"What am I supposed to do?" Hiccup asked himself as he flew atop Toothless, high above the snowy forests of Berk. "There is so much happening right now, and it feels like it's tearing me apart. I have not felt like this ever since I abandoned my dream for a viking-dragon utopia."
"Maybe you should consider going to that runestone again," replied Toothless in Dragonese. "It helped give us answers before, so why not do it again?"
Hiccup was slightly surprised he understood much of what Toothless said, but that did not help in changing his mood. "The runestone only gave me visions, Toothless. If anything, that was only a one time use."
"Still, I don't think you should be doubtful of yourself! I personally agree with what Fishlegs and Arn said. I believe the Wings of Midgard are still alive!"
Hiccup shook his head with a sigh. "Believe what you will, bud. But I don't believe it."
"Believe what?"
A feminine voice from behind Hiccup caught his attention as the familiar friendly figure of Astrid came swooping in atop Stormfly. Though the cloudy sky was bright as she was silhouetted, he still easily made her out.
"You know I can hear you from more than a dozen yards away. Are you talking with Toothless again?"
"Yeah," he replied almost monotone. "We were just talking about the Wings of Midgard. No matter what anyone says though, I do not believe they are out there."
"Just because it was a thousand years ago?" she asked him. "Hiccup, we don't know even know if they're alive or dead. But we all still believe that they are out there somewhere, living. I mean- you only need to look at the dwarves. They are hundreds of years old, as well as the elves who are older than them."
"But the Wings of Midgard were not elves, or dwarves, or any other race! They were humans. They were vikings…"
"...Vikings who knew magic," Astrid added on with a small smirk. "Just don't give up Hiccup, alright? Alive or not, we do not know. The best thing we can do right now is wait and see... Can you trust me?"
"...Alright. I guess I'll keep holding on," replied Hiccup with a sigh. "Anyways, I want to ask - what are you doing here Astrid?"
"Oh, I just came to check on you. You seemed a bit ticked and tense after that outrage. But I guess you feel better now?"
"A bit," he nodded as she smiled in response. "That's good."
"Hey, what about me? I still feel hungry..." squawked Stormfly in Dragonese. "I didn't get my chicken this morning. All I had was boar meat and fish. Eugh."
"You didn't feed Stormfly any chicken?" Hiccup asked Astrid.
"No, we were out. The raid last night destroyed our stock of chicken meat and- ...how did you know that?"
"I can speak Dragonese, remember?" he laughed cheerfully. "But hey, at least we still have our farms for our livestock."
"Yeah, but we can't grow any crops. The cattle alone won't be enough for the coming winter in a few months. We still need to hunt more meat and get more fish."
Hiccup gave a nod. "My dad promised to send hunters up in the fjords last I spoke with him, and he said he's made preparations to send out fishing boats with dragons accompanying each of them. We should have enough by the end of the week if we-"
"Uh, Hiccup," interrupted Astrid alertingly, her tone filled with curiosity. "Is it me, or are those Clan Jorgenson warriors that I see down there?"
She pointed a finger down below towards a clearing in the distance where Hiccup could see ten men marching, though not in formation. Upon squinting his eyes however, he saw that they were indeed Clan Jorgenson warriors…
But they were suspiciously unarmed.
"Strange," said Hiccup with an arched brow. "What are they doing all the way out here?"
Astrid shook her head. "I don't know, but I think we should find out."
"I guess it's time to pick up the pace," warbled Toothless has both he and Stormfly picked up in their speed, flying down and towards the ten warriors.
The warriors down below turned their eyes, and from their perspective they saw the incoming figures of the two dragon riders and their dragons as they soon landed in front of them, and immediately they backed up, not daring to make a move against them.
Hiccup and Astrid dismounted from their dragons, with Hiccup taking out Inferno and detracting the fiery blade as it blazed and Astrid unsheathing her axe which looked ready for a fight.
"Right," began Hiccup. "If one of you don't tell me what your lot is doing out here so close to our village, we are going to-"
"W- Wait!" spoke one of the warriors shakingly, raising his hands out in front of him. "We're not here to fight you, Hiccup! We come in peace!"
"What?"
The two young vikings spoke in unison upon hearing the warrior's response, baffled yet also surprised - especially since he called Hiccup by his name rather than Useless. From the way he spoke, he was not lying.
Hiccup retracted Inferno. "What are you doing out here, warrior?"
"...W- We were kicked out of Jorgenson village," the man replied as he calmly approached Hiccup, not showing any signs of aggression in his posture. Both Hiccup and Astrid however were just completely surprised. Why would Snotlout do this to his own men?
