"I'll be fine. As far as any of them know, I'm just a random traveler." Hiccup remembered his words to Toothless and Svarturkló as he walked through this village, so similar and yet so different to Berk. These people were Vikings, but a slightly different kind. They weren't dragon-killers, they were more of the marauding type of Viking. That was evident from the fact that the village's most common form of currency was random valuable items, the kind acquired in bulk from raiding and pillaging. It was a confusing system, and Hiccup had nothing of value. Not that he needed anything here, just information.
He was looking for a very specific person. Every village had one, an old man or woman who was supported by his family and spent their days talking to anyone who would listen. That would be his best source of information.
His walk through the village was interrupted by something quite interesting. What had caught his attention was something Berk definitely hadn't had. He was looking down a side street, into what seemed to be a rudimentary open-air market of sorts. Berk had been barely on the edge of subsistence, everything had been communal property. This place had enough to spare thanks to its habit of pillaging that villagers could make a living just selling things. Like Trader Johann, but staying in one place.
Hiccup noticed a pile of parchments on the edge of one of the stalls, and his curiosity took over. He moved to where he could see what was on them.
They were maps. From what he could tell, they were centered on what he assumed was this island. From the scale, they covered a massive area, at least a few hundred square miles in total. That would be extremely useful. This wasn't just Hiccup's love of cartography talking. The map had islands labeled and showed whether they were inhabited. That would save them months if they ended up just searching at random. But he had nothing to trade.
The trader who manned that booth could tell Hiccup was interested, and he launched into a spiel. Hiccup wasn't listening. He was wondering what he might possibly have that could be traded. Then some of what the trader had said caught his attention. "Wait, say that again?"
"Why sir," the trader answered in his obnoxiously high-pitched voice, very odd on any Viking, "I simply said that I myself collect maps! If you have one of an area I have yet to cover, I'll give you anything in my for sale stock of maps that you want! It must be accurate, however."
Hiccup grinned. He pulled out his notebook and flipped a few pages in. The page he stopped on was a map of Berk. That might be a little too small. He flipped it over and saw that he had done a map of the immediate archipelago surrounding Berk on the other side. Perfect. "Do you have a map of Berk and the surrounding islands?"
The trader sighed apologetically. "I do indeed. I actually have several. So, unless you can show me something I do not have about that area, I am afraid you will not be able to take advantage of my offer."
Hiccup smiled. He did know one thing no one would have put on any map yet. "I can mark the nest on those maps for you. I've been there." He let that sink in.
The trader stared at him. "No Viking knows where the nest is. The Vikings of that area, Berk especially, have been searching for hundreds of years. What kind of fool do you take me for?"
Hiccup laughed. "None, I'm serious." He decided to give the trader a piece of the truth, and let him assume the rest. "A Berkian just recently found it. I've been there, along with most of the rest of Berk."
The trader seemed to read the truth in his face. He clapped, startling Hiccup. "Perfect! Follow me please." He left his stall and proceeded to lead Hiccup to a house several streets away. "This is my home. My master map is inside. I saw your maps of Berk. You drew them yourself?"
Hiccup nodded. This guy was certainly enthusiastic if nothing else. He entered the house, faltering and staring once the interior came into view. The far wall was entirely covered in parchment. Hiccup could just barely make out that it was a map. It was scaled so that this island was at the center, about three feet above his head , about an inch in diameter. The scale of the map was immense, though much of it was blank.
Hiccup approached the map wall. He quickly located Berk, a few feet further up, because it was North of here. "Do you want me to put it on here?" He looked around and noticed a ladder in the corner.
The trader nodded. "You seem to be something of a cartographer yourself, so I'll let you put it in. As accurately as possible in relation to location and scale, please.
Hiccup nodded in understanding and got the ladder. He took out a charcoal pencil and moved up so that he was eye level with Berk, quickly locating the massive fog cloud that was present on the map. He marked the general outline of dragon island and put the symbol for a volcano in the middle, labeling it 'The Nest'. Although, that was just a name now. No dragon would voluntarily live there now.
The trader clapped again. "Excellent. Would you be able to draw a more detailed outline here," and he pushed a blank piece of parchment at Hiccup as he descended from the ladder, "and mark anything of interest? If you can."
