Chosen of the Wind

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

With how I'm approaching what I've planned, I thought Hiccup and Tooth actually wouldn't talk to the other two very much, but I feel like I made optimal interactions. The canoe being a bit too small to work properly is a problem I will see through to the end, though.

—I've finally figured out how to put em—dashes on the copy paste. Hiccup and Toothless action/thoughts/ect. paragraphs will be together when around others and separate when alone. The dream is in present tense and the rest has been past tense; please notify me of mistakes.—

Tid-Bit Notes: I tried super hard to get this out for you guys for Xmas! I'm wondering what ideas you guys have for Hiccup/Toothless reacting to Tamatoa's song, or just Tamatoa in general. You can leave a comment or PM me. - 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 4 - Shoddy Team Building

"...Lava Monster? Ever defeat a Lava Monster?" Maui asked.

"No," Moana shrugged and put her hands behind her back. "Have you?"

The mention of a lava monster reminded Hiccup of the Red Death. "He," he gestured to Toothless, but a look from the dragon made him include himself, "or we, basically have."

"Really?" Moana was awed.

"It's how I lost my foot."

"Well," Maui maneuvered around everyone to get food from a storage compartment. "I'm not going on a suicide mission with some...mortals. You can't restore the Heart without me, and me says, 'no.' I'm getting my Hook." Maui sat at the rudder handle of the raft. "End of discussion."

Hiccup had wondered if they would get down to planning for some objective to complete. He was relieved some action seemed to be starting. "I'm up for any advantage we can get... Let's just get this 'hook' that I'm assuming is powerful, and then go stop the Darkness."

"Hmph." Maui peeled a banana and ignored them.

Moana glanced at Hiccup, then to Maui's tattoos. She seemed to get an idea. "You'd be a hero... That's what you're all about. Right?"

"Little girl," Maui took a bite of the fruit, "I am a Hero."

"Maybe you were. But now...now you're just, 'the guy who stole the Heart of Te Fiti.'" Moana stole the banana out of Maui's hand. "'The guy who cursed the world!'" She took a bite as well. "You're no one's hero."

"Pff... No one?" Maui looked uncertain.

Hiccup had picked up on the manipulative talk, and spoke up to help. "I've never even heard of you. That might be just because I'm from the North, but..."

Moana picked up where he trailed off. "But, put this back; save the world..." The necklace around Moana's neck was revealed to be holding the Heart. She closed it. "You'd be everyone's hero."

Maui glanced down to Tattoo Maui, who picked up a dot and rushed to place it into a swirl. Generic humans popped up to give praise to the inked man.

"Ma-ui, Ma-ui, Ma-uiii..!" Moana whisper-screamed behind Maui. "'You're so amaziiing...!'"

Maui got up to get away from Moana. "We'd never make it without my Hook. Not passed Te Ka."

"I already voted that we do that." Hiccup pointed out.

"Right." Moana recognized the fact and went back to convincing Maui. "We get your Hook, take out Te Ka, restore the Heart." At the hulking man's back she continued. "Unless, you don't want to be...: Maui, Demigod of the Wind and Sea, Hero to… All?"

"...First, we get my Hook."

"Then, save the world! Deal?"

"Deal." The two southerners shook hands, and Maui threw Moana over his shoulder into the water. She was instantly returned and he shrugged at Hiccup's incredulous glare. "Worth a shot."

"Where will we find your Hook?" Hiccup asked.

"East," Maui grabbed the only oar on the raft, put his hand to the darkening sky, "to the Lair of Tamatoa…" and then dropped to put the same hand into the water. "If anyone has my Hook," he plunged the oar into the water, and gained a bored expression as he finished his answer, "it's that beady-eyed, bottom feeder."

The raft, with Maui's guidance, shifted to sail in the direction Maui wanted. The other three still on the raft had to duck away from the mainsail, and then brace themselves when they launched off a towering wave.

"Ohkay." Hiccup connected himself to his dragon, and addressed both of the other two. "Now that we have a destination, we will be above. I'll tell you when we see land."

Back in the sky, Hiccup felt cold air and relief bleed into his body and mind respectively. He stretched a bit, too warm in his outfit. "Hey, Bud. Let's do some trick flying. Both of us know how slow ships are; much less a raft. Let's also stay pretty high up; the sun is slowly roasting me."