"Snotlout was not the leader we thought he was," continued the warrior. "My group and I have been starving for days, and Snotlout has been stealing food from our homes just to feed himself. Only a quarter of the village's farms stayed intact after the storm, and now the whole town is going hungry. It's not enough to feed us. He's also been taxing us heavily to repair his great hall and hut."
"But why were you kicked out?" asked Astrid.
"My men and I spoke out against him. We told him we wanted more food just to be able to tend to our loved ones, but Snotlout merely shrugged us off. He relieved us of our ranks and kicked us out of the village. Thankfully, we managed to take our families with us. Right now they're a bit behind since we are scouting ahead, but hopefully they should-"
"Papa!"
The sound of a small voice from behind the group of men caught everyone's attention as they saw a little girl rushing towards them, with more than thirty other people slowly following.
"Bjorna!" the warrior said cheerfully.
The crowd made room as the large man ran to his little girl and lifted her up into a hug before placing her onto his shoulder with his buff hands. Hiccup and Astrid knew right away it was his daughter.
"You have a daughter…" smiled Astrid.
"Aye," the warrior said. "But do you two believe me now?"
"Papa," spoke the little girl. "Is that Hiccup Haddock and Astrid Hofferson? Are they here to take us home?"
Hiccup felt something hit him, a feeling he had not felt in a while when he heard the warrior's daughter say that word: Home. A grin formed on his face as he gave the little girl a cheerful nod.
"Yes. Astrid and I will help escort you all to the town. My dad will be glad to welcome you back into our tribe…"
…
Upon reaching the town, the former Clan Jorgenson warriors and their families were given a personal warm welcome back into the Berkian Tribe from Stoick himself as he gave each warrior a firm pat on the shoulder. Of course, finding a home would not be too difficult as half of the huts in the village remained empty ever since Snotlout rose to power.
But now the warriors and their families could reclaim what they left behind.
Despite this joyful moment however, Hiccup and the others were soon summoned by Stoick, along with Valka, Gobber, and Eret who were clueless as to what their chief had to say.
And in the great hall, the news came to them like a flash. And it was not good news at all…
Stoick stood from his throne, slowly walking towards Hiccup and the group who were gathered and grouped up in front of them - along with their dragons.
"What is going on?" asked Toothless softly in Dragonese.
Hiccup gave a shrug as he whispered back to him, "I don't know. We'll just have to hear him out."
Stoick now stood before them, ready to give his 'speech.' "Hiccup… Valka… vikings…" he slowly began. "As you all know, the orcs are making plans to launch another attack against us. Not a raid, but an onslaught - as Hiccup tells me. Their fortress is located on the Island of Tomorrow, our ancestral home, and Drago Bludvist is the one in command of them. If we are to have any hope in stopping them, we must make our own move against them. I know many of you will disagree with what I have to say - but it must be done."
"Thus, I have made my decision. In two days, we are sailing to the Island of Tomorrow, and we will fight them."
"What…?"
Hiccup's voice was the first to speak as everyone looked at Stoick almost dumbstruck. Even Valka, his own wife, could not believe what she was hearing. Out of all the vikings, why would he want to go the most?
"Stoick, you can't be serious," she said to him. "You are proposing that we should fight on the orcs' own ground, and alone."
"The Island of Tomorrow does not belong to them. It never has," he stated with a slightly louder tone. "And we will not go alone. We will be bringing one thousand good men with us to fight them."
"That's already too high of a cost dad! Compared to us, they have LEGIONS. We can't beat them if we don't know how many they have! We could be walking into a trap!"
Stoick shook his head. Hiccup and Valka saw well that he was becoming arrogant. "We can defeat this army, and we will! We've defeated hundreds of them over the months, and I say we shouldn't stop now. We should pursue them while we can!"
"Are you out of your mind, chief...?!" replied Arn. "You cannot truly beat them back even if you wanted to. You have not seen the horrors that the orcs and the Dark Legions have with them. I fought them before, for years! Why would you-"
"Silence!" he bellowed. His temper was on the brink of breaking and he nor the others wanted to start a commotion now, yet everyone still did not agree with Stoick's decision.
"Stoick," said Gobber. "You have to think about this, old friend. Is risking the lives of a thousand men really worth saving a cursed island? Is it worth attempting to kill Drago even after all the damage we dealt to him-"
"My mind is made up…"
Valka's eyes grew wider. "Stoick…"
The chief refused to continue arguing over the matter any longer. He did not say another word to them as he walked past the group and made his way towards the large doors of the great hall. Yet as he left the hall, Valka was left baffled and shocked in place.
