Chapter 30 - Revelations:
"This is amazing." Hiccup was in total awe of the striking beauty of the place.
He was looking around following Kari through the maze of ice. The entire area was all made of ice and the odd bit of timber here and there. It was like walking through a curved tunnel. With ice surrounding them.
The jagged shards of ice sticking out here and there plus the gentle flow of running water or droplets of water all around the area. They certainly had lots of water at their disposal.
"I know." Kari agreed, putting her hand on the right side of the tunnel beside her as she walked. Her hand moved along the ice for a few moments before it got too cold and she had to withdraw it.
"Did you build all this?" Hiccup asked, looking up and observing the enticing green colour of the ice. It gave off this green blue colour, as the sun was shining onto it, giving it this eerie atmosphere.
"Not all of it. This glacier was always here on Lowtov, but Siva, her dragons, Edda and I all made carvings out of it and made these tunnels. Of course not all of them, some were already here, they are made by water."
"It's strangely easy to live in. All you need to live with is the melting ice which is the main problem. Sometimes on a warm day so much ice will melt that it becomes dangerous to be inside the glacier. But we're heading into winter now, so all we have to live with now is the cold. Which is easy to deal with as we have dragons, a couple hot springs and lots of warm clothes."
"What's a hot spring?" Toothless inquired, his head tilted and his ears raised in curiosity.
"It's usually a small hole in the ground where volcanic activity underneath causes magma to rise to near the surface but its blocked by the rock, so it heats up the rock and any water on the rock gets heated and makes the water warm." Hiccup explained to the Night.
"Oh you mean like a hot lake?" Toothless understood.
"Yeah. But a lot smaller."
Kari stopped walking and turned around. "I know what a hot spring is-"
"Oh sorry I just explained it to Toothless, as he didn't know what it was called." Hiccup said.
Kari turned back around and continued walking. "When Kormak arrived, Siva put Kormak in an area with a hot spring. I think he liked the look of it." She said honestly.
"Okay." Hiccup said, unsure of what to say.
"And here we are." Kari announced.
She turned a left away from the tunnel like corridor, and the ice stopped and became a real rock tunnel. Inside were several oily flaming torches burning on the walls like in Myrka's Underground Network, plus lines and lines of rope going from each side of the tunnel to the other.
On the ropes were clothes, also scattered around on the floor were baskets, boxes and containers of fabric. Even some sewing material.
"Excellent." Hiccup stated, walking around, observing and feeling all the fabric he could. "Thank you."
Kari smiled serenely. "You're welcome. Feel free to use any type of cloth you wish."
"Thanks. Is there any paper and ink or a charred stick I can use for writing and designing?" He asked, turning to face her again as Toothless walked past and sniffed many of the clothes.
"Yes if you go back out into the corridor we were just in," Kari now turned and faced the corridor of which she was speaking of, and indicated to the left. "Just turn left and follow it down a bit further and the next area on your left will have some paper and charred sticks."
Hiccup smiled at her. "Thank you very much."
She nodded and walked to the exit. "If you need anything, just call out to us."
"Will do."
Kari left the room, her footsteps echoing for a while till Hiccup could hear her no more.
"What's your plan?" The Night Fury asked. Sitting down and crossing his front paws together so he sat like a cat. With his tail moving side to side.
"To make you fly again. I have some ideas, but I need to write them down." Hiccup walked to the exit and gestured for Toothless to follow. "Come on bud."
The Night stood up and followed him down the corridor.
"Be on your guard, Toothless." Hiccup whispered quietly. "I do not trust these people. People don't go to so much trouble to gather dragons only to capture the Six. At the first sign of a threat, we'll need to make a run for it."
Toothless smiled. "That exactly what I feel like. I'm proud of you Hiccup, I hoped you felt like that. Because after what we've been through on Myrka, we can't just trust anyone anymore. We need to stick together and not trust anyone."
Hiccup smiled and stopped in the hallway to hug his friend. "You got it." The Night Fury purred loudly, before they separated again and continued.
Like Kari said, Hiccup took the next left and found the room. It was quite similar to the previous room, however there were a few desks there all with paper and charred sticks.
"What in Thor's name would they need so much paper and stuff for?" Toothless thought out loud.
