(A/N: This is the last part of the premier episodes "Dragon Eye of the Beholder", which I'm very excited for. I won't keep everyone for too long because I want everyone to enjoy this and start reading as soon as possible. So, with that, that's all I have to say about this new chapter and, once again, I hope everyone enjoys it.)
U-X-U-o~*Y*~o-U-X-U
Hiccup managed to catch up with the other Dragon Riders before they reached Berk and they all flew back together. Upon arrival, they took the mysterious object they found on the Reaper to Gobber.
Gobber was under the impression that it could be opened because of the shape, which was what he was trying to do, but it was proven to be very difficult. Whoever built it, just like the Reaper, knew exactly what they were doing because it was sturdy enough to withstand the strength of a veteran Viking warrior and blacksmith like Gobber.
"Have you ever seen anything like this Dragon Eye before?" Hiccup inquired.
"Dragon Eye?" Tuffnut repeated. "Hey, how do you know it's called a Dragon Eye?"
"Because I named it," he answered simply with a slight shrug.
"Whoa, whoa. Aren't we supposed to vote on stuff like that?" Snotlout interjected.
Hiccup wasn't sure what the significance of a vote was, but complied anyway, "Fine, all in favor, say 'Dragon Eye'."
"Dragon Eye!" everyone with the exception of Snotlout repeated, raising their hands to show their favor.
Snotlout wasn't sure what to make of that, but they did vote even though he thought it wouldn't be taken seriously. "Just wanted to make sure we voted."
"Can you open it, Gobber?" Astrid asked.
He chuckled, "Can I open it? I once opened up a five hundred-year-old clam at the bottom of the ocean with my bare hook. Can I open it?" He tried to open it again, "I think it's going to be…" a clicking sound coming from the Dragon Eye, as if he had triggered something.
A dart suddenly fired from it and struck Tuffnut in the lower chest. "Uh, what is that? It looks like a…" Tuffnut suddenly collapsed to the ground, unconscious. Ruffnut laughed.
"Well, that was… something. Maybe…" Gobber started to pull on it with his hook again.
Hiccup was beginning to suspect that the Dragon Eye was perhaps not meant to be opened. "Gobber, maybe you should-"
He interjected, "Trust me! Know what I'm-" His hook accidentally triggered something else, a green gas suddenly sprayed out of it. Everyone covered their mouths and noses so they wouldn't breathe it in if it was toxic.
At that moment, Tuffnut regained consciousness, "I'm okay. I got hit with something, but now-" he inhaled the green gas. "Nope! Scratch that." He collapsed to the ground again and this time his whole body suddenly spasmed.
"Yeah, I'm thinking we should probably go get Gothi," Hiccup uttered after seeing Tuffnut's condition.
They took Tuffnut up to Gothi's hut to get him treatment for the spasms. It took a while for her to make the medicine, it was sunset by the time it was finished, Astrid and Snotlout both decided to go home during that time, everyone else stayed. They stayed more for the Dragon Eye than for Tuffnut, to be sure that Gobber didn't trigger another mechanism.
Gothi rolled her eyes as Tuffnut's spasms seemed to get worse and his blathering screams louder. She forced the bottle of medicine she made into his mouth, which he drank in large, loud gulps.
He shook his head as he tried to get rid of the awful taste in his mouth and started scratching his teeth, "My teeth are itching. My teeth are itchy!"
Gothi writes in the dirt with her staff and Gobber translates, "She says, that's a good sign, means it's working."
"Thank you, Gothi. We really appreciate it," Hiccup told her.
Gobber continued to fiddle with the Dragon Eye, still trying to open it. Gothi turned to look at it and her eyes widened when she saw the keyhole. She turned away from it, troubled and maybe a little traumatized.
Hiccup saw this and asked her, "Gothi, are you okay?"
"What is it?" Helene asked as well.
She raised her arm and ran her finger along her upper arm. On her arm was a scar, and it looked like a tooth mark caused by a decent sized dragon. She turned around and walked away, still very troubled.
