Forever After, Chapter 3

Hiccup sat across the table from his father as they ate breakfast together. Both were in the process of coming to grips with their new relationship. Wisely, Hiccup had not assumed that the comment his father had made about the need for the elder to listen more to the younger was a warrant to stick his nose into all manner of tribal affairs. But he was curious about one thing in particular so he risked asking.

"So, Dad, how is the food situation looking?"

"Not as bad as we had feared, son. We'll be relyin' more on seafood this time 'round, though. But with those of us flyin' dragons helpin' spot schools and with what you found to the north, there should be enough."

"That's good to hear. Oh, me and the others are going to take the dragons for some flying today. Toothless is getting restless."

"Ye're sure ye're fit enough for that, son? You didn't look so good after flyin' so far north the other day," Stoick said, eyeing the boy.

"I know, I overdid it. Today will just be some easy stuff. No stunts or anything," Hiccup replied.

"Alright. I can rely on Astrid to keep you in line," his father said with a straight face.

Hiccup looked at him and thought he needed to think about the whole sense of humor thing. After finishing breakfast he washed up and then grabbed his flying harness and a water skin. He walked outside as best he could. He was still getting used to the artificial lower leg. Toothless was waiting for him, obviously eager to be airborne. Hiccup saw that the dragon had already been fitted with his saddle and harness. He looked around and saw the Nadder that Astrid rode sunning himself nearby.

"Astrid?" he called out.

"Over here, Hiccup," she called back from the far side of her dragon.

The blonde girl stood up and smiled at him. Hiccup's morning just got that much better.

"I'm just checking the saddle straps on Spikes."

Following Hiccup's lead, the others had fashioned some sort of gear to help cushion where they sat on their respective dragons. Each creature posed unique challenges due to their different physical characteristics. Astrid didn't have too much difficulty; she just needed long straps to secure hers due to the heavier body and wing position of the Nadder. Snoutlout only required a simple pad that wrapped around the neck of the Nightmare. Likewise for Ruff and Tuff on the necks of Ratntat. They all added restraining straps of some design.

Poor Fishlegs had it the toughest with his Gronckle. The short thick neck, barrel body and wing position made fashioning any kind of saddle very problematic. After much trial and error while Hiccup was recovering, and with suggestions from the others, he settled on a simple set of straps for retention and a pair of padded pants.

Astrid gave a final tug on a strap and hurried over to where Hiccup stood with Toothless. She gave him a hug and a kiss and then stepped back to look at him more closely.

"You look better today, but you still could use more rest. Are you sure this is such a good idea?"

"I'll be fine, Astrid. Don't worry. It will be a nice straight flight. We'll set down for some rest, have a look around and come home. You should know my dad said he was counting on you to keep an eye on me."

Her eyes went a little wide at the last comment but she didn't say anything.

"Do I have you to thank for this?" he asked, gesturing to Toothless, who was nudging at Astrid's hand with his nose.

"Yes, I thought you had enough to deal with. And you," she said to the dragon, "you've had more than enough of my attention this morning. Every time I got something hooked up," she looked back at Hiccup, "he wanted his neck scratched. I'm afraid we're going to spoil them."

"Most likely, but they have an awful lot to offer us in return. And thank you for doing all that, I really appreciate it," he finished with a smile.

She smiled back at him, her cheeks getting a little pink. She did relent a bit and gave Toothless a brief, intense scratching on his neck. The dragon warbled in return.

"Shall we get moving?" Hiccup asked.

"Yup," and with a final kiss Astrid ran over to Spikes and climbed aboard.

Hiccup mounted Toothless and in an instant both were airborne. They flew toward the high wooden causeway where the others were already waiting. As Hiccup and Astrid flew by the dragons launched into the air and soon the loose formation was winging its way out over the sea toward the cloud shrouded volcanic island.

Hiccup was happy to be flying again and he enjoyed the warmth that the weakening sun could provide. He also marveled at the speed at which they covered the distance over the water. What might take days for a Viking boat would take them only hours. In time they saw the white smudge on the horizon that was the seemingly perpetual cloud bank that hovered around the island. Hiccup waved the others closer and shouted,

"We'll set down on the beach where the fight was. The dragons can rest and we'll look around a little bit."

