Okay, so here's the deal. If people don't start reviewing I'm just going to ax this story, because I'm assuming that people don't like it. I only have one review, after all.
I don't own How to Train Your Dragon or anything in the HTTYD universe.
Chapter Three: An Eventful Day and a Poster
(Hiccup Point of View)
They didn't remain in blackness for long. Soon after freeing himself from his crazy kidnapper what looked like a light blue ocean was seen in above Hiccup. Questioning if it was the sky he quickly turned around and saw a giant lake beneath him. Upon seeing that he and Toothless were free falling, without any way to land as his dragon was tied Hiccup immediately let out a loud scream and his dragon screeched as they plunged into the water.
"WHOA!" he screamed, as if there were no tomorrow.
Hiccup thought he'd never been so soaking wet before, even though this wasn't true. Upon resurfacing he gasped for breath, his dragon, Toothless, struggling, letting out panicked cries as the poor thing was tied and in the water.
"It's okay," he tried to comfort Toothless. "It's going to be okay. Once I figure out where we are, we're going home, Toothless."
For what seemed like miles around he could see nothing but water and a distant landmark. Swimming over to Toothless he found that now that they were in the water and he was no longer being held by that strange man he could remove the bindings. But it wasn't easy.
Poor Toothless shivered as he removed the bindings and Hiccup gasped as he saw rope marks and some raw flesh beneath the bindings. They must have tied his dragon tight. But when Toothless was free he gave Hiccup a quick lick and grabbed the boy's vest and began dragging them to shore.
It took a good fifteen minutes, but finally they were on shore. Exhausted, Hiccup didn't look around for a while.
But some people noticed them. They were wearing strange hats that were pointed at the top and overall round, and some long flowing robes (or what he thought were robes) of plain colors, plain blue, plain green, plain black, etc. Even the men wore 'dresses', although they looked different and were styled differently from what the women wore.
They had come up to him and Toothless, surrounding them in curiosity, acting as if they hadn't ever seen anyone quite like them before, and glancing at Toothless curiously. Hiccup was lying on the ground, looking up at the sky, and he could see the faces of these people. Their faces were a bit different from Vikings, narrowed eyes, black or dark brown hair, and refined beautiful features. There were not bulky and muscular like the Vikings but were thin, like him, though they seemed a lot more flexible and agile.
They were speaking a strange language and he couldn't understand them at first, but as fifteen minutes passed, Hiccup and Toothless merely listening because of their exhaustion, Hiccup found he could catch a word here and there and understand it. And slowly, he was picking up the language. It was a a miracle, really. By the end of fifteen minutes he could understand everything that was literal, but he had trouble picking up the idioms and figures of speech.
Standing on top of his feet, Toothless still lying on the ground, he tried to see beyond these people to find out where he was, but they were crowding him so closely that he couldn't see anything. They continued chatting, talking about the stranger 'falling from the heavenly realms' and glanced at him. Hiccup was still out of breath, but he was grateful to be alive.
Knowing they needed directions, Hiccup tried his hand at the new language. It felt strange on his tongue and he knew his pronunciation was off, and more than likely he had an accent like the man who had kidnapped him and his dragon. But he didn't know what else to do. He had no choice but to try to speak it. "Can anyone tell me where I am?" he asked, knowing that he was butchering the language as he mulled it over his tongue, his mouth having to move in a way it had never done before. It was a beautiful language, really, rather musical.
Immediately the chatter picked up. The people had already known he was a stranger, but the boy didn't know where he was?
"What does he mean 'where am I'?" one asked.
Another asked, "Is this boy crazy?"
"Where am I?" Hiccup repeated further, a lot firmer, more impatient since he hadn't gotten an answer.
"Nan Zhao!" came the reply of an older man, glaring strangely at Hiccup. "Where else would you be?"
This time Toothless began standing up, surprised that the people didn't seem afraid of him. In fact, they practically ignored him, as if he weren't there, more focused on his human buddy.
Hiccup staggered. Nan Zhao? What the heck was Nan Zhao? "Nan Zhao?" Hiccup questioned further, nearly fainting in confusion. "What do you mean?"
"We mean Nan Zhao," a beautiful woman responded, her dark hair tied in a bun with some sort of pin. "Technically the two hundred and fifty first nation of Nan Zhao or the twenty first realm of Nan Zhao."
Hiccup shook his head, confused further, and looked at them. "Are you saying Nan Zhao is a country?" he asked, trying to get clarification.
This time an unknown person spoke up. "What do you mean? Well of course it is! It's a nation or a country of Nan Zhao. There are many. It's in the twenty first realm. It is the twenty first realm of Nan Zhao."
Hiccup looked around for the voice, needing a further explanation. "I'm from far away," he explained, looking around all three hundred and sixty degrees so that he could glimpse the whole crowd. "We don't have terms like this where we're from. What do you mean?"
The mumbling started again, discussions heating up as they saw the boy was serious and absolutely clueless as to what was going on. After all, how were they going to explain it to the boy? Especially to where he'd understand?
"He talks as if he's from the mortal realm," some of them whispered and Hiccup's eyes widened.
"Mortal realm?" he questioned looking around in confusion. At this the crowd immediately stopped talking and stepped closer.