"I would like to know the answer to that too bud." Said Hiccup honestly. "They must do a lot of writing."
Hiccup walked over to the closest desk and noticed there was some blank paper on the desk, but he was interested to see what was in the draw. So he opened the only draw there, and inside were several pages of parchment stacked up. At the top of the first page as Hiccup pulled it out, it read, Number of Rescued Dragons from the Queen's Control (update often, thanks Edda).
The following pages underneath that all had lists detailing exact dragon species, of which Hiccup scrolled down the lists and saw a few he recognised and lots he did not. They were listed as their species in Viking and dragon cultures.
There were heaps, Gronckles, Skrills, Monstrous Nightmares and lots more. Maybe even into the hundreds.
He finished scrolling through some of the notes, and moved onto the next desk.
"What was that?" The Night Fury asked beside him, walking up to the desk and sniffing the paper.
"It's a list of dragons that apparently have been rescued from the queen's control." He said. "Quite amazing, if it's true. We'll need to ask Siva and the others about this."
"Hmmm, interesting…" Toothless mumbled out loud. "If it's true, that's great. However I'm more suspicious. They could of made that just to make us trust them. But still, that's a lot of effort."
Hiccup nodded, and walked to the next desk to see what was in the draw. "I agree bud. Does seem strange."
In this draw, Hiccup pulled out stacks of paper that had a similar message at the top of the first page. This one read, "Our Dragons for the Six & Notes on last few pages." Hiccup read out aloud.
This was a far more detailed set of pages. These pages had a list of hundreds of dragons for sure. It listed them by their species name, in both Viking and dragon cultures like the other note. It also had their colour and listed any injures the dragons had if any. On top of that, it had listed if any dragon was a rescued dragon from the Queens control or a free one.
"Wow." Hiccup was in awe, "Whatever the three women here have done, if it's true, it's remarkable. They have been collecting dragons for the Six and rescuing some from the Queen."
Toothless snorted. "I'll believe that when I see it." Hiccup thought in his mind that Toothless was right, he needed to see it to believe it too.
He skipped most of the pages and began looking through the pages at the very back, to see if he could find any notes. And then he found it.
In the notes section, it had several bits of information.
"Look it's got a little bit of info here bud." Hiccup read out, analysing the paper. "Total count of dragons here: Three-hundred and eighty four. Total count of permanently injured dragons: Eleven. Update these notes when something changes! Thanks Kari."
Hiccup was quite taken aback. "Jeez, they seem to have a whole system going on here."
Toothless once again walked over and looked at the paper in question. He was beginning to find this more and more strange. Who were these people? Why are they doing this? Hiccup was wondering the same thing.
The young man put the papers down, and went to the last desk. Toothless followed him this time, keen to find out what would be in this last desk.
Hiccup approached and just as he was about to open the draw, he heard running footsteps and just as he put his hand on the handle for the draw, a person screamed, "DON'T!"
He spun around, so did Toothless.
Siva was standing there with Kari by her side. Siva was breathing heavily, and she had a look of panic on her face. Kari looked worried too, but not as much as Siva.
"What?" Hiccup asked, not taking his hand off the handle. While his other hand went to his sword.
"Don't open that draw please, I beg you." Siva pleaded, panting.
He let go of the handle, and drew his sword just as Toothless began growling.
"Okay, I've had enough of this." Hiccup spoke firmly. "Who are you really? What's with all those notes about dragons and the Six? How do you know that my friends and I are part of the Six? And don't lie." He warned them.
Siva did not reply at first, she just stood there, panting. Hiccup guessed she looked like she was deep in thought.
"Do it." Kari whispered to Siva. Nudging her on. "Get it over with."
Siva closed her eyes, and put a hand up to her face, before walking into the room. She walked slowly closer and closer to Hiccup as Toothless increased his growling.
"Don't come any closer." Toothless warned, his eyes narrowing.
Siva turned to the Night Fury. "I just want to show him something."
The Night looked surprised. "You understand me?"
"Yes." Siva said, now smiling.
Toothless and Hiccup looked at each other, totally confused. What on earth is going on? How was an ordinary person able to understand dragon language? Hiccup thought.
