Chapter 24: Dreams of Another Time

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I stood at the edge of the platform that supported the village Elder's small home, listlessly staring off at the town far below. The normally vibrant colors of the buildings were faded, almost lacking any color, yet the surrounding forest seemed to almost glow a vibrant green. The shine contrasted greatly from the dulled violent sky and the perfectly still ocean beyond it. The complete lack of any life on the usually bustling island only added to the unnatural scene.

How long I had been merely standing there taking in the strange view, I wasn't sure, nor did I know how I had ended up at Gothi's home. There seemed to be a logical explanation on the fringes of my mind but whenever my train of thought ventured there some pressure seemed to repel me away and I was left with an all but empty mind.

'I saved you. Again,' came a familiar toneless voice from behind me.

Merely turning my head towards the voice felt like it had taken all my strength, an effort seemingly wasted as all I saw was an empty porch. After a second of looking at nothing I returned my gaze back ahead, and as I did so I caught glimpse of some sort of glow off next to me. My attention was pulled to it, which wasn't really all that much with my clouded mind, and I came to see the same featureless figure from the dream the night before; it was standing idly while staring off in the same direction I had been. A few seconds of gazing was all it took, though, to notice it had changed slightly since the last time I had seen it.

Unlike before when it vaguely looked human in shape, it now had a clear and defined shape; the edges of its body no longer fuzzy and unfocused. With said clearer appearance, it looked not all that different in size and proportion to an average man, the only unique feature—baring the fact its body consisted entirely of some ethereal white glow—was its height; well over six feet, at least according to my muddled mind. It even seemed to have hair that waved lightly in a nonexistent breeze, almost as if being blown by a force coming of the being itself.

All together it was a surreal sight.

Though my mind was still mostly focused on simply looking at the being before me, I found myself being compelled to answer its question despite not consciously wanting to do so.

"What do you mean?"

The question, though reflective of my own wonderings, felt oddly stilted. Surely, I thought, in the situation I was in I would have more to say, and I did, but found it impossible to voice them. It was hard enough to think at all.

'The tree.' it replied, the voice coming out sounding disinterested in what it was saying. 'I stopped it… from crushing you.' It seemed to struggle with piecing together a longer sentence, but it had at least dropped the stunted way of speaking it had previously.

"I thought it missed me," I remarked with a tinge of surprise, but the more I recalled what happened the surer I was that it should've struck me. The memory, while still fragmented, had the massive pine coming down right on me, not nearby.

'It wouldn't have. I sensed the threat. Tried to push it… away. Almost failed,' it turned its head to face me. 'You are too weak,' it stated bluntly.

I frowned at the unexpected insult, and though I had half the mind to quip back I still found my mind still limited it what it was allowed to say.

"How so?" I was at least able to convey my mild offense with a slightly passive aggressive tone.

It turned to fully face me, looking down due to its taller stature with its eyeless stare. 'If you were stronger… I wouldn't… have almost failed,' it struggled to explain. 'I rely on… your pathways. They are weak. Opened finally… but weak. Cannot handle… my Will. Makes it… difficult to use. Circumstances are… unfortunate. But manageable.'

Unfortunate is an understatement. I managed to think, but not say.

My frown gave way to a confused look when I fully possessed what it had said. "They're open?"

The revelation of the fact caused my stunted mind to fill in some of the gaps on recent mysteries, pertaining mostly to how an open flesh wound in my chest turned to scars seemingly instantaneously, as well as the recent rise in my energy and alertness.

'The dragon's plan worked. In a way. Before you died… your pathways… opened slightly,' it paused for a second as it leaned towards me, and though it lacked any facial features I had a feeling it bore a dark look. 'But you gave up. And then you died.' it sounded almost angry, but without the aid of a face its level voice left much up to interpretation. 'I resuscitated you. The shock opened them… completely… but they are still… very weak.'

I had a hunch before as to what the figure was supposed to be, and with what it had said I felt little doubt in my first guess. The only question left was how it was speaking with me as I was fairly certain what was happening wasn't some simple dream.

