Chapter Twenty-Six
Stoick felt sick. A nauseating feeling was bubbling from his stomach to the back of his throat; vile threatening to spill at any given time. He sat stock still. Quiet.
Astrid and Fishlegs sat on the opposite couch, watching him with worried eyes. Aster and Amanda twitched nervously, flicking their eyes between the two.
"So what you're trying to tell me." Stoick managed to choke out, startling everyone out of their silent musings. "Is that this… Jack." He made a face. "Was- Is raised by dragons, can talk to them, and has some strange infatuation, w-with MY SON!" He finally roared, face red and eyes crazed.
"This Wildman has my son, gods know where! Uncivilized! Dangerous! He could be hurting him! He could-"
"Jack wouldn't hurt him!" Astrid jumped up, face set and determined.
They all watched in rapt attention. Fish legs fidgeted with his hands, ready to step in at any moment.
"Jack isn't an uncivilized wild man! He would never hurt Hiccup!" She huffed furiously.
"What evidence do you have of that?!" Stoick argued back, face red. "How do you know he's not hurtling him as we speak?"
"BECAUSE HE'S SAVED HICCUP BEFORE!" Astrid yelled.
"WHY WOULD HE NEED SAVING IN THE FIRST PALCE!" Stoick yelled back.
Both stood their ground, starring into each other's eyes, daring them to speak.
"Daggur..." Fish legs murmured after a while. Both turned to look at him, Astrid relaxed somewhat and turned to face Stoick once more, eyes ablaze.
"Daggur. He's saved Hiccup from him plenty of times to know he would never do anything to hurt him." She sighed.
"Daggur. I've heard that name before" Amanda finally spoke up, all eyes turned on her, she flushed put kept her eyes on Astrid. "I know for sure I've heard of that name before!" She jumped up.
"We need to go back to the zoo!" She tugged at Aster's arm.
"The zoo? Why?" Fish legs stumbled to him feet, but followed her to the door none the less.
"I know who Daggur is-or more like, I know his father" she mumbled out, heading straight to the door, Aster in tow.
"How do you know his father?!" Stoick questioned.
"I just- just c'mon!" She urged forward.
"Wait! What about Daggur? In case anyone forgot he's still laying unconscious in the back yard!" Astrid pointed to the general direction of the back door.
"Leave him be, he's no danger here" Stoick reassure hurriedly.
"I have many reasons as to why you're wrong, Stoick" Fishlegs turned to face him. "Daggur's crazy. Deranged. We can't just leave him alone, at least tie him to a pole!" He exclaimed. Stoick gave him an exasperated look and shook his head.
"We don't have time for this, leave him be. You said he's Ben knocked out by a rock, it'll be a while before he awakens once more, we don't have more time to waist, now hurry up!" He finished, walking thought the door and signaling to his driver.
Astrid and Fishlegs turned to one another, faces portraying the same expression. Skeptical, worried. They couldn't just leave Daggur alone. He was dangerous, but they needed to know the new information Amanda apparently had. Astrid sighed and motioned to the door.
"Let's just pray the gods nothing happens."
They stumbled about in the forest, Toothless occasionally stopping to mark territory or to scare some poor animal away, usually a rabbit or doe. Jack kept a firm hold on Hiccups hand, fingers intertwined, as be lead him around. Hiccup had no protests about it. He might have known the forest of Berk like to back of his hand, but Jack seemed to know where he was going, so he let him be
Hiccup took the opportunity to watch the back of Jack's snowy white head, contemplating on the recent turn of events, his face felt warm at the memory of the almost kiss to be, but smiled to himself, he squeezed lightly at Jack's hand, who, in turn squeezed back gently back. They continued to walk through the forest until Toothless let out a series of hisses and clicks, jumping in circles and running off again.
"Food near." Jack murmured, guiding Hiccup near a cluster of bushed and crouching down. He tugged at Hiccup and let go of his hand, caressing his face gently and pressing his head to his.
"Wait, here" He breathed out, taking his Staff firmly and bounding after Toothless.
Hiccup watched after him, sitting down comfortably and wrapping his arms around his knees. He watched the ants crawling by, Hiccup felt tired, he assumes he also looked the part. He continued to watch the trail of ants I front of him, eyes far away, wondering what has happened to Astrid and Fishlegs.
On one hand, he didn't have fear for his friend. Well, at least not for Astrid, she knew how to take care of herself. She was clever and would be able to both protect herself and Fishlegs.
He wondered about his dad. Was he okay? A small memory, a vague one, from his semi-conscious state while being held in jacks arms, remembers his father's voice yelling for him. He wondered what his father was doing there. Surely the mayor had no business in a underground illegal dragon fight arena. He huffed, confused.
Jack came thundering through the bushed. In his arms, wrapped in leafs was a bundle of five or so fish, toothless bounded after him, in his mouth a very large deer.
