It was a cold, damp morning on the island of Berk.
Those who had guard duty for the night dragged themselves to bed, receiving a few patts on the back from those that were starting the morning shifts. The younger vikings were getting up and ready for the newly restarted dragon training. The other Berkians were just waking up and getting to their morning chores.
And a row of small shadows was darting from house to house, careful to avoid all of them.
Astrid peeked around the corner and gave the all clear signal. Her friends ran past and scurried behind Mulch's house. Just as the last of them dove into the shadows, two vikings walked past, clearly looking for something.
Once they passed their hiding spot and disappeared from view the riders unanimously released the breath they were holding.
A few days had passed since Stoick's 'big revelation' and since then, Hiccup and the gang were famous.
Too famous.
They literally couldn't go a minute without at least half a dozen vikings on their tail. If someone saw them after they got up in the morning they were guaranteed to have eyes on them until they went back to sleep in the evening.
They wanted the 'Thor's Blessings' to be there for everything. At one point some poor woman tried to get them to give her child their blessing. Mind you the child was older than any of them (at least physically).
By now tales about them were probably spreading beyond Berk.
The riders even saw a gaggle of vikings excitedly telling Trader Johan about their 'good luck charms' during his recent visit. They all had to grit their teeth and forcibly walk away, while dragging the twins and Snotlout with them.
"It's all for the future," Hiccup kept saying aloud to calm his friends (and himself), "Just remember the future."
Even so, they heard that Johan found a couple axes lodged not too far from his head the next morning (courtesy of Astrid), and while his ship left the harbor, his sail was mysteriously set ablaze by a strange trap.
Stoick went out of his way to keep them in his sight, even going as far as taking them along on his chiefly duties. Hiccup suspected that despite what he told his fellow vikings, Stoick didn't quite trust them. He didn't keep his position as chief by being completely dull.
The past Hiccup and Astrid were even worse.
t felt like anywhere the future riders went, the two teens were always behind them, hiding in the shadows and looking for anything that would help them expose the group. It was quite obvious that they were working together as they spent more time together than future Hiccup and Astrid ever did at that age.
At this point they were all waiting for one thing; a dragon raid, one that would prove whether the riders were truly 'a gift from Odin himself'.
But for better or worse the Red Death seemed to be on a diet, and there were no dragon raids as far as the eye could see.
Despite all of the people watching them the riders stayed on mission. Inch by inch they searched the island for something to send them back to their time, their dragons, or even other time travelers, but so far they were unsuccessful.
Today they finally managed to sneak away before Stoick or someone else could start the toddler stalking parade and decided to head deeper inside the forest where they were more likely to find at least a wild dragon that they could train.
They desperately needed a dragon, if not one of their their own then at least one that could carry them to safety once their cover was inevitably blown.
As they finally reached the safety of the trees, Astrid caught a glimpse of a blond braid next to the house they were hiding behind a moment ago.
She grinned as she melted into the shadows.
They may be a danger to them, but she was still proud of her younger self's tracking abilities. And what better to improve her stealth skills then her own younger version tracking her?
Astrid hurled her axe into a tree in frustration.
They got away from her again. Why was it so hard to track down a bunch of kids? They should be leaving traces left and right, not disappear without leaving as much as a footprint. It should be easy for so someone like her to find them. She traced wolves for training for Thor's sake, so WHY?
No, they aren't normal. Astrid reminded herself and tore her axe from the tree. Tracking them is nowhere near tracking a mere wolf. They are disguised dragons, shapeshifters, Lycanwings, and servants of Loki. I was lucky to even see through their tricks.
Her inner rant was interrupted by Hiccup carefully coming up behind her.
That boy was another mystery entirely. He'd actually been a pretty big help; he knew the island better than anyone else, and even had small maps in his notebook.
That notebook. He was so protective of it as if it was holding some dark secret. Once she took it to inspect his maps and caught a glimpse of a strange tail-like contraption before he ripped it out of her hands and quickly changed the subject.
She had a feeling that notebook was connected to him suddenly getting so much better than her.
She'll look into that once she deals with those kids.
"This isn't working," Astrid growled without looking at the boy. "It could take weeks to catch them like this and who knows what they would do in that time. We need something else, a trap or... something like a trap."
Hiccup couldn't help but chuckle.
Despite his initial worries he'd actually grown to like their little excursions, even though it took away from his time with Toothless (which the dragon did not appreciate).
Well, the first few hours were awful, filled with awkward silence as they snuck from house to house, trying to prove their target guilty. So Hiccup being Hiccup started rambling about everything that came to his mind, from his work at the forge to trolls and other myths Gobber believed.
Astrid acted annoyed at first and shut him up whenever they got close to being discovered, but Hiccup noticed her shoulders relax a bit when he started rambling again, so he kept going.
As days went by she started asking a few things here and there and then even said a few words about herself.
Slowly she started opening up to him and Hiccup got a glimpse of a different side of the fearless battle maiden, a gentler, more curious side. He made sure not to push too far though, afraid of making her hate him even more.
Strangely, he started to feel accepted, like someone more then Hiccup the Useless. If was a feeling similar to how he felt with Toothless.
He wondered if Astrid felt the same around him.
"And what exactly would this 'like a trap' be?"
Astrid huffed and turned back towards the village and the arena. A quick glance at the orange tinted sky told her that their training would start in less than an hour.
"I don't know! You're the smart one, aren't contraptions like this what you're good at? It'll be easy for you to make something."
