Hello all!
It's been a little while, I know, But finding the motivation to continue to write is getting harder and harder; ARK is a fun game so I spend quite a bit of time on it, ideas for other stories that I should probably write down so I don't forget, and a lack of reviews... OeshnerC is really my only constant reviewer, and in 10 chapters of RC me and Isaac have gotten 0 reviews (the first doesn't count because that was posted before the story was even started, and the other is by the author... so that one doesn't count either.)
so Please please please review on this story, check out my other stories and vote on my pole for which of my ideas for another story I should pursue.
Also at the end of last chapter this story reached 200 pages in a Google document! this is by far the longest thing I've ever written!
Anyway enjoy!
Chapter 38- 'The North'
(Hiccup's perspective)
We flew around the general area where Norbert had been flung, the fog of Helheims gate didn't help our search.
"I found him." Thuggory called from atop Shipwreck.
We all flew over to where he was as he began to descend
"Wait Wait Wait! You can't fly near him." Avery called
"Why?" Heather asked
"The wind from the Dragons wings could buffet his body, depending on how bad he is it could worsen his condition." Avery explained
"I advise landing away from him." she added
We all began looking for a good place to land… all of us with the exception of Taryn who landed right where she had been flying and leapt off her Changewing and began vaulting and jumping over all the rocks between her and her father.
Unsurprisingly she was the first one of us to reach her father.
"Avery, what do I do?" Taryn called worriedly
"I… I don't know, I'd have to see him." Avery replied in a fearful tone
"Ugg Remind me again why we had to shatter her crown? The chunks are all over the place, It's like a maze!" Heather commented, annoyance clearly heard in her voice. I realized we had lost Thuggory and Heather, the only person by my side was Avery.
"Thug, Heather, have you found them yet?" I called
"No, I'm in a four way intersection but your voices keep echoing so I can't really tell which way to go." Heather admitted
"I'm just passing…"
"Wait Thuggory? You're close! I can hear you!"
"Really?" Alright I'm coming!"
"There you are! Ooouuuuhhhhh…" Thug shouted excitedly before becoming somber, which meant it didn't look good.
Both me and Avery came to this same conclusion, so we put on a burst of speed and continued running.
"Where did you guys go? Did you see any waypoint or Landmark that we could find?" I asked desperately.
"Ummm… I saw the Queens horn right before I found Taryn and… and Norbert." Thuggory told us.
We continued running for a few minutes before we came across the horn.
"Thug we found the horn, which way do we go?"
"Straight Forward. Then a left." he told us.
We followed his directions and found a dead end…
"Uhhh Thug that led us to a dead end." Avery told him
What direction were you coming from when you found the horn?" I asked him.
"Uhhh… I don't know?" he admitted
"Great…" Avery sighed
"You know what, just come back to the horn." he told us.
So we made our way back to the horn.
Once we got there we looked around expecting Thug to have met us here and guide us back to Taryn and her father.
Instead we were in an empty corridor, with the pieces of the queens crown on one side with the horn on the other.
Abruptly, Thug's head popped up from behind the massive horn.
"C'mon climb up." Thuggory said
Avery tried climbing up before realizing she was neither tall enough nor strong enough to make it over the horn.
"Here, Hiccup, lift her up to me." Thuggory suggested
"Yeah that'll wor…" Wait what?!" Avery unwittingly admitted
I myself hesitated to help her up, since the only way I could without her falling due to my lack of strength would be to hold her up by her hips, rear or lower back… all of which were a bit intimate…
"Oh c'mon Hiccup, you'll be doing something similar to Cami soon enough! You might as well practice!" Thuggory chided
My face, neck and cheeks turned bright red. I'm sure if Cami where here she would slap Thuggory.
"Not with me!" Avery shrieked indignantly
"Fine, Hiccup at least let her climb up your back onto the horn, at least at that height I can pull her up the rest of the way." Thuggory suggested
I crouched down as he suggested so she could walk up my back and stand just slightly higher so Thuggory could reach her and pull her up.
When he did so he fell backwards and pulled her with him.
Both Avert and Thuggory disappeared from my sight before I heard a body hitting the ground and then another body landing on top of the first one.
I heard Thuggory groan from acting as a barrier between Avery and the ground.
"get up get up get up get up get up." Taryn repeated frantically.
"Like I said, get the practice when you can." Thuggory quipped while groaning in pain.
