(A/N: Lucky number seven, I've been dying to get to this point for a while now. Why? Well, it's the chapter where the character from the first chapter, Ladok, will finally be making his reappearance!
If you read the first chapter, then you already know who Ladok is to Hiccup and the Haddock family, but Hiccup doesn't know that. Which is why I'm so eager for this, but that's all I'm going to give you without going into any spoilers.
It might seem strange to have this chapter at this point in the story, but it is this way for a reason that will hopefully make sense to everyone. I haven't written an original chapter like this in a while, so I might be a little bit rusty, but I'm sure it'll be good.)
*X*~Y-I-o-I-Y~*X*
It was nearly the break of dawn yet it was still very dark outside, as if the gods were still asleep somewhere in the heavens. Docked at an island was a rather ominous ship that was not there in wait for the morning, but for something very nefarious.
Large cages were being hauled onto the ship, the creatures inside would never again see the light of day or night. Not that the people that had trapped them cared, the opposite in fact, they only cared about making a profit.
The only thing that could stop these vile people from profiting off the innocent beings that were to be culled would be if they lost their 'inventory'. Fortunately, not all was lost for these creatures, a salvation was watching, waiting for the right moment.
The ship began to sail away and that was when they moved in. Using the cover of darkness that still tinted the air and sky, they ran down the beach and into the water. They leapt onto the ship and clung to the side until there was no one in sight.
They hauled themself onto the ship and watched as a man opened a hatch to the lower decks. They came up behind him in a very quick manner and put him into a chokehold, applying pressure to the back of his neck.
He was passed out in seconds and then thrown aside like a piece of trash. They then proceeded to walk down to the lower deck.
A guard sleeping at his post was awakened by the creaking of the wooden steps. He yawned with the intention of falling asleep again before he was suddenly hit in the temple of his head and fell to the floor. His keys were stolen and used to free the creatures that were imprisoned only moments previously.
The magnificent creatures left as soon they were freed, satisfying their savior. Using the keys, they proceeded to liberate them and give them the freedom they deserve. Unfortunately, not all of them would be able to relive the freedom they had before.
Another creature was about to be freed, but then their savior was suddenly kicked roughly in the side. They fell to the floor, grunting in pain, then was grabbed off the deck and pinned against a wall by the neck. It was a man, although he may as well have been a monster.
He was bald with a mustache and a bloodthirsty and angered look in his eyes. He was very muscular, his hands by themselves were reminiscent of thick leather gloves.
"Look at what we have here," he taunted, his voice thick with pure evil. "You think you're such a slick lizard," they hissed when he called them a lizard, "you're nothing but a little boy, you little bastard."
He said nothing and only hissed again, his golden eyes glowing with anger. He reached his hands up to his own neck, trying to pry off the meaty hand. When he did, the thick fingers constricted tighter, restricting his air supply.
Instinctively, in an attempt to regain his ability to breathe freely, he bit down on the webbing in between the thumb and forefinger as hard as could from his position. The man only sneered and growled like a rabid animal, but did not release him.
He was held as far into the wooden wall as humanly possible and hissed in agonizing pain when a fist punched him in the stomach with the force of a bludgeon made of rocks. The fist around his neck clenched even tighter, causing him to gag as he felt his throat being crushed under the force of a wolf's maw.
He could hear the madman before him chuckling as he felt his senses fading. His hearing was ringing, his eyes watering as his vision became blurry, he could feel himself fading in and out of consciousness as a lightheadedness took over.
As a last effort to save his own life, he brought his legs together and swung his lower body outward like a bola, hitting the man in the groin. It worked; the man released him from his iron grip and he dropped to the floor like a sack of flour. The man rubbed his sore inner thighs and he took his opportunity to escape.
His senses were a village after a massive storm and he was still feeling very lightheaded and felt as if his consciousness was still fading, yet he ran. He could not see the stairs at the end of the hall and tripped on them. His vision was terrible, but that did not deter him, he started climbing up the stairs on his hands and knees.
He felt someone grab onto him and try to drag him down the stairs. He kicked them in the eyes and nose and swatted them away, sending them sliding down the wooden steps.
He made it to the top deck and soon afterwards, he was grabbed by more of the guards. He struggled against them, his clothes getting torn in the fight. He punched, clawed, kicked, and even bit his assailants but he was outnumbered and received many injuries to the exposed parts of his body.
He opened his mouth as widely as he could and let out a shrill cry similar to the distress call of a dragon. It hit the ears of one of the creatures he managed to release and it called out to the others he had freed as well.
They started to fire down on the ship like an army during battle. The men fired back with their arrows and catapults, but they remained strong.
He took advantage of the distraction he was provided as payment for his compassion. He crouched down as low as he could and swept his leg across the deck, causing the men around him to fall onto their backs.
