Good lord. I begin with apologies to you all! I'm so sorry this took SO long! I've had writers block from hell, these past two weeks. That and school barely allowed me time to sit at my computer! But I have at last finished it! Chapter 17. The resolution to the Epic Cliffhanger of Doom. This chapter is dedicated to a reader who doesn't feel very well at the moment. I'm sure you know who you are. This chapter could be a wee bit confusing do to my use of timeline hopping. Read it through a couple times, see if you can figure it out. Anyway enough of this babble. ONWARD!

Chapter 17

Unknown

Snow. That was strange. There had not been snow for weeks. The weather had been warm and balmy without fail, excepting that one rain storm. How quickly things changed. It was dense snow. The flakes blurred past in such numbers that they almost appeared to be solid. A solid wall of white. It was like that in every direction. The sky was completely obscured by this plethora of white. It was quite annoying. There was no sense of location. This was here, and yet, this was nowhere. Where was here? Even the ground was completely obscured. No shadows, or even a texture. There was nothing. Where was he?

Ahh yes. That was another thing. He had a sense of person. He was somebody. But who? Who was he? Where was he? Why didn't he have a body? And most important of all, why was it so very cold?

XXX

Toothless

The fire that courses through my body, has spilled over. My face burns. There is a hissing sound as it drips and steams on the stones of the arena floor. My left eye is closed. I must keep it closed. The fire burns directly above it. It's a good thing I blinked. The eye should have been shielded from the blade. The blade. That icy cold piece of steel. It had been in a hand just as cold.

Hiccup was crouched before me. His head tucked into his chest, the knife lay in front of him, between us, on the ground. The puddle of blood that was beginning to form beneath my head was getting close to touching the blade. Hiccup was twitching. His muscles rippled and his face was in his hands. I was far too angry. My sympathy and worry were washed away in a torrent of fury.

How could he do this? Why? How dare he? How dare he! A shriek tore it's way out of my throat, accompanied by creeks and groans from around my body. The assortment of wood and metal that held me immobile, protested. Then there was a sharp crack. In an instant, I was free to move. My entire body pushed upwards and my restraints shattered. The fire within me intensified and I felt it's burning course through my body, centering on my heart. There were frenzied shouts and yells as the Vikings scrambled for weapons. I did not spare my attention for them. My eyes were fixed on the tiny Viking in front of me. He that dared to harm me. He that must pay.

With a flick of my paw, he flew across the arena and sprawled on his back. I was after him in one bound, landing with one paw on his stomach and pressing out all of his breath. He lay there. Starring up at me, with eyes that were round with fear, and confusion. I drew in a deep breath, and howled my rage straight into his face. There was never a louder sound. Except… Just before my jaws could close on his head, the Viking's eyes widened. My breath caught. There was a snap.

XXX

Hiccup

The world was a blurry mass of fuzz. The details, indistinct. My eyes felt horrible. Almost as if they were being pressed on by some unknown force.

"Hiccup?" I felt my head whip to the side in reaction to the sound. I was lying on my bed. A bleary image of… something, knelt at my side. It was large. Broad. Ridiculously hairy. There was also a stench. It was pungent. Disgusting. It felt as though somebody was shoving a knife up each of my nostrils. My eyes came somewhat into focus and the thing leaned closer.

"Hiccup? How do you feel?" How did I feel? I felt. Cold. And empty. There was nothing there. It was like something was missing. Not only was it missing, it had left a hole. In fact, that hole was pulsing painfully, through my head. Every beat of my heart caused me agony.

"Wha.. What happened?" My voice sounded horrible. Rough, like there was gravel rattling around in my throat. Speaking hurt as well. Everything seemed to hurt. My entire body ached. Every slight movement of every part of my body was painful. Each joint felt as though it had been knocked several times by a large stone.

"Thank the gods you're alright son! What do you remember?"

Remember? Memory? The past? These things meant nothing. Or rather, I knew what they meant, but there was no true experience attached to them. I couldn't remember. I had no memory. There was no past. There was only a blank, swirling whiteness.

