Hiccup's encounter with the god of night.
I notice that there is a lot of different perspectives. I will address this issue by giving each one their own description, starting with Viggo. Each perspective shift will be shown with a double spacing in between.
I've had a look at previous chapters and I'm disappointed with how irrelevant the grimora scene was. So I'll try to make it relevant at some point or another. If you have seen any other themes that were discontinued too soon then please tell me. I really want my stories to function.
Thanks for reading this story to here. I know that some chapters are pretty bad, (most chapters after chapter 1) and so I congratulate you for getting this far. Hopefully you see this chapter as an improvement, if not then please tell me how I can make it better.
Chapter 11.
Viggo could now look at the scene with fresh eyes. He took notice of all their adversaries before re-ordering his fleet; heavier weapons finally turning to engage the ships and anti-dragon weaponry shifting from Ruff and Tuff to aim at all airborne adversaries with focus on the more powerful dragons.
He took in the sight; the Monstrous Nightmare broke off the approach, the ships also turned to broadside in response to the first salvo while the threatening launchers were assumed to be single use. Viggo was already more confident with this sudden change; he was shown hints of a more promising outcome to this battle and it was almost as intoxicating as the mead.
Somehow the situation got even better when the Night Fury and Nadder stopped to pay more attention to the giant Night Fury rather than contribute their firepower to the battle.
Snotlout took the missed opportunity with anger; he had to get close, but the hail of fire prevented such an action. Realising that his current abilities didn't give him the opportunity to attack without an assured death he came over to the twins to plan another attack, "Ruff and Tuff. Can you give them something more distracting? I can't get close to them."
The twins, to absolutely no-one's surprise, were ecstatic at the opportunity to create more carnage; Tuffnut yelled ecstatically in agreement while Ruffnut gave a worryingly wide smile, "that's what we do best."
Snotlout was left with hope intermingled with the suspicion; the usual mix when one relied on the Twin's help. He was glad, however, when the twins layered the ship's deck with a thick layer of gas; perfect enough for an entrance. He was about to make Hookfang ignite, before remembering from previous experience the result of fire in explosive gas.
Hiccup and Astrid raced back to the scene of the battle; with Astrid astride Hiccup due to the strange, sudden departure of Stormfly after the touch.
Thus, Hiccup now had to contend with the added weight of a rider; causing him to fly erratically. They caught sight of the phenomenally-sized Night Fury and were briefly distracted before Astrid urged Hiccup to ignore the strange event; observation could come after the battle.
Focus restored, Hiccup came closer to Viggo's ship in a silent glide, finding a route through the gas before alighting gently on the prow and letting Astrid off. Hiccup followed close behind, staying in dragon form for his own and her protection.
Viggo was taken off-guard by the sudden use of Zippleback gas; the sudden silence from his men told him that they couldn't see any of their attackers. There was a sound of talons on wood and Viggo immediately regretted that he couldn't see through the clouds to work out who had just landed; although the screams of "MONSTROUS NIGHTMARE!" soon gave him all of the information he needed to know.
He came over to the source of the shouts as fast as the limited visibility allowed him. Unfortunately, he still hadn't found the dragon when another thud signalled another arrival. He cursed under his breath; to keep the dragons from guessing where he was, before advancing.
Viggo caught sight of the Monstrous Nightmare first; a dark silhouette and then raised his weapons before coming close enough for a strike; gathering small groups of his frightened crew that he encountered along the way and ordering them to follow up his strike.
His sword missed on the first attempt; the appearance of the silhouette made it hard to judge distances. The rest of the crew, repeating his actions, found the same result as their swords went through the patch of gas where they assumed the Nightmare was.
The silhouette responded to the sound of their blades swinging through empty air and oriented his head towards the newcomers.
The dragon then neglected the use of his fire in favour of physical attacks to the enemies; knocking the unprepared crew unconscious as Viggo barely caught the sweeping strikes on his sword, before retreating wisely before his opponent got lucky. Eventually he had enough of waiting for the inevitable strike from the darkness and retreated to the hold of the ship.
Hiccup had an unparalleled view of the ship; thermal vision letting him see a large number of people on deck. Annoyingly, for his chances of entering the battle, he could see Hookfang, but could not discern Snotlout from the random Vikings in front of him.
He also couldn't discern the lucky arrow that came closer to his face; only noticing the heat signatures being blocked at the last second before the arrow hit.
