The earth shook as the piercing roar filled the air. It seemed to come from all directions, clashing against the peaks of Berk to the forests and caverns to the village that stood on its shores. Heads turned, voices hushed, and dragons looked to the distant skies as an unruly god unleashed its unholy rage upon the world. Somewhere far away, somewhere high above the clouds, this invisible deity cast its judgement upon the inhabitants of the small isle.
Hiccup looked towards the skies, scanning for any sign of movement from this side of Berk. Nothing. The reverberation and echoes made it difficult to distinguish the location of the unrelenting cry. But, within as soon as the roar came, it disappeared into obscurity like many of the old gods.
"What was that?" Hiccup asked aloud, staring all around to find the source of the roar. He flapped his wings, making sure he stayed in the air. Toothless pulled himself from scanning the untouched forest below.
"Nothing like I've heard before… Nothing I've ever felt before… Its as if it's appeared from nowhere… popping into existence in an instant...," Toothless said. "Let's hope that it's on our side, whatever made that sound." Truth be told, Toothless could feel an itching inside his chest, one that he desperately wanted to claw at until it stopped. The dead weight in his stomach threatened to pull him from the skies.
"Do you think we should turn back? Maybe the village is in trouble," Toothless said.
"I think we'd hear if it were in trouble, Tooth," Hiccup said, his eyes returning to the forest below. He could tell Toothless was terrified, but he also knew his mate could tough it out for just a bit longer. It felt strange being the 'strong' one in the situation. Maybe there was something he missed.
"The roar just…," Toothless said, "The sheer strength and monstrosity behind it is unlike anything I've ever heard, felt, before, Hiccup. This dragon… No, this god among dragons... It could destroy the entire island if it wanted to." By this point, the dragons stalled in air with Toothless simply looking towards the skies. His eyes were slits, his scales bristled, and his teeth bared.
Hiccup remained a spectator, unsure of what to say. He could not remember the last time he saw the Night Fury so worked up. Whatever this dragon was, it clearly struck some primal chord deep within him. Hiccup opened his mouth to reassure his mate that it would all turn out okay, that they would be alright by the end, but he could not be for sure. All he could be sure of was the scared dragon before him.
"I don't understand how I didn't notice a dragon like this before," Toothless said, his voice trembling in the slightest of undertones. "I should have felt it.. Instinctively." The Night Fury's chest heaved and his breath quickened with deep inhales and hard exhales.
"Tooth.. Tooth calm down, there isn't anything you could have done," Hiccup said, his voice but a whisper in Toothless' ear. "Don't hold yourself to an unrealistic standard.. Remember, I'm a Night Fury and I didn't 'feel' this dragon, and all the other dragons on Berk didn't even 'feel' it either."
"But I need to protect you, Hiccup! I need to protect dad, and Astrid, and Stormfly, and.. And Berk! I need to protect our home! Being a Night Fury is all I'm good for, and if I can't even 'feel' a dragon this powerful, what use am I?" Toothless said, his words slipping into one another as he spoke. "I can't protect you, and I can't protect Berk. I can't stop this thing.. We can't stop this thing! I can feel it, I can feel it in my head, in my heart, clawing at my insides… It will kill us."
Astrid's eyes met the sky above her. She lay in ash and embers, her body coiled in the embrace of a scorched earth as if the Gods above sent a warning of the future to come. Her head, foggy and heavy, slowly rose from her ashen bed and into the warm air. All around her, the burnt trees coughed embers into the air with the passing breeze. The sun teetered on the ocean soaked horizon, giving the young woman just enough light to watch the world around her. Alive, somehow.
A soft thud behind her tore Astrid from her sleepy daze. She heart stopped, and for a brief moment, the image of a serpentine God slipping through the clouds and smoke of the far off horizon; it's unrelenting roar crushing her heart in its palm. The soft thud of it's footsteps caused her head to turn slowly until her eyes met her loyal and loving dragon.
"Astrid?" the dragon asked, stepping closer with every moment. Ash slipped into the air with every step the dragon took.
"Stormfly," Astrid said, her eyes sleepy and oxygen deprived. "Where did Tatsuo go?"
"Astrid, it's been hours!" Stormfly said, blowing a puff of air over the girl to clear her head of any ash that clung to her body. "I've been looking for you for hours! We all have! The ash and smoke made it impossible to track your scent!" The dragon's tone shifted from worry to anger back to worry.
