HTTYD Mystery

by Toothlove

Something mysterious happens one night at a special dinner, read to find out.

HTTYD Mystery

So, I have a bit of a thing for mystery stories. As a kid, I used to read the Boxcar Children book series a lot and of course I loved the ever popular game, Among Us, so I wanted to try my hand at writing a mystery story.

For reference, let's say this is soon after the last episode of Race to the Edge.

Also, I feel the need to drop a content warning, this story does contain death and killing.

Enjoy!

It was a warm day on Berk and Hiccup and Toothless had just returned from the market with some groceries and stuff. Hiccup's dad was away on a business trip so he had the house to himself for a little bit.

Hiccup had just sat the stuff on the kitchen counter when suddenly a purple Terrible Terror flies into the window with a note tied to its leg.

Hiccup recognized it as Terror Mail, so he takes the note from the Terror's leg, opens it up and starts reading it. "Huh, well this is interesting." Hiccup comments. Toothless grunts a question, wondering what the note says. "It says this.

'Dear, Mr. Haddock.

You have been formally invited to a special party in your honor for the weekend at Lanston Manor.

You may bring any family members that you wish.

We hope to see you there.'"

Hiccup comments, "Lanston Manor? That's the biggest, fanciest mansion in the archipelago. Wonder why I'm being invited there."

Toothless sniffs the note and grunts as if asking who it's from. Hiccup checks the back of the note and finds it to be blank. "Doesn't say who it's from, bud, but I guess since it's a party in my honor then they'll probably want me to be there." Toothless cocks his head to the side out of skepticism. Hiccup shrugs and says, "Even if this is a trap of some kind, I will have you to help me out. If you don't mind, I'm gonna go pack."

So Hiccup packs enough clothes and supplies that he'd need for the weekend and loads it onto Toothless's saddle before hopping on and using the map provided in the note to help figure out where to go.

They had flown southeast for about an hour and, from the looks of the map, he wasn't too far off. Hiccup glances up from the map for a second and says, "Toothless, look!" He points ahead and sitting on top of a remote island was a single building with red wood all around, 3 stories, and was about as big as all the buildings on Berk combined.

"Oh my Thor, it's magnificent." Hiccup comments as Toothless goes in for a landing. As soon as he had set down, he hears something touch down next to him, looks over and sees Astrid and Stormfly right there. "Astrid?" Hiccup asks.

Astrid looks next to herself in surprise. "Hiccup? What are you doing all the way out here?"

Hiccup replies, "I could ask you the same question. I got a note inviting me to a dinner in my honor."

Astrid's eyes widen. "So did I." She holds up her note.

"That's…odd." Hiccup comments.

"Hiccup? Astrid?" Said another familiar voice as a fat boy on a Gronckle flies in.

"Fishlegs?" Hiccup asks, "Were you invited to a dinner in your honor too?"

"Yeah." Fishlegs replies as he gets off of Meatlug. "At least, that's what I thought."

"Well, this is an interesting surprise." Said another familiar voice as Hiccup looks and sees Mala and Throc walking up from their docked ship. "I take it you three got the invitation too?" Mala asks.

Hiccup nods. "Yeah, we did."

"Hey, now, what's going on with all of this?" Said a man with a very large, black beard.

"Alvin?" Hiccup asks. Toothless then grunts and nudges Hiccup's hand. "I hear you, bud. Something really is going on here."

"Agreed." Astrid comments. "Seems like a lot of us got invited to this 'dinner in our honor.'"

Sure enough, that's when more and more people started showing up. Snotlout, the twins, Dagur, Heather, Atali and Minden, all coming in on their dragons or attached to their dragons in the case of the Wingmaidens.

They all chat for a second to find out that they all, in fact, got the same note inviting them to the mansion. The Berkians, Berserkers, Defenders of the Wing, Outcast and Wingmaidens then hear the large, glass doors open up, revealing a skinny, black haired man wearing a fancy suit who says in an Irish accent, "Welcome, everyone. I am Jorgan, and welcome to Lanston Manner. Please, come on in."

Everyone was skeptical, so Hiccup motioned to Toothless and the other dragons to keep watch as they make their way up the 14 steps and headed inside. As they were entering, Mala says to Jorgan, "Uh, thank you for inviting us here, I suppose."

Jorgan chuckles and shakes his head. "You seem to be mistaken. I am not the host, I am simply a servant, but don't worry, he will be with you all at dinner."

Before Atali and Minden enter, Jorgan stops them saying, "I'm sorry, but dragons are not allowed inside. Host rules." He gestures to the little Razorwhips on their back.

Atali's eyes widen, but she nods. "Oh, alright."

Heather then steps in and says, "Windshear is a Razorwhip too, I'm sure she'd be happy to watch your guys." Windshear grunts in confirmation.

Atali smiles, "Excellent idea, Heather! Thank you, and thank you Windshear." Atali and Minden make their calls and the little Razorwhips fly over to Windshear, but Minden's Razorwhip seems to go down the cliff to Mala's ship.

Minden grunts. "Irontail, come on! *sigh* I'll go get him." and she follows the small dragon down the stairs as the rest of the humans make their way inside.

Once inside, everyone walks in to a massive entranceway with a silver lined staircase leading up to the second floor, a huge, glass chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and at least 4 hallway entrances on each floor.

Once Minden got her dragon with Windshear, she joined the rest inside.

Astrid comments, "My Thor, it's even more amazing on the inside."