"Are you from the mortal realm?" the lead man asked, gazing curiously at him.
"Mortal realm?" Hiccup tilted his head and Toothless mimicked the move, standing on his back feet. "I don't understand. What is the mortal realm?"
"You mean you're not from here? You're not from the immortal realms?"
"Im-Immortal realms?" Hiccup stuttered. What on earth was that? "What is an 'immortal realm'?"
"It is where the immortals live."
"And what is an immortal?" Hiccup asked, unsure of what to make of the situation.
The group immediately began chatting again and Hiccup was in too much shock to be annoyed. "He has to be from the mortal realms!" they were saying. "He doesn't even know anything about the immortal realms!"
"And what is an immortal?" Hiccup voiced again, trying to get his head wrapped around the situation.
This time the leader, a woman, piped up. She had been watching him carefully with slightly narrowed eyes, particularly as her husband, the lead man, had asked and answered some questions. "The immortals are those who cannot die, and many of them have powers. They are immortal, not mortal, like us, who are capable of dying."
This time Hiccup swayed on his feet. There were people who couldn't die? That seemed too far fetched to be true! But based on the information he had gotten he had to assume he was from the mortal realm, but he couldn't be sure.
And so, in overload and shock, he fainted.
(Some time later)
(Hiccup Point of View)
By the time Hiccup woke up, it was noonday. His dragon, Toothless, was standing by and watching him anxiously. Hiccup recognized the relief in his best friend's eyes when he had awakened.
"Ow," Hiccup murmured softly, rubbing his head. He wondered if he had hit it when he fainted.
Just then a beautiful woman barged in. "Do you feel better?" she asked sweetly, a smile on his face.
Hiccup frowned, reviewing what he remembered of the events on the shore. Then he took in the room he was in. There was a fire in the middle of it and the bed was in the corner. Implements for cooking were on the far right side, and other beds were on the north and south ends of the room. It must have been a one-room house. But it looked remarkably clean, cleaner than Berk, in fact. There were windows on all sides of the room but they were all covered with shades, preventing him from seeing outside. It also darkened the room, allowing him to rest.
The woman had her hair back in an unusual way, part up in a bun and part hanging down. She wore bright clothes, a robe-like dress that was bright red, orange, and some hints of green in it. There were some odd like pin things in her black hair, her eyes narrow and blue, but beautiful. She was tall and slender in appearance, but graceful no doubt.
He looked up at her, ready to answer her question now. "Not sure," he admitted, and Toothless crooned in agreement, worry and intelligence in the young dragon's eyes. "For one, I know nothing about this place, for another reason, I don't know how to get home."
The woman frowned now, surprise and apprehension in her face, as well as hesitation. "See," she began. "We had assumed that you were capable of crossing the realms."
"Crossing the realms?" Hiccup questioned in confusion and Toothless looked the woman in the eye in such a manner that Hiccup wondered why he couldn't speak human language. He certainly acted as if he was able. And acted that way all the time, ever since Hiccup had met him.
The woman pursed her lips, as if wondering if she should say more, then replied, "Only someone capable of crossing the realms can come here in the manner that you did. The only other way would have been to come through a gateway, and we're fairly sure there are none around here as visitors from other realms are not common here; in fact we're sure there are none for a very long ways. You suddenly appeared out of the sky, and we'd assumed that you'd either just gotten the power to cross realms, or you didn't know how to do it very well."
Hiccup widened his eyes and Toothless gave him a certain look. It's almost like he was saying, 'Do you think that man forced us to cross realms?'
Hiccup then decided to voice this. "Actually," he admitted carefully as he knew nothing about these people. "I was sort of kidnapped, well both of us really, and I remember being back on Berk and then being forced to enter a darkness with my dragon. He was holding me and I sort of fought him. He let go, and next thing I knew me and Toothless were falling out of the sky."
A sudden surprise lit the woman's face, as well as fear and caution. "The man who did this knew how to cross realms," she admitted then. "But what he would want with a mortal on the other side..." she trailed off, leaving the sentence open. Hiccup wanted to ask her opinion but then thought otherwise. It may not be good to ask, and frankly he wasn't sure if he wanted to know or what. He didn't even want to voice what his hostile kidnapper had mentioned to him as he didn't know what it meant.
"So how do I get back?" he murmured softly, needing an answer from her.
She just sat there, refusing to talk for a while, staring off into nothing, completely silent. Finally, she must have decided that it was time to answer his question for she replied, "You will have to find a gateway."
Toothless and Hiccup looked at each other. "And where would I find one of these gateways?" he asked suddenly.
The woman shrugged. "I don't know. I don't think anybody knows, really, well any mortal anyways. Very few know where the gateways are and you would have to find someone that knew where one was. Even very few immortals know where the gateways are. But in truth it would be an immortal you would have to ask, for of the few that know of where to find the gateways, all of them are immortal."
Hiccup sat thinking about this. "So then I we're stuck I guess?" he said more to himself. "Great, just great."
