Chapter 33 - A Dream:
Now the middle of the day, Lowtov's icy glacier soaked up what was left of the remaining autumn's sun. It would be a matter of weeks before winter officially arrived, and the days became shorter.
The ice stayed a stunning light blue tinge throughout the day, but what was most amazing was it changed colours at sunrise and sunset.
Water dripped and streamed down the glacial walls, creating a fluid and surreal sight inside the glacier. It ran down the walls, streaming into the little channels all around.
Inside the main chamber of the glacier, Valka was explaining her ordeal with Hiccup and Toothless as how it happened to the rest of the group. It took Kormak and Vali by quite a surprise indeed, especially when they discovered that Valka was Hiccup's mother as a matter of fact.
While the explanations were in progress with the Vikings, further inside the chamber the dragons were meeting and talking about recent events.
Toothless and the Skrill stood next to the tree in the centre of the chamber, while the rest of Valka's dragons including Cloudjumper remained in the hot springs on either side.
"This creature that I just finished explaining to you from what the Vikings say, any of you encountered or heard of it before?" Toothless asked the dragons around him.
All of the dragons said no, except for Cloudjumper. "Pretty much everything Valka told you is what happened, I can't remember that much else from the encounter on Lowtov." She answered truthfully.
"I see." Understood the Night. Giving his ear a scratch with his paw. "What about the Queen in the nest? We know this is a different creature. What's she up to?"
A Thunderdrum basking the hot water rose up and spoke clearly, "The Queen is her usual self. We have seen no change in her. I saw her yesterday, and she truly believes she dominates the world as she always has. Unaware of the occurrences here and around the archipelago."
"All right, thank you. That's all." The Night said calmly. The dragons now left and resumed their daily activities. Spark however remained at Toothless's side.
The Spike Bolt turned around and faced the Night. "You know something about this draconic creature, don't you? Not the queen the other thing. But you didn't want to tell them?" Spark asked, looking her former rival right in the eye.
The dragon of the night closed his eyes and nodded. Before opening them once again, and saying quietly, "Yes. But I don't trust any of the dragons here that much to tell them yet. I need to tell only members of the Six and their dragons first."
Spark smiled. "Good dragon. I agree. You're getting your wits now."
Toothless tilted his head and looked at the Skrill with an irritated expression. "I've always had my wits." The dragon defended his pride.
Spark made a noise of disbelief and then turned around to begin walking back towards the Vikings.
"Oh you disagree do you?!" Toothless remarked, walking over to her and pushing past. Using his paw to push Spark. Spark toppled a little and fell into the water of the hot spring.
Toothless couldn't help but burst into laughter.
The Skrill ascended through the water, spitting out a lot of water. After that she charged into the Night Fury and tackled him into the hot spring on the other side.
They pushed and shoved, wrestled and splashed all around the hot springs as if they were babies. Their behaviour completely unlike the usually mature and calm adult dragons they were. They were having a ball.
Together they had the time of their lives, till they suddenly both heard a call.
"Hey!"
They looked up from their currently sprawled position in the water, looking like they were both tangled in each other.
Hiccup was calling out to them, with his hands on his hips with all the other Vikings standing next to him. He had no shirt on but still had his pants on. As did everyone else. Even Kari, Edda and Valka only had coverings over their chest and short pants on. Toothless noticed a pile of clothes right next to them.
Why have they gotten out of their clothes? Toothless wondered.
Spark and Toothless stopped immediately and walked over to him, almost ashamed.
"Having fun were we? Who would have known, two rival species playing?" He said, putting one finger up in the air and moving side to side and saying. "No no."
Quicker than any of them were expecting, Hiccup jumped into the deep water between the Night and the Spike Bolt, before surfacing and splashing both the dragons. "Just kidding! Come now, have some fun!"
And so, Kormak followed quickly after Hiccup, diving in and surfacing like a pro. Following him was Kari, then Valka, then Vali till only Edda was left.
"Come in Edda, its lovely and warm." Valka encouraged her friend. Gesturing for her to come in.
"Oh fine. But I'm not a good swimmer." She said, before slowly edging in.
Valka smiled, "You don't need to be. You swim too much in these hot springs and you'll overheat. It's mainly for relaxation. You know that."