The metal tip struck scale and ricocheted.
Sparks flew.
The superheated fragments dispersed into the flammable gas surrounding the wincing Night Fury, the gas finally heated to its flash point and began a fire; expanding throughout the entire ship.
The blast blew all bipeds off their feet until only a bewildered Hiccup and Hookfang still stood in the slowly dispersing smoke aftermath. They could only look on and cough the burnt air out of their lungs as the remaining crew recovered as well. Hiccup scanned the resurgent crew before tending to the shocked Astrid; guiding her back into full awareness.
Astrid took a while to lock back into her combat psyche and then leaped off Hiccup into the fray; yelling a war cry as she brought her axe to bear. The sudden gusto of the attacking girl took many off guard as Astrid knocked out as many guards as she could; rolling, spinning and even subconsciously tail swiping the crew.
Eventually it was just her and Snotlout on deck allowing Astrid to take a breather after intensive activity. However, Viggo had been waiting for the perfect opportunity for a retaliation and this was it; he went behind Astrid and took her hostage with a knife to her throat and with all her human limbs restrained.
Now, with Hiccup and Snotlout looking on in fear, he began his ransom; knowing that Hiccup would rather do anything before letting one of his friends die, "So here's the deal. I don't do this often, but you've forced my hand here, Hiccup. Either you surrender and let us take your dragons or Astrid dies."
The threat got through perfectly; Hiccup was, as predicted, willing to lose in order to save his teams. His words, had he spoken them, would have terminated the battle, submitted everything for the life of his team mate.
Astrid, however, was not a damsel in distress. Instead she was a warrior, now with draconic traits, and she took full advantage of her unique abilities; extending her tail to push Viggo away before using the extra range to give a running attack.
Viggo hadn't expected the sudden turn of events and therefore could only raise a terrible block as Astrid brought the offense to him. The initial running attack by Astrid was repelled, but at the cost of Viggo losing his balance and falling.
Astrid never let the disoriented opponent stand again, instead pummelling him with strikes designed to weaken him before she could knock him out. He got lucky though, a fortunate hook of her axe let him disarm her before he attempted to stand again.
He never got the chance.
Hiccup hadn't been idling while watching this scene unfold; he was waiting for a chance to strike and with this shift in the battle he was able to do so. He started running forward as soon as the man was exposed and delivered a brutal ram to his chest; causing the dense man to finally fall unconscious.
The parties still conscious on board breathed heavily as the climax of the fight had finally passed. Astrid recovered quickly and complimented Hiccup for his actions, "thanks for the help, Hiccup."
Normally, due to his increased self-confidence, Hiccup would have accepted the comment with pride. However, the affect of having his crush compliment him was shocking; the mighty dragon within him and the god was silenced by a broken Hiccup who resorted to meaningless gibberish.
Astrid was estranged by the weird reaction and engaged a more caring side of herself to try to deal with the problem, "Hiccup, what's wrong? Was the bump on the head too much?"
The functioning part of Hiccup's psyche, the essence of dragon and a god, were struggling to put together the broken pieces of Hiccup's personality; they were struggling for now, and so the draconic personality asserted control to reply. He spoke calmly, embarrassed and confused face instantly resolved into a patient and grounded one, "I am not okay at the moment. Something about the way you gave that compliment caused my human side to break. I do not know why, but you'll have to speak with my dragon side for the moment."
Someone could have misinterpreted the former part of that sentence as a romantic comment. In fact, Snotlout misinterpreted the former part of that sentence as a romantic comment,
"Are you seriously pretending to act strange to impress the girl Hiccup? I've seen you do a lot of stupid things, but never as dumb as this."
Had he been talking to the human side he probably could've been forgiven, but Hiccup's draconic psyche did not allow for such comments. "You should shut your mouth before you get yourself killed, Snotlout. Do not think that insulting a dragon is a wise thing to do."
The tensions had risen.
Luckily, Snotlout had lost his courage as soon as he realised that this new personality wasn't kidding about killing him. Astrid was outraged that Hiccup had just threatened Snotlout with death, "Hiccup, I don't know where you're getting these ideas from, but don't you dare become violent over a simple comment."
