Humans would find the hidden world again. It was inevitable. There was only one thing left to do. It would be difficult, risky, and even in the best case scenario, far from a complete resolution. When hearing of the suggestion, Eret, son of Eret, son of Eret, had laughed with joy.
The tall, blonde woman looked at Helga warily. "You will teach my son how to sail," repeated the viking.
Helga gave a reassuring nod. "Yes."
The woman hummed toughfully. "And make him row enough and feed him enough so that he does not end up looking like that Berkian chief?" she asked worriedly. Helga chuckled and gave a nod. They would face plenty of issues, but rowing would not be one of them.
"It's a dangerous world out there. The ocean millers with longships, and not all of them are friendly. And dragons…" the woman looked up thoughtfully and shook her head. "But they are gone now." She looked at Helga and displayed the hint of a smile. "Fine. You are dead if something happens to him…"
The two nodded, neither of them new to how the daily lives of having children. "…But we know that already," they repeated in unison. Finally, the woman handed Helga a small pouch of coins and shook her hand.
"Dragons…" muttered the blonde. The woman shook her head angrily. "I need a moment with my axe."
The two separated and Helga headed to the tavern, where she was greeted by her husband, who gave an inquiring look. "How did it go?" asked Eret.
His wife felt the urge to mention how the woman was very much opposed to dragons and would have been furious if she had known of their plan, but both of them were already well aware of it. "A success," she answered simply. "What about the ship?"
The ex-dragon-trapper smiled proudly. "He rented a longship to sail on!" answered little Eret happily from his father's side, making the woman melt in love. She had one question though.
"What is its name?" asked Helga. "My mother always stated that the most important quality of a ship was a name that inspired the crew and the gods, as in the end, those are the things that make or break a journey."
Her husband and her son exchanged an awkward glance, making the woman raise an eyebrow. "What?"
"God enrager."
Their plan had worked so far, and they were now proceeding with the next phase. After a few more days of preparation, collecting gold from customers and collecting a crew of lucky young sailors, the anchor was lifted and the ship slowly began its journey. To the island's knowledge, they were heading to a remote island to learn survival skills, as well as valuable sailing experience on the way to and from that island. However, in reality, their target was more ambitious. Eret, son of Eret, Helga, their son, and ten other children set sail towards the home of all dragons in the God Enrager.
What could possibly go wrong?
The God Enrager's bow cut through the small waves in the light breeze of dawn. On the ship's aft was a large pile of food, meant as a thank you gift/apology/sacrifice to the dragons. The idea of using the most annoying children for this task had been… certainly appealing, but eventually rejected. Besides the pile, Eret, son of Eret and Helga used the rare moment of calm to breathe. It was the morning after the third night onboard, and if they had navigated right, they would reach the hidden world today.
Eret and Helga found taking care of their kid… doable. Especially in the warm, calm place that was berserker island (compared to the rest of the archipelago.) Right now, they had to deal with eleven children for a week, all the while keeping an entire longship afloat. Luckily, after about three days of travel, they would come into contact with the hidden world, and all of dragonkind, which would surely make their life easier.
Eret, son of Eret gave a tired, drawn out sigh. "We might have overestimated ourselves," he said quietly as he took in the sunrise, gently rising behind the longboat.
"Yeah. But at least they are having fun," answered Helga just as quietly, as the children were still asleep, which neither of them wanted to change.
"If they are, it's all thanks to you," he said softly. This was their one small victory.
It had all begun when Helga promised a small honey cake to the one who could row the hardest. After the ship's speed had been doubled for two hours, she proceeded to give a small honey cake to each of the eleven children, and correctly pointed out that whoever had rowed the hardest had received said sweet. While this had been eventually accepted, it had also led to the children becoming suspicious of them, and from that event, very careful consideration had had to be taken before doing more such competitions.
In the following two days, they taught the children how to sail, how to fish, how to cook sailor food and how you should always listen to the captain since he will throw you overboard if you keep acting like that. The days ended with the children happy and tired, finally giving the two (equally tired) adults some peace.
The tall viking gently stroked Helga's dark brown hair. "Today is the big day. How are you feeling ?"
"I am… happy," she finally answered. "The home of all dragons… I have one million questions, and maybe I am about to find answers." The viking woman's smile grew broader. "Also, we will have thirteen pairs of eyes instead of just one! We will learn so much!"
