Well hello everyone. Sorry for another lapse in posts, life really is busy. I've been devoting most of my spare time to writing original pieces and trying to improve my art skills a bit, so this has fallen a bit down the list. It's holidays again, so I'll try to get some more done, but I really don't know what will happen. I stayed up past midnight getting enough of this story together to upload, to the point where my cat had to come and tell me to go to bed. Anyway, hope you enjoy and haven't completely forgotten what is happening in this story.
Summary of past chapters: After some confusion Astrid and Toothless/Shadow Stalker were captured by the people of Berk while Stormfly carried an unwilling Hiccup to safety. There they received a prophecy that they were instructed to act upon immediately. Meanwhile Astrid was imprisoned and Toothless is being used by Stoick and his men to find the nest. With the prophecy in mind, Hiccup and Stormfly arrived on Berk and after a small bit of conflict, persuades Snotlout and the others to let Astrid go. And here we are.
Chapter 20- To Battle
Astrid studied the faces of their onlookers. She tried not to flinch when she saw the slightly pained look on Snotlout's face. She avoided his eyes and instead shifting her gaze toward the twins. Ruffnut was grinning suggestively at her, which made her start, and Tuffnut just had his usual expression of confusion on his face. Fishlegs had his arms crossed and tried to keep his face passive, but his eyes betrayed him, flickering madly over the two figures facing him, trying to read the situation at hand and not doing too well. The young adults gathered awkwardly together as Hiccup explained the situation fully to Astrid. She heard Hiccup breathe out a strained sigh, before swiftly taking charge.
"Right, what dragons do you have?"
"Hang on, who said you were in charge?" Snotlout interjected.
"Had a change of heart?" Hiccup asked dryly.
Snotlout shifted unhappily. "What if I have? This is stupid, I don't know why I didn't kill you on the spot."
Astrid stepped away from Hiccup and towards Snotlout at this point. "Because you know it makes sense, Snotlout. All these years, how many times has a dragon attacked you unprovoked?"
"No," Snotlout shook his head, "that's not it. You may have a point, but that's not it. I trust this guy. I don't want to, but I can't help it. Is it some kind of spell? Have you enchanted us with some weird dragon magic? Is that it?"
It was Hiccup's turn to be uneasy. "It must just be my charm," he shrugged.
The twins studied the two parties, not sure exactly which side they were meant to be on anymore, or if there were even two sides. Fishlegs just kept his gaze on Astrid. Snotlout rubbed his forehead and sighed. "What options do I have?"
Hiccup began to reply, but Fishlegs interrupted him. "You have two. Stay here, with Astrid and the Dragon Man as your prisoners and hope the hunting party can deal with whatever awaits them at the nest, or you can listen to this stranger who may or may not be able to give you a massive advantage in this battle that, according to him, will otherwise end in a bloodbath."
"Thanks for the vote of confidence," Hiccup commented dryly, causing Astrid to sigh and shove him lightly. He fell silent.
Snotlout ground his teeth in thought. "Well, when you put it that way, listening to this guy certainly sound reckless. Crazy even."
"Yes," Fishlegs nodded.
Snotlout turned to meet Fishlegs' eyes. "We're Vikings. Crazy is what we do." Fishlegs' face remained passive, though there was a small hint of a smile in his eyes, while the twins gave a cheer. Snotlout turned back to the pair that waited patiently for him. "What do you need?"
"Dragons," Hiccup replied.
()()()()()
Fixing his shoulders tall and wide, Snotlout led them to the Kill Ring, where they had a variety of trapped animals. Snotlout walked around the arena, pointing out each cage naming what dragon hid behind.
"Gronkle, Terror, Nightmare, Zippleback"
Hiccup nodded, deep in thought, then turned to face the others.
"Right, weapons away." The twins stared at him with mouths wide open, and Snotlout shot him a distrustful look. "Please, you'll just scare them." To prove his point, Hiccup removed Inferno from its holster and placed it at the back of the arena. There was a long tension-filled pause. Fishlegs was the first to lay down his small dagger, much to the horror of the others. Eventually Snotlout snorted and removed his sword from his waste.
"Come on guys, look at him! We could take him out with our bare fists."
Hugging their maces, the twins threw him worried sideways glances. "But the dragons," Tuffnut mumbled sulkily before giving in and throwing his weapon into the pile, his sister following suit.
"Now I need you to remain calm and quiet," Hiccup informed them. With weapons unwillingly dispelled, Hiccup moved towards a barred door, the four young warriors tensing behind him with Astrid smiling at them from where she stood between the two clearly defined groups.
"That's the Monstrous Nightmare," Fishlegs warned, shuffling his feet in his nervous manner.
"Oh I know," Hiccup stated mockingly, a smile in his voice. And with that he opened the cage.
While some jumped, Snotlout just muttered to himself, "I knew this was a trap."