"Stoick," she said to herself. "Why would you… out of all people-?"
"Jeez, now that sure was something," replied Tuffnut, calmer than usual.
Arn sighed. "He is blinded by revenge towards Drago. But I mean- who wouldn't be in this case? From what I know, Drago nearly wiped out the north as well as your tribe. However, my father Lothar made the same mistake after the orcs lured him and taunted him into walking into a devastating trap of theirs… it costed him his life."
All eyes, particularly from Hiccup and the riders and their dragons, fell upon Arn. "Are you saying my father is also going to be-"
"I'm not saying that," Arn interrupted Hiccup. "What I am saying however is that Stoick sooner or later needs to realize what it is we are actually facing rather than imagine what they are to him. I told you guys enough times what the Legions have with them, but imagining them is different from actually seeing them for what they are. Stoick believes he can win, but he may be underestimating the enemy."
"...The best we can do right now is protect your people, dragons, and chief, especially when the time comes when we attack Drago."
"Let's just hope my dad knows what he is doing," replied Hiccup, now staring at the great doors of the hall. "Otherwise this war may just end before it even begins, with us on the losing side."
…
"What the Hel is going on out there!? What is with all the commotion!? Dogsbreath, Wartihog, Agatha, I want answers now!"
Snotlout angrily paced back and forth as he heard loud shouts and screams resonate outside the great hall along with the sounds of fighting. He looked at his three most trusted, expecting an answer from them.
Wartihog gave an unnerved shrug. "First thing we knew was that a group of a hundred furious townsfolk approached the front of the great hall, and then next moment they began to riot!"
"A riot!? From my own people!? Those fools!"
It was indeed hard for Snotlout to imagine. He could not believe it. Even after exiling ten of his warriors along with their families to make an example to those who would speak out against him, there were still people who were not happy with him.
He was beginning to pull their strings.
"That's not all that's happened," added on Agatha. "Turns out those fools began the riot because they boasted that they were starving, and then they began beating our guards to a pulp. At least two dozen of them. The situation got too out of hand that we had to call on our armed forces, and as of right now they are handling it - killing any of the folk involved."
Dogsbreath nodded. "Indeed. And it's only a matter of time before they-"
His words were immediately cut off before he could even say much as the doors to the great hall suddenly slammed opened as a captain and two guards carrying two rioting townsfolk came marching in. Bloody, but alive.
Snotlout gazed at the captain questioningly, now noticing that the sounds of conflict ceased. "Report."
"Everything has been handled, chief," replied the captain. "The rioters have withdrawn, and hopefully they will not return."
Snotlout gave a relieved but wicked grin. "Excellent. This failure of a riot will show what happens to those who try to stand against me. You've done well, captain."
"Aye. But of these two rioters, sir?" asked the captain.
"...Take them away. Kill them."
The large viking nodded, lifting a finger as he ordered the guards with him to drag their prisoners outside for a quick yet gruesome execution. As the three warriors made way for the doors of the great hall, Snotlout could hear the two villagers screaming and struggling until the doors to the hall were finally shut behind them.
And then there was the sound of two hacks being lobbed, and everything went silent…
Snotlout grinned, chuckling wickedly. "Some people can really be fools. They do not know what they are doing until they realize who the winning side is. Isn't that right… Hookfang?"
His gaze fell towards the corner of the hall to the right of his throne, where his dragon Hookfang was chained by the neck with dragon-proof chains. From the way he looked however, Snotlout could tell that the Monstrous Nightmare was feeling intimidated and miserable. His state as a whole though was horrible.
Yet he did not care a bit about Hookfang's feelings. He was just to a pet to him.
"Please… leave me alone…" Hookfang warbled fearfully, though since Snotlout did not understand Dragonese he merely shrugged it off.
"Heh, what a muttonhead," he said. "I think I am going to go for a flight. Dogsbreath, Wartihog, Agatha, see that the great hall is in good hands until I return. Anyone else who dares uprise against me is to be immediately killed or exile. Understand?"
The three vikings gave a nod. Snotlout then turned towards Hookfang, slowly making his way towards him as the dragon began to feel dreadful and more tense as he made his way closer.
"Please, no…" crooned Hookfang.
Snotlout grinned. "Don't be too bumpy this time, or I'll make your last punishment look like child's play..."