Dagur puts his hands to his hips and comments, "This is the sort of place the old me would've killed to have, and it would've been done by now at least."

Tuffnut then says to Ruffnut, "Hey, this place is about as-"

"Big as my head, I get it." Ruffnut says. "Your insults are getting stale, bro, you need to branch out a bit." Tuffnut looks to the ground and kicks at the tile.

Jorgan then stands in front of the crowd and says, "Dinner will be at sundown on the dot. You may head to your rooms to get ready. Be prepared, because it is going to be a…rather fun evening." They all head upstairs to find the room with their name on it, headed in and began to unwind before putting on the formal clothes they brought.

The sun sets into the horizon and the whole mansion is enveloped by the darkness of the night, minus the lights and candles that were turned on inside the building.

Everyone was wearing their formal attire and was standing around the 30 seat dining room table, talking about this so called 'dinner in their honor', waiting for this mysterious host to appear.

Hiccup, who was wearing a black yak fur suit with a red tie that had Toothless's tail symbol on it, says to Astrid, who was wearing a light blue dress with spikes along the waist, "Yeah, it's so weird. We were all told this was a dinner in our honor when that's clearly not the case."

Astrid replies, "I know. Still have no clue who invited us here either."

Hiccup nods. "Well, our dragons are right outside so if things do get hairy, we'll be ready."

Tuffnut, who had on a green suit, nudges Ruffnut, who wore a green scale dress, and says, "Ok, how about this? Ruffnut, you could probably fit-"

"My giant head on that table?" Ruffnut interrupts.

Tuffnut stood speechless for a second before pouting. "Quit ruining my insults!"

On the other side of the table, Mala, who was wearing a dress with an Eruptodon pattern, goes up to Dagur and says, "Um, Dagur?"

Dagur, who had on a purple vest and pants, white shirt and yellow tie and was sipping on a mug of ale, replies, "Yes, my Eruptodon queen?"

Mala takes a deep breath, "T-there's something I've been meaning to tell you."

Dagur gets a look of concern. "You're not usually this nervous. What is it?"

Mala takes another deep breath and looks into Dagur's eyes. "Well, you see, I-"

Just then, the doors to the dining room open and Jorgon walks in saying, "Dinner is ready. You may all take your seats."

So everyone takes a seat at the table and seconds later, they are greeted with a short haired man with a half scarred face standing next to a blonde haired woman in a dark purple dress.

Everyone gasps as they see who it is. "Viggo?" Hiccup asks.

Viggo holds up the glass in his hand as he replies, "Hello, everyone! Surprised to see me? I'd like you all to meet my lovely date for the evening, Janice."

Janice nods. "A pleasure to meet you all. Viggo has told me a lot about all of you, especially you, Hiccup."

Astrid replies, "But…how is this possible? I thought you died to save Hiccup and Toothless!"

Viggo nods. "Yes, well, I suppose I owe you all an explanation. You see, after you left, Hiccup, I really did think I was at my own wit's end, but then the Skrill stepped in front of me and single handily took out every one of Johann's guards while I took that chance to leave my fire sword and chest-plate behind, faking my own death.

After that, I drifted off on a small boat, ending up on this wonderful island that took me in and restored me to health in no time. It is where I met Janice, here, and we hit it off in an instant."

Dagur then stands up and raises his voice, "Hey, Grimborne, what's the deal? I thought you said this was a dinner in my honor!"

Atali, who had on a silver dragon scale dress, adds, "Same here!"

Fishlegs, who wore a blue vest and tan tie, adds, "Me too!"

Snotlout, who wore a red and black button down shirt, adds, "When is the food going to get here?"

Viggo nods, "Ah, yes, I see the confusion. Well, the truth is, this dinner is to honor…all of you! You see, in these past few days I've come to realize that I have wronged each and every one of you. I've captured you, kidnapped your dragons, attempted to destroy your homes, I could go on but you get the idea.

So, I thought that I host this special dinner in hopes to make amends with you all. I can promise you that I have many grand plans for the rest of the weekend that, hopefully, will let you all see my new ways. Now, what do you all say?"

Everyone else gives each other looks of concern and slight confusion as they try to figure out if this is true. That is until Janice walks up to Viggo and says, "Why don't we bring out the food? Maybe that will help settle things."

Snotlout adds, "Food does usually settle me! Just saying."

Viggo nods. "Excellent idea! We will be right back." With that, they leave the dining room.

Once gone, Heather was the first to speak up and ask, "You guys think he's serious? That he's trying to make amends?"

Mala then looks to Hiccup and asks, "Hiccup, you were the last of us to see Viggo before he supposedly died. You believe him?"

Hiccup looks down to the table. "It is true that, if it wasn't for Viggo, Toothless and I likely wouldn't have made it out of Johann's prison alive, but then again I've been deceived by Viggo countless times before."

Throc, who had a vest similar to what Mala was waaring, then stands up and says, "I do have a way of sensing one's aura, perhaps if I were to sit in his chair I could get something."

He walks over and sits at the host's chair and closes his eyes for a minute. Mala asks, "You getting anything?"

Throc replies, "It takes a minute, just…hold on."

Just then, Tuffnut says to Ruffnut who was sitting to his left, "Waiting for this food Is like-"

"Waiting for me to stop talking?" Ruffnut gives Tuffnut a side glance.

Tuffnut makes an angry face. "Would you STOP!" He pounds the table with both fists.

Suddenly, a small puddle of blood appears around Throc's chest and he collapses onto the table, causing everyone else to leap up out of their seats, screaming.