He received shouted and nodded agreements and then they dropped back a bit to avoid accidents in the low visibility approach. Hiccup leaned closer to Toothless' ear and said,

"Lead us in, bud."

He got a warbled response and the Night Fury began a gliding approach, passing over the rocky pillars that surrounded the island, or so it seemed. They broke through the bottom of the clouds to find themselves about a hundred feet above the wide gravel strand where so much had occurred such a short time ago.

As Toothless circled in for a landing, Hiccup could see the burnt, shattered remains of some of the catapults, the hole knocked in the wall of the volcano and the wide, shallow crater where the massive beast had crashed into the ground and exploded. The Night Fury landed smartly and Hiccup patted his neck and said,

"Nice flying, buddy."

He was soon joined by the others. He could hear Ruff and Tuff squabbling about something. He wondered how they put up with each other. He unlocked his left foot from the control pedal and carefully climbed off of Toothless. The others vaulted from their mounts except for Fishlegs who sort of half jumped, half fell off of Gronk.

"So, what do you want to look at while the dragon's rest?" Astrid asked.

"I don't think we want to go into that tunnel, not without torches and stuff. But I thought we could look at where that thing crashed, see if anything is left. Maybe we could split up into two teams and walk along the beach for a while and see what there is," Hiccup replied.

"You'll be ok with all that walking?" she asked, her concern apparent.

"I'm not thinking of going very far. I thought maybe just count out two hundred steps along the water line and then back. I can handle that."

"Yeah," Tuff began. "Plus you can take a slow stroll with Astrid, all lovey dovey."

This got him an elbow in the ribs and a punch in the arm from Ruff, who added,

"Shut up, doofus, this isn't exactly easy ground for him to be walking on."

"Actually," Hiccup interrupted the two. "I thought I'd go with one group and Astrid the other. I'll take Ruff and Tuff. Astrid, would you mind going with Snout and Legs?"

"Oh. Oh, no, that's fine," she said, looking a little disappointed.

"Ok, let's get started. Oh, wait, Astrid could you help me check Toothless' tailfin. It felt a little loose."

"Sure."

As they stepped away from the others, Astrid asked,

"You don't want me coming with you?" her voice sounded hurt.

"Of course I do. But if I'm going to walk on a beach with you I'd prefer it with a little more warmth and a lot more sun. But for right now we need to split up to cover more ground and each group needs someone level headed and marginally under control. That leaves you and me, so for now we need to split up," he explained.

"Oh, yeah, you're right. I hadn't thought of it like that. You are Hiccup the Wise," she said with a smile.

He smiled back and with a wave the two groups split up and began walking along the shore in opposite directions. Hiccup and the twins moved more slowly but at least the gravel gave his wrought iron foot more support than sand would have. They saw bits and pieces of the wrecked boats but little else. No seashells or other things commonly thrown up on beaches.

Around the half way point Ruff and Tuff started up with each other again and Hiccup finally asked a question that had been on his mind for a while now.

"What is it with you two? For as long as I've known you you've been at each other like that. I'd think it would have gotten boring and tiresome by now."

"Whattaya mean?" Tuff asked.

"Don't you get fed up with all the bickering and fighting?"

"No, it's fun," Ruff replied.

"Fun?"

"Yeah," Ruff continued, "we've been playing like this since, well, like, forever."

"You call what you do playing?" Hiccup said, as he stopped to look at some strange rocks on the ground.

"Well, yeah," Tuff answered. "What did you think it was?"

As Hiccup bent down to pick up one of the stones he said,

"I thought you were trying to get on each other's nerves I guess."

"We are," Ruff said, "that's how we've always played."

"Why?" Hiccup asked as he turned the stone over in his hands.

The twins looked at each other and then at Hiccup. Ruff looked uncharacteristically serious for a moment, then said,

"Because we're Vikings, Hiccup, and we're twins. It's like we can't ignore each other, but we can't be like all lovey dovey either. So we're always together and doing stuff but this is how we, like, pay attention to each other."

