A/N: Sorry, I wanted to get this up a bit sooner, but complications arose around the G.M.A.D., as I'm sure a few of you know. I'll talk about that at the end, though, as I do have a bone to pick with a couple of people.
On a brighter note, thank you all for the warm response to the first chapter. 12 reviews, 33 favs and 47 followers all on the first chapter. It makes me happy that even a year after it was originally started by Incinerator1, it can still be brought back and receive such a big 'welcome back'. Though no one got the reference I made in the end of chapter AN, so no cookies for anyone unfortunately. If you want to know what the reference was, just PM me or leave a comment in the reviews and I'll get back to you.
I forgot to mention this last time, but the last chapter was set as if the teens were 14, so with any long time skips, that is the point they are going from in case you get confused.
If you are wondering, yes I am still working on 'HTTYD: Watching The Movie', though due to the situation within the G.M.A.D. sparked by a few ... cowardly ... people on the outside, I will be a bit more cautious with the updates for that. This is because, I think, that the way I'm writing it could make it be interpreted to be along the lines that these few don't think should be on this site. That doesn't mean I'm discontinuing it, it just means that uploads for that will be a bit longer apart.
Anything else I have to say can wait until the end, so apart from the next line and the disclaimer, I'll leave you all to the chapter.
Please make sure you review and fav if you haven't. Constructive criticism is welcome.
Disclaimer: I do not own How to Train Your Dragon and the characters associated with the franchise. They belong to DreamWorks and Cressida Cowell. I also don't own the main OC's in this, that honour goes to Incinerator1.
Here you all go, enjoy!
Chapter 2: Return.
Veil of Helheim's Gate. Eight years after Hiccup's disappearance.
A beautiful day shines out over the Archipelago. White, fluffy clouds float lazily over the peaceful seas, nothing wrong with the world. That is, until eight dragons spew forth from the thick, visually impenetrable foggy wall of Helheim's Gate. If anyone were to be able to see the sight, they would think that they were dreaming.
Of the eight dragons, seven were flying in a V-formation. Bringing up the rear was a large forest green Gronckle and a greenish-blue Zippleback with black flaming designs and orange outlines. Clinging to the top of the Gronckle is a small sky blue Terrible Terror. In front of them are a Nadder and a Monstrous Nightmare, side by side. The Nadder had a wildish look to it, though it seemed like almost every other Nadder seen. The main difference is that the horns on top of her head were curved backwards and could be fired out, acting like a boomerang. The Nightmare was huge, matching a Timberjack in size and probably could've passed for one too. The skin was an intense bright red and he little curved claws on the wings.
As amazing as the sight of the five dragons at the rear of the formation was, none of it compared to the absolute rarity in front of them. Leading the V-formation were three Night Furies. The left one looked like a battle veteran, one who had seen and engaged in conflict his whole life. Scars scattered his entire body and the wings were fairly tattered, holes and slashes punctuating both wings. It is surprising that he could still fly. On his head was a large silver scar running from the back of the neck, through his right eye and down to the bottom of his lip (no, it's not me). The Fury on the right was a bit slender then the normal Night Fury and had a distinctly crescent moon shaped birthmark on the middle of her head, coloured silver like the previous Night Fury. The third lead the group at the apex, guiding the group along their journey. It looked just like your average Night Fury, except for the fact that it had an artificial left tailfin, the real one having been taken off.
"Are we there yet?" asked the Terror, obviously in Dragonese, getting bored and antsy over the length of the trip.
"For the tenth time, we get there when we get there!" growled the annoyed Gronckle carrying him.
"Come on, Bomber. Don't be so hard on Terry," replied the left head of the Zippleback.
"Well, you don't have a chatterbox riding on your back now, do you, Spitshot?" retorted the Gronckle, Bomber, with a greatly increased annoyance shown on his face.
"I'm not a chatterbox!" whined Terry, the Terror.
"Speak for yourself. I'm attached to a chatterbox," the right head of the Zippleback sarcastically replied, ignoring Terry's complaint.
