Chapter 14:
Hiccup, Fradokos and Rachel – Berk
The three friends of Marko were still shocked by his sudden departure, and it took all of Rachel's strength to stop Fradokos from calling White Light and chasing after him. "No! Let me go! He'll die without us to help!" shouted Fradokos, but Rachel's grip didn't loosen. "No, if you go after him, you'll probably die, too" said Rachel calmly, and after a few more minutes struggling, Fradokos let out a sigh of defeat and stopped struggling.
After knowing that Fradokos wasn't going to run away, Rachel nodded and let go of him, and he walked
Over to the edge and looked up to the sky, hoping that by some miracle that Marko would return any minute. Rachel walked up to Hiccup, and asked, "Can you keep an eye on him, please?" flicking her eyes for a second towards Fradokos. Hiccup nodded, and Rachel smiled softly and made her way towards the centre of the village to find her White Fury, Cloud. Unsure what to do, Hiccup walked up next to Fradokos and looked out to sea. "How long have you two being friends?" asked Fradokos suddenly, and Hiccup was confused to what he meant. "You and Marko, I mean?" he explained, and Hiccup understood and told him about how Marko and he had met and explaining what happened between that and when they turned up.
When he had finished, Fradokos seemed satisfied and continued to look up to the sky, waiting for Marko. Hiccup, trying to get a conversation going again, asked, "So, how long have you and Marko known each other?" Sighing, Fradokos responded, "I first met Marko at the Dragon Initiation Ceremony: I was the one after him to be chosen by the dragons. When I entered the Arena I managed to get a short glimpse of him and Ice before they exited. But when I was ready for the Ceremony to begin, I did what everyone was told before we entered the Arena: I closed my eyes and tried to open my mind. I tell you though; it's rather hard to do that without peaking when you hear the sounds of dragon growls in front of you. But when I was told to open my eyes, I came face-to-face with a White Fury, or White Light."
Choosing his words carefully, Hiccup gingerly asked, "What was Molak like?" To this, Fradokos chuckled. "Molak was a sight to behold: our village was set on the edge of the island near the sea, much like your village is. The forests that surrounded Molak were...untouched. It was so peaceful; I would sometimes get away from the others and have a little 'me' time in the forest. But that was before it was destroyed, along with the rest of Molak." Giving Fradokos some time to recover from the harsh memories, Hiccup tried to put together what he had been told about Molak: the great village of Molak, home to the White Fury tribe, completely obliterated by a single being?
After a few more minutes silent, Hiccup heard Fradokos mutter, "I knew I should have gone after him." Turning to face Fradokos, Hiccup asked, "Why was Rachel trying to stop you then?" Fradokos sighed, and answered, "Because she knows that Black Ash is too powerful for even the entire islands populating of White Furies, let alone just two of them. If I when after Marko and we found Black Ash, we both would have been destroyed." Surprised to how calm Fradokos was about this, Hiccup didn't notice at first that Toothless had come up behind him and was nudging his head against his arm. When he did notice, he looked down at Toothless' concerned eyes and said, "I'm OK bud, just a little worn down. That's all."
Toothless let out a cornered croon, and Hiccup patted his friends head to try and comfort him. After another minute of silence, the sound of panting broke it. Turning around, they were met with the sight of Snotlout, hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, but at the same time, he was trying to speak. "Meeting...Great Hall...you have to go...Why'd you have to be so far away?" he panted, clutching a stitch in his side.
Normally, Hiccup would've found it confusing that his father would want him to attend a meeting, but this time, he was almost positively sure what this was about: Marko. Shaking his head, Hiccup muttered, "You'd better come as well," to Fradokos, and the three humans and Night Fury slowly made their way towards the Great Hall, as a storm gathered over head. As they got closer to the Hall, the wind started picked up and thunder could be heard in the distance. Just as they got to the doors of the Great Hall, it had started to rain.
Before they could get completely soaked, the Vikings and Dragon walked through the doors and closed them behind them, which drew the attention of everyone in the Hall. Hiccup looked around: he was surprised to how fast the food had been cleared away and how fast the Vikings had gathered there. And on the far side of a giant table that had been created, stood Stoic: his nose was bent to the left slightly, and his eye had turned a dark purple in the time since the Fight. His eye met Hiccups, and he started to speak. "Good," he started, "everyone's here. Now we can start. First, we have to decide about what we are going to do about that...that beast!" There were a few cheers to this. Hiccup looked around, and finally, his eyes lay upon the rest of the teens. Carefully, he made his way towards them while his father continued on with his speech. Every so often, he caught brief words or sentences from his father, like 'he needs to die' and 'that beast must not live'.
When Hiccup finally reached his friends, he noticed that Tuffnut was carrying a spear and flexing his fingers over the handle. Walking up to Astrid, he whispered, "How long has he been like this?" He pointed at his father. Astrid looked at him, and replied, "Ever since the Fight ended: some of the Vikings who saw what happened must of told him." Shaking his head, Hiccup looked at his father, who was now saying, "So, it is arranged: the second that...thing steps on Berk, we kill him! No second chances!" Great cheers came from nearly every person in the Hall, except from Hiccup, Astrid and Fradokos: the rest of the teens had grabbed their weapons and were now cheering along with the rest of the Vikings.
"They can't do this!" whispered Hiccup furiously, as the Vikings all left the Hall to prepare the old Dragon Raid weapons for Marko. Astrid sighed, and replied, "It's not like you can stop it now Hiccup: there'll be keeping every spare person on look out and try to shoot him and Ice down." At the mention of him mate getting hurt, Toothless growled quietly. "Hey, it's alright, Tooth: Ice won't get hurt, hopefully." Toothless calmed somewhat at his riders words. Hiccup looked over to the open doors: it was still raining, but it wasn't as hard as it had been. Also, the thunder had given up as well.
Sighing, Hiccup walked up to the doors and looked out: it was nearly nightfall. Some of the Vikings had gone to their homes and Hiccup could see dimly lit fires through the windows. Most of the Vikings, however, had headed up to the villages Sky Light's to prepare them for the night watch for Marko. Sighing, Hiccup thought, it's been done; nothing else can stop it, and started to walk to his house, with Toothless and Fradokos following him. With Hiccup leading them, Fradokos and Toothless started a conversation.
"So, you're the famous Toothless that Ice is always on about?" asked Fradokos, a small smile appearing across the Dragons scaly face. "Ice's been talking about me?" To this, Fradokos answered, "You're joking, right? She's always telling Cloud and White Light about you, and they tell what see's told them to me and Rachel. Oh yeah, and a word of advice: Ice isn't that good at keeping secrets." Toothless chuckled, "I'll keep that in mind." By the time they had finished, they had arrived at Hiccup's house. Fradokos bid his goodbyes to the both of them, and headed off into the forest.
"Come on, bud. We need some sleep: we've got to think of a way to persuade dad to-..." Hiccup stopped mid sentence as he opened the front door. There, stood by the dimly lit fire, stood a figure: he was taller than Hiccup by a clear foot and he was wearing a black hooded shirt stood with his back to Hiccup, looking down towards the fire. When he turned around, Hiccup caught a glance of a White Fury that was on the owners left side of his face. "Ah, we meet at last, young Haddock..." growled Black Ash.