Chapter 3 – Wrapped in Iron

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Hey guys! Chapter 3 is up and I am sure that you will very much like this chapter :)

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"Mom…"

Hiccup breathed as he looked at the glowing orb. His heart fastened its pace while his eyes were dangerously close to spilling tears. He hadn't heard that voice in a long time and it felt so nice to hear it once more. The brunette stood up with his gaze following the path that this little light had created for him.

"Hiccup…" It called out his name again but this time in a more urgent tone, "follow me my son."

The brunette couldn't help but follow since there was a tiny glimmer of hope in his heart that he'd see his mother again if he does. He missed her terribly and would grab any chance just to be able to hold her once more. He went straight to wherever the lights where trailed to, one by one disappearing as he passed by them. The flowers seemed to open up as well due to whatever energy these little things were emitting.

Hiccup didn't notice a rustling in the bushes nearby. It seems that he wasn't the only one who took note of the light. Astrid and Snotlout were both sleeping in a tree nearby when they awoke from a bright energy coming from the other side of the tree.

Astrid stared as Hiccup followed the lights and it seemed as if he was talking to them. "What's he doing?" she said to the boy beside her. Both of them with similar looks on their faces. Hiccup was never one to believe in fairytales, he believed in facts. That was what the two friends knew about him. So seeing him follow a bunch of orbs was disturbing.

"Astrid. I think the voices are of his mom."

Snotlout, even though he hated Hiccup's guts, sympathized with his cousin since he was also very close to Valka. Although he didn't want to ruin the moment, this was the perfect opportunity to kill him. He took his sword from its sheath which startled the blonde beauty beside him. "Snotlout. No. Don't do this."

"I have to. This is my only chance" he said while slowly approaching the distracted heir. As he neared the lanky brunette, the lights glowed brighter then disappeared. Hiccup frantically looked around him and saw his cousin holding a sword, charging towards him.

"I just got out of a near death experience yesterday…now, another one!" Hiccup exasperated, unsheathing the large daggers that he had hid behind his back. It was a good thing that he prepared himself for the impact because Snotlout came and clashed blades with him, his arm strength was way too much for Hiccup to handle.

Sparks were flying as they hit each other, both trying not to get killed. Beads of sweat were forming on their temples. Hiccup needed to outsmart his cousin since he knew he was too weak to handle him. He threw one of his daggers towards Snotlout which, with a little bit of luck, hit him on the right shoulder. Blood started to pour out of the wound and instead of it weakening him, it only made him angrier.

As the larger of the two charged with an even greater force that what he had before, another blade hit his. It was an axe, Astrid's axe. Hiccup looked at the blonde with wide eyes. "Wha…what are you doing?" he asked between breaths. She locked eyes with him. Astrid was one of Hiccup's closest friends even though she would often times bully him. He knew that it was her way of showing affection.

"Go."

Her tensed muscles swung the axe with such force, knocking down the heir's cousin. "I SAID GO!" she screamed at the brunette. He stood up and ran immediately. He never fought Astrid since he knew that getting in her way would mean instant death. He trusted her with his life even though he felt that she wouldn't trust hers with him.

In just a few hours, he was on the run again and once again, someone was fighting his battles for him. He didn't like it one bit but it was the only way his saviors would have it. As he reached the face of the mountain, the little lights appeared once more travelling up towards the top.

"Follow me…" it said, guiding Hiccup to the edge.

"Where are you taking me? Mom?" he said as he propped himself up the rocky mountain side. He looked up and saw more lights that led to a tiny cave that was covered with crystal-like flowers. Hiccup scaled the mountain and estimated that it was a 20 feet drop from the opening that his mother was leading him to. It wasn't wise to trust glowing green orbs in the night that was speaking in his dead mother's voice but he figured that maybe the chance was worth taking. After all, he was here for the adventure anyway.