"I… Don't… Remember. Who are you?" The furry thing's eyes widened.

"Hiccup! I'm your father! We live on the island of Berk! We are Vikings! You're my son!" These things all sounded vaguely familiar. Vikings? What were they? That was still a blank. I pushed downwards with my arms, and lifted my torso upwards. My joints protested the movement in silent, fiery voices and I fell back down onto my back. Getting up seemed like a challenge, so I asked another question instead.

"Vikings? What are Vikings?" At this, the giant eyesore launched into a long winded tirade on the virtues of strength, loyalty, and physical prowess. It was all so much of a bore that within a minute, I felt my eyelids begin to droop. They refused to stay open. Yet, as I began to nod and descend into sleep, the thing said something interesting.

"… and most importantly of all, we fight, and slay, dragons." Dragons. That word resounded in my painfully throbbing head. Over and over it echoed, as if bouncing around the confines of my skull. Dragons. They were important. Perhaps that was what had happened. A dragon had hurt him somehow in combat? A head injury? That might explain my lack of memory. Others had been known to lose memories after a head injury.

"um…" What was the right word? "Dad?" Yes that was it. "Was I hurt, fighting… dragons?" The thing's head started to bob up and down.

"Yes son! Yes! We were barely able to reach you in time. I think the dragon must have been torturing you, or something. When we found you, you were completely naked, and you had that bite mark and the slash in your right shoulder." The thing gestured to my shoulder. I looked down at my chest, and was startled to see the pale flesh interrupted by black in several places. I was quite disfigured. "Anyway, we did subdue the beast and we dragged it all the way back here. There's a feast planned tonight, to honor the dead killed in the raid. You shall take your revenge blows against the beast before the feast begins!"

The thing had now broken into a toothy grin, as though it were extremely pleased. That look sent a tiny shiver up my spine. I didn't think I liked my father very much. He seemed to be a violent creature. It sounded as if I was meant to kill something. Could I do that? Perhaps I could. According to my "father", I was a Viking. And if I was interpreting his words correctly, Vikings killed other things all the time. Perhaps I did kill things. Perhaps I should try.

"W- When?" The horrendous creature chuckled.

"Soon my son very soon!" I didn't have anything else to say to this thing. Perhaps if I got up and walked around, I might remember more. I swung my legs over the side of the bed. "Careful Hiccup, you might not be ready to walk ye.." I didn't bother to let him finish. I shoved myself forward and onto my own two legs. At first, they wobbled, and I thought I might fall, but then a giant, meaty arm was placed in front of me, and I leaned on it gratefully. Perhaps my father wasn't such a bad creature. Just ugly. I made for the door. My father made noises of concern behind me, but I ignored them. I needed to see what was out there. Before I got to the door however, I noticed a pile of leather in the corner. It looked like a flat leather pad, and some kind of rod, also wrapped in leather. I thought those seemed vaguely familiar. Perhaps they were important. I would have to find out. Through the door and down the stairs, though I tripped several times, I never quite fell. The front door was my final obstacle. Unfortunately, in my impatience, I tripped before reaching it, and careened straight through it. There was a yelp.

My landing was softened, by another two legged creature, much shorter, and skinnier than my father. It also had yellow hair.

XXX

Unknown

Pain. There was pain all around. Anger. Fierce, burning anger like fire. We were caught in a hurricane. Each individual wind pulled us in a different direction. Threatening to tear our body apart.

Just give me something to shoot at! Please! There! A flick. A swishing sound. A thunk. A shriek of pain. The dragon falls down through the night, and another cry of pain reverberates through the air.

