As told by Hiccup

Chapter 26

That night, I hardly slept. I remembered what the men had said about stabbing my dragon, and half out of fear and half out of protectiveness I lay awake.

But I no matter how I tried, I couldn't keep my eyes open, and I drifted off.

The thoughts of violence, and my terror of the coming battle, made my one dream horrible.

It was vivid – the most real dream I had ever had.

I was standing on the highest point of Berk's highest pinnacle, looking down on the island. Fire was consuming the village beneath me. With the assurance only a dream can bring, I knew that it was dragon fire.

I stood watching for a few minutes, and was just about to turn and leave, when a whistling shriek tore at my ears. I looked up, and a blue flash blinded me. I covered my eyes, but it was over already.

Night Fury!

I turned, and realized that a girl was standing beside me.

She smiled a wolf's smile, and I realized that it was Kenna Nadderslayer.

She took my hand, and led me down through space and time to a little clearing in a dense forest.

We knelt behind a boulder for a second, and then she pushed me out into the open. I stumbled, and when I regained my balance, I was face to face with a Night Fury.

We stared each other down for a few seconds, and then I felt Kenna's hand against mine. She pressed something into it. I looked down, and saw a dagger.

"Do you know how many of your friends this Night Fury killed?" She asked, her poisonous voice seeping through my ears and into my soul. "And the ones he didn't kill directly, he helped other dragons to kill. Think of it, Hiccup!"

I stayed frozen, staring at the downed dragon in front of me.

"Remember Freya?" Kenna asked craftily.

I looked up.

"Freya… I know you remember her. This dragon did it, Hiccup! The poor girl was just beginning to grow. You liked her, didn't you, Hiccup? Didn't she hold you on her lap when you were only two or three years old? Remember how she disappeared? No one ever told you what happened to her, did they? You were too young! You could just imagine. But I assure you that it was worse then your most awful fancy.

And there were others, weren't there?" She leaned closer until she was whispering into my ear. "Weren't there, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third? Does the name Connor ring a bell?"

I wanted to scream at her to stop, and I opened my mouth to do just that. But no sound would come, no matter how I tried.

"Connor – the only friend you ever had, right, Hiccup?"

I wet my lips, still trying to tell her to end her horrible monologue.

"Yesss," she hissed. "Connor. Dead before you were seven years old! And let's see if you remember Erik? You used to look after him. He was the only person who could bring out the nurturing love that was buried inside you. Just a baby when that dragon got to him, wasn't he? Just beginning to crawl? You never met anyone who you loved so, did you?"

I felt tears starting in my eyes. Of course I remembered Erik. The wound his death had dealt my heart had never healed.

"That dragon did it all," she said. "Kill him! Avenge them! He deserves to die!" Her voice ran to a high crescendo. She was spitting out the words like a snake would.

I fell to my knees and crumbled in on myself.

But then, with a flash, we were in a different place. It was the dragon-training arena where my tribe had tried to force me to kill a dragon. And here I was, facing a Monstrous Nightmare, the same knife in my hand.

"Do it!" Kenna hissed.

And then, in another flash, I was holding a Terrible Terror. I just had time to take it in, when I was beside a Nadder.

I found my voice then. "Stop," I cried. "Please, stop it!"

In another flash, I was facing the same Night Fury. I turned my face away, and I felt tears running down my cheeks.

But then I realized that I was in my own room, looking at Toothless, sobbing for no apparent reason into thin air.

I drew a deep breath and leaned against Toothless' side, but I couldn't stop the tears from flooding from my eyes. I had suppressed the memory of Erik, buried all my pain deep, deep down. But Kenna was right. A Night Fury had been with the attacking dragons that day that Freya had vanished. And a Night Fury had demolished the house that Connor had been staying in.

A Night Fury….

A Night Fury had saved my life countless times. A Night Fury had kept the whole tribe from being wiped out. If the Night Fury hadn't been there, many, many more Vikings would've died. Toothless had paid his debt.

I rolled over and fell into happier dreams.

Another filler chapter... and sort of a backstory bit... and ... Idk... should I have cut it?