Chosen of the Wind

[I do not own Moana or How to Train Your Dragon.]

I do not incorporate the TV show's knowledge much. Other than the types of dragons not seen in the movies-*maybe*. I might do the Typhoomerang Dragons... And the Berserker Tribe and the Outcast Tribe mentioned in the show don't really count; I see them as book knowledge.

-The writing style will dramatically shift in the middle of this chapter. As I found a more fluid method for me to write.-

Tid-Bit Notes: I want to ask if anyone would like me to switch POVs, though. Review/PM with the opinion since I will NOT try to navigate this website to do the polls I've sometimes seen advertised. - artisticRadifyer

Summary:

After fighting the Red Death and a murderous tyrant by the name of Drago Bludvist, Hiccup wouldn't think he would have any more outstanding adventures as big as those. Yet, he must set off to try and stop this 'Darkness' that is spreading across the Barbaric Archipelago. Meeting two people who will not work together, being on a time limit, and trying to keep himself alive around God's, a Demigod, two limited-power elements, and a mentally challenged chicken does not help anything.

Chapter 2 - Prophetic Proportions

I feel immense relief pool into my shoulders as I spot Astrid and Stormfly almost as soon as I exit the darkening woods, "Astrid! I need you to find Fishlegs and Snotlout for a meeting in the house!"

"Snotlout is a bit busy, but I'll tell him to come as soon as possible!"

I give an affirmative nod as she goes to find them and begin to head to the forge myself to have Gobber come by as well. I wince at the amount of people trying to get an order in, and check the sky: getting close to closing time anyhow.

I land down by the forge's overhang, the opposite side of the throng of people, but Toothless's tense back keeps me from thinking too hard about dismounting and making the both of our nerves worse than before. I ask loudly through the noise, "When you're out, Gobber, can you come by the house?" and wait for the affirmation before heading there myself.

I wasn't too used to the house, yet. It stood so lonely and quiet and familiar; it was painful in many ways. No snores in the evenings, huffs of worn patience, or bemused chuckles would ever sound anymore-not even by the occupants who still frequented the residence. That was to say Astrid and my mother travel into and through the place daily. I could never be near it for too long, and I actually have habited to sleep away from the imposing silence.

Astrid asked why I call it 'the house' as if it wasn't my home or my house which I owned, but only as a mere frequented place. I've known for a long time before my Dad's death that I thought the Cove was home, but, it was never a home of comfort. Only a shaky and brief safety from a village I could no longer cope with at the time is what awaited me there. Then, as I was shuffled out more for responsibilities and the place itself was compromised multiple times, it wasn't home and I never realised for a long time-until the Cove was ordinary and public and no longer mine.

My home was re-realized just before I became Chief. Toothless has been taken from me multiple times, but he was always my best friend then. He is a part of me now, though, and I hadn't even realised we had become so close-even with all of the comments about how "in sync" and "the way the both of [us would] communicate without speaking". It simply was not something I seriously, consciously, thought about. He was home. My home, where I could rant, be as silly as a Terror, be reprimanded for said silliness, and definitely somewhere to escape the rest of the world from. It helps that the 'house' was alive and could pick up on when I needed that even better than I could. The area around him gave me a sense of belonging with how well we meld together as one.

Entering brought a sigh with such mixed and churned emotions, Toothless, whom I had finally clambered down from to pass the threshold, paused to chuff comfortingly. Responding accordingly, I mumble a repetitive lie, "I'm fine, Toothless," to which the dragon snorts disbelief and nudges me from behind toward the kitchen. I begrudgingly went and grabbed myself half a loaf of bread and some strips of jerky to munch on while Toothless watches me carefully to be sure I eat. I was on the last bit of food and making myself a drink to chase the dry bread when Gobber and Fishlegs walk in.

"Chief, you need us?" Fishlegs calls to the bottom floor and I absently look behind me to look for a massive man who was not there.

The clearing of my throat was not to simply to signal Fishlegs where I was, but to dislodge the pebble in my throat before I spoke, "Hey, guys, I don't think I want to start till the others get here. Are the twins still gone?"

"Yeah, they won't be back until tomorrow. If they aren't back from their 'mission' we can certainly send someone after them," Fishlegs answered as he settled himself near the fire pit in the middle of the room.

Gobber helped himself to the seat I had been occupying before I had moved to the kitchen. It wasn't a long wait, but a very quietly tense one with no one knowing how to act around me in private. It was a relief when Snotlout and Astrid walked in, loud as a pack of terrors all after a single fish:

"-not what we need to do! You aren't listening to me!"

"You can't explain it well! At least Hiccup has learned when to dumb stuff down depending on who he is talking to!" Snotlout searched for a split second to focus on me before dismissing Astrid by speaking to me, "Hiccup, hey! Thanks for giving me an excuse to leave early; they were so being just-lazy."

Snotlout, strangely, was perhaps the only human other than Astrid I was relaxed around. The 'rivalry' we partake in seems to act as a nice, loose excuse to let my cousin continue to call me by my name rather than 'Chief.' As well as the abrasive attitude he exudes around me. He is the breath of fresh air whenever Astrid is in a pushy mood.

"Anytime, 'Lout." I bring my hands together and rub them to get the clammy feeling to leave. Failing has me wipe them on a cloth nearby, and, still failing, I decide to ignore the persistent feeling. I absently fidget as I lay out the words in my mind to hopefully not paint my mom in a bad light, but figure it's a lost cause, "My mom has come forward with a possible finding on why the nature of the archipelago is failing."

