Hiccup interacting with dragons is one of the most interesting things I have ever written.
Berkian Eddur - 2
Winter in Líf's Holt
Chapter 19 - Leave
Leave something for someone but don't leave someone for something.
― Enid Blyton
The hall doors had been barred, the fires were low and the atmosphere was heavy enough to smother a nightmare. The chiefs were gathered around the hall tables again, the generals of each village there. Wolftooth's remaining generals were looking as alert as it was humanly to possibly be.
Wolftooth himself was looking haggard and worn. The heirs weren't there that night - they had been given their own tasks and were out there taking care of them - his son was out there. There was no way, no way in which Stoick would ever allow the thought of his son dying to enter his mind.
Five years of Winters and hardships hadn't taken him down. There was no way a simple storm would. They were Vikings. Flying through a storms was like taking a walk on the beach.
"Everyone's accounted for, then?" Brawlknife asked, taking a swig of ale. That man functioned on alcohol - even when he needed to be clear-headed, he somehow managed to get things done with more mead in his head than a normal person would pass out on. Still, Stoick almost wished for a keg himself - the pressure was making his heart beat wildly, and even though Astrid was up and helping, that actually made him worry more. That girl needed to stop and recover from her ordeal - but there just wasn't enough time.
"Yes, the gronkles are tasked, the riders informed. There are only three dragons left of that species," Bertha sighed, rubbing her face. "Gods in Asgard, we are all going to Valhalla, whether we win or lose this battle. The odds are stacked in our detriment so high that it's a wonder we can see the horizon."
"How many dragons do we have left in all?" Bile asked, scratching at his chin in a way that spoke of nervousness rather than any itching.
"Around thirty, between nadders, gronkles and nightmares. We don't have zipplebacks, but we have a few young terrors we can use as diversions."
"That's hardly enough to defend against a horde of savage attackers," Footsore growled. "But I can tell you that my fleet has been warned. With any luck, they took shelter from that storm and they will bring up the rear of those bastards without being seen. We may have reinforcements towards the end of the battle."
"May," Stoick sighed. "I'm not comfortable leaving my village's fate up to chance. If the main village falls, all the people on the island are as good as dead."
"We won't fall," Bertha said with a snort. "all of us will be wearing your son's mail. My Gobber's finishing the suits up right now."
"That will give us an edge, it's true, but we need a better strategy. We cannot bank on the fact that they will have suffered from the storm," Woolftooth said. "I've sent word back to UglyThug that there will be the need to double the guard - if they have any allies left there, they will be caught, but that will do us little good here. The same thing goes for whoever is left of them here … we need to find if they still have an ally left at large."
"If they really find out we don't have dragons ..." Berta said ominously.
"Regardless whether they know or not, we are doomed if they do not come back." Bile said. "I never thought I'd say this, not with what a pest they can be, but they are the only hope we have. If the entire fleet of ships they own lands on the shores here …"
"We have patrols. We'll be warned," Stoick said, fingering the island's border on the map spread in front of them all. "But you are right. That is as much advantage as we have at the moment. If the armada has survived the storm intact, we will just have to go down fighting."
"Like there was any doubt of that," Bertha laughed, and all of them followed, the hopeless of the moment seeming almost hilarious. They were Vikings. Dying was an occupational hazard.
Stoick's only thought was for Astrid, and for all the sweet, pretty lasses on Berk. He hoped they went down fighting, and didn't suffer otherwise. This kind of battle could leave more wounds than mortal ones.
"Well, we can relocate some of the nadders - we do have four of them, and -"
There was bang against the massive front door. They all looked up at it, fingering weapons and bodies tense, ready to fight. If this was one of the sentinels on patrol, having spotted something, they were going to need to evacuate everyone at once, as quickly as possible, and then -
Stoick motioned to Spitelout, who nodded and quickly ran to the door, hauling the bar up and pulling the door open.