Hiccup was aware that he was giving the trader something to duplicate and sell with this, but he didn't mind. The man seemed like an enthusiast, and it was just an abandoned chunk of rock, so Hiccup decided to be as accurate as possible. Of course, that would raise questions of its own. He sketched the outline of the Nest island, noting the maze of sea stacks that surrounded it, and was sure to use the symbol for terrain that indicated nothing growing and no animals. The outline of the volcano came next, followed by the more interesting details, such as erasing part of the volcano and adding a spill of boulders that spread from where the Queen had broken free. Then he indicated where her corpse was. He was pretty sure that was big enough to count as a landmark and would be there for a long time. With that, he was done.
The trader looked at the map. "A volcano? Interesting. Any dragons?"
Hiccup made eye contact. "Not anymore." Let him infer what he would.
"Would this be where the Vikings piled their corpses?" The trader pointed to the location of the dead Queen.
Hiccup smiled. "Nope. They all flew away before Vikings even stepped foot on the island. All except for one." He pointed at that spot. "That one. We left her where she fell. Not like we could move her."
The trader thought about that for a moment. He paled. "This is to scale?"
Hiccup was smiling now. He didn't particularly like what had happened there, but the trader's reaction was entertaining. "Yup. She would have left a bigger corpse, but she kind of exploded on the way down. Left quite a mark."
"Well, you've certainly earned your pick of my maps. Let's go back to my stall." The trader exited the building, after very carefully storing the map of the Nest in a box. They returned to the stall, which apparently the trader had completely forgotten would be unattended in his absence. Luckily, all he had was a few piles of maps, so no one saw anything worth stealing.
Hiccup flipped through the piles and selected the map that covered the greatest area. Hopefully, the Furies hadn't traveled beyond the few dozen islands mapped out. He had thanked the trader and was about to leave when he remembered his original question. "Oh, by the way. You wouldn't happen to know when this island was settled, do you?"
The trader thought for a moment. "No, actually. I set up shop here four years ago."
Hiccup thanked him for his help and returned to the main street. The trader didn't have the desired information, so he would still need to find an old-timer who would know, and would be happy to share.
Hiccup wandered for another hour before he found just that person. She was an old woman and was sitting outside a house, talking to, or rather at, any passerby within hearing distance. She didn't seem to mind being ignored by the people going about their business. He approached her.
"Hello. I was hoping you might be able to help me with something."
She seemed vaguely shocked someone had actually asked her something. "Eh, what's on yer mind?"
"I was wondering if you knew when this island was settled."
"Oh, we found this place eleven years ago, almost to the day. No one here." Her face darkened. "Well, 'cept for some dragons." She continued, seemingly very annoyed at a past injustice. "No one believed me, but I was sitting out on the boat the night we started building the first houses, and I saw a bunch of shadows pass in front of the stars. There were dozens! No one else saw it, and they said I was getting senile. We haven't had any dragons here ever since. And good riddance!"
She slammed a staff Hiccup hadn't noticed before on the ground. "Going senile, they said. Well, eleven years later, and I'm still sane! You've reminded me, I need to go bother my son. Show him I'm still sane enough to bother him." She got to her feet and started walking towards the street, leaving Hiccup sitting there.
Hiccup was pondering his turn of good fortune. What were the odds that the only two people he talked to would have and know exactly what he needed? He couldn't remember his luck being this good before. He got up, and turned, heading back to where he had entered the village. As he did, he idly wondered what Svarturkló and Toothless were doing to pass the time.
'This isn't a good idea.' Svarturkló was doing her best to act the part of the mother right now, but Svarturkappi's idea on how to pass the time promised to be entertaining, if risky.
'It'll be easy. Humans aren't very observant.' Toothless paused. 'Besides, no one sees what they don't expect to see.'
Svarturkló thought about it. 'But what if they do?' She would be fine, but Svarturkappi couldn't fly on his own.
'Then I'll run. These Vikings aren't like the ones on Berk. They aren't ready to fight at a moment's notice. Half of them aren't even carrying weapons. Without their sharp tools and fake scales, they're pretty weak. So it's not that big of a risk.'
'Fine. I'll follow you.'
Toothless turned and moved stealthily to the edge of the village. No one was around at the moment. He jumped to the top of the nearest house. It sagged a bit but held his weight. The idea had come to him when he had compared this village to Berk. There were a lot more houses here, and they were closer together. He and Svarturkló were going to see the village up close, by stealthily traveling the rooftops. Sure, it was the middle of the day, but these Vikings didn't seem to be in the habit of watching the sky. Besides, there was nowhere safe for him to hide so he could watch from Hiccup's viewpoint, and they were both bored. This was the next best thing.
