Chosen of the Wind (Version 2)
[DISCLAIMER]
[I do not own Moana or How to Train Your Dragon.]
-CONTENT NOTES-
–Sad boys. Who has time for grief, right? Ha. Ha ha. Also I changed the title of this chapper 'cuz the last one lost its undertones.–
–FORMAT NOTES–
The first pov changes in this chapter to the third pov. I have a long term plan to do two full versions of each, but for now we just crankin' out plot.
MY NOTES
Oh, ye sunbeams, please, oh please, grace me with messages of want, so that I may feed off of your desires and boon you all with more 'dead wood hallucinations' to trip on. -artisticRadifyer
Extra 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 to save his village. Njord chose just him, a runaway heiress, and the demigod that triggered the decay, to fix things. But there is no 'team' in 'chosen,' and the mentally challenged chicken that might be food, can't change that.
Chapter 2.2 - Hobbled Heading
I feel immense relief climbing up my shoulders as I spot Astrid and Stormfly almost as soon as I exit the darkening woods, "Astrid!" I yell, "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 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 still 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 mom travel into and through the place daily, whereas I could never seem to be near it for too long anymore, and have actually taken to sleeping away from the imposing silence.
Astrid asked why I call it 'the house,' as if it wasn't my home anymore. She observed that I don't even refer to it as a house of which I simply owned, but more as a mere frequented place, like the smithy. I had felt for a long time before my Dad's death that the Cove was home, but it was never truly a home of comfort. Only a shaky and brief safety from a village I could no longer cope with at the time was 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 realized the fact for a long time-until the Cove was ordinary and public and no longer mine.
Before I became Chief, Toothless had been taken from me multiple times, and even though we were each others' constant companions, even back then, now we operate and feel like one unit, and I hadn't even realized we had become so close. It felt so natural. Comments about how "in sync" and "the way the both of us would communicate without speaking" should have given me a clue. It was simply not something I seriously, consciously, thought about back then. He was home. My home, where I could rant, be as silly as a Terror, be reprimanded for said silliness, and feel protected from the rest of the world. It helps that the 'house' was alive and could pick up on when I needed to escape even better than I could. The area around him gave me a soothing, easy sense of belonging with how well we meld together as one.
Entering the structure 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 grab myself half a loaf of bread and some strips of jerky to munch on while Toothless occasionally watches me to be sure I eat. I am 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 glance behind me to imagine a massive man who was not there.
The clearing of my throat is not simply to signal Fishlegs where I was, but to also 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?"
"Yes, sir, they won't be back until tomorrow. If they aren't back from their 'mission' by then, we can certainly send someone after them," Fishlegs answers as he settles himself near the fire pit in the middle of the room, but only after I had taken my own seat.
Gobber also helps himself to a chair as we wait. It isn't a long wait, but a quietly tense one with no one knowing how to act around me in private.
Toothless lays his head in my lap to ensure that any interaction with me would be monitored. I fiddle with my other scales and plates while the silence clogs the air. It is a relief when Snotlout and Astrid walk 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 searches for a split second to find me and dismisses Astrid, "Hiccup, hey! Thanks for giving me an excuse to leave early; they were so being, just–" he sits with a loud sigh of exasperation and relief, "lazy."
Snotlout, strangely, was among the tiny amount of humans that I could be more 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 a breath of fresh air whenever Astrid is in a pushy mood.
"Anytime, 'Lout." I bring my hands together and rub them to get a sudden 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 more with one of Toothless' larger frills as I lay out the words in my mind to hopefully not paint my mom in a bad light, but figure it's a bit of a lost cause and push the facts through, "My mother has a theory on why the archipelago is dying."
"Why the food is gone?"
"Yes, the reason why 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, and that also made the fish leave, and it just continues on from there. She's tried attacking it in many ways, if we dig at it, the ground has a possibility of falling in, and any other means will be meaningless because there's a source. We don't know how far away it is, and…" I sigh, not wanting to speak up with the next part but knowing that I need to, even if I decide I want them to help me veto the notion, "We can't send a team out, because with the lower quality and fewer amounts of food, raids will become more and more a viable possibility for sustenance... My mom says that she thinks it's a higher power, Eir paired with Loki, or …maybe even Ragnarök, but she thinks that only I can do anythi-"
"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 just over a year and a half!" Astrid finishes her tirade, huffing in the silence.
