Disclaimer: Dreamworks owns HTTYD and its respective characters

All other characters are original works by the author

Hiccup never awoke earlier than the sunrise, it was never his nature to do so. And Toothless never awoke earlier than his master, it was never his nature to do so. But something called out to the boy. Something eased into his blank dreams and filled his mind. The void grew into joy and content, then to longing, and ending in hunger.

He forced his eyes open to silence his belly and pushed off the covers to shove away the pangs. He rubbed the part of his remaining leg and attached the prosthetic limb in the morning silence, being extremely careful not to disturb his friend with the clicks and snaps it emitted.

Taking quiet steps to his hamper, he silently mused that he would need new clothes soon. Remembering the guests that were sleeping downstairs he wondered if he could buy some fabric from Ilias.

"I hope he has green," he thought.

The young Viking left his room and descended carefully down the stairs, making sure to take tiny steps so he would not fall down. Toothless would usually help him but there would be no awakening the dragon.

"Not without cod," he chuckled.

Turing to enter the dining room, he was struck with awe.

On the table rested a pile of eggs decorated with thin leafy stalks of something unknown to him. He walked over to a pot and opened it, only to be greeted by a rush of an aroma that was pungent yet sweet. When most of the scent cleared, he peered inside the wooden pot and found bits of vegetables and curd mixed in. In the center of all this was a loaf of flat bread with oil and butter in its own individual bowls at its sides. When the sun barely rose over Berk, the room was filled with an amber glow giving it the appearance of jewels and treasures.

"I greet you so early in this morning Hic-cough!" an avalanche of white cloth whispered carrying a plate of dried fruits and other things in one plate in his left hand and the shell in his right. The pile of snow was immediately recognized as Ilias and in a low voice he said, "We had prepared a morning meal, or as you call it 'breakfast' as thanks for the feast that your people had hosted. Are you thirsty?" Before Hiccup could even open his mouth, "of course you are. Decessus, bring the child the drink that you have prepared."

And on cue, Decessus entered from the kitchen door. He held a clay jug and set it onto the table. Hiccup looked into the pitcher and saw a milk that was slightly darker than the color of eggshells.

He poured the liquid into a nearby wooden cup and raised it to his lips. Although it was only a sip, he was flooded by the taste of milk, honey and a slight burning on his tongue.

"Is it to your liking? Decessus tells me that it is very good but I cannot have the drink as the milk passes through me as Jews pass for Muslims, not very well if I may clarify."

Finishing his latest gulp of the modified milk he asked, "I know there's milk and honey but what else is in here?"

"Ah yes, you taste the cinnamon? Well it is a spice, an ingredient that gives food a stronger definition in flavor. Imagine it to be the 'finishing touch' of a dish."

"It's good," Hiccup said as he looked up from the cup.

"It is fantastic that you enjoy it." Ilias finished his sentenced as Stoic walked into the room and greeted him, "I greet you Stoic the Vast! You do not look as lucid or sharp as you were last night, would you prefer to have some coffee?"

Instinctually, Hiccup flinched at the word 'coffee' but regardless Stoic replied, "will I have to eat the bean?"

"No, only if you would wish so. But it is tradition that coffee be ground into dust and then put the grinded material and sugar in a container with water to be boiled. Then one would drink the creation. May I offer you some?"

"Why not?"

Ilias handed the shell to Decessus and ran out the room. Before the morning shadows could even inch forward, flood of fabric rushed in the room holding an intricately crafted vase. The white curtain regained its composure and set down the vase. The face of Ilias beamed up to the father and son and said, "it would honor me if I may serve to you a cup of Arabian Coffee Stoic the Vast."

He then grabbed a wooden cup on the opposite side of the table and placed it in front of the ornate metal vase. Gripping it, he gently let out a pour of black water and filled close to the brim. He finished pouring out the coffee and set the vase down again with much care.

"Would you like sugar Stoic the Vast?"

"I would, thank you."

Ilias took a saucer with the sweetener and added a pinch to the cup. With a steady hand yet shriveled hand, he offered it to Stoic. "Careful," he warned, "it is very hot so I would suggest giving it a gust of cold air from your mouth."

