Gliding through the sky I admired the clouds above blinking slowly almost half asleep, a faint whistling noise snapped me to attention glancing over Toothless's side I saw the bola coming straight for us sitting up I guided Toothless into a steep bank avoiding the net.
Turning and circling slowly I set to searching the seas for where the weapon came from. The boat looked tiny from up here, dropping into a steep dive I studied the crest on the sails hoping to have an idea of what tribe had been shooting at us. The crest was familiar, very familiar, Berk it was his own tribe attacking him. Glaring behind my mask I dove again heading right for there ship, the high pitched whine coming from Toothless heralded the arrival of the night fury and I could just here someone yell 'NIGHT FURY GET DOWN'.
As I got closer several familiar voices floated to my ears 'TO ARMS' but the most confusing one 'GET THE DRAGONS OUT HERE' I was trying to work out if perhaps they planning on luring me onto the deck when a deadly nadder launched from the ship a very familiar blond girl perched on its back, the nadder was shortly followed but a monstrous nightmare, a gronkle, and a hideous zippleback, all baring a familiar figure. Stifling the urge to gape, my curiosity got to me and I circled slowly studying them.
Decision made I shot forward easily slipping between Astrid and Snotlout, zipping about I tested their abilities, measuring their capabilities with turning, manoeuvring, speed, and just general trust and daring with their dragons. After a few minutes of play I worked out they all had a decent bond with their dragons but nowhere near as strong as my own with Toothless.
Wanting to tease them some I slid my legs out of the loops holding them in place and rose to a crouch on Toothless's back still guiding him with slight touches of my fingers on the back of his neck, moving my finger in a circle, the signal to keep circling, I stood up. Grinning at the gasps coming from the other riders I stood casual in the centre of the saddle, smirking I waited for one to get close enough and then I moved, lightly racing across Toothless's wing and transitioning smoothly onto the wing of the nadder, Astrid let out a startled yelp and I just grinned as I flitted across the dragons wing pausing on its back I tapped Astrid lightly on the head grinning widely before turning and stepping onto the nadder's wing. Allowing myself to weigh the wing down causing the dragon to bank slightly I slid straight of the edge and landed with a soft thump behind the twins on the body of the zippleback.
Saluting them I jogged to the back of the dragon jumping off I free fell for a few moments before Toothless appeared beneath me, bending my knees to soften the landing I settled back into the saddle redoing the loops around my legs. Urging Toothless faster I did a single loop of the whole group before I took of like a shot causing the water to part bellow us. I heard the sounds of the dragons trying to keep up and failing miserably, nothing could keep up with a night fury, especially Toothless.
xxxxxx back at the boat xxxxxx
"What the hell was that?"
"How the hell did he just run across the wings like that?"
"Who in Thor's name is he?"
"QUIET!" silence fell as every one looked to the chief waiting for him to pass judgment, sighing he said "clearly we underestimated his abilities if he was able to literally walk all over us like that" grumbling slightly studying the dragons and their riders in front of him he said "well your our resident dragon expert what is your assessment of his abilities?"
Astrid sighed and spoke for the group "well to be honest chief, he is way out of our league, I like to think I have a strong bond with Stormfly but that guy he just trusted that night fury completely blindly, he didn't even look before he jumped he just trusted his dragon knew what he was doing and would be there to catch him. That and their flying is so much more smooth that ours its almost like they have one mind, barley any need to communicate because they are already thinking the same thing"
Stoik nodded once and turned away to start trying to plan a new strategy to get this lord of dragons, this king of the mighty beasts to sit down and talk with him, so he could 'question' him about the mysterious disappearance of his son just months before sightings of the dragon lord started to come in. The fact that his son had been taken by a night fury and this man rode one was another very large piece of evidence suggesting he was behind the loss of his son. Baring his teeth in a sinister smile he vowed to get his hands on the elusive man once and for all. It had taken them months to figure out he would be over this section of water and now they would have to start again, but it was fine because it would all pay off eventually and then he would have his answers and his revenge.
xxxxxx back with hiccup and toothless xxxxxx
Shifting nervously I studied the ship bellow me I had no idea what had made me decide to follow the ship, I hadn't even gone near Berk since I left and I wasn't really sure I wanted to go back now, but I was curious to see what else was new. if the teens were riding dragons who knew what else had changed while I was away.
