Chapter Seventeen: Awakening
I want to thank all of you for your participation and support. Your suggestions have been helpful, sometimes amusing, and sometimes disturbing. Whoo boy, some of these last few chapters have REALLY brought out your dark sides and blood thirst.
Alethea 13: Cheers to you for figuring that something was up since Chapter 12.
Midnight Dragon: Impatient much?
Shadowdragon1317: Those rants were your best yet.
It was cold, dark, foggy, and there was a thunderstorm going on. His head was throbbing in pain, his body feeling weak, and there was a slight weight in the palm of his hand. He turned his head and found that he was holding the Dragonstone. With his body in as much pain as it was, he managed to fit the stone back into his shoulder armor, and he forced himself to stand up.
Looking around, he saw that he was in the crack of a glacier. It took a while, but he finally recalled the battle. Sudden fear overtook his pain, and he began finding holds in the walls of the crack and started climbing up. It wasn't easy with the whole glacier being made of ice. It wasn't as slippery as Hiccup presumed it would be, but it was frightfully cold; and yet, handhold-by-foothold, he slowly made it to the top. He flopped over to his back; he was exhausted from his efforts, and the pain he was in.
He looked to the sky; the rain, the clouds, and the lightning were beautiful and dangerous. He couldn't stay out here, he would get too cold, and he had to get home before the village got worried about him.
"Toothless! TOOTHLESS!" He called out.
"Toothless isn't here." A voice told him. He turned around and found three men, but they were no ordinary men, no, they were his gods: Thor, Loki, and Odin. He didn't know what else to do but get down on one knee and bow his head to them.
Odin chuckled and told him: "Like father like son, that was the exact reaction that he gave me when I came to him. Please, stand up, Hiccup."
"I knew it, I'm dead!" Hiccup spoke up.
Now all three gods chuckled.
"No, you're not dead… Although, I'll admit that you did give it a good shot. You stopped breathing for a while, and your heart actually paused for about an hour, but you caught the Dragonstone, and while it couldn't save you right away, it did allow you to survive, but you were comatose. If you weren't holding that stone when you made your collision, we would've had no choice but to open the doors to Valhalla for you." Odin replied.
"How long have I been out? Is my tribe safe? How did the battle go?" Hiccup asked.
"Whoa, easy there, Chief Hiccup. You've been out for four days. Your tribe is safe, but the battle was a loss for them after you went down for the count. I don't know how to break this gently to you, so I'm just going to say it: Your tribe does believe you to be dead, Dagur has claimed Berk for himself, and you tribe is living on Outcast Island for now." Thor told him.
"Yeah, I checked up on them the day they arrived there; the Hooligans were in pretty bad shape, and Toothless was suffering a broken heart. From what I heard from the other gods, they're doing better now." Loki stated. He stepped forward and circled around Hiccup a couple times.
"You've been a fascination of mine for some time now. Very few Vikings have shown a love for my draconic children, but you were the first to really appreciate them and eventually make an inseparable bond with one of the most feared ones." He stated. He noticed the Dragonstone set in his armor, pointed to it, and told Hiccup: "I would like to examine your stone."
Hiccup plucked it out of its place and handed it to Loki, who brought it over to his brother and father.
"It is a most impressive jewel. It proves that Toothless is a wonderful leader." Loki stated.
"Yes, and for our most interesting tribe, I say the three of us should bless it." Thor replied. Loki tossed the stone into the air, the three gods each held a hand out with their palms facing upwards, and the stone hovered above their heads.
From Thor's hand, he struck the stone with a bolt of lightning; Odin blessed the stone with a boost of strength and power; and Loki gave it more fire and perhaps a few other ingredients as he was the father of the dragons.
The stone gently fell to Loki's open hand, it turned from the color of Toothless' plasma blast, to an opalescent color with the dragon silhouette the color of fire; and as Loki approached Hiccup, he told him: "I know why they call you the Dragon Chief, but I must say that you don't look the part."
"What, is it because I'm not that big?" Hiccup asked.
