Author Note: I am aware that I slightly trolled in the last section of the story but I wanted to give this chapter a little more background on the various characters of the story, I.E. Halburg, Quake, Smoke, Blizzard and Spark aswell as some other characters and Belle. This chapter is purely a flashback and if you want to read onto the next chapter, whenever that gets up, then you can but this is a little bit of character information aswell it is slightly important for a distant chapter, unknown what one but it may be the fourth after this one.
"Fire in the whole" where the first words a new born hatchling heard before the darkness of being surrounded by a shell then exploded before him and he flew up into the air and then landing back on the podium that the egg had been placed on. A single piece of shell landed back down on his head and the young dragon looked on in slight fear.
At this point, from behind a stable wall, four heads peered out. Two similar orange, purple and yellow heads with only different horn shape and teeth size to tell them apart. The head below them was all white and big, with blue markings in the lower back and a blue chin. The head below that was smaller than the others, with brown hair and green-grey eyes.
The young dragon quivered but when the small one stuck his hand out to face his snout, he felt instinct kick in and he pushed it towards him. The boy then picked him up and said "Welcome to the group Quake". That last word, Quake, was understood to be the dragon's last name.
The boy then placed in a bed of straw and left to fetch something. The hatchling then found the orange heads, which he learned to be one being, and the white head look at him. The three heads were a lot older than him and all adults. The white one was clearly female while the orange ones were male.
The Whispering Death then sneezed and the head with the longer front teeth chuckled which got him a hit from the white one's tail. She then picked up Quake and curled up with him, the orange heads then curled up with them, Quake at the centre.
Smoke, Spark and Blizzard all had their heads at the centre, facing Quake, and all smiled. Nothing then seemed wrong with the world, just perfect. Quake, Smoke, Spark and Blizzard continued this sleeping system until Quake became too big to continue their routine and then they went back to their old stables.
One year later
Halburg was zipping through the trees of a forest standing on Blizzard's snout like a surf-board, with Quake and Smoke and Spark following them. A Flightmare egg, later to be Belle, had been placed on the fire that mourning and was waiting to be ready to hatch so they all had time to kill.
Halburg was holding a hooked staff as a balance, carved out of oak. Blizzard was going at half her top speed but it was still fast for Halburg, not that he minded. The zipping through the trees and low flying over fields of the three dragons got several Vikings angry and yelling at the laughing Thorston. However, passing over, the then 'Silent', Sven's farm, there was trouble.
Sven grumbled when Smoke and Spark made five sheep faint with an explosion blast in the air and threw a blunt spear at the dragons. The spear whizzed past Smoke and Spark, shot through Quake's spinning tail and over Blizzard's spikes before hitting Halburg's helmet, which was then a silver Nadder helmet.
Blizzard, unlike the more unobservant Hookfang and other Monstrous Nightmares, quickly copped her falling trainer, mainly because he was infront of her eyes. The three dragons knew they were too large to fly into the forest below them so went to find a clearing to land and then find Halburg on foot, or rather tail for Quake.
The boy fell through the trees, being hit by branches on his way down before landing in a bush. When he picked himself up, his staff hit him on the head when it decided to come back down. "Ouch, that hurt" grumbled Halburg as he reached down for his staff. With that picked up, he started to walk in the direction he knew Berk was.
Halburg though, was skinny all his life but even though he wasn't a hiccup, he still wasn't extremely fit. He slowed his walking pace and thought 'If I get out of here without getting killed, I'm training myself, dear Odin this is hard' after twelve miles of clambering over logs, bushes and through a small stream at the bottom of a small valley.
When Halburg came into a clearing, he spotted a family of Hideous Zipplebacks. The two adults were both blue with green spikes and a cream underbelly like their children and, even though he owned one, Halburg decided to stay out of their way.
However, a family of red and purple spotted Prickleboggles then came into the clearing. Halburg expected the normally quite peaceful dragon to just wander off and leave the Zipplebacks. He knew that a Prickleboggle was a match for very few dragons.
The Prickleboggles themselves were in the middle of clearing when the Zipplebacks spotted them. The parents of the twin-headed dragons stood infront of their hatchlings and snarled at the Prickleboggles. The other parents also stood infront of their own offspring and growled back at the other dragon.
