Gobber sighed; ever since Val had disappeared Stoic had been very protective of Hiccup, putting a blanket of fluff and safety around the boy, something that Hiccup didn't want. Arriving at the grand hall Gobber sighed hearing the final few words of Stoic's speech.

"Ok, whoever stays behind gets to look after Hiccup." This statement was followed by a chorus of yells along the line of 'To the ships.'

Sitting down Gobber waited for Stoic to wander over to him, "I guess I should go pack my undies"

"No Gobber, I need you to train the new recruits." Stoic began, "what am I going to do with him? He doesn't listen; always running off to do Odin knows what, he never follows the rules."

"here we go," Gobber sighed.

"When I was a little boy my father told me to hit my head against a rock, and I did it, I thought I was crazy but I did it, and do you know what happened?"

"You got a headache" Gobber replied sarcastically.

Stoic continued without acknowledging what Gobber had said, "that rock split in two, it taught me what a Viking could do, he could crush mountains, level forests, tame seas!" At this point Stoic was into his storytelling mode, complete with theatrics and all the rest. "Even as a by I knew what I was, what I had to become, Hiccup is not that boy."

"You're totally right, Hiccup is not that boy and he never will be." Gobber agreed, "But he still knows what he is."

"So than what am I going to do with him?"

"Put him in dragon training with the others."

"I can't do that he'll be killed before you let the first dragon out of its cage."

"You don't know that."

"Yes I do."

"No you don't," Gobber said, "Stoic, Hiccup may be small, but he knows how to make do with what he has, you can't stop him Stoic, you can only prepare him, you won't always be there to protect him, Hiccup is going to get out there again, he's probably out there now." With that said Gobber turned back to his mug.

.:~^~:.

Hiccup left his house as soon as Gobber left, Hiccup had to find that Night Fury. A while found hiccup on the other side of raven's point, as he was nearing Raven's Rowan, as Hiccup had dubbed it, Hiccup felt a wave of nausea pass over him, Hiccup lent against the rowan tree as the nausea intensified. this second wave of nausea came with a series of growls, clicks, and trills, Hiccup was no polymouth but he could tell that the noises were a dialect of Draconic, Hiccup tried to convey the feeling of confusion to the dragon, he must have done well because the Draconic stopped and was soon replaced with pictures and the ghosts of emotions*, the first was a flash followed by the feeling of waking from a bad dream and the feeling of freedom followed by agony. The second was the feeling of loneliness and the picture of a cave filled with scaled dragons - Night Furies, the feeling intensified as the cave gradually emptied. Last the emotion of sadness and the feeling of knowing that he was the last of his kind.

Hiccup felt grief and guilt wash over him; he had committed the one crime that could never be forgiven, the act of killing an entire sentient species, Xenocide. Hiccup was swamped by another wave of emotions, this time they all hit him at the same time rage, vengeance, and pain smashed into Hiccup with the force of a summer storm, under all that Hiccup felt an emotion that he was not expecting, it was the emotion of understanding, the feeling was masked by the others. Then as quickly as it had entered Hiccup's mind the night fury left leaving the wizard reeling.

Standing Hiccup looked around, the clearing that his rowan tree was in couldn't be far from the night fury, thoughts could only travel so far without a Focus, so Hiccup began to search the surrounding forest for any signs of a dragon.

Soon Hiccup found a broken tree, thou the word tree doesn't do the massive plant justice; the trunk was so wide that it would have taken three Vikings to encompass the tree, below the splintered trunk was a large rut in the ground, Hiccup followed the path of destruction left by what he assumed was the night fury that he had just communicated with. Soon the path of destruction ceased and at the end of said path was the most beautiful creature Hiccup had seen, now the night fury wasn't beautiful in the sense that it was pretty, no the night fury possessed a deadly beauty, from it's sleek claws with edges sharp enough to slice stone to triple wing system allowing for unrivaled aerobatics, everything had a purpose, there wasn't any fluff on the night fury, and Hiccup admired that. Hiccup cringed when he noticed that the night fury's tailfin was completely and utterly mangled beyond the point that Hiccup could heal.

"I'm sorry." Hiccup whispered, placing a hand on the deceptively smooth skin of the dragon Hiccup watched as the dragon closed its eyes submitting itself to fate. Stepping back Hiccup looked to the sky, "With the Gods as witness I, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, swear upon my magic; I will do all in my power to fix the wrongs that I have committed against the teachings of magic." By the time Hiccup finished a thick green mist had gathered around his body, then the mist split and began to swirl lazily around the Hiccup and the night fury starting close to the figures and slowly expanding outward gaining speed as it went. When the mist touched it suddenly stopped, nothing moved in the clearing then the mist launched towards the figure that the mist was not surrounding. Hiccup was surprised at the whole ordeal, and he definitely was not expecting the pain that occurred when the mist hit him, nor was he expecting a life that was not his flash through his mind. the pain raged through his head with no remorse accompanied by the uncomfortable feeling of his skin trying to pull itself apart. Hiccup felt his connection to the primal triad weaken as his connection to the plants and animals grew stronger, then everything stopped and Hiccup fell into blissful oblivion.

.:~^~:.

When the night fury saw the wizard appear in his field of vision, the night fury thought that its time was over, closing its eyes the night fury let all tension leave its body preparing for the cold embrace of death. Burnt green eyes flew open, the amount of magic filling the air was astounding to say the least, even the elders of his race had trouble summoning this amount of magic that saturated the air, accidental or not the small figure in front of him was very powerful, that was the last thought he had on that matter because at that moment the magic that had been revolving around him and the wizard touched and after coagulating into two swirling blobs of active, if accidental, magic they flew and hit the other figure. The night fury's eyes widened as he witnessed the life of the figure in front of him. The night fury had seen this sort of magic performed once before and it had been preformed with multiple mana orbs to sustain the magical drain, then all the night fury could think about was the pain that accompanied the exchange if knowledge, when the sweet darkness of unconsciousness appeared the night fury embraced it with open wings.

Elsewhere… a hooded figure sat in front of a pool of crystal clear water, tearing it's unique crimson- gold eyes away from the scene playing out in the pool the figure left the room the cloak billowing behind it.

"We must prepare for guests." The figure said to seemingly no one in particular before melting into the shadows of the corridor.