In their first trick, Hiccup noticed the raft going a little haywire on its path. With a simple sigh and a questioning gurgle, the two turned their trick into a dive-bomb. They pulled just shy of the water a distance from the raft, and turned tight to circle it and slow down in the same motion. After an attempt to try and keep pace with the slow raft for a few moments, the two quickly landed.

"Is everything ohkay down here? We saw you guys going all over the place."

Moana was the one to answer. "Maui is teaching me how to sail! Sort-of."

Hiccup noticed Maui laying down on one side of the raft. "Asleep?"

"Nope." The man, whose face was pointed away from the rest of the boat, corrected him. "Tranquilized."

"Is that what the darts were? Did you have a late reaction to one?"

"You could say that…"

"Well, you said you could sail." Moana began, and asked Hiccup expectantly. "Can you help me?"

"I already told you, Princess:" Maui said, "It's called 'wayfinding,' and your King there won't actually know how."

"'King' sounds...wrong. ...But, looking at how this is made: I think I actually don't know how to control it. There's nothing in the water and only one oar." Hiccup turned back to Moana. "Besides, with Toothless on board, you would need to compensate for his weight by either knowing how to adjust your controls, or maybe asking him to move to specific spots would do it; and he barely even listens to me most of the time."

"You can't even train your pet?" Maui asked.

"Toothless is not a pet. Sure, half of Berk thinks the dragons are such, but the good riders have better connections than that. And with that, we are leaving—because I am sweating more than Gobber in a closed forge."

"Why are you still wearing that then?" Moana asked.

Hiccup yelled as he left them, "It's saved my life—" and muttered the rest, "more times than the number of scales a dragon can shed in a lifetime."

Up in the sky once more, Hiccup ignored the snaking raft below them and had fun in the cool breeze and freezing upper atmosphere. They did everything from cloud-jumping, to dive-bombing, to a successful, separate glide-since there wasn't any land near them at all, the only thing that they had to accomplish was to get Toothless underneath Hiccup again.

At some point in the night, Hiccup noticed the raft had been going much smoother than earlier. He and Toothless took their time descending, and they landed on a raft being piloted by Maui,

"Hiya, King. Bird."

"King really does sound wrong, you know." Hiccup spoke a bit softer at the sight of a sleeping Moana. "But, you could call Toothless: Alpha. Since he is the Alpha of my island's dragons."

"So what else are you? I could call you Chief, but you would be called that already, and I figured Stumpy would be a bit too far."

"Out of the three, I'd rather be called Stumpy. A lot of people at home think the jokes I make about my leg horrible." Hiccup stretched a bit. "Can we take an extended breather down here?"

Maui shrugged assent, not saying anything, but Hiccup noticed he continued to stare.

Not able to stand it for very long, Hiccup turned his attention to Toothless. It was some time later, when Hiccup was close to following his dragon to dreamland, a question from Maui took his attention,

"You're no stranger to adventure."

Hiccup was surprised. It had been a long time someone didn't know of his 'conquests' and admired the crazy re-tellings everyone knew. He had to know what impression he gave. "What makes you say that?"

"Well, for one: your leg. For two: the outfit you have on and the saddle the dragon has on are both battle friendly. And three, the most noticeable: you have a lot of patience."

Hiccup chuckled at the last one. "Have to be with the idiots I lead. They come up with the stupidest ideas, and try to solve any problems with worse ones. Of course they have their brighter moments, and not everyone on Berk is as crazy as a Berserk, but that's what keeps the place going."

"Sounds pretty lively. —"

Hiccup cut Maui off without meaning to as he leaned back further to see the sky, lost in the subtleties of the last observation. "Most people actually tell me I'm restless. Gobber thinks I could run off to the next piece of land I find; stay on the edge of the map I've made and never return."

Maui waited a moment to see if he was finished. A breath or two and Hiccup added one more thing,

"I've just noticed the stars are different. About half of the sky is recognizable. I think I'll map them out on the way home."

"So," Maui broke into Hiccup's monologue, tired of waiting to ask, "what's the story behind that missing foot of yours?"

"It fell off."

"I don't believe that."

"What? I don't look clumsy enough to drop an axe on my leg?"

"It wouldn't have fallen off then."

