Alright. Chapter 7 is here! It actually took me longer than I expected to finish it, but more on that below. For now, enjoy!
Character names for those who need it:
- Solveig and Edvard Hofferson
- Majken and Gisli Ingerman
- Ebba and Gerik Thorston
- Fjola and Spitelout Jorgenson
- Björn Persson
Chapter 7
Valka had a feeling all day that something would happen that night. That feeling was proven to be correct when, in the early hours of the morning, while it was still dark outside, another raid happened. It had been longer than usual since the last raid, almost a month, and the dragons therefore seemed angrier than ever.
Since her discovery of the dragons' peaceful nature she had managed to convince the villagers to only attack when directly provoked and otherwise make sure that children, elders, and any other defenceless people would be safe in the Great Hall where possible fire and angry dragons wouldn't reach them.
As soon as she woke from the horn being blown, she got up and went to Hiccup's room, waking him and urging him to leave. He quickly reached for his satchel and the plush dragon she had made him after she befriended Cloudjumper and together they made their way to the Great Hall where Solveig waved at them.
"I thought with Fishlegs still sick, Hiccup should better stay with us" she opened the conversation. Astrid, almost four years old, sat on the bench next to her, playing with a tiny wooden axe while her two-year-old brother Arved was sleeping in his mother's arms.
"Thank you, Solveig. I guess, I better go outside again."
"Bye mommy!" Hiccup called after her as she headed out.
The last thing she heard before the doors closed behind her was him asking Astrid to join her game.
The raid was bad. There was no other way to describe it. Dragons were everywhere, stealing livestock and pillaging the store houses. Everywhere houses were on fire and, of course, Vikings were fighting dragons and vice versa.
She knew that Cloudjumper would likely be somewhere up there, trying to protect the village from the dragons. But one dragon against an entire flock didn't do much of a difference.
All she could do was hoping that the dragons would leave soon. She personally didn't care whether they'd do that with or without their haul.
As she walked through the village, occasionally shouting at Viking to stop fighting, the fire brigade rushed past her to put out one of the burning houses and spontaneously she decided to join them.
Hours later Valka collapsed onto her bed, exhausted. She should have anticipated that the raid would be long but she didn't. Solveig had offered to care for Hiccup for the day which Valka gladly accepted. Gobber would lead the village in her stead until noon. That's how long he gave her to catch up with sleep.
Or at least, that was the plan. Instead she was woken by fists pounding on her door, followed by the sound of the creaking hinges as it was opened and Gobber's voice calling her name.
Still sleepy she went into the main room.
"Sorry to wake you up, Valka" Gobber started the conversation as soon as he saw her. "But that dragon of yours just emerged from the forest. In broad daylight. And people are seeing him!"
Valka felt her eyes widen before she rushed outside, running up the hill to the forest.
The small crowd had gathered not far from where the dragon was waiting for her. Thankfully nobody was pointing any weapons at him. Still, Cloudjumper appeared to be nervous as he kept glancing back to the forest while she neared him.
"Hey, big boy, what's going on?" she tried to soothe him, reaching out her hand in a comforting manner.
What happened next surprised her immensely. Cloudjumper shied away from her touch and bounded off into the forest.
"Cloudjumper!" she called out as she ran after him.
When she reached him, she stopped dead in her tracks. Cloudjumper was shielding another dragon from view, significantly smaller than the Stormcutter and covered in black scales. The only touch of colour were his bright green eyes.
"Is this why you wouldn't let me touch you just now?"
Cloudjumper gave the dragon version of a nod and she carefully closed the distance between herself and the two dragons and touched Cloudjumper's nose while making sure the young dragon saw her doing so.
"It can't be" she murmured as she carefully examined him from a closer distance.
After making sure the young dragon was alright and telling Cloudjumper to continue keeping him safe, Valka had called for a council meeting with the whole village present where she explained how she had befriended the dragon.
Of course her story was unbelievable to most of them, so she suggested to move the meeting outside where she'd be able to show them proof of her words.
"I will not be in danger when he nears me" she told the gathered crowd. "So please, don't draw your weapons against him."
Afterwards she shouted for Cloudjumper and he excitedly ran towards her, only to stop when he saw the crowd.
Valka heard gasps from behind her and the unmistakable sound of somebody drawing their sword. She turned around. "What did I say about weapons?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Sorry, got nervous" a voice answered from somewhere in the middle and the sword was pushed back into its sheath.
Having anticipated Cloudjumper to hesitate, she had brought a fish for him, using it to beckon him closer.
"There you are" she smiled when he pressed his face to her hand after swallowing the fish.
"We can't just have dragons live here!" Spitelout exclaimed.
Following the whole village witnessing her and Cloudjumper interacting, the council resumed the meeting, this time without the village present to discuss the matter in private.
"Of course we can. Cloudjumper has been living here for almost four years and you didn't even notice" Valka tried to argue with the older man. "He even has been protecting the village during raids."
"I'm not endangering my family and everyone else on this island so you can have your pet!" Spitelout brought his hand down on the table with a resounding bang.
"Now, now, Spitelout. Nobody said anything about danger" Gobber spoke up. Valka was glad to have the blacksmith on her side.
"And he isn't a pet. Cloudjumper is as free as you and me. I couldn't lock him up."
"Why can't we just continue in Stoick's ways? He wouldn't have dragons living here." Spitelout kept stubbornly standing his ground.
"You might be right about this. But I am not Stoick! And maybe you should get used to my ways."
"Your ways?" Spitelout's face was starting to turn red with anger. "You're not even chief!"
"Spitelout!" Mulch decided to join the conversation. "We named Valka acting chief until Hiccup is old enough to take over!"
"Acting chief doesn't mean the same as chief. Valka doesn't have as much power of decision."
The argument was interrupted by Phlegma the Fierce. "Stop it, all of you! None of you will be able to find common ground while you're as agitated as right now!" She was silent for a while. "Valka, you have my consent to have the Stormcutter and the young Night Fury living in your house. Spitelout, you are only allowed to decide for your own home. And: You are not obligated to take in a dragon." With these words the older woman got up and left the Hall.
I didn't think that second to last scene would be such a challenge to write. In my first two tries I included the village meeting but I always got stuck about halfway through. On try number 3 I decided to skip it and, after rewriting a sentence here and there, that worked. But the hardest was actually the last scene. In my first draft the flow was too fast and I had to rewrite several times to be somewhat satisfied. Big thanks go to Anonymous Noob the 2nd, whose offer to be my beta I gladly accepted.
Thank you so much for reading. See ya next time!
Answering the reviews:
Skumi: Thank you so much for your review! I have some ideas for when we near the time of the first movie, but that's still a lot of chapters away.
CHSHiccstrid: I love your review so much! Every time I read it, it makes me laugh. I guess that Björn's one-time-appearance really was too little to judge him but I've got plans for him. I have been wanting to put Hiccup into the forge since before I started writing the story. It makes me so happy to know that you like that.
Guest: Thank you so much for your review and for emphasising Gobber's point once more. I always proof-read my chapters before posting them but sometimes little errors slip through, nonetheless. Also, English isn't my native language and even though I've been fluent for over ten years now, I'm still learning. If you want to, feel free to point out the mistakes I make so I'll be able to correct them.
Lucasdiaz9000: Thank you for your review. I'm not planning for Björn to be a bad guy but who knows what the characters decide to change about the plot. So he definitely isn't meant to give you a bad feeling.