Chapter 8: Eye of the Storm
Haddock Animal Rescue and Shelter
"You sure I can take tomorrow off Ms. Haddock?" "I'll be okay Lacey, you've earned a day off. Besides, I'd rather spend all day working myself to the bone than have you miss your brother's wedding," Valka said to her employee. "Thanks for being so understanding," Lacey said as picked up her purse and began to leave the front door, before stopping. "Oh, and I've been meaning to ask, where has Henry been lately, I haven't seen him pop by in a while." Valka considered not saying anything, but instead went with, "He signed up to be an exchange student at his school. He's in Barcelona, enjoying the sights and Spanish culture."
"Huh, I didn't know his school had an exchange program." Valka flinched a little, she was hoping Lacey wouldn't ask any more questions. "Well, their trying it out. If it doesn't work then they'll forget they even tried setting it up." "Okay, but wouldn't it be a good idea to try it out before sending students to foreign countries?" "Oh look at that, it's seven o'clock already? Well, I wouldn't want you to spend the whole wedding sleep deprived," Valka said as she walked over to the door and opened it. "Now go back home and take a good rest dear, and the next time I go to a P.T.A meeting, I'll be sure to bring that up." Trying not to look weirded out by her boss's strange want for her to leave as soon as possible, Lacey said goodbye, and walked out of the building.
As soon as Lacey got in the car, Valka closed the door, and let out a sigh of relief. "That was close." She walked behind the front desk, in front of a door that said, "EMPLOYEES ONLY" and opened it. The Shelter was a long, rectangular building. It was only one floor with a few hospital like rooms for nursing the animals brought in. Nothing special, but people kept bringing in local wild animals that had gotten themselves injured, or caught in traps set up by hunters. The animals ranged from small rabbits to foxes to injured birds, it was just an average place. Although, there was one time when a baby tiger got out of its cage at the local zoo and it wondered into the forest just outside of town, and it had to be brought in after almost losing its leg to a bear trap.
The room she walked into was her own personal office, a desk near a window, a book shelf with books on different animals filling it, and a cabinet on the right wall of roughly the same size. Closing the door behind her, Valka let out another sigh, before coughing fiercely. In the few weeks since she had last seen her son, the strange illness that she had contracted had gotten better, allowing her to go back to work, but there was still a day or two were she bed ridden. She went over to her desk, and took a key out of the top right draw. The key was a small, metal object, shaped like a warrior's axe. Going over to the cabinet, she placed the key into the lock, and opened the doors. Despite the cabinet's sturdy appearance, it was actually hollow, and built into the wall, with a tunnel entrance/exit inside. Making sure that the doors closed behind her, Valka began to go down the tunnel, going deep underground.
After going about fifty feet below the surface, Valka emerged from the tunnel, and entered a large, beautiful underground cavern. Jutting from the ground and connecting to the ceiling were hexagon and polygon basaltic rock formations. Many different plant species filled the cavern, from the green lichen that clung to the rock, to ferns that established a foot hold in the steps of the tunnel and ground. At the northern most tip of the cave was a waterfall, which fed into a pool at the center of cavern, about a third of the cavern's size, with water flowing out that fed out into an underground stream that went out to sea. In the center of the cavern, close to the ceiling was a large orb of light that acted as a substitute sun giving life and light to the place. The lake was directly under it, the heat warming the waters to a sort of semi-hot spring. Now, Valka wasn't alone, no, in fact it was just the opposite. The cave was filled with dragons.
There were over a dozen dragons, enough to start a small squadron of dragon riders, each bearing a different colored gemstone on their neck. The cavern was were Valka kept all the dragons she had bonded with when she 'left home' underground because, well, if the average person saw a real life dragon up close and the had to choose between trying to talk to it or calling the government to look it up and subjecting it to highly painful tests, what do you think they would do? Apart from Cloudjumper, most of them lived here, only going topside for routine checkups. When that happens, the gems on the dragons' necks would transform them into normal animals that lived on Earth, apart from Cloudjumper, who had the willpower to change his form on his own.
Valka felt something rubbing against her, and turned to see a dragon nuzzling her. "And how are you doing today Gruff," she said as she rubbed the dragons head. Gruff was a Hobblegrunt that had gone blind after a very traumatic incident not long before they met. Despite his handicap, Gruff was still able to live a happy life, due to the frill on his head being sensitive to just about everything. "I'm fine ma'am. I was waiting for you to visit today." Valka smiled at Gruff's words, the dragon had always seen her as a sisterly figure for helping him adapt to his blindness when it was still new. "Well, I'm sorry I took so long, Lacey was getting a little nosey." They walked over to the lake, and sat down near the edge. "What did she ask about?" "She wanted to know where Hiccup's been lately." "Doesn't she know to not snoop around other people's business," came another, but female, voice.
Thump, a pale green Raincutter with red spots, who had lost part of her wing after being caught in a landslide, sat down next to them and took a sip of water from the lake. "In her defense Thump, she was only curious, and Hiccup has been gone for over a month," Valka said in her employee's defense. "Well even so, she should have just accepted an answer and left," Thump said with an irritated expression. "Now I don't think you should be so hard on her, she did help you after the whole "tail twister' incident." The 'tail twister' incident end with her breaking her leg and Lacey helping to fix it. "Right, sorry," Thump said, a little ashamed, usually she was a grateful dragon, and Valka had all the worm and grub gifts to prove it. "It's okay," Valka said as she rubbed the side of Thump's head, "And, to be fair, she was asking too many questions. I didn't think I could come up with that many excuses." A panting sound came over and Lump, a blue and red colored Snafflefang, who lost his leg in a fight with a Monstrous Nightmare, sat down, bumping Gruff out of the way. "Did you bring me a snack," Lump asked like a dog asked for a treat. "Of course Lump," Valka said. She reached into her pocket, and pulled out a small geode. She held it in her hand in front of Lump, who sniffed it with interest, "Oooh, quartzite," and he began to chew on the geode like it was a bone.
"Do you think your son is okay," Gruff asked nervously. Valka looked at the lake water, her eyes trying not to tear up. In truth, she knew how he was doing, her friends in the Archipelago had informed her of how he was doing. He had already gotten two out of the eleven Dragon Gems, got some dragons of his own, gained a crush on a Hofferson his age, (she couldn't stop smiling when she heard that part), and was enjoying himself. But, she was still concerned about him, he was her only child after all. She looked back at Gruff, wiping what were the beginnings of tears away, and said "Of course, he'll be alright," and rubbed neck. "So, you don't-" "Think that Hiccup will-" "Be upset if he-" "Finds out the truth-" "About his father," said another set of voices. Valka and the dragons looked in front of them and saw a purple and gold Seashocker in the lake, both of its heads staring at her curiously. "Zapper, Shocker, maybe you shouldn't talk about that," Gruff said, trying to whisper it. Thump and Lump nodded in agreement, "You know that 'he' is a sour subject," said Lump, with Thump following up with, "Besides, Hiccup has no hint about who 'he' is, so maybe he won't find out about 'him'. Right Valka?"
But Valka had already left the shore of the lake and went to check on her other dragons, so she didn't hear their conversation. "Way to go," Zapper said. "Me? You were the one who decided to bring her husband up!" "Alright, could we please stop this," Gruff asked politely, trying to stop his friends and fellow dragons from fighting. "Alright, we'll stop," the two heads said at once, Gruff giving a sigh of relief. Lump went back to chewing on his rock, and Thump went over to the affectionately dubbed 'mud spot' to for a snack, while Gruff stayed behind. "But, just curious-" "Why didn't she ever tell Hiccup about his father?" "You guys know that she wanted to stay with her family back home, but she didn't want to risk Hiccup's survival and even if she wanted to go back, there was no way she could at the time. Do you think he would believe that his father is a dragon-riding Viking?" The two heads looked at each other, and Zapper said, "Well, what if he did believe it?" "I don't know, she didn't say why, but she probably has a reason." Zapper and Shocker decided to go, and went back underwater, while Gruff curled up to take a nap. "Still, why didn't she tell him," was all he said before falling asleep. {1}
The Core
Before the Changewing could fire, a powerful sound filled the air, and the armored dragon was pushed against the snow. Toothless opened his eyes to see what had happened, and saw, very surprisingly, Stoick riding a Thunderdrum, circling them from above {2}. The Changewing stood up again, only for a Rumblehorn to ram into it. The dragon was flung into an ice mound, back against the frozen water, and fell on its side. Stoick landed next to the relieved Toothless, Skullcrusher walking up next to his rider and growling at the Changewing, the Thunderdrum, Thornado, doing the same. The Changewing got back on its feet, and faced his opponents. He snarled, and prepared to leap at them, only for Gobber and Grump to fall on it, leaving the dragon unable to move.
