The bright blue sky of a clear day of winter was showing its first rays of orange-pink-ish ink by the time Hiccup had given up finding Toothless here. The awe of such different babies, the regret of not having a sketchbook and a pencil attached to her on all times to take notes, both had disappeared hours ago. It was a rather large space to cover on foot- well, human foot. If or whenever the tide goes up, these dragons would need to fleet somewhere else and not all, but most she doubted most breeds would be able to carry all their babies in the air, and not all would be able to fly so soon.
There was so much she wanted to write down, the subtle or extreme differences between each breed on growing, reproduction, developing, some barely seemed like their parents, it was amazing. But the fact Toothless was not here just made her apprehensive. Where could her dragon be, if not here?
"Hookfang?", it was the red-scaled Monstruous Nightmare that hang out with her cousin, Snotlout. About four cat-sized dragons looking just like him were playing around his wings, the large, long-neck dragon was chilling, recognizing the girl and greeting her in its own way.
But aren't you a male?
A buff of smoke brushed her skin as an equally large, long-neck and horned dragon answered her question. It was another Monstruous Nightmare, had red-ish scales on her extremities, though her back and fair share of wings were covered in a purple-color skin. I'm sure I've seen you somewhere… Although, mother or father, Hookfang seemed just as okay with the cubs, even if he let them aside to get up and greet Hiccup properly.
"Stormfly?", the usual ragged roar from the Nadder was heard not so distant, as three small ones surrounded her. "Oh and look at you guys all… Happy and together", the cubs were fairly larger than Hookfang's, even if Monstruous Nightmares were fairly larger than Deadly Nadders. Maybe their lifespan is different? Or maybe they grow differently? She couldn't know, and Stormfly's babies didn't give her room for thinking as their pushed her hand to demand scratches and pettings. Just like their mother, they had a horn on the center of their face, right above their nostrils, and a crown of pointy horns on the back of their head, but while most grown Nadders had these looking like pointy teeth outside their mouths, Hiccup noticed how these babies' horns could barely cut food, even less someone's skin.
"Who knew you were off to celebrate your own sort of… Holiday", Hiccup said, chuckling over the three Nadders fighting with each other for her attention, then going off to play together. Yeah, it might not be Snoggletog, but… It was their Snoggletog. And nobody could come here, she had to go home. They must be worried, given she just left attached to a Gronckle's face with no idea where she was going.
Hookfang growled an agreement behind her, and she turned, smiling, and stroking his horn, "so what do you say?", the dragon got up entirely. "Think you can give me a ride back home?", then she scratched the place she knew this dragon adored. He was quite a sweetheart, even with a refusal to follow his rider's orders out of pure spite. But he did lower his neck so she could hop on.
"I'll see you all back on Berk when you're good and ready, okay, gang?", she turned to no dragon in particular, given most of them were staying back with humans anyway. However, as soon as the Monstruous Nightmare took higher flight, various adult dragons started flying too, agitating the younglings and other dragons to move on. "Oh, no, no, no, no", but they didn't hear and motioned to follow them. I think I just… Uh… Started the returning migration…
But the cubs were not ready.
All standing in the tip of a cliff, a strong chain of wind and they'd be pushed back to ground, and these were only the ones able to even get off the ground. Some of them couldn't even flap their wings yet. No, this isn't going to work…
Then it clicked. There was no way in and out by land nor by sea, right, but it didn't stop Vikings from attempting and failing miserably, as the numerous parts of old ships implied, so she asked Hookfang to help her find them. She'd stay the night if necessary, but had to at least try her idea, right?
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Okay, now he had to give up.
Stoick was sure he did his best, but he had to admit it now. Snoggletog was officially ruined. People were sad, and that could be fixed with time, but houses were destroyed, panic reigned, random blows of fire appeared in numerous huts and over half the public decoration had been burnt or broken, and when he asked his son-in-law, the teen, standing in the middle of chaos while his friends laughed or just stared, apologizing to nobody and everybody, just looked at him saying, simply "the eggs explode", as if that meant anything.
Though it did.
As soon as the chaos got diminished, when the explosions ceased and the fires were put down, the Berkian's Chief managed to get them calm as the known young group of previous heroes explained what happened.
On one side, now they knew why their dragons had left. On the other, not only his daughter was missing, but half the village got destroyed, they were left with baby dragons without their mother and the festivities had been put to an end.
But he couldn't just sigh and forget it, could he? No, as their Chief, Stoick organized emergency settings. It would be far from the first time Berk had suffer a random attack, and now all light before night fall would be optimized. Those whose houses were destroyed had to be placed on the great hall, the fire would have to be taken care of to warm them on this upcoming night and every working hand had to be put to work.
The man sighed.
"Gobber, this is a disaster", he vented to his friend. People might know why their dragons left now, but the gloominess was still in the air.
"Oh, it's not so bad", Gobber replied. It was always like this. Gobber was smart, of course, but it was always this way. Stoick would state the negative facts, see the broken side, Gobber would be the optimistic one, or the humorous one, the strength needed for the Chief to calculate the repairments. But it wouldn't work right now. There was nearly no bright side.
"Not so bad? The village is destroyed, the dragons left- let's face it", he continued, walking across the crowd, who had suddenly stopped their tracks for whatever reason. "This holiday is a complete- what are these people looking?", everyone had stop to look up, as if the northern lights, as pretty as they were, were enough to get them all stunned and awestruck with surprise, but then he looked up too.
"What is that?".
It was a wave of numerous dragon, flying too close than they generally would, all holding on a much bigger dragon… No, not a much bigger dragon, not a real one, at least, but a wood-made dragon face, like those they'd place on the tip of their ships.
"It's Hiccup".
Indeed, riding the Monstruous Nightmare on front, guiding the group of dragons, was Hiccup. Yet another unthinkable, absurd sight made possible by Hiccup. How this kid could pull that kind of stuff was beyond him.
"And our dragons".
They dropped half a battleship on the limits of the village, ice breaking and snow scattering with the impact. The dragons who were holding onto it let go, seeming free and landing haphazardly around the ship, who leaned on a side, showing dozens and dozens of the tiniest dragons he'd ever seen in his life. Come to think about it, Stoick realized two things.
He had never seen a dragon cub before and there were no registers of raids occurring on Snoggletog. Might have been just a blessing from up above, but apparently, it had been their own tradition.
The crowd cheered Hiccup and ran to welcome their dragons, an affectionate impact of Vikings and dragons as they'd both run to face each other on hugs rather than turn it into a battlefield.
Looks like you've saved us once again, kid. Stoick held his daughter tight and high as if she was still the toddler he managed to raise on his own. Turns out the holiday could not be ruined after all. The food had been kept and, ruined roofs or not, this night held no signs of precipitations, the dragons could keep everyone warm with controlled fire and warm skin.
Berk's Chief called everyone into the Great Hall, the biggest and oldest of constructions, thankfully left intact by the eggs' explosion, still decorated, and beautifully illuminated with Snoggletog characteristic lanterns.
"We've finally got something to celebrate", and he meant it this time.