Hiccup's face turned inquisitive when he saw that scar on her arm. "Gothi… Her- her scar, it matches the keyhole."
"Yeah, and it looked like a dragon bite to me," Fishlegs added.
Gobber tried opening the Dragon Eye by hitting it against a wooden support beam, causing a sound that was similar to ceramic against ceramic, "Oh, it is, but she doesn't like to talk about it."
He hit it against the beam again and Helene took it from him before he tried anything else with it. She and Hiccup went through a lot of traps on the Reaper to get it, it would be more than a shame if it were to break.
"She doesn't like to talk about anything," he replied matter-of-factly.
"Oh, that's why she writes in the dirt with her stick," Tuffnut seethed, his fingers still in his mouth as scratched his teeth, "I thought that was just, like, her thing."
"Yeah, like Snotlout being a woman repellent," Ruffnut remarked. Helene nodded slightly in agreement and laughed to herself.
"Maybe we can use the stick to itch the teeth," he seethed again, still scratching his teeth.
Hiccup and Fishlegs started to walk away in the direction Gothi left in. "Where are you going?" Helene asked.
"After her," Hiccup answered, sounding a little desperate to her. "We have to figure out what kind of dragon made that scar. It could be the key to opening the Dragon Eye."
"Hold on. I have ways of making her talk," Gobber chuckled, crossing his arms. "Well, scribble anyway."
He left and went back down to his workshop to get his 'secret weapon', as he called it when asked about it. He came back an hour later with a pot and set it down in front of Gothi. He removed the lid to reveal that it was full of fresh soup, it was still boiling and steaming slightly.
"It's the old bat's weakness," he whispered to the remaining Dragon Riders, it was only Hiccup, Fishlegs, and Helene left. "Isn't it?" He fanned the steaming soup with his hand at her, "Come on. You know you can't resist Gobber's yak noodle soup."
She sniffed, the smell of the soup hitting her nostrils and causing her mouth to salivate. She licked her lips hungrily like a wolf, and like one on a mouse, she grabbed the pot and downed the soup in a minute.
Fishlegs was shocked at how much a little old lady could eat in such a small amount of time. "Wow! She downed that like a yak in a heatwave!" He paused and asked Hiccup, "That makes sense, right?" Both he and Helene gave him looks, he always had to be a perfectionist.
Hiccup tried to get her to tell them about the bite mark on her arm, "Now, tell me about this bite mark."
She finally complied and started writing in the dirt again with Gobber translating for them again. "I was a turkey neck-" she hit him with her staff and he quickly corrected himself, "Teenager! Sorry. I had a longing to climb Glacier Island to find pure glacier water, known for its healing properties. So, I went with two vegetables." She hit him again and he corrected himself, "Vikings! Sorry!" He chuckled and rubbed the side of his head sheepishly, "I am a bit rusty."
Gothi and her two companions, a Viking man and woman, climbed up to the top of a mountain. At the summit, she hoped to find a lake rumored to be there, filled with water from melted glaciers.
After only a couple of hours, however, there was a sudden howl in the wind. The ground seemed to rise as the snow and wind combined to become a snowstorm.
"We had only been at the summit for a few hours when we were hit by a terrible snowstorm," Gobber narrated her story. "That's when it attacked."
The snowstorm quickly became stronger, making it close to impossible to see anything. Suddenly, a solid white dragon flew past them and disappeared just as quickly.
The male Viking was suddenly grabbed and taken away, leaving Gothi and the woman in shock.
"It was vicious."
Suddenly, the female Viking was grabbed and taken away, just like the man, leaving a terrified Gothi as the only one left.
"Relentless."
She watched as the white dragon flew above her, but she continuously lost sight of it, it blended in with the snow perfectly.
"And impossible to see in the white-out."
The dragon let out a roar, it sounded slightly shrill, like the roar of a Flightmare, but she wasn't sure where it was. That was until she looked behind her and her heart sank when she saw what kind of dragon was attacking.