As Hiccup walked down the main street, he had the nagging feeling that he was being watched. He slowed and looked around. Nothing unusual, maybe half a dozen other people around. He looked behind him. Nothing.
He finally looked up. Nothing unusual there either, it was a sunny day, Toothless and Svarturkló were on the rooftops, there was a light breeze, a few clou-
Hiccup faltered as his brain registered what he had seen, and he tripped, twisting to sprawl face up in the middle of the road. The dragon made eye contact and smiled widely. Hiccup hurriedly got up and cursed his inability to talk to Toothless in his head without physically talking out loud. What were they thinking? Toothless didn't surprise him, but Svarturkló did. Maybe she didn't trust him enough yet to act normally around him. Maybe she was more of a thrill-seeker than he thought.
He decided to get out of the village as fast as possible. Hopefully, Toothless and Svarturkló would follow. He started walking faster, carefully avoiding looking at the rooftops. It was amazing that they hadn't been seen yet.
Hiccup walked the next five minutes in a heightened state of nervousness. Every loud noise made him jump, and every shout made him think someone had finally noticed the two rather large black lumps darting from rooftop to rooftop. Granted, Toothless and Svarturkló were being stealthy in regards to noise and movement, but nothing they did would stop them from being seen if anyone decided to look up. But no one did.
At the edge of the village, he saw something that made his stomach twist. In an alley, three larger teenagers had a smaller one cornered and were beating him senseless. Hiccup couldn't just stand by. Not when everyone on Berk had stood by when that had been him. He wished that he still had his scythe. Not that he would have used it, but the intimidating appearance would have sufficed. As it was, they were just as likely to attack him as stop attacking their current victim. Actually...
"Bud, I hope you're listening. I'll lecture you later, right now are you up for scaring the living daylights out of those three?" Hiccup was whispering, and he glanced up at Toothless.
'Count me in. But not in the middle of the village, surely.'
Oh right, now the Fury cared about the village seeing him. "I'll lead them into the forest."
Hiccup stepped into the mouth of the alley. "Hey, meatheads!" All three looked back at him immediately. "Are you three naturally that ugly, or is it a gift from Thor?"
That did the trick. They advanced menacingly, saying nothing, content to let their fists talk for them. Hiccup ran. Not at all fast, just enough that they wouldn't catch him before he reached the forest. Once he was safely out of sight of the village, he stopped and turned around. They were panting, but still managed to appear menacing, slowing to a walk as they approached.
Hiccup decided to taunt them while he was at it. Anything to keep their attention on him, and not what was going to show up behind them. Before he could speak, the one he assumed was leader spoke up, a tall and ugly teenager. Hiccup hadn't been kidding, all three were actually quite ugly.
"Another runt? And a foreign one too. Any final words?" These words weren't spoken so much as grunted.
Hiccup was quite enjoying this. It was something of a replacement for how he would have liked to deal with Snotlout back in the day. He smiled. "Yeah. Lesson one in not being an idiot." His expression grew cold, and his words were ominous. "Don't pick on the weak. We might not fight back very often, but every once in a while one of us does. And it's scary when that happens. You're lucky Night Furies don't eat people."
The three teenagers stared at him. "What kind of Yak dung are you-" A Night Fury dropped in front of him and roared, full volume, right in his face. The leader promptly fainted and the other two screamed very non-Viking screams and ran.
Hiccup shook his head. Snotlout would have at least tried to fight. Then again, this island didn't really see many dragons. "Nice work. Now, let's leave before anyone works up enough courage to find out what that noise was."
Toothless snorted. Hiccup could tell he didn't have a high opinion of the people here. "Come on, enough of them together might be dangerous. Besides, I got what we came for."
Svarturkló dropped out of the trees to the left of Hiccup. He looked at where she had been. "Geez, you guys can climb? I guess wings and claws help. Let's get out of here." Hiccup took a step towards Toothless, then stopped. "Actually, we should take off from somewhere out of sight of the village. No need to give this guy", he pointed at the unconscious teenager, "any credit. No one will believe him if they don't see us leave." He grinned. "We can run there. I want to stretch my legs anyway."
Toothless liked that idea. 'Sure. Should be fun.' He grinned at Svarturkló, who had no idea what he was doing. He realized this after a few seconds and hastily explained. 'It's a human expression I picked up.'