"Ah Shut up you, the worst that could have happened to you is your lungs deflating." Avery quipped right back without missing a beat.
"Too bad it wasn't his ego deflating." I faintly heard her mumble.
"I'll go find Heather and Cami, Unless you need me for something?" I called over the horn to them on the other side.
"No no I've got this." Avery said surprisingly confidently.
"Alright then." I said before I began wandering through the maze of dragon debris.
I decided to go straight out from the horn, since the horn was on my left I turned to my right and went down that corridor
The only direction I could go after that was left, so after turning left I took the first right that presented itself, this way I was going in the same general direction.
I actually ended up finding the queen's massive carcase.
On top of the queen I found Heather standing atop her head.
"Oh, hey Hiccup. I'm trying to find where we left the dragons, or where Norbert landed… or where the rest of the Hysterics are." she admitted.
"Well you mind if I help you?" I asked her
"Sure, two pairs of eyes are better than one." she said
I saw her pick up Norberts axe from next to her, she turned and tossed it to me.
"Um…?" I asked curiously
"Use it to climb up, it's a bit steep." she explained
I began to climb up the massive skull, using the axe as an anchor to prevent me from falling.
I made it to the top and stood by Heather as we looked around at the destruction caused. The dust that was kicked up from the queen's body crashing to the ground was still dissipating and the horn and pieces of her crown formed a sort of maze
"There's your timberjack." I pointed out seeing his neck rise above the maze.
He swiveled his head around before his gaze settled on us.
He lifted off and flew towards us. Behind him Toothless, Shipwreck, the Changewing, Nurse and the Thunderdrum rose up and followed him to land by us.
Toothless wasted no time in tackling me to the ground and bathing me in dragon saliva.
"Thor, Toothless you gotta let me breathe." I joked between my own laughter and trying not to choke on Toothless' saliva.
Once I was fully soaked in NightFury saliva Me and Heather mounted up on our respective dragons and flew back to The American Dream III.
When we got there Cami was trying not to panic because of our absence.
"Where were you?!" she shrieked as she leapt and tackled me while I was still sitting on Toothless.
"...and what have you been doing?"
"I've got a similar question to Cami's first, where's my daughter and husband?" Hildegard asked half threateningly.
(Taryn's perspective)
We were in a small circle of pieces of the queen's crown and her horn, my father lay in the middle of it. Avery knelt by his side desperately trying to keep him well. Thuggory was trying to calm me down while I just kept pacing as I felt helpless that I wasn't able to do anything to help.
"What if he doesn't survive?" I asked worriedly
"He will, Avery has healed an angry dragon's wing with no prior knowledge of a dragon's anatomy. She is undoubtedly the best doctor i've ever met."
"That's saying something seeing as he gets in trouble every other minute." Avery quipped
"Hey, I'm not that reckless! I at least make a plan before doing something." he defended
"Yeah, I've heard of your plans and seen some of them, your plans are very reckless."
"They are not!" he retorted
"I remember hearing from Heather how you two met, and I heard from Cami why you were without a shirt, but my memory is bad and I've forgotten, please remind me why you had no shirt on?" Avery asked in a mock innocent old lady voice.
"I… errmmm may or may not have leapt over the side of a boat to attack a sharkworm…"
"Just one?" Avery pushed
"Umm… three?" he said
"Are you answering or asking?" Avery asked with a hidden grin on her face.
"Do I have to answer?" he asked
"Yes, unless you wanna seem like a wimp." she answered
"Well then, Yes I did leap bravely into the water to fight three Sharkworms!" Thuggory declared
"Bravely isn't quite the word I had in mind…" Avery stated
"Yeah well you're not the one telling the story."
"You're right, that also means you have no one to prove you were brave about it." Avery noted
While their bickering was inappropriate for the situation it helped me take my mind off my father and feel better about myself.
I heard flapping and looked up to see Toothless and The Timberjack flying high above us, too high for the wind created by their wings to effect my father.
I assumed Hiccup had found Heather and they were on their way to the boat to let everyone know what happened.
(Hiccup's perspective)
We had made it back to the ship, and Avery had gotten Norbert stable enough for us to quickly carry him to the ship where she and the Hysteric Healers could better treat him.
Norbert laid on his bed while Avery and two other healers fussed all over him. Myself, Taryn, her mother, Thuggory, Heather and Cami stood in the corner of the room simply watching since we were unable to help. Smoulder, Wodensfang and Nurse were the only dragons in the room; Nurse because he would help care for Norbert, and Wodensfang and Smoulder as they did not take up much space. To allow Nurse into the room, part of the roof was torn up, the other dragons all peered in, either from the hole in the roof or the doorway.