"I'm sorry, Stormfly," Astrid said, holding onto the dragon for support as she arose from her ashen bed. "I was helping put out the fire... And I saw Tatsuo walking into the forest... I thought about getting back-up, but I knew he'd be gone by the time we started searching..." The young viking shook her head and got on top of Stormfly. The dragon sighed and shook her head, letting out a few coughs of ashen air to clear her lungs before pushing off the ground and into the sky.
Looking below, Astrid could see the grey clearing she awoke in, and the clear indention in the earth from where she previously laid. All around her, trees coughed ash into the air and off into the ocean. She watched the trail of dead trees lead back to the village. Her heart sank, seeing all of the destruction and displacement she helped to create. Her head remained fuzzy, the lack of proper oxygen flow having dampened her critical thinking. She took slow, steady breaths to regain her composure and her mind. To be honest, she did not expect to wake up, or if she did, she did not expect to be completely intact either mind and/or body. But, here she sat; on the back of her dragon like always.
"How are the boys doing?" Astrid asked, her mind slowly beginning to clear as the smoke escaped from her lungs. She coughed hard a few times, swiping the saliva that flew from her throat. The viking glanced down at Stormfly and noticed her glazed over eyes, as if the dragon operated on autopilot to get through the flight and minimal conversation.
"Stormfly?" Astrid asked.
"H.. Hm?" The dragon said in return, her eyes staring aimlessly into the horizon in the distance.
"How are the boys doing? Toothless, Hiccup, the Chief…?" Astrid asked once more, watching the dragon's attention slowly shift to her.
"They… Hiccup and the Chief are doing alright," Stormfly said, her voice but a soft whisper getting lost in the passing wind. "Toothless is… Not good."
"What? Did he get hurt?" Astrid asked, her voice raising as she looked down on the village.
"No. Not physically. He heard the roar and it sent him into a state of panic that he has yet to come from," Stormfly said, her head shifting to glance back at the young viking. Something in her eyes shook Astrid. Something in the air of Berk created a pit in her stomach.
"The dragons on Berk are in a similar state. They can feel it's presence after the roar. It must have kept itself hidden before, but now it wants us to know it is here. It wants us to fear it, to cave in and submit so that he may take what he wants," Stormfly said softly, slowly circling down to the Great Hall. The doors lay ajar, men and women and dragons going in and out of the massive doors. She could tell many dragons paced with panic and stress and anxiety as the sun began to slip below the far off horizon. Once they landed, Astrid hopped off the dragon, feeling her breath and mind coming back to her as oxygen refilled her deprived body.
"Stormfly, go get some rest. I can tell you're tired and stressed just like everyone else," Astrid said, running her hands along the dragon's neck. The dragon simply nodded and walked off deep into the Great Hall to find a somewhat quiet place to sleep. The young viking could tell that roar had some sort of chilling effect on the dragon. She took a deep breath and stepped into the Hall.
Inside, dragons milled about, staring aimlessly off into space. Vikings did their best to comfort their dragons and snap them out of their strange trance. It felt strange, seeing so many dragons and vikings yet being able to hear her footsteps echo in the massive Hall, as if the pit in her stomach had manifested in a physical pressure that bore down on her from every angle. Eventually, her eyes locked onto Hiccup standing towards the back of the Hall in the round table.
"Hiccup!" She said as she approached, grabbing his attention from. The dragon looked up with solemn eyes, but offered a sincere smile seeing his friend alive and seemingly well.
"Astrid! We were worried sick about you," Hiccup said, raising his body from the ground he lay on. Next to him, Toothless lay unconscious. Astrid's eyes focused on the un-moving dragon, worried for a split second that he may be dead before realizing the movement of his chest in slow, deep breaths.
"Oh gods," Astrid said, jumping over the table to get a better look at the Night Fury. "Hiccup, what happened while I was gone?"
The Night Fury bit his lip, well, as close as the Night Fury could get to the expression. He sighed and shook his head, turning away from his mate and friend. He opened his mouth a few times, but could not quite find the words to explain to Astrid what had happened to his mate.
"I… Why don't you start, Astrid. You did disappear on us for a while there," The Night Fury said, faking a smile. The young viking hesitated, looking at the unconscious dragon.
"I promise, Toothless is okay. I need a bit longer to process what happened is all," Hiccup said, turning his head to face Astrid. She looked at Toothless one last time before nodding.
