8) We will fight to protect our home
Stoick and Gobber retreated back to Stoick's house to talk privately while the rest of the village went back to work. It had been quite a shock that his son had been flying in mid-air without that dragon's help. All of Stoick's life he had watched his son grow with making crazy inventions, but this was beyond human thinking to make a flying suit. The odd thing was that he felt both proud and happy about his son accomplishments and that Hiccup was still alive, but another part of him was furious that he had escaped and didn't take responsibility for his actions.
"The lad is certainly something else, isn't he?" Gobber took a closer look at the Sword of Berk that Hiccup had in his possession. Stoick nodded in agreement, but remained quiet. He wasn't sure what he could say, since he knew that he loved his son very much, but he still had to kill him if he ever returned to the island.
"Hm…that's strange," Gobber said and turned the sword look at the other side. He also seemed to take weight of the metal to see if there was a different or something.
"What is so strange?" Stoick turned to look at his friend and saw his expression was filled with suspicion and bewilderment. Stoick wondered what going on with Gobber.
"The sword is feels different than the one you used to bring to me whenever you needed that thing sharpen," Gobber explained. "The metal seems lighter and rarely used in combat."
"That's because I've rarely use the sword at all which explains why it is rarely used."
"But that doesn't explain why it is newly-made."
"What!" Stoick exclaimed. "The sword is ancient, passed down for generations. How is that possible?"
Gobber held out the sword and Stoick took the sword to look at it closer. He couldn't see any difference with the sword other than that it seemed rather new and unused in battle.
"Hiccup must have made a copy of the sword," Gobber concluded. "See how the gold inscriptions is out of place in a few spots. He must have taken my money pouch to make the gold inscriptions since he didn't have any other material to make it seem legit. And look under the handle, there is a small streak of dark ash. He probably marked it to tell the difference, and if what the lass told us it was to trick Dagur that this was the real sword."
Stoick shook his head in disbelief. He went up the stairs and into his bedchambers to find a sword exactly alike the one Gobber was holding down stairs. He grabbed the sword in his right hand and sauntered down to show Gobber that his theory seemed to be correct at the moment.
However nothing seemed to make any sense to him. The Hairy Hooligans and The Berserkers had a treaty, which stated that neither tribe was to attack each other, but then why would Dagur require the sword unless it was to overthrow them and taking over the isle for himself. And he had tricked Hiccup into do his bidding, but his clever son proved to outsmart both Dagur and himself into believing he was weak and desperate to anything. Even if his initial plan was probably to steal the sword, Hiccup figured out what was right and where his loyalty lied with.
"Do you believe what he told the lass was true? That Dagur might be attacking Berk?" Gobber asked.
"If he is going to go against the treaty, then he probably would plan an attack on Berk as soon as possible," Stoick replied sourly. "He is deranged, I don't think he would plan an attack without the proper resources."
"Stoick, he isn't stupid. You and I know that if he asked Hiccup to help him along then he must have planned this attack for a while now. It wouldn't take long to ensemble an armada," Gobber argued. "And the armada is larger than ours and we will be outnumbered in a matter of days if he decided to attack today."
Stoick was aware of that possibility, but he didn't want to prepare an attack if he wasn't totally sure. Looking away from the fact that Hiccup had told Astrid that Dagur forced him to steal the sword, it didn't mean that there was any truth about Dagur planning to take over Berk.
"Until we get any indication of an attack, we shall stand alert on any suspicious boats on our waters," Stoick said determined, giving Gobber no room to discuss or argue with any further about this subject. All he needed to know was that his son was no thief and that there might be a threat heading towards Berk. He might be angry on his son's betrayal by siding with the dragons, but in his heart there was a small hope on that Hiccup would return back to Berk to face his crimes and possibly help protecting his tribe from the danger that was yet to come.
Things remained quiet at the isle for the next couple of days. There was no sign of any dragons or any suspicious boats on their coast. Though Stoick and Gobber kept their suspicion between themselves, Astrid noticed an odd tension with her chief and his best friend. She would normally confront them, but after she stood up for Hiccup during the counsel meeting on his punishment for his crimes no one seemed to fond telling her anything relevant to him. Part of her wasn't entirely sure why she trusted him unconditionally, but he was right that he couldn't lie. Hel, he could barely make up a believable story that was not true whenever he did something wrong and tried to hide it.