'You need to… strengthen them. They must be… in order to succeed.' it continued in its toneless voice during my small revelation. 'You must go back… to her. Little time to waste.'

For whatever reason, that single comment seemed to blow away the fog in my mind, and I was finally able to think more clearly. Unfortunately, the first unburdened thought to enter my head was an unwanted repeat of the incident with the mentioned dragon, and the memory caused a deep chill to set into me.

A small voice in my head said that what the being was ordering was likely the best thing to do—assuming what the dragon had told me was to be considered truthful that is—but with fresh memories of an animal, one that seemed to embody the very definition of an apex predator, pinning me down with death in its eyes and blinding fire in its maw was far too great an emotional impact for the little voice to compete against.

I was surprised I hadn't lost my composure then a there at the thoughts. Instead I merely stared back at the being with an uneasy gaze before turning away from it and looking ahead; the view of the otherworldly Berk far more comforting to look at then a white, faceless being.

It seemed to notice my discomfort and receded back to its original position, and though I could only really distinguish the slight indentation where eyes should've been, I could nonetheless still feel its displeased glare on me. 'Your emotions control you. They prevent you from… thinking correctly. Perhaps you simply… don't understand… what is to come.'

It disappeared from where it stood, fading almost instantly without a sound, along with all of my surroundings, and I was left standing in a formless world before it spoke again.

'You have already… seen the signs.'

I was a suddenly standing in a street in Berk I recognized as being the busiest during the day, and the view in front of me consisted solely of two dragons: a small yellow-green Nadder and a massive beetle-like dragon that I didn't know the name of; the ladder of which was tearing its claws into the other with no restraint.

A feeling of déjà vu kicked in before quickly being replaced with remembrance at what I was seeing. It was the brutal altercation I had witnessed when first being introduced to the village that I had all but forgotten. The vision altered to show the other three vicious fights between wild dragons I had not personally seen; each foreign memory flashing in quick succession and growing in violence and intensity until the final vision had four dragons beaten and torn beyond recognition and all but dead. I felt the urge to turn away and empty my stomach, but since I was dreaming the urge was all but mental as my body showed little reaction to the grotesque sight of the mangled bodies.

'They grow irritated with… each day that passes. Soon they will not… leave survivors.'

The view shifted in front of me; the passage of time seeming to speed up momentarily. Days seemed to pass in an instant as my surroundings morphed into a view from the steps of the Great Hall.

The sky came into focus, still retaining the strange violet glow, and was soon after consumed in dark churning clouds. Thunder erupted from above as lightning split the sky, and rain barreled from the now swirling gray mass flowing like a waterfall. The buildings nearby strained in the howling wind, some of the taller ones seeming to bend to impossible angles yet remaining erect. And as quick as the storm appeared, it was gone; retreating swiftly into the distance and leaving behind a messy, but overall undamaged village.

It wasn't hard to remember that particularly unusual storm that had occurred a few days prior, leaving in its wake a visibly surprised and confused island of Vikings, but seeing as they had all shrugged it off I had assumed it was normal weather for the region. At the time I had compared it to the sudden and quick summer thunderstorms back home, even though the one that had occurred on Berk felt a bit too fast and severe to be normal.

'The storms wander… from their source. And they grow stronger. More dangerous.'

Before I could even interpret what it meant, the view changed once again, and I was back standing on the balcony of Gothi's home overlooking the village. Something in the back of my mind seemed to know what would happen next, and true to its suspicions, the ground far below suddenly and violently contorted, the land itself seeming to cave in on itself before rebounding before an earth-rattling quake shook the town relentlessly. I remained unaffected from my perch above it all, and watched in dread as some of the structures dotting the village collapsed from the quake and large fissures large enough to swallow a man whole ripped their way throughout the village.

'And the unnatural happened. Such events… rarely occur here. This was… tame to what could be.'

And once more time seemed to accelerate; night and day passing in seconds as the village below rebounded from disaster only to be knocked down again from forces that happened too quickly to see. Then, when things slowed, the view was that of utter destruction.

