A/N-Surprise! An extra chapter since I had a little time and didn't want to wait...
We meet the final main antagonist this chapter, and things begin to really heat up from here on out.
As always, read and review!
Chapter 4
Shadow Danger
Ever have one of those days where you just happen to sleep in when something important is supposed to happen? Yeah, that was me. So after speed dressing and grabbing a really quick breakfast on the go, I raced to the portal, stopping to make sure Toothless knew what he needed to do, and then bolted to the village. Halfway there I remembered I couldn't just fly into the town square, and so when I neared the edge of town I dropped to the ground, morphed back, and ran the rest of the way, startling a number of people as I sped by on my way to the meeting location.
When I got there, I spotted Hiccup and Astrid both off to one side, glancing around impatiently as they walked toward another group of people on the other side of the square. I grabbed them and pulled them over to the side for a moment.
"Hey! What gives!" Astrid snapped, whirling to find out who it was. Seeing me, she gave me a glare. "You're late, by the way." "Yeah, I know, sorry. It happens sometimes," I excused. "Look, I think the Shadow Lord is near, if not on the island. I spotted something flying this way last night."
Immediately the mood dropped even lower than it already was. "Will it even be safe to go on this hunt, then?" Hiccup inquired worriedly. I shook my head. "Unfortunately, probably not, but I already talked to Toothless, he'll be shadowing us the whole way, and if we let it slip that we know anything about the whereabouts of any dragons, Ingavar will go ballistic." I looked around, and seeing no one in hearing range still, I continued. "Toothless will be at hand, but this is a species of stealth dragon, Mystery Class, so keep your ears perked." Astrid gave me an odd expression. "Don't you mean keep your eyes open?" I just gave her a deadpan glance. "What?" "Stealth dragon," Hiccup said. "You should know this, that means it can blend nearly perfectly with-"-it's surroundings, yeah, I remember," Astrid finished. She sighed. "Great, now I feel stupid." "We all have our moments," I muttered.
Astrid turned and nodded toward the gaggle of Vikings on the other side of the square and started heading in that direction. "Come on, then. The party is waiting for us." I snorted. "Some party. Not even any cake or games." Hiccup snickered behind me.
The hunting party waiting for us consisted of the teens, of course: Fishlegs, Snotlout, the Twins, and the three of us. But, unfortunately, we were stuck with at least one of the people from the visiting tribe, and who better that Bitwolf? "Jus' te make sure you all don' mess around out there," Ingavar said. "Dragons ain't the only creature out there te worry about." Wolfblood was there to see us off too, and piped up, "Bitwolf is very experienced in the woods, so this should be a good learnin' experience fer you all, even if ye don't find the dragons. But if ye do, watch closely! He's been killing dragons since he was four! Why, I still remember the moment he took on his first Terror! Ripped its head clean off!"
I watched as Hiccup began fidgeting and Astrid and Fishlegs both wore faces tainted with disgust. Naturally, the adults didn't notice this at all, but they did notice one hard-to-ignore detail. "Hey, whit's wrong with yer eyes there?" Ingavar asked, peering at me. "They be changing te a sickly green color. Ye feeling alright?" I blinked and looked at him, slowly making my eyes fade back to normal. "Yeah, sorry, nothing's wrong. They do that on occasion if you recall." Ingavar gave me a curious stare for a moment longer, but then shook his head and waved it off. "Well, no time te waste, yer already runnin' late! Go out there and see if ye can nae find a few of those winged beasts! Try not te kill all of them, so we can train ye properly later!" Everyone nodded, keeping up the façade, save for me and Hiccup. No one noticed.
With that, we set off, while Ingavar and Wolfblood headed the other direction to attend to "tribal matters." Bitwolf seemed intent on heading east, toward a thin patch of forest bordering the mountains and the seaside cliffs. This was perfectly fine in my book, as it was heading away from the portal and any other direction we'd have a problem with. About ten minutes later, I decided to make sure our shadow was doing what he was supposed to be doing. "Could you guys hold up a minute?" I asked. "I need to go take care of something real quick." Of course, nearly everyone started snickering, save Hiccup and Astrid, as they all assumed a different purpose for the detour. I turned around and walked off into the forest, ignoring the jests, and disappeared into the ferns. After about 50 feet or so, I stopped and waited. Soon enough, Toothless appeared out from the undergrowth and walked up to me.