"Oh my Thor!" Heather yells.

"THROC!" Mala adds.

Dagur runs over and feels Throc's wrist, checking for a pulse. "…He's dead."

Astrid puts her hands to her face. "Oh my Thor! OH MY THOR! Viggo didn't invite us here to make amends, he brought us here to kill us!"

Snotlout adds, "Well, hey, I'm certainly not sticking around until he does!" Everyone rushes out of the dining room, into the entrance hall and out the front door. Once outside, everyone noticed 2 things. 1. A thunderstorm seemed to have started while they were inside and 2. All of the dragons, except for Toothless, were gone.

Fishlegs asks, "Uh, where are the dragons?"

Heather replies, "They must have gotten spooked off by the storm!"

Snotlout crosses his arms. "Cowards! I've been struck by lightning multiple times and I'm still fiblgarble."

Mala points out, "I have a ship! We could get on that!"

Tuffnut then looks out to the right and points out, "Uh, you mean that ship?" they all look and see Mala's ship, which seemed to have crashed into a nearby sea-stack.

Mala blinks to that. "Oh…I suppose so."

Ruffnut asks, "You mean you didn't tie down your ship?!"

Mala puts her hand to her forehead. "I-I'm sure Throc did I…well…I suppose mistakes do happen."

Hiccup then points out, "Well, luckily there's more than one way out of here. Ok, Toothless and I will go and get help. Just…stay put." He rushes off to get on Toothless.

Snotlout then points out, "Do we have a choice?"

Toothless spreads his wings as Hiccup clicks his metal leg to the tail device as they take off, away from the cliff surrounded island they were on. As soon as they were in the air, Hiccup quickly noticed the lightning was awfully close to them.

Hiccup comments, "Watch that lightning, bud. We do have a bit of metal on us."

Just then, a bolt of lightning strikes down on the red tail fin, making it catch on fire. "Drat." Hiccup says as he spots this. "Good thing we're used to crash landings!" Toothless quickly turns around and, using his wings alone, quickly takes both of them back to the island.

Once they were almost on the land, Hiccup yells to everyone, "COMING IN HOT!" Everyone gets out of the way as Toothless crashes down onto the front porch of the building, just barely missing the closed door.

Astrid asks, "Hiccup! Are you ok?"

With a few coughs, Hiccup replies, "Yeah, I think so. We've handled worse falls." before he gets off of Toothless and pats his head. "You ok, bud?" Toothless purrs in response. Hiccup nods and looks back to the charred tail fin. "Looks like our only way out of here is shot."

Fishlegs then asks, "Don't you have a spare?"

Hiccup stands and replies, "Actually…that was the spare."

Snotlout throws his hands up. "Oh great, so we're stuck here."

"Stuck here? Now what ever do you mean?" Said Viggo as he walks up to the rest with Janice, making everyone turn around and Toothless start to growl with his teeth showing.

Astrid then says, "Viggo…stay away from us!"

Viggo blinks to that. "What are you talking about? All I was doing was getting the food out to you all but you weren't at the table. I got a bit worried, so I went to look for you all and I found you here."

Dagur then says, "Viggo, we know what you're really doing here."

Viggo holds his hands out. "Again, what are you talking about? I told you all, I brought you here to make amends."

Janice adds, "It's true."

Dagur then asks, "Then how do you explain the corpse in the dining room?"

Viggo asks, "What corpse?!"

Viggo and Janice turn around and everyone else, Toothless included, follows him to the dining room. However, once they get there, they see that Throc's body is missing from the table, making them all gasp in shock. Mala points out, "N-no, that's impossible! Throc was right there! You all saw it right?"

Heather then asks Viggo, "What did you do with the body?"

Viggo looks to all the eyes in the room, which were on him, and gives a light chuckle. "Oh. Oh I see what this is. You all still don't trust me. It makes perfect sense, too. You Berserkers and Berkians, I expected this from, maybe even the Defenders of the Wing, but you Wingmaidens? I go out of my way to set up this wonderful dinner and this is the thanks I get? Accusing ME of causing harm?"

Hiccup steps in and says, "Why don't you save it for my father and the Berk court?"

They all step forward, but Viggo pulls his vest back, revealing a knife nestled into a sheath on his pants. "Stay back! All of you! You think I didn't come prepared for this, this…mutiny?"

However, suddenly the lights went out, causing everyone to yell, and in the darkness, a loud scream was heard, followed by the sound of something falling onto the floor.

Toothless relights the candles and, lying next to the table on his stomach, was Viggo with one of the knives on the table wedged in between his shoulder blades, perpendicular to his body. Janice was just about to faint when Fishlegs shook her awake.

Dagur touches Viggo's neck and declares him to be dead. Astrid steps in and says, "Hey, that's one of the steak knives on the table."

They all go in to grab it, but Hiccup holds his arms out saying, "Don't touch it, it's evidence!"

Ruffnut then says, "Whoa, Viggo killed Throc then killed himself? Weird."

Hiccup shakes his head. "No, that can't be. Look at the angle and placement of the knife. There's no way Viggo could have done that on his own."

Atali then asks, "Hiccup, what are you saying?"

Hiccup replies, "I mean that, Viggo isn't behind any of this. The real killer is…one of us! The question is…who?" they all look to each other with curiosity and worry.

Astrid was the first to speak up and ask, "W-who had any reason to kill Viggo?"

Heather replies, "Well, according to Viggo, we all do."

Hiccup suggests, "Let's not accuse anyone until we know anything else. Let's go and see if we can find some clues."

