Chapter 4

Hiccup had been the talk of the village for the past week. Rumors about the lad had been spreading like wild fire around the village. The Thornton's had come up with the idea that Hiccup was building an army of dragons, the Ingraham's figured he'd wreck havoc on the town from the shadows while the Jorgensen's held the opinion (and secretly hoped, though they'd never let the chief know that) that the ex-heir had died from his injuries. And that was just a few of the ideas swirling around the village.

Stoic was poised at the front of the mead hall with a small group of Vikings standing around him. He spoke with a commanding tone.

"As you all know Hiccup has appeared to have taken a side with the dragons." A murmur rose throughout the crowd. "Now quiet down, I want to discuss the threat he ushered to us just before he took off. Is there any reason any of us can think of that he may actually be something that we should be worried about?"

Though he didn't show it, the thought was crushing the Chief from the inside out. Hiccup, his son, an enemy of Berk. How could his son go from hero and heir of the tribe to public enemy number one in the matter of a day?

"Hah, I could snap the twig in half without even trying." Spitelout boasted. "If it was my son who turned then maybe I would raise an eyebrow."

"Ah your full of it." Gobber replied. "Snotlout doesn't have a shred of courage in his bones and an even smaller amount a brains to compliment it. And you'd be surprised at Hiccup's abilities. He's been working in me forge since he was little… well little-er. He may be small but he's strong for his size. It wouldn't surprise me if he never lashed out at his peers because it wasn't in his nature."

"Aye." Thrain Ingerman rang out. "And he's got a bloody Night Fury under his command, plus it would seem he can control any of the beasts he so desires. Did you see the way he behaved in the ring? He had the Gronkle rolling on the ground in bliss, the Nadder was out like a light with the wave of a hand and the Zippleback cowered in his presence. Even the Monstrous Nightmare seemed pretty tame until the sound of Stoick's hammer rang out."

"That's if the pip-squeak even survived, did you see how much blood was pouring out a that boy's wounds?" Spitelout put forth, eager to regain some face.

"Did you hear Hiccup laughing on the top of that beast?" Sigehere Thorsten pointed out. "He sounded like he had lost it. And the way he spoke to us afterwards, it was enough to send chills down even my spine, and I have to put up with tha twins at home."

"The question remains, is Hiccup a person we should fear and prepare against?" Stoic asked. The Chief looked around at the faces of his fellow Vikings. None of them looked him in the eye as Gobber replied…

"Aye… if the lad has indeed snapped, I think it is in our best interests ta fear him."

o~0~O~0~o

Hiccup and Toothless were down in a cove, standing by the water's edge. The boy was looking out over the ocean towards Berk, lost in thought. He glanced down to where his friend was lying beside him, chewing on a stick he had snapped off a nearby tree.

"I wonder what everyone's thinking, eh bud? There probably laughing their butts off at me. 'Hiccup the Useless is coming to bring Berk to its knees.'" The thought of his weakness sickened him.

Toothless turned his head toward the boy and gave a sympathetic croon. He hated seeing Hiccup so distressed like this.

"The Outcasts aren't much better. Sure they treat me fine. They gave me a house and set all the dragons in their cages free, but they see me more as a tool than a person."

This time the dragon snorted in annoyance. Sure the strange people that smelled as if they hadn't cleaned themselves for a year, which was most likely true, gave him fish and didn't try to kill him, but he didn't trust them.

The house that Hiccup had spoken of was up on a hill away from the village. The hill itself had been nicknamed "Dragon's Volcano" after a Whispering Death had inadvertently dug a tunnel that allowed lava to seep to the surface nearby. Although extremely barren and covered in black rock, like most of the island, the lava spewing up from below kept the place heated and it wasn't long before they found the nice quiet and peaceful cove down below where they were standing right now.

The house was old and previously unused, but it served its purpose. Hiccup could live in comfort reasonably close to civilization, if you could call it that, while being far enough away that the dragon's Hiccup surrounded himself with wouldn't cause any trouble for the Outcasts. Most of them still weren't used to having a truce with the creatures, but a select few saw the opportunities that arose from having them as an ally.

