Chapter Seven: Preparations
Special Thanks to Mikowmer for putting up Resurfaced and a Dragonstone and The Dragonstone Tribe as recommended Fanfictions on /FanficRecs/HowTotrainyourdragon
"Toothless, there's something I've been meaning to ask you." Hiccup stated. It was the early morning after Astrid laid the egg.
"Well, what is it?" He asked.
"That big dragon that we saw on Dagur's island; do you know what kind of dragon it is?"
"Not only do I know that kind of dragon that Dagur tamed, I knew that particular dragon personally. The dragon is known as a Black Typhoon among the dragons, it may be hard to find but it is actually one of the more abundant of the alpha dragons." Toothless started.
"Well what are its strengths and weaknesses?" Hiccup asked.
"If you thought that Hookfang and Cloudjumper delivered powerful wing blasts, then don't be flying anywhere near a Black Typhoon. They can deliver wing blasts that are powerful enough to blow a whole nest of dragons away; they may even be strong enough to knock Aric off of his feet. Not to mention, the blasts sound like a furious thunderstorm. The black spines on their back and tail can be fired like the spines on a Whispering Death, Screaming Death, or a Deadly Nadder. They're a Strike class dragon, so they can fly at speeds to match Night Furies and Skrills; however, do to their size, they don't have the level of maneuverability that Night Furies do, so that's one of their weaknesses. They shoot blasts of red plasma, and can take in lightning like a Skrill; and they appear to have a great amount of shots before they have to recharge; but they can't shoot without closing their eyes first because they have such a high level of firepower; so, as Whoshadow displayed, they can be temporarily blinded by lightning or plasma. They do have a soft belly, so that is a weak spot for them."
"Now what was your personal relationship with this dragon?" Hiccup asked.
"She is known as the Thunder Queen. I hatched in her nest, and lived for twelve years among her nest. She is a good Queen, about as great as Aric when he commanded the sanctuary. I know that my parents love her. Then, not long after I'd turned thirteen, I decided to go out exploring and I fell under the power of the Red Death; and until the day we found Dagur, it was the last I've seen of the Thunder Queen. She is a good dragon, but soon she'll be under the command of a bad man."
"Hold on, you said your parents love her, are you implying that they're still alive?" Hiccup asked. Even Sapphire and Midnightfire perked up at that.
"Yes, they're still alive, in fact I spotted them when we found the Thunder Queen." Toothless replied.
"Why is this the first time I'm hearing this?" Hiccup asked.
"I didn't think that it was any of your business." Toothless stated.
"That may be true, but I would've liked to have known this. Do you miss them?" Hiccup replied.
"I do on occasion, but now I have Sapphire, Midnightfire, you, Astrid, and Shadowrath to fill in the gap for them."
"Real sweet of you, Daddy, but I'd like to hear stories about my grandparents on your side." Midnightfire spoke, looking up from her latest drawing.
"I'll tell you some after you turn yourself back into a dragon again." Toothless replied.
"Aww, but Daddy, I'm having so much fun making these drawing and playing with the Viking kids!"
"Please, Toothless, don't force her to turn back into a dragon, she actually behaves herself as a human." Hiccup said.
"Yeah, and it's easier for me to find somebody to play with in this body!"
"Who's to say that the Viking children wouldn't want to play with you as the dragon that you are? You're an amazing young Night Fury." Toothless replied.
"They won't be able to understand her without a Dragonstone." Hiccup stated.
"Dragons don't always have to get their point across using speech." Toothless told him.
Midnightfire decided that maybe her father had a point; maybe the Viking children would like to play with a Night Fury hatchling. She grabbed her gauntlet and changed herself back into a dragon. She smiled as she looked at her wings, realizing that she'd forgotten that she missed them a bit while she was human.
A moment later, Astrid came down and asked Hiccup: "Where's the baby?"
"Well, Astrid… you didn't exactly give birth to a baby… Sapphire, would you mind uncurling yourself?" Hiccup replied. He led Astrid over to the navy Night Fury as she revealed the soft-shelled egg. Astrid's eyes went wide, and her hands covered her mouth.