"You know what to do?" I asked. ::Stay out of sight, keep an eye on the group, alert you if anything goes wrong, yada yada yada. Did I miss anything?:: I eyed him suspiciously. "Been picking up that snark from Hiccup?" ::And you. I live with the both of you constantly around, kind of hard not to have it rub off. What did you expect?:: I sighed and smirked slightly. "Fine, okay. Just keep on your toes while we're out here. You're the sentry here, but I don't want anything happening to you either. Hiccup would kill me." ::Don't worry, I'll be fine,:: Toothless replied, turning and vanishing into the thicket again. I returned to the group, and immediately noticed Bitwolf giving me an awkward glance. But, he shrugged it off and turned to start leading the way again, muttering something about "taking way too long to just visit a tree."
An hour of wandering through the southeastern forest found us getting really bored, and stuck with an increasingly frustrated Bitwolf. "By the gods, where are they all?!" he finally burst out as we moved away from a hole in the mountain side towering above us and into a grassy clearing. "Hours of walking around, looking in all the obvious hiding places, and even the not-so-obvious, and I mean, not even a stinking Terrible Terror to show for it! I just don't get it!"
He continued to vent for a couple more minutes as the rest of us sat down to rest for a moment. Eventually I turned and caught Bitwolf's attention. "Berk hasn't had any serious dragon issues in a long time, not really since the Red Death incident," I reminded him. Bitwolf stole a glance at Hiccup, reminded of who had the fame there, and then shook his head. "Well, we may have to head out across the mountains here then," he said, gesturing to a low pass off to our right in the mountain chain. "There's nothing over there, I assure you," I said. "Well, then, maybe up in the mountains. Surely there's a few lizards hanging out up in there. It's the last place I can think of, other than trying to scale the sea stacks on the western side." "Well, good luck trying to climb even-" I was cut off as I heard a roar sound out from nearby. ::Hawken! Watch out!::
My blood froze, and I swept my eyes in a wide arc over the edge of the clearing. "What is it?" Tuffnut asked. "A dragon! Finally! And it sounds like a big one, too!" Bitwolf exclaimed, starting to head in that direction. I shook my head. "No! Everyone get in a circle, now!" I yelled. "Face out, weapons at the ready!" Luckily, no one questioned the order and did as asked. No one except Bitwolf, that is.
"You idiot, get in the circle!" Ruffnut hissed at him. "Why?" he countered. "We finally have the dragon we're-" "JUST DO IT!" everyone yelled. Bitwolf stared for a second, then reluctantly joined the ring, pulling out his axe. Everyone grabbed their weapons, Astrid and Hiccup grabbing their carved swords (recall the festival the year before) as I grabbed mine and pulled out another sword, a third still on my back just in case.
Silence. We waited, not a single muscle moving, save for our eyes flickering across the clearing. I morphed slightly, my vision growing stronger along with my hearing, but I still couldn't pick anything up. I glanced at the others in the group, who were also still waiting for something to happen. Nothing. After a couple of minutes, Hiccup turned slightly to me and whispered, "What was that?" "Don't know," I whispered back. "Toothless yelled to watch out, and he doesn't make himself known for just any reason. I'm assum-"
"LOOK OUT!" Astrid screamed. I whipped my head to the side, and brought my swords up in defense.
RROOOOOAAARRRR!
So the Shadow Lord was real. It had snuck up around the side, where my peripheral vision couldn't catch the dimpling in the grass. Now, it was fully visible, and leapt straight toward us. Bitwolf and Ruffnut dove out of the way, and I swung my blades toward the beast.
SCHWWAANNNGG!
The blades, along with Astrid's sword, collided with its massive snout, the loud noise resulting from metal on scales that were hard as rock. It shrieked in surprise and fell back for a second, giving us a chance to see just what it looked like.
The dragon wasn't as large as I had imagined, but still nearly 50 feet in length, with deep blue, almost black, iridescent scales, dark horns on its head, and massive wings. Everything was nearly the same as the description I had read, save for one detail…. The Shadow Lord had a pair of blades instead of fins at the end of its tail.
