Hoo boy, prepare for some heavy stuff folks. Incoming dark Hicca and tears. Prepare a box of tissues, and tuck yourself in bed extra tight tonight. See you all later.
Toothless struggled to keep pace with Hicca as they soared back to Dusk, the smell of ashes clinging to them both. He hadn't said anything since Hicca had challenged every Berserker ship for twenty miles with her shout, and almost didn't want to know what she had planned, if anything. He'd never felt so much anger coming off of one being before, Viking or dragon, but Hicca's made the air around her dance like water as she flapped her wings, and she constantly released small breaths of fire. If there was ever an image of the term "blind with rage," it would be Hicca at that moment.
When they landed, she immediately stomped her way into her armory, and snatched up a hammer and two ingots of her metal, getting them to forge temperature with just her hands. Her anger was poured into the blade she forged, a curved design that Toothless hadn't seen before, and only sharp on one side. Her anger kept the metal hot while she worked, beating the metal into deadly perfection. The stone floor where she stepped turned red hot but didn't go hotter than that due to her constant movement.
Hicca didn't forget proper forging during all of this, and handled her weapon and tools professionally, first dropping the sword into a tank of water, and then tempering it by rubbing her hands along the blade. She sanded it smooth and gripped a log of wood so hard that it didn't have the air to catch fire, compressing down into an inflammable chunk of hardwood that she hollowed out and turned into a hilt, cutting it in half and pinning it to the handle of her sword. The aura of this sword was the same as that of a draugr that Toothless had heard about from Hicca: powerful, and near evil, with the same background of injustice and improper burial as both her people and the monsters of legend.
Hicca fashioned a quick ring to hold her sword to her armor and donned the dark metal itself in preparation for an all-out slaughter. As an afterthought, she also grabbed one of the jars of Kyttal's slime for use as a coating for her blade, since it caught fire and burned for hours when lit by a hot enough fire. The sealant kept the liquid from igniting in the container, but only just, and she tied it to her armor's belt. Though Toothless was afraid, he stepped in to stop Hicca from leaving as she reached the door, the first time he'd protested her actions.
"Hicca, I beg you, don't go," he pleaded, staring into the holes in her helmet. She'd opened all six of her eyes now, and each was focused into Toothless' two. "I realize that what has happened is a tragedy and that you're in a fury, but there has to be a better way to handle this than-" he didn't get to finish as she stormed past, wings spreading when she reached the edge of her home's plateau. It was pointless to even try to stop her in this state, the mindset of the ever-feared Viking berserker, the killer that feels no pain, no fear, only bloodlust. Ironically, she would be hunting a clan named just that.
She landed back in her old village, smelling the air for a trail to follow. She found it and took off again after the scent, tracing the path that the Vikings had left on their journey home. She arrived at the Berserker's island within a few hours, coming upon a scene of merriment. The Berserkers were dancing and laughing, drinking mead and singing to the tune of shanties that followed a good raid. She dived straight down into the center of the village, drawing her sword at the same time. With a sound like thunder, she impacted on a statue of one of their ancient chiefs, blowing it apart into a thousand pieces with her landing. The merriment stopped immediately, and every fearful eye in the village turned on what seemed to be a demon from the lowest level of Hel itself.
"I have come for every life, man, woman, and child in the Berserker tribe, as payment for the lives of the same from the Hairy Hooligans. Should Dagur the Deranged defeat me in single combat with his choice of weapons, you will be spared. Any cheating will forfeit your lives. Bring him here, now." Hicca ordered, finishing her challenge by planting her sword tip first into the stones of the square and standing with her hands on the hilt to wait. The heat was still radiating from her body and armor, distorting her image and keeping the Vikings well away from her for fear of being burned. Not a minute later, Dagur was brought forward, sword in hand and grin on his face. It dropped slightly when he saw his opponent.
"What is this, some trick?" he asked, looking at his villagers. "That thing isn't even- "
"Shut up and fight, coward." Hicca kicked her sword into her hand and charged the somewhat startled Berserker. By some miracle of instinct and madness, Dagur barely managed to deflect Hicca's attack from wounding him but was thrown away by the force, and barely had time to gather himself. His sword had a cut in the side half an inch deep, and more appeared as he desperately parried more of Hicca's swings. A minute into this he finally got his footing and dodged her next swing, backpedaling rapidly to get some breathing room. He didn't even have time for taunts, but apparently, Hicca did.
"I can't believe this," she said. "Stoick the Vast was killed by this? A mad weakling who can barely keep his feet? Did you poison him first? Drive him into a rage? Must have been easy after that, just walk up to him and take a swing. You haven't earned anything from a kill like that… but you certainly deserve something. What you deserve is an eternity spent in Hel Dagur, and to be sent screaming into it head first - like the coward you are - by me."