The dragon's had come mostly from the underground cages in Alvin's dungeon. The dungeon itself had been carved out of an old lava tube that Alvin had deemed safe enough for prisoners.

When Hiccup had first gone down into the tube the whole village had come down to watch, eager to see a young boy get himself killed. He had said something about complete silence before he let himself into a particularly large cage with five Nadders, two Zipplebacks and a Monstrous Nightmare. The Outcasts watched silently as the dragons closed in around him, yet the boy held his ground, unarmed and without the protection of his dragon. Hiccup had chosen to leave Night Fury on the outside of the cage in case the dragon got too protective.

The Night Fury, who had large open area around him in the crowd of people, gave a warning snarl as a Zippleback came within 2 feet of the boy. A couple people gasped as Hiccup simply turned his back on the dragon and offered out a hand. "What's he doin?" a voice called out, stealing the attention of the Zippleback for a couple seconds. Annoyed at the interruption, Hiccup sent a death stare into the crowd. A thunk was heard near the back as someone knocked the offending viking out cold.

Able to get back to business, Hiccup again turned to the task at hand. Two of the Nadders and the Monstrous Nightmare had also slunk up to the young Viking at this point. Yet the dragon's never attacked as one by one they offered the boy their snout. Before long the boy was opening up the cage and letting the dragons out.

The crowd parted, giving the creatures some room as a few kids ran screaming and the men grabbed for their weapons.

"Don't you dare touch those blades unless you want to invite a blood bath." Hiccup calmly told the crowd before turning his attention to the next cage.

There was nothing too exotic, several Nadders and Zipplebacks, as well as a few Gronkles and three or four Monstrous Nightmares. There was also four Whispering Deaths, a Changewing and a Scauldron. The Whispering deaths had been difficult, but not impossible to train. He almost lost a limb and provided the crowd with some entertainment but things had worked out well in the end. It had taken a little longer to gain the Scauldron's trust, but Hiccup had soon found that if he gave it some water it was happy. The Changewing he was still working on.

By the end of that day Hiccup had every dragon in the dungeon, except the Changewing, freed, fed and on Dragon's Volcano, away from any potential problems between the dragons and the villagers he knew were sure to arise. So far it had only been him up on the hill, nobody down in the village below, not even Alvin, had been brave enough to come up to where the 27 ex-captive dragons were dozing and fishing.

Down in the Village Hiccup had always been accompanied by Toothless, none of the other dragons trusted the Outcasts enough to follow him, but the Night Fury faithfully stuck by his best friend's side. People always gave them a wide berth as he conducted his business, not wanting to anger the dragon following the boy, something Hiccup was secretly pleased about. Nobody would beat him up or make fun of him if they all stayed as far away as possible, not that they could with Toothless near by.

Hiccup continued staring out sea, deep in thought, until he noticed a disturbance in the water of the cove. It was small, but too large to be fish. The movement caught the eyes of the dragon standing beside him as well and encouraged the Night Fury to move into a defensive position, a menacing growl escaping his lips.

A strange grouping of spikes arose from the surface of the water and two heads poked out from below. Curious, Hiccup raised his hand to Toothless. "Easy bud." He called as he tentatively took a step into the water. The dragon stopped growling but still didn't let his guard down.

As he got closer Hiccup recognized the shape of the creature in the water. His suspicions confirmed when he saw a familiar shape on the creatures back, scars from a certain black dragon on the shore. He had done some checking since he had last saw this dragon and had discovered that it was a Sea Shocker, a dragon that used electricity to stun or kill pray and eat it.

"Hey, you followed us did you?"

The water dragon slowly came forth as Hiccup held out both of his hands. A shot of electricity ran between the two heads and Hiccup felt the hairs on the back of his neck stood up on end. Hiccup turned his head and held his ground, knowing all to well that all the dragon had to do was lower its heads below the water to be able to kill everything in the cove. On the shore Toothless was growing anxious and whined nervously.

Then Hiccup felt the familiar sensation of dragon scales in his hand, however a numbing but not unpleasant sensation was flowing through his body as well. Hiccup chanced a quick look towards the Sea Shocker to see the two heads had offered him their trust and were sending small electrical charges up his arms.

"Well, hello to you too."