Author's Notes: This is the one that will provide the most hints for what Benydeyh really is. You have been warned! It will mostly be Gale thinking back on the early days, along with Adeline and Hiccup discussing the plan. I hope this helps you understand some of what the pirates are doing here, and why they threw Adeline and Hiccup into the cell. Also, some small development between Hiccup and Adeline. Nothing major, just their relationship growing a tiny bit. It's amazing what spending three days locked in a room with someone can do.
So, I'm at Tus-con as I publish this, because my mom is one of the Guests of Honor. It's a small convention, but since it takes place near where I live and my mom sends art every year, we usually go. It also happens on Halloween weekend, so the hotel lobby has candy and decorations befitting the occasion and there are themed treats in the Con Suite that are pretty tasty, if I do say so myself.
Originally, I was going to make this a story about Hiccup and Toothless being kidnapped and taken to a city where they must race for their freedom alongside other dragon riders, and it was going to be called Frozen Thunder because her race team was called the Thunder Riders, but eventually it evolved and changed into this. I was even going to feature dragons from all over the world alongside a few that Hiccup was familiar with, but that was scrapped. Maybe I'll put them in later... I think they would like that. But enough drabble.
P.S. I've decided to start reminding you people to R&R up here. I mean, it's kind of pointless to tell you to Read and Review at the bottom, when you've probably already read the chapter. So yeah, without further "adieu" :P...
Please R&R! Your input is very much appreciated.
Disclaimer: Alas, I own not the HTTYD franchise. All I can lay claim to are my OC's.
Day 3
Adeline's POV
This time, I woke up to loud people talking above us. It was Mapmahl, Unse, Mukuc, and her little cronies, talking directly above us. Maybe they didn't know we were here. Maybe they didn't care. Or maybe they were just stupid and decided that blabbing wherever they wanted was a good idea. I was leaning toward the latter, because they didn't even bother to hide the fact that they were talking about me.
"Hey, that stupid Ytubdaa's monthly hearing is tomorrow. What do you think she'll say?" Unse asked the others. They all laughed annoyingly. Gods, I was glad I wasn't part of their Household. They were people on the lower rungs of the House of Flames, a house known for being, well, annoying. It was how they were raised. Apparently, some wise guy a few centuries ago had decided that his family was going to be the most irritating of all, and true to his wishes they had carried on that weighty legacy.
"Well, knowing her, she'll probably say the usual 'Oh, I can't kill that monster! It's my friend!' spiel she always gives the Council. I don't see why the Captain doesn't just execute her and the tnykuh," Mukuc spat. They all grunted in agreement with him.
"You know it's because he's still holding out hope that the Ytubdaa will change her mind. He practically said so when he announced her punishment at the weekly gathering," Mapmahl countered. There were murmurs of affirmation as the others saw the sense in her words.
I didn't hear what they said after that, because the seed of an idea was starting to grow in my mind. A wide smile spread across my face.
'Oh, Mapmahl, you just helped us get out of here,' I thought gleefully. The need to fill Hiccup in was growing, so I hurried over to his side and shook him awake.
"What? What?" he groaned, trying to bat me away. I poked his cheek excitedly.
"Hiccup! I know how we're going to get out of here!" I told him joyfully. That woke him up the rest of the way, and even Toothless looked up with interest. The two of them watched as I crossed my legs and started to talk about it.
3rd Person POV: Gale
Gale walked down the halls calmly, thinking about the hearing tomorrow and how that brat Adeline was going to act. He sneered inwardly. The stupid girl had sided with a dragon, the greatest enemy of Blackstone Island. As far as he was concerned, she deserved to be executed. And she would have been, if he was the Captain. If he had been the Captain, she would have learned right from the start that you don't betray the island and get off with lifetime imprisonment only.
