X.
Hoards of humans and dragons amassed in the underground bunker like stirred-up ants, everyone running everywhere without any seemly intentional direction, and certainly void of any order. Somehow the enormous size of the cavern directly beneath Berk could not support the number of human and Vikings hurriedly entering. The main doors were even worse.
The ever-clogged entrance to the cave was a large, well-bolstered building which hung over one of Berk's many steep cliff sides, not far from the village, located just above the docks. Those docks were empty now of human life, everyone scurrying indoors to lock their dragons up safely in pens or attics, to secure their possessions, to stand on the lookout for danger. More crashed into each other's helmets than succeeded at their errands. And even the dragons had become riled up. Deadly Nadders snapped testily at Vikings' hands, Monstrous Nightmares agitatedly set fire to the beards of a few unlucky men and women, and even the laid-back Gronckles bumbled restlessly, eyes widened with worry. Though few – humans or dragons – understood precisely what was occurring now, one fact remained clear: the chief wanted to be prepared for war.
Stoick the Vast himself clambered through the crowd of wildly scrambling Hairy Hooligans, Gobber the Belch blundering along after him like a one-legged battering ram. "Where's Hiccup? Has anyone seen Hiccup?" Stoick asked intently, while Gobber followed up the rear apologizing to every individual he or the chief inadvertently knocked off their feet.
"Stoick," Gobber said, reaching Stoick and clasping the chief on the shoulder with a meaty hand. Stoick turned around. Gobber continued, "We would have found Hiccup by now if he were in the village. He's got to be out elsewhere on the island."
Stoick blew out his mustaches, frustrated, and said, "I haven't seen that boy since he first mentioned the Vigilante. I saw him charge off on Toothless the second I ordered the village secured. Don't you think he should have been back by now?"
"I don't know, Stoick. Perhaps he didn't like what you had to say?"
Stoick glared at Gobber, who only shrugged meekly in return.
"Of all the irresponsible –"
"He's twenty years old and a Viking," Gobber pointed out. At the same time, he ducked underneath a spray of fire from a roused up Monstrous Nightmare being led by an equally agitated middle aged Viking man. Then, turning back to Stoick, he concluded, "Couldn't be a worse combination."
"Well, I can't shut the gates until everyone and everyone's dragon is here," Stoick remarked. At least, the chief would be reluctant to do so. "Come with me. We'll sweep through the village one more time, and if that fails, grab Skullcrusher and Grump for a flight around the island."
The two Hooligans exited the bunker and looked out over the ocean spanning infinitely beyond them. Hugging alongside the steep rocky cliff, a seemingly rickety but actually rather sturdy, winding wooden plank path led downward toward the harbor. The further down Stoick and Gobber walked, the slipperier the surface became, high-rising ocean waves splashing onto the wood and even sloshing puddles onto the pathway. Though it was not the quickest route back toward the village proper, it was one Gobber and Stoick had not yet thoroughly checked for the chief's son and his dragon. Why Hiccup and Toothless would stow away here would be beyond either of them, but then again, the mind of those two often confounded the most knowledgeable in their Viking society.
As they walked, Gobber tried to pipe them up into conversation. "Regarding your chat to Hiccup about the, er, dragon rider," Gobber commented, his voice taking on a wary tinge, "how much precisely did you tell him?"
"Everything he needed to know," Stoick answered gruffly.
"Which would be…?"
"She's dangerous, has killed a lot of men, and he needs to stay away from her."
Gobber snorted. "You should know by now if you give him that little of information, the first thing he's going to do is run toward the danger."
"Well, I wasn't going to tell him anything more," the chief answered gruffly. The intonation in his voice clearly suggested he wished to steer away from this conversation now. He himself steered his body away from Gobber, concentrating on a small series of wooden steps beneath his feet rather than his nervously gesturing companion.
However, Gobber, still dancing gently around the topic, pointed out, "But if she's really out there endangering Berk, I don't think you can hide the truth from him forever. If Hiccup's out there, Stoick, he's going to find out."
No answer.
"Better to hear it from his father first, wouldn't you say?"
Stoick stomped heavily on a stray sea shell, shattered it to pieces, and ended the conversation. The two of them continued forward, eyes scanning every direction for a sign of an armored young man and his black dragon. Gobber especially made sure to look anywhere but at Stoick the Vast. A storm cloud pouring torrents of water and shooting spears of lightning would have sported a better disposition than the chief of Berk, and probably be safer to approach.
"Hey Stoick," he said slowly, blonde unibrow furrowing as he stared out to sea, "that's not one of our ships, is it?"
"No it's not." Instinctively, Stoick's hand reached down to his left hip and slightly eased the sword from its scabbard.
As they clambered down to investigate, the ship turned in to the harbor and settled alongside the docks. Her once-green flax sails were so tattered and blackened from apparent fire damage that the patterns sewn on the cloth were indistinguishable, and she boasted a rather impressive hole gaping just a few meters above the water line. The ship's most impressive feature was staying afloat. The injured vessel bobbed hazardously in the calm waters of the harbor; how she had fought through tougher, open waters to arrive here, neither Stoick nor Gobber could have ventured a rational guess.
In the center of the deck, surrounded by war-wearied men slowly working, slept a sky blue Nadder.
"That's Stormfly!"
As if on cue, Astrid leapt lightly from the rail of the ship and landed on the docks. The rest of the men on board, still anchoring and securing the ship, glared down at her. She never noticed. An expression of intent consumed Astrid's face as she stepped forward to greet the chief and his companion. She did not even realize a ponytailed young man threw himself off deck and scrambled up behind her; and he might well as have not existed, for the chief first spoke to his fellow Hooligan and not the man behind her.
"Astrid, what are these people doing –"
Astrid did not wait for Stoick to finish, instead interrupting him, "Sir, we need to fly out a patrol of dragons now. We ran into the Vigilante."
Her leader's green eyes hardened as soon as she mentioned the dragon rider. "How far?" he asked. Then, glancing up at the sailors rigging the ship to the docks, and now taking in details of the tall, brown eyed gentleman impatiently shadowing Astrid, Stoick inquired suspiciously, "Are these the dragon trappers Hiccup met earlier?"
"I'm right here," the man piped up indignantly. "You can address me directly."
"What are they doing here? Did you and my son go speak to them?"
At this second snub of being indirectly addressed, the man crossed his arms and frowned at the chief.
"Uh," Astrid began awkwardly, but before she could voice anything intelligible, Stoick followed up with one final question.
"And speaking of. Where is Hiccup?"
Astrid did not speak, but she did answer. Slowly. She bent her head forward, braid falling half in her face, as she reached down into the small tan satchel tied around her waist. Out from the pack she pulled a dark, cylindrical metal object about twice the length of her hand and just thick enough to be comfortably held. One of its nubs ended in the gaping mouth of a dragon. The hilt to Hiccup's sword Inferno.
She handed it out to Stoick. Both his hands reached out to take it, delicately, from hers. Their eyes met.
Stoick only briefly tore his gaze away from Astrid and his son's sword, nodding solemnly up toward the rest of the dragon trappers who had finally finished securing the ship to the dock. "Bring them with us. Yes, you, come with me." He finally made contact with the man behind Astrid, gesturing for all three of them to follow him toward the village proper. "It looks like we all have a lot of catching up to do and a rescue to plan fast."