"The Snow Wraith."
The dragon's jaws suddenly clamped around her arm and she started to hit it with her staff to get it to let her go. She could feel its teeth sinking into her skin, piercing it and drawing blood, and all she could do was struggle.
Finally, it seemed to be tired of her struggling and tossed her away, she landed in a snowbank. She could hear it sniffing and growling as it tried to find her. She heard the flap of its wings as it flew away, leaving her traumatized but still alive.
Gothi had a terrified look in her eyes as she remembered what happened that awful day. It was a day she would never forget as long as she lived.
She finished writing out her story and Gobber read it out loud, "I'll never know why it didn't finish me off that day. I left knowing only one thing, that I never wanted to smooch that dragon again. Smooch that-" she hit him with her staff again. He corrected himself, "See! Never wanted to see it again! You know, your drawing ain't what it used to be, old woman." Her eyes were on fire with anger and she prepared to hit him again with her staff. "But your swings, strong as ever!"
"Gothi, a tooth from the Snow Wraith is the key to unlocking the Dragon Eye. You have to help us find it," Hiccup implored.
She quickly wrote a response in the dirt, but Gobber held his hands up defensively and refused to translate it, "I can't say that to him! He's the chief's son!" She erased it with her foot and wrote down a less harsh message. "She says, no way she's ever going back, and besides, Berk needs her. It's true, she's the best healer we've got."
"Eh, Gobber can cover for you," he suggested.
Gobber was caught off-guard when he heard that, but quickly figured out what he was trying to do. "Oh, well, uh, of course, I can. I've watched Gothi work so many times, I know this place like the back of my hand," he held up his hook before he realized his mistake and raised his hand, smiling sheepishly.
Gothi still didn't look convinced, but Hiccup decided to try one last time, "You remember the viciousness of the Snow Wraith, I get that, but you also remember how it was to be my age. To want to explore, to need to see what else is out there, to get answers to questions you haven't even asked yet." Helene handed him the Dragon Eye and he held out to Gothi, "This will help me do all of that, but only…" he paused for a brief moment, as if to show his genuine sincerity, "...only if you help me unlock it."
She looked between the Dragon Eye and him, seeing the hope in his eyes. She did remember what it was like to be his age and the ambitions she had before the incident with the Snow Wraith. Finally, she gave him an approving and determined smile, planting her staff on the deck of her house. Hiccup returned her smile, finally getting his wish.
At the break of the first light of dawn over the horizon, the riders and Gothi were en route to Glacier Island. The island was documented on one of maps Berk had in the archives; it turned out to be further north than they had ever travelled before.
After flying for the entire morning, they finally caught their first glimpse of Glacier Island. It was a massive island, easily larger than Berk and Outcast Island combined.
"Look at the size of that island," Hiccup gaped. He shielded his eyes when he was blinded by a glare of sunlight refracting off of the ice.
"The book of dragons mentions the Snow Wraith, but doesn't have any information on it." Fishlegs started to get very excited, "Can you believe this? A brand new dragon! It's been so long, I've forgotten what this feeling is!" The twins both gave him a look and he quickly calmed down, "Sorry, excited about the new dragon."
"You mean the dragon that single-handedly wiped out Gothi's entire search party," Astrid pointed out.
"That would be correct," he replied. "So worth the long flight."
"Speak for yourself!" Snotlout retorted. Gothi was flying with him and Hookfang, asleep on his back. "Your neck hair's not covered in old lady drool!"
Slightly disgusted, Helene flew up to be away from Snotlout. "Here we are!" she announced.
"Oh, thank Thor!" Hiccup smiled in relief.
They landed at the summit, in the area where Gothi had been when she was attacked by the Snow Wraith. Everyone dismounted, and Snotlout held out his hand for Gothi, only to quickly retract it and cause her to fall to the icy ground.
