Chapter 7: Dragon Hunt

When Hiccup got home, his father was still out. Ivar had him busier than he had ever been. Hiccup wondered why his father allowed him to push him around like he does.

So the night was going to be lonelier than he had thought. Perhaps he should have snuck out of the village to visit Toothless. At least he would have had company to distract him from his troubles. Now, alone in his house, there was nothing for him to do but dwell on his situation.

He could hear the rain pounding on the rooftop, with an occasional roar of thunder. With the rain, a cold front had moved in. Hiccup had to toss a few more logs into the fire pit in the center of the room to warm up the room a little.

After throwing on another log in, there came a solid knock at the door. The strength behind the knock caused the entire door to shake. The strength of the knock told him that an adult was at the door. It was obviously not his father, because he would knock on the door to his own home. His uncle Spitelout and Gobber had a different rhythm to their knocks, so he knew it was not them. By the process of elimination, he feared to open the door.

Against his inner warning, he unlocked the door and opened it. His guess was proven correct when he saw Ivar standing at the door. His day continued to digress. "Uh, Ivar, sir, you're here…at my house." Ivar pushed Hiccup out of the way as he entered the house. "Want to come in?" he said dryly, closing the door.

"You're actions during dragon training, were completely unacceptable. You were quite an embarrassment, this morning."

This was the last thing Hiccup wanted to talk about. He was already feeling bad about it, and he really did not need to have this constantly thrown back into his face. "I know, I know; I should stick with the knife."

"No, that's not it," Ivar replied. "I see now that I was wrong about everything."

"You were?" Hiccup eyed him suspiciously. Could his father finally have gotten through to him? He was not ready to get his hopes up. There had to be an angle to this.

"I now see that the problem does not lie with you. You do have a heart of a real Viking."

"I do?"

"When you went for the Ax, you proved to me that you have that Viking tenacity that we all must have. The problem's not with you… it's with your father."

"I'm not following," Hiccup replied, getting the feeling that things were about to get worse.

"You are the son of a Viking chief, which means you are destined to follow in his footsteps. It is his responsibility to be hard on you, to assure that you make an adequate chief. It's a clear to me that he's not been hard enough on you.

"He hasn't?" His gut feeling was right again; things were about to get a whole lot worse for him. He could already feel the hammer falling.

"No, so I will be even harder on you until Stoick is ready to be the Viking chief that he's supposed to be."

"Great, I'm so excited," Hiccup replied sarcastically.

"Listen boy, the reason I've been so hard on you is because something inside of me tells me that you are destined to be not just a great Viking chief, but a legend like me. If that's your destiny, then you need to start shaping up and learn how to kill yourself a dragon. I better hear good things from Bitwolf, tomorrow."

Ivar exited out of the house as abruptly as he came, leaving Hiccup alone in his dread. Deep in the pit of his stomach, he felt nauseous. It was great to know that Ivar did not hate him, but things could not continue the way they were going. Ivar had to know the truth.

The sun began to rise, the following morning, much to Hiccup's dismay. This was the day of the dragon hunt. He could only pray that none of the dragons strayed too far from the hideout. He had to find a way to get the group to explore the opposite direction.

As he walked down the steps from his room to the bottom floor, he found his father preparing himself for another busy day. Stoick did not have to turn around to see Hiccup coming down the steps; his hearing was as sharp as ever, and he could hear the slight moan of the wooden steps. "I heard about what happened yesterday, Hiccup."

"I know, I know, I had a bad day yesterday!" Hiccup replied.

"What possessed you to try to throw an ax? As it is, we're walking on a very thin line with Ivar, and your stunt has made things worse for both of us."

"I don't know what I was thinking," Hiccup admitted.

"You just have no idea about Viking politics; You have no idea what Ivar is capable of doing to Berk. The best of those options is having him stay here… permanently."

Hiccup's eyes widen with the thought of having to put up with Ivar permanently. That was the last thing anyone wanted. The dragons of Berk would be hunted down to extinction if they remained in Berk.

Stoick shook his head and sighed. "Telling Ivar the truth is just not an option. Who knows what the ol' man would do? I also know how much you hate not fitting in, but the more you try to do so, the more trouble seems to follow you. I need you to lie low for awhile, and not draw attention to yourself. I need you to try to stop fitting in, just until Ivar and his Vikings leave the island.

Hiccup looked down at his feet. "Okay, Dad. I'll try harder to lay low."

"Good," Stoick gave his son a hardy slap on the back.

Rain clouds threatened to make the expedition a wet one, but Bitwolf was not going to allow the weather to scare them off. The young Vikings of Berk had promptly left the village to begin their quest. Hiccup was relieved that he did not have to do very much to assure they headed in the wrong way. Bitwolf led them in the opposite direction from the dragon.