"Is he…?" Taryn asked timidly
"...going to be ok? Yes dear." one of the hysteric medics answered in a soothing voice.
"I've seen Vikings survive much worse Dragon attacks." Wodensfang noted.
"Worse than your queen?" I asked
"Errmm… worse in terms of how badly wounded the viking was, not how dangerous the dragon is." he reiterated
It was silent for a little bit, while we just watched the medics rush around the room trying to help Norbert.
"What is the worst you've seen?" Taryn asked breaking the silence
"Are you sure you want to ask about injured vikings right now?" Wodensfang asked cautiously
"Yes, it will help me trust that my father can survive this."
"Well, there was a young boy coincidentally he was also a runt among his peers…"
"So his name was Hiccup?" I asked
"Yes indeed, this Hiccup faced a dragon far larger than the queen, the dragon ended up swallowing the boy whole! From within the giant dragon the boy prevented the massive dragon from breathing fire by blocking its fire holes with the horns of his helmet. When the dragon tried to breathe fire it built up too much pressure and blew up the dragon from the inside." the Wodensfang told us.b(1)
"Wow…" Heather said
"Tell us more?" Taryn begged
"I do recall the same boy confronting another member of the same species, this individual was far larger than the previous, and somehow the young Hiccup managed to frighten the dragon, with nothing but a pair of lobster claws! The dragon was so terrified in fact, that it sacrificed its own life to save the boy from an evil power crazed apothecary."(2)
"... so compared to the queen we just fought, how big was the giant dragon that was frightened by lobster claws?" Taryn asked
"Much larger, the queen lived within a volcano, whereas these dragons are as vast as mountains and as large as entire islands, the largest of the species even blot out the moon!" Wodensfang spoke dramatically.
Because of his dramatic story telling we were all silent in awe of what this boy had survived. However the enrapturing story ended up having the opposite effect, because everyone was so quite following the end of the tale, every single one of us could hear the Healers whispering to each other.
"...it might need to be amputated…"
"I'll get the tourniquet…"
"I'll get the gauze."
Taryns eyes widened
"What?" she asked dangerously and fearfully.
The two healers glanced at each other; neither wanted to repeat what had just been whispered.
Avery looked at the two hesitant healers, sighed and rolled her eyes before she approached us.
"There is no honey, in this scenario, only the hatchet. I'm sorry Taryn, Hildegard. We've done what we can, this is the only other thing we can do."
Taryn moved so fast I didnt even notice what happened until Thuggory was helping Avery stand back up while she massaged her nose.
Thuggory glared daggers at Taryn before Avery raised a hand to calm him down.
"Honestly, if you're the messenger of bad news, you should always be prepared to be hit." Avery stated half sarcastically.
"I ask that you leave the room..." Avery started.
"...It may get messy." she finished
(Taryn's perspective)
"No, I will not be leaving my father." I defied
Avery looked at my mother.
"I will stand by my husband." she stated
"Very well. All I ask is that you stand over there out of the way." Avery said as she pointed to a corner.
The others all left the room, all that remained was myself, my mother, Avery, the two doctors and Nurse.
My mother and I marched over to the intended corner and stood watching the preparations.
One of the healers went to get an ax, the other began mixing more medical herbs and Avery was tying a tourniquet on his arm. She turned around and grabbed a charcoal pencil off a desk.
She turned back to my father and drew a line on his arm, below the tourniquet which was below the elbow. I started to get frightened, though i'd never admit to that; I knew what that line meant.
The Medic returned with the ax and the three medics gathered around Norbert.
They seemed to be at a loss as to how to proceed as they kept glancing at each other then down at the ax resting on the table.
"Is there a problem?" My mother politely asked
"None of us are very experienced with the ax, normally we'd have Norbert do this, but as he is… comatose we don't have anyone to make the amputation." one said.
"That's not necessarily true. Thuggory is a fine axman and could make the cut, provided we tell him where to cut." Avery explained
My mother nodded her permission for Thuggory to carry out the amputation.
Avery turned and went outside to get Thuggory.
A couple moments later Avery returned with Thuggory behind her.
The two medics moved away from Norbert so Avery and Thuggory could approach.
Thuggory walked over to the table slowly and picked up the axe and examined it.
