(A/N) I'm back once again and guess what? We hit another milestone! 100 Favorites. I am so thankful for the support I've been getting with this story, it always makes me exited to write another chapter.
Guest Reviews:
That Night Of Fury: Thank you very much!
5: Why does he keep the name Hiccup, because everyone knows him as Hiccup and he wants to make sure everyone knows what he does. Also I just don't want to call him anything else. And yes, he has changed and thank you.
OechsnerC: Thank you.
PlaidOtaku: lol, thank you. And yes, I will be waiting the full five years, but its been more like a year and a half.
Brenne: Villain Hiccup can be cool, that's for sure. As for Hiccup and Stoick, you'll just have to wait and see.
AvadaKedavra613: Hahaha! thank you for the compliments. Is Hiccup insane? That's opening a whole can of worms right there. The best way I can put it is he suffers from multiple personality distorter. The first personality is Hiccup as we know him. Kind, compassionate and forgiving. The second is Horrendous, He is the exact opposite. He mean, unforgiving and full of hatred towards his enemies. Horrendous has all but taken over Hiccup's mind, drawing strength from those who have hurt in in the past. It is only around dragons that Hiccup's actual personalty is able to back some control. Hiccup is still there, hence the nightmares and his tender moments with the dragons, just not really in control. I'm not a mental health expert so I probably butchered it a lot, but that's the best explanation I have. Also, I too struggle socially as well, I don't like to make a lot of friends, but by the grace of God I have actaully come to forgive and in some cases become friends with my previous tormentors.
rpglady76: Pretty much.
LittleNighFury17: I bet you can as well.
Crystallion12: Thank you, but I would like to point out that Hiccup is planning and conniving during all this. He's just being patient and bidding his time until a good opportunity presents itself. He hasn't lost his smarts, thats for sure.
Happy reading :)
Chapter 21
It was snowing lightly over Outcast island as Hiccup stood on top of one of the many cliffs that adorned the island. Toothless was sniffing around at the light layer of snow, oblivious to the fact that his rider was just standing, unmoving less than two feet from the edge. He did that so often, it had ceased to worry the dragon. Hiccup would always turn after an hour or two of staring at the horizon in a somber state, but a quick flight would always cheer him up.
Going unnoticed to the dragon, Hiccup was always looking in the direction of Berk when he did this, harbouring thoughts of anger, contempt, but mostly of what could have been.
Snotlout and the others should be getting back to Berk right about now, or at least they better hope so what with the darkened clouds on the horizon. A storm was brewing and if they didn't get back soon, they might have to wait out in the harbour for many days before docking, but by then, the ice might have set in.
Hiccup thought about the reactions the teens would have when they got back. He remembered the twin's parents were present during his attack on the Berkian fleet. They would be devastated to know that their parents had been killed, but they'd bounce back quickly. They always did. It would be amusing to watch Snotlout and Spitelout see each other again. He was pretty sure Fishlegs' parents were still living. The boy would get a loving embrace from his parents. It was this last thought that made his fists clench. If he was on that trip, the most he could have expected from his father was a nod from his father.
"Toothless?" Hiccup asked his dragon without turning his gaze from the horizon.
"Yes." The dragon answered while still nosing through the snow.
"What was your family like?"
The dragon paused his searching, looked up and sighed, "I don't know."
"You don't know?"
"I don't remember much of what happened before the Red Death. All I know is that we used to live way up North where the sun wouldn't shine for months, then something bad happened and I ran away. That's when I entered into the Red Death's influence."
Hiccup remained silent for a few moments, "Would you… like to go see them?"
The dragon thought for a moment, "No. I hardly remember them, but a doubt their still alive. Besides, they're not my family anymore, you are."
At this, Hiccup finally smiled and turned to the dragon, walked over and gave him a hug, "You're mine as well. Your all I have left."
Toothless' eyes closed in bliss as he crooned and leaned happily into his rider. After a moment, Hiccup turned his eyes back towards the horizon and Toothless returned to sniffing in the snow. There had to be some of what he was looking for around there somewhere.
"Who needs them anyway." Hiccup scowled.
"Finally." Toothless cried out in victory as he began scratching at some rocks in a small nearby overhang.
"What?"
The dragon quickly scooped up some of the ground up stones in his mouth and swallowed before turning towards Hiccup. "Found some Boom Rocks."
"Boom rocks?" Hiccup questioned as he came over to investigate.
"Ya, they somehow give power to my fire. I stock up on it every couple of months or so."
Hiccup grabbed a rock and examined it, "This is Saltpeter."
"Tomato, tamato."
"Interesting, as far as we knew, this rock was completely useless. I wonder how it works."
"Night Furies add powdered Boom Rocks to our fire Juice and we get a plasma blast."
"Fire Juice?"
"ya, we chew on trees and our saliva extracts a fluid from them that's flammable."
Hiccup thought about this for a moment, "Hey, do you think you could give me some of your saliva?"
o~0~O~0~o
"Chief."
Stoick looked up from his work in the Great Hall, organizing the villagers to make sure they were safe from the coming storm. Hoark the Haggard was addressing him. "Yes?"
