Call of the Dragons

Chapter 21

Written by NightShade248

Cowritten by thecoreofjustice

(Takes place sometime after Toothless found the baby Nightfury. We'll get into it later)

Hiccup's head felt ready to implode. His back and shoulders ached like he had just carried a heavy load up a large hill. His chest hurt badly and he was pretty sure his right wrist was badly sprained, and that was at the very least. Basically, almost everyday of his small form hurt.

But, most of all, what little bit of what was left of Hiccup's pride was now completely gone. Wiped clean as though it was never there to begin with. For the first time in his life, Hiccup literally felt like nothing.

Not like no one had made him feel that way before. But they had imprinted it deeper in stone this time.

Hiccup laid on his back on his wooden bed, feeling even more miserable than he ever did. He knew full and well that everybody on the island thought of him as a nuisance. Yes, he knew that, everybody knew that. Why did they have to keep reenforcing it?

Hiccup stared at his ceiling. It looked blacker than normal. Hiccup thought back to what had happened.

Mostly, all he remembered the pain.

Hiccup never understood why the other teens of Berk insisted on venting out their problems on him. Even if he was the source of the problem, hurting him wasn't gonna make it better. Though Hiccup knew that no one ever realized this other than himself.

Hard kicks to the chest. Blows to the head. Someone jumping up and down on his stomach, he was sure. Someone grabbing hold of his wrist so hard...

Yes... Hiccup remembered the pain of that beating quite well.

And insults. Harsh words thrown at him faster and harder than a dragon could blast fire.

'Useless idiot!'

'Weak nuisance!'

'Skinny freak!'

'Weakling!'

'You tear everything to the ground!'

'Go die in a fire!'

'Jump off a cliff!'

'Not even your own father wants you! I'll never understand why he didn't send you off this island the second you were born!'

XxXxXxXxXxXx

Hiccup bolted up from his bed in a cold sweat. His eyes wide, his head darted around the room, those words of pure hatred still running through his mind.

Hiccup was in his room. But not his room back on Berk. It was his room on Bewilderbeast Island. 'Right,' Hiccup thought. 'I'm still with Mom. This isn't Berk'

Hiccup continued to glance around his room. He saw his dresser, his workbench, his tools, his pencils and papers, his drawings and schematics.

He looked over at Toothless, sleeping on his slab of rock every so soundly. The baby Nightfury was curled up against Toothless's belly, murmuring in his sleep. Toothless let out a slight snort, and shuffled his hind leg before settling down.

'Yeah,' Hiccup thought. 'Definitely not Berk.'

Slowly, Hiccup removed his covers and got out of bed.

'I need water,' he thought, tip-toeing past the two Nightfurys.

Passing Dagur and Valka's rooms, Hiccup walked downstairs and into the kitchen. He walked over to the box where they kept extra water in bottles, and grabbed one.

Hiccup didn't realize how badly his hands were trembling until he tried to unscrew the cap of the bottle. Once he finally managed to open it, he took a long sip.

After a couple of sips, Hiccup was feeling a little better. He poured some of the water into his hands and splashed it onto his face before sitting down at the kitchen table. Hiccup just wasn't ready to go back to bed yet.

Hiccup burried his head in his hands. He hadn't thought of that day in a long time. The day that started everything. The day Hiccup didn;t think he couldn't possibly feel any lower. And then Astrid and Stoick managed to make him feel lower.

Hiccup took another sip of water. He just wanted to get the whole thing out of his head, but he couldn't.

'Why can't I?' Hiccup thought. 'It's not like I'm ever going to go back to Berk. So why can't I just forget about it?'

In frustration, Hiccup shoved his chair out and stood up, walking towards a window. He stared at the stars.

Well, he stared at a star.

His lucky star. The large one that gave him hope was on the move again. It soared through the sky like a rocket. Hiccup loved that star. It gave him his mother back, just like he'd asked for. And because of that, it gave him a real home, real friends, and a real family. Hiccup wasn't put down, or humiliated anymore. He was finally at peace.

"Thank you," Hiccup whispered. "For everything."

Hiccup continued to watch the star as it flew above the island. He couldn't help but smile and wave at it.

'I swear, it looks brighter than normal,' Hiccup thought. 'And bigger.'

Hiccup didn't pay too much attention at first. But he became increasingly more perplexed as it seemed to move down towards the island. It did seem bigger.

'Too big,' Hiccup thought. It looked to be the size of Toothless. Perplexity quickly gave way to fear. Hiccup hustled up stairs, and practically ran to his tool bench, waking up Toothless in the process. Toothless let out a growl of annoyance and question. Hiccup ignored him for the time being, trying to find his hand-held telescope. He really needed to clean up.

Once he was finally able to find it, Hiccup ran to the window in his room, and looked through. There, in the sky. That was no star, that was a dragon!

With a person on it. And they were plummeting to the beach. Fast!

