Two Weeks Later- Hiccup
I have to save Toothless. I have to. That was the only thing going through my head as I grabbed a double-headed spear from Gobber's shop.
We had recently put up metal perches for the dragons over our houses. The next thing we knew, lightning was striking all over the village. Thinking that Thor was angry at Berk for some reason, the Riders and I had attempted to appease him by building him a statue. It hadn't worked, to our, and the rest of the town's, dismay. Even more lightning struck in the village that night, and Mildew had attempted to blame it on Toothless. In an attempt to keep him safe, Dad told me to take Toothless and go. This had only made the riled up villagers angrier and they had started searching the island for us. Toothless and I had ended up crashing after his tail was struck by lightning, destroying it. Mildew and his mob of angry Vikings had found us there and had chained Toothless and were attempting to throw him off the island. As I ran back to the village, I noticed that the lightning was only striking the metal perches, the metal statue, and the metal part of Toothless's tailfin. I'd run the rest of the way to the village where I was now, trying to figure out a way to save my dragon, my best friend, from being shipped off the island.
As I turned to run down to the docks, Astrid landed in front of me. "Hiccup! They have Toothless!
"I know," I responded. "Why do you think I have this?" I held up the spear in my hands.
"Ooh! How many guesses do we get? Five?" Tuffnut asked stupidly.
I rolled my eyes and grabbed Astrid's hand and pulled her over to Stormfly. The two of us climbed onto Stormfly, telling Astrid to fly me to the docks.
We arrived just as Bucket and Mulch moved from the mob of angry Vikings to stand with my Dad and Gobber, who were trying to keep Toothless on the island. I jumped off Stormfly as she flew over the docks. I landed between Dad and Mildew, yelling, "Stop!"
This caught Mildew's attention, so I continued. "Stop! You could get rid of Toothless, you could throw him off the edge of the world, but it's not going to stop this lightning from destroying Berk." At the confused looks I was getting, I lifted the spear above my head. "It's the metal. The lightning is hitting the metal." Lightning cracked behind me. I put the spear back at my side, then started pacing in front of the rest of them. "Just think about it. We never had a lightning storm like this until we put up those perches, that statue, right? And they're all made of metal!"
Mildew wasn't going to be dissuaded that easily. "Oh, bah! You ever heard of anything so insane?!"
I wasn't about to give up, but I was getting desperate. The crowd had started to believe me until Mildew had called it insane. I suddenly had an idea. I ran back to Toothless, and pointed out where the lightning had struck him. "Y-you see? This is where the lightning struck Toothless. On this connecting rod… this metal connecting rod!" A couple people seemed to believe me, but were still a little leary. And the majority of them still weren't believing me. "Look, if you don't believe me, I can prove it!"
I ran over to Astrid, who had landed on the dock shortly after I had jumped off.
"Fly me up."
She pulled me up behind her on Stormfly, having an idea of what I was about to do. As I moved from Stormfly to the top of the mast, she asked, "Are you sure you know what you're doing?"
"Sure?" I responded. "Uh, that's a strong word. It's really more of a… hunch." At her worried look, I attempted to reassure her, "I'll be fine. Go!"
Below me, I heard Gobber say, "Oh, boy, here he goes again…"
To which, Dad responded, "He doesn't make it easy," before yelling my name.
I didn't pay attention, only caring about keeping my best friend on the island. I held the spear up towards the mast after balancing myself. "You'll all see for yourselves! When I attach this metal rod to the top of the mast, the lightning will be drawn to-" I was cut off by lightning striking the rod and hitting me. The last thing I heard before I blacked out was Dad yelling my name.
Stoick
I couldn't believe what I was watching. I understood that Hiccup was trying to protect his friend, but he was going a little far with this. The next thing I knew lightning had struck the rod and my boy fell. I ran to the side of the docks and would have dove in after him, had Gobber not held me back. Toothless had broken free of the chains that he had been put in and dove in after Hiccup.
Seconds later, he resurfaced, pulling Hiccup out of the water with him. I ran to his side, hoping to Odin he was still breathing. I sat him up a bit, and he coughed up a little water before relaxing again.
Gobber and I exchanged a look before I picked him up and we headed up the hill towards our house. Astrid saw Hiccup in my arms, said she was going to get Gothi, and flew off.
Hiccup- Two Days Later
My head ached. That was all I knew. I opened my eyes to a room filled with sunlight. I started to sit up, only to be greeted with Toothless pouncing onto my bed and licking me.
"You're awake!"
"Yeah… Wait, how long was I out?" I asked.
"A couple days. Everybody's been extremely worried." Toothless went back to the floor and sat next to my bed. I pushed the blanket off and swung my feet down to the floor. I looked down at them.
"Well, at least I didn't lose another one."
At that exact time, Dad came up the stairs. Seeing me awake, he pulled me into a huge hug. "My boy! You're alright!"
He put me down and, at my confused look, said, "You took a lightning bolt to the head."
"Just like Barnstat," Gobber chimed in. I hadn't even noticed that he'd come up with Dad. "Except we won't be throwing you off the island."
I needed to check one more thing. "So everyone knows Thor wasn't mad at Toothless?"
"They do now," Dad assured me.
"Until we figure out why Thor was angry at the metal, we're all walking on eggshells," Gobber added.
We walked downstairs and headed outside. The Riders were working on taking down the statue of Thor that we had built.
"Oh, we worked so hard on that statue. Kind of a shame we have to just scrap it for parts," I said.
Dad had an idea. "Well, maybe we don't have to. Why don't you take it up to one of the high points on the island and leave it there?"
Tuffnut and Snotlout had walked up by us while Dad was talking. "Great idea, Chief. I would've thought of it myself, but I'm not the chief."
I rolled my eyes, as Snotlout said, "Oh, we'll handle that for you."
I wasn't sure that I liked the look on his face, but I'd deal with it. The three of us got on our dragons and put ropes around the statue, lifting it up. Toothless was only helping to carry it, since neither of us was sure what Snotlout and the twins had in mind.
We followed it around the island, where they placed it right in front of Mildew's house. We flew off as Mildew came out of his house, yelling, "You'll pay for this."
"I'm not sure that's what my dad meant, guys," I pointed out, while internally I was actually agreeing with putting the statue there. Mildew had tried to get Toothless off the island, he deserved his house getting struck by lightning.
As we were flying back to town though, my hands started to feel weird. I let go of Toothless's saddle and looked at them. Lightning was crackling around my fingers. Not sure what was going on but thinking it had something to do with my dragon side, I did my best to hide it from the other Riders while trying to get Toothless's attention.
"What's up, Hiccup?" he asked, after my third try at getting his attention.
I glanced at my hands once more before answering, "Can't really explain it. Why don't we go to the Cove, I'll show you when we land."
"Okay." Toothless turned back towards the Cove sharply, causing me to slide off of his saddle, as I wasn't hanging on. As I fell, I made sure the twins and Snotlout hadn't seen me fall, then changed form. I spread my wings to catch myself. Toothless, catching sight of my hands, brushed against my leg to enter his tattoo. I checked one last time that the twins and Snotlout hadn't caught sight of us, then flew off to the Cove.
When I landed, Toothless left his tattoo and I didn't bother to change back to my human form.
"So where did that lightning come from?" Toothless asked, sniffing at my hands. The lightning had disappeared just before I'd landed.
"I don't know. We were flying, my hands felt a little weird so I looked down and there was lightning all around them!" I was trying to stay calm, but it wasn't working, just as it hadn't when I first discovered my dragon side.
"Hiccup, calm down! We don't want you to accidentally fire at something!"
"You don't think I'm trying to stay calm?!" Before I finished speaking, a plasma blast erupted from my hands, hitting the cliff on the other side of the Cove from me. But this one looked different from any of the others that I had done before; it had lightning crackling around it.
"WHAT THE THOR WAS THAT?!" I panicked.
"I don't know. It's almost like the lightning is part of you," Toothless responded.
