A/N MY BAD mistakenly posted chapter nine again instead of 10. PLEASE DON'T HATE ME. here is the real chapter 10. thanks for the reviews guys and sorry for the delay. Review some more if you like it and Review if you think some changes are needed/have advice.
Chapter Ten: Three years in
Tristain has been the perfect village. Three years have passed since I left Berk, cast out for something I didn't do. There hasn't been a day when I didn't sit on the beach and watch the sunset. I truly thought about Astrid everyday and what all is going on in Berk these days. No word has reached the shores of Tristain about my old home. Truth be told, I couldn't care less about Berk; it's Astrid I care about. Berk never treated me right anyway. But Morianna is right. I will have to go back and take back what is rightfully mine.
A lot has changed at Tristain over the past three years. Morianna was married to Youruk's youngest son, Belviat, and even had a child, my nephew, named Stoick, in honor of our father. Belviat has two older brothers. The eldest, and next in line for Chiefdom, was Firkevat. Firkevat is every bit of the word Viking. Standing at a good six foot two, he has navy blue eyes and a gut the size of the island. He has dark brown hair and the strength to chop straight through a full grown tree. He was not someone to be trifled with. The middle son was named Matlevat. He was, surprisingly, average. He stood at five feet ten inches and had average sized green eyes. Belviat was more like Morianna and I than anyone else. Although tall, at six foot five, he was as scrawny as I was. The thing that really set Belviat out from the others was that his eyes could change colors, thus marking him as a seer. Belviat tried to tell people he was not a seer but the village scoffed and told him that his powers would be known in due time.
And as I thought about it, I realized how unsettlingly close I was to Chiefdom again. Should five people die, I would be next in line. The chain was Firkevat, Matlevat, Belviat, Morianna, Stoick, and then I. Firkevat and Matlevat were married once already and lost their wives during the reign of The Greed, leaving no children. An odd custom of Tristain is that once married, you could never marry again, even after the death of your second half. Firkevat was steadily approaching his 40's year after birth and Matlevat was at 33. Belviat was four years older than Morianna, putting him at 27. While I did not notice it at first, Youruk was at a stunning 80 years of age and didn't look a day over 60. I asked her what her secret was and she told me 'A Strict Diet!'
But even Tristain in all its perfection, still has a few 'skeletons in the closest.'
"Hey little Stoick!" I said as I picked him up and swung him around a bit. He giggled the entire time.
"Hey Hiccup," said Morianna as she walked into my home. Only two weeks after I started living here, Youruk decided I need to take on a job and get a house. With Toothless being a dragon and all, I was given several jobs. In the morning, Toothless and I helped fly fishing supplies down to the docks of the village. With our help, the boats got into the water a good hour before they usual do, which meant better fishing and earlier return times. Our midday job was to help bring chopped trees to the house built for those with woodcarving jobs. They just called it the woodcarving house. Our afternoon job was to help bring what the fishers caught to the food storage. It was a long day but well worth it. Every night, Toothless would have a feast of fish, usually between 15-20 fish a night, and I would have whatever I was craving that night as long as I told the chefs right after we were done for the day. An hour into the evening, someone would drop by the house and give me my dinner for the night. It was a marvelous system they had set up, though it didn't warrant much freedom. Every sixth and seventh day, however, were our break days and Toothless and I would spend most of it just flying.
"Hey Morianna," I responded as she started setting the table. We had an idea of getting together for dinner four times a week so that we could have Stoick grow up in a family atmosphere. "Where's Belviat?"
"He has a meeting today," she responded. "Unexpected and emergent." Another custom of Tristain was that the children of the chief absolutely had to partake in Village affairs once they reached a certain age. This way, all the children would be ready for chiefdom should their older siblings die.
"What is it about?" I questioned. "Do you know?"
"Well," she started. "He didn't tell me. But, being a talker, I know what it's about." Morianna was a talker. It was her job and I found it to be quite a peculiar one. Her job in the village was to spread news to the village. If my jobs didn't take up most of my time, I would try to invent some sort of contraption that could easily replicate the news onto some sheets of paper. It would make her job easier and more efficient. "It's about the Yalrik's and their daughter. I wasn't able to deliver the news about that to you, sorry."
"Well, you are now," I told her. "What happened?"
"She's gone," she responded. "And not dead gone, gone as in not here! She's disappeared."
"What?" I exclaimed. The island was big but so was the village. Someone would have surely seen her wander off. She was only three years old so she couldn't have gone that far.
"Yes, I know," said Morianna. "But I think our dinner is here and let's forget about it for now."