"Let me go! You have no right to do this!" the stridulent voice said, and Mildew's horrible face followed, being pushed into the room with his hands held behind his back. Tuffnut Thorston followed, an expression on his face Stoick had never seen before.
"Tuffnut," Stoick called, taking in the display as he and the others moved forward. He really hoped this was not the twin's idea of a joke. It really wasn't the moment.
"Stoick! Why don't you keep better control of your youths! This delinquent assaulted me while I was taking my daily stroll on the-"
Tuffnut actually punched him in the face, throwing him onto the floor. He looked furious, and the happy-go-lucky twin had never cared about anything enough to get mad about it, that Stoick knew.
"Shut up, bastard," he growled. He looked up at the assembled chiefs with a sneer. "This little piece of shit was on the beach. Taking a stroll, he said - my knotted trousers! He was sending messages!" Tuffnut produced a scroll.
"What!" Stoick yelled, leaping forward and snatching the paper up. He looked down at the old bag of bones after he'd read it, keeping in the urge to kick him by a hair. "You traitor bastard."
"Let me see," Bertha asked without preamble, taking the paper and then turning it around to the others once she was done. The faces became stony and livid as the paper passed hands, and Brawlknife spit down at Mildew's face.
"Stoick, you won't really believe the nonsense this boy is cooking up, will you? You know as well as I do that he's a troublemaker! It's his idea of a joke!"
Tuffnut surprised Stoick by kicking him in the stomach. Mildew gasped, coughing and spluttering protests to his frail, old body.
"Shut up, son of a troll," Tuffnut growled, cheeks going red with fury. "How's this a joke? Hiccup asked me to do extra, secret patrols. And Snotlout. We've been doing it, and guess who I found sending a terror off today? You, that's who. I hate smelly old men." He spat at Mildew's feet. "And you're an idiot, you got a terror from the Berk coop. I just had to follow it back into the terror sleeping pens on this island." He kicked him again. "Dragon hater. And using dragons to betray your own people!"
"Sven!" Stoick yelled. The man, who had been standing out on guard at the door, peeked in. "Take this sack of filth to the prison. Put him nowhere near the other traitors; I don't want them to know their last man outside is caught. I want to be able to tell them."
"Sir!" Sven answered, picking Mildew up and dragging him away.
"Well done, Tuffnut," Stoick said, patting the boy on the back. "Good job, you and Snotlout. If he's out on patrol too, call him off. Go to rest the both of you; I want a full report tomorrow."
The Thorston nodded, trotting down the hall stairs and out of sight into the night.
"At least we have one worry less,"Woolftooth sighed, coming up behind him. Stoick slapped him on the shoulder.
"Stop feeling guilty about this," Stoick said to his friend. "You've been the one most betrayed by this lot of bastards."
"He's right," Footsore growled. "I've even lost a friend as close to a brother, to his own son. The bastard will pay. If he doesn't die in battle, he is going to wish he had, because I'm going to do him things that no one should ever know save me and his dying flesh."
"Hear, hear," Bile growled. "My little boy should have had his first Thing and his first Snoggletog as official heir without all this. He'll pay for that too."
"They will pay for everything." Stoick sighed. "We should get some rest. Most of us need to meet again tomorrow morning at the break to continue, but I think we all need to touch head to a pillow and rest."
A chorus of tired 'ayes' followed after him as he hunkered down the stairs.
The trip down had never seemed so long
=0=
Hiccup looked up at the sky, going pink with the clouds turning into some of Blunt the Baker's pink berry pastries. He could really use one of those sweet concoctions right now, though to be honest, he'd do with anything that was not a fire-baked fish. Preferably some of Astrid's fish stew.
He snickered at himself. Just yesterday he was thinking of going back to the bachelor life. There wasn't any of Astrid's stew in the bachelor life. That alone told him it was an aborted idea. It was bad for the health, living without that full pot of salty, fragrant-
A warble and a rough nudge interrupted his thoughts. Hiccup sat up, and Toothless gave him a nonplussed look before nodding at the fire, where his fish was moving past 'cooked' and into 'charred' territory. He scrambled for it, ignoring the chorus of amused dragons around him as he blew on the smoking food. They already thought he was weird for cooking his fish.
