Welcome back everybody! Chapter 3 was one of the most viewed chapters I have ever had! It was truly amazing seeing the view counter go up so much was very great. I had multiple PM's saying how there's no way Grimmel survived that fall, and I can promise you I have a justifiable reason on why he did. I literally spent three solid days during the planning process (Which I started planning this story of Feb 2nd) figuring out how to explain this. This chapter will explain all the questions I was asked this past week. Anyway I hope you guys enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoy writing it!
Chapter 4- Concerns
...
Griselda was a seasoned viking and warlard of a army she once had. She conquered many lands, as well as their people. She had no problem taking down anyone or anything that stood in her path. And she remembers the time in which she hired Grimmel to take down one little Night Fury. Seven years ago she was trying to trap enough dragons for a dragon army of her own, and all she needed was the Alpha Night Fury. She hadn't lost many battles in her life, and even when she lost she came back and eventually won anyway. But after they had all lost against this Chief and his dragon, she did not want to get involved with them anymore.
She lost, and she knew she would lose facing them again, something she never would have thought would happen in her life. She and her friends were soundly defeated with no hassle at all. She didn't want to risk herself once again. The next seven years she stayed far away from all of this. From Berk, from what Grimmel used to be involved in, everything. She headed west and was building up a army once again. Attempting to get her life back together.
Then one day as she was on her ship preparing to sail, a Deathgripper flew down and snatched her up. She definitely knew she was going to die, as Deathgripper's were never known to be friendly in any capacity. It was one of the dragons that Grimmel had, as it still had the mask with their own venom being injected into their heads. The dragon took her to a island and dropped her off on the beach side of it. She looked around and saw him.
Grimmel
Still very much alive. He looked terrible too. Age very much catching up to him. He was Forty-seven when he lost to Hiccup and the Night Fury. He was Fifty-Four now, and had a limp to him. The fall must have broken something of him, and he must have never let it heal perfectly. He also had a huge slash on the left side of his face, going from his lower cheek to his forehead, going right past his eyes. He told her he needed her help with a revenge type of battle he wanted to do. But whenever she asked about his planes he would shrug it off and say he would explain it later. He promised her last night to go over details about it in the morning, but she really doesn't know how to feel about all this.
Half of her is pissed that she was snatched up by a dragon and held here without any way out of her. The other half feels slightly honored to be hand picked for this. Even if she was pretty much the only option. The other two warlords of her and Grimmel's pack were dead. One being killed on Berk itself, and the larger one dying in a attempted raid against the Bog Isles. Camicazi took him down after eight days worth of battle.
These stories make Griselda contemplate retiring and enjoying her life.
She sighs and stands up from the bed she was sleeping on. It was a fairly simple bed, a single person one. She moves to the desk in front of her and grabs her helmet she had had since she turned eighteen. She walks out of the room and sees Grimmel sitting there at a table in the room outside of that door. His body was facing her as he was looking at a map he had with him. It had many different lines and arrows pointing towards west, it looked like a expedition that had gone on for awhile. He looks up and turns his attention to her.
"Good morning my dearest friend" He gives her a smirk, a smirk that unsettles her.
"I wouldn't call this much of a friendship anymore Grimmel" His smirk turns into a frown.
"And why would that be?"
"For one, you turned against the plan we hired you for" her voice gets three times as loud when she next speaks, "And then you bring me here against my own free will! What the hell is wrong with you?" She spat and he sighs, before getting up and walking towards her with such a blank expression on his face. She backs up slowly, keeping her eyes on his. Her back touches the wall of the room and he comes to a halt once he is withing a foot of her.
"I knew asking you for your help would have resulted in me being chased out of your boat, so I had to talk to you on my terms" He states, moving back a few feet and sitting on the top of the table with one leg off the ground. She remains defensive, not wanting to get too comfortable in this place.