He laughed, "Oh! Yak hands! Oh, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?" She hooked her staff around his ankle and pulled him to the ground. "Fair enough!"
Astrid smiled, "You know, we should bring her along more often."
"Yeah," Helene agreed, laughing slightly at the sight.
Gothi looked over the icy landscape with a blank expression. She examined a clump of snow near the lake, the same lake she hoped to take water from when she was a teenager. She looked back at the Dragon Riders with the same blank expression and shrugged; everyone frowned in disappointment.
"Great! Just great! She's got nothing. Someone else is wearing that bag of bones home. She's all knees and elbows," Snotlout groaned, rubbing his back and rear.
She glared at him, then she turned troubled when she heard the familiar howl of the wind. A snowstorm began to roll in, and she knew what that meant and what was coming.
Everyone was rubbing their arms when the snow and wind became colder and more powerful. Berk was cold, but Glacier Island was gelid.
Fishlegs slipped on the ice and Meatlug grabbed him with her teeth. She helped him to stand and he held onto her to keep his balance.
"Can we please do something? My mouth is starting to freeze shut!" Snotlout complained, shivering.
"Don't get our hopes up," Astrid responded, rubbing her arms.
"Well, we should work fast to find this Snow Wraith, because we're not leaving until we do," Hiccup stated.
"Let's split up so we can cover more ground," Helene proposed.
"Good idea," he replied. "Dragon call if you come across anything."
Snotlout immediately called for his dragon, "Quick, Hookfang! Before she sees us!" He turned around and saw Gothi sitting on Hookfang's saddle. She patted the space in front of him with a devious smile. "Oh, hi. I was just talking about you."
All of the riders mounted their dragons and flew away to investigate the island. Unbeknownst to them, the dragon they were in search of had been there the entire time. It opened its vivid icy blue eyes and its pupils dilated.
The riders searched the island for over an hour, looking for some kind of clue to find the Snow Wraith. They found nothing, although there was an eerie feeling of someone or something watching them.
After the search came up fruitless, they rendezvoused back to the summit to report with each other. The storm had ceased while they were investigating, but it would likely return in due time.
"Anybody find anything?" Hiccup asked.
Helene shook her head, "No, nothing."
"Same with me," Astrid reported.
"All we found were some scattered yak bones," Ruffnut responded.
"I- I didn't see anything, but I had this weird feeling that something was watching me," Fishlegs nervously told everyone.
"Oh, I had a weird feeling, too, like this old lady was stuff on my back!" Snotlout grumbled. Gothi stood up behind him, slowly peering her head over his shoulder.
Tuffnut was startled when he saw that, "Ah! Two heads!" Barf and Belch growled at him, "Oh, sorry, guys. I mean, on you two it works. I've seen it before, used to it."
Another snowstorm began to brew, this time it was stronger than before. Everyone began to shiver again and stayed close to their dragons to keep themselves protected from the storm.
"Hiccup, maybe we should get out of here," Astrid suggested.
"Yeah, that looks like a huge storm coming in," Helene added.
"No. We should set up camp here and wait for the Snow Wraith to show itself," he affirmed. "Remember, it likes to attack when you least expect it."
"Great. Just great," Fishlegs grumbled.
The tents were set up in case it turned out they would have to stay on the island overnight. During that time, with each passing minute, the storm got stronger and stronger. The dragons used their wings to protect themselves and all the rider and Gothi stayed close to them to stop themselves from getting blown away.
"Use your dragons as extra protection from the wind!" Hiccup yelled, the wind muffling his voice slightly.
Suddenly, a couple of the tents were taken away by a seemingly invisible entity. It wasn't the wind that swept them away, because wind doesn't growl like a dragon.
"It's the Snow Wraith!" Fishlegs shrieked. He hid under one of the tents, shaking fearfully like dead leaves in the wind as he tried to calm himself, "I'm gonna be okay, I'm gonna be okay!" His tent was taken away too and he screeched like he was being chased by the Screaming Death.