Halburg's eyes then widened when Blizzard, Smoke, Quake and Spark decided at that moment to arrive in the clearing when the parents were growling. Halburg decided to swiftly move across, between the territorial parents and avoid the conflict to get to his own.
However, no sooner was he in the middle between the parents than it happened. The two Prickleboggles shot out their purple particle fire when the two Zipplebacks shot out their gas, oblivious to the boy in the crossfire. However Blizzard stepped at the two Zipplebacks before they could spark the fire and Quake did the same with the Prickleboggles.
Halburg however, had felt his helmet fall off his head; dented, obliterated in some parts and broken, and his staff got blasted apart into splinters when the Prickleboggle fire hit him. The sap though that was still in the wooden staff aswell as that that was clung to the helmet from the earlier fall mixed with the gas and particles.
Halburg's eyes stung and his head began to hurt and he screamed, fell over and curled up. Smoke and Spark used a wing beat to blow away the gas and particle before they took Halburg to Berk, with Quake and Blizzard in pursuit. The two dragon families had been separated onto different paths to avoid each other.
As Smoke and Spark flew to Berk, with Blizzard and Quake now behind the two, Halburg was curled up in his saddle with his hands over his face. He wasn't crying, just simply in pain and was unaware of the changes happening to him because his closed eyelids and lack of a helmet were the reason for these alterations.
The next day, back on Berk in the old village infirmary
Halburg woke up the following day in his room with Smoke and Spark poking their heads through the window on one side, Blizzard on the other and he could make out Quake's massive head behind. Ruffnut at this point entered the room, followed by Tuffnut and Gothi. In Tuffnut's arms were a baby yellow Flightmare with pink lines and a green underside. "Hay little cous, how ya been?" asked Tuffnut. "Grand, I only got caught in the middle of a gas and particle field before going into excruciating pain and passing out. Just another day on Berk" shrugged Halburg.
Ruffnut however, he noticed, held a box with a hand held mirror on top. "What's with the mirror?" asked Halburg. "Well, you see Halburg; you need to take this delicately. When you got hit by the fire blasts, we assume a Prickleboggle and Zippleback correct?" asked Ruffnut. "Yes, just the gas and particle fire though" replied Halburg. "Well, they seemed to have taken an effect on your appearance" Ruffnut said before passing him the mirror.
Halburg looked into it and noticed his hair and eye colour change. His eyes were now a hot pink colour with small tinges of his former green eyes in them, though you would only notice if you looked at it for a while. His hair was now a dark shamrock or dark emerald green down to the roots.
Halburg probably would care about the reason why in the future but right now, he merely sighed, not knowing how to take the new development. Ruffnut put an arm on his shoulder and smiled. "I know you are upset but we got you this" she said. Halburg took the box and looked at it.
When he opened it up, there was an iron domed helmet with copper platting on it. Two forward, straight ram horns parallel to each other stood out forwards on the helmet. Halburg picked up the helmet and placed it on his head. "Thanks guys" smiled Halburg. "Ya, but your parents had something made for you, it's wrapped in that cloth" Tuffnut added, pointing into the box at the second item.
Halburg unravelled the red cloth and gasped. In it were two blades, a battle knife and dagger. The two shone brightly, like Macey, and were intricately detailed. One side of the dagger had a carving of Smoke's head and neck while Spark's was on the other, both in the fuller. With the knife, it was rather the heads of a Snaptrapper, two heads on each side of the fuller. Everybody knew Halburg's favourite class was the former Fear class and now the Mystery class.
The handles of the two weapons were the exact same, both having a golden, square guard. The grip was wrapped in bronze coloured leather and ended about two centimetres to the end in a gold design. The ends were both fitted with weird prongs and holes. Halburg then found that the two blade ends were supposed to lock together and separate to be one or two separate weapons.
"Right then, so who is this little person" asked Halburg, his attention now drawn to the recently hatched Flightmare. "We thought you were training and naming her" Tuffnut said, passing her to Halburg. While in his grasp, the dragon sneezed a bolt of her 'fire' at a bell, which landed onto the ground. The sound seemed to please her and so Halburg said "Hmm, like that girl. Bell is interesting but Belle is better, that name of beauty suits you and your interest".
Belle took to her name and Halburg, wearing his helmet and his blade in his belt, made his way out to his eagerly waiting dragons. Halburg hopped onto Quake and waved a final goodbye to the twins before the three dragons took flight for home.