They were about to walk out of the dining room, when Astrid looks over and points to a china cabinet saying, "Look!" she points to a hole drilled into one of the plates.

Dagur goes up and removes the plate, showing a dart shooter sitting next to a timer, perfectly pointing to Viggo's chair. Dagur then says, "Oh my Thor. Throc's death was…an accident!"

Mala asks, "What do you mean?"

Dagur replies, "I mean, whoever is behind all of this wasn't after Throc at all, they were trying to kill Viggo! Throc was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and if we don't find out who it is soon…then we could all be dead!"

Hiccup nods. "We'll need to split up into groups to look for clues. Ok, Astrid, Toothless and I will check the upstairs East wing."

Snotlout points out, "Oh, of course Hiccup gets the only dragon in the room."

He gives Snotlout a quick glare and moves on. "Twins, upstairs West wing. Snotlout and Fishlegs, ground floor East wing. Dagur and Heather, ground floor West wing. Mala and Atali, you check the basement. Minden and Janice, you check here and the kitchen to see if you can find anything. We'll meet in the entrance hall in an hour if we don't find anything. If your partner goes missing, then you will be held accountable and become suspects for the killer. Got it?" They all nod. "Alright, everyone break!"

So everyone breaks off into their groups to look in their assigned rooms. While going through their hall, Snotlout holds his stomach saying, "Man, I told Hookfang I should've eaten before I came here."

Fishlegs stops and raises a brow. "Two of us got killed in the past hour, and you're thinking about food?!"

Snotlout shrugs. "So, people dying means that I can't satisfy my stomach."

Fishlegs rolls his eyes. "You are unbelievable." he then pulls out a bag of yak jerky. "Here, I was saving it in case I got nervous but you can have it."

Snotlout rips open the bag. "You're the best, Fishface!" and stuffs the dried yak down his gullet.

Meanwhile, Mala and Atali were walking down into the basement when Atali notices Mala was looking uneasy. "Are…you ok?" Atali asks.

Mala gives her a side glance and quickly replies, "Y-yes, I'm ok. Why do you ask?" Atali then looks down and notices Mala cupping her stomach, something that she immediately caught on to.

"Does Dagur know?" Atali asks out of the blue.

Shocked at the question, Mala looks to Atali and asks, "H-how? What?"

Atali smiles. "Malaaaaa, I'm a woman too. I know I wouldn't have my hand on my stomach like that unless I was either sick or…otherwise."

Mala blushes hard and looks down to the wall. "I…only just found out myself. I'm…waiting for the right moment to tell him."

Atali nods. "Well, your secret is safe with me, but do know that the sooner you tell Dagur, the sooner you can get this weight off your chest."

Mala sighs and smiles. "You are a good friend, Atali. Truly." She gives Atali a hug before leaning against a painting of fruit on the wall, before saying, "Hey, hold on…" she feels it, feeling that there was just air behind the painting. "Doesn't seem like there's a wall behind this painting."

Atali replies, "Odd." She steps back to look at it better, but then steps on a button which causes the painting to move, revealing a dark hallway.

Mala yells down the hall and finds that no one was there, so Atali puts a hand on her shoulder saying, "I'll go in first. You have a lot more to worry about than me." Mala smiles to that as Atali walks in.

Once inside, Mala asks, "Do you see anything?"

Atali replies, "No, not yet."

However, the painting suddenly slides back into place. Mala presses at the painting saying, "Atali? Atali?"

Atali replies, "I'm here, Mala! Can you get this to open up again?"

Mala replies, "No, I can't. Can you find a way out?"

Atali replies, "No…I don't…wait, there's a light on the other side, I'm going to follow it."

Mala nods. "Ok, I'll go get help." with that, she runs off.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Minden and Janice walk around, searching for any clues themselves. Minden then asks Janice, "So, what do you know about this place?"

Janice replies, "Viggo and I only arrived days ago and we haven't had the chance to look around the entire place…at least we didn't when he was still alive." She hangs her head in sadness.

Minden nods then points to a cabinet towards the back of the kitchen. "Why don't you check in there, see if you can get your mind off of things?" Janice nods and opens up the cabinet, finding nothing in there.

Minden looks up to a shelf of cookbooks and decides to pull one, but this seemed to be a trap as the floor drops from underneath Janice and she falls through. Minden turns around and asks, "Janice? JANICE?!" She rushes over to the spot where Janice was and feels around the floor, finding nothing out of the ordinary. Finding nothing there, she runs off.

Meanwhile, the twins were walking through their hallway of bedrooms while Tuffnut had his arms crossed and was pouting. Ruffnut rolls her eyes to that and says, "Look, just because your insults are stale doesn't mean you have to be like that.

Tuffnut replies, "It's not that, it's…just leave me alone!" before he rushes off to the bedroom with his name on it.

Ruffnut rolls her eyes some more when she hears something down the hall, past a corner. She calmly walks over there to check it out and sees one of the bedrooms open. She goes up to it, peeks inside, and finds no one there.

Ruffnut comments, "Huh. Could've sworn I-AH!" she yells as she feels a sharp and intense pain coming from her back as she falls to the floor.

The sight of the screaming caused everyone else to run to that hall and spot Ruffnut on the floor, knife in her back. Tuffnut kneels down and holds up Ruffnut's head. "Ruffnut! Come on, Ruffnut, this is just a trick right? Y-you're going to get up and show us all that this is a trick right?"

Hiccup puts a hand to Tuffnut's back and says, "Tuff…it's too late."

