Thank you, you first few reviewers! You make my heart glow in an ethereal, froggy sort of way.

Ch.2: Othala Merkstave

A pack of wolves? Hiccup wondered frantically as he tried to untangle the saddle from the harness. That didn't make any sense, why would a pack of wolves attack an entire village? And why were things on fire?

"Toothless, hold still, I can't get this…" The dragon was twitching and snarling, head flicking back and fourth, ears picking up too many sounds for him to hold still. He crept out of the pen and into the ring, looking around, and Hiccup followed. Dragons? Hiccup thought, and managed to get the mess of hardware untangled. Dragons were about the only thing that could start a fire, but weren't they done with being attacked by dragons?

Something screamed above them, and before Hiccup could crane his head around to see, he heard a heavy whump as something landed on Toothless's back. The dragon bucked, screaming out his fury, almost decking Hiccup before flinging the intruder to the ground. Hiccup tried to get a look at it, but Toothless was pushing between them, roaring and snarling.

As far as he could see, they were being attacked by a rabid bear rug. Then its axe caught the firelight and Hiccup realized it was indeed a human, draped in fur, wielding the biggest axe he'd ever seen in his life. The man bellowed and Hiccup involuntarily cowered away, letting Toothless face the beast. The dragon reared up as the man charged, axe swinging, Hiccup wondering why in the world one single man would take on an enraged dragon, and then the mass of bear fur was hit with a bolt of blue blaze. The man was knocked off his feet, clothing ablaze, and Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief.

The man got back up.

He was on fire, and Hiccup could smell seared flesh, but the mass of flame was still furiously howling, still grasping the axe, and now leapt at Toothless. The dragon reared back again, smacked the charging fireball across the chest with one massive paw, and let loose with a roar that made Hiccup press his palms to his ears. The fireball roared back – not nearly as impressive, next to Toothless's roar – and once more raised his axe.

Toothless fell upon the man, tooth and claw. The scene was all shadow, flame, and angry, sharp, snatches of axe and tooth glinting orange and flashing. In a moment toothless backed off, growling, the fiery mass on the ground finally stilled. Hiccup threw his gaze around the ring, wondering how many of those things were in their village right now. Their ferocity was only surpassed by Toothless's fury. They needed to go help.

"Toothless, we need to get up there." Toothless edged protectively around Hiccup, who stared at the dragon's face; his mouth was crimson. Hiccup had never seen Toothless kill another human before – if indeed that had been a human – and the reminder of the dragon's awesome power made him a bit afraid of the enraged beast, but also boundlessly grateful for their friendship. Breathless, he grabbed the dropped equipment and got the red tailpiece snugged into place, when –

Whump.

Hiccup whirled around, heard Toothless's frustration. Another furry bulk had dropped into the ring. As he watched, three more jumped down, on different sides. They didn't wait to charge. There was no time to finish attaching things.

"We're gonna have to fly, buddy! Just like the first time!" He wrapped his legs around Toothless's tail, took a hold on the red fan, and yelled, "Go, Toothless!" The dragon's wings beat the air and they lifted off, Hiccup clinging, watching the ground fall away, watching the four creatures in the ring converge on the spot they'd just left, watching them wind back their arms and aim…

"They're gonna throw their axes! Move, Toothless!" And Toothless did, wings heaving, blasting through the dome. He could hear the axes whipping through the air before he could see them; one passed harmlessly, two yards away, another whizzed just below them. Hiccup didn't see the next one until it ripped the tip off the tailpiece, floundered, off-kilter, and smashed into his hand. Yelling, his hand involuntarily let go of the red fabric – he desperately hoped all his fingers were still there – and he could feel Toothless's path immediately start to spin. His hand was burning and slicked with red but Hiccup took hold again until the dragon could messily touch down. He rolled off the tail and stood. Toothless nudged him, eyes wide.

"I'm fine, bud. We need to…" To what? Find Stoick? Get to the front and start killing the befurred attackers? He didn't even know which direction to head, people were running everywhere, the women and children and armored men scrambling around, houses aflame a few paths down.

"Hiccup! There you are!" The relief in Stoick's voice warmed Hiccup's heart a little; so much better than the annoyed snarl he used to get. His father dropped to a kneel beside him, started to say something, and instead grabbed Hiccup's hand. "Son, are you hurt?"

"No. I mean yes, but it's fine. What's going on?"

