Chapter 20 - The Leaders Of Myrka:
He woke up with a bang. There was lots of shouting and screaming outside, and he heard something rather familiar.
Hiccup jumped out of bed, put his boots on, ran down the stairs and opened the door.
It was the middle of the night, and Hiccup saw people running everywhere, brandishing weapons. A load roar ensued, accompanied with the sight of thousands of dragons descending from the sky, breathing balls of fire upon Myrka.
This was a dragon raid. The first one he had seen since he captured the Night Fury back on Berk just over a month ago. But this raid seemed different.
As he observed all the dragons everywhere, he noticed that there were many different species than Berks. He still saw some of the common dragons like the Nadder, Gronckle and Monstrous Nightmare, but he saw heaps of Skrills and Thunderdrums which was different.
Watching the Skrill's attacks was spectacular. Witnessing white bolts of electricity shooting down from the skies like lightning obliterating whatever it hit. It was like an out of control thunderstorm with no thunder.
Hiccup paid more attention to the ground and saw Vikings running everywhere, some in fear, and others with confidence. Many threw axes, swords and some even had bows and arrows.
Turning around more, Hiccup suddenly saw Myrka's Army spreading out amongst the streets, and firing arrows into the sky, and running to catapults placed around the town.
The dragons seemed to be mainly heading to the west side of Myrka, then coming back flying east. They were obviously taking lots of the animals that were kept and bred in Myrka's west. Also a number of them even attacked the markets and tried to steal what they could.
But they were fighting a losing battle.
The Vikings fought the dragons to much more success than the ones on Berk. Myrka's forces took down at least half of the raiding dragons in Hiccup's line of sight, many falling to their death or injury on the ground before being surrounded.
This worried Hiccup slightly, he remembered Gothi rode a Skrill named Spark. He hoped she wasn't up there, but then he relaxed when he remembered her saying she had to go back to Berk.
"Hiccup! Get inside the house! We don't want you hurt!" Shouted a new figure, who suddenly ran past Hiccup's house and chased down the nearest dragon.
It was Erp from next door. Hiccup suddenly felt like a child again and as if he was back on Berk.
Usually having a tendency to disobey, this time he decided against it. He stayed where he was, leaning against the door frame and watching the raid take place.
Hiccup watched on, as the raid slowly came to an end, the dragons that survived began to retreat away with the food, while the others that were captured struggled to break free.
Suddenly Hiccup heard a beating of wings and then a dull creaking sound of timber, the sound of a heavy weight on top of hollow wood. It was right above him.
He jumped out of the way of the house in case it was about to collapse, and spun around only to come to almost face-to-face with a Thunderdrum sitting on the roof.
It's nearly black eyes blazed with anger, and its flat yellow head had sharp teeth, and its mouth contorted to snarling. The dragon leapt into the air above him off the house, which thankfully had not collapsed yet, and dove towards him in a state of fury.
Hiccup ran out of the way, just in time as the dragon crashed into the ground as it missed.
"Come on go! Go!" Hiccup ushered loudly, walking up to it and kicking it lightly in its side. "Come on get outta here before someone-"
He heard running footsteps behind him and before he knew it, it was too late. A Viking had run up behind him wielding an axe and had it raised before slamming it down onto the dragon.
Hiccup turned away from the scene as he felt his clothes being splattered with the Thunderdrum's blood, now dripping. He nearly vomited there and then, as his stomach turned against him. He felt sick.
The axe enticed a loud roar of pain before gradually it ceased and the Thunderdrum became limp.
"Hiccup! Are you all right?"
Savas came bounding over to him, with Erp just behind. A couple of fresh scars on Erp's face, while his sword was stained red. As was Savas's. Hiccup turned and looked at them, as his clothes now dripped in warm blood.
"Heh! Get used to it boy!" Growled the Viking next to Hiccup who just killed the dragon. He wedged his axe out of the slain beast, walked around to its tail and began dragging it with all his weight away. The dead flesh scraping against the gravel dirt as it left a trail of blood.
