Author's Note: I have updated chapter one, so go back and take a look at it. I'll be working on this story because it is spring break for me. I'm adding more detail to the original, "Zero to Assassin" so updates won't be too long a wait. I will have to work on a chapter 15 though. Without further adieu, Chapter 2!
Changes
Six months passed since Hiccup left Berk and the Hairy Hooligans celebrated his leaving since they considered him was a curse. However Stoick stayed in his house, barely leaving for the first month, then he threw himself into his work. Gobber was depressed that Hiccup left, he loved him like the son he never had and gave him all the love he could, which apparently wasn't enough. Astrid was happy with the praise she got since she killed a few more dragons during the raids. Snotlout got even more arrogant, if that was possible, over the fact that he was next in line to be chief and asked Astrid out even more. Fishlegs was sad, but not depressed like Gobber; he liked Hiccup and wished that he had actually stuck up for him instead of shunning him out of fear of getting beat up. The twins were the exact same, but they did miss Hiccup a little bit, since he was always destroying things.
Hiccup had spent the six months exploring the archipelago and through those six months he trained his body and was now taller and more muscular than he was before. He had explored as well as hid in the archipelago, he didn't want to be captured and face his crimes for riding a dragon, so he decided to head east. Along the way he saw the most breath taking sites. He experienced many new tastes and culture he would have never known about if he stayed on Berk. It wasn't long until he found himself in a city called Rome.
Hiccup and Toothless landed in the woods outside of a town along the coastline.
"Stay here bud I'm going to go get some supplies." Hiccup said dismounting Toothless, who warbled in worry.
"Don't worry bud I'll be fine." Hiccup said patting Toothless on the head. He then walked off to the city.
After about 15 minutes of hiking Hiccup arrived at the city and started to walk around to find the market place. While he was walking around he saw a group of soldiers engaged in a fight with two hooded figures in a big alley. In the mist of the fight one of the figure's hoods came down revealing a beautiful girl with long crimson red hair and emerald green eyes. The red haired girl was preoccupied and didn't notice a Roman soldier was coming up behind her. Hiccup rushed to get to the girl in time. Said girl noticed the Roman soldier when he was right behind her, but she was too late to react as the soldier's axe was already coming down. The girl was suddenly shoved to the side and out of the way of the axe by Hiccup.
Then it all went black.
Hiccup was lying in a small bed with Toothless at the foot and two hooded figures on the sides. He groaned and moved his hands to his head, which felt like a Thunder-drum was roaring inside. He felt a gauze bandage and slowly opened his eyes and took a look around. "Where am I?" he groaned.
"You're in the infirmary at our hideout." One of the hooded figures said removing their hood revealing a man in his mid-50's with short dark brown hair and some gray mixed in, blue eyes, and small beard around the mouth also with some gray hairs.
Just as he sat up, Toothless jumped on the bed and started to lick Hiccup. "Uh, stop it Toothless" Hiccup said trying to push Toothless off of himself.
Toothless eventually got off of Hiccup and the other hooded removed their hood showing the same red headed girl from before. Now that Hiccup got a better look at her, she looked only a year or two older than him.
"How do you feel?" the girl asked.
"I'm doing fine, other than this explosion of a headache." Hiccup groaned which caused the girl and man to chuckle.
"What's your name kid?" the man asked.
Hiccup opened his mouth to say speak, but he couldn't remember his own name. He thought for a minute trying to remember it, but couldn't and said "I'm sorry I don't remember."
"What do you mean you don't remember?" the girl asked.
"I can't remember my name for some reason. Why can't I remember?" Hiccup panicked.
"Maybe that blow to the head gave him amnesia." the man said to the girl.
"Calm down, OK? Tell us what you remember?" the girl asked.
"I remember flying on Toothless to a city. I landed in the woods near the city. I went to get supplies. There I saw two hooded figures, much like you, fighting some Roman soldiers. Then I pushed a pretty red head girl out of the way of a Roman soldier with an axe. Then nothing after that." Hiccup explained. The girl had blushed when Hiccup unknowingly called her pretty.
"What about before that?" the man asked.
"I remember nothing, other than the fact that Toothless is my best friend. I'm sorry, but that is all I can remember about my life." Hiccup replied.
"That's alright kid, most people don't survive an axe to the head." the man said putting a comforting hand on Hiccup's shoulder.
"Mind telling me what happened after I blacked out." Hiccup asked.
"Sure." The girl said and started to explain what happened next.
FLASHBACK
The girl and the other hooded figure hand finished getting rid of the Roman soldiers and the girl ran over to the boy to check if he was still alive. Much to the girl's relief he still was, but was bleeding badly from his head wound. The girl quickly took out some gauze bandages and started to put them on Hiccup's wound to try and stop the bleeding, or at least slow it down.
"Linda what are you doing we need to go." the hooded figure asked in Latin (A/N: Latin was the spoken language in the Western Roman Empire while Greek was spoken in the East).
