Finally getting this out. Then back to working on ideas... sigh... This isn't going as smoothly as I though it would go when I published this.
xXXx
About halfway home Kernel was feeling nervous. About a lot of things. Like, what would their Dad say? They had kind of betrayed him and went behind his back… And Hiccup was nowhere to be seen. It was expected because he had Snotlout to steer back home but somehow it gave her a bad feeling. Call it twin sense. She wanted to turn back and make sure the two were alright but knew better than to leave the others, who had just started riding dragons, alone. So she buried her worries and participated in small talk.
Fishlegs asked about dragons, as usual, and Astrid told them of good ways to practice muscles or new stunts. The Thorstons bickered and added their own tidbits of good pranks. It was lighthearted as none of them wanted to think of what would happen once they got home. Though she doubted Ruffnut and Tuffnut really got it.
The journey took about an hour as opposed to the four by ships. Gobber was waiting for them with a campfire and cooked fish.
"Where's Hiccup? And Sno'lout?", was his first question as they all landed.
"They'll catch up soon", Astrid told him as she slid down from Stormfly's back.
Kernel dismounted too, "Yeah… Astrid pulled a trick on Snotlout and Hiccup stayed to sort it out"
She got a hit on her shoulder for that and snickered a bit. Gobber took the explanation at face value, grinning.
"I take 't went well?", he gestured to their relaxed expressions and interaction.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut started laughing mischievously again. Fishlegs shot them a disapproving look before turning to their teacher excitably.
"Yes! We helped them get out of the fog. They're on their way now", he told Gobber.
Everyone settled around the campfire to eat their share. There was fish for the dragons too. Stories were exchanged and jokes told. Kernel couldn't shake off the worry she'd felt since a while ago. She grew fidgety and glanced at the sky more often. It was steadily growing more orange as the sun set.
There were no dragons flying towards them. And it had been almost two hours since they separated.
Hiccup can take care of himself, she thought again and again to squash the feeling.
But two hours was long. Too long. He might not be as alright as she wanted him to. Had he gotten caught up in the Alpha's, the Queen's, luring again? If that was the case she wanted to fly back right away. But that would mean leaving the others to explain everything to their Dad… and that was an equally bad idea. This was their responsibility. They had dragged everyone into it.
Springer perked up, turning towards the horizon. Kernel read surprise and relief in her feelings. She strained her ears and heard a faint dragon roar in the winds. She held her breath.
It was a long roar with one short pause. She sighed in relief.
"Kernel?", Astrid asked.
She smiled, "Hiccup contacted me. They're fine. And doing something spectacular over there"
The warrior too let the tension wash out of her shoulders. She had been told of the twins' message methods. They were ingenious. Though Kernel insisted she had ripped them off of someone else.
Then there wasn't time for anything else because Fishlegs' eyes widened as he pointed to the ocean.
"They're almost here!", he said faintly.
Everyone turned and saw two ships in the horizon, steadily growing bigger. Seems the winds were favourable to them. Only about three hours had passed since their trip. Kernel bit her lip before squaring her shoulders. She needed to be strong for this. It was sink or swim, no in-betweens. Hiccup, the dragons, the war… everything was riding on whether the vikings accepted them.
She just hoped that the saving trip was enough. They really should've just announced themselves there… It would've been easier to believe then.
But what was done was done.
"Well. Let's get to our homes. I'll prove three hundred years wrong to Dad", she said, standing up.
Fishlegs gulped nervously. The Thorstons rose with smirks on their faces that said this was going to be epic. Astrid gave her a concerned look before it turned into determination and Gobber extinguished the fire.
Tomorrow, things would be different. For better or worse.
xXXx
"Snotlout- !", Hiccup tried to call out as his cousin's dragon abruptly changed direction, "You have to turn around!"
"I'm trying!", the other boy shot back, yelping again when Hookfang found a ship crashed into a rock interesting and started examining it.
The brunette wanted to sigh as he directed Toothless up above them and started trying to get his attention. It worked with fish. Like Astrid had just demonstrated a little while ago.
"C'mon, Hookfang. We have to go back", Hiccup murmured as he took off, up and up and trying to get out of the fog.
