Later in the day, we all flew our dragons out to the academy to let them sleep, something I knew that I wasn't going to get tonight since now I need Shadow around to sleep.
Fishlegs was singing a lullabye for Meatlug but she was restless and rolled away from him, upsetting him. "That usually works. Our whole bedtime routine is upset! Thanks to-"
"Watch it, Fishlegs." Snotlout said, "At least my dragon doesn't need a lullabye and a blankie." Even though Snotlout said that Hookfang didn't need it, the Nightmare still seemed to like the sound of it. He broke out into a grin and dropped his jaw slightly.
It made me laugh because of how funny and cute that was. Shadow had noticed it as well and chortled against my lap where he rested his head. Speaking of lullabies, I stroked the top of his head lovingly and rested against him, starting to quietly sing to him.
"You are the sunshine of my life
That's why I'll always be around.
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart."I sang softly, his lids began to lower slightly.
"I feel like this is the beginning
Though I've left you for a million years
And if I thought our love was ending
I'd find myself drowning in my own tears." Shadow reached his head up, stuck his tongue out and licked my face, making me grin.
"You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That's why I'll always stay around
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart." He warbled softly and began to quietly snore when his head lowered again. Blissfully grinning and stretching against the ground.
"You must have known that I was lonely
Because you came to my rescue
And I know that this must be heaven
How could so much love be inside of you?" Now, surely, he must have been asleep. Sometimes he is before the song is even done but I don't mind, I usually keep singing since it keeps him calm.
"You are the sunshine of my life, yeah
That's why I'll always stay around
You are the apple of my eye
Forever you'll stay in my heart."
I finally finished and Shadow's snoring continued. As long as he knows that I'm next to him, he can sleep peacefully. Now, the difficult part will be getting away without him knowing. If I shift my weight from under him, he'll notice and wake up.
"Sweet dreams, buddy." I said, still stroking his head then jumped when Hookfang growled out loud. "Snotlout, calm him down, would you?" I asked quietly so I wouldn't wake Shadow up.
"What? I'm not the boss of him!" He said, "He always flares up when he's angry."
"Or goes on a rampage." Hiccup said then got on Toothless before flying off.
Now that Hiccup mentions it, there wasn't a single scorch mark anywhere in the great hall. Only claw marks. No food was touched, no burn marks, just claw marks across the pillars and tables.
The Zippleback prints that were no deeper than a normal Viking's footprint and then there's the great hall.
"Would you all hush? Shadow's sleeping." I said, glaring the twins and Snotlout down, seeing how those three were making the most noise.
"Why should we?" Tuffnut asked tauntingly and came over with Ruffnut towards Shadow. "Does he get destructive when he's woken up?"
"Well, does he?" Ruffnut urged.
"Both of you go away." I growled.
"That probably means he does!" Tuffnut shouted, catching everyone's attention. Shadow's eyes burst open and the irises were narrow slits. His gaze landed on the twins and a growl rose up in his throat, he leapt onto his feet and began to charge up his plasma.
I ran towards him and stroked his face once again, "It's okay, boy. It's fine." His narrowed eyes began to grow into their usual, soft and large puppy-like eyes.
"There you go. I know that Stoic said that the dragons are supposed to sleep in the academy but what he doesn't know won't hurt him." I whispered and got on his back.
"Where are you going?" Astrid asked.
"Just for a ride." I said. She folded her arms and rose an eyebrow. "And to get away from the twins for a while." She kept the same look on her face and I patted Shadow's head, "Let's go."
We flew off and I decided to help Hiccup out with convincing Stoic that the dragons are innocent but something caught my eye. Toothless.
He walked inside of the armory and just as Shadow landed, an explosion burst out from the inside of the armory, Toothless bolted out and sat on the nearby steps, watching the fire consume the armory.
"Whoa, whoa!" I coughed at the burst of smoke that flew out of it. Smoke doesn't immediately start up in fires, it smelt like... gunpowder or something. "Shadow, let's go get some water!" I said then we took off to get some buckets. Well, I got a couple of buckets, Shadow just held water in his wings that he clamped up against his body.
"It was him! He set the armory on fire!" A Viking shouted and pointed at Toothless. Hiccup saw how casually Toothless was sitting and dropped his buckets to his sides, "Toothless?"
"Look at all of our weapons. Gone." Stoic said.