Eret, son of Eret wished he could share his beloved's enthusiasm. But in truth, he didn't. To him, this trip was simply a necessary risk, brought by unfortunate circumstances. Though if Helga and his son could also enjoy it, why stop them?
Still unaware of this ship just below the horizon, Toothless was using some of his precious free time to stretch his wings, as well as spend some time with an old friend. He entered into the hidden world's main entrance and banked left, heading towards the king's crystal. The monstrous nightmare behind him did the same.
"I don't get it", said Hookfang. "We live for two hundred years and you just had to settle down this early."
With a snap of the tip of his wings and an elegant barrel roll, Toothless was flying beside Hookfang, as opposed to in front of him. "But have you ever seen Light?" he asked, not managing to hide his pride. "She is all I could hope for and just a bit more!"
"She lacks horns, claws on her wings and even the basic ability to light herself on fire!" said the monstrous nightmare. "How could that in any way be appealing?"
Toothless rolled his eyes. "Are you dumb or just faking?"
Hookfang huffed. "I'm just saying. You're the alpha. With a flick of your tail, you could get yourself a new mate every night." The monstrous nightmare eyes went wide at this thought. "Oh, if I was the alpha… ", he said longingly. "But no, instead you keep yourself to just one. And like if that wasn't enough, you go ahead and have kids! Kids!" The blood red dragon sped up, seemingly trying to get away from the night fury. "You're so immature."
The night fury flared and made a graceful landing on the king's crystal. Hookfang, on the other hand, had somehow missed that they had arrived at their destination and had stubbornly continued in a straight line. How exactly the dragon had managed to miss the enormous, glowing rock, he didn't know.
"Will Mister Mature help me rule the hidden world or is he too busy thinking about my immature relationship?" he shouted. And without error, the red dragon turned around and landed quickly, rumbling some mockery that Toothless gladly ignored. He gave a knowing look to all of his advisors: Light, Stormfly, Hookfang and Rej.
"Report?" asked Toothless in a friendly tone.
"Scarnose is just gorgeous," said Stormfly excitedly. "And yesterday, we started flying and kept going for hours. He likes me. I know it."
"Report that is not about Stormfly's relationship status?" asked Toothless in a slightly less friendly tone.
"Some light furies from 'that pack' complained about an invasion of their cavern. They said that three dragons entered and started roaring and disturbing the peace," stated Rej. "I'm wondering who those dragons may be," she added.
Whoever those three dragons were, they reminded Toothless of someone… Regardless. "Well, it's not 'their cavern.' Others have the full right to go there. If they ask kindly, those dragons might leave or be quiet. But rivers are public property. Anyone wants to tell it to them?" said the alpha. 'That pack' had grown a bit arrogant in the last few years, and he would have to deal with them soon.
"I will," said his mate confidently. "And I will try to tell them in a way that does not make them hate you," she added, her voice making the night fury's heart just a little bit lighter.
"Thank you, my little moon stone," he said lovingly as he walked over to his mate and pressed his side against the light fury's. His wing gently patted the white dragon's head, and he could feel a tail touching his underside…
The dragons who were watching them synchronously groaned rolled their eyes.
"Ahem," said Toothless as he pulled apart from his mate and recomposed himself. "I mean good job, Light. Anything else?"
"The dragons want more, better fish. Especially at the lower levels," explained Stormfly casually, repeating the same eternal problem that had plagued the hidden world since he started ruling.
"And the alpha can just make more fish appear out of thin air if you complain hard enough, right?" he said, annoyed. It wasn't a new problem, but it was almost impossible to solve. "We have tried to make the upper levels restrain on the good stuff, so that some of it reaches further down," he said. "But even then the total amount of fish won't change, and suspiciously many good fish are eaten as soon as we aren't watching."
Or in other words, "I don't know how to solve this," he stated. "You?"
After ten seconds of heavy silence, Toothless resigned, at least for now. "Any other problems?"
There was no answer this time either. But he could feel that there was something more. "Well..." started Rej carefully.
"Go ahead," reassured Toothless, though mildly worried himself. If Rey was insecure about telling him, it might be a tense problem. Then again, Rej was insecure about everything, so it might just be normal.
"I'm not going to get mad at you just because you tell me the truth," he added soothingly. For some reason, that wouldn't have felt like a good way to rule.
Rej seemed really nervous. "It's probably an unnecessary question, but…"
At this point, Hookfang decided to step up and clarify things. "What will we do if humans return? It's been on everyone's mind ever since we let them go," he said bluntly.
