Summary: Blinded while saving a fellow Berkian during a dragon raid, Hiccup Haddock struggles to find a way to be at least somewhat useful to his tribe. One day he finally gives up hope and wanders into the forest hoping to find a swift death only to stumble upon something that will change his life forever.
Disclaimer: I do not now nor have I ever owned How To Train Your Dragon (or the tv series or the sequel).
The Love of a Father
Chapter 14
"The fleet is coming in!" A viking outside the killing ring yelled as Gobber continued his dragon training with his students.
Astrid instantly threw the hammer she had grabbed earlier after Snotlout had dropped it. The hammer flew through the air and smacked the Deadly Nadder hard against the side of it's head. She didn't have time to deal with the stupid lessons; she had to get to the chief before anyone convinced him that Hiccup really was dead.
The nadder squawked in pain and quickly retreated back to its pen. It'd been getting beat up all day and honestly it was tired of it.
"I guess class is over." Gobber sighed softly as Astrid was already out of the arena even before he spoke. He was worried about the Hofferson girl, but what could be done? She was still the best trainee he had in class and if anything she was training even harder.
"Hey babe wait up!" Snotlout dropped his shield to hurry after Astrid as she stormed away.
Astrid growled in irritation and she just as Snotlout reached her. With a great deal of practice and perfect aim Astrid landed her fist between Snotlout's eyes. She was turned around and stomping off even before the teen was on the ground.
"Good talk babe! I'll s-see you at dinner!" Snotlout called out from the ground before groaning and rubbing at his now broken nose.
Gobber shook his head and limped over to the new heir to help him up. "Ye know she's in a foul temper. Why antagonize her?" When Snotlout was back on his feet Gobber got a better look at his nose. "Tis broken. Go see Gothi."
Snotlout tilted his head back to keep the blood from getting all over his shirt. "I lub her dats why." With Hiccup out of the way Snotlout's chances of marrying Astrid were almost perfect! He just had to keep trying to impress Astrid until she gave in. When his father returned Snotlout would talk to him about starting the marriage discussions.
Once again Gobber shook his head. "Just go see Gothi." With that he pushed at Snotlout so that he would start walking. With the fleet coming in Gobber needed to get to the chief to give him the bad news.
Unfortunately for him Astrid was a long younger and had two working legs so she made it to the docks well before Gobber did. She was trying to talk to the chief as he climbed up the long staircase from the docks.
"Not now Astrid. I want to get home." The girl wasn't making a lick of sense, going on and on about how the village had just given up the search and didn't seem to care at all. Her words were fast and disjointed and Stoick was too tired deal with her.
"Well," Gobber quickly spoke up to grab Stoick's attention away from Astrid. "At least ye found the nest."
"Not even close."
Gobber sighed and grabbed hold of the basket with Stoick's belongings so the chief could relax a little. "Doesn't look like ye lost too many ships this time." He glanced back at the docks and winced a little when he noticed how half the fleet was gone.
Stoick grumbled in irritation and rolled his shoulders. "Minimal casualties at least. The damned hell beasts were busying bringing in their haul when we attacked." He was glad to see that Berk was still in one piece and it didn't look like there had been a raid in awhile. As he looked around he finally noticed how many of the villagers were carefully avoiding his gaze. When he did finally catch the eye of someone they quickly ducked their head and hurried away.
There was a heavy feeling in the air, something that Stoick had only ever sensed once. Quickly he spun around and grabbed Gobber by the shoulder. "Where is he?" He demanded with a shake of his friend.
Gobber's face fell and he gently pulled his friend into an embrace. "He was gone for most of the time during the days you were gone. When he was here he relearning leather craft."
Stoick knew that face. He knew the words even before Gobber spoke. He yanked himself away from Gobber and glared around at the villagers. He had left knowing that the people of Berk would keep an eye on his son! The boy was blind and unable to properly protect himself! How could they just let him wander around on his own?
"Stoick." Gobber could see the storm brewing beneath the surface as his friend glared around. The villagers that were close by quickly scattered and ran for cover.
"How." Stoick's fists shook and he gnashed his teeth as he wanted for the response.
Gobber rubbed the back of his head and looked away. "We think a dragon got 'im."
In that moment Stoick saw red. Rage that he had thought he had buried a long time ago surfaced. With a mighty roar Stoick let out every ounce of pain, rage, sorrow, and guilt.
"Stoick..."
May of the vikings that had decided not to hide from their chief winced and hung their heads in shame. Their chief was hurting and many felt like they had failed him.
"I don't think Hiccup's dead."