"I don't want to speak with you anymore and you know that!" She yells at him, throwing her arms in the air in total anger and frustration. She did not want to be here with him, she wanted to go back to the life she had. Grimmel turned his back against them in order to kill a Night Fury. He turned against his own allies and friends to kill one dragon. What a dick.
"I'd argue that you want to at least hear my plan" Grimmel stands back up and walks over to the chair he had been sitting in before. He looks down at the map and points his finger towards one of the arrows that leads to a red circle on the map. "After a few years of searching I finally found it". She looks at him with confusion all over her face.
"What did you find exactly"
"I found the Hidden World Griselda, the place that wretched Night Fury is. leading the dragons in peace and blah blah blah". She looks at him and decides to sit down, once again never taking her eyes off of him. She'll admit the statement he just found did touch her curiosity a little. The Hidden World was thought to just be a legend made up by a bunch of drunken sailors. That's how a lot of those tall tails come to be, just a bunch of sailors making people believe things that aren't true.
"And why search for it? The dragons are gone Grimmel, peace has been ma-" He interrupts her,
"Because I deny to lose!" He shouts and her eyes go wide. She was a warlord, a conqueror. But today, she was something she never thought she could be. She was scared. Scared of the game he wants to play.
Grimmel looks down towards his feet with a slight frown on his face,"In all my years of hunting Night Furies I have never lost a single encounter", which was true for all she knew. In the years they spent being friends, he has never lost a battle she had known about. He was never the strongest, but he was damn well the smartest. Or at least the most strategic.
"Yes, and there is a first for everything. But what I am getting from this is you are considering going back there, back to that Chief". He changes his glare and aims it right at her, with anger in his eyes. He softens however, and grabs two cups filled with what looked like water. He walks over and hands her one before taking a sip from the other.
"You are exactly right" He says, giving another devilish smirk to her. "I plan on doing exactly that"
"But why?" She takes a sip from the cup, thanking the gods it was just water.
"Because, I don't like this feeling of loss my dear friend"
"I am not your friend" She interrupts, earning a glare shot right at her. She backs down and takes another sip. If it weren't for those damn Deathgrippers...
"I have never lost Griselda. Never. I could take on a hundred Night Furies and win no matter what. What makes this one so special?" He throws his cup at the wall in frustration.
"I will finish what I started years ago. I am taking down that Night Fury, then I am taking down the Chief of that wretched island" He rubs his left eye. It itched from time to time. The scar covering most of his eyelid. He looked at that scar every day and remembered who did this to him. Who tried to kill him. He was Grimmel, the best dragon hunter to have ever lived. And this goody-two-shoes Chief thought he could beat the man who has defeated an entire species? He got lucky, caught him off guard. But with seven years to think about this, about getting the revenge he so rightfully wanted, there's no way Hiccup could stand a chance.
"There is no way you are taking down that Night Fury without the entire dragon population coming after you" Griselda states, and she wasn't wrong. Going into that waterfall aiming to take down the Alpha would be a suicide mission. But, he knew that.
"That is why we have to draw the Alpha away from his world" Grimmel suggests, stretching his back out. He was starting to feel his age, and that fall didn't help the aging process.
"And how do we do that?" She asks, and she was very curious about this plan of his. You attack the alpha, you get every dragon in the world minus four Deathgrippers going after you. You attack the Chief, you get four hundred vikings chasing you. Its a lose lose situation for him.
"By taking his Queen. They fly around the opening every morning. We trap her, the dragons around him will be rendered useless" He says. He really must have been studying them to know exactly when they fly everyday. How did they not notice him?
"And then your plan is to single out the alpha, hope he doesn't absolutely destroy you, and then try to kill him?" He gives her a very annoyed look, and she returns that with a glare. He was crazy she thought.
"No, my plan is to take his mate and use her life as a means of getting him away from his pack, and return to his old home" He says, pointing down at the map, showing the direction he believes the dragon would take in order to retreat. It sort of made sense to her, at least the part of using his mate as a means of keeping the other dragons out of the picture, but why reunite the dragon and the boy? That part didn't make sense to her.
