Three days passed without any sign of either the dragons or another Outcast attack, although likely the latter wouldn't make another attempt following the failure of the first and the death of their chief. Hiccup spent most of his time cleaning his weapons and armor, observing the village and studying their defenses, or meditating on words of power. The dragons would be back within the week and it was then that Hiccup planned to reveal himself and his purpose to the villagers. His only hope was that his appearance would have changed enough that none of them would recognize him.
Toothless for his part was content to perform his own meditations and to sleep. He couldn't fly except at night for fear of being seen and attacked, and he was too large to wander through the forests without attracting unwanted attention. He could hunt in the forest at night, but it was still risky. Better that he remain in the cove where the chance of being discovered was very minimal. Thankfully he didn't need to eat often, just once or twice a week. Another difference between him and his Earthly brethren.
On the night of the third day, Hiccup was idly playing with a Magelight spell when he heard the first sounds of an attack. The fluttering of wings, the squawking of Nadders and the roaring of Gronckles and Nightmares accompanied by shouting Vikings and smashing wood. Toothless heard them as well and was on his feet in an instant. The sun had set an hour earlier and it would only take them a few minutes to reach the village from the cove.
Donning his armor quickly, Hiccup checked himself to make sure that he was armed and ready and then ran and leapt onto Toothless back. The Night Fury leapt into the air just as Hiccup set his feet in the stirrups and together the two climbed into the darkened night sky. When the village came into sight, Hiccup reached forward to pat Toothless' head.
"Remember bud, we don't need to kill them. We just need to scare them enough that they'll return to their nest. Then we'll see about getting our ol' friends to cooperate with us." The Night Fury looked back with one wide pupil and chuffed. Nodding in return, Hiccup raised his mask and hood just as Toothless nosed over in a steep dive. "Here we go…"
Together, man and dragon screamed towards a large group of Deadly Nadders attempting to break into a locked storehouse. The battle below seemed to freeze as all eyes looked up to search for the unseen Night Fury. When they were just one-hundred feet from the ground, Toothless fired a plasma blast that exploded over the Nadders heads, startling them and sending them squawking into the air, rattled but alive.
For ten minutes they repeated the process, Toothless startling his kin with close range explosions or snatching them up in his claws to physically throw them into the air once again. Hiccup also sent dragons running with his own fireballs and fear spells, his magic proving too much for the single-minded creatures. Several times, the hotheaded Vikings below attempted to fire on the duo with catapults or ballista. Hiccup would destroy the projectile with powerful thunderbolts before they could hit their mark, then eliminate the launcher with a fireball until eventually the Berkians realized that they couldn't hit them and stopped trying to shoot them down, instead focusing on whatever dragons still remained in the village.
In less than twenty minutes, the sky was filled with roaring, squawking dragons, most of them too afraid to continue the attack but unwilling to return to the nest empty handed. But the village was empty and the Vikings watched the circling dragons nervously, waiting for the monsters to reinitiate the attack on their home. Realizing that it was their time to act, Hiccup angled Toothless for the center of the draconic cyclone where they would be visible to all. In the light of the torches and fires, it was painfully obvious that Toothless was far larger than any of the attacking dragons and both they and the Vikings below could only stare in awe at his size and stature.
Hiccup, seeing that they had everyone's attention, rose to stand in the stirrups. Drawing in a deep breath, he spoke in Dovahzul, allowing his Thu'um to leak into the speech, giving it the power and volume needed to reach everyone listening.
"Bovul Daar Golt Nu, Uv Aus Fin Bah Do Hin Thur!" (Flee this place, or suffer the wrath of your lord!) The ground shook beneath the villager's feet and the sky trembled from the power of Hiccup's thu'um. The dragon's howled and roared with fear and terror of this mysterious new Alpha and to emphasize the point Toothless unleashed a sky-shattering roar that sent every single dragon running with their tails between their legs, it even caused a few Vikings to faint from fear themselves.
With the dragons no longer a problem, Hiccup turned his attention to the village and the Vikings below him. Toothless slowly hovered closer to the ground, his eyes narrowed to thin slits and his razor sharp teeth bared in warning, a low growl rolled from his throat. Finally he stopped above one of the larger houses as Hiccup flipped the lever to give him control and slid down the dragon's tail to the top of the house. Vikings appeared all around him, staring and wondering what it was that this masked man had done to create such awesome power. What it was this masked man wanted.
