Chapter 11:
Marko was right: when Hiccup saw Astrid the next morning, when she walked up to him, she didn't ask him any questions Marko or made any signs that she remembered anything about last night, so that meant that Marko's poison must of worked. "Hey, Hiccup," she said, walking to his side and smiling, "You ready to see who's going to win between Marko and your father today?"
Hiccup sighed: he had been dreaded the fight between his friend and his father ever since he had seen them still awake after the first fights. Seeing that Astrid was waiting for an answer, he quickly said, "Uh, yeah, yeah, looking forward to it..." With a smile, Astrid walked away to see to something else, which left Hiccup alone. He then felt a sudden pressure on his right shoulder, causing Hiccup to yelp and turn around, to the sight of an amused looking Marko, thankfully without his mask.
"Still scaring you am I?" he asked, which caused Hiccup to shake his head rather unbelievably. Marko chuckled, before leaning in, and muttering, "Hiccup, can you meet me at the highest cliff on Berk around Midday?" Hiccup was slightly confused, but he nodded and said, "Sure. Me and Tooth will be there." Marko let out one of him rare smiles, before saying, "Well, I guess it will have to be a short flight: I got a fight to deal with at mid afternoon." With a final nod goodbye, Marko turned and walked away, and Hiccup made his way to find Toothless.
After a fifteen minute walk, Hiccup finally managed to find Toothless; he was next to Ice at the Dragon's Fish Bowl at the centre of the village. "Hey, Tooth?" Hiccup called, and Toothless looked up at him, then he trotted up to Hiccup, and rubbed up against his rider, purring lowly. "You want to meet up with Marko up at Eagle's Peak?" At the name of 'Marko' Ice perked her ear flaps up and trotted next to Toothless, who was making a face that plainly said, 'Do you really need to ask me?' Hiccup chuckled, and then looked at Ice, and asked, "Do you want to come as well Ice?" To this, Ice nodded. Chuckled, Hiccup said, "Alright, we'll get going. Stay here, Tooth, I just need to get your tailfin and saddle." And with that, Hiccup limped towards the blacksmiths, leaving Toothless and Ice. Ice turned to Toothless, and asked, "Do you have any idea what my rider's trying to do this time?" Toothless chuckled, and replied, "I have about as much a clue as you do."
After another few minutes of silence, Hiccup returned with Toothless' fake tailfin and saddle. And after another couple of minutes of adjusting the harness, Hiccup and the two Dragons were up in the air high above Berk. After about a ten minute flight, Hiccup could see Marko as a small figure on the highest point in Berk: Eagle Peak. It's about a good two thousand feet above the sea, making it good for a bit of freefalling. After a careful landing, Hiccup climbed off Toothless and limped towards Marko, who seemed to be doing some final touches to a rather strange looking device: it LOOKED like a Dragon, but it was made out of leather and wood. It was also missing the Dragon's head and feet, and it had a strange U-shaped piece of wood hanging underneath it; it looked big enough to carry one person underneath it...
Marko turned around, and said, "Ah, good, Hiccup you made it. I see you brought Shadow Fly and Ice with you as well." Hiccup nodded, before he continued to look at the strange...thing that was behind Marko. Following Hiccup's gaze, Marko looked at the leather Dragon behind him, and laughed lightly, and then turned around to face Hiccup and the dragons again, and said, "This is one of my own designs: I call it a hang glider. I've been working on the idea for a couple of months before I crashed on Berk, but here, I've finally been able to create it." After explaining that, Marko turned round and ducked under one of the hang gliders wings and grabbed onto the U-shaped wood underneath the hang glider. He turned back to Hiccup, who had a look that said 'are you sure about this?'
Marko sighed, and said, "Don't worry, Hiccup. The reason I asked you to come up here was that if something went wrong, you and Toothless could catch me." He then turned to Ice, and added, "But since you brought Ice along with you, you can just watch and Ice could catch me." And with that, Marko slowly started to stand up, the weight of the hang glider evidently adding to his struggle.
He muttered to himself, "Need to work on the weight of this thing," before he started to run, ignoring the worried looks on all three of the people and dragons watching him, and after a couple more steps, he feet left the ground, and he started to fall below the sight of Hiccup, Toothless and Ice. Panicking, the three ran towards the edge of the cliff, Ice was even spreading out her wings, ready for flight, and then Marko came back into view: He was flying! Breathing a sigh of relief, Hiccup mounted Toothless again, locked his prosthetic leg in place, and He, Toothless, and Ice shot into the air, and soon levelled with Marko, who was whooping with joy, shouting, "YEAH! IT WORKED!"
After a couple more minutes of shouting, Marko fell silent and the four of them stared in amazement of the view they had of Berk from this height: they could see the whole village from up here. Marko took a deep breath, and sighed. Hiccup copied him: All was calm. That was until Hiccup looked at the sun: it had just past the midday point. Marko was going to miss his fight! "Hey, Marko!" shouted Hiccup over the roar of the wind, and Marko turned to face Hiccup, "You're going to be late for the fights!" Marko eyes widened, but Hiccup noticed immediately that Marko wasn't looking at him, but at something behind him. Curious, Hiccup turned his head around, and was met with a sight that made his heart skip a beat.
Behind him and Toothless, were two White Furies: one had forest green eyes that were similar to Hiccup's, and the other one had two foggy grey orbs that stared straight into Hiccup's eyes, and it scared him: it looked as though the dragon was looking right through him. He then noticed that the White Furies both had rider on them.