"There's a Berkian ship coming in ta port, looks like it's the teen's."
Immediately Stoick was up on his way to the docks. He'd been fearing for their safety ever since Hiccup had destroyed the fleet. They had been gone so long that he had almost declared them to be dead.
When he exited the Great Hall, he noticed that the storm was just starting to pick up. The Teens better hurry. If they waited too long, they might be docking in a blizzard.
By the time he got there, Gobber, the Jorgensons and the Ingermans had already arrived. Mrs. Hofferson had lost the will to live after the passing of her husband and the prolonged absence of her only daughter. She had fallen ill a few weeks ago. Stoick was relieved that the teens were back, without Astrid, he feared that the elder Hofferson wouldn't make it through the winter.
The wind was starting to pick up and the snow was starting to blow when the lines from the ship were finally secured and the gangplank was lowered. The first to exit were the twins.
"HELLO BERK!" Tuffnutt shouted, "We are back with wondrous tales of untold adventures!"
"Ya, you wont believe some of the things we did." Ruffnutt continued.
"As long as ya did them somewhere other than Berk." Gobber shouted out.
Fishlegs was the next to exit the ship, supporting a hobbling Snotlout. His foot was broken in several places from when he had kicked Hiccup's metal leg and was severely swollen. Even if he hadn't lost his hand he would need to go see Gothi.
Spitelout walked up to his son, the Ingermans hanging back out of respect for the injured. They could greet each other later when their son wasn't encumbered.
The two Jorgensons made an interesting pair. Spitelout had just had the bandages removed from his face. Three raw scars ran down the left side of his face and he wore an eye patch. Though it wasn't particularly visible at the moment, the scars ran down to his shoulder and he wouldn't be able to use that arm much for the next few months. Snotlout on the other hand had his right arm bandaged heavily, ending in the stump. It was also obvious that he was doing everything in his power to keep any weight off of his right foot.
Snotlout was the first to break the silence, "What happened to your face?"
"What happened to my face? What happened to… well… This?" Spitelout gestured to Snotlout's broken body.
The stood in silence for a moment before they both muttered "Hiccup." At the same time with a scowl. The boy had got the best of both of them and they were clearly not happy with it.
The Chief stood, looking with worry for the one face that hadn't shown itself. "Where's Astrid?"
"Fishlegs looked up to his Chief, contemplating how to explain things. It should be handled with tact and delicacy, "Well… Umm... You see-"
"OH! CHIEF! You should have seen it! She was AWESOME!" Ruffnutt interrupted.
"YA! The dragon was all like 'oh, I'm going to eat Snotlout who cries like a baby and she was all like 'No, don't eat him, that's no fun, lets beat him up together' and then they became friends and she rides a dragon and it was so AWESOME!" Tuffnutt spat out.
"YA! What he said." Ruffnutt agreed.
Fishlegs facepalmed as the Chief raised an eyebrow.
"You see, she thought it would be smarter to look for Hiccup, who rides a dragon, on the back of a dragon. Of course, that was before we found out how far gone he was." Fishlegs answered the unspoken question as he gestured to Snotlout.
"Smart lass, I hope she knows what she's getting herself into."
"You mean we have another dragon loving traitor on the loose and your just going to let her get away with it!" Spitelout shouted.
Stoick turned to his second in command, "Oh stuff it up yer arse Spitelout!" Stoick growled, "What happened with Hiccup was regrettable. I listened to tradition instead of doing what I should have. I've regretted every moment since then. If I could take it all back I would, then we wouldn't be dealing with all… this." Stoick gestured to the two Jorgensons in front of him.
"Hey, I hate to break this up, but I see Snotlout and Fishlegs' parents, but where ours and Astrid's." Ruffnutt asked.
"Come, lets get out of the cold, we have a lot to talk about." Stoick answered.
o~0~O~0~o
The winds were whipping the waves up to the height of 10 feet and the snow was coming down like there was no tomorrow when the ship finally entered the enclosed grotto made of ice. In no time at all, the ship, which had been thrown around in the storm, was sailing on a sea of black glass. They weren't the only ship here, there were hundreds of large ships maned by many thousands of men all anchored here to receive shelter from the storm.
In the aftermath of the blizzard, it would take weeks of chopping through ice to free them, but for now, they were safe.
It didn't take long for the men aboard to find the particular ship they were looking for and toss lines to each other. Once they were secured and a gang plank was lowered, Viggo and Ryker Grimborn both crossed to the second ship and made their way to the Admiral's cabin.
The cabin was far from being decorated modestly. Purple drapes hung at the windows, the carpet was an opulent red and the bed was huge. The walls were adorned with decorative weapons and the stuffed dragon heads of various species. A rather large, mahogany chart table took up the center of the room.
Standing at the head of the table was a rather imposing figure with a scared face, black dreadlocks and dressed in a dragon skin cloak rumoured to be made from the hide of a Night Fury. Drago Bludvist was a name feared by all who knew of him. He was cunning, cold, ruthless and if something ever went awry, you stayed out of his way. It was never his fault.
The man looked up from his map towards the two figure who invaded his space.