"What do you mean, 'part of me'?"
"Like your fire. The way that looked, it's like you have two different kinds of fire now."
I didn't know how to respond to that. Two kinds of fire? That's impossible, isn't it? "I thought dragons could only have one kind of fire."
"Usually, yes. There's one exception to that rule, but you're not a dragon. You're a Halfling. It's fairly common for Halflings to possess the abilities of more than one dragon. Durin-"
"I'd prefer you don't bring him up," I interrupted.
"He's the one that said who your mom was. I've heard stories and have been asking around to try and figure out what line she came from."
"And you trust what he said?!"
"Like I've told you before: every dragon and Halfling has a 'dragon name.' This name is automatically known by every dragon or Halfling the dragon meets. I honestly don't know how you didn't catch what his dragon name was.
"Anyway, I heard stories when I was younger about the Fyrest that betrayed the rest of his species to a group of Dragon Trappers, the very same ones we met about four months ago. I only knew his dragon name, so when he made me leave my tattoo, I realized who he was. Durin, or Pohaku, as most dragons know him, is that Fyrest. So, yeah, I'm gonna trust that he knew your mother at some point in his life."
"...okay. Anyway, you were saying?" I prompted.
"He said that your mom's name was Ikapo. I've been asking around and it sounds like her family had a strange trait: every generation was half the size of the one before it. From what I've heard, she had four brothers. That means that she can only have two kids, but her line had the abilities of three different species. So, it's very likely that you ended up with the abilities of two different species of dragons."
"Okay, so what other species would I have?"
"The lightning is making me think that you're also part Skrill, but I don't know what species her line is. I'm figuring Shadow is one of them, but other than that I've got no idea."
"Another dragon might know, right?"
"Possibly. I think I've talked to every dragon on the island though."
"Then we talk to dragons not on the island tonight, instead of visiting the Outcasts."
"Alright."
"One more question though…"
"What's that?"
"How in Thor's name do I control this?" I asked, showing him my hands which were covered with crackling lightning again.
"Oh, uh- I would assume the same way you control your fire. I honestly don't know, Hiccup."
"It's okay, bud. I'll do my best to keep it under control for the rest of the day," I said, changing back into my human form.
"Okay. I take it we're going back to the village?"
"Yep. Someone's probably noticed that I didn't return with Snot and the twins; we're lucky Dad hasn't sent a search party yet," I chuckled as we took off…
...And nearly crashed into Astrid and Stormfly. "Okay, maybe I spoke too soon."
"Hiccup! Your dad's kind of worried about you, since you didn't come back with Snotlout and the twins," she said upon seeing me.
"Yep, I definitely spoke too soon," I muttered to Toothless, before answering her. "Yeah, I just got sidetracked. I probably should have told one of them where I was going."
"Yeah, you should have. C'mon, we should go find your father so he stops worrying about you."
"Yeah, we should…" I responded, my mind going back to my newly discovered ability.
"Alright. What's wrong?"
"Wh-what do you mean what's wrong?!" I stammered. "Nothing's wrong!"
"Well, something's bothering you, and I want to know what it is."
"Nothing's bothering me."
She looked skeptical, but dropped the matter. We headed back to town together, finding my dad in the town square. He saw me and came over.
"I just got sidetracked, Dad. That's all," I said before he could even open his mouth to speak. He nodded, knowing that I can get sidetracked quite easily.
The rest of the day went by fast, and before I knew it, I was saying goodnight to Dad and going upstairs to my room. I sat down on my bed and waited until I heard him go to bed, before changing Toothless's tailfin and saddle, grabbing my staff and taking off. We headed towards Dragon Island, where we knew most dragons lived.
We asked many of the dragons that were in the area that we first landed in, but most weren't old enough to have known the Fyrests or they wouldn't tell us. I assumed that they thought I was a hunter, so I changed back to my Halfling form. It tended to help around unknown dragons anyway. After asking probably a hundred dragons, I was about to give up.
"I'm thinking we should go home, bud." I sighed. "Nobody knows anything."
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," said a voice to my left. I turned; there was a cave there, but I couldn't see anyone.
"What do you mean?" I asked the voice.
A very young looking Nightmare came wandering out of the cave. "I heard that you were asking about the Fyrests, young one. Trying to find out more about your dragon parent?"
"Uh, yeah." This dragon couldn't have possibly known the Fyrests, he looks like he's only a few decades old.
"You appear skeptical. I know that I appear quite young, but let me assure you that I am not. I was a Fyrest when I was younger; I may be able to help you."
I looked at Toothless, who gave me a shrug in response.
"How do you think you can help?" I asked.
"If you know the name of your parent, I may be able to tell you many things about them. If you don't, I could try to guess who you are descended from," the Nightmare responded.
"Okay…" I exchanged a look with Toothless. "A few months ago, we had our first run-in with the Dragon Trappers. Their leader, Durin, said that my mom's name was Ikapo. Toothless here seems to believe him."
"I would believe him too. He was a Fyrest once too. He was my little sister's best friend." He seemed to get lost in a memory, before processing the rest of what I had said. "Wait… you said that he said your mother's name was Ikapo?"
"Yeah…"
"Ikapo was my little sister."
"Was?"
"Was/is… I don't know if she's still alive. We were separated about 45 years ago. Our other two brothers and I have stuck together since and are trying to find her. My other two brothers usually stay hidden, as they are two of the most feared dragons of Vikings."
"Wait, hang on a second. You said that Ikapo, the one Durin said my mom was, is your sister? That means you're technically my uncle." I really couldn't believe it. It seemed as though I'd just met part of my mother's family.
"I guess it does, doesn't it? Do you want to meet the other two? We may be able to help you find your mom."
"Uh… sure. But then I should probably get going back home; my dad will worry otherwise."
"That's fine." He then turned back towards the cave, "Natt, Lyn, we have visitors," he called.
Two more dragons, a Skrill and a Night Fury… There are more! Toothless isn't the only one… except that this one is technically a Fyrest…
"Who is he?" the Skrill asked. The Night Fury appeared to be more interested in Toothless, who hadn't seen him yet.
"This is Ika's son," the Nightmare replied.
"Ika's son?" the Night Fury repeated. "Then where is she?"
"I don't know. I was just trying to figure out more about my dragon side; that's why I came here. None of the dragons on my island could help us," I explained.
"More like we came to figure out how you control this new ability of yours," Toothless commented.
"Son?" the Night Fury asked.
Toothless seemed to recognize his voice and turned towards him. "Dad? Dad!" Toothless bounded over to the other Night Fury and practically tackled him.
"I'm confused," I commented, watching Toothless and his dad, my uncle, reunite.
"You're not the only one, Uila," the other two dragons said.
It took me a minute to remember that they would of course know my name. That's what happens when dragons and Halflings meet each other. Just like, I realized, I knew their names: the Nightmare was Lapuwale, the Skrill was Lyn, and the Night Fury was Natt.
"Well, I guess you were telling the truth, Lapuwale. This Night Fury is my son, and dragons only bond with Halflings that they are related to," Natt said.
"But how do we know that the two of them are bonded?" Lyn asked.
Toothless came over to me and brushed his nose up against my right hand. He disappeared with a flash, having gone into his tattoo.
That should show them that we're bonded, he said in my head.
"Well, I guess that proves it," Lapuwale deadpanned. "Anyway, what's this new ability?"
"This." I held up my hands, which had become covered with crackling lightning.
"Oh… you've got lightning. Lyn, this is your territory," Natt said.
"Ah, shoot. Um… I'd say, since that's my fire type, you would control that the same way you control your other one. At least, I'm assuming you have another fire that you have control over because of the dragon you are bonded with," Lyn tried to instruct.
"That's what Toothless told me to do. I guess it's been working."
"Well then, just keep doing what you're doing."
The sun started to peak over the trees behind me, lighting the ground around us. "I will. But I really gotta go home. My dad'll be up soon and if I'm not there, he'll get super worried."
