Dragon Friend (sequel to the dragon boy) Chapter 2 - Catching Up
frostcup fanfic

Aithors note: back with our boys again^^ I can't believe how many of you are enjoying this! Thank you soo much for all your lovely words and I hope I can meet your expectations with it^^ anyway like I said I hope you enjoy the chapter please review and the next chapter will be posted tommorow

"You know we could have always talked through the trust bond." Hiccup noticed.
"Yeah, but where's the fun in that?" Jack grinned. "Besides, do you know how long its been since I've talked?" He asked, Hiccup thought.
"Whenever it was, the last time we met?" He answered.
"No, a few days ago, with myself." Jack corrected. Hiccup shook his head, he'd missed that funny sense of humour. He was telling the truth, but it wasn't the speaking he was enjoying so much- it was hearing someone speak back. Being on your own for so long- especially after what he'd been through- made you glad when you had someone to talk to, and Hiccup could feel that simple happiness radiate through their bond.

Hiccup looked around, taking in the view, and suddenly realised.
"Oh, wait. New land!" He exclaimed, and pulled out a worn book, unfolding the pages into a large map, with various random additions to the original sheet. He added a new one to the top.
"You're still doing this?" Jack commented, as he joined Hiccup on the floor. The map was something Hiccup had started a few years ago- even before he met Jack- and the dragon boy had been assisting him with it ever since.
"Uh huh, any help would be welcome." Hiccup subtly requested.
"Nah, wouldn't want to spoil the surprise." Jack declined, he had a bigger mental map than Hiccup could even imagine, he just rarely shared it with him because of "spoilers". Hiccup rolled his eyes, he would help eventually- he always did- he was just being annoying.

He sharpened his pencil, and began drawing on the new island.
"So what were you doing all winter? You're normally near enough on time." He wondered, aloud. Jack's mind turned a little saddened.
"I was, you know... searching." He said quietly. Hiccup knew what he was going on about.

Jack was the last of the "Sky Dragons" ,as the Vikings called them, the rest of them were wiped out in a single attack, and Jack had only escaped because he hadn't been there. Recently, on his travels to cold places, he'd kept a eye out, or gone deliberately searching for any survivors, in the hope that he wasn't alone.

Hiccup'd asked if they could've used the same elemental healing as Jack did winters ago- when he'd all but died and everyone had believed him to be gone- some time during the first winter he'd come back. But, no. He'd soon turned down that idea.

The healing will only work if the heart isn't injured, broken or otherwise damaged... and (he'd gone quiet at this point) the battlefield which he saw- the final resting place of all, but one, of the Sky Dragons- all the bodies there... all had been stabbed in the chest, or similarily had their hearts made useless to heal them. It only worked once anyway- many Sky Dragons would've already used their elemental revive... those that hadn't and still had a chance, well, he'd already heard what'd happened to them.

He'd tried to lighten the mood then, saying that at least that meant that the black dragon also wasn't coming back- after all, he'd stabbed it through the heart so it must be gone... right? But then doubts had crept in- what if it somehow had revived itself? What if it was still alive, seeking them out? Lusting for revenge? Jack had made that idea vanish too. He'd shook his head, saying that that beast wasn't even a Sky Dragon. It was a similar species, but definately not the same.

They were much more common and more aggressive than the Sky Dragons, and they fed off dark emotions like fear and rage. Also, whilst they had similar abilities to the Sky Dragons- transforming into humans and bending elements (although theirs was only darkness)- they didn't possess the Sky Dragons full range of abilities- like the healing and controlling the weather- and they were forever greatly jealous of them.

Jack said, if he had to guess, the "Nightmare Dragons" (as Hiccup had, at some point, decided to call them) had finally had enough of being the second most powerful dragons- under the Sky Dragons themselves. The northern lights that went out, that he refused to go to, was a call to arms not a summons to a meeting... and the Nightmare Dragons had declared war on the Sky.

It was obvious from the state of the battlefield, though, that only one had escaped- just like only Jack had escaped. He knew he was the only Nightmare Dragon left, as he'd been the only one revelling in the victory. If any others had survived, they would've joined the celebration with him. But it was just him, and now he was was dead too. Hiccup had been was astonished that Jack'd killed the last of a species (like himself), but then he'd remembered what the dark dragon had been like... They'd had no choice but to kill him, and, he didn't like to think it, but, if they were all that dangerous and aggressive, then maybe it was good they were gone.

He brought himself out of his thoughts

"I thought if I went further, then... maybe I might find something." Jack continued.

"And did you find any...?" Hiccup prompted, but he knew the answer, already- if he had, he'd be elated, and not upset, right now.

"No." He answered, there was silence for a bit, as Hiccup carried on drawing. After a while, Jack reached out and moved his finger across the map. Hiccup knew what he meant- even if they hadn't done this before, they could, literally, read each other's minds. Hiccup's pencil followed his pointing finger, drawing on an island beyond the current one, hidden from view.

Jack's plight about searching for his dragon family reminded him of his own similar search.
"I... don't suppose, you saw... any, er, Night Furys?" He asked, Jack shook his head. "None of them, either." Silence again.

Well, so far this was going just brilliant. The first time they'd seen each other in over a year, and they were both mildly depressed.

