I Own Nothing

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Chapter 11

A Lot to Talk and Think About

With each step through the woods she came closer to returning home. A sense of excitement grew inside of her at the thought of coming home and seeing her family again. As she got closer things she'd largely forgotten about during the week began to return to her. There were the issues of the Chiefdom, Snotlout's flirting, Dogsbreath and Hognose, who would doubtless want revenge after what she'd done to Dogsbreath, there would be more training her recruits, as well as dealing with this Dragon King debate and what she—and Berk—were going to do with all that he had shown to her. It felt funny how she had so easily forgotten about most of these things during her absence. It was as if she had taken a holiday and now had to return to the real world. Once again she almost envied the King. At least he didn't have to deal with a bunch of jerks all the time. She mulled over his parting words about Snotlout and her Uncle. If the first was true, things were going to be very interesting when the Chief and his brother found out. If the second was true, and accepted as the truth, that meant her family and Finn's name would be cleared. She'd always desired to be the one to clear that particular stain, but she had never imagined she would do it like this.

She entered the village casually. Most of the people were going about their daily chores, so it was several minutes before anybody noticed her. Then all of sudden Ruffnut Thorsten cried "it's Astrid!" and the next thing she knew she was surrounded by a horde of curious Vikings hungry for information. As was usual when this kind of thing happened, all of them were asking questions at the same time. Moments later her mother shoved her way through the throng and flung her arms around the girl.

"Thank Odin, thank Odin you're safe,"

"Easy Mom," laughed Astrid, "I'm perfectly fine!"

"He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"I just said I'm fine, Mom!"

At that point her father arrived on the scene. "I knew you'd come back safely!" he laughed, "there's nothing in the world that can hurt my daughter! Come here, you!" he pulled Astrid from her mother's clutches and gave her a fierce bear hug. "Welcome back! Did you miss us?"

"Some of you," Astrid replied, with a sidelong glance at Snotlout, who had managed to shove his way through the crowd.

"Hey babe! I am so glad you're back! Berk was a lot uglier without your gorgeous body!" He shouted over the crowd, which was still asking indiscernible questions.

"I'm sure you compensated for it, Snotface,"

"Yes, I did, in fact I—wait what?"

She spotted Fishlegs in the back of the crowd, who gave a friendly wave. Next to him were Chief and Gobber the Blacksmith, who were beaming at her. Stoick then stepped forward into the crowd.

"All right, everyone, give the lass some air! Back off a little bit. That's better. Let her get some space. Good to see you back, Lass! You're a bit earlier than I was expecting, but no matter. I imagine we have a lot to discuss."

"Oh, we do, Chief" Astrid assured him. "We certainly do."

"But that can wait a little bit. Let us through!" Stoick waved his hands and the crowd began to slowly part, allowing the Chief and the Hoffersons to pass. "You go on home, unpack, and get a little rest. We will all gather in Mead Hall for lunch and after the meal you can tell us everything. Afterwards," he softened his voice so only the Hoffersons could hear "we'll discuss things privately."

"So," Astrid said as she sat at the table and tried the soup her mom had made for her. "How was your expedition, Dad? Did you find the nest and all that?"

"Oh we found it, all right. Actually, we only got back 2 days ago." He told her how they had navigated through a tight and foggy series of passages which on three separate occasions nearly caused the ship to flounder, before they made it to a large extinct volcano. "We found it just as the lad had told us. A nest of Smothering Smokebreaths, hence the fog, and a big pile of the largest bones I've ever seen. You'll see one yourself: we brought back a claw and it's as big as a man! The skull of the beast was huge! Bigger than a dozen Gronkles! How that lad brought down such a monster is beyond me! The rest of the island was mostly just gray rocks and sand: not very interesting to look at, but there was evidence that a huge explosion had taken place there recently. It was probably the explosion that killed that monster."

"The Red Death,"

"Well it wasn't red anymore, but the word 'Death' seems a fitting name." He shook his head, "And to think, we finally reached the nest we've been after for centuries, and only then do we realize that it was better that we hadn't found it! Can you imagine us taking on that creature? Of course you can't, you don't know what it looks like, but still—the point is, if we had found that nest before that Dragon lad did, I don't think anyone of us would have lived to tell the tale."

Astrid swallowed nervously.

"One side of the volcano had collapsed. Inside was an empty cave. That's where the dragons lived, but our trackers guessed it had been abandoned for years."