Only it didn't quite work out like that. Toothless stopped listening. Hookfang stopped listening. The boy's eyes widened as he recognized the hypnosis. He needed to get him to listen and scrambled around his pouch (Kernel made them. She always carried one with her and the habit was contagious) and found what he was looking for. A whistle. One that could (hopefully) break the orders coming from the Alpha Queen.
Toothless jerked. The whistle fell as if in slow motion.
"No…!", Hiccup breathed and reached for it but couldn't.
Kernel is so gonna flip, he thought as he held on tightly and prayed they wouldn't get eaten by a gigantic dragoness.
"Wh- What's going on?", Snotlout asked nervously.
Hiccup glanced at him, "We're under the Alpha's influence"
His cousin's eyes widened in fear as he gulped, holding on tighter. They flew under rock formations. Other dragons appeared in and out of the fog. All of them flying in the same direction. Hiccup reached forward and leaned towards Tooth's ears.
"Toothless!", he hissed urgently, "You have to turn around!"
He didn't hear or understand. But his flight faltered a little. Hiccup counted that as a win and started talking more utter nonsense and agitated pleas. Then they were above a rocky beach and he got an idea. The tailfin closed abruptly and Toothless yelped as they crashed into Hookfang. All four went tumbling down on the beach, a mass of growls and surprised shouts.
Toothless was on his feet a little bit later, shaking his head to clear it out. He let out a worried croon and nosed Hiccup who had crashed back first on the rocky beach. The brunette was dazed but smiled up at his dragon easily.
"Good to have you back", he told him and scratched the Night Fury's neck.
He rose up to check on his cousin who had been crushed under the Monstrous Nightmare's head. Snotlout let out a confused groan as the red scaled dragon moved away, laying his head next to the rider instead.
"Hiccup? Why is there two of you?", he asked as he sat up, wavering a bit.
The chief's son winced, "Ouch. You hit your head?", he picked up the other boy's helmet and Snotlout plopped it on his head, blinking wildly.
"No! I'm too awesome for that!", he grinned and stood on shaky legs.
Hiccup shook his head with a snort. Now he knew the raven haired muscle for brains was fine. Hookfang was shaking his head and looking around in confusion. The Nightmare seemed to be okay too.
Now for their predicament. He looked towards the Nest. No way were they getting out of there by flying. Risk of getting pulled in was too high. Then what? Their tribe was already on their way out of here. But now that they already were here and this place was filled with dragons… Ideas started forming at lightning speed. Yes, he could do that. It might even be a good thing they crash landed here.
Kernel would definitely worry. He had to get a message to her. Somehow.
He thought for a long moment, staring at the ground with furrowed brows. Toothless' warm breath ruffled his hair and he turned to the black dragon. Hmm… The Night Fury was getting passable at understanding Norse. He grinned.
"Snotlout", his voice held authority and the teen turned to him, "We have work to do. Let's start gathering an army"
Army seemed to be the magic word and an eager grin split his face. Hiccup smiled triumphantly and turned to Toothless.
"You can try to get a message to our sisters"
The dragon blinked at him, tilting his head. Hiccup spread his hands out and cupped them around his mouth, miming a roar. A familiar gesture for 'telephone game' as Kernel had dubbed it. The idea was to get dragons roaring the same thing and whoever heard it forwarded. Worked best with Gronckles and Nadders.
"Okay", he gave a hand wave as a mark of what message he wanted sent.
They had three. 'Ready when you are', 'Mission complete' and 'Help'. The first was basically a start of an operation. Second marked a successful end of it. Help was exactly what it sounded. A plea for assistance. Right now he chose the first one.
Toothless gave his signature gummy smile before turning to the winds and roaring. A short silence and the same roar was sent ahead. It was an interesting thing they had found out after flying to another nearby island. Dragons copied each other's roars at times. Kernel had had the idea of turning it to their advantage.
He listened for a while before scratching Toothless again and turning around.
"Right then. Let's get to it"
The giant mountain loomed threateningly above the four, hiding their enemy inside. Hiccup took a deep breath and let it out. There were dragons to befriend.
xXXx
Kernel was nervous. Very nervous.
