Chapter 44 – Reunion:

There was a knock on the door, and slowly it opened without waiting for a response. A man with an extremely long bright yellow moustache, with a peg hook for one of his hands and a wooden prosthetic for one of his legs, crept through the doorway.

"GAH!" The man yelled as soon as he faced towards the Night Fury, before slamming the door behind him.

Hiccup couldn't help but omit a slight chuckle at seeing his former mentor, the one who had taught him how to make and fix weapons back on Berk.

"It's okay Gobber, please come in." Hiccup called out, as Stoick now suddenly realised there was a Night Fury in the room. But as the dragon had made no move to attack or threaten him, he presumed it was safe. After all, he didn't even care. He was too busy staring at his son and wondering what had happened to him.

"Who's that talking?" Came Gobber's voice from behind the door.

Stoick then said, "Gobber, it's Hiccup!"

Toothless remained sitting down, just watching the scene unfold.

Slowly, the door crept open once again. With Gobber not taking his eyes off the dragon. As he manoeuvred around the door, he slowly shut it behind him.

"All I see is a Night-" Gobber cut short as he fully entered the room when his eyes found Hiccup's.

"Hey Gobber." Hiccup greeted him, though Hiccup lost his smile now as guilt welled up in his chest. But he tried to keep it away as best he could, he had to explain everything to them both.

The room was lit by many candles attached to the wooden walls around the room, with several on the dining table in front of them. Hiccup stood on the other side of the long table, not wanting to sit down on the many chairs around it, with Toothless sitting next to him.

There were many windows in the wall behind Hiccup and the Night Fury, but being in the middle of the night, there was very limited light coming through.

Gobber looked no different than Hiccup could remember, the same bear skin pullovers and yellow tunic to match his pronounced and swishing moustache. Although Hiccup could have sworn it had grown even longer than he remembered.

His father Stoick on the other hand, looked very different. His face carried several scars, with two distinct ones on his left cheek. Reminding him of Viggo's scars on his neck. His clothes were the same as he had remembered, however they looked more worn and torn. Their colour had faded a little, and his maroon beard looked quite messy unlike how Hiccup had remembered it.

Hiccup himself had changed clothes since meeting Viggo earlier that night, into a black tunic underneath with a brown travelling cloak over the top that matched his hair. As well as thick leather boots.

"Don't worry about the dragon," Hiccup told his father and Gobber. "Toothless…" Hiccup gestured to the Night Fury beside him, "Isn't going to harm anyone. He is my dragon partner. Now please, sit down. I have a lot to explain."

Hiccup now gestured at the chairs in front of Stoick and Gobber, and with Hiccup moving to sit down first, both Stoick and Gobber soon followed suit.

"I'll start from the very beginning. Please listen carefully and don't interrupt until I'm done." Hiccup asked of them politely, wanting this to go through as smoothly and peacefully as possible.

The two large men nodded, and once again, Hiccup begun his story.

Stoick and Gobber listened intently to what Hiccup had to say, with Hiccup talking about his dragon mark, catching the Night Fury and Toothless activating it, right up until the point where Hiccup got captured in Myrka.

"You were captured in Myrka too?" Stoick asked suddenly, with a very surprised look on his face.

"Yes." Hiccup replied. "I was there for several months."

On and on, Hiccup's story went, until where he was about to start talking about his mother.

"Just after I had eaten on the Dyflin ship, a large group of dragons descended from the skies above. There was a human figure standing on top of one of them, but we couldn't tell who it was. Suddenly, the figure shot tranquillizer arrows at us before we could react, and we were sent into unconsciousness."

"We woke up in a glacier, all of us separated into different rooms."

"Rooms?" Inquired Stoick, "How can you have rooms inside a glacier entirely made from ice?" It sounded quite bizarre.

"The rooms were made from ice, and carved I'm guessing by the dragons that they kept there. Along with help from the vikings who lived inside. There were no artificial structures inside the glacier. Save for the kitchen." Hiccup replied.

"After we woke up, we thought we were caged or prisoned in this glacier, but it turned out to be almost the opposite. The other dragon riders and their dragons came to me and Toothless from their own rooms, and there we confronted the human figure who rode the dragon from before."