"Yeah, you all find this so entertaining," he replied, his tone flat. Toothless snorted and came to sit down next to him, the female dragon looking at them curiously from her nest of melded rocks. She'd laid two eggs yesterday, and had been the willing recipient of fish and cuddles both delivered by his enthusiastic battle-brother. Toothless had flown in and out the island five times, twice of which were with Hiccup, each time returning with enough food to feed all the dragons of Berk in his belly. The female night fury was surrounded by a huge pile of fish, and looked like she was lording it over the other girls; she was still pretty curious about Hiccup, though, and made no effort to hide it.
Toothless gave him another nudge when he spent too long looking at the female dragon. When Hiccup turned to look at him, the dragon gave him a warble and a tilted head.
"Oh, it's nothin-" he was interrupted by Toothless giving him a patented 'None of that bullshit' look. He'd learned it from Astrid, Hiccup could swear on it. He sighed in defeat. "It's just that … I'm so close to Berk, but I'm stuck here. And I made Astrid a promise …"
Toothless warbled and put his head on Hiccup's lap, looking up at him sadly. The Viking just gave him a scratch behind the ear-plates, making him purr.
"I'm not blaming you. Your place is here, no need to apologise." Toothless still looked up at him with chagrin. "No, really. I'd never ask you to leave her and the eggs behind…" he turned his head to look at the female to find blue eyes giving him a thorough search before she stood, taking and egg in her mouth carefully and bringing it to them. Toothless gave a strange warble when he saw her, but she ignored him and pushed his head out of Hiccup's lap with her own. Toothless was initially indignant until he saw his partner drop the egg onto Hiccup's belly. He scrambled for it quickly, and held it close, only for the female to bring the second one and dropping it onto his chest too, tongue fussing at it and mouth nibbling at his hair with retracted teeth.
"Er…?" he asked uncertainly as the female made various vocalisations and warbles, nudging Toothless who was still looking at her in displeasure. But then she began rubbing her head under his chin, and he gave a determined gargle for only about three seconds. Hiccup snorted, making sure to keep the eggs warm against him as he gave his dragon a knowing look. "Now, you will not be able to laugh at me when I give up the moment Astrid takes my hand." Toothless huffed and tried to look dignified again, much to his rider and the female's amusement, "Ooooh no, I'm not letting you live it down, ever." The female gave a squeak as Toothless batted her away but she licked the crest around his head, and he finally gave in with a defeated warble, sending Hiccup into fits of laughter.
"So, what's she proposing, bud? Because she's obviously won," he teased, making the female puff her chest out and huff, then walk up beside him and curl up challengingly against him, breaths huffing on her cuddled eggs. Hiccup gave his fish a bite before she could give it a lick.
Toothless just nudged him and then pointed his head towards the sky.
"Going for a flight?" Hiccup turned to the female, who was looking up at him. "That's what you suggested?" She gave a blink and he tilted his head to look at her better, "I don't understand. Why did you give me the eggs then? Do you want me to watch them while you two go up there?"
She blinked and straightened, twitching, but then she slapped her tail and looked annoyed. With a beseeching gargle she looked at Toothless with eyes as wide as they would go. He gave a huff, took one of the eggs gently into his mouth and motioned for Hiccup to get onto his back. With a hesitant wobble, he got into his saddle, still carefully cradling the other egg. Toothless walked around, forcing Hiccup to scramble for the handlebars, flapping his wings as he walked around in circles. Then he stopped, put the egg down, and the female came around to sit on it again, licking it and cooing at it. Hiccup blinked at them, scratching his head and carefully caressing the smooth egg with his thumb.
