Hiccup, Toothless, Hookfang, and Barf and Belch hovered in the air above the island where, presumably, Snotlout and the twins were. Normally, they would have just landed and continued their search, but... "This place is ah... A lot more populated than I remember it." Hiccup commented. There were Vikings everywhere, building houses, fishing, talking... There hadn't been anyone there the last time.
"Maybe we made a wrong turn?" Hookfang tried, but Hiccup shook his head.
"No, this is the place. That giant rib cage over there is where the Boneknapper trapped us." He said, pointing to said giant bone structure.
"Maybe Snotlout did something incredibly stupid?" Toothless offered with a smirk, glancing over his shoulder at Hiccup.
With a lopsided grin, the boy replied, "No, Toothless, that's not a 'maybe.' Snotlout lives and breathes incredibly stupid things."
"Well, you're a Viking, they're Vikings, go talk to them!" Barf suggested eagerly, "If something goes wrong, we'll back you up."
Hiccup smacked his hand to his forehead, "Really, you two are almost too well suited to Ruff and Tuff." He heaved a sigh and patted Toothless' shoulder, "Alright bud, let's go check it out," With a glance back to the other dragons, he added, "You come too." This said, the group descended onto an unpopulated patch of land and began moving in the general direction of the Vikings.
Spotting what could have been a small army of dragons, the viking that Astrid and Stormfly had set free the day before approached them. "Who are you?" The man demanded, though, because he knew how to handle dragons, he didn't pull any weapons on them.
"My name is Hiccup," The boy tried, "We're not looking for any trouble."
"What do you want with us?" The viking wondered with a commanding air about him.
Hiccup sighed, "We're trying to find my cousin and his friends, they're about my age, two of them look alike and fight a lot, the other's always getting horrible ideas that cause trouble for everyone around him... Sound familiar?"
"Ah, you mean Snotlout?" The man gave a hearty chuckle, "He's the one that thought to start a fire to set the others free! You see, we were all frozen for several years because-" Hookfang snorted in his face to silence him, not particularly interested in hearing this story... again.
"I'm sure he would do something like that." Hiccup mumbled under his breath, "Hey, uh, by any chance, could you tell me where I could find him?"
The viking waved another over and told him, "Bring the chief and the twins."
"Um, chief?" Hiccup didn't have much time to wonder, for soon after, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnet came forth donning new fur coats and various shiny objects that were probably supposed to look like jewelry.
"You called for me, Hans?" Snotlout greeted, looking to the Viking who bowed his head respectfully.
"This boy requested you, chief. He said he was your cousin."
Hiccup met Snotlout's gaze and heaved a sigh. "Typical Snotlout." Toothless jeered, nudging Hiccup playfully.
Realizing he should probably say something, he pointed the finger of shame and Snotlout and scolded, "I leave you alone for three days, three days and you become chief of a tribe of frozen vikings!"
"Pretty impressive, huh?" Snotlout, clearly proud of himself, admired the rings that adorned his chubby fingers.
"Do you have any idea how badly this could have ended?" Hiccup continued, disregarding the other boy's pride, "It's one thing to pull stunts like this when I'm around to bail you out. It's entirely different when I don't even know what's happening!"
Snotlout rolled his eyes, "Um, hello? Do I look like I need saving?"
"Yes, actually, you do!" Hiccup raged, "You need to be saved from your own incredible ego! And you two-" He gestured to the twins, "Stop going along with his ideas just because you can't come up with anything original! You know all he ever does is get everyone involved into trouble! Next time, instead of playing along, why don't you try talking him out of it like everyone else! He doesn't need any encouragement, trust me!"
"He's really mad." Belch purred happily.
"Isn't it awesome?" Barf agreed. The two were silenced when Toothless shot a menacing glare (and warning shot) back at them.
Now rather annoyed with this conversation, Snotlout took a step forward, "Do you not know who I am? I am the chief of Frozen Valor, and you, sir, are trespassing!"
Hiccup jabbed his finger in the air while he fumbled to form a sentence. "You, you... Alright! You know what? Stay here, see if I care! We'll just go home and tell my father and Spitelout you're starting a rebellion, get the entire village of humans and dragons- including the new Night Fury friends I've made- to come here and blast you into Hel before you can even finish building your village, is that what you want?!" Snotlout quieted. "You have to the count of five to get on your dragons!" Before Hiccup could even begin his countdown, the teens scrambled for their dragons obediently. Satisfied, Hiccup turned to the viking that had approached him earlier, "I'm sorry about him, he doesn't know what he's doing, really, you're better off without him." With this said, he mounted Toothless and took off to follow the already retreating forms of Hookfang, Barf, and Belch.
"That was awesome!" Ruffnut cheered, "I've never seen Hiccup yell like that!"
"Yeah, he was so mad!" Tuffnut enthused.
Toothless playfully smacked Hiccup's cheek with his earplate, "Listen to the praise for the future chieftain. You should've brought Astrid and Fishlegs along to see this."