"Well, I uh, I was helping put out the last of the fires. I looked up and saw Tatsuo running into the thicket of smoke and ash and burnt trees. I knew that I didn't have time to call for any one of you, so I ran in after him. I chased him to the center of this clearing, and he just stood there, not moving. I tried asking him why he did this to Berk, why he tried to destroy our home. All I got out of him was that Tatsuo did what "he" commanded, which I'm assuming is the dragon we heard earlier. He said some weird things about running from this "he" character before "he" opened Tatsuo's eyes. Oh! Bad one, that's what he called him. Take everything I said and replace the "he" with Bad One. Then I passed out," Astrid said, wrapping up her story.
"Ah-ha! We were right!" Hiccup said, covering his mouth once he heard the loud reverb within the hall. Eyes looked in his direction before realizing who had made the loud noise. Hiccup offered a shy wave and awkward smile as they rolled their eyes and returned to their business. Some things never change.
"Right about what?" Astrid asked, a smirk making its way across her face seeing her friend's signature awkwardness.
"Well, Toothless, Dad, and I were trying to figure out why Tatsuo did what he did. We narrowed it down to a few different options, but the only way it made sense, in my head at least, was if Tatsuo was hexed or charmed or however Fishlegs or Iona might put it," Hiccup said, a tinge of excitement and adventure in his voice despite the grim situation.
Astrid raised a brow in return, hopping onto a table for a seat while the dragon paced back and forth in his own mind. The young viking put the pieces together in her own head, thinking about Tatsuo's overall behavior, from what she could remember anyway, and figured Hiccup had more pieces than her.
"So, Tatsuo is hexed, but why?" Astrid asked.
"Well, we figured it was more of a back-up plan in case the fire that originally devastated the village didn't kill Ryuu. The only problem is, why hasn't Tatsuo killed Ryuu himself? Wouldn't that be the first thing he'd do?" Hiccup asked, running a claw along his neck and chin as he thought. Astrid shrugged and yawned softly before her eyes widened.
"Oh! That's right!" Astrid said, her voice reverberating in the Great Hall, but being the confident viking she was, she really did not care. "Right before I passed out, Tatsuo said he couldn't hurt Ryuu, and I could tell that it frustrated him. What if the spell alters his perception, but can't forcefully kill someone the person loves?"
"That sounds about right," Fishlegs said, butting into the conversation with that signature grin that he had. Hiccup jumped and glanced over at Fishlegs who offered a small wave. "Haha, sorry Hiccup. I heard my name and I decided to see what was up. Are you two talking magic over here?"
The pair nodded and welcomed the viking into their circle of thoughts, all while Toothless lay sleeping only a few feet away. Fishlegs pulled a small book from his waistband, flipping it open to a sort of table of contents before flipping to the pages he needed, all while Hiccup and Astrid did their best to fill him in on the situation with Tatsuo.
"According to this booklet I put together on magic fundamentals, in case anyone ever wanted to become my apprentice, the elder principles of magic state that intense emotions such as love, hatred, and the like are unable to be altered with magic alone no matter how powerful. They are ingrained into a person's soul, and it would take more than magic to change that. I have come across notes saying some witches and warlocks substitute intense emotions like that with amplifying a person's determination. Take Tatsuo for example. Instead of using hatred, something the caster would not be able to alter, he would use an intense determination as a substitute. However, as I said, intense emotions cannot be directly altered by magic, so if he truly loves Ryuu, no amount of determination would be able to force him to kill him," Fishlegs said, snapping his book close with a smug smirk.
The pair simply stared at Fishlegs, thinking and debating their next course of action. Hiccup nodded and began his pacing again, while Astrid thanked Fishlegs for his help before Svelta called the young viking over to help heal those injured by the fire. Left to their own devices, Astrid and Hiccup sat in silence, thinking about the situation. Astrid looked up, then over at Toothless, then back to Hiccup.
"So… I guess it's your turn to tell me what happened with Toothless," Astrid said, showing a soft smile and a concerned look. Hiccup looked up, his eyes narrowed to slits for a few moments before widening again. He opened his mouth to speak, but couldn't think of the words for the longest time.
"I honestly couldn't tell you, Astrid," Hiccup said, running his claws over his head. "One moment we were searching for Tatsuo among the untouched sections of the forest, and the next I know, an ear piercing roar had filled the skies." The Night Fury sat, staring out at the open doors of the Great Hall, and beyond them, the sun as it slipped below the horizon, swallowed whole by the endless expanse of water.