"Hold your ground, and fire back!" Hiccup commanded.
"Fire back where?" Astrid asked, shielding her eyes from the snow. "We can't see it!"
Another tent was taken away and he understood the point she made, it was next to impossible to see. "Actually, you know what? Take cover!"
Something similar to Toothless' plasma blasts hit the snow, causing a small explosion. The force of explosion caused Hiccup and Snotlout to fall into two separate snow banks, with Toothless getting caught in it as well and falling into the snow with Hiccup.
Hiccup blinked the snow out of his eyes and gasped when he saw the white dragon above them, "Whoa."
The Snow Wraith held its head high as it let out its shrill roar. Its wide and eerily human-like mouth was open as it roared again, giving a clear view of its sharp teeth, lower tusks, and long, bumpy tongue.
It went to the snow bank Snotlout was buried in and started to sniff the air. It roared at him and sniffed again, seemingly trying to find him. Finally, it left with a growl and flicked its tail, causing snow to fall onto his head.
Hiccup was stunned by what he saw, but had no time to wonder about it. He commanded his dragon, "Toothless, warning shot!" He listened and fired a plasma blast at it, but it easily blocked it.
The Snow Wraith shot at them again and the other dragons started to fire back. One of the blasts from the other dragons hit the snow bank Hiccup and Toothless were buried in.
"Cease fire! Cease fire!" Hiccup yelled, not wanting anyone to get hurt.
The Snow Wraith took to the air and fired at them again. It soared in between Hookfang and Stormfly and caused Astrid to fall off her dragon. She clung onto the side of the ice and Stormfly looked over and cawed worriedly.
"Stormfly!" she commanded. She lowered her tail for her with the spikes extended and she began to climb them.
Hiccup and Toothless dug themselves out of the snow and joined in the battle. The Snow Wraith was still in the air above them, roaring and growling at them to leave its island.
"Alright, I've had just about enough of this dragon, bud. Do your thing," he told him. Toothless howled into the storm, catching the attention of the Snow Wraith. "Toothless, now! Multiple blasts!"
He fired multiple plasma blasts in the air at the Snow Wraith. At least one of them hit it, but it flew away before anything else could happen.
"I think it's gone. Everyone okay?" he asked everybody. Everyone began to approach him, rubbing their arms and shivering. "Everyone here?"
"What do you mean by 'here'?" Ruffnut retorted.
"I have a question, Hiccup, what exactly is your plan to get a Snow Wraith tooth? Taking it out of one of our dead bodies?" Snotlout asked sarcastically.
"If all goes well, it'll be Ruffnut's dead body and the Wraith tooth," Tuffnut remarked.
Gothi started to write in the snow, which Hiccup took notice of, "Hold on, quiet, Gothi wants to tell us something."
"She says, we should've left when we had the chance," Fishlegs translated the ominous message.
Hiccup had no words when he heard that, he wanted to continue, but he also didn't want anyone to get hurt. He glanced at Astrid, she was shivering and rubbed her arms vigorously, Helene tried to help her by rubbing her arms with her hands.
"Astrid, are you okay?" he asked gently.
"Yep, barely," she responded, still shivering.
"Hiccup, you know I want a shot at this as badly as you, but maybe we should get out of here," Fishlegs voiced his thoughts. "We're just sitting ducks in this storm."
"W-Wait a minute, what did you just say?" he asked. He thought he started to get an idea when he heard him speak.
"He said we're sitting ducks," Snotlout replied. "And for once, I agree with him."
"Sitting ducks," he repeated softly. His mind then finally formed an idea, which he openly expressed enthusiastically, "Yes. Yes! That's exactly what we need to be!"
"Excuse me?" Helene inquired, a little bewildered.
He vocalized his newest idea, "What if we can make the Snow Wraith think it sees us when we're not here?"
"You can make yourself invisible?" Tuffnut asked. He then grumbled as he addressed his twin, "Why does he get to do all the cool stuff? I just have to sit here with you as a sister."