She walked to the docks after letting Springer (and the others) get back to her house to hide until she could show them to convince Dad. Which would be… difficult. Very difficult. For all parties involved. This was as bad as showing Astrid only many times harder and scarier. She was still excited to see her father after a long month, though.
Gobber was a steady presence beside her as they watched the ships glide to them.
She was grateful for it. The girl didn't want to be alone when facing her Dad. Stoick looked deep in thought as the ship stopped. He had a bag full of supplies under one arm as he focused on them. Kernel smiled as he saw her.
"Welcome home, Dad", she greeted with minimal strain in her voice. This wasn't difficult. It was the part that came after that was.
Gobber helped the chief on land as the viking smiled fondly at her, though he had deep musings still swimming in his eyes. Kernel shuffled her feet nervously. Stoick, of course, picked up on it immediately. He frowned.
"Where's Hiccup?", the man asked.
Kernel traded glances with the blacksmith. Yeah, no. Not explaining that yet. Unfortunately, or fortunately, the villagers started congratulating Stoick and telling him his parenting troubles were over. His daughter looking a bit guilty didn't help matters. His frown deepened.
"Where is Hiccup?", he almost demanded, fearful of the answer.
Gobber scratched his head with his hook and gestured helplessly to Kernel who was biting her lip. She glanced at her father and swallowed.
"We… I have something to tell you… Well. More like show you", she told him, "And, uh. Then I'll go looking for Hiccup. He'll probably appreciate the help with… Ugh. Sorry. Let's get home first, please?", she babbled nervously, wringing her hands.
Stoick was concerned now. He looked to his friend but didn't find anything helpful. Seemed like he knew what the brunette was on about but wasn't willing to share. Kernel smiled up at him nervously. Tell tale signs of her or Hiccup having done something he might not like. He almost sighed. This day was turning out to be full of surprises and odd things.
"Let's go home. But I'm expecting a full explanation"
His daughter sighed in relief, "Good. That's… good"
She wondered if Hiccup was having it this hard too.
xXXx
Snotlout and Hiccup were having a hard time getting Monstrous Nightmares to behave. There was also the fact they lost the whistle and the others would probably easily get swayed to the Queen's control. Luckily Nadders and some Gronckles were easier to work with. There were some Zipplebacks too but those were rarer.
"Yee-Ouch!"
Hiccup turned quickly to see his cousin getting gnawed on by little Terrible Terrors. Not particularly dangerously he might add. The boy sighed through his nose. Those little dragons were real terrors in packs. And-
Wait. They were quite easy to train. If they got fish. Which they kind of had. At least twelve fish and that times four would be…
Yeah. That could work.
"Snotlout, come here for a sec"
His cousin looked up incredulously, "Haah? Ho-uch!?"
Hiccup sighed again and reached for the first fish. Apparently Snotlout was having real trouble moving about with all the Terrors climbing on him. Just then a low pitched noise reached his ears and all the dragons' eyes narrowed to slits. In unison they turned to look at the mountain, staying very still.
They needed a whistle. No, they needed whistles.
Snotlout whistled, "Wow. That's creepy!"
Hiccup stared at him like he was seeing the boy for the first time. Whistle. Whistling. Kernel always had this good way of making a very high pitched note by whistling. How come they didn't see that before? Hiccup put his fingers to his mouth just like his sister had taught him and blew.
Every dragon snapped their eyes to him. Hiccup looked back, stunned.
It worked, he thought.
Then a slow smile spread across his lips. They could go home now. And with an army.
xXXx
Kernel started explaining when they were out of earshot and almost at their house. Gobber was walking a small distance behind the father daughter duo.
"So", she started nervously, "Remember when Hiccup said he shot down a Night Fury?"
"Yes, your brother almost got himself killed! What has that got to do with this?", Stoick asked with exasperation.
"Um. He actually did shoot down a Night Fury", she said in a rush and the chief's eyebrows rose up in wide-eyed surprise.
"What? My son shot down the terrible beast!?", his voice was laced with pride and disbelief.
Kernel cringed. His good thoughts popped immediately and his eyes shone with concern. The girl crossed her arms defensively before taking a deep breath.