Mentally shrugging I focused bellow the clouds again, night had fallen some time ago and deciding it was safe I dropped bellow the cloud cover gliding silently over to the ship I listened intently searching for some conversations to over hear. The sound of shouting drew my attention to bow of the ship and I spotted the teens gathered around the dragons nowhere in sight, gliding closer I listened intently. 'and then he was all like look at me I'm soooooo awesome jumping around risking my life to show off, haha and then he dared to just fly off like he is so much better than us!' there was a brief pause and then Fishlegs took over from Snotlout 'yeah well he kinda is, isn't he? he made all that look effortless and his dragon is a night fury, a species that we know very little about as well as the pair clearly being older and more experienced, it was just rude to rub it in like that, although the way he tapped Astrid was decidedly immature, but then I know plenty of immature vikings' I could just imagine the look he would send Snotlout's way, I was proven right when I heard 'hey what was that look for I am not immature'
Frowning I glided away to find somewhere for Toothless to rest we would catch up tomorrow, I was fairly confident I could get to Berk from here anyway.
Perched on Toothless's back I tensed when Berk finally came into sight, it hadn't taken me long to catch up to the ship but I had to keep my distance especially in the day due to Toothless's very obvious black scales that stood out massively in the day time, as well as the fact that it looked like they had let the dragon to have their freedom to wander all over the ship as well as the surrounding air space.
Searching for somewhere to land I spotted a small secluded patch of beach on the far east side of the island, circling round I descended quickly hoping to not be spotted once down on the beach I made beeline for the caves I could see in the cliff face, ducking inside I let Toothless lead as the cave was near pitch black inside and Toothless was much better able to navigate in the dim cave system, not because of any superior eyesight my eye sight had improved significantly over time, but because Toothless had an ability much like that of echo location allowing him to understand the cave system much better than I ever could.
With the night fury leading it didn't take them long to reach the other end of the long tunnel system. Crouched down I peered out the other end and noted it came out not far behind the arena, turning back to Toothless I spoke softly automatically speaking in dragonish as that was all I had needed to speak in quite a few years "stay hear bud I'm just going to scout around a bit and then I will be right back, if I take to long wait till night fall before you come to rescue me yeah, it will be much easier and safer" at the look in his eyes that suggested he might argue I added "for both of us, I blend in with the night sky just like you do so I would be much less likely to get shot if we leave when it will be near impossible to see us yeah" seeing the understanding dawn on the dragons face,
Toothless nodded slowly "I suppose just be careful so I won't have to come rescue you got it"
Grinning I nodded and said "you too" before turning I slipping out of the cave and drifting through shadows trying to find a good vantage point which was made more difficult by the presence of dragons everywhere it would be nigh on impossible to find somewhere he wouldn't be seen at least not until night fall, grimacing at having to wait I snuck back to the cave smiling at Toothless, who let a relieved warble at have me come back safe.
Rubbing behind his ears I said "looks like we will be waiting until nightfall to do any recon its impossible to not be seen in the town there are dragons everywhere and while I'm fairly sure those vikings can't speak to you guys like I can I don't want to risk them noticing their dragon acting weird." Toothless just nodded before he settled down to have a nap until it was time for some action.
Night had finally fallen and now that the sky was completely black I left the cave Toothless following silently as we explored the town taking in all the sights and smells that I hadn't seen since I was fifteen nearly ten years was a long time and things had changed although not that much there were what looked to be dragon feeding stations and other such new additions but otherwise Berk was still Berk.