Hiccup took his attention off the stone in his hand and looked at the twins, who were looking back at him. He thought he understood. As twins, they were as close as two people could expect to be, but they thought that being Vikings they couldn't express that closeness in any way other than belligerent bickering. He said,

"I guess being an only child, I didn't understand. Thanks for explaining it."

"No problem, kid. Any time you need something explained just talk to us," Tuff said.

"Yeah, like you know anything," Ruff responded.

Hiccup could only laugh. They got to the end of the two hundred pace limit and could see that the beach went on, disappearing into the mists. It would have to wait until another time. They turned and headed back. Hiccup picked up several similar stones and slipped them into a pouch he had brought along. When they got back to where they started, the others were already there. Astrid looked relieved as he and the twins walked up. She smiled and said,

"I'm glad to see you made it."

"Yeah, we kept him out of trouble," Tuff said.

Ruff just rolled her eyes and shrugged at her brother's bravado.

"Find anything interesting?" Astrid asked.

"A lot more beach that will need exploring," Hiccup said. "And some interesting stones."

"Cool, we saw only a little more beach past where we stopped and then a wall of rock. Looks like a part of the volcano stretches out into the water," Astrid said.

"Probably an old lava flow," Legs offered.

"Ok, well, why don't we take a look at that crater and then we'll fly over and around the rest of the island?" Hiccup suggested.

The other's nodded and they all walked towards the blasted depression. Astrid moved to Hiccup's side and asked,

"How are you doing?"

"Pretty good. I think I need to work on the padding on this thing, though. I don't think Gobber was too concerned with that," he said with a little laugh.

"He probably thinks the discomfort will help give you a more Viking like attitude," she replied with a smile of her own as she slipped her hand in his.

As they neared the edge of the crash site, the magnitude of the impact struck home. It was shallow only in comparison to its width. The center of the crater was at least twelve to fifteen feet deep. It was hundreds of yards across. Shattered, blackened bones were everywhere. Some were the size of a full grown man, others truly gigantic. There were no signs of a skull but Hiccup figured that with all that weight and speed behind it when it hit, and all of the explosive force it was probably shattered in many small pieces.

"I wonder if any of the teeth are left," Snout said.

"Why?" Ruff asked.

"It would be cool to have one, a trophy, you know?"

"I guess we could spare some time for a look, but not too long," Hiccup said. "Just remember whatever you find has to be small enough for your dragon to carry."

This got some nods and then he added,

"If you don't mind, I'll wait here."

"I'll stay, too," Astrid said.

Hiccup looked at her with his eyebrows raised.

"Get used to it, Mister," was all she said.

They sat down on a relatively flat section of ground. As they watched their friends scramble among the rocks and bones, soft foot falls behind them announced the arrival of the dragons. Toothless lay down besides Hiccup, his head level with his rider. The others arranged themselves so they could watch the four teens range around the crater. Hiccup judged it was past noon by the time they returned.

"Find anything?" Hiccup asked.

"Yeah, lotsa stuff, but nothin' worth takin'," Snout said.

"Stuff is either shattered into little bits or it's so big you couldn't move it even with everyone from Berk helping," Tuff added.

"That's too bad. Well, what do you say we mount up and overfly the rest of the island and then head for home?" Hiccup offered.

They all agreed and in short order were mounted and strapped in. Hiccup looked at Astrid and said,

"Ladies first."

She laughed a bit and then urged Spikes skyward and the others followed. They broke through the cloud cover and headed in the direction that Hiccup and the twins had walked. This took them away from the cone of the volcano. There didn't seem to be any lava flowing down the sides that they could see. Hiccup assumed that where he and Astrid had been taken by Toothless the first time was toward the side beyond the rock wall Astrid and the boys had found.