I realized now that the axe that was to be used was my Fathers axe, Heather or Hiccup must have found it and brought it back.
"Will Norbert be offended if I use the gold side?" he asked
"They're both just as sharp, the black side is made to look dull and used. But yes he'd be offended if you dishonored the gold side by stripping it of its purity" I explained shakily
Thuggory nodded and turned it so the gold side was facing him.
Avery then had Nurse coil his tails around my fathers legs and arms to restrain him from injuring himself. Smoulder was let in to heat the blade before he flew back out to sit with the others.
Thuggory raised the blade and began to bring it down.
"Wait!" I shouted as I jumped forward.
He halted the blade just before it touched my fathers skin.
"Isn't there anything else we can do?!" I begged
"We've tried everything." Avery answered in a soothing tone.
Her tone did nothing to calm my fraut nerves.
"What if cutting it gives him an infection?!" I asked desperately
I didn't know how infections worked, all I knew is they needed access to the inside of your body via an injury.
"We are here to cauterize the wound immediately after." The medic said calmingly
"What if Thuggory does it wrong, what if he cuts too short, or too long, or on an angle?" I pleaded
"He's our finest axman at the moment, anyone else would be bound to make the situation worse." the other medic mentioned
"Well… Well what if he can't carry his grandchildren?" I tried again
"You'd give your father and I grandchildren?" my mother asked skeptically with a raised eyebrow.
"Err… well… what I meant was…" I tried to answer
"Theoretically?" Avery supplied
"Yes, yes! That's it, that's exactly it." I shouted.
"Darling are you ok?" my mother asked
"No! I'm not ok, why would I be ok? I'm watching my father have his dominant arm amputated and he's barely 45, it won't be the same… nothing ever is…" I shouted, my little rant started out fiery and aggressive and slowly became sad and depressed.
"Nurse could you calm her down?" Avery asked
"Whats your dragon gonna do, is it gonna sing me a lullaby, 'sweet dreams from aunty Nurse dragon…'" I spat my words
That is until I literally spat out dragon saliva.
"Ugg…" I exclaimed in disgust before Nurse's tongue scratched against my face again. I became so disgusted with the dragon that I completely forgot about the reason I was so worked up.
I heard a thunk followed by:
"There, done." Thuggory said somberly
I was confused as to why he was somber until I looked over and found the three medical professionals tending my father.
The dragon licks had effectively distracted me from the amputation.
I looked at the bed, it was soaked in my fathers blood, a majority of it on the side where his right arm once had been.
Everyone was eyeing me trying to gauge my reaction.
I huffed to seem strong before I sniffled and whimpered and left the room embarrassed.
"How is…" Hiccup started
"Fine." I interrupted snappily.
I went and sat in the prow of the ship, leaned my head back against the railing and closed my eyes.
It was silent for a moment before I heard the creaking of the wooden boards and the foot steps causing stress on said boards.
I opened my eyes to see the dragon riders and the dragons standing behind them.
"You wanna talk?" Hiccup asked
I shook my head.
"You want us to leave?" Avery asked
I was about to nod before I stopped myself and thought about it. Really thought about it.
"No, just sit." I asked.
They obliged and just sat next to me.
The dragons approached as well; Shipwreck laid his head on Thuggory's knee where Thug scratched the top of his head, Toothless butted his head gently into Hiccups chest for similar attention, Smoulder lited on Cami's shoulder and nuzzled her chin with his head, Nurse lifted Avery with his tails and laid on his side with Avery sitting protected in his wings, the Changewing and the Thunderdrum came over and nuzzled me, and Heather's Timberjack concealed all of us beneath his titanic wings.
Sheltered beneath scales and friendship I silently cried myself to sleep.
(Hiccup's perspective)
"Y'know what I just realized?" I quietly asked suddenly
"What?" Thug asked
"We still haven't asked anyone about Vidar and Tyr" I revealed
"With Norbert comatose, that will prove to be difficult." Avery added
"Do you know how long he'll be out, or if you can wake him up?" Heather asked
"No, one of the other medics gave him the anesthetic, without knowing the dose they gave I can only guess, and it won't even be an educated one." Avery explained
Taryn groaned in her sleep and we all immediately stopped talking and glanced at her to see if she would awake.
She seemed to settle back down and snuggled further into the Changewing and the Thunderdrum.
"Should we ask Hildegard?" Thuggory whispered.
