Discovery

Silence. Cold, opaque silence.

"This is outrageous!"

And the dam broke. Hundreds of vikings screaming, shouting, clamoring their dissent at the young chief before them, who was clutching a small sheet of paper. You couldn't blame them really; half their entire village had just been destroyed by a psychotic madman-a psychotic outsider madman-so why on hel would they agree to help rescue someone they had absolutely no information about? Not even directions, an island, anything. The young man held up his hands, and said a few quiet words, then walked briskly out of the hall. A slim blonde followed quickly, with a husky guy right behind her, with a stocky man in red and two matching figures in dreadlocks keeping pace more leisurely.

For the second time in two days, the Riders found themselves in the arena.
"We can't just stay here, now that we know! Whoever's out there, he could be in serious—"
"How d'you know it's a he?"
"Not helping, Ruff."
"Just sayin'"
Astrid piped up. "I hate to agree with the twins on this, Hiccup, but couldn't this just be a joke? I could totally see Tuff putting us up to this…"
"Ex-cuse me Missy! I resent that implication."
"You know it's true."
"Can you read minds? How do you know what I'm thinking? Hmm? Hmm?"
"But you just said…uhh. Never mind. Point is, Hiccup, there wasn't even a set of directions. How could they expect us to find them? Smells fishy to me."
Fishlegs cut in. "Actually, Astrid, I have to side with the chief on this one. That terror was really scared." He held up his heavily bandaged arm. "They're normally pretty docile. Something must have happened to make it act like that."
"She. Not it."
"Again, not helping, Ruff."
"Just sayin'."
"WE KNOW!"

Hiccup sighed. "The people are really against it. So are you three. Fish and I are for the rescue…Snotlout, that leaves you. You've been oddly quiet; have you even been listening?"
"Beauty rest, cuz! Don't neglect it. Anyway, I'm with you and Fishface. I think a girl would love to get rescued by a handsome man like me."
"How d'you know—"
"We get it, Ruff."
"Just sa—"
"Anyway, that means we're at an impasse. 3 versus 3. One of the downsides of 6 dragon riders, I guess."
"Um, Hiccup, if there are 6 dragon riders…"
"Uh-huh?"
"…what's Eret doing up there?"
Hiccup looked up, then all of the riders except the twins face-palmed. Of course! Eret! He was never taught the emergency signal, and he wasn't in the great hall. He was still training in flying.

Soon, Eret was getting some emergency practice at landing.

"Well, Chief, I'm inclined to agree with you."

Astrid opened her mouth to protest, but Eret held up his hand. "Yes, Miss, you've made your point well, and I can definitely see those two—" he gestured to the twins, who gave him cheeky smiles. "—doing something like this. However, look at things my way. I am an outsider, after all: imagine if I had sent a call for help; to try to get away from Drago. Imagine how I would have felt if no one came to respond. Maybe I would have thought differently a month ago, but now I know that even if there is the chance of no one receiving it, help given is never wasted."

Hiccup smiled and clapped Eret on the shoulder. "Well put, Eret. But you're not an outsider—you're one of us now."
The rest of the Riders smiled, and Eret gave a slight bow. "Thanks, Chief." Then a grin split his face and he turned around. "Come on, you ugly beast! Let's show them how a real man flies!"

Skullcrusher roared his agreement, and the Riders laughed together before taking off after the former-trapper on a race around the island.

Hiccup was already planning the rescue in his mind. All they needed to do was examine the note—there must be some way they could find directions. He smiled internally, before speeding up after the others.

HICCUP

I slumped back down on my bed, exhausted.

The gang and I had cased the letter for hours, but there wasn't anything we had found—no clues, no handwriting we knew, not even a crest. Why did whoever it was have to make it so complicated? Aggghh. Why couldn't he have written a clue? Or something that we could use to rescue…whoever it is! We don't even have a name to go on. If his rescue was so important, why make it in code?

