A/N-Two chapters this weekend, but I think as this is a shorter book I may stick to one chapter a week from here on out. It'll give me a chance to keep up on writing the books that come afterward.
We get to meet some of the antagonists in this chapter, as well as discover their intent. As always, Read and Review!
Chapter Two
Arrival
The next morning, we found a huge crowd of villagers surrounding the docks as the ships pulled in. Massive vessels they were too, most quite a bit larger than the boats of the Hooligans. Though, makes sense considering they were built to last years out on the open seas. At the front of the crowd on the docks were Stoick, Gobber, Hiccup, and Astrid. They were to greet Ingavar when he stepped off, make him welcome, what with Stoick and Hiccup being the "royal" family, Gobber the right hand man, and Astrid, well, Astrid. I was there too, for both obvious and personal reasons. Behind us, the rest of the gang stood, along with the village council: Fishlegs, Snotlout, the Twins, and Spitelout, Hoark, Phlegma, and so on. As the ships docked and the ropes cast down to tie off, tension mounted in suspense.
The largest ship came in first, and as the ramp lowered to the dock, a massive man came strolling down the planks. He was at least a match in size for Stoick, and that's saying something, but with straight, blonde hair just starting to gray, and an air of authority that radiated from him. As he walked up toward our group, he gave Gobber and Astrid only a passing glance, while Hiccup and I received curious stares. Then, his eyes locked firmly on Stoick.
"Aha! Good te see you again, Stoick the Vast!" he bellowed, extending his hand toward the chief. Stoick took it and they gave a firm handshake. Then Ingavar backed off a little ways. "I see you haven't changed at all since I saw ye last! Still as strong as ever!" He looked back toward Gobber again, and this time, recognition lit in his eyes. "And I see neither have you, Gobber! Still have two good limbs to work with!" Gobber nodded. "And I'll nae be planning on losing any more," he returned. Ingavar nodded. "Now, Stoick, where is yer boy?" he asked. "I've heard much about him recently, how he took on the red Death! He must be quite the Viking to have done such a thing!"
One by one, we all turned toward Hiccup, who winced a bit, then slowly stepped forward. "Ingavar, this is my son," Stoick said, standing next to Hiccup, "Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, heir to my throne." Ingavar looked at him, and for a moment there was silence. Then he burst out laughing. "Oh, come on Stoick, I know you! Yer nae playing a joke on me, are ye? Certainly this boy can't be yer only son!" I face-palmed as Hiccup immediately bristled at the comment. Stoick stepped forward. "I do beg your pardon, Ingavar, but you have just insulted my son. That is who this boy is! He did take down the Red Death, and nearly on his own as well!" Ingavar gave another belt of laughter and shook his head. "Well, then, it's nice you hold your own boy in such high regard," he remarked, "but ye do need to be able to let him earn his own accomplishments, earn his status on his own. If I had even half a mind I could tell you certainly did most of the work in that battle then."
This was going south really fast. "Not to be disrespectful, Ingavar, but not everything is how it looks on the surface. Hiccup here has earned his status more than you can possibly know." That voice of disagreement was my own, as I stepped forward next to Hiccup as well, facing Ingavar with a glare. He may have been a towering man, but he was in no way frightening to me, especially as long as I had my swords with me. "He did indeed take down that beast, without help from any of those you see here." Ingavar turned his attention to me, and looked me up and down. "And who, may I ask, are you to speak up without being addressed?" he asked. "Ye don't have the look of a Viking, and yer as skinny as Stoick's boy here!" I bristled and the edges of my mouth curled slightly, though I didn't get in a return comment before Stoick stepped in again.
"Uh, Hawken here is not to be taken lightly. He may not look like much, but he's a friend of the village," Stoick explained. "He's managed to save the village on more than one occasion, and what he says is to be believed." Ingavar raised an eyebrow, then smiled and nodded. "Very well then," he said, extending a hand. "Let's see how your handshake is. You can tell a lot about anyone by their grip." I shrugged, and extended my own hand. My fingers were barely long enough to reach either side of his hand, but it didn't really matter. I gripped hard and shook his hand, giving a bit of a squeeze at the same time.
You could hear Ingavar's knuckles crack across the docks. His eyes widened in surprise, and he flexed his hand when I let go, trying to figure out how I'd done that. Behind me, the twins started snickering at the look on the foreign chief's face. "How in the world…?" he questioned. I smirked. "Like I said, not everything is how it looks. And like Stoick said, I'm not to be taken lightly. It's a gift, let's just say." Ingavar nodded, then shook his head and smiled. "Well, then, uh, Hawken, well met." He turned to Stoick, who stepped forward and clasped his hands in expectation.