The reason they lost was because of them two. Keeping them separate made the most sense.
"But why bring them together?" She asks and he looks at her with a look of confidence, a look he seemed to carry far too often to make anyone comfortable.
"After seven years of no contact, they won't be as used to each other anymore. They'll be filled with emotion, and besides, they haven't flown together in years" That sort of made sense to her, but what if they till had the same chemistry? Thor knows how off they might be, but what would happen if they could still fight side by side like they did years ago?
Both she and Grimmel would die. That's exactly what would happen.
"Here, let's take a walk shall we?" He gestures towards the door to her left. He walks over there and opens it, which is connected to a hallway that leads on to a huge opening in the mountain. She walks through the door, right past him. He closes the door behind them and they walk the long hallway, lit by a few wall torches.
"I have to ask, how did you manage to survive that fall?" He sighs but keeps his gaze set for the opening in front of them. That fall was not exactly something he enjoyed reliving.
"I managed to hit the water with my legs first, then my head" He rubs the back of the head, feeling a permanent bump on the back of his skull, "I was knocked out. But while the celebration of victory happened with those Berkians, a Deathgripper scooped me up and took me to a nearby island". Surviving that fall is something she did not understand. Maybe he had a twin that really liked making jokes like this? Seemed more reasonable than thinking a older man survived this.
"And the scar on your face?" This question made the man frown as they reached the entrance to the opening.
"I don't know exactly, must have happened from hitting my head so hard on the water that it caused the other side of my head to split open" He suggests. They both enter the opening and she takes a look around. It isn't that well lit, having only a handful of torches to light up the whole area. There were a few doors around the walls of this place. Two of them looked like jail cells, two were heavily fortified wooden doors, and the final two doors were plain like the one they entered minutes ago.
The two cells were empty, but one looks like it was used not too long ago. The bed in it wasn't made, and it had a tray in there from a meal from not too long ago. There was a fruit on the tray that had not rotted, indicating that if it was used it must have been from the past week or so. She had only been here a few days, she knew nothing of this room or any occupants that might have been here. She heard a muffled sob coming from one of the more fortified doors sitting next to the cell door most recently used.
"Is there someone in there?" she asks and Grimmel gives and evilish looking smirk and walks to the door and bangs his fist against it, causing another muffled sob.
"Nothing more than a bartering tool for someone I need to eventually barter with" He states and she sinks down. While it was common practice, who would Grimmel need to be willing to kidnap someone for the intention of making someone else do something else?
The more she thinks about it the more it makes sense that Grimmel would do something like that. Gods it feels longer than seven years, she doesn't remember much about him like she used to. She tried forgetting about him, forgetting the friendship they once had. They even shared a kiss one night while they were waiting out a storm together. It was cold, and Grimmel felt so warm as he held her that night. It was the first time she truly saw a caring side of him. A side that never comes out.
She wanted to forget about everything about him, he betrayed them, his own friends.
Then kidnaps her for the sake of his suicidal plan.
"And who are you bartering with exactly?" She asks and he shakes his head, "Time will come for those answers, now it is time to ask you a question" She nods her head slightly, a invitation of sorts to ask this all-important question.
"How hard would it be to bring your crew to Berk?" He asks with a look of hope in his eyes. Like his plan seems to be working in his eyes.
She bursts out into laughter. So this is why he had her here? To tell her crew to take care of HIS problems. This was very funny to her. She looked at him, who had disappointment in his look.
"You can't be serious?" His expression doesn't change by her response. "You think i'd seriously help you, who has a plan to get yourself and I killed, who has a plan i don't even Agree with, and is still a fucking asshole for betraying your friends?" He sighs and rubs his forehead in frustration once again, and she paces around the room in anger. What made him think this plan would work? Getting her to do this for him. Dumbass.