"I think the King mentioned the dragons had left it as soon as the Red Death was dead."

"I know. All that we saw confirmed his story." He shook his head. "So what happens now, I wonder? The nest is destroyed, the dragons aren't raiding—"

"And our family name isn't disgraced anymore!" Astrid interrupted. She quickly told them about the Flightmare. As soon as she was done Olaf excused himself and left the room.

"He needs to think a little," Greta said softly, "he and Finn were very close." Astrid went back to her soup, which she had neglected while Olaf had been talking.

"Do you think there's a need to kill dragons anymore?" She suddenly asked. Her mother's smile faded.

"Do you?"

"After what Dad just said, and after all I've seen, I don't see a good reason for it anymore. We've got what we want, don't we? If the raids are done and the nest if abandoned and Uncle Finn is vindicated—"

"But those aren't the only reasons people here have for killing dragons, Astrid. People like Mildew and Spitelout will still want to kill them for fun, and I doubt the Chief has given up on his hope for vengeance. But still…one never knows."

"No we don't…so, what's happened here while I was gone?"

"Nothing much to speak of. The twins blew up a boat, but they didn't steal anything this time!"

"Actually, about that…" Astrid explained the King's parting words. When she had finished her mother looked stunned.

"Is he suggesting that Snotlout robbed his own father, bribed people to not be disruptive while he was Acting-Chief, and then put the blame on the Thorsten Twins?"

"I believe he is,"

Olaf had silently come back into the room when she had been explaining, and now he could barely contain his excitement. "Do you realize what would happen if we could somehow prove this? Astrid, if we could…there would be nothing that could stop you from becoming Stoick's heir!" He grabbed his daughter and hugged her. "I'm starting to like this Dragon King! He saves us from raids, redeems my brother, and now gives me the means to make my daughter the next Chief of Berk!"

"Olaf, don't you think you're moving a bit fast?" asked Greta, "We need a way to prove these things first."

"And we will! After the tribal meeting—and speaking of which—"

"Actually, Dad, it's not for a few hours."

"Oh, right…"

Astrid specifically asked that she not be interrupted during her talk at Mead Hall. This request was complied with for less than five minutes, with most of the interruptions being simply repeats of what she had just said.

"He gave us the wrong location!"

"You were carried there by a dragon?"

"Dragons can sing?"

"Awesome!" The Twins occasionally chimed in, such as when she described the Timberjack Evictus. Because of all the people interrupting a story that was already very long, the meeting in Mead Hall lasted all afternoon, and by the end of it Astrid's throat was very dry and she had a headache. Retelling her meetings with the Dragon King and the subsequent questions that came with it were particularly tiresome. She brightened up when she came to the part about her flight home, but most of the others had a less than enthusiastic reaction. Even the Twins seemed less interested in her description of what she saw, though this was likely because it did not involve explosions. When she'd finished at last she glanced around the room at the people she knew best. Her parents looked intrigued, Fishlegs was fascinated, the Twins were clearly calculating how to use the new information for destruction, Snotlout looked bored, and the Chief was looking, well, stoic. He was clearly deep in thought, and it was some time before he spoke, which broke the silence that had fallen.

"Thank you, Astrid. It was a very brave thing you did to go to this place, and we are all very relieved that you came back safe. I don't think anyone could have done a better job. Now, I was planning to have a discussion about all of this after you were done, but I think we could all have dinner first, what do ya all say to that?" A loud cheer went up and everyone held up their knives and plates. Of course, no dinner had been prepared yet, so they had to wait while the cooks got things ready. Thankfully, there was a lot to talk about to pass the time.

Astrid went down to join her parents, when she suddenly found Ruffnut and Tuffnut Thorsten sitting next to her.

"So tell us about the Dragon King! Does he blow up stuff?"

"Does he set stuff on fire on a regular basis?"

"Is he hot?" Ruffnut asked in a dreamy voice, "it sounds like he is. He must be so lonely, being the only human on an island…I'll be he'd love some female company, wouldn't you?"

Astrid did her best not to react to this. She had intentionally left out anything that might sound romantic when telling her story—or the conversations that had dealt with Hiccup.

"Aw come on," Tuffnut snorted, "if he spent a week and didn't put the moves on Astrid, he wouldn't show any interest in you, Dungbrain!"

