Hello again, everyone! Welcome back to the next chapter!
Now to some of the reviews I've received.
Tellemicus Sundance: I know exactly how you feel, having read some of those stories. I do plan on going a different path.
However, I need to set up everything for my plan to work. I hope you enjoy this chapter!
CB73: Thank you for your review! I hope I can give you some of the answers you seek in this chapter!
SuperFan: Thanks for the compliment!
To all the guests: Thank you for reviewing! And no, you aren't bugging me. :)
Thanks to the co-author for suggestions and pointing out errors.
If you see an error, please PM me so I can fix it. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I do not own anything related to HTTYD.
~End of A/N~
Hiccup is on the cliffside walkway, watching over the docks as the supplies are loaded onto the ships. He stares at the fleet in disbelief, not believing his fath… Stoick... had figured out how to find the nest. The only person Hiccup knew could figure it out was Fishlegs. Only he could connect the dots from his actions to come to such a conclusion.
Hiccup watched as one of the warriors loaded the Terrible Terror onto a small wooden platform - which had rings on the sides for the ropes - tying down the small, weak, and terrified creature. At least they didn't think to take Toothless. Otherwise, he would've done something very drastic.
A few hours later the last ship was loaded and the fleet set sail towards the nest. As Stoick's ship passed by, Hiccup shook his head as a final warning, which the Chief took notice of, but promptly ignored. Hiccup felt anger. Anger like he'd never felt before in his life, 'He'll pay the price for his mistake,' Hiccup thought bitterly.
After some time had passed, and the ships are long gone, Hiccup is still on the pathway, trying to figure out what he should do next; He is so deep in thought he doesn't notice Astrid walk up right next to him. "It's a mess," she states, causing Hiccup to jump slightly in surprise at her sudden appearance, but he quickly recollects himself.
"It's a mess of the Chief's own doing," he responds, barely restrained anger seeping from his voice.
Astrid almost takes a step back at his anger. No one, besides maybe Gobber, had ever seen Hiccup so mad. But truth be told, his anger was understandable; his father didn't even give him the chance to prove his claim.
She could only ask, "What happened, Hiccup?"
He looked at her, quickly replying with his lethal trademark dose of sarcasm, though this time tinged with anger as well. "Oh, just that my father hates me enough to disown me and is leading the tribe to its death. You know, typical stuff."
Astrid could only look at him sadly. It seemed when things started going well for Hiccup; something would always be swift to undo everything he did, no matter what.
"So, what are we going to do about it?" she inquires.
Hiccup glares into the horizon, clenching his fists. "We're not going to do anything," he says through clenched teeth.
Astrid's eyes widen in shock.
Hiccup continues to speak, anger lacing every word. "I'd rather start over with the younger generation, teaching them how to get along with the dragons instead of slaughtering them, like their parents before them." He starts to tremble, hardly able to contain the rage he felt.
Astrid is speechless. Her mouth hangs agape in shock at the venomous words that had just come out of Hiccup's mouth. She couldn't believe what she's hearing: he wouldn't lift a finger to help save the tribe! She quickly recovers herself; there had to be something that could change his mind! Then the words came to her. "What about the children, Hiccup?" She begins gently, hoping to quench the flames of his anger. "Most of them are too young to really remember their parents. And, the ones who will remember will blame you for not even trying."
It seems like it was working, as Hiccup's tense shoulders start to loosen and his head starts to droop as well.
"Besides," she continues, "it was Stoick's choice to attack the nest, not the rest of the tribe. They had no choice but to obey his orders! Would you blame the whole tribe for one man's decision?"
Hiccup then gives way to hot tears of shame and guilt. How could he even think about not trying to save everyone from his father's mistake? How could he even consider condemning all those men and women to their deaths to that monster? How could he stand back and allow all the children left behind to become orphans?
He remembers nothing of his mother; Stoick wouldn't even tell him her name. To this day, he wished he could have gotten the chance to know her. Maybe he would have found in her more sympathy, understanding, and kindness - traits his father sorely lacked. He shook his head. He didn't want the other children to go through life missing a parent as he did. He gives a deep, calming sigh. "You're right, Astrid. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. It's just…"
Astrid puts her hand gently, reassuringly, on Hiccup's shoulder. "It's okay Hiccup. I understand."
