Quick recap for those who can't remember a story two weeks old!
- Hiccup has a secret uncle no one told him about
- Hiccup searches with Astrid said uncle (note: dangerous trip)
- Astrid falls off Stormfly
- Hiccup decides his search for his uncle is too dangerous, throws away map
- Eret's old crew finds map, make their way towards the 'X'
Oh wow. So many great authors working on this story. And I'm right in there!
I would like to thank my parents for feeding me, my brother for not taking away my food that one time, my sister, my grandparents, my cat Sockie, my dog Rupert, my non-existent dragon Toothfull, not to forget my second brother's sister in law's daughter who always mows my lawn, my English teacher for tiechinng mi greit Englisch, my supporters on fan fiction (non-existent as of now), my computer for making my nights brighter, my d...
Icecold wind blew against Hiccup. His exposed fingertips and nose were already numb. Goosebumps made their way through his whole body. But it didn't matter.
Until they would get back to Berk he had to think of a strategy. Perhaps he could mobilize a search troop, comb the whole wide ocean of the archipelago for a speck of life.
Impossible. It was already difficult to find a whole ship of dragon trappers, but to make out a single dot inside a dark-blue, splashing and foaming ocean? Hiccup moved his head to look past Toothless down towards the vast sea. It would be unimaginably impossible.
He shifted back onto his saddle and leaned forward, laying his chin on Toothless. The dragon's curious croon would have been lost in the frost-biting wind if it wasn't for the soft vibration that seemingly released some distress in Hiccup.
"What do we do, bud?" Hiccup whispered, more to himself. "We're too late to send people out here to find her. We couldn't see her, we couldn't hear her, we can't track her..."
If his eyes got wet because of this tragedy or the still unforgiving wind, he didn't know. He buried his face in Toothless' warm scales. They couldn't track her.
Track her... Wait, no, of course they could. They had tracker dragons! They could smell people even when they've long gone. Just pick one of those and they would get Astrid back in no-time.
Hiccup's pulse started rising again, his mood shifted. With a small smile he looked towards the setting sun. Only when he started to pat Toothless did he notice that he had lost all feelings in his hands. Nevertheless encouraged Hiccup his dragon with a "Come on!" to fly faster than any other dragon could.
"Hiccup, ya alright?"
"Don't mention anything, Gobber." True, Hiccup had had better landings in his past. But this was no time for gracefulness, nor was it a time to cut the rope that once again got stuck on the dragon's saddle. With great effort he grabbed the rope and pulled himself out of the mud, earning a slightly annoyed grunt from Toothless who had to reposition himself to not lose balance.
"Ya look like a storm rushed over ya, lad." Gobber exclaimed. "Wha' happened?"
"No time, Gobber. Have you seen Eret?"
"The son of Eret?"
"Well... yeah." Hiccup answered slightly bewildered.
"Hadn't seen him since breakfast. Should be around somewhere, tho'."
As if on queue, a giant rumblehorn dragon with a young man perched on top roared and made its way towards the forge. Gobber and Hiccup with Toothless silently stood and watched as the dragon landed with a loud thud next to them while his rider jumped off and stepped towards Hiccup.
"There you are, chief!" He cheered, hugging Hiccup tightly and patting him not all that softly on his back. "Thought you'd been carried off."
"Hello, Eret." Hiccup had to regain a little breath before he could talk again.
"You know," Eret, son of Eret, started, immediately more business-like now. "We had our schedules for guards set up and Astrid was supposed to return right after sun-high. Hadn't heard anything from her ever since, so I just let Gustav take over after lunch."
"Yeah, speaking of..." Scratching his back Hiccup thought of a way to address this particular problem, now growing more agitated about this situation. "We... I've lost Astrid."
"You... lost her?" A puzzled look came over Eret's face. "Like, she flew away?"
"Well, more than that." Hiccup didn't want to show that he was panic-fueled and at loss. So he grinned sheepishly, awkwardly chuckled and said: "She… she fell off her dragon."
"What!?" Eret, son of Eret, and Gobber shouted simultaneously, causing Hiccup and Toothless to flinch in alarm. "Where?"