The woman smiled and shrugged. "I'm sure it won't be that bad. You'll just have to travel around a little bit. For starters if you're going to be here for a while you're going to need a job so that you can earn some money to travel. Seeing as its farming season a lot of farmers will need their crops burned. I notice that you're animal (Toothless growled a little) can breathe fire. It shouldn't be hard for you to find work." The woman paused for a minute, as if thinking, and then added, "Well here it will be. But in the city about a day away you should be able to find some work."
Hiccup thought on this. "I am a blacksmith," he said aloud. As he looked her in the eye he asked, "Do you think they have room for another blacksmith?"
The woman nodded vigorously. "Of course! I hear that Dong Guo could use another person manning his shop! You'll be able to find long term and temporary employment at a good price with him!"
Hiccup grinned and the woman walked over to a desk on the opposite side, took out a scroll, and began scribbling some things on it that he couldn't read. But when she handed it to him he saw that the letters were strange and looked boxy. Or were they letters?
"Give this to Dong Guo," she instructed. "It's a recommendation from me. He'll be more likely to hire you if you were recommended by someone he knew."
As Toothless crooned his thanks Hiccup smiled, "And I'm guessing that you know him."
"No," she tilted her head slightly. "I'm an acquaintance, but my husband knows him really well. They're brothers."
Hiccup accepted the help gratefully, but he frowned as he voiced, "You sure he'll be willing to hire me when you don't even know me that well."
But she merely smiled. "You look like a good, honest, young man. I trust you."
(An hour later)
(Hiccup Point of View)
Hiccup had been given some supplies by the woman and and he had thanked her tremendously. The pack she had given him was a gift, and she wasn't even expecting anything back. When the boy asked if her husband would be mad that it was missing she shook her head. "He trusts me," was all she said and Hiccup took it at that, grateful for her charity. Even Toothless had gone over and licked her.
As it turns out Hiccup had woken up just in time for a caravan was getting ready to leave for the city, Tonghai, they had called it, and soon Hiccup was excited to begin his journey.
Toothless was staring at him intently. 'Do you think we'll be able to find an immortal that can tell us where a gateway is?' he seemed to be saying.
Hiccup sighed. "I don't know, Toothless, but I know it's going to be a little while before we manage that. First of all, I have to find a job, or rather we may have to find a job, and then once we make enough money we'll be able to search for someone who can either take us back or can tell us where to find one of these gateways."
Toothless growled in frustration and Hiccup put his hand to his head, the pack heavy on his shoulder. Toothless was also carrying a heavy load from the woman as his pack was heavy, and as his tail fin prosthetic was damaged due to the ropes and heavy impact in the water, Hiccup knew that before they could fly he was going to have to fix it.
The boy sighed. Why did misfortune always have to happen to him and then to those he cared about? Would he ever have good luck?
They began traveling soon afterwards, the road bumpy. Several times Hiccup tripped and Toothless had to come over and nudge him back on his feet.
Sighing from exhaustion after a few hours of treading down the road the caravan luckily stopped for a rest and to eat lunch. Pulling off the side of the road, Hiccup could see the city in the distance. It was still far away but he was amazed that they had even made it that far that quickly. Then again that would explain his exhaustion for they were traveling at a fast pace that even Toothless was having difficulty keeping up with, and the group made no efforts to slow down for them.
It was after Hiccup had gotten Toothless's lunch out and was eating his own, the things that the woman had packed for them, that he noticed a post with a sign on it. Curious, he turned to face it.
At first it was hard for him to make out; he unused to the language. But gradually, after looking at it repeatedly he found that strangely enough he was able to read it. He looked over it a few more times to make sure he understood it right, and then he stared.
The poster read:
Black Jade Bandit: Wanted
Soldiers are still looking for the cause of thousands of thefts, but let the citizens of Tonghai be reassured that the thief will be caught.
Meanwhile we urge the citizens to take proper care of their belongings and report any thefts that do occur.
Let the citizens of Tonghai be assured that the moment the the bandit is caught the law will put him to justice and he will be executed.
Tonghai authorities
Hiccup sighed. 'Great,' he thought sarcastically. 'More to add to my plate. All the supplies I've been given could be potentially stolen.'
Upon turning to Toothless he saw that the dragon was looking strangely at the poster as well and for a brief moment the boy wondered whether or not the dragon could actually read it. "Okay," he addressed Toothless and the dragon immediately gave him one of those intelligent stares that were full of meaning. "I think we should take extra precautions and make sure that everything is secured when we reach the city." The dragon nodded and a gave an intelligent grunt of confirmation and with that Hiccup began checking to see that his own bag was secure.
By the time they made it to Tonghai it was late in the evening. As it turned out Dong Guo owned an inn and the blacksmith shop that was attached to it was only a side business, which was an unusual thing, even for the people of Nan Zhao. Apparently it was a hobby he had turned into a business to make a little extra money on the side to keep him afloat. Mainly the people that came to his shop were travelers looking for their weapons to be sharpened.
With the woman's letter he was able to quickly secure a job (thankfully) and the man offered for him and his dragon to stay at the hotel as part of their employment (none of the citizens seemed afraid of the dragon which Hiccup thought was odd, especially after having lived at Berk where he had had to release the tensions between dragons and humans). Toothless would keep the fires in the hotel going (which he grunted in approval) and would help Hiccup attend to the blacksmith shop.
