Hiccup POV...
Later that night, after parting from Toothless, Mara and the others, I returned to my private workshop in the forge to some more on my designs for Toothless' saddle and my harness, trying to figure out ways to improve it. The sun had long since gone down by the time I had gotten bored, laying my head on the table. I pushed my pencil up and down the slanted desk with a burdened expression. Spending time with Toothless has been some of the happiest moments in my life, even more so with Mara's family being completely fine with it, actually welcoming the idea. However the conversation I had with Mara about me telling the village had really gotten to me. One way or another, I can't hide Toothless forever, it's too big of a secret. But if I tell my dad about it, he probably won't listen, and he'll have the village hunt Toothless down. Then afterwards I'd be banished from Berk, or worse... I highly doubt they'd understand fully how I feel about Toothless before making up their decision. I'm already an outcast.
Speaking of which, I glance over by chance and widen my eyes at the sight of my dad's head poking through the doorway. "Dad! You're back!"
I quickly jump to my feet and hastily start to pile up all of my drawings of Toothless and the fin behind me before he could notice, and he squeezes through the tiny door. Well, tiny for him anyways.
"Gobber's not here, so..." I start to say, striking an awkwardly casual pose, trying to cover up as much as possible.
"I know," he tells me, cutting me off. "I came looking for you."
I blinked in surprise, not expecting that. He never came looking for me. Not unless I'd done something wrong. "Y-You did?" I asked in surprise.
"You've been keeping secrets," he says sternly, narrowing his eyes.
My heart stops in shock, and I nervously drag my journal behind me as well. "I...have?" I stammer out nervously.
"Just how long did you think you could hide it from me?" he demands, glaring down at me.
"I don't know what you're..." I say in vain, fearfully tapping my fingers on the desk, not able to meet his eyes.
"NOTHING happens on this island without me hearing about it," he proclaims harshly, and I flinch at his tone of voice, glancing up at him briefly.
"Oh?" I squeak out.
"So," he says, taking a massive step forwards as he towers over me."Let's talk, about that dragon."
My hand slides off the desk and I stumble slighty, the blood draining from my face in terror. How did he find out?! I am so dead...
"Oh gods," I breathe out in horror. "Dad I'm so sorry. I was going to tell you. I just didn't know how to-"
However before I could say anything else, my dad starts to chuckle. I stare at him in bewilderment as that chuckle turns into a massive booming laugh, his whole body literally shaking. I laugh along nervously, completely baffled at this reaction.
"You're not...upset?" I ask hesitantly.
He whips his head to look at me as if I was insane. "What?! I was hoping for this!" he exclaims in delight.
"Uh...you were?" I ask slowly in confusion, staring at him with a furrowed brow. Why would my dad of all people, be glad I was friends with a dragon?!
"And believe me, it only gets better! Just wait til you spill a Nadder's guts for the first time!" he says happily, and my face falls. Of course he wasn't talking about Toothless, how could he have known? He's actually just talking about my success in the dragon ring, not that I'm friends with a dragon. The only way he'd know that is if Mara, Ahsoka or Jarik told him, which I highly doubt they did.
"And mount your first Gronckle head on a spear. What a feeling!" he exclaims, patting me playfully on the shoulder. To him it was probably just a pat, but for me it was a full blown hit, sending me into the bookshelf behind me with a startled grunt. I struggle to get back to my feet as he continues talking.
"You really had me going there, son. All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen!" he says, much to my annoyance. "Odin, it was rough. I almost gave up on you!"
If I thought my expression couldn't sink any lower, I was wrong. He may not think what he's saying is anything bad, but that right there might as well have been a punch to the gut. This whole time he was so disappointed in who I was he was ready to consider giving up on me ever being worthy of recognition, much less his son. Way to make me feel better... I sighed sadly with a feeling of hurt.
"And all the while, you were holding out on me! Thor almighty!" he continues, grabbing a stool and sitting down. His massive frame nearly fills the tiny room.
"Ahhhhh. With you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about," he says in relief.
We stay in awkward silence for a long while, and I struggle to come up with something to say, opening and closing my mouth. He scoots closer, the most elated expression I've ever seen on his face before. I've always wanted my dad's approval, but now that I have it... it's in completely the wrong way. After a few moments he finally notices my discomfort, and clears his throat awkwardly.