Tears well up in Tuffnut's eyes as he says, "Not like this! NOT LIKE THIS! M-my last words to her were…'leave me alone!' I always wanted them to be…'No, you have a smelly face!'" and he cries the tears right into her hair.

Astrid then looks around and asks, "Hey…where's Janice…and Atali?"

Minden replies, "I don't know. She was with me but then she suddenly disappeared."

Mala replies, "We were in the basement, but she got stuck behind some painting without a wall behind it. I was coming to get you all but then I heard Ruffnut screaming."

Janice and Mala then run up behind them where Janice says, "I'm here! I don't know what happened, I was in the kitchen when suddenly the floor dropped from under me and I was in some dark hall, but then a light shone, so I followed that light and I was brought to the entrance hall!"

Atali adds, "Same here!"

Hiccup nods. "Likely story, but why didn't you go looking for Janice, Minden?"

Minden replies, "I-I heard Ruffnut's cry right after, I had to come check it out!"

Tuffnut stands and shouts, "Just know that I have my eyes on both of you! You too!" he points to Mala and Atali.

Hiccup grabs Tuffnut, "Alright, alright. Things are getting a little heated. Let's just take a moment here.

20 minutes later, in the large office right next to the front door, those still alive were sitting around as Tuffnut was still shedding tears from the death of his sister.

Snotlout sighs and says, "Well, whoever's behind all this better fess up now before we're here all night."

Tuffnut then wipes the tears from his face as his eyes widen. "Oh…my Thor! I think I know who it is!" He says as he raises a finger.

Hiccup asks, "You do? Uh, ok, who?"

Tuffnut stands and replies, "Of course, it's so obvious. The real killer is…right there!" he points to Toothless, who gives a confused blink.

"…What?" Was all Hiccup had to say.

Tuffnut replies, "Think about it, this entire time, which one of us has been the quietest, and which one of us tends to have a knack for sneaking around?" He stares Toothless down. "Toothless, you might have bested the rest of us, but I know your real intentions. Now, take him away guys!" He pauses for a moment to see that no one is moving a muscle. "Why is no one taking him away?"

Hiccup replies, "First off, Toothless wouldn't hurt a fly, second, all the dragons were outside when Viggo was stabbed, so how would he be able to do any of this?"

Tuffnut blinks to that. "Oh…I guess that doesn't make much sense."

Fishlegs then raises his head, "Hang on, Tuff, you might not be too far off. You know who has been quiet? Jorgan, that server!" They all gasp as they realize they hadn't seen him since dinner, about 2 hours ago.

"You're right, Fishlegs! What did happen to Jorgan?" Mala asks.

Snotlout then shifts a bit on the sofa he was sitting on. "Hey, uh, this sofa is a bit uncomfortable."

Fishlegs then points to below him, "Uh…Snotlout…" Snotlout looks down and sees that the sofa under him was soaked in blood.

Snotlout removes the cushion, and sees Jorgan's body there, with the knife that Viggo was carrying in the side of his head, making everyone jump back. Snotlout taps on his feet. "Ewwwww, I was sitting on a dead guy!"

Astrid asks, "When did this happen? How did this happen?"

Hiccup crouches down. "Well, Viggo's knife is there, no doubt, but when could that have happened? When we were split up?"

Heather then steps back and says, "Well, Janice and Minden were separated for a bit…"

The two ladies look to everyone else then look to each other. Janice comments, "I-I fell into a hole, I didn't see anyone or anything since!"

Minden adds, "Yeah, and Ruffnut screamed right after she fell."

Hiccup sighs. "Feels like we're just going in circles at the moment."

Dagur then looks up at the window and spots a blue Terrible Terror perched on there. "Hey, hey look!" He leaps up and grabs the Terror. "We can use this guy to send a message for help!"

Astrid replies, "Even if that does work, how long will it be before they get here?"

Hiccup replies, "It's better than sitting here waiting for the rest of us to die. I think Berk is the closest island to here, so that's our best bet."

Dagur nods, "Alright, I'll go send the message." he then exits the room and walks up the stairs to the balcony while writing the message.

Once he was gone, Atali speaks up and says, "You know, I've been keeping quiet for some time, but I would like to point out that Dagur has been known for his crazy side."

Heather stands and says, "Are you serious? Dagur has been stable minded for months now!"

Atali shrugs. "Hey, everyone has a dark side. You never know what people are like when they're alone."

Heather grunts before saying, "W-what about Tuffnut? Who's to say he didn't kill Ruffnut and is just covering for himself?"

Tuffnut stands and yells, "What? Ok, yes Ruffnut does annoy me, but that doesn't mean I'd actually kill her." He points to Mala, "Viggo tried to steal the Eruptodon from your island!"

Mala looks to Heather, "He used you to capture a Flightmare!"

Heather looks to Hiccup, "He tried to sell Toothless!" Everyone then got into a shouting match with accusations left and right.

Meanwhile, Dagur had made his way to the balcony and had written up the message to Berk. It was still raining hard, but the lightning had stopped so he figured the Terror wouldn't have too much trouble.

He ties the piece of paper to the Terrible Terror's leg and holds him up, making them face to face. "Alright, little guy. We're counting on you to get us some help."

However, just before he was about to send the little dragon on its way, he feels something hit the side of his head hard enough for him to fall off the balcony and onto the rain soaked ground below.