"So … you want to move the eggs?" he concluded, and both dragons gave him a tongue-lolling smile. "Right, erm… why? And where to?" Toothless gave a shake, and Hiccup got off, tottering on one foot with one of his hands still holding the egg to his chest. Toothless nosed the crest on his armour. "To Berk? But why, when …" The female gave a huff and Toothless nudged him. "Because I want to go? Toothless, I could hitch a ride on one of the others, I'm sure they could drop me off on Berk on a fishing round …"
The look of outraged indignation Toothless gave him at suggesting that he should fly with another dragon was eloquent enough to make him feel sheepish.
"I wouldn't enjoy it, bud; it'd just be routine. You know, necessity…" He felt like he was justifying himself with a jealous girlfriend. Well… between Astrid's axe and Toothless's everything, he was pretty screwed, and pretty well spoken for under all angles.
And he was getting the impression that Ætta had decided she had a claim, too, somewhere. He felt like a plot of land, being divided up by its owners. Well, at least Astrid seemed happy with her huge portion of the … plot of land.
"Are you sure, though?" he asked, "can the eggs handle it?" The female scoffed at him as if offended, so maybe there was some dragon-y pride there about dragon shell thickness, and female dragons competed to see whose egg-shells were the hardest and most durable.
He needed to sleep, soon, because he was thinking gibberish.
"Right, true … but I told everyone that I'd get their dragon back, and I can't just show up and ..." he rubbed his forehead. How was he going to do this? There was exactly zero chance that any of the other dragons would be as loyal to him as Toothless was, and especially not when this tiny rock island was so much safer for the new little ones…
Toothless gave a roar, his wings flapping slightly from its strength. All the Berk dragons twitched and raised their heads. Stormfly walked up, tinies in tow, and gave a chittering set of cackles, which Toothless answered with his usual high-pitched vocalisations. More and more of the dragons began rising, lowering themselves just enough to let their still-tiny clamber onto their backs. Within the time it took for the sun to set, all the Berk dragons, their mates and their progeny were looking at Toothless expectantly. The female night fury looked ready to jump his bones again, and Hiccup found himself oddly cheering her on as she slapped his dragon with her tail.
Right; he'd forgotten that his dragon liked to order the others about.
His night fury just turned to look at him like he was stupid. The female took one of the eggs into her mouth, and Hiccup carefully and delicately brought his cloak around to cover the egg, quickly fashioning a tight and secure sling so that he could grab onto the handlebars of the saddle.
"I really appreciate this, bud," he said, and he wasn't ashamed that his voice wobbled with emotion. They were, perhaps, eight hours' flight away from Berk. They would be there before the sun, tomorrow. And if his calculation wasn't completely off, Snoggletog was the day after tomorrow. He'd keep his promise to Astrid, too.
As soon as Hiccup was strapped in, Toothless gave a roar and took off. All the dragons followed after him without hesitation, and though they went moderately fast, Hiccup noticed that they were certainly not going at night fury speed as they cruised to an updrift and then just used the winds to glide.
Ok, make that nine hours. It was going to be a long, sleepless night; but it was going to be so worth it.
=0=
Tuffnut was seething like someone had put his trousers on fire, then tried to put it out with tar.
He was sitting down in a corner, arms crossed, purposefully in the shadows. The hall was still full of people, even though the storm had let up that morning. The lack of dragons was making them band together - Tuff, of course, knew that shit was going down very soon. Snotlout knew too. Most of the families who were just the quiet agricultural kind had no idea what was going on, but it only took so many hushed and quick meetings with Stoick, the other chiefs and Astrid's own table of Better Management - or that was what Ruff called it anyway. Everyone was starting to catch on that something was happening, had happened, or was going to happen.
Some people thought that Hiccup had died, and that all this furore was all about this. Tuffnut personally thought he'd probably show up riding a scouldron like it was a cart rolling down a hill, personally, but not everyone thought the same. Even Astrid tried to escape as often as she can to go stare at the sky sometimes, he'd noticed. And she always came back with this look on her face that he'd never seen on Astrid before. It was sad, really sad.
