need to draw again," Hiccup said angrily. "I don't have the Dragon Eye! What, do you think I carry it with me? You searched our saddles when you shot us down!"
Ryker laughed. "No problem there: look outside!"
Ruffnut heard the others gasp in horror.
"We've known about your little hideaway for weeks," Ryker sneered. "And we're all going to go ashore and find the Dragon Eye, or else you'll be drawing again! Or would you rather I just keep going on her?" Ruffnut yelped as a foot hit her in the back.
"Leave her alone!" Hiccup shouted. "Hit me instead!"
"Or me!" Tuffnut added. "We're twins, it'd be almost the same!"
"Shut up!" Ryker snapped. "We'll be ashore in ten minutes. Make up your mind by then!" He stormed out, followed by his hunters. Once they'd gone, slamming the door, Hiccup groaned.
"They've known about the Edge for weeks?" he asked, and it sounded like he was dragging his hands down his face. "Weeks!? How have we not seen their reconnaissance?"
"He could be lying," Astrid said. "He probably is. They just want to rattle us."
"Did a whole lot more than that," Ruff croaked.
"You look terrible," Tuffnut said. There wasn't a hint of a joke in his voice, so Ruff knew she really did look at Death's door.
"I think all the bruises add to my natural charm," she managed. It was hard to breathe with aching ribs, but she smiled at the ceiling. From the taste of copper in her mouth, she knew that her smile would be blood red.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the
Organization for Transformative Works
Rated: mature
Warnings: lady whump, graphic depictions of violence, blood
Pairings: none
Word Count: 1,469
Summary: Ruffnut pulls the knife out of her wound before anyone can come to stop the bleeding, a decision she realizes was pretty stupid. At least she killed the guy that stabbed her.
Warnings: graphic depictions of violence, partial nudity
Pairings: none
Word Count: 1,047
Summary: Ruffnut is captured by Krogan, and what he wants to do to her to get the Dragon Eye lenses is unspeakable.
“No one is coming to help you.” Krogan’s voice slithered around Ruffnut as he circled her, tracing a knife over each of her cheeks. She could feel the sharp edge of it, but it wasn’t cutting into her. Not yet. She had her front tied to a post, her arms wrapped around it. Her vest and tunic had been taken from her, leaving her shivering in the cave, and feeling violated. This man shouldn’t be able to see her half nude. Though, luckily, he didn’t seem to feel anything sexual from it, not the way Viggo surely would have. Not luckily, he had an arsenal of knives and whips laid out on a table nearby.
“What do you want?!” Ruffnut cried for what felt like the millionth time. Krogan had yet to give her a straight answer. “You know, my friends really aren’t going to like this. They’ll kick your ass when they find me.”
“If they do find you,” Krogan said. “Well, they will, but only when it’s too late.”
“Too late?”
“I’m sure they would love to recover your body,” he said. “If they can even recognize it. They’d want your body for sure, though. I’m sure they’d be so heartbroken that they’d even trade the Dragon Eye lenses for it.”
“No!” It was a loaded shout. There was so much to process. Krogan was going to torture her to death and ransom her body to get the Dragon Eye lenses. And surely the Riders would indeed be heartbroken enough to trade them for her, especially Tuffnut. “No, no! Go fuck yourself on a spear!”
Krogan laughed. “Oh, your insults will do nothing to save you.”
“I bet your mother is rolling in her grave.” Ruffnut was hardly done yet.
Ruffnut was going to say something else nasty to Krogan, but she screamed as the knife suddenly slashed across her right shoulder blade. Blood poured hot from the wound, and Ruffnut pressed her head against the post, breathing hard.
“Any more quips?” Krogan asked.
“Yeah,” Ruffnut panted. “You look like a goat, except a goat would be embarrassed to be related to you.”
Krogan laughed, then slashed at her left shoulder blade. Ruffnut screamed at the onslaught of pain, the intense burning of it. She kept her head pressed against the post, trying to ground herself with the feeling of it.
There was a clatter as Krogan set the knife down. Ruffnut didn’t know what he’d be grabbing next. She had no idea until there was the crack of a whip and her back blossomed with blood.
“Fuck!” Ruffnut shouted in pain and anger. She tugged uselessly at the ropes binding her, wishing she could get out of this.
My friends will come for me before it’s too late, she thought. They’ll come.
---
Ruffnut was exhausted and hurting. She’d slumped against the pole, feeling unconsciousness welling up to take her. The whip hadn’t stopped. Krogan was going to kill her.
Tears stained her cheeks and kept trailing from her eyes, tears of agony, not at just what she was going through, but at what her friends and family would go through with her death. It was too much to bear.
A familiar whistle. Ruffnut perked up a little, and then a purple blast was filling the room. Krogan went down, the whip leaving his hand, finally giving Ruffnut a reprieve. She sobbed in relief. Her friends had found her. She was going to be okay.
“Ruffnut!” There was the sound of metal hitting stone as Hiccup jumped off Toothless. Ruffnut could hardly keep her eyes open.
“Hiccup?”
“It’s me, it’s me. You’re gonna be okay.”
Ruffnut opened her eyes to look at Hiccup as he began cutting the ropes, then looked to Krogan. He was unmoving on the floor of the cave.
“Is he… dead?” Ruffnut asked.
“I don’t think so,” Hiccup said. “But let’s get out of here before he wakes up.”
The ropes came free, and Ruffnut fell. Hiccup supported her weight, helped her to stand.
“Where’s your tunic?”
“He cut it off me. It’s no use.”
“Okay, okay.” Hiccup directed Ruffnut towards Toothless, helped her to climb onto his back. Ruffnut slumped against him, and Toothless rumbled. Hiccup was rummaging through the saddle bag.
Hiccup pulled a blanket from within, tucked it around Ruffnut. She hissed as it made contact with her wounds.
“Where’s everyone else?” Ruffnut asked. Certainly he hadn’t come on this mission alone when Krogan had the Flyers and the Dragon Hunters.
“Guarding the entrance,” Hiccup said. “Gods, I’m so glad we found you.” He mounted Toothless behind her, wrapped his arms around her to take the handholds on the saddle.
“Okay, Toothless, let’s go.”
---
Ruffnut lay on her stomach in bed, hissing and wincing as Fishlegs tended to her wounds. He didn’t have a strong stomach, but he was the best healer on Dragon’s Edge. The rest of the Riders were with her. Tuffnut sat beside her, holding her hand.
“I’m gonna kill Krogan next time I see him,” Tuffnut swore. “I will.”
“Get in line,” Ruffnut said, voice tight with pain. She tightly clenched Tuffnut’s hand, her other in a fist. Fishlegs was cleaning her wounds with water and alcohol, and oh, how it stung!
Ruffnut was relieved when the cleaning was done and Fishlegs had her sit up to wrap her in bandages. She was still naked from the waist up, but it wasn’t anything her friends hadn’t seen before - they bathed together sometimes.
She needed Tuffnut’s assistance to pull on a fresh tunic, the movements pulling at her wounds and causing fresh pain to rock through her. When it was done, she laid back on her stomach, breathing hard, tears coming to her eyes.
“Ruffnut, what’s wrong?” Tuffnut inquired at seeing the tears.
“He was going to kill me,” Ruffnut whispered. A whisper was all she could manage. Any louder and she’d be sobbing. “He was going to kill me and ransom my body to get the Dragon Eye lenses.”
The room was silent at that. Then, Hiccup was coming over, taking Ruffnut’s other hand. He seemed disturbed at this news, but didn’t say anything about it.
“You’re safe now, Ruff.” He laid a hand on her head, and the touch was soothing. “You’re safe.”