"Yeah," confirmed rej. "That."
The alpha nodded. "Yeah…" He hoped it wouldn't happen. But if he understood humans correctly, their curiosity and/or greed made this a very real danger.
"I just don't get why we didn't take the safe route and just removed the problem?" asked Hookfang while dragging his claws across the rocky floor.
"Have I ever told you that you're a coward?" asked Toothless mockingly. Mindless murder was not, and was never going to be an option.
"So are you, my beloved alpha", replied the red dragon while respectfully bowing down his head. This was supposed to be a formal meeting, but the two couldn't help but chuckle at each other's antics. "But what's the real reason?"
Really? His friend Hookfang could not see any reason to keep humans alive? Well then. "We might anger them," said Rej.
"They might be able to find the entrance anyway," said Light. "Others will know that a ship has disappeared."
"I don't want to kill people," explained Stormfly. "It's much more fun to play fetch with someone who is alive."
Not killing was a good decision. And the alpha had people who would support him through it. "And lastly, do you remember when we left Berk? What was the final promise?" he asked. Ever from the day he had left Berk and Hiccup, Toothless had had a dream.
"The Berkians will guard our secret until the time comes when we can return, in peace," recited the monstrous nightmare with all the enthusiasm of Ruffrunner waking up.
Toothless was taken down by this lack of vision. "Don't you believe in that anymore?"
Hookfang rolled his eyes. "How much time will it take? One thousand three hundred years?"
Toothless rolled his eyes at the absurd suggestion. "Hilarious," he replied.
The alpha then explained the correct way to see this. "Dragons and humans will meet again. It is inevitable. Sure, it will be a slow, complex process full of suspicion and wariness by both sides, but it is bound to succeed… no matter how much time it may take."
A black and white dragon who flared at the very last moment all but crashed into the crystal, small shards of it cracking beneath her claws. The dragon was panting heavily as she leapt towards him. "A ship full of vikings is sailing straight towards us!" reported Dart, sounding happy for some strange reason.
Toothless heart rate doubled as all eyes on the crystal focused on him. "How? Who? Where? Why?" he asked, desperate to get more information. But there was one more question. "When?!"
Dart answered joyously among heavy breaths, completely neglecting her father's panic. "About twenty kilometres away, east. A single ship, though bigger than last time. Doesn't seem armed. It's moving faster too."
"Thank you. It's good that we could spot them when they were this far out," said Toothless thoughtfully. A realisation then occurred to him, something not all that unexpected given his daughter's usual behaviour. "How do you know this?"
Dart, who had previously been busy catching her breath, took a moment to look at him. "Wow, that really sounds like what you should be focusing on right now."
She levelly met his gaze as he gave a low, disapproving growl. But on the other end, she was right. He had more important matters to attend to. Including a particular red dragon that would soon start to literally press his snout into Toothless if he wasn't allowed to speak. "Hookfang, what do you want to say?" he asked.
"They must know where we are," he stated. "And we can't be sure who else knows. They might be coming here in masses, just to slaughter us!" Rej shuddered at these words.
Despite the chaos, the alpha took a few seconds to think. And there was a solution. The hidden world was a safe haven for all of dragonkind for a reason. "The entrance to this cavern is a hole. Even if some evil humans jumped into this place with the intention to kill us…" He explained. "For us, the only difference would be a pretty red tint on the rocks at the bottom of the cavern. We can defend this place, and we can defend it well," concluded the night fury with a toothy smile.
"So… what will we do now?" asked Light.
The ultimate goal, humans and dragons reuniting in peace… didn't seem feasible right now. "Not killing, not letting them in. We will drive them away," he decided.
None of his advisors argued against it, trusting their alpha. However, as Dart roared "Are you really determined to make everyone's life as boring as possible?!" straight to the alpha's face, they for a moment looked quite amused.
However, they were in a hurry. Toothless and his advisors took to the sky.
Dart, flying rapidly through the tunnel, spotted her brothers lazily basking on a warm rock, where a ray of sunlight had made its way into the cavern. The two seemed really relaxed, calm smiles painted on their faces. It looked so peaceful…
She then proceeded to violently shake the poor dragons until she had gathered their full attention.
"I need your help. Now," she said urgently.
Ruffrunner stared at her blankly. Pouncer stared instead at the distance, a bittersweet look on his face. "I had a wonderful dream. About Laura," he said melancholically. "We were… "
"I don't want to know what you were doing," she answered, disgusted. Gosh, wasn't there anything useful in those two?