I am flying over the human village. It is boring. They never see me. I do is destroy their towers and their war machines, with impunity. Wrapped in the Night, they cannot see me. One shot. An explosion. The queen has forced me to fine-tune my aim. I never miss anymore. Not for forty years. Have I really been here that long? Doing nothing but destroying random buildings. The wretched queen needed to die. She was ancient already, but surely no creature should live as long as she had. I can hear her cracked, dusty, archaic voice, whispering in my head. All these years, and I still wasn't able to resist her. It really was pathetic. I was pathetic. I must be the most useless Shade ever born. The humans had a different name for me. Night Fury. It was rather interesting. I liked it. It implied both my power, and my affinity with the darkness. Perhaps these humans weren't totally pathetic. Then, my wings snapped closed. My legs folded into my body. What was happening? I was diving without meaning to! Fire exploded in my tail. I screamed as I fell. The land quickly filled my vision, and the trees began to reach for me. They tore at my scales and tried to scratch me. The fire the burned in my tail, suddenly disappeared. Darkness took me.

I lost an entire dragon. This is just ridiculous. How the hell did I manage to lose an entire dragon? Astrid thought I was even more useless than she used to. Same went for my dad. This is a complete disaster. I go to as much trouble to slay one dragon that my dad spends on the entire village, and now it's gone. I lashed out at tree branch. I couldn't even conquer that enemy. The tree lashed back and did damage to my face. But as I cried out in pain, I saw it. A huge branch torn from a pine. And there, further off, was another damaged tree. And another, and another. It was a trail. Then, visible beyond the last damaged tree, where the land sloped downwards and out of sight, there was a large divot in the land. As if something very heavy had landed on it. I rushed over. As the land sloped down and away, a trench followed it down, starting at the divot. I ran forwards down the hill. I almost saw the dark mass too late. But I was just in time. I threw myself down behind a hump in the earth. Peeking over very slowly, I saw what could only be, a Night Fury. It was tangled and wrapped in the bola from my launcher. It's wing was spread slightly in the air with one of the bola's ropes draped over it. It's eyes were closed. It was helpless. Finally. I could now join my father, as a true Viking. The time had come. In just a few strides, I am beside the dragon. It is awake, but it cannot move. I raise my knife above my head, and prepare to strike. I never got the chance. I looked down, into the beasts eye. The look there was so… Sad. Despair filled that enormous emerald orb. It's sadness pierced me. I could not kill it. It was helpless. My stomach rolled and I almost lost my meal, dropping to my knees. This was wrong. Horrible. Unnatural. This mighty, magnificent beast of the night did not belong to Earth. It should not be bound so. "I did this." The words burned my throat and eyes on their way out. It was my fault. I must remedy it. I started to saw at the ropes of the bola. This creature would not meet it's end on my account!

The human stood over me. So this was it. This was the mighty warrior that had finaly matched my power? Ha! I, and every other dragon in the nest, could snap this tiny hatchling like a twig! So. I was so very pathetic, that even the most pathetic HUMAN could best me. I deserved death. The human was lifting his blade up above his head. It seemed that my wish would be instantaneously granted. How kind the spirits were. To allow me at the very least, a quick death. I kept eye contact with my killer only long enough to let him know that I excepted this end. Then I closed my eyes, and lay my head back on the ground. As I let out all of my breath, I braced for the end. I heard a thud. Was that the blade? Had he driven it home? I felt nothing. Perhaps the Spirits were even so merciful, as to offer a painless death? "I did this." Those sounds tingled, as they slipped down my ear plate. They meant something. I was sure of it. They were loaded with emotion, and it sent a shiver through my body. Then the sawing was to be heard. The rope that held me bound to earth began to twitch and jerk. My eyes flew open as they went slack. I moved my hind leg slightly. I could hear exactly where the human was. I leapt, and reversed in midair. As the humans face came into view, I let my paw fly forward, ahead of my body. I landed above him with my right paw pressed against his neck. His air supply was now negligible. I gazed into his eyes. They were wide, full of fear and panic. But there was something else there as well. Something that I would never expect to find in a human. Wonder. The human gazed up at me, in admiration. This human admired me, even as I prepared to end his life. I drew a deep breath to stoke the fire within, and prepared to burn him to a cinder. But as I did so, his eyes closed tight, and his face turned away from me, in fear. I realized in that moment, that I could not kill something so helpless. Something so fearful. It did not feel right. At the last possible moment, I closed the flesh that opens from the furnace, onto my throat, and instead of bathing him in the flames of death, I merely shouted my displeasure into his face. Then, I leapt away, into the forest.