Once hearing the noise, Everyone else rushes outside and sees Dagur's body lying on the ground as they all scream in terror. Heather gets down and holds Dagur up saying, "DAGUR!" She shakes him a bit. "Come on, Dagur! You have to get up! You have to!"

Hiccup then stops her, "Heather! It's too late."

Tears began flowing down her face as he puts the red haired corpse down. "He…he was the only real family I had ever known."

Fishlegs then asks, "How did this happen?"

Astrid looks up to the balcony. "You think he fell off the balcony?"

Hiccup replies, "Maybe but, look, there's an indent on the side of his head." he points to a round shaped indent on the left side of Dagur's head. "Like he was hit with some kind of blunt object."

Atali then looks over to Mala and asks, "D-did you tell him?" Tears welled up in her eyes as well as she puts her hands to her face. Atali holds her tight.

However, that sentence was heard by more than their ears as Hiccup asks, "Uh…tell him what?"

Mala lifts her head as she realizes all eyes were on her now. She figured it was no use hiding it anymore so she says with a shaking voice, "I…I was going to t-t-tell him that he…he…HE WAS GOING TO BE A FATHER!" And she began crying even harder, making all other eyes widen, except for Atali who already knew the fact.

"Oh my Thor." Hiccup replies.

Astrid holds Mala close and says, "Whoever is behind all of this really is a monster." Toothless shows his condolences by using his wing as an umbrella and giving a light roar to the skies for Dagur's spirit to hear.

Once inside, and a bit drier, everyone was once again sat around the office, with Heather and Mala holding each other close to the loss of Dagur.

Hiccup was tapping on Toothless's head when he says, "Seems like the longer we go at this, the more of us are going to die."

Fishlegs sighs. "We could go all night screaming at each other, too, but we wouldn't end up solving anything."

Astrid adds, "Ok, let's just think, the killer had to have somehow slipped from us to kill Dagur when we were all yelling at each other earlier. Did anyone notice anyone else missing?"

Snotlout replies, "I was too busy shouting to notice anything else."

Tuffnut adds, "Same here."

Atali adds, "Yep." She then leans against a wall, looks up and notices something on the bookshelf on the other end of the room. "Uh, guys, wasn't there three statues of Maces and Talons figures over there?"

They all look and spot a row of small statues that look like game pieces from Maces and Talons, only one of these statues was missing. "Atali's right." Hiccup replies. "There was the King's piece right there, in the middle."

Mala wipes the tears and replies, "So, it seems we have our blunt object."

Hiccup nods. "Ok, here's what we're going to do, we're going to search everyone's room, if we find the statue then we find the killer. If anyone leaves the group, then you will be our highest suspect."

Everyone nods and they stick close together as they head up the stairs to the bedrooms. Atali's room was up first.

Once inside, Atali states, "I don't know what you expect to find."

Hiccup replies, "All of us are going to have our room checked too. You're no exception."

Just then, however, Tuffnut looks under the bed and gasps as he sees something shocking. He reaches under the bed and pulls out the statue for the King piece and holds it up for everyone to see. "…Guys!"

Everyone gasps in shock as they look to Atali. "Atali?" Astrid asks, "Why is this statue under YOUR bed?"

Atali steps back a bit. "Hold on, I can see what this looks like, uh…"

Mala steps forward, "Atali, how could you? I trusted you by telling you about my baby!"

Atali replies, "Wait just a moment here, this could be a misunderstanding, uh, the real killer could've put that there to frame me!"

Everyone looks to each other as they consider that to be true, but then Snotlout feels something drip onto his forehead. He wipes it off, seeing that it's blood. Snotlout looks up and points to everyone else that the ceiling vent above was dripping with blood.

Hiccup nods to Toothless to blast the door open, revealing Throc's body, and making everyone scream in terror. They all look to Atali as Tuffnut says, "So, it WAS you!"

Atali steps back more before running off towards the hallway, she didn't get far though as Toothless leaps into action and tackles her down as the others come up behind him and grab Atali by the arms. Once that was done, Hiccup tells Atali, "Atali, you're hereby under arrest for the crime of murder."

Atali yells, "NO! You can't do this! I'm telling you, you have the wrong person!"

Toothless growls at her as Tuffnut replies, "Tell it to the judge, sister killer."

Astrid then comments, "So, I guess it's over then."

No one had slept that night.

Atali was kept locked up in her bedroom as Hiccup sent a message out to his father who, along with higher ups for the Berserker, Defender of the Wing and Wingmaiden tribes, all came to find out about what happened, come that morning.

With the help of Toothless, the other dragons were all rallied up and were now waiting as their riders were packing up and getting ready to leave. Atali was dragged into a waiting ship that was ready to take her to Outcast Island for her crimes. The Razorwhip that was with Atali was going to be given to another Wingmaiden.

After hearing everything, Stoick, who was outside with Hiccup, Heather, Tuffnut and Mala, says to them, "I see. Well, it sounds like you all had a rough night. I am deeply sorry for any loses, I will make sure to send care packages your way."

Heather replies, "It's weird, even though Atali was found out, I can't help but feel like this isn't entirely over."

Stoick nods. "You all had a long night. Hard as it is, you likely just need to get home and get some rest."

Heather sighs and nods. "You're probably right."

Stoick then looks to Mala and says, "Uh, Mala, may I speak to you in private?"

Mala nods. "Yes."

They step to the side, away from everyone else, and after pausing for a minute, Stoick says, "…Hiccup told me in his message, did…Dagur find out?" Mala's eyes widen as she looks down and shakes her head and tears begin to flow again. Stoick sighs. "First off, how are you?"