It was now late in the day and as Hiccup was placing his supplies on the bed he decided to go have a look around the hotel. Cocking his head and raising his eyebrows, he looked at Toothless. "Want to come?" he asked and the dragon shook his head, exhaustion in his eyes. Hiccup smiled slightly, somewhat nervous to be in a foreign environment without his dragon. But as he sighed he replied back, "I have to go anyways. Just because we work mainly at the blacksmith shop doesn't mean I've been given free leave the rest of the time. He wants my help to manage the hotels, clean the rooms, etc."
Toothless nodded and Hiccup saw his dragon finally give into sleep. For once he thought he heard a snore, and Hiccup made his way quietly out of the room, careful not to disturb his dragon. 'Maybe things would have been much better if I had accepted my 'royal' chiefly position as the heir of the Berk tribe,' he thought to himself. 'Then I wouldn't have gone flying to hide from myself and my new responsibilities; then I wouldn't be here; we wouldn't be here.'
But he didn't have time to give that much thought for soon he thought he heard a little commotion.
A thin wall separated him and the next hallway, but paper windows were in between. The other hallway was only a partial hallway for on the other side there was no wall but pillars, and beyond the pillars a courtyard filled with flowers of different colors that he had never seen before and small trees that provided shade.
Dong Guo was a rather small, but large chubby man, though not quite like what Hiccup had seen on Berk. He was very hospitable, as well as his manager, a taller, thinner man that sometimes trailed Guo himself. Guo was bald, had a mustache but no beard, and was single, his wife having died the previous year by whom was thought to be the black jade bandit. All Hiccup had been able to pick up about the incident was that the thief had raided his house and murdered his wife for some precious necklace she owned.
His manager, whom Hiccup never got a name from, was only referred to as Sharp Eyes, for he rarely said anything, but he glared a lot. Hiccup doubted that Guo even knew his name. But he was a hard worker and helped to manage the hotel well. He had a rather mysterious background as well, being found injured on the streets (by the black jade bandit most assumed) and was taken in by Guo. He was tall, had slightly longer hair, no mustache or beard, lovely blue eyes, and a calm, but strict demeanor.
Hiccup slightly parted the paper aside to see what the commotion was, and when he did he saw two other figures accompanying Dong Guo and Sharp Eyes. The woman in front was leading them and by the way she dressed and acted it seemed as if she was at least a noble if she wasn't from a royal or chiefly family.
Immediately Hiccup was curious, remembering his own royal 'chiefly' status back home, except on Berk the chief's family didn't necessarily receive the same amount of special and preferred treatment that rumors had other royal families outside the Viking tribes, particularly in Europe, received. But perhaps that was because the Vikings life was hard, although that didn't mean that the chief's family and the nobles didn't receive some amount of preferential and special treatment when compared to common Vikings. Hiccup was the exception of course, that is until recently when he had proven himself. Then the special and preferential treatment that he'd never received as being part of the chief's family kicked in, and truth be told he was still having a hard time adjusting to that, as well as Toothless who had gotten dragged into the ordeal due to being his dragon.
Then there was the Viking mainland, where the Vikings had originated from. There was somewhat of a division between the Viking tribes and the Viking nation, the two having gone to walk separate paths, so to speak. There was also a lot of distrust between the Viking tribes and the Viking kingdom.
Hiccup didn't know much about the Viking kingdom because not a lot of people from any of the tribes liked to mention it. From what he understand there was a four hundred year old grudge between the two for a reason that neither remembered anymore. The Viking kingdom was significantly larger than the Viking tribes, perhaps the same size as all the tribes combined, slightly smaller perhaps. But whatever it was that caused the division, neither tolerated each other on each others waters. While the Viking tribes shared the ocean with the other tribes, with the exception of the oceans closest and surrounding their islands, and with the exception of Alvin and the outcasts, they wouldn't share the ocean with the Viking kingdom, and the Viking kingdom wouldn't share their ocean with the tribes. Both had learned to stay well out of the way of each other.
Alvin, on the other hand, was rumored to have almost started a war between the tribes and kingdom by attempting to steal a ship belonging to the Viking kingdom once. Fortunately the tribes caught him and forced him to give it back, explaining that he was an outcast, but even then the details were still sketchy as no one really knew what had happened or if that was a mere story to cover up something far more sinister.
But the Viking kingdom was somewhat more like the nations of Europe. Instead of a chief they had monarchs, kings and queens, and a true royal family. While Hiccup was technically a royal, in the end the tribes preferred the use of the words 'chief's family' and 'honors' instead of 'royal family' and 'princesses' as a way to distinguish themselves from their mother land. The Viking Kingdom, however, referred to their heirs as a crown prince or crown princess instead of heir prince or heir honor. All Hiccup knew about the difference in wording (that's all it was to him) is that it had something to do with the rivalry between them and the Viking kingdom.
However there were some things they had in common with the tribes. The heir immediately became a king or queen when the previous monarch died, and there was no coronation for them. It was automatic. Another commonality was that their nation was different from other European nations in the way it was structured, which was fairly similar to that of the Viking tribes. That made sense since the tribes had basically gotten their structure of their tribes from the motherland.