One of the creatures blew a hole in the side of the ship and he decided to run for it. He didn't like to retreat like a coward, but he had little choice in the matter. While the men were occupied with the attack from above, he made his way to the damaged section and jumped down into the water below.
The cold ocean water seemed to revive his senses, but not fully. He craned his head up to glare up at the ship before him. He couldn't climb it in his condition and that made him angry, but there would be another time.
For now, however, he had to focus on the safety and health of himself, he had to get out of the water before hypothermia set in. Ordinarily, a person would have a few minutes, but not him, he was much different.
He quickly swam for the nearby island, the one the ship had been docked at. It wasn't a particularly long swim, but he could already feel himself becoming numb.
As soon as his fingers made contact with the soft sand, he stood up, the water was just slightly above his knees. He walked out of the ocean to the beach, stumbling slightly due to fatigue. He wasn't able to walk far, as soon as his feet hit the dry sand that counteracted the wet sand below he fell onto his stomach, cringing and grunting in pain.
One of the creatures he had freed landed on the beach, cawing as it watched as the ship that still contained its captured brethren sailed away. It turned its head and saw the figure in the sand, it knew he tried everything he could to save all of them, it held no grudge against him. It walked up to him and sniffed him, cawing again.
He moved his head to look at the creature, his silvery golden orbs made contact with its yellow ones. The creature was a dragon, a Deadly Nadder, one with red legs and a blue body. He reached his hand up to it and it lowered its large, broad head to allow his palm to touch its snout.
"You're welcome, and thank you," he spoke with a soft yet very raspy voice.
He cleared his throat after speaking to the Deadly Nadder, the pain was great enough that it felt raw. He figured he would likely be unable to speak very well for a while.
He lowered his hand, allowing it to fall limply into the sand. He closed his eyes as he felt the fatigue overwhelm him and he started to drift into sleep.
The blue and red Deadly Nadder squawked and sniffed his body again. Unsure of what to do but not wanting to leave the island yet, it sat in the sand, its legs widely spread.
It sat there for hours as he slept, it was as if it was staying only to protect him. It entertained itself by swaying its spiked tail in the sand and occasionally using its spikes and magnesium flames to fire at small crustaceans and insects in the sand.
After some time, it began to grow hungry and decided to find something for both of them, believing he might be hungry whenever he woke up. It stood up and went into the forest to find whatever the island could supply.
When it left, he groaned and lifted his body from the sand, dusting himself off. He noticed the Deadly Nadder was gone and he was alone.
He looked down at himself and saw the extent of the mess that was his shredded clothing. His trousers were still in good condition with only a few tears in the legs, but his tunic was jagged pieces of cloth barely clinging to his body.
Grumbling to himself, he lifted it over his head and removed it, grunting in pain as he did so, leaving him bare-chested. He tied it around his waist, at the waistband of his trousers.
He found his boots in the bushes he was hiding in earlier. He took them off to reduce the amount of sound his feet made as he searched the ship. They were destroyed, just like his tunic was, he figured a small dragon or animal had gotten to them. Upset, he threw them towards the ocean, they landed in the water with a splash.
His stomach growled, he had been asleep for a while and had eaten very little in almost two days. The rumble in his abdomen caused a twinge of pain, prompting him to look at his stomach. It was the later afternoon hours and the lighting at that time of day made it slightly difficult to see any visible injuries.
'Great, just great,' he mentally grumbled.
He wandered around the forest, looking for a berry bush or a fruit tree, they were the safest source of nutrition. However, if he was unable to find anything soon, he might grow desperate enough to consume something that could make him sick.
He discovered a small section of recently disturbed ground surrounding a hole. He took a closer look and saw severed roots inside, as if it had been ripped out by force. There was nothing else around to indicate what kind of plant was taken out of the ground. Whatever had been there, he was too late.
Meanwhile, the Deadly Nadder he had freed returned to the beach with a blackberry bush in its mouth. It saw that he was gone, but didn't leave the island yet, instead it dropped the bush in the sand and sat down, waiting for him to return.
He eventually discovered a tree and upon a closer look, he saw that it was a pear tree. The nearest branch with any fruit growing was more than a foot taller than his own height.
There was a rock at the base of the tree underneath the branch, he firmly planted a foot on it to steady himself as he tried to reach the fruit. The rock was very wobbly, it was not buried in the dirt but rather sitting on top of it, as if it had been rolled or planted there. He just hoped it was stable long enough for him to grab just one pear.
Unfortunately, that would not be, it rolled out from under his feet into a shallow ravine, taking him with it. He landed on his side in a small creek with his arm taking nearly the full brunt of the fall.
