Chapter 4

Hiccup is currently at the berk high black forest, searching for his ball which was a gift from his beloved mother, it was already 3:45 pm and so far he hasn't made any progress with the balls whereabouts

2 hours later still nothing and what's even worse he was now completely lost, he forgot the way back, the sky was already orange red, a sign that darkness was near, he tries to piece together all the things he saw while walking but everything looks exactly the same, just leaves and trees. his head hurts as he puts all his thinking capabilities to use, it seemed like he was running around in circles and every corner was either a dead end or another road to nowhere. He tried to be cool and just walk like nothing's happening, like there's no risk of being locked inside the school, and no danger of being attacked by some wild dog. Seconds later after thinking of all the impossibly horrible things that can happen to him during the night, he hears a growl escape from his far right, his fears have now just came true he was most likely with a wild dog ready to pounce, his heart beats faster and faster as the sound of rustling of leaves gets louder and ever so close, it took him a few seconds to snap out of his terrified and dazed state, he knew he couldn't outrun a dog and trying to fend it off with basically nothing but a stick is a sure ticket to the hospital that is if someone even discovers his body after being attacked. But he abandons all of his senses and runs as fast as his legs can take him, but the noise hasn't stopped it must be chasing after him and what's even worse the stomping noise of its paws were louder meaning it was not a normal sized dog must be one of those big pitbulls trained for the pits, he did not dare to look back, and instead closes his eyes, but after what seemed like the longest 10 min of his life he falls into a wet surface, causing a huge splash. He stands up and walks to the shore of the huge body of water, must be a lake, he inspects the surroundings looking at the beautiful lake in front of him and squeezes his shirt and empties his shoes, it almost makes him forget that he was being chased, almost.. He turns around and something big hits him causing him to once again fall ass first on the ground, he closes his eyes, body still shaken, as he thinks of gobber, maybe it's gobber, maybe gobber just followed him to check how he was doing but before he can catch his breath, he feels a warm mist swoop into his face followed by heavy breathing noises. It took all of his courage just to open his eyes and face the beast in front of him, but the situation prooved to be even worse, as he opened his eyes, darkness had already set in, they just so happen to be in the part of the shore that was covered by a huge willow tree, but what he saw wasn't obstructed by the dimness of the light, the beast had big green eyes and was glaring directly at him, its nose and mouth were long and sleek, and it's body was a blur but the creatures face was clear jet black fur, he falls completely silent in fear and shock but as soon as the dog growls hiccup takes it as a sign for him to make a run for it, using all the energy he has left, he runs as fast as he can, he didnt care where he was going or if the dog followed him, only one thought was in his head, survival if he wanted to live then he has to get as far away as he can from that monster of a dog. He kept on running, jumping at every large root that came his way, until he couldn't anymore, he trips on one of the roots and stumbles until his back hits another hard surface, he takes what he presumed as his last breath and swallowed all his fears, he closes his eyes and just stayed still waiting for the dogs sharp claws to rip his neck, but everything flipped upside down as he hears the dog say...

"There ya are! I've been lookin all over for ya hiccup" hiccup opens his eyes and sees the bearded, one legged man, bearing down on him. He immediately stands up and hugs him so tight that he was already above ground clasping his legs onto gobbers

"G-gobber! Thank God, it's you! Gobber take out your tazer" while still hugging his legs

"Alright, alright, calm down and hiccup.. could you get off me?" He stares down at hiccup and gives him an irritated look

"My bad" he sheepishly says while slowly unclasping his legs and planting then on the ground

"So why exactly do i need to take out my tazer?" He looks around, and finds nothing but leaves and trees, and then he looks back at hiccup visibly confused at his request

"Huh, it's gone b-but, i swear it was jus-" he scans his surroundings, it was in fact empty besides the two of them of course

"What are ya yapping about now? Lad, what's gone?" He scratches his neck and checks his surroundings again but there was still nothing to be found

"The dog... you were right, gobber, there was a dog here all along, and it was huge"
He tells gobber

"What!? Really? What did it look like? was it Rottweiler, or a pitbull c'mon tell me boy" he exclaims rather loudly obviously excited to hear that he was finally going to use his new equipment

"I don't know, i just saw its head" he tells gobber with furrowed eyebrows

"Well, what did it's head look like?" He walks closer to hiccup, eagerly waiting what he'll say next

"It had green eyes and its mouth was kinda long, longer than a normal dog i guess" he looks at gobber closely watching his facial expression if it would change, meaning he knows the dog but his expression just sunk into a disappointed look