The water was blissfully warm. Kormak noticed it was the same temperature as the hot spring that was in the room where he slept.
Hiccup was now chasing Toothless around the hot spring, trying to swim fast enough, but he couldn't. The dragon was too fast, and the water was too hot to do too much exercise.
"You evading little dragon." Hiccup cursed his friend, as Toothless leapt across the water and landed in front of him.
Far away from the fun Hiccup and his friends were having, an idea had just struck King Harun inside his castle on Myrka.
"Bring Orah and my secret spy to me." He commanded.
"Yes your majesty. Which spy?" Asked a soldier.
"The one who sells apples in the markets." Replied the King.
"Yes sire. It will be done." The soldier bowed and left the room immediately.
King Harun of Myrka was sitting in his throne chair, thinking. He had been thinking for a while, and had devised a plan. However, he needed to have it checked for approval.
Within half an hour, the soldier returned with Orah at his side and the spy on his other side.
"Leave soldier." King Harun said immediately. "And close the doors to this room. Do not let anyone in unless if it's an emergency, until I give the order to open them."
"Yes sire." The soldier obeyed him and shut the doors as he left.
Orah and the spy both bowed to their king, and chanted, "Hail Harun!"
"Rise, long serving members of the Myrkian High Command. I have news to tell both of you." The King said, standing up.
"Firstly to you, Erp. Any news from this week?" Harun asked his servant. Erp was one of his most loyal servants. He had been a spy for King Harun in secret inside the Myrkian markets for a number of years. Erp was the Viking who told King Harun and his two servants at the time, Savas and Orah that Vali had taken Hiccup illegally into Myrka's Underground Network.
"No sire. Nothing out of the ordinary. No trace of Hiccup or mention of the Six. Or Dyflin. However, there has been increasing whispers about when and where the coming gathering of chieftains will be." Erp answered, giving his report for the week.
"Very well. Thank you. The great gathering will take place this time on the Myrkian Mountain's shores to the east of here just before the lands of the Tokenill, in one week's time. I want to have it early. Tell my other guards when you leave to send word about this event. All tribes' chieftains must attend as usual." King Harun declared.
Erp bowed again. "Yes sire. It will be done."
"Good. Now leave." He ordered.
"Yes sire. Hail Harun." With that out of the way, Erp left immediately.
Harun now turned to Orah, his main servant who had served him all his life.
"Orah, you have served me very well throughout your life. And I now would like to offer you a promotion. If you don't want this promotion, I will give it to someone else. But I trust you the most and would like you to have it. I want you to be the leader of the Myrkian forces. The commander of our armies when I'm not present. In other words, since Savas vanished and betrayed us, I want you to take his place."
Orah was almost speechless, but smiled gratefully. "Thank you very much sire. It would be a great honour to serve Myrka as the leader of our forces. I happily accept." Orah nodded thankfully.
"Good. I am pleased. But before you officially become the leader, I have one task for you to do. I need you to grab some parchment and write down my wishes. Afterwards, I want you to deliver the note to master. And tell me his reply as soon as you return. This is a level three. Under the usual conditions, understand?" The King of Myrka spoke.
"Yes sire." Replied Orah, quickly standing up and finding some parchment and a charred stick nearby.
Harun stood up and walked over to a window and looked out across his domain. He could see the wharves of Myrka, the markets and the houses. He watched everything while he stood there. He looked out across the right, and in the far distance he could just see the Myrkian Bay. Which was a place not many Vikings knew about.
The Myrkian Bay is where all of the Myrkian fleet sailed to and from. Half their fleet leaves the bay when selection and great gatherings come, whilst the rest of the fleet stays in the bay in case of a sudden attack on Myrka.
King Harun's last orders from his master were to prepare his forces for war. And in the bay, all the boats and soldiers that were stationed there were already ready.
All of the soldiers and guards that patrolled the Myrkian grounds were all on high alert, and another army of soldiers were ready to launch a defence or attack from the Myrkian Underground Network where they all stayed, waiting.
"Now write this down." Harun commanded. Drawing his sword with his right and only remaining hand and arm, as his master had bitten his left arm off him.