Hiccup smiles weakly. For a moment, neither of them says a word, enjoying the calming silence and the beautiful clear blue sky.
"So…" Astrid asks, a smile teasing the corners of her mouth, "what are we going to do now?"
"I don't know," Hiccup replies, that same sarcastic tone rising into his voice again, but without any trace of the anger, he had before. "We could do something absolutely crazy that would probably get us killed."
"Be more specific," Astrid chuckles.
Hiccup puts his hand to his chin, thinking. An idea suddenly pops into his head. He whips around to face Astrid. "Alright, this is pretty crazy," he begins.
"I was expecting that," Astrid quips.
"But," Hiccup continues eagerly, "we have dragons at our disposal, the ones from the training arena." He then facepalms himself, "I completely forgot about Toothless! He's still in the arena!" His mind starts connecting the dots, "If we can befriend the rest of them, we might be able to ride them; and if we can ride them, we can get to the nest, probably just in time to stop the other Vikings… or save them, whichever comes first."
"How long does it take to get to the nest again?" Astrid asked, getting excited as well.
"On dragonback, two or three hours, maybe. By ship, it's about three days one way."
"That's fantastic! They're less than a half a day into their journey. That gives us plenty of time to prepare!"
The smile returns completely to Hiccup's face. "We'll need saddles."
"And shields!" Astrid adds.
"Some training for the others,"
"And a new tail fin for Toothless!"
"Yea...wait, What?! Why?"
"Well, leather can catch on fire, and chances are, we're going to run into boatloads of fire-breathing dragons when we get there. You might want to reconsider the tail fin."
"Huh," Hiccup furrows his brow, following her line of reasoning. "Good point. We'll need a replacement material." He taps his chin, hoping for inspiration. "Dragon skin is fireproof. I wonder if we have any lying around…"
"My dad has some hanging on his wall!"
"Perfect! We can use that! That is, of course, if your father wouldn't mind…"
Astrid shrugs nonchalantly. "It's the hide of the first dragon he ever killed, but I'm sure he'll get over it."
Hiccup laughs. "Okay, if you say so. But if your dad gets mad, just remember that this was all your idea." He then gets serious. "Gather the other teens and meet me in the arena in an hour. I'll gather some of the stuff they'll need."
Astrid gives him a big smile. "See you in an hour, dragon boy." She teases, before giving him a quick peck on his cheek and running off.
Hiccup blushes and a big dopey grin starts to form on his face. He then shakes his head, focusing his mind and heads towards the arena with a big smile on his face.
At least he had Astrid on his side.
~An Hour Later~
The remaining teens followed Astrid to the arena, having no idea why she wanted them to head there. But her threats were a great incentive in getting them to move. Surprisingly, they couldn't find Snotlout anywhere in the village. But in Astrid's mind, it was almost a relief, because she had no idea how he would react to this plan that Hiccup and herself came up with. That, and his attempts to flirt with her were annoying as hell.
When they reached the arena gate, they saw every single weapon was gone, and Hiccup was standing in the middle, waiting for them to arrive.
Hiccup smiles at the group of teens. "I see Astrid was able to gather you all…" His smile drops a bit and looks to Astrid, "Where's Snotlout?"
Astrid shrugs her shoulders. "No one has seen him since the fleet left. I looked everywhere, and it seems like he just disappeared. Although," she told him aside, "personally, I'm relieved he isn't here to flirt with me."
Hiccup takes a minute to think, "Hmm… Well, we don't need him for this to work. Although I have a bad feeling as to where he might be at the moment."
"Hiccup, what are we here for?" Fishlegs asks, still trying to comprehend what is going on.
"I'm glad you asked Fishlegs." Hiccup starts moving over to the Monstrous Nightmare's cage. "You are here to help Astrid and I save the tribe."
Tuffnut is quick to question. "How can we do that? It's not like we can hop onto one of the ships like Snotlout did." Everyone, except for Hiccup, glared at him. "What did I do?" He asks.
"You muttonhead!" Ruffnut exclaims, "We searched the entire village for him, and you knew where he went all this time!" She head-butts him with her helmet, knocking him down to the ground.
"Ohhh…" Tuffnut realizes as he rubs his head. "I was wondering why we were searching for him. I thought we were playing find the Snot-man."