"I'm fine, just got a bit soaked." He mumbled as they came over.
"Did you kill any dragons?" Savas asked, looking at him expectantly.
Erp turned to Savas as if he was insane. "He shouldn't be. He needs to be inside and away from the battle! I'm sure he gets tired enough from all the training you give him."
"Oh honestly I'm fine. I can handle it. No I didn't kill any dragons. I'm going to go to bed. Good night." Hiccup really could not be bothered to talk to them at the moment, so he left rather fast.
"Rather stubborn isn't he?" Erp muttered behind Hiccup's back as he headed back to the house. And just as he arrived at the door, he heard Savas agree with him. "Yes he is. But I like him."
Half smiling to himself he opened the door then shut it and looked down at his clothes, stained and soaking with the dragon's blood.
He felt disgusted and awful. That poor dragon was murdered because he jumped out of the house. But there was really nothing he could have done.
Hiccup headed up to his room and changed out of his clothes, then he went downstairs and took some water to wash himself with. He washed all the blood he could, before beginning to feel cold and went back inside.
So this queen dragon that lives in the dragon's nest close to Berk, controls all of them. It seems to have a hold on its body and vision. That dragon that tried to attack me didn't even look normal. Its eyes were like slits.
This must mean that the dragon there has some sort of phenomenal power to control so many dragons. Maybe this is what Gothi was warning me about. Maybe the queen's power is growing, and the beast is gaining more control over dragons and within a larger range.
Because this is really a far distance from the beast. Its range is huge.
As Hiccup was thinking about all this, he changed into some other spare clothes he had lying around, and threw the soaked ones downstairs to take to wash later tomorrow after training.
Now he was tired and desperate to go back to sleep before training in the morning.
It did not take him long to do so, and he fell into a rather quick sleep.
When he awoke in the morning, he felt like he hadn't had enough sleep. It seemed only minutes ago that dragons were attacking the city. He sighed regretfully, not wanting to get out of bed, but knowing he had to and training was about to start, he did so.
He dressed himself into his training clothes, secured his sword to his belt and went downstairs. Once there he saw some food that was calling out his name so desperately that even his stomach made a real noise that encouraged him.
Approaching it, he set it up and put on the cooker above the fire just after he lit it.
Within ten minutes his breakfast was served and ready, and he ate it eagerly. Enjoying it immensely as it was delicious. He gulped it down quickly, and almost began relaxing. But he knew he couldn't do that, he needed to leave.
He walked up to the door, put his boots on again, which still had some blood on them from the dragon earlier, and walked out the door and shutting it behind him.
The sky was overcast and morning white from the wispy clouds. The sun had not yet risen, but looked close to doing so. But what lay beneath the sky on the grounds of Myrka was more noticeable. Myrka was covered in debris, blood and the occasional dead dragon or Viking. The majority of Myrka's Army and Vikings were out in force helping to clean up.
Hiccup made his way through the crowds and debris, thinking of how lucky he was that his house had got away unscathed.
Observing the scenery, he noticed that many houses were destroyed, as was the odd catapult. But overall it seemed like a more manageable dragon raid than some of the ones that have happened back on Berk.
At least many houses like Hiccup's own were still standing, and it appeared that the majority of the Vikings had survived. Myrka's forces were much stronger than Berks, plus they have numbers on their side.
After passing all the damage and debris, he finally reached the connecting path between the village and the arena. Looking to his left and right, the area was scattered with slain dragons. Many with arrows and spears sticking out of them, and even some had holes in them from thrown rocks from catapults.
The sight made him feel sick again, but once again there was nothing he could do about it. So he kept walking, feeling sorry for all the innocent dragon lives lost.
He made his way to the side entrance to the arena, and saw the gate already open. That was a first. Then he noticed most of the recruits already standing in the middle.
He got there and found that none of the soldiers, including Vali had turned up yet.
Within several minutes the rest of the recruits joined, and then a door opened in the arena revealing Vali and five soldiers.