"We discovered this person had a dragon mark of the Six too, and had taken up residence inside the glacier for a very long time." With his memory still fresh, Hiccup couldn't help it as tears began to form in his eyes. Remembering his mother.

"Who was it?!" Gobber asked eagerly, but sensitively as he realised this seemed to be an emotional topic for Hiccup.

Said Viking put his face into his hands and couldn't help but to begin to cry a little harder.

"It-, it was my mother. Valka." Hiccup sobbed, before looking up and facing his father.

Stoick's face went as white as the clouds at midday. Highlighting his fresh red scars on his face. Gobber meanwhile gasped loudly and immediately turned to look at his friend, the chief.

"She-" Stoick started but paused for a moment. "She survived that night?" He mumbled, referring to the very night Valka was taken away from him. He was dumbfounded, yet heart warmed. His one and only love who had been taken away from him so many years ago had survived.

With tears in his eyes, sniffling and wiping his face, Hiccup replied, "Yes. She survived that night."

A small tear escaped Stoick's left eye, and he too, wiped his face after hearing the news.

So, Hiccup continued his story. His time and dedication he spent working on building a new tail fin for Toothless, till the point Kari and Edda were ruthlessly murdered by none other than the Shapeshifter.

Until at last, Hiccup arrived at the events of what happened earlier that night.

"So when the Shapeshifter, of which we learnt that his name was indeed Viggo, left that last note at Berk etched on the floor of the Great Hall, we made our way to go and meet him tonight. At the island."

"You shouldn't have!" Stoick grunted, hitting one of his fists against the table. "You should have stayed at Berk! That creature from what you've described is too powerful!"

"And what?" Hiccup replied with just as much fierceness. "Stay there while you and my whole tribe and the rest of the archipelago are ruled over, put into slavery and just forget everything I had been told to do by Gothi and Toothless?!"

Stoick went quiet at this point but stared daggers at Hiccup. Still wanting him to go on.

The auburn haired young man continued on, "Before we arrived at Viggo's island, we stopped over at the island we had been taking refuge on recently. Where we left Savas."

Hiccup felt anger build up inside him, along with shock once again upon remembering being betrayed by him the whole time, just by mentioning his name.

"However, the cave was painted with blood when we arrived. So we assumed at the time that Viggo had killed Savas. It was quite an awful sight," Hiccup recalled, "In the end, we didn't find out whose blood that was on the walls."

"What do ya mean lad?" Gobber asked with confusion. "Didn't you just say Savas was there?"

Hiccup turned to face him, and explained, "That's what we had thought. But it couldn't have been Savas's blood."

"What makes you say that?" Stoick asked.

Hiccup put one hand on his face, before looking up at them both again. "I'll tell you in a moment."

"So, after that happened…" Hiccup continued on, "we dropped Fishlegs off with Sven at the island of Remola. And headed to Viggo's island as we were running out of time."

"Eventually we made it there."

The room was completely quiet now, you could have heard a pin drop as Stoick and Gobber's attention was completely focused on Hiccup.

As Hiccup recalled the memory of the foul place, he couldn't help but feel a sense of failure. He felt like he had failed as the leader of the Six. As there no longer is a Six now. It's Five.

And suddenly it hit him.

It hit him right in the chest.

There was no one left.

No one left to guide him, advise him or help him on his quest. Except for the Night Fury, and his friends in the Five. When Valka was around, she knew many things. She knew about the Six, she knew about islands, she thought of ideas and she never left his side.

He even had Gothi earlier on, who originally told him what he had to do, and how to do it.

Now, he was going to have to stand on his own two feet and do the rest himself. But he was glad to have his friends and his Night Fury by his side.

"Hiccup, are you, all right?" Toothless suddenly cooed next to him, nuzzling his head against Hiccup's side. Bringing the auburn haired young man back to reality.

"Oh, sorry bud. Something just occurred to me. I'll tell you about it later." Hiccup said, now petting Toothless's head fondly.

"So, what happened?!" The Berkian chief asked forcefully, demanding to know more.

"Sorry sorry." Hiccup quickly apologised and continued.