"Ah, well. That will soon be remedied," he muttered wickedly. His plans were coming to fruition. All he needed was some way to seize power... Maybe a distraction during the new prisoner's initiation? Gale was looking forward to that event, and what it meant for the island. And he knew the rest of the pirates were, too. It was a time-honored tradition dating back to the vunapaync and their first captures as pirates so many generations ago. Yes, the vunapaync were the greatest of them all, compared to their descendants nowadays. They had come to a strange, harsh world colder than anything they had faced before and had carved out a memorable place for themselves in the minds of dragons and humans alike.
No one knows how they first came to Blackstone, or how their precious metal artifacts worked, but they had been just as harsh and cruel as the rules they had implemented. Desertion, betrayal, and other crimes like that, if the perpetrator was caught, were punished severely. In comparison, the current Captain was a kind and benevolent leader. The Luta uv Benydac that the green-eyed settlers had created was the basis for all their laws, and there should be no alleviation for some Ytubdaa girl who happened to be the adopted daughter of the Captain and was originally intended for the heir. That is, until her little defection to the side of tnykuhc. The vile buicuh-cilgman.
Tnykuhc. Or, in the tongue of the Vikings and Berserkers that also resided in the Barbaric Archipelago, dragons. They had been the first enemy of the vunapaync, especially the ancestors of that thing in the dungeon, the Silver Horrors. With their icy breath and lethal bodies, they had been one of the greatest scourges known to man or woman, and not even the relics of the vunapaync could do much good against their ice and teeth.
Gale grimaced at the thought of one of those abominations still living. Hadn't his ancestors done enough to wipe out that tyshat species? Wasn't it enough that they had fought to preserve their culture against an enemy that could smell days-old tnykuh blood? Didn't it matter that no matter how many Ytubdaac they initiated, raised, and trained, they could never gain the true advantage over something that could freeze its prey in its tracks before killing it?
And yet, one still lived. What would his ancestors say? Those amazingly inspirational people, known for the strangeness of their leaf-green eyes and their skill with both sailing and mechanics, how would they react if they knew one more Horror was still among the living? He had too many questions and not enough answers, and so Gale decided to take a walk through the underground village.
The harbor and the ynahy were the only structures visible from the surface, the former because of the necessity for ships, and the latter for natural sunlight during matches and training. Past those were a complicated web of tunnels, caves, and shafts that kept Blackstone's native pirates safe from attack from air and sea. He was pacing down those corridors now, thinking on how the island had changed from the early days.
For starters, there were the multitudes of colors when it came to the traditional tattoos. Oh, sure, there were the purple guards, the yellow hunters, and the green cooks; the orange trainers, the gray craftsmen and women, and the occasional pink midwives; but there were few blue blacksmiths and white healers, and almost no red Household heads or heirs out and about right now. No black Captains or heirs, for sure. But the two-toned colors were never there before. Blue-green, light blue, light green, indigo, yellow-green, these were all recent additions for those who took two jobs instead of one, like the Ytubdaa girl. He had been just as surprised as anyone when she decided to do something as difficult as be a blacksmith and a healer at the same time, but that still didn't change much.
The shapes were almost as varied as the colors. A triangle pointing down for the House of Winds, Gale's own family, both distant and close. A heart was the House of Flames, the single most irritating family in the archipelago. Squares garnished the faces of the House of Shocks, and diamonds graced the visages of the House of Lights, the Captain's own Household. A circle indicated the House of Shadows, while a six-pointed star was the symbol of the House of Snows. The overly-emotional House of Waters was marked by a teardrop, and the never-emotional House of Stones was marked by an hourglass. And to indicate the Ytubdaac, a five-pointed star was permanently added to their faces. There were more of them now than in the time of the vunapaync, mainly because the initiation ceremony had mellowed somewhat and they were breeding like rabbits. Of course, no Ytubdaa was trusted now that one of their own was in the dungeon. Everyone was too wary of them being yet more traitors to the island.
