Thank you people who give me support! Love ya! :D *Hugs*
Finally an update for you people who are interested in this story. ;P
Hiccup sat on a stool, staring at a map. It hadn't been updated since that day on Itchy Armpit. He sighed and closed it up, folding it neatly. He was slightly surprised by footsteps. He turned to see a certain blonde coming into their room. The usually neat Astrid looked exhausted, her hair a mess.
"You don't look so good. You okay?"
Astrid mumbled something unintelligible and sat down on the other stool beside him. She looked very upset.
"Astrid?"
Astrid closed her eyes. Hiccup saw her start to cry.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Something occured to him. "Did Stormfly...?"
Astrid nodded. "She's gone. I looked all day... I did Nadder calls until I couldn't breathe..." She broke into sobs. Hiccup closed his eyes tightly. Another disappearance. And one a lot more painful. He wrapped his arms around her, unsure what to say to his wife. He wanted to utter all sorts of assurances. 'It'll be okay.' 'We'll find her.' He didn't know if it was true. If any of it was true. Meatlug hadn't reappeared. None of the disappeared Dragons had.
"Oh, Astrid, I'm so sorry..."
Hiccup sat on Toothless's back, on a patrol, this time with Gobber and Grump. The big Hotburple seemed to have no interest in disappearing. The searches had all but stopped for the dragons. There were barely any left at this point. Grump, Toothless, Cloudjumper, and about 25 others.
"There doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary, Chief. Shall we 'ead back?"
"Yeah, let's go, Gobber."
Berk needed hope.
It was a particularly grey day on berk when a certain Nadder appeared over Berk. She swooped down and landed in front of a very surprised and amazed Astrid. She didn't care if Snotlout was watching her, she smothered her Dragon in hugs, the only dragon so far to return.
"Stormfly! Oh, I'm so glad you're back!"
The Nadder returned her rider's hugs with eager nuzzles and happy squawks. Hiccup had just came from a walk, and saw the sight. He felt relief and new hope wash over him. If one Dragon could return, all of them could. He ran up with Toothless, and the two Dragons gave each other a wonderful nuzzle. Hope returned partially to the island of Berk.
"I'll only be gone for a while."
Hiccup watched his mother hop gracefully on Cloudjumper's back. He was skeptical of having someone leave the island alone, but his mother had insisted on going out to look for Dragons on her own with Cloudjumper, saying she would be fine. Well, almost completely alone.
"Are you sure about this?"
Valka nodded. "Stormfly returned, so me, Cloudjumper and her are going to go to where she went to find where they all went."
"Hopefully."
"...Hopefully. It's a chance, Hiccup. One Berk needs."
"I still can't believe Astrid agreed to this."
"She wants the rest of the Dragons back too."
"Even though she just got Stormfly back..."
Valka put a hand on Hiccup's shoulder. She stared at him.
"We can do this."
"Okay. Good luck, mom."
The thin figure of Valka perched on a Stormcutter, speeding after a nadder, almost appearing to chase it. The three of them moved quickly through the sky, wasting no time. They flew for quite a while, heading in a direction they rarely went. South. After what seemed like forever, they landed on a small island. Stormfly moved forward slowly. Valka slipped off of Cloudjumper's back and slunk forward with the two dragons.
The three peeked over a cliff. Far below, over a certainly fatal drop, three large ships rigged with all sorts of Dragon trapping devices sat in the water. Definitely Drago's. Chains from all three trailed into the water. Bubbles rose on the surface of the water.
'That must be where the Dragons are.' Valka began to slip back, planning to sneak back to Berk and tell Hiccup everything. Then she saw a huge... something slip out of the water. It looked like a huge blue tentacle. It curled over, almost appearing to stare at something... or someone on the deck of the largest ship. Drago.
Valka crouched close, trying to see it, but a growl cut short behind her caused her to spin around.
She only caught a glimpse of Cloudjumper and Stormfly lying motionless before something hit her.
Everything went dark.
Yeah, yeah. Cliffhangers. I hate 'em too. But what better way to keep the audience intruiged? ;)
Some of this is obviously inspired by something else. Can anyone guess what? The tentacle? I'll let you try to figure it out. Whoever does first will be mentioned next chapter.
Next update will be on Tuesday, Nov 22.