She was right as someone started knocking on the door. Whenever we would eat as a family I would have the chefs send Morianna's family dinner to my house. I opened the door and took the food. I myself had ordered 2 cooked salmon's and Morianna had ordered 2 servings of chicken, an animal the foods farm had. A chicken was this flightless bird that seemed to only serve as food but I'm sure it had more uses than that. Toothless' food would come later on in the afternoon as the majority of the food was delivered so that he would get what was left. Considering the amount he usually got, it was a fair deal.
With the food delivered, Morianna scooped Stoick off of Toothless' back and brought him over to the table and began feeding him. Toothless was the one to take a real shine to the boy. He would play with him every chance he got, be it by giving him rides or playing chase with outside. Toothless seemed as happy as the little boy was whenever the two played.
We sat and talked about everything that had happened in the village that day as we sat and ate.
It was almost sunset now and I was gearing up Toothless to take him to the beach like we did every night after dinner when we heard a knock at the door. I went over to the door and opened it to find Morianna again after she had left not 20 minutes ago. She had Stoick in her arms and was sobbing as I ushered her into the house.
"What's wrong?" I asked, just as concerned as Toothless looked.
"Two more…" she cried. "Two more children are missing…"
I sat there in silence, trying to comfort my sister. I was in shock, really. What seemed like a perfect village was starting to fall. Three children went missing within two days. One child would have been an accident but three was on purpose.
"And the worst part…" she managed to say between sobs. "Is that all of them were three years old. Hiccup I'm scared for Stoick. What if he's next?"
"You're staying here tonight. Both of you." I told them. "I'll get some more blankets out. You and Stoick can sleep in the bed; I can sleep on the floor." That was yet another amazing thing this now cursed village had. Their beds had cloth woven into a square (or as close as you could get) and stuffed with feathers. While every now and then a quill would poke through and stab you, it was far better than sleeping on wood.
"No Hiccup," she started. "This is your house and your bed; we can sleep on the floor."
"But you are my family," I told her. "And if you don't sleep on the bed, I won't let you stay at all."
"Thank you," she said as she wiped her face off. "Just for a few days. Until they find out what happened to the others."
"Stay as long as you want to."
We had walked up to my room as it was on the second floor. I went into the storage chest in my room and pulled out some more blankets. I switched the one I was using on the bed with a new one and used the other two for myself, one below and one above me.
Toothless had taken guard and would not take his eyes off the door. If anyone wanted to get Stoick, they would have to get by an extremely defensive dragon to get him.
With comfort of family, Morianna and Stoick quickly found peace and fell asleep awfully fast. I went over to the window I had in my room as to close it for extra protection and saw that the sun had already set. The sight of the sunless sky brought me to tears as I realized, for the first time in three years, I had missed the sunset and lost a part of Astrid with it. I was starting to take root to a new life here in Tristain and was losing my thoughts of Berk. If Morianna had heard me, she just ignored it as I cried myself to sleep.
I was awoken in the middle of the night by a panicking Toothless. He was obviously frightened by something and if it could scare a dragon, I know it could kill me.
"What is it boy?" I asked as he continued to look around the room. He could smell something dangerous approaching and I wasn't sure as to what it was. Part of me wanted to say someone's house was on fire but I felt like it was much deeper than that. I had grown up being taught that while dragons have no magic of their own, they could sense it. If we were up against something with magic on its side, we would need all the help we could get. I awoke Morianna up and informed her of the situation. She quickly grabbed Stoick as we huddled together. I could hear the wind pick up outside and Toothless was staring at the window now, as though he could sense it coming from there. Using my dragon's sixth sense to my advantage, I moved everyone to the corner opposite the window. A strong gust of wind hit the house and the window flew open.
And just like that, it was dead quiet. Although the sounds were noisy, we knew it was our fear heightening the noise and that to anyone else, it would seem quieter than sheep chewing grass. After several, incredibly long moments of staring at the window, a black ball of smoke entered the room. Again, our fear was keeping us dead quiet at this time as the black ball of smoke slowly took the form of an elderly woman.
"You all were supposed to be asleep," said the woman. "But that blasted dragon of yours woke you up. And for it, you get to watch me take your son." I tried to move but an invisible force was holding me back. It was my first encounter with magical arts and it wasn't pleasant. The same force was holding everyone back from attacking the woman as she walked over and took baby Stoick from Morianna's arms. Even magic couldn't hold back one tear as it slid down her face. The woman, with Stoick in her arms, returned to ball form and float out of the window.
As soon as she was far enough away, I broke free and immediately hopped onto Toothless.