"I don't know. They just came out of nowhere – "

"Stoick!" yelled a warrior, and Hiccup heard another howl. There, two more attackers approaching. A Viking charged up from behind them and swung his axe straight into the back of the biggest one; the man-thing only growled, reached around, took hold of the axe handle, and whipped it straight at Toothless. The dragon let out a mighty bolt of light, stopping the axe and burning the two intruders. They didn't stop.

"Dad, these guys are like impervious to pain, Toothless set one of them on fire and he didn't even flinch, I don't – "

"Thor's hammer!" his father breathed, and Hiccup thought he detected a trace of… fear? Surely his father wasn't afraid. Stoick the Vast was afraid of nothing.

"They're leaving!" someone yelled, and Hiccup tried to see over the vast bulk of Toothless. Indeed, it appeared that the two that had been advancing upon them were turning around… yes, they were dashing down the streets now, and their howls were fading a bit. Stoick, Hiccup, Toothless, and the other Vikings followed them from a distance, watched as the things left the city gates and disappeared into the woods.

"Should we follow?" a warrior asked.

"No."

"Dad, should Toothless and I go try to see – "

"No! You stay here. Everyone stays here. Where's Gobber?"

"He took a group out into the woods to get that bear, remember?"

"Aaahh, Fenrir's whiskers! The man has timing," Stoick growled, eyes smouldering as he scanned the woods. "Sigurd, Ulf, stand guard. Everybody else, help the wounded, find out who's missing, put out those fires. Hiccup, Valdemar, Knut, Ivar, come with me." Stoick powered up the street and Hiccup did his best to keep up. Now that the short skirmish had ended, he noticed that something was off with his metal foot, and something was poking the healing flesh. He didn't want to pause; Stoick and the others were already steps ahead of them.

Toothless, eyeing his obvious limp, nudged him from behind. Riding the dragon without a saddle or harness wasn't the comfiest thing in the world, but it was better than speed-limping.

"I won't wait to tell you all what's on my mind," Stoick was saying, and Hiccup leaned forward to hear better. Toothless picked up his stride a bit. "You all know the name of Harald Fairhair. He was the so-called 'leader' of Norway when my great-great-great-grandfather led this tribe away from his itchy fingers." Hiccup had heard bits of the story many times, especially in the last few weeks, after his father decided he was indeed proud of his son. Harald Fairhair had wanted to unite all the tribes of Norway under one kingdom. Of course, with such a politic, taxation was inevitable. The then-chief of their tribe had sailed away, along with many other tribes. His ancestor had found an island off the coast of Odin-knew-where, a place with poor soil, perpetual cold, nasty wind, and, of course, a nest of man-eating dragons. And he'd decided it was perfect. Harald, though he must have searched for the rest of his life, never found Berk. Nobody ever found Berk.

"But now," Stoick continued, powering down the streets, heading to the meeting hall, "somebody's found us. Men, you all know the stories about Berserkers." A general upset murmur told Hiccup that, yes, they all knew about Berserkers. The 'king's' men, who would wage war, pillage, plunder, ransack, rape, and kill on command. Or off command. It was said they drew their strength from Odin – the Cult of Odin, they were called – and their ferocity from wild beasts. They had the swiftness of wolves, the strength of bears, the senses of the wildcat.

"Who knows who their commander is now. Harald's descendent, the king of another land, I don't care. What I do care about," and here he turned around to face his men, "is that they've found us, and they want to control us. The Berserkers are here to take us back to Norway, or at least force us to swear allegiance to the present king." Stoick turned back around, eyes smoldering. "We'll do no such thing. The Berserkers are the toughest fighters Norway has ever seen, but Norway hasn't seen us. We're dragon fighters, not merely bear fighters! With a good defense, we'll defeat them. We need to organize groups of – "

"They're attacking!" yelled a voice, echoing up the street, and Stoick whirled around. Hiccup's heart jumped, surprised and not at all sure that men trained in dragon-fighting would be any sort of match for Berserkers. He could feel Toothless tense beneath him, on edge.

"Back to the gate!" roared Stoick, and Toothless reared around to follow the group, ears plastered. When his father caught up to him, he reached one massive hand up to Hiccup's arm. "Son, I don't want you down there." Inwardly, Hiccup sighed.