"No, it's that leg of yours. We can mend that for you." Loki replied.
"Thank you, but I'm actually quite fond of it, as it was a gift from Toothless. I actually can't imagine myself with two feet anymore."
"Well, we can't have a Dragon Chief missing a limb right now." Loki stated.
"Yes, did we forget to mention that Dagur has taken your community Dragonstone?" Thor asked.
"HE HAS A DRAGONSTONE!" Hiccup exclaimed.
"He didn't allow it to be taken when your tribe was forced to flee. Luckily, he doesn't know of the powers it holds. He thinks that it is just an ordinary, but precious jewel." Odin replied.
"If you don't mind, I'd like to give the Dragon Chief his Dragonstone back without being interrupted. Now, Chief, I'm going to need your prosthetic and your weapons. You're not going into the next battle as a human, or you'd be killed for real, but with this blessed stone, you can switch forms whenever you please rather than waiting for three days; and your weapons and prosthetic will return to you when you assume human form, however, after this change, you won't be able to assume human form until you see blood." Loki told him. Hiccup wouldn't argue with gods, so he gave up the items Loki requested. Thor took them in his possession and stepped aside.
As Hiccup was balancing on his right foot, Loki held onto his arm to make sure he didn't topple over as he fitted the stone back into Hiccup's stone. Loki then snapped his fingers in front of his face, sending Hiccup into a spell of drowsiness. He could barely keep his eyes open, and his vision was blurred; but Loki then tapped the exposed stone, sending a bolt of magic into Hiccup's body, and he collapsed as he assumed draconic form… He became a Night Fury of course, but not your average Night Fury.
As Hiccup regained his senses, he checked his body over.
"I'm blue!" Hiccup exclaimed. He was somewhere in-between navy and cobalt blue, so brighter than Sapphire, but not as bright as Midnightfire; however, like Midnightfire, he also had a few silver scales scattered over his skin, and he had gotten his left foot back for a temporary amount of time. His eyes were still green though.
"Doesn't this coloration seem familiar to you?" Loki asked Hiccup.
"Yes, my niece, Midnightfire, has this pattern." He replied.
"She does indeed, but Midnightfire isn't your average Night Fury. Chances are that she's a subspecies of the Night Fury, but because this subspecies is so rare and we don't know everything about them, we didn't bother giving them their own name." Loki replied.
"One thing that we do know about them, and that Midnightfire doesn't, is that they can take in lightning and use it to charge up their plasma, it gives it an even more explosive quality." Thor stated.
"Thanks for that." Hiccup replied as he began stretching his wings.
"Whoa, where do you think you're going?" Odin asked.
"To Outcast Island of course. I should be with my tribe."
"We would rather you didn't. Dagur isn't planning on attacking that island right away, but the Outcasts and Hooligans are planning on coming here. Besides, we want your sudden back-from-the-dead appearance to have a much more amusing reaction than when your father revealed his identity at your wedding. So, stay here, because you'll end up having to come back here for the fight anyway, and you'd be discovered easily on Outcast Island. By the way, if your tribe discovers you on Outcast Island, then chances are that they'd be less motivated to make their attack in a timely manner, because they'd want to celebrate the fact that you're alive." Odin told Hiccup. He folded his wings and glanced downwards.
"Loki, Thor, I believe that it is time for us to leave now." Odin stated.
"Wait!" Hiccup called. The gods turned to face him as he asked: "Isn't there some way you can show me how my family is doing?"
"Come on, Dad, let the Chief check take a look at his family." Thor stated.
Odin nodded his head and knelt before Hiccup. He held out his hand and produced a mystical orb, which showed Hiccup what had happened since the battle. Odin showed him that Toothless was taking his loss pretty badly, but his parents, and the other dragons encouraged him to stay strong, and then he eventually reenacted the first flight he ever took on Toothless. The scene touched Hiccup dearly. Then the orb turned its attention to his parents, they were also grieving, but they were also trying to keep Gobber from drinking his sorrows away. When the stone turned to Astrid, he saw that she was practicing battle techniques while riding Whoshadow, and Claudette was on Stormfly. He was sure he'd find out why Astrid was doing this within time. Now, as for his child, he saw his wife and mother doing most of the work in taking care of the baby.
