Chapter 9:
As they reached the front doors of the Great Hall, they were greeted by the warmth and friendly of the other Vikings. When they entered the Great Hall, they saw the teens had collected together on one table: Fishlegs, looking through the Book of Dragons, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, arguing as usual, Snotlout, trying in impress some girl on the other side of the hall, and Astrid, who was beckoning Hiccup and Marko to join them at the table.
When they reached their table, Hiccup sat next to Astrid, and Marko sat opposite Hiccup, next to Snotlout. As they both sat down, silence fell between the teens. After noticing that there wasn't any food on the table, Marko started to stand up, and said, "I'm just going to get some food. Chicken wings, anyone?" And when he got the orders, he left their table and went to the food table.
When he was out of earshot, Snotlout sat up properly, and said to Hiccup, "So, what's Marko like, normally?" And every eye was on their table was on Hiccup. Sighing, Hiccup said, "He's just...normal. He's not anything special." Snotlout chuckled, and said, "You can't be serious? Did you see what he was wearing on his face at the Fights?" Hiccup looked up at Snotlout, and probable the first time in his life, he was angry against Snotlout. "That mask is the only thing that he has left of his father," said Hiccup, with just a little hint of anger evident in his voice. "What do you mean, 'only thing he has left'?" asked Snotlout, unaware there was a figure standing behind him.
"He means that my father is dead and that mask used to belong to him," said an icy voice that came from behind Snotlout, who let out a scream of fright, and caused the other teens to laugh loudly, and that received a fair few glances from other Vikings. When the laughter died down, Marko put down a plate of chicken legs in front of the teens, sat down next to Snotlous (who was looking annoyed), grabbed one of the chicken legs and started to take bites out of the flesh.
"So," started Marko, who still had his mouth partly full of food, "why were you guys so shocked when
You found out that I was part of the White Fury Tribe?" The teens looked at each other, silently trying to make one another tell him why. Finally, Astrid spoke up, "Um, we were all told stories when we were young about the White Fury Tribe. But we were told that they weren't real." Marko just looked at her oddly. "What made you think that a tribe would be made up?" It was Hiccups turn to answer, "Well, it sounds like you named your tribe after a Dragon, the White Fury, but there's nothing in the Book of Dragons about White Furies."
Shaking his head, Marko threw another chicken leg over his shoulder and grabbed another one, before asking the teens, "Do you lot know the legend of Komator? He's quite legendary in Molak." And after seeing the teens confused expressions, he said, "OK, I take it you don't, well let me tell you. The legend goes that the Dragons and Vikings were over a thousand years into the War. But there was this man who was...unique, in a way: his name was Komator, and he was out looking for a dragon the he just shot down. But when he found the dragon, he discovered that he couldn't kill it. So, he set it free."
As Marko continued, Hiccup found that his story was similar to that of Marko's: how he had found Toothless and couldn't kill him. When he found that Marko was continuing, Hiccup stopped thinking about it and listened again. "...So, after realising that the dragon wasn't going to stop following him, Komator decided to name the dragon and take care of it. Then a day came when he was followed to where he and the dragon met up. But after convincing his father and the village, Komator was allowed to keep the dragon: you see, even we didn't trust dragons back then. But after the Komator incident, the Viking kind was split in two: you're kind, who still went on to kill dragons, and my kind, who became friends with the dragons."
The teens were speechless, so Marko helped himself to one last chicken leg and left before Fishlegs could start bombarding him with question again. "Where's he going?" Astrid asked Hiccup, as the rest of the teens started to come out of their shock and made a start on the rest of the chicken , Hiccup, along with Astrid, got up from the table and made their way to follow Marko out of the Great Hall. When they closed the doors from the outside, they saw, in the growing darkness, Marko on his way towards the Dragon Arena, and they made their way after him. Then the heard a rattle of chains and a loud thud, which told Hiccup and Astrid that Marko had opened and closed the metal door to the Arena.
Using the natural shadows and shadows made by the ceiling over the entrance of the Arena as cover, Hiccup and Astrid cautiously made their way to get a better view of what the heck Marko was doing inside the Arena. But they were unable to see Marko, as it had now had become just too dark for them to see properly. So, with a little nod from Astrid, Hiccup pulled down a lever, which opened the door
Very slowly. When it was opened as high as it would go, they slowly walked, and limped, into the Arena, but there was one small problem: Marko wasn't anywhere in sight. Looking at each other, Hiccup and Astrid spilt up and searched the door's that once held five of the dragon species: Astrid checked the old Monstrous Nightmare's, Nadder's and the Gronkle's old cages, but there was nothing there.
Hiccup had already checked the old Zippleback's cage, and was just about to check the Terrible Terror's one, when he heard a noise coming from the other side of the Arena: (Cough). This made both Astrid and Hiccup jump and turn around, and they saw the person they came looking for in the first place: Marko. He was leaning up against the wall; arms folded, and with what appeared to be a smirk hidden underneath the shadows. "I take it that you're looking for me?" he asked, to which he received nods from both of them. After that was sorted, Marko stopped leaning on the wall and started to walk towards them, but there was something about the way he walked that made Hiccup confused: normally, he walked with pride, but at the same time, he was relaxed. Now, however, he was tilting his head to the side every few steps, as though keeping a look out in case someone came into the Arena.
When he reached them, he spoke in a quiet tone that didn't suit Marko that much, "Did you come alone?" Hiccup and Astrid both looked at each other, before looking back to Marko and nodding. After Marko released a sigh, Hiccup saw something that worried him: Marko was clutching his right forearm with his left hand, as though he was in pain. "Can you two keep a secret?" asked Marko, in the same, quiet tone. Astrid looked at Hiccup, unsure what to do. "Please, you're the only two that I trust enough to tell on this island. Please?" Hiccup looked at Astrid, who still looked unsure of what to do, but Hiccup turned around and said, "Yes, you can trust us."
Taking a deep breath, Marko slowly rolled up his right sleeve until it was up to his elbow, and removed his left hand from his right arm, and looked at Hiccup's and Astrid's reaction. From his wrist down to his fingertips, pale human skin. His wrist and up to his elbow, however, instead of human skin, was covered in what looked like Toothless' scales: midnight black scales, the start of every new one covering half of the previous one. Meeting Hiccup's eye, he explained, "I've had this since I was young. No one on Molak could think of a reason why I had this," he gestured at his right arm, "Anyway, all they knew was that they were the scales of a Night Fury. But there wasn't any Night Furies in the region the covered Molak. So, they just thought it was some kind of White Fury scale rash, as they had seen something like this on the White Furies, and it turned their scales from white to black. So, they tried to keep Ice away from me for a few days, thinking that she had somehow managed to do this. But no matter how hard they tried, Ice always managed to get back with me. I told you before: she never left my side." He paused for a minute, "That is, until we crashed on Berk."
Hiccup was confused as to why Marko added that last part so bitterly, but then he remembered: Ice was always with Toothless whenever he saw her. But surely, Ice hadn't forgotten about Marko, right? Marko looked up again, but when he turned his head to the side, his eyes widened and quickly looked at Hiccup, before saying very quickly, "Where's that girlfriend of yours?"