Chapter 7

Offer: To Dragons Edge

...

Helgi Fowel with his platinum colored hair, hazel eyes and muscular lean form is standing perpendicular against the wall. His Father, as the oldest of the Chiefs, is about to announce the treaty agreement.

In an island like Solport, the news would spread all throughout the Archipelago and beyond.

He had kept a wary eye on the Night Fury most of the evening. Studying it. He was surprised that the black dragon acted tamer than a housecat. How bizarre, Helgi thought.

Ever since the Berkian Chief arrived, Helgi had observed Hiccup with carefully hidden interest. He remembered the scrawny weakling Hiccup used to be and was more than surprised by his transformation into adulthood.

And just like everyone else, Helgi initially held a deep sense of irrational mistrust towards Hiccup. Though he was starting to feel that it was a bit uncalled for. No matter, The Scavengers have reason to be.

Afterall, Skuldor's Viking death toll was by far the most gruesome before the Red Death was defeated, but they also have the highest dragon head count to make up for it.

Furthermore, Hiccup's arrival almost paled in comparison to that of the arrival of Heather. The last female Chieftess was around eighty years ago, not counting the Bog Burglars. She must be a good fighter to beat her brother in a fight, Helgi thought.

Helgi sought her out among the groups of people and was disheartened to find her talking to Snotlout, but felt a little hope when she threw Snotlout through the air in a sudden burst of anger. Good.

As soon as she arrived Helgi couldn't get her out of his mind. Normally, he doesn't stalk women, but he had followed her around in the marketplace yesterday. His heart beat faster when he sensed her edgy nature. Embarrassingly enough, he had developed a crush all in the span of three seconds.

So he was dreadfully disappointed to find that she was a dragon sympathizer. Oh great Odin, why? If she didn't change her views, there was no way Helgi could make negotiate a marriage contract, his people wouldn't accept her.

Helgi was personally proud about his dragon head count. His father taught him everything that he knew and Helgi trusted him to steer him on the right path. Helgi did the right thing, he saved his people by slaughtering the creatures of Loki. Helgi delivered retribution. Helgi was a protector.

Wasn't he?

Dragons are not what we thought they are. - Hiccup

Those words still echoed in his mind. Even though Helgi believed them to be untrue, it did things to his conscious, it spoke to something deep within him and for the first time in a long time, not since his first kill, Helgi had felt guilt.

Why? Could Hiccup be right?

The words Hiccup used to describe the beasts who have caused so much heartache made no sense.

Kind. Intelligent. Loyal. These were words meant for model citizens of society, not bloodthirsty beasts from Helheim.

When the supposed 'Ice Death' had trapped his Father in the blue ice, Helgi was ready to discard any guilt because the proof was right there again ready to cause more suffering. But then his Father was saved. By the Chief of Berk no less.

Helgi had never seen anything like it. A human controlling a dragon. He had silently observed the way Hiccup handled the battle. The unholy offspring of lighting and death had yielded to his commands and did its best to protect its master.

Not just Hiccup. Heather and that blonde as well. Their dragons protected them.

Interesting.

"Oi, Helgi, watcha doin jus standin there lookin like a statue? Drink with me!" Camicazi slirred as she stumbled in front of him.

"You drink too much for a girl. Leave me alone Cami," Helgi pointedly looked away from her. As expected, he heard her indignant huff followed by a hard slap to his shoulder.

"Grumpy! Jus coz I'm a bit tipzzzy dos nod mean I didn't notice yah staring at em the whole night."

Helgi glared at her. Dammit! He forgot about how observant she was. Comes with being a thief, he guessed. "I don't know what you mean."

She laughed and said a little too loudly, "you know EXACTLY what I mean."

"What are you guys talking about?" Liodonn , heir of Eagle Hills approached them with his usual happy demeaner. He was seventeen Summers old. His short red hair stood up straight as it tried to defy gravity. The young man always displayed a carefree nature that irritated Helgi for some reason.

"Nothing."

"Hiccup."

Camicazi and Helgi said at the same time before glaring at each other.

"Right. The new Chief. He's not as scary as I expected him to be." Liodonn said. The three of them then looked in the direction Hiccup was sitting with his arm around Astrid. "The lucky bugger has a HOT wife," he groaned. Camicazi punched his shoulder hard.

Just then Toothless pinned Hiccup to the ground and started to lick his face.

They heard an "arrg, you know that doesn't wash out' before Hiccup scratched a place under the Night Fury's chin making the dragon collapse in bliss.

"That night fury acts like a pet." Liodonn said in wonder.

