Chapter 25

"…Mom?" Hiccup replies with a mixed tone of shock, disbelief, and amusement. "I-is that really you?"

The orange, blue eyed Stormcutter smiles through tears and says, "Yes, my Hiccup. It is me. I know I don't look anything like you'd imagine me to be but it really is me. And I'm so happy to see you again." She hugs him even tighter.

Toothless finally shuts his mouth after having it hanging open upon hearing the all too shocking news. "Wait, so you're Hiccup's mother?"

The Stormcutter nods. "Indeed. My name is Valka. I was married to Hiccup's father, Stoick, and had just had Hiccup when I was taken from Berk and brought here where I have been living amongst the dragons ever since."

Toothless asks out of confusion, "Wait, so how did you get here?"

Valka replies, "Well, that's just it. It was Cloudjumper that brought me here. He snuck into my house one night during a raid and I wanted to kill you at first but then I saw him actually being calm and gentle around the baby Hiccup and it got me thinking something I wanted to know for years, dragons are civil, astounding creatures that have just been misunderstood for centuries."

Toothless smirks. "A bit of an understatement, but I get it." He looks to Cloudjumper and asks, "So, how come you took her from her home?"

The yellow eyed, muscular, tan skinned man replies, "I did it because I could tell that she did not belong with those people. Those people killed us dragons without even thinking but she seemed interested in doing nothing of the sorts."

Valka adds, "It's true. I was one of the very few that actually wanted to end the war against dragons, but of course your father…well you know how he is."

Hiccup's nods. "Yeah, he can be pretty tough to convince for anything. I had to nearly die to convince him that dragons aren't as vicious as he thought. Wait So, for the past 20 years you've been living with dragons? And you never thought to send any kind of message?"

Valka sighs. "No, I did want so badly to tell you and your father, but like I said, I knew that Berk and dragons were still at war, so I stayed away."

Hiccup nods. "Yeah, that does make sense. But, now everything's ok. Berk and dragons are now friends."

Toothless steps in and adds, "It's true. For years before the transformation we dragons were happily and peacefully living amongst the people of Berk. We fought together, collected resources together, and even flew together. And it's all thanks to Hiccup."

Valka's eyes widen before looking down at Hiccup. "You mean, you ended the war that lasted 300 years?"

Hiccup nods. "I did. It all pretty much happened when I chose to learn from and befriend Toothless here rather than kill him."

Toothless pats Hiccup on the shoulder and says, "And I in turn chose to learn from Hiccup as well, and even get him to help me take out the tyrant queen of my old nest."

Valka nods. "I see. Well, in any case I'm glad to finally be with you again, Hiccup. And I assume you're Toothless. So you're his friend I presume?"

Hiccup and Toothless exchange glances before Hiccup looks back up and replies, "It's actually more than just that."

Valka furrows her brow in confusion. "What do you mean?"

Hiccup looks to Toothless again and Toothless pats him on the back saying, "It will be fine. I'm sure of it."

Hiccup nods before saying, "Mom. Toothless and I…are actually…mates."

Valka's eyes widen even more. "Oh. OH. I see. You're…mates with a human?"

Toothless rubs the back of his head and says, "Well, like I said I used to be a dragon but yeah, basically. See?" He lifts his shirt and the mating ritual symbol on his chest glows a bit.

Cloudjumper steps up and examines the symbol saying, "Yep, this is an official dragon mating symbol alright. Certainly never thought I'd see one on a human."

Hiccup asks nervously. "I-Is that ok, Mom?"

Obviously Valka had to take a moment to process this information. It wasn't long before she extends one of her lower wings to wrap around Toothless and pull him in closer before saying, "Yes. It's more than alright. As long as my son is happy, then I can be happy too. Is your father ok with this?"

Hiccup nods. "He is. He's actually been very supportive of my relationship with Toothless. Even helped us find our own house on Berk."