He took the elder's suggestion and blew in a thin stream to clear the hot vapor, making ripples in the black lake. Finished, he took a sip and his eyes shot up.

"It's bitter!" The chieftain exclaimed.

"Sugar?" Ilias asked while attempting to peddle his sugar just like the day before.

"No, I like it. It's very strong."

"Soon you shall feel the reviving effects of the coffee and you shall feel no drowsiness or feelings of lethargy. Stronger, faster, better, sooner. Yes, what power in a single drink."

After Ilias's momentary tribute to coffee, they all took their place at the square table. Ilias sat to the side of Stoic while, much to Hiccup's discomfort, Decessus sat across from the teen.

Ilias and Stoic engaged in conversation occasionally including Hiccup. Stoic questioned Ilias about battles and Ilias questioned Stoic about what Vikings do in their spare time. If the enjoyment of the conversation could be measured by how much has been eaten by the two; then the conversation was an extreme success as half of everything was eaten by the aged.

But Hiccup could not enjoy the meal as much as his father because something was bothering him. Even as the pale mercenary politely shoved food into his mouth, he could feel the grey eyes crushing him. Perceiving homesickness, he was eating more food faster than he did last night. The analysis: he obviously preferred this meal than what the Vikings had prepared. Even though it was more flavorful and exciting to eat than the regular mutton and cabbage-and-something stew, he should have at least eaten more last night. It was a feast after all; not for the Gods, not for the fallen warriors, and not for a religious holiday that called for so. It was for Ilias and Decessus. At least Ilias enjoyed himself, but there was no pleasing the other one! Hiccup fumed as he stuffed his mouth with the foreign cuisine.

But the man across from the table looked up to Hiccup and the teen blushed as he was silently confronted as the glazed ashen eyes looked in his general direction.

"I hope he doesn't know what I'm thinking about." Hiccup prayed.

"Deus strike me down, I'm drunk," Decessus thought to himself.

"What are these leafy things?" Stoic asked while biting into thin green stem that lied on top of the fried eggs.

"It is parsley, native to the Far East. I had brought it to modify the taste of our foods." Stoic eyed the garnish and continued to eat. Immediately deciding that parsley was not his favorite, he put it down on his wooden plate and washed the taste out with Hiccup's drink.

"So Decessus," Stoic began, "how did you learn so fast last night?"

"Well I-"

"Stoic!" A young feminne voice called out from the front.

The four all ran from the table and greeted Astrid at the front of the house. It was clear that she was out of breath and tired. "What on…Astrid what is it?" Stoic asked.

"Where's Hiccup?"

"Astrid," Hiccup started, "what's going on?"

"Fireworm she's, she's out of control! Snoutlout doesn't know what to do and Ruffnut and Tuffnut tried to, well you don't want to know. Just get to the training arena! Bring Toothless!"

While Hiccup sounded an inaudiable whistle to call down Toothless, Ilias approached Decessus and whispered, "did you overhear? An arena for dragons and Vikings! How exciting!" Ilias began giddily, "I must go! Shall you attend the event with me?"

"I'll stay here and translate the books. You keep learning the language so you can help me later."

"Excellent plan," realizing Decessus's foresight, "then I shall meet you afterwards this crisis."

"You do that," he said in a bored tone. As Toothless climbed out of the house, the new group moved as quickly as they could down the slope. When they were out of sight, Decessus returned to the house to finish his breakfast. He closed the doorway, went back to the dining room and resumed his meal at his exact same spot as if nothing had happened.

After the he had his fill of the food; he left the spread to cool in the Berkian morning air. He returned to the temporary bedroom and opened the first crate by the closed round window. He shifted around the crate, making the occasional clattering and clanking noise, but eventually found a parcel wrapped in paper. Holding it up to the now yellow morning light, he read the note at the top right. Recognizing that it was indeed the package that he sought, he took the pile of books on the nightstand and went outside to work.

He embraced the package and books in his right arm and turned the door with his left, all while expecting a rush of cold Northern air. But there was no rush.