"Dad, you let me fight the Green Death. Why can't I – "

"Because, you were our only hope then! Nobody else could have done what you did, because you had him!" Stoick gestured to Toothless, who had paused in the street. Hiccup beat back a grimace, trying not to take offense to his father's logic.

"You need Toothless now, too," he replied. "Did you see those Berserkers? They're almost invincible. They're like superhumans. I know you think your men can fight them because they're trained in dragon-fighting, but really?" Stoick's eyes fell a bit.

"I know, I know… I had to tell them something to give them hope, though. I'm sure we can fight them, it's just… I made it sound easier than it would be."

"So you really do need Toothless."

"Hiccup – "

"And Toothless goes where I go. You know that."

"But son – "

"You're the chief, dad, you know it's for the best – "

"Hiccup! I know! But I just can't… I can't…" Stoick stopped, attention drawn by an outburst of shouting and crashes out by the gate. The howls of the Berserkers were coming to them clearly now. Stoick sighed, glanced at Hiccup's metal leg. "Son, if you get hurt, I'm…"

"Right, dad. I'll be careful. Toothless, let's go get our gear."

They made haste to the ring, and Hiccup worked as quickly as he could to get Toothless's equipment situated. They could hear the sounds of a battle going on down by the gate, and Hiccup knew that each second Toothless wasn't there was making it harder for the defenders. But his hands were shaking, he noticed, which was making it distinctly difficult to get all the hitches. He tried pushing away his nerves, but in vain. Sure, he'd 'fought' the Green Death. But that had been almost all Toothless. Berserkers were smart, though, or at least had human minds (he thought). They had strength in numbers, and some sort of otherworldly ability to brush off pain. And he'd just volunteered to ride Toothless around while the dragon attempted to destroy as many of them as possible… with eight shots of fiery lightning that the Berserkers didn't seem to blink at. Only eight.

"Toothless, buddy…" Hiccup sighed, and paused to gaze into the dragon's massive eye. Toothless was giving him one of those wide-eyed 'I'm-listening-to-you-because-I-love-you-and-you-bring-me-fish' looks. "If we get in trouble out there, you need to leave. This isn't your fight; remember that."

Toothless rolled his eyes. Briefly, Hiccup worried that Toothless thought it was indeed his fight. Thinking like that would get the dragon killed, and that was one of the last things Hiccup wanted. He put one foot up into the stirrup, and then stopped. I suppose I could make myself useful, he thought, and went to fetch a bow and some arrows from the old weapons rack, and a small sword. He didn't think a shield would do any good if a Berserker was bent on killing him.

Once they were in the air, it wasn't hard to see what was going on, despite it being the dead of night. The Berserkers had lit several boats and houses ablaze. They hadn't broken through the city gate yet – Berk's gates were made of stone.

"Alright, bud," Hiccup yelled over the rush of air, "Choose your targets wisely and aim well!" The dragon dove, and Hiccup tried to cling tight with one hand and not drop his bow. The sound of the Night Fury charging up for a hit made the warriors of Berk look to the skies, but it didn't seem to faze the Berserkers, if they heard it at all. Toothless fired close-range, blasting two of the attackers off their feet, and Hiccup didn't see if they got back up.

He nocked his bow and started pulling the string back, but stopped immediately. One, his hand, which he had forgotten about, gave a shock of pain at the sudden tension. Two, he realized he wouldn't be able to concentrate on both controlling Toothless's tail piece and aiming at his own target at the same time. Frustrated, he jammed the arrow back in the quiver and strung the bow across his chest. He'd have to leave all the fighting to Toothless, then, until they touched down. If they touched down.

Toothless dove again, charging up, and Hiccup changed the tail position, clinging low to the dragon's neck. Battle situations, he realized, made it a lot harder to collaborate with Toothless to fly properly. He wasn't sure where Toothless wanted to go next, and it was imperative that they were as coordinated as possible. He fired, knocked down more Berserkers, pulled up and away, and finally the attackers were beginning to notice their presence. Hiccup almost smirked at the thought that there was a small possibility he was actually striking fear into the hearts of the North's most deadly warriors, but the smirk never crossed his face.

They really didn't want the Berserkers' attention, did they?