"Aw shut up, you pile of overused—"

"Say guys," Astrid interrupted, "I've been wondering something. You know how you guys shot Spitelout's money into the harbor?"

"Ohhhh yeah!"

"That was awesome!"

"Just out of curiosity, how much was in the bag?"

"Not enough, I can tell you." Tuffnut groaned.

"Yeah, if we'd had 200 pieces instead of 100, imagine how much bigger the splash would have been!"

"A hundred times bigger!"

"That's not how it works, dummy!"

"It isn't?"

"No."

"You made that up!" He jumped onto his sister and they began wrestling around on the floor. Just another typical meal in Mead Hall.

"You fired 100 pieces?" Astrid called to them.

"Yeah, why?" Ruffnut shouted back as she punched her brother in the nose, making him groan with satisfaction.

"No reason," She already had what she needed to know. All that was left was to inform the Chief about it. Snotlout was ruined. Speaking of which, he came over to her.

"Hey babe! Mind if I join you?"

"Yes."

"Glad to hear it!" He said, sitting down anyway. She groaned, hoping he might get the hint this time. "Babe, I've been thinking, maybe you'd like to consider going out with me! It would be useful to both parties," he added with a not so cryptic wink.

"I highly doubt it." Astrid smirked. Little did he know!

"Oh come on, babe, we'll find a way to make it work out!"

"But I don't want it to work out!" Astrid shouted as she stood up and joined her parents. Before she could get there she ran into Gustav Larson. More correctly he walked right into her, probably on purpose. He was a boy a few years younger than her, and like Snotlout, he had a huge crush on her. Thankfully, Gustav was often helping out his overbearing mother around the house, so she had little interaction with him these days, except on nights like this.

"Astrid!" he said dreamily. "I really missed you! Did you miss me? I'll bet you did!"

"Not really, Gustav, now could you please move?" She actually had not thought of him at all during her absence.

"But Astrid, I was thinking we could—"

"Maybe later," she slipped around him and hustled over to her parents table.

"She said 'later'!" Gustav said dreamily, "it's beginning at last!"

'Men,' she thought scathingly. 'Show them a pretty face and they're instantly a bunch of fools.' While at the Sanctuary the King had told her a bit about the Trojan War, and she remembered feeling contemptuous how it had all begun as a fight over a beautiful woman, and how at one point the Greeks nearly fell apart because their greatest warrior and one king had quarreled over who got a captive woman.

Dinner was then announced and the Twins at once broke apart and rushed to fill their plates. Astrid decided to wait for the crowd to get smaller. While she watched she spotted Dogsbreath and Hognose. They returned her gaze with nasty expressions, clearly saying they hadn't forgotten what she had done to Dogsbreath. 'Bring it on,' she thought. She decided to wait to bring up Snotlout's bribery until she could talk with Stoick in private. Much as she might enjoy seeing Snotlout humiliated in public, she was aware she had no solid proof and felt there was less risk of embarrassing herself with a smaller audience. Besides, Stoick would not appreciate such a disgrace to become public knowledge. Even so, the knowledge of it made her rather smug.

The dinner passed and the discussion began, which amounted to little more than what had already been discussed many times before: what did people make of this Dragon King and what should they do about him? It went all over the place. Men like Mildew and Spitelout were in favor of finding his island and destroying it and everything on it. Fishlegs offered to serve as ambassador should Stoick desire to send one a second time. Astrid's revelation about the true reason for the death of Fearless Finn was met with skepticism from those who already sneered at his death and by relief by those who had defended them. The terms the King had proposed were discussed in minute detail, as if every single word had a hundred different meanings and each one had to be analyzed. The question of integration was raised, but the rejection of it was almost unanimous. Even those who believed what the King had said about China, and many did not, agreed that what worked for the Chinese did not mean it would work for Vikings. While not everyone on Berk necessarily hated dragons or enjoyed killing them to the degree that Mildew did, most had no real liking for dragons either. A lifetime war, destruction of personal property, and loss of loved ones will do that to people. They might be willing to stop the fighting, provided the dragons did so first, but living with them was out of the question. And yet, Astrid hoped the seed of the idea had been planted.

Nobody except Stoick, Gobber, and Fishlegs expressed much interest in the subject of Hiccup. This surprised Astrid, though in retrospect it should not have done so. After all, it had once been said 'no one will miss the little nuisance,' and it was not far from the truth. Among the three, Stoick seemed more interested in the Night Fury and its abilities, though he did question Astrid at length about what the King seemed capable of. She told him what the King had said about Hiccup, but he did not question her any further on the matter. Astrid nearly slipped up a few times during this as she tried to defend Toothless, but thankfully Stoick had not seemed to notice.