"Toothless," Hiccup said, running over to his dragon. "Get up! We need to go!"

Toothless gave Hiccup an irritated look, like he wanted to say, 'You woke me up for some stupid stars?!'

But, that didn't stop Hiccup. "Don't look at me like that, Bud," he said urgently. "It's an emergency! I think one of our riders is in trouble!" Toothless sighed, but he got up regardless.

On their short fly to the beach, where the dragon and rider had fallen, Hiccup was very concerned. A million thoughts were running through his head as fast as Toothless could fly. Why was a rider flying so late at night? Where they attacked? Is that why they were falling? Were there intruders on the island? Were the two still alive?

As soon as they landed on the beach, Hiccup practically flew off of Toothless in his panic. No dragon or rider was getting hurt on his watch. He had grabbed Toothless's saddle bag that had medical equipment in it. He had his custom made 'sword' with him in case of an attacker. Sure, it would have helped to wake up Valka or Dagur and had them come along, but that thought escaped Hiccup at the time. Too late now. Hiccup rushed over to the dragon and rider.

But stopped in his tracks.

This definitely wasn't a rider. At least, not one of Hiccup's. Hiccup was pretty sure that this person didn't even live on Bewilderbeast or one of the five surrounding islands. It was no one that Hiccup knew. This person was definitely a man, who wore clothing consisting of a dark blue cloak, a sash wrapped around his waist, a small bag attached. He held a javelin in one hand, a shield in the other. Black boots, brown pants, and black shirt. The cloak and the dark night hid his face from view.

Hiccup had definitely never seen this man before. He did not belong anywhere on the island.

'Who is that man?' Hiccup wondered. 'And why is he here? He is with other dragon riders?'

Hiccup's eyes wondered to the dragon. Pure white scales covered it. Big, icy blue eyes stared at its rider. It's white scales were interrupted by the sight of red blood along its head. A gash on the side of its face was visible.

It looked almost exactly like Toothless. Toothless must have noticed that as well, because he let out a startlingly loud murmur, and tried to get closer to the dragon and man.

"No, Bud! No!" Hiccup whisper-shouted, trying to tug Toothless away. "I know you are there," said the man. His back was turned to them. Hiccup almost groaned.

"I-I'm so sorry," he started. "But, what are you-"

Before Hiccup could get through his thoughts, a large dragon came out of nowhere, standing in between both Hiccup and the man.

And Hiccup had no idea how, considering the dragon was more than twice the size of a Monstrous Nightmare, making a loud BOOM! as it landed. It's body make an odd shuttering noise, like it was put together like a toy. It was completely black from head to toe, huge green eyes staring at Hiccup and Toothless.

'It can't be,' Hiccup thought in shock.

That dragon was a Boneknapper. But the bones were pitch black.

But Hiccup didn't have time to dwell on it. The dragon let out a loud roar, probably louder than any roar Hellfire could ever hope to make, with a malicious look in its eyes.

Toothless roared back, standing in between Hiccup and the dragon. He stood on battle stance, ready to defend his human to the very final end.

Hiccup pulled out his 'sword,' which technically wasn't a sword at all. It was really just two small pipe-like objects. But it was special. Hiccup had made it to set on fire, using Zippleback gas. He lit it up and held it in front of himself for protection.

The dragon seemed unimpressed, and roared again, probably waking up everyone within a fifty-mile radius. But Hiccup didn't want to fight. He didn't want to fight a dragon. Dragons were his friends.

Slowly, Hiccup approached the BoneKnapper. It eyes him cautiously.

"Hey there, buddy," Hiccup said gently. "Let's not get upset now."

"Wait, that voice..." The man said, so quietly that Hiccup barely heard him.

Hiccup continued his approach, reaching out his free hand. "It's okay. It's okay."

The man began to turn around. Just as the BoneKnapper seemed to let Hiccup touch him, he quickly snatched up Hiccup's shirt and hoisted him up into the air.

"No! Oh no!" Hiccup yelled, struggling. "T-Toothless!"

Toothless started blasting at the BoneKnapper as it threw Hiccup around like a rag doll.

Until the man put an end to it.

"Ash! Stop!" He yelled. "Do not hurt him! Put Hiccup down!" And the dragon did.

Hiccup considered himself lucky he didn't fall on his head. But that thought was quickly gone as he looked at the man. "How do you know my name?" Hiccup asked. "Do I know you?"

"No," the man said. "But I know you." He let his hood down. The man had dark brown, almost black, eyes. Dark skin like wood, and long black hair tied in dreadlocks and pulled back into a ponytail. The man seemed to be in his mid-forties at the youngest.

"Uh..." Hiccup, incredibly creeped out right now, just stuttered. "Um... W-Who are you?"

"Asger," the man stated. "I guess you could call me an old friend."

So, now I an introducing a new OC that thecoreofjustice has wanted from the beginning. We'll get into more of him later.