It leveled a glare at me, and I sent a glare like burning embers back at it, making the beast blink in surprise, watching my eyes shift colors. I grinned and slid my swords across each other, crossing them in a gesture of warning. I glanced at Hiccup for a second and motioned for him to move toward the forest's edge. The Shadow Lord noticed, and hissed, crouching and lunging for Hiccup.
BOOOMMMM!
The dragon shrieked as it was pushed back and into the trees by the indigo blast. Toothless dove down into the clearing, and leapt in front of Hiccup, baring his teeth at the new dragon. It rolled to its feet and glared at Hiccup mounting Toothless, and bared its teeth back. ::So you're the ones,:: he hissed. ::Had to go and ruin everything.:: ::I beg to differ,:: I hissed in reply, gaining the Shadow Lord's attention again. He narrowed his eyes at me. ::Of all the places I go to hunt, I have to run into you.:: I opened my mouth to reply, but before I could, Bitwolf finally noticed what Hiccup was doing.
"Are you nuts?! That's a Night Fury!" he yelled. I turned my head, and the Shadow Lord took his chance, fixating on Bitwolf who was busy yelling at Hiccup, and jumped.
"AAAAHHH!" "Bitwolf!" The dragon tackled him, pinning the teen to the ground, and was about to fire when I barreled into the side of his neck. Bitwolf scrambled to his feet and screamed at me, "ARE YOU CRAZY?!" I glared at him, then focused on the Shadow Lord again. He was burning in rage as he faced me down again.
"Game on," I growled, putting away my swords and spreading a pair of rock-hard Timberjack wings, and whipping out a long tail behind me. Toothless and Hiccup padded up next to me, taking a stand as I finished the morph, fully Timberjack with rock-hard scales on top.
"Everyone to the trees," I ordered, my eyes not leaving the snarling dragon in front of me. I heard the teens dash into the relative safety of the forest, and watched as the Shadow Lord's eyes snapped upward for a second, then back to me, preparing to make a move. I readied myself, right as he jumped. I leapt up at the same time, grabbing his front legs with the claws on my wings, and slammed him back to the ground, floating down to land again myself. The dragon looked up at me, snarled a cheeky grin (at least, as much as any dragon can really grin) and faded immediately from view. I pounced again, but hit nothing but grass.
There was the faint rushing of air suddenly, and I heard the dragon's voice sneer, ::Find me now, gifted one.:: The voice emanated from somewhere above me, so I glanced up, looking to see if I could spot any sign of the dragon. In return, I was forced to leap out of the way of a stream of fire as he appeared for a split second to attack, then disappeared again. I glanced at Hiccup and Toothless, who nodded, reading my mind, and we launched into the air, spiraling upward in an unpredictable pattern. As I twisted my way up, I opened my mouth and released a cloud of fuel like a Zippleback, filling the air with green mist, then twisted away as Toothless fired into it, setting the cloud alight. The fireball rocketed outward, forcing Hiccup to yelp, "Hey!" and turn Toothless out of the way, as I turned to peer into the flames. Sure enough, the sudden blast had caught the Shadow Lord off guard, and a flash of blackish scales appeared in the midst of the inferno.
Toothless spotted the same thing, and fired again, the explosion knocking the dragon out of the flames and into plain sight, and dazing him just enough to make him fully drop the stealth cloak. He spotted me diving toward him, and dashed to the right, but not fast enough. I grabbed him by the tail, and yanked him downward, driving him to the ground. He hit with a massive crash, dazing him again, and groaned. I landed on top of him, effectively pinning the dragon, and forced him immobile.
::Leave this island, now,:: I snarled, as Toothless landed nearby, giving his own snarl to match mine, ::or I'll leave you crippled and at the mercy of the Night Fury and the Vikings.:: The Shadow Lord stole a glance at the pair beside me. ::Such a pathetic alliance,:: he sneered. ::It'll never last, I'm not the only one you'll be facing.:: Toothless bristled at the comment, and I raised my tail and smacked the Shadow Lord across the snout. ::I said leave. Now.:: I stepped back, letting the dragon get to his feet, shakily. He turned to fly off, but gave me one last glare. ::This isn't the last time we'll meet, I assure you that,:: he snapped.
Then, he turned and streaked into the sky, arcing toward the cliffs edging the island, unreachable save by boat or dragon, and disappeared. I snorted, then turned and changed back to myself once he was out of sight. Hiccup unlatched himself and hopped off of the saddle. Toothless glanced at me. "You can follow until we reach the edge of the village," I said. He nodded, and followed behind us as we headed into the forest.