The discussions had shifted to how they could find out more about the King, especially without him realizing it, when Greta suddenly thought of something.

"Are we sure what we're saying is not being overheard?"

Everyone at once started looking around for any sign of a dragon hiding somewhere. Nothing was found, but the remainder of the talk was conducted a great deal more discretely. There was little else to discuss without going in repetitive circles anyway, so within half an hour Stoick decided it was time to adjourn. It was well into the night by this point, and the villagers were relieved to call it a day.

"I'd like Spitelout, Olaf, and Gobber to stay, however," Stoick said before anyone had left. "It won't be long."

"Don't you want Snotlout to stay too?" Spitelout asked at once.

"And Astrid?" Olaf added promptly.

"Astrid has done enough today. Let the lass get some rest," Stoick responded gently, "As for Snotlout, I don't see a reason to keep him here either."

Snotlout yawned, "Fine by me. I'm tired!" Without giving anyone a second glance he walked out of the hall, and was soon followed by everyone else.

Stoick pulled out a sheet of parchment and began writing on it. When he was done he showed it to the other three.

'I never heard anyone mention that dragons can read. So from now on, to avoid eavesdropping, we will write messages out when needed.'

They nodded in understanding. Stoick wrote on. Each man read the parchment again and swallowed.

Stoick looked determined. "I want peace as much as anyone and I want Berk to be powerful again. Do you agree with my idea?"

One said yes, one was uneasy about it, and the third said no. They wrote their reasons on the parchment.

'We can't do this. Not only is it disgraceful, but if it fails it could bring about the end of Berk!'

'If we do this, we can end the threat of dragons forever and we become the most powerful tribe in the Archipelago! For peace and glory it must be done!'

'On the one hand, I feel I owe the Dragon King for what he has done for my family, which may cloud my judgment. At the same time, this could be a great benefit to the island. I will go with what is decided, of course, but Stoick: this MUST be done with care and seriousness. Failure could be disastrous, and we won't get another chance at it.'

Stoick read these and wrote in response: 'I feel determined to go along with this. But you are right we must do it with care and discretion. It will take some time to get things prepared. I trust you all understand that this must stay between the four of us. If anyone asks, tell them we merely discussed sending another ambassador to the King and decided against it.'

The three men nodded uneasily.

"Thank you for looking over my letter," Stoick said casually, and a little loudly, "goodnight gentlemen."

Gobber limped back with Olaf to the Hofferson household. When Olaf asked him what was up, Gobber replied he wanted to talk to Astrid about Hiccup.

"What about Hiccup?" Astrid asked wearily. She had been just about ready to go to bed.

"Lass, kin ya tell me the King's words 'bout him x-zactly?" She did so and he nodded, looking very relieved.

"So 'e ran away, did 'e? Can't say ah blame 'im. But why then, ah wonder? Do ya know if 'e's still alive?"

"The King said he has not seen him in 8 years." Astrid said evasively.

"Astrid, are you all right?" Greta asked, "You look a little pale,"

"I'm fine mom, just a bit tired. It's been a very long day."

"That it has, and a very eventful one too," Olaf said gently, "Get some sleep, lass. Now, Gobber, is there anything else you wanted to know?"

"No," Gobber said sadly, "if she knows nothin' more 'bout 'Iccup. I was hopin', after what ya said about 'im earlier, that maybe…well, it don't matter now." He trudged away in a dejected state.

Astrid felt a pang in her heart. She knew how fond the old Blacksmith had always been of Hiccup. Sometimes she suspected the boy was more like Gobber's son than Stoick's. She felt a strong urge to tell him the truth. Surely Gobber would understand.

But Astrid was learning that in most situations staying silent and doing nothing is an easy thing to do. And she did it.

Stoick walked back to his own home and once inside he sat down and thought about all that had happened that day. It was quite a lot to take in.

First there was the concern with Drago Bludvist. He remembered that one night all too clearly. He had gathered with a number of Viking Chiefs to discuss trade and dragons, and that man Bludvist had come. Rather like the Dragon King, he had informed them he had the solution to the dragon problem. Unlike the Dragon King, however, he had told them he would only help them if they would agree to serve him. They had laughed and refused. As soon as Drago had left, dragons attacked them. As far as he knew, he Stoick had been the sole survivor of the attack.