That same night, Orah was holding the note and had just arrived on the lone and isolated island where the master lived. It was in the dark of night.
He ran up the hill as fast as his little legs would take him. When he reached the peak, he called out, "Master?"
"Orah, been awhile since I last saw you." The deep and chilling voice spoke, sending shivers down Orah's spine.
Orah kneeled to the ground. "Yes master. It has. I came here to hand you a note King Harun asked me to give you. Level three."
"Level three… Very well. Put it on the ground and turn around." The creature ordered.
Orah did as commanded, and he could hear the note being picked up.
"You may turn back around." Said the creature.
He did so, and still he could not see the beast. He still couldn't really believe after all this time he had spoken with the creature, whatever it was he had never even seen it. Every night it just was not bright enough to get even a glimpse of what lay on the other side of the hill.
"I say this is some request from your dear King." Observed the creature.
Orah could then hear the sound of writing onto the parchment. It was about five minutes before the creature spoke again.
"Give this back to King Harun. Tell him to follow that plan. And follow it exactly the way I say it should be done. You may leave Orah."
Orah nodded to the darkness. "Thank you master. Farewell." He bowed and left the island to return back to Myrka.
Back on Lowtov's glacier, now night time, everyone was asleep…
Kormak was sleeping peacefully, but the sound of screaming threw him awake.
He leapt out of bed at once and he slid his feet into his boots. He recognised the voice that was screaming. It was Hiccup. Kormak ran to the door and nearly crashed into Valka.
She and Kormak looked at each other for a few seconds, Valka was holding a lantern with a candle inside, and they looked at each other through the glittering light. Both had looks of panic on their faces.
Together they ran down the icy corridor, the lantern swinging wildly from side to side.
They burst into Hiccups room, to find him tossing and turning in a soaking sweaty bed. Having a dramatic nightmare.
His buddy Toothless was standing beside him, and turned around at the sound of Kormak and Valka arriving.
Kormak had never seen Toothless so worried, his face looked panic stricken. His huge green eyes showing his emotion clearly.
Kormak and Valka rushed over to him, watching Hiccup thrash about in bed. Toothless leant upwards and started to try and shake him.
"Wake up! Hiccup! Wake up!" Toothless yelled, shaking his best friend. But it didn't work. He kept thrashing around.
"WHAT IS GOING-"
Vali suddenly appeared at the entrance, looking half asleep and furious that she had been woken up. But when her eyes observed her surroundings, she sprinted over to Hiccup too.
"NOOOO!" Hiccup bellowed.
At last, he bolted upright and his eyes shot open. He was panting heavily, breathing very quickly. Sweat was dripping down his face.
"HICCUP! Oh great ice of Bewilderbeast you're all right!" Toothless gently nudged his arm affectionately. Hiccup smiled weakly at him, "Yeah I'm okay. Thanks bud."
Hiccup put his face in his hands, and took a deep breath, before swinging his legs over the side of the bed and looked around at everyone.
"Guessing I woke you all up?" He asked, looking around at everybody.
They all nodded, and Hiccup apologised. "Sorry."
"It's all right. You were screaming your head off and thrashing around in the bed. That must have been a pretty horrible dream." Valka guessed, patting him gently on the shoulder.
"It was." Hiccup replied honestly, remembering it.
He took another deep breath, before speaking, "I know it was only a dream, but it seems dangerously real for some reason."
Vali drew her head back confusedly, "What? You think it was a vision or something?" She asked sceptically.
"I don't know. I don't really believe in that sort of thing, but this seemed so… realistic." He answered, looking down at the ground for a moment.
"Try telling us, what was it about?" Kormak asked, sitting down beside him.
Hiccup rubbed his eyes, then began. "Well, it seems like I've had this dream before, or part of it I don't know. But ages ago when I was back on Berk, only just after I met Toothless and I just had my mark activated, I had this dream."
He continued on, "But I've never had this dream in so much detail. It starts off with all of us, myself, Mum, Vali and Kormak all standing beside our bonded dragons. We hadn't united all of the Six yet, it's just us. We all had dragons though, but I couldn't tell who or what they were."