"Who would've thought dragons could be tamed," Camicazi giggled, swaying unevenly on her feet.

"They can't be tamed, they're just monsters," Helgi scoffed, though his words lacked the conviction they used to have.

Liodonn raised his eyebrow playfully, "then what do you call that? Maybe we don't have to kill the beasts."

"Are you siding with them?" Helgi narrowed his eyes at him.

Liodonn held up his hands in defense, "I'm just saying. It would be pretty cool to ride one, provided that it doesn't kill me first."

...

A loud war cry boomed, causing every head in the vicinity to turn toward Chief Thrud who was standing in front of the huge campfire with a full mug of Mead in one hand and his axe in his other.

"I have an announcement to make!" Thrud said, his voice unnecessarily loud, already feeling the effects of alcohol setting in.

And we wonder why the English call us Barbarians, Hiccup thought with a wry smile as he petted Toothless.

"Solport is a special place in the Archipelago. Its not only the island of trade but the island where members from every tribe can be found, far and wide. There has always been peace between the tribes except for a few minor setbacks in the past, but we always sorted it out in the end. Today, a peace treaty has been signed." Thrud's eyes briefly met Hiccup's and narrowed before he continued, "we welcome a new Chief. Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III of Berk. May there always be peace between us in the coming decade." Thrud washed Mead down his throat and shattered the mug on the floor. The crowd applauded.

"Was that a warning?" Hiccup mused.

Astrid smiled and pulled him to his feet.

With their hands clasped together, they walked to the place where Chief Thrud had stood. Toothless followed. Hiccup took a deep breath before telling Toothless to use his echolocation so that the sound waves would catch everyone's attention. It worked. This time everyone stopped what they were doing and just stared. Even the music stopped. The heirs flocked to the front of the crowd to see him better.

Hiccup cleared his throat and spoke evenly, "Hi, everyone. I'm Hiccup. Chief of Berk. The dragon master. This is Astrid, my wife. And Toothless, my Night Fury. We want to discuss a few important things with you. First being, the dragon that attacked us last night. I've named it the Ice Death,"

People in the crowd shared anxious glances.

"I sent two of my teammates to survey around the island for any sign of the dragon, they've found holes in the ground along the sea stacks leading to underwater caverns." He let that sink in for a moment, "there's a huge possibility that there could be more than one as there were multiple holes. That could mean one of two things. One, they are nesting. This means that these dragons will be territorial, hence why they attacked last night. They want this island and will do anything to make sire we leave."

The crowd started to protest. "Quiet." Hiccup said firmly and held his hand up to silence them and was surprised when they did. Weird, I wasn't expecting them to listen to me that quickly, he thought.

"Your rep proceeds you huh?" Astrid whispered in his ear. Hiccup grinned and kissed her cheek.

Heather pointedly crossed her arms and Hiccup sighed, "And two, and this is not usually the case, they could be nesting here because there's an available food source, mainly us, Solport has no dragon population, so that makes this area easy to claim. And before you panic let me say this, dragons do NOT usually eat humans, we taste terrible to them. So if the Ice Death DOES want us for food, its tastes would be very singular."

Nobody dared to move as they processed this new threat. What were they going to do? They were done for!

"We'll be staying here an extra week to help you as much as we can." This seemed to help the majority of the crowd to calm, even for just a bit, "I'm sorry if I put a damper on tonights celebration. There's another thing we'd like to discuss. I know the Ice Death may have further darkened your perception of dragons true nature. And yes, there are hostile dragons, but most of them are peaceful and can be tamed,"

The chiefs brissled. But as if to prove his point, Toothless nuzzled and purred into Hiccup under his arm. Even a blind person could feel the close bonds these two shared. Again, Hiccup was surprised that everyone was listening.

Right now they need him, he realised suddenly. They won't scare him off because they know they don't stand a chance against a nest like this one without his help.

"After the Red Death was killed, the dragon raids have almost completely stopped. Doesn't that tell you anything? Its time that we stopped judging these amazing creatures and start to understand them."

Astrid squeezed his hand, a reminder that she'll take over now, "We have an offer to make all of you. As of next week, the new Dragon Academy of Dragons Edge will accept anyone above the age of fifteen to be a dragon rider." She said.

...

sorry for the late update. My cat died :(

So I've been grieving for a while and on top of that I'm a student so projects have me busy. Overall its been a stressful month.

Please review. I'd love some feedback.

Reply:

AtlasSky

Really? Good. I was hoping Cami wouldn't appear to be too OOC.

until I update,

LaylaDeMich