Even though I had started out listening while looking at her, I had to look askance at the direct 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," my mother cautiously opens the front door, and as her gaze slides over the room, she winces at the probing stares now on her, "I was thinking and I would like to tell you why you're the solution-"
"Possible solution…" Astrid growls.
"...in a different way," my mom finishes.
I don't want to deal with explaining her idea anyhow, "Sure, but I'm not the one–" I gesture to the gathering of people, and look down to think over the problem more thoroughly myself, "you need to convince." I have two options and even though one seems infinitely better if only by familiarity, both options would still 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 stressfully lead me to deal with a rapidly deteriorating tribe and 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 help me give and preserve strength for my struggling tribe's morale, to keep us 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 were still 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 atmosphere around me became-stops immediately. I wasn't looking at them, still musing a bit while staring into the table for how to word this without getting either of Astrid's fists to my stomach again.
"Hiccup-" Astrid begins.
"If we spin it right," I gently interrupt, and glance up to make quick eye contact with Astrid and then Gobber, "there won't be much resistance 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 for our allies and foes alike. We can pitch the idea of a different team to go out there to the source with 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…?"
My mom perks up at the mention of the God. "I'm sure he'd show Hiccup the directions he needs."
"Why must it be you, Hiccup?"
I shrug. "Specific skillset?"
"This mission doesn't sound like you'll be fighting dragons. You'll be fighting 'the source of darkness;' that's not something you should do. alone."
"Astrid, I 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," Fishlegs takes his turn and starts to inform the table of the impending window of time the problem needs to be resolved in, "we will run out of food rather quickly."
"How long is 'quickly?'"
"A month and a week; I think. With sacrificing our livestock, I say, almost three months."
"That's… a big difference. Are you saying all the way down to only a mating pair of each bunch?"
"Essentially."
— 3RD POV – PAST TENSE -
The meeting shifted down the line until everyone comes to the, unwilling in some cases, agreement to at least tell the town:
"I would like to begin by saying I know food is scarce. We all see that it is getting worse. 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 is killing our crops, the fish either moved to better waters or have also succumbed to the strain, and most game on the island has disappeared, or is dead and hunted."
A forceful wind passed over the top of the now gasping crowd, and leaves churned beautifully very near the young chief and his dragon's side, "And this leads me to the next subject: The only solution we've found so far. We have burnt, pounded, stabbed– any manner of killing we could do at this stuff. Nothing has worked. Then, Njord came to us, to aid us.
"So far, we've only gathered that 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 swooped pointedly and quickly around Hiccup and Toothless a few times, not letting a single breeze touch any other being 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 journey wins. Alright. No point in wasting time, I'll leave as soon as I'm able. "
The crowd disperses.
"Hiccup!" Astrid stopped Hiccup with a hand on his shoulder, and pulled to turn him so that they faced each other. She gazed up at him with real worry even when her words were frustrated. "What kind of debrief was that?"
He spoke quietly, barely putting energy behind his words in case they were accidentally interpreted incorrectly. "I spun it as positively and bluntly as I could. I want to help my people, and I asked for help this time without it being forced on me." Hiccup removed her hand from his shoulder, and gently squeezed it as he defended his choice. He directly addressed the issue she had been pounding on since the first instance she heard the parameters of the journey. "This time I know I'm supposed to go alone, so I made it the better option."
Her face darkened at the word 'alone,' and she squeezed his hand with both of hers pleadingly in return. "Take anyone-"
Hiccup saw that she still wasn't going to drop it easily, and now worried that she might succeed in persuading him if he didn't do something quickly. He couldn't risk any of his people being the victim of another one of his world changing blunders, he just wanted– "Just– let me protect you guys as well as he did!"
Astrid wasn't the only person watching the man simmer in those negative emotions, but the villagers trusted the young woman to support their new Chief, and don't interfere with the heavy discussion.
She slowly shook her head as the subtleties of his words registered fully in her mind. "...Hiccup…"
"...I won't lose anyone else." He stated solemnly, and his Fathers words echoed in his head.
'A chief protects his own.'
After a short night's rest, the tribe woke at dawn to see their young chief off.
"So where am I going?"
A strong gust of wind almost sent him off the cliff he stood on towards the south.
"Whoakay! South it is."