"Alright. We'll try to stay in touch with you, Uila," Lapuwale said, as I turned to head home.
"Call me Hiccup, please," I told them, turning back.
"Hiccup?" Natt questioned.
"It's my, uh, my human name. I prefer it."
"Oh, okay. We'll see you around then, Hiccup," Lyn said.
I smiled, then turned and took off, flying as fast as I could in order to try and make it home before Dad got up.
When we were almost home, I changed back to my human form and Toothless left his tattoo.
He landed softly on the roof of my house and hopped onto his bed through the window. I jumped off of him and landed as quietly as I could on my bed, just as I heard someone coming up the stairs. Toothless curled up and tried to hide his different tail and saddle. I laid down so my back was to the stairs and tried to pretend I was asleep.
Dad came the rest of the way upstairs and said, "Hiccup, I know you're awake."
I sat up. "Well, I tried."
"Where did you go last night?" Dad asked, sitting on the edge of my bed.
"Wh-what do you mean?"
"I heard you leave last night and just heard you come back. Where did you go?"
Toothless had lifted his head and was watching the conversation. When I looked over at him, he said, "I didn't think you were quiet enough."
Well, you're a lot of help, I thought as I tried to think of what to tell Dad.
"I, uh, was having issues with part of my dragon side and Toothless couldn't help me with it. We went to find a dragon that could."
"Did you get help?"
"Yeah. I've got it under control."
"Alright." Dad stood up. "I've got a lot to do today, so… yeah." He went downstairs.
After making sure he wasn't paying attention to me anymore, I went over to Toothless and took off the saddle and tailfin that he had on and put them back under my bed where they belonged. But his normal set wasn't there.
"Bud, where's your other saddle and tailfin?"
"You left it out last night. It's right here," he said, standing up. Sure enough. It was laying on his bed. "You're lucky your dad didn't come up here while we were gone."
"Yeah, I know," I responded, strapping his saddle on. "We barely made it home before he left the house. Let's not cut it that close ever again."
"Agreed."
Six Months Later
"Are you sure they're even out here?" Astrid asked, shivering. "We're pretty far north."
"Bucket and Mulch are two days overdue. We need to find them," I responded.
"Do you really think they're up here though?"
"Can't take the cold, Astrid?" Snotlout chimed in.
"No. I just don't have a heated seat like you do," Astrid snapped back.
The three of us had been told to find Bucket and Mulch, since they should have been back two days ago. Dad had said they had gone north, so that's where we'd gone. And now here we were, freezing to death looking for them.
Snotlout commanded Hookfang to flame up, just as I heard shouting from a nearby iceberg.
"Looks like they're in trouble. Come on." We flew closer, realizing the ship that was attacking Bucket and Mulch was a Berserker ship.
"Why would the Berserkers be attacking one of our fishing boats?" Snotlout asked.
"Does it matter?! We need to help Bucket and Mulch!" I responded, as Stormfly shot past me. She threw a couple of her tail spikes at the Berserkers trying to board Bucket and Mulch's boat.
The Berserkers seemed to be scared off, jumping on their boat and leaving. We landed on the iceberg, Bucket and Mulch coming over to us.
"What happened here?" I asked.
"We thought the Berserkers had hit an iceberg," Mulch explained, "an-and so we came to help. They attacked us because we saw it."
"It?" Astrid and I asked.
Bucket and Mulch led us over to the ice. Inside there was a frozen dragon.
"That looks like a dragon," I said, rubbing some frost off the ice.
"Why would the Berserkers be trying to dig a dragon out?" Astrid asked.
"Yeah, don't they know that there's hundreds of other dragons around if they really wanted a dragon?" Snotlout asked.
"I don't know why they wanted it. But I'm going to find out," I said, wondering the same thing.
"Oh, great. Now we have to dig it out?" Snotlout complained.
"Actually, I have a better idea." I looked over at Toothless, who grumbled: "Can't you do it yourself?" before using his fire to melt the ice around the dragon.
Minutes later Astrid, Snotlout, and I were flying back to Berk on our dragons, the frozen dragon in tow. Bucket and Mulch were on their ship, heading back to Berk as well.
Berk Dragon Academy- A Couple Hours Later
"I say we smash it," Snotlout said, getting off of Hookfang after we landed.
We'd taken the dragon to the Academy when we'd gotten home. It was now sitting in the middle of the Academy, still in a block of ice.
"I say we blast it," Tuffnut responded.
"I say we blast it, then smash it," Ruffnut chimed in. She thought a bit before adding, "Then blast it again."
Tuffnut thought his sister was copying him and yelled at her, "Stop saying what I'm saying now!"
"Yeah, that's certainly one approach," I said, wandering over to the dragon. Toothless seemed a little wary around this dragon, but I couldn't figure out why and he hadn't said a word since getting it out of the glacier.
Tuffnut cleared his throat before pointing out, "Good sir, I believe that it is actually three approaches, my fine fellow."
I disregarded it, turning to Fishlegs. "Let's just get a better look at this thing. Fishlegs, give me a slow burn."
"With pleasure." Fishlegs whistles for Meatlug. "Meatlug, lava blast."
Meatlug walks over and and blasts the ice just enough for us to get a clear view. She then walks off tired.
"Nice, Fishlegs." I turned back to the dragon, just as Fishlegs said, "Oh, man."
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked. That looks like a Skrill.
"I think so," Fishlegs responded, "but I've only seen pictures."
"Do you realize how huge this could be, Fishlegs?"
"The word 'epic' comes to mind."
Behind me, I heard Astrid say, "I hate it when they get like this."
"Don't you just?" I heard Snotlout respond. I turned my attention back to Fishlegs.
"I should check the Book of Dragons to be sure about this," Fishlegs said.
"Yeah, good idea," I agreed. "If we're right, this could be big trouble."
Fishlegs and I turned to leave the Academy, Toothless following us. Astrid came up behind us, saying, "If someone doesn't start filling me in, I'm getting my axe."
Just before leaving the arena, I turned back around. We were leaving Snotlout and the twins with what I was thinking was a Skrill. All three were looking devious.
"No one touches that ice while we're gone," I told them. They all held up their hands in surrender.
Great Hall
We walked into the Hall, Book of Dragons in hand. It looked like Bucket and Mulch had returned home, and were filling the council in on what had happened with the Berserkers. Everyone was shouting over what the next course of action should be.
"All right. Calm down," Dad had to practically shout to be heard over everyone.
"This is an act of war," Mulch pointed out to my dad.
"Let's not jump to conclusions about what this attack means," my dad responded, trying to be reasonable for once.
Gobber decided to put his two cents in. "I don't know, Stoick. Seems pretty cut and dried to me. I mean, if you think about it, an attack is an attack. Am I right, people?"
This made the council start shouting over one another again. I walked over to Dad, hearing him say, "And thank you, Gobber."
"Always here to help," Gobber responded.
"I think I know why Dagur's men attacked Bucket and Mulch," I told Dad. This was heard by the council as well, and they quieted down.
"Go on, son," Dad prompted.
"We got a better look at the dragon that Bucket and Mulch found in the ice."
"We found a dragon? Oh, can we keep it? I've always wanted my own dragon, Mulch," Bucket interrupted.
"Uh, it's a Skrill," I pointed out.
"Oh, I don't want one of those," Bucket said. Mulch elbowed him. "Ow!"
Dad turned to me, "Are you sure about this, son?"
Fishlegs was in his element. "Oh, we are sure." He laughed, "Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, Fishlegs!" Fishlegs giggled before coming back to our world. "Sorry, chief. That happens sometimes when we discover a new dragon I get a little-"
I placed the Book on the table, opening it up to the Skrill's page. "Look, it's right here. That is definitely a Skrill.
"And the Skrill is the symbol of the Berserkers," Astrid said in realization.
Dad, Gobber, Fishlegs, Astrid, and I started walking towards the Academy, talking more about what the Skrill was.