"I'm not leaving him here." Linda replied back and hefted the boy up.
The hooded figure removed his hood in frustration revealing a man in the mid-20's, with short light brown hair, and hazel eyes. "Fine give him here it'll be easier if I carry him." the man said holding out his arms knowing it's pointless argue with Linda in this type of situation.
"Thank you Alex." Linda said putting Hiccup in the man's arms.
"Whatever let's just get out here before more show up." Alex replied and ran off towards the woods with Linda on his heels.
They were running through the woods when all of sudden Toothless jump out in front of them and snarled. That caused Alex and Linda to stop dead in their tracks. They stayed frozen as Toothless gave them the death glare. Alex and Linda have had zero experience with dragons since there were basically none in Rome. Toothless approached Alex and Linda slowly.
"I'm going to give the kid to you and run for the hideout while I keep him distracted." Alex whispered to Linda.
"No I'm not going to leave you here alone." Linda replied.
"I'll be fine I can hold my own." Alex replied and slowly gave the unconscious Hiccup to Linda.
When Alex made the transfer Toothless eyes quickly locked onto Linda and snarled even louder. Linda froze for a second before she noticed that Toothless had a saddle on him.
"Hey Alex I think this kid is that dragon's rider." Linda whispered.
"What? That's crazy there's never been a tale of anyone riding a dragon." Alex replied back.
"Then how do you explain the saddle?" Linda shot back. Alex looked at Toothless and did indeed see a saddle.
"Ok so maybe he is, but that doesn't help out since he is unconscious." Alex said.
"Take him back I have an idea." Linda said and handed Hiccup back to Alex.
Toothless got closer and snarled at Alex. Linda got between them, but was off to the side a little so Toothless could see Hiccup. Linda drew her sword and Toothless got into a defensive position and snarled some more. Linda tossed the sword away and held up both her hands and removed the hidden blades and tossed them away as well. Linda then put her hands out in front of her in a calming gesture and said "Hey there big guy. I'm guessing the person my friend is holding is your rider?"She saw Toothless relax a bit and continued.
"Look we didn't hurt him some Roman soldiers did that part. In fact your rider saved my life, but he got injured and will most likely die if we don't help him."
Toothless relaxed almost completely and got a concern look and cooed in concern as well. "Yeah so we need to get back to our hideout so we can treat him way don't you come with us." Linda said and reached her hand out in a friendly manner. Toothless leaned in and rested his snout in the palm of Linda's hand. That caused Linda to smile and she scratched Toothless a bit before picking up her swords and hidden blades.
"Let's go." Linda said and started to run off towards their hideout followed by Toothless then Alex.
END OF FALSHBACK
"That's what happened." Linda said "and you should have seen the look on everyone face when we brought your dragon with us it was hilarious."
Everyone then heard a knocking sound and looked to see Alex leaning on the door frame. "So how is our dragon rider doing?" Alex asked in Latin since he didn't speak Norse like Linda or the older man.
"Other than a killer headache and some amnesia he seems fine." Linda replied back in Latin.
"Ok just thought I would drop by." Alex said before leaving.
"Ok bye." Linda said then turned back to Hiccup.
"Don't worry about him he's all ways in a grumpy mood." Linda said Norse.
"Ok, by the way what's your name?" Hiccup asked.
"Linda and this is the Grand Master the head of our organization." Linda said while pointing her thumb at the older man.
"Thanks for helping." Hiccup said.
"No problem at all. Thank you for saving Linda." the Grand Master replied.
"Now since you can't remember your name we'll have to give you one, how about we call you 'Ryder'?" Linda said.
Hiccup thought about it "What do you think bud?" while looking at Toothless. Toothless nodded his head in approval "Ryder it is then." Hiccup said with a smile.
The next couple of days Ryder spent his time in bed, with different people visiting him and wanting to see Toothless. Several of them brought fish for Toothless and they found out that Toothless liked mackerel the most and hated eels. Linda basically stayed with Ryder the entire time only leaving to sleep, shower, or use the bathroom. Linda told Ryder about Rome and its culture along with teaching him Latin and Greek; she also taught him what little she knew about Viking culture. They quickly determined that Ryder befriending Toothless was the reason he left.
During those days Ryder and Toothless had two more frequent guests. One was named Mark and the other was named John. Mark was around 6 feet tall, 17 years old, same age as Linda. He had short brown hair, hazel eyes, and wear blue robes. John was around 6' 2", also 17 years old. He had dirty blonde hair that went to his collar, blue eyes, and wear white robes.
Ryder was lying in his bed in the infirmary, with the gauze bandage still on his head, and Toothless at the foot of the bed, when suddenly there was a knock on his door. "Who is it?" Ryder asked.
"It's Linda." was the reply.
Ryder got up and walked over to the door, stepping over Toothless' tail that was on the floor, and opened it. There Linda stood in maroon colored robes.