"Looks like we got here just in time," Thornado said loudly, with everyone having to cover their ears. "Would you please stop shouting," Grump mumbled, barely awake. "I'm not shouting, we Thunderdrums are hard of hearing remember. If I was shouting I would have just roared." "Okay we get it, you guys are very loud," Snotlout shouted, still covering his ears. Stoick dismounted Thornado, Gobber doing the same with Grump, and the two men looked at the teens. "What you were thinking, I explicitly said to not jump into that vortex," Stoick said harshly. The teens walked up to Stoick, and looked down at the ground as he scolded them for their disobedience.
"To be fair chief, I was pushed in," Fishlegs said, but a quick glance from Stoick told him he was still in trouble. Toothless walked over to Stoick, and said, "Look, Chief, I get that they disobeyed orders, but if it was someone you cared about, wouldn't you want to save them?" Stoick's expression faltered for a moment, before regaining his composure and said, "We'll discuss your punishments later right now we should be focused on finding Hiccup." Toothless was a bit taken back by how quickly Stoick's attitude had changed, what he said had probably hit Stoick in a sour spot, and odds are it was about his disappeared wife. "Grate' now then, how do we find ta' lad," Gobber asked.
"I say we sleep on it," Grump said, his eyes practically closed. "Tha's ya' answer ta' everthin' ya' overgrown sausage," Gobber said, not amused by Grump's laziness. "I say we keep walking until the answer comes to us," Tuffnut suggested. "That is the worst idea you've ever had, and that's saying something." "Hey!" "To be fair Tuff, you do come up with some dumb ideas," Fishlegs agreed with Ruffnut. "May I offer a suggestion please," said Trancemare, not looking amused at the obliviousness of the others. "Well, can't be any worse than one of Snotlout's ideas," Hookfang muttered. "I don't think that's a good idea, are we sure it's even a good one," Astrid said, un-surety clear in her voice. "Look Hofferson, just because you have a problem with one of my kind doesn't excuse your attitude towards all of us, you little brat." "What was that?!"
"Okay Astrid, you have a problem with Flightmares, you need to get too worked up about it, please," Fishlegs said trying to keep a fight from breaking out. Because of what happened to her Uncle Finn, Astrid had a bit of a grudge against Flightmares, and Trancemare was no exception. The colorful Flightmare didn't like this one bit, seeing as how the Hofferson girl had no problem distrusting her. In fact, when Ruffnut had first trained her, Astrid was amongst the first to vote getting rid of her. {3} "Anyway, I say we hear the idea so we can just please save Hiccup and get out of here," Windwalker said, not keeping it a secret that he was scared of the Core, and anything to do with Drago Bludvist.
"Thank you, I do love hearing the sensible dragon talk" Trancemare said, her angered expression disappearing, "I think we are all forgetting that we have at least one dragon with a sense of smell powerful enough to track Hiccup." Everyone 'oh'd in realization that Stormfly or Skullcrusher could have been tracking Hiccup this whole time. "Well then it's a good thing we brought this," Stoick said, as he reached into the bag attached to Thornado's saddle, and pulled out the Dragon Blade. He motioned over to Skullcrusher, who took in the sword's scent with a powerful sniff. "We're going the wrong way," the Rumblehorn said. "We should have been going in that direction," he said as he turned his head left, out to the blackened sea that filled the Core. "My guess is that Drago expected someone to go and try to find Hiccup, so he had some dragons go the wrong way, and had our friend over here eliminate whoever came down, isn't that right," he asked the Changewing harshly. "Well, it looks like Rumblehorns do have a brain under all that weight after all," the Changewing said, insulting Skullcrusher. Skullcrusher was about to stomp on the dragon's head, if it wasn't for Fishlegs. "Okay, so now we know where Hiccup is, my vote is that we go and get him as quickly as possible." Skullcrusher backed down, but not before giving the Changewing a look that said he wasn't finished with him yet.
"So, how about we GO, now," Snotlout said impatiently as he jumped on Hookfang. "Alright, we can go," Stoick said, getting back on Thornado. "I suggest everyone summons their strongest dragon, so if we get into any trouble we can end it quickly," Thornado said. "Oh, would you please, oh, that's actually a good idea," Snotlout said, once he realized Thornado was talking sense. "Actually, it might not be such a good idea, seeing as how Drago might take the chance to take our dragons," Fishlegs pointed out. "I say we take a vote," Tuffnut suggested, "All those in favor of Thornado's idea, raise your hand, claw, wing or paw." Everyone voted in favor of Thornado's suggestion. "So, without further ado-" Snotlout began before Sharpshot pointed something else out. "What do we do about the Changewing?" "Oh come on, you couldn't let me have one moment!?" "Snotlout, would you stop complaining," Astrid agitatedly said. "You guys go on a head an' leave tha' dragon ta' ol' Gobber," the blacksmith said with a hint of a mad gleam in his eye.
Astrid, Tuffnut, and Fishlegs called on Stormfly, Torch, and the Deadly Shadow, and mounted themselves, while Toothless climbed onto Skullcrusher and took off, with Sharpshot and Windwalker flying close behind.
Drago's Flagship, Skygee Sea
Hiccup couldn't believe what he just heard, Drago Bludvist, the tyrannical madman that was locked up inside the center of a world for the last three hundred years, was actually over a thousand years old, it was just too hard to believe. "WHAT?!""Shush, someone might hear you." "Sorry, but how is that possible?" The Bewilderbeast took a moment to figure out how to word this, before settling on the whole truth. "Man and Dragon weren't always friends. There was a time, long ago, when the two were the worst of enemies. For centuries, the two fought each other in a battle that would never end, with man killing dragons to prevent them from stealing and raiding from them, and dragons killed humans to protect themselves. It seemed that the two species would never co-exist." "But what about the Alphas, couldn't they do something to stop this?" "The Alpha position was not established back then, there were packs and leaders, but no one to control all dragons. Then, one day, a large pack attacked a small village, the village was burned down, with only one survivor; Drago. Having already believed dragons to be monsters, and seeing his home destroyed, Drago vowed to take control of all dragons, to make sure that no one would ever live through what he did.
He spent years travelling the world, looking for ways to gain absolute control over dragons, but he always found a dead end. One day, he ran into a bunch of dragons, and a fight broke out. During the battle, he discovered a way to command dragons, intimidating them through sheer power. With his method of controlling dragons in the palm of his hand, Drago traveled from place to place stopping dragon raids and saving people. But the power corrupted him, and he chose to abandon his goal of salvation, and chose to conquer the Archipelago, with a dragon army at his command." Hiccup listened on with intense focus, trying to see how Drago ended up like this. "There was one thing he couldn't avoid though, his mortality. As he was then, he couldn't conquer the world with only a small handful of dragons, and he could not avoid death. So, he based himself here, in the Core of the Archipelago, where time does not exist, and he could continue to live as he took command of the world. Over the centuries, he built his army by enslaving dragons, and forcing innocent people to serve him, and ending those who questioned him.
One day, his men found my egg, and brought it to him, and I already told you what happened. Then, came the fateful day, three hundred years ago, when he was sure that he could conquer the Archipelago, when he took his army to the surface. His army consisted of thousands of men and dragons, his traps and weapons were powerful, and my strength was nigh invulnerable. When he emerged, much to his shock, the war was over, and the two peoples were united." "Who stopped the war," Hiccup wanted to know. "The same person who sealed Drago away." "Hiccup the 1st, he ended the war too," Hiccup asked aloud. "Yes. During his time gathering his army, the position of Alpha dragons was established, with two wicked dragons in command. Their names, I don't know, but they choose to continue the war for their own amusement, until the Warrior of Berk stopped them, and proved that the two kinds could get along. Drago was enraged, someone else having power over dragons, in any shape or form, he could not accept. So he attacked the Warrior's home, and almost completely destroyed it. Many lives were lost, including the Chieftain, the warrior's father. After that, the Warrior spent twenty-years fighting against Drago, until he came upon the spell that sealed him and his armies here. But, for the last few years, the spell has slowly been decaying, which has been allowing his forces to leave this place, but not him or his whole army. If the seal decays enough, Drago could escape the Core, and the world would be at stake once again."
Hiccup was about to ask the Bewilderbeast if he knew anything that could help defeat Drago, but the sound of footsteps had forced him to end the conversation. "Someone's coming, I have to go." "But-." Hiccup turned around to see Norbert place a kay into the cell door, and open it. "Drago's ready to see you," he said, a look of evil glee on his face. Hiccup walked out of the cell, and Norbert placed a harsh grip on his shoulder (A/N: Just so we're clear, Hiccup is tied up, he can't move his arms).Hiccup winced a little, "Little harsh there." "Does it look like a care," Norbert said sarcastically. "Little tip, don't say anything to get on Drago's bad side. So don't speak at all."