Everyone turned to face her, and once Hiccup saw her, his face went red automatically. Vali just appeared to be getting more and more pretty every time he saw her.
"Good morning recruits. Guessing you all did not sleep well. As you might have noticed, we had a dragon attack last night. And as a result most of our forces including the training soldiers are out on duty cleaning up. My apologies, but training is cancelled for today. It will be on tomorrow however. Sorry again." Vali explained.
Hiccup was half relieved, half upset. Upset because he wanted to do training to get his skills up. Relieved because now he could have some more sleep.
All of a sudden several new figures came striding through the open door that Vali and her soldiers had just walked through. Vali and the soldiers spun around.
"Hail Harun! King of Myrka!" Shouted Vali immediately. She, her soldiers and all the recruits kneeled down to him. Hiccup followed suit as well, though he was growing nervous.
Harun had walked through the door, accompanied by two soldiers. One Hiccup recognised immediately as Savas and the other was one he hadn't seen before but had skinny legs.
"Rise." Harun spoke deeply. Everyone did so straight away.
"As you all know, the scum called dragons invaded our beautiful land last night. There have been several losses amongst our ranks. And my forces need some help cleaning up. Go out there and help our forces!" He ordered.
"Yes your majesty!" Yelled all the recruits and all the soldiers except Savas, Vali and the soldier with skinny legs. They immediately turned around and began to run towards the exit.
"Hiccup wait!"
Hiccup froze. Both with fear and because of the order. The recruits all kept running out, but Hiccup remained where he was.
Savas had called out Hiccup's name.
The only people left in the arena now as Hiccup turned around were himself, Vali, Savas, King Harun and some other person Hiccup didn't know.
"Come over here boy. We want to meet you." Spoke the skinny legged soldier.
Slowly, he did so. Hiccup was absolutely petrified. He didn't imagine his first way of meeting the King would go like this.
As he approached, he examined the King.
There were scars all over every part of skin he could see of him. Especially his face. He was wearing black clothing and even had a silver cloak around him that looked like it was made of scales, from a dragon.
Around his belt was a big sword. He was gripping its handle firmly with one hand while the other wasn't visible.
The scarred face he had was coloured a lightish brown, as if he had spent lots of time in the sun. His eyes were a fierce red that had an intimidating look in them. The jet black hair he had was long and in deadlocks.
This other soldier who was dressed in the same uniform as Savas, had skinny legs but looked quite fit. Like he had done a lot of running in his life.
"Hiccup, let me introduce you." Savas began, smiling confidently. "Of course you already know Vali," he said, gesturing at her. She winked at Hiccup, who blushed immediately and Savas smirked.
"This is Orah. Harun's personal servant." Savas gestured at the skinny soldier. "As you know I'm a soldier as well, Myrka's top army commander. Vali is in charge of weaponry and training. Together the three of us are the highest ranking servants of our King. And Hiccup, this is King Harun of Myrka. Your majesty, this is Hiccup, the boy excelling best at training."
Hiccup gulped nervously, and bowed to King Harun. "Your majesty, it's an honour."
Harun stepped forward. "Rise. So you're Hiccup. I've heard a lot about you from Vali and Savas. I always like seeing new recruits in training. From now on, I'm going to sit in the stands and watch you train and the other recruits. I'll still let Vali control the training, I'll just spectate."
Hiccup rose and digested all that information. "Okay, it would be honour." He replied. Staring right into his red eyes, trying not to look at the deep scars across his face.
"Dismissed." Spoke Savas, as he extended a hand down and ruffled Hiccup's hair.
Hiccup gave one last bow and walked quickly out of the arena. As soon as he exited, he breathed a huge sigh of relief.
Whew! That was a close one, even if it went rather well. Hiccup thought to himself.
Three weeks later…
It was hard, but he could do it. He was so happy with himself. For two things. The first was that he had finished making the saddle, and had it placed inside the basket with all his new clothes.