"I wasn't asking if you would lead your crew to Berk my dear friend" He pauses, taking a deep breath. "I was asking how hard it would be to get them there" His expression is still cold, and emotionless at this point. She stares at him with her hand at her hip. He seriously had lost his mind if he thought she was going to do this for him. He was in no place to ask for a favor like this.
"You don't deserve my help" she turns her back to him.
"But you do not have a choice in the matter my dear" He says, and takes a step forward. She snaps and turn around, pushing him back a couple of feet. He chuckles at her as she takes a defensive stance.
"Take me back to my people right now Grimmel" She demands and he once again chuckles at her. He can see her fuming, the rage in her eyes. He continued treating this like a laughing matter.
His chuckling came to a complete halt, "I will once we have a deal and you lend me a hand on this wonderful plan of mine" Her eyes dart around the room in search of something to defend herself. While Grimmel never once harmed her, she didn't want to trust him. She was brought here to aid in a mission to die. No way in hell she wasn't gonna find a way to defend herself. She notices a knife on the table by one of the wooden doors. A knife!
She runs over and grabs the knife, which is about six inches in length, and points it in his direction. Once again however, he gives her a chuckle.
"Will you stop laughing for one gods damned moment?!" She yells, obviously infuriated. She wants to hurt him, but only because he was acting like a complete asshole. He only acts this way towards enemies... Wait, was he considering her to be an enemy?
"I'm laughing because you feel like you have a choice in this operated m'dear" He says, very calmly. She walks towards him and he whistles. She hears movement from above her and sees one of his Deathgrippers moving down from the dark ceiling of this room. It falls down and sits behind Grimmel.
"You are going to have to do worse than that to get me to help you" She hisses, and he smirks at her in response.
"Oh believe me, I have all I need to force your hand. Like I said, I have a bartering tool" He says as he gestures towards the door. The blade falls down to her hip and she looks at him in confusion. The bartering tool, the sobs she heard back there. They were meant, for her? He must be crazy. He walks over to the door and moves the lever down so that it opens the door. She sees the legs of someone there as the door keeps going up. When the face of that person is revealed her breath catches in her throat.
He had her own brother trapped on this godforsaken island. Her brother was a bartering tool. Grimmel was going to die.
"You Mother Fucker" She screams, running towards him. She lifts the blade upwards and is withing a foot or so from him when his dragon pushes her away.
"Now now, play nice. because your brother's life is swaying in the balance of all this. Now drop the knife" He commands, and she sighs. Throwing the knife on the other side of the room so he couldn't touch it. Not that it mattered since he has this Deathgripper.
"Why the hel is my brother here!" She demands and a very common sight is seen as he is rubbing his forehead while looking down again.
"Because I need your help!" He says, in a tone that sounds more like pleading than it does anger.
"I can't do this by myself Griselda. And as much as you hate me, I know you are the only one I can trust to help"
"So you kidnap my brother?" She's not letting this one go.
"I'll release him once we have completed our mission, I promise" He closes the door to the room her brother is being held in and locks it up.
"Or release him now!"
"No!" He shouts, walking away from the door and heading back to the hallway where they came from.
"Once we have defeated the Chief and the Alpha. Once that happens you can have your brother and i'll leave you alone forever" He says as he walks out of the room. She sits there, defeated.
Her hand was being forced in this one. There was no way of getting out of it. Now with her brother on the line? She can't hurt Grimmel, or her brother will most likely be killed or worse. It's a risk she can't take with that.
"I swear if you don't let him go after this" She says to herself. She stands back up and walks to the door her brother is in. She knocks on it a few times and hears him sob once again.
"I'll get you out of here soon brother, don't you worry" She kisses the door and walks away, heading back to the door they came from. Emotions running through her head. What does she do? She doesn't like this plan and wants no part of it at all, yet walking away would be the death of her brother. She balls her hands into fists, tears forming in her eyes. She knows one this though,
This plan better work.