Those in the Viking kingdom in special positions, such as the monarchical family and the nobles, had more preferential and special treatment, much like the European royal families and nobles, unlike the Viking tribes. However, their daughters weren't helpless and were taught to be warriors and to fight, a tradition that had been passed to the Viking tribes. The Viking kingdom had a lot in common with the Viking tribes, despite their differences, not that either would admit it.
And so, as Hiccup was thinking on his own princely status and comparing it to the two beautiful women he saw, he listened in out of curiosity, wanting to find out more about this culture that he knew so little about.
Hiccup wasn't close enough to see facial features but he could see the outfits, stunning with ornaments, with ornaments in their hair and the clothing fancy, with gold woven in. He also saw that the girl walking behind, who must have been the woman's servant, was also dressed fancily, though not as much as her mistress. But regardless she was dressed well. As he strained his ears he realized that he could hear conversation.
"Also, our lady wishes to keep her stay here quiet. She does not wish to be disturbed by anything during her time here," the servant was saying. "And she would also like a hot bath with fragrances in it."
"Of course!" Dong Guo replied earnestly. "Anything for the lady of the Ming family!'
'A lady?' Hiccup thought. 'So she's a noble, not a royal.'
He then saw the servant turn and bow to her mistress. "Second miss," she addressed the woman, an odd address Hiccup thought. "Is there anything that I may get you?"
The lady turned around and Hiccup saw a fan in her hand. "That will be all, Ying Hau." Then the woman walked on and was about to disappear out of sight before Dong Guo called, "Lady Ming Jue! Would you like to rest first, or shall I send up the warm meal first?"
The lady turned around again and Hiccup thought she saw a smile. "I shall eat out here in the courtyard." Then, upon turning to her servant, she asked, "Please make sure that our belongings get to our room."
The servant, Ying Hau, bowed. "Yes, second miss." Then she disappeared and was out of sight.
Remembering his duty to help out at the hotel, he immediately saw an opportunity to show that he would be a good employee. It didn't take the boy long to find the lady's belongings, and that of the servant's as well, and seeing a section of the inn that had been restricted and blocked off, he assumed that that was where the lady was staying.
There was only one large room in that section, a room fit for a queen in his opinion. 'This is where they must be staying,' he thought. On the opposite side of the hall in a separate room was a place that must have been where the servants of the nobles slept. A room adjoining the main room that was slightly smaller was where Hiccup assumed the main servant that attended on the lady would sleep and he quickly put the luggage, several wooden chests, on the bed for them.
Suddenly voices were heard and he thought he heard the voice of the servant talking. He briefly caught, "I will be the one to deal with our lady's luggage. No one else, none of your employees may help. It is our lady's wish."
Hiccup's eyes went wide, realizing the mistake he made. 'Oh, no,' he thought to himself. 'Is she going to find out?'
The boy would have sneaked away if it weren't for the fact that they were right outside the door and there was no other way out. He had no place to run and he could only hide and hope that they would leave soon. Upon spying a wooden closet he climbed in and shut the door, a small crack left open, just in time to see the servant and Sharp Eyes arguing, this time in a language he couldn't understand, and Hiccup knew it would be at least fifteen to thirty minutes before he would understand the language.
The woman walked nearer to the closet and Hiccup backed away only for his wooden prosthetic to get caught in something. "Aaaah!" he screamed as he tumbled out of the closet, much to his embarrassment. He smiled sheepishly up to the servant, who interestingly had an aura of authority herself.
She was beautiful, having narrow grey eyes, a thin figure eight frame, her hair piled on top of her head in an unusual but beautiful way, held in place by a pin. Her nose was small and feminine and her eyebrows were small, thin, and tiny. "Hi!" he mumbled in embarrassment. "I brought your luggage." And he didn't know what else to say.
The woman turned back to Sharp Eyes and replied back in the language that Hiccup had gotten used to. "See? As I was saying, was it too much to ask him to come out of the closet? He came out of his own accord, after all."
Ying Hau turned around and left.
(Hiccup Point of View)
After the embarrassing incident of being found in Lady Jue's closet, Hiccup made it a practice to keep well out of Lady Jue's way. After all, he didn't want her to think that he was spying on her or stalking her. He had only meant to be a good employee and help get some of the work done, only to find out last minute that the work wasn't wanted.
Sharp Eyes began keeping a close eye on him and Hiccup tried to remain confined to the blacksmith shop with Toothless. His dragon had eyed him curiously when he saw his friend coming back with a red face to his room after the incident with Lady Jue's servant. And he was so embarrassed that he refused to talk or mention it, despite the curious and prodding looks from Toothless, which he would ignore. But inevitably Toothless noticed Sharp Eye's constant stares at him, as if watching him, keeping an eye on him.
What made things even worse for Hiccup was when one of the hotel workers was talking, mentioning to another that an unknown employee, (aka him) had been rumored to be seen hiding in Lady Jue's closet.
"An embarrassing incident," the old bearded guy in a hat replied. "Such an insult to the poor lady."
And that was how Hiccup found out that what he had done was not just an insult, but as the talking continued he found out that it was a serious offense against the Ming family, a powerful and authoritative family, and that the incident could easily have landed with his head being chopped off or his hands chopped off if they so desired. "Fortunately," the employees were saying. "The Ming family is kind to all and wouldn't do that. But if it had been another noble family..."
