Hiccup's encounter with the god of night.
A/N
Updates are coming on nicely.
Might do a one-shot httyd/thunderbirds. There doesn't seem to be one yet and I thought a lot about it after watching the new series of thunderbirds are go.
Switching to 1500 words per update like my first story "hiccup gone half fury" I am running low on ideas of how to make this story better and this should give me more time to think.
Part 6
Stoick stepped out into the open and sounded a meeting. The villagers came running and Stoick watched bitterly as all the villagers came to hear his sad news. Once all the villagers had ran/flown in, Stoick began his announcement.
"today I bring you together to discuss an important issue that has been brought to my attention. I can show you the issue here, but I require you to remain calm."
All the villagers were talking amongst themselves excitedly. What kind of issue was it that was both important and could be shown soon. The villagers hadn't the faintest idea and watched as Stoick whispered something into Hiccup's ear.
"you know what to do boy. Either Valhalla or Helheim awaits your unveiling."
Instead of Hiccup running off clumsily to get something from else where the villagers were surprised when he just turned towards them. They were still confused until they saw the wings that unfolded majestically from behind his back. the Villagers were lost to superstitious panic but Stoick quietened them down.
"SILENCE!"
The shockwave passed through the crowd as strong as a sonic boom. They awaited his further words.
"I know that this is not what you were expecting today but here we see a boy. This boy has attributes of a dragon. There is no Loki pulled on you while watching and the gods haven't cursed us. This gift was given from the gods to reward Hiccup and not to cause pain to his fellow Vikings."
The Villagers were still confused until an unexpected person showed up. The Vikings shook with fear and pointed to the area beside Hiccup with fear.
"Loki is beside the boy! It was a trick after all!"
The god of night (for the Viking's "Loki" was him) both facepalmed and gave a slight laugh. He then introduced himself to the Viking's
"although I seem to have tricked you into thinking I'm Loki I would prefer you refer to me as the god of night. I have come here to assure you that, yes, this is a blessing and not a curse."
The Vikings trembled in the presence of the god, but the god of night was not interested in absorbing this worship. He gave a quick bow to Hiccup and then disappeared into thin air.
The Vikings were now speechless and turned back towards Hiccup. Since the god had thought it fit to do so the villagers too bowed to Hiccup. Stoick was surprised that a god had intervened but was glad that Hiccup was now accepted.
Hiccup left the area. He was very glad that the god had made the situation bearable. He rounded the bend around his house and discretely tried to fly away. He was unsure what had caused his sudden irritability and wanted to calm down with a cruise around the archipelago. As Hiccup circled the island, watching the peaceful village far above the range of most dragons, he finally started to get inner peace. In the middle of his tranquil state he was suddenly aware of Toothless and Shadewrath descending (Toothless' s tail setting was fixed in place.). Toothless made conversation first.
"so, have you calmed down finally?"
Hiccup was glad he could answer that question calmly.
"yes, I feel much better than before. The long flights certainly help the mind to relax."
Toothless was heartened by the news and glided down alongside Hiccup back to the island. Once there a panicked Astrid met them. Astrid had done her patrol and came back with news that the dragon hunters had replenished their ships. she noted that they now had some interesting developments including 6 areas where extra ballistae were mounted. Hiccup and the night furies decided to scout the dragon hunter isles for themselves to learn more.
Hiccup and the night furies took off again. Hiccup noted with interest that Toothless was able to fly, albeit not very well, without Hiccup riding Him. Hiccup soon sought to correct that situation.
Hiccup flew swiftly towards Toothless to mount him and turn off the inflexible tail setting. The inflexible setting was good for if Toothless wanted to fly on his own but wouldn't give him much agility. Hiccup made sure to check the tail was functioning fine before scolding the night fury.
"Toothless! You should know that you shouldn't fly with a tail like that. Who even did that for you!?"
Toothless smiled with his reply.
"I pestered Gobber until he got it to stay in one place, so I could fly."
Hiccup was confused
"he managed to do that in the brief period that I was doing my introduction?"
Toothless smiled wider (he was talented at this)
"I can be quite annoying."
Hiccup laughed in understanding.
"I know you can be, bud. Now let's go"
With the unparalleled speed of the night fury driving them forward it did not take them long to reach the dragon hunters hideout. Hiccup saw the ships and was surprised. Like Astrid had said all the ships now had 6 extra ballistae as well as their normal weaponry. Astrid hadn't mentioned that the crew now had lenses to see dragons better. In the daylight and without altitude Hiccup could see the heavy weapons being trained on his flight.
Hiccup pulled Toothless into a turn to the side as the ballistae discharged their bola's. He warned Shadewrath too and was glad to see him dodge the shots. An astonishing number of projectiles whistled through the air beside them. Hiccup could only sound a retreat as the gunners on the ship kept reloading.