"Hey, Astrid," Snotlout tried to capture her attention. She and the rest of the teens were hanging out, since there was not much to do. The twins was fighting yet again on something really stupid while Fishlegs was reading his botany book, murmuring something to himself about certain pollen in flower that grows in the mountain. So she was stuck once again listening to Snotlout idiotic flirting. "Shall I show you my bulging biceps?"
She rolled her eyes and stepped on his feet before stopping away from the group for some solitude.
Astrid found solitude near the edge of the isle, exact spot where Hiccup had jumped off and flew in the air. He had always been an oddball in the village, even in ordinary Viking tradition, but he had grown to accept his difference and embraced it. She couldn't help admire how strong Hiccup had grown the last five years and if she ever wanted to marry any man it had to be someone like him. Her eyes widen by that thought, thinking that she could possibly have crush on Hiccup was ridiculous. She barely knew him and even if she thought highly of him now, it didn't mean she liked him or anything, right? She shook her head and tried to distract herself from these silly thoughts, so she turned to look at the scenery. The blue ocean and the big gray rocks that guarded the isle. It was then she noticed something she found strange. One ship was lying still on the water, almost hidden behind the rocks. The ship's location would normally not be placed in that exact location, she turned to look further into the distance and for a moment she thought she saw ships approaching. It didn't make any sense, the chief didn't mention that any other tribe was coming to visit Berk nor had there been any Berkians taking out ships to go fishing. It was then she took a closer look at the sail of the boats and didn't see the crest of Berk on any of them. Suddenly she felt a bad feeling in her stomach, she knew what was really going on. Hiccup had tried to explain to her that she shouldn't underestimate Dagur and the Berserkers, knowing that when Dagur forced him into stealing the sword in exchange for his freedom along with his dragon there might have been an ulterior motive. No one on Berk with the exception of possibly Mildew trusted the Berserkers for a second, which is why seeing those ships was alerting her of danger. If the chief weren't going to believe her now then he and the rest of tribe should be damned, then she would handle this on her own.
She ran to the forge, knowing that Gobber and possibly the chief would be there. Her assumption proved to be correct when she found Gobber working by the fireplace while the chief was sitting on a stool, chatting quietly on something totally irrelevant than what they were about to face.
"Chief!" Astrid exclaimed, catching immediately the attention from both the chief and Gobber. They knew her well enough that she would disturb or make noise unless there was a reason behind it. "Ships are approaching the island. And from what I could see they are not here just to stay and chat."
She almost blushed when she realized that she sounded slightly as Hiccup with his sarcastic and humorous remarks on something serious. It was stupid, but brushed her silly thoughts away to focus on the serious situation that were on their hands.
Gobber and the chief didn't seem to take her information lightly when both of them hurried about of the forge and headed to the edge of the village to view the coming ships.
Astrid followed closely after them, wanting to find out what the chief had planned to do with the situation that Hiccup had warned them about.
The chief remained as stoic as ever, but after moment of silence without moving his eyes away from the ships on the water and said rumbling, "We need to prepare ourselves for an attack. We need to bring the women and children somewhere safe while the rest of us will gather any available weapons we can find in the armory."
"Well, better get started then," Gobber said with joking tone. He hurried back to the forge, probably to make as many weapons he could on the short time. Though she couldn't help wondering if he actually could make that many weapons in such short time period and actually worked in battle.
"What about me, Chief?" Astrid asked, expecting an honest and straightforward command, which she didn't have to feel she had to disobey to do the right thing.
"You and I will go and warn the village of the threat that is coming. Then I want you and the rest of the teens to help the women and children to the caves and keep them safe," the chief answered. However his answer wasn't satisfying to her, considering that she and the teens were warriors and capable to fight along with the rest of the village. So why wouldn't he let them help when he needed all the help he could get for this unprepared attack?