"We were all standing at the top of an isolated island somewhere very far away from Myrka's mainland. It was night time, and we were waiting for something. I don't know what, but something dark. Something evil. Maybe that creature that destroyed Dyflin and Lowtov I don't know. I just don't know."
"Anyway, a voice suddenly sounds itself behind us, and it says, 'Surprise!' Really loudly. We all turn around and recognise who it is. It's a person, and I don't know who I didn't see a face. Then suddenly the person is having a sword fighting duel with one of you. Either Valka, Vali or Kormak I don't know. Whoever it is, the evil person kills you, then I scream and the dream ends." Hiccup finished.
"Well, that sounds like a lovely dream." Said Vali sarcastically.
Toothless moved closer to Hiccup, and licked his arm affectionately. "You think it might be that creature that destroyed Dyflin and Lowtov?" He asked.
"What? The evil person? No it was a person, not a creature." Hiccup replied.
Toothless sighed. He was too tired to explain right now, it was such a long story. "Never mind, I'll tell you another time."
"Wait what?" Hiccup started, turning to the Night. "Tell me what?" He asked.
The Night Fury looked at him, and said, "I know what the creature is that destroyed Dyflin and Lowtov." Toothless said again, reminding everyone that he did know something about it like he said earlier.
"What did he say?" Kormak asked. Valka translated what Toothless said.
"Let's hear it in the morning. I'm so tired now." Kormak mumbled, yawning. Vali agreed, she was tired too.
"You sure you're all right?" Valka asked, becoming motherly.
Hiccup nodded. "I'm fine. Please, don't worry. I'm all right. We'll talk in the morning. I'm sorry for waking you all up. Good night."
With that out of the way they all left the icy room and went back to bed. Hiccup lay down again on the wet sheets, the smell of the sweat taking over his nose. "Ugh. I'm not going to be able to sleep now, that smell is real bad."
"Yeah, you want to sleep on my wing?" Toothless offered, sitting by his side and opening a wing for him.
"Thanks Toothless." He walked over to him, but then suddenly stopped. He got a thought. "Would you like to go for a fly?" Hiccup asked the dragon. He really felt like going for a flight. Just the two of them.
Toothless looked sadly at Hiccup and brought his tail around and showed him the one tailfin there.
Hiccup felt terribly guilty. "Oh gods, how did I forget that… Sorry bud."
Toothless said nothing in reply. He too was utterly devastated that he could not fly anymore. Coming to grip the fact that he could not fly anymore, was the worst thing that could have been done to him. Flying was everything to a dragon. Taking it away was a horrible nightmare. But at least he still had his friends, and especially Hiccup.
Suddenly Hiccup jumped up, standing on his two feet, he slipped into his boots and suddenly ran to the room opening.
"Come on bud! That's what I'm going to do! Fix your flight!" He said excitedly.
Toothless rolled his eyes. "Hiccup… You won't-"
"I'm going to, now come with me!" He said almost angrily.
The dragon of the night slowly sat up, and began walking towards him.
Hiccup turned around and ran left down the corridor, past all the rooms till he finally arrived at the fabric room. Toothless arrived shortly afterwards.
"Now, picking the right fabric…"
Toothless helped Hiccup with picking the right type of fabric that could be used. It had to be very thin, but strong at the same time. It couldn't tear or break whilst flying plus it needed to be flexible.
Once the right fabric was chosen, Hiccup persuaded Toothless to come down to the next room where the bits of paper and charred sticks for writing were.
Hiccup also found a ruler that he didn't see last time he was in the room. He took every possible measurement he could from Toothless during the rest of the night. He took everything into account. He wrote down so many notes, Toothless could barely keep up with him.
He had never seen Hiccup like this. He concentrated. He focused. He looked so determined. An absolute focus on his task, and he wouldn't let anything get in his way. When he wanted Toothless to curve his tail, demonstrate a flap from every different angle and strength, do a spin, and whatever else he wanted.
Hiccup also measured his whole body, taking down notes about everything he possibly could. The dragon heard him muttering to himself about saddle weight, fin, retractable and all sorts of random words.
It took all night, and by the morning, the dragon was exhausted from helping Hiccup all night.