"Would you believe that though?"

"If you can make jokes about it, I would think you could tell me how it happened."

"Fine. Did you know Toothless matches me?" Hiccup took the hand behind his head out and had it tug the dragon's tail closer to him. With it on his lap, he demonstrated the absence of a fin under the fabric. "The story of his loss intertwines with mine. Because I wanted him, he lost this fin. Because he wanted me, I lost a foot and some shin."

"I just wanted a story, Poet, not an eye-for-an-eye theater play."

Hiccup huffed, he hadn't meant to rhyme. He figured he would be as blunt as possible, because he was ready to sleep and didn't really want another admirer; even if that was unlikely. He told Maui of the biggest change in his life. "When I was fifteen, we were at war with dragons. I shot Toothless down—he was the most elusive dragon that was damaging our island. No one believed me, so I found him alone. Cut him loose. I continued to visit him, and fixed the ripped off tail by making him a prosthetic. My village found out about him, and used him to raid Dragon Island. I followed with—with a team, they were my fellow teenagers and became friends with me after this. I made it to Toothless, and the both of us took down the island's leader. The Red Death was...huge. That's what I compared to a Lava Monster. Killing it had required great amounts of fire, and I lost my foot to it. Well, the fire burned away the flesh, yes. The scar, however, has teeth marks on it: Toothless had grabbed me to save me. It was not as...fun, an adventure as you probably meant." Maui was silent as Hiccup revealed the results. "But, I got some admirers, got a better relationship with my Dad, got some friends, got the strongest woman there was, and...him. I have no idea what I'd be without him." Hiccup fell asleep with a part of himself wrapped around him, Maui's silence that gave him a familiar mix of pride and shame, and a hope that the destination would be in reach when he woke.

He was plummeting with his wings. They are special because they are one-and-the-same that could be in two places at once. They each as separate parts have different strengths that complimented each other. And different weaknesses the other could cover. To protect, to stay together, to be together.

They plummet towards their territory. Home is in each other. This, they own, protect, lead. A whole land of others who know and recognize their greatness. A land that was given to them perhaps too early.

The land was given to them by the person they see standing in front of others. Others that are still close, still around. The front one yells for the others to come closer to the edge of a cliff all stood upon. They see, just as the command is completed, the person turns to white ash.

The others left alone, now crow and cry in distress and anger. There are two that stand out: a maiden and a creator. The two stand calmer as a third one, a mother, consoles the rest. The two are looking to them for guidance, for help, not for a rescue. Ready to follow orders as soon as the he with the same language spoke some.

His voice would not sound. He panics, so his wings roar in his place, but the two do not understand. They watch helplessly as the others have the ground under all the others' feet give way; to a dusty, dark, and drifting unnatural storm.

Hiccup was greeted with instant comfort when he woke. His racing breaths eased quickly with the scales that urged him up; nudging and rubbing in familiar ways. Toothless, now Hiccup was actually awake, gave a concerned chuff with a haunted look. The young man returned the look. "You too?"

"'[Me] too,' what?" a still awake Maui asked.

Hiccup got up fully to stretch and only glanced at the man. "I'm hungry. You too?"

"There's some food in the compartment by Curly."

Hiccup hummed back an acknowledgment and was careful to avoid disturbing Moana. He pulled out a banana, and quietly gushed. "Hah! I saw them eating this earlier! I've only ever seen these at Things!" He peeled it and pulled off a small piece as he returned to Toothless's side. "Look, Tooth! Do you want to try?" The dragon sniffed a few times and gave a small lick, but decided not to eat it in the end. Hiccup ate as he checked the saddle, and asked Maui how far their destination was.

"Should be pretty close." Maui checked the just dawned sun. "Should arrive a little before the middle of the day."

Hiccup flipped open a flap to check his compass, and took note of the direction. "So I should get there pretty quickly."

"Why would you go ahead? You can't get past the door."

"Going to clean up the saddle and such." Hiccup clipped himself into his seat. "Really, salt water isn't good for metal and leather." They left.

"You're lucky there isn't security to get past!" Maui took no heed of possibly waking up Moana to get the offended and 'you-should-be-grateful' message to the airborne duo.

Hiccup waved back, but rolled his eyes upon returning his gaze forward. He figured a whole night to contemplate a fifteen year old defeating a monster would have at least earned him some respect, but maybe the man didn't believe him. "Wouldn't be the first."