A faint noise caught my attention and I shifted my focus to it as we moved towards the sound, I located the source of the noise when I reached the Hofferson's residence, easily spotting Astrid talking quietly to the deadly nadder she had been riding earlier. focussing I managed to over hear some of the conversation '...worry we will get that stupid show off and then we will find out exactly what happened to Hiccup 10 years ago, that night fury has to be the same one that took him, it has to..."
I started to leave the second I spotted the nadder watching us, backing away slowly seemed to be working so far until the dragon suddenly tilted its head to the side and said "hey, who's there? come out of the shadow" ignoring the dragon I started backing up faster unfortunately Astrid's attention had been shifted in our direction and she seemed to see the movement of my attempted retreat, eyes narrowed she hurled the axe that alway hung at her wait straight at him.
Reacting instinctively I reached out and caught the axe mid air the apparent lack of noise from her weapon informed Astrid there was definitely something or someone there, "Stormfly some light please" attempting to retreat faster caused me to trip over Toothless landing with a soft thump on the ground, just as Stormfly's mouth erupted in flames, Astrid seemed confused at first before she spotted Toothless nearly concealed in the suddenly reduced shadow and then her gaze dropped and she saw me, flushing beneath my armour I shot to my feet shifting nervously as she eyed me like some wild animal that was about to attack her.
That was when I realised I was still holding her axe, crouching I placed the axe gently on the floor and started to back up taking the slightly growling Toothless with me hoping she would be too stunned to do anything that would get me found out before I could get away. No such luck I had barely taken three steps when she suddenly shouted at the top of lungs "HOSTILE IN THE TOWN, HOSTILE IN THE TOWN AND THEIR ARMED" turning I started to make a run for it, a slight yelp escaped as something pinged of my armour.
Two cources of action posed into my head, jump on Toothless and try to make a fly for it and risk getting shot down or send Toothless to get reinforcements and stay to get their attention away from my dragon so Toothless would have a chance to get away, as well as finding out more info on Drago possibly and hopefully understand just why these people thought I killed Hiccup, which is very impossible since I am Hiccup, one definitely had a larger chance of success and judging from the more frequent twangs I could here they had their archers out now and I did not feel like getting shot down that was asking for serious injury plus with the teens now having dragons it wouldn't take much to chase after them and I didn't want to lead them anywhere important on the off chance they had a decent tracker amounst them.
Speeding up I started relaying my plan to Toothless who immediately objected "no I will not leave you here, its dark we will be fine they can't see us"
"Toothless they already pinged an arrow of my armour twice now I don't want to risk someone getting a lucky shot in a crash landing could bring about even more injuries. I need you to go back to the nest and get some of the others to come back here to bust me out, I dare say they will question me but it is not in their nature to torture people, they are my old clan mates and this will be a great opportunity to gain intel, I will be fine, but I need you to do this for me yes?"
"fine, but please be safe"
Nodding we finally got out from bellow the artificial roof made by the overhangs of the buildings ether side of them, launching himself into the sky Toothless shot off with barely a sound as I made my way to a large patch of moon light and spun around backing up slightly still, but now facing the majority of the armed forces. I watched as they all visually searched me for weapons when they couldn't see anything obvious I saw Astrid come forward and start looking around frantically before turning to me "were is it?, were did the night fury go?"
People immediately started whispering when she mentioned my dragon and I was surprised by the sheer level of hostility that suddenly seemed aimed at him someone pointed up into the sky, "there it is, its making a run for it"
Growling I whipped out my sword and flicked the gas release section out. spinning in a neat circle to spread the gas I then flicked another switch igniting the gas in a loud and bright whoosh of fire, gasps and shocked murmurs started up again as everyones attention was once again riveted to me.
Spotting Astrid give Stormfly an order and judging from the fact she pointed into the sky I could only assume it was to chase Toothless, I decided I couldn't let that happen, letting out a low hum at an odd frequency I was relieved to see Stormfly's eyes glaze over as she turned to faces me humming again I said softly "sleep" the low growl was lost amongst the shocked gasps and when the nadder suddenly dropped the uproar increased tenfold.