Unfinished Business, a how to train your dragon fanfic

The Runaway Berkian

"And the family you choose? That's the strongest love of all."
― G. N. Solomon, Blood So Black

Sequel to Not a Proper Viking

Chapter 2: Unfinished Business

"Hiccup this is Berk son."

Dark clouds passed across the night sky blocking out the light of the moon, the promise of rain looming in the air. The only light came from the village of Berk, the watch tower fires burned bright illuminating the village streets. Scorch marks stained the brick work, claw marks were prominent on the hillside, the flock of sheep was significantly depleted, and several houses were still smoldering. It was clear what had happened merely hours before, yet every Viking had turned in for the night. With dragon attacks being so frequent they only had so much energy left to worry about making sure every fire was properly doused.

One by one the watch tower flames were quenched and the platforms on which they sat reeled back down to Earth. With the dousing of the last flame the world turned black. Without even the stars to cast a light upon the decimated village one would be hard pressed to see even their hand before their face. For those who lived in the village a dragon attack on a dark night wasn't ideal. For the figure hovering just above the village it was perfect.

The dragon attack ensured the village would be full of exhausted Vikings. Meaning that no one would be awake to witness the black blur that dove towards the bridge separating the Killing Arena from the rest of the village. Although if there had been any Vikings awake to bear witness it would've been far too dark to make out more than a black streak racing across the sky. These circumstances ensured that no one would be around to notice when a large black dragon landed on that very same bridge, or when it's ridder dropped down next to him.

"It's our home."

It had been exactly one week since Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III had flown off on the back of a Nightfury. In that week he'd been scouting nearby islands in search of a place to call home. He'd encountered more wild dragons than he'd ever seen in his life. He and Toothless had crash-landed on a beach nearly a day's ride from Berk. Then Hiccup had to fix Toothless's tail. They'd set a part of a forest on fire. Then Hiccup had to re-cloth Toothless's tail. The two of them had been camping in forests, Toothless wrapping himself around Hiccup like a tent, the heat that radiated off his body keeping Hiccup warm.

For Hiccup it had been the best week of his life. He was finally free. Free to be himself, free to fly, free to make mistakes, free to enjoy his life. However as happy as he was with every day that passed there was a guilty eating away at him inside. He'd made a mistake when he left Berk.

He hadn't taken the other dragons with him.

It had been on his mind for the last week. While he was on adventures with Toothless his thoughts would scream at him, 'bet those poor dragons would love to have adventures of their own.' While they were hunting for fish, 'gee bet those dragons would appreciate having enough to eat for once.' Helping an injured dragon they crossed paths with, 'wow so you can help this Zippleback but you just left the other one alone to be tormented day after day.'

It was too much and eventually the guilt won and now he was back to the one place he never wanted to set foot on again. Luckily for Hiccup the arena was on the outskirts on the village, far away from where the Vikings lay snoring in their beds. One could say what they wanted about Viking safety precautions but when it came to giant fire-breathing reptiles they didn't mess around. Which meant Hiccup could safely cross the rest of the bridge, open the arena gate, and slip inside without raising any suspicion. Of course, that was just half the job, and the easy half at that. Now came the hard part, freeing the dragons without letting them destroy the village (he may not want to live on Berk anymore but that didn't mean he was interested in watching it burn).

"It was the home of your grandparents, and their grandparents before them."

Toothless crept up behind him as he examined the five locked doors before him. "What do you think bud? Terrible Terror first? Start off small and work our way up?" He glanced at the dragon who didn't seem to at all interested in what Hiccup was doing. Instead, he was sniffing around at the weapon wall and pushing the shields across the floor. In general, Toothless was making enough noise that Hiccup was a little worried he might wake up the village despite the distance.

Hiccup shook his head and made his way towards the door, "you're a real help bud," he took hold of the lever and prepared to pull, "think you could make yourself useful and pass one of those over here."

Shockingly a wooden shield did slide across the arena floor before coming to a stop by bumping into his foot, "thanks."

After hefting the shield onto his arm, he crept forward towards the lever that would release the Terror. He wrapped his fingers around the splintering wood and took a deep breath, he met Toothless's eyes and pulled.

