CHAPTER 17-The Spirit of Autumn
Raising out of the fog the sister were floating over the island, having a bird's eye view of the land. The landscape of Berk was interesting; a mix of rocky arches on land and in the ocean, there was a beach off to the side of the island with a port build beside one of the lower cliff side. As for the village, it was built on a gentle slope that consisted with small cliffs. The houses were made from wood with the roofing stretching to the ground, shaping the homes into rounded triangles, and the shingles are similar to that of fish scales with head carvings of beasts at the front of them. "Now Berk is twelve days north of hopeless and a few degrees south of freezing to death, it's located solidly on the meridian of Misery. The village you see before you was where I lived. In a word—sturdy, and it's been here for seven generations, but every single building is new.
"We have fishing, hunting, and a charming view of the sunsets. The only problems are the pests." At the mention of "pests," something stealthy and swift came and snatched a sheep away from its heard before Elsa and Anna knew what happed. Next they were inside a home, presumably Hiccup's, seeing that he was there and was walking over to the front door after hearing a commotion outside. "You see most places have mice," Hiccups opens the door, "or mosquitoes," he looks startled and made to shut the door quick, "we have—" he brace against it with his back. Flames were bursting through the cracks alongside the door until the attack stopped, "dragons."
Elsa and Anna were roughly thrust outside again, where they were witnessing the attack of dragons. The sisters were stung by the violence, destruction, and brutality of it all. They were scared stiff, Elsa especially, who had to remind herself that everything she's seeing is through the safety of Hiccup's memory.
"Sure most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings. We have stubbornness issues. Oh, and that beefy man with the braided beard and hair over there, that's Stoick the Vast, chief of the tribe. They say when he was a baby, he popped a dragon's head clean of its shoulders. Do I believe it? Yes I do."
Hiccup ran into what looks to be a blacksmith shop; there was already a man there hard at work, with a missing hand and a wooden peg leg. "The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little—well, littler…"
When Hiccup spoke again, there was an unmistakable frustration in his voice. "I kept telling myself that one day, I'll get out there. Because killing a dragon is everything around here. A Nadder head is sure to get me at least noticed. Gronckles are tough—taking down one of those would definitely get me a girlfriend. The Zppleback—exotic. Two heads, twice the status…And then, there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have a nasty habit of setting themselves on fire. But the ultimate prize is the dragon no one's ever seen. We call it the—"
"Night Fury!" cried many of the Vikings, looking around in search of the beast, but alas could not see. "Get down!" one of them cry. There was the familiar sound, of a sharp, high pitch whistle in the air, catching the sister's attention. Instantly a blast of fire came from the nightly sky, striking one of the catapults off of the tall rocks. It burst into a fiery explosion before collapsing into the sea water. Hiccup resumes his narrating. "This thing never steals food, never shows itself and-" a house explodes in background, "never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury…That's why I was going to be the first…At least, that's what I thought at first."
The sisters watch intensely as Hiccup rushed away as soon as Gobber leaves the shop in order to aid in the fight. Wheeling an original contraption of his to one of the less active part of his village, Hiccup waited for his chance, fires the shot, and down went the Night Fury.
From there, the sisters watched with openness, touched at how uniquely different and special Hiccup was. They felt sympathy for him for all the conflicts, trails, and humiliation he had to go through to be accepted by his tribe, as well as his own father who was Stoick the Vast. But most of all, they felt inspired, seeing the development of a forbidden friendship between Hiccup and Toothless.
Which was all the more heart breaking when the pair fell in battle. They were fighting against the Red Death on Dragon Island, a giant dragon who was forcing all the other ones to bring it food, or face the possibility of becoming food themselves. The monster was the reason why the dragons ever attacked Berk in the first place. Hiccup had Toothless fire a final shot into the Red Death's mouth, igniting the gas the Red Death has in order for it to breathe fire. When the beast couldn't blow the fire out, or get lift under its wings; it fell head first on to the ground, causing a huge explosion, completely destroying the monster in its own flames.