Pretty soon, Hiccup was on the main deck of the ship, and he got to see another glance at Drago's army. There were almost a thousand ships in his fleet, with who knows how many dragons inside each one. Each one was loaded to the brim with traps for catching dragons, soldiers were probably doing work on each one. The insignias on the flags were like snowflakes, each one different from the last, but the one on this ship was the same one that was on the armor of his enslaved dragons, two axes forming an 'x'. Above, armored dragons flew around, some landing on the floating ice that hovered above. Though it was a little hard to see, the eyes of the dragons glowed shades of black, purple and dark blue, just like the sky. On the ship itself, traps were scattered across the deck, with men hulling carts of weapons. On the side, Eret and Dagur were looking smug, no doubt enjoying the sight of him trapped. And there, sitting on a throne as black as the sea in this retched place, was Drago Bludvist. After Hiccup was brought about ten feet in front of Drago, Norbert forcefully set Hiccup into a kneeling position. "Release him," Drago said, to which Norbert replied. After he let go of Hiccup, Norbert went off to the side with Eret and Dagur. "This is gonna be good," Dagur chuckled sinisterly.
Drago got off his throne and walked to Hiccup. He looked at the boy, not saying anything. "Nice place you've got, I see you were going for an 'eternal nightmare' kind of look. You succeeded," Hiccup said, trying to alleviate the bleak situation. Drago still didn't speak, instead he continued to observe Hiccup, a look of indifference stained on his face. He stopped right in front of Hiccup, and finally spoke in a low voice. "Well Final Rider, it seems we finally have the chance to get a proper introduction. "Really" Hiccup cut him off. "Do you not remember the day I arrived, you invaded my dreams, tried to have twiddle-dee and twiddle-dumb over there try to bring me here, ring a bell?" On the side, Dagur whispered to his fellow Trappers "Oh, he is so dead." Drago didn't find the joke funny, he just keep looking at him with indifference. He gave a dark chuckle, before saying, "So, this is the one destined to stop me. What shame your family must feel." Hiccup was taken back a bit, whether or not Drago actually knew about his life back on Earth, either way, he was trying to rattle him. Attempting to stay strong, Hiccup tried to keep his cool.
"Well, thanks for the concern about my home life, but that's not your concern. Let's change the subject to why there aren't any air-fresheners her, it smells like the inside of a goat," he quipped. Norbert chuckled a bit, before Drago gave him a look to shut him up. "No one thinks you're funny kid." "Oh admit it, you found it funny, and let's be honest, I probably just made your day." Drago continued to look unimpressed with Hiccup's sarcasm. "Well, you really don't like any being happy do you," he said, Drago starting to look irritated. "You can joke all you want, but in the end, I will be standing victorious, and in command of this world, for I am the God of Dragons, destined to rule man and dragon a like," Drago said, his voice filled with ego and pride. "Yeah, well your still trapped here, and with the incompetence of your hence men, I'd say you need another three hundred years, give or take a decade or two." "Really, because I seem to remember me bringing you down here in the first place," Dagur called from the side, only for Norbert to say, "I was the one who built the device that brought him here," Norbert said, sounding annoyed at Dagur, and proud in his inventions. Long story short, they started punching each other until Eret broke it up, and he rolled his eyes at the antics of is co-workers.
"Oh yes, you really are a threat," Hiccup said sarcastically. Drago chuckled once again, this time like he had actually found something funny. "Well then, it's time you see why I am the God of Dragons," he said, before walking back to his throne. He grabbed his weapon, which was leaning on the structure, and raised it. A few minutes later, a small group of his soldiers came over to him, with an unconscious Monstrous Nightmare tied up in a cart. The dragon began to wake and the men started to panic. "Drop the ropes," Drago said, sounding prideful and confident. The men back away, leaving the spotlight on a ferocious beast and a dragon as well. The Nightmare looked at Drago, and then, with a ferocious look, spit fire in his direction, as if to say he wouldn't go down. But just as the flames reached him, the stopped before making contact. Hiccup was shocked, until he noticed something that was more disconcerting. The cloak that Drago was wearing, the one he had always been seen with, was made of dragon scales. The scales on the cloak blocked the flames, allowing Drago to walk through them effortlessly. He started screaming like a mad animal, and waved his weapon in the air. The Nightmare, fear filling its eyes, back down, and bowed its head down. A triumphant, evil smile on his face, Drago put his foot down (literally) on the dragon's snout. A small puff of smoke escaped from the dragon's nostrils as it submitted to Drago. "You belong to me now."
Hiccup was, a little underwhelmed. "That's it?" "Yes that's it," Eret said, "pretty overwhelming isn't it?" A small part of Hiccup felt he only said that to stay on Drago's good side (if he even had one, and not just a photogenic one). Speaking of which, the madman looked back at him, as if to gloat about his ability. "Now you see why I am destined to rule all dragons." "Um, to be honest I'd be a lot more terrified if your voice didn't go up like five octaves and didn't sound like Animal. {4}" The men on the side gasped in shock. "Yup, the kid has a death wish," Eret whispered, actually sounding concerned for Hiccup. Drago scowled at Hiccup, he pointed his weapon back at the Nightmare while keeping his attention on him. Drago closed his eyes, only for them to blink open again, but now they looked downright demonic. His pupils become slits, so thin that it looked like light could never enter, the color changed to a venomous purple. A dark aura surrounded him, and the power he had visualized as black electricity surging around him. He turned his head to the Nightmare, the poor thing whimpering in pain, but that quickly turned into shrieks of pain. Drago's dark power moved from the staff to the Nightmare, the madman's gaze was cold careless. As more and more of the dark force surrounded it, the dragon started to disappear in to it. Once only the outline of the Monstrous Nightmare was only visible, it became quiet, and its eyes snapped to reveal a darkened purple glow, the same as the Changewing the others had encountered. The dragon's whole body became visible, but know it was wearing armor, the same one worn by the ones Drago had enslaved.
Hiccup was shocked, the words disappearing from his throat like a leaf in the wind. Drago smirked once again, triumphant in his actions. "How can you do this," Hiccup said, finally managing to speak, "That dragon is innocent." "Nothing is innocent, these beasts are all the same, selfish, evil creatures who only care about themselves." "Why are you doing this, what did dragons ever do to you," Hiccup asked, having already known most of the story, but he needed to be sure that it was the whole story, and that nothing was missing. Drago stared at Hiccup, and moved the part of his cloak draping over his left arm, to reveal an entire metal arm, attached to his body. Hiccup, once again, couldn't find the words. "These beast destroyed, everything I'd ever had. My family, my home, every inch of my village burned, and if the memories weren't enough, one of them decided to give me a permanent reminder. I spent years, living in fear, before I realized, if these beasts enjoy the taste of power, then use that against them," he explained, walking around the ship like a vulture, "They bowed at my feet, obeyed my every whim, commanding them to attack their own, it was glorious. And I realized, this was to be my destiny, to bring an end to their tyranny. I spent centuries, gathering my forces, waiting for the right moment to end that pointless battle, to become mankind's savior, the God amongst men, the only one to control the beast called dragons.
But then, He, appeared." Judging by the tone of his voice, Hiccup assumed Drago was talking about Hiccup the First, and having already heard from the Bewilderbeast this part of the story, it didn't end well. "He, had convinced people, to give up fighting those, those demons, and to make peace with them. They had gone mad, thinking that the beasts that had spent centuries fighting against could be through such frivolous means like 'friendship' and 'compassion.' I made my choice, that if men would believe dragons were good, then they do not deserve to exist. For twenty years, I spent fighting those wicked men and the devils the rode. I was winning, until he used the Dragon Gems and that sword to seal me in here for the last three hundred years. {5}" Drago sat on his throne, and faced Hiccup, who could only say, "So why did you bring me here?" The tyrant gave a simple huff, and said, "To see if you really are the threat destined to bring me down, first of all, and to give you a onetime offer." "I'm listening," Hiccup said, not really sure he would like where this was going.
"I know you are from another world, but just to be clear, I have no intention on conquering it, this world is the only one I have my eyes on. I'm going to give you a choice, in exchange for the Dragon Gems you have acquired, the Dragon Blade, and all the dragons you command, I will send you back there. I'll even take away all the memories you have of this place, so you may not worry of what happens once I am free." Hiccup knew there was a catch, there always is a catch with these kinds of deals. "But," "Called it." "If you don't accept this offer," Drago smiled darkly, "Well, my dragons haven't been feed in a long time, I'm sure even a toothpick like you will be able to make a decent meal. So, what will it be?"
Author's Note: Okay, gonna take a quick break here before we continue.
Just when we were back to the two updates a month routine, this tough nut to crack comes up. So many things to figure out, what to add, what not to add, it's a real pain to write. But, I'm not here to bore you with that. And, so I don't miss anyone's prior to this, I'll clarify the notes I added.
1) Think of this place as a miniature version of the Bewilderbeast Sanctuary, just underground. I didn't specifically say how many dragons lived there, because somehow the Rise of Berk app will find a way to add more, so, I only gave the three more recognizable dragons from the second film some lines, and introduced them, while giving different explanations about how they got their injuries and handicaps. And just to be clear, "Zapper" and "Shocker" are just what I am calling one of the Seashockers, I had to give them names, and those were the only two I could come up with. Also, it seems that Hiccup was the reason Valka left, it's a pretty simple guess as to why.