I even thought that maybe the twins couldn't read it. The twins…
My thoughts turned to the Zippleback riders, and a scene suddenly flashed in my head, almost 3 days old but still fresh…

I pass my worried eyes over the note, my lips ghosting over the letters, as I deciphered the old text. Astrid by my side in an instant, her eyes full of concern…
Me turning over the letter to the astonished face of Fishlegs, the bleary stare of Snotlout, the mystified expression of Ruffnut, and…

Tuff's eyes had widened considerably—not the old staring-contest, chicken-watching, looking-out-for-Snotlout-so-he-won't-kill-us wide eyes: for a second, just for a tiny second, he looked serious; even scared. His hand seemed to be involuntarily drawn to the back of his neck. His other hand clenched in a fist…
The image dissolved as I sat up suddenly. Maybe this was the clue I was looking for. I walked over to my table with the note, and I suddenly had a huge sense that this had happened all before.

"Hey bud, can you give me a soft flame?"
He looked at me questioningly.
"Please?"
Toothless gave what seemed to be the equivalent to a dragon sigh, and got up. He yawned, showing the purple glow in his throat.
Slowly, lines started appeared on the page, twisting and turning like a spider web. The hidden ink glowed purple in the heat of the plasma.
I grinned.
"C'mon bud, we're going for a ride!"

TUFFNUT
I seriously hated my sister right now.
I could hear her snores from all the way across our hut.
Our. Even the word sounded horrid. It gives me acid reflux just thinking about it. Or maybe that's just Ruff's cooking. Who can tell? Basically the same.

I turn around, trying to find a cool spot on my bed. I know Hiccup noticed when I read the note—he's seriously too smart for his own good. Just like me.
My back twinged. I involuntarily groaned.

Yeah, Ruffnut doesn't even know what ours means.
Why do I have to be smarter than her? Why can't I just be better at mindless violence? Especially the mindless part. Why can't I just forget? forget. forget…

I felt myself slipping away.

A brand new hut. The mother was away, picking berries for that amazing pie she always made on birthdays. A tall blonde man, the father, was in the garden, teaching two little identical blondes how to mace a dummy when it had its back turned. They were all smiling at the show of good purposeless violence.
Suddenly, the tall man arched his back, and cried out in pain. He sank to his knees.
One hadn't heard; she was still hitting the fallen dummy. The other gasped and ran to his father. But before he could reach him, he had stopped moving. The child fell down beside him, crying out in shock. He didn't understand—dummies couldn't mace you in the back, it was the other way around. That's what the man in front of him, his father, had always said.
Almost instantly, the man suddenly sat bolt upright. The child scrambled back, now crying in fear. Maybe it was the cold atmosphere, or the dead, cold glare he gave him—but somehow, someway, the child knew that this man was no longer his father…
The man—thing—grabbed him roughly, and spoke in a low, gravelly voice, nothing like his father's high chirp.
"REMEMBER, BOY. REMEMBER THE KEEPER'S VOW."
He was so entranced by the hypnotic tone of the voice that he didn't realize that the man was tracing symbols on his back, over and over. When the man had finished, he lay back down as suddenly as he had stood up. He slowly opened his eyes.
The child cried out in relief. The grey dullness was gone, replaced by the usual brown—but there was something missing. They lacked their customary glow; no twinkle or brightness was left, as if the man had given up part of him when he had gone suddenly crazy. Well, more crazy than usual, for a Thorston.
He shakily stood up. Not even meeting the curious gaze of the boy, he walked over to the girl, now sitting on the dummy's back and whacking its head repeatedly. He talked to her in a low voice, than walked back into the hut, limping, as if he was dragging something heavy, arms behind him. He still had that broken feel about his gait—as if whatever he had done to the child had taken the life out of him.
The girl sighed, and walked towards her brother, pouting, with her mace dragging on the floor. "Daddy says no more violence." She whined.
Her brother just looked at her incredulously. She had missed the whole thing.
The girl walked inside. The boy could only stare at her small retreating figure.
His back suddenly caved, and he was wracked with pain.
He was falling…falling…falling…

I screamed, louder than I've ever screamed before…

I woke up to the concerned face of Hiccup, with Toothless right behind him. I realized I was drenched with sweat, and I sighed when I heard their words.

"Tuff—we need to talk."

A/N: Rewrite added the 'Great Hall dissent,' 'Just sayin',' and 'Poetic Eret' scenes, with a few details here and there. Huge rewrite! Hope you enjoyed.