"Legend has it the lightning comes from the Skrill's mouth and thunder from its- well, y'know," Gobber said as we walked.
"Remind me never to get behind one," Astrid commented.
Fishlegs, spotting the error in the legend, piped up. "That's actually inaccurate. According to the Book of Dragons, the Skrill drew lightning from the clouds and then redirected it."
"It could use that lightning to hit several targets at once, which is why it was such a feared dragon," I added. Toothless looked a little worried at how excited I seemed to be about this dragon.
"It could also store the lightning in its body and use it later," Fishlegs added, remembering another fact from the Book of Dragons.
"I've heard enough," Dad started. "We need to get rid of that Skrill. It's just the excuse Dagur needs to go to war."
"You all know I love a good fight as good as the next person, but why don't we just give it to them? It's just a frozen dragon carcass after all," Gobber asked.
"Actually," Fishlegs countered, "because of their internal body temperature, Skrills can stay safely frozen for decades."
Coming to a sudden realization, a quiet, "Oh, no" escaped me, as I stopped in my tracks.
"What is it, son?" Dad asked, turning back towards me.
"We, uh, we left the twins and Snotlout with it. I did tell them not to touch the ice, but you know how they are; they don't listen," I responded.
"So let me be clear. This dragon may still be alive and you left Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout to guard it?" Dad didn't sound happy.
"Okay, it sounds much worse when you say it," I replied. "But it's-it's frozen solid in a block of ice. How much damage could it possibly do?"
As if in response to my question, an explosion comes from the Academy. Toothless takes off running towards it. I take off after him, not caring about how fast I'm going or hiding my dragon side.
As I got closer to the Academy, I could feel my lightning start to try and show itself. The closer I got, the stronger it seemed to become. I hadn't gained full control of it yet, and the thought of not being able to control it scared me. I looked down at my hands as I reached the door to the Academy; lightning was crackling around them. I stepped to the side, willing the lightning to hide again, when the Skrill came running past me.
The lightning on my hands started to dissipate as the Skrill flew away. From inside the Academy, I heard Tuffnut say, "I got a plan."
"What is it?" Ruffnut asked, as I thought, They obviously don't realize I'm here.
"Blame Snotlout." As Tuffnut replied, I looked down at my hands. To my relief, the lightning had disappeared completely.
I turned and walked into the Academy. As I did, Snotlout saw me and said, "Their fault," pointing at the twins.
Ruffnut seemed upset. "Hey, he stole our plan!"
I sighed as Dad, Astrid, Fishlegs, and Gobber joined us. "I told you guys to leave it alone."
"It jumped us. Sneaky dragon," Tuffnut tried to defend them.
"From inside a block of ice?" I questioned skeptically.
"Uhhh…" Tuffnut seemed at a loss. "Very sneaky dragon."
"Okay…" Behind me, I heard Dad sigh. "What is it, Dad?"
"When I was a lad," Dad started, "my father's father used to sit me on his knee and tell me stories. I thought they were just tales."
This piqued my curiosity. "Tales about what?"
"Berserker fleets attacking behind harnessed dragons that brought down lightning from the sky and destroyed everything in their path."
"You don't think Berserkers could actually control a Skrill?" I asked, becoming very aware about what this could mean.
"I didn't think anyone could ride a Night Fury." Dad looked at me; I suddenly felt very called out. "We just can't take the chance. If the Berserkers find that Skrill and know some way to control it…"
"We'll find it, Dad. I promise."
The Riders and I climbed onto our dragons and took off, leaving Dad to hope to Odin that we would find the Skrill.
A Few Hours Later
We'd been searching for a few hours and were all starting to get very tired. As Stormfly flew up next to me, I caught a little of what she was saying. The dragons had been talking since we'd taken off, and I hadn't been paying attention, attempting to tune them out.
"Hey, Toothless."
"What?" Toothless responded.
"You don't seem too worried about finding this dragon." Toothless just shook his head. "You realize that Stoick was right, right? If the Berserkers find the Skrill, they will force it to do what they want. We need to find it, or our friends will probably get hurt."
From what I could see of Toothless, it looked like he was shocked by this new piece of information. I was just as shocked as he was, and it must have showed on my face because Astrid asked me what it was that I was thinking about.
"Just something the dragons were talking about," I responded, not wanting to draw anymore attention to myself.
"Ugh, forget what the dragons are talking about. We've been circling the island for hours; I'm starving," Snotlout complained.
I lit up, knowing now how to find this thing. "Snotlout, you just said something unintentionally brilliant."
The dragons and riders looked shocked as I said this. Snotlout then must have realized what I said because he responded with, "Of course I did. What was it again?"
I sighed and facepalmed. "When you wake up in the morning, what's the first thing you want to do?"
"Well, usually I have to…"
"No, after that," I cut him off. I didn't need him to finish that sentence to know where it was going.
"Oh." He facepalmed. "Eat."
"Exactly. Fishlegs, what's the Skrill's food of choice?" I asked.
"I'm pretty sure it likes fish, like most dragons." Fishlegs thought for a moment. "Oh, but the Book of Dragons did say that it prefers sheep if it can get them."
"So, if it didn't leave the island, it may have headed towards one of the farms…"
As if an answer to the question I hadn't asked, lightning struck near the village behind me.
"We may not have to go far," I said, turning Toothless towards the lightning strike.
We landed at Silent Sven's farm, seeing him shaking his fist at the sky. We walked over to him.
"Hey, Sven?" Said Viking turned to look at me. "What happened?"
Sven started trying to mime out what had happened, and I had an idea.
"Was it the Skrill?" He nodded, then went back to trying to mime out what I could now tell was a battle.
A couple minutes later, Sven finished "telling" us what had happened, and Astrid asked, "And then you fought off the Skrill with your head?" for clarification. He nodded.
Astrid and I exchanged a look, just as Snotlout said, "Hey. This guy Silent Sven? Remind me not to rustle any more sheep from his farm." At this, Sven lifted his weapon towards Snotlout, who nervously chuckled.
"Uh, he's silent, not deaf," Fishlegs pointed out, pushing Sven's weapon down. Astrid grabbed Snotlout and threw him behind her.
She turned back towards Sven. "Any idea where the Skrill went?"
Sven shakes his head. I sighed before Fishlegs piped up. "Skrills tend to follow lightning storms." Before he could say anymore, lightning flashed in the distance behind us.
"So that way?" I asked, as we all turned around. We all mounted our dragons and took off towards the storm.
We'd been out in the storm for a few hours and the others were starting to get a bit bored… not to mention Fishlegs was trying to hide his fear by saying it was Meatlug's. I'd just been thinking about turning back to call it a day when thunder crashed around us.
I held up my hand, "Hold up, everybody."
"Okay, now what?" Astrid asked, stopping next to me.
I hardly heard her, being too busy searching the sky for the Skrill. Not seeing it, I thought of my original plan, to go after the Skrill myself. I'd have to slightly modify it, but it was more likely to work than what we were doing at the moment.
"Okay," I said, turning around in my saddle to face them, "everybody stay back. If the Skrill sees only one dragon, maybe it won't attack."
Fishlegs and Astrid didn't seem too happy that I was planning on facing the Skrill by myself, but followed the others into the clouds nonetheless. Shortly after I'd turned back around, the Skrill appeared in front of me. The first thing that came to mind was to calm it down, and the easiest way to do that was by talking to it.
"There, there, fella," I tried.
"Uh, Hiccup that doesn't seem to be working," Toothless pointed out. The Skrill hadn't even been fazed by my talking to it.
"You're right… but what other option do I have here?" The Skrill seemed to perk up and listen when I spoke dragonese.
"Really no other option if we're gonna keep this thing from the Berserkers… But he seems to listen when you speak dragonese, so try that instead of English."
I turned back to the Skrill, "Hey, buddy. You've been asleep for a long time, huh? I'm guessing you're pretty cranky and hungry."