The remark was met by a head-butt from the left head, Spitshot, before his annoyed comeback.
"At least I don't look as ugly as you, Spitfire."
"Uh, we're twins, dimwit!"
"Big fail there, Spitshot," remarked Bomber.
The argument escalated quickly between the three, with the occasional remark from Terry. After a few minutes of the louder, constant bickering, the Nadder became greatly annoyed.
"Ugh, will you lot shut up back there?!" she snaps, her words falling on deaf ears.
"Hey Natalie, I'll shut them up for you," flirted the Nightmare to Natalie, the Nadder, before flying towards the argument.
Upon seeing the Nightmare arrive, the others instantly added him to the quibble.
"Hey, Draco. Tell these idiots that I'm the smart one," Spitfire says.
"In your dreams, Spitfire," Spitshot replies.
"Hey guys, knock it off. Natalie's getting really annoyed," Draco, the Nightmare, commands.
"Ooh, look who's trying to impress the girl," Bomber chortled teasingly.
"Shut up!" Draco yells, completely embarrassed. If he was a human, he would be blushing furiously. In frustration he slams Bomber with his tail, which sparks Bomber to ram into him. The force sends Draco flying back, hitting Spitshot.
"Hey!" Spitshot yells, hitting Spitfire, her brother. Spitfire head-butted back, knocking Spitshot into Draco and starting the conflict all over again.
Before it could escalate to out of control proportions, the quarrelling reached the ears of the Night Furies, sparking a reaction from the heavily scarred one. He let out a loud angry roar, releasing his frustration in one powerful blast, causing the fight to stop midway.
"What do you lot think you're doing?! Get back in formation!" roared the Night Fury in … well … fury.
"Yes, Thane," the dragons replied simultaneously, falling back into their positions.
"Come on, Thane. Calm down," soothed the slender Night Fury.
The heavily scarred one, Thane, took a deep breath, calming himself down.
"Fine, Catherine. But next time, they won't be so lucky," Thane said.
"Yes. Yes they will," replied Catherine, the slender Fury.
"However, their argument did bring up a fair point," Thane pointed out, addressing the lead Night Fury. "How far away are we, Hiccup?"
"Don't worry. We'll be there soon," replied Hiccup as they flew as fast as they could in the direction of the closest Viking inhabited island.
'After all these years, I am finally going home,' thought Hiccup as they neared the shores of the island. 'I finally get to return to Berk.'
Berk, Present Time.
Eight years after Hiccup's disappearance and Berk is relatively unchanged. The village still had the same layout, same design. Though the raids had become almost non-existent, there were still the occasional burnt down and rebuilt house. The Vikings attitude towards dragons still hadn't changed and their hatred still burnt true, though dragon training had changed a bit over the years. Since the raids grew less and less, they needed to make the dragons last longer in the arena, lest they not be able to capture a replacement.
Overall, eight years and hardly any change … that is, unless you were Stoick the Vast and Astrid Hofferson, who felt the days go by like eternity.
Hiccup's 'suicide mission' had taken its toll on Stoick. He was never the same, having already lost his wife, Valka. Now that Hiccup was gone, he felt like an empty shell, devoid of any warm feelings. He still performed his chiefly duties, but the spark was gone from his eyes. Gone was the hearty, strong-willed, powerful man that was Stoick the Vast, replaced by the sad, heartless shell that he had become. Allowed to grieve for a bit, he would return to his responsibilities. However, he would leave the village mysteriously every month, disappearing for two days before returning on the third, looking more downcast than ever. None of the villagers knew where he went, except Gobber who was the only one who seemingly could get some sort of glimpse of the former chief. Stoick would travel a cave on the opposite side of the island, where no one could hear him cry. There he would weep for his lost son, reading the letter Hiccup left behind, before sobbing even more.