Hiccup and the rest facepalm themselves in exasperation. "Anyways," Hiccup continues, getting everyone back on track. "To answer Tuffnut's question, we will be getting some backup from some fire-breathing friends of mine." He smirks at Fishlegs paling complexion. "That reminds me..."
Hiccup cups his hands around his mouth and lets out a tremendous roar! Everyone, except for Astrid, jumps backs at the sound. Astrid recognized the sound and smiles -Hiccup had Toothless hide nearby in case he needed him.
A few moments later, Toothless appears on the top of the arena, shocking the other teens. Fishlegs looked like a fish out of water at the sight of the legendary Night Fury. The twins stood still; not understanding how close the black dragon is and why it wasn't hurting them.
None of the three teens had clearly seen what happened in the arena earlier that day, all they knew was Hiccup had befriended a black dragon.
"Uh- b-buh... i-is that a, a N-night Fury?!" Fishlegs finally squeaks out.
"Yep! The unholy offspring of lightning and death itself!" Hiccup looks up at his dragon friend. "Come on down bud and introduce yourself!"
Astrid and Toothless chuckle at Hiccup's 'this is a regular everyday thing' tone. Both Fishlegs and the twins gasp once again as Toothless walks down into the arena, prancing towards Hiccup like an excited dog. This includes Toothless licking Hiccup's face, making the rider yell in mock anger. "Toothless! You know this doesn't wash out!"
Toothless laughs his draconic laugh as Hiccup wipes the slobber off of his face, flicking it towards the rapscallion reptile. The dragon froze and looked at his rider in shock, before grooming himself to get rid of the sticky substance.
"How'd you like it, hmm…?" Toothless just glares at him. Hiccup mutters under his breath. "Useless reptile." Toothless suddenly sweeps his tail underneath Hiccup's feet, knocking him to the ground.
Astrid shakes her head in exasperation at their antics, though you could see a small smile forming on the edge of her lips.
Seeing Hiccup and Toothless' playful, harmless banter quickly put the teens at ease. The twins especially enjoyed the part where Hiccup got knocked to the ground.
After a few minutes of the rider and his dragon mock wrestle with each other, Hiccup gets up and brushes the dirt off his clothes. "Sorry about that…" He nervously chuckles, before clearing his throat. "Anyways, I'm going to show you how to train yourselves a dragon, although it's more like befriending them." Hiccup signals everyone to back away and pulls the lever down. "Now, let me show you how it's done."
He backs up just enough to allow the Monstrous Nightmare to get outside of its cage.
The Nightmare cautiously comes out and instantly takes notices of his surroundings, not entirely sure as to why he got released from his cage. He suddenly became defensive at the sight of the Night Fury and the teens; who were off to the side.
He then sees the same boy from earlier, standing in front of him, just like last time. A low growl escapes from its mouth.
"It's okay. It's okay… No one here is going to hurt you. Nor will I hurt you." Hiccup says in a soothing tone.
The burnt red and black spotted Nightmare stops growling and steps forward.
Hiccup takes a step back each time the Nightmare moves closer, keeping the space between them the same.
All the teens, except for Astrid, gasp at the sight of the calm dragon before them.
Toothless got nervous and attempted to get closer to Hiccup, not wanting him being so close to the other dragon; the one that had almost killed him earlier. Astrid puts a hand on his head, stopping him. "It's okay Toothless. Let Hiccup do his thing." She says in a calm whisper, scratching his head.
He leans into her touch and relaxes a little, but stays alert. He would've ignored her if not for the sheer confidence she had in her voice for his rider. He also didn't want a repeat of what had happened earlier that day.
Hiccup and the Nightmare finally reach the middle of the arena, both completely zoned in on each other. Then, Hiccup reaches his hand out and turns his head, trusting the Nightmare with his life.
All the teens hold their breaths, no one daring to move a single muscle.
A heartbeat later, the Nightmare presses its snout into Hiccup's palm, completing the bond.
"See, there is nothing for you to worry about," Hiccup says, moving in closer to pet his new friend.
The teens' jaws dropped in complete shock at the scene before them.
"And that," Hiccup concluded with a proud smile, "is how to befriend a dragon. Any questions?"