"It's not everyday a human mother lays an egg. On the upside you can have some time to go back to being the fierce Viking warrior you are before we have to take care of the baby." Hiccup told her.
"IT'S AN EGG!" She exclaimed.
"Yes Astrid, you laid an egg, and there's nothing we can do about it. The dragons are taking it upon themselves that it is taken care of properly, so I can still tend to my duties as Chief, and you can go flying freely now. Go on, pick a dragon and go for a ride." Hiccup told her. During her pregnancy, Hiccup had Astrid take a break from riding dragons, especially when it came to dragon racing. It simply a safety precaution for the baby, but that didn't mean that Astrid liked it. Seeing the positive in this for the first time. Astrid called Stormfly over and fitted the saddle on her and took off.
While Astrid was out flying, Hiccup ate a quarter loaf of Helga the Mace Menace's bread and began to roam the village to attend to his duties as the Chief. Now that they would be expecting an attack from Dagur sometime in the near future, he had to have the village prepare for war. He also knew that Alvin would be training his Outcasts for battle, and he was considering whether or not he should send a letter to Alvin saying that Berk will be willing to teach them how to train dragons for the upcoming battle.
As he was contemplating this decision, he ran into Helga, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Claudette, and their dragons. He glanced at Whoshadow's feet and noticed the fine job Gobber did in bandaging up the wound.
"It looks like Whoshadow's wound is feeling better." Hiccup told Claudette.
"Yeah, yesterday the poor thing was limping on it. It's feeling better, but she's still contemplating on how to exact her revenge on the bastard that stabbed her." She replied.
"I will fry him with my lightning until he explodes." Whoshadow snarled.
"Whoa, Whoshadow, that may be overkill." Hiccup stated. The Skrill glared at him. He then explained to Claudette what Whoshadow said.
"I'm getting worried about her. She's never stayed in a fowl mood around me for this long, Chief Hiccup. Is there something I can do to calm her down?" Claudette asked.
"I'd start by finding a way for Whoshadow to channel her rage. If that doesn't work, then try seasoning some mutton with dragon nip. Hopefully the herb would take her mind away from the battle-skies and into her happy place. If she gets in a mood again, I'm going to have to refer you to my mother; I may be known as the Dragon Chief, but I'm not an expert on Skrills."
"I'll try that, thank you." Claudette replied while stroking her brooding Skrill.
"So, Fishlegs, Claudette, you said that the ships to your wedding are setting sail in a week?" Helga questioned.
"Yes." Fishlegs replied, taking his fiancé's hand. Meatlug nuzzled his free hand in want of attention too. Fishlegs chuckled and gave her a hug.
"Oh gods, it's only a week away?" Hiccup questioned, earning glares from everyone.
"You're the best man and the political dignitary of Berk for this wedding, how could you forget?" Helga snapped, and she was about ready to draw out her mace. The reason behind her outburst was because along with her growing friendship with Astrid, Claudette had also gotten to be good friends with Helga. In fact they were best friends. The two couples enjoyed having diners together, sometimes Hiccup and Astrid were included, and they would share stories amongst each other. Helga was fascinated with the prim and proper mannerisms and the luxuries that Claudette lived with during her life as a princess. Claudette was also fascinated in Helga's more barbaric upbringing. The two of them were often seen with Astrid, training their dragons and practicing their fighting techniques.
"Hey Chief, what's Astrid doing flying up there, isn't she banned from flying until the baby is born? Wait, is the baby born?" Tuffnut asked. With four pairs of eyes looking at him, he had no choice but to explain to them that Astrid actually laid an egg. Fishlegs and the girls were polite enough to hold in their guffaws, but Tuffnut broke out into uproarious laughter, which earned him a mace head to the gut from Helga.
"Be sensitive!" Helga snapped at him.