Decessus stepped out into the morning and felt the tender call of nature bringing the newest life from the Arctic spring and nurturing the already blossomed. The sun caressed the grass and embraced his body in the daylight. Stopping for a moment, he thought he felt someone holding him. Holding his hand in this foreign land. His head turned and with soft heather eyes, he expected someone or some spiritual presence to be behind him. Nothing.

His soul hardened and he reprimanded himself for such foolishness; but he inwardly wished it was possible.

Decessus took his place at an outdoor table and began to dissect the package. Inside were sheets of parchment, a brush, miniature bottles of ink, and bits of charcoal rods. He took a book from the stack, set down a sheet of paper, took out his own shell and brushed away the invisible air that hovered above it.

He carefully read the title aloud, "A History of the Families of Berk," and wrote it with in ink on his page.


It was midday once again and Decessus heard the familiar yell of Ilias. "Salutations Decessus!" He said as he approached the wooden table.

"What happened at the arena?"

"Hic-cough tamed the beast and I continued to practice the language." He said indifferently. But seeing the pages with ink and books he asked, "how do the translations fare for us?"

Setting down his pen he replied, "not well."

"How so?"

"Well the first book is about family trees and descendants and children; not useful. The second is a cook book, surprisingly there are about two hundred recipes and half use some form of meat; fascinating but not useful. The third is about dragons and how we should 'kill on sight' a majority of the time; dull and useless. The fourth isn't so much as a book as it is a pamphlet."

"Does it reveal any use?"

"Only something about 'yelling and yelling louder.'"

"That does not sound very accommodating."

"Agreed, and the last one I can't translate."

"May I?"

"Have at it."

Ilias took the book and looked over the cover and pronounced slowly, "Pride and Predjudice?"

"Sounds like it might have something to do with the Rage, read the first page."

"It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife."

"Never mind, it sounds like garbage." Decessus took the book and threw it on the ground. He paused to think and said, "maybe we've been looking in the wrong place Ilias."

"Explain yourself."

"Perhaps because these people have never had time for writing, as Stoic said, maybe they do everything orally." He paused to confront a smiling elder and reprimanded, "don't say it."

"I assure you, I have not a single idea of what you are insinuating," he said innocently.

"Okay then. Maybe they have a storyteller tradition where every myth and legend is preserved in oral tradition."

"That is indeed very possible. I shall look into it immediately. Stoic the Vast is very proud of Hic-cough's achievement for defeating the Green Death so perhaps I can lure him into speaking of it and then I will allure his pride for his culture by asking him to speak of the native religion."

"Ilias," Stoic's deep voice called out, "we have the cow!"

The two looked behind them and saw Gobber and Stoic holding a leashed cow. "Why do you need a cow?" Decessus questioned.

"To cook and eat obviously!" Ilias jested.

"Can you butcher a cow?"

"I have seen you butcher people, I am certain that I can do the same to a cow." He said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"It's not the same thing."'

"Not that you are aware of."

Ilias walked over to the Viking adults and began to speak well of both the cow and the foods that he planned on making with the cow.

"Here's ya sword." Gobber said unscheathing a very large sword. It gleamed in the sunlight and appeared to be recently sharpened.

Ilias took his shell and brushed away an invisible air above it. He handed it to Gobber who then exchanged the sword in return. "Thank you," he said without the use of the shell.

Decessus looked over at the three and commented, "oh Deus, this can't be good."

Ilias saw him look over and called out, "Hello Decessus! How should I cut off the," Ilias thought very carefully before yelling, "balls?" The Vikings nodded their heads in affirmation, "yes, balls!"

"Of course I have to be right," he said as he stood up from his chair.

When he approached the three, Ilias said, "you are here to watch me kill this animal, yes?"

"Give it to me." Ilias complied and carefully gave the weapon to him.

He took the blade by the hilt and weighed it in his hand. Scowling he let it fall to the ground and removed his personal sword from under his tunic. He shifted his footing and prepared to strike. His eyes focused on the physique of the cow imagining the thinner muscles, bones, and joints.