"Astrid?" "Over here!"
I turned my head in the direction of the reply, and followed it into another, smaller clearing a ways off. There, we found the other teens gathered in a semi-circle, Bitwolf standing in the middle, arms crossed. As Hiccup and Toothless stepped in behind me, he shook his head.
"So," he muttered, "the rumors are, in fact, truth, huh?" Astrid glanced at him. "What rumors?" Bitwolf shrugged. "You Hooligans ride dragons now. There have been stories leaking southward for a while now." He gestured toward Hiccup. "But, if he has the Night Fury with him, where are the rest of your dragons?" "Away," I snapped, "to make sure none of you lot try to take off their heads." "Then why is the Night Fury here?" "Because he's the only one besides me who is stealthy enough to evade detection." Bitwolf sent a wayward glare in my direction, and then raised his eyebrow. "Speaking of you," he began, uncrossing his arms and walking up to me, "what on earth are you? People should not be able to just sprout wings and fly."
I feigned innocence for a moment. "Gee, I'm not sure what you mean." Bitwolf snorted, and ignored the twins snickering in the back. 'Oh, please, don't play that game. I watched back there as you turned into a full-size Timberjack. No ordinary human can do something like that. What is it, witchcraft?" I laughed. "No, no, I beg to differ. One ordinary human can do that, me. And no, it's not witchcraft; it was a gift, actually. Now, you know one of my secrets, congratulations." I stepped forward, my face an inch from his. "Now, if you know what's good for you, you'll not ask any more questions and you'll keep your mouth shut about this whole business." In response, Bitwolf just gave me a withering glare. In return, I shot back one equally as withering, combined with burning red eyes. He decided to back off for the moment.
"Well, at least I know the truth now," he muttered. "Ingavar is still completely blind to the whole thing. He doesn't have the slightest clue. In fact, only my father and I have intercepted any of the stories." I sighed. "And here we go." Bitwolf stopped for a moment and looked at me. "What do you mean by that, pray tell?" he asked. I smiled slightly. "Another of my secrets. I know one of the things you're about to ask. And for a number of reasons, starting with the fact that I don't trust you an inch, I say no, you can't learn how to ride dragons, certainly not yet at least." Immediately, Bitwolf went red, clenching his teeth, then raised his hands toward the other teens.
"By the gods, how on earth do you stand him?" he exploded. The teens just started laughing. "He's been more help than hurt in the time we've known him," Fishlegs said. "We've been able to make lasting peace treaties with two major enemies in the past year because he was around to help." "Yeah," Snotlout continued, "and he's a good fighter. Plus, we know more of-" BANG! "Ow! Hey!" "Shut up already!" I hissed, not feeling the least bit sorry for smacking him in the head. "That's more than enough from you." I turned back to Bitwolf. "You know what you need to know, actually a lot more than I'd prefer you to know, and now we really need to head back to the village. End of story."
No one questioned that decision, so with that final word, we began weaving our way back toward Berk. On the way, Fishlegs sidled up next to me. "Uh, so what do we do if someone mentions our run-in with the Shadow Lord?" he whispered. I shrugged. "We're going to have to tell," I whispered back, "but I do have an idea for an excuse as to what happened." He nodded, and moved back to where he was walking before. I walked over to Hiccup and tapped him on the shoulder. "What?" he asked. "When we get back to the village, you're going to have to build a new weapon," I said. "Why?" "To cover up the fact that we were working with Toothless to scare off the Shadow Lord. No one can know that we've got dragons on the island." Hiccup sighed. "Well, then, I really hope you have a good idea of what I'm supposed to make, because I've got nothing here." "Don't worry," I said, giving him a pat on the shoulder. "It'll work out." I then sidled over to Toothless, who was skirting the edge of the group, glancing around in all directions. "We're getting close to the village, so it'd probably be a good idea for you to head back to the cove now." He looked up at me, still anxious. ::You sure you can handle it if anything happens?:: he queried. I gave him a deadpan glance. ::Okay, okay, just asking.:: he turned and took off into the forest. ::I expect to see you before you leave,:: he called out as he vanished. "Will do," I replied.