The worse was her though. She was ignoring him. Or avoiding him. Sure, she was busy, and she was important - he knew that, she was heir to her tribe - and so she had a lot to do. So he'd offered to help when she'd looked like she was going to kill that map they'd given her, but some of the women around her sneered, and then she'd told him that if she'd needed his help, she would have told him, and given him her back.
It had … hurt. In his chest. It was like that time Ruffnut had punched him so hard that all the breath had gone out, and it had taken him a good few minutes to start breathing again without wheezing.
So he'd walked away and come to sit down here, and hadn't moved since. He'd already spoken to Stoick and Astrid, and Snotlout had done the same; the other man had been sitting with him for some time, but now he'd gone off to talk to some red-head or other. Idiot, he should stay away from barmaids. He knew what happened when one didn't.
Maybe it was because of the letters. Well, yeah, it was definitely because of the letters. But last they'd spoken, she'd assured him that she didn't care, and that they had a solution, and that Fishlegs or Hiccup had figured it out. They'd decided they were going to give a damn, and show up in public with each other, and stick together, and all that political shit be damned.
But here they were, and the first chance he got to help her, she suddenly behaved like she didn't really know him anymore.
His chest still hurt like he'd been kicked by a yak. So he folded his arms and glared at the hall and drank his ale, making sure to let everyone know how foul it tasted by snarling at it every time he took a gulp. His grandfather had even had to gall to walk - if his doddery, evil pace on that pointy staff could be called a walk - up to him and congratulate him on his role in the traitors' capture. Hiccup had put him and Snotlout on Madfoot's trail, and since Snotlout had helped Hiccup out of the mess in the hall, it had been Tuffnut who'd managed to do most of the undetected stalking - he was used to it, he and Ruff used to stalk for fun. And especially since he'd heard that bit about the girl under that table with Cami…
There his brain went again. He took another gulp, snarled at it and then slammed it down. Oddar the Oddhead gave him a look that was slightly weirded out - so he snarled at him, too. So obviously, everything was going swimmingly with everyone, with looming threats and tension and worry and missing dragons …
And his grandfather. He really wished the dragons would go evil again for a gap wide enough to eat him. Just him. But then the poor dragon would get indigestion, and if it was a gronkle it would fart up such a massive-
"Hi there, darling," rang a voice next to him, and all the hair on all his skin stood on end. Oddar even had the gall to give him a wink, and this time he really snarled at her.
It was her, the lying, thrice damned bitchy barmaid. He ignored her, and kept drinking his horrible ale. His eyes sought out the blonde mop he cared for so much and … there she was, her twin swords swinging at her waist, talking to a few of her woman generals.
He'd give his right hand for her to look his way for a few moments.
"Well, aren't we talkative tonight," she went on; she had always been like this, since he could remember. She'd played chase with all the men since she'd become a barmaid, and had always had a 'target of the week' - whoever either took her fancy or had become popular enough in the few days it took to catch her eye.
"No matter, though. I'm just glad I got you all tied up. Wouldn't want some other girl to snatch you away from me now, would I? Berk's got to take care of her heroes"
He almost spat in her face. His eyes followed Cami around, and her face DID turn towards him, but her eyes roamed on as if she'd seen through a wet linen tunic, and his chest gave another twinge. What was happening? Why was she doing this? Her eyes didn't even stick when they landed on the nasty piece of dragon dung sitting next to him and trying to thread her arm through his. His chest gave another yak-kick.
Heroes. This whole thing started because when the battle for Berk had come and he'd become one of the first dragon riders, he'd also become her catch of the week, though he didn't know it. He'd been happily writing letters to a pretty girl who loved things blowing up as much as he did. And then she'd decided that - when Snotlout turned her down - she wanted him to be her catch of a lifetime. And he'd had absolutely no say in it. He was a hero of Berk and thus her property in her eyes … she'd even said that to him exactly. Who talked like that? He was surprised she hadn't tried to seduce Hiccup - him being the big Thor's hammer of all heroes and all - but maybe she was smarter than she looked and she was afraid of Astrid. At least he hoped so. Well, not like Hiccup would be willing … but a guy didn't have to be willing with this one. Just drunk enough.