Gobber lifted up a sword, "Prudence! My poor darling, I'm so sorry. You should've had a long and bloody life." He planted the sword into the ground sadly.
"She didn't have to die, Gobber." Mildew said, he seemed to have been here for a bit. "Hiccup's dragon left us utterly defenseless." I glared at the old man once again and looked towards Stoic and Hiccup.
"You guys, he lives on the other side of the village and yet he always seemed to show up just after something happens with the dragons. Okay, am I the only one that thinks that a little odd?" I said quietly, Stoic didn't seem to hear me and Hiccup nodded slightly, pretty much having a good idea on what I was getting at.
"Dad, you know Toothless wouldn't do this." Hiccup said.
"Sure, listen to your boy, Stoic. That's what got us into this mess!" Mildew cut in then leaned in towards Hiccup, "See what happens when you leave your dragon all alone to wait outside?" Hiccup's eyes widened, "What did you say?" He asked hesitantly then looked over at me, then mouthed 'Did you hear that?'
I nodded with a dark scowl on my face. "Every single word."
"The dragons have done too much damage, it's no longer safe to have them on Berk." Stoic finally said, "I want them gone."
"What?" Hiccup and I gasped in disbelief.
"Yes! Finally!" Mildew said ecstatically. I glared and shouted, pointing into the distance. "You live on the other side of the island, what are you even doing here?!"
Stoic turned me around, "Listen, you two are going to round up all of the dragons and take them to Dragon Island." Then he turned his attention towards the audience that stopped to watch what was happening, "Starting tomorrow there will be no more dragons on Berk."
The other teens had shown up and gasped.
"Ah, what a glorious day that will be." Mildew took a deep, relaxing breath and sighed. "Party at my house!"
"My Thor, get out of here!" I said sharply.
"Don't forget, you two. Right after the dragons are dropped off, you'll be fixing my roof." He said, I put an arm over Hiccup shoulder and began to walk off with him, "Don't really care, Mildew. Just be happy your getting your wish."
I only led Hiccup as far as to the other teens, then removed my arm. "This is horrible. It's the worst day of my life." Astrid said. I put a comforting hand on her shoulder. "We'll figure something out. We usually do."
"Besides, something here doesn't add up." Hiccup said, eyes shifting along the ground. "All I know is that I'm losing my dragon." Fishlegs said softly.
"For now, yes but I-I just need time to fix this." Hiccup said. "What are you talking about? It's over." Snotlout had given up hope. "Forget it, it's over." Ruffnut said. "Yeah, forget it." Tuffnut said.
They had all walked away and Hiccup looked back at me, "Nothing here adds up." He repeated and I laid my back against a wall, "No but who's going to believe a couple of teenagers? Especially after Mildew got the whole island riled up, again."
"The footprints, the great hall, the armory fire." Hiccup named off and I listed what was wrong with all of it, "The footprints were as deep as a normal Vikings, no matter how sneaky a 5,000-pound dragon is, it's still going to leave a deep footprint. Not to mention the great hall, not a single scorch mark, no food was touched. And we all know that Toothless would never do such a thing as setting the armory on fire."
"We'll discuss this more tomorrow. It's going to be a long day." He said. I sighed, "Why not?"
We all solemnly flew our dragons to Dragon Island and landed them on its shore. I got off of Shadow and hugged his neck, he warbled softly and held me tightly between his chest and head, he was afraid to let go.
"This isn't good-bye. I promise you." I said, he held on tighter and purred. "Shadow, how about one last song before I have to go?" He let go then gave a solemn nod. "All right, buddy." I got ready and removed his saddle, placing it next to me.
"Just when you think hope is lost
And givin' up is all you've got
Blue turns black, your confidence is cracked
There seems there's no turnin' back from here" Shadow laid down and placed his head on the saddle like a pillow, looking up at me with his usual puppy eyes.
"That's when you can build a bridge of light
That's what turns the wrongs all right
That's when you can't give up the fight
That's when love turns nighttime into day
That's when loneliness goes away
That's why you've gotta be strong tonight
Only love can build us a bridge of light." Shadow seemed to understand what I was getting at and grew a grin. His sad eyes turned into happy, hopeful ones.
"When your feet are made of stone
And your convinced that you're all alone
Look at the stars instead of the dark
You'll find your heart shines like the sun.
Let's not let our anger get us lost
And the need to be right comes with way too high a cost." I referred the last two lines there to Mildew. He thinks that he just has to be right about the dragons and he'd hurt a lot of people and dragons on Berk by sending them away. Shadow and I were getting so worked up about it, too.