2) Stoick has Thornado as well, but rest a sure, an explanation is coming up (Audience Member: Oh that's nice) in the one-shots (Same Member: Aww)
3) The characters are capable of having multiple dragons, I need to give some kind of backstory or insight into the dragons' past, so odds are that little bits of information like that while be around again.
4) That's just my personal opinion. If a 7-foot tall guy with a metal arm, scars, a menacing cloak and a constant look of evil came at me screaming and holding a weapon in a dark alley at night (or a brightly lit one, in the middle of the day) I would probably be scared out of my mind. But his voice goes up so high, I can barely take it seriously some times.
5) This really needs the most explanation, considering it was given from two different points of view, so, here is the backstory with no biases from either party. Drago's backstory here is not that different from the one we got from the second film, but until the third one comes out, I have to work with what I've got. So, I added some depth to it so Drago doesn't seem kind of one-dimensional. Basically, he did lose his village to dragons, along with his arm and gain a fear of dragons. But, for the sake of a more interesting character, instead of vowing to dominate the world immediately, Drago instead decided to find a way to make sure no one ever has to go through what he did ever again. He still was afraid of them, but once he realized the whole 'intimidation' thing, the fear vanished, and he went around, saving villages. But, he wanted not just for the people of his time to never fear dragons again, but for all times, and you know, himself to never feel like that again. So, he went to the Core, and gathered his forces of man and dragon. But, over time, he let his seemingly "one of a kind dragon controlling powers" get to his head, and pretty soon he viewed himself as mankind's salvation, and that the gods chose him to be one amongst men to rule over dragons. He didn't have any problems abusing dragons, having thought that the 'evil' they were was deserving of it. But, when he came up to the surface and saw what the world had become, he was outraged, because 1) people had stopped fighting the creatures that had harmed them for centuries, 2) he still thinks that controlling dragons was his sort of 'divine right', and 3) Vikings were talking about befriending dragons, the same creatures he, and their ancestors were taught to kill. So, he choose to believe that they had become corrupted, and he only choose to conquer the Barbaric Archipelago because to him, there was no good in dragons, and that anyone who believes the opposite was a traitor to humanity. And then he lost the war, and was sealed inside the center of the planet.
But, if you don't have time to read all that, here's the short version. He's got a Messiah Complex. Like I said, this backstory is just so Drago's character isn't so one-dimensional. I still think he was just absolutely evil from the moment he was born though.
Okay, enough of this, back to the plot.
As was expected, Hiccup refused the offer. Dagur and Norbert put him back in his cell, and in one hour, he was to be feed to Drago's enslaved dragons. "Well, Hiccup, looks like this is the end for you," Dagur said, no doubt getting a thrill out of this whole situation. "I'm betting they go after his leg first," Norbert said, equally excited. "Me two, it'll be no fun if they take off his head first." "Do you two mind, I think Drago will need you to help prepare for the fun," Skrill Chiller said, probably just trying to get rid of the two whack-jobs. "Good point, come on kid, maybe if we get there first, we get to rile up the dragons." "Good idea," the Berserker said with sadistic pleasure, "But first," he grabbed his sword, and summoned his Skrill. "Make sure he doesn't get any ideas," Dagur commanded. The dragon growled softly, but said nothing. "Good. Now what are we just standing here for, we got dragons to make angry." The Berserker and Hysteric Vikings left the dungeon, leaving Hiccup alone with the two dragons.
"Snow Wraith." "Skrill." "Well it seems you two don't get along," Hiccup said, stating the obvious. "He is just being dramatic because I am named after a legendary figure who hunted down his kind," Skrill Chiller said, sounding a little snobbish at that last part. "It's not my fault you were named after that fraud," the Skrill muttered. Hiccup began to notice something, every dragon he'd seen, apart from the Snow Wraith also present, had glowing eyes in addition to the armor they were wearing. Despite that, the Skrill's eyes were relatively the same as they were on the surface. Curious as to why, Hiccup asked if there was something that caused that. "For a smart boy, sometimes you can be as clueless as those two twins you hang out with," the Skrill said rudely. "Once a dragon is enslaved, their eyes will glow that freaky, evil color, at least down here, on the surface it doesn't show though. But despite his lack of a heart or soul or a conscious or good side or morals or, anything good really, he is willing to not forcibly take over a dragon's mind if they willingly submit to them. I guess even he can be persuaded by begging," the Skrill explained. "Is that why Drago didn't enslave you when you begged," Hiccup asked Skrill Chiller, who all but shouted, "I told you to forget about that!"
"You told him your sob story about saving that wimpy brat Eret, oh, that's rich," the Skrill said as he burst out laughing. "One more word out of you, Icebane {6}, and they'll change your name to 'stain on the wall'." "I'm sorry, it just so amusing how you care about him, yet he doesn't give an arm or a leg about you," the Skrill said as he stopped laughing. "Believe me, you would have been better off on whatever ice pit you lived on. Why would you want to spend the rest of your life listening to a human bossing you around?" Hiccup was starting to see why these two didn't get along, beside the whole name thing. The two had very, very, different views when it came to human partners. Skrill Chiller clearly cares for Eret, and is willing to give up his freedom for the smug Trapper, but the Skrill, Icebane apparently, didn't really care for things such as that. "But if that's true, why are you working with Dagur," Hiccup pointed out. "Oh please, it's less 'working with each other' and more 'using each other,'" Icebane started. "The only reason I decided to go along with that lunatic Berserker is so I can fight other dragons, and prove I am the strongest. As for my 'rider'" Icebane said that last part with disgust, "He only joined Drago's forces to get rid of his father."
"You mean Oswald the Agreeable?" "Yeah him. Most of the Berserkers respect him for his peacefully tactics and not going, well," "Berserk." "Yes, that. Except Dagur, the kid has a desire for violence and war as big as a mountain and the patience of a Monstrous Nightmare. He isn't planning on staying with Drago's Army forever though. The kid thinks that as soon as the fleet escapes the Core, he can go off on his own, take over the Tribe, and maybe even attempt to replace Drago as head of the Army. Five flocks of sheep he gets thrown to the sharks. As for the Hysteric, he's only doing this because he's afraid to leave Drago's command, since the tribe has been loyal to him for as long as they've been stuck in this rat hole." "For a Viking Chief, the man has no backbone," Skrill Chiller muttered. "For once, I agree with the ice lizard over there," Icebane said, the Snow Wraith giving him an unamused look. "One last thing I need to know," Hiccup said, Icebane giving an eye roll. "Didn't anyone tell you curiosity killed the cat kid?" "Just let the boy ask his question spark brain," an annoyed Skrill Chiller said under his breath.
"Just, one final question, that's all I'm asking for," Hiccup said, clearly wanting to ask something. "Fine, I guess we've got time." "Thank you. Now, why is it that you and Toothless have this whole aggressive attitude towards each other," he asked. He remembered his first day on Berk, when Toothless said that Night Furies and Skrills were naturally aggressive to each other, but there seemed to be something else. "Your Night Fury is the first one seen in three centuries, and they have always been a powerful kind, as have mine. As I said, I wish to be the strongest, and as my natural rival, along with being the partner to the Final Rider, the only way I can do that is to defeat him in a true battle, a glorious fight between the two of us, that we'll be song in the depths of Valhalla until Ragnarok comes as the battle of the gods rages-"
At this point, Icebane just started rambling about fighting Toothless, so Skrill Chiller covered his ears to get some sleep, and Hiccup walked over to the cell window, the dragon to busy talking to notice him leaving. Hiccup stuck his head through the bars and he stared out into the ice covered wasteland that was the Core. Despite the squawking and growling of dragons above, the sounds of the cold sea water, and the shouting of men, Hiccup was still able to think clearly about one person: Toothless. He had told himself that the brave black cat was trying to find him, but there was still the chance he wasn't coming. After all, as far as he knew, Toothless hadn't forgiven him, and frankly, Hiccup didn't blame him. When he woke up this morning, he was absolutely furious at him, and to be totally honest, a part of him only wanted to apologize because everyone else was basically telling him to. But know, he was in a cell, on a ship, in the center of an entire planet, waiting to be feed to dragons, with no way of knowing if his best friend was even bothering to care.
The many ships that made up Drago's Fleet came in to view, and the Berkians soon saw how massive Drago's army was. They landed on a large iceberg, close enough to see men moving around the ships, but far enough away to avoid being spotted, with Stoick un-summoning Thornado to avoid the Thunderdrum accidently giving away their position. "Alright, they should be keeping Hiccup on the flagship right at the center of the fleet," Skullcrusher explained, sounding quite sure of himself. "Are you sure," Stoick questioned. "Stoick, you've known me for twenty years, have I ever been wrong about this kind of thing?" "So, how are going to infiltrate these aquatic vessels to liberate the person in question," Patience said, the twins' expressions screaming 'what did he just say'. "Would you like me to dumb it down?" "No, no, we got it. But if you want to do it for those who didn't, you're more than welcome to," Tuffnut clearly lied. "I think he's asking how we're going to break into the ships and free Hiccup," Fishlegs explained.