"Go get some help!" I yelled as Toothless destroyed the wall with the window with one, small blast. I shot out into the night and Toothless saw the black ball heading for a cave. If it wasn't for his ability to see in the dark, we wouldn't have been able to follow her. I saw Firkevat and Matlevat in the village below and yelled for their help. They looked up and saw me and Toothless following the black smoke ball. They didn't need any explanation as they began running after us. We had reached the cave swiftly and Firkevat and Matlevat quickly followed. Not wasting anytime, Toothless and I went in after her. Luckily, the cave was large enough for a dragon and even had a few unlit torches on the wall. I had Toothless light one with a very small blast and ran in. I heard the sound of footsteps behind me and silently cursed how slow I was on foot, thanks to my left leg.
Firkevat and Matlevat quickly caught up to me and I explained everything as we went running through the cave. We entered the last part of the cave and stood in awe at what we saw. There was a large lake in the center and had a stone arch over half of it, narrowing to a point in the center above the lake. The size of the room could fit all of Berk's houses in it. On top of the stone arch was the witch that had taken Stoick and presumably the other three. Again, we were bound by the magic of the witch as she started to laugh.
"Ha!" she laughed. "You followed me here! And for what purpose? To save this child's life? Well now, seeing as you're all in a 'bind,' that seems a little hard to do!" She began to recite ancient curses as she wove her hands over the lake that was a good 50 foot drop from where the stone archway was. Slowly, the water began to turn and brighten. Within several minutes, there was a bright shining vortex of water directly below the witch. My second encounter with magic was beautiful as I looked at the vortex.
"Now boys," she said. "The cycle continues. And so, I must kill my own sons again." I looked with shock as I realized the witch was the village's own chief, Youruk. However, was a tad bit confused as to what she meant.
"Ah but this time it's much different." She started. "We have a guest and I guess I could explain to him what's going on. Hiccup, I have been the chief of this village for 400 years."
Surely I must have misheard her. She must have meant 40, not 400.
"Yes, I meant 400 Hiccup," she explained. "Every sixty years I go through this. The new generation gives me three babies. Your nephew Stoick is one of the new generation. And every time this happens, my boys find their way here. I expect Belviat to appear any moment now. So every 60 years, I take the three youngest and my own children to be gifted the age of everlasting youth. After the sacrifices, I am 20 again, and even more powerful than before. Why do you think I am able to contain your dragon so easily?"
She then brought her hands up and her two sons came up to her side.
"Then once the whole ordeal is done, I erase everyone's memory and put the old one back in place. Everyone then remembers me as being 20 years old and the chief! It's perfect! Not a single flaw! And in you go!" she yelled as she pushed her two sons into the vortex, killing them in the process.
Whatever it is with dragons, I'm still not sure. Maybe they do have magic or just the ability to mask other people from it. I was made aware of the dragons plan when I noticed Belviat enter from behind us along with Morianna. For some reason, Youruk could not see her only remaining son.
"Aha!" screamed Youruk. "Another unexpected surprise. But I guess since your husband isn't here, you'll have to do. Come!" and with the command, Morianna floated up next to Youruk. "Hmm…should I force you to watch your own child's death or would that cause some bad magic?"
"Neither" said Belviat as he pushed his sword through his own mother's heart. The vortex screamed out of control now as he pulled his blade out.
"No!" screamed Youruk as she fell to her knees. "That blasted dragon hid you from my eyes!" she was stumbling to the edge of the archway and looked into the lake. "If I am to die…I shall get one more curse." She jumped off the archway and seemed to float on her way down. She knew she was going to die from the wound so she wasn't going to drag anyone else with her. She looked over at Toothless and I and chanted a few things before I felt the bind break on us.
"You two, dragon and rider, shall never know what it's like to not have the other. You're hearts are entwined in such a way that only magic can create. You will share each other's pain. What one of you feels the other will feel. Cursed to live your days together. Should one fall in battle or by any other means, so will the other." And with that, she hit the vortex. As soon as he was gone, the lake returned to its natural state.
"So buddy, seems like we can't live without each other even if we tried right?" I asked Toothless. "Cursed to feel each other's pain? If one of us dies, so does the other? What have we gotten ourselves into Toothless?"
"I don't know but I'm scared." I heard someone say. It kind of just resonated in my head
"Who said that?" I asked.
"Oh Gods, you can hear what I say now." Said Toothless.
A/N Toothless-the-nightfury had reviewed my story with this idea but I actually planned this before the review but his review prompted me to put it earlier in the story because if my story is to be more of Toothless and Hiccup, they should find a way to communicate and it's impossible to understand the dragon language so I decided to put a spin on some of the things I've seen in other people's stories. That spin being an evil village chief 'cursing' Toothless and Hiccup.