Chapter 1: Those Who Left, and Those Left Behind
Author's Notes: So I have decided to use the common what-if of Hiccup leaving before the fight with the Monstrous Nightmare, but I'm taking it beyond that. I'm gonna have him leave... the Barbaric Archipelago!
DUN DUN DUN!
I'm not sure how much I'll be able to update this, what with TaC, FF, and BE:UL, but I'll do my best. All I have to do is give up sleep.
Disclaimer: Same old spiel, people. No one and nothing from How To Train Your Dragon is mine. Just my own creations belong to moi.
"Leaving! We're leaving. Let's pack up. Looks like you and me are going on a little vacation. Forever," Hiccup called into the cove. He didn't want to kill the Monstrous Nightmare, but he also didn't want to disappoint his father and the rest of the village. So, he had decided to leave. Let them search all they wanted for him. Hiccup was going to fly as far away as possible with Toothless, because he really didn't have a choice. Eventually the village would discover them, he would either be killed or exiled, and Toothless would be killed mercilessly. That wasn't an option.
The Night Fury he had befriended came up to him curiously and sniffed the basket he had brought.
"Hey, bud. You ready to go?" Hiccup asked, pulling on the straps of his riding gear and fixing the basket onto his dragon's saddle. Toothless warbled in reply and flicked his tail up and down, as if asking why they were going.
"We can't stay here, bud. If my dad finds you, he'll have your head as a trophy, and I'll probably be next," he explained, climbing into the saddle and patting his head soothingly. Toothless growled uncertainly, but as his rider's foot slipped into the switch for his fin, the urge to take to the skies overwhelmed any doubts, and together they leaped into the sky with one powerful beat of his massive wings.
As they flew away from Berk, Hiccup gave his home one last glance. The paint on the new houses gleamed in the waning light, and if he concentrated, he could see a few people going about their business before the nightly raid. Maybe one of them was Astrid, or Gobber, or even his dad. Would they care if he left? Would they notice him being gone? Or would they just forget about him, Hiccup the failure, after a few months?
It didn't matter. Soon, he and Toothless would be free, and they wouldn't have to worry about being discovered. This was the only way to make everyone happy.
Even if it hurt to leave his home behind.
The intrepid duo had been flying for hours, the shining ocean below broken only by a few small islands. The full moon illuminated the night, and it reminded him of how long he had been gone. Had Gobber begun to worry about him? Had his father even noticed he was gone? Questions like these circled endlessly as Toothless flew on, and they didn't notice the storm descending upon them until it was too late. They were swept up by a sudden squall and carried into the flashing depths of the thunderheads, and there was no one to see the impossibly bright burst of light that enveloped them.
The night guard wasn't sure who to go to for his newest problem. He had been making his usual circuit of the Academy when he found the child on the front step. The little girl was probably a year old, with fluffy, pure white hair and a plain blanket wrapped around her against the cold. And tonight was exceptionally icy, for a blizzard was starting. Faded Dreams always had some pretty severe storms in winter, but this was shaping up to be the worst in his lifetime.
He picked up the girl, who had only just started to chill. Whoever had abandoned her must have left moments before he arrived. The cloth rustled uncharacteristically, and he found a piece of paper folded up next to the sleeping girl. There was no time and no light to read it, because the anolite crystals posted next to the imposing doors of the Academy were starting to be blocked out by the increasing snow swirling around him. The only thing he could do was take her inside and to his room, where he found a spare crystal to read the note by. All it said was:
Take care of Cog.
There was no surname mentioned, no way of telling whose daughter she was, but as the blizzard raged outside, he thought about the name of an extinct line in Faded Dreams.
Winterstorm.
They had been a legendary family of monster trainers that had been wiped out a hundred years previously in the last war against Forgotten Wishes. It was probably asking a bit much of this child to live up to that legacy, but the part of him that was faithful to the sky gods prayed for her success.
His name was Verndari Barna. He would never know how she would grow up.
Author's Notes: Thus, the beginning of yet another of my HTTYD stories ends! I hope you guys like it. Strays is going to be a series of at least fifteen "episodes," each one a story, and if I told you what I have planned, you might decide to smack me. Or kiss me. Or lock me up.
I got the idea for this story, surprisingly enough, from a drawing I did of a two-headed dragon for a sketchbook assignment in my advanced art class. It won't appear right away, but that dragon is important to the story.
Wild Cat 214, out!