Hiccup heaved a sigh, "It's not like I like being the bad guy," He mumbled, "I just don't know what else to do with him sometimes. He's like an unruly child that just can't resist playing with everything he's told to keep away from and nobody even bothers to scold him."
"But you feel the need to," Toothless pointed out.
"Well somebody's got to take responsibility for him." Hiccup muttered.
Toothless flashed a grin over his shulder, "That's exactly why you'll make a great chief one day."
Hiccup smiled back slightly for a moment before a look of horror washed over his face. "If there's anything left to chief. Sky..."
"Yeah, I wouldn't worry so much about him." Koda murmured, curled up against Hiccup, "I mean, if he were plotting against the humans, he wouldn't have come up with an idea like that himself, it would have been an order from Flamewing, but I was there when he was talking to Flamewing about coming here and they never said anything like that. Flamewing's exact words were," She cleared her throat to mimic the elder dragon, "I'm only considering this because you are my most trusted adviser, Sky. Very well, you and that young Pixie may go, but you are to report back to me in one moon's time, but should you fail to return unharmed at that time, I will personally see to it that that island is obliterated." Then, as an afterthought, she added, "Maybe Sky was just having a bad dream?"
"Sky's always hated me," Toothless muttered sourly, "He's always been out for blood against me because I'm the son of the chief. You know, there was nothing wrong with the other eggs in my clutch, there should have been three magnificent, healthy dragons..." He lowered his voice a bit, "Mother always held onto those eggs in hope that they would one day hatch... Part of the reason she's so upset with me is because I knew that I was going to be banished that night, and I just... I had to know what had gone wrong, why my siblings hadn't hatched... So I cracked their eggs open, and..." He hesitated, "They'd been scorched. It was hardly noticable from the outside because the eggs of Night Furies are black, but inside... Inside there was nothing but charred remains. It's probably why I'm a runt, too, I'm sure whoever did it tried to get rid of me as well, but they must not have kept the heat on me long enough." Looking back at Koda and Hiccup, he said, "And I'm sure it was Sky."
Hiccup was taken aback by this accusation, "Sky?" He breathed, "Why would he do such a thing?"
"My father is from a small clutch as well, a clutch of two, and Sky is the only son of his only sister." Toothless explained, "In other words, had all of the eggs been destroyed, he would have been heir to the throne, and no one would ever have known the truth."
"It could just as easily have been his mother! Or his father! You don't know, Toothless!" Koda protested. She was raised to believe that Sky was the heir to the throne and was the most virtuous dragon of their clan because Toothless had been banished.
Toothless grunted, "You don't know the half of it, Koda. Sky wants to take everything from me, leave me with nothing, and he'll die before he changes his mind about that."
In an attempt to be soothing, Hiccup gently rubbed the back of Toothless' neck, "He'll never take everything from you, bud. Not while I'm around."
When the group returned to Berk, Hiccup was relieved to find it just as he had left it- peaceful, freezing, and full of Vikings. They came to land just outside the training arena, where Astrid and Fishlegs rushed out to greet them. "Well, how'd it go?" Astrid wondered as the teens slid off their Vikings.
"It was awesome!" Tuffnut cheered.
"Yeah, I've never seen Hiccup so angry!" Ruffnut high fived her brother, beaming.
Astrid looked to Hiccup, "Care to elaborate?"
Hiccup sighed, "Snotlout had the bright idea to melt the frozen vikings and become their chief."
"So?"
"So I... told him if he didn't come back with us I'd tell my dad he was starting a rebellion." Hiccup shot a look over at Snotlout before the other could protest, "Which is probably what I should have done anyway, but I knew Spitelout, my father, and Ruff and Tuff's parents wouldn't be too pleased with me. All you ever do is cause trouble, you never think about the consequences of your actions, and, inevitably, it become my problem because I'm the only one around here that ever takes responsibility for anything you do!"
Ruffnut elbowed Astrid, "See? He's doing it again! Isn't it great?"
"You're in trouble, too!" Hiccup added with a glare at the twins. Finally, he turned back to Astrid and Fishlegs and asked, "Where are the dragons?"
"Last we saw they were headed to dinner," Fishlegs squeaked nervously.
A bit relieved at this, Hiccup calmed down some, "I need you all to keep an eye on your dragons. If they start acting funny, especially around Sky, let me know immediately."
Astrid furrowed her brow, "Why? Did something happen?"
"I just... We have to keep our guard up around Sky. There's a chance he's trying to... To do something bad." He averted his gaze, "just... keep an eye on him." With this said, he turned to leave, Toothless at his heels.
"You aren't thinking the other dragons are going to turn on us, are you?" Toothless wondered aloud, rather disturbed by his friend's behavior.
Hiccup shook his head, "No, I trust them, but I don't trust Sky. He might try to put ideas in their heads. Barf and Belch for sure are dumb enough to go along with them, the others would probably start to act strangely if they thought Sky was putting us in danger..." He stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face Toothless, who nearly bumped into the boy. "I'm just really worried about you, Toothless. If that really was him before..." He heaved a sigh, "Promise me you won't leave my sight until Sky goes home?"