TOOTHLESS!HICCUP!TOOTHLESS!HICCUP! The hurricane of winds all changed directions at once. They all flowed straight for a single point, and us along with them. All of the images, feelings, thoughts, memories, emotions, cravings, hatreds, flesh, heart. Soul. All of it, collided at a single point and for a tiny sliver of time, a single point of light shown piercingly through the darkness. Then it exploded. One point became many, but they did not scatter. As they expanded, each single point, attracted all of it's neighbors. Eventually, the expansion ceased, and each point of light became fixed in a rotation, around a central point. That center, consisted of two brilliant spheres, one light, the other dark, which spun around each other. We opened our eyes, and gazed into slit orbs of green.

XXX

Astrid

Of course, every villager had reacted at once. As the beast broke free of it's bonds, a feat which should have been impossible, the thing must have some kind of otherworldly power, every single Viking leapt for their personal weapon of choice, I drew my knives. All of them came pouring into the ring through the chain barrier. But the thing was now atop Hiccup. But it did not strike. It froze. And every single Viking froze with it, waiting to see what would happen. I began inching around to my right. If there was any kind of disturbance, Hiccup's head would roll. But if we didn't kill the thing, it would probably kill Hiccup, and several others first. As I came silently around to the things side, weaving between motionless Vikings, I looked at the beast. It did not move a muscle, not even a twitch in the tail. Not only that, but it's eyes were closed. I threw my look towards Hiccup. He, was likewise motionless, and his eyes were closed as well. His face was that of one perplexed. I had seen that face on him when he was working on a specific project in the forge. Now that I looked closer at Hiccup, I saw that his hand was up on the beast's face, while the beast's paw hovered just above Hiccup's throat. One of the beast's claws was extended, and it just lightly touched Hiccup's cheek. This was strange. Extremely strange. And of course, to me, the strange and unknown, were even more dangerous than a raging dragon.

At that moment, as I thought of the abnormality, both the dragon's, and Hiccup's eyes, flicked open at exactly the same time. Every Viking flinched. The sight was so disturbing, that I almost moved. Hiccup was starring into the dragon's eyes. And slowly, ever so slowly, a smile drew the corners of his mouth upwards. Blood dripped from the gash in the dragons face, and splashed against Hiccup's chest, darkening his tunic. Now, slowly, very slowly, the dragon shifted it's paw to the side, so that it's claw was tracing the scar that ran from Hiccup's left eye. And as it did this, Hiccup shifted his own hand to the side, and stopped just short of the oozing slice over the dragon's left eye. This made me stop with a jolt. The two scars matched. Not only did they match, they appeared to be exactly the same! This was far too disturbing. My body did not wait any longer. I leapt forward.

XXX

Hiccup

The golden haired creature that I landed on made an angry, annoyed noise. Then she rolled to the side and through me to the ground. My limbs still did not respond to my mind as they should. Not quite, anyway. I landed on my back and felt a chill at my throat. The creature was holding some kind of sharp edge there. She had her teeth bared and her eyes were full of hate. Then, just as quickly as she had enacted the threat, she was gone, walking into my house. I thought that this was rather interesting. I slowly pushed myself onto my feet. I heard more voices emanating from inside. The female seemed to be speaking to my father. I stepped back through the door, slowly this time.

"… the arena is ready as is the beast. I very much doubt that it could escape from the restraints that Gobber's put it in."

"Excellent Astrid! Excellent, thank you." Astrid. That name sounded familiar. And not in a good way either. Was she an enemy? "Come Hiccup my boy! They are ready for us! Now you shall have you revenge, and the village shall have a celebration!" And with that, his heavy arm was around my shoulders and he was practically throwing me out the door.