"Uh, well, back to business," Stoick said. "I received your letter a couple weeks ago, but it did not have any details as to why you took this trip north to here. So, what does bring you to our little island?" Ingavar nodded and gestured to a man on board the ship behind him, who turned to grab something. A light flashed in his eyes, determination with what looked to be a touch of greed. "There have been rumors," he began, "coming from villages further south, and they made their way up this direction. It seems a rather interesting dragon has made himself known and reportedly set a course in this direction." Ingavar turned to the sea and gestured with a hand. "I don't know if it will come this far, but I tried to get ahead of the reports to try and see if I could intercept it."
My blood ran cold as the man on the ship handed Ingavar a cloth with something wrapped in it. "If I can find the dragon soon, I could be the first ever to kill one," he said as he began to unwrap the cloth. Inside was a scale, a large one and, worst of all, nearly pitch black. Hiccup noticed my face and began to put the pieces together. "You're not, by any chance, looking for Night Furies, are you?" he asked carefully. I shot him a warning glare, but it didn't matter, as Ingavar shook his head at the question. "No, no. Much rarer in this part of the world, larger and meaner too. Are you okay, boy? Your eyes are changing colors." He had noticed the look on my face as well, along with my odd eyes. "It's natural for me, they do that with my mood," I explained, then gestured with my hand toward the scale. "How hard is that?" I asked. "Nearly as hard as granite," Ingavar replied, running his hand across the surface. "It was found at one of the villages the beast attacked." "Is it a stealth-type dragon, mystery class?" I ventured again.
Now, Ingavar took on a look of surprise. "Do you know of this beast?" he asked. "Have ye seen it?" I shook my head. "No, no, never seen it, but I've heard stories…." I trailed off as the tale from my own world came back again, stronger. "Oh, this is not good," I whispered.
Gobber shook his head and stepped in. "Alright, can either o' you two tell us what yer babbling on about?" Ingavar spoke two words that turned my veins to ice. "Shadow Lord." "Shadow Lord? What kind of a name is that for a dragon?" Hiccup asked. Ingavar smiled. "It was to describe the power of this animal. They're big, mean, enemies to the famed Night Furies themselves," Ingavar explained. Meanwhile, I sank back against a nearby post, trying to get my blood pressure back to normal. "They can breathe walls of fire, and disappear in an instant," Ingavar continued on. "Their hard scales make it nearly impossible to penetrate with normal weapons. If the reports are correct, this one may show up here soon, giving me a chance to take it on." He turned to look at the teens behind us, and then back at Hiccup and Astrid. "In the meantime, however, I think these kids here should take up a dragon training course, in case it shows up when I'm not around."
"They're already been through the course," Gobber said. I caught Snotlout looking at his arm, at the scar he got when Horrorcow had hit him. Ingavar raised an eyebrow. "Really? Alright then. You," he said, pointing at Snotlout, "How many dragons have you killed since then?" Snotlout started stuttering. "Uh, well, I uh, none, but I-" He was cut off as Ingavar looked at Fishlegs. "I-I haven't killed any either, sir, but-" On to the twins: "None, but we really-" Astrid: "I haven't killed any." Then Hiccup: "I killed the Red Death, if that counts." Ingavar put on a skeptical look at that, then turned to Gobber. "They've taken training, have they? It would appear they need a better teacher then." I put my hand to my forehead, knowing exactly how this would play out.
"Now wait just a minute!" Gobber snapped back. "We haven't had any dragon raids since Hiccup killed the Red Death, there haven't been any chances to kill dragons!" Ingavar waved Gobber off, and then turned toward the ship. "You could always go hunting for dragons then, like we do!" He said. "Wolfblood! Come out here!" he yelled toward the ship. Another large man appeared shortly thereafter, waltzing down the ramp, trailed by another brawny teenager, about the same age as the rest of us. I stood up, trying to look better than I felt, and smiled shakily. "Can I guess Wolfblood and Bitwolf?" I asked. The three new Vikings gave me incredulous looks. "You've heard of us?" the man named Wolfblood asked. I shrugged. "I know more than I let on to most," was all I replied with. Ingavar shook his head and turned to Wolfblood. "Wolfblood, you and your son are to re-teach these teens here, and," he gestured at me, "that one, how to fight and kill dragons."