The dragon side of Hiccup, although perfectly sentient and able to debate his way out of complicated situations, didn't like the rising hostility, "Astrid, leave me alone. I do not wish to carry out my threats, but I will if forced. If you need any encouragement to respect my presence I will inform you that you will die if you decide to continue this."
Astrid was stunned at the escalation of the situation; to the extent that she jus looked at Hiccup in silence until Snotlout grabbed her hand gently and guided her gently to Hookfang. Hiccup just looked on with a neutral expression until Hookfang took off. Then the Night Fury prepared to go off to sleep until Hiccup recovered; hanging from the boom to avoid being vulnerable on the ground.
One crew woke up groggily; a mistake rectified with a precise strike of Hiccup's tail to his head. Then, with a quick check that none of the others were awake as well, the dragon-style Hiccup cocooned himself in his wings to sleep; a cute position that contrasted the inner fury of the being.
Meanwhile Toothless and Stormfly had been tending to the unconscious Shadewrath; watching over him as Edward's ship prepared to take him on board. The crew made and mounted large cranes to bear the weight.
Then they tied ropes to Shadewrath's chest and tail base before lifting the hulk of Night Fury onto deck; displacing many crew members who would typically operate there to make room for the massive dragon.
Harold had seen the entire fight from a distance while debating whether to contribute his own fire again. He saw the interesting combat of the dragon riders, an explosion and then finally a large red dragon leaving with two humans, leaving one behind who went to sleep on the boom of the ship.
He came closer to the inactive warship and pulled alongside it; preparing to board the ship, take prisoners and leave. Their ship got into range and his crew rushed to lock down the enemy vessel while Harold went to talk to the Night Fury hanging from the sail beam, "is that you, Hiccup? are you okay?"
The Night Fury unfurled his wings and regarded the man on board with curious caution, "I'm not sure who you are, but I can see that you are an ally and so I warn you that I am not myself at the moment, do not anger me in any way."
Harold was momentarily distracted before responding rationally; Hiccup may be in a bad mood, but he could still make him an offer without angering him, "I seek to cause you no distress. I just wanted to know if you're fine staying on this ship? We'll be towing it, for your information, so you can leave if you want."
Hiccup nodded; his dragon psyche was happy that the man had been so polite with his information and he gladly explained to him what he would do, "I will stay here for the moment, thanks for the information."
His interaction complete, Hiccup curled up to sleep again, concentrating his energy again on rebuilding Hiccup's normal personality.
Harold took one last look at the hanging dragon before coordinating some of his crew to establish a towing line between their ships.
Hiccup's dragon personality retreated into his head to check how much Hiccup was recovering. He heard a slurred, "Astrid" from the human personality and resolved that he still had a long way to go.
Shadewrath's form had been manipulated to let the crew access their hatch before the large body was left alone on deck. Toothless and Stormfly had smoothly followed, checking his body continually for any sign of regained consciousness. It took a long time before Toothless lost enough attention on Shadewrath to notice that Stormfly shouldn't be here, "Stormfly, are Astrid and Hiccup okay?"
Stormfly shook as she regained her connection to the outside world; her attention to this freak of nature had made her completely forget about Hiccup and Astrid. She had originally went to check how Toothless was, but now was reminded that he wasn't the only person important to her, "I don't know, they were having a strange conversation before I left and then I can't say what happened next."
"you left them behind?" Toothless said, with irritation coming into his voice.
"yes." Stormfly admitted; knowing the connection between Toothless and Hiccup (Toothless had only left Hiccup because he thought that Stormfly could take care of him). She had to redeem herself, and so she did a scan of the air and found one missing person; Astrid on the Monstrous Nightmare.
She tried to tell Toothless about it, but found that Toothless had found his own priority target; Hiccup on the mast of the enemy ship. He distracted himself with his observation for a few more moments before turning to Stormfly, "Hiccup is on the enemy ship by himself. I trusted you to keep him safe and now I see him on a hostile ship. What am I supposed to think about you now that I know that!?"
Stormfly hung her heavy head in shame; being in trouble with another dragon was bad, being in trouble with a night fury was worse, "I assumed that they would stay in Berk, I could never have anticipated they would try to attack."
Toothless sighed, holding back his anger to settle at a later time. Instead he would try to get back into contact with his lost friend, "let's fly over to Hiccup, hopefully he's fine, but if he's wounded, you're in trouble, if he's dead… you're dead."