"So, are you gonna be going away again, soon, or- I mean, not like I want you to- but, it's not really, all that... cold, out." Hiccup asked, Jack looked at him, somehow cheered up a little.
"Just you try and stop me. I'm not about to let a little heat keep me away from all my friends. I'm sure a few days won't kill me." He smirked. "Besides, Berk has pretty much all year round winter, right?" Hiccup smiled, it was true, winter never seemed to want to leave Berk- not unlike a certain white dragon he knew... in fact, for all he knew, he could have something to do with it.
"So how are things on Berk? What's new?" Jack asked.

What's new... oh great, he'd been trying to forget about that. Why did that have to remind him of it. Jack noticed the sudden darkening in his mind.
"What's up?" He asked.
"Nothing." Hiccup replied, evasively. Jack knew a lie when he heard one, especially when Hiccup told it. He just stared at his friend, making it clear he didn't believe him. Hiccup sighed, and avoided his gaze.
"What happened?" Jack asked. "Did Snotlout punch you in the face?" Hiccup looked up, startled.
"No." Hiccup replied, as though it were ridiculous thought.
"Did, Astrid, punch you in the face?" Jack guessed.
"What? No!" Hiccup said. Jack sent him a prompting thought, Hiccup sighed.

"It's my dad." He began to explain.
"Did he punch you in the face?" He joked.
"No." Hiccup was grateful to him for trying to lighten the mood, but, honestly, this thing was a little serious. "It's..." Jack waited, as Hiccup thought about how to tell him. "... He wants me to become chief." He burst out. Jack looked shocked at this, and caged up his thoughts a little, so Hiccup couldn't hear them. But the brown haired boy could read them in his eyes.

Chief! But that's a job! It's a big responsibility- it's a job for a man! A grown up!

The simple, upsetting fact was, that Stoick's request reminded him, that his best friend was growing up. He didn't want him to grow up. He wanted him to stay a kid forever. He'd seen Hiccup grow taller over the past few years, but suddenly it just seemed to sink in that Hiccup really had grown- how long had he been taller than him? Now he was on the verge of adulthood.

Jack had pretty much stayed the same age, mentally and physically, for all the past three hundred years of his life. But Hiccup was growing up, and leaving him behind, but... at the same, he was eventually going to leave Hiccup behind, as he continued to live, long after him.

The knowledge that Hiccup might soon be chief with responsibilities, and duties, and grown up stuff, with less time to play, and have fun with him, unsettled him greatly.
"And you're gonna say yes?" Jack asked, worried- he didn't want to be losing him- but to his relief, Hiccup shook his head.
"It's not me. All that chief stuff- that's my dad's thing, not mine." Jack realised he was coming across some other big issue- one that Hiccup hadn't told anyone about before.

"...I don't know what, my thing, is. I mean, if my dad's a big chief person, and my mother... I don't even know what she was- so what does that make me?" He rambled. It felt good to confine in a friend, it was something that had been bothering him a long time. He knew Jack was still troubled about the whole chief thing, but he just had to tell him. Jack knew him better than anyone, if anyone could tell him who he was, Jack could.

He turned to him, hoping for an answer, and noticed he was fiddling with a small, wooden object. He was silent, the way he did when he was deep in thought.

Jack had spent many, many years wondering who he was, before he found out about the Sky Dragons, so he could relate. He was puzzling over how to help, when he noticed Hiccup watching. He looked up, and tossed it to him.
"Here, North gave it to me. I found it this winter. It's a middle part of this thing they used to make. There's supposed to be others that go round it- but the idea, is that it represents a person. There are all the different things that make them who they are, but right at the middle, is their centre. Who they truly are." He explained.

The thumb sized piece of wood, Hiccup was holding, had a white dragon wrapped round a slim pale boy, painted onto it. This was Jack's centre, he realised. He looked back up at the person it was supposed to resemble.
"It's supposed to help you discover yourself." He finished, and curled Hiccup's fingers around it.

'Wait- no. This is yours! North gave it you! I can't take-.' His thoughts went on, until Jack stopped him.
"I know who I am, Hiccup. Maybe, it will help you find yourself." He said, and Hiccup knew he meant it. He felt a little bad about not reassuring him he's still going to be there, after the whole chief thing, but, without knowing it, the admonition had done just that. It had reassured Jack that he was still a kid- still trying to find his place in the world, and find out who he is.

There was a question niggling at Hiccup's mind, now, though- what was Jack's centre?
"So who are you, then? What is your centre?" He asked, Jack smiled, and tilted his head to one side.
"See if you can figure it out." He challenged. Hiccup looked at the little wooden piece. How could he know who he is, if he didn't even know who his best friend was?

He stared at it- perhaps there was a clue on the centre itself. Before he could examine it properly, a roar grabbed his attention.

Toothless was standing at the edge of their little island, pointing with his head, out across the land. Hiccup followed his gaze, and Jack did the same.
"What's that?" Jack asked, perhaps Jack had special dragony vision or something, because Hiccup could barely tell there was anything.

But... squinting, he could see there definately was something... and if Jack hadn't seen it before... He found his curiousity aroused- something so big it could be seen from this distance didn't just appear overnight, at least, not naturally.

They both turned and grinned at each other, reaching an unspoken agreement that they just had to check it out.

He climbed on Toothless, as Jack transformed into the white dragon, and together they took off to investigate the big, strange thing in the distance.