Valka nods. "Well, that's good." She lets go of Hiccup and Toothless before saying, "Now then, the matter at hand. Do you really think your father will be willing to help the king figure out how to rule the sanctuary?"

Hiccup replies, "Yes. I've seen him turn a crowd of freaked out, transformed humans and dragons into a civil crowd. I'm sure that, with his guidance, we can get things back in order."

Valka rubs her wing saying, "Do you think he will even want to see me? I mean, I did leave him to raise you all on his own. What if he resents me?" Tears reform as she was saying this.

Hiccup took a good moment to figure out the right words to say. He then places a paw on her lower wing and says, "I think he will appreciate seeing you more than anything. If you want, we don't even have to tell him it's you right away."

Valka ponders this, but rubs her eyes saying, "No. He will want to know as soon as possible. That's just how it is."

Hiccup nods. "Alright then. If that's what you think is best. Now, first we need a way to let him know to come here, and I think I know just how." He takes off out of the opening of the sanctuary where sunlight could be let in and soon spots a Terrible Terror which he recognized as Gustav, who's been part of Berk's Terror Mail system since he figured out how to fly.

He flies up to Gustav and says, "Hey, Gustav."

Gustav turns his head and says, "Oh, Hiccup. I didn't expect to see you here."

Hiccup nods. "Me neither. What are you doing all the way out here?"

Gustav rubs the back of his head. "The chief had me follow you in case you needed to send a message back."

Hiccup nods. "Of course he did. Well, that's not important. Listen, I need you to do me a huge solid. I need you to go to Berk and tell my dad…" He whispers the message.

Gustav nods and says, "You got it, Hiccup." before flying off towards Berk.

It took him a few hours, but Gustav made it to Berk and immediately flew up to Stoick's house where he flew into the window. Stoick sees Gustav fly in and says, "Ah, Gustav. How is Hiccup doing?"

Gustav replies, "He's doing good. In fact, he wanted me to tell you to find him as he apparently has something important to show you."

Stoick nods. "A bit strange that he'd want me so soon, but alright." He goes over to Stormfly's house to retrieve that piece of hair that Toothless gave her and knocks on her door. He waits a few minutes but there was no answer. He knocks again, this time calling her name but still nothing. He then decides to look through the window as usually if she's in the kitchen it's a little hard to hear the door.

However, when Stoick looks through the window, he finds that the kitchen was completely trashed and Stormfly was nowhere to be seen. "Stormfly?" Stoick yells. After getting no answer, he runs back up to the door and uses his Rumblehorn horn to ram the door open to find that the living room looked just as bad and that Stormfly was lying on the ground.

"Stormfly?" He rushes over and turns the blue haired girl over to find a blonde Deadly Nadder spike lodged into her left shoulder, a small puddle of blood next to her, and that she was unconscious. "Oh no." Stoick says, fearing that he knew exactly what happened. Now more concerned for her health, Stoick rushes Stormfly up to Gothi's hut and lays her down, explaining what happened as he was doing so.

The white Gronckle looks Stormfly over carefully but quickly before having her helpers, her former Terrible Terrors, get the spike pulled out and get the arm bandaged up.

She then uses her claw to write to Stoick, 'She doesn't seem to have any fatal injuries, just what looks like a bludgeoning on the head of some sort. Also, if that spike was just an inch to the right it would've rendered the whole arm useless, so we are lucky there. It should heal with time.'

Stoick nods. "Thank you, Gothi. I'm going to leave her with you, let me know when she wakes up." Gothi nods and Stoick flies back down to Stormfly's house and looks around, seeing if there's anything else he could find.

He spots a pair of footprints that certainly weren't Stormfly's, so he gives them a sniff and sure enough, they had Astrid's scent written all over them. Unfortunately, the scent had faded a little, indicating that she had been gone for some time.

His side-eye then catches something that he was also fearful about. The napkin that held the piece of Toothless's hair that was sitting on her bookshelf was missing. And given that Nadders are Tracker Class, he knew exactly what she was using that piece of hair for.