"We can fight as well!" Astrid argued. "We have trained for this for so long and you need help."
The chief looked at her for a second and she almost thought her eyes was deceiving her when she thought his green eyes reflected sincerity and remorse, but those eyes quickly changed to determination and authority. It was strange to see the chief expressing any other emotion than determination and no-nonsense attitude. She couldn't help wondering for that small moment that he was actually thinking about Hiccup, however she was pretty sure if he did then he would definitely not tell it to her.
"This isn't about fighting the Berserkers. Our priority is on protecting our home and keep everyone safe, which I trust that you and the teens are able to do with your best ability."
He had a point, not that she was ever going to admit it to him. If there was one thing you needed to know about Vikings it was that they had stubbornness issues.
So she only nodded in confirmation and hurried off in the direction where she had left the teens earlier. They had definitely their work cut out for them.
The Berserkers didn't waste time getting on the Hairy Hooligans territory. From what Stoick could gather Dagur had brought the entire armada. If he had to be logical about their current situation, then he knew as well as Dagur knew that Berk was outnumbered and didn't really stand a chance in winning this attack.
However that didn't stop him and the rest of the village from attacking the Berserkers the moment they stepped into the village. The sounds of war cries and weapons cling against each other were exhilarating. It have been a long time since they fought anyone besides dragons, but Stoick was more furious over that the Berserkers attacked Berk despite their treaty, and there was also the fact that Hiccup had been right by his assumption that made his feel guilty for not listening to his son for once in his life.
Stoick slammed his hammer into another Berserker and turned to look around to see how they were holding up. Gobber was using his prophetic hand, which was currently in form as a sword, and looked like he was having the time of his life beating the crap out of these men despite being slightly nervous about this attack earlier. However Gobber was right about being nervous over the attack, since no matter how many Berserkers they defeated more appeared due to the entire armada on the water interfered if there was a slight change that could go in Berk's favor. He was so fixated on his surrounding that he wasn't aware of Dagur sneaking up from behind him. Dagur attempted stabbed him in the back with his sword, ironically which is what he did in the first place, Stoick caught him from the side of his eye, but knew there wasn't time to prevent the attack in time. He was almost tempted to close his eyes and accept that he was going to die earlier than he had expected and get killed by a deranged Viking no less. However if he was going to die then he wanted to die with his dignity in tact, so he was confused when the attack didn't happened. Instead something pierced through the wind in great speed and knocked Dagur's sword out of his hands. It was a sword that was burning like a fire torch. Both Dagur and his eyes looked shocked over this strange weapon, but only Stoick had seen this sword before. He turned to see where the sword had appeared from and was even more shocked to see Hiccup on the back of a Night Fury. What was probably more shocking was that Hiccup had brought an entire army of dragons with him.
"Mind if we join the party?" Hiccup grinned as he and Toothless landed on the ground. He and Toothless had gathered the other dragons to help out Berk, some of the dragons helped down at the village while others began attacking the ships. The plan was originally that he and Toothless was going to do air support, but when he saw Dagur about to stab his dad that plan went straight down the drain. He activated Inferno and threw it straight at Dagur, making him lose his grip on the sword. His precision was remarkable and definitely caught his dad and Dagur by surprise.
Hiccup leaped back to retrieve his sword while Toothless watched his back by kicking and throwing anyone that approached them with his tail. The Hairy Hooligans were shocked to see dragons helping them, but didn't question it since they had their hands full. The Berserkers on the other hand was terrified over their odds were no longer in their favor, but most of all Dagur was furious over this sudden change in battle.
"How dare you, Hiccup!" Dagur exclaimed in fury. "You refused to do what I asked for and you escape along with that beast, only to return to save your village that sees you as useless and a traitor."
Hiccup didn't get time to reply to Dagur's accusation when the deranged leader grabbed his sword and attacked him. Luckily Hiccup managed to block the attack, though it was not as strong as his father, it came fast right at him and a lot stronger than he could manage. Toothless growled over the attack and prepared himself in shooting a plasma blast, but Hiccup shook his head at his dragon companion. He pushed Dagur away and Toothless tried to fire the plasma blast when Hiccup told him no. The dragon was confused that his human friend asked him not to attack the man who was the main cause of this mess, but Hiccup was stubbornly determined about his dragon not attacking.