"I guess so." Heather agreed.
I stood up and slipped under the Timberjacks wing and out into the sunlight.
I glanced around the ship as my eyes adjusted to the change in light and began searching for Hildegard, I soon found her in the cabin with her husband.
I knocked on the door post to announce my presence so that I would not walk in at an inopportune time.
"Have you ever watched as the closest person you have could be on the verge of death and you'd never know?" she asked softly
"Fortunately or unfortunately not." I answered
"What do you mean?" she asked inquisitive
"Fortunately for everyone around me as they haven't heard my panicking tone. Unfortunately for me because I can't understand how someone in your situation is feeling right now." I explained subtly trying to lighten the mood.
She gave a sad smile and said "you're a good kid Hiccup."
It was silent for several somber seconds before I spoke up.
"Before we arrived, we were trying to find a man, our only lead were two gods he worshipped that we had never heard of, we assumed since the Hysterics travel so often that you may know of Vidar and Tyr?" I explained
"Hmmm… I believe both were based in the North, if you were to ask me which tribe exactly I couldn't tell you." she answered
"Is there anyone on board that might know?" I asked
She glanced at Norbert before shaking her head.
I understand what that meant, it meant that Norbert would know but since he is not awake he can't tell us.
"You should continue your search, I assume it's important if you revealed your dragons to us." she stated.
"You won't need us? Avery to care for Norbert, and the rest of us to handle the dragons and Taryn? I asked
"We have medics aboard, and only two of our crew have dragons." she replied
And Taryn will find some way to sate her boredom by bothering me in some way." she joked
"Thank you." I said
I went to leave before I stopped and turned to face her.
"Not to sound weird or anything, but if she wants and with your permission Taryn could come with us." I offered
"Have you asked her?"
"No, I thought there'd be no point in asking if you won't permit it." I explained
"I can't permit it if I don't know whether she wants to go or not." she retorted cheekily
"Let's say she did say yes, I'm not saying she will but what if she did?" I asked
"Watch yourself Hiccup, the last time you asked a theoretical question my husband was incompacitated for the entire rest of the day." she joked warningly
"Don't worry I have no reason to break your husband." I said
"I'll go ask her when she wakes up, until then we'll begin packing." I said before I opened the door and stepped out onto the main deck.
I approached the 'Timberjack tent' and crawled under.
"We'll be heading north." I told everyone. "We should begin packing." I advised
"How far north?" Avery asked?
"Norbert would be the only person to know, all Hildegard knows is that they were both worshipped in the north." I explained.
"Uuggg… I'll have to ask them for blankets and coats, because I am not gonna deal with four cases of Hypothermia." Avery grumbled.
"We have fire breathing dragons Avery, I'm sure we'll be fine." Thuggory tried to calm her
"...And it's colder where it's higher, and flying at certain speeds can make the wind even colder. So no, we won't be fine." she bit back.
Thuggory opened his mouth to try and calm her down once again before she interrupted
"And on top of that, your dragon is tidal class, meaning his scales need to be hydrated, which means he'll probably dive under water, possibly with you on his back. Do you know how cold that water will be?!" she snapped at him.
"Your nose will turn red, your teeth will start chattering, you'll be shivering, your fingers and hands will become numb, and if they get too numb you risk falling off Shipwreck and either splitting your skull on a piece of ice or drowning in the frigid waters below!" she added furiously.
Thuggory shut his mouth to prevent Avery from getting even more anxious.
She swept her disheveled hair behind her shoulder before stomping out of the 'tent', presumably to ask for blankets and coats.
We all just stared in shock at Avery's sudden departure.
"Uggg… what war party boarded our ship?" Taryn groaned as she got up.
"The one thats out to remove all danger from living." Heather remarked.
"She means well." I corrected
"What'd I miss?" Taryn asked.
"Well, we must be leaving soon, and we should start packing."
"Good, you'll be out of my hair." she joked.
"That is if you decided to stay…" I added
"What do you mean?" she asked
"I'm sure we'd be glad if you joined us, if you want to that is." I explained
"... I'm not really sure what to say?" she answered after a moment.
She didn't sound excited, more hesitant.
"Say yes?" Thuggory suggested.
"I like you guys, I honestly can't deny it. But I have an obligation to my friends and my family, I'm sorry." she explained.
"Just know the invitation is always open." I told her.
Thanks for understanding guys." she said.
"It's what friends do." Cami answered
And for once, Taryn did not look sad at the mention of friends.