"Will you two be quiet for ten seconds?" Snotlout almost snapped.
"Tuff's not that far off." Hiccup then went on to explain what he had in mind, "Look, the Snow Wraith had no problem finding us until Snotlout got buried in the snow. And Gothi said it couldn't find her when she fell into a snowbank. I think that's because it sees body heat the same way Toothless can find things with sound, we'll use this to our advantage to distract it. Then, while it's distracted, we'll net it and get that tooth!"
Hiccup's passion when it comes to dragons could cause him to develop profound theories, sometimes with very little proof. He had been right before and he had been wrong before, this was a situation where they hoped he was right.
"And you're sure it will work?" Helene asked.
Naturally, he couldn't give a straight answer, "Uh…"
Astrid rolled her eyes and sighed, "Of course not."
"I hate you!" Snotlout yelled. "You know that?"
"Yes, I am aware of that," he casually replied. "Alright, gang, let's get to work."
They gathered together wood, both driftwood found around the icy coast and firewood they brought with them, and shredded the fabrics of what they could salvage from their tents. With that, they made the most of what they had and constructed them into life-sized dummies of themselves, using charcoal to draw faces on the dummies, more for fun than anything else.
Once they were finished with the dummies, they set them up in a circle, almost making it appear as if they were forming a defensive circular formation. They all gathered into a cave above the dummies, giving them a clear view of them and the Snow Wraith, if it arrived to investigate.
Hiccup admired their work and how well they turned out, "Pretty good." He turned to the others to explain his plan, "Now, if I'm right, when we light these on fire, the Snow Wraith will think they're us and attack. Then, we'll have the drop on it."
"Wait, wait, wait!" Snotlout interjected. "Look at how realistically gorgeous my statue is! I can't in good conscience send that into flames." The wind then blew off the head of his dummy, causing him to shout in shock.
Astrid could have laughed when that happened and told him sarcastically, "I'll work through the pain and do it for you."
"Wow, you'd do that for me, Astrid?" he asked suggestively.
She rolled her eyes and secretly gave Helene a coin she found on a ship in the graveyard of shipwrecks. She held it up to Ripwave's tendrils and pointed at her chin, making the gesture for 'small'. She understood this and a light glow emitted from her tendrils, but no electricity.
The purple light reflected off of the coin and onto Snotlout's helmet as a spot, the same color as the light. This caught Hookfang's attention and he pushed his snout into his helmet to catch the purple spot, causing it to fall to the ground.
He picked it up and put it back on his head, grumbling to his dragon, "Hookfang!"
Both girls exchanged mischievous smiles between each other and Helene gave Astrid the coin back. She then reached her hand up to Hookfang and scratched him, he purred in response to it.
"Alright, Toothless, light 'em up," Hiccup told his dragon. Toothless shot two plasma blasts at the dummies below, immediately setting them ablaze.
Snotlout took off his helmet as he watched his dummy burn, "Somewhere in the world, a silent tear was just cried."
'Very poetic, Snotlout,' Helene thought sarcastically.
'What a muttonhead,' Astrid mentally scoffed.
After a couple of seconds, Fishlegs tried talking to Hiccup, "Um, Hiccup, I don't know if this-"
He cut him off when he heard the distinctive roar of the Snow Wraith, "Wait, look!" They watched as the white dragon flew in low before flying upwards again as it roared, as if only inquisitive. "Okay, next time it comes in, we go."
The Snow Wraith flew in again, this time grabbing Snotlout's flaming dummy in its claws, which deeply upset him. "Oh, no, you did not!" Hookfang growled in anger, his body igniting into flames.
Toothless felt water drops falling on his head and soon felt small bits of ice as well. He looked up and saw that the ceiling was melting! Hookfang's flames were melting it!
The mouth of the cave suddenly collapsed and Toothless pushed himself and Hiccup outside to get out of the way. By doing that, he blocked them from the others, who were still trapped behind the snow.