"Such a disgrace the individual is. He has disgraced his parents."
"Indeed."
So indeed Hiccup was lucky, very lucky in fact for Lady Ming Jue had refused to mention the incident and had acted as if it had never happened when she could easily have taken action against him for insulting and dishonoring her. And due to her status no one was allowed to ask her about the incident to clarify details (which started getting out of hand, turning Hiccup into a person who was trying to poison her). However eventually Lady Jue got tired of it, and after giving a strict and sincere command the rumors stopped, much to Hiccup's relief. Though Hiccup got the feeling that it was Sharp Eyes that had started the rumor, or that he had mentioned the incident to another employee, though he had no proof.
And as the rumors had spread like wild fires before Lady Jue had it under control, Hiccup noticed Toothless's behavior changed as he found out and put two and two together that the mysterious employee that everyone was talking about was in fact him.
Hiccup knew he would have to mention something despite being told he was not allowed to talk about it, for his dragon kept giving him curious looks. "Okay!" he finally cracked one day, after being there for about three weeks. "So it was me that they were talking about!" he admitted. "But most of the facts are way out of proportion! I wasn't trying to poison her or anything!" And that was all he'd tell his dragon, and Toothless soon realized that that was all he was getting from his friend.
Lady Jue and her servant never left the hotel. Of that much Hiccup observed when he took a notice to them. For that reason no one on the streets knew that a noble woman was present and living there. Hiccup was surprised at how strictly the employee's had followed her command not to mention that she was there, though it was probably due to their fear of her status. And so, she had a peaceful stay.
On the other hand, there was plenty of action at night. Rumors in the morning would fly of new stolen goods, sometimes a murder, as the Black Jade Bandit struck again and again. Fear was whispered in everyone's ears and some even wondered if they would catch the mysterious thief who always dressed in black and was masked.
Only Lady Jue and her servant seemed emotionally unaffected. At first Hiccup thought this was weird, but when he began considering her status he began to understand. After all, who would dare steal from a lady, particularly Lady Jue of the Ming family, when they risked being caught and having their heads chopped off?
But what Hiccup found even more weird was sometimes it was heard that the Jade bandit had another human accomplice, as well as the shadow that was seen flying in the sky during some of the times when the bandits struck. It was the same. They were dressed in black, stole something, and sometimes killed someone. What made things even more horrific is that some of the murders didn't seem to be done by humans as from what Hiccup understood the victims were ripped apart.
And slowly Hiccup began fearing this bandit.
Sometimes Toothless would growl at night. Whenever he did the next morning they would hear of another attack.
And still Lady Jue seemed immune to it, though at one point he thought he saw her servant looking worried. Even weirder was that the hotel was never attacked; at least ever since Lady Jue had taken residence the hotel had never been attacked.
Gradually Hiccup began to suspect that Lady Jue was the bandit, and but when he mentioned this to Toothless the dragon merely growled as if refusing to believe it. Then again his dragon was always comfortable around Lady Jue, particularly her servant, and Hiccup swore that Ying Hau was able to talk to Toothless, as sometimes it seemed he was in a conversation with the woman. Though they never greeted Hiccup they greeted Toothless each morning.
Hiccup had been given permission use the blacksmith shop for some of his projects and by the third week he had enough money to buy materials to build Toothless a new tail. And so he began working on it.
He was almost finished and was merely finishing the designs on it when he decided to try it on Toothless to see if it would fit. "Toothless!" he called out excitedly, wandering the hotel, looking for his dragon. "Where are you? I have it done!"
But the dragon was nowhere to be found. "Toothless?" he called out questioningly again and sighed, walking down the hallway near the courtyard.
That was when he saw his dragon. There Toothless was, seemingly in a conversation with Lady Jue and Ying Hau. Immediately Hiccup tensed, his mind suspicious of them, and he was angry at Toothless for not taking him seriously.
"Hey!" he yelled out to his dragon. "What are you doing? We're not supposed to be bothering them!" Though he knew he meant something different. He was scared of the two of them after all.
Lady Jue was drinking something and put a tiny teacup down. "Toothless was not disturbing us," she authoritatively responded, not even looking at him. "We invited him to be near us and he accepted."
Hiccup went rigid cold, afraid for his dragon and yet jealous and somewhat angry that they had been preoccupying Toothless lately, leaving him alone and to do all the chores. Lady Jue looked up at him. "Calm down, boy," she commanded him. "We mean you no harm, and you have no need to be jealous of your dragon."
At this, Toothless eyed him curiously and cocked his head, not having picked up on that. Meanwhile Hiccup was stunned. Could this woman or these women read minds? If so, they made no inclination that they could. And his shock left him without a way to answer what he felt was an accusation.
Then, as if confirming his thoughts, Lady Jue added, "If we wanted to kill you we would have killed you already. I know your frightened but you have no need to be." With that she gestured to a seat next to her, clearly inviting him to sit down.
Hiccup was scared, but he knew he couldn't refuse her invitation without being impolite, and he didn't want to be caught being impolite to the lady again for fear of what it meant. So slowly, carefully, noting that his dragon was completely relaxed around them, he walked over and sat down.