He was wet and covered with mud and dry leaves from trees, he was down on his luck yet still stood as he held his arm. He hissed as he pulled himself to stand, feeling upset and embarrassed with himself.
He tried moving his arm to understand the extent of the possible injury. When he did, he felt a sharp surge of pain flowing through his arm, causing him to cry out with a loud screech in pain.
It was loud enough for the Deadly Nadder to hear it from the beach, causing it to lift its head up in response. It squawked inquisitively as it stood up on its clawed feet.
Instead of investigating, it started to flap its wings and began to rise into the air. As soon as it was at a high altitude, it started to fly north, towards an entire chain of islands.
He crawled out of the ravine and sat against the trunk of the pear tree, leaning back on it. He groaned as he reached his hand over to his arm and started to massage it to relieve some of the pain.
He hissed but continued to use his hand to massage his arm, though it seemed to help very little. That pain was soon overshadowed by an immense frustration he felt for no one and nothing but himself.
He freed dragons countless times in his life, why did he do so poorly that time? First, he allowed himself to get caught and nearly killed, then he abandoned his mission to save all of the dragons on the ship, and now he was injured after falling into a ravine. The number of the mistakes he made would make a Terrible Terror laugh at him.
He stopped massaging his arm and slammed his hand onto the ground in anger, leaning his head back on the tree trunk. 'You're an idiot, Ladok. What would your mother say if she saw you?'
He thought she would most likely be very disappointed in him. She taught him how to remain unseen, to be silent, and he made mistakes his younger self would mock him for.
When he was young and made many mistakes regularly, his mother would tell him not to antagonize himself, but how could he not? This was something he had done for as long as he could remember, he thought he could do it on his own and had been very successful, until only a few hours prior.
He was completely on his own, he left the only home he had ever known to save as many dragons as he could. He left because he and his mother had discovered a large operation of dragons being trapped in the islands south of where they lived.
She didn't want him to leave because they both knew he was different from other people and knew the kind of panic it would be if anyone saw him. Nevertheless, when it was discovered that this operation was south of their home, she did see a potential for him to meet his father and brother, if they accepted him if and when he found the island they lived on. If they didn't, he knew how to escape from many situations, there were many benefits to being different.
Frankly, he was eager to finally get the chance to meet his other family members, even if they ended up hating him. The stories he heard about them and their village from the time he was small made him feel like he had to make the effort to at least try to meet them.
The Deadly Nadder flew hundreds of miles north, flying over nothing but water. It moved its head from side to side as it tried to find any sign of an island. Finally, it spotted something on the horizon, it looked like a fairly sized island, it directed itself to fly towards it.
As it flew closer to the island, it saw what could only be compared to a dragon breeding ground on the coast of the island due to its crescent shape. On the odd crescent-shaped landmass were structures, platforms for the most part, but also square and rectangular buildings, a round one, and one that was an unusual four-pointed star shape.
It wondered if there were any humans down on the island and if they might be able to help. It extended the spikes on its tail and fired them down on the structures, trying to get the attention of anyone who might be there.
It didn't seem to work, no humans came to investigate, although it did seem to get the attention of small dark-colored dragons, but that wasn't enough. It needed to keep trying, but the stress of not finding anyone that could help was already impacting it as it began to fly in circles as it cawed and squawked frantically.
Finally, its efforts seemed to work as dragons emerged from a large green square yet slightly rectangular building with sloped sides and a rounded top. One of them was a light blue dragon of its own species. The light blue Deadly Nadder roared up at it and it roared back, as if they were communicating.
Then, a solid black dragon wearing some sort of leather padding on its back and a red fin in place for half of its tail came out of the four-pointed star-shaped building. It howled up at it, which caused a human male to come out of the building.
The human had messy brown hair and a metal leg. He was young and seemed very kind, calming the black dragon by simply putting a hand on it.
On the platform, the young man took out a spyglass and looked up at the dragon in the dimming early-evening sky. Muttering to himself, he asked, "Is that a Nadder?"
*X*~Y-I-o-I-Y~*X*
(A/N: I know this is shorter than the other chapters of the story and, believe me, I was going to make it longer originally, but I decided not to because I didn't want to work on this for two weeks. The next chapter will be longer though, I promise.
Hiccup and Ladok didn't meet in this chapter because I wanted to really introduce Ladok without him being overshadowed by Hiccup. They will be meeting in the next chapter, so if you want to see that, stick around. I will be spending a few chapters on primarily Ladok, but also Hiccup as well.
You will notice that I didn't go into very specific or graphic detail about Ladok and that was intentional, but it will all be cleared up later. Many of the details won't be until later on, starting with the next chapter. Again, if you want to see it, then I would stick around. Until then, see you around.)