As soon as it hit dawn, Hiccup turned to Toothless at last and said, "Okay bud. I have every note I could possibly need. I need to design, build and test my theories now. You go and get some sleep, tell mum what I'm doing. But please don't let them come in, I need to concentrate."
"Also," Hiccup continued, "I estimate that within the next several days and maybe weeks, we will need to test out my builds and designs on you by flying. Don't you worry. You will fly again. I'll come out every few hours for a break. Is that okay?"
Toothless was completely taken aback. Hiccup was acting very differently than how he had ever known him. "Hiccup, are you all right?"
Hiccup smiled. "Of course. I'm just very determined to get this done and do it good. Please?"
Then Hiccup did something that Toothless could never say no to. He gave him a scratch under his chin which felt wonderful, mixed in with a scratch behind the ears.
Toothless felt like he was in heaven already. "Ohh that felt good. All right, you got it Hiccup." He gave his rider a fond lick on his face.
Hiccup nodded, and immediately turned around and got back to work.
Toothless shook his head fondly, looking at Hiccup work so brilliantly. He really appreciated him.
The dragon turned around and walked out of the corridor. As he began walking back up the corridor, he saw Valka standing just outside her room, watching him.
"Everything all right?" She asked, yawning.
Toothless smiled toothlessly, and explained everything to Hiccup's mother, speaking very proudly.
The next morning the day after…
True to his word, Hiccup had not come out of the room he was working in very much at all. In fact, since this time yesterday morning, he had only come out twice. Once to get a whole lot of food, the second to visit the forge and the weaponry room at the top of the glacier in a rocky room. However, he refused to say anything about his progress, on the other hand he did seem happy.
Toothless and Valka had asked if he had slept, and he did answer yes. So that was partially reassuring for them both. If he was being completely sincere though was not clear.
Sometimes when dragons or people passed the room, they would look in and see Hiccup either hammering away at something, writing down notes or some other type of handiwork.
Everybody else was just trying to relax as everything was all calm now. They didn't need to go anywhere, worry about anything attacking them or their friends, so they all took it in their stride. Valka's friends Edda and Kari both however resumed their work.
Edda and Kari each would leave the glacier during the day, and try and find injured dragons around the archipelago. Valka on the other hand told the dragons to resume their patrolling services everywhere around the archipelago. She made sure any dragons who wanted something to do could go outside, collect food or patrol the neighbouring lands from the skies for the nest, which had become the new name for their glacier.
Lowtov's nest is the new name for the place, Valka had determined. After all it was a safe haven and secret hide out for dragons and Vikings alike.
Even Spark and Cloudjumper began to join into this patrolling and collecting food initiative. Toothless however as the now leader of the dragons in the nest, began becoming friendly and began to try and meet all the dragons in the nest. And ask each if they would be prepared to fight for the Six in case a war came.
As for the remaining Vikings, Vali and Valka, had become solely focused on assembling all the Thunderdrums the nest had, to try and get Kormak to become friends with one. Valka explained to Kormak and Vali that Thunderdrums were called a Flatsea in dragon culture.
The problem was, there were so many Thunderdrums in the nest, and it was hard for Kormak to meet every one of them.
Each one was a different colour or texture, or had a mix of colours. Some were smaller and younger, others were older and wiser.
"I don't know, I wasn't expecting so many choices. But should I really choose? I mean no one else has. Everyone else became friends with their dragons before they became partners." Kormak said honestly.
Valka scratched her head, unsure. "That's true Kormak. How about this…" Kormak now turned to her, and all the Thunderdrum's did too.
"Whichever Thunderdrum you like most, you can be together for three days. Talk with the dragon, of course you won't know what it says in reply, but let the dragon take you around. Let it fly with you, and if you like him or her, it can activate your dragon mark when you and he or she are ready." She suggested.
Vali put her hand on Kormak's shoulder. "That's sounds like a good idea. Give it a go."
"All right." Kormak perked up, smiling happily. "Let's do it."
"Speaking of giving things a go…" Came an excited voice and a rather familiar one at that, "Toothless buddy! It's time for our first test!" Hiccup now yelled towards a black dragon at the far opposite side of the chamber, as he himself stood at the entrance of the main chamber. Clutching a saddle, and a black tailfin in his hands.