Hiccup turned around to tell Marko about this, but Marko wasn't in front of him: he was angled towards the ground and was racing towards it at a blinding speed, Ice racing behind him. Deciding that it was probably the best idea, Hiccup clicked Toothless' tailfin into the diving position and followed Marko and Ice. Hiccup turned back to see if the two strangers were following them, and they were, and they seemed to be calling out over the howling winds, "Marko...Marko, wait...Marko..." Hiccup turned back to face the chasers: did they want both of them dead or did they just want Marko dead?
"Hey, Marko! Do you know who they are?" Hiccup shouted over the wind, but Marko wasn't in front of him: he had dropped from his hand glider and was currently flying on Ice, and they had just now reach sea level, so Ice's and Toothless' wings just skimmed the water's surface. Marko turned around to face the pursuers, who were still following them. "WHAT IS IT! WHAT DO YOU WANT!" shouted Marko as loud as he was able to, but when he was facing them, his eyes widened, and he mouthed, "Impossible..."
He turned Ice sharply towards the island, and Hiccup and Toothless followed, as did their pursuers. After landing, Marko jumped off Ice's back and pulled out a short sword, about the length of his lower leg, and pointed it at the pursuers. "Who are you?" he asked fiercely, but the two riders and their dragons held their ground, and looked at each other. "Marko," one of them started, and it had the voice of a male, "don't you remember us? Fradokos?" 'Fradokos' said, pointing to himself, "Rachel?" he pointed at the person standing next to him, who just about reached his shoulder. Marko lowered his sword ever so slightly, but soon put his arm back to being straight, and said, "What kind of trickery is this? You take the image of my dead friends! You don't deserve to live." Marko started to advance on Fradokos and Rachel, who still weren't moving.
"Your father wouldn't want you to do this, would he, White Shadow?" asked Fradokos in Dragonese, and this caused Marko to stop in his tracks. He was taking rather deep breaths, and his arm with the dagger started to shake violently. Marko then spoke in a shaky tone, "Fradokos? Rachel? Is it really you?" To this, the two figures smiled and nodded. Marko then dropped the dagger and ran up to Fradokos and Rachel, and hugged them both, taking deeper, shaky breaths. "I-I-I-I can't believe you're here. Is there anyone else?" he asked, looking up with hope in his eyes. Fradokos and Rachel looked at each other, and while they were talking, Hiccup was staring at what they looked like.
The one that was called Fradokos was about an inch or two taller than Marko, but there was something in his eyes that showed Hiccup that he was a kind soul. And there was something familiar about his eyes: they were similar to Hiccup's, though a few shades darker. He was wearing a blood red bandana around his forehead, and he was wearing a white version of Hiccup's fur vest, but he wore no clothing underneath it, which showed his six pack stomach and muscular arms. Rachel, on the other hand, looked more like Marko, but with some differences: first of all, she was a female, secondly, Rachel didn't have sleeves, but she was wearing a pair of fingerless, black gloves. She was also wearing a white piece of fabric that covered her face, just like Marko's.
When the three reunited friends stopped talking, Hiccup and Toothless came forward, only to be stopped by the Fradokos and Rachel's White Furies, who both growled fiercely. "White Light! Cloud!" The dragons perked up at their names, "there my friends," said Marko in Dragonese, looking between the two Dragons. Even though they still had a hint of doubt in their eyes, Cloud and White Light stopped growling and returned to their riders. With a single nod, Marko said, "These two," pointing at Fradokos and Rachel, "were my friends when I lived on Molak. There names of Fradokos," Fradokos lifted left fist to his chest, and bowed, "and Rachel," Rachel gave a nod towards Toothless and Hiccup. "And these," said Marko, pointing at Hiccup and Toothless, "are the people that helped me when I crashed on Berk, Hiccup and Toothless." Both nodded in a greeting sort of way.
"Wait, did you say Frad-oko and Rachel are from Molak?" asked Hiccup, unsure of how to pronounce Fradokos. "OK, firstly, it's pronounced 'Fra-do-kos, and secondly, yes, but I don't want them to talk about it just yet" replied Marko, and Fradokos and Rachel looked at each other. "Well, what are we waiting for? I've got a fight to go to" said Marko, and started to walk towards the village, while Fradokos and Rachel were looking at Hiccup, shocked. "What does he mean by 'a fight to go to'?" asked Fradokos, and Hiccup sighed and made a 'follow me' gesture with a hand, and the four humans and their dragons made their way to the Arena.
"I'll catch up with you guys in a minute," said Marko, "you just get good seats; you won't want to miss it!" And with that, Marko ran towards the blacksmiths, where Hiccup knew Marko kept his swords and mask. "Where's he going?" asked Fradokos, pointing at Marko, who had just gone through the back door of the blacksmiths. "Oh, he's just getting his swords and his mask that his father left him," explained Hiccup. "Wait," said Rachel, stopping in her tracks, "The mask his father left him?" Hiccup nodded, "The mask Dalamanto left him?" Hiccup made a confused face, "That's his father's name" explained Rachel, and Hiccup's expression cleared. "Wait," continued Rachel, turning to Fradokos, "the last thing Marko has of his father, plus a fight that could break something, means..." Both Fradokos and Rachel's eyes widened, "Black Ash!" they both said in unison.