Mala replies, "I…I'm just trying to figure out what I'm going to do…"

Stoick shakes his head as he puts his hand on her chin and brings her head up as he says, "…I know what it's like to raise a child on your own, and as tough as it is, sometimes it can lead to the greatest rewards." He lightly gestures to Hiccup, who was fixing up Toothless's new tail fin that Gobber made and Stoick brought.

Mala smiles. "That is true, and you have raised Hiccup very well."

Stoick nods. "Also, Throc may be gone but you are not alone in any of this. You have Heather, your people, the Berserkers, the Wingmaidens…and you have the support of Berk." he gestures to her stomach. "So when this baby arrives, you'll know exactly who to contact."

Mala wipes her tears and smiles again. "You are too kind, Stoick. Thank you so much."

Stoick nods. "My pleasure. Uh, on that note, there is something I need to discuss." He waves over the Berserker members that he invited.

Meanwhile, Hiccup walks up to Heather and asks, "How are you?"

Heather sighs. "Still trying to process all of this. I mean, Dagur was my brother, before I knew that, I thought I was truly alone in the world. Now, I…just don't know."

Hiccup replies, "Well, Heather, that's still not true. You have all of the Berserker tribe on your side, and…you have a niece or nephew coming in 9 months that's going to need a strong aunt to show them the way of living."

Heather smiles wide to that. "You're right. This isn't a sign to give up, this is a sign to become even stronger than ever."

"You're certainly going to need that strength, what with your new title." Stoick says as he, Mala and the other Berserkers walked up.

Heather looks to Stoick and asks, "What do you mean?"

Stoick replies, "Well, as you know, the Berserker tribe is going to need a new Chief, and given that Mala can't be queen of the Defenders of the Wing and Chief of the Berserker tribe, we think that, as Dagur's only other living relative, you are the best pick."

Heather's eyes widen. "…M-me? Chief of the Berserker tribe?"

Stoick nods. "If you wish. If not, the tribe can host an election to find the next Chief."

Heather looks to Stoick, to Mala, to the other Berserker members, to Hiccup and back, all of which give her a nod of approval. Tears well up in her eyes as she replies, "I…I'd be honored!"

Stoick nods. "I'll come by the island as soon as I can for the inauguration. I think this will be a very good thing for you, Heather."

Hiccup then steps in and says, "Also, Mala, one last thing." He brings Sleuther up. "It occurs to me that Sleuther, here, is going to need a new rider, and I know that you and your people have your traditions, and I respect that, but, seeing as how your ship is still crashed against a sea stack…I think this could work out."

Mala's eyes widen. "Oh…uh…I'm not…"

Hiccup adds, "If you don't want to, we can take him back to Berk where he can either look for a new rider or just live with us…but I do think that this is what Dagur would want."

Mala looks up at the Triple Stryke and locks eyes with him, staring at him for a moment before the tears well up again. "I…I see Dagur in your eyes…" He holds Sleuther's head tight as she begins crying all over again.

Hiccup nods as Stoick pats him on the shoulder. "You never cease to make me proud, son." Stoick comments.

Tuffnut then picks up the body bag containing Ruffnut and hoists it onto Barf & Belch before saying, "Yep. Well, I gotta take Ruffnut to have the traditional Thorston burial ceremony…once I get enough boars, that is." With that, Barf & Belch take off, leaving everyone else with their eyes widened.

Hiccup asks, "Should we…?"

Stoick replies, "The less we know, the better, I say."

Back inside, everyone else was finishing packing up and getting ready to head home when Astrid steps out of her room and looks down the hallway towards Minden's room. Fishlegs exits his room and asks her, "You coming?"

Astrid replies, "I'll be out in a sec." With that, she goes up to Minden's room and sees her packing. "Hey, Minden." She says to her.

Minden looks behind her and says, "Oh, hey Astrid."

Astrid asks, "How are you doing?"

Minden sighs. "Fine, I suppose."

Astrid rubs the back of her neck. "Seems pretty strange doesn't it? I mean, Atali? I mean, I guess I didn't know what to expect last night but certainly not her."

Minden nods. "Yeah, I guess everyone has a dark side."

Astrid adds, "Well, if there's anything you need, you can talk to me or Hiccup."

Minden nods. "I'll be fine."

Astrid then asks, "So, what's going to happen now? Who is going to lead the Wingmaidens?"

Minden replies, "There's going to be an election, something that…I am considering joining."

Astrid smiles. "Well, that's exciting! I'm sure you'll go great!"

Minden nods. "You sound like my mother." She then pulls up a gold dress with silver stripes. "She got me this dress, actually. Said I could wear it during my speech for becoming head of the Wingmaidens."

Astrid pauses for a second to think about that. "I…sorry, I don't quite understand."

Minden asks, "What do you mean?"

Astrid replies, "Well, it's not like your mother knew that any of this was going to happen. Of course unless…!" Her eyes widen and her face drops as she puts the pieces together and Minden's smile became wider and wider, looking more devious.

Astrid takes a few steps back. "Uh…I should probably go now. Stormfly is waiting for me."

Minden takes a few steps forward. "So soon? But we were having such a lovely conversation."

Astrid replies, "We were…but, I really do need to get going."

Minden replies, "Why the rush? It's like you said, there's no way any of us could have known about this unless I had a…helping hand."

Astrid's face drops even more. "Oh my Thor. OH MY THOR! Atali didn't do any of this! It was all you!"

Minden nods. "There we go. Surprised it took you so long to figure it out."