We flew through the air after having left the Hysterics on their ship about 3 hours ago. We were flying north and were looking for somewhere to set up camp.
We had come across this strange fort that was all dismantled and had giant spikes of what looked to be ice protruding from it.
"Is that ice?" Thuggory asked
"I think so, but ice does not form like that naturally, at least not to my knowledge." I responded
We all flew in to get a closer look.
"Perhaps a Doomfang lives in the area?" the Wodensfang suggested.(3)
"A what?" Heather asked
"A Doomfang, a Giant sea Dragon that breathes unique blue flames that causes the opponent to freeze on the spot." the Wodensfang answered.
"Are they dangerous?" Avery asked worriedly
"Not exactly, the only time I've heard of one being particularly aggressive is when one was affected by Venomous Vorpent venom and attacked a village for the cure in the form of a potato." he explained
"A giant blue freezing fire spitting seadragon attacked an entire village? For a potato?" Cami asked incredulously.
"According to what I heard, yes." he answered
"Talk about overkill…" Avery muttered.
"Yeah no kidding." Thuggory added
"Could this be the Village that had the potato?" Heather asked.
"Perhaps?" The Wodensfang answered
We all landed on a flat piece of ice near the top of the spike wall.
Toothless sniffed the piece of ice and had a peculiar reaction. He looked up and began sniffing the air before wrapping his wings around me protectively.
After a minute of protesting he finally let me go.
I began helping the others set up camp since I was being held captive for the last minute or so.
We set up the tent and our sleeping bags, we grabbed the blankets and coats Avery had requested and 'wore the coats, while in the sleeping bag, with a blanket over us and each of our dragons wrapped around us' per Avery's orders.
After just talking about what we hoped to find and what that 'ice spike structure' could be, we all slowly drifted off to sleep.
When we woke up, the dragons were on edge.
As soon as we all stood up, the dragons got up and rushed to the edge of the flat bit of ice we'd made our base atop and glared down at the shattered base below.
"Hey bud everything ok?" I asked Toothless.
"Is it the Doomfang?" Heather asked
"No. dragon trappers." the Wodensfang answered
No wonder the dragons were acting so weirdly
We all crawled to the edge of the ice plateau and peered down at the base.
There was a strange boat, with two blue sails that were connected at the front and spread out to the sides and back, unlike any viking boat I'd seen; on every Boat I've seen the sails are placed parallel together, in front or behind each other. The strange boat had docked at a small pier that jutted out from about the center of where the base had once been.
"This must be their base." I noticed
"We should leave, we clearly won't be welcome here." Avery suggested
"I have to agree with Avery, the Dragons won't like the Hunters and the Hunters will try and harm us and the Dragon's much like Berk reacted."
"I'm sure we can take them." Thuggory disagreed
"We have a Night fury. What could go wrong?" Cami asked
"Hiccup the decision is up to you." Wodensfang pressured gently
"Toothless what do you think?" I asked
He growled down at the soldiers before turning to me and nodded with a confident look on his face.
We learned Avery and Heather have great intuition.
We had been bombarding the remnants of the base for only a few minutes and the trappers had already readied giant versions of Taryn's crossbow, similar to the Mangler they fired nets instead of actual arrows.
Heather had already gone down and was fighting on the ground, I also saw Thuggory dive down to help her.
Cami also leapt down and started to fight on the ground. This left me and Avery still in the air.
"I told you this was a bad idea." she scolded as she looped over another net shot her way.
Then a giant metal chain launched at her.
Nurse grabbed it in his tails and ripped the base of it from the contraption that fired it.
In doing so he was not concentrating on the net that entangled him and caused him to plummet with the chain still in his tails.
They crashed to the ground pretty heavily.
"Dragon riders? I thought there was just one?" one of the hunters asked a man who I assumed was their captain.
"Does that seem important?" the captain asked as he gestured at Toothless and me who still hadn't been captured.
"We are looking for Dargo or Oswald." I declared
The captain began to laugh.
"One, his name is Drago… two, you weren't looking when you raided our base… and Three, if you come down we'll bring you to Drago." the Captain said
"You will bring Drago, or Oswald here." I demanded
"You aren't exactly in the place to make demands." the captain threatened
"And who are you that you are in that place?" I asked.
"Forgive me, I am Eret, son of Eret, greatest dragon trapper alive, especially since I'll be bringing Drago a Nightfury."