"Thank you, all of you. Your help means everything to me." Hiccup told the gods.
"You're very welcome, but before we go, Hiccup, there's something I want to tell you: Dagur must be punished most severely. The Black Typhoon is one of my most treasured of my draconic children. The Thunder Queen is very protective over the dragons in her nest, but she is also very trusting to anyone who shows her kindness. Dagur has taken advantage of her trust and is misusing her strengths for this battle. Please save her." Loki told Hiccup.
"I promise to save her. I refuse to kill dragons… with the exception of that one Red Death." Hiccup replied.
"Don't judge me. By the way, I must admit that out of all the Vikings, you are my favorite." Loki stated, and with that the gods disappeared.
Hiccup stretched his wings and went for a lap around Berk, taking in the lightning as he flew, before he went into a cave to spend the night.
So, I died, I came back to life, met a few gods, got turned into a Night Fury by Loki, and I'm bound to make an amazing comeback. It's not the worse night I've ever had… In fact, I'd say that it was one of my better ones… And my gods it's weird having a left foot again! Hiccup thought as he curled up for the night.
During the night, Hiccup woke up to the sound of a dragon's footsteps and trilling. He got up and assumed a battle stance, ready to defend his cave, until he found out that the dragon outside was the Thunder Queen.
"It's alright, my darling, it's only your Queen." She told Hiccup when she stuck her head inside. Hiccup eased up, and allowed the Thunder Queen inside. She rested on the cave's floor, looked over to Hiccup, and spoke: "This is a lovely island, it's just as pretty as the one we had to abandon due to the volcano erupting. Well, it certainly is easier to get around than the one where we found the human Alpha. What do you think; should this be our new home?"
"I don't know, what if those humans we chased away come back?" Hiccup asked her. He figured it was best to act as though he was one of her dragons.
"We are a strong nest, darling, and we can always drive them away again. I've got the power to knock a fully-grown Bewilderbeast onto its side with a single wing blast, and you Night Furies are among the strongest of dragons. Those humans were a small nest, and they were delicate."
"Are you referring to the human you knocked off the native Night Fury?" Hiccup asked her.
"He did come across my mind. I was following the Alpha human's orders when I shot at him. I didn't expect such a reaction from his nest-mates and the dragon he was riding. That day was the first day I've seen a Night Fury, or any dragon, cry. That surprised me, and the weirdest thing was that the dragon seemed familiar to me, but I didn't get his name."
"I've heard another Night Fury refer to him as 'Shadeghost'."
"Are you serious? That was Shadeghost? Oh my, he was one of the sweetest hatchlings of his generation… and to think that my rider had me cause him pain! Shadeghost… I wonder what he was doing here in the first place with all of those humans we've chased off. I wonder why he left with them too. He should've been more inclined to stay with the dragons he hatched with."
"I wish I knew, but I think that we did something wrong when we drove them away. From the looks of their village, they seem to be very friendly to dragons." Hiccup replied.
"I don't want to think about it right now. I'm just glad that we've found a home that fits our needs, and I will not allow us to be driven away if those humans return." The Thunder Queen stated.
She really is a good and caring dragon, and she's lost her nest. I don't know if we can handle having her dragons live among ours though. It's hard enough for us to pull in as much fish to feed our dragons alone. Well, I'm sure that we can help her, but I doubt that we can let her nest remain here. Chances are that she would challenge Toothless if they stay, and while she is a good dragon, I don't want that to happen. Hiccup thought. He then curled up for the night and fell back to sleep, knowing that the Thunder Queen was more likely to defend him than attack him in his sleep.
There, now you're all certain as to which fate I gave Hiccup. I am also still taking suggestions as to what you want me to do with Dagur.