Astrid asks, "But…why? Why go through ANY of this?"

Minden sighs. "I suppose I should start from the beginning. You see, growing up Atali and I were about as close as Hiccup and Toothless. We were completely inseparable, she was like the sister I never had. However, as we got older, things started…changing.

We both actually ran for head of the Wingmaidens at the same time. Obviously she won, which I was happy for at first, but then it all just got worse. She cast me aside for just about everything. Holding meetings without informing me, giving me the runts of the Razorwhips, only really needing me to capture an outsider, I could go on.

As time went on, I just couldn't help but feel more and more angry at Atali for the way she was treating me. I mean, going from best friend to just another one of the girls? I couldn't stand for it. That is, until recent when I decided it's time to take action.

I was told about Viggo's mysterious disappearance but decided to dig a bit deeper and find out that he was still alive, so I decided to go down and see if it's true. Sure enough, he was alive and was being healed at the moment.

Then, a miracle happened. I was introduced to a new Wingmaiden named Janice and found her to be the kind of person that will do just about anything for me, so I took that to heart and got her to get with Viggo, allow him to see his ways, and convince him to try to 'make amends.'"

Astrid comments, "Wait, so this whole thing was YOUR idea?"

Minden nods. "It was I who sent out the letters for this dinner in your honor, it was I who picked this exact location because I knew all the odds and ends, and it was I who killed each and every one of you last night.

The plan was simple, kill Viggo, put the blame on Atali, and get her arrested. Simple as that. But of course even the grandest of schemes can have a few…hiccups.

Throc was in the wrong place at the wrong time, so I needed a new way to make my move on Viggo. When the lights went out, that was my cue to grab a steak knife from the table and stab Viggo in the back. Then, of course, Hiccup pointed out that the knife was now evidence, I couldn't just leave it there.

When you were all distracted by Hiccup and Toothless flying away, I snuck back inside, wiped the fingerprints off of the knife and took it out of Viggo's back, but then that pesky servant, Jorgan, walked in on me, so I had to grab Viggo's knife and stab him in the head, hiding him in the office sofa just as Toothless crashed back here.

When Janice and I got separated, I took that as an opportunity to race up to drag Throc's body to Atali's room and hide him and the knife, but then Ruffnut had to come up and spot me in the action. She didn't have to die, poor thing, but she was likely going to rat me out, so I had to kill her, putting Throc into the vent just as you all showed up.

When Dagur went upstairs to make a Terror mail, and you were all shouting at each other, I knew that if that message got out, my plans would be ruined, so I grab the King's statue from Maces and Talons and used that to smack Dagur on the side of the head, making him fall off the balcony, where I then hid the statue in Atali's room.

It was quite easy to do all of that considering most people tend to ignore me, anyway. The rest, well, you all played the rest perfectly.

You found the statue and Throc's body and turned on Atali, capturing her and will be putting her into custody where she belongs."

Astrid blinks to that. "Oh my Thor."

Minden adds, "There, now you know everything and so…" she pulls a dagger out of the dress. "…now I need to add one more death to the list."

Astrid replies, "Minden, please, you don't have to do this! I-I won't say anything, I promise!"

Minden sighs. "I want to trust you, Astrid, I really do, but you're the girlfriend of the Chief of Berk's son, you'll probably slip up, I just can't let that happen now that I told you everything."

"She's not the only one!" said Hiccup as he, Stoick and all the others, minus Tuffnut, rush up to the door.

Stoick adds, "I will take THAT as an official confession."

Minden's jaw drops to the floor. "H-how?"

Astrid smirks. "Something you forgot to account for, Minden. Janice? Would you mind?"

Janice steps forward and says, "I always figured something was off about you, from the moment I met you. The entire night, last night, I wanted to believe that it was you but I had no proof…until now. When you began talking, I actually heard you from the corner of my room, so I went to get the others. We got here just as you started talking about how your little scheme came into play."

Minden shakes a little before replying, "Ok, FINE! If you think I can't take all of you on, you're wrong!"

"There won't be any need for that!" Said Atali as she, still in shackles, walks up. "Minden, you have always been my best friend, and I am sorry for casting you aside, but killing people? How low can you get?"

Minden replies, "Why do you care? Ever since you became head of the Wingmaidens you've been giving me hard time after hard time, and I'm sick of it?"

"That's because I'm wanting to make you better as a Wingmaiden, so you can take over!" Atali replies.

Minden became speechless for a few moments before saying, "W-what?"

Atali sighs. "As you know, my time as head of Wingmaidens isn't forever, so I need someone that I know can have my back for any situation. I give you the runt Razorwhips because they provide challenges for you to overcome and can make you a stronger person and could one day lead the Wingmaidens! That's all I ever wanted for you!"

Minden stood there in complete shock as she processes this information. Her legs collapse and she drops to the ground saying, "So…I didn't need to do any of this?"

Atali nods.

Minden puts her hands to her head saying, "No…no…I…I am such an…IDIOT!"

Atali looks to Stoick who unlocks her shackles and passes them over to Minden strapping her up as she is escorted out of the building.

Once outside, they all take Minden to the waiting ship as she is sailed off to Outcast island, where she will await her trial to decide her fate.

In the meantime, the dragon riders, old and new, hop on their dragons, and fly off back to their homes where none of them would likely get any sleep that night, given everything that had gone on.

The End.

Thank you for reading this story, I do hope you enjoyed it, if you did then please let me know.

Take care and I'll see you next time!