"What we need is a plan that doesn't end up with thousands of angry, snapping, brainwashed dragons attacking us, well, hopefully not" Sharpshot said. "Leave this one to me guys, I'll come up with a plan so amazing, Drago won't 'now what hit him," Snotlout boasted. "We're dead," Hookfang deadpanned. "Hey, who's in charge here?" Next thing Snotlout knew, he was blowing on his hands to cool them off. "What if I just use magic on us," Ruff suggested. "I say that's the worst idea you've ever had, I hereby disown you," Tuff says, being, well, Tuff. "No, that's a great idea. Ruff, if you cast an invisibility spell, we'll be able sneak around without getting noticed," Astrid rationalized. "Welcome back to the family sis." Arrogance rolled his eyes at the twins' antics. "I knew these two would be baggage they moment I first saw them." "Could we please hurry up, all those cages down there are bringing up some bad memories," Windwalker said, looking at the deck of the closest ship, the mere sight of cages no doubt reminding him of his time as captive of the Grimborn brothers.
"Windwalker's right, we need to get Hiccup out of there now," Toothless said, sounding dead serious about freeing his friend. "Well, glad to see you're feeling better," Sharpshot said, noticing the change in Toothless' behavior. "Look, I've come to terms that what happened here today is not my fault and that Hiccup was going to be captured, but now we have to cut the small talk and save Hiccup. So, if you don't mind Ruff, can you please just cast that spell of yours?" "Hey, kitty," Torch said, clearly not amused by Toothless' rudeness, "We all want to save Hiccup, so quit the attitude." "Excuse we you glorified flamethrower," Toothless snapped back at Torch," But I don't recall asking your opinion, so keep it to yourself." The two growled at each other, it was obvious that Toothless and Torch weren't going to get along any time soon. "Alright, break it up you two," Skullcrusher went between the two, sensing that if someone didn't, a fight would have broken out.
"Look," Fishlegs said, "You're both right. We all want to save Hiccup, and arguing like this is wasting time." "So, if anyone else has something to say before I can, you know, use magic to help us, be my guest," Ruffnut said, her tone suggesting she was tired of sitting around doing nothing as well. "Alright, now you can do it lass." As soon as Stoick gave her the all go, Ruff cast her spell, "Ute av syne, Ute av sinn," but nothing happened. She tried saying the words again, but nothing happened still. "I don't think magic works down here," Innocence stated. "You think," Hookfang said in the driest sarcastic voice ever. "Great, just great, what do we do now," Snotlout complained. "I say we just go in dragons blazing." "What part of 'we need a plan that doesn't end with thousands of angry, snapping, brainwashed dragons attacking us,' did you not understand," Sharpshot reminded the Thorston boy. "So what, we can take 'em," Arrogance boasted. "I'm with three heads over there," Hookfang said, starting to flame up. "Typical, the 'Snotmare' wants to rush in," an unamused Trancemare said, rolling her eyes.
"Snotmare," Snotlout and Hookfang shouted. "I kind of like that," Hookfang snorted at his rider's approval of the insulting nickname. "Look you glorified firefly-" "Can we please just stop so we can go back to our rescue plan," Patience said. "I agree, we can't waste any more time on these discussions," said Stoick, taking charge of the whole conversation. "Now, who has an idea, there are no wrong ones." As if on cue, the twins let forth a rapid fire burst of ideas. "Start attacking the ships will another group sneaks on board to rescue Hiccup?" "Get the dragons fighting so we can go unnoticed?" "Song and dance number?" "To obvious, to risky, and why would we start singing for no reason," Stoick shoot down all the twins' ideas. "I've got! We knock out some Trappers, put on their clothes and search," Tuffnut said in with Eureka moment. "Okay, that could work," Fishlegs started, "But how do we make sure that the Trappers we take from don't tell anyone we're here?" "Leave that to me, I have a way with make sure people stay quiet," Trancemare said, a hint of pleasure on her face.
Gobbed and Grump came flying down, Grump still half asleep. "So, wha' we miss," Gobber asked. "Well, after spending forever arguing, we may have found a way in," Torch summarized the events of the conversation. "Hey Gobber," Ruffnut began, "What did you do to that Changewing?" "well, lass ya' see," Gobber said, sounding as if he was trying to find the right words. "He whacked the Changewing with his mace hand, knock the evil thing right out cold," Grump cut off. "Gobber you didn't," Astrid said, sounding concerned that the blacksmith would do such a thing. "Don't get ya' skivvies in a twist people, he's alive, I only hit tha' thing hard enough to send it back to tha' Stables." "Great," came Toothless' voice, "Now, let's save Hiccup."
Long story short, the group successfully took some Trapper's attire from a small ship that was coming back with dragons, with Trancemare paralyzing them, as well as being locked below deck, to make sure they didn't escape. They made it to the flagship, their dragons as Krystals (apart from Sharpshot and Windwalker) to avoid suspicion. Once they arrived, Fishlegs handed everyone a small, axe shaped key. "Fancy, but I don't think these will help," Tuff commented, "I see these as more of a collecting thing, you know, get as many as you can, trade with other people, but help with this insanely awesome plan, no." "They're not ordinary keys, they're Infi-Key relics, designed to open any lock no matter the size." "Oh, well in that case I want two more, you know, to up the value." "These are the only ones I have, if you lose one, you're going to have to find someone else." "Alright, remember, this is just a rescue mission, don't do anything to give yourselves away. Do you all understand?" Everyone nodded their heads, the twins took a couple seconds though, but they all understood their Chiefs orders. "Alright then, we meet back here in one hour, and if we don't find Hiccup, we come up with a new plan." The group split up, and now came the hard part: sneaking someone out of prison without being noticed.
Toothless, Windwalker and Sharpshot went together to search for Hiccup, but they had to be careful. They were the only ones not wearing any Trapper gear, for obvious reasons, and being two dragons and a cat, they would be the easiest to be spotted. So the three had to sneak around, hide under carts and stick to the shadows to avoid being spotted. Of course, it was easier said than done, Windwalker was silently cowering and muttering worries about being put in a cage again. Understandable, but he was going to actually get them caught if he didn't stop, and Toothless agreed. "Would you stop that!? If you're this worried maybe you should just leave!" Sharpshot and Windwalker were shocked at Toothless' outburst. It took him a moment before Toothless realized what he said, and looked away.
The three were hiding behind a bunch of dragon catcher traps, all of which were currently empty, waiting for the coast to be clear to move. "I'm sorry," Toothless said sheepishly, "For that, and what I said before, I'm just really worried about Hiccup." "It's okay," Windwalker said sincerely, Sharpshot nodding in agreement, although he wasn't as okay with the apology as Windwalker. "I'm just so afraid that we won't find Hiccup and that we won't find him before," he stopped, not wanting to think of what comes after the 'before' part. Sharpshot peered around the trap, "Quick, no one's here," he said, urgency in his voice, and the threesome quickly ran and hid under a cart filled with weapons. "Hey, I want to know something," Sharpshot directed at Toothless, "You said you knew Hiccup was going to be captured, but how?" Not sure how to say it, Toothless said "Hiccup's mother's pet owl visited me in a psychic dream and told me Hiccup was going to get kidnapped today," as fast as he possibly could. Sharpshot just looked at him, not hearing what was just said, but Windwalker on the other hand, seemed to understand perfectly fine. "Well how did the owl know?"
"He told me that some 'friends' were watching, and told him it would happen," Toothless said, beginning to wonder who exactly these 'friends' were. "Did he say anything else?" Toothless tried to remember if there was something else of interest that Cloudjumper had said. It was hard, considering how straightforward Cloud was with everything, but one of the last things did come to mind. "He said something about how I'd need more than just 'the Power of Fire' to stop Drago." The sound of footsteps came upon them, and the conversation came to a halt. "I thought I heard something." "Your ears are probably playin' tricks on you, we're the only ones on this part of the ship." "If you only knew," Toothless thought mischievously. The two men moved on, not even bothering to notice the trespassers next to their own feet. "Wait, I'm confused," Windwalker said after it was safe to talk again, "What's the 'Power of Fire'?" Remembering the two dragons hadn't been there when it happened, Toothless told them about how the Dragon Blade had somehow given him power when he was fighting a Bullrougher that Drago had boosted up with dark magic. He had become stronger, more powerful, and gained a now–seemingly appropriate-fire theme. The two dragons simply said, "Whoa," in amazement.
"I know, but it disappeared after the fight, and I haven't used that kind of power since," Toothless said, finishing the story. "How did you even get that power in the first place?" "Well, let me think. Hiccup, he said that he'd help stop Drago, even if it seemed impossible, or something like that," Toothless tried to remember, but how it happened weren't something he could think of off the top of his head. "Come to think of it," he said, beginning to realize something else, "The first time I turned into a Night Fury, Hiccup was holding the same sword, and he said that even though he didn't have a clue what was going on, he chose to fight Dagur and Norbert, and that he wouldn't let the Book of Dragons fall into their hands." "So, what are you saying," Windwalker asked politely, not understanding what Toothless was getting at. "Don't you see, the sword, that's the reason why I keep getting these cool new powers. Fishlegs said the Dragon Blade can transform things into a stronger form, and these so called 'Powers' Cloudjumper talked about are those forms, and somehow Hiccup is the key to unlocking them!"