Then, in a quick move, Siva extended her right arm towards Hiccup and Toothless, and pulled up her sleeve. There, resting nicely in-between her elbow and her arm, was a faintly orange glowing dragon mark. Hiccup and Toothless recognised the dragon mark as the four winged dragon they saw earlier Siva was riding on.
Siva was staring at Hiccup intensely, watching his every move. She smiled at his shocked face, and spoke, "It's the mark of a Stormcutter. But in dragon culture it's called a Four Winger dragon. His name is Cloudjumper."
"For nearly sixteen years since Lowtov's destruction, I have been trying to collect as many dragons as I could, and save as many as I could from the Queen in Helheim's gate. I've been doing this for you, and the Six. My goals were to collect at least five hundred dragons for you, then at least find two other members of the Six before going and looking for you. I wanted to help make your job easier."
"But I can see that you've done just fine on your own, beating me in my own goals. You've already had your mark activated, plus you've found two members of the Six already, and now you have a third, me. Plus my two friends Kari and Edda have been helping." Siva turned to Kari and gave her a hug.
Hiccup was speechless. This was far more believable now, and made more sense.
"Right. Well, um… I'm not sure what to say. Thank you, I mean this is-, wow." Hiccup jumbled his words all over the place. Toothless was still trying to take all the information in, but then realised one important thing Siva had not answered.
"If everything you say is true, how did you know you were one of the Six? What made you suddenly try and care for dragons?" The Night Fury asked.
Hiccup looked intensely at Siva. Toothless had asked an excellent question.
Siva took a deep breath. "This is going to be hard to take in, Hiccup. But it's honestly the truth."
"I'll do my best." He replied. Encouraging her on.
"I first found out I was one of the Six only a month after I had given birth to my son. An old woman had told me, and I never really believed her. The old women then spent an evening telling me I was one of the Six and telling me everything she could."
"I didn't really believe her at first, but I had always had feelings my mark on my arm meant more than what my husband thought it was. After she had explained everything to me, I left the place and went back to my own house to look after my son with my husband. What's more, that night there happened to be a dragon raid."
"When it started, I ran out of the house with a sword. When I got outside, I saw heaps of dragons being taken down by the Vikings of our village. I saw many of them killing dragon's right in front of my eyes. For some reason, something seemed to change inside me at that moment. As I saw dragons getting beheaded and killed in various ways, I thought surely there ought to be a different way to stop these attacks."
"Then a monstrous nightmare crashed in front of me, nearly hitting me. Then a Viking came sprinting over holding an axe and yelling a battle cry. He raised the axe and was about to bring it down onto the dragon's neck. I ran over to him and stopped him, yelling, 'Stop! You'll only make it worse!' He shrugged me off and the dragon flew away."
"At that moment, I heard a dragon ripping apart a house from behind me. I turned around and saw my house being ripped apart by a dragon. And it wasn't just any dragon. This was the first time I saw a Stormcutter. The same type of dragon that was on my wrist. I had never seen one before. I stood in shock for a moment, till I realised that the dragon was breaking into my house, where my newborn son was in bed."
"I ran over, yelling my out my husbands name to try and bring him over and get the dragon away from our house, and I feared the worst as I burst open a door. When I did so, I grabbed a sword in the house, and ran over to cover my son in bed as he was only a baby at the time. But what I saw, was something truly unique."
"The dragon was looking at my son. Just staring at him. It wasn't doing anything else, just looking at him. It edged closer, and I did at the same time too. I saw it was looking at the birthmark my son had on his arm. Then, it bowed to my son, before it turned around and noticed me."
"I raised the sword up, but the dragon did not attack me. It walked away from my son, who was now crying and it advanced towards me. I was only wearing short sleeves that night, and the dragon saw my mark too. It looked at it intensely like it did with my son's before. But the dragon didn't bow."
"At this point I was nearly believing what the old woman had told me previously about the dragon's marks. Then suddenly an axe came flying out of nowhere and nearly hit the Four Winged dragon. Just as my husband came around and screamed for me to run. The dragon, now infuriated blasted fire towards my husband, who escaped it."
"I feared for him, and yelled, 'No don't!' My husband kept yelling at me as he ran around the house. And then suddenly the dragon picked me up with its paws, and turned around to face my son."
Hiccup was breathing in quickly now, following her story intensely, wanting to know what happened.