Dagur was shaking, the exertion and fear making his heart go wild. He leaped for Hicca, attempting to go for what looked like a weak point in her armor at the neck. His sword shattered on contact, Hicca not moving an inch. He went for her eye with the broken hilt, but she grabbed him by the throat and lifted him to her level. The heat was burning him raw where she held him, and his beard smoked. His bugging eyes and gasping mouth were brought close to Hicca, and she lifted her visor to him.
"Look upon me as you choke," she told him, growling. He was looking, and his fear just kept growing. Six eyes, midnight black skin, and scales, and a toothy grimace that showed both her disgust and her sharp teeth. "Look… and see your end, Dagur. You have brought this on yourself for your crimes. Go swiftly to your damnation, cur, and pray to every god in Valhalla that I don't meet you at the bottom of Hel." She tossed him into the air as he screamed and begged but was silenced when he was cut in half lengthwise by her swing. His remains splashed on the ground, viscera, and blood spilling out and soaking between the stones of the square.
She looked up at the terrified faces of the village, raising her sword slowly. For one brief, critical moment, her humanity flashed back into her mind, and she realized what she was about to do. She saw what their faces would show, and the morality she would lose. She knew that if she did to them what had been done to Berk, her soul and conscience would never be clean again. She sheathed her sword and walked to the center of the square.
"Enough lives have been taken today," she said, hiding how disturbed she was coming so close to committing such an atrocity. "I won't be the one to take any more. Next time your chief says to slaughter a village, remember this moment, and what could have happened." With that, she took flight, heading in a direction not leading to Dusk before she circled back for home. She flew quick and collapsed to the floor outside of her cave when she got back, taking hiccupping breaths and shaking so badly that she couldn't stand or take off her armor. Toothless ran out to her worried at the sight of her shaking form and bloodstained armor.
"Hicca…" he said hesitantly. "Did you…?"
"Thank Thor, no… but gods, Toothless, I got so close," she said, looking at him with tear-stained eyes. "It was close. So, so close to actually doing it. The only one to be burned tonight is Dagur, but that bastard deserves it, and I held myself back from doing the same thing to the village as he'd done to Berk. Women, children Toothless… I don't even want to think about it…"
"Come on," Toothless said. "Let's get you out of that armor first, and then I'll help you forget this." He helped her walk into the shop and then held her as she removed the pieces with jittering fingers. They clanked heavily to the floor, the blood standing out like rust on the perfectly dark metal. She'd wash it later, but for now, she wanted to be as far away as possible from the cursed armaments. The sword left a slash in the stone floor as she threw it away, ringing like a high-pitched bell. When she was finally naked again, she clung to Toothless, sobbing, releasing everything she'd buried beneath her fury for the last few hours.
"Follow me, now," she said through her tears, running out of the door and taking flight. The twilight sky was filled with the diamond-like stars and provided enough light to see everything even with the new moon. She sped through the sky as fast as she could, climbing, twirling, diving, spinning, rolling, and falling through the air.
Her dance was copied by Toothless, barely behind her, and after a long flight, they came together for the finale: the eagle dive. Locked together, they plummeted from the greatest height to the lowest they possibly could. The ground came closer, closer, closer. Three dragon lengths away from the ground they split apart, pulling away and circling around to lose their speed. They landed together and Hicca held Toothless close, both of them breathing heavily.
"Thank you," she mumbled into his neck, breath tickling the gaps between his scales. "I needed this."
"Whenever, wherever, whatever," he replied, "I'd do it again in a heartbeat for you, Hicca. Let's sleep this off, you still need to rest."
"One last thing, before that, please?" she asked him. He nodded. "We'll need to go onto an islet for it though, so as not to wake the villagers." They took their time and landed on a sea stack a long way from dusk. They were surrounded by nothing but ocean and stars, no visible land at all. She took a breath, held it, let it out, and took another before she sang.
It wasn't a song of words, nor could any fit it. Toothless didn't know what the beautifully tragic song was about; it wasn't in any language he could understand, and it probably wasn't even a language. It would have made every god that heard it weep, and Toothless kept his own quiet for Hicca. Sometimes she sounded like a whale, others a wolf, or even thunder. Other sounds he couldn't describe, but all of them expressed regret and sorrow of the deepest pain. She sang until the sun came up, and then ended on a long, sweet note that faded into the sunrise. With heavy eyes, they returned home and tucked in for half of the day, getting rid of the last of Hicca's problems.
Unknown to the both of them, even this couldn't repair the crack in Hicca's soul. It did, however, lessen the pain of the split that came while she was asleep, and she hardly even felt when it happened. One small, very jagged part tore itself off from the brightness that was Hicca and festered and condensed itself into a pinprick of darkness. This part was what had almost repaid the Berserkers with their own medicine, what grieved for the island she'd once called home, and Hicca had amputated it from herself with her sadness and regret. She'd sealed all of the things that hurt her and hurt others into it and cast it off for now. She didn't get rid of it entirely though; she saw the use of a piece of darkness that drove her into a berserker rage and decided to save it, her last resort. However, even if it was a part of her, it was dangerous. The rest was all the brighter for the separation, and she rested easier as her mind cleared and she relaxed into Toothless.