The cow happily took a clump of grass and closed its eyes. As it lazily munched on the Berkian grass, its eyes shot up and rolled behind its head. The weapon cleaved down its neck and when it finished the cut, the head fell to the ground.

The, now decapitated body, wobbled underneath its weight and dropped to the floor. He pushed the cow to a hole that was nearby and appeared to be hastily dug out. He let the blood pour out from the missing portion of the cow and walked back to pick up the sword.

"Ah, thank you Decessus! I cannot wait to cook it!" He looked over to the carcass and then commented, "actually, perhaps I can wait."


Hiccup walked with Toothless to their glade enjoying the warmth that Berk rarely had. After the problem with Fireworm had been resolved, the two friends were left to their own devices. He and his friend walked throughout the forest, chasing each other, picking flowers for each other, and benefiting from each other's happiness. They neared the entrance to their oasis and Hiccup told Toothless, "I'll meet you later. I need to do something, don't worry I'll be quick." He looked reassuringly into the beryl eyes and said, "I promise." Toothless nuzzled his body and trotted into the clearing.

The boy felt at unease when he walked into the forest, something simply did not feel right: like suspicion of some benign danger. It bothered him at the least and made him curious to see what was calling for his attention.

He carefully walked around the fallen trees and larger stones, stepped through puddles and twigs that dotted the floor, and followed his inner compass. The sun began to fade away as the clouds stepped in and yet the island remained just as warm.

"As if nothing happened," Hiccup told himself.

But in a moment, he smelled something unlike anything he ever knew. Burning and some ugly stench wafted around the trees; sensing that he was close, he picked up his speed. The aching in his prosthetic leg leaked away as his need to answer his emergent curiosity grew.

His accelerando stopped as he was confronted by an unusual sight. A thick fog filled a small space. Wisps of something strayed out from the Earthly cloud and he inhaled deeply to identify the smell. He coughed it out in disgust and abhorrence as it the smell was thick and putrid. It reeked of something burning but he could not tell what was burning. It was just too foreign.

Against his better judgment, he rushed into the haze but in a few steps he fell to the ground as he tripped on a rock.

"My Caesar! Are you alright?" A dazed voice called out from above.

Hiccup turned himself up and saw clouded eyes looking down into his emerald eyes.

"My Caesar, say something! I brought the prisoners down the trapdoors so you and your empress may be safe. Are you hurt? Did they hurt you?" The eyes called out from a pale face.

"Oh Gods, I'm uhh I'm fine." Hiccup's vision defined and he saw something that he had never seen before. A smiling Decessus.

"Deus blesses us, the Caesar is unharmed!" Decessus gave out a hearty laugh and fell down on his bottom. Hiccup eyed a pipe with a chamber on the top; as Decessus brought it to his lips and inhaled slowly he took away the pipe swiftly and said, "forgive me my Caesar for being so greedy. You may have some of mine! It is not as pure but I know you to be a man of pleasures!"

"What is it?" Hiccup cautiously asked as he held the pipe.

"Did you forget Caesar? It is opium! It's good for you!" Decessus grinned.

"No thanks," he handed the pipe to Decessus, "this doesn't look like my kind of thing."

"Discretion: a pillar of virtue!" Decessus laughed but quieted down as he continued, "a pillar that has crumbled for me a long time ago."

"What's wrong with you?"

"Maybe I've had a bit too much, they said I should only do one or the other." Decessus lifted the black short sleeve of his tunic and revealed many red cuts on his bicep. "I had to sponge it in and smoke it in. Quickest way you know. You understand Caesar?" He pleadingly asked.

"Yes?"

"Thank Deus, you are truly a wise Caesar."

"You're welcome?" Hiccup let the silence fill the void and wondered inwardly if this is what the man is truly like. No longer lucid and understandable, he is not even half of the man that he knew before now.

"My Caesar? You are thinking, what is it?"

"I'm," he decided to take the risk that rushed into his head and continued, "I'm not this Caesar you keep on talking about."

"What?"

"It's me Hiccup."

"Hiccup? Oh yes! Hiccup! You're a nice kid Hiccup."