That reminded him of something. Gale pulled a small round object decorated with an upside down triangle and five snowflakes out of his belt pouch: an old belt buckle that still retained a well-worn shine. His fingers traced the etchings lovingly, gently touching the cool metal like it was the hand of a loved one. And for him, it was. This was all he had left of his wife, who had died during a raid for more prisoners and trade goods. She had been cocky, and that had been her downfall. Yet, despite the fact that his island condemned those who got too big for their britches, he still loved her. Chuf had been the best hunter he had ever seen, with long strawberry blonde hair and bright green eyes that sparkled whenever she spoke of her exploits or listened to him speak. She would never have allowed a traitor like Adeline to live. She would have just thrown a knife right into the breast of that conniving little tnylubrema and everyone would have been happier.
It was a decidedly unpopular opinion among the pirates nowadays. Was it his fault that most Heads now spoke of tolerating instead of terminating? Or that they had voted to cut down on the number of crimes punishable by death, maiming, or torture, and even on the severity of the punishments themselves? Only his House had voted against imprisoning her. He had wanted her executed right after she had been forced to kill that tyshat tnykuh, but noooo! The rest of those spineless Heads had voted to merely throw her in the dungeon for the rest of her natural life. It made him wonder if the remains of the vunapaync were rolling in their watery graves, their ashes scattered throughout the world by way of the currents.
Probably. Al Fonz had been the first to meet a Silver Horror, and his encounter was definitely not of the friendly variety. That had sparked the eternal war between them and the vicious beasts. Not even the relics, which the ancient texts called Makina, could defeat such monstrosities due to them breaking down in the cold of the archipelago. Despite this, Al Fonz had played for keeps against the tnykuhc, with his second-in-command Behd Heyr right beside him. And now, several generations later, here Gale was. The direct descendant of Behd Heyr himself, and naturally one of the candidates for Captain. Or at least, was one of them. Now that he was a Head, the only one who could become Captain was his son, Gust, when it was time for the eight Heads to vote on the next Captain and retire.
Gale hadn't realized his feet had taken him to the dungeon until he heard two people talking, a boy and a girl. His grasp of Viking was spotty, but he had learned the essentials for scaring the lnyb out of his victims, so he inched closer to eavesdrop.
"Dammit, Hiccup! Everyone knows that you don't mess with a pirate girl's stuff! It's practically suicide!" she shouted. There was the sound of a scuffle, and the grunt of someone being forced to the ground (Gale recognized it merely because his sparring partners made that exact same sound whenever he pinned them).
"Ha! That'll teach you to mess with my supplies! Now stay down while I apply more of the antidote. This won't hurt as much as before, but it'll still be as painful as a bee sting." A clinking sound told Gale that Adeline had placed something made of clay on the floor, and the slight hiss of breath informed him of the antidote in question being applied.
"I just wanted to know what they said, but I can't read any of the labels," Hiccup, he assumed, replied. There was a snort of amusement from Adeline.
"If you could, I'd be worried. It's Benydeyh, Hiccup, in written form. We have a different style of writing than most of the archipelago. It's focused mainly on using brushes to make curves, which is why you can't read it. I'll tell you what they say later." There was a pause in the conversation until Adeline hummed with pride.
"There we go! You can sit up now. The bandages will hold." There were two amused growls and Gale curled his lip in disdain. Tnykuhc should not be alive inside the island, least of all with two riders. Something nagged at him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. As he walked back to his family's set of caverns, it hit him like a sack of bricks.
Where had she gotten the bandages? All her supplies had been confiscated and sent to the Juimd when she was arrested. Unless... there was a rat among them. Some sympathizer who didn't dare speak out against the Council openly, but instead smuggled items into the dungeon under the noses of the guards. But who? Who would dare do such a thing, when the punishment was twenty lashes in the arena?
There was only one possible culprit. Someone who could use their status to slip confiscated items to a prisoner and get away with it. And the only one capable of that was Simon, the Captain's son.