"Actually, I don't mind the laughter, I had the same reaction and gave myself the hiccups." Hiccup admitted. So the friends took advantage of it and broke out into laughter for a little bit. However, they really couldn't feel too bad for Astrid. If they looked up, they would've seen Scauldy flying alongside Stormfly, and the girls were having a similar discussion
Hiccup was about to turn away from the group, but then Claudette told him: "Chief Hiccup, my parents and I have been communicating with carrier pigeons, and they've actually asked if we could bring a few dragons to see. The only dragon they've seen was the one that guarded my castle before Drago found me. Don't worry, they promise that no harm would come to them."
"I'd be alright with that, but which dragons were you planning on bringing?" Hiccup asked.
"Well, we'd be taking Whoshadow and Meatlug of course, and we decided that you should pick the third one." Fishlegs replied.
"I'd pick something like a Terrible Terror. I think I'll leave you to pick the third dragon if you don't like that idea." Hiccup told them.
"Actually, that's not a bad idea. A Terrible Terror would be easier to introduce to my parents than a brooding Whoshadow." Claudette stated. So that was settled, now Hiccup had to break the news to Toothless.
Hiccup found Toothless breaking up a fight between a Timberjack, Whispering Death, and a Monstrous Nightmare. It really fascinated Hiccup to find that Toothless was capable of wrestling dragons of that size.
Now that Toothless had chased the troublesome dragons away from each other, Hiccup approached him and his expression softened.
"How're you doing, Buddy?" Toothless asked.
"Apparently better than what you've been up to. Listen, Bud, the ship to Fishlegs's wedding departs in a week, and I can't take you with me. We're also taking my human family, as well as Fishlegs's family, Astrid and her parents, the twins and their significant others, Gobber, and three dragons. Since everyone fit to be Chief is leaving, I ask you to watch over the island while we're gone. Mostly what I want you to do is begin preparing them for war against Dagur. I'll leave your Dragonstone here when I leave." Hiccup told him.
"I can handle that. I'll have to delegate more tasks to Cloudjumper and Aric, and I might actually have to turn human while you're away." He replied.
"Thanks, Bud, you can do whatever you have to do; however, if there is any criminal activity among the villagers, just send the culprits to the jail and I'll figure a proper sentence for them when I get back."
Fishlegs and Claudette had the arena to themselves; it was perfect since they were planning on having Whoshadow tear around the place. Behind her, Claudette was towing a dummy made of mutton. It was covered with a shroud, but Whoshadow could smell the mouthwatering meat. Claudette rolled the dummy out to the middle of the arena, and unveiled it, causing Whoshadow to snarl as she saw that the dummy was supposed to resemble the bastard that stabbed her beautiful foot. It had a few streaks of blue war paint on its head.
"Alright, Whoshadow, kill!" Fishlegs ordered as Claudette began running around the arena to make Whoshadow have to chase he foe dummy. They ran around playfully for a while, but then the Skrill pounced on the mutton dummy and began its bloody dismemberment!
Whoshadow tore open the torso, which had been filled with sheep's blood, and the red fluid splattered all over the place, and it had also been stuffed with tasty organs; except for the kidneys and the intestines, Whoshadow didn't care for those. Then the Skrill ripped off the head with her good foot, held it in the air, and roared triumphantly before crushing it in her jaws!
"Vengeance is mine!" Whoshadow snarled to herself.
"We get it, you want to kill him." Meatlug told her. The two dragons got along fine, but they didn't really have a lot in common. Where Meatlug had the cute personality of a dog, Whoshadow's behavior was more like a cat. She was independent, proud, fierce, and graceful… Meatlug was loyal, thrived in company, and was only aggressive when needed.
For a while, Whoshadow devoured the dummy as messily as she could, effectively bathing herself in 'Dagur's' blood too, until she reached a leg seasoned with dragon nip. The sweet, intoxicating smell of the plant sent her to a beautiful world where she could chase sheep through a beautiful, flowering meadow, and every time she flew high into the sky, Thor would strengthen her further with his powerful lightning.
Now with her need for vengeance vented out, hunger sated, and dragon nip sending her to her happy place, Whoshadow collapsed with a satisfied smile on her face.
Please review.