Chapter 3: Surrealism - 6 Days Ago
Things were so much easier in the air. The boundless infinity stretched in front of them in the form of waves under cloud, blue skies rising up into the endless void and no sound other than the wind to be heard. Hiccup felt free and alive with the powerful dragon under him as they got further from the source of his malcontent. He wondered if it was the same for others that their homes were all they knew and nothing big usually ever happened. If it was a place where the people were rooted in tradition and boys grew up to be bored old men with nothing new and exciting to make their blood course quickly in their veins. Hiccup furrowed his brow in silent contemplation as he thought that maybe that was why some of the tribes fought so damn much. At least they would not be bored. Hiccup stayed on that track for a while until it became apparent that they should likely need a break from flying. It had been several hours after all and the sun had gone more than half the distance from one horizon to the other. Another few hours it would be dark and Hiccup decided that he should not go at breakneck speeds to reach Auroros after all. He would perhaps give Astrid and his father more time to think if he was gone longer and he was in no mood to hurry back to more missions, halfhearted affections and bruised shoulders.
Eventually they found a nice little spot to settle down though it had taken them longer than Hiccup had wanted and so Toothless was grateful to touch down and rest for a little while. They spiraled down as they reduced speed and touched ground on a grassy bed near a rocky alcove. There looked to be plenty of places to block the wind and take shelter in the event of weather and rocks on the beach which would be put to good use making a campfire pit.
Hiccup found a long stick which he used to absentmindedly poke at tiny pebbles near the water's edge. "I don't get it bud." He spoke to the dragon without turning to look at him. Toothless in turn lifted his head up at the sound of Hiccup's voice. Hiccup flicked the stick into the air and watched it touch down a short distance away on the water. "I think I've just about tried everything to get Astrid to notice me." He looked back at Toothless who had lost interest and put his head back down on the pebbles. Hiccup started picking up some of the bigger pebbles and forcibly threw them into the sea after the stick. "I killed the Red Death for Odin's sake! What does she want me to do, harness the moon? Ouch! Hey!" Hiccup fell over as Toothless used his mighty tail to whack his rider over the back of the head, then turned around so as his back was facing his friend and curled up again.
Hiccup walked back around to look at Toothless' face to face, "Yeah but, don't you think it's unfair? Ouch! Toothless!" Toothless smacked him once again to get the point across then slowly got up and walked a short distance away with the hopes of being involved in no more trivial human musings. Toothless left Hiccup staring at him in disbelief next to the unfinished campfire and sat down on the grass. It was showing signs of frost but still contained some of its vitality and pallor. The dragon seemed content and Hiccup was sure that this island was much too small to contain any sort of settlement and so felt comfortable leaving his best friend for a short time. He put his issues aside thinking about the work he had to do anyway; there was a fire to build, wood to collect and fish to catch.
"Fish!" He cried with his sudden excitement at a memory and got the attention of the Night Fury. "It's okay bud, I brought the new net. Want to try it out?" Hiccup rummaged in one of the two supply pouches he had packed early that morning to try and locate said net. Toothless decided to pretend he didn't hear his trainer and closed his eyes with a sigh. Hiccup smirked, "Fine, but you'll still have to be the one who hauls it in if you want to eat tonight." With eyes closed Toothless snorted and relaxed into a doze.
Hiccup found the net with a shrug and managed to untangle it, marveling at the lightweight rope he had helped weave with one of his new inventions back on Berk. "How can they not appreciate all this?" he asked himself out loud. "Bigger isn't always better…" Well he would like to believe that. His work incorporated lightweight designs that were suited to be used by someone of his stature and in the case of one of the so called 'real Vikings' they could be manipulated or thrown as the case may be, at speeds which should have not been humanly possible. Why then did they still insist on the largest broadswords, the heaviest maces and the most unwieldy bolas?
Hiccup sighed and cast the net into the ocean and admired his contribution of its creation. He could make dozens of these and make fishing so much easier for the Vikings whose job it was to help supply the town with their most important food source. "Yeah right." He said out loud again. "They wouldn't use this if I gift-wrapped it for them." He reluctantly started collecting rocks for his fire while he waited for morsels to find their way into his trap.
The fire pit was finally built and filled with sticks and kindling ready for the flame. Hiccup did not mind being completely alone from time to time though he did prefer the company of his beloved dragon and would often find him talking to himself or Toothless, even if Toothless was not within earshot. He had been talking to himself the day he found Toothless in the woods after he had so unmercifully shot the magnificent dragon down with another of his inventions. Maybe he was lonely and simply needed to vocalize his thoughts to someone even though there was no one there. He did not know, but what he did know was that it was time to wake the sleeping and snoring dragon. As he closed the distance between himself and the sleeping beast he heard a sound which made him stop before he reached his friend and wait in the sudden eerie silence. There it was again, louder this time and more desperate. A scream! Hiccup forgot about waking toothless and headed in the direction of the offending sound which seemed to be coming from a cave somewhere further down the beach.
His breathing became a little more rapid the further he had to go and the longer he followed the sound, the more he realized they were actually further away than he had originally speculated. He was quite out of breath by the time he did manage to get to the mouth of the cave and by that time the screaming had seemed to cease though a sickening smell told him that he was probably close. He edged into the mouth of the cave cautiously, allowing his eyes a chance to adjust in the gloom of the cave. At least it was not too dark yet and the position of the sun was such that there was some visibility to be had in the dark tunnel. Hiccup was not sure what the appropriate thing to do next was.
"H-hello?" He called into the blackness, "Is someone hurt?" His voice echoed down the tunnel and bounced back to him so that he could hear the tone of his own uncertainty. A noise was starting to come out of the tunnel and it sounded like a creature was fast approaching. It sounded big and as it came closer to the mouth of the cave Hiccup wondered what kind of trouble he had gotten into this time.
Preparing for the worst, Hiccup dove behind some large rocks just inside the dank cave as the noise came swiftly bearing down on him. Almost immediately after confirming his safety and convinced that he was out of sight, the source of the noise reached his position and started to pass him by. Hiccup could see them better once they were out into the light which was now starting to ebb off as twilight came to the tiny refuge.
Terrible Terrors had made all that noise? There were three of them and they had something in tow that looked bloodied and dead in the talons of its aggressors. At first Hiccup thought it was their kill, that there was some sort of animal in the cave that could sustain the small but deadly creatures. It was certainly hard to tell what the mangled creature was through all the red until… teal? Hiccup's heart dropped in his chest with a thud as he felt dread take over and he wondered what he should do; the creature in the claws of the cackling Terrors could only have been another dragon.