Svarturkló shook her head. 'Will Hiccup be able to keep up?' She had never seen him run.
Toothless examined the fairly dense forest. ' question is, can you?' He grinned at his mother.
Hiccup smiled. "Let's go then. First one to the edge of the island wins!" He took off at top speed. Toothless followed immediately.
Svarturkló stared after them for a second. Svarturkappi hadn't been kidding. Hiccup really could run like one of them. She realized she was still standing there, and darted after them.
The victim of the three teenagers was enduring his daily beating when someone intervened. That was unusual. So unusual it had never happened before. He was shocked to see another teenager, one he hadn't seen before, insult his tormentors and run. They had immediately followed him, and the victim had followed them. Discreetly, of course. He had hidden behind a tree and watched as the foreigner turned and faced the three teens and heard what he said.
Which meant he was there to see the black dragon drop from above, and roar ferociously at the teens. He was frozen in fear, and so was still around to see the foreigner hold an apparently one-sided conversation with the dragon, and see another similar dragon drop from above. He watched as the foreigner grinned, said something about the first one there winning, and he watched in utter disbelief as he disappeared into the tangled forest with a speed he hadn't thought possible on that kind of terrain with the dragons chasing behind.
They were gone. Leaving the victim with an unconscious teenager and a head full of shattered perceptions of the world. He snapped out of his shock and ran, leaving his tormentor behind, and ran into the village. Everyone he saw immediately questioned him about the strange sound as the two tormentors were rendered speechless and desperately needed a bath and change of pants.
His response was simple. "Someone taught them", he pointed at the two tormentors "a lesson." He grinned as he addressed the two tormentors. "I wouldn't say anything else. He might come back if you do." They paled.
Personally, he wouldn't mind if his rescuer ever came back. The foreigner seemed to know things no one else did if what he could do was any indication. Maybe someday.
Hiccup had lost the race. Surprisingly, so had Toothless. Svarturkló was smirking on the beach when Hiccup and Toothless had arrived, neck and neck. They collapsed, completely out of breath. Hiccup spoke first. "I guess experience matters. She smoked us both!" He looked at Toothless, then back at Svarturkló. "Who came in second?"
Svarturkló smiled. 'It was very close. However, I can say honestly that I think Hiccup was slightly ahead.' She cut Toothless's protests off. 'Yes, I know your head was in front of Hiccup. But I would say that as you run on all fours, the center of your body is what counts. As Hiccup was only slightly behind where your head was, he was in front of you. Barely.' Her voice became very amused. 'You have disappointed me, son.' Both Hiccup and Toothless could tell she was kidding.
Hiccup smiled. "Beaten by the one you trained. The student has become the master."
'Of being small enough to fit.' Toothless retorted. 'I had to squeeze past brambles and between trees.'
"Maybe lose some weight?" Hiccup suggested innocently.
'As soon as you gain some,' was Toothless's reply. They both broke into laughter.
Svarturkló stood and stretched. 'So, what did you find out Hiccup?' Her voice was still upbeat. The jaunt through the village and the race had helped her stave off the despair she couldn't help but feel when she considered their task.
Hiccup smiled. "I found out two things. First off, the Furies left eleven years ago." He saw Svarturkló droop, and hurried on with his explanation. "That isn't great, but I have it on probably sane authority that none of the settlers even knew they were here, and that they left in the night. So we know there wasn't a battle, and no one got hurt. They just had to leave."
Hiccup pulled out the map. "The other thing is, I managed to get a map of the area. It can tell me which islands are uninhabited around here. Svarturkló, how far do you think the Furies would have gone?"
Svarturkló thought for a few seconds. Finally, she shook her head. 'I don't know. They would have sent scouts in all directions. Each scout would have flown until they found a suitable island, then returned. The pack would pick one, and they would go. Depending on which island they picked, they could be anywhere.'
Hiccup spread out the map. "Then we'll rule out any they wouldn't pick." He pulled out a charcoal pencil. "First, we cross off any inhabited islands. Even if they did settle there, they'd be gone now." He crossed out all the islands with villages. "Now. What do the Night Furies look for in an island?"
Svarturkló replied swiftly. 'Freshwater, some forest for cover. Ideally far from humans, though that isn't a requirement so much as a preference. And not one inhabited by other dragons already. We don't kick other dragons out of their homes.'