Great as the grief of the village once was and the depression of Stoick, no one was more affected by the loss than Astrid Hofferson. She was never the same, losing the fire that made her who she was. When Dragon Training came around again, she never could compete with the same grim determination she showed when Hiccup was around. Somehow, though, she still managed to be chosen for the final exam thanks to the clumsiness of the other teens. They all took part again because there was no initiation the year Hiccup disappeared in his honour. She barely passed her initiation, almost getting killed in the process. As the years went by, she spent less time with her friends and training herself, instead staying in her room and crying her heart out over Hiccup. The last words he said to her played over and over in her head, 'Astrid … I love you,' etched into her mind.
Even in sleep she couldn't get a rest, crying herself to sleep before seeing her dreams. Hiccup was there, in almost every one. She would either dream peacefully, Hiccup holding her and telling her over and over the he loved her as they sat down in various beautiful environments, embracing and occasionally kissing each other, or she would have nightmares, viewing Hiccup as he would die over and over again, sometimes quick and precise, other times slow and painful, his tortured cries of pain breaking Astrid apart. Each time she could only watch on as he was slaughtered time after time, unable to do anything to save him no matter hard she tried. Whenever it happened she would wake up screaming, only to find herself in her room. She would then pour her heart out, the pain too much to handle, curling up into a ball and rocking herself to try and fall back asleep, though more often than not she would stay awake to not go through the suffering again. The nightmares had come at the beginning, their frequency far outnumbering the opposite.
What the villagers found three days after Hiccup's disappearance did nothing to help either of their depressive states.
Flashback: Berk, Three Days After Hiccup's Disappearance.
A cloudy, windy day took the place of the third day. Many people, though working on their jobs, would keep an eye on the horizon, searching for any sign that Hiccup would return to them. Stoick would glance worriedly whenever he could, his thoughts focusing on how he had treated his son over the years. That was the thought that had crossed all their minds and they all felt guilty for how they had shoved Hiccup aside. Astrid had been seen spending her waking hours sitting on a cliff on the edge of the village, gazing out towards Helheim's Gate with worry and fear in her eyes. She would sit there all day, either staring out to sea or occasionally sharpening her axe with a whetstone, never moving except to go and eat, which at times she had to be forced to do so. Sometimes the other teens would sit next to or near her, Fishlegs the most. He always had this sort of acceptance for Hiccup, and as such generally left him alone.
It was during the gale-fuelled afternoon that a Viking chose to take a walk along the shores of Berk. What he found along the beaches shook him to his core as he ran as fast as he could to the village. Upon finding Stoick, he hastily gave a huffed account of what he had seen. With a strange and concerned look on his face, Stoick made his way down to the beaches, the rest of the village in tow. A massive wave of shock struck the village at the sight before them. Lying on the sand was the charred carcass of a gargantuan dragon, the largest they had ever seen. Originally a trickle of hope could be felt, as they all knew that this sign meant Hiccup had succeeded, but before they could begin celebrating a closer examination of the body brought them tumbling back down to the ground. Lying next to the carcass was a leather saddle and a slightly burnt, brown fur vest. Stoick's heart broke at the discovery as he dropped to his knees and wept in front of everyone. Astrid was shedding tears too, though she tried her best to hide them, only small teardrops trickled down her cheeks. When she was alone in her room, she let them flow freely when the realization finally hit her completely.
Berk, Present Day, The Cove, Early Afternoon.
"Oh, ground! How I've missed you!" Terry proclaimed as he proceeded to kiss, or the dragon equivalent of it, the ground upon touching down.
"Well, here we are," Hiccup mentioned as he gestures to the rocky walls surrounding them. "This is Berk."
"Good, now let's get out of our dragon forms," Thane says. "Someone might pass and I don't think dragons are a welcome sight here."
"Yes, Thane," everyone replies in unison.
The dragons surround themselves in a fierce swirling wall of fire, a different colour for each dragon. When the fire was extinguished, nine humans stood in the place where the dragons were moments before.
"Ah, it's good to walk on two legs again," sighed Bomber in Norse as he stretched his arms towards the sky.