"It's my job as chief to protect us Hiccup…"

The first few seconds after were silent, and then chaos erupt. The Terror launched itself from the cage and knocking the shield from Hiccups arm, screeching and clawing, flying up to the canopy of chains and stalking them from above. Toothless threw himself in front of Hiccup and shifting into a defensive position, wings up and teeth out.

Hiccup threw his hands up, "Alright! Alright, how about everyone just calms down and we talk this out," he very slowly stepped out from behind Toothless and inched his way around the dragon's large frame, "what do you say little guy? Huh?" he placed himself between Toothless and the Terror, his arm up palms forward.

The Terror screeched at them and baring its teeth.

Hiccup turned to Toothless, who still held himself in a defensive position, "I'd say it's going well so far. How about you bud?" Toothless snarled.

"Real helpful," he turned back towards the Terror, "alright," he shuffled forward a step more, "hey little guy," the Terror reared back smoke billowing out the sides of its mouth, "we're not gonna hurt you, we just wanna help."

Hiccup moved forward still holding his hand in front of him, "why don't you come down and we can get you and all your friends out of here?"

The little dragon puffed at them, a small plum of fire escaping his mouth. Hiccup was worried it might launch itself at them again, but instead the little thing released its grip on the chain link and began falling towards the stone floor. Hiccup ran forward with his arms out prepared to catch it before it hit the ground. But the dragon did not hit the ground, instead the dragon spun its body around in midair and extended its wings flying down and perching itself on his shoulder.

"Right, you have wings, forgot about that," the Terror on his shoulder looked at him curiously, sniffing his hair and pawing at it cautiously, "see we're friendly."

And that's how it went with the next four. Open cage, dragon attacks, reassure them, repeat. The terror was the easiest to appease while (unsurprisingly) the Monstrous Nightmare the most difficult. But the dragon only set itself on fire three times and just barely managed to singe Hiccup's vest, so he counted it as a win.

By the time he had all five dragons were in free and in the air the sun was just beginning to peak over the horizon painting the sky with a myriad of red and orange. Hiccup watched as the sun crest over the mountain and remembered the first time his father took his to the peak. Stoick had woken Hiccup in the dead of night and told him they were going on an adventure, just the two of them. He had carried Hiccup the whole way, letting him sleep in his father strong arms the whole way. Stoick had held Hiccup in his arms at daybreak, when the sky looked a lot like this. It was tradition, Stoick took Hiccup just as his father had before him and his father before him going all the way back to the founding of Berk. It was the first step to becoming Chief.

"…and one day when you're all grown up that job will be passed onto you."

As he gazed down at Berk for what he hoped was the last time he couldn't help but feel a pang of guilt. He'd only been gone a week, maybe if he went back now, he could convince everyone that the dragons weren't what they thought they were. He could land in the middle of town square riding Toothless. They'd all see the arena dragons behind him, docile and friendly and not attacking anyone. It could be the start of a new era and…

…and he snapped himself out of his fantasy when he noticed the inhabitants of Berk beginning to stir bellow. Silent Sven was already making his way towards the Great Hall, the metal of Buckets bucket was gleaming on the hillside, and he could faintly hear the sounds of Gobber already hard at work in the forge.

He glanced at the arena dragons hovering peacefully in the air beside him, down at Toothless who had his head tilted at just the right angle in order to land his worried gaze on Hiccup. No, in this case the risk far outweighed the possible reward. There was a far larger chance that Hiccup would land and have the whole of Berk on them at once, weapons raised to kill. It was far more likely that the five dragons Hiccup had just released would be killed on sight, that Toothless would be killed on sight, that Hiccup would be killed in the crossfire. Or worse, the villagers would 'save' him from the 'beasts' and he'd have to live the rest of his life knowing he was the reason his best friend was murdered in front of him.

"Sorry dad," he whispered into empty air, "this is how it has to be; I was never meant for any of this."

He pat Toothless on the head, "alright bud, let's get out of here." Toothless let out a noise that could only be interpreted as agreement and took together they flew off into the sunrise, the five arena dragons following closely behind them.