"Dad", she addressed him seriously, "We found the Night Fury in the forest right after. Another dragon was trying to get him free"
Stoick felt slight dread pooling in his stomach. If that dragon had hurt Hiccup-
"No, Dad. Hiccup is fine. The dragon didn't hurt either of us. But…", she almost trailed off before focusing back on task again, bracing herself, "We let them both go free"
Incredulous beat of silence. Then her father ran a hand over his face and looked at her with a lost expression, as if unsure what to do with her. She sighed before continuing.
"Sorry… We were trying to tell you we couldn't kill dragons. And you're not going to like this…", she licked her lips before ploughing on, "We went after them. The Night Fury had been hurt and we tried to find them the next day after dragon training. Gobber had just told us that 'dragons always go for the kill' but they didn't. So we wanted to know what was going on", not completely and totally true but would satisfy their father better than saying 'oh yeah, the other dragon is my other self from my previous lives'.
This time Stoick's eyes told a myriad of emotions and thoughts. He didn't seem to know what to think of this. Or where it was going. He clearly didn't like what they had done but was willing to listen. Somehow he was always a bit more willing to listen to her than Hiccup. Maybe it was because she was usually a very reasonable thinker and he hadn't seen that her brother was too.
"Well… We found out", she said slowly, "We found a lot more than we ever thought possible. It's… They… Um. I- I think I'd be better off just showing you. Wait here"
And then she went around her house, leaving Stoick and Gobber back to the front. The chief instantly turned to his old friend.
"You know about this. What is she doing?", he asked quietly but urgently.
Gobber lifted his shoulders up a bit in something like a defensive shrug, "Weeell… I think it would be best if she just showed it. Those two kids o' yours are quite something"
Just then Kernel poked her head around the corner. Her face was tight with nervousness and fear. Stoick felt a bit lost and the same feelings were running through his body. What would be so shocking that she would have to go to lengths like this? Kernel licked her lips again and opened her mouth.
"Dad? I just want you to know that everything's okay. I am perfectly safe. You are perfectly safe. She won't hurt you"
And with those ominous words shedding light to something just out of reach she stepped around the corner with her hand on something scaly and colored light brown. Curious blue eyes with a bird-like snout, no, a beak. Wings.
An unknown dragon.
His pupils dilated as anger started rising through his shock, eyes moving between Kernel and the beast. He was just about to step in to drag her daughter away from danger when said daughter started scratching the dragon. And the dragon started purring, eagerly pushing against Kernel's legs like a cat. Stoick's mouth hung open as his daughter swung herself on the beast's back which the dragon accepted easily.
It even had a saddle.
One that had Hiccup and Kernel's names all over it if the craftsmanship said anything. His daughter was sitting on a dragon.
"Dad?", her worried voice asked and he noticed she was much more worried about his reaction than about the dragon eating her, "As you can see we… kinda became friends. There's a lot more to dragons than we knew… Dad?"
He repeated his daughter's words in his mind and then this day's strange happenings with the other dragons… He was willing to believe that, even if he didn't trust them at all. Or believe anything. Yet. He felt anger rising as he started pacing. He couldn't stay still with- with- this happening in front of his very eyes.
"You threw your lot with them. What about all the vikings they've killed? What about your own mother?", he heard himself shout, detached from the moment.
Her eyes turned impossibly sad and he felt a little guilty but justified in asking those questions. His hands were balled to shaking fists at his sides.
"We've also killed thousands of them…", she whispered, voice full of sorrow, "But Dad, there's more. We've learned a lot this past month. Including that the dragons that have been raiding us have no choice. It's them attacking us… or getting eaten themselves. That and, well, there's the mind control…"
This lifted the red hot fog of turmoil in his mind a little. This was new. Something that might give insight. A reason for attacks. And would probably make sense if what he had been seeing today was true. And… mind control.
"What do you mean?"
xXXx
Okay. Almost fresh out of ideas. There's some brewing but others... not so much. Thus I declare the next chapter will take long to sort out. There's the other stories I'm working on too... And right now they're more interesting then this one. So. Once again, bear with me please.