Riders of Berk belongs to Dreamworks. Rated T for some violence.
Thanks for reading!
"'Night, Toothless," I mumbled after another day that included stops at home, the great hall and the Academy.
Keeping everyone in line was difficult, especially Snotlout and the twins, Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Snotlout was always the rebel, trying to show off to anyone who would remotely pay attention to him. It would have been okay if his attitude stopped at a certain point, but it felt like there was no limit to what he would say or do to show off. Or to get the last word in. I was at least happy his retribution usually came quickly. Most of the time, his Monstrous Nightmare, Hookfang, kept him in check.
The twins, on the other hand, couldn't live in peace for more than ten seconds. And their Zippleback, Barf and Belch, was always at the center of their arguments. If anyone ever wondered why their dragon was always bickering with itself, they never had to look farther than Ruff and Tuff. I just wanted one day where an idea at the Academy wasn't disrupted. But it looked like it would have to wait until tomorrow. If not later.
I lay down in my bed and pulled the covers up. Toothless and I had arrived about twenty minutes ago from our evening lap around the island, goofing around, trying different stunts. Tonight was simple: let's see how fast we could complete a lap. Then let the wind take us where it wanted for a few minutes. If nothing else, flying around Berk wore Toothless out enough to get him to sleep.
I could always count on finding sleep when Toothless was around. Not just because he was my protector, my guardian dragon. Because I could listen to him breathing, sounding like the bellows I use in the armory. It was always the same rhythm, always steady, always relaxing.
I was about to lose consciousness when a low growl woke me up. It happened every now and then. Most of the time, it was in the morning when Toothless was telling me to get up for flying. I knew of two times when a Viking who Toothless didn't recognize walked in late, looking for my dad, who was out chiefing somewhere. Both times, the Viking called for him and then left without another word, totally unconcerned about the guard dragon we had.
But tonight was different. Nobody came calling, and moonlight was filtering in through the skylight in our roof. And Toothless sounded different. This was way more intense than I had ever heard from him. He was glaring at the floor under his feet, like the boards were moving under him.
"Aw, come on, Toothless. Give it a rest until morning," I whined before trying to fall back asleep. Toothless looked at me, sniffed around and then jumped out of the skylight. I shrugged, thinking nothing of it. He was free to come and go as he pleased. And he took advantage of it too. I figured it'd take a little longer to get to sleep without Toothless comforting me, but he'd be back in the morning anyway, ready for a quick flight and then a few fish.
The wind picked up slightly, whistling as it crossed the open skylight in the roof. In the distance, the surf was crashing against the rock cliffs guarding Berk. The crickets were warming up for their nightly symphony. We were at peace with the world, well, except for maybe Toothless. For a couple of minutes or so. I relaxed and eventually fell asleep.
"Um, Hiccup? Are you awake yet?"
"Mm. Hey, bud," I mumbled half-asleep with my eyes closed. "I didn't know you could talk."
"Oh, yeah. I've been hiding that from you for a year now. I can talk just fine, especially when Astrid is being a ventriloquist."
My eyes shot open. It was Astrid. She was standing over my bed, waiting for me to get up. She had a grin on her face, the type of smile that said she was gonna tell everyone on Berk about what I had just done. "Great. Perfect start to the day," I grumbled sarcastically, throwing my hands in the air as I sat up. Looked around blearily, finding Astrid was the only one around. I felt relieved there were no other witnesses, so maybe I had a chance with this little story? Maybe they wouldn't believe her?
"Well. I think Snotlout wants to hear this," she said excitedly.
"Sure, he does," I said with a yawn. "He'll definitely listen to your story, 'cause in his mind, that means you're flirting with him."
Astrid pulled back a couple of inches with a disgusted look on her face. "All right, Hiccup. This is our little secret. It. Does. Not. Leave. This. Room. Got it?" she said, threatening my nose with a fist.
"You betcha. And where's Toothless?"
"Nobody's seen him. I thought he sleeps here. You always go flying around the island in the mornings."
"Yeah, that's why I'm asking. He growled at the floor last night and then took off. Like it was gonna attack him or something."