Once out of range of the ballistae Hiccup could finally think about how to bring down the new ships. He mapped out the area and decided where they could put defensive weaponry of their own.
Hiccup flew back to berk and gave plans to Gobber for some portable artillery they could put on the island. Gobber was respectful of the need to stop the dragon hunters but wasn't quite sure whether to trust Hiccup. Deciding that whether he trusted Hiccup wasn't important for creating the artilleries Gobber set to work.
Eventually the artillery cartridges were ready, and Hiccup set about filling them up, carefully, with siphoned plasma. Once he had filled up the casings he helped Gobber complete the heavy weaponry. Hiccup also made some special weaponry that helped specifically against the ships.
After loading up some transport ships Hiccup and the others were ready to lay siege to the dragon hunters.
Viggo looked on in pride at his new fleet. The fleet was better than ever with it's new ballistae and he was sure no rider would get close enough to damage it. The previous failed attempt to bring down the night furies hadn't been a success but Viggo payed no mind to it. The ships had been successful at keeping the rider away and that's all he needed. The ships were taking a while to complete, but he was sure when they were ready he would have all the firepower he needed.
Hiccup set up the last plasma launcher and trailed a rope across the open water to take out the rudders of the ships. He made sure that the rope was securely fastened at both ends before flying up to survey his handiwork. He was happy with the work and motioned for the Berkians to ready up on their separate guns.
The villagers who had agreed to go with Hiccup were not expecting to have to lay siege to the dragon hunter stronghold. They had assumed, in typical Viking manner, they were going to charge the stronghold. Hiccup made sure to give them encouragement of how the plan was supposed to work but the villagers weren't so accepting. Hiccup sighed and made his way back to his camp. The dragon riders were there as well as the Berkians who were resting.
Hiccup walked up to the telescope and examined closely what the dragon hunters were doing. Their boatyard had another ship that was nearing completion, and by the fact that the boatyards would normally build 5 ships at a time, meant their invasion fleet was almost complete. Hiccup silently swore as he watched the last ship come inexorably closer to being finished. He also wished that his fellow riders could have just blasted the place beforehand.
He wanted to continually blast the area with plasma blasts but that would give away their element of surprise and wouldn't damage the ships. The worst part of the situation was that Hiccup was unused to war. He wished he could make Viggo see the path to peace, but he knew Viggo wasn't that kind of person. With the last thought dying into the depths of his mind Hiccup watched Viggo launch his last dragon ship.
Once all the ships had been launched Viggo strode up to the helm and prepared to sail for berk. He was sure this force could catch Berk by surprise and get all the dragons captured. He thrust forward his weapon in the direction of Berk.
"forward, warriors. We shall take Berk from the dragon huggers that reside there. Those who trust dragons are devils and deserve their fate! HOIST THE ANCHORS!"
The anchors were raised, and the boats accelerated towards the far off Berk. The ships sliced through the water while Viggo inspected the last ship.
"a few leaks that can be easily be taken care of. The ballistae need a little less tension, easily adjusted. Well that concludes it. The fleet is ready for combat!"
Viggo then strode up to the prow to watch the water in front of his newest addition. It all was going well until he saw some ropes strung through the water. He was worried that the line might entangle some oars, so he stopped the fleet.
Once the fleet had lowered anchor, to a few grumbles of discontent from the sailors, Viggo wondered how to shift the rope out of the way. He was getting some men to cut it, but he was interrupted by a call from the lookout guard
"dragons right above us sir!"
Viggo was happily surprised until he thought about the angle. The dragons were too vertical for them to fire the ballistae. Undeterred he called for the crew to bring out their crossbows.
Although the crossbows didn't have enough range to do large physical damage they were enough to deliver the payload of dragon root. Hiccup saw the slow firing of crossbows towards them. He hazarded a retreat but some of the others weren't listening.
Fishlegs was far too loving of his Gronckle and thought she could easily deflect all the shots. He did not reckon on the soft underbelly of the Gronckle and Meatlug started falling towards the ground. Viggo was happy to see the dragons retreating. He called out to Hiccup.
"what are you doing up there fury rider? Is the rider afraid of a few old ballistae?"
Hiccup just gave a mocking reply.
"It's not a full retreat! Just wanted. to show you some surprises!"
He was laughing until the first surprise was unveiled. Metal screens had been erected to protect the dragons. The dragons could peek out and fire from behind the screen while ballistae bolts would just bounce off. Viggo tried to maintain a show of dominance.
"what are you planning to do while hiding like cowards?"
Hiccup gave him another mocking response
"did you think that was all we had?"
