Chapter Five: Notes:
Chapter Summary: Hiccup and Toothless have a run in with the "Bad Guys".
Clarification: Hiccup is thirteen years old.
A/N : Thanks for the reviews really appreciate it.
See end for note.
It was close to midday.
They had been flying for sometime now. Hiccup and Toothless had met up at their usual spot in the clearing. After some debate as to what they should do, they took off flying west.
They soared high across the boundless, crisp clear sky joining a formation of Timberjacks. Hiccup leaned onto Toothless, gripping his newly designed saddle that he had made himself a couple of months ago in the forge with Gobbers help- not that Gobber had helped him directly no, of course not, he would have freaked if Hiccup had told him he was making a dragon's saddle.
They were currently somewhere West of Berk. Hiccup had gone of on his own a little over dagmal, when his father had set sail to visit one of the neighboring tribes on official business. He had worked extra hard the day before, reducing his tasks to basically nothing and therefore having the day all to himself.
The Timberjacks were no strangers to Toothless and him. They would sometimes join them for their annual migration towards the west.
Hiccup spotted a herd of wild Thunderdrums swimming below them. He could never really get close to a Thunderdrum before. They could never really hear the sounds he made when chirping. They always attacked, assuming that he was dangerous. He wasn't, but Toothless on the other hand…
"Alright Toothless, let's try this one more time."
Toothless let out a grumble and rolled his eyes. "I'm surprised at how long you have managed to live without me."
Choosing to ignore Toothless's remark, Hiccup unlatched himself from the saddle and sat up straight.
"Alright, ready?"
Toothless snorts unenthusiastically and then Hiccup slides off of Toothless, peeling away from him like a skydiver from a plane, yelling excitedly as he plummets.
Toothless dives after him. They spiral through the air, face-to-face. Toothless is having fun, despite himself.
Toothless rumbles enjoying the sun on his scales and the wind in his face. He opens his mouth letting his tongue flap around. When the scent of salt water gets stronger he opens his wings to slow himself down and then catches up to Hiccup, who grabs onto the saddle and pulls himself up. They righted themselves just in time, Toothless's tail only rippling the water as they raise up towards the sky.
They stay soaring for a while till they spot a ship close to a rock formation close to No Name Island.
The men in the ship were looking below them towards the ocean: they carried metal nets and axes, looking odd if you asked him. They seemed to be fishing for something far bigger than your average cod.
"What do you say if we take a closer look?" Hiccup asks.
Toothless does not respond instead he speeds up towards the ship. They have a disadvantage with Toothless's large and dark form so they put a good distance away and try to make their presence unknown. Luckily the sailors don't pay much attention to the skies instead their eyes remained locked to the sea, waiting.
Toothless narrows his bright green eyes, looking sharply at the sea and then finally he sees it. The dark shadows underneath the ocean swimming rapidly towards the ship. He lets out a low growl, understanding of the situation finally taking root in his mind.
"Vishap"
Hiccups eyebrows furrowed, confusion shown clearly on his face, "What's that? Toothl-" And then he sees it. A family of Scauldrons leaped out of the sea, playful and happy. Completely unaware of the large ship full of men and weapons . He manages to catch a glimpse at three large net cannon.
Toothless lets out a growl and dives towards the ship at neck breaking speed. Hiccup can vaguely hear the sound of a net being shot when Toothless let out his signature shrike.
The vikings were at a complete lost. They had been hoping to catch some Scauldrons when they were hit out of nowhere. The Scauldrons having heard the shriek took their leave, completely submerging themselves into the ocean.
The ship was sinking. They're sails had catched fire and there was a large hole near the edge of the ship that had water leaking in. The air had a thin veil of black from the smoke. Bits of ashes fell around them. Bjorn, one of the vikings on ship manning the cannon, lets out a frustrated shout while slamming his hands onto the cannon.
"Bloody Hel! What the Hel hit us?"
Around them the other vikings were dousing their sails with buckets of seawater. While others were trying to regain their hearing. He turns to his comrade expecting to hear an answer when instead he hears another shriek. This time he's thrown onto the other side of the boat. He can hear the groaning of the wood from beneath him and he knows that one more hit and they're done for.
He shakes his head to try to get rid of the ringing in his ears and shakingly stands back up and heads towards the cannon.
He groans while trying to straighten his cannon and then looks towards the sky.
"Where are you, ya lit'le beasty?" He mutters. He looks back and forth and then he sees it. A form flying towards them, growing larger by the second. He grins, "Found ya."
