AN: Not much to say here, folks. Toodlooseeyousoon...
Chapter Four
Crowd Control
The smile that crossed Hiccup's face could melt the heart of a god. It was so simply happy, like her deciding to be his friend was the only thing in the Nine Realms he had ever wanted. He tied his scarf back on and Astrid stared at the ground as they continued to the arena, the corners of her mouth twitching at how awkward Hiccup's version of 'spring in his step' was. Step, clunk, step, clunk, stumble step clunk.
When they reached the arena, Hiccup pulled an axe off the wall and wedged open the gate. He looked apologetically at Astrid.
"I'm fairly sure I can't lift the gate yet. Better to be safe than sorry," he told her, sliding under the gap in the gate. He looked at the cages of dragons, and walked purposefully towards the Nadder cage.
"Wait," Astrid stopped him. "You're just going to let out the dragons?"
He made a face.
"I can't release them, because I'll probably be executed. But I can give them a bit of attention. Stand back, and for Odin's sake put down that axe."
He opened the gate and Astrid ducked as a hail of spines shot from the entrance.
"Ow," Hiccup muttered, and pulled a spine out of his jerkin. He pulled the sword hilt from his belt and flicked it, and suddenly there was fire pouring from the guard. Astrid goggled as he moved the blade in circles carefully, and the Nadder's head followed him. Then he flicked the blade again, and the fire went out. His hand went to his ankle; there was a small pouch under the green wraps. He pulled a small object from it and slid it into the side of the sword; another one fell to the ground. Astrid stepped forwards and picked it up just as Hiccup spun the sword in a circle around him, green gas pouring from the sword hilt.
"Darn," she swore as Hiccup, oblivious, sparked the gas. Astrid was hurled a few feet backwards, landing gracefully on her rear end. Hiccup then stepped cautiously forwards, hand extended.
And the Nadder made a purring sound and let him touch it.
"Gods above;" Astrid murmured. Hiccup scratched it around its horns, and a hand moved to under its jaw. It slumped, purring happily, on the ground.
"You want a turn?" Hiccup said, giving her a goofy smile. Astrid stood up and stepped cautiously forward, really wishing she still had that axe. The Nadder opened one eye and growled warningly, but Hiccup rattled the sword hilt against the ground and made soothing noises.
"Just give her a scratch," he told her. Astrid gingerly touched the rough scales, and was shocked when the Nadder rumbled even louder in contentment. Hiccup smiled.
"She likes you," he said.
"Likes me?" Astrid said, exasperated. "She probably likes the amount of edible human I offer."
Great. Astrid was referring to the dragon as a she. Just wonderful.
"Are you kidding?" he said in disbelief. "The only dragons that eat people are dragons that are starving to death. If you feed these guys properly, you should have no problem."
Astrid relaxed slightly, and rubbed the Nadder's scaly head.
"You know, if you ever change your mind about dragon riding, this Nadder is the one for you." Hiccup said cautiously. Astrid laughed at the stupidity of the idea.
"Yeah, I'll see a dragon-mountain before I'd ride a Nadder." she responded. Hiccup winced and rubbed his leg.
"With this Drago threat, you'll see the dragon-mountain a lot sooner than you would expect,"
"What, has he got one?"
"Astrid, the original Alpha dragons- the Deaths, the Bewilderbeasts and the Dreadwings- are enormous. Did you think I lost my leg fighting a Terrible Terror? Drago's Bewilderbeast could step on you, me, Dad, Mom and Spitelout and not notice a thing, even if we all held swords straight up in the air for it to stand on."
"Oh," Astrid said. "Now suddenly the magnitude of this problem rises. We should probably go to that meeting thing they're holding about it. I get the feeling they might need to know this."
o~0~O~0~o
The dragons had been put outside the hall and were not happy about it. Hiccup scratched Stormcleaver's horns and followed Astrid. When she pushed open the doors of the Mead Hall, Stoick was shouting. So was every other Viking in the hall. Mulch was yelling at Spitelout, Valka was trying to be heard over the din, Idris had her hands over her ears. Bucket was a whisker away from an all-out brawl with Hoark, and Mildew was whingeing in the crowd. Hiccup shook his head.
He pulled out Inferno- gods, now the name made sense- and with one fluid movement jumped up onto the metal brazier in the centre of the hall, lit the sword and bellowed "QUIET!"
The hall fell silent. Standing there, smeared with the soot from the forge, the terrifying mask at his belt and holding a flaming sword, Hiccup was quite the image. Astrid saw Idris smile slightly at the other side of the hall; though she couldn't see it, she sure as Hel could imagine it. Hiccup extinguished the sword and began talking.
"You're all missing the point. If it was just Drago we had to worry about, then this wouldn't be a problem. But he has a Bewilderbeast on his side. That thing is so big that if it stood on the Mead Hall it would wonder whose toes it had trodden on. The Bewilderbeast has ice breath too- it could freeze us all with a sneeze! We came to you because you have two important things- time and a close proximity to Dragon Island."
"Are you saying…" Stoick began. He was clearly a bit thunderstruck at the authority Hiccup was commanding.
"Yes, I am. I want you to train dragons."
There was uproar.
"Train dragons?"
"We won't even touch those devils!"
Hiccup lit Inferno again. Talk about crowd control.
"It's train dragons or die. Besides, not all of you have to. We only need a few more riders. We have an idea that might work. We have to strike in two places at once- Vikings on foot will take on the armada while the dragons take on the Bewilderbeast. Who's with me?"
For a moment there was an awkward silence, then Snotlout, of all people, stepped forwards.
"You're going to get us all killed, but it's better to go out with a bang. I'll train a dragon."
The twins then joined him.