The servant's eyes flashed to his invention and Lady Jue and Ying Hau exchanged thoughtful looks. "You're an inventor," Lady Jue stated, not asking, and she took another sip of her drink.
"Yes," Hiccup replied stiffly, not comfortable in their presence. "And if I am?"
"Perhaps you would to come work for me then? I would be able to offer you a much better job with much better pay than what your making here. We can also offer you better accommodations than what you're getting here." All that time as she was saying that she never once looked at him, instead she was exchanging looks with her servant, as if they were having a conversation of their own going on.
Hiccup stiffened more, afraid of offending them but knowing what he had to do. "Thanks, but no thinks," he replied. "I rather like my job here."
Just then Toothless wined, clearly wanting him to accept the offer. But Hiccup sighed. "No, Toothless," he responded. "We're only here to work for what we need, not long term employment."
"Correction," the servant stepped in, a small smile forming on her face. "You're a wandering prince that's trying to make it home to his family, and is stuck here working as a servant instead." She smiled after replying.
Hiccup immediately went rigid. They could read minds! That was the only explanation! He had never once mentioned to anyone here what had happened to him.
But upon a frown from Lady Jue he became confused. "You're dragon speaks highly of you," she murmured softly. "He told us all about how you came from the mortal realms and are now looking to get back."
With that, Hiccup knew that at least his suspicions of them being able to talk to animals, or at the very least dragons, was confirmed. Whirling around and frustrated at Toothless's seemingly stupid decision to trust them he scolded, "What have you done! Toothless!"
At this Toothless wined and Lady Jue smiled somewhat. Though it was a friendly smiled it made Hiccup shiver. "As I said," she began, getting up and letting the teacup stay on the table. "If we meant you harm we would have hurt you by now."
She began walking away and Ying Hau followed her. Suddenly the woman stopped and turned around, the silver ornaments in her hair swinging around and her long earrings glinting in the sunlight that pierced through the trees above them, looking very much like the lady she was. "By the way," she murmured. "Take care of Toothless. That is a very intelligent dragon that you have there."
She walked away, leaving Hiccup with his dragon who was whining in disappointment because he refused the offer of employment. One thing was for sure, Hiccup suspected that they were indeed the bandits and he was shivering from his encounter with them, while Toothless seemed quite relaxed on the other hand. His dragon seemed to whole-heartedly trust them and Hiccup wondered how on earth they had duped his dragon who normally didn't get tricked. And because of that he was concerned for Toothless.
In Hiccup's mind several things seemed to add up to them being the bandits. For one, the hotel they stayed in had never gotten attacked once since they moved in but had gotten attacked before. Number two was that Lady Jue wouldn't let any of the employees handle her or her servant's belongings. Only her servant was allowed to. Hiccup definitely suspected they were hiding something in their luggage, perhaps the stolen items?
Number three was that no one would dare accuse a noble woman of theft, and they had no proof that she had stolen anything, therefore Lady Jue had free reign. No one could accuse her. She seemed to be the only one who could steal and then get away with it due to her status.
She was definitely a noble woman, not a fake, that much he knew for she carried a legitimate card identifying her with several emperors and with the Ming family. Hiccup knew this because he had secretly snuck into her room and seen it on her desk. After convincing a frightened man dealing in antiques to accompany him the second time (he had at first suspected that she was an imposter and was only posing as a lady) the man confirmed that all the cards and seals they had seen on the table were in fact legitimate and that she indeed had to be a noble woman. That only made Hiccup to realize that his previous suspicion was incorrect and that she was indeed a Ming, the second daughter of the Ming leader, in fact, therefore second miss, and was merely using that status to get away with stealing. Hiccup was fortunate not to get caught as he tried to confirm that she was an imposter only to find out that she wasn't.
The fourth thing that added up to it was that sometimes two humans were seen to be in the act of theft, and Lady Jue and her servants were the only ones. Though they suspected that the bandits were male, nobody had been quite close enough to distinguish if they were male or female. Hiccup suspected they were female.
The fifth reason was that as Hiccup soon learned from his stays here, a noble woman was usually accompanied by a guard of men wherever they went for protection. Lady Jue and her servant were accompanied by no one. Their excuse was that they didn't want to attract attention and that they wanted to stay here quietly and peacefully, something Hiccup didn't quite buy despite the fact that everyone else who knew they were there, including Toothless, had.
At first this had led to his suspicion that Lady Jue was a fake, and that she was a commoner posing as a noble, instead of being a true noble, but when he had it confirmed that she was indeed a lady he began realizing that the reason they weren't accompanied by anyone was probably because only the two of them were the thieves and no one else in the Ming family participated in the thefts. They couldn't take the guards or the guards would find out. Thus they had to travel alone to steal or the Lady's family would find out and wouldn't be too pleased. And knowing Lady Jue and how convincing she sounded Hiccup had no doubt that she could pull off a good enough excuse for her parents on why she traveled alone with her servant. She was very persuasive, something no one else seemed to realize, including Toothless. Though, she and her servant looked around Hiccup's age but they were already adult-like and independent.
