Chapter 10:
"Just 'iccup eh? Zat is odd, zough zat name sounds a little familiar. Never 'eard of Berk zough." The chief of Dyflin replied.
Well, that was an unexpected reply. A relief that he doesn't know Berk, but how would my name sound familiar?
"Um, how does it sound familiar?" Hiccup asked him, rather nervously.
Asan shrugged. "Don't know for certain. Might 'ave once known ze Viking trader who comes 'ere once a year, mention somet'in about a nearby tribe w'ose cief vould ramble on about 'ow 'is son would make 'im proud one day vhen 'e took out some nasty dragon."
Hiccup suddenly had a horrible lurch in his chest, as if a dragon was inside his stomach and had made a loud roar.
"But never mind about zat. I barely see Trader Jo'ann anyvay as I said. Let's 'ead down to ze cages."
They now seemed to reach the edge of the forest, revealing a rather flat grassy land in front of them. There seemed to be many less houses than on Berk, what's more was they were more oval shaped at their tips. Instead of triangular like Berks.
The village of Dyflin was certainly smaller than Berk, and it had a flat coastline which consisted of a brown, sandy beach. Where Hiccup could see waves crashing.
Around further he could see the beach getting more slopey and rocks were starting to show, till he turned and it seemed that many more rocks were there till it became a steep rocky cliff.
What Asan had said stuck in his mind, it was rather hard to think straight for Hiccup, but he gathered up his wits and tried to let it slip through his mind for the moment.
"Nice village. It looks quite unique." Hiccup complimented to Asan. Giving an approving nod too.
"T'anks." Asan nearly positively beamed at him.
Other Vikings from the village came over and were forming a crowd that began to follow them.
Then, Hiccup saw them in the distance.
Metal cages were lined up against each other, but they were not in an arena or sheltered from the elements in any way. This town seemed to be too remote and small for that sort of thing Hiccup guessed.
Now he tucked his right hand even further into his pocket to make sure his glowing blue birthmark could not be seen.
"Hey Toothless, it might be best if you retreat to a distance so the dragons can't see you." Hiccup whispered to him.
"Okay, but I'll be watching closely. Whistle if you need me." He replied, and immediately he took off.
The Vikings around Hiccup all screamed in terror at the dragon flying, many running away and yelling, "DRAGON, WATCH OUT!"
Suddenly Hiccup felt a strong fist grip his shirt from behind. "'ey boy I said don't 'arm anyone!" The Chief shouted at him.
Hiccup pointed up into the sky, "I'm not, and neither is he, he is flying away. I told him to stay mostly out of sight." Toothless was now practically out of sight. He just sat perched at the top of a high tree in the distance.
"Right." The Chief released him, and turned around to face everyone, "IT'S OKAY EVERYONE IT'S STAYING THERE-"
He stopped at the end of his sentence, then turned back around to face Hiccup with a confused expression, "'ang on, did ye' say zat ye' told 'im to stay avay? Can ye' understand and talk to dragons?"
Hiccup nodded. "Yes I can, but that's really not what I want to talk about. I'd like to try and train your dragons please."
Dumbfounded, but accepting, Asan nodded and began walking towards the cages once again. As Hiccup walked alongside him.
"All right, ve 'ave got only two dragons 'ere. Ve only get raids once every few mont's or so. Zey are a 'ideous Zippleback and a T'underdrum. Ve get many T'underdrums because ve are a small island surrounded by sea. Ye' can see em in ze vater at certain times of ze year."
Hiccup nodded. Fascinated by the information. He had heard of Thunderdrums in the dragon manual before, vaguely recalling the book saying something like it was an oceanic reclusive dragon that travels at dusk, either flying or swimming. He couldn't remember much more.
"Do ye' vant me to release zem bot' or just one?" Asan asked, as they began getting much closer and the Vikings behind the two were backing off, wary.
"I'll release them. But I'll try the Zippleback first, just make sure you all stay away from it." Hiccup responded, his eyes fixed on the blue, but green and yellow spotted dragon.
It seemed to be asleep.
"Okay boy, if ye' vant to kill ye'self go for it."
That was it from Asan, who stopped walking and turned around to join the others.
This is could be hard, but you have to do this Hiccup. You need to learn how to train a dragon without any help.