Climbing up the mountain side, the balls of light suddenly went around him in a protective manner making it easier for Hiccup to get there. He noticed the frost that was covering the rocks, it had miniature ornate designs that was definitely impossible to carve out. Wherever the lights were taking him, it must be towards whoever created the surge of snow throughout the lands.

He entered the small cave and saw a green flame at the end of it. It moved and shifted, turning into the figure that he hoped he'd see at the end of the trail. Valka floated off the ground, flames around her body and her figure translucent.

"My son…" her breaking voice said.

Hiccup's eyes welled up in tears. He hadn't seen her in so long and was happy that he found her. Everything that he went through the past couple hours was forgotten. The pain from the stab wound that he got while running from Einar had disappeared and the exhaustion from all the running that he did died down.

"Mommy" he sniffed, using mommy instead of mom turned him into a child again, "I missed you."

The tears spilled. The tears that he held up for so long went down, his knees following suit. He buried his face in his hands and sobbed. Valka looked at him, her eyes filled with guilt. She was guilty of leaving her only son in this cruel world. She had many regrets and many things that she wanted to do but nevertheless, she was happy. Valka was happy for how Hiccup grew into the man that she imagined him to be.

"Hiccup…come here."

The heir stood from his spot and walked towards the floating figure, sniffling as he did. His hand reached out, wanting to touch her, to feel the warmth that she had provided her. "Hiccup," she started "follow the light at the end of this tunnel and you will find what you are looking for" gesturing back.

"I love you so much son…" Valka's eyes were filled with sadness.

As Hiccup reached out to touch her ghostly hand, she vanished. Enveloping him in total darkness. He bowed his head, he knew that to be able to hold her was impossible since she was just a mere apparition but he wanted to try. It hurt when he saw his hand pass through and it hurt much more when she disappeared once more. Wiping his sad and tired eyes, he decided not to let this opportunity be wasted.

Forward he marched to the end of the cave. The view from the other side getting larger and larger with every inch he covered. Blue light started to hit his eyes as he neared. When he reached the end, his mouth dropped.

It wasn't like anything he had seen before. The place looked as if it had been a volcano long ago, moss and greenery, though painted in snow, covered every inch of the sides. Fireflies and other glowing insects flew all across the place. There were flowers that were touched with frost and some were made of ice. The moon seemed to glow brighter and was directly above a stone tower.

Hiccup, who was still marveled at the sight presented to him, slowly climbed down in order to further inspect the tower. It looked more than 36 feet tall and it was made of stone. The odd thing about it was that it was wrapped in iron chains and it went all around from the top to the bottom. Another strange thing was that it was the only thing in the whole area that wasn't covered in ice or snow.

"Hello! HELLO?!" he yelled.

Seeing as no one was answering, he decided that there was no harm in scaling up the tower to check whatever was inside. He held on to the iron chains and made his way. There were no doors so climbing the tower was his only option and there was only one entrance, a window on top. With every inch he managed, he noticed a slight green glow emitting from the chains. It was enchanted and he was sure of that. When he reached the only opening on the tower, he stumbled inside and landed on a plush white rug.

It was a room, a typical one at that. There was a cabinet on the far left side, a lot of books stacked all around, some papers decorating the floor, a small area where one could cook, a fire place and a bed. The dying remains of the fire was still fresh from the furnace meaning that there was someone who still lived there.

Hiccup walked around, inspecting everything that his eyes landed on. He jumped from book title to book title.

"The Great North Dragon…

…Dragon Traps

Giant Lizards…

Iron…

History of the Norwegian Dragon Tribe…"

There was a great amount of dragon books as if the owner was obsessed but there was something strange about the books the more he looked at them. They looked more life journals, there were traces of pen marks on them. The cover had handmade leather bounds and were decorated in scales that were too large to be from any reptile. Hiccup was about to open one of them when suddenly, a voice echoed around the room.

"Who are you?"