So he stood up.
"I have shit to do," he growled out, and went to look for Snotlout. Or Astrid. Or anyone who could give him something to do other than sit there like a dying chicken and …
Chickens. Dying chickens. Well, fuck them all. They were preparing for the worse, weren't they? Well, who would expect chickens to be dangerous? With everyone in the Thorston clan hunkered down in the hall, no one was taking any notice of the chickens.
Good. Fuck them. Fuck their chickens, too.
He ducked his head and left the hall, never once looking back.
There were very few people outside - hardly any at all, between three quarters of Berk in the hall, and the rest mostly on patrol. The storm may have let up, but the cold and damp it left behind just made its way through your clothing and into your bones.
The sun had set - it's not like the sun took long to set right now. Snoggletog was the shortest day of the year anyway, and then later they'd have the Spring Festival when the days were a little longer, and they could send out the boats to the deceased…
He was almost done with the mixing of the feed in a few minutes and began heading back to the hall before he fed it to them, because he'd left his spear behind, when he decided - fuck that too. He headed towards the docks - he knew that Oddegar had been put on patrol that night, and he'd been none too happy about it, because he had a sore foot. So he went to relieve him, called it in as a favour, and sat down on the damned docs to look out at the sea.
It shouldn't feel so terrible, to be ignored for one night. It's not like she legitimately didn't have shit to do. And so what if she snubbed him in front of her generals? It didn't mean she meant anything by that, right? She was just stressed. They were all stressed.
Yeah, he was stressed too. He hadn't even fed the chickens, and now he was tied up on patrol. He was very stressed. That's why he was sitting by the ocean mooning like a sissy-girl, pouting like Hiccup and imagining he was seeing a bunch of dragons coming from between the clouds.
They were even growing closer, those dragon-shaped clouds. Shining like the moon was glinting off scales, and then there was a noise almost like a night fury..
"Fuck, it's real!" he called out to no one in particular. Then he lit a torch, began waving it frantically to the person on patrol in the next area. Their torch lit up and began waving too and the next one. He began yelling.
"The dragons! I think they're back! And I heard a night fury!"
"Where!" was the faint call back.
"Due south! Just left of the moon!"
"I see them too!" Someone called from the area over to the other side. "Praise be! We need to inform Stoick!"
"I'll go!" Tuffnut replied, putting the lit torch in the bracket and racing towards the hall. He'd never run up the stairs that fast, and as soon as he threw the hall doors open, he realised it was a mistake, because all that came out of his mouth was incoherent panting and wheezing.
"What is it?!" Stoick asked in his no-shit voice. Tuffnut swallowed quickly.
"The dragons! I sighted them! They're coming back!"
"Thor be praised!" Stoick said, a grin suddenly lighting his face. The hall erupted in cheers, and a blonde streak whizzed past him, racing down the hall stairs around as fast as he had raced up. Very quickly, a number of people followed her, but he had no hurry, himself - there was no doubt going to be a smoochy moment, if he'd heard the night fury call right, and he was in no mood to see it.
When he saw two women headed his way, he scowled at them both and made a bee-line for his sister. She was the only person with girl-bits that he knew who made sense. He couldn't handle the rest right now.
"Let's go get our own dragon from the barn," Ruffnut said with an excited grin. "My softie of a husband raced out there to get his gas monster back. I want mine too."
"You got it," he said, throwing an arm around her and walking out beside her, wiggling a finger at Woodnut.
Screw confusing women and anything to do with them. At least, he had his sister.
=0=
Hiccup's butt was numb. It wasn't even that he hadn't ever sat on a saddle for this long, or that he wasn't used to it. But when Toothless was going for a long trip, he usually went flat on his belly and let the wind resistance push them forward.