Instead of the chaos they were expecting, there was little noise at all. The dragon man had disappeared into the dingy cage and they could see nothing of what was going on. Maybe the dragon had just eaten him whole before he could make any noise, and had appeased his thirst for blood. Little did they know there was a conversation occurring inside.
"Human, hiss, hiss," the Nightmare spat as he shrunk against the wall.
"Not quite," Hiccup responded, removing the helmet briefly to flash the Nightmare his eyes.
The Nightmare froze, eyes narrowing with shock and disbelief as he was met with sharp green eyes. After a moment of recovery, the Nightmare spoke, uncoiling itself and moving cautiously towards Hiccup, studying his eyes. "I have heard of you, you have Shadow Stalker's shadow."
Hiccup frowned, holding his ground as the threatening dragon slunk closer still, holding Hiccup's eye with his own. "Err, I suppose I do."
The Nightmare paused for a moment before backing off a bit. "What do you want with me?"
"I have a quarrel with the Queen, and Shadow Stalker is in her path," Hiccup explained as he pulled his helmet back on.
"And this affects me how?"
Hiccup straightened his buckles and began to back out of the cage again. "Because I am Green Eyes and I am not destined to defeat the Queen alone."
The Nightmare's head shot up at that, and with a brief moment of consideration it nodded and began to follow Hiccup out of the cage.
"Just follow my lead, no matter how shocking it may seem," Hiccup whispered, holding his hand over the nose of the dragon as out followed him out. The dragon tried to remain cold, but there was a hint of vulnerability in his expression as he stepped out into the light. There was a yelp behind Hiccup as the Nightmare made himself visible to the small crowd.
With a glance behind him, Hiccup brought the amber-eyed dragon towards the taut body that belonged to Snotlout. He shot a sideways glance towards the others and then at the mysterious figure.
"Here," Hiccup offered softly, grabbing Snotlout's hand and offering it to the snout of the Monstrous Nightmare.
"Ahhh," Snotlout jittered, trying to pull his hand away.
"Relax," Astrid's voice called clearly from a position behind the two men.
With a gulp, Snotlout squeezed his eyes shut and relaxed his hands, wincing as he felt a warmth against his palm. When there was no sudden noise or pain, Snotlout eased one eye open, then the other. The Nightmare stared up at him with calm eyes.
"Oh. Oh, hello there," Snotlout jabbered in relief.
He felt the masked warrior leave his side and in a panicked voice called after him, "Hey, where are you going?"
"To get some rope. You'll need something to hold on."
Snotlout blanched and looked back at the creature still adjoined to his palm with a considering gaze.
()()()()()
Once Hiccup had Snotlout sorted he moved on to the others. With the Nightmare's help, the others were easy enough to convince. The Horrendous Zippleback was the worst, as it kept disagreeing with itself. It was very easy to pick who its riders were going to be. Once the twins had finished arguing over which head they were going to ride, he move on to the Gronkle. She was a sweet homely sort of dragon, reminding Hiccup of a grouchy mother. She immediately took a shining to Fishlegs however, and he her as he rubbed his fingers against her snout.
"Who's a good boy, eh?" he cooed as the Gronkle wriggled with joy at her newfound friend.
"Ehem," Hiccup coughed, "girl."
"Sorry?" Fishlegs frowned in confusion.
"She's a good girl," Hiccup corrected.
"Oooh," Fishlegs made a noise of understanding.
Hiccup moved to Astrid's side and eyed his handiwork.
"Not bad," she smiled.
"If I do say so myself," Hiccup nodded. "Suppose we should get your dragon now," he observed.
"Sorted," Astrid replied, putting her fingers to her lips and letting out a long, loud whistle. There was a responding chirp and it was not long until an ecstatic dragon nearly barrelled Astrid over.
"Show off," Hiccup grumbled lightly, smiling under his helmet as the two females checked each other over for any damage.
"Did he behave?" Astrid asked, one hand on her hip and the other brushing the side of the Nadder's head.
"As well as to be expected," Stormfly drawled.
"He was a pain in the arse, wasn't he?"
The Nadder gurgled happily, and Astrid laughed at the response. Hiccup was pulled out of his reverie as he noticed multiple sets of eyes on him and the pair beside him.
"Right," he called out, "time to move."
"Uh, is there an actual plan?" Fishlegs asked, one hand still on his dragon.
"Well, no, not exactly. We'll work it out on the way."
Fishlegs face pulled into an unconvincing smile, while the others shrugged and tried to work out how to go about riding a dragon. Plans were not really a Viking strong point, so it was nothing new to them. After a lot of bumbling and a few falls, they were finally up in the air. Hiccup and Astrid rode together, keeping an eye on the others.
()()()()()
Stoick strode into his home to hear the all too familiar sound of Hiccup's wails. He opened the door and found a distraught Gobber with an even more distraught toddler.
"How bad?" Stoick asked. Gobber rose stiffly from his chair and passed the teary boy to Stoick. Hiccup sobs slowly dulled down to gurgles, and then weary murmurings as he clawed at Stoick's beard in search of comfort.