Remember when it was said that Windwalker's panicking would attract some attention, well guess whose little moment of discovery get them found.
"Nice-whoa-going-gah-fur ball," Snotlout tried to shout, Hookfang's flying making it hard to get the sentence out. "In my defense, I was told the cost was all clear." "Really, you want to go there?" "Will you guys stop," Windwalker said to the two on his back. After getting caught, the alarm was sounded, signaling the presence of intruders on the ship, forcing the Berkians to break cover. Surprisingly, and thankfully, Drago didn't make a big deal about it. Instead, he ordered about four dozen dragons to attack, with men on the flagship and two surrounding ships attacking as well. You think he would have made a bigger deal out of this, but everyone decided not to tempt fate and count this as a blessing.
Armed dragons in the sky and Trappers on the ships attacked from all around, but the riders refused to go down. Torch was spinning like a storm, fire covering his body, trying to intimidate any dragon that came close. A soldier down below aimed a net launcher at the Typhoomerang, intending to take him down. But before he could fire, Trancemare flew above him, mist flowing out of her mouth, and the soldier was frozen. Stormfly flew by and released a shot of fire hit the launcher, knocking the paralyzed warrior away and destroying the weapon. Two men went to their fallen comrade, and picked him up by his arms. As they turned around, Fishlegs and the Shadow appeared, having used the dragon's camouflage ability to sneak up behind them. Before the men could react, the three headed dragon swiped their tail low, knocking the three against the deck of the ship. "That felt kind off good. Is that wrong?" "Don't ask me I'm the logical one." The dragon took flight, disappearing mid take-off.
But not everyone was fighting on dragon back. Stoick and Gobber had ended up in hand-to-hand combat against some Trappers. One swung a mace at Gobber, who effortless stepped aside, and then hit the man with his own mace. Stoick, meanwhile, was doing just as well, even throwing two men who tried rushing at him effortlessly over his shoulders. He heard the sound of someone unsheathing a sword sneak up behind him, but Stoick was faster, and he took his axe, and blocked the sword as it was coming down. Eret smirked, "Quite the reflexes you've got. Where were they when I knocked you out back on Glacier Island," he taunted. Stoick swung his axe at the Trapper, who intern blocked it with his sword. "You're gonna regret," Stoick said with a grudge. "Oh, you're still mad about that, I would have guessed that the blow also knocked some memory out of that empty head of yours. But don't worry, you won't feel a thing."
Drago watched the battle from the sidelines, observing the movements of the Dragon Riders. He had expected people to try and rescue Hiccup, and had already made a precaution to prevent that from happening. It took a lot to get him to show concern or interest, but he was not a fool. Even if they managed to free Hiccup, Drago will have still been able to observe how they fight, and that would be an invaluable piece of information. "What is wrong with you people!? We out number them like a billion to one and they're partially winning!" Dagur's shouting caught his attention, and he saw the Berserker on another ship yelling at other soldiers, clearly he was not impressed with the Berkians' success. Nearby, the Hysteric chief was setting up a mounted crossbow, no doubt going to try and shoot down the dragons. "I mean, seriously-" "If you want to win, then stop complaining and get me the Dragon Root arrows I keep in my lab," Norbert shouted back. "Because I want to see some carnage!" "Do as he says," Eret shouted in his battle with Stoick. Dagur opened his mouth to say something, but Norbert cut him off. "Do you want to help here or just stand around and let them get away?" "Fine," the Berserk teen said begrudgedly.
"What the heck is going on out there?" Hiccup had heard the sound of a fight outside, but the bars on the cell window prevented him from taking a good look. "Your friends have come to save you, but they were caught," the Bewilderbeast said telepathically. "Do you see a black cat out there too?" "Who's he talking to," Icebane whispered to Skrill Chiller, no doubt thinking Hiccup was starting to go insane from being stuck in that cell. Skrill Chiller just gave a shrug. "I think so. Yes, I see one atop a Skyfang flying around as if it was looking for something." "Or someone." Windwalker was flying around looking for him. Everyone came to find him, and so did Toothless. Hiccup knew he had to get out now, so with a fierce look, he turned to face the bars, and ran right into them. The bars didn't move an inch, and the iron had hurt his shoulder. He tried again and again, yet they still refused to remove.
"I'm coming bud, just wait," Hiccup said to himself as he continued to run into the bars. As tough as the cold bars were, his resolve was tougher. Images of Toothless and himself played in his mind, from as early as their first meeting, to as recent as their arrival on Berk. From the good moments such as obtaining the first of the Dragon Gems, to the sad times such as his breakdown at Dragon Island, to the fight they had just yesterday. "You've always been there for me, and now, it's my turn to be there for you." Outside the cell, the two dragons watched. Even with the lack of information, they were able to figure out what the Final Rider was attempting to do. Skrill Chiller himself was moved by Hiccup's actions. Despite the distance between them, the boy continued to try and get to his company, his friend, his brother. Skrill Chiller flashed a small smile, the first true one he had had in decades.
Hiccup was about to try and ram the bars, but to his surprise, Icebane grabbed one of them in his teeth, and ripped it out, creating a whole large enough for Hiccup to get through. "I don't-" "Unlike Dagur, I don't enjoy people hurting themselves. Besides, I want your Night Fury in top form for our next encounter," the armed Skrill said. "You already know the way out, now go." Needing no further encouragement, Hiccup stepped out of the cell, and ran to the door. "One thing though," he said after opening said door, "If anyone asks, say I got out because you fell for a Jedi Mind Trick." He closed the door behind him and ran out of the prison. "What's a Jedi," a stumped Skrill Chiller asked. Now it was Icebane's turn to shrug.
Hiccup kept running, not even bothering to look back. He saw the stairs leading up towards the deck, and dashed straight up. But the first thing he saw made his freeze right at the top. Windwalker and Sharpshot were lying on their stomachs, no doubt shot down. That wasn't the worst part, no, far from it.
The worst part, was that Toothless was flung right past him, and Drago was now looking right at him.
Toothless grunted in pain as he attempted to get up. He gazed at his fallen comrades, arrows sticking out of their hides from where they were hit. Sharpshot tried to get up, but to no avail, he simply fell right down on his underside. "These, are the dragons of the Final Rider," said a voice with no hints of impressment, Toothless turned his head, and saw Drago looking at them. Toothless froze in his tracks, he was starting to see why Cloudjumper, or whoever he was talking about when he said he had 'friends in the Archipelago' were, decided to give him a message. "Such a shame, clearly your power will never grow under his weak, pathetic, useless existence."
Now that hit a nerve. Toothless' fear quickly gave way to something, anger. Drago insulted Hiccup right to his face, and he wouldn't stand for it. "If you submit to me, I could make you far stronger than he would ever make you." "I'd rather kiss Snotlout!" Drago didn't look surprised, rather he looked disappointed, but still expected to see Toothless refuse his offer. "I will never betray Hiccup, and mark my words, you will never win." "Oh, and what makes you so sure? My army vastly outnumbers your pathetic fleet of Dragon Riders and all the tribes of the Archipelago combines no. My power will make even the Alphas bow down to me, no dragon or treacherous human will ever stand above me" Drago proclaimed, "So tell me, why will the 'Final Rider' be able to defeat me?"
"He doesn't fight for himself, he fights for the sake of others." "Is that so?" "Yes, he's not fighting just for himself, he fighting for his friends. You claim to be the one to free man kind from dragons, but you're not."
In one of the few times Drago showed emotion, he was starting to get angered by Toothless' words. "You're only doing this for power, to dominate all those who fear you, and to eliminate those who stand against you. You're pathetic." Drago's face contorted with absolute rage, his knuckles clenched so hard that they turned white. "You just want to feel like someone important. You don't want to feel useless!" It was then that Drago smacked Toothless right across his face. The force of the blow throwing him of the floor of the deck, and right at the mast of the ship.
It took Hiccup a couple of seconds to realize what had just happened. "Toothless," he shouted as he ran towards him. The cat's eyes were closed, and he grunted, no doubt being in pain from Drago's blow and the force of the impact. "Come on bud speak to me," Hiccup whispered. Toothless opened his eyes slowly, and saw Hiccup's green eyes looking at him, full of concern and worry. 'Hiccup," he said, his voice low and hurt. "I was starting to think you weren't coming for a while there." "Oh please, fight or no fight, I'd literally swim an ocean to save you," Toothless said. He tried to chuckle, but the pain in his side prevented it.
"I'm sorry bud," Hiccup said, his eyes starting to tear up. "I didn't mean what I said back on Berk." "I'm sorry too." "No, I should be the one apologizing. I was selfish, I was so concerned about my mom that I forgot about someone else I care about." "And I forgot that. You've got a lot of things on your plate, and I shouldn't have been so rude." Hiccup felt a wing on his shoulder and claws on his other. He looked away from Toothless to see that, in spite of the effects of the Dragon Root, Sharpshot and Windwalker were able to get up and move all the way here. "Can't we just agree you're both sorry," Windwalker said sympathetically. "Yeah, because if I have to hear one more sob story today, I think I'll throw up," Sharpshot joked.