"That's it? That's all ya got?" He says at hiccup rather accusingly with an irritated expression

"Well Excuse me, for not drawing a picture, gee maybe i should've took a selfie with it" he sarcastically says while moving his hands into gestures

"Sel-what? Honestly you kids and the words you make up, i don't understand any of it..." He lets out a sigh in exasperation

"That's not the point, gobber, there's a wild dog out there that almost ripped my face in half, I could care less about selfies" he looks at gobber rather flustered

"But you're the one who brought up that stupid selpy or selfy nonsense in the first place" he responded with a stern voice, hiccup just shouts in complete exasperation

"Augh!... Ok, let's try this again" he gives himself a face palm and sighs "gobber, there is a dog in the forest, it had black fur, green eyes and hug-" gobber cuts him off before he could finish the description

"What did you say?, black fur?" He looked at hiccup with a rather worrisome expression, hiccup stares at gobbers face farely curious to why he reacted that way, with the mention of that one detail

"Uh yeah... jet black" gobber immediately scans his surroundings narrowing his eyes and carefuly focusing on the forest surrounding them hiccup takes a step back and quietly tells gobber "gobber is everything ok?"

"No, Hiccup it's not ok, it's got black fur" he exclaims still searching for whatever is out there in the forest

"So? What's the big deal if it has black fur? It's a dog, that's normal right" he says with a confused look

"You dont understand hiccup, there are NO black dogs in berk, only..." He pauses for a second and once again scans his surroundings "black wolves.." Hiccup takes a second to fully understand what gobber said "black wolves? Seriously gobber wolves... in berk?" He scoffs at the idea and gives gobber an accusing look

"Don't mock it lad, you might just end up as it's dinner" he looks at hiccup, and stares at him seriously which makes hiccup flinch and swallow, but was it really a wolf, he saw it with his own eyes it was big, unusually big for a dog, maybe it was a wolf, chills run down hiccups spine at the thought of the beasts image, gobber notices the boy's silence and decides to reassure him, i mean regular hiccup was a klutz, imagine what a nervous wreck hiccup would be like, he would probably get them both killed "don't worry lad, I'm still here, ok, you're looking at Gobber the dog hunter" he pats hiccups back followed by a chuckle

"Yeah, somehow that worries me even more" he says quietly.

"Strange though.. That wolf hasn't shown its face since last year, why would it suddenly come back now? Are ya sure it was a wolf hiccup?" He says staring at hiccup while placing a hand and a hook on his waist

"I never said it was a wolf, you're the one who went crazy for the whole wolf thing just cause it's black" he says with a slightly irritated tone

"Oh right, i did, didn't i? Well, whatever IT is, it's gone.. And we'd be wise not to stay here and find out... Cmon lad lets go" he takes one last look in to the distance of the forest still seeing no traces or movement within them, he walks back to the direction of the soccerfield but stops to make sure hiccup was following him from behind

"Hold on gobber, just give me a minute, im sure it's out there somewhere, I'm getting close i can feel it" he walks to the opposite direction, gobber was heading and doesn't look back he finds himself pulled back by a hook firmly hooked to his neckline

"are you deaf lad, i just said there was wolf out there, a wolf hiccup" he firmly hooks hiccups shirt and begins to drag him by force, hiccup tries to pull back but alas the strength of an adult, not to mention his weight was too great for hiccup to even move back an inch

"Yeah a wolf gobber, i heard you, now let go of me!" He tries to pry the hook of his neckline but fails, gobber ignores hiccups words and efforts, as he keeps walking

"You heard me, but i don't think you understood, it's too dangerous to stay here anymore, we have to go, and that's final" he doesn't look back and keeps dragging hiccup

"Cmon, what happened to Gobber the great dog hunter, i thought you live for this kind of stuff" he gives up on prying on the hook but keeps on struggling

"Dog hiccup, dog hunter not wolf, and i may live for this but you don't, your dad will kill me if you don't come back home in one piece" he scoffs at hiccup

"Like he'll care what happens to me" he scoffs back "he's probably too busy to even notice I'm gone" he says with a smug tone, gobber stops moving and releases hiccup from his hook and turns to face hiccup, who's sitting down on the ground

"Hiccup.. You know that's not true, he's just.. Being governor takes a whole lot of his time, even I hiccup, i rarely get to drink with him anymore" He says while grasping Hiccup's shoulder to comfort him but hiccup stands up