"Now hold on just a minute," Stoick growled. "This is still my village, and-" "Stoick!" I yelled. He looked at me confusedly. "Just let it happen," I warned, giving him a slight nod. He swallowed angrily, but nodded and backed off. I turned to Ingavar, but before I said anything, Astrid spoke up. "There are no dragons in the village, or in the Training Arena, sir," she said. "They were removed a long while ago." The foreign chief raised an eyebrow again. "None? What happened to them?" "Gone. They haven't been around since Hiccup killed the Red Death. It was like a queen bee, they followed it." Ingavar shrugged, "Well, then, Wolfblood will instruct you on weapons training for preparation. Tomorrow, we'll go on a hunt to search for some dragons. There are sure to be some on this island somewhere."
The meet-and-greet ended there. The Vikings under Ingavar's command began unloading the ships and inquiring about spare rooms, and I pulled Hiccup and Astrid to the side. "We need to make sure they don't head for the cove," I whispered. "Not only can Toothless' hiding spot not be found (I caught Hiccup's I-told-you-so look at this point), but the portal to my world can't be found by them, certainly not yet at least." I looked at Hiccup. "Next chance you get after we're done here, find me. We need to go talk to Toothless and the Terrors. They need to heighten their alert." I looked at Astrid. "When you can, help Hiccup improve with the bigger weapons." "Hey!" Hiccup protested. I ignored him. "He's already proficient with knives and swords, but bigger things will impress these guys more, especially if they're to believe an alternate Red Death story." Astrid nodded.
"Is this why you wanted Toothless nearby?" Hiccup interrupted, "To help guard the portal?" I shook my head, and then looked around. We were behind a tool shed, so no one was looking at us, but I wasn't going to let my own guard down. "That was one reason, yes, but considering what we just learned about why Ingavar is here, it would seem a chapter from my stories is coming to life again. He's going to need to be close when we go into the woods with these visitors. Ingavar may think he can take down a Shadow Lord, but a dragon four times the size of Toothless that can't be seen is way too dangerous for someone like him to tackle. I won't even mention how smart it will be." They nodded, knowing dragons in general were on par with most people.
Hiccup, of course, still had a thing for knowledge. "What does one look like, exactly?" he asked. I sighed and motioned for them to follow me. We came out from behind the shed, and Ingavar spotted us immediately. "You three!" he called. "Don't go too far. I'm having Wolfblood conduct training in an hour." I sighed and turned toward him. "Whether I participate or not in training, Ingvar, is up to me, and me only, not you." I knew I was getting on his bad side with that line, but at the moment I really didn't care.
The three of us went quickly up to Hiccup's house, where I pulled out a large piece of paper, and a pen that I always had with me, and began sketching the image that I remembered. "Not everything in the stories I read and here are exactly the same," I explained, "but if the dragon I remember is anything like what's coming, this is what it may look like."
When I finished, I held up the paper. On it was a rather frightening image indeed. Shadow Lords look somewhat like Night Furies, but with long horns between their ears, spikes down the back, scales like armor plating and rock hard. "Are you sure even Toothless could fight that?" Astrid asked nervously. I shook my head. "No, but he could help be an early warning, and he's probably going to be more agile, since he's smaller and lighter. A Night Fury would be the first thing to notice something as quiet as a Shadow Lord nearby, plus he would be a distraction to it, so that together we could have a chance at dealing with it."
KNOCK! KNOCK! KNOCK!
"Hide the paper!" Hiccup hissed. I rolled it up and ran upstairs to his room as he went to answer the door with Astrid. As I put the picture down underneath a stack of other papers on his desk, I heard Wolfblood's voice downstairs. "Come on you two, it's nearly time to start your training. Where's that other weird one?" I growled as I came back down the stairs, feeling my eyes go red again, and spotted Wolfblood at the door.
"I'm right here," I announced, giving him a glare that could wither trees. He gave an equally withering glare, which had no effect on me as I came to stand next to the other two teens. "It's about time for the first session to begin, so if you will follow me-" he was cut off as I brushed past him and stepped down the path, followed by Hiccup and Astrid. "Alright, fine, you lead the way," he snapped, glaring at me again as I headed for the training arena. I had time today, so I decided to play along. Wolfblood walked up next to me, and said, "You'll be the first one I work on then."