The touching moment was ruined when Drago took a step towards them. "Disgusting." "Hiccup looked at Drago with the ferocity of savage lion. "It confuses me to no end. Dragon are selfish beasts that are never grateful. Men have forgotten this apparently, and it is my destiny to remind them this, even if it means conquering them all." Drago said nothing more before turning away, and grabbed his bullhook off of his throne. He waved it in the air, and shouted at the top of his lungs. Hiccup knew what this meant, that Drago was calling on one of his dragons, but he wasn't sure which one it was, at first. "Forgive me Final Rider." The realization hit Hiccup faster than a boat load of rocks, Drago was calling his enslaved Bewilderbeast to finish them off.
Up in the air, Astrid and Stormfly fired spines at a bunch of archers, who ran away like children when the spines just missed hitting their legs. "How we doing?" "Hiccup's out, but he's right in front of Drago," Fishlegs shouted. "Things can't get any worse," shouted Snotlout, flying away from a fire on a ship. Naturally, things got worse.
From below the waves, the Bewilderbeast emerged. It shook the surrounding ships, almost knocking one over. Thousands of gallons of sea water ran down the dragon's scales, back into the dark ocean from whence it came. The massive dragon looked down at its master, as Drago stopped swinging his weapon, and held it in one hand. It raised its head, and roared loudly. Many dragons resting on the floating ice looked at the tortured Bewilderbeast intensely. They had spent so much time under Drago's iron fist that it was the closest thing to an Alpha that they had. The dragon turned its attention to its master, with Hiccup, Toothless and the dragons looking on in awe.
"Odin just loves proving me wrong, doesn't he?" "You make it too easy."
"This is true power. The strength of will over the weak. In the face of it, those who side with the dragons, are, nothing." Drago turned back to Hiccup and the others. "Men will bow down to me, and those who don't understand my power will-"
"No, you don't understand!" Drago stood in shock as Hiccup got up on his feet, and stared at him with the courage and resolve, only matched by one other man Drago had ever met. "Dragons are not what you say they are. They are kind, amazing creatures, that once you earn their loyalty, they will do anything for you, no matter how many times you mess up," Hiccup said, looking at Toothless when he said that last part. Toothless gave a smile, agreeing with Hiccup all the way, Sharpshot and Windwalker doing the same. "The bond between man and dragon is a powerful one, and it will always win out in the end, because it is something you will NEVER understand!"
A sound akin to the whistle of a Night Fury shriek rang out, and in the corner of his eye, Hiccup saw something come right to him, the Dragon Blade. Somehow, the sword had resonated with Hiccup's words and it flew off of Stoick's side. Letting instinct take over, Hiccup let the blade came right to him. He grabbed it, and pointed the weapon at Drago. For once in the short time he had known the madman, Drago was freaking out, as if a skeleton in his closet had come out. The stone on the hilt of the sword glowed, but this one was different. It was not the blue light that shined when Toothless transforms into a Night Fury, nor was it the fiery red that appeared when he gained the so called 'Power of Fire." This time, it was a pale, almost misty, shade of green. Everyone fighting, the Riders, Stoick, Gobber, Eret, even Norbert and Dagur, who were busy trying to shoot down the Riders, stopped what they were doing, and turned their attention to Hiccup and Drago.
Toothless felt a surge of power flow through him. He placed one leg upright, and with his new found strength, got to his feet. He began to begin his change into a dragon, his body glowing the same as the Dragon Blade. His outline quickly morphed into a Night Fury, not a single scale visible. Windwalker and Sharpshot moved away as far as they could, but the transformation was not over. Toothless opened his eyes, the forest green that they normally were became clouded, the same as the aura around him. His wings continued to grow, becoming almost as large and magnificent as a Timberjack's, with three sharp claws coming out of where they bent. The spines and his back split into two rows, and the shape changed to that of a diamond, the fins on his tail becoming the same shape. From the sides of his heads, next to the two ear like flaps, two perfectly straight horns jutted out. Another sharp horn grew out of his head, above his snout, and pointed at Drago, mimicking the Dragon Blade. The glow vanished, and this new form had unveiled itself. Toothless' once jet black scales had become pure white, with spines and tail fins become an almost transparent green. Toothless howled, the sound stronger than that of the Bewilderbeast's. "Wow," Sharp and Windwalker said in complete and totally amazement.
Drago had gone from freaking out to almost absolutely insane. "Finish them!" The Bewilderbeast, the pupils in its bloodshot eyes slit, and released thousands of gallons of frigid water right at them. Toothless however, was faster. He opened his mouth, and a spinning blast of green air came out. The two blasts connected, both stopping each other mid-air. But Toothless' was stronger, and pushed the water to the sides, turning to ice as it fell down back into the sea. The Bewilderbeast soon ran out of water, but Toothless was still going. The blast connected, knocking the large dragon down on its back. "Now how about he take this to the sky and see how I do up there," Toothless confidently said. Hiccup got on his back with no objection. Once he was on, Toothless took off faster than a person could blink.
Drago was absolutely furious, "Don't Just Stand There! Release as Many Dragons as You Have Too! I Want Them Brought Down!" Soldiers obeyed, not wanting to make the warlord angrier than he already was. Over twenty dragons were released from their prisons, and twelve got off their perches on the ice chunks, and the dragons released to fight the Riders turned their attention away from them, and focused on Hiccup and Toothless. They fired all kinds of blasts at the two, alongside the Bewilderbeast' icy blasts from the water, but no hit. In the air, this new power Toothless acquired had given him incredible speed, he was faster than he had ever been before. The armored dragons continued to attack, but no dice. Hiccup looked at them and smirked, only to realize a Monstrous Nightmare had gotten in front of Toothless. It was about to fire, only for a squawk and fire blast sound to come and hit the Nightmare first. Astrid and Stormfly flew next to the two, and Hiccup said. "What took you so long?" "Funny. So what's your plan?" "You get Sharpshot and Windwalker, and tell everyone to start finding a way out of this place. Toothless and I'll distract these guys." "You do realize that sounds like-" "Something stupid. No, 'something stupid' was calling out Drago. This is something crazy." "Now that's more like it," Toothless said, sounding like the twins in an explosive storage. The Night Fury sped up, leaving Astrid and Stormfly in the dust behind them.
"Come on girl, let's get the others." Stormfly circled back, well Astrid said, "Pack it up guys, we need to get out of here," as loud as she could. The other Riders and their dragons flew to her and waited for her to say something. "Tuff, you get Hiccup's dragons out of there. Snotlout, you and Fishlegs get Gobber. Ruff and I will see if we can create some kind of way out of here." "But my magic doesn't work here. If it did we would have gotten Hiccup out of here sooner!" "Well then try harder! Now come on, let's move!" The group decided not to make Astrid angry, that was never a good thing to do, and split up. "Hey chief, hate to break it up, but we're leaving," Tuff shouted as Torch flew towards the red headed Viking. Stoick heard Tuff's call, and gave Eret a punch in the face, and the Trapper fell over. Torch got close enough and grabbed the chief in his claws, while the Shadow and Trancemare did the same with the others.
Trappers were scattering around the deck of the ship, trying to find more dragons to release. One of them bumped into Norbert, and the Hysteric chief dropped the Dragon Root arrows he was carrying. "Would you get up," Dagur said, not in the mood for failure. "He grabbed one of the arrows, unaware of the object strung around it. It was a round amulet, a small trinket, with a round stone on the center. He loaded it into the crossbow, pointed it as Stormfly, and pulled the trigger. The arrow flew through the air, but Astrid had seen what Dagur was trying to do, and told Stormfly to move out of the way. The arrow instead hit a piece of ice, and the trinket coiled around it exploded. From the burst, a vortex appeared, similar to the one that started this mess. "Dagur, you loaded one of the pulsars into the crossbow!?" "How was I supposed to know that thing was one of your lame inventions?!"
As electricity crackled in the vortex, Hiccup flew Toothless closer. "Alright gang, looks like we found our way home." The Riders flew close, with the dragons flying closed behind. "You guys go, we'll handle these guys." "Are you crazy!?" "Yes, but that's who he is," Toothless complemented. "I say we listen to ta' lad. Besides, a' wan' ta' get out a' here," Gobber said, supporting Hiccup's crazy idea. "Don't worry, we'll be fine." Despite the reluctance, the Riders flew through, leaving Hiccup and Toothless to face down the horde of dragons. "You might want to hold on tight here," Toothless warned. Hiccup got a good grip on Toothless, and the dragon flew away from the horde. They followed after the two, but were unable to get close. When they were far away, Toothless pulled his wings in close, and he started spinning. A green wind started to spiral around him, turning him into a short of 'air-torpedo'. Toothless turned back towards the horde, and rammed right into the center. The strange wind covering him dispersed, and blew the dragons back. The armor covering them shined silver, and burst off of them, their eyes turning back to normal. Those that could flew into the vortex, leaving the Core and Drago's power. "Well bud, I think we've overstayed our welcome." "No Kidding." Toothless flew straight in the vortex, the surge of dark magic closing behind him.