"You can't possibly be considering this?!" Avery shrieked
"As long as no harm is to come to my team or our dragons." I bartered.
"Again I don't believe you are in a position to barter, but I'll humor you." Eret son of Eret agreed.
My friends didn't have swords and spears at their necks but weren't totally released.
Me and Toothless gently landed in front of Eret son of Eret. his crew ushered us into cages aboard the boat.
"Today is full of surprises, first our base is destroyed then we are attacked, then we are surrendered a Night Fury after discovering there are more dragon riders." one of the crew admitted to one of the other crew members.
"Next thing you know Erets father wasn't named Eret." his companion jokes.
"I can't believe you 'let' yourself be captured." Avery raged at me.
"It's the best way to find Drago and Oswald." I explained
"No, I specifically advised against engaging them, what do we do? We engage and get captured." she argued.
"Pipe down in there." one of the crew mates shouts.
Avery stops shouting and instead switches between giving me death glares and refusing to look at me, which is confusing to say the least.
We then began to wait till we were brought to Drago.
(Wodensfang's Perspective)
I was put in a small metal cage, I had no means of escape, not that I was frantic to do so.
I was content to observe the crew, how they worked, how they associated with each other. What motivated them, etcetera. I would however prefer to be free as I observe, that way I am not relying on Hearsay or coincidence. But I must make do.
The crew seemed to be named Teeny, Ug and No-Name. The latter I struggled to comprehend but eventually understood. After approximately one day after being captured a great ruckus began above deck.
"The Dragon rider!" someone shouted.
"Shoot them down!" Eret son of Eret cried.
We could hear and feel the vibrations of the giant net launchers above us firing.
Then we began to smell dragon flames. And more terrifying; we began to hear 'the call'
Toothless and the other dragons in the cage next to me started to get worried, the Timberjack even whimpered.
Flames flashed between the wooden boards above our heads.
The dragons frantically tried to get out to shelter their riders from the flames to no avail.
Then a figure appeared from the stairwell.
They wore brown scales like armor, and bore a strange two sided staff with metal beads in it and a wooden shield. Over certain portions of the armor and shield it was painted a turquoise color. Underneath the armor I caught glimpses of what I assumed was a red cape. Covering their face was a mask with the same color scheme of brown and turquoise, sprouting from the back of the mask were spikes arrayed like that of a Deadly Nadder. Two additional spikes sprouted from the corners of where the wearer's mouth would be, however the mask only had an opening for the eyes.
They slunk forward till they were in front of our cages.
They swung the staff hard enough to shatter the lock on the cage holding the other dragons.
They barged out and rushed past their saviour to the cage holding their riders.
The figure seemed confused that they hadn't immediately left, when they turned to see what the newly freed dragons were doing, they gasped in surprise upon seeing that the dragon trappers had abducted children.
The figure ran over to the children's cage and quickly broke the lock.
They hesitated in leaving the cage.
"The dragons won't hurt you, I promise you that." the figure spoke in a slightly muffled feminine voice.
"That's not what we're worried about." Thuggory said defensively as he and Heather stepped between the figure and the others. The Dragons sensing the Children's unease went on the defensive and placed themselves between the figure and their riders.
The figure gasped once again before murmuring, "...saddles…"
"Please we don't have much time, we must leave." the figure pleaded
"Not until all the dragons are freed." Hiccup said stubbornly.
The others agreed with him.
"Very well. Work fast." the figure ordered
Hiccup rushed out and opened my cage, Cami went straight for Smoulder while the others went to the cages scattered around the hold. Thuggory approached a large glass box that encased a small opaque cloud. before he smashed it and the small cloud floated out.
The others all broke other dragons out and soon all the dragons were freed.
We raced up the stairwell to the top deck behind the strange armored figure.
Once we had only open air above us all the riders leapt on their dragons and shot straight into the sky. Me and Smoulder struggled to keep up, but we managed, surprisingly the cloud followed us.
"Ok, who is that down there." Heather asked getting right to the point
"The Figure is a Female." I stated.
They all looked at me surprised.
"I'm a seer dragon, I observe things." I explained(3)
"Why are the dragons acting weird?" Avery observed as they kept sniffing.
"The woman has the scent of many dragons on her, one of which seems to be an Alpha." I explained(4)
"Which means…?" Cami asked
"Much like how the queen could exert her will onto other dragons the alphas can do the same, albeit in a much higher capacity and in different ways. To all dragons in the vicinity it does not matter how the 'calling' is sent, all that matters is if they are in range of it." I explained (5)
The strange woman approached us as she stood on top of a StormCutter bearing similar colors to its riders armor.