"Hey Ryder! How are you feeling? Any memories come back?"
"I'm feeling fine thank you, and no, none of my memories have come back." Ryder said.
"Well I'm glad you are feeling better, and as for the memory thing. Don't worry about it ok? It'll come back when it comes back." Linda said putting a hand on his shoulder at the end. "Now, if you're feeling up to it would you like to grab some lunch with me?"
"Sure sound nice. It'll be good to get out of this room." Ryder replied.
"After that maybe I could show you around the compound." Linda asked.
"Sounds like a good use of the afternoon." Ryder said.
"Ok let's go." Linda said extending her hand for him to take. Ryder hesitantly takes Linda's hand. Linda noticed this hesitation and asked "Are you ok Ryder you seem a little nervous?"
"I'm…f-fine." Ryder stuttered a looked away trying to hind.
Linda looked at Ryder for a second trying to figure out what was making Ryder so nervous. "Why is he so nervous? He's met just about everyone on the compound over the last few days and seemed to like everyone and be liked by everyone." Linda thought to herself.
Then she looked down at he's hand that was in hers and then it clicked. "It looks like someone isn't use to being around girls or women that much." Linda thought to herself and cracked a smile. "But I must admit he is kind of cute when he's nervous."
"Come Ryder I won't bite I promise." Linda said, but she couldn't resist leaning in and saying "unless you're into that sort of thing."
Ryder went redder than Linda's robes and Linda thought he was about to overheat. Ryder immediately back away from Linda and said "No…no…no…I'm…n-not." but never finished before tripping on Toothless' tail and landing flat on his back. This caused Linda to burst out laughing along with Toothless.
"It's not funny." Ryder protested pitifully.
"You're right Ryder it wasn't funny. It was hilarious!" Linda said before going into another fit of laughter. "Come on let's get you to the mess hall for some food." Linda said after her laughing fit and stuck her hand out for Ryder to grab.
Ryder grabbed Linda's hand and she pulled him up off the floor. Ryder muttered a quick thank you and they head off to the mess hall with Toothless following close behind.
MESS HALL
Linda, Ryder, and Toothless arrived at the mess hall got there food which consist of some chicken, a small salad, a fruit, bread, and water; while Toothless got a bucket of fish. They were looking for a place to sit when they heard someone call their names. They looked in the direction of the noise and saw that it was Mark, who was sitting next to John, and he was waving them over. Linda and Ryder looked at each other before making their way over the Mark and John.
"Quomodo futurum sit" (Latin) Mark asked.
Ryder looked up and put a hand on his chin trying to remember what that meant. "Ah, fine thank you. How is it going with you?" Ryder answered in Norse.
"Fine thanks and it seems like you're learning Latin pretty well." Mark said also in Norse.
"Thanks, but the credit goes to Linda for being such a good teacher." Ryder replied.
"Hey you're a good student." Linda said.
"Anyways got any memory back yet?" John asked.
"No not yet." Ryder replied sheepishly while rubbing the back of his neck.
"Give it time. Good things come to those who wait." John said.
"Thanks." Ryder replied with a small smile.
"So what do you two have planned for the rest of the day? Another language learning lesson back in the infirmary?" Mark asked.
"No, I was going to show Ryder around the compound." Linda replied.
"Sounds fun mind if we join you." Mark asked.
"Yeah that sounds fine by me. What about you Ryder?" Linda replied.
"Yeah that's fine." Ryder said before taking a bite out of his bread.
The rest of the lunch was spent with some small talk, jokes and funny stories, and some useful information about the nearby towns. They got up and hand their dishes to the kitchen staff and walked out of the mess hall.
In a hallway just outside side of the mess hall they were deciding where to go first. They just decided to follow the hallway they were in and go from there. While walking through the hallway they came across the Grand Master.
"Hello children." the Grand Master said.
"Hello Grand Master." they all replied in sync.
"How are you feeling today Ryder?" the Grand Master asked.
"Fine thanks." Ryder replied.
"That's good to hear, and I do hope your memory returns it, must be difficult not knowing about your past." the Grand Master said.
"It's a little annoying not remembering anything about my past, but I'm doing fine regardless." Ryder replied.
"Well it's good to see you in such high spirits." the Grand Master said.
"I've been meaning to ask, what is your organization exactly?" Ryder said.
"It can be a bit difficult to explain without coming off as bad, so why don't you come by my room after your tour of the compound and I'll tell you about it." the Grand Master said.
"That's ok I'm sure Linda, Mark, or John could explain it to me to just fine. I wouldn't want to take up any of your time." Ryder replied.
"It won't be a problem at all, in fact one of my duties as Grand Master is to inspect new recruits." the Grand Master said.
"Ok then I'll stop by your room later today." Ryder said.
"I'll see you all later." the Grand Master said and started to walk off.
"Wait, how did you know about our tour with Ryder?" Mark asked.
The Grand Master looked back with a small smile and said. "I have my-resources."