The village laid in ruin, only the foundations of homes and whatever remained of the larger structures dotting the landscape as what looked like a hurricane revenged the island; trees and debris being ripped from the ground and tossed along in the fierce wind like dust in a light breeze. The rest of the island itself looked to be in as much pieces as the town it supported, the once towering spires of mountains reduced to crumbling mounds and the once single island looking more like several barely held together.

'And then it ends,' the voice said with finality.

There was a flash on the horizon; bright enough to pierce the storm and cast the island in a pure white glow. It subsided slightly, but remained a glowing light that would have challenged the sun on the horizon before its intensity slowly grew once more. There was a force that slammed into the island, a shockwave that finished the already crumbled land as it fell away into the ocean along with whatever remained of the village moments before the world was consumed in a fiery light.

And then there was nothing but black, the being once again visible but standing further away than before.

'It is coming. When, I am unsure. But soon,' Its voice echoed from the void. 'You must prepare.'

The string of visions instilled a deep dread in me, and it's closing remark only deepened it. "Prepare?" I barely managed to ask as I turned to it, "You're not telling me I'm supposed to do something about that are you!?"

It only stared back, unresponsive.

I could only stare back in shock. I tried hard to simply deny it all outright—it was too insane to consider more than some fever dream—but for whatever reason I could not view what it was saying as anything more than the truth. My mind reeled from the mere thought of where to even begin in trying to stop what seemed to be some apocalypse, let alone even process how some pilot from Florida was supposed to be well equipped to do so.

"What makes you think I am even remotely able to stop that? You seem to know what you're talking about, why don't you and her just deal with it?"

There was a momentary pause before what sounded almost like a sigh flowed from the blackness around me. 'I am too weak. This bond… limits me. I could barely stop… a tree. Could barely… revive you. And I found it… hard to influence… the other dragon… to keep your secret. Such simple things… yet made so difficult.'

The other dragon? I found myself wondering after its odd remark. Then I remembered the strange reasonings Toothless had for keeping my ability to understand him under wraps. I wasn't sure how to feel about the idea that this thing had altered the dragon's mind, other than that it was wrong on a moral level, but as much as I hated the idea I found myself struggling to disagree with the action, even if I believed it could have been handled differently.

I cared less for those actions, however, when compared to what else it had said. "If this bond is such a damn problem for you, why did you make it in the first place? I definitely didn't ask for it!"

'You would have died… if not for it… when you fell from the Veil.'

"And? Why would you care? You could have just found someone else, someone 'stronger' than me!" While I was internally grateful for being spared from the crash, I still couldn't rack my brain around the reasoning behind the thing. It acted like a computer, one that thought only in terms of logic, and yet I failed to see its logic at all.

'I cannot simply… go out and find… someone else. Most on this island… would give a stone… no mind… or consider its importance.'

I could feel my earlier anxiety being fully replaced with my building irritation. "So, what? You were forced to make do with me? Force me into this mess?"

'That is a reason. Yes,' It replied, seemingly reluctantly, but it also felt like part of a full answer.

"A reason? What are the others?" I could feel my anger rising, fueled by a desperation of wanting to know the reason this thing had pulled me from my life and driving me to stop something far out of my control.

The being merely continued to stare back in silence for a moment before beginning to walk towards me. Each step echoing in the empty void surrounding us. It came to a stop directly in front of me and pointed a finger into my chest; an odd wave of pressure flowing from it to my head where it once again dulled me thoughts and quelled my anger.

'You have questions… I know. But they are not important. What is… is that I can only grow strong… if you grow as well. That is why you… must go back to her.'

Just like the first time it brought the subject up, the mere mention of her was enough to illicit the same memory her—irises mere black lines all but lost in a sea of toxic purple as they glared down on my pinned body—and whatever the thing was doing to me couldn't prevent the associated emotions from coming as well.

Even with the horrible predictions the being made and shown, the events that seemed unreal could not compare to the recent trauma that was all too real. The being was asking me to just turn those thoughts off on the flip of a switch; just pretend it never happened and move on.

I was certain I could move on, in time, but it had only been a day. I needed longer than that.