A loud thud came from behind Hiccup. The figure had been spying on him from above. Hiccup looked up to the wall as saw the shadow of the apparent resident of the place. It was boy who looked the same age as him, he looked fairly normal with his hair all spiking all over the place and his well-built body except fairly normal didn't mean completely. Hiccup would've stood up and confronted him but there was something about the shadow that stopped him. The boy had two bent horns poking out of this head.

"I said. Who are you?" he repeated.

With his heart racing, the brunette answered as he slowly turned around to get a good look at the creature behind him. "Hiccup, my name is…Hiccup Haddock the third from Berk." His eyes widened when he saw the boy before him. His skin was so pale as if the sun had never touched him, his hair was white just like snow and his eyes were as blue as it gets. His horn were the size of his head, it was white at the base that blended towards the ice looking tip. The left side of his body had very prominent scars, Hiccup figured since the boy's shirt didn't cover that much at all.

"Are you done staring?" he snarled.

"Sorry…"

The boy walked towards the bed and jumped on it. Hiccup followed him and sat at the foot of the bed, looking at the pale boy. Questions flooded him and he was struggling to find the right one.

"Has no one ever told you that it's bad to break into someone's place?" the horned boy boomed. He looked at Hiccup just like how a predator looks at his prey. His fists clenched tightly.

The brunette gulped then answered "The spirit of my mother led me here. I came all the way from Berk, my home, to look for answers that would solve the snow." The boy could only nod at him and they sat there in comfortable silence for at least 15 minutes or so.

"Jack."

The brunette was cut off from his thoughts and looked at the person in front of him, who was staring straight into his soul with his piercing eyes.

"My name is Jack, well my name really is Jacques but I prefer Jack." He sat up and scratched his head. Hiccup couldn't help but stare at his teeth as he talked. All of his pearly whites looked sharp, it was like looking at a lion's mouth. He shook himself out of his trance.

"Why are you here..uhm…Jack?" Hiccup asked as he watched Jack look down on his hands, his face in total and utter sadness. The brunette immediately regretted asking the question since the other was completely uncomfortable about it, he was about to take it back when Jack answered.

"My mother put me here."

Jack looked at Hiccup, who saw the battle between sadness and anger in his eyes. The white haired boy continued.

"Well…you see, I'm not human. My kind, we..uhm…we are ancient creatures that can transform from our original form to human form, we are called by many names but we are most known as dragons."

"So…the horns?"

"Yeah. Uhm…I tried to get out of the window once while transforming thus caused the mishap between dragon and human."

Hiccup sat there now in silence. He was still trying to process the whole thing in his mind. Many of the Viking journals and books at home were filled of stories about the legend of the dragons and how they migrated from one place to another, often times destroying human villages. His grandfather used to tell him that he had fought countless of the winged reptiles and had used their horns, teeth, nails and scales to create indestructible weaponry. Hiccup had asked countless of times as to why he never saw them, the only answer he always got was that they are now in fear of their kind but the truth was far from that. Dragons can appear human. Dragons have been living amongst them.

"Can I ask you something again?" Hiccup said.

"Yeah?"

"Why did she put you here?"

Jack scrunched his eyebrows. "Huh?"

"Your mother."

"She…she never…uhm. She never told me." He quietly said. Jack was starting to get comfortable around him so Hiccup pried more. He had a feeling that this boy was the answer to the snow. He needed to know more about him and his kind.

"Then why haven't you tried leaving?" the brunette asked.

"I did."

Just when Jack answered, ice started to spread from his hands and it slowly crept up to the walls. It created leaf like patterns all across the room. Hiccup's eyes grew wide and he stood up immediately from the bed before the frost touched him. He looked at Jack, who had icicles on his face since his tears froze the moment it touched his face. He then looked around as snow started to fall inside creating a layer of white powder on the things Jack had in there. Then it dawned on Hiccup.

Jack made it snow. Jack froze the bed. Jack could be the answer to the unending snow.