In his human form, Bomber would be one of the largest people you had ever seen. Towering at six foot six, his upper body was completely covered in bulging muscles, to the point that he could crush stone with his bare hands. His legs were thick and long. He had a square jaw and his hair was buzzed, usually with a kind smiling expression across his face, like right now.
"Finally! In my own body!" Spitshot and Spitfire exclaimed at the same time.
Spitshot and Spitfire were almost identical, the main difference being that they are opposite genders. Spitshot was the girl and had short straight blonde hair, while Spitfire, the boy, had medium-length spiky blond hair. Apart from that, they were the same. They wore the same outer garments, quite short and a mischievous look. Everyone knew that if they couldn't see them for too long, you would be likely to have a firecracker in your pants or be missing your money. They were also expert bomb-makers, as seen by the ring of bombs hanging of their waists.
"I can feel my legs!" cried a relieved Terry.
Terry was the youngest of the group at age 6 and was also quite small for someone his age. He looked like a younger version of Hiccup, hence him being dubbed 'Hiccup II'. He had a messy brown mop of hair and freckles scattering his face. Strapped across his back is a staff with a large ring at one end, with more rings circling around it (just think of the solar system). Tied to his waist were pouches containing magical materials and herbs.
"Speak for yourself, Terry. My legs always feel like my arms in Nadder form. It's really uncomfortable," complained Natalie, rubbing her legs to get the feeling back.
Natalie looked like the female version of Tarzan, just with more clothing, a true wild girl. Co-incidentally, she was also found in a forest, but that is another story. She had long flowing brown hair that reached her hips and well-tanned skin. Around her neck was a necklace decorated with the teeth of many different predators and strapped to her back was a long, pitch-black spear, the only lightly coloured part was the silver edge of the spearhead.
"All your problems are nothing compared to mine. I could barely see my biceps," Draco said as he flexed and admired his muscles.
Draco had a similar body build to Bomber's, just that instead of being a towering figure, he was fairly stout, only reaching five foot four. Along with his ripped muscles, he also had black hair that reached the bottom of his neck. Because of this, many girls would fall for him at first sight. The problem was that his ego was the size of the Red Death, scaring or disgusting those that liked him. This was proven because he would constantly brag about his achievements to Natalie. To make matters worse, the hammer and shield on his back were enchanted so that they would keep tally of how many enemies he had defeated. At the moment, they totalled 212.
"All of you get comfortable. We won't be able to transform for a while because the people here are still hostile towards dragons," ordered Catherine as she stretched herself out on the ground.
Catherine is just younger than Hiccup, aged 21. She was extremely attractive, slender and thin but very strong. Her hair was jet-black and tied up in a long ponytail. A large assortment of knives and daggers dangle from her waist and sheathed on her back is what looks like an ancient katana with a cracked skull on the hilt. In the middle of her forehead was the silver coloured crescent shaped birthmark.
"Alright everyone, let's start setting up camp," Thane ordered. "Bomber, Spitshot and Spitfire, you guys put up the tents and build a fire pit. Terry, when they are done make sure the fire is smokeless. We don't want to draw any attention at the moment. Natalie and Draco, go gather food and wood for everyone. Catherine, you go stand outside and make sure we don't get any intruders."
Obviously Thane was the heavily scarred Night Fury, which were displayed all over his body. Thane was also the leader of the small band. He was neither ripped nor scrawny, instead embracing the 'lean but mean' look. The muscles on his body were somewhat prominent and he was around six feet tall. Scars riddle his entire body, the silver scar on his face starting from his eyebrow, going through his right eye and down to his chin, making him look incredibly intimidating and ferocious. He had long, black spiky hair that stretched down to his hips and rarely ever smiled. He had four swords, two slung over his back and two on his waist. The ones on his waist were enchanted so that they could invoke the powers of thunder and lightning. (Now I know what you're thinking. No, this is not me)
"I don't want to be with Draco anymore," complained Natalie.
"Go now or you'll be sharing a tent with Draco. And I don't care what happens in there," Thane threatened, Natalie hurrying off straight away.