Bitwolf glanced in my direction as I said this. "So, not only can you turn into a dragon, you can talk to them, huh?" "You tell me," I said. He didn't reply to that. We walked in silence the rest of the way to the village.
A couple of minutes later, we reached the edge of the settlement. Ingavar, Stoick, and Wolfblood were nearby, by Stoick's house, and quickly spotted us. "Any success?" Wolfblood asked. "Eh, you could sort of say that," Bitwolf drawled, glancing sidelong at me. Ingavar turned to me as well. "So, what happened?" he asked. "Did ye not manage te at least kill a couple of dragons?" I shook my head. "No, no, we didn't kill any, but we did have a run-in with one." "Oh? What kind?" I sighed. "All I can really say is we know for sure the Shadow Lord is on the island now."
The three adults gasped. "Ye saw it?" Stoick asked. We nodded. Ingavar looked the teens up and down. "How on earth did ye survive? A Shadow Lord can kill Night Furies! And ye eight inexperienced teens escaped?" I nodded. "Yeah, Hiccup had a bit of a special weapon with him. It managed to scare off the Shadow Lord, for the moment." Ingavar now turned to face Hiccup. "Oh? And where is this weapon? Must be quite something to look at if it can scare away such a dragon."
Hiccup fidgeted a little bit, glancing irritatedly in my direction. "Well, uh, I already, uh, hid it away. I have to, uh, make some tweaks, since it was damaged somewhat when we were attacked. "He scratched the back of his head. "It's kind of sensitive, too, so I uh, don't want anyone to mess with it." Ingavar gave him the fisheye, then focused on Bitwolf. "So, did you see this weapon?" Bitwolf opened his mouth with a bit of a smirk, but then caught my look, and stuttered, "Well, uh, yeah, I did. But I didn't see where he, uh, he put it." I spotted the disappointment in Wolfblood's eyes, confirming one of my suspicions: he was definitely planning something.
Ingavar stood up straight and nodded. "Well, then, we'll see tomorrow just how well this 'weapon' works. You, Hiccup, will accompany us on another hunt tomorrow, with your, well, whatever it is. If we come across a dragon, you will get to demonstrate it."
Hiccup groaned quietly, and Ingavar headed off to do who-knows-what. Wolfblood motioned Bitwolf to follow him, and I looked at Hiccup. "Fill your dad in on what happened. I need to keep an eye on those two." He nodded, and I headed off unseen, following the two new Vikings. I knew they were going to be trouble; I just needed to know how much. I slid along houses as the pair strode down the road.
The pair made their way across the village, and walked behind their temporary dwelling. I slid behind a row of trees and bushes nearby, and listened.
"So what really happened?" Wolfblood half-whispered. Bitwolf shifted awkwardly. "Well, the rumors were true, for once." "You mean Hiccup actually has a Night Fury?" "Yeah. Plus, as is probably obvious, there wasn't any weapon with him. He'll probably build one on the spot in the forge tonight." Wolfblood waved this info off. "That's not surprising. It works out though. He'll build the device, and you'll find some way to sabotage it. He'll go on the hunt tomorrow, look like a fool, and that's one step closer to where we need to be." Bitwolf looked anxious. "Why do I have to be the one to sabotage it? It's your plan." "It has to be you," Wolfblood responded, "because you're more easily able to slip past prying eyes. One teen isn't noticeable, yer age group is always getting in trouble and snooping around. If I go sneaking around the forge, people will notice." He shifted and crossed his arms. "Now, did anything else happen while ye were out that I should know about?" Bitwolf nodded, then glanced around to make sure no one could hear them. I smirked.