Healer's Hut, Berk
The Riders took Sharp and Windwalker to Gothi, who was able to remove the arrows. Luckily nothing important was hit, but they wouldn't fly for at least a week. The teens were outside while the injured dragons slept. "And then he said the armor disappeared and they left," Astrid told the others about what Hiccup saw before he and Toothless left the Core. "How is that possible? Everyone knows when a dragon is exhausted, they turned into their Krystals, even the armor they wear goes with them, it doesn't just vanish," Fishlegs wondered.
"I believe we can answer that," came Patience's voice. The Shadow's Krystal separated itself from Fish's lobster claw necklace, and hovered in front of the five teens. "It is the power of the Dragon Blade that causes this strange phenomenon to occur." "Not following. Okay, so the sword, can somehow break magic and get rid of armor? Yeah, Ruff's gonna need this be dumbed down so she can understand it." "What we mean is that it is the power of the sword that allows Toothless to break the armor," Innocence added on. "The sword is able to cut through anything," this time Arrogance spoke, "Including the dark power Drago uses to corrupt his dragons." "That makes sense," Astrid said, remembering a similar thing happened with the Bullrougher that Toothless defeated when a similar event occurred. "It happened before, but it didn't seem like anything important." "Well, this is good news if you ask me," Snotlout said, barely having paid attention to the conversation. "Now, all we have to do is have Toothless keep doing stuff like this, and BOOM, no more dragon army." "It's not that easy Snotface." "Snotlout." "Really, you might want to get that mucus coming out of your nose cleaned up," Arrogance taunted, and Snotlout gave the rock an angry look. "Those powers will only appear when Hiccup does something extraordinary." "Case in point, today, Hiccup stood up to Drago Bludvist, the man every dragon and Viking fear, while apologizing to someone he hurt," Patience paused, "He still has the abilities, but the cannot came at will. Not yet at least."
"Hey, where's Hiccup," Ruff asked, realizing he and Toothless weren't with them.
Berk Forge
Hiccup wrapped the piece of cloth around Toothless' left paw. It was a minor injury, so he didn't have to go to Gothi's like the other two, and Hiccup just wanted to spend time with his cat. "What changed your mind?" "What changed my mind about what?" "About apologizing, what caused you to change your mind," Toothless asked again. "Hiccup sat down, and positioned himself so he would be perfectly aligned with Toothless. "Sharpshot told me a story. Long story short, I realized I should have given you the chance to explain your reasons. But what really sealed the deal was when I saw Drago take a dragon under his command," Toothless looked at him in shock, "Yeah, turns out its much worse in person." Hiccup shuddered at the memory of the Nightmare that Drago forcibly enrolled into his army.
"For a moment, I thought I was just as bad as him." "Okay," Toothless said, "Never say that again." "I'm serious. How many things have I forced you to do that you didn't want to do? I never considered your opinions." Toothless slid his head under Hiccup's arm, and placed it on the boys lap. "Well, to be fair you didn't know how awesome I really was when you did," he said, reminding Hiccup that Toothless had only talked to him for a few weeks, "And I should have been a bit more obvious." "Why do you want to stay bud?"
Toothless took a breath, it was never easy telling someone about a hard time or memory. But, he stayed strong, and told Hiccup the truth about his past, or, lack of a past. "Why didn't you ever say anything?" "Because you have so much going on that I didn't want to add something on top of it," Toothless looked down, now that Hiccup knew the truth, he didn't know what to do. "Well, then we've got to stay, you deserve a chance to find your family," Hiccup said, getting off the bench. "No," "Toothless said, "You're right about one thing, your mom," Toothless stopped himself mid-sentence. "Seems like we're always going back to the topic of your mom, doesn't it?" "Yeah," Hiccup bent down so he could look Toothless in the eyes, and said, "How about we just worry about staying or leaving after we stop Drago." Toothless nodded, that was a plan he could fully support.
"And we really should stop keeping secrets like this from each other, bud." "I vote yes to honesty." The two gave a laugh, now that all this chaos was over, they could finally just relax." "Speaking of honesty, I want your opinion. While I was on that ship, I heard Dagur say something about one of Norbert's inventions. It was a crossbow that turned into a sword." "Well that sounds just plain stupid," Toothless said as he laughed at the thought. "Yeah, but what about a shield that turned into a crossbow?" "That sounds like a crazy Hiccup idea. I wouldn't have it any other way." Hiccup smiled, glad to have the support of his best friend. "Great, you stay here, I'll go see if Gobber could help out." Hiccup left the Forge, leaving Toothless alone.
Although he agreed with the honesty policy, he wasn't being truthful entirely. There was still the secret about his mother, that see was a Dragon Rider from the Archipelago, and that she and Cloudjumper knew all along that Hiccup was the Final Rider. But the biggest thing on his mind was what Cloud said in that weird dream, vision, thing, about keeping Hiccup from getting close to the chief. He had always wondered who Hiccup's father was, it was one of the few things Valka and Cloud had never told him. He had always thought that Hiccup's father was just a simple man from Earth. But now, he was starting to wonder. "Is it possible that, Stoick is Hiccup's father?" He was too busy wrapped in thought to notice the red light watching him from the window fly away.
The light traveled miles over the open sea, flying fast as sound itself. But this light was not just an ordinary light, it was the light of a fairy, one of the eight that helped in the war against Drago three hundred years ago. It soon arrived at its destination, Dragon Island. The fairy flew into the cave the Hiccup had been lured into when the Berk Dragon Riders had visited the island. The cavern was still the same as before, pictures on the walls telling the story of how the gem on the hilt of the Dragon Blade came to the island, yet there was something different. The Shattered Sight Mirror relic, at the back of the cave, it was fixed. It now resembled a simple mirror, no crack or figure print on the glass. The fairy flew right at the mirror, and disappeared into it.
When it came out, it was in a strange room. The walls glowed with different colors, book shelves and tables levitated in the air, doors floating around, the room was simply magic. "How did it go," came the voice of another fairy, one who's light glowed black and white, who appeared to be moving as if it was dancing. "Our message was delivered, and now the Final Rider and his Night Fury have unlocked the Power of Wind." "Great," said a blue glowing fairy with an attitude, "So, can we please relax, you guys have been freaking out about this happening for three days straight." "Hey," said a yellow light, looking up from the book it was reading, "You know as well as we do that fairy law state that-" "If we get involved with human problems, we must stay involved until the end of the conflict. I KNOW! You remind us every day," the blue light said, the glow changing from blue to burning red. "Can we please just stay positive," this time a purple glowing fairy got involved, a cheerfulness in its voice, "Now the Final Rider is one step closer to stopping Drago once and for all." "Indeed." A fairy colored as pink as a rose said, sipping a cup of tea. "Either way it makes our job easier," said the magenta fairy who was sowing a matching dress on a mannequin.
"The girls are right," came the voice of the final fairy, his color being a dark, murky green. "Point is everything is moving along swell." "What about the Dragon Hunters who attacked the isle of the Bog Burglars, they weren't in your predictions," said the magenta fairy. "Well, I can see the future, but not every possible outcome," the green fairy defended himself, muttering "diva" under his breath. "Speaking of predictions," the red fairy said facing the green one, "What about your other one, prediction, I mean?" The psychic fairy 'hummed', "No, prediction stands. The next time the Final Rider and his friends visit this island, we will meet with them. It is then he will find out the truth." The other fairies stopped what they were doing, and turned to their mysterious friend. "Are you sure," the yellow one asked, sounding worried. "Yes I am certain. 'When the descendant of destiny is captured by the warrior of lighting, the chosen one shall learn of his lineage, and the eight mystics will reveal to him their secret.' Was that not clear enough.
When we meet the Final Rider, we will tell him, that we fairies, were the ones who sent his mother, to the Dragonless Land."
Author's Note: And the plot thickens!
1ST, Opinion
Like I said before, this is one of the toughest chapters I have had to write yet. But it has also been one of my favorites. As long and hard as it was to write, I was able to get a lot of good parts in here.
2) Notes
6} Got that name from Rise of Berk. It's supposed to be a different dragon from the Skrill Dagur captured, but I had to name him something.
3rd, Announcements
Nothing much really, but two weeks left until the next set of Race to the Edge episodes. Let me just say, I was starting to go crazy waiting so long. Also, tomorrow is my birthday. So, that's really, all I've got today.
Hopefully updating will be back to normal with my summer break starting in a few days, pray that I'm able to do the one/twice a month updates regularly.
How to Train your Dragon is not mine.
Reviews are appreciated.
PurifierofChaos131000
This chapter was posted June 10, 2016
It is also 15,593 words long, the longest chapter in this story that had been written so far.