Hiccup raised hands, elbows, feet, legs and moved into certain positions and had achieved one thing he thought near impossible. The second, he had mastered his defensive and offensive combat with no weapon through training with Savas.
It took just over three weeks, but he gathered the general gist of it. Though Savas of course was always only never actually trying to hurt him. So being in a real fight ought to be very different.
He could now block the majority of Savas's attacks, and what surprised him most of all, was he often could land several major hits onto him. He felt he had learned enough in this field.
"Okay Hiccup, It's just over thirty days of training, plus the additional private lessons I have been giving you every afternoon. I feel you have learnt enough in the field of combat without a weapon. You have developed excellent defensive and offensive skills. Starting from today, our training changes. It's time for swords." Savas spoke excitedly, rubbing his hands together.
It was dawn in the arena.
Hiccup had grown remarkably which surprised and delighted him over the past three weeks. He had begun to notice for the first time actual muscles in his body were now starting to become visible.
He had even grown taller, not extremely, he was still short in Viking standards, but he certainly wasn't tiny anymore. Hiccup almost felt like he was living in someone else's body. It felt so different knowing all his own strength, and what things he could do with it.
If this is what I feel like now, what will I feel like when I've mastered the art of sword fighting? Hiccup thought wondrously.
Savas had also given him a schedule to follow. Exercises to do every morning and evening before and after training. This was what his dad Stoick wanted him to look more like, as he often said like Gobber did, he needed to 'bulk up.'
The King of Myrka had not faltered from his word once since he spoke to Hiccup that time three weeks ago after the raid. He had turned up to every training event except the private ones, and his eyes rarely left from Hiccup and Savas.
Vali was often doing similar. She did do a lot more looking around at him, but also had to check how the other recruits were going too. He'd often catch her looking at him when he would suddenly turn to look at her, and she would either wink or look away smiling.
The friendship seemed to be booming between them both, he still found himself blushing and getting embarrassed being around her. He had never felt like this before. It was almost an entirely new perspective.
Sometimes he used to feel this way around Astrid, but that never ended well. With Vali though, he found himself acting differently around her. It was a warm and strange feeling, like he felt mischievous.
Another friendship that was also booming was the one between Hiccup and Savas. He felt like he had a close friend, like Alrik in him. He was very kind to him, trained him well, apologised to him whenever he got hurt and helped him with whatever he wanted.
Hiccup had grown to trust him, and he was sure the feeling was mutual.
"Okay my friend. Now that it's time for sword training, show me your sword. I want to see if it's sharp enough and good enough for you." Savas instructed.
He pulled his sheathed sword from his belt, and handed it to him. Though Hiccup suddenly remembered where he got it from, he hoped Savas wouldn't be able to tell where it was from.
Savas took it and examined its handle, blade and tip. Muttering to himself whilst he did so.
He laughed and smiled at Hiccup suddenly, and walked up close to him so only Hiccup could hear him.
"You stole this from a soldier didn't you?"
Hiccup's heart skipped a beat, and his stomach decided to roll around in his chest.
Savas burst into laughter, throwing his head back as he did many times and cackling.
At last he bent down again and gave the sword back to Hiccup. "Let me guess. You were so desperate to join training but you didn't have a sword, so you decided to steal one? Oh that's funny boy!"
He paused for a moment, before speaking more seriously, "Look, stealing is forbidden, but in your case I'll make an exception. Don't tell anyone okay? This is between us."
Hiccup was stunned. "O-okay Th-thanks." He stuttered nervously. "Bu-but how did you know it was a soldier's sword?" He asked.
Savas chuckled and withdrew his own, it was longer than his but looked quite similar.
"See the handle? All Myrkian swords have a green encrusted stone in every handle at the base. It's not very valuable, otherwise it wouldn't be in every sword, and it's a way of identifying where a sword is from. The handle." He explained. "Every Myrkian sword has one."
Hiccup nodded, interested.
Savas suddenly jumped backwards, and took several quick steps back, held his sword in front of him at the ready, and said, "Okay come on! Let's do this! It's time for sword training!"