XXX

Astrid

My knife throw failed. Just like my ax had days earlier. I should stop throwing away my weapons. The knife hung suspended above the ground by a pale, skinny hand. Hiccup's hand had shot up impossibly fast and arrested it's movement in one swift gesture. Every single Viking drew in a sharp breath. He starred at me now, and his eyes were full of true hate. I could see fire burning there. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of a human. Dragons of course deserved a healthy amount of respect which usually bordered on fear, but humans? They were my own race. I should not fear them. But I feared Hiccup now. I feared that he had murder in his eyes. And, he was holding my knife. The dragon stepped back from Hiccup, and without taking his eyes away from me, he slowly stood.

When he was standing truly erect, something truly frightening happened. As Hiccup glared at me, one of the dragon's wings extended and brushed slightly against his arm. At that exact moment, his eyes shifted, contorted. The iris grew and the white nearly disappeared. The pupils thinned down to slits, and I was struck with the furious gaze, of a dragon. But the moment I blinked, it was over. Hiccup's eyes were normal again, though he still gave me a murderous glare. But then he spoke with his eyes still locked on me.

"Listen very carefully Stoic." I glanced to the side and saw Stoic the Vast stiffen. "You will allow both me, and the dragon, to leave the arena. No harm shall come to the dragon, or I guarantee, that harm will both come to me, and the Vikings involved. You will clear a path…" And here he turned and faced Stoic, finally releasing me from his stare. "… now." All eyes now turned to Stoic. The chief's eyes were squinted shut, and his brow furrowed as he thought this statement over. Very slowly, he nodded.

Grumblings and mutterings broke out across the arena. But Stoic silenced them all.

"I am Chief of this village! If anyone wishes to contest that, and face me in combat, then they will do so AFTER and only after, this conflict is settled."

The arena fell silent once more. Slowly, the Vikings parted and cleared a straight line between the dragon and Hiccup, and the gate. Both Hiccup, and the dragon, stepped forward at the same time and began walking slowly out of the arena. Each and every Viking they passed gave Hiccup a nasty look, and they brandished their weapons slightly as well. Hiccup and the dragon both kept their gaze fixed firmly ahead. They passed Stoic whose stone face of indifference, cracked for just a moment, and I saw the concerned and fearful father. Then the mask returned. Hiccup did not so much as glance at him. Then, as soon as they reached the gate, Hiccup, and the dragon, took off at a run.

XXX

Hiccup

I found myself in a large circular enclosure. Lengths of chain crossed each other around in a dome, preventing anything larger than a human from getting in or out. On the far side of the enclosure was a large lumpy mass. Before I knew what was happening, I knife had been thrust into my hand and I had been shoved toward the mass, which I now reasoned to be the captured dragon. It was looking up at me with no fear. Just confusion. A quick stab between it's eyes would probably be the best way to end it. I lifted the knife above my head. The reptile's eyes widened and it began to struggle with it's bonds. I let my knife fall. The dragon drew in a breath and exhaled. I was hit in the face by it's scent. That scent! The scent! The scent of my past! Musky, yet spicy, and sweet as well. All at the same time. Toothless! I tried to pull the knife away! To divert it! But it was too late. I was only able to pull it off center and back. Blood splashed the ground as I inflicted the mirror image of my own scar upon Toothless.

XXX

Astrid

The other Vikings seemed to have had their minds addled. They stood around like a bunch of idiot rabbits waiting to be eaten. I didn't. I took action. I leapt up the side of the arena and swung myself through the chain barrier. I ran along the edge and leapt down onto the path that headed back toward the village. I could see the Hiccup and the beast running ahead of me. They were skirting the outside of the village on their way to the forest. But I saw another figure. A Viking silhouette standing on a rooftop. It leapt off and down towards the dragon, swinging it's ax. Hiccup, leapt straight up, a good five feet at the least. He met the figure midair. I heard a sharp crack. Hiccup, fell to earth, hitting the ground running without even missing a beat. But the other figure, landed on it's back. And did not move. Hiccup and the dragon, disappeared into the dying light of the evening, straight into the forest. I arrived at the side of the figure. It's head was twisted around at a savage angle. It's ax blade was buried in it's own gut. I stood and turned grimly to the group of villagers that were finally catching up to me.

"Snotlout, is dead."