It once again picked up on my fear, and let out another sigh; this time sounding more exasperated than crestfallen. 'Even still you cannot move on.' it removed its finger from my chest and moved its hand to its mouth; a strangely familiar gesture I couldn't place. 'The human mind is… less resilient… than I thought... it would be.' it said more to itself than to me. 'Trauma forces you… to associate fear… with her. I need to change that.'

It pulled the hand from its mouth and maneuvered it, along with the other hand, to the sides of my head; the same surge-like feeling filling my head like the slow building of static. I was too confused to do anything other than stare back at the being even though there was a building urge to pull away and out of its grip.

'A deeper understanding of them… is what you need.'

There was the sensation of falling that hit me as the void suddenly flashed white before fading back to the foreboding void.

A light filled the darkness, originating not far behind me from where I stood on an uneven rocky floor. Ahead of me, the floor of what I presumed was a cave curved upward before abruptly turning back towards and above me. The cave ceiling had what looked like small puddles of water on it, and as I continued to follow the surface above me something new came into view. Directly above me, lying curled up on the ceiling of all places, was what looked to be a small white dragon, one no bigger than medium sized Great Dane.

Looks like a Night Fury…

The longer I stared at the unusual sight, the more details about its from seemed to appear; most notably being the contrasting black scales on the hindlegs that were visible, and what appeared to be more from on the face of the dragon. My mind made a connection, one I thought not possible, until I slowly remembered what the being had told me before vanishing.

My thoughts were cut short when a new figure emerged from the wall of light that I assumed to be the exit of the cave. It was another Night Fury, one covered in black scales not too dissimilar in shade to Toothless' and tired ice blue eyes that looked to almost shine in the darker light of the cave. It stood idle on the ceiling—of which I was quickly beginning to understand was the true floor of the cave—and slowly padded over the smaller dragon resting deeper within the cave.

The larger dragon stopped in front of the white one, and seemed to consider something before mischievous look grew on its muzzle then proceeding to slowly drag a large wet tongue over the small dragon's face.

The reaction was almost instantaneous; the white dragon letting out a surprised bark before batting away its attack with growl. "Why would you do that!?" the small dragon complained as it tried to rip the adhesive saliva from its face.

The female voice was hauntingly familiar, but there was far too much actual emotion behind the words for it to be truly her. But going off the appearance alone was enough to tell me it was, however impossible the circumstances, and the voice was merely an enforcing factor in the identity. I was only further convinced when the small dragon's eyes blinked open to reveal the same violet eyes that had come to haunt my waking thoughts, though they seemed brighter in some way.

Is this supposed to be some memory of hers? I thought, the idea leaving me feeling in the wrong for what felt like an invasion of privacy. Then again, I wasn't there by choice, I had a hunch I was being purposely shown the memory to prove some point.

The larger dragon, who I came to believe must be her father, let out a small and amused laugh before laying down on his stomach in front of his agitated daughter. "I was afraid you had fallen into a permanent slumber!" he responded with mirth, his voice deep yet calming. "After all, you were in this same spot this morning, and it is almost nightfall," he continued, his tone portraying that there was a point he was making.

The young dragon's annoyance fell off its face and was replaced with an abashed look as she failed to meet her father's gaze. "I-I was only tired. I was not here for long…" she replied, her voice trailing off towards the end as she finally looked her father in the eyes. He returned a no longer amused look of which the white dragon wilted slightly under. "… or maybe I did not leave at all…" she corrected quietly.

The father's look softened as he let out a deep sigh. A second later his eyes were drawing up into his head, and a sickening sound filled the cave before numerous partly digested fish fell from his maw and onto the floor. I had turned away almost immediately at the sight, slightly happy that I still couldn't throw up in a dream or whatever it was I was in.

I didn't need to see that. I thought, shuddering at the sound of eating above me, before I hesitantly looked back towards the scene.

Her father had wrapped himself around his daughter and was lightly grooming her, and though the white dragon looked slightly annoyed, there was still a soft purr escaping her.

"Are you attempting to avoid the others again?" her father asked levelly.

That caught my attention. Hide from the others? I can't imagine her of all dragons being afraid of other dragons.