A guard walked past him, bowing his head in respect. In his rough hands was a tray laden with two mugs of water, two bowls of stew, two plates of dried fish, and two dishes of water. The rations for the prisoners and their tnykuhc. In his opinion, they deserved to starve, but rules were rules. The prisoners must be fed if they want any chance of joining the island. And for Simon, it would be his only food for a while, if Gale had anything to say about it. But for now, he had to prepare for the hearing tomorrow. His plans could not wait for something as minor as a rogue pirate. No... not even the son of his ultimate rival.
Gale walked into his private room (a well-furnished cave set aside expressly for him and his wife) and closed the metal door, his goals at the forefront of his thoughts, and didn't notice his own son watching him carefully, curiously, casually.
Several hours, one meal, and two bathroom breaks later...
Adeline's POV
Toothless was particularly restless tonight, pacing around the edges of the cell while Frostwave, Hiccup, and I watched him, amused and slightly curious, just below the grate in the middle of the roof.
"What is it, bud? You okay?" Hiccup asked as the Night Fury made his third circuit of the room. The warm light from above was slowly being dimmed, and perhaps that made Toothless calm down. He joined us in the center and bumped his nose against Frostwave's side.
"Frostwave? What's up with Toothless?" I asked, putting a hand to her neck and slowly running my hand down the smooth silver-white scales. She relaxed and let her head fall into my lap before purring out a reply.
"He's just wondering when we can get out of here. And so am I. I heard your plan, but you never said when we were going to implement it." I smiled and rubbed a spot just behind her main horn where it was hard for her claws to reach.
"When it's time for Hiccup's initiation, which is four days from now. I'll worry about getting all of us there. You guys just need to do your parts, 'kay?" They all sounded agreement, and now that our fears of staying here forever and our hungers were alleviated, we could go to sleep. But despite my confident words, small doubts kept eating away at me from the inside. What if the plan didn't work? What if one of us was seriously injured, but we all managed to get away? What if, against all odds, they were prepared for something like what we were going to pull? What if-?
My frenzied brain would have continued, but a hand on my shoulder distracted me. Hiccup was looking at me kindly.
"Don't worry, Addie. We'll get out of here. I know we will. I have faith in us," he told me, saying just the right things to make all those fears go away. I smiled in reply.
"Thanks, Hiccup. I needed that. Well, good night," I said, curling up in Frostwave's coils. He leaned back against Toothless, and soon only the soft snores of boy and dragon met my ears. I followed their example and joined them in, if not blissful, at least calm slumber.
Author's Notes: Here are your translations, O mighty and wonderful readers.
Ytubdaa – this is for completion's sake, but it means Adoptee; again, someone not born on the island
tnykuh(c) – dragon(s); again , for completion's sake
vunapaync – forebears; the very first human inhabitants of Blackstone Island
Luta uv Benydac – Code of Pirates; this was written by Al Fonz, the first Captain, to provide the pirates' own set of laws
buicuh-cilgman – poison-suckler; a very bad insult, this implies that they were raised terribly or by terrible people
tyshat – damned
ynahy – arena; where training, matches, and many other social events take place
tnylubrema – dracophile; someone who loves dragons, also the one insult among Blackstone pirates that's worse than buicuh-cilgman (Yes, I made it up, but I tend to do that a lot. Deal with it. ▄▬▄)
Yeah, it shouldn't be too hard to guess what Benydeyh is now. Especially if you've played a certain game. Hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more say no more. Remember, if you review with the correct answer, you'll get a mention in the next AN, a favorite on your account, and READER COOKIES! They're impossibly delicious! I hope this helped you understand a bit of what happened to make Blackstone the way it is, and why Gale hates Adeline so much. It's how he was raised. Also, I dare you to say Al Fonz, Behd Heyr, and Makina aloud. You'll either laugh or hate my guts, or both! That's the fun thing about people. It's possible to hate and love someone at the same time, even if it seems contradictory. What can I say? We're contrary creatures. Take the whole "don't look down" thing, or "don't think about what we just did when no one was looking". It just makes you want to do those things.
And with that, Wild Cat 214, out!