Hiccup crossed out the few islands that were designated as all rock. No forests or fresh water there. This was a large map, and most of the islands on it were fairly isolated. There were still twenty or so viable candidates.
This was going to take a while. He crossed out two more. They were marked as densely populated with dragons. Night Furies wouldn't be there. That left eighteen. Eighteen separate islands, all across the map.
"Well, the good news is we know where to start looking. The bad news is this is going to take a while unless we get lucky and find them on one of the first few places we check."
Toothless purred reassuringly. 'We have time.'
Hiccup frowned. "I'm more worried about something else. We've been getting lucky with finding islands to stop on so far. From what I can see, we're going to have to spend some nights on islands with villages. That's risky."
Svarturkló didn't like that. 'Can you keep us away from those?' She looked up to see Toothless and Hiccup both staring at her. 'What? He's the only who can even see the little thing, let alone somehow figure out what it means.' She squinted at the parchment for emphasis. 'He should be the one to plot our course. To decide what order of islands will be the most efficient while keeping us away from villages as much as possible.'
Hiccup nodded. "I can, but which is more important? Staying away from villages is a good thing, but it will add weeks if not months if we avoid all of the islands with villages. We're limited in how far we can go in a day, so we have to island hop. Here, this might help." He went to a flat section of the beach and used his boot to make two marks in the sand.
"One of these is us here, and the other is an island we want to go to." He put one mark directly between the two and made a semicircle of three marks that arced out from the origin island and eventually neared the target island. He pointed at the mark directly in between the two original ones. "This island is inhabited." He gestured to the three off to the side. "These are not. We can get from here to our goal in two flights if we sleep on the inhabited island, or we can get there in five flights, but sleep on the uninhabited islands."
Hiccup looked up and saw both Furies watching intently. "That's a big enough detour. On the map, it's going to be way worse. Trips to some islands from certain ones might actually take months if we avoid all inhabited islands, where they would take a week if we didn't." He made eye contact with Svarturkló. "We can do that. But it will add months, maybe years to the search if we avoid them all. Or I can come up with a route that tries to balance efficiency and safety. Or, I could just take us on the fastest route possible, but that would have a lot of inhabited islands on it."
Svarturkló nodded. The explanation had been helpful. 'We should balance speed and safety, you are correct.'
Hiccup smiled. "Good. I'll figure that out." He looked at his demonstration. "This might take a while. Toothless, why don't you show Svarturkló how to draw?' Hiccup laughed quietly as Toothless nodded, and raced off to find a suitable pair of saplings to uproot.
Svarturkló looked confused, a face Hiccup was becoming very familiar with.
Hiccup sat down with the map and began to figure out their path for the foreseeable future. "Don't worry Svarturkló," he remarked absent-mindedly, "Toothless is going to show you something I think you'll like while you wait."
In a few minutes, Hiccup had been entirely circled a dozen times by lines drawn by the two Night Furies. Svarturkló took to drawing with as much enthusiasm as Toothless had, and with about the same result. A bunch of swirly lines and a few dots. However, she did attempt to draw Hiccup at one point, managing a fairly good stick figure. Hiccup noticed that particular set of lines with amusement once he had finished charting their course.
All told, if they found the Furies on the last island, it would be some six months. However, he knew that if the Furies were on one of these islands, they were likely to find them before then. He just hoped the Furies were on one of these islands. Like Toothless had said, they had the time.
Hiccup looked down. His charted course looked very similar to some of the squiggles drawn around him. Some of the dots even looked like islands. He had been plotting one course, and the Furies had drawn another. Hopefully, Night Fury pack hadn't followed a course as crazy as the one drawn in the sand around him.
Author's Note: Due to my personal schedule, while chapter 25 will come on time, chapter 26 will be delayed until the 25th, posted most likely right before midnight. However, chapter 27 will be posted on time on the 29th, so it's not too big of a delay, and as chapter 26 ends on a cliffhanger anyway, that makes it less of a wait until 27.
To the reviewer Verdauga, who apparently binge-read the entire story last night: Thanks for all the reviews! It's rare that anyone reviews an old chapter at all, and even rarer that someone binge-reading to catch up reviews.
Also, someone brought up the question of how Hiccup and Svarturklo communicate so easily in these last few chapters. It's been going without saying (literally) that Toothless from time to time has to translate or clarify, though Svarturklo is refining her grasp of Hiccup's language fast, almost unnaturally so.