"Tooth started panicking and I couldn't calm him down. He started off fine, then just snapped. He kept scratching at his chest, yelling about how it would kill us all, that what he referred to as 'a god among dragons' would wipe Berk off of the map. I managed to drag him back to the Great Hall where Svelta gave him a brew to put him to sleep for now.. And some ointment for the scratches on his chest," Hiccup said, his eyes following the vikings and dragons as they milled about.
The ash and smoke of the forest wafted through the twilight air as Astrid sat next to the Night Fury. She thought for a few good moments, looking around as she did and observing the dazed and confused and anxious dragons. They looked completely defeated without so much as a good battle to do so. Surely the forest fire itself didn't do this. And considering how Toothless and Stormfly behaved, she began to suspect that the roar really did have an effect on the dragons of Berk.
"Hey, Hiccup?" Astrid asked. "Do you remember when Toothless accidentally took us to the Red Death's liar?" The Night Fury scoffed and shook his head.
"How could I forget?" The Night Fury said with a grin on his face, one Astrid was glad to see. "I still have nightmares about that thing eating us."
"Well, do you remember how it's presence alone made the dragons cower with fear? How it demanded obedience and servitude?" Astrid asked, more rhetorically than an actual question.
"You think the roar we heard was the dragon demanding the same from ours on Berk?" Astrid asked, looking over at Hiccup. The Night Fury's brow furrowed before he glanced back at his mate sleeping quietly and sweeping over the rest of the dragons within the Great Hall.
"You might be onto something, Astrid," Hiccup said, getting up and starting to make rounds through the hall to examine the dragons individually.
"But why stop at dragons?" Astrid asked again, "Why not vikings too?
"Maybe he doesn't see humans as helpful, or as a threat," Hiccup said, glancing over a few different dragons as they went. Dejected, anxious, depressed, stressed; the roar had one effect or another on each dragon. Hiccup assumed since he was born human, whatever innate instinct these creatures had, he did not have access to.
Eventually, the pair found themselves sitting back in the circle, Toothless still sound asleep while the hall murmured with interwoven conversations and coos of dragons. Hiccup sighed, finding a comfortable position up against his mate. He wanted to keep him safe and sound, even in sleep. Astrid leaned against Hiccup, thinking while she let the two dragons rest.
"You mean to tell me you've been passed out in a forest full of smoke and ash for that long and you didn't suffocate?" Hiccup asked, his eyes closed and his breathing starting to slow. Astrid merely shrugged in response, not quite sure what to say in response.
"Uh, yeah, I guess so," Astrid said. "Stranger things have happened, Hiccup."
The young viking glanced down at her friend's face, smiling as he dozed off.
Stranger things, indeed.
Ryuu sat at the doors of the Great Hall. The sun had dipped below the horizon not too long ago, painting the skies with soft oranges that bled into purples and blues. His eyes saw a sky no other living species could, things Hiccup and Toothless could only dream of. The interwoven fabric of reality itself spanned the skies above. The eyes of a young god in the making marveled at the wonders of the universe. So young, yet filled with so much untapped power and potential. Power that the world of vikings had previously thought only possessed by their Gods on high.
The young dragon could feel the Bad One. He could see the bending of the fabric of reality of such a powerful being so nearby. It messed with the natural order of this land, and the effects were clear considering the behavior of the dragons around him. So young, yet so perceptive. He knew the Bad One could feel him too. How else would it be able to track them for so long?
Space-time itself began to bend and shake. Ryuu could feel it. Ryuu could see it. The threads that made up his reality shifted as two powerful beings drew closer. He could feel his parents coming for him, and he could feel the Bad One preparing itself. The culminating energies smashing together created chaos across the Viking skies, soon to be seen by all those unable to see what he could see. Soon, the world would be thrust into chaos, and the young dragon understood that on a fundamental, instinctual level. A clash unlike any seen before in the Viking world. The earth itself would tremble before the might of three angry Gods fighting for the future of the Eastern World, and perhaps the world over.
"I can feel you," Ryuu said, his voice but a whisper to the threads above, "I know you're close. I can't wait to see you, mommy and daddy."
Ryuu sat alone, watching the threads attach and detach from the stars above, whispering of the events to come.