A voice spoke up and cut through the red haze that Stoick had descended into. His head snapped around and he stared accusingly at the young Hofferson girl. She didn't cower from his gaze, she didn't hang her head, Astrid stood tall and resolute in her proclamation.
Stoick took slow measured steps as he stalked over to the girl. "What did you just say?" His voice was low and gruesome as he demanded Astrid to repeat herself.
Astrid felt her entire body quake, but she continued to stand straight and hold her ground even as her chief frightened her. "I don't think he's dead. We found his knife in a cove not far from the village. But there was no body. No blood. No signs of struggle."
She'd thought long and hard on the facts. The entire area had looked like a dragon had been there, to some degree, but other than the dragon scales, a few minor scorch marks, and the shallow claw marks there really wasn't much evidence to there being a dragon. "I think he was kidnapped chief."
Stoick had enemies. Berk had enemies. One of the best ways to hurt the tribe would be to hurt the chief. It was well known that Stoick wasn't the most caring of father's, but he still loved his son in his own way.
"The girl is in mourning Stoick." Gobber said gently as he quickly tried to discourage the idea that Astrid had just planted. "Who would want to kidnap the wee lad? He doesn't have much power now that he's not the-"
"When was the last dragon raid?" Stoick demanded coldly. "Has there been much dragon activity?"
Gobber rubbed at his neck awkwardly. "Well no. But tha' doesn't mean a dragon couldn't 'ave taken 'im."
Stoick worked his mind quickly. Dragons only ever took vikings if there was a raid going on. Even then most of the time dragons avoided taking humans, even small defenseless children. Valka being taken had been his own fault for startling the dragon. Hiccup was scrawny and blind and would have come off as sickly and unappetizing.
"You two," Stoick pointed at Gobber and Astrid. "Come with me."
With that said he turned and began stomping his way to his home. He needed to think and he wanted all the facts of everything that had happened since he had taken the fleet out. "Spitelout get the rest of the supplies unloaded. Take the wounded to Gothi. I am not to be disturbed." With those final orders given out Stoick turned all his attention on finding out what had happened to his son.
"How far is this nest we're going to Toothless?" Hiccup asked with a groan. He was practically flopped across his dragon's neck and he was very bored. There was only so much practicing with his sound vision he could do on the back of a flying dragon. If he had his knife he would have tried carving a piece of wood or something during the flight, to see if he could, but he didn't even have that.
"Another day." They'd already been flying for most of a day and after they'd eaten lunch the two of them had taken to the air once more. Toothless was being as careful as possible with their flight, staying high and flying as fast as he could without straining himself.
Toothless could push himself in spurts so that they could make up some of the time, but they would risk vikings noticing them even as high as they were. There was one option...but Toothless didn't know what effect it would have on Hiccup. Then again the magic that was within Hiccup might actually protect him.
"Hiccup," Once Toothless was sure Hiccup was paying attention he shared the idea. "Night furies are the fastest dragons in the world. When we reach our top speed we create a large boom and nothing can catch us." When hiccup didn't ask any questions Toothless continued "In short bursts other living things we may be carrying can survive. But-"
"If you go too long the creatures die." It made sense. Humans especially were not built to fly or move as fast as dragons. "Do you think the night fury magic would protect me?"
Toothless hummed in thought as he considered it. "Possibly. We could test it out by flying in short bursts and make the flights progressively longer." Toothless didn't want to harm his friend in any way, shape, or form.
Hiccup nodded and slipped his mask on. "It won't hurt to try."
"Stay as close to me as you can get. And hang on tight." Even with the saddle harness Toothless was afraid that Hiccup might fall off from the sheer force.
The teen wrapped his arms around Toothless' neck as he hunkered down. He made sure his mask was snug and properly tied before tapping at Toothless' neck. "Ready."
Toothless took a deep breath to steady his nerves before adjusting his wings and tail. Just to be on the safe side Toothless flew up into a cloud before increasing his speed exponentially.
Hiccup wished he had had something to cove his ears as his night fury suddenly went so fast that he created some sort of loud booming sound. As it was his hand were too busy hanging on to Toothless for dear life as the wind created by the sheer speed pulled at Hiccup. His hands felt chilled and it was only thanks to his mask that his face didn't feel the same.
At the count of five Toothless slowed back down to see how Hiccup had fared. Those five seconds of travel though had saved them a couple hours.
"How are you?"
As they slowed down Hiccup slowly unwrapped from around Toothless. "I can't hear much." He admitted as he reached up to rub at his ears. "Good thing your voice is in my head." Hiccup couldn't hear it, but he could feel Toothless as he rumbled with laughter. The ringing in his ears did fade after a few minutes.
"Well I'm still alive and I can hear again." Hiccup checked his harness and was content to find that everything was still in place.