"The…floor?" she asked. "Okay, this isn't sounding good. Hiccup, you need to see this, like, ten minutes ago."
"See what?"
"Just follow me."
I stood and stretched with a yawn. Slid into my boots and vest. Walked over to the bath area and quickly washed my face off, trying to fully wake up. Ambled down the stairs, avoiding the fifth step and walked outside to find Astrid standing there. "All right, Astrid. Let's see what's so unbelievable." We started walking.
"I've never seen anything like it. I mean, there's not a dragon that, you know, lives…underground, right?"
"That's Fishlegs's department."
"Right here," she mumbled.
I looked straight ahead. Nothing out of the ordinary. There was Spitelout's house straight in front of us. No dragon, unless it was invisible. To the left was the great hall, and to the right was the way to the docks. I took a few steps forward and said, "Astrid is this a…"
"HICCUP!" Astrid jumped and grabbed my vest just as my right foot was suspended in air.
I looked down. There was more air beneath my right foot. Way more than normal. In fact, it looked like a giant sinkhole had opened in the earth. It was probably about fifteen feet across and maybe ten feet deep. "Got it! I'm awake now! Thanks, Astrid."
I shuffled around the hole as several other Vikings joined our little party. I had gotten about a third of the way around it when someone asked, "Why would the ground just open up?" A small murmur rolled through the crowd as they exchanged their own theories. Maybe Thor had gotten angry at this patch of dirt. Maybe there was a sinkhole here and we just didn't know about it. Maybe someone started mining here. Maybe it was a dragon.
Yikes. I had no idea of any dragon that could do this. I definitely had to find Fishlegs.
I continued sidling around the hole when I noticed something. In a vertical hole, sunlight makes an arc across one side of it. The sun was to my left, and that familiar arc was there. But on the far side of the hole from me, the arc was misshapen. Like the hole wasn't a hole. Like it was a tunnel.
Astrid must have caught onto my expression. "Hiccup, what's going on?" She paused for a brief moment and said, "And no, you're not going down there."
"This might be a dragon," I conjectured, ignoring her warning. "Let's go find Fishlegs. And if we can't find him, we can get the Book of Dragons."
Astrid was already on it. She had taken off, headed fifty feet away, toward Fishlegs's house. She knocked on his door, and a few seconds later, Fishlegs answered. He and Astrid launched into a short conversation, but I couldn't hear because I was too far away. After a minute or so, I saw Fishlegs put his hand to his chin in thought. Astrid had just asked him about a dragon that could make this kind of hole. His eyes brightened, and he pointed at her with a smile. Yes, he knew of one.
I made my way over and barely caught the back end of their exchange. "…A Whispering Death."
"What do you know about it?" Astrid asked.
"Um, nothing really," he replied. "Just that it lives underground. As far as I can tell, it's pretty rare. I think we should go get the Book of Dragons for this one."
Astrid turned around and looked at me. I shrugged and said, "Sounds like a good place to start."
The three of us ambled to the great hall. Conveniently, I had already planned to visit there for breakfast. Knowing we had the Book of Dragons there reminded me just how serendipitously efficient our little operation was.
I grabbed a dish with a smoked cod on it and sat down next to Fishlegs, who was starting on his breakfast. Astrid joined us a few seconds later with a fish of her own and the Book of Dragons.
"Let's eat first, then we can discuss what's going on in town," Astrid suggested.
Fishlegs and I had read her mind, because we started eating before she said anything. She joined us in silence.
I was first to finish, so I waited for Fishlegs and Astrid. They finished at roughly the same time, so I stood up and collected their dishes. Took them to the back of the great hall to be cleaned. And returned to the table, where Fishlegs was already flipping through the book.
"Boulder Class dragon," he mumbled. "Ah! Here it is."
Both Astrid and I crowded around him, waiting for an explanation.
"Uh, it says here the Whispering Death tunnels through rock at incredible speeds. It has several rows of rotating teeth to grind up rocks."
"Does it eat the rocks?" I asked.