All conversation abruptly stopped.
We all just watched the women with different emotions; Hiccup and I were simply observing her, neither distrustful of her nor trusting her. Cami was guarded. Avery, Heather and Thuggory were more defensive. The ridden dragons were protective.
"Who are you?" Avery asked.
Before the woman could answer Thuggory added
"Are you Drago?"
"No, Drago captures dragons, I prefer to release them. We'll bring you to a safe place."
"Whose we?" Cami asked.
"Myself, Cloudjumper and Glacier." the woman replied.
"And if we don't want to go with you?" Heather asked
"If it comes to that, it's not my decision to make, that's Glaciers." the strange woman replied vaguely.
Suddenly 'the call' became overwhelming.
All of us were forced to follow this strange woman and her gathering of dragons.
As 'the call' grew stronger it was harder and harder to hold on to my consciousness…
(Cami's perspective)
The dragons didn't seem like themselves, no matter what we tried they wouldn't respond, they just followed the strange woman.
I legitimately wondered if this woman was Drago or knew him in such a way to have an almost magical control over the dragons.
She could be Drago, even if she denied it; she could have lied, especially seeing as the only proof she gave was that she frees dragons whereas Drago captures them… she is controlling our dragons and by extension holding us captive. It doesn't exactly prove her different from how she describes Drago.
The woman had been at the front of the swarm but then turned and looped around to fly with us.
"I see you've met Eret." she stated as a way to start a conversation.
"At least he introduced himself." Avery bit back grumpily.
"I'm sorry but I'd rather not bring up my past, too many people left behind, too many hurt feelings." she 'apologized'
Avery scoffed but said nothing else.
"When was the last time your dragons ate?" she asked
"Two days ago." Hiccup admitted, "they might be hungry."
"Good thing Glacier's found a school." the woman said.
Suddenly all the dragons stopped, including ours after the woman held up a halting palm.
"I suggest you hold on." she advised.
Then we heard a splash and water and fish exploded out of the ocean
We all tried to catch a glimpse of the fish explosion but the dragons moved far too fast for us to tell if what we saw was the source of the explosion, a fish, another dragon, the ocean or the sky.
Soon all the fish had either been caught by the flock of dragons or had splashed back into the safety of the ocean.
The source of the explosion still remained a mystery.
Soon we approached a structure similar to the shattered remains of Eret's fort. However this one had stone sea stacks incorporated into its spiky ice walls instead bits of wood.
We were led into a cave near the top that led to the inside of the giant icy dragons nest.
"Welcome to the sanctuary." the woman declared.
Looking around us we were amazed by the amount of dragons that were flying around the inside of this icey base.
Then the woman led us to a ledge in the middle of the sanctuary
We stood over the water and looked down into a pool of water.
Suddenly a large white dragon burst from the water!
It had large white spikes tipped in red sprouting from the back of its head.
And similar to the woman's mask it had two large tusks sprouting from the ends of its mouth.
"Children, meet Glacier." the woman introduced.
So there's the end of this chapter, how'd you all like it?
(1) Homage to the first book by Cressida Cowell
(2) Homage to the final book by Cressida Cowell
(3) Homage to the Fourth book by Cressida Cowell
(4) Wodensfang is originally an elderly Sea Dragonous Giganticus Maximus in the books... In this I'm using him as a sort of semi-Removed Narrator so I decided to make his species reflect his role and Personality.
(5) I Specifically refrained from referring to the alphas as either a class or a species because technically it is neither. a class is something like stoker class, or sharp class. and species is... well what type it is, a Bewilderbeast can be a Bewilderbeast without being an Alpha. so it is neither a Species nor a class.
(6) the different Alphas (or Semi-Alphas) we've seen have different ways of commanding their subjects: The Bewilderbeasts use those little spines on their forehead to transmit their 'call', Toothless and the Queen Roar, I believe other dragons will have different 'Alpha call's (if they become Alphas, I believe any Dragon can become Alpha as long as they prove themselves worthy) for example Thunderdrums are hard of hearing, so if they relied on 'hearing' Toothless or the queens roar... well it'd have no effect, but I think it'd be based on something else.
anyway random question:
"What is the meaning to life, the universe and everything?"