...
"So what you are saying is, i'm gonna be craving the weirdest shit?" Ruffnut asks with a little confusion in her eyes.
"Oh yeah, big time" Astrid takes a bite out of her roasted chicken. Hiccup put it on the fire before he had left, going to tend to Chief duties. Thank the gods Hiccup could somewhat cook, because that's one of the few areas Astrid actually lacks in.
"I had huge nonstop cravings of this weird eel while I was pregnant with Hiccup. I hate eel, but for some reason I couldn't get enough of it" Valka chuckles. "Stoick thought I had gone mad" They all laugh. Valka takes a sip of her glass, filled to the top with a sweet honey style mead that Berk has the most of. Easily the most popular one of them all. Tasted like a strong mead with a honey after taste. Some people however, drink way too much of it. Like Tuffnut.
"While I was pregnant with Jack I simply couldn't stop eating" Astrid admits and they all share a laugh once again. The sun starts to go down as night creeps upon them. Astrid looks over towards the arena opening and sees Brenda still training with Eret like they normally do.
Eret was the trainer at the new Berk academy, made to teach the young vikings how to defend themselves from battle. Eret was a very good teacher in everyones eyes, and all the kids loved him. Jack was never much of a fan of learning things like that, but he liked Eret enough to still want to go. Eret's favorite student however, was Brenda. Brenda took after her mother with her determination to be the best in that arena. She and Eret spend a lot of extra time training together. Usually Eret hates doing extra classes, but he very much enjoys training with Brenda. Maybe it's because it is the Chiefs daughter, or maybe Brenda is finally consistently nice to someone for once.
"Yeah I live with Fishlegs, so me eating all the time won't change a whole lot" The Thorston twin says, laughing at her own joke. Astrid continues watching Brenda, seeing her run towards Eret with her axe in hand. The axe had padding on the sharp edges so she could swing it without anyone getting hurt. She swings at Eret and he ducks, elbowing the axe out of her hand and pushing her towards the ground. He points his dagger at her neck and she stares at him in defeat.
"Don't be so obvious of what your move is gonna be little one. Try again" He offers his hand, and she takes it, jumping up and smiling.
"You got lucky Son of Eret" She challenges.
"I'm pretty sure not losing once today is considered luck at this point" She sticks her tongue at him.
The three women watch Eret and Brenda go at it again, with Brenda swinging her axe and Eret once again ducks and pushes the axe out of her small hands.
"Stop being so predictable, you have died nine times today" He tries pushing her down but she dodges it herself and runs for her axe. She grabs it and prepares to swing it. He ducks in anticipation of the move but she doesn't swing. Instead, she brings the axe to his neck when he stands back up. He smiles at her as he drops his dagger and throws his hands in the air.
"See? I knew you had it in you" He says and they fist bump.
"I told you! It was luck" He rolls his eyes at her and she shoots him a glare. "Alright, enough training for one day, rest up" He says and they give one more fist bump to eachother before he walks back to the arena. Brenda sees her mom and runs over to her.
"Hey there bub" Astrid says and Brenda shoots her her signature glare.
"I was gonna hug you till you called me that" She says. Astrid rolls her eyes, grabs her wrists and pulls her forward for a hug anyway. Brenda lets out a playful scream. Astrid lets go after a few moments. Brenda sits down and joins the group of women.
The next hour or so is pretty much all of them talking about pregnancy stories, with Brenda asking way more questions than Ruffnut was, which was surprising. They all sat there enjoying one another's company until it got dark and both the food and the mead were gone. They all walked to their respective houses. Astrid opens the door to the house and finds it completely empty. She knew Jack was probably still busy at the forge with Gobber, but where had Hiccup run off to?
She sighs and walks towards the Great Hall, where he usually was if he wasn't home. She pushes the door open and sure enough, Hiccup was in there, alone, with nothing more than a few maps and notes in front of him.