"Oh, I... brought you something. To keep you safe, in the ring," he says, pulling out a horned Viking helmet and fixing its horn. he gives it to me, and my eyes light up in awe at the gift.
"Wow. Thanks," I say with sincere gratitude. Despite what he just said a few moments ago, he seemed to truly want what's best for me in the moment, like a real father. And that's all I've ever wanted from him. I accept the helmet and run my fingers along it in gratitude.
"Your mother would've wanted you to have it. It's half of her breast plate," he says.
I instantly stop and pull my hand away from the helmet with a grimaced, now more disturbed. I know its a gift from him and from my mother but... really?
He taps his own helmet. "Matching set. Keeps her close, y'know?"
I continue to stare at the helmet with wide eyes, my mouth half open, but my expression softens at the look on his face as he recalls my mother. I could obviously tell how much he still missed her to this day in that expression. I wish I could have known her, but nobody would really discuss her. Not even dad...
"Wear it proudly. You deserve it. You've held up your end of the deal," he says pridefully, and I slowly place the helmet onto the desk, squirming. After a few moments I give off an obviously fake yawn, pretending to be tired just to get this conversation over with.
"I should really get to bed."
He widens his eyes and nods quickly, standing up from the stool. We then of course start to talk over each other, the awkwardness so thick it could be cut through by Jarik's lightsaber. "Yes! Good! Okay. Good talk. See you back at the house. We should do this again. I'm Great. Thanks for stopping glad I stopped by, I hope you by. And for the... the uh, like the hat. breast hat."
"Oh umm... I'm gonna stop by Jarik and Ahsoka's house on the way back, since uh.. to get their take on how well you're doing," he says, coughing nervously.
I widen my eyes slightly. "Oh... well, sure I guess," I say nervously, and he nods. He stands up straight and takes a deep breath.
"Well.. uh.. good night," he says, leaving the room. As soon as he's gone I let out a big sigh of exhaustion, more burdened then ever, because now he thinks I'm the best at dragon fighting. Yet I'm not. All I'm doing is just using simple tricks I picked up from Toothless. Of course, he'd be outraged and any pride he had for me will then vanish if he learns that. I just hope Jarik and Ahsoka don't reveal anything... not that I doubt them but...
The sound of metal clashing violently just outside the shop gets my attention, and I groan in exasperation with a facepalm. No doubt my dad just knocked over everything in the forge with his huge size. Now I've gotta clean that up.
Jarik POV...
A loud banging on the door woke me and Ahsoka up, and I would bet Mara as well. Very likely she'd try to ignore it now. With an irritated groan I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes tiredly as Ahsoka did the same, although slower.
"Who in the world is knocking this late at night?" I grumbled irritably.
"No idea," Ahsoka replies with a mumble, stretching her arms.
Whoever it is knocks on the door again, too strongly for it to be Hiccup. Mara mumbles 'go away' from the loft, causing me to roll my eyes. However this person clearly wants to speak to us, so I slowly get out of the bed and turn on the lamp, walking over towards the door, running a hand through my hair. I open it to be greeted with the massive form of Stoick the Vast, 'O Here His Name And Tremble' standing there. I'm a decent height, just over six feet, but still he towers over me. Vikings and their ridiculous size. I stare at him with a tired expression, which he takes notice of.
"Hello, uh... sorry about-" he starts to say before I close the door on his face. I let out an exhausted sigh and rub my eyes while Ahsoka lets out a cough.
"Jarik," she says sternly in disappointment.
"I know I know, I just want to prepare myself," I retorted, opening up the door again.
He blinks in bewilderment, too stunned to speak for a second. "I'm... sorry?"
I simply wave my hand casually. "No, you're fine I'm just tired," I replied. "So what's up chief?"
Regaining his composure, he looks at me curiously with a hint of excitement. "I'll only be a minute don't worry. But since you two and Mara are closer to Hiccup than most, I was just wondering how you feel about how well he's been doing in the ring. It's amazing. Have you been helping him?" he asks curiously, pride leaking through his voice.
I raise an eyebrow at how excited Stoick sounds for Hiccup, and glance over at Ahsoka, who gives a small shrug. Looking back at Stoick, I answer truthfully. "Well, none of us have really taught him anything. We've given him advice sure, but that's all him. He's doing good," I answer truthfully, the hidden meaning unknown to Stoick.