Remember, focus. Just make sure to try and be friendly, give a gentle approach and be kind.
Hiccup got another thought after those, as he were a mere twenty feet from the cages, he took off the basket and unbuckled his sheathed sword. Placing both on the ground.
He heard whispers and murmurs of "he's gonna die," and "he's mad," behind him from the Vikings.
The only things on him were his notebook, compass and wrapping paper in his pockets. He realised that he clearly didn't need the wrapping paper, so he took it out and threw it away. It would decompose very quickly, being a weak type of parchment.
As he approached, he took his left hand out of his pocket to prepare to unlock the cage. It wasn't actually a lock, just a lever a metre or so away from the cages.
With his increased hearing ability, he could hear the dragons, both the Zippleback's heads and the Thunderdrum breathing in and out. Remarkably he could also still hear some murmurs of the Vikings behind him, watching anxiously.
He could smell what conditions they were in. An unpleasant, slimy smell of rotting fish was strong as well.
Their bodies didn't look too good either. Rather thin and their skin looked pale up close. Hiccup gathered that they probably both had been here for quite a while and have been fed a minimal amount.
The Thunderdrum was a pale violet colour, while the ZIppleback was a weak, and pale blue, with its green and yellow spots.
As he got close, The Zippleback stirred awake, seemingly to hear the sounds of Hiccups footsteps. However the Thunderdrum did not.
Then the Zippleback leapt up from its previous position lying down to standing in the small cage, and both its heads roared in fury.
Seemingly in a frenzy of anger, one of the Zipplebacks heads pumped heaps of greenish, foul smelling gas from its mouth, which spread quickly over a fairly large area.
Knowing what was coming, Hiccup sprinted back, just in time, as the second head then ignited the gas.
It burnt a whole section around the cages, scorching and blackening the ground, and even reaching Hiccup's basket. Which was now on fire.
By the time he ran over to it, it was burnt to a crisp. His basket, which had his clothes in it, was gone.
"Well, that's the end of that." Hiccup drawled. Now forgetting about it and resuming his task.
The commotion brought the Thunderdrum awake too, and it stood up but didn't roar. It just watched Hiccup.
"Get away from me, you filth!" Yelled one of the heads of the Zippleback as Hiccup began to approach. "You didn't even bring me food!" Bellowed the other head.
"I'm sorry I attacked your village," said the first head, "but we had no choice we were under control on the queen!" Added the second.
"Shut up Gas Twin! The Viking hasn't done anything!" Ordered a third, lighter voice of the Thunderdrum. It eyes not leaving Hiccup.
"Look, it hasn't even got a weapon." Observed the Thunderdrum. It's bright yellow eyes watching intensely.
Hiccup tried his best to ignore the bickering, and talking. Till he finally managed to reach the lever for the opening of the Zippleback's cage.
He pulled the lever, and at once the cage door fell open.
The Zippleback ran out and sprinted up to him. Both its heads now coming down supported by its long necks and faced Hiccup, who didn't flinch.
Not wanting to say anything, Hiccup decided to put his plan to the test.
He turned his head very slowly away and closed his eyes. At the same time he brought his left arm over with his hand outstretched to ever so slowly raise it up.
"Great ice of Bewilderbeast…" Muttered the Thunderdrum in the background. Hiccup was listening intently now, and he could also not hear a single sound coming from the Vikings he knew were watching.
After several seconds, or what seemed hours of agonizing waiting time, Hiccup suddenly felt a thick and sturdy skin of one head of the Zippleback against the palm of his hand.
Then he felt the dragon's head leave his hand, and suddenly felt another. At first he thought it was the same head, but it was a slightly different texture of skin than the first so he figured it must be the second head.
Extremely pleased with himself, he smiled and opened his eyes, also beginning to gently turn around.
"We want peace." Hiccup spoke, softly.
The dragon nodded. And began to step back. Hiccup put his arm down, and walked over to the Thunderdrum's cage.
He opened it, and did the same thing with the exact same result with the purple Thunderdrum.
Smiling, Hiccup turned around and beckoned the Vikings over.
"Leave your weapons! Don't bring them!" Hiccup called out.
At first, no one moved. But ever so slowly, some Vikings decided to come over. The first, to Hiccups complete surprise, was Asan the chief.