"You ask me why I returned?" Hiccup said calmly. He looked at Dagur with a calm and determined expression on his face as he moved closer towards the leader that was staring at him with fury and disgust. "It is simple, you and your tribe attacked a tribe that you were in a treaty with in order to overthrow them and take over. You didn't just attack my tribe and my family. You attacked my home and we will fight to protect our home, even if they don't want our help."
He didn't expect Dagur would understand what he was saying, because he assumed that he overthrew his father Oswald the Agreeable in order to become chief of the Berserker tribe. However he certainly didn't expect that Dagur would react my taking his sword and tried to throw it straight at him. Hiccup remained frozen on the spot, so he didn't do anything to defend himself from the attack. But it turned out he didn't have to when his dad stood in front of him and used his hammer to stop the attack.
"I won't let your hurt my son!" his dad said with the same fury as Dagur had used, but the only difference was that his dad said it out of love and protection instead of disgust. This actually shocked Hiccup that his was protecting him even after everything he had done, putting his tribe in danger and gone against every Viking tradition by befriending a dragon.
"Dad?" Hiccup said unsure who to react to his father's protection. His dad didn't take his eyes away from Dagur, but he said with this soft tone that he only heard a few times when he was younger, "Go and protect our home. I will deal with this one."
Hiccup wanted to argue, but Toothless's snout pressed against his knee told him that he should argue about it. Hiccup climbed onto his dragon's back and they took off, leaving the two-tribe leaders to settle this battle between themselves.
The dragons seemed to have everything under control in Hiccup's opinion and were actually proud seeing dragons and Vikings fighting together instead against one and another. Most of the skips from Berserker's armada were in flames and most of the Vikings were helpless, as they could not swim back to the shore due to the long distance and also the fact that they were defenseless against both attacks from the dragons and the Vikings.
Hiccup and Toothless went back to their original plan as air support while he let the Vikings do the Viking way of settling a battle. This time however Hiccup allowed his dragon to shoot plasma blasts, but warned him to avoid hurting his tribe. As they helped along he noticed that Astrid was fighting with a strong hold, but when he noticed that one of their enemies tried to sneak attacked her he jumped on it. He asked Toothless to shoot while he took the chance in steering the dragon towards the ground and grabbed Astrid by the waist and onto Toothless's back. And let's just say she was freaking out being suddenly lifted from the ground and flying in midair on a dragon.
"H-Hiccup?" Astrid screamed. "What are you doing here? Why are we flying?"
"Well, my lady," Hiccup said with a smirk on his face. He knew he wasn't supposed to be enjoying her surprise and fright over flying on a dragon, but it was funny watching the normally composed Astrid freaking out. "We are here to settle this war and protect our home. And as for the flying part meet Toothless."
"Toothless?" Astrid looked down to see the Night Fury taking a side-glance on her before concentrating on what was in front of him. However if you looked closer you could see a dragon, who was annoyed getting uninvited passengers on his back. Oddly enough Astrid caught on quick that the dragon didn't like her very much, especially when said dragon began spinning and twirling around in midair before leaping straight into the battlefield. Astrid screamed and clutched herself tight against waist in order not to fall off and die a painful death. "Please get me off this thing!"
"Toothless, what are you doing?" Hiccup asked in panic. "Now is not the time to be messing around. We need her."
Toothless didn't listen and continued trying to shake the Viking girl off his back at the same time shaking every Viking in his way with his tail. Hiccup tried to control the movements, but his dragon wasn't having it. Toothless was angry at both tribes for hurting Hiccup and he was giving him up to her or any of the other human unless she begged for mercy.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Astrid chanted over and over again. She was terrified and all she wanted to get off. "Please."
Toothless accepted her apology and gracefully leaped up to the sky, however this time was slower and gentler in his movements. Hiccup and Astrid relaxed and let out their breath which neither of them had been aware they been holding. The two humans didn't say anything, but they both were slightly embarrassed over what had just occurred with her holding him close.