"I'm guessing you've been here ever since you left for your 'Chieft duties'" She says from across the hall and his head shoots up to look at her. He smiles at her and returns to looking at the pages sprawled all over the table before him. She walks over to him and kisses the top of his head.
"So what's all this stressing about?" He frowns at the map
"Well, knowing that Grimmel could be alive and possibly threaten the safety of our home makes it sort of hard to sleep at night" He says and she runs her fingers through his hair and lets out a light sigh. While it was common for a Chief to over prepare if anything threatened their village, Hiccup took it to extreme levels sometimes. Ever since the raid he has taken extra measurements on any possibly enemy in sight. And after what Grimmel did it was hard to blame him, but at the same time she hates seeing him like this.
"It's gonna be okay Hiccup" She takes a deep breath, "Even if he was alive, he doesn't have the same support and power he did last time. We beat him before we could beat him again" She finishes and rubs his cheek. Hiccup leans into her touch and takes a deep breath himself.
"I know, but I can't help but worrying"
"Worrying is going to be the death of you one day babe" Astrid says, and he looks at her and smiles. He pulls her closer and kisses her passionately. He stands up without breaking the kiss and wraps his arms around her waist and pulls her even closer. A few moments later he breaks the kiss and gives her a huge smile.
"You'd kill me if I died" He says jokingly and she can't help but let out a chuckle"
"You're damn right I would" They sit there for a few moments with Hiccups arms still around her. She loved moments like these, where they get a few moments away from everything and get to be with each other. Sure he worrying about a enemy that isn't even fully confirmed to be alive, but this moment they are sharing, is something she wish they could have more often.
She takes a step back and grabs his hand, lacing her fingers with his, she smiles and kisses his cheek. "Let's head back" She says and he nods in agreement. They exit the hall and see the night sky filled with tons of bright stars. It was truly a beautiful sight. As they walk Hiccup starts pulling her in a different direction of their house. She resists at first but gives in after a few moments, and they start walking to the cliff side of the island.
"Why are we here?" She asks and he points out in the direction of the ocean. The beautiful night sky reflecting onto the calm water beneath them was truly a sight to behold. He wraps an arm around her side and pulls her close once again. She continues to stare out into the water, and Hiccup kisses her temple
"I love you Astrid"
"And I love you" She leans in and gives him a quick kiss.
"I don't know what i'd do without you. The best Chieftess a Chief could ever ask for" She feels her cheeks turn a light red.
"You are such a dork sometimes and I love it" She kisses him again
"It's sometimes hard to think we used to not be close like this. I mean, I was in love with you ever since I found out love was a thing but" He inhales, "It's just weird reflecting on how much our lives changed from those years ago" He takes a breath and looks at her in her eyes. He has always loved looking at her beautiful blue eyes.
"Well, the feeling was slightly mutual, except I wouldn't say I was in love with you back then" She chuckles and smiles, "But I'll admit it is weird looking back at it. But I am sure am glad we made it here"
They spend another few minutes at the cliff side before eventually heading home and settling in for bed. Hiccup agreed to calm down on the Grimmel situation stressing him out, deciding to wait for concrete evidence about him being alive before getting back to that level.
They both they never have to see that man again. The man that hunted them down for the sake of killing a Night Fury.
...
Another chapter in the books. So now we know how Grimmel survived and what his plan sort of is. Really is a crazy plan, and honestly planning out this idea of his was a challenge for it all to make sense but I loved every second of it. At the end of chapter 3 it seemed like she knew his whole plan, but she didn't know much except the crazy idea of reuniting Hiccup and Toothless. Who would do that? Grimmel would that's who! ANYWAY Next chapter has a HUGE thing at the end of it, as the gears are really about to start turning for this story. These chapters were really fun to write and all, but we are gonna start getting into the heart of the story. But stay tuned next week! Because I promise you there are some interesting things that happen in chapter 5!
Coming next week Chapter 5- Realization