"Why there is no food?"

"Yes, the reason everyone barely has any food."

"See! Now, he can explain things simply."

"She found stripes of disease throughout the underground of the island that causes the ground itself to be bad for crops, which would mean whatever the fish eat is bad, so the fish moved, and it just continues on from there. She's tried attacking it in many ways, if we dig it the ground has a possibility of falling in, and any other means will probably be meaningless because there is a source. We don't know how far away it is and…" I sigh, not wanting to speak up with the next part but know I need to even if I decide I want them to help me veto the notion, "We can't send a team because with the lower quality along with the fewer amounts of food, raids will become more and more a viable possibility for sustenance... Mom says that she thinks it's a higher power, Eir paired with Loki, or maybe even Ragnarok, but she thinks that only I can do an-"

"Why would she want you of all people to leave the island to fix it? You're the Chief! She can't just expect you to walk off and play hero to where we could possibly lose another Chief in less than a year and a half!"

Astrid finished her tirade and stood huffing in the silence. Even though I had started out listening while looking at her, I had to look askance at the reminder of the second biggest shift in my life. I swallow and turn back to acknowledge the statement and dutifully ignore the different anticipating looks from the people surrounding me, "I-"

"Son, I was thinking and I would like to tell you why you're the solution-"

"Possible solution…" Astrid growled.

"...in a different way," my mom finished.

I don't want to deal with explaining her idea anyhow, "Sure." I have two options and even though one seems infinitely better if only by familiarity, and both options would tear my conscience in half. Leaving would mean a shot in the dark for my tribe's survival, most likely going off for a long period of time to help the tribe I have always wanted to help. Staying would mean I would need to deal with a rapidly deteriorating tribe with no means of helping them. Leaving would sate the urge to put a new piece on my paused-from-growing Map, and was literally the only clue to getting Berk's land better so far. Staying would have me keeping some of my tribe's morale from crumbling, and is most likely what my Father would have done.

Of course, that would leave me free to go and do the impossible again; if he was here.

"I think it's the best idea we have."

Any conversation going on-or perhaps there were some shouting matches with how sudden and heavy the silence around me was-stopped immediately. I wasn't looking at them, still musing a bit while staring into the table for how to word this without getting Astrid's fist to my stomach again.

"Hiccup-" Astrid began.

"If we spin it right, there won't be much resistance at all to the plan when we tell the village. This is literally the only shot we have right now of not only surviving, but hopefully restoring the food around us. We can pitch the idea of a different team to go out there to the source to Njord, but with the Gods, we have no idea how that will pan out. He could damn us to this and we could lose our chance, or humor us and we could lose people out there." I nod to myself, "Okay, if there are any ideas or questions, we are doing it one at a time starting with my left; just like a normal meeting. Gobber, shoot."

"So, if this is a saving the Archipelago mission; where are you supposed to go?"

"Suppose Njord would tell us…?"

"Why must it be you, Hiccup?"

"...Specific skillset?"

"This mission doesn't sound like you'll be fighting dragons. You'll be fighting the source of badness; that's not something you can do alone."

"Astrid, we already said we would vie for a team rather than just me. I know I put out the option, in case he damns us, but I'm pretty sure I'm asking anyway."

"How long do you think this could take? With rationing and not a bit of food replenishing those rations, we will run out of food rather quickly."

"How long is quickly?"

"A month and a week, I think. With sacrificing some of our livestock, almost three months."

"That's...a big difference. Are saying all the way down into only a mating pair of each bunch?"

"Essentially."

-DRamATic WritinG SHifT-Dialogue heavy, 3rd person, not much scene description since I'm sure people have seen the movies' settings-

The meeting shifts down the line until everyone comes to the, unwilling in some cases, agreement to at least tell the town:

"I would like to begin with saying I know food is scarce. I know about the problem, and I've been doing everything I can.

"My mom has come to me with a development on the reason the food is gone. A black disease is threading itself through the land beneath our feet. It stops crops from growing, the fish don't want to get sick so they moved, most game on the island has disappeared or is dead or hunted."

A forceful wind passes over the top of the now gasping crowd to swirl very near the chief's side, "And this leads me to the next subject: the only solution we've found so far. We have burnt, dug up, stabbed, any manner of killing we could do at this stuff. Nothing worked. Then, Njord came to us, to aid us.

"So far, we've only gathered he wishes to send one person, to do his bidding." Hiccup turned to the sentient air, "We, as a people, wanted to ask if you would consider any more people than the one."

Njord swirled pointedly around Hiccup once, not letting a single breeze touch any other human in the area.

"Well, then. That's the plan we have so far. Just me and Toothless against some unfathomable darkness at Njord's request. I would like to take a vote. All who would like to take this chance say 'Aye!' And all that would like to weather the chances it will get fixed for us say 'Nae!'"

"AYE!Nae!"

"The chances win. Alrighty then. No point in wasting time, I'll leave as soon as I'm able."

The crowd disperses. "Hiccup! What the Hel kind of debrief was that?"

"I spun it as positively and bluntly as I could, I wanna help my people, and I asked for help this time without it being forced on me, this time I know I'm supposed to go alone, so I made it the better option."

"Hiccup-"

"Just let me protect you guys as well as he did!"

"...Hiccup…"

"...You're wearing it out."

After a short night's rest, the tribe woke at dawn to see their young chief off.

"So where am I going?"

A gust of strong wind almost sends him off the cliff he stands on towards the south.

"Whoakay! South it is."