Toothless took that moment to dive for a few skimming fish, drenching Hiccup in cold water in the process. The dragon ate in-flight this morning by ascending, dropping the catch, and snapping up the pieces by hawk-bombing them.

This routine happened a few times by the point Hiccup spotted the small stone sea stack. Still high up, he checked for any enemies despite the information Maui shared, and the two descended quickly. Hiccup circled the stack and landed on the bottom side: a moss-and-small-plant covered area with less sand and more corroded off pebbles.

Toothless rounded on Hiccup once the man had gotten his saddle off and an expectant look stopped the man short.

Hiccup sighed and slowly continued to pull out a rag to clean the saddle with and the supplies to make water. He collected his thoughts as he set up the components: a pot with the diameter of a length equaling the distance between his elbow to wrist, a lid specifically made for this (leading to a cone shape to drip the condensation, and handles that stuck out the side rather than one normally on top of the dome), and a wooden drinking cup to catch the water.

Toothless already knew this process, and quickly simmered the plants and rocks that sat beneath the elevated-by-sitting-on-two-closely-placed-rocks pot. The dragon watched his handiwork for a moment to assess the need for further fire and, upon no need being found, raced into the water to wait for Hiccup.

Hiccup, now that the water was being made, pulled out his water bladder to refill later and placed it on a rock. He removed all clothing upon himself except his breeches, and pulled out a duplicate set to change into. He pulled out the bar of soap he had, and made sure he had everything he needed out before finally removing his leg. He crawled over the stone and moss to join Toothless, and finally began to talk out the dream, "You had the dream too, right?"

Toothless snorted at the surface of the water hard enough to slash his boy.

"Yeah," Hiccup swiped some salt water out of his eyes, "but, what does it mean? Are the Gods reminding us we're on a time limit? Or do they show us a demonstration of this Darkness, to know what we're facing? Am I supposed to be getting a message back to them? Astrid and Gobber, I mean. They looked like they were waiting for orders."

Toothless grumbled low in his chest as the rider used him as a brace every-now-and-then. He watched warily as Hiccup talked and cleaned, but was consoled by the fact the man was feeling better by the moment.

"Guess we keep going. Fishlegs said they could last at least a month or so, and we've been out for just a little less than a week. We do this in time and they won't have to take too much stock down."

Toothless helped Hiccup out of the water, and reheated the spot under the water pot once Hiccup had reset it. He sneakily assaulted the man with licks on his forearms, hands, and even managed to get a good swipe across Hiccup's back.

Hiccup knew the licks were coming, but had given up trying to stop it a long time ago. He was used to Toothless grooming him on occasion for comfort, cleanliness, and play. This time fell under the middle category, and he thought the dragon mainly did it to either, put a possessive scent on him, or to just be a prick. Hiccup went after the bit of clean water he had acquired during the bath, and dipped the rag he had pulled out for the saddle into it. He carefully went through the process of cleaning the device and moved onto his armor and prosthetic after that. At some point the dragon had gotten to licking his hair and it stuck up in some random direction; drying in an impossible way that no one could understand. He changed out the water pot one more time before pulling his clothes to himself and gauging just how dirty they were. He exchanged what he thought was nasty and redressed.

Toothless rested and played with Hiccup as they waited for the raft the other two were on to arrive. It was late mid-morning when Toothless spotted it on the horizon, and urged his rider to equip him with the saddle and pack.

Hiccup had been either playing with Toothless or drawing in a blank book he took for this journey. He drew the landscape he was on, the Kakamora, the raft and the two upon it. He made separate pages for both people, leaving five pages blank between them to write in as he learned about them. He wrote about how hot it was, how the 'Wind and Sea,' as the other two called Njord, helped in limited ways but were much more obvious about it than he had ever seen.

Toothless barked at Hiccup when the boat was within shouting distance, and began to hop along behind Hiccup as they made their way to the spot the raft was aiming to moor. Hiccup helped tie the raft to the sea stack and listened as they talked about their next plan of action.

"Tamatoa? Oh, he'll have it. He's a scavenger; collects stuff. Thinks it makes him look cool. Ahhh!"