The sixth reason he suspected that it was them was because he found out that Lady Jue and her servant traveled all around the region, and the bandit's attacks were not just on this city but in surrounding regions, areas, and cities as well. Due to being a noble and needing to check on various places as her position required Lady Jue could easily use that as an excuse, and no doubt did, while everyone else was none the wiser in the matter. After all, who could argue with that?
Hiccup realized he was alone in the matter, and he was scared. Should he reveal his suspicions? But even if he did no one would believe him. It was his word against the lady's. And even if he used his status as a prince from Berk it would mean nothing here. They probably wouldn't believe him, let alone believe that he, a blacksmith, was in fact a prince.
The boy sighed and went to his room for the night, his disappointed dragon trailing his tail behind him. As Hiccup settled under the covers, his dragon on a bed on the opposite side of the room that Dong Guo had graciously supplied, even after the incident with Lady Jue, (he seems to have forgiven him for it and never held a grudge against him for it, unlike Sharp Eyes), Toothless groaned, falling asleep quickly.
But Hiccup couldn't sleep, and as he tossed and turned that was when it happened.
A shadow flitted across the window and he bolted upright, scared. It had reflected against the moonlight. Then, suddenly, a second shadow bolted across his window and Hiccup's eyes grew wide. 'Bandits!' he thought.
Quickly, getting out of bed and closing the door softly behind them, he stepped outside, running to see what was there.
And he saw them.
It was as almost as people rumored them to be. They were two, dressed in black, faces covered with black masks, and a strange mysterious symbol sewn into the fabric in a dark jade green color. 'So that's why they call them the black jade bandits,' he thought curiously, pushing aside his fear for a second.
They hadn't noticed him at first, so he thought, but Hiccup, trying to be a hero, yelled at them, "Hey, you! Stop!"
They immediately turned to face him and began running. Hiccup was surprised to see how nimble they were, jumping on rooftop after rooftop and Hiccup pursued them on ground especially when he saw something in their hands, something they'd probably stolen.
Suddenly, he lost them, and they were nowhere in sight. They had disappeared completely! Scanning the rooftops for any signs of them he was taken off guard when he was hit quite hard in the stomach, toppling down and a barrel of ash came crashing down on him a second later, being thrown at him, turning his clothing black.
Hiccup was dazed for a moment, his eyes fuzzy as the bandits stood over him, face masked, saying nothing, but from their figures he could tell that they were women. One looked about the height and build of Lady Jue, and the other looked like the build and height of her servant. He couldn't see details clearly, but that was what he remembered.
One of the women threw a black cloth down at him, similar to what they were wearing on their faces and a shadow suddenly appeared, a giant eagle he thought, and it swooped down and picked the two of them up, carrying them off before disappearing in the distance. He had to admit though, from the height the thing flew at no one on the ground would be able to make out what exactly was flying, as it was black in color.
At first Hiccup wondered why they had spared him and not killed him, seeing as they had a reputation of being killers. It wasn't until he slowly got up, and saw a jeweled necklace on the ground and a cry was heard in the distance that he understood.
"MURDER!" someone shouted. "HE'S STRUCK AGAIN! THERE'S BEEN A MURDER!"
Hiccup ran as fast as he could, his clothing black. They were trying to frame him! But he didn't get far as people rushed out of the houses and hotel, Hiccup finding himself surrounded by people.
Because no one had seen the bandits and lived (except Hiccup) they wouldn't have known any differently. And so what they saw was an expensive jewel with a black mask lying on the ground and Hiccup all dirty and black from the ash that now stained his clothing.
Immediately people began shouting and pointing at him.
"Thief!"
"Murderer!"
"Bandit!"
They charged forward and as Hiccup struggled they restrained him while he saw people run off into the distance, no doubt for the authorities.
"I can explain!" Hiccup began but people wouldn't let him as they continued throwing accusations at him. By this time everyone in the nearest proximity, including the hotel where Hiccup had been staying, including a shocked Dong Guo and a narrow-eyed Sharp Eyes, were in the crowd. Everyone but Lady Jue and Ying Hau, which Hiccup suspected he knew why.
Suddenly they began yelling in triumph and to Hiccup's horror's he saw the authorities approaching.
"We've got the bandit!" the hollered. "We've found the thief!"
"No!" Hiccup begged. "It's not me! It's not me!"
A shocked groaning and fearful growl was heard in the distance and Hiccup saw Toothless being pulled out, tugged by the same power the man who had kidnapped Hiccup had used on the dragon. Toothless, instead of firing, chose not to, probably because he knew it wouldn't do any good and would only make the situation worse.
"We've got the bandit and his flying black beast!" they continued to shout triumphantly and the authorities moved forward, ropes in their hands to tie him with.
"No!" Hiccup shouted desperately, struggling hard unsuccessfully, and the authorities said nothing. "It's not me! It's not me! I was framed!"
Hiccup groaned with fear and he was kicked to the ground so they could tie him, his dragon groaning at being bound in the distant, helpless to resist. The cheers were heard and it sounded like people were beginning to celebrate the demise of the thief and it was then, and only then that Hiccup remembered the poster he had noticed on the way to Tonghai. They suspected him of being the thief.
And the thief was going to be executed.
Please review. I am desperate. I don't even know if people like it.
Review, please.