Jack smiled in trumph, holding the bundle for Hiccup to see. Hiccup smiled back, and made move to stand. As he took a step, a twinge of pain shot from his stump to the rest of his body, Hiccup tensed and hissed out a curse, curling into himself, back to the ground. Jack hurried over and held Hiccup gently as he slowly rolled up the end of his trousers, and examined the stump.
Hiccup gasped. The stump was reddened angrily around the edges where the clasp for his leg was. The skin above it littered with black spots of coagulated blood. Hiccup made quick haste removing both the 'foot' and the clasps of leather that held it in place. The skin was irritated, raw, yellow and black at the end of the stump. A strong smell of infection wafted to him. He cursed again.
"What is wrong?" Jack's hand hovered over Hiccup's stump, Hiccup could feel the heat radiating off his amputated leg.
"I think it's infected." Jack looked at him confused. Hiccup sighed and shifted some, jumping as the twinge intensified with his movement.
"Jack, if my stump is infected, I'll get sick." He explained slowly. Jack watched him with a serious expression. "I need a doctor. If we don't take care of it immediately they might have to cut further part of my limb." Hiccup swallowed, flashed flickered in his memory from when he was young and shuddered.
"I don't want to repeat that pain again." Jack dropped the fish next to him and wrapped his strong arms around his shoulders, resting his chin on top of his head.
"Hiccup will be okay." He murmured into his hair. Hiccup smiled and hugged him back.
"Here it is!" Amanda jumped from her hunched position near the cabinets, a maroon color folder in her hands.
"What is that?" Fishlegs approached her.
"Some dental records!" She smiled brightly.
"Dental records? why would you have dental records? Aren't you a zoologist?" Stoick looked at her skeptically.
"I'm a specialist in the hygiene and care of the dragons teeth. Also I used to work in a dentist firm with my parents before, y'know..." She shrugged. "I just kept the records of some of my patients." They all gave her a skeptical looks, except Aster, whom already knew the information.
"Anyways!" She waved the folder in the air. "I have his records, so we may know more about this Daggur."
They cleared a desk and crowded around it. Amanda wiped some of the dust collected over the folder, gingerly opening it. inside were pictures and notes written in messy handwriting, some about teeth and the like. She fiddled around it, looking from paper to paper till she made an excleation of 'AHA!' and pulled out a worn out piece of paper, old and yellow.
"This is Daggur's personal information! Let's see..." She murmured to herself, pinky finger scanning through the paper. "Date of birth, home address, record of missing teeth, Oh my, so many!" She talked under her breath. "It says here his father's name is Oswald. No mothers name." She looked up.
"Oswald?" Stoick looked shocked for a moment.
"You know who this is?" Astrid looked sharply at him.
"Yes! He was one of my old business partners, back in the day. We were very close friends." He mused to himself.
"Wait, wasn't Oswald the one who helped with the construction of the port back at the dragon's island?" Fishlegs eyebrows furrowed.
"Yes he was" Aster cut in. "He sent his cousin Alvin, I think his name was, to supervise the construction over there."
"So that makes Daggur his nephew." Said Astrid.
"Pitch had been getting dragons illegally for his fights for years now." Amanda looked at Stoick.
"So Oswald had been the one in charge of hunting and trafficking dragons illegally!" Stoick gasped.
"With both Alvin's and Pitch's help!" Aster looked around them. "This is serious! We need to arrest this man!" He looked at Stoick.
"That would be impossible."
"What? Why?!" Aster asked appalled.
"Because he's dead. Murdered five years ago." The room became silent.
Astrid, whom had remained silent, watching the floor with a distant look, snapped her head up, eyes wide and far drained from color.
"Daggur." She whispered. "Daggur was sent to the island after a so called 'temper tantrum'" She mumbled furiously. "Daggur murdered his father." she looked at each of them in the eye. Amanda gasped and covered her mouth.
"Oh gods." Fishlegs felt weak in the legs, but stood rigid quickly. "We left a murderer alone!"
"We need to send him to the police! A mental institution! By gods we left him alone!" Stoick's blanched.
They all made a mad scramble to the door, hurrying back to Stoick's home.
Daggur groaned as he finally came to. The back of his head throbbed and his hair was plastered in blood and dirt. He stood on shaky legs and looked around. He stood at the back of Hiccup's home. Memories flared into his mind and he roared furiously. He patted the inside of his pants leg and bummed gratefully. His dagger was still there. Without looking back, he stormed towards the woods. Eyes crazed and anxious to wrapped his hands on anything living. He was blood thirsty.
AN: WOW! New chapter! I'm such a kool Kat! I'd like to dedicate this chapter to Lovepuppy316, she reviewed every single chapter, and her comments made me crack up so bad! So to any question puppy might have as to why I do this to my characters, it's simple. I'm a sadist, muwahahahaha! Please leave a review! The PM system is working again to feel free to send me messages or questions about the story. Also find me on Tumblr, ichigo23-love.