"Drago." Viggo nodded as Ryker stood respectfully at his brother's side.
"Viggo." Drago nodded back, "I take it you found the boy?"
"Just like I promised, I found him, talked to him, and spent the rest of the season sizing him and his army up."
"And…"
"He's smart, I'll give him that. If the opportunity presents itself, I would be honoured to become involved in a battle of wits against him. And that's not something I say about a lot of people."
Drago nodded, "And his army?"
"That's a tough one to answer, I'll give you my evaluation and you come up with your own conclusion. From what I saw, there is no clear gathering of dragons. They're all spread around the archipelago as if they had no alpha to call their own."
"What about the Northern Nest?"
"We made an expedition to it. It was strange entering, we had no opposition. The closer we got to the nest the more our progress was impeded by fallen sea stacks which had all been knocked away from the nest..."
"Go on…"
"When we got there, it was gone. The whole mountain had been destroyed. It was less than half of it's original height and there was not one dragon in the area. Whatever happened, it was devastating."
Drago thought about this for a minute, "So, we have a boy who goes rogue against his tribe with a Night Fury. No known allies, and no dragon army, yet able to completely level mountains and destroy entire nests, by himself."
"Not exactly, he does have a few dragons with him. We saw him use a Monstrous Nightmare as bait."
"That's not too troublesome."
"I know, but there's more. Not too long after we met him, he attacked a fleet of ships out in the open ocean. He killed every single person aboard those ships except for one whom he left as a messenger."
Dragon thought about this for a moment, "He must have an Alpha somewhere"
"If he does, it's not in the archipelago."
Drago nodded and turned to his charts once again, trying to find an area with a high concentration of dragons.
"There's more though. The Vikings there fear him. Enough to give him the name of 'Hiccup the Horrendous,' a few have even added, 'Dragon Master.'"
Drago froze, his fist tightening. He glared at the dragon hunter, there was venom in his voice as he replied, "Thank you… That will be all." Walking around the table, he pushed past the two men and didn't look back. Ryker was about to ask about the 5000 pounds of gold they had been promised, but Viggo quickly shook his head no. Now was not the time or place if they wanted to keep their heads, they could get their money later.
o~0~O~0~o
It was well into the second day of whiteout conditions when Hiccup checked on the bowl of dragon saliva he had placed in his forge. He had originally placed it in his hut, but it had begun to stink the place up before too long.
Just like he had hoped, there was a half inch layer of strange liquid floating on top of the dragon's saliva. Carefully picking the bowl up, he poured the fire juice into five small containers that held about 100 millilitres each. Grabbing one, he decided to light it on fire and see what happened.
He was careful to put on some gloves that he had made out of the hide of Toothless' rival. He was going to be working with fire, no use burning himself.
At the smallest spark, the fluid instantly caught fire. It burned bright blue. He stared, amazed at this strange flame that grew in intensity the longer it burned. He continued to stare at it, just watching for five minutes, before it burned itself out.
He grabbed another one to light it on fire as well. This time he wasn't just going to let it burn, he wanted to know how hard it would be to put it out. Just as before, the fluid lit up easily, and Hiccup began trying to blow it out. It took a surprising amount of breath to blow it out, which was good, but when he paused for a breath, the fluid relit itself and continued to burn. Puzzled, Hiccup blew it out again, and once again, the flame came back.
Frowning, he grabbed the empty container and placed it over the flame, cutting off the supply of oxygen to the source. After 30 seconds, he removed the container. There was clearly no flame when he removed the container, but after about a second, the flame reappeared.
Grabbing some water, hiccup poured a little bit in. The flame went out, but as Hiccup peered in, it once again started to burn. Curious, he watched it until the flame ran out of fuel and extinguished itself. Peering into the container he was surprised to see the water he had poured in was still there.
Intrigued, he grabbed a larger container and putting a large piece of wood in it, Hiccup grabbed the third container of fire juice and poured it onto the wood. Once again, he lit it and the blue fire burned bright. Grabbing the water again he poured it on the flames. The fire scattered but refused die without a fight, instead running off the log and was pushed around to the edges of the container before continuing to burn on the surface. As soon as the water ran off the log, the flames returned.
Grinning like mad at this revelation, he turned to the fourth container of fire juice and brought it to his work area. Lighting it once again on fire, he turned to a small pile of white rocks and threw one in. As expected, nothing happened. He turned to a second pile of powdered Saltpeter, grabbed the dust and tossed it in. Instantly, the flames mushroomed into a ball of fire that licked at the ceiling.
Hiccup cringed as he muttered, "Not again." When it died down there were a few flames lingering, but thankfully, they were orange instead of the blue ones he had been dealing with.
Grabbing s nearby pail of water, he quickly went to combat the flames before they got out of control.
When everything was out, he grabbed the last container and held it in the light. A grin worked its way onto his face, though it hadn't actually turned into plasma, this fluid had loads of potential. Ideas came flying through his mind with what he could do with this stuff, and he had the only supply of it in the world! What's better was he was the only one that knew about it.
He also knew there was a way to turn it into plasma, he was just missing something. Once this storm was over, he was going to figure it out.