"Doesn't say," Fishlegs said immediately. "Um, it also says the Whispering Death is like a flying snake. It doesn't have any legs." Both Astrid and I shuddered.
"HEY!" a voice rang out through the hall. It was Ruffnut. "EVERYBODY COME SEE THIS! TUFFNUT'S STUCK IN SOME KIND OF HOLE IN THE GROUND!"
"I'll bet you supper tonight his sister pushed him in," Astrid said flatly.
"That's waaay too sure a bet," I replied. She grinned slightly at me. The three of us stood up and left the great hall.
"Guys, I can't get out! And I have no idea what's down here," Tuffnut said. He sounded genuinely worried, which was a rarity for him.
"I think we should leave him. He fell down here in the first place," Snotlout said.
"Yeah, right," Astrid countered. "C'mere." She grabbed Ruffnut by the arm and led her over to the hole in the ground. The hole where Tuffnut was trapped. Astrid lay on her front, her head and chest hanging over the edge. "Hold onto my ankles and help me pull Tuffnut up," she instructed.
Ruffnut looked at her quizzically and said, "Why? I like seeing him down there. You know, as soon as you get him out, I'm just gonna push him back down there."
"Oh, really?" a gruff voice asked her. It was my dad. Stoick the Vast, a.k.a. chief of our pleasant little tribe. "Help Astrid, or you get down there and tell us what's going on."
"Pssh," she countered with a wave of her hand. "I can tell you exactly what's down…uh…okay, I'll do it." My dad had just intensified his glare at her, something he had plenty of time to practice on me.
Ruffnut crouched and took hold of Astrid's ankles. She lowered Astrid just enough to reach Tuffnut.
"Okay! Bring us up," Astrid said. Tuffnut grimaced and pulled, eventually getting her brother out of the cavern with plenty of fuss.
"Why can't things go this well at the Academy?" I asked rhetorically.
"There's, like, a tunnel or something leading off somewhere," Tuffnut said.
"Oh, yeah. I'll try to imagine it," Astrid replied. She paused, letting the awkward moment hang. "Okay, I can't."
"Was there anything down there besides you?" Snotlout asked. Tuffnut shrugged, one of the few times he was being frank about something without complaining.
"HEEEEY!" a voice echoed. It sounded like it was coming from below. From the hole. "Get me out of here too!" It was Bucket. He had some kind of head injury before I was born, and now he wears a bucket on his head. It must have affected his brain because he was the definition of a simpleton. And he gained artistic talent after that injury, according to Gobber. Go figure.
"Oh, I thought you meant anything interesting," Tuffnut said to Snotlout.
"Groan…" Gobber said sarcastically, ambling toward us.
Astrid leaned over the edge again, my dad holding her by the ankles. Bucket grabbed her hands, and she and my dad pulled him up. Just as an eerie silence fell over the area.
"It's like an underground village down there!" Bucket exclaimed. "And why is everybody whispering? I don't like it when you gossip about me."
But nobody was talking except for Bucket. Nobody could talk, because whatever that low-pitched hiss was, it had all of us scared silent.
"G-guys," Fishlegs said shakily. "I don't like the way this sounds."
The ground began rumbling slightly. Maybe this was what Toothless was onto last night. Maybe he could feel it long before we could.
The pit we had extricated Tuffnut and Bucket from suddenly exploded with a wall of dirt, roots and rock, throwing Bucket a few feet backward. He staggered a few more feet back, his legs too shaky to really move.
"Oh…no…" Fishlegs mumbled.
As the debris from the small explosion cleared, a gigantic snake of a dragon stared at each of us, hovering about ten feet off the ground. I thought looking a Zippleback in the eyes was frightening enough because of its wicked grin. I had no idea there was something even more terrifying. The dragon had no pupils in its eyes. Two white orbs gave it a ghostly look, something that could strike fear in anyone just to make them easier targets. The dragon gave a shrill roar, sounding like two sharp swords grinding against each other. I looked into its jaws from about twenty feet away and saw several rows of rotating teeth. The dragon also had rows of long fangs on both top and bottom jaws slightly obscuring the smaller rotating teeth.
