Chapter 2-The Meeting
Dawn, Hiccup and Stoick decided, was late enough to alert the elder.
Not long after explaining, the peal of the only bell in the village was suddenly echoing its way into the surrounding houses, waking everyone who was still sleeping instantly, and everyone else to drop what they were doing….literally; the only reason for hearing that sound meant certain doom was coming.
Immediately, dragons and Vikings alike poured into the Central Square, one line of chatter rising over the next.
"What's this about?"
"Why so early?"
"I didn't even eat breakfast!"
"Rooar!" "Rawr!" "Peep..." "Snooore..."
Eventually, the elder began to shout for quiet that was immediately answered with silence; no one disobeyed the elder.
"Thank you." The elder muttered before beginning her announcement. "We have disturbing news that could threaten the very existance of both Vikings and dragons alike!"
The confusion that had accompanied the silence swiftly transformed into suspense and tension as they waited for an elaboration.
"Hiccup, if you will..." the elder waved an arm at the chief's son who had been standing next to her, giving him permission to proceed.
"Right." He said, giving the elder a respectful nod before turning back to the Vikings, "Everyone, take a look at my catch last night!" Hiccup called as he waved in the direction of Stoick and Toothless, who were bringing in the dead fish catch.
Everyone gasped "HAUGH!", though the dragons' cries of "ROOAR?" prevented them from being heard.
"Now, now, calm down!" Hiccup continued quickly, "I thought about it a lot last night, and I think I might know what caused this. You see, I've noticed that algae in the oceans started disappearing, as well. And ever since that, oil and tar have been washing up on shore. It's possible that the fish, for various reasons, consumed the oil and tar which caused them to die and start rotting so quickly." Hiccup explained.
"But is that even possible?" Tuffnut asked.
" 'Course it is! Why else would he have mentioned it?" Tuffnut's fraternal twin sister, Ruffnut, muttered next to him in an 'you're an idiot' tone.
"Hey, I didn't ask you, pig-brain!" Tuffnut shot back.
"And that's coming from the one with no knowledge!" came the return scoff.
" can't even lift an axe!"
"And you can't clean up our Zippelback's litter!"
They would have continued, but Hiccup had had enough.
"FOR THE LOVE OF ODIN, PLEASE SHUT UP!" Hiccup shouted as loud as he could. Everyone who had been watching the twins turned back to Hiccup, the two responsible for the distraction cutting off abruptly. "Excuse me, but to answer Tuffnut, no this is NOT possible. I found something else inside the oil tar. And it's about the size of my arm!" Hiccup commented, turning to his catch in search of the very 'thing' he would not identify outright.
"I don't get how something the size of your arm could be so dangerous." A rude comment from Snotlout echoed through the crowd
"That's because this thing is not what you would expect." Hiccup replied calmly as he straightened again, holding something out for the Vikings to see. "Check this out!"
The 'thing" Hiccup was holding out appeared to be a giant diamond-shaped ocean-blue scale.
"HAUGH!" "ROOAR?" once more, the entire crowds' gasps went unheard.
Hiccup nodded, "Yes. There's no dragon in the book with this type of scale. I believe it might be the dawn of a new species. Either that, or one that doesn't live around these parts." Now that he was voicing these theories, Hiccup began to get worried. What would the village do? Search for this mysterious dragon? Pretend like nothing was happening? Flee?
"And even more bad news..." Stoick called out behind Hiccup. "The least amount of scales found on a dragon, besides the Terrible Terror, is atleast 250 scales. If there are 250 scales that are about the size of your arm on a dragon...Then the dragon could be about nearly the size of Berk."
"HAUGH!" "ROOAR!"
"WI'R YUH STAP ZAAAT?" The annoyed shout from Gobber was as loud as the roar of the Red Death... and maybe with a Terrible Terror as well.
Silence snapped into the air like a whip, no one so much as moving for several moments.
Finally, Stoick cleared his throat. "Alright," he began, "I don't know what solution - or if there even IS one- can be used to stop this, but we need to travel out and find what the heck is making this mess. We start in three hours. Better prepare."
Just like that, the meeting was closed. Hiccup wandered from the Center Square and over to the docks, watching the rest of the village head home to prepare for the journey that lied ahead.
An hour later, Hiccup returned home with a meager pile of what little that remained of the fish that were still edible, calling for his frien
"Alright Toothless, lunch!" Instantly, the sleeping dragon heard the call and rushed downstairs.
At the mention of food, even in his sleep, the black dragon responded, bounding down the stairs in eager anticipation, diving into the pile immediately.
"Better take it slow, because we're going on a journey." Hiccup warned.
Toothless made a noise equivalent to a scoff; fish were his favorite, and he had no intention of 'taking it slow'.
Hiccup shrugged, "Well, don't come complaining to me when you get hungry and there's nothing to eat." he muttered, and left it at that, finding it wisest to start packing rather than waste time arguing
"Hiccup, something's not right with the dragons." Astrid informed him by way of greeting as she ran up to him.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"The dragons are going crazy! We don't know what to do!"
Astrid lead him over to where the Dragons were being kept as she explained, gesturing with her hand to show Hiccup just what she meant.
She was right: the dragons WERE crazy. Sparing a couple of minutes, Berk's hero mentally scanned the reasons for this before finally rushing to them, throwing the fish he had meant to be his provisions at them. A bit of confusion and fighting ensued when they realized what was happening, but soon the fish were eaten and the dragons satisfied. Despite the grateful kiss from Astrid, Hiccup only allowed himself one brief smile and a blush in satisfaction before rushing off to replace his given away food.
"C'mon, let's get going!" Stoick shouted once every available Viking and dragon were accounted for. Since the direction of where the fish were coming from had already been decided, everyone obeyed at once. Hiccup and Toothless were leading, Astrid with her Nadder on one side of him, and his father and Gobber on the other on their Monstrous Nightmares.
Meanwhile...
"You better be sure this works!" "Are my predictions EVER wrong, master?" "No but you better hope they stay that way!"
I forgot to give credit to bkwrm19 for beta reading for both Chapter 1 and 2. You rule, bkwrm19!