Stormfly gulped; Toothless was obviously serious with his threat and he could most definitely carry it out. The position Hiccup now hung in was now looking awfully similar to a butcher's catch on hooks.
The thoughts of the worst case scenario kept running through their heads, even ignoring the allied ships manoeuvring around them.
Then they touched down on the deck where they could find out the truth. Stormfly touched down quite gently, befitting her unsure attitude while Toothless landed roughly; padding out the awkward landing by turning it into a loping walk towards Hiccup.
Finally, in front of their point of interest, Toothless spoke to the hanging figure, hoping for a response, "Hiccup, can you hear me? Are you okay?"
For a frightening length of time, nothing happened. Just as Toothless turned to Stormfly with murder in his eyes, Hiccup's wings moved and his head revealed itself, "hello, I am not okay at the moment."
Toothless changed from anger to shock and then happiness as Hiccup finally showed signs of life, although his behaviour was strange, "I'm glad to hear you're okay, but what's wrong?"
Hiccup stayed silent for a while before calmly responding, "Hiccup's human-based personality is broken, something that Astrid said completely broke him and now Hiccup is only sustained by me, his draconic side, and Hiccup's godlike personality, who's trying to fix Hiccup back to his former self."
The idea of different personalities in one mind was alien to Toothless and seemed to be an example of a psychological defect, "are you ever going to be okay? 3 personalities is not normal."
Hiccup slouched, Toothless wasn't very sensitive to the fact that he was talking to one of these 'faulty personalities'. Toothless also didn't know that this was completely acceptable for someone in Hiccup's condition, "Remember you're not talking to Hiccup's normal personality. I am not as capable of human emotion as Hiccup's normal self. Also, do not believe this is a disease; Hiccup was loaded with both draconic powers and god powers and therefore me and that weird personality of god-Hiccup were developed to file both sides of that away. We occasionally guide Hiccup and tell him what to do."
Toothless took a while to take that in, gradually acclimatising to the idea that Hiccup's split personalities were a result of his blessing. He wasn't allowed the opportunity to speak, however, since the dragon in front of him gave some good news, "Hiccup seems to have recovered now, it was nice talking to you. Goodbye"
There was then a brief set of rapid twitches before the reconstructed human personality settled into his form again. His eyes closed, then opened wide before adopting the behaviour of someone that had just woken up, "By Odin that was a strange dream. At least, I hope it was a dream, why was there an arrogant version of myself? Ah well, at least it's done now."
He then finally noticed Toothless and Stormfly standing there, "Hi Toothless, Hi Stormfly. Sorry for sleeping. I only remember Astrid saying something and me blacking out, is everything okay?"
Toothless looked at Hiccup with concern in response, "I'm not sure, are you aware that there are two other presences in your mind?"
The news made Hiccup give a brief reaction, but not surprise about the new presences, "I know them a little, I suspect that some of my tempers were their doing, but mostly I know them for the help they give me for abilities. Why is this relevant?"
"I met a personality of yours that wasn't so friendly; dragon-based if I remember correctly."
The realisation hit Hiccup; that everyone around him had been subjected to his dragon psyche; he knew that the dragon was helpful to him, but continually suspected all non-dragons around him for the smallest things. He could feel depressed all day; reflecting on the fact he'd let out this primal side of himself by accident. However, his sadness could wait as he consoled his closest friends, "I guess you had to contend with his behaviour, I'm sorry Toothless… and Stormfly. I should've kept myself under control. Did Shadewrath see me?"
Toothless shook his head, "No, he's unconscious and… different. Don't worry about us, Hiccup. We know you well enough that we wouldn't let you go after you acted strangely."
Hiccup smiled and Toothless came in for an embrace to emphasize his friendship; wrapping his forelegs around Hiccup's hanging chest. Stormfly soon followed; her bipedal stature helping her to hug Hiccup more easily. Toothless gave a quick jerk due to his previous suspicion of her but relaxed and let her continue the embrace.
Eventually the heartfelt moment dissipated for the moment; certain to continue later, but delayed for a short time while they flew off to meet Shadewrath on Edward's ship.
Viggo awoke in the hold.
End of chapter.
I'll just insert this "The Room" parody (roof scene); "I love this story, it's beautiful, I love it. A lot… Oh hi Viggo."
I realise the link on my profile to my M-rated story was not working, I've tried to fix it and I'd like to know if it works.