No way, I thought. This dragon looked like it could kill in a heartbeat.
It roared again, just as shrill as the last time. Contorted its back and shot straight downward, back into the hole it had created.
Slowly, I relearned how to breathe. Cautiously glanced around and saw everyone was just as scared as I was. Including my father. This wasn't good. Not when you have the world's best dragon fighter locked up in fear. And no way to defend yourself.
"W-was that a…" Astrid started.
"Whispering Death," Fishlegs finished for her.
"Whoa, cool name! I want one," Tuffnut said.
Whatever it was, it didn't make sense to me. The dragon showed itself, intimidated the living daylights out of everyone and then…left. It was acting aggressively, but never attacked. This was way out of the norm for a dragon. I knew angry dragons immediately attacked whatever moved in front of them.
I thought for a little bit and realized my guardian dragon wasn't here to protect me if something had gone awry. With everything we had been through, Toothless was always there for me. He saved my life after we killed the Red Death. He was there to warn me about the Typhoomerang, even though I didn't listen to him at first. He protected me and Astrid during an avalanche. But he wasn't here today.
"Where's Toothless?" I asked the group. All of them looked at me like I was crazy. Toothless was always by my side. But right now, nobody had an answer.
The low hiss started again, making Bucket groan in fear. His more independent companion, Mulch, was just as scared.
"Everybody, go get your dragons," my dad said. Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, the twins and my dad ran off to fetch their dragons. But I didn't because I had no idea where Toothless was.
"Hiccup, where's your dragon?" Bucket asked me. I looked at him and shrugged.
Within seconds, Astrid brought up the front with Stormfly. Her dragon landed about ten feet away from me. "Wherever Toothless is, I hope he gets here soon," she said.
The ground began rumbling again, and the Whispering Death blasted out of that same hole, just like last time. It gave the same shrill roar, which the other dragons returned. They were ready for a fight.
Out of nowhere, a slightly lower-pitched roar emanated from across the village. It sounded like a Night Fury, if I had ever heard one. Like Toothless. I turned and saw him barreling toward the Whispering Death at full-tilt, murder on his mind. He was late, but he had come to protect me.
The Whispering Death glared at the rest of the dragons. It hissed and squared itself to Toothless, who was now within leaping distance.
Sure enough, Toothless left the ground and snagged the Whispering Death's lower half and brought it to the ground. This dragon was massive, its head almost as big as Toothless himself. The dragon thrashed on the ground for a moment, and then Toothless jumped off its back like it was white-hot. I saw several spikes, kinda like on a Nadder's tail pointing outward from the Whispering Death's body. The dragon took advantage of losing Toothless's grip to start hovering again. Toothless roared in half-pain, half-anger at the dragon and shot two fireballs, both of which the dragon quickly avoided. It returned fire way faster than I had ever seen a dragon react. Most of the time, there was a windup, a movement you saw before a dragon shot fire. The Whispering Death didn't have that movement. It began shooting fire as it was avoiding Toothless's salvo. Toothless couldn't get out of the way in time, this creature was so fast. The fire, which flowed like lava in a concentrated stream, struck Toothless in the chest, sending him backwards in pain.
"GUYS! TOOTHLESS IS IN TROUBLE! WE'VE GOTTA HELP HIM!" Astrid shouted. She directed Stormfly toward the Whispering Death, and her dragon cackled, ready to fight.
All of a sudden, Toothless whipped around and roared at Stormfly, making her back up slightly, wings spread.
"What's wrong, girl?" Astrid asked. "We've gotta help Toothless!" But her dragon wouldn't budge. Neither would anyone else's.
Toothless turned his attention back to the Whispering Death, which had just launched a volley of spikes at him. Toothless was ready and jumped to the side. He began circling, and the Whispering Death immediately shoved itself between the other dragons and Toothless.
I knew something bad was gonna happen, and there was nothing I could do about it. The Whispering Death was making sure of it.
"EVERYBODY STAND BACK!" my father shouted from the air. He was on his dragon's back. A Thunderdrum named Thornado. "THORNADO'S GOT SOMETHING TO SAY!"