The first axe nicked Toothless in the side; shreds of black scale exploded in Hiccup's face. Hiccup tensed as they flew to the sky, and the sounds of the battle below them faded a bit. The sounds of axes flying past them became more obvious. Once the weapons no longer reached them, Toothless leveled off and Hiccup assessed the damage; the dragon's wound was only skin-deep, but he was sure that one well-aimed axe could do deadly damage. Looking down, he could make out the attackers, and they were… looking up? A number of them – twenty, thirty – had abandoned their wild attack on the gate and were now focused on Toothless. There were still a dozen or so hacking away at the stone wall and throwing axes at the warriors of Berk.

"Stay up here, bud. I know you've got perfect aim." Now that they were staying relatively level, Hiccup's attention was freed from working the stirrup. He nocked an arrow and took aim at the mass of Berserker, and fired, but couldn't see where the arrow went. He suspected that even if he managed to hit one of them, they wouldn't care much. Toothless's blasts were having an effect, at least – after the eighth blast, the number of standing Berserkers had definitely decreased. Hiccup allowed a small amount of relief to creep into his gut – until a collective bellow floated up from the Berk side of the gate. He looked close, and saw that the Berserkers had somehow broken through the iron doors and gotten into the village, where the main body of warriors were. And…

"Dad!" Hiccup and Toothless acted as one, diving down to the street where someone had fallen, the huge warrior with crimson hair. Two of Stoick's men had come to help him, but there were three Berserkers advancing, and the closer Hiccup got, the easier it was to see that his father wasn't getting up. Toothless wasn't going to get there in time to prevent those three Berserkers from finishing him off; he had no shots left. Hiccup left the steering to chance and nocked another arrow, took hasty aim, and fired.

The arrow hit the neck of one of the advancers, stopping him in his tracks and sending him to his knees. The other two turned, and Hiccup caught the glimmer of fire in their eyes before Toothless jerked and let out a bellow that shook Hiccup to the core. The dragon spun, wings flailing, towards the ground outside of the gate. There wasn't time to pull up now. An axe had found its mark.

The ground was covered in Berserkers, and they ploughed through their ranks before hitting the ground and rolling to a stop. Hiccup clambered from the dragon's back, sword drawn, trying to see if Toothless was ok while eyeing the hordes of warriors and wondering if he was now an orphan. Toothless struggled onto all fours, growling, and it was too dark to see any damage, but something in the way Toothless crouched told Hiccup that he was hurting.

Six, seven, ten, twelve… more Berserkers by the second appeared in Hiccup's field of view. He was too terrified to loose his wit now – all he could do was hold tight to his blade and –

The first Berserker lunged, faster than Hiccup could follow, throwing his axe into Toothless's face, who dodged, swept out a massive, black claw and knocked the man into another one behind, and two others flanking, what if Toothless can't defend himself? Hiccup swept the fearful thought out of his mind, of course the dragon could defend himself, he was a Night Fury, and Night Furies can defend themselves against even the most terrifying Berserkers, like that one with the double-headed battle axe, winding up for a blow – Hiccup struck out with his sword, shoved it deep into the side of the man's bearskin. The man didn't flinch, but his eyes moved from the dragon to Hiccup.

Toothless was flinging out his claws left and right now, tail flailing, teeth flashing, managing to keep the closing group at bay. Hiccup edged closer, pushed by the advancing Berserker, knowing that he couldn't do a thing to stop any of these men with his small sword, which he raised now to block a blow from the battle axe. The impact between the two weapons collapsed his elbow, resonated painfully in his bones, and the axe kept pressing with its oppressive weight, sending him to his knees.

Toothless let out a bellow, chomped down on the man's head, and wrenched. Instinctively, Hiccup threw up an arm to shield himself from flying blood, and heard the unmistakeable sound of steel on scale, of a direct blow through tough reptilian hide; the sound was followed by the Night Fury's roar, whirling around to face his attacker.

And then, before Hiccup's eyes, his whirling companion disappeared, all the fire disappeared, all light disappeared, all Berserkers and axes and blood gone. Rough, bristly hide pressed against his face, covering his eyes, and a coil of muscle, someone's forearm, choked out his voice, his sword was wrenched away and his hands forced up behind his back, twisting. Panic leapt in his chest but could not escape; he was immobilized, and he was being moved. At first he could feel ground running away beneath his feet as he was dragged, but soon he was hauled up off the ground. Kicking out with his metal foot, he caught something soft, someone yelled out, and for one moment he was almost free.

Then a blow, a split-second of sudden pressure on the back of his head, and he collapsed. He heard Toothless, an outburst of alarmed bellows, sounding far away, and farther away, and he was alone in the dark.