"Thanks." But the complement meant nothing and he questioned the now senile mercenary. "Why are you here?"

"To trade and stuff." Decessus shrugged, "but there's more to it."

"Like what?"

"Did you know I'm from Greece?"

"Ilias told us that."

"Think about it, I'm from Greece." Hiccup still did not understand what he was trying to allude to. "Greece fell with Julius Caesar."

"And?" Hiccup still not understanding what this conversation was leading to.

Decessus became irritated and with cloudy eyes he aggressively said, "Julius Caesar died about a thousand and three hundred years ago. If I'm from a place that fell a thousand and three hundred years ago then…"

Hiccup picked up the sentence and finished, "how can you be born in a place that doesn't exist? Oh Gods! You're from a place that's been gone for the past century! How can you be alive?" He exclaimed.

"A little deal here a little blood there, nothing that can't be done." Decessus gave a hearty laugh and took another breath from the pipe.

"This is impossible!"

"Not if you have faith," he mimicked Ilias's voice while pursing his lips together and scrunching down his eyebrows.

"Why, what, how?" Hiccup babbled facing the man but he simply smiled at the boy trying to make sense of the situation. He took a deep breath to regain his composure and calmly said, "what are you doing here?"

He rubbed his cleanly shaved jaw line and said carefully, "to trade and stuff."

"Yes, you told me that. But what else?"

"To hunt something down. Something really awful. Ilias calls it some Muslim garble and I call it 'Saevio' but I think the closest word to it in your language is 'the Rage'."


Elsewhere Ilias sat in front of a crowd as Stoic retold the great battle between the Green Death and the Vikings. He was captivated by his voice and the art but most importantly he was listening to great detail about the battle.

"So we got through the ocean and the mist. When we finished unloading all the weapons and our men onto the volcano island beach I walked over to the first entrance I could see. We launched a few of our catapults and a thousand dragons flew out of the cave!" Stoic boomed again, "a thousand!" He took a quick drink from his cup and continued, "but not a single one fought me, and when there was not a single dragon left I heard something." He paused and inched closer from his standing position, "a low screeching and howling echoed through the cave. And I saw a little flicker and I ran as fast as I could down the slope of the volcano. A blast of fire was rushing through the cave! Luckily the fire didn't catch me but in a second this huge dragon bursts out! It must've been the size of the volcano!"

Ilias's face soured as it transformed from fascination to fear. Stoic's voice lost its volume as he found what he dreaded the most.

"O fate, why are you so cruel?" He inwardly mourned.


Hiccup sat down on the green floor and asked, "what is it?"

"I dunno, but I told Ilias that maybe you people have something about it in your stories and tales cause you never wrote it down in books and papers and things. So I told Ilias to go listen in to it all. He's going to find something."

Before Decessus could even bring the pipe back to his mouth, Hiccup took it away, snapped it in half, and crushed it beneath his boot.

"Why'd you do that?" Decessus cried out.

"I'm bringing you back," Hiccup said. He continued to reprimand the man by saying, "I'm getting to the bottom of this. Now." He grabbed him by the wrist and burst out of the smoke. He whistled for Toothless and in a moment he bounded through the woods searching for Hiccup. By the time Toothless was by his master's side, Decessus was no longer intelligible speaking inaudible Latin phrases. He climbed up the saddle and made sure to keep the now dazed man on the dragon by using some rope to tie him down to the seat.

They flew off, Hiccup now determined to figure out who these people are and what is their true purpose here at Berk.

A/N: So yeah, it's dark. I think I'm pushing the T rating to the extreme because of cow slaying and opium references but I think I'm still in the boundaries. No sex + no gore = no M rating. This is the second to last portion where there's a lot of OC's in the mix, and soon there'll be more emphasis on the primary characters. I promise.

Another bigger thank you to A Frumious Bandersnatch (and for the plug that you gave me in Valkyrie Chapter 5) and to my newest reviewers Spyden (you must hate me now because Decessus didn't explain how he learned so quickly) and Yuro-Faita911(unfortunately no there is no hyper-Hiccup)! Please rate, review and give me your thoughts!