Pouncer shook his head, determined. "You don't even want to know about my dream. Why should I help you?" he said. The white nightlight's attention then shifted to the great expanse that was the world around them, like an old bewilderbeast pondering on a stim of fish. "Oh, if only I could meet you again…"
There were some things that Dart held dear. Her pride, her dreams and her desire to improve the world (note that her brothers weren't among these). But when those got in contradiction with one another, she was ready to give up on the first. "I'm sorry. You can tell me all you want about your dream, about Laura and about everything else," she said, swallowing her pride. "But I need your help to save the day, and I need it quickly. Please. This is the most important event of my life."
Pouncer would have answered that she had said the same thing about a race they had done two months ago, but his sister really really did seem desperate this time. "I will help you," said the white nightlight as he shook his wings and readied for takeoff. Dart would've let out a small tear of joy if she had had lacrimal glands.
Only one dragon left to convince. "My beloved little brother," she said at Ruffrunner with the sweetest voice she could manage.
Her beloved little brother (whom she considered a jerk) was looking at her with completely uncompassionate eyes. "You will fish for me for a month. And don't call me 'little' anymore," he said. Like a jerk.
She didn't have a choice. "Fine. Hurry up now."
She leapt into the air, and for once was happy to hear her two brothers right behind her. Within two minutes, they were outside and speeding towards the viking ship.
"By the way, what are we going to do?" asked Pouncer as Dart set her course outside the cavern.
Dart didn't look at her brother when answering, her eyes strictly locked onto the viking ship in the distance. "Our father wants to send the humans away. We will stop this from happening and instead make them come with us in the hidden world. Even if we have to disobey him and use force to achieve it."
Ruffrunner and Pouncer exchanged a more than worried look.
There was a dragon head carved in front of the God Enrager, coloured in blue, red and white, representing either a terrible terror or a monstrous nightmare. The artist who had carved it wasn't too familiar with the beasts.
There were several dragon heads in front of the God Enrager, coloured in black, blue, white and red and heading at high speed towards the vessel. Their expressions varied from fear to anger to deadly seriousness.
It is important to note that these dragon heads did indeed have attached bodies.
Eret and Helga stood at the forefront of the vessel, though they left a sizable spot for dragons to land in the front of the deck. With a silent flare, the night fury touched down on the vessel and angrily looked at them. In the same time, the other dragons that had reached the vessel started circling around it, in a way that reminded Eret, son of Eret far too much of vultures flying around a prey. Humans trying to reach the home of dragons. Because that had gone so well in the past.
The viking stepped forwards and bared his hands. "Toothless. We mean no harm," he stated, as he had taught himself to do all those years ago. Toothless looked at him suspiciously, and tilted his head as he saw the many curious pairs of eyes just behind Eret, son of Eret.
This time, they had an advantage. While these children had proven a pain during the trip, there was a reason the two had decided to bring them along. While right now, they were scared by the large animal on their ship, quiet murmur seemed to arise from them. At least, the adults with them hadn't panicked. A bark came from one of the circling dragons and mildly startled the human crew. Unbeknownst to them, this was Light telling her mate that there were no visible weapons on the vessel. The night fury gave a short bark in response.
Vikings knew dragons. Vikings had seen dragons burn down their houses, steal their food, steal the lives of friends. But for a certain group of people, this was not the case. As a matter of fact, no one younger than twenty had ever experienced pain involving dragons.
And as the young crew looked at Toothless and the other beasts with curiosity and marvel, the alpha was beginning to understand this as well.
"We want to meet you and we want to learn about you," stated Eret, son of Eret as he looked in the emerald green eyes of the night fury. "Will you let us?"
The viking stretched a hand in the night fury's direction, and Toothless mind pondered. He wanted to live with humans in peace. And here was an unarmed ship, full of viking children who wanted to meet them. Under the watchful eyes of everyone but the viking himself, he closed his own and pushed his snout into Eret, son of Eret's hand.
Humans would find the hidden world again. It was inevitable. There was only one thing left to do. Make it happen in peace.
And sure, in the coming ten seconds the alpha would be barking profanities at his children for disobeying everything and everyone and coming here. But for the moment, he was at peace.
This was the hardest chapter to write of the entire initial part of the story. But after the literary equivalent of banking one's head against a wall for fifteen hours, I achieved something that I am happy with. It also ended up being a rather short chapter. Oh, if only there were more chapters for you to read…