"What about me?" inquired Hiccup, noticing he was the only one that wasn't assigned a task.
Hiccup had changed a lot over the years. He was now 22 years old, taking the whole 'lean but mean' build into account like Thane. His hair was still the auburn messy mop it always was, but the rest of him had changed a bit, making him more handsome and tough, though he still managed to retain his signature lopsided smile. His old characteristics were still with him, though he now carried a blood red sword that hung off his waist. In connection to the colour, the sword was inscribed with the name, 'Liferend'.
"Hiccup, you get to go to the village," Thane answered.
"What?! Why?! They … they might see that I'm not dead and compromise the entire mission," exclaimed a shocked Hiccup.
"Wear this," Thane replied, holding out a black hooded cloak. Answering Hiccup's sceptical look, he continued. "This will protect your identity and it is enchanted so it won't come off. Terry calls it the 'Inviso-cloak', considering that it could render you hidden in plain sight if you wished."
Hiccup still seemed reluctant to take the cloak. Though Thane may be the emotionless and intimidating leader, he has been Hiccup's closest friends and allies. Also, he isn't one to give up easily.
"Hiccup, you haven't been here in eight years. You deserve to see everyone again," Thane said, tempting Hiccup into accepting the cloak.
Hiccup reluctantly took the cloak and put it on as he walked out of the cove, pulling the hood over his head. Walking past Catherine's guard point, he turned and walked all the way to the village.
'Well, here goes nothing,' Hiccup thought as he stepped out of the tree line and into the village that is Berk.
A/N: There you go, another cliff hanger ... sort of.
So you may be thinking, 'those characters are like the teens'. Well, you'd be right. Don't blame me for that if you don't like it, I'm just following Incinerator's story line until it falls off and I can fully take it into my own hands.
Now to the current situation. The G.M.A.D. had received word from someone called Welcome To Story Time that we were somehow causing harm in this website. After what sounds like a mostly one sided conversation, due to the fact that Night had no idea what was being said half the time, she reached the distinction that the best way for us to continue our stories was to put them on FictionPress. "What was the problem?" you may be asking. Well, it seems like she, or they, depending on if it was both twins that believed this, believed that the stories like the 'How I joined the G.M.A.D.' and other G.M.A.D. related stories shouldn't belong on this website. The 'Watching' fics weren't included in this as they focused mainly around the character reactions (apart from mine, of course. Just as much a narrative as it is a reaction thing). Though Night did make a fairly reasonable decision, she also asked me to talk with Story because she thought I could get a bit more of an understanding between us.
That was about 3-4 days ago, and I haven't heard anything from Story. Since then, we have had a few more people have a go at our group, apparently celebrating the decision. One person even went so far as to PM one of the members, telling her to leave and burn all her stories. You people who are doing this are just plain empty and stupid. If you don't what we do, no one is forcing you to read our stories, just don't read them in the future. No matter how it seems, this isn't over. If anyone knows Story or she/they are reading this, then Story has about a week to contact me. If not, then phase 2 comes into play. If anyone else shares their view, then you let me know. I'm the one dealing with the outsiders in this now, you speak to me. Leave the other members out of this, this is my plan. If you think these people are just plain selfish, stupid or however else you want to put it, make sure they know, and us too. I think some members need cheering up.
Now that that's done, and I'm sorry to all those who aren't affected by that but it needed to be said, I can speak a bit more freely. I have just spoken with Incinerator and he has just given me a fair idea of where he would've gone with this had he continued it. I will try to incorporate it as best as possible. Also, yes, Astrid and Stoick are a bit OOC, but I can live with that. It worked well the last time I did it.
I really don't have much to say. I've just got to release some frustrations out over my current life but I won't do that here, unless, of course, it is because of something or someone connected to this site.
If anyone wants any help with anything, you can always PM me. And make sure to check out 'HTTYD: Watching The Movie' too. It seems to be getting quite popular.
Next chapter: Reunions of a Different Kind.
Please make sure to review and fav if you haven't. Constructive criticism is welcome.
Until next time ...