The Skrill flies closer, seemingly interested in how I can speak dragonese. I'm about to say something else when an all too familiar feeling shoots through my hands. I look down and sure enough, my hands are covered with crackling lightning. Now has got to be the worst time for this to happen. I let go of Toothless's saddle, knowing it could affect him otherwise, and the Skrill ended up seeing my hands.
"A Halfling? With my abilities?" the Skrill questions. Before I can answer him, a flaming boulder nearly causes me to fall off of Toothless. With my attention turned away from my lightning, it dissipates, just as the source of the attack comes into view.
"Oh, no. Is that-?" I start to question.
"Surprise, surprise, Hiccup!" Dagur yells from the deck of his ship. "Now get your dainty little hands off my Skrill!"
"Guys, get out of range before they reload!" I yell to the Riders.
"Already ahead of you," Fishlegs responds, already headed for the clouds.
We regroup on a sea stack not too far away. Snotlout looks a little out of it when he lands.
"Uh, is he okay?" I ask, pointing to Snotlout.
"Oh, he's better than okay! Did you see that lightning bolt he took to the head?" Tuffnut answers.
He must have gotten hit when we were attacked, I thought. The Skrill had panicked after Dagur's men had first fired at us and had attacked us, believing we'd led it into a trap.
Hearing what Tuff had said, Snotlout looked pissed and attempted to respond, but it came out as babble. He appeared extremely frustrated after realizing he couldn't talk.
Astrid landed next to me, "Tuff's right, he's better than okay."
I laughed, Snotlout unable to talk was practically a miracle. This made Snotlout try to respond angrily yet again.
"And he's making more sense than usual," Astrid added. This time I did my best to hold back my laugh.
As the rest of the gang started laughing, I got thinking. We needed a plan, and we needed it fast. Dagur had a Skrill and could control it, which meant that Berk was in danger.
"Okay," I started, causing the laughter to stop, "Snotlout's out of it, so we'll-"
I was interrupted by Snotlout babbling something.
"Snotlout, we have no idea what you're saying."
"Sure, we do," Tuffnut corrected. "He said, 'I'm perfectly fine.'"
We all gave Tuff looks of confusion. Well, except Snotlout, who tried to say the same thing.
"Said it again," Tuff told us, then turned to Snotlout. "I told 'em."
Snotlout said something in response that Tuff didn't bother translating. Seeing the rest of our confused looks Tuff said, "What? I speak post-lightning Snotlout."
"How many times has this kid been hit by lightning?" I asked, suddenly a little concerned about his health, though I couldn't tell you why.
"Often enough," was Tuff's response, to which Snotlout seemed to correct. Tuff translated this one, "Twelve… Oh, really? Twelve times."
Snotlout babbled again, while Tuff translated. "He said, 'Enough talk. Dagur's all mine. And Tuffnut is the toughest of us all.'" Snotlout seemed to try and yell at Tuff, who corrected himself, "He implied the last part."
I groaned, turning to Astrid. "Well, you heard the man, Astrid. Take Snotlout and Fishlegs and try to keep the Berserker ships occupied. The Twins and I will go after the Skrill. If Dagur gets his hands on it first, we won't stand a chance."
Astrid looked concerned, "Be careful. The lightning is attracted to metal, and you two are wearing a lot more of it than the rest of us." I nodded and we flew off to do our separate jobs.
Once safely hidden in the clouds, I stopped to explain the plan to the twins. If I could get the Skrill alone to talk to it, I might just be able to calm it down enough to befriend it.
"Okay, guys," I started, "I think I might have a plan to get the Skrill into the water, but it's risky."
"You, my friend, are speaking our language," Tuff commented.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, so basically, you two are gonna fly blindly through the cloud and have Barf let out as much gas as possible. Don't let Belch ignite it til you get to the other side."
Tuffnut's only response to it: "Feel my heart, because it comes forth and is bursting through my chest."
I continued, "Hopefully the blast will drive the Skrill out of the cloud toward Toothless and I, where we can knock it down with a plasma blast." The last thing I wanted to do was possibly hurt this dragon, but at the moment, this was our best option.
"That's a lot of gas. Do you have any idea how big a blast that will be?" Tuffnut asked excitedly.
I gulped, thinking about it. "No."
The twins suddenly looked really excited. "Me neither!" Tuffnut exclaimed. "How awesome is this?" The twins flew off into the storm.
I pulled Toothless up so he would stop. This way we could wait for the twins to drive the skrill out; however, I was not expecting Toothless to question my plan.
"So your plan is to hurt the Skrill to keep it from Dagur?" Toothless asked. "If you're actually serious about befriending him, that's probably the worst idea you've ever come up with."
"I wasn't planning on hurting him, just a small blast to knock him into the water so we can catch him. That way we can keep him away from Dagur," I reasoned. "Besides, do you have a better idea?"
He remained quiet, so I took that as a no. I turned my attention back to the clouds in front of us waiting for the blast from the twins and the skrill to show himself.
The twins' blast lights up the cloud more than I was anticipating. The Skrill, not liking the sudden burst of light, dives, nearly crashing into Toothless and I. We take off, chasing it through the sky. As the Skrill turns to climb higher, I realize this is our chance, we may not get another one at this point.
"Alright, bud," I tell Toothless. "Just a small one, just enough to knock him down."
Toothless does as I asked him to, but the Skrill must have heard it coming, as he turns and fires his own blast at Toothless's. The two blasts collide and seem to cancel out. It surprises me, but it doesn't take long to figure something else out. Toothless remains quiet, trusting my decisions at this point. He fires multiple shots at the Skrill, but the Skrill shoots each one down, before deciding to take the offensive. The Skrill flies back into the clouds to pull lightning from the storm around us.
"This is bad," I told Toothless as we both watched him disappear.
The Skrill came back out from the clouds and had crackling lightning around him. He started coming after us, and Toothless took off without letting me know.
"This is worse!" I yelled as I glanced behind me and saw the Skrill hot on Toothless's tail. "Toothless, wait! I want to try and talk to him!"
"Hiccup," Toothless answered, dodging a blast from the Skrill, "this dragon is trying to hurt you at the moment, and you want to talk to it? With Dagur here?" When I didn't answer, he sighed. "I understand why you want to talk to him, but we both need to focus on not getting shot down right now. We can try talking to him again, but we need to get him alone first, okay?"
I sighed. "Yeah, you're right. But to get him alone, we need to get Dagur off his tail, and that's not going to be easy."
Dagur was doing everything he could to catch the Skrill and was faring about as well as I was, and seemed pleased that I was having so much difficulty. The Skrill shot at Toothless and I again, this time much too close for comfort. I looked down at my hands, which had started to spark after the lightning had shot over my head. Given how dark it was, if I didn't get it under control soon, I risked the chance of everyone seeing it, and the Riders were the only ones who knew about my dragon side, even if they didn't know about the lightning. I let go of Toothless's saddle knowing that if I held onto it much longer like this, there was a good chance I could hurt him with it because there was metal throughout the saddle, including where I held on.
"Toothless, that one made my hair stand up… we need a plan and fast!" As Toothless turned nearly vertical to gain more altitude, I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. When I opened my eyes again, the sparks around my hands were gone, which was a good thing as Toothless was nearly vertical and if I didn't grab the saddle soon, I was going to fall off him.
As Toothless and I climbed higher, I noticed the Skrill seemed to change targets off of us and onto the twins. Toothless dove after the Skrill again, seemingly having a plan of his own. As the Skrill fired at the twins, Toothless shot off his own blast, the two meeting in the middle and causing all of us to be thrown back. Toothless and I fell onto Dagur's ship, where he turned to face me as I recovered.
"Hiccup." Dagur started towards me with his axe.
Not wanting to deal with that, I quickly got to my feet and ran towards Toothless. "Sorry about your deck," I smirked, climbing onto Toothless.