~oOo~
Astrid emerged from the Great Hall alongside her fellow teens and the rest of the Vikings inside. Outside, dragons both filled the air and prowled on the ground, seeking livestock and stores of food to steal. Drawing her axe, she shouted a war cry and charged into the fray, followed by Ruffnut and Tuffnut. Together, the three teens attacked a group of Gronckles stealing racks of drying fish.
When the Gronckles had been successfully driven away, they turned their attention to a group of Nadders trying to break into one of the storehouses. But they had barely taken fifteen steps when the heart-stopping shriek of the Night Fury filled the air. The cry of "Night Fury" was echoed by many throughout the village, but when the great beast attacked, it didn't target weaponry or buildings, instead, its purple-blue fireball exploded over the heads of the very Nadders that Astrid and the Twins were targeting, startling them and sending them flying into the air with nothing to show for their effort. Silence reigned until Tuffnut found his voice.
"What in the name of Loki just happened?!" he shouted as he stared at the Nadders obliviously. "I don't know?" Said Astrid as she scanned the sky for the dark silhouette of the black beast. "I think it's that guy from the other night, the one who killed Alvin. But why is he helping us again? Who is he? ...Come on!" She led the two Thorstons down a narrow avenue and directly into the path of a flaming Monstrous Nightmare. They moved to attack once again as the dragon noticed their presence, but again the Night Fury streaked in. For the briefest moment Astrid and the Twins caught sight of the beast as it snatched the smaller Nightmare in its claws and sent it careening into the air. Cursing, Astrid led the Twins down another road towards the catapults and other defenses.
As they approached, they watched as a pair of catapults lobbed boulders into the sky, aiming for the black dragon soaring above. The three young Vikings watched intently to see if they might manage to hit the flying demon. But to their awe, the missiles were struck mid-air by twin lightning bolts that annihilated the stones into nothingness.
"More magic!? Seriously?" grumbled Astrid dejectedly. The Twins however were smiling widely at the wanton destruction. A pair of fireballs were sent from the rider towards the catapults that had attacked them and struck the weapons dead on, producing large explosions that ignited the wood and metal and sent the Vikings atop them falling to the ground below. "Awesome! Do it again!" Shouted Tuffnut with glee. Shaking her head, Astrid grabbed one of the horns on his helmet and pulled him along behind her towards the Great Hall where most of the Vikings were beginning to gather, Ruffnut following closely behind. "Come on you two! We need to find the Chief."
By the time they reached the Great Hall, every dragon that had been attacking the village was circling in the air, roaring and squawking with rage in a confused mass of wings and scales. Astrid looked around and spotted Snotlout and Fishlegs standing beside Stoic, Snotlout's father Spitelout, and Gobber, watching the devilish cyclone above.
She immediately angled towards the Chief as he stared up into the sky with an open mouth and wide eyes. "Chief! What are we supposed to do here?" She asked as she stopped next to him. He glanced down at her and shook his head. "I'm not sure Astrid. I've never seen anything like this before." At that instant, the Night Fury flew into the torchlight and stopped, hovering in the very center of the cyclone of dragons.
It was MASSIVE! Easily five or six times the size of a Monstrous Nightmare and it made every dragon she had ever seen look pathetic in comparison. What looked like dark armor covered its body from its neck to the tip of his tail. Around her, Astrid could hear Vikings gasping with surprise and fear; likely most of them had never seen a dragon of such size before. It made her knees weak to think that there might be others out there like it. From the saddle at the base of its neck rose the rider and he spoke to the dragons in a voice and a language that set the ground to shaking and knocked many of the villagers, including the Twins and Fishlegs, off their feet.
"Bovul Daar Golt Nu, Uv Aus Fin Bah Do Hin Thur!" It looked like he was talking directly to the dragons, and whatever he said made them roar and howl even more. Then, his dragon released an ear-shattering roar, that sent the other dragons running and caused several villagers to faint from fear. Even Stoic, the indomitable, invincible Viking Chief, looked pale and gaunt in the face of such power.