He beams at us. "That's fair, that's fair. I'm proud of him though. All these years of mistakes and foolishness and now he's showing how much of a Viking he can really be!" he states happily.
I grimace at his choice of words, considering how insensitive they are, but don't say anything about it. Hopefully he'd learn son enough. "I suppose. But just remember, that he's a good kid, and he just wants what is best for the village. He has a good heart, and I'm sure he's a lot braver than you realize."
He nods, although if he got the whole message I'm unsure. "Of course. Well... thank you Jarik, and um.. goodnight," he says awkwardly, smiling briefly before heading off. Once he was gone, I closed the door again, shaking my head lightly before returning back to the bed, shutting off the lamp.
"Still pretty blind to sensitivety," I remark quietly, climbing back into the bed. Ahsoka leans back down beside me, draping her arms around me.
"He wants what's best for Hiccup, that's the important thing," she mumbles.
"Just wish he'd realize the proper way to go about showing that. He probably hurts Hiccup's feelings without realizing it," I reply, wrapping my own arm around her.
"One way or another, we'll hopefully change that soon," she promises.
The next day was supposed to be the final dragon training class leading up to the battle against the Monstrous Nightmare. It would be decided by who defeated the Gronckle, and it was just Hiccup and Astrid left in the small tournament for the "prize" of the fight. Because of his recent successes in dragon training, everyone was eager to watch the fight, so most of the village would be there spectating. Stoick would also be there, very eager and prideful to see how Hiccup was taking down dragons so effortlessly as the village has been saying. I'll admit, I was interested as well. Besides the Zippleback fight, none of us have really witnessed any of his dragon takedowns since we were gone for a month. Currently the three of us were standing near Stoick and Gothi, waiting for Gobber to release the dragon. Hiccup and Astrid were standing in the ring side by side as he instructed them on how it would go.
"I can't wait to see this," Stoick says eagerly.
"I hope he'll be ok," Mara says quietly.
I nudge her on the shoulder. "Oh come on, you still think he can't handle a dragon after what he did to that Zippleback?" I joked with a small grin.
"What? I worry," she says defensively. I give her an amused looked, causing her to roll my eyes before I notice Ahsoka frowning.
"Hey, what's up?" I ask her, sensing her wariness.
"I don't know its just... something seems wrong," she says, still frowning. My expression turns a little more serious.
"With the match? Is something gonna happen?" I ask in concern, and Mara looks up worriedly.
She shakes her head however. "No it's not with the match It's... something else," she said, glancing off to the side and narrowing her eyes. I follow her gaze and notice a Viking coughing slightly, his wife berating him or something for being here while sick. Hoark the Haggard I think. I can't make out most of it, but I don't see the problem too much. The situation then starts to increase a little bit more dramatically, as he begins coughing even more, looking more ill.
"Something's wrong with him..." she mutters in concern. I nod along, narrowing my eyes and trying to figure out what Ahsoka is feeling about him besides some sickness.
His wife then develops a worried look as he coughs more, that look turning to fear and concern when he suddenly collapses, skin extremely pale. "Hoark!" she exclaims in surprise, kneeling by his side.
"What's wrong with him?" Mara asks in concern.
I look back over at Gothi, and move to get her attention, but luckily she had already noticed, and started hobbling over. Stoick noticed as well and upon seeing the situation, did what any good chief would do and rushed over as well.
"This isn't a normal sickness," Ahsoka says again, deep concern etched in her voice as she moves over.
"Hoark!" the wife cries again, and now I can see how serious this is getting, and already his life seems to be fading noticeably through the Force. What is wrong? Other surrounding Vikings are noticing as well, and I move towards them with Ahsoka as well, Gothi and Stoick having already reached them, the former with a look of deep worry on her face.
"What's wrong?" Stoick asks in concern.
"He's been ill all day but it wasn't anything serious! But now he's just collapsed!" she said fearfully. Gothi quickly checks Hoark to find out the problem, and Stoick studies him intently before widening his eyes in horror, at the same time as Gothi.
"No..." he breathes out, turning around to the crowd. "Everybody make way!" he cries out.
"What's wrong with him?" I ask in concern. A couple Vikings move over at Gothi's direction to help pick up Hoark, who looks extremely pale and limp now. I'm very worried at this point, and Mara's eyes are wide.
"He's been bitten!" Stoick exclaims moving over to help.