"Don't worry, I'm used to it, ..sigh.. right now i just wanna find my ball" he pats his butt trying to wipe the dirt from being dragged earlier, gobber exhales a big breath and stops hiccup

"Hiccup.. Let's go, stop this already, it's just a ball" he says with an accusing and tired tone, hiccup ignores his request and keeps searching

"I already told you, it's not just a ball" he says calmly while still searching the bushes up ahead

"And I already told you, you have until the sun sets.. hiccup! I've given you the whole afternoon to look for that damn thing" he raises his voice to stress his frustration at the stubborn boy. Hiccup stops his search for only a moment

"Gobber just ..sigh.. You dont understand" he says quietly while turning to face gobber

"Then tell me! Tell me what it is i don't understand?" He raises his voice again clearly getting even more frustrated with the boy, hiccup averts gobbers gaze and stares at his left side

"The ball it's ..sigh.. Mom gave it me.. It's the last thing she gave me, before.." After his confession, the air went heavy and gobbers anger just faded away, quickly replaced by pity and remorse. gobber was a family friend so he knew about hiccups situation with his mother.

Veronica Haddock, she was as beautiful as she was kind-hearted, Gerard said that hiccup resembled veronica in many ways despite having his hair and eye color, his actions and personality was that of his mother, the way he walked, talked, even the way he ate was similar to her, but the greatest trait that hiccup could ever gain from his mother was her heart, the heart that always forgives, the heart that always sees the good in everyone, and the heart that can change a power hungry man whose only desire was fame and fortune into a loving husband and father. Gobber rarely saw hiccup and his mother appart, they were always in each other's arms, they were completely inseparable, they would always play pranks on Gerard that made everyone including gerard himself laugh, the haddock's were no doubt a happy family, a complete family. That was until that faithful day, when Veronica suddenly went missing, gerard poured all his blood, sweat, and tears into the search mission or possibly even rescue mission in case she needed help wherever she was, hiring hundreds of policemen to search not just berk but the whole other towns near them, trying to find any traces whatsoever of Veronica in each place but all of them ended up empty handed. After a whole year of nothing but search parties and stake outs, the police declared her, either missing or dead. Hiccup always believed she was just missing, he never once dared to admit the latter, and so he always has and always have been searching for her ever since she left them. The most depressing part is, she left without saying anything, nothing, not even a simple farewell to her husband and to the son she's left motherless.

Gobber's face just sinks and once again he lets out a big sigh, trying to understand him and maybe feel what he might be feeling "hiccup.. I'm sorry, i understand, really i do.. but.. it's getting way to dangerous out here, we have to get outta here before the gates close or we'll-" hiccup cuts him off

"You don't understand, anything at all!.. I will NEVER stop looking! Ok, cause it's still out there, i know it is.. And I don't care if you or anyone else says it's gone.. she's still out there.. Waiting for me to find her, i know she is.." And at that moment hiccup let's out all the tears he tried to push back, he didn't realize that there were already dropping from his eyes, he was too caught up in the moment to even hide them from gobber

"Listen, I believe you hiccup, I have faith you'll find her, it's.. not just today" he holds both of Hiccup's shoulder trying not to hurt him with his hook and kneels down in front of him staring directly into his eyes, which were watery from crying "stopping now doesn't mean you're giving up, it just means you're getting ready to start again tomorrow.. I get it now, i won't stop you anymore, just promise me, that you'll know when it's time to get back, alright hiccup"

Hiccup wipes off the remaining tears and covers his eyes while nodding his head
Gobber pats him on the back, "there ya go, now let's go home, and wipe off the damn tears lad you're a viking for Pete's sake"

"Yeah, gotta admit that was pretty lame" hiccup laughs while trying to dry off his eyes "I was planning to act all cool, i guess that turned out great" he laughs again while finally heading back towards the soccer field, it was already 5:37 nearly 30 min left before the gates fully closed, hopefully they were able to make it

"So.. Does this mean I'm not manager anymore" he awkwardly says while expectantly looking at gobber.

"Don't push your luck lad, you're still gonna be manager, crying can only get you so far" while shooting hiccup a stern look

"Yeah, figured that one out when i was a 9 yrs. old" and so they each gave their goodbye's and went their separate ways, of course because they lived in separate houses, meanwhile at Scott's house...

"Oh astrid, glad you could join us, come in, come in" Scott's mother says while cheerfully smiling

End of chapter Four