He needed to act quickly, so he rushed over to Hiccup and Toothless's house to see if there's any sign of them he could pick up. Unfortunately, he knew exactly where to get a scent, and it was on their bed. All over their bed, in fact. It was a scent that, for months, he had Toothless wash out of his old bedsheets as he didn't want to be smelling that particular smell every time he entered the house.

Well, he had to force that thought out of his mind and focus on the task at hand. He uses the scent and points in the direction Hiccup flew off in before quickly taking off. Before he does so, he calls out into the village and soon enough, Fishlegs, Snotlout, the twins, and their humans arrived. Stoick quickly explains the situation to them and that they need to find Hiccup fast.

With a nod, they all follow Stoick close behind.

(Back at the sanctuary, about an hour after Stoick left.)

Hiccup paces around, waiting for his dad to get there so he could both get started on teaching the king how to run the sanctuary properly and so he can show him who was there.

He knew that it was a bit of a trip from Berk to the sanctuary so he wasn't too concerned, but still. The sooner the truth comes out, the better.

Valka, on the other hand, was quite worried. She knew Stoick would have some things to say to her once he saw her, he just needed to find a way to mentally prepare herself.

By that point, the sun was starting to set, so Valka suggests to Hiccup and Toothless, "It looks like it's going to take Stoick some time to get here. You two might as well stay here for the night."

Hiccup nods. "Thanks, Mom. But we won't be going to bed any time soon. We just want to wait until he gets here."

Toothless then suggests, "Hey, how's your dad going to know for sure that we're here? Shouldn't we wait outside to wave him in or something?"

Hiccup nods. "Could be a good idea. The piece of hair you gave Stormfly should be enough for him to track us for miles, but I suppose we could wait. In fact, we could wait at Itchy Armpit isle and help show him the way to the sanctuary."

Valka, Cloudjumper and Toothless stare at Hiccup at the name of that isle. The latter with a big smirk on his face. Hiccup rolls his eyes, "Ok, so the name grew on me. Are you coming with me or are you just gonna make a sly remark?"

Toothless chuckles to that. "Sure, I'll go. Valka? CJ? You guys wanna come too?"

Valka replies, "We will stay here. It will be better this way, trust me." Cloudjumper nods to confirm.

Hiccup nods. "Ok. That's fine. Let's go, Toothless." They walk down the tunnel leading to the main part of the sanctuary until they were outside where the glow of the sunset shone off of the ice fortress, making it look even more stunning.

Toothless climbs on Hiccup's back and Hiccup takes off towards Itchy Armpit. Once they get there, Hiccup sets down and waits for any sign of his father. Toothless asks, "See anything?"

Hiccup shakes his head. "No. Though it is starting to get dark. Although his sense of smell should be able to carry him to us."

Toothless nods. "Well maybe-"suddenly, Toothless just stops talking all together.

Hiccup looks back and asks, "Babe? You ok?" For some reason, Toothless had this blank look on his face and was not moving an inch. He then falls to the side all of a sudden.

"Toothless!" Hiccup kneels down to see what was going on. That's when he noticed some sort of blow dart lodged onto the back of his neck. Hiccup pulls out the dart and gives it a sniff. "Speed Stinger venom? Why-?" Suddenly, Hiccup feels a sharp prick on the side of his neck before reaching there and feeling another dart.

Hiccup pulls out the dart and sees that it's filled with something else, a greenish liquid which he recognized as concentrated dragon root. "Uh oh." Hiccup comments before feeling his legs collapse in on themselves and he falls over.

His mind was going blank, he was losing feeling in his muscles and wings, his heart was racing, and his vision was getting blurred. Just before he blacks out, he spots a figure approaching him, one that he could barely make out at first, but as it got closer he heard the figure give of a laugh in an all too familiar voice. "As…trid?" His mind utters before going completely blank.