"The island we arrived at was shaped like a tall volcano that had its top half completely sliced off. The top half of the crater had many flaming torch poles all around the edges. Like the ones on Berk, but the fire coming out of them was not the usual colour of orange. These fires coming from the pits of the torches at the top, were blazing white. Which immediately reminded us of Viggo's bright white fire."

"There was a wharf sticking out attached to the side of island, and we landed on it to begin walking up to the top."

"The ground seemed to be mainly made of this soft black ash. Like the island had been burnt so many times all that was left was ash."

"So we made our way up the side towards the crater. Once we reached the top, we realised the crater wasn't really a crater at all. For the top of the mountain was completely flat."

"And so, we waited. Very nervously." Hiccup admitted, remembering the event from earlier that night.

"Suddenly, we heard a loud and deep voice from behind us, and just like in my dreams, the voice said, 'SURPRISE!' And man, did we get a shock."

"What happened?!" Gobber asked desperately.

"The person who appeared in front of us was none other than Savas. But he was dressed differently. He had a far more intimidating look than he had ever looked before." Hiccup acknowledged.

Stoick and Gobber exchanged looks of confusion. Before Stoick asked, "But why was Savas there? How did he survive?"

"That's what I thought for a few seconds too. Until what happened next." Hiccup admitted. "There was something very different about the way Savas looked. His eyes looked eerie, his expression was forbidding, and his smile seemed sinister."

"His hands were behind his back, and he had a confident, very self-assured smile on his face. The flickering lights of the fires from the torches lit up his threatening expression."

"The group and I called out 'Savas' in a questioning way to him. And he responded by shaking his head. Smiling even wider at that point. Then he started to walk around us, like a wolf stalking its prey, intending to provide as much fear as possible."

"Then, he finally spoke."

"He began by saying, 'they say there are two ways to be fooled'. His voice at this point was becoming more and more terrifying. Still, he kept walking. And then he spoke again. 'One is to believe what isn't true, the other…' He stopped walking then, as he was standing in front of me. Facing the opposite way."

"Then, he turned around and looked at me right in the eyes. And I saw the evil that was lurking within them. As our eyes connected, he spoke again. Saying, 'Is to refuse to believe what is.'"

"At this point, I was scared out of my mind. I was beginning to realise I had played for a fool from the very beginning. The main antagonist of this war, of everything in the archipelago, all came from him."

"I called out to him, saying 'Viggo?' in a questioning way. He only smiled at me, before turning around again, removing his hands from behind his back and letting them fall until they hung by his sides. At this point right here, he spoke again. Confirming my theory. He said, 'Viggo I am, Savas I am too."

Both Stoick and Gobber gasped in fear at the suspense.

"Then, he did it. He suddenly started to transform. Right in front of us. Into his jet back draconic Shapeshifter form."

"What did you do?" Gobber piped up, staring wide eyed at Hiccup.

Hiccup explained what happened, why Viggo wanted him, up until the point where he had been thinking about all night.

"We tried to fight against Viggo, but his skill was unrivalled. No one could hit him, he was too fast and too strong. However, near the end of our fight, Valka charged at Viggo. Just as I started to run at him too, Valka's and Viggo's swords clanged loudly as they fought each other. However, Viggo turned in a circle very quickly, and strongly swung his sword, slicing Valka's right in half."

"I was still running at them, but I couldn't make it." Hiccup now began to start omitting tears once again. "Viggo had the upper hand, he seized his opportunity and thrust his sword into her chest."

"I screamed at this point and brought my sword down onto Viggo, which he just managed to dodge my attack. However, he didn't see that Toothless had fired a flaming shot at him. It hit Viggo square on his chest and he was blasted backwards. Unfortunately, he wasn't killed, he survived it though mildly injured, then threatened us one last time before taking off and disappearing into the sky."

"I ran back over to mum, and we tried to heal her, but she refused our help. She knew this was her time, and she knew she wasn't going to make it. So, she told me, that the last member of the Six lives in the Snowy Peaks. How she knew that I do not know. She also told me to come here, to save you and our tribe."

"But lastly," Hiccup paused, and looked at his now shaking father who was struggling to come to terms with what he was hearing. "Her last words to me, were to tell you that she loved you dad, and she's very sorry for failing to come home to be your wife and my mother."