The young dragon deflated slightly. "Maybe."

Or maybe not…

The black dragon stopped in his cleaning for a moment, letting out a small sigh before continuing. "You cannot hide from yourself forever. Eventually you must face it like all others do,"

"You always make no sense, Sire," she huffed in response, but there was a small bit of humor in her voice. "How can I hide from myself? I am right here!" she added while looking to her father in frustrated confusion.

There was a small grin growing on her father's face as he stared back down at her. "When you let others decide how you should feel, you hide from yourself. You pretend to be something you are not." He brought out a claw and pointed at her chest. "You try to hide what makes you yourself. Do you understand?"

A lot more sentimental than her daughter. I remarked to myself as I watched her look away with a pensive look.

After a few seconds of silence, she spoke up again. "They say I am not a real Fury. That my Dam was not one either," she said dejectedly before looking back to her father with wide earnest eyes. "Are they right with what they say? What was Dam like?"

Her father's grin faltered slightly as a pained look came over him. He'd looked to have aged decades in an instant at some dreaded memory before he composed himself enough to respond to his daughter's inquiry. "Your Dam was…" he started but trailed off, seeming to struggle with how to explain his thoughts.

The still wide-eyed Fury's frills perked up. "Did she have white scales like mine?" she asked in slight excitement at the mere prospect of knowing anything about her.

His child's eagerness seemed to be enough to pull him out of whatever dark place he had thought himself into as he lightly chuckled. "Yes, they were." he replied fondly as he looked off towards the cave entrance as if expecting the other dragon to walk in. "They were purer than the freshest of snowfall and glistened like the lights in the night sky. One would think her a delicate soul with only the kindest thoughts, and they would be half right. She was as fierce as she was kind; quite the contrasting personality." He laughed slightly as he returned his gaze to the white mass he surrounded. "But I suppose that was what drew me to her. It was like a puzzle I wanted to solve. How can one be so vicious in their fighting and hunting and yet so kind and caring the moment after? And why would someone so grounded fall for someone whose head was filled with such ungrounded thoughts."

The older dragons' comments seemed to hint that he was more of a person driven by the solving of mysteries that interested him, which explained to me where his daughter had likely acquired her logical mindset from. The description of her mother, mostly the ferocity mentioned, more clearly stuck out to me as qualities inherited by her daughter than the kinder side.

"Is it true that she was a better hunter than you?" his daughter interrupted, seeming referencing some past conversation.

"You would be too if you could hide your scales from the world with nothing more than fire," her father remarked with a tinge of sarcasm. "Though I admit I used to think too much to be an efficient hunter like she was."

That comment seemed to only further excite the small dragon as she shot up onto her paws and seemed to bounce with energy. "She could do that!? Can I do it too? I have scales like hers, right?"

"Sorry, but you only got my boring old scales," he responded in mock disappointment. His comment caused his daughter to visibly deflate with real disappointment, however. "What use would you have for them anyways? You are far too young to hunt," he asked in response to her now glum demeaner. "You wouldn't want them so you could continue to hide, would you?"

She took a few seconds to respond as she merely stared off at her own scales. "No… I thought it would be fun is all…"

Her father gazed back at her with a small saddened look before he replied. "You could have fun now if you played with the others your age."

"They do not like me," she said with a growl. "Their Dams say I am wrong and that they should not play with me," Her growling came to a sudden stop as she sagged her head slightly. "If Dam were here… she would play with me like the others do."

If her previous comment had saddened her father, the following seemed to all but break the dragon. It almost looked like he was using all his strength to not break down right then in there as he struggled to say anything in response.

He pulled her close to his chest and what looked to be the dragon equivalent of a hug. "I am sorry. I wish she was her too, and I wish I could spend more time with you during the days, but such is a life the Fates did not lay out for us. If you do not believe me when I say things will become better, then have faith in the Fates that they will. You must be strong, and I know you can do that."

There was a prolonged silence in which the two stayed in their embrace before she spoke up. "Sire, can you teach me Will?"

Her father opened his eyes in what looked to be surprise as he looked down on her. "And why would you want to learn it?"