He waits a couple more seconds then shoots and waits for the all too familiar cry of a down dragon. Seconds pass and he doesn't hear it, what he hears instead, is another banshee like shriek coming from the sky and the sound of another explosion from his boat. At the same time he sees his comrades abandoning ship, jumping into the dragon infested waters. He looks back at his ship and realizes that it's a lost cause.
"Fucking demon," he mutters, "gonna have ta get me nice shoes all wet." Oh well, he thinks, at least now they'll finally have to give him a new ship now that this one's all ruined. He jumps into the cold waters, arms flailing about trying to get back up the surface. As soon as he breaks through to the surface he spits water out from his mouth, runs a hand over his face in an effort to remove the water clinging to him, and begins swimming.
"Bloody hel," he says with chattering teeth, "it's freezing."
After they were sure that no one would see them they had skimmed over the water to look through the wreckage and much to Hiccup delight, chests and barrels had survived the burning of the ship. He had managed to snag a small interesting box floating about while Toothless had taken a large barrel of what he thinks is filled with fish. And now they were flying back to the cove.
Hiccup's heart had been pounding ever since Toothless's first strike and the net that had been thrown at them incredibly close had not helped to calm his nerves. So, he had spent the ride back to Berk trying to calm his nerves down.
As soon as they landed Hiccup took the saddle off of Toothless's back and while Toothless tried to take of the barrels cover with his teeth and claws.
"What were they doing! I- I thought they didn't like dragons? Why were they trying to catch them?" Hiccup carries Toothless's saddle under a couple of large rocks and then grabs his stolen chest and small knife and proceeds to make his way over to sit next to Toothless.
Toothless, who managed to take off the cover of the barrel, was currently head deep inside the stolen barrel of fish doesn't even look up as he answers.
"To - sell them?- yes, that's the word." His words come out muffled but Hiccup is sure he heard right.
Hiccup looks horrified and a bit curious. He jams his knife in between the chest's opening and begins to pray it open.
"Where?" he asks wiggling the knife to and fro.
Toothless, with some struggle, removes his head from the barrel with a fish still in his jaw, "I think your people call it Man's Land."
"Man's Land? I've never heard it, are you sure that's what they called it?"
Toothless slurps up his remaining fish very loudly and smacks his lips in a very disgusting manner making Hiccup scrunch up his face in disgust.
"It lies in the same direction as from where the Sol and Mani rise from."
"The east."
Hiccup has heard little about what lands may lay east of Berk. He can vaguely recall the stories that the elders have shared eof kingdoms who are at war with each other over land and resources, who have hundreds of thousands of men serving them. He's heard that there are many different religions and cultures, people who have never even seen or heard a dragon. To him it all sounds very far away, like a fairy tail. He's not even sure if the stories are true, the elders, after all, are old and are very prone to forget things. His father doesn't like talking about the lands away from them, "Don't worry about what lies east of Berk," his father would say, "Ya people 's whatcha need to worry for."
"Have you been there before?"
Toothless let's out a very human like yawn and makes his way towards his favorite sunbathing rock, leaving an empty barrel."I was birthed there."
Hiccup's eyes widen, "Really? What's it like? Are there any other dragons there? Do they have to fight the people there too?" He stands up a bit wobbly like.
Toothless snorts and climbs atop of the rock, stretching his wings before settling. "You ask too many questions."
"Toothless," Hiccup complains, "come on, just tell me something interesting."
"I'm going to sleep."
Hiccup rolls his eyes, "That's not interesting, you basically do that everyday, come on you lazy lizard." Hiccup pulls on Toothless's tail, "My brain's gonna come up with so many ideas that I won't be able to go to sleep and if I don't sleep I won't be able-"
Toothless just ignores Hiccup and proceeds to take a good long nap.
Meanwhile back in village…..
Snotlout isn't a morning person. In fact if he could, he'd sleep till sun-peak and then some.
But he can't, not with this stupid sunlight and his annoyingly loud brothers and sisters.
He rolls over, getting tangled in his sheets, and falls off his bed. He stays on the floor till his arm falls asleep. With a sigh and a groan he gets up from the floor and throws his covers on his bed. He doesn't even bother making his bed knowing his mom or one of his sisters would make it for him. He changes from his night clothes to his regular ones, gets his helmet from it's place on the hook by the door and slams his door open and then slams it back shut. He makes his way towards the stairs and proceeds to stomp down each step.
Down stairs he makes his way towards their family table. "Morin' mom," He takes his seat on the table. His mother doesn't even turn to greet him, still focused on what he assumes is breakfest.
"Snotlout, ya overslept again." As if he didn't know. "Ya know ya was 'supposed ta be up by miður morgunn ta help your father." She continues to chop as she talks. "It's hádegi." With a thunk she stops chopping and turns around with a sigh and a look of disappointment.