"Couple hours of a flight out there, on sea." Hiccup slowly lost control over his voice. "But she must still be alive. I didn't find her, so I thought we could use Skullcrusher -"
"- Lad!" Gobber interrupted him. "Wha' were ya even doing so far away?"
"Well... I... We-" Hiccup stammered.
"What... were... ya doing... down there?" The blacksmith asked in such a serious tone that startled Hiccup and made chills run down his spine. Hiccup wanted to keep the real fact that he and Astrid were looking for his long-lost uncle hidden, but of course Gobber already knew the story behind this.
"I told ya not ta look fer him!" Gobber yelled as he grabbed Hiccup by his shoulders. "There's a reason we banished him. Why he isn't part of your family."
"We didn't even find him!" Hiccup yelled back in defense, slightly teary in his eyes. "We couldn't even make it halfway there before a storm hit us."
"So Astrid drowned?" Gobber asked, shaking his companion with his one hand.
"I... no... I didn't see..."
"Is she dead!?"
"I don't know!" Hiccup shouted. He stared at his mentor, then looked on the ground, slightly ashamed. An intense silence followed. Time seemed to stretch. Hiccup swallowed. "I don't know." The boy repeated. "One moment she was there, the other she… she was not. Toothless couldn't find her, so I thought a tracker dragon could make her out."
Gobber softened his grip, sighed deeply, let go of Hiccup and just stood there for a second. Then he turned towards Eret with a questioning look.
"By the time we get there, it'll be midnight." Eret stated, sympathetically. "Are you sure, she survives those cold waters?"
"I don't know." Hiccup repeated again. "But we can't just leave her out there. We have to try to find her."
Eret looked at the rumblehorn and thought for a bit. "What could we give Skullcrusher so he can track her?"
Hiccup immediately thought of Astrid's dragon.
"I thought of…" Hiccup slowly began, only now realising that that Nadder wasn't even here yet. "Stormfly maybe. I think she should be here any minute."
"Alright." Eret responded, slightly cheerily again. "We'll just stay here, then."
A pregnant silence fell over them. Each of them unsure where to look, occasionally clearing their throat and just listening to the soft wind whirling and howling through the empty and dimly lit street.
"Hiccup." The blacksmith said in a silent, low tone. "I know ye're an adventurer. I know I can't keep ya here when somethin's botherin' ya." The chief slowly lifted his head to look at his teacher. "I promise… I will tell you everything about yer uncle, when you com' back. Then you can decide, if you still want ta look fer him or not."
"Thanks, Gobber." Hiccup nodded, relieved that Gobber would finally open up. "And don't worry, I'm not planning to search for him anytime soon."
"Ah." Gobber sighed, noticeably eased. "Alrighty, then. I'm off to bed. Wish ya two good luck finding Astrid. Hiccup. Eret."
Both dragon riders nodded in understanding and watched as Gobber made his way into his forge.
"I'm sure she's out there." Eret said. Hiccup turned towards him and smiled a bit. "Just sitting on an island and asking herself, what takes you so long."
"Well, obviously it's her dragon that's holding us up." Hiccup responded in a now lighter mood. "Can't believe that she managed to win a race competition against us with that thing."
Toothless, as if remembering that event, snorted in languidness, causing Hiccup to chuckle. He patted his dragon soothingly on his back.
"Now, I don't mean to be sceptic, chief. But is that Nadder coming? Should we go out start searching?"
"Huh." The chief considered this. Stormfly was probably going to be fine, they just needed a way to find Astrid. "I guess we could… could use something from her home that Skullcrusher can smell."
Eret clapped into his hand. "Okay then. There's no time to lose, so let's move quickly!"
Why did the night air seem so much colder now? Should Hiccup have put on something warmer to wear before flying out on sea again? Maybe. Should Hiccup just prevent flying on cold winter nights? Probably.
He hated the cold. He hated it even more now for he had to fly behind a slow and lazy rumblehorn. Toothless didn't seem too pleased about flying this slow, either.
"At least Skullcrusher knows where to go." Hiccup silently said to himself in an attempt to lift his mood.