We took off and headed straight up, out of range of Dagur's nets and arrows. After meeting up with the others, I asked, "Did anyone see where the Skrill went?" I hadn't seen it after it's blast collided with Toothless's. After a round of no's from everyone there, I sighed, looking around.
"Anyone see where the twins went?" Fishlegs asked. Oh no. In my focus on the Skrill, I'd forgotten the twins had been caught in that shockwave as well and weren't nearly as experienced with recovering from something like that as Toothless and I were.
"Okay, guys, we need to find them."
"Hiccup, it's late. We're all tired, including our dragons. Maybe we should head home and look for them in the morning," Astrid suggested.
Snotlout babbled something, and I really didn't need Tuffnut to know what he probably said. It had sounded like a complaint, so it was most likely something about needing his beauty sleep.
They were right though. We needed to find the twins, but our rest was also important. "Alright gang, one more search around here and then we look for them as we head home, deal?" The Riders all nodded and spread out. I could tell they weren't looking super hard, they were tired and just wanted to head home, I understood the feeling. But we needed to find the twins.
As I saw the last of the Riders head back towards home, I had Toothless turn that way as well. Even if I didn't want to rest til the twins were found, I could at least make sure the others made it home.
"I'm thinking we're not heading out as Night Rider tonight, then?" Toothless asked.
"No, not tonight, we'll hit Hysteria tomorrow night, after the twins are found and back home."
Toothless shuddered at the mention of Hysteria. I knew how he felt about it, and I honestly didn't blame him. The Hysterics were not a tribe you wanted to mess with, and their chief, Norbert the Nutjob, was the worst Viking to come across. He's the reason I always found it very difficult to believe people when they claimed my father was the most frightening; they had clearly never met Norbert. Although, to be honest, I'd only met him once before Night Rider, and now seeing him was almost a weekly occurrence.
I was pulled from my thoughts as we neared the village. "Alright guys, I will see you back here in the morning. All of you go get some rest." I yelled to them as we passed the Academy. Toothless and I flew down to land in the arena.
After downing almost the entire trough of water that was there, Toothless came over and put his head in my lap.
"We're going back out, aren't we?"
"Yeah, I just figured I'd let you rest a little."
"You have wings of your own, why don't you use them?"
"Because if we do find the twins, they've never seen my Halfling form and probably don't even remember that I have a dragon side. It's better just to play it safe and have you fly, not me.
"I promise once the twins are found and we're both well rested, I will go for a nice long flight where you don't have to even lift a wing."
"Yeah, and it'll probably be to Hysteria cause it's going to take several hours to recover from you keeping me up all night."
"Yeah, yeah, I get it. You think you're good to go again?"
He sat back and stared at me. "If I said no, would you believe me?"
"Probably not."
"Then, yeah, I'm fine. Let's go. The sooner we find these idiots, the sooner we can sleep."
I chuckled and climbed onto his back. As we took off, we met Fishlegs and Meatlug coming back. I hadn't even realized that they hadn't been with the rest of us.
"Hiccup, any sign of them yet?" Fishlegs asked.
"None," I responded. I really wanted to get back out there to look for the twins, as annoying as they were. "The other Riders have come in for the night. They're resting their dragons."
"I don't blame them. I mean, look at Meatlug," he gestured down towards her. "She's sleep-flying."
I inwardly chuckled a little. "I got some provisions, I'm heading back out."
"Wait," Fishlegs suddenly looked a little concerned, "what are you gonna do? Fly all night?"
I paused for a moment, "If I have to, yes."
"Are you sure that's a good idea?"
"Well, as annoying as the twins might be, I can't rest knowing they're lost out there somewhere."
Fishlegs sighed, "You're right. I, uh, we'll go with you." As he spoke, Meatlug fell from the sky, fully falling asleep.
It's not safe for them to come with us. "No, looks like you guys need some rest. We'll be fine." Fishlegs nodded, and headed back to town.
One Hour Later - Just Over Outcast Island
"Hiccup, this storm has gotten worse since we've been out here," Toothless started. "We need to head home before one of us gets hurt or lost out here."
"I know, bud." I looked around for a possible island to land on. It wasn't going to be safe for us to fly back to Berk at this point, we'd probably never make it. The only island in sight was the last one I wanted to land on at this point, but we didn't have a choice. "Outcast Island." Toothless growled. "I know, but we've got no choice. We have to set down and wait out the storm."
Grumbling about not wanting to spend any time on Outcast Island, Toothless dived down to land silently on the island. We crept closer to the arena, to see what all of the commotion was about. Given that it was as late as it was, this many outcasts being up and working was more concerning than anything else.
I glanced over at Toothless, then back at the arena in front of me. "That's a lot of Outcasts. What are you up to, Alvin?"
"All I know is he's planning something big with that Skrill."
"Ah!" I jumped. Ruffnut was crouched right next to me, observing the arena just as I had been. "Alvin has the Skrill?" Then it hit me. In front of me was one of the people I'd been looking for. "Wai- Ruff? You're-you're alive!" I ran a hand through my hair. "I-I-I don't believe it! Wh-where's Tuff?"
Ruffnut's expression suddenly turned sad. "He didn't make it, Hiccup."
"WHAT?!"
Ruffnut's smile suddenly changed to a grin. "Kidding! He's right behind you."
I turned around and saw nothing but a tree. A little looking to the sides didn't reveal him either.
"What's up, Hiccup?" Came Tuffnut's voice. From the tree. I gave the tree a questioning look. "Cool disguise, huh? Ha… It's kinda itchy."
"Uh, yeah…" I didn't know what to say. "Not bad."
"Yeah, yeah," Ruffnut dismissed it, waving her hand. "Tuff hollowed out that tree so he couldn't be seen. Problem is he can't move."
"And I have bark beetles in my pants. I'm starting to like them." I really didn't want to know what he meant by that. "Hey, fellas. A little to the left. Really scratch around down there. See what you can find."
I shook my head. "That's an image I could do without." I thought for a moment. "Wait a second, how did you guys end up here?" I looked at Ruffnut.
"Alvin grabbed the Skrill out of the water, we decided to follow it," she replied.
"Weird, right?" Tuffnut added, from the tree.
"No, actually, it was good that you followed it," I told them. Because they had followed it, we knew where it was, and could figure out what was being planned with it.
"We knew that." Tuffnut hesitated. "That's, why we did it."
I pinched the bridge of my nose and shook my head. "Okay…" I turned my attention back towards the arena. "Let's figure out what Alvin plans on doing with that dragon.
As we watched, the Outcasts pulled the dragon out into the arena. "There it is." Behind me, I heard Tuffnut comment, "Yeah…"
I ignored his comment, staying focused on the dragon in front of me. This dragon could still pull lightning from the clouds overhead, but being tied up was going to hinder that a little. I couldn't quite hear what Alvin was saying but from what I could make out, he was planning to use the dragon against Berk. "This is not good…"
Behind me, Tuffnut continued to comment from the tree. "No."
"We are in serious trouble."
"With a capital 'T', no, 'S'. Wait, would you capitalize 'serious' or 'trouble'? Both?" Finally annoyed with his comments, I turned and grunted, glaring at the tree. "I'll shut up now."
Good. I thought as I turned back to the arena just as Mildew walked out into it. "Hang on. Mildew?" Behind him, a few soldiers walked out, but they weren't Outcasts. "That's weird, those look like Berserker soldiers." Scanning the arena one more time, I finally noticed Dagur walking up behind Mildew and Alvin. "Dagur!" This really isn't good. "Dagur and Alvin working together? With the Skrill? Really not good." I turned towards the twins. As much as I hated it, they were my only hope at the moment, since the rest of the Riders were back on Berk and had no idea where any of us were.
"We have to sneak into town and find out what Dagur and Alvin are up to. I can't go, they'd recognize me. Ruff?"
Ruffnut shook her head, "Outcast food gives me gas."