"That's when love can build a bridge of light
That's what turns the wrongs all right
That's when you can't give up the fight
That's when love turns nighttime into day
That's when loneliness goes away
That's why you've gotta be strong tonight
Because only love can build us a bridge of light.
Deep breath, take it on the chin
But don't forget to let love back in." I finished the song and Shadow yawned tiredly.
"All right, you'll be fine, baby." I said, stroking the top of his head lovingly. "I'll be back for you. I promise." Shadow put his head up proudly and licked my face. "Yeah, I love you too. I've gotta go now." I said and began walking away, after stepping up onto the boat, I had to look back at Shadow.
He kept his head laid on the saddle and watched the boat as it drifted off. Most of the dragons just watched as it drifted off away from the shore. I leaned over the side and watched as the distance between us grew.
"There's something Mildew said that I keep thinking about." Hiccup said and I turned around to look at him, "He said 'See what happens when you leave your dragon all alone to wait outside?' He knew Toothless wasn't with me just before the armory fire."
"You really think that he set the armory fire?" Astrid asked.
"We think we did all of it." Hiccup said and gestured between me and him, "And we think he did all of it so my dad would get rid of all of the dragons."
"That's a pretty serious accusation." Astrid folded her arms, "How are you going to prove it?"
"I have a pretty good idea." I said and Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Al, we aren't going to kill him so he can't testify." He said and now it was my turn to roll my eyes.
"Darn it, Hiccup. That's not it." I began, "What I'm getting at is that he wants us go and fix his roof when we get back to the island. That's one big open door right there. You following?"
Hiccup nodded, "I'm following and I'm with you."
I held a board in place while Hiccup hammered against it with a nail sticking out of his mouth. I did a quick check-out and saw nothing, "Clear." I said, Hiccup handed me one end of a rope and spit out the nail in his mouth. He threw the other end of the rope down and began to climb down the rope. "Hold tight." He reminded and I lowered him on purpose, "Whoa, I almost lost my grip." I joked and he scowled, "Stop that!" He whispered harshly and I stopped but that didn't stop me from grinning.
He finally got down to the floor and looked around the inside of the house. A Gronckle head on the wall, a painting of a Nightmare being killed, Hiccup sniffed the inside of a cauldron and gagged with a hand over his mouth.
"Hiccup, do you usually just break into random houses and sniff their cauldrons?" I asked he glared up at me. "Keep glaring and I pull the rope up." He pointed at the door, "I could just go out through there and climb back up." I shook my head, "Not if I pull it up here with me."
Hiccup's attention averted to the pictures of his wives faces on the walls. "Hm, wife... wife... wife..." He saw the picture of Mildew's pet sheep Fungus next to the rest of the pictures. "Well, Mildew definitaly has... a type." He said then shuddered.
"Come on, Hic, we don't have all day." I urged. His eyes widened when he came across a curtain then he pulled them back, his eyes widened further and he pulled out Zippleback feet and the back foot of a Monstorous Nightmare. "Look at these!" He whispered.
"Mildew's coming!" I whispered back and his eyes averted to the shaking door knob. He looked at the dragon feet in his hands then began to think quickly before getting out of the way.
Mildew burst through the door, "Good evening, ladies." He said to the pictures of his wives. "What's that you say? Nothing? Good." He looked towards the curtain where Hiccup found the dragon's feet and scowled a little. He reached for the curtain and pulled it back... empty except for the dragon's feet.
He pulled them out, "These served us well, didn't they, Fungus? Shame we have to get rid of them." I looked down at Hiccup who was holding onto the rope and was just off the edge of the roof. He watched Mildew and Fungus quietly just as I was.
When Mildew walked outside, I noticed a drop of sweat drop off the side of Hiccup's cheek and land on Fungus's head. He bleated irritably and looked up at us, he continued bleating and I rolled my eyes, "Wow, you're annoying." I said quietly.
I pulled Hiccup onto the roof and we ran to the side of the roof, we watched Mildew approach the side of a cliff then throw the dragon's feet out into the ocean. Hiccup and I stared off at the cliff, taking deep breaths and we exchanged a glance with each other. We knew that we had to do something about this.
The songs used in this chapter are:
"You are the Sunshine of My Life" by Stevie Wonder
"Bridge of Light" by P!nk