"Zat vas unbelievable boy. Ye' 'ave a gift." He mumbled. Asan took off his sheathed sword and put it on the ground next to Hiccups sword which was no longer sheathed, because it was burnt.
"Stay here. One at a time." Hiccup called out to the other Vikings. Who nodded.
Hiccup walked with him back over to the dragons, and Hiccup could sense Asan shaking with fear with each step.
"It's okay." He comforted. "Just relax."
After a few minutes, there was success. Asan had successfully touched both dragons and their heads and had managed to possibly even make friends with the Zippleback. It seemed rather fond of his long beard.
As Hiccup was walking back with Asan to the other Vikings who now were looking eager, Asan asked a question.
"Does zis mean anyt'ing zough? I mean, vill z'e dragon raids stop now?" Asan asked, sounding hopeful. His eyes gleaming.
Hiccup sighed and shook his head regretfully. "Unfortunately no. I can explain why to you and everyone if you like, perhaps later. I'm pretty hungry now and might head off with my dragon for some food, after I've convinced the dragons here to stay."
Asan made a noise of disappointment.
Very suddenly he stopped walking, and his face brightened as if he got an idea. His lips curving up into a hopeful smile.
"Vait, vhy don't ye' stay 'ere vith us for food? Vhat ye've s'own us today vas inspiring. It vould be an 'onour to 'ave ye' as our guest." Asan offered.
Hiccup smiled. That sounded like a wonderful idea.
"Really? You sure? The last thing I'd want to do is intrude."
Asan waved a hand around in the air. "Nonsense! It vould be great. Ve can talk over food, in our Village 'all. But as a varning some of ze villagers might not take to ze dragons as easily as me."
Hiccup nodded, "Of course I understand. But I'd like to have Tooth- I mean my dragon with me when we eat in the hall so I know he is around and safe. Also if we could feed the dragons, including mine with fish, they love fish, to keep them to stay, that would be great."
Asan nodded. "I'm sure zat can be arranged. If ye' don't mind could ya feed ze outside dragons, ye' seem to be ze qualified one, I vould very be grateful. Except don't feed yours. " He added in the end.
"Sure." Hiccup replied.
Asan then buckled his sword to his belt and sheathed it. While Hiccup just picked up his sword, and wondered what to do with it seeing that he did not have a sheath anymore.
So he just held it in his left hand.
Hiccup walked with Asan to a food storage area, and did the work.
An hour later…
Hiccup decided to leave the sword in the forest for the time being.
He had found the Zippleback and Thunderdrum a temporary cave in the forest too, for them to reside in till tomorrow. He and Asan had agreed that they were going to begin training the villagers tomorrow with the dragons.
He had also fed them, the two dragons that is, and they seemed in good spirits. Especially after a large meal of fish.
Toothless was astounded when he met Hiccup earlier, having had watched from a distance what had happened. Though Hiccup thought that the Night couldn't be thinking about much now because he was currently absolutely devouring a large stack of fish. Salmon to be exact.
While Hiccup and Asan together watched the Night Fury.
They were currently in Dyflin's village hall, located in the centre of the town. It wasn't as large as Berks Great Hall, but it still was the biggest thing in town.
All the Vikings of the village can easily fit with room for more.
Hiccup, Asan and Toothless were at the higher, further end of the hall. Up on a sort of stage. While the rest of the villagers were close by, just in front of them sitting down in rows upon rows of tables and chairs. It was vastly packed, full of chatter and clattering cutlery.
The noise of it all was quite irritating to Hiccups ears, as he could pick up every single sound. He imagined it was the same way for Toothless.
Fortunately though, the strong scent of the food in front of them seemed to more than compensate for the noise.
Hiccup had to be careful to make sure his sleeve covered his birthmark. As it was glowing a bright blue permanently now because of Toothless being so near. His sleeve just managed to cover and dim the light.
"So," began Asan, as he and Hiccup started diving into the large amounts of food in front of them. Which involved cooked fish, lightly roasted chicken, yak, bread and fruit. "Vhat do ye' vant to talk about first?"
Between gulps of food, Hiccup managed to splutter out, "Firstly, where did you get all this food from? I never saw any animals." Wondered Hiccup.
"Our main trading partner." Asan answered, though frowning while he replied.