They soon landed outside his house and Halburg saw his father's Scauldron, red with subtle blue and yellow designs, named Steam, taking a drink from the house pond. An azure Terrible Terror with orange spikes and a teal underbelly slept on the larger dragons back while a Speed Stinger with the same colours as Crawl, Sprint, passed out with only his snout poking out from under Steam's wing. Crawl, Sprint and Steam were oblivious to Halburg as he passed by with Belle perched on his shoulder and Smoke, Spark, Blizzard and Quake in tow.
Halburg opened the door to his home where he found his mother cleaning. His mother was a tall woman with brown hair and a fit build. She had sapphire eyes. She, along with Halburg's father, were both prestigious warriors who fought to defend their home often. A little known fact was that Halburg's home was the oldest standing building on Berk out of all current standing buildings, only having been burned down once.
Halburg tapped his foot on the door frame and said "Hay mom". His mother turned around quickly and pulled her boy into a hug. "Oh Halburg, how are you? Did you get hurt? Did Ruff and Tuff give you your gifts?" she asked, bombarding her son with questions. "My answer is grand, no and yes. Also, thank you for the knife-dagger" he smiled. Halburg then, as he walked to get a drink of water, he found himself get tripped and nudged. "Hay Whip, how are you girl" smiled Halburg as the once-invisible Changewing turned her scales back to their normal orange colour with a purple back and wings. She nudged him lightly while Belle jumped down and nuzzled into the one of only three dragons allowed in the house, Crawl and Sprint being the other two.
Halburg however, after a good while of talking with his mother, agreed to allow Belle to sleep on a rock slab in his room. Halburg smiled and while his mother went outside to feed the other four dragons, he looked up onto a wall.
The wall was the most important part of his household. It was where the most important weapon of a person of their house was placed to be hung up. It wasn't a simple ornament; it was a symbol of greatness. On it currently was his father's axe with rear spike on top. Below was his mother's broad sword. Under that was an empty rack, intended to be used to hold Halburg's weapon when ready or found.
His mother, Whip and followed by Halburg and Belle went outside when his father arrived home, as the loud grumble of a welcoming Scauldron didn't alert them enough.
His father was a tall man also, similar in stature to Spitelout just a bit more toned. He, like his mother, had brown hair but had wise grey eyes instead. He had a subtle beard but he wasn't like Stoick or Spitelout. The man was rather kind, intelligent and calm, when he needed to be, however he was a great warrior when he did get into combat, having once wrestled a Sword Stealer and won when the dragon tried to attack an injured Sprint.
About a few months before this story began because I'm lazy and cannot be bothered to get an exact time
"Do ye have to go?" asked Halburg as his father came back from loading the last of the cargo onto the boat with Steam's help. "Hiccup needs people to go on this trade mission aswell as needs Tidal class dragons and stealth dragons to assist in keeping the boat safe. Us two, Steam, Whip, Crawl and Sprint will only be gone for about twelve months from now, you won't even notice we are gone" smiled his mother as his father arrived.
Halburg nodded as his mother and father pulled him in for a hug. The four dragons going on the voyage were saying goodbye to the adult Smoke, Spark, Quake, Blizzard, Belle, Frill and Spines and the teenage Twist at the same time. Many other Vikings aswell as dragons were saying their goodbyes.
The ship itself wasn't a small Longboat but rather a ship in similar size and design to those used by the Dragon Hunters due to the voyage being one to carry several dragons, Vikings and resources.
"Don't worry son, just take care while we are gone, feed the dragons and clean out the house, dung and stalls. Also, visit your cousins and aunt every now and then" smiled his father as he ran a hand through Halburg's helmetless hair. Halburg chuckled and was about to give his father and mother their sword and axe but his father then spoke "No, leave these here as a reminder of us returning. Also, make sure to find your weapon for the wall".
Halburg and his dragons waited on the furthest into the sea part of the harbour as he watched the boat set sail. His mother, father, Sprint and Whip were side by side, smiling at Halburg while Crawl was on his mother's shoulder. Steam, along with the other Scauldrons, Thunderdrums, Tide Gliders, Seashockers and Sliquifiers, were swimming alongside the boat rather than on it.
Halburg knew several other Vikings were bidding their family goodbye but his Aunt then put a hand on his shoulder. "Come on Halburg, the twins are waiting back at home, you can stay over tonight" she smiled.