"My husband had courageously leapt across the parts of the house that were on fire, and grabbed my son to hold him in his arms protectively. He saw me and yelled, 'hold on!' The Four Winger then saw my son being held by the man, and the dragon realised it would not be able to capture the young boy without killing his father."
"So the Stormcutter raised its four wings and flew up into the sky with me. I looked back as the dragon held me in its arms and I tried to get out. I saw the old woman waving goodbye, and my husband bellowing out my name in panic and sadness. I screamed out to him that I loved him and to look after my son."
"After that, the dragon brought me here. It activated my dragon mark and told me everything. It told me that I was one of the Six, and it was extremely sorry it took me away from my home. It also said it would have taken my son too, but he was too well protected by his father. That dragon told me about the Queen in the dragon's nest, and that my son and I had unintentionally freed the dragon from the Queen's control. Just by looking at the dragon marks I suppose."
"That dragon is now my dragon partner. His name is Cloudjumper. Anyway, when the dragon brought me here, we explored the island after I finally gave in to the dragon's explanations. Then we found this little village called Lowtov that was here."
"I managed to convince the village there that I was just seeking refuge, and they were nice to me and I joined their village. I lived with them for about six months. Even with Cloudjumper, I had convinced them about the truth about dragons."
"However, after that six months I was here for, it was an ordinary night so I decided to go for a walk around the village with Cloudjumper. So I did, and I met Kari and Edda who also happened to be going for a walk in the middle of the night just on the outskirts of the village. As soon as we met up, my worst nightmare began to happen."
"The brightest light I had ever seen suddenly appeared directly above the village, and whatever it was, it was blasting this unique white fire so intensely at every part of the village. It was some huge dragon or large creature. Then the light vanished as quickly as it came. I tried to squint, but it was nearly useless. I couldn't even see what it was. I saw many blasts of white fire engulf the village from the ground now."
"It was unlike anything I had ever seen. Small blasts of white fire coming from something I could not see on the ground was firing at running people, the buildings and anything that moved. Whatever it was, it had either shrunk or became invisible somehow as it was on the ground firing and I could not see the source as I was too far away."
"I saw many people running, trying to escape, but they were incinerated within a second before they got too far. And before we knew it, the entire village was destroyed within about thirty seconds. I just managed to see some shadows or something walking around the rubble and burning buildings. Maybe checking if there were any survivors. Then once it finished, it suddenly like enlarged itself till it was pretty big, and vanished into the night."
"There was nothing we could do. Whatever that thing was, it had some unmatched power like I've never seen before. If it was a dragon, it wasn't anything like I've ever seen or heard of. Cloudjumper was in shock after seeing it. He told me he hadn't seen anything like it either. I asked him if that was the Queen of dragons inside the dragons nest, and he said definitely not."
"He said the Queen of dragons is a colossal, humongous beast. It never leaves it's mountain in the nest and certainly cannot change its size. So after that all happened, we moved into the icy glacier here. Where we have been since."
"All was well, and we managed to live for many years here and still do. Gathering dragons and keeping an eye on the archipelago. Till one of my dragon spies reported to me that a Viking clan named Dyflin had been destroyed. When I took Kormak away from Dyflin, I recognised the destruction immediately. It was done exactly the same way that Lowtov was destroyed. So whatever this creature was, it's powerful, evil and not to be trifled with."
Hiccup was in shock almost. This was incredible news and information.
"Thank you for telling me all this. But I've got a few things to say. Firstly, where are you from? What was the old woman's name and the name of the island you're from? Who was your husband? Secondly, who was your son? You said he had a dragon mark? Where is he now? And lastly, there was a survivor of Dyflin's destruction. The young boy, Polk. Kormak's brother. Maybe Kormak will ask him to tell him what he saw."
Siva looked taken aback. "What?! Well then let's hope so. I must find out for certain if what Polk saw was the same thing I did." She replied.
Hiccup nodded. Siva smiled now, and took a deep breath. "In answer to your questions, I'll tell you the truth. I am from the Isle of Berk. The old woman was Gothi. My husband was Stoick-The-Vast, and my name is Valka. My son is Hiccup Haddock. He has the mark of the Night, the leader of the Six. And lastly, my son is standing in front of me right now. Listening to his mother."