Viggo was growing tired of Hiccup's taunts but was shaken out of it when two blasts rocked both sides of the ship. Viggo looked over one side and saw a strange machine that poked out from between another metal shield. Viggo was slightly worried about entering Hiccup's trap but only showed courage.
"gunners! Give the dragon shields everything you've got. Archers keep watching the skies for more dragons. And Hiccup. Why would you put in so much work into a machine that only fires one shot!"
As he and his crew laughed Hiccup retorted
"you think they can only fire one shot?"
Viggo and his men were now frighteningly aware of the sound of a bolt being slid back and locked on both sides of them. They were fixed with another set of blasts and another pair of plasma launcher joined the barrage.
Viggo's crew panicked and started to ballistae and crossbow bolts at the launchers. The metal screens protecting the launcher did their job and none of the shots found their mark. The launchers themselves though quickly ran out of ammunition and would have to wait until they were reloaded.
Viggo took this pause of incoming bombardment to hazard some more taunts to Hiccup.
"your trap has failed. None of my ships are damaged and we can sail to Berk while ignoring this petty ruse."
Hiccup was having fun at the expense of the serious Viggo.
"what about the rope in the water?"
Viggo noticed but didn't give Hiccup the satisfaction of the small victory.
"our ships will get past the rope easily! Did you really think that my dragon ships are weak enough to be stopped by a rope?"
He ordered the anchors to be raised and awaited the shock from the fury rider when he simply cut through the rope in front of him. He was disappointed and worried when the rope got pushed up by the ram but didn't cut. Instead it just immobilised his ship. Hiccup picked up on his surprise quickly.
"seems like a rope did stop your 'incredible' battleship. I'm not surprised, it does have metal threaded through the centre after all."
Viggo was astounded by the intricacies of this trap. He only had one choice left and that was to retreat. He ordered for the sails to be raised and the ships oars to row them back to the stronghold, there he could rely on the mountain fortresses to safeguard his ships. As he was doing this order Hiccup made an angry stand against Viggo's retreat.
"not so fast. You declared war on Berk, don't think you get away this easily."
The other riders were confused at how Hiccup was so enraged again. That was until his aura of fury (another gift from the god of night) infused through them as well. They vowed that Viggo would not make it back to his island with his fleet intact. Their anger flowed through them and appeared as a purple mist that enveloped them.
Viggo really was scared but he could only hope that the weaponry he surrounded himself with would do the job. He ordered firing into the purple haze and the ballistae turned towards the cloud. Before they could fire they saw streams of purple clouds emerge in different directions from the main cloud. They could only assume these were the dragons and they fired blindly.
Hiccup could see the ship below with his enhanced vision and prepared some of his infamous trick shots.
Viggo was still ordering his men to fire while shooting with a crossbow he had brought himself. He managed to hit one through the fog. unfortunately, his celebration was halted when both the dragon he had hit recovered and he heard the unmistakeable pitch scream of a night fury descending on his ships.
Hiccup urged toothless to focus on hitting the left hand side ballistae while telling Shadewrath to focus on the let hand oars. While they were both aiming at the other side of the boat Hiccup zoomed in to disable the entire right side of the ship.
Viggo watched as the swirl of purple gas descended on one of his ships. The left side oars and ballistae were destroyed conventionally but the right hand ballistae did something unusual. The ballistae were forced out of their mountings and fired as they travelled through the air. The bolts travelled straight through the mast and caused the heavy mast to fall over.
Hiccup and the night furies repeated this strategy with ruthless efficiency. Eventually they pulled off their attack to let the teens confront the dragon hunters themselves. Viggo predictably fled before the teens could get him and the dragon hunters were left to fend for themselves with no heavy weaponry or mobility.
The crew were very fortunate the fury effect was removed before the teens got into range.
Hiccup, Toothless and Shadewrath glided above. They were lucky to have no fatalities and two minor injuries throughout their force.
Toothless congratulated Hiccup on his newest trick shot style.
"you made a ballista both break off it's mountings and then shoot its own mast?! How do you do that?"
Hiccup chuckled and gave the night fury his honest answer with a tinge of smugness.
"just the special gift from the god of night, it comes in useful sometimes."
Toothless rolled his eyes at his arrogant rider.
"I'll just practise and then I'll be twice as good as you are"
Shadewrath joined in the conversation
"As if you could Toothless. You know that Hiccup has the gift for trick shots."
Toothless came back with mock competition
"are you taking me on Shadewrath? I will beat you easily!"
Hiccup interceded the argument.
"this can wait until we're back on berk"
The dragons silently agreed.
A/N for end of chapter.
The use of the rope to stop the Dragon ships was inspired by Sea shepherds use of the propeller foulers during the war against the whalers.
It was supposed to be 1500 words, but I think I overshot the mark slightly, I hope you readers don't mind.