"Hookfang, get over here now!" Snotlout shouted, pounding his fists on the ice.
Hookfang went up to the ice and everyone stepped back as he ignited again. The flames melted the snow, giving everyone hope that they would be able to get out of the current situation quickly.
Then, more water dripped from the icy ceiling and it began to crack. Suddenly, fairly sized chunks of the ceiling fell to the ground, startling everyone and causing them to fall back slightly deeper into the cave.
"Hookfang, stop!" Helene nearly shrieked.
His flames quickly died out and the melting ceiling quickly started to refreeze, stabilizing it, at least for the time being. He looked back at the riders and the other dragons, purring apologetically.
"We can't have Hookfang melt the snow, we need to figure out another way," she told everyone.
Astrid stared at the snow that prevented them from helping Hiccup and Toothless from becoming the next casualty of the Snow Wraith. She continued to stare at it intently until she finally noticed something, Hookfang had melted an indentation in the snow.
"Stormfly, fire!" she commanded, pointing at the spot Hookfang had melted.
She opened her wide mouth and let out her hot, magnesium fire. It made contact with the snow and made a deep indentation in it, almost something more like a shallow hole.
"Come on! Fire together!" she yelled demandingly.
All at once, the dragons released their firepower onto the snow, producing a cloud of steam from the melting ice and snow. When it cleared, the snow had melted considerably more than earlier when it was Hookfang alone. The said Monstrous Nightmare then went up to the snow and ignited again, melting the rest of it.
Once the snow had finally melted completely and the entrance was cleared for them, the first one to run out of the cave was Gothi. She was going down to the still-burning dummies to face the Snow Wraith, who was attempting to sneak up on Hiccup and Toothless.
Hiccup was confused when he saw Gothi swinging her staff and hitting the Snow Wraith with it, but he was glad she was there to save him from the territorial dragon. He looked in the direction of the cave and his friends and the still-ignited Hookfang.
"Oh, yeah, that's right! Snotlout got us out of the snow!" Snotlout boasted.
Helene rolled her eyes at him taking the bulk of the credit, 'Asshole.'
"Yeah, and you're also the one who got buried in it to begin with," Astrid pointed out, running down the snow to join with Hiccup, Toothless, and Gothi.
"Eh, details," he replied, running after her.
Gothi continued to swing her staff with all of her might in her desire for vengeance. She finally stopped to let the dragons take over. She looked down at her staff and discovered something embedded in it.
The dragons fired at the Snow Wraith from all sides, it tried to fight them off but it couldn't. They surrounded it, trapping it and preventing it from leaving.
"Okay, we have him surrounded. Let's get that tooth," he told everyone.
The Snow Wraith growled at the dragons around it. It pointed its nose upward and took to the air, flying away.
Hiccup's heart sank into his stomach, "No! We can't lose him."
"Actually, he lost us," Tuffnut pointed out.
Astrid started to shiver again, "Hiccup, we should get out of here while we can."
"Not yet. This isn't over," he declared. Gothi tapped on his shoulder, "Not now, Gothi. Gang, we came here for a Snow Wraith tooth and-" Gothi tapped on his shoulder again. "I- I said in a minute, Gothi. And we are not leaving-" she tapped on his shoulder again. "Gothi! Without-"
Finally, she grabbed him and forced him to look at her. She held up her staff in front of his face and showed him what the Snow Wraith left in the hard wood.
"Oh. Oh, a tooth." He blinked and his mouth was gaped when he realized what he had just said. "A tooth!"
It was sunset by the time the riders and Gothi made it back to Berk from Glacier Island. They took the Snow Wraith tooth and Dragon Eye to Gobber, who had spent the entire day acting as the substitute for Gothi.
"So, Gobber, how was it being Gothi?" Hiccup asked, a little teasingly.
"Well," he began, "I didn't get to wallop anybody with my staff, but-"
A villager, a man named Agnar, came up to Gobber, "Gobber, Gobber! I must have more of that potion you made me earlier."