The effects of this attack lasted for years afterwards. Nearly a dozen Viking tribes were suddenly leaderless, which had created multiple power struggles. Powerful and ambitious Vikings fought to become Chief, had broken away from their tribes to form new ones, or moved to try and take over other tribes. Berk had been lucky and had dodged this crisis, but the dragon raids had continued all the while. Drago had disappeared after the attack, and Stoick had heard almost nothing more of him until now. He had been more preoccupied with running his own island; events taking place in other parts of the world had been of little interest to him if they had no impact on Berk.

But now he had news. And what was he going to do about it? He decided for the moment he would look after his own island. The Dragon King had said he would take care of Drago, so he would let him. Maybe the King was good for something after all.

His thoughts turned to Astrid. He had noticed how excited she looked when she was described the island and the flight. The King and his dragons had obviously gotten to her. He hoped she would snap out of it now that she was back on Berk. He did not approve of it, and yet he felt he had to just deal with it for now, mostly because, as her father had constantly reminded him, she was still the best choice to be the next Chief.

Now that he thought of successors, he glanced towards the stairs that led to Hiccup's room. He had not set foot in that room since Hiccup's death. Yes, death. He did not believe what the King had told him. He saw that as a lie designed to defend the Night Fury. He felt this way for one simple reason: he refused to believe that Hiccup would willingly leave Berk. Why would he, when he had gone from being the worst Viking in history to placing first in Dragon Training? Maybe if he had placed last he would have run off, but why would Hiccup leave right when he had at last become popular, liked, and respected? What kind of kid ran away when they were at last the center of attention for a good reason?

It made sense to him, at any rate. Perhaps he was only making these reasons up because he still hated dragons and wanted any excuse to continue doing so. And if the King's story was true, he still felt hatred in his heart for that Night Fury taking his son away from him. As for the request from Hiccup to not avenge him, that was completely forgotten by Stoick.

Yet in his bitter desire for revenge he suddenly remembered his old saying 'A Chief protects his own.' How was his hate protecting his village? It was one thing to hate dragons for personal reasons, but he should not bring his entire tribe into this also. No, no, if he was going to be this way, he had to turn his hate into something that would benefit the village, not himself. His mind went back to the plan he had proposed less than an hour ago and nodded to himself. If the plan worked, he would be able to get his revenge and provide security for Berk—at least in his way of thinking he would. And would that not benefit his village? Would he not be ensuring a way to prevent more deaths from dragons and more losses. If he succeeded, he felt certain he would.

But if it went wrong?

He soothed his troubled mind by insisting that it would not go wrong.

It was getting very late but probably nobody was sleeping. Most were talking…and talking…and talking some more. Just when you thought someone could not go on talking any more, they found a new detail to discuss in detail.

But this did not apply to Dogsbreath, mercifully for his ability to communicate was rather coarse. He walked along the edge of the village and into the woods. It was very dark now, and he walked unnoticed. He knew the woods enough to pick his way about, and once he was out of sight of the village he pulled out a hitherto concealed lantern. He made his way to a small clearing, set the lantern down on a log, and waited, his body twitching with excitement.

At length another person appeared. She stopped and leaned against a tree. "So, you have come, as you promised, Mi Amor," she spoke the Norse with a Spanish accent, though Dogsbreath had no idea what accent it was.

He grinned. "Yes I did,"

"You look immensely handsome in the firelight," she purred, "It makes my blood heat up just to look at you,"

"Yer not so bad yerself," he replied, "But ah can't see too much! Why doncha come a little closer and lose the clothes?"

She swayed about coyly. "That's what you said last night, when I was just a poor helpless shipwrecked girl looking for a handsome man to take care of me."

His grin grew even wider. "An' I took care o'ya very well, didn't I?"

She shook her head. "Not enough. You'll have to take care of me more tonight, Mi Amor," She drew closer to him and very slowly took off her black shirt—revealing another shirt underneath. Dogsbreath was trembling with excitement and impatience, while she was calm and collected. "Show me again what a man you are, then, why don't you tell me what's on your mind." She whispered in his ear as she put her hand on his belt, "I would love to hear about it,"

"Whatever you say, Me Ah-more," He cackled gleefully.