When the last dragon had disappeared into the night, the rider and his Night Fury turned to face the crowd as they slowly descended closer and closer to the ground, the beast baring its razor sharp teeth while it released a low growl that vibrated the air around them. The ebony dragon stopped a short distance above one of the houses and the rider quickly climbed down its tail to the rooftop below. When he made no move to address them, Stoic stepped forward with Gobber and spoke first.
"Who are you? And why do you keep helping us? What do you want from us?" The man stepped lightly from the roof and landed before the chief and blacksmith in a flurry of black cloth, his figure shrouded by a cloak that looked like it was made from dragon scales. He stood, and for the first time Astrid realized just how tall he was. He easily met the chief eye-to-eye and towered a full head and shoulders over her. Astrid and her friends moved closer to the three men and she could see that like before, his face was hidden by that hideous mask beneath the shadows of the cowl. The Night Fury continued to hover over the village, buffeting the air every few minutes with his powerful wing beats.
The man seemed to hesitate before reaching up and pushing his hood back, revealing his shock of brown hair and braids. "I will answer your questions chief of the Hooligans, but I ask that you and your people stay your weapons against me and my dragon. What I have to say is imperative to your survival and the survival of every tribe in this archipelago." Then he reached up and slowly lowered the mask from his face, almost hesitantly. Emerald eyes and a clean shaven face met the villagers and he cleared his throat before speaking in that same deep tenor as before, although now it rung clear as a bell, not muffled by the material of the mask.
"My name is Ysmir, Last of the Dragonborn and a foreigner to your world. I came here at the behest of my father, the God Akatosh, Chief of the Nine Divines of Tamriel, and your own gods of Asgard to hunt down and destroy the creature plaguing your islands." At the mention of Dragonborn and their gods, the Vikings in the crowd broke out in whispers and many looked at the masked man with skepticism written across their faces.
He addressed Stoic. "I understand your peoples skepticism and give you my word of honor that what I say is true and that I am not here as an enemy to you." He paused for a moment and his dragon gave a low hiss that spurred him into action. "I am willing to go into further details about the nature of my being here, but I don't think that the middle of the street is the best place to discuss such things. Perhaps you would prefer to relocate our meeting to the Great Hall?" He met the chiefs gaze evenly, neither confrontational nor defensive. Stoic glanced to Gobber questioningly. The blacksmith shrugged and Stoic nodded to the rider.
"I find it hard to believe anything you say... but we owe you a debt for aiding us against the Outcasts as well as those dragons. We'll meet in the Great Hall to discuss these claims of yours, but not tonight. Call your dragon, you can rest here for the night and in the morning we'll hold a council. " He stepped forward in an attempt to intimidate the man, Ysmir, with his size. "But be warned. If you or your monster so much as sneeze without my permission I'll personally bury an axe in your heads." It failed miserably.
Without flinching, Ysmir turned to look up to where his dragon was still hovering above the village. With a simple nod, he called the Night Fury. The dragon lowered to the street and landed with a barely a sound. Gasps filled the crowd. Here before them stood the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, garbed in black armor that matched its rider. Like a jungle cat, the legendary creature stalked silently through the village after its master.
With one last look at the dragon in their midst, Stoic turned and marched up to the Great Hall, followed by Ysmir, Gobber, and the Night Fury. Astrid and the rest of the Vikings watched them go, before gradually dispersing and returning to their own homes. Astrid watched closely as they left, her eyes never leaving the man's face. He was still emotionless, likely he didn't want to unintentionally cause a confrontation. But what had he meant by Dragonborn? And what was he talking about when he said the gods of Asgard? Had he truly spoken to the divines or was this all just an elaborate ploy to distract them from some unknown goal of his?
In any other situation she would have written him off as a lunatic. A madman who had burned his mind away with alcohol or some other substance. But he didn't act like a drunk. His movements were careful…calculated. Just like his dragon. Both of them were graceful predators in their own unique ways. His magic abilities also supported his case. He said he was a visitor to this world. Maybe in his world magic was normal and he was no different from anyone else there? Maybe everyone in his world was as dangerous as he was?
These thoughts and more ran through her mind as she made her way back to her house and settled down for a restless night.