"B what?" Ahsoka questions, a rare intensity to her voice.
"Hssiss dragon," he says with a scowl.
I widen my eyes in shock, just as Ahsoka. Surrounding Vikings gasped and the wife started bawling. By now most of the arena had realized the problem, and Gobber, Hiccup, and Astrid also having stopped, looking up in worry.
"Wait, you just said he was bitten by a Hssiss dragon?!" I demand in disbelief.
"Yes!" he exclaims, before turning back slowly to look at us in confusion. "Wait... you've met them before?"
Ahsoka quickly shakes her head. "No, but they're widespread across the galaxy. It's not important right now. Do you have any way to treat the poison?"
Stoick glances over at Gothi, who lowers her head sadly. "We've never known how to cure it," he mutters quietly. Several Vikings take off their helmet sadly for Hoark, the two about to exit the arena with him in tow.
"There's no cure?" Mara asked in horror.
Me and Ahsoka share a quick glance, sharing a silent conversation all in the span of a second. We knew there was no cure to the Hssiss dragon from what we learned in the Temple. All except for one thing...
"I didn't think so. Unfortunately there's no physical cure for the Hssiss dragon's poison for one reason: those dragons are touched by the dark side," she says, causing everyone to turn their heads sharply to us in shock.
"The... the dark side? Of the Force that you use?" Stoick asks in horror.
She nods her head. "Yes. It's a dark side poison that Hssiss dragons developed over thousands of years, neglected only through the Force."
"Do you have any way to save him?!" Stoick asks quickly, and Gothi looks up at us with a fierce expression.
"We can try, but we've never done this before," I admitted.
"It doesn't matter. Do it!" Stoick demands, stopping the two Vikings from carrying Hoark away. They gently set him back on the ground and under Gothi's watch we both kneel by his side. Ahsoka positions herself behind his head, and we share a brief nod, closing our eyes and opening ourselves to the Force. Ahsoka hovers her hands gently over him, and I stretch out with my right hand, sensing for the poison coursing through his body. His life was almost nonexistent, and physically his skin was almost as white as paper, his breathing heavily labored. A look of deep concentration was on my face as me and Ahsoka shared our presences with each other, greatly increasing our power through the Force. We could sense the darkness surrounding Hoark's body, devouring not only his body, but his soul as well.
Communing with each other through the Force, she begins to utter quiet words in an old Jedi language, enhancing her focus. Grabbing onto the darkness within Hoark's body, we unleash the Light Side of the Force upon him. The dark side poison recoils, shrieking furiously through the Force. In the physical world there was no noise, although he began to spasm a lot. Luckily, Stoick and another Viking held him down as we continued, the dark side continuing to shriek rebelliously at us. We focused our energy into a spike, and imagine the dark side like a pollutant, flushing it out with the Light Side, which we imagined as clean water. It fought hard to stay, but we persisted, calling upon the Force and Morai to help us succeed in this endeavor. After about a minute, one last push from Ahsoka drove the darkness away, and Hoark gasped, his mouth open and expelling an almost unnoticeable dark mist. through th Force we could hear the shrieks draining away.
With the dark poison gone, Ahsoka and I opened our eyes and backed away to lean forwards on our hands, breathing heavily in exhaustion. I can't remember off the top of my head when I put so much effort into the Force like that.
"Hoark...?" his wife whispered.
We glanced over, and he slowly blinked, groaning. "Mmmmmhh uhh? Huh? What happened?" he muttered, and everyone sighed in relief, a few giving out shouts of joy. Gothi smiled widely, and Mara squealed in delight.
"Well... that was something," I commented to Ahsoka with a tired smile.
"Sure was," she replied in agreement.
Oh wow, Hssiss dragon poison! Sure isn't something I'd like to have. O_o
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Compared to what I've written in the past, the writing for this part when they were talking about the Hssiss poison was... meh in my opinion. I don't particularly enjoy how it went since it doesn't seem too realisitcally for my tastes, but I'll let you guys decide how it seemed.
Hssiss dragon's do have a potent poison that's influenced by the dark side, which gives it no cure. How the poison acts, that was never really explained, just that it goes quickly. The only real defense against it was the Force, because a Jedi in Legends had to use a healing trance in order to cure themselves from it. Hope you enjoyed my take on this dragon's poison! :D