"O-okay," Hiccup stuttered, pulling a nervous hand through his hair. "We better get back in the you-know saving Berk business."
Astrid nodded and they flew over the village to get an overlook of the situation. Most of the Berserkers were retreating back to the last remaining ships that was left standing and some was either wounded or dead, which saddened Hiccup that so many got involved in the mess he was part in creating. Gobber and the rest of the villagers were doing quite well for themselves with a few injuries. His dad on the other hand was having some trouble with Dagur.
Dagur was going crazy, swinging his sword aimlessly and coming at his dad in an incredible speed. And even though his dad could probably defeat anyone at least in his mind, he couldn't match up to his speed and there was no element of surprise. His dad might not stand a chance, unless he did something unexpected.
"Astrid, fly Toothless," Hiccup asked. He began detaching himself from the flying gear meanwhile Astrid looked flustered about Hiccup's request.
"I can't," Astrid admitted. "I have no idea how I'm supposed to fly him."
"It is not that hard. You only need to hold on and just trust him and you two will be fine," Hiccup reassured her. "I need to help my dad."
Then he asked Toothless to keep Astrid safe before he jumped off the dragon and released the flying suit. He glided down on the ground, retracted the suit before he moved to his dad's side, hoping that he could reach him in time.
If he ever considered Dagur the Deranged human, then this current situation only proved that the Berserker leader was absolutely obsessed with winning this war and was willing to do anything in order to do it, even kill people in cold blood. Stoick has never liked Dagur, but now he despised him for everything he has done and more. So when Dagur swung his sword straight at him, Stoick countered it with his hammer. It was then a surprise attack was launched by Hiccup with his flaming sword. Dagur stumbled back by the sudden attack and fell on the ground. However he only sneered when both Stoick and Hiccup now overpowered him, leaving him outnumbered. Stoick moved closer and put his hammer in front of this downed tribe leader.
"Give up," Stoick said dangerously calm. "I promise that I shall give you a suitable punishment for breaking the treaty and attacking our tribe."
Both Stoick and Dagur knew that by suitable punishment it really meant death, but Stoick didn't want Hiccup to know the exact meaning behind the punishment. Still he knew that Hiccup wasn't stupid, so it wouldn't surprise him if Hiccup disagreed with this notion. However Dagur only laughed at him with this sinister laugh, sounding like he had completely lost his mind. Stoick glared at him in annoyance, he didn't like to be taken as a joke, so when this lunatic guy was laughing at him like he thought he was going to get out of this alive.
"What is so funny?" Stoick asked with annoyance. "You think death is funny?"
"If I die then I shall take what is important to you along with me," Dagur said deadly serious after he finally stopped laughing. "Just so you will remember what it really means to ruin my plan."
Stoick wasn't sure what he was blabbing about, only assuming that it was a dead man talking nonsense. However when Gobber and some of the other villagers appeared and took Dagur to the prison cell, when the sound of someone falling down to the ground came from behind him. Stoick turned around to see Hiccup down on his knees, holding his hands on the abdomen. What caught Stoick's attention was the blood on his son's hands and the pained expression. Then he looked who was behind Hiccup and saw one of Berserkers, deeply wounded, grinning evilly over what he had just accomplished before his death welcomed him.
Stoick wasn't at first sure how to react to what was really happening, but when he looked at his son once again he stumbled to reach his son.
"HICCUP!"
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So this chapter was really fast paced, because I want this story complete and now I have to write the last chapter/epilogue and then I'm officially done. So I hope you guys like it. I know the battle scene in the story is not very well written, but I was both in a hurry and the fact that I don't have much experience writing such scenes.
In my story I mention Hel, and according to Norse mythology is the ruler of Hel, meaning the underworld. Just to clear up the confusion for those of you who don't know much about Norse mythology or really don't care.
Anyway review, favorite or follow, and I hope to be done with the last chapter at the end of this week. So the waiting time is over and we will have a complete story. And this will be my first what I would consider a full-length story. That is written over 30K words. So until next time, some day soon...
xXrebelgirl07Xx