"I'll try," Toothless assured him, and the two began moving again.
Koda, who had been on Toothless' neck the entire time, reared up and placed her paws on the elder dragon's head, "I just don't understand why Sky would do something like that!"
"Power, fame, more power..." Hiccup replied bluntly, "But there are things that Sky can never take away from you, Toothless. What you and I have done for the other dragons and humans of Berk, things like that won't just go away. Not in my eyes or my father's. He'll never lose sight of the fact that you saved me, Toothless, no matter what Sky does or tries to do, and you know I'll always have your back."
"Yeah..." Toothless muttered under his breath as they finally came upon Stormfly, Meatlug, and Sky.
"Toothless!" Stormfly greeted cheerfully.
Hiccup flinched at the sound of the new voice. "Right... That's going to take some getting used to." Sky, Stormmfly, and Meatlug approached Hiccup and Toothless, happy to see they'd made it back safely.
"What did Snotlout do now?" Stormfly wondered aloud, "Anything to do with those frozen Vikings?"
"He thawed them and became their chief." Hiccup deadpanned, "But I got the three of them back just fine."
Stormfly was surprised, "You can... understand me?"
"Long story, don't ask how, just know that he can." Toothless cut in, knowing that Hiccup felt awkward talking about his new ability.
"Right... Well, we just finished eating. There's still some left if you're hungry." Stormfly offered, nodding her head over to the giant bowl where the dragons were fed. Toothless and Koda made their way over to it, rather hungry from not having eaten.
Trying to give Sky the benefit of the doubt, Hiccup forced a smile and asked, "So, what do you think of Berk?"
"So far, it seems to be just as you described it," Sky admitted, "I'm impressed."
"Well, tomorrow's a new day. There are a few kids coming of age to be proper vikings now, so my dad asked me to take them into the academy, teach them about dragons and how to handle them. It should be interesting... I haven't even told the others about it yet. I think it'll be a nice surprise for them." Hiccup rambled, trying to find something to talk about.
"Oh? The children seem to handle themselves just fine around dragons as it is." Sky murmured.
Hiccup shrugged, "They know not to threaten them, but that's about it. They see dragons more as playmates than as true companions, and there are plenty of other things to learn. How to ride, dragon calls, the different types of dragons and their abilities... Fishlegs will have a blast." Toothless and Koda hobbled back to Hiccup, who promptly scooped Koda up in his arms. The young dragon yawned and curled against him with a contented purr.
"Oh, right. Your father was looking for you, Hiccup. He looked upset." Stormfly recalled.
The boy winced, "I forgot to tell him where I was going. Alright, I should go take care of that. We'll see you in the morning, then," He waved to the dragons and led Toothless home.
Stoick was already waiting for Hiccup inside, and the moment the door closed to signal his son's presence, he whirled around, "Hiccup!"
"Sorry, dad, I got kinda caught up in some things..." The teen began, "Apparently Snotlout led the other trainers on some crazy expedition for treasure yesterday and he and the twins wound up stranded on an island with a bunch of frozen vikings that he became chief of..." He stopped his rambling to heave a sigh, "So I went back to get them. I'm sorry I forgot to tell you."
At this, the chief's face softened, "That's my boy," He clapped Hiccup on the shoulder, "You'll make a fine chief one day."
Toothless nosed Hiccup's leg, "I told you."
"I'm not looking forward to it," Hiccup admitted, "But thanks, dad."
"Get some rest, son. Tomorrow's a big day for you and the academy." He reminded.
"Hopefully Snotlout, Ruff, and Tuff will behave themselves," Hiccup confirmed, land with this, he, Toothless, and Koda moved past him to Hiccup's room. Once inside, the boy set Koda down on his bed and lie down himself as Toothless did his usual nighttime ritual.
Once they were all settled in, Toothless asked, "Hiccup? Are you angry with Astrid?"
"I got that impression, too," Koda agreed softly.
Heaving a sigh, Hiccup considered this. Was he? "I'm upset. I don't know if mad is the right word for it." He replied eventually. There was an expectant silence for a moment before he continued, "Something she said earlier is bothering me. After you stormed off, Koda said that maybe part of the reason you were so upset is because of a Pixie's rank in the pack, that it's hard to have high self-esteem when everyone around you treats you like dirt. I translated that for Astrid and she agreed that it was horrible..."
"...But didn't stop to think about how you'd felt when she treated you the same." Toothless finished for him, "That's understandable, then." He rested his head on his paws, "They seem all too eager to forget about everything that happened before, so much so that I didn't even know the extent of it. I can see why you'd be upset..."
Koda glanced up at Hiccup, "You're really strong, you know? To be able to just go on as if nothing happened like that after the way they treated you."
"He is," Toothless agreed.
"I'm not strong," Hiccup tossed a lopsided smile to Toothless, "I just have really good friends to help me through the hard times."
How about that dark side of Hiccup? XD Hope you liked it! Also, I'm going to hold a competition! To any of you artistic people out there- this story still doesn't have a title cover. SO! I am asking you (as a birthday present) to pretty please make one for me~