All of Hiccups friends had a weapon and a shield, but to submit to his father's wish, he only took a small knife with him. He also did not see any point in carrying the extra weight because he knew that their quest for dragons would fail.

Like always, all of his friends were bickering among each other about who is going to kill the biggest dragons. They all had agreed to put on a show for Ivar and Bitwolf, but their acting has been so good, that he almost began to wonder if they were acting.

"Yeah, I'm looking to kill myself a Monstrous Nightmare. I think Gertrude would be impressed by that." Snotlout announced.

"Face it, she'll never be impressed by you, no matter what you kill," Astrid said, resulting in a laugh and a high five from Ruffnut.

"Ignore them. Let me tell you about women," Tuffnut said, stepping up to Snotlout. "They are a pain in the butt."

There was a tap on Tuffnut's shoulder. He turned around just in time to receive a well aimed punch in the nose from his sister. "Ow! I think you broke my nose!"

"It's still an improvement."

Fishlegs brought up the rear along with Hiccup. He was the only one that really sympathized with Hiccup. He was probably just as inept in killing dragons as Hiccup was. That was why, Hiccup suspected, they had always gotten along. He was the only one that had never mocked him back during the days of killing dragons. "I don't know what to say; all this pretending is tough work."

"Quiet!" Hiccup whispered to him. "At least their chief is not always on your case."

Bitwolf was getting ready to tell everyone to quiet down on the chatter, but before he could get the words out of his lips, he saw a pair of golden eyes behind Hiccup and Fishlegs. Before his very eyes, a black dragon appeared out of thin air. Its teeth were drawn as drool dripped from one of its fang. It was just inches from devouring the two young Vikings.

"Look out!"

The two young Vikings turned to see the inside of the dragon's mouth quickly approaching. Seeing them about to be devoured, Astrid's aggressive instincts took control, and she threw her ax with everything she had. Her ax spiraled toward the dragon's mouth, and bounced off of one of its front teeth. The black dragon lifted his head and roared in frustration and pain.

Hiccup and Fishlegs took the opportunity to escape and ran to join the rest of the gang. "Whoa! What is that thing? It appeared just like a ghost!" Snotlout exclaimed.

Bitwolf was uncharacteristically somber. If Hiccup did not know better, he would swear that he was scared. The dragon stared at the group of Young Vikings and growled before it vanished before their very eyes. "I can count the number of dragon species that turn invisible on one hand, but there is one that looks like a giant, evil Night Fury with horns."

"A Shadow Lord," Astrid completed his though, remembering the stories that Ivar told when he first arrived.

"It can't be," Hiccup muttered to himself. Was everything, that Ivar had said about this 'mythical' creature, true?

"Stick together, and we might be able to survive this," Bitwolf ordered, raising his shield and his ax to prepare to fight.

The young Vikings form a circle, with their backs on the inside so they had a pair of eyes in all directions. It was the only logical defensive move that they could come up with to combat an invisible dragon. Hiccup was deep in thought about this new dragon. "I don't know for certain, but I think the dragon can only attack while he's visible. That might suggest that it takes great concentration for him to turn invisible."

"That, or he's confident enough that he does not need to attack while invisible," Astrid added.

"Stealth capabilities, long claws, and bad temperament…our chances of survival are probably at twenty-five percent," Fishlegs commented.

Hiccup was concentrating too hard to hear what his friend had said. He felt his hair blow in a sudden gentle gust of wind. His nerves went on high alert. "Everyone separate now!"

"What?" Bitwolf growled. "That's…"

"Now!" Hiccup yelled.

Everyone scattered just as the Shadow Lord reappeared over where they had been and unleashed a rage of fire. All the young Vikings screamed, as they narrowly escaped the fiery breath.

Toothless had found a nice patch of garlic grass, and before he knew it, a good part of the morning had been spent rolling around in the grass in pure ecstasy. Under most circumstances, everything around him would just vanish out of existence while he found himself lost in the moment. However, this was not just any other moment. His dragon instincts had kicked into full gear. There was grave danger, and he instantly knew that Hiccup was in trouble.

Toothless quickly returned to his feet, with his round ears pointing upward. His pupils became fully contracted, and his eyes narrowed. Baring his teeth, he let out a war-cry growl. He knew exactly what the danger was. There was only one type of dragon that could get a Night Fury this riled up. There was only one that they deemed to be their mortal enemy, and that was the Shadow Lord.

It was bad enough that his mortal enemy had shown up on his home island, but he was threatening the Viking that he cared most about. This cannot be allowed to happen. Without hesitation, he ran as fast his legs could take him.

Next Chapter Coming 3/23/11