"You remember that weird teen that's always with Hiccup and the others? The one who doesn't live in the village, and has that hair that looks like he was just woken up?" My eyes narrowed; my hair wasn't that bad! Wolfblood nodded. "Yeah, he's hard te miss. That boy-what's his name, uh, Hawker?-seems to know more about what happens in the village than Stoick!" Bitwolf nodded. "Yeah, you're right about that. His name's Hawken, by the way. Anyway, he's actually the one who scared off the Shadow Lord. I mean, Hiccup and his dragon helped, but that boy probably did most of the work." Wolfblood gave his son an incredulous look. "That twig? Sure, he's got some good strength and aim with weapons, but I doubt he's even got the skill to take on a Nightmare, let alone the Shadow Lord." "Well, he did." Wolfblood narrowed his eyes. "And how did he do so?" Bitwolf grinned. "He can do a lot more than that. See, it turns out he can-"
"-Hear everything the both of you are saying?" I snapped, stepping out of the trees and glaring at the pair. They both jumped in surprise, and Wolfblood unsheathed the sword on his hip. "What in blazes are you doing here?" he spat. I laughed and, in response to his pulling out a sword, pulled out two of my own. "Oh, please, I'm only doing my job: keeping things under proper order around here," I replied casually. Wolfblood glared at me. "How much did you overhear?" I shrugged. "Oh, just everything. I should mention I'll be helping Hiccup all night with the deterrent as well, and I'll be taking it with me when we're done, so nobody messes with-"
I was cut short as Wolfblood suddenly swiped his sword up at me. He was hoping to catch me off guard and smack me in the head, but I flashed my sword sideways and slammed his blade to the dirt. He yelped slightly as the force wrenched his wrist.
"Try that again and I will prove I'm every bit capable of stringing you up by your underwear in the village plaza," I hissed, then turned to Bitwolf. "And as for you, if I tell you to keep your mouth shut about something, you should do as you're told. I've already warned you once." Bitwolf glanced at me, then smiled just slightly. "He can turn into a dragon!" he said quickly, before I could stop him.
FLASH!
Bitwolf brought his hand up to his cheek, feeling the shallow cut I'd left. "I said shut up!" I hissed again. "You do know what I'm capable of." I glanced at Wolfblood, who was still glaring at me. "And, apparently, now so do you, so this is your warning: drop your little game now, whatever it is, or else I will make sure you're absolutely humiliated once this village is done with you!"
I whirled around and disappeared into the trees, leaving the two hanging. Once again, I hid myself nearby and listened as Wolfblood naturally had his son tell him what I had done earlier that day. Luckily, Bitwolf only knew a small piece of the truth, one fact about my ability.
"Hah! Only a Timberjack?" Wolfblood laughed and shook his head. "I've taken down those dragons many a time. He's no worry then. You still know what to do, if you get the chance." I narrowed my eyes, and morphed to Shadow dragon. "We'll see about that," I whispered.
I raced through the village unseen (after all, I was travelling through shadows, no one could see me) and searched for Hiccup. Luckily, I quickly found him at his house, up in his room. I rematerialized quickly and spoke up.
"So, did you inform Stoick about what happened?" I asked. "YAAHHHH!" Hiccup jerked backward and fell onto his bed. "Cut that out will you?" he snapped. "I'm going to die of a heart attack before I'm 30 with you around." "Sorry," I apologized, "but did you?" He stood up again and nodded, brushing off his shirt. "Yeah, we scared off the Shadow Lord temporarily, and Bitwolf not only knows we have dragons, but that you can turn into one." I nodded. "So does Wolfblood now. Neither of those two can really be trusted to keep their mouths closed." Hiccup sighed and walked over to his desk, slumping into his chair. "Well, things just get better and better, don't they?" he commented sarcastically. I nodded in agreement. "Uh huh. Anyway, we need to get down to the forge. We both have some serious work to do.." He nodded and got up. When he reached his door, though, he stopped. "We might want to find Gobber for this, too," he said.
Not surprisingly, Gobber was already at the forge when we got there. "Ay, Hiccup!" he called out as we walked up. "Where 'ave ye been?" "Dealing with invisible dragons and pain-in-the-butt Vikings," Hiccup replied. Gobber nodded. "So business as usual. I take it yer referring te that Wolf-whatever pair?" We nodded. Gobber set down his tools as we entered and turned to us. "Well, I know how ye feel. The younger one came down early this mornin', with an order to make new blades fer some o' their axes." He lowered his voice. "O' course the blades won't do them much good at the moment. I'll nae take any chances o' George getting' hurt."
I should mention that George was the name Gobber had chosen for the Boneknapper he and the teens had run into a couple of years before. He didn't show up on the island often, but was usually found with the burly blacksmith when he was around.
"Well, we're here for a slightly different reason," I spoke up, patting Hiccup on the shoulder. "In order to cover up for me and Toothless being at the scene of the Shadow Lord, we need to get to work on a very special crossbow."