The two discussed what to do next and in the end it was decided that Toothless would continue to his little speed jumps while slowly increasing the time spent at the high speeds for each jump.
By the 20th jump Hiccup had to call for a break.
"My chest feels like you're sitting on it." The teen groaned as he slumped against Toothless. "And my arms are tired from hanging on. If we do another jump I don't think I'll be able to hold on."
Toothless cooed in sympathy and looked back at his friend. "That's fine. We're about five or so hours out now. We'll rest on one of the islands below and fly out first thing in the morning." As much as Toothless wanted to make it to the nest before night fall he knew it wouldn't be possible. It would probably be best if they made their approach during the day anyway. So he'd just fly them as close as possible, set down, and the two of them would rest until morning.
Hiccup sighed in relief. His joints all ached from the pressure of the high speeds and even his harness felt uncomfortable around his waist. "Land carefully ok? I'm going to take this thing off." He felt bruised and abused and when Hiccup did take off the harness he lifted his shirt a bit and winced at the bruises there. The night fury magic was protecting him, for the most part, but his body was still human and he wasn't used to the abuse yet.
The dragon nodded and slowly made his way towards the clouds below them. He was about to fall into a light dive when a movement in the clouds around him caught his attention. He growled softly and his eyes narrowed as the clouds continued to swirl in a way caused by wing beats.
"What's wrong bud?" Hiccup asked as his dragon stopped his steady downfall.
"We have company." Just as Toothless spoke a large dragon emerged with mighty wing beats from the clouds. Cloud wisps swirled around the dragon as it's wings suddenly split so that two sets beat in unison. The larger dragon's eyes were sharp and it let out a low roar that made Toothless snarl back at him. At first Toothless didn't see him, but upon the dragon's back stood an oddly shaped creature. It had a body of a human, but upon it's head were several long horns stretching back from the top of its head and two tusks protruding from the front. In one of the creature's hands was an odd staff that jingled and whistled slightly from the wind the large dragon created.
"Another dragon?" Hiccup whispered as he sat up a bit so he could focus his echo location past Toothless and towards the object in front of them. There was only a single shape that his buzzing bounced off of and he gulped nervously. The beast in front of them was one of the largest dragons Hiccup had ever come across. "Let's get out of here bud!"
"Good idea." As soon as he felt Hiccup grabbing hold of him again Toothless dove. He prayed that with his smaller and sleeker shape he'd be able to out race the larger dragon.
"I think they're chasing us!" Hiccup told his dragon as he sent out more of his sound vision to try and see where the other dragon was. For a moment he was able to spot the other dragon, but as his echos came back to him realization dawned on him. "I think we're surrounded bud!"
Hiccup was right. As Toothless burst free of the clouds dozens, maybe hundreds, of dragons flocked around them. Toothless wove and ducked away from the other dragons as they flew at them. It didn't take long for Toothless to figure out what they were aiming for.
"Stay down!" Toothless ordered as he quickly spun away from another dragon that had reached out to try and grab Hiccup from his back.
As he spun away Toothless spotted the large dragon with the strangely shaped human on it's back and he roared loudly at them. They would not steal his human friend!
"Toothless!"
The other dragons were working together in an alarming way and as soon as Toothless had dodged away from one another had quickly dropped and wrapped their claws around Hiccup. Suddenly the night fury felt lighter and he roared in anger as the dragon that had grabbed Hiccup quickly flew away from him.
"GIVE HIM BACK!" Toothless screamed as he charged up a plasma blast intending to shoot the offending dragon. Rage blinded him and he would have shot if it weren't for the hard blow that struck him in the back of the head.
"TOOTHLESS!" Hiccup panicked as he watched his dragon, his best friend, fall. "Let me go! He's my friend!" Hiccup struggled and beat at the dragon's paws that were wrapped around him, but the dragon paid little attention. "Toothless!" He focused all of his sound vision on the shrinking form of his closest friend only to cry as he vanished with a loud splash. "No..." He hung limply in the dragon's paws as the flock flew silently towards their unknown destination. All the while Hiccup felt like his heart was shattering into many tiny pieces with the loss of his friend.
A/N: Chapter 14 is complete! There were a few hurdles that I had to jump over with redesigning this chapter so that it still, relatively, matched the movies. I mean Toothless can fly without Hiccup so the question was how did Valka get Hiccup away from Toothless?
I also have a tumblr where I post periodic updates on chapters I'm currently working on as well as random stuff that I find interesting. My ask box is always open as well!
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Thank you everyone for reading and reviewing! Also if any of you like Yuri On Ice go and check out this great fanfic called Yutopia by Animefanime1. It's currently one of my favorites.