On this cloudless night the bright full-moon's light reflected in the otherwise deep-black ocean. It was still bright enough for the dragons and their riders to be clearly visible. They flew fairly close to the water so the tracker dragon could huff and sniff his way through the otherwise salty mist.
"I'm seeing somethin'!" Hiccup was brought out of his slumber when he heard Eret shout back to him. "Might be a ship!"
"A ship!?" He yelled back.
"Yes! We're flying right TOWARDS it!"
A ship? Could Astrid have been rescued? Maybe that's why he didn't find her with Toothless at first!
His heart started pumping in excitement again. With a "Go!" ghasp-shouted into Toothless' ear Hiccup urged his dragon to fly at full-speed, overtake Skullcrusher and get to the ship as fast as possible.
The ship grew bigger quickly with every pump of Toothless' wings. Strangely enough, with every second Hiccup more and more felt like he knew that ship. There was just something oddly familiar about it.
And just as they were about to get there, to his horror he realized why. With a voice shouting "Dragons!" the deck started flooding with crew-members who loaded their weapons and aimed directly at them.
Hiccup tried to pull his dragon back, but it was already too late. Dozens of nets shot through the air, at least two of them entangling him and Toothless entirely. With a hard crash they landed on deck, immediately surrounded by armored sailors.
"Ug!" One of them shouted. "It's tha' dragon rider again!"
The rider in question had his false leg stuck under his dragon, who in turn had to deal with his own headaches from the hard landing.
As Hiccup desperately tried to free himself panic-fueled, he looked through the crowd around him and saw a familiar dragon on the other side.
"Stormfly!" He gasped, in an instant realising: They have never been following Astrid's, but the Nadder's tracks, who was tied in ropes and seemed to sleep deeply despite the noise.
"Keep ye' eyes peeled, lads!" The leader shouted. "Tha' thief certainly didn't come alone."
On command everyone boarded their weapons again, looking for the next dragon rider. One man stepped towards Hiccup and Toothless, giving them a disgusted look before speaking in a dangerous and low tone: "Ya will not cause any trouble this time."
Hiccup gulped. Never would he have imagined a rescue plan to turn out like this. Not in his wildest nightmares. He widened his eye in horror which only made the big and burly man smile in satisfaction.
"Gills, Teeny!" He shouted with a booming voice. Two men obediently made their way towards them.
"Yes, Ug?" The both of them asked simultaneously.
"Throw him under deck. And make sure he doesn't carry any weapons!"
"Ay!" Gills and Teeny grabbed Hiccup rudely by his shoulders, pulled him out of his ropes, which caused the rider to grunt in pain as his one prosthetic stuck under the heavy dragon, and went through all his belongings attached to his armor, occasionally detaching an item and throwing it away in disinterest.
"Not so fast!" Someone shouted from the far-end of the ship. Hiccup, still in pain, looked relieved towards the front deck, where seemingly out of no-where a man appeared that could settle all this.
"ERET!?"
Or maybe not.
...my local baker's shop, oh, and I'd like to thank uncle Jeremy. Haha, who could forget uncle Jeremy. And then we also have... wait... what? Chapter over? I have to stop now? No! This can't be it! There is so much to be thankful for! Noooo~
Dawnbreaker's notes:
Thank you Erifetim for the chapter!
Once again I'm impressed at how good everyone is at this. I couldn't have done a better job myself.
Anyway, Stormfly found, Hiccup trapped, Eren takes a bigger role, Gobber has a lot to explain. Also, can't forget the upcoming Stoickfest, Astrid or Valka as she might also have some info about what's going on, especially with Hiccup's uncle. These things and so much more! In such a short amount of chapters you guys have created a brilliant start that seems fluent and awesome in every way!
NOTE: We still need more authors on this! If you have even the slightest interest in trying, do give it a shot! Just PM me and we'll sort things out nice and quick!
Also: In case the next chapter doesn't get published before 24/25th, HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE! May you all get tons of presents and eat the best of foods! Especially the authors of this story, you guys truly rock and I wish you only the best for this Christmas... or... whatever you may be celebrating! :D