"Okay, and I'd like to personally apologise to that boy I met in the forest. My dragon and I scared him. I think his name is Polk…"
"Yes, I t'ink ye' very vell did. I'll take ye' to 'im after zis. Zat poor boy, lost a lot 'e 'as." Asan replied, chewing on a yak bone and spluttering everywhere.
Hiccup raised his eyebrows as he drank a mug of mead. "Really? What has he lost?"
Asan finished the yak bone and took a gulp of mead before answering. "Ye' see 'iccup, zat boy often vonders ze voods because 'e is lonely. 'is fat'er vas killed vhen 'e vas very young, 'e vas too young to remember. But 'e also misses 'is brot'er."
He then dug into a piece of chicken.
Interested, but saddened by such a loss at a young age, almost rather similar to him in fact, Hiccup asked, "What happened to his brother?"
Asan's eyes narrowly suspiciously as he ate, though he wasn't looking at Hiccup, he was just looking at the table. "Taken. By zem." Asan muttered, now looking angry and chewing fiercely on the chicken.
This doesn't sound good.
Toothless had stopped eating in the background, and Hiccup noticed he had turned around and looked straight at Asan and Hiccup. Clearly interested but worried about what he was going to say.
His ears plates were raised right up, as he was licking his lips. He approached the table and laid his head on the flat surface with his eyes fixed determinedly on Asan.
"Them? Who are them? Or what are they?" Hiccup asked eagerly, getting more and more anxious. He even stopped eating and rested a hand on Toothless's head. He then picked up a mug of water this time.
Asan ripped the chicken from his mouth strongly with his hands and teeth, as if he was a wild beast tearing an animal apart, and then swallowed his mouthful. "Myrkians." He said rather loudly and aggressively.
Hiccup suddenly began coughing on the water as he attempted to drink, and it splattered out of his mouth, he began gasping for breath as he regained his composure. Toothless turned to look at him, shocked and a look of concern on his face.
"I'm fine bud." Hiccup muttered. Wiping his face with his left sleeve.
Asan raised his eyebrows, and looked at the shocked faces of Hiccup and the Night Fury.
"Ye' aven't 'eard of Myrkians? Ye' got to be kidding me!" Asan spluttered, bits of unswallowed chicken flying out of his mouth.
"I've heard of Myrka, but I don't know anything about it." Hiccup replied, stunned. This did not sound good at all to him.
How bad are these Myrkians? What do they do?
Asan slammed his fists down onto the table, sending wooden cutlery and plates clattering all over the place. The gesture reminded Hiccup a little bit of his father. "'ow can ye' possibly not 'ave 'eard of zem?! Ye' must be from some free, far avay land!"
Hiccup shuddered a little, nervous. Toothless let out a low growl, getting a little defensive.
"Zis Berk must be far across ze sea. Ye' are lucky boy, ye' s'ould leave zis place and go back to vhere ye' came from. 'opefully ze Myrkians von't spread to Berk."
Hiccup and Toothless shook their heads.
"I'm afraid I can't go back yet. Please, we must know as much as we can about the Myrka tribe." Hiccup pleaded.
Asan sighed, "All right. I'll tell ye' everyt'ing tomorrow. For now, I'll give ya a tour of ze village if ye'd like. Vould ye' like to stay 'ere overnight?"
Hiccup smiled, "That would be great. Thank you."
Asan stood up, leaving all the food, wooden plates and cutlery behind. Hiccup and Toothless followed, walking slowly out.
All the villagers were eying the dragon cautiously, some even grasping swords in their belts.
As they were walking through the door, Hiccup glanced behind him over Toothless and saw the Vikings cleaning up.
"Shouldn't we stay and clean up?" Hiccup asked, turning back to Asan and keeping the door open.
Asan shook his head. "Ye' are our guests, ve'll serve ye.'"
Hiccup didn't like leaving the work to be done by other people, he preferred doing it himself, but out of respect for the decision of the chief he followed him out.
Asan gave them the tour, showed him where the chief's house was, and showed him the beach and a wharf that Hiccup didn't notice before, where their boats docked.
He also gave them a tour of their forge, at Hiccups request. It was rather small and crammed.
And of their armoury, which Hiccup noticed was very limited in diversity of weapons and of weapons stock.
At long last, as the afternoon turned into evening, Asan took them to a house.
