10. Starting deals
The Meade hall was completely silent, nobody understood where those figures came from. To the people's eyes the figures emerged from a cloud of gas that appeared out of nowhere. The pair was standing confidently before the chief and his council, their stance demanded respect and no one knew what to do.
"Who are you?" Stoick asked, his voice apprehensive.
"Oh come on, you've just heard a story about us – "
" – and who else have you been conspiring to find? –"
" – or are we not your only targets?" The pair spoke together again, continuing where the other stopped. Astrid and Fishlegs gasped simultaneously finally understanding who stood before them.
"Dragon demons," Astrid whispered out, unconsciously covering her mouth with her hands.
A whisper rang through the silent hall and with it the people came to life, whispering among one another, shouting out questions and threats. Everyone could see why they were referred to as demons, the clothes they wore were helping in the image. Their helmets were modeled after dragons, their armor was worn and the shorter figure had metal spikes and metal part in the armor, while the taller figure had sleek, well fitted armor. Their armor was clearly complicated and well made.
"Congratulations, you've figured it out," said the taller one then gestured to the shorter one. "My sister and I want to know why you are so desperate to get information about us."
"So, why don't you tell us? After all, information is best straight from the source, not from stories." The girl said. Seeing the hesitation in the people she let out a humorous chuckle. "Come on, tell us the truth. If you mean no harm we won't mean harm either."
Silence had followed her statement as everyone was still in shock at their arrival and the simple fact that they spoke. After minutes of silence she silently huffed and looked at her companion who gave her a small nod. At the signal she started judging the people on the platform, she stopped at Fishlegs and stared at him.
"You." She stated, Fishlegs pointed a finger at himself, confused, she nodded. "Yes, you. Strat talking."
"Well, um, you see…" he started anxiously looking at his friends. "We j-just wanted to see if you were real – haha – we had heard many stories and wa-wanted to see for ourselves, ye-yeah."
Hiccup and Storm looked at each other, communicating without even as much as a sound. Storm turned to Fishlegs again, her pose completely relaxed, her arm lazily resting on her hip.
"You've heard stories, have you? Then you know we're not stupid. Now the truth, please."
"We want your help," Stoik cut in, finally tearing his eyes off of Eret who stood frozen at the side. If what the man said was true, it was no use trying to lie and anger the 'demons'. The woman turned to her companion tilting her head to the side, they both chuckled and turned to Stoick simultaneously.
"Ok, how could we help?" the man asked. Stoick stiffened, not expecting them to agree, he turned his head to the left and saw similar expressions on the dragon scout's faces. His eyes caught Astrid's, he gestured for her to talk as she was the one responsible for dragon related business on the island.
"We want you to help us train dragons," she confidently stated, pushing the shock down, not wanting the pair to see the effect they had on her.
"For what purpose?" the man asked again.
"Defense," Astrid answered, now completely at ease seeing that the pair were genuinely interested in their answers.
"We'll think about it – " the woman started.
" – in the meantime, think of a plan to propose to us – " the man continued.
" – we'll be back tomorrow at noon, and we'll be expecting more than a request to train dragons, - "
" – you'll tell us why you want dragons, more than one word answers. Defense from what, and why dragons? – "
" – You'll answer those questions, and more we will have – "
" – then we'll decide if you deserve our help – "
" – do not lie to us, we'll find out – "
"Goodbye" they ended together, their voices merging to one again. They turned and walked out the hall, not looking anywhere but forward, opening and closing the hall's doors perfectly in sync. They disappeared and the building filled with noise, people trying to be heard.
"Silence! One question at a time!" Stoick exclaimed, that was a lot to take in for all of them. They finally did it, they had a chance for help, all they needed was to be truthful. The problem was that they really didn't have more of a plan than to ask for help and hope for the best, now they had until noon to put everything into place and hope that the 'Dragon demons' decided to help them.
"Will we accept their help?!"
"Yes, we will. We have been trying to reach them for a month, we won't let this chance go." He answered honestly.
"What if they ask for something in return?!"
"We'll try to meet their demands the best we can, if they ask for too much we'll decline. My priority is the village and tribe, it always was and will be."
"Can we trust them?!"
"I… don't know," he answered honestly. "As far as we know, we have a common enemy and they're the best help we can get. We won't let our guard down and I won't put my people at risk."
The people were content with his answers and all were left was whispers among one another. Stoick dismissed everyone except his council and the Dragon scouts. They needed to have a plan tomorrow and they needed it to be good.
Meanwhile the 'Dragon demons' made their way back to their camp. Berk's chief just confirmed their suspicions that they wanted to find them for help. They said they would hear them out fully at noon so they had time to sleep and fly. The people would be too preoccupied with what happened to watch the sky tonight and their dragons were starting to become irritated.
They reached their camp and wasted no time and got on their dragons. They were in the air in seconds. The pair stayed silent for a long time just enjoying the freedom that came with flying, but after a while they touched down on some sea stacks with Berk in the horizon. The dragons caught some fish and the riders took a couple for their meal, they sat around a camp fire cooking their meal.
"So they want dragons for defense. What do they think is going to change?" Storm asked.
"I and Toothless did defeat the Red Death, maybe they think dragons will help them against Drago?"
"So you think we should humor them and help them train dragons, just like that?"
"Of course not, we can't just get them dragons 'just like that'." Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I've been thinking about this and honestly they might be onto something and they might not even know it. Drago might just send some people to finish off Berk and Berk having dragons would save them. You've heard the hunter, Drago doesn't think Berk's a real threat and Drago thinks he's too important to give a fuck about small threats when a good attack can take them out."
"You're right, and if the dragons wouldn't work for defense, they would work for a distraction and be enough for Berk's people to flee to safety." Storm concluded. "Fine, we'll help them. But I need to ask you one thing. Do you want to help them because they actually need help, or do you want to help them because they're your tribe, your friends and your father?"
"I… I'm not sure," he sighed. "A little bit of both, I think. As much as I want to say that I've forgotten them, I haven't and as you said they're still my tribe and I feel like I have to help them. I honeslty don't understand myself!"
Hiccup felt confused and hopeless and it showed on his face. Storm placed a hand on his shoulder and pulled him into a hug, he almost started to cry. Being alone for basically fifteen years, losing a limb and falling out with his father was what he had to go through to get to this moment. To get a family that cared for him and supported him, it was almost too much for him at that moment as he faced the people who didn't give a shit about him when he was younger.
"It's okay Hiccup. We'll help them. I want you to understand one more thing, you haven't forgotten them and what they did to you, but you have forgiven them. And that's okay, because you're a compassionate, understanding and forgiving person and I'll support you in this. You're my brother in everything but blood. We're family, no matter what other people say."
He nodded, lifting his head from her shoulder he came face to face with Toothless, who saw his friend's distress. Hiccup gave a weak smile and put a hand on Toothless' snout. The dragon gave a sad grunt, Hiccup assured him he was okay and Toothless took this as a sigh to start attacking his rider with his tongue.
Hiccup laughed wholeheartedly at his dragon's shenanigans, and the other two joined them in playing their time away, Berk and it's problems momentarily forgotten. They knew that at noon they would start helping Berk, they knew that they won't have enough time to unwind and just be happy for a while. So they took the time to do that now. They acted like children they hadn't had the time to be.