"He cried the entire raid. Certainly got a set of lungs in him," Gobber responded, stretching his back with a grimace as he spoke. "How bad?"
Stoick, tried to prevent Hiccup combing his sticky fingers through his beard, but to no avail. "We lost half a flock, two houses and Svelta lost use of her left arm. But no deaths."
"Shame about Svelta. She was a useful sort of being."
Stoick nodded wearily as he shifted Hiccup's weight. "I wish he'd stop crying every time I left his sight. I'm the chief! I can't wander around the village with a child attached to me at every waking minute. Imagine what the other tribes would think if I came to the gatherings with a baby in my arms. They would think I was a housewife!"
"'S'alright Stoick, I don't mind babysitting," Gobber tried to comfort.
"With that racket? I highly doubt it," Stoick scoffed.
"Ah, come on. He's not that bad. You didn't have to live with my sister for twelve years."
Stoick took his eyes off the cooing child to catch Gobber's eyes. Gobber's family was a sensitive subject. They were lost at sea many years ago. The only reason Gobber was not with them was due to Stoick keeping him behind to help with his chieftain duties. It was always assumed that a sea dragon got to them, as they were very capable sailors, as were most Hooligans. This was then followed closely by the loss of his leg, and Gobber was plunged into a darkness that Stoick could not brighten. Though he had returned to the bright, hard headed man he was today, Stoick always feared he would return to that dark time, and he didn't know how he would survive without the sturdy, patched-together Viking.
"Oh don't get all tender with me Stoick, I can talk about my family without blubbing. It's you we should be worrying about." Gobber crossed his arms as Stoick heaved himself down into his chair with his arms full of wriggling child.
"I'm fine."
"Of course you aren't. How long has it been?"
"Six months."
"Is that all? Why, I don't know how you are even functioning yet," Gobber cried, throwing is hands up and making the usual fool of himself.
It was received with a stony look from Stoick. "I won't let what happened to Val happen to anyone else. Never again."
Gobber's face grew serious. "That's fine for you, but your son hasn't recovered yet."
"What?" Stoick blurted, staring down at the sleepy Hiccup.
Gobber scoffed. "Don't you see Stoick? That's why he cries every time you leave. He's already lost a mother, he doesn't want to lose his father as well."
Stoick sighed and stared down at the flushed toddler. "I'm a terrible father."
"Perhaps," Gobber admitted with his usual tact, "but you're all he's got."
Stoick gave him a disbelieving look. "I really doubt he's capable of that level of thought."
"How else do you explain it?"
Stoick thought about it, but he had nothing. He let his green-eyed child play with his finger, watching as he tried to think of another answer, but none came.
"Goodnight Stoick," Gobber spoke gently as he left the house.
Stoick never did come up with another explanation. The thought of his child home alone as he fought dragons and defended the village from enemy tribes plagued him, and he found himself trying extra hard not to die. For his son's sake.
()()()()()
It was strange that Stoick thought of his late son as he drifted into battle. Misty smog lapped at the side of the boat, twined up the mast and grabbed desperately at the men who made their way up and down the length of the lead ship. He turned to study the beast near the head of the boat. Its eyes were uncanny, glaring straight through him to his inner being. As if it knew exactly where his thoughts had taken him. As if he had found Stoick's weakness and knew exactly what to do with it. The confusion of the last few week's events had left Stoick's mind as he prepared to face the nest. He didn't know exactly what he'd find, but it was soon going to be dead.
So many things had changed since those days when Hiccup's wails would keep him up at night, and his happy chortles would greet him in the morning. Back then, he was fighting, not just for his village, but for his family. Nowadays, there was no family to speak of. Though he still had a village to protect, he knew deep down what he really sought was vengeance. Once, he fought to protect his child, now all there was left was a burning pain that was sourced from the beasts. He had no reason to live anymore. Just to kill.
Thanks everyone for the continuing support and I hope it continues despite my apparent lapses in dedication. I just want to let you know that I will finish this story, and I'll try my best to make that happen soon. This story's popularity has gone way beyond what I would have imagined. When I started this I was just hoping to get past the 100 favourites mark, which I have well and truly achieved so thank you very much.
Guest Reviews (sorry for taking so long to get back to you ;P):
Anon: Thank you very much.
somethingpoetic: Of course I remember you! Hiya bud. Glad you came back, and thank you very much for the compliments. I've missed you. :)
Guest 1: Haha, glad to hear it!
Noctus Fury: Oh? You think leather masks are what we female are into? You can give it a go if you want buddy. And there is nothing wrong with guys being interested in guys. You have no reason to be ashamed. ;) And I guess with this mask, Hiccup designed it to hide his eyes, so it may be slightly different to the movie one because, yes, I had noticed you can see his eyes in the canon mask. Glad you enjoyed the Fire Brigade scene.
Silver Rose: Thanks for being understanding and I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
Guest 2: Yes! Well done.