"Zis is ze 'ouse zat boy called Polk lives in. 'e lives vith 'is mot'er, Drifa. Polk is a bit sensitive, I'd be careful vhat ye' say. Vhen ye' are ready to sleep, come up my 'ouse as I've got room for ye' bot.'"
"Thank you Asan, we'll come up soon." Hiccup shook his hand again and nodded appreciatively.
Asan turned around and headed back towards his house, mingling in with some other passing Vikings.
"Shall we try and have a chat with him?" Hiccup asked the Night Fury.
"If you like, yes. It would seem the right thing to do is apologise." Responded the Night, shaking his head and body and giving his neck a scratch with a paw.
Hiccup strolled up to the door, and knocked three times.
There was a scramble from inside, till the door flew open and there stood the woman Hiccup instantly recognised from earlier.
"Hi, uhh Drifa? I'm Hiccup, we met earlier?"
The woman's smile dropped as she recognised him and the dragon behind.
"What do you want?" She demanded, looking a little frustrated and nervous at the same time.
Hiccup cleared his throat and scratched the back of his neck with his left hand, "I was just wondering if I could possibly talk to your son Polk? I'd like to apologise to him for scaring him earlier."
She didn't answer straight away, instead a look of consideration was on her face.
"All right. I don't trust you yet, so I'll take you to him. He's down at the beach. And please…" She now shut the door behind her and then looked at Toothless nervously, "keep that away from my son and me."
"I understand. Toothless, you wanna just stay a little further away from them?" Hiccup asked, now turning to the Night.
"Okay." The dragon nodded. Toothless took a few steps back.
She began walking rather quickly, and Hiccup followed behind with Toothless on his heels.
After a few moments, they arrived at the beach and Hiccup began scanning the surroundings for the boy.
"There he is." Hiccup pointed to him, he was sitting down at the top of a sand dune, staring out towards the water.
Drifa began walking towards Polk at once, and once again Hiccup and Toothless followed.
As soon as they got near, the boy turned.
"Mum, have they gon-"
He cut himself off from finishing his sentence as he spotted Hiccup behind his mother, and the dragon.
"Polk, the young man wants to talk to you." Spoke Drifa softly.
The boy stood up, a look of terror on his face.
"Not with the dragon around!" Polk exclaimed.
"Oh for the great ice of Bewilderbeast…" Muttered Toothless under his breath, sounding upset, "fine, I'll fly to the forest and watch from there."
Without another word, he took off and vanished from view of the Vikings. Hiccup however could still see him crouching at the top of a tree, due to his great eyesight.
"Look, Polk…" Hiccup began turning around from facing the forest to facing Polk, in which his mother now stood behind him. "I'm sorry I startled you before, okay? I would never hurt you. At the time, I was scared too."
The boy raised his eyebrows, almost as in disbelief.
"You were too?" He asked.
Hiccup nodded, and walked over next to him and sat down on the dune. His mother Drifa, sat down too and so did Polk.
"Yeah. I had no idea what you would do if I let you off. For all I knew, you could have brought back an army of Vikings to come and hurt me."
Polk didn't say anything.
Many minutes passed and they all watched the evening sky get darker as the sun went down behind them.
Hiccup noticed that Polk & Drifa weren't looking at him at this exact moment, so he took the chance to have a quick look at his right arm's birthmark.
It wasn't glowing. Hiccup guessed that it was a far distance between this beach and the forest. He turned, and he could only just make out Toothless at the top of the trees. So he decided to say something rather risky, but he wanted to try and cheer the boy up.
"Hey Polk, can I show you a secret?"
He turned towards Hiccup and nodded eagerly, smiling. As Drifa turned too, to look.
"Now Polk, you have to promise you won't tell anyone about this, okay? This is between you, me and your mum. Okay?" Hiccup asked, smiling at Polk.
Polk nodded.
Hiccup withdrew his sleeve on his right wrist, and showed the mark to Polk and Drifa.
"It's hard to see in this light, is it a birthmark?" Drifa asked, clearly squinting at it.
"It looks awesome!" Polk admired. Looking at it closely. Then his face brightened up suddenly.
"You know," Polk started, sounding excited, "My brother Kormak has some sort of mark on his right arm too! He showed me last year, before he was taken to Myrka. It wasn't quite like that, but it definitely looked like a dragon!"
End of Chapter 10.
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