Still facing into her father's chest, she quietly responded. "Because then I could spend more time with you."

Her father did little else than look off with an expression that showed both his sadness at his daughter's loneliness and another look that could only be described as pure cherishing of her presence before he tightly embraced her again.

"Of course." he said simply.

Whatever had been filling the cave with light from outside was gradually beginning to fade, and I could only guess it was because the memory happened near sunset.

"I love you, Sire." the young dragon said wearily as the light all but faded completely.

"I love you too, Dusk." came the tender response from her father.

The cave was now in complete darkness, and whatever heartwarming feeling that had been filling my chest momentarily gave way to confusion at what her father had said. It had called her by a name, but it wasn't the one I had expected.

Was that a different dragon? Or did she…

My thought was interrupting by the cool voice of the being echoing out of the now black void around me. 'Perspective is hopefully… what you needed. I can do… no more. I trust that… you will make… the right choice.'

And with that, I was thrusted out from whatever world I had been held in as my eyes snapped open.

I took in a sharp breath, my lungs feeling as if they had been deprived of air for hours, and as I came fully to my senses I came aware of the blistering headache I had. It felt like a bomb had gone off inside my skull and the shockwaves were propagating down the back of my neck and into the rest of my body. I tried to sit up in hopes of alleviating the pressure in my head, but was met with the tense and sore muscles of my chest and back forcibly working against the movement; the resulting jerk from stopping and the flare of pain added to my building migraine causing a sudden and severe nausea. Against the protest of my beaten body I forced myself to lean over the edge of the cot and empty my stomach onto the floor instead of the sheets.

I stayed in that leaning position for a few seconds gathering my breath and briefly noting that it was sometime in the early morning, and though I had just woken up I felt a wave of exhaustion come over me. Slumping onto my back and bringing a hand to my head, I could feel beads of sweat forming above my unusually warm skin.

Great. I thought as I grimaced from another wave of pain from my chest. Just what I need right now, a fever.

How I had developed one, I wasn't sure. My best guess at the time was that I had been scratched by the falling tree and gotten an infection, but there was a small voice in the back of my throbbing head that felt there was a more obvious reason for the sudden ailment. But its explanation made little sense when compared to my more prominent theory of infection.

This place tends to fly in the face of what makes sense, though. I conceded to myself, albeit a tad reluctantly. The stuff can kill me, who's to say it can't make you sick?

I found myself growing too tired to even think, and with each passing second, I could feel the fever along with its aches and pains increasing with every beat of my already racing heart. My eyes fell like iron doors with little complaint from me. I had rather try and sleep through it and hope it wore off by the end of the day then suffer through it.

I welcomed sleep with open arms, and my feverish dreams were surprisingly void of nightmares or strange beings with prophetic messages and memories that weren't mine.

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A/N:

Remember when I had said I would only have three weeks of spring break? Funny how things turn out. I hope you all are healthy and well and persevering in these difficult times.

Despite the prolonged period of quarantine that I'm sure none of us were expecting, I must be honest and admit that this story has not been at the forefront of my attention during that time. College online was very difficult and more time consuming than it was in person, and even after the semester had ended back in May and I found myself with plenty of free time, most of it was spent with other things. To put it simply, the drive for this story and the franchise has diminished significantly and my priorities in life are ever shifting. I won't say I will be abandoning this story, but I would ask for your continued patience with me.

Been a while since I've thought deeply on the events of the past few chapters, and re-reading this as I proofed really showed an insight into how I thought back in May 2019. Yeah, that's right, this chapter is well over a year old since I first wrote it, and I have a far larger perspective for where the story is going now compared to when I wrote it initially. Hopefully that shows in the writing. And I also hope you forgive me for putting Christopher through the wringer, and unfortunately this isn't the end of his struggling. The man has a lot on his plate after all.

To those who followed and favorited during my absence, you have my thanks, and to those who continue to read as well. Please feel free to drop any thoughts or criticisms in the reviews, it helps improve my writing and storytelling quicker than if I do it on my own!

Until next time.

8-4-20