The last sound Maui made to the chicken had Hiccup wondering if the chicken really was a pet or not. Toothless and he watched the man force the chicken to eat and he found he needed to refocus himself to begin listening again.

"And for Tamatoa—trust me—my Hook is the coolest collectible."

"And he lives...up there?" Moana's stare indicated the top of the sea stack.

Hiccup took a glance for himself, but wanted a bit more information. "Is your Hook like Thor's Hammer, Mjöllnir? If someone else has it, it's gonna be a lot of work to get something so powerful back."

"Tamatoa is a hermit and doesn't give up anything he likes; so we will probably fight. Up there is just the entrance to, um…" Maui paused in answering Moana's question for suspense, "Lalotai."

"Lalotai? Realm of Monsters?" Moana cleared her throat to calm down her voice. "We're going to the Realm of Monsters?"

"Helheim? Hel?" Hiccup tried to clarify.

Maui chuckled. "'We?' No. Me. You are gonna stay here with the other chicken. Poet, you can tell Chicken some of your stories. Bcaaak!" Maui laughed to himself and offered a high five to Tattoo Maui. "That's what I'm talkin' about! Gimmie some…" The tattoo refuses to cooperate. "Come on! That was a good one! How do you not get it? I called her a chicken, there's a chicken on the boat… I know she's human, but that's not the—" Maui started to climb. "You know what? Forget it. Forget it! I'm not explaining it to you… Wha— 'Cause then it's not funny!"

"Moana," Hiccup spoke up, "would you like a ride up?"

The girl shook her head. "I've gotta do this right; no point coming all this way and not doing anything."

"I'll see you both up top, then." Hiccup and Toothless flew up and passed both of the southerners to land up top. Hiccup sat on the edge the two would reach and listened to their echoing voices.

Maui began to browbeat information out of the climbing Moana. "So, 'Daughter of the Chief,' I thought you stayed in the village. You know, kissing babies and things. ...Hey! I'm just tryin' to understand why out of all the people on your island the only one who came was... How do I phrase this...: you."

"My people...wouldn't listen to me; wouldn't go against my father. And the Ocean," Moana grunted as she climbed, "chose me."

"The Ocean? Makes sense. You're what: eight? Can't sail? Obvious choice."

"It chose me for a reason."

"If the Ocean's so smart, why didn't it just take the Heart back to Te Fiti itself? Or bring me my Hook? ...The Ocean's straight up kooky-dooks. ...But, I'm sure it's not wrong about you. You're the Chosen One!"

The rest of their climb was silent and Hiccup took time to inspect what Maui said to Toothless quietly. "He's team building. He's not doing a very good job, granted, but he doesn't want to do this anyway; he's not trying. He could bail on us after he gets this Hook… We need to watch him closely, Bud." Toothless yipped in agreement.

Moana was the first to the top of the sea stack, and allowed Hiccup to help her up the last haul to stand. She thanked him and then looked over the view from their position. "The Ocean chose you for a reason."

Maui had gotten to the top without the other two realizing it. "If you start singing, I'm gonna throw up."

"Well, aren't you rude." Hiccup defended Moana. "I bet she's better than you."

"I already gave her a song; she hasn't given one back yet."

"Well, insulting her won't help you."

"SO," Moana interrupted, "not seeing an entrance."

"Yes," Maui answered, "because it only appears after a human sacrifice."

Hiccup didn't believe him. "If that's the case: Maui should be the offering for being so rude to you, Moana."

Moana was taking the threat seriously, but an annoyed Maui overrode whatever she was going to say:

"I'm just kidding! You're both so serious!" He blew the sand away from the ground to reveal a carved face in the stone. He bellowed and danced an angry chant of some sort, before he jumped high and slammed the small mound he was on into the ground further. This must have been a 'key,' for the face's mouth opened slowly to reveal a deep well. Maui waited until the face stopped moving to speak again. "Don't worry. It's a lot farther down than it looks."

Three others watched as the man yelled and jumped into the entrance to Lalotai. A moment into the fall and a far away sentence floated up: "I am STILL falling!" and then a small splash.

All Hiccup heard next was a small mutter before Moana was falling down after the demigod. "She would have said 'no' to a ride this time too." Hiccup and Toothless came together at the lip. "Ready, Bud?" and jumped into the mouth of Helhiem.