The layer of cloud seemed to thin out the further they got from the volcano proper. It appeared to dissipate towards the center of the island and Hiccup signaled a turn in that direction. As they flew over they saw a bowl shaped depression several miles across. The steep walls were covered in heavy forest while the flat ground was a mix of ponds and bogs and one raised area of meadow that covered an area that was most likely a couple of thousands of acres. There didn't seem to be any break in the bowl that would provide access from the outside by ground.

He thought his father would find all this very interesting. He signaled for them to fly out over the far side from the volcano to see what else was out there. Another few miles from the bowl the clouds were there but thin enough to see the ground. What they saw was more jagged coast but without beaches, just tall cliffs and more irregular stone formations out in the water. They flew along the coast line around the rest of the island and by the time they were passing the volcano from the other side and pointed toward home the sun was dropping close to the horizon. Without prodding the dragons knew they needed to set a slower, soaring pace to conserve their energy. It was well into evening by the time they arrived back at Berk.

There was a welcoming party waiting for them. Stoick stood at the front of a small group that appeared to consist of all the parents involved as well as a few onlookers. None of them looked particularly happy.

"Hiccup, just where in the name of Odin have you been?" Stoick said, not shouting but definitely agitated.

"We were flying, Dad, like I told you this morning."

"I don't believe you mentioned you'd be gone all day."

"Um, yeah, I may have left that out. Actually we went to the volcanic island for a look around," Hiccup said cautiously.

"What? You said weren't plannin' on that until Spring. What were you thinkin'?" Stoick ground out.

"We, well, I thought that if we had a better idea of the layout of the island we could plan better. But we found some things that we need to tell you about," Hiccup said.

"Oh, well, thank you. It's nice to know you'll be willin' to share something with your elders," Stoick said. "Hiccup, son, it hasn't been all that long that you've been out of that bed. What could have been your death bed. You're not ready to go on such adventures. Look at you. You can hardly stand up. Come on, all of you. We'll go to the Hall and we'll eat and talk there."

"Yes, sir," chorused the six teens, who without prompting closed ranks with Hiccup and Astrid offered her arm to help support him. He wasn't so proud as to refuse as he was growing more weary by the moment. As they walked, Stoick spoke to Snout's father, who was one of his lieutenants, who then hurried off. By the time they reached the Hall several other adults were converging on the building. Food was carried in and the six teens were directed to a table.

They took places on the benches and platters were dropped in front of them. Having not eaten since early that morning they all began to dig in. The adults settled themselves at tables nearby and demonstrated great patience while their children finished eating. Stoick finally got up and said,

"Alright. Now that you've had something to eat, suppose you tell us what you've found."

Hiccup was suddenly the center of attention. His five companions remained silent and looked at him. He smiled a bit but he was so tired he had trouble focusing.

"I guess the most important thing is that west of the volcano cone, about in the center of the island is a large bowl, two or three miles across. The sides are steep, maybe a thousand feet or more high. Covered in trees. The floor of the bowl is mostly flat, lots of ponds and bogs but one section, pretty big, looks like grass land. Hundreds of acres," he said in clipped, incomplete sentences. "Don't know about any animals, just flew over. West end of the island is high cliffs, couldn't see any beaches. We had landed at the gravel beach where the fight was," he said with a yawn.

"Found these," he added as he pulled out the rocks he had picked up. "Lotsa bones from the monster dragon, too."

This comment prompted some remarks from the other teens but Hiccup heard little as his eyes closed and he slumped sideways into Astrid. What he missed was the startled exclamation from the girl, his father rushing to check on him and then his comment to the others assuring them that the boy was just asleep.

"Stubborn, foolhardy boy," Stoick said.

"Just like someone else I know," a familiar voice said from the back of the group.

Stoick looked over to lock eyes with Gobber who had come in while the kids were eating. After a moment Stoick just nodded. He gathered up the stones and said,

"I'll take my son home and put him to bed. We'll meet tomorrow to discuss this further."

He eased Hiccup away from Astrid and then effortlessly picked him up and carried him from the Hall. When he arrived home a pair of green eyes set against the night sky greeted him from the roof. Stoick looked up and said,

"Just what have you two gotten us into this time?"