"So, it cured your stomach ailments, did it?" he asked, sounding smug and perhaps a little hopeful.
Agnar coughed and vomited on the ground, "Far from it, but it did cure something else." He took off his helmet to show a single strand of hair on his otherwise bald head, "It's made my hair grow back!"
Gobber looked a little sheepish when he was told that. He hadn't expected it at all.
Snotlout slapped Agnar on his shoulder, causing the man to gag, "Hey, congrats, Agnar. You look so-" he vomited again, "good."
"Well, at least you got only one of the side effects," he mentioned.
As if on cue, he chuckled sheepishly and covered his rear when he suddenly felt flatulence come out of him. Everyone grimaced and moved away from him.
Hiccup coughed and gagged, "Well, Gobber, just whip up more of that potion for him."
He suddenly looked nervous, "Well, uh, it… was very complicated and I'm retired. Gothi, why don't you take this one?"
She glared at him and hit him with her staff, just as she had done the other night. She then led Agnar back to her hut so that she could help him with his stomach issues.
"You really have no idea what was in the potion, do you?" Hiccup asked.
"No, not a drop," he admitted. "But here's your key."
He took it and inserted it into the three holes that made up the keyhole, watching the Dragon Eye intently. After a few moments, however, nothing happened. It was the anticlimactic result of an impossible journey.
"We almost died for that?!" Snotlout snapped.
"No, there's gotta be more to it than this," he uttered, fiddling with it to figure out what was going on. "It just doesn't make any sense."
"Welcome to my world, sister. Nothing makes sense and you have itchy teeth," Tuffnut scratched his teeth.
Helene placed a hand on his shoulder, "Sorry, Hiccup. It was a nice try, though."
"Come on, Hele, you can stay the night at my house tonight again," Astrid told her.
She nodded gratefully and they started to walk away to her house with their dragons. The others left as well, leaving Hiccup to figure out the Dragon Eye on his own.
It was well into the night and Hiccup was still trying to figure out the Dragon Eye and why the tooth didn't work. He tried a handful of different things to try to get something to happen, including taking out the tooth and trying to put it in the keyhole a different way.
"Alright, that's it," he yawned, "I'm calling it a night." He placed the Dragon Eye on his desk and went to his bed. "Maybe tomorrow. Fresh eyes."
Toothless went over to the stone slab he slept on and set it on fire to make it more comfortable for him. When he did, the light of his flames hit the Dragon Eye and seemed to travel through it to create a light on the wall.
Hiccup took notice of this and furrowed his eyebrows inquisitively. He looked at Toothless and then back at the Dragon Eye, noticing how the light on the wall disappeared as soon as Toothless laid down. He stood up and examined the Dragon Eye, trying to figure out how or what caused the light.
"Toothless," he spoke, getting his dragon's attention, "come here. Do that again, bud." He set the Dragon Eye on the stool he had been sitting on. "Give me a low flame."
Toothless opened his mouth as wide as he could, producing a purple light in the back of his throat. Suddenly, some kind of purple colored image appeared on his wall with strange, dark colored symbols and markings.
This surprised him, he certainly did not expect this to happen, "Whoa." He slowly moved his eyes around the strange image and admired it, clearly intrigued and curious. "This changes… everything."
U-X-U-o~*Y*~o-U-X-U
(A/N: Woo! I am exhausted! But at least it's finally finished. I hope everyone liked reading it as much as I liked writing it.
Hiccup's quote "This changes… everything." is easily the most iconic line in "Race to the Edge", if not all of HTTYD. That's just my own opinion as a lifelong fan of the franchise.
I'm glad I finally got past the pilot episodes and now I can get started on what happens next. "Imperfect Harmony" will be next, which I'm excited for because it contains another of one of my favorite scenes in the series.
I better get back to work, so until the next chapter, be safe. And get ready, because the character Ladok from the first chapter will be appearing in a couple of chapters. Stay around if you want to see it.)