"We can blow up even more stuff with dragons;" Ruffnut announced. Hiccup smiled.
Gustav Larsson, the miniature Snotlout, joined them. "If Snotlout's getting a dragon, then so will I,"
Fishlegs and Gobber fell in.
"May as well," Gobber told his apprentice. "I taught you for fourteen years; now it's your turn."
Then, to her surprise, Astrid stepped into the circle.
"I can do better," she called. "I already know where my dragon is."
Hiccup gave her a lopsided grin, and the other dragon riders fell in.
"This is what we need to do to survive. Without dragons, we may as well all walk off of a cliff now." Snorri said.
"Stoick!" hissed Spitelout. "How can we trust the devils? What happens if they kill our warriors?"
Idris let out a sound akin to a snarl.
"How can we trust them, you say? Toothless saved Hiccup from dying when he could have escaped. Thunder and Lightning have protected us every day. Cloudjumper has kept Valka alive for seventeen years! And there's never a day where Stormcleaver hasn't helped me. My dragon has a rider who is fatally vulnerable. I've been blind for two years, and not once in that time has Stormcleaver done anything that has hindered me at all. So if we can't trust the dragons, we can't trust anyone."
o~0~O~0~o
"This feels so backward," Hiccup muttered. Gobber opened the gate to the arena and they all strode in.
"Alright," he told the group. "Astrid's already laid her claim to the Nadder. That leaves us with a Nightmare, a Zippleback and a Gronckle."
"And two Terrors," Fishlegs chimed in helpfully. Hiccup looked at him.
"Short of babies, no-one can ride a Terror. Anyway, I want you all to stand back while I show the dragons that we mean no harm."
"With a needlessly showy display involving lots of fire;" Astrid interjected.
"Thank you for summing that up. Stand back," Hiccup drew Inferno, opened the doors and ducked under the blast from the Gronckle. One by one, the three dragons flopped, purring, at his feet. He thought for a moment.
"Snotlout," he said. "This one's yours," He pointed to the Nightmare.
"Awesome," Snotlout said. "The best dragon for the best Viking."
Astrid punched him.
"Ow! What is it with you and violence?"
"It's not violence, it's communication!"
"Guys! Focus!" Hiccup grabbed Snotlout's hand.
"Whoa, what are you doing?" Snotlout tried to tug his hand away, but Hiccup's grip was like iron.
"Calm down. He won't hurt you,"
He placed Snotlout's hand on the Nightmare's snout.
"Oh my gods," Snotlout laughed nervously. "Are you seeing this? I'm touching a dragon!"
Hiccup carefully assigned the Gronckle to Fishlegs, and the Zippleback to the twins.
"What? Why don't we get our own dragon?" Tuffnut whined.
"Because," Snorri said, "you're twins. You work best when you work together; and with a Zippleback, the two of you can always be close enough to collaborate."
"It's like riding Thunder and Lightning," Fiske told them. "We each command one head. Thunder's my mate," he petted the dragon.
"Alright," Hiccup turned to where Gobber and Gustav were standing. "I'm thinking a Hobblegrunt for Gobber… and maybe another Nightmare for Gustav. Let's go to Dragon Island and find the Hobblegrunt and Nightmare. Mom, can you stay here and help those guys with their dragons. Gobber, you fly with me. Gustav, with Idris."
Hiccup climbed onto Toothless and held out his hand to help Gobber on.
"Right, devil," the smith muttered darkly. "One false move, and I swear…"
"Gobber!" Hiccup exclaimed, exasperated. "Right, this isn't going to work. Everyone, follow me."
The ragtag group of Vikings and dragons trailed after Hiccup, stopping at a cliff edge into the ocean.
"Gobber, watch carefully," Hiccup said, and stepped backward off of the cliff.
"Hiccup!" yelled Gobber and Astrid simultaneously. Then Toothless screeched and threw himself after the boy, and before long the duo had flown back up and landed on the cliff.
"That is what it means to trust a dragon. Gobber, you saw that. Toothless could all too easily have let me become a dinner for fish, but he didn't. Trust your dragon like you would a sword brother or…" he faltered. "…sister. They'll always have your back, and you should always…" he faltered again and shook his head as if to clear it, "have theirs."
Valka was making a sympathetic face, and Idris' sightless eyes were watery. Astrid wondered what that was about.
"Now," Hiccup said. Gobber narrowed his eyes. It seemed that alone in the group, Gobber could sense that something was wrong.
"Let's try again. Gobber, Gustav, on the dragons."
He made to climb onto Toothless, but Gobber caught his arm.
"Hiccup, don't play dumb with me. What's wrong?" he asked tactlessly.
"It's-it's nothing. Don't worry about it." Hiccup brushed Gobber off and slid into Toothless' saddle, Stoick mounting behind him. Astrid watched as they flew towards Helheim's Gate, where the dragon raids had swarmed from for so long.
Now that she thought about it, that raid where Hiccup had claimed to have shot down the Night Fury had been the last serious raid for… forever. Every raid after that had resulted in nothing more than a few burn wounds and one death when someone had been trapped in a burning house. And the dragons never got away with more than a net of fish, a few sheep or a yak. Of course. Hiccup had defeated the dragon Queen, and the new raids had been faked by Hiccup's dragons. Gods. Now Astrid felt even more horrible. The number of dragons that had been killed by Berk's Vikings; every single one had probably been Hiccup's personal friend. Even when he had left, Hiccup was thinking of Berk's safety. If it had become known that Berk had been spared from the dragon raids, Vikings from all over would have been warring for the secret. Berk would have been torn apart. By faking the raids, Hiccup had helped them… and they had repaid him with mountains of the bodies of his friends.
Astrid shook her head. Valka was talking to the young Vikings left behind. She should probably start listening.