"I know that mom, but it's not my fault no one woke me up!"
His mom, Bera, mutters a quick prayer under her breath before continuing,
"It's nobody's fault but ya own son." She moves closer towards Snotlout. "Snotlout," she begins, "Ya have ta start bein' more responsible than this, Gods know what cha father's gonna do ta ya once he comes home." She takes a seat next to her son, "Look at wha' ya brothers an sisters are doin, they doin ya father good an' proud. Ya need to start showing some initiative if ya gonna become the head of the family someday."
A voice sounds from behind them, "Ha! Snotlout head of this family? Might as well be askin some dumb ol' yak ta do a man's' job."
He turns to see his older brother, Erandol. His mother doesn't say anything, instead going to back to her cooking.
"Shut up Erandol! That's none of your business." Snotlout snaps.
"It is me business, ima part of this family here, and if anybody gonna be in charge it's gonna be me." Erandol turns to Bera, "Where's Alfdis?"
"Out back." Bera mutters. "Careful where ya step, don't need ya dirtying me floors." Snotlout doesn't stay to hear the full exchange, he's out of the door before Erandol and heads out into the village.
The village is bustling. He sees his dad, who is currently in charge of the village because his uncle is out on chiefly duties. He very much tries to not be seen, slipping in between the villagers and then heading into the forge where he'll stay till his dad leaves. As soon as he enters he knocks over a couple of tools on his way in which alerts Gobber of his presence.
"Gobber!" Snotlout cheerfully shouts out.
"Ey! Careful where ya stepping boy!" He moves surprisingly fast for a man with just one leg and grabs onto Snotlout's vest and ushers Snotlout towards the less crowded area.
Once Gobber let's go he throws himself onto a chair and leans back reclining on just the back legs of the chair with his hands resting behind his head. "Hey! Where's my little cuz." He reaches and grabs a couple of trinkets that were on the table near by.
"Dunno, he took off just afta' Dagmal." He turns to see Snotlout playing around with his equipment, and mutters a quick 'gimme that' and snatches the trinkets back.
"Aw, how come Hiccup gets to play around with this junk?" he whines.
Gobber just glares at him and returns to work, "Ya need somethin' Snotlout or ya just camein er' to bother?"
Snotlout sighs and leans forward. "Na, just wondering around- hey, are you sure Hiccups not around here?"
Gobber, who was working on the handle of an axe, raises an eyebrow, "Ya missin ya lit'le cousin, are ya?"
"Na just bored."
"Well if ya so bored then I don't think ya'll mind helpin' me out with some cleaning, ya know-"
He didn't get to finish his sentence before Snotlout was out the door.
He leaves the forge with a new destination in mind. He heads towards the twins house knocking very loudly on the door. The twins parents were the ones to answer.
"Hey Mr. Thorston, are the twins here?"
Mr. Thorston usually a very patient man, doesn't have the patience to deal with Snotlout. He's still trying to clean up the twins and Snotlout so called 'prank' from his farm house.
"No the'r not er', they'll be busy till they can get that damn' paint off me farm walls."
"Oh well okay," Snotlout begins, "Um, so ya have any idea when they'll be finished or somethin?"
"No and I suggest ya leave before I make ya start scrubbing with em." Mr. Thorsten says and then shuts the door.
Mr. Thorsten knows he was being very rude, but feels that his anger is justified and of course he's not going to let Snotlout join the twins while they're cleaning, that'll be a disaster waiting to happen.
Snotlout makes his way back towards the village and then towards Astrid's house. He knocks- more like bangs- on the door and then the door flies open to reveal a very annoyed looking Astrid.
"Snotlout."
"Ey, Astrid! How you've been? Okay, so anyways i've just some new equipment the other day, you should come by sometime to work out. You look like you work out-"
Astrid rolls her eyes as Snotlout continues to go on and on.
"Are you done?" She asks impatiently.
"Oh, uh yeah-"
"Oh, good." she says and then proceeds to close the door in his face. Snotlout stands there with a stunned look in his face, a bit irritated that he had been, once again, belittled.
He turns back home, feeling a bit upset but not before kicking a rock towards the direction of Astrid's home.
I'm not dead. Just tired (and hungry). Sorry for any mistakes, no excuses this time. I'll put this in with Chapter 5 after I get chapter six up. Comment, please, I live for comments. Maybe 15 comments and I'll work harder for the next chapter to be out early? Doesn't even have to be related to the story I just want to see if anybody still reads this. Oh, almost forgot, what did you all think of the n