This trip was not about speed - they were going at a baby-dragon friendly gait, and he couldn't help cooing at them when they got all excited at the clouds. At least they had sense enough to hold on tight to their parents' backs, and there hadn't been any accidents.
But the problem was, he was holding one of the eggs in his arm still. He'd wrapped himself in fur and clamped it shut at the front, purposefully to keep the tiny sweetling still in the shell well warmed. It was making his sitting position more than a little awkward, however, and it was all but impossible to hold onto his hand controls properly. So his hands and feet were freezing, he was shivering, but he was sweating under the fur cape, and his butt was numb.
All in all, not the greatest flight of his life. But it was certainly the best one.
Toothless was going to be a dad. A dad. And Hiccup was holding one of the babies. He almost felt as proud as if he'd been the baby-maker.
That brought on a set of images he pushed to the back of his mind for later.
Still, they had been in the air for about seven hours he reckoned, and they were actually farther than he anticipated. It would still take them three hours to Berk, and dawn was quite a few hours away, so they were proceeding entirely by moonlight. Thankfully the dragons knew where they were going, because Hiccup's bearings were slightly off, if his compass said anything.
He leaned slightly to the side, always very careful to hold onto his egg tightly and trying not to slip off. The scraggy rocks and ocean waves were too generic, and a glance upwards didn't help much, seeing as the sky was mottled in bluish clouds. He could barely see any of the guiding stars, and the moon was no help at all, fully round and overpowering all the others.
His eye caught something, and he leaned over again. It was a Viking ship, and Hiccup's face split into a grin, glad to see a friendly face; then he paused. It was rare to see anyone out this time of the cycle. No one would be mad enough to go fishing with the storm they'd just had - all the fish would be at the bottom, or further in-land. And there was no need for boats to come this far out, even if they'd decided to use the Berk Fleet for patrols…
He remembered some of the recent meetings, and wondered whether it was one of the fleets they'd sent for. Because more and more boats were beginning to take shape, their prows and masts and sails emerging from the colour of the sea into the moonlight when the clouds allowed it. In all, Hiccup counted around thirty ships - about half Berk's fleet.
"Hang on, bud," he said quietly, almost to himself. When they were flying, sometimes the things below them looked like they moved really slowly. He carefully took the spyglass out of his pack, and gripping the egg between his thighs, adjusted the scope, until he …
"Shit!" he hissed in alarm. He grabbed the egg tightly, hugging it to himself as he quickly put the spy-glass back in place and flattened himself against the saddle as much as he could. Toothless sensed his urgency. "The moon's almost behind us! Bud, those aren't friendly! UP! Get everyone in the clouds as quietly as you can!"
Toothless gave an urgent snort, and was headed towards the clouds with a powerful wingbeat. The female night fury followed, and Hiccup was thankful to see the other dragons take their cue, following them to the top of the cloud bank. Hiccup could feel himself trembling as he swallowed hard, Toothless levelling his flight and grunting up at him. The egg he was holding in his mouth kept his lips slightly parted, and the dragon rolled his jaw with a grunt and a pointed look at his human.
"That … that was danger, bud." Hiccup swallowed again. "Freyr, I thought, with that storm …" He pressed the egg more tightly to his stomach. He was bringing the dragons back, yes, but they were bringing their precious young, sweet little things with innocent eyes, right into danger. And Toothless' sweetlings, still in the egg.
But … "This, this is a good thing…" he murmured to himself. They were three hours' flight away from Berk. That meant there were about 12 hours of sailing - half of their masts seemed damaged, and he'd seen the flash of oars. With a favourable wind, they would have made it in 10, but as it was … and they were coming from a completely wrong direction. They were being expected from the North West, but they'd either been turned by the storm, or they had turned to avoid it … and they were only thirty ships .. the armada counted five hundred.. but what if they had been separated, and there were more? What if they were coming from all directions…
Toothless groaned again, this time looking at Hiccup sternly.