I sighed, shaking my head. "Yet another image I can live without. Okay, Tuff! Looks like you're up." I turned back towards where he'd been in the tree. Except he'd somehow gotten out of it and was standing next to it. "You need to go down there and get as much info as you can without being seen."
"Way ahead of you." Tuffnut started walking towards the cliff. "I'll move like the wind. They'll never even see me coming!" he started crawling around, but got too close to the edge and fell off the cliff.
I facepalmed. We'd be lucky if this worked.
Tuffnut - Outcast Village
After falling off the cliff, I stood up and shook out. I'd fallen off of enough cliffs in my life that it didn't really bother me anymore at this point. I walked over to the entrance to the arena. It was being guarded by an Outcast guard.
"Halt!" the guard held up his hand. "What are you doing there? And who are you?"
I froze. I hadn't counted on getting stopped like this. "Who am I? I'm uh - I'm Buffnut. Yep! That's it!" That worked, even if it wasn't a whole lot different from my real name. "Berserker Buffnut. 'BB' they call me. Ol' Buffynut. I was sent by Dagur to check your defenses. Yep! I gotta check 'em out. See if they're strong."
The guard seemed to believe it, which didn't surprise me. I'm pretty good at acting, if I do say so myself. "Oh, yes! Yes, sir! I'm ready for anything." The guard saluted me, which I hadn't been expecting.
I had to keep this up, but figure out where the meeting was. I couldn't let Hiccup down, he was trusting me to figure out Alvin and Dagur's plan with the Skrill. "Okay, good. Now… where's the big meeting? You know, the powwow."
The guard looked a little confused, "You mean Alvin and Dagur?"
I had to keep the act up, and the guard had saluted me before, so I decided to take on a bit of authority. "Did you seriously just ask me that, soldier?! If you think I know the answer, you are sorely mistaken, mister? Did you just ask me that? I've forgotten." It wasn't my fault I had a horrible memory.
The guard looked even more confused, "Uh, so do you want to know?"
"Don't sass me! I'm still talking about whether or not you did seriously just ask me that!"
"Alvin's throne room. Just opposite the harbor." The guard blurted out, completely ignoring my last statement. "They're celebrating the treaty, sir."
"Awesome." I went to walk down there, but then paused. "Ju-uh, just-uh, stand there, at attention. Straight-straight back. A healthy sine is a happy spine. My fine fellow." That seemed good, so I took off down the road towards the harbor. I found the building the guard had been talking about and slipped inside. I stayed along the wall listening to what was going on.
Alvin and Dagur were talking strategy at a long table. I found a table of food and started helping myself. If I was going to blend in, helping myself to food like the others was going to help.
As I was helping myself though, one thing Alvin said caught my attention. "First, I get Berk. Then, and only then, do you get the Skrill."
Hiccup might be happy about that. From the sound of it, Dagur wouldn't have the Skrill until after they attacked Berk.
Next thing I know, there's an axe at my neck, and on the other end of it is Dagur. "Who are you?"
I swallowed, knowing I needed to choose my words carefully. "Uh, me?" I had to think back to what I'd told the guard. "I'm, uh- I'm Buffnut. You know, Buffnut the Berserker."
Dagur dropped his axe in surprise. "You're one of mine? What were you doing back there?"
Good improv requires quick thinking, which, thankfully, I'm good at. "Uh, well, I was, uh, composing a poem in honor of your new deal with Alvin, and I got hungry, 'cause poetry is very exhausting. Geez, you gotta have a little something every six lines."
Of course Dagur believed it, but now I was in trouble. He wanted to hear what I'd supposedly written. He'd threatened to chop my legs off if he didn't like it. I needed those. I thought for a minute, "There once was a village called Berk, run by a big viking jerk." This won't ever get home, right? The chief would have my head if he ever heard that I'd called him a jerk. "Blasting him would be thrilling, then you'd go a-skrilling. And show us how to be… berserk?"
Dagur looked a little surprised. "I, would go, a-skrilling?" He hesitated and I held my breath. "Ha, I like it!" I breathed a sigh of relief as Dagur clapped me on the back. "You can keep your legs! In fact, yak ribs and burly cakes for my friend Buffnut!"
As Dagur led me over to the table, Mildew saw me. Suddenly, I realized the problem with Hiccup's plan. Mildew used to live on Berk, he would recognize me. And it seemed like he did. He tried yelling something, but he must have gotten struck by lightning at some point, cause he sounded like Snotlout did when he did.
Dagur brushed him off, "Oh, what is your village babbler going on about now?"
I pushed him down trying to crack jokes to pull their attention away from Mildew. The last thing I needed was to be found out now. "Uh, so did I mention how much I hate Berk?" I laughed. "Hey directions to Berk! North til you smell it, west til you step in it. Am I right, people?"
The Outcasts cracked right up, and I even seemed to get a chuckle out of both Dagur and Alvin too. Mildew popped back up trying to say something. I pushed him away. "Great idea, babbler! A song! I should sing a song. So…" I had to think. All of the songs I knew were Berkian, so I couldn't start singing those, I had to come up with one these guys would like. "Hooligan tribe, won't you come out tonight, come out tonight, come out tonight. Hooligan tribe, won't you come out tonight or die by the light of the moon. Oh, by the light of the moon. Oh, by the light of the moon. Remember to use your fork and your knife and also use your spoon." I sang, the guards laughed, joining in a little. A little longer and the Outcasts were all singing together again. In all of it, I was able to sneak out, back up to Hiccup and Ruffnut to explain what I had found out.
Hiccup - A Cliff Overlooking Outcast Village
Tuffnut came back looking pretty pleased with himself and winded. One of those alone may have been a little concerning, but both? I hoped to Odin he hadn't been found out, except we would have known if he was.
"The plan is to smash those dirty Berkians to pieces with both fleets! It's gonna be awesome!" Tuffnut explained once he'd caught his breath.
"Yeah, uh," then something about how he'd said it hit me. "You do realize we're the Berkians?"
Tuffnut's mood dropped a little, "Oh, right. Still gonna be awesome!"
I turned away from Tuffnut. We knew what they were planning now, and it was exactly what I'd been afraid of. "Two fleets and a Skrill are gonna be pretty tough to beat."
"No," Tuffnut corrected me. I turned back towards him. "Alvin has made it pretty clear. Dagur doesn't get the Skrill until after they destroy Berk. I think they have trust issues."
That caught my attention. "Wait, what did you say?"
"I said they have trust issues."
"No, you said 'Dagur doesn't get the Skrill until after the attack.' Think about it. No Skrill, no alliance. No alliance, no invasion." Now we just need a way to get the Skrill out of there without being seen. I wish the other Riders were here. "Tuff, I need you to get back into town and distract the arena guards. Toothless and I are going to free that Skrill."
Tuffnut said something in response, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was instead looking towards the arena, figuring out where they might be keeping the Skrill, and how I was going to get in there and free it without becoming Night Rider.
Toothless and I landed just outside the arena. The arena guards were completely knocked out. "Good job, Tuff. That was quick."
I got off of Toothless and we headed into the arena and towards the cages. Since we'd both been here before to free dragons, I had an idea of where they might be keeping the Skrill.
Tuffnut came running up behind me. "Oh, good. I thought I was too late. Nice job with those guards, by the way."
"Wha-what are you talking about?" I questioned, looking at him. "And where's the Skrill?" The only cage in the arena was empty, which meant Tuffnut and I may have just walked into a trap.
"Uh-oh."
"Uh, yeah, 'uh-oh.'"
"Well, if you don't have the Skrill, and I don't have the Skrill, then who has the Skrill?"
As Tuffnut finished asking the question, I heard voices getting closer. I grabbed Tuffnut's arm and pulled him around behind a weapons rack with me.
"Wha- Hey!"
I shushed him. "There's someone coming. We need to be quiet if we want to get out of here."
I peeked out from behind the weapons rack and watched the Outcasts that had walked into the arena do the same thing Tuffnut and I had: realize the Skrill had disappeared.