He didn't need to ask anybody twice. The sea of dragons and riders parted just as Thornado bellowed in the Whispering Death's direction. The dragon was knocked toward Toothless, who blasted it with a fireball. The Whispering Death didn't even try to shake off the blows, because it whipped around and shot Thornado with another stream of lava. My eyes widened in horror as my dad and his dragon crashed.
"I don't think this dragon has its listening ears on," Gobber observed. He ran to help my dad.
Toothless must have seen what happened because he bellowed at the dragon and tried to lift off. He got two wingbeats in before he crashed. Shot another fireball upward at the dragon, which avoided it again. The dragon whipped its body toward Toothless, impaling his back left leg with two spikes. Toothless jumped and roared in pain as the spikes ground into his leg.
"WE'VE GOTTA DO…" Astrid couldn't finish her command. The Whispering Death roared again and dove back underground. And everything was silent.
Toothless looked at me in pain, asking for my help when the ground started rumbling again. I had an idea of what was going to happen, and I really hoped I was wrong about it. The ground beneath Toothless caved, bringing him with it. A couple of seconds later, Toothless was shot from the newly-created hole in the ground. He flew about twenty feet in the air before crashing, two new spikes lodged in his right side. The Whispering Death shot out of the hole, gave an earsplitting roar and dove straight back underground.
Everything fell silent again. We waited for a few seconds, but nothing else happened. The Whispering Death was gone, but I had a feeling it would be back. And soon.
I ran over to Toothless, who was lying on the ground, trying not to move. Astrid joined me. "Go help Thornado," I told her.
"They're already on it," she said, jerking a thumb at the Thunderdrum, who was being tended by Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins. Everybody was dead serious. Not even the twins were arguing about how "cool" the Whispering Death was. Not when we had two injured dragons befall us within a minute. Toothless groaned in pain with each breath he took.
"He's gonna bleed out if we remove the spikes in his side," I said. The ones in his leg looked okay, but I wasn't gonna take any chances. "Astrid, we need bandages now."
"Okay, be right back," she said. She took off to the armory, which was just across the way. And was back within a minute.
"We'll need to keep pressure on Toothless's side and leg once we remove these," I instructed. She nodded. I took a deep breath and said, "Side first. One, two, three."
I yanked both spikes out at the same time, and blood followed, oozing out of Toothless's side. Toothless yelped and began panting from the pain. Astrid quickly placed the seaweed on his side, followed by soft leather. She kept both her hands on the wounds, trying to stem the blood flow. I made my way over to his leg. Wrapped my hands around the spikes and yanked again. Toothless jumped and kicked at the air. I got the bandages on, but the blood flow from his leg was much less severe. I figured I could wrap it for the night and he'd be okay by morning. I wasn't so sure about his side.
"Astrid, can you help me walk Toothless home?" She looked at me and nodded. "C'mon, buddy, let's get some rest," I told Toothless.
Astrid and I gingerly pushed Toothless to a standing position, where he wobbled precariously. He groaned in confusion as he tried to walk forward, but home was to his right.
"Hiccup, I think the spikes are poisonous," Astrid said, still holding the leather to Toothless's side. I said nothing. I only wanted to get my dragon indoors, where he would be safe for a while.
Slowly, we guided Toothless home and got him upstairs, where the fifth step made a report like a small explosion under his weight. He jumped slightly, making the step pop again. Astrid and I quickly got him upstairs to his favorite spot in this house. It was a rock that was severely charred from his fire. Toothless always charred whatever surface he was gonna lay on for the night. It was something I could count on as part of his routine, something I liked about him. It was one of his little quirks.
But this time, Toothless just slowly curled up on his rock and began shivering. His eyes had an unfocused, glassy look. "Astrid, bring me as many buckets of water as you can carry," I said. We had to dilute the poison before it became irreversible. That meant getting Toothless to drink a lot of water.
"Be right back," she said. She tromped downstairs. And the fifth step popped under her foot, making her groan in frustration as she made her way outdoors.