Hiccup felt all his muscles turn to jelly. Was that... a compliment from Astrid? His brain tried to process what he just heard but kept failing.
Astrid only then fully realised what she said and her cheeks flushed red. She spun around and swept Hiccup's legs from under him in an attempting to focus her raging thoughts. The boy fell to the ground with a squawk.
"Stop fooling around. We have to get to training before someone notices we're missing," she said without making eye contact and quickly headed off towards the village.
Still, she couldn't keep the smile off her face as she heard him grumbling behind her.
What was wrong with her today?
The Twins and Snotlout couldn't stop laughing after Astrid told them what she just saw. Even Fishlegs was thrown into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.
The awkwardness between the past versions of their friends reminded them way too much of their own Hiccup and Astrid's (but mostly Hiccup's) first attempts at flirting.
Hiccup leaned to his girlfriend with a smirk on his face. "So, am I still the smart one?"
Astrid responded by shoving him through a bush. He tumbled through it laughing and landed face first on the other side thanks to his current body's mismatched proportions.
It was great to finally drop the innocent children act and just be themselves.
Hiccup started getting up, still snickering to himself, but as he looked up, he froze. He was looking straight into a dragon's jaws, full of razor sharp teeth.
The other riders were already a good distance away when they heard their leader's startled shriek. They immediately ran towards him and tumbled through the same bush he had in a ball of limbs and half-drawn weapons.
Once they finally untangled themselves they saw Hiccup being viciously assaulted by a green Terrible Terror, who was trying very hard to figure out why this little human smelled so much like a dragon.
"Looks like the great dragon conqueror finally met his match," Tuffnut remarked as they watched Hiccup struggle to get the small dragon off.
"Yes, yes, very funny, now could you please get him off?! Sharpshot, stop! That's my nose!"
"Wait," Fishlegs piped up as Astrid went to rescue her boyfriend, "Terrible Terrors are pack dragons, right?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"So if this little guy is here..." Fishlegs slowly circled around the clearing they were on, searching for something.
He jumped as a gaggle of tiny multi-colored dragons flew down from a nearby tree and joined their friend in assaulting Hiccup.
"...then we may have just found our way out of here." Astrid finished excitedly.
Tuffnut didn't seem as enthusiastic about the idea.
"Nuh, na ah, no way am I riding one of those nose-eating monsters. They won't even be able to carry us, just look at them, they're like the size of my-"
Before he could finish he was tackled by the flock that decided he was more worth eating than Hiccup.
In the impeding chaos Fishegs noticed something at the edge of his vision. He turned his head and froze.
"Uh... g-guys?"
"I'll take flying on small dragons over getting gutted by angry dragon-killing vikings any day, Tuffnut, thank you very much." Snotlout said in a dry tone.
"Guys, t-there's-"
"Sorry, bro, I'm with Snotman on this," Ruffnut said as she sidestepped Tuffnut's desperate grab for her leg, ignoring his yells of "I am hurt, I am very much hurt!"
"GUYS, GOTHI'S HERE!"
Fishlegs's shriek finally got everyone's attention. They looked at the blond boy and then at where he was shakily pointing.
The old woman was standing at the edge of the clearing smirking at them and at that moment the riders felt they'd be safer if the Red Death was staring them down instead.
On the other side of the Archipelago, in the deck-cabin of a ship in the middle of an imposing fleet, surrounded by trophies of killed dragons, sat a man hunched over a game of maces and talons.
He wasn't exactly the usual viking you see; a bit smaller and a bit scrawnier than was normal, however he was also clever, easily outsmarting all the men he was leading and most of those he wasn't.
He was so clever in fact, that he was growing bored. Building over-complicated traps for their hunts and leading dragons on wild chases in the most dangerous parts of the sea simply wasn't rewarding enough. He wanted a challenge, someone to measure with in a true game of wits.
But who would be able to hold their own against the greatest dragon hunter to ever live?
As the man pondered the question, overlooking the figures on the board, the cabin's door slammed open. A second man, similar to the first, walked in with a scroll in his hand.
This man looked more like the traditional viking would, with muscles toning his body, an ever-present scowl on his face, and scars from countless fights. This man didn't understand the first one, however close they may have been compared to the rest of the crew.
But he recognized his genius and knew that he could benefit from it, just like the man benefited from his strength. A mutually beneficent relationship was enough for them; until they found something better at least.
"Your contact sent more intel. Looks like you were right about him."
"As you should expect," the first man calmly noted, making the second scowl.
Ignoring it, he opened the scroll and began reading.
Letters like these usually gave him much more than the message they contained. They gave him insight into whoever wrote it; the way they worded their messages, which mistakes they made, how their hand slightly shook at some passages, even the way the words tilted to one side or the other, it all said something about the writer.
This person however remained a mystery to him.
As he read his stoic face slowly turned into an ominous smirk. He reached out and slowly, as if to enjoy every second, moved a piece across the board. Then he stood up and gestured for the man still standing in front of him.
"Gather the crew, brother. We sail out immediately."
It seemed his prayers have finally been answered.
Ok, so how ridiculous would it be to have the future riders ride on Terrible Terrors for a bit? Technically speaking they are now about the required size for it and it would be hilarious, but I'm just not sure...
I hope I did Viggo justice, he's a pretty complicated character to write, even more so since in the show he was largely defined by his "competition" with Hiccup and this is before they even knew each other existed. Well, that's all for now
Yami_nee out!