"Sorry, bud," he said, realising that he wasn't sharing. "Those ships are coming to attack Berk. If you and the other dragons land there…" Toothless gave a growl. "I thought the storm would smash the fleet! I need to know if there are more, if they're scattered, headed for us … and you need to decide if you want to drop me off home and lead all the others … away."
He got a knot in his throat just saying it, but it was what was right. All these sweetlings…
And then he thought of Heather, Woodnut, and Gustav and Dartfoot and Ætta, and how much danger they would be in without the dragons there… Hiccup rubbed his brow with his free hand, clamping his thighs to hold on.
"Bud, it's up to you." he sighed. "Those ships are headed to Berk. There were only thirty, but there are supposed to be five hundred. I don't know if the others survived … I have to check. And I can't do it without you. But you all have little ones. If you want, the others can stop on our old island, and … I'll go on. Maybe you can give me a ride and go back. You have …" The egg against Hiccup's stomach felt like a weight. "You have a family to take care of now."
Toothless gave him a glare, and then actually growled. The dragon looked over at the other night fury, who gave a warble and a questioning tilt of her head. Toothless pointed his nose at the sky, then, and she gave a happy warble and whizzed away.
"Toothless, what…?" Hiccup asked worriedly, looking around at the other dragons to see if they were about to follow her. None of them did, all still flying sedately with their tiny, snoozing charges on their backs.
It was a full half-hour before the other night fury returned, holding a wooden plank in her mouth. She glided close, dropping the plank on Toothless' head with amusement and making Hiccup scramble to pick it up.
"So … this is all you found?" He asked the night fury cautiously. She looked triumphant. "Or … all you left?" She growled. Hiccup smiled. Toothless preened. "What about the ships we just saw? I didn't hear .. did you take them?"
She snorted this time, growling. Hiccup nodded. Possibly those thirty ships were too well armed, too well organised. They were what was left of a huge fleet, probably taking on as many soldiers and weapons they could take without sinking. A single dragon would have had no chance.
"Good call," Hiccup replied, and Toothless purred. "You have the little ones to come back to. Aaand this great big stud here…" Toothless huffed. The female gave the choking vocalisation he had come to associate with night fury laughter. "Right. So it's your call, bud. Where do you want to take us. Berk, or our island?"
There was a quiet moment. By now, the dragons had surrounded them, Toothless flying slower as he thought and allowed the other dragons to listen into the conversation. His mouth was full, but he still gave a growl. Every eye in the crowd sharpened to him. Fireworm roared, Stormfly and Clover crowed, flying to flank Toothless' other side. Hiccup waited, looking down at his friend until Toothless's eyes flickered to him with a look the human needed no translation for.
"Oh, bud, I … all of you…" The dragons around him answered with various vocalisations.
Loyalty. There was simply no misreading it.
"Right," he said, screwing his head on straight. "We're going to need to fly a little faster. We need to get to Berk as far ahead of these bastards as we can. Wake up your little ones, have them hold on!"
Roars and gargles answered as many tiny eyes blinked awake. The gaggle and cackle and din that went on was a general chittering in the sky, so much like the first time Toothless had taken him into the dragon's den the first time; a terrifying moment of being surrounded by so many dragons and feeling so alone, because even Toothless had been caught in it for a few moments.
Now the feeling couldn't be any more different. These creatures were all deciding to return to Berk with them, to defend it. To defend their home. His home.
Berk was home. Really home. Not just the place he was born in or the place he had to be things in, or the even the place he wished to return to; not anymore. Berk was home. The place where everything was.
The silver pendent clacked against the eggshell when he bent down to stay as flat on Toothless' saddle as possible. Something - someone - within the egg clicked their claws timidly against the shell.
Hiccup's heart lurched. He was going home.
=0=
Tuffnut, the world's most deadliest weapon! But really, he's so angry here, because his sister has a baby now, and everyone knows that murderous attacks are bad for a baby's digestion and disrupts their nap-time. And then he's all glorious but he gets ignored by his Boggie Girl...