6. Finally, information

Hiccup spent his time alone with Toothless. Playing, exercising and just having a good time. As the evening rolled around he decided to get some fresh fish for their dinner, so a trip to the cove was necessary. Well no really a trip as the cove was spitting distance from their camp, but Toothless would appreciate the glide none the less.

Having looked around and listened for any approaching Vikings, the pair glided to their destination when they made sure no one was near. The cove really hadn't changed at all, apart from what seemed to be a designated fire spot. 'So people had been here, more than once,' Hiccup thought, at least no one was here recently as the fire spot looked about a month old. He turned around in the cove, taking in every little detail, happy memories filled him making him smile.

When he stopped reminiscing, he started fishing, with Toothless' help of course. They managed to get a good pile of fish, as the pond in the cove was brimming with them, Hiccup helped his dragon to scoop all, except two big fish, into his mouth. The ones he took from the pile were for him and Storm, as fish tasted better without dragon slobber on them in his opinion. He glanced at the sky and saw that the sun started it's decent into the ocean, they would have to leave the camp in about an hour so getting the fish to the camp was his priority.

As they landed and Toothless let the fish drop from his jaws, Shadow sprang up and made Storm roughly roll away from him. She lifted her head from the ground with a glare directed at the skrill and, still sleep dazed, mumbled out 'Shadow, the fuck was that?' Hiccup chuckled as the dragon let out a regretful purr as an apology, but still went to the fish that Toothless was already devouring. With a grunt Storm pushed herself off of the ground looking around for her prosthetic but she found Hiccup putting two fish on their bags and going a bit deeper into the wood for fire wood.

By the time he got back with the wood the dragons were playing around the camp and Storm had skewered the fish and was waiting for him. He dropped the wood into a neat pile and asked Toothless to light it, which he did with a small plasma blast. As the riders cooked and ate the fish, they watched their dragons play, it helped fill the comfortable silence from the humans. It was almost completely dark once they finished eating and putting out the fire, they went about getting ready, both foregoing their helmets as they would be cloaked the whole time in the village.

After telling their dragons to stay, they made their way out of the woods just after the sun disappeared. They split up at the end of the woods, Hiccup going to the academy and Storm directly to her hiding place near the plaza where she would stay for the next couple of hours before making her way behind the statue next to the Meade hall.

Hiccup's task was more dangerous by comparison. The only safe way to the academy was made of stones and the clicking prosthetic would alert anyone that came too close. With that in mind he carefully and quickly made his way to the academy, it seemed he got there just in time. As he had thought the group of young adults, it didn't feel right calling them teens, were there standing in a circle and it looked like Fishlegs and Snoutlout were arguing.

Not making any noise Hiccup made his way to the platform overlooking the academy's arena, it was the place Gobber used to stand at Dragon training. That fact brought up memories for him, but he pushed those aside, he couldn't afford to miss even the littlest detail of the conversation the group was having. But the fact that, if he wasn't under the changewing skin, the image he and the group made would parallel the one when they were teens didn't escape him.

"I just don't see the point! No dragons come here more than once a month! It's pointless!" Snotlout was shouting, but what was interesting to Hiccup was that Fishlegs was shouting back, it looked like he had grown more confident since Hiccup left.

"It's not pointless! Because of your stupidity we don't know if any dragons came and if we don't have dragons - if we miss any dragons we miss the opportunity to get help!"

"Well Fishlegs, what would we do if we got a dragon? We don't even know where to find the Demons! They probably won't even help us! And having one dragon would be much of a defense!"

"Enough!" Astrid yelled, finally having lost her patience with their bickering, "If you think this is all so pointless Snot, then by all means tell us your plan how we could help Berk." She sneered at him and he visibly deflated, clearly not having thought that far, she saw that too. "You don't have a better plan, do you? Well until you do, you follow this plan, we need to make progress, the meeting was moved to tomorrow, Chief has news. And we need to have some good news too!"

"Sorry to break it to you Astrid, but it's unlikely we'll see a dragon tonight," it was Ruffnut who decided to chip in this time, but she was right and Hiccup knew that, it seemed like Astrid did too, because she turned away from Snotlout and stared at the ground, a defeated look in her eyes.

"We still have to try," she said, and for a moment Hiccup felt sad. Astrid was never someone who admitted defeat, at least the Astrid he remembered. It looked like while they were still mostly the same, some small things in them had changed, and he decided there and then that he would help Berk, anyway he could. It wasn't only him that was effected by her words, as the rest of the group all agreed to go keep watch without further complain.

Hiccup watched them leave, he didn't see a reason to follow any of them, he needed to find out where the meeting would take place. There weren't many places in Berk that that kind of meeting could take place, but he wanted confirmation. He knew that the meeting could take place in either the academy, the Meade hall or the plaza, but he and Storm needed to be there when it began. Astrid said that Stoick has some news and they needed to hear them, they could spread out and find the meeting tomorrow but they both needed to be there. And they needed to know when the meeting was taking place.

He left his place when he was sure the others were far away. He quietly made his way deeper into the village, he spared a minute at the forge, every fiber of his being wanting to go inside, but he knew that was a terrible idea. He kept walking, looking around trying to spot any villagers. He was slowly walking for a few minutes when he saw two vikings walking towards the plaza from the Meade hall. He quickly made his way to the side of the pathway, stepping onto grass he silently jogged forward a little so he could finally heard what the two were talking about, hoping that there would be something useful in the conversation.

"Tomorrow Mulch?"

"Yes tomorrow Bucket, exactly at noon, we can't be late, everyone will be attending," said the shorter of the two, Hiccup remembered them, Bucket and Mulch who hadn't ever treated him badly, even when he was the village pariah. This was exactly what Hiccup was hoping for, Bucket always needed to be reminded of things because of his head injury, that meant that Mulch had to keep reminding hid stuff. He needed to get closer so he wouldn't miss anything. With determined strides across the grass he made his way closer to the pair, he saw a place between two houses that was perfect for this. The pair of vikings were standing still as Mulch was again saying that they needed to be at the noon meeting when Hiccup collided with someone, bringing both roughly to the ground. He held in a yelp as they went down, the place was empty when he saw it, so the only explanation was Storm who was camouflaged into the surroundings, also listening to the vikings.

Fear overwhelmed him as he heard the unmistakable metallic clank of one of their prosthetics meeting rock. He felt Storm also stiffen where she had fallen on top of him, he quickly raised his head, thankfully still under the cloak, and saw his prosthetic out in the open, he dragged it under the cloak accidently kneeing Storm in the stomach. Just their luck, the moment they were getting far with their mission something ruins it!

"Did you hear that?" asked Mulch and the riders held their breath, praying they wouldn't be found out for something this stupid.

"I probably banged my bucket again! But I saw something disappear between those houses, oh I probably spooked a mouse Mulch, I should go see if it's alright." Hiccup saw Bucket point in their direction, his eyes widened and he silently prayed to which ever God was listening that Bucket wouldn't come to them to try and comfort the 'mouse' that was Hiccup's prosthetic.

"No Bucket, it's already long gone. Now remember tomorrow at noon, at the Meade hall."

The two vikings then continued onward, unknowably leaving the riders alone. The pair both listened until they couldn't hear them anymore and Hiccup felt Storm get up. After examining their surroundings Storm peaked her head out of the cloak, he did the same and when she gestured with her head to the forest he nodded. They had to come up with a plan and they had to do it fast. They must be at the Meade hall when the meeting stared and they needed to do it while it was still dark.