One of the guards turned and yelled to one of the guards in a watchtower, "The Skrill is gone! Sound the alarm!"
Chaos ensued with Outcasts grabbing weapons and running towards the docks. They're probably heading for ships to go looking for it in the skies. I can't go running out, I'll be caught if I do. I glanced over at Tuffnut. He can go get Ruffnut and get out of here easier than I can.
"Tuff, you go get Ruff. I'm gonna try and find the Skrill before Dagur does." Without waiting for him to respond, I jumped on Toothless and flew off, trying to stay out of sight of the Outcasts. They didn't pay us any attention.
As I got closer to the docks, I spotted the Berserker ships pulling out of harbor. As I got closer, I saw Alvin on a ship pulling up next to Dagur's. As I watched from a distance, they seemed to start arguing over the Skrill, which was still nowhere to be seen.
As they were arguing, Dagur cut ropes on the sail, showing Alvin, and I, the Skrill held in place by ropes. Alvin, older and more experienced, was winning the fight and had disarmed Dagur as I urged Toothless to get closer. As we got closer to the Skrill, I could feel my own lightning trying to show itself. I pushed it back down, knowing that if it was seen, it would bring up questions I wouldn't be able answer.
While I was distracted, Dagur had taken the ropes holding the Skrill, giving him a weapon that I wasn't going to be able to take on easily.
"That's not good," I looked down at Toothless, then back at the Skrill. "We need to come up with a new plan, and fast." I pulled on his saddle to turn around and figure things out.
With a new plan in place, I directed Toothless back towards the harbor, arriving just as Dagur was saying something about luring us out to capture us.
"Why wait?" I yelled. "I'm right here. Me and my Night Fury." Dagur turned around. "I thought we could settle this like real vikings, just you and me."
Dagur smacked Savage aside and jumped onto the ship the Skrill was hovering over. "You and your Night Fury against me and my Skrill, I like those odds!" Dagur took hold of the ropes hanging from the Skrill, laughing maniacally.
Dagur pulled on the ropes, making the Skrill fire at Toothless and I. Toothless took off, following my plan. We needed to lure Dagur and the Skrill away from the fleet of ships. If we didn't, it'd be far too many people to take on.
As we got out over the cliffs, I had Toothless fire back towards Dagur, not aiming to hit him though. Dagur laughed in response, "Oh, is that all? I was expecting more of a fight!"
"So was I." I responded.
After avoiding one more blast from the Skrill, I noticed Dagur standing in a puddle on the cliff. Water was a lot like metal when it came to lightning, it channeled it.
"Any last words, Hiccup?" Dagur laughed, looking right at me.
Toothless landed on the cliff facing Dagur. I shrugged, "I got nothin', how 'bout you, bud?" Toothless roared in response, firing at the Skrill. The Skrill, to protect itself, pulled lightning from the clouds, which in turn traveled down to Dagur, just about frying him completely. He let go of the ropes and fell forward off the cliff.
I looked down towards him as he passed out. "I, uh, don't think he's gonna be leading an invasion anytime soon."
Toothless chuckled, just before avoiding a blast from the Skrill. We took off, the Skrill hot on Toothless's tail. "We need to lose him." I'd almost given up my hope of befriending this dragon. We'd done way too much to it, it'd likely never trust us.
I spotted a glacier not to far, and had an idea. I just hoped the twins had paid attention and were following like I'd asked them too. "Scratch that, we need him to follow us!" I turned Toothless towards the glacier, hoping to the gods that he'd trust my judgement without a second thought this one time.
The Skrill followed us directly into an ice cave in the glacier. After a few tight turns, I told Toothless to land. I wanted to try one more thing before freezing this dragon back in the ice. I jumped off of Toothless, changing into my Halfling form. When the Skrill came around the corner, I held both hands out in front of me, standing in front of Toothless.
"Hey there." The Skrill stopped and looked at me, still hovering. "I don't wanna hurt you, anymore than I already might've. And I know your upset…you haven't been treated very well since you woke up, huh?"
The Skrill landed. "Never seen a Halfling with the abilities and appearance of a Skrill before." He came a little closer, sniffing me and walking around me.
I froze. I had no idea how this dragon was going to act, as I'd never encountered something like this before. Not to mention he'd mentioned that I looked like a Skrill? Last I'd checked, I very much looked like a Night Fury. I looked at my hands and arms, then down at my tail, which was curled around my feet. The Skrill was right, at some point between last night, when Toothless and I had made our run to the Peacable Islands, and now, my Halfling form had changed. My scales, instead of being completely black, now had hints of a metallic purple in them, and my tailfins had more spikes to them. From what I could tell, I now looked like someone had smashed the appearances of both the Night Fury and the Skrill together.
The Skrill stopped in front of me, eyeing me closely. "I take it you didn't always loook like this?"
"No," I paused, "no, I didn't. I don't know what changed." I looked up at the Skrill.
"I've met my fair share of Halflings in my day. From what I can tell, you must have bonded with another dragon…without realizing it." He met my gaze. "That may explain why I felt like I couldn't hurt you."
I glanced back at Toothless, who had relaxed a little and was sitting behind me, watching the exchange. Turning back towards the Skrill, I asked, "Are you saying that, unknowingly and unintentionally, I bonded with you?" If that was the case, what did that mean for me and Toothless? I still appeared to have my Night Fury abilities, but I didn't think Halflings could bond with more than one dragon.
"It would appear that way, yes. There's really one way to know for sure." I eyed him, urging him to continue. "If we're actually bonded, like you and your Shadow back there," he nodded back towards Toothless, "you'll have a similar marking to the one you get with him on the other arm."
I glanced back towards Toothless again, who shrugged. "I would listen too him, Hiccup. He seems to know what he's talking about."
I sighed, pulling up my right sleeve. I looked down at my forearm, there was the faint, almost scar-like outline of a Skrill, with its wings wrapped around my wrist, just like the Night Fury on my left arm. I looked, back up at the Skrill, who I appeared to be bonded with.
"It's there, isn't it?" he asked. All I did was nod. "So, what's your plan now? Cause something tells me you were originally going to freeze me back in here."
"That, uh, was the plan, yes. If you kept coming after me," I replied tentatively. "But now, I guess you get to come home with me?" I shrugged.
"That would only make sense."
"Hiccup-" Toothless starts, only to be cut off.
"Hey, Hiccup! Why do you get to have all the fun?" Tuffnut yelled down the crack in the ice above us. He must only be able to see Toothless, or he probably wouldn't have recognized me.
I sighed, looking at Toothless. "You were saying?"
"I was going to say that most Vikings aren't too keen on me being around, much less a Skrill. How do you plan on getting him home and having him live with us?"
"We'll figure that second part out later. Right now-"
"Yeah, Hiccup! This job was made for us!" I heard Ruffnut yell down.
"Right now," I turned towards the Skrill, "you need to go, um…" he nodded, understanding what I was saying as I gestured towards my arm. "We need to make it look like we're still sealing you inside the glacier, or I'll be very heavily questioned on it, okay?" The Skrill, I really need to name him, nodded. I stretched my hand out towards him, lightly touching his nose. He disappeared in a bolt of lightning that seemed to travel up my arm. I shook my head a little, thinking that would take some getting used to. Changing back to my human form, I climbed back onto Toothless and flew up through the crack. Once we were out, the twins sealed the crack and we headed back home. The Skrill had said one small thing just to let me know that he was there, but remained silent since. It was a little unsettling.
Once we got back to Berk and assured everyone that we were no longer in danger from the Skrill, Toothless and I headed to the Cove where we could talk to the Skrill, who I had named Lightning, in alone. We were able to figure out that he would stay in his tattoo unless Toothless were alone, outside of the village.
Toothless and I also explained my outings as Night Rider to Lightning and he seemed completely on board with them and even offered to help with them if he needed to, which would be a hard one to explain to Dad should it ever happen.