Astrid came back a few minutes later with four buckets full of water. That would probably do for now. She put the first bucket in front of Toothless's snout, where he looked at it and began drinking slowly. It looked like he was gonna live, but I wanted to play it safe.
Toothless was on the third bucket about thirty minutes later when the rest of our little crew came inside. The teens joined us upstairs as they watched Toothless drink.
"Thornado's doing well, just shaken up," Fishlegs told us. I felt somewhat relieved that one of our dragons was gonna be okay.
"Whoa. That. Was. Insane," Tuffnut said slowly. He broke into a grin and exclaimed, "Now I really want one of those!"
"You know," Snotlout began smugly. "I think you and Hiccup did this all wrong."
"What do you mean?" Astrid asked. I wasn't thinking about anything except for helping Toothless heal.
"You shoulda just let him fly off and lick his wounds…oh, what am I saying? He can't!" Snotlout laughed.
"Did you seriously just go there?" Astrid gritted at him.
"Hey, I call it like it is."
"How about calling for a new conversation?" I asked him.
"Can we stop arguing and please talk about what just happened?" Fishlegs asked insistently. We all looked at him to continue. "Aside from the Red Death, I've never seen a fight between dragons that intense before."
"Did you see what Toothless did when we tried to help?" Astrid said. "He wouldn't let us do anything."
"And the Whispering Death looked like it singled Toothless out," Ruffnut said. For once, she made an astute observation. I would have applauded her if Toothless wasn't in so much danger.
"Yeah," Fishlegs added. "When it showed itself the first time, it didn't do anything except roar."
"And what was that about dragging Toothless underground and spitting him back up? The Whispering Death probably knew it could kill him, but it didn't," I said. I hugged Toothless, thankful he wasn't dead. He gave a weak moan, acknowledging my presence.
"I, uh, I think that dragon was trying to send us a message," Fishlegs said. "It must have known Toothless can't fly, so it, like, wanted to prove Toothless was weaker. Or something like that." He paused for a little bit and randomly asked, "Do you think it has a grudge against Toothless? If so, how long would it last?"
"To the death?" Astrid asked. Fishlegs and I shrugged. We had no idea, but if she was right, I was gonna make sure Toothless never left my side.
What a long day. I spent most of it watching over Toothless, who slept through most of the afternoon. I didn't even think about visiting the Academy, even though the rest of the teens did. Whatever was in those spikes, it was definitely a potent toxin.
"Okay, bud. Let's see how you're doing," I said as Toothless lay on his rock, watching me intently like he always did. His eyes were more focused.
I peeled the bandage off his leg. No blood, just a couple of swollen pock marks. Toothless would probably have a limp for a little while, but that was it. His side, however…
I pulled the bandage back and saw the wounds were still bleeding slightly. Before I could get the bandage back on, Toothless grunted and nudged me out of the way with his head and started licking his wounds, just like Snotlout wanted. I remembered what he did for me when my hands were gashed by the cable connecting the stirrup to his tail fin. He stopped the bleeding and the pain within minutes instead of hours. I sat back against my bed, realizing he would be okay.
I stroked his cheek, and he responded by licking me in the face with a low rumble. I smiled at him. He returned one of his grins. Yep, he was gonna be just fine. Toothless resumed working at his injuries. After a while, he climbed out of the skylight with a low grunt and jumped.
Not good, I thought. I quickly stood up and bolted downstairs, making sure Toothless was within my sight. Opened the door and found a Night Fury staring me in the face. Toothless was looking at me like nothing was out of the ordinary. He must have gone outside because of all the water he drank today. I breathed a sigh of relief and led him back inside. He climbed the stairs, jumping as the fifth step popped under his foot. I followed him, making sure to keep from making any excessive noise.
By the time I got upstairs, Toothless was on his rock, charring it again. He tromped on it a few times and lay down, looking at me with his head on his paws. Just like normal.
I felt more relaxed now, knowing Toothless was perfectly fine. "G'night, buddy," I said, stroking him on the cheek. He murmured with his eyes closed.
I climbed into bed and fell asleep immediately after a stressful day.