There was a long silence between everyone.

Neither Stoick nor Gobber said a word.

After what seemed like an hour, or several days, Stoick stood up.

He stayed standing for what seemed like an eternity. Then he turned around, opened the door and walked out. Shutting it softly behind him.

"So she, she really did pass away?" Gobber broke the silence. Now looking at the table solemnly, avoiding eye contact.

"Yes." Hiccup replied sadly, wiping away some tears.

"This is gonna take a toll on yer' father lad. Yer' gonna need to give him some time to come to terms with this." Gobber stated, now looking at Hiccup.

Hiccup sighed, before saying, "I know. I'm still coming to terms with it myself. It only happened a few hours ago. I'm completely lost as to what to do."

Gobber looked up, glancing into Hiccup's eyes. "Yeh don't hav' to do anythin' for now lad. Just give yeh father some time, Spit'lout and I will hav' a word with Bertha on what's gonna happen next. Lad, ya just rest up and take yeh time."

Up on the main deck of the Bertha's ship in the moonlight…

Spark had just finished tossing all the cages that all the Berkian's were previously imprisoned in overboard across all the ships in the Bog Burglars's fleet.

"That's the last of them. And also, where's Kormak?" Spark asked, landing on the main deck of Bertha's ship and noticing Kormak's Thunderdrum dragon Seaflare asleep in front of her.

Vali smiled at her and walked over. Giving her an affectionate rub on her snout.

"Thanks Spark. Kormak is inside the ship, probably asleep by now."

Vali now looked out towards the rear of the ship and could only faintly see some light coming from Myrka in the distance, where they still had some fires burning from their attacks.

She turned around upon hearing heavy footsteps behind her, and saw Bertha approaching her.

Bertha was one of the largest women Vali had ever seen, and not just in height. She stood nearly as high as her father King Harun himself. Her body was very large and wide, particularly including her chest.

Despite her clan – the Bog Burglars – being well known for their stealthy fighters and tactics, Vali found it hard to imagine this chieftain going anywhere without being noticed.

She was wearing a large dark blue fur coat which was draped around her, secured by a shining blue stone in the form of a belt buckle around her waist.

Her very large breasts were straining to break free from her coat, pulling it away from her skin towards her upper body.

Her skin that was showing was a light brown.

She was wearing black thick looking boots. Her face contained an abnormally large mouth, seemingly in line with the rest of her features which looked far too big. A very blunt nose and dazzling yet fierce light blue eyes that seemed to have a huge sense of duty, tradition and love embedded in them.

At least, that was how Vali could summon up her appearance.

"It's so horrible to know that Valka has gone." Bertha said sadly, sniffling as she stopped close in front of her. "She was a dear friend of mine."

Vali's expression turned to misery in response, before beginning with, "Yes, it's rather hard to believe actually. How um, if you don't mind me asking, how long have you two known each other?"

"At least five years, I'd say. She arrived at my island and managed to convince my people and I not to harm dragons. She explained what she knew about the war, the legend of the Six, and over the next few weeks to months, we all began to believe and accept her. She changed our tribe." Bertha remembered fondly.

"How often did you see her after that?" Vali asked curiously.

Bertha turned and looked out to sea. "Not enough. Only once every five months or so. She seemed very busy with her work on rescuing dragons."

Vali smiled, nodding in agreement as she left Spark and walked to the edge of the boat overlooking the black ocean in the midst of night.

"She certainly was. I admire her dedication she had to her work in rescuing dragons."

"You know," Continued Vali, changing the topic, "I found it so amazing that I was so blind to everything when I was in Myrka. I literally had no idea of what was really going on around the archipelago."

Bertha walked over to her.

"You're from Myrka are you? I thought you looked familiar." She replied.

Vali chuckled. "You've probably seen me on wanted posters. My father King Harun sent them out awhile ago. I'm his daughter."

Bertha gasped. "Oh my, you poor thing. What a horrible thing for a father to do. You have my condolences."

"Thank you, I appreciate it."

The was a moment of silence for a while, then Spark lay down to sleep on the deck of the ship, as Vali asked one more question to Bertha.

"Tell me, what's your island like?"