They couldn't fly upward even if they wanted to, for if they did, they would lose velocity. So in an attempt to escape the explosion, Hiccup had Toothless fly in a diagonal motion, however they were too close to the Red Death's body, so they were left with no option but to dodge the spikes following the spine of the monster's back. Toothless' makeshift tail had already been caught in one of the Red Death's earlier attack, and it was burning fast. When it was completely burned off, it rendered the pair unable to turn in any direction. And before them, still lies the end of the monster's tail shaped like giant mace. They were hit. Hiccup was knocked out and was knocked off of Toothless, falling into the inferno. Toothless flapped franticly after his rider, trying to catch him…The two were engulfed in the flames.
When the fire cleared, all that was left were ashes, and a long thick grey sky. Stoick searched desperately for his son, and when he found him, Hiccup was wrapped within the protectiveness of Toothless' wings. It took three Vikings to pried Hiccup from Toothless' hold; the dragon didn't as so much die from the explosion, but from hitting his head too hard on the ground in the wrong way. Stoick checked for a heartbeat but there was none from his son.
Both Vikings and dragons mourned for the death of these two forbidden friends, together. Their death had ended the war—a long hundred years of war, between Vikings and dragons for Berk. Hiccup was given a high burial ceremony with Toothless included. A rune stone was built over their stone chamber, placed where their body was found in the center of a ship-stone formation as its mast. Grave goods were offered to the pair during the final day of mourning. For Hiccup, his Viking helmet, along with a shield and a small dagger, a scrap book he used for his sketches with his charcoal stick, a few of his inventions with some tools from the blacksmith shop. And lastly, Gobber created a peg leg out of metal, to replace Hiccup's missing one as a result from the explosion. For Toothless, the Vikings were unsure as to what they can send to the afterlife for a dragon. So Gobber made for him a new makeshift tale and saddle, following the earlier sketches of Hiccup's, as well as gifting the dragon with baskets filled with fish.
When both Vikings and Dragons left the island to begin a new day of peace, trust, and friendship between them, Manny once again performed his magic.
With Dragon Island being so bear with only rocks and stones, Manny had to bring some life to the land for his plan to work. Later on that night, Manny, harder than he had ever done before, pushed and shoved the ocean water against a cliff on a nearby island. He kept at it until clump from the cliff finally crumbled, and from there, he continues to motion the water to move the chunk of earth all the way to Dragon Island. He then softens it till it was wet soil, small enough to seep through the cracks in the stones, and filled the chamber to the very brim.
Next he asked Mother Nature for help, to give the soil some life, in which she did despite it being a bit late for such nourishment. From there, Manny waited for the cold season air to brittle the grass into the right colors of a dry land. He waited for the afternoon sun to shine, and then, he proceeded with his final step. Forcing the earth to shake, he broke opened the ground and lifted up both Hiccup and Toothless' body, which was masked in the earth he brought to them like soft clay. He allowed the soil to become dry basking in the sunlight, and when ready, the soil chipped away from them, and they awoke to a new life.
XxXxXx
The ground shook ever so slightly as Dragon Island faded into the dark, to be replaced by Hiccup's symbol. Both he and Toothless faded in standing upon it. Hiccup was holding up a bright silver shield with a Night Fury emblem on it, no doubt modeled after Toothless.
"My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III; I am known as Dragon Rider; Dragon Master; Slayer of The Red Death to my people. But to the Beings and the people of the world, I am the Spirit of Autumn as well as the Guardian of Change. I won't lie, it pretty much sucks that the both of us died, however, cliché as it is, Toothless and I brought change to Berk for the better. And that is what I want to promise to the both of you.
"Change doesn't come easy, but to you Elsa and Anna, I promise to do everything within my capability to bring change upon the fate of Arendelle, and the Southern Isle in this war. I promise you the strength I weld in my shield—don't judge it until you see it in action. I promise you my innovation; my ideas and inventions—many I will use to aid in this war. I promise you the magic I weld over the Earth.
"And last but not least, I promise you the strength and bond between me and Toothless. They say a Night Fury is the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself, so with him on your side, Hans and Pitch will have something to defiantly watch out for. And with the two of us combined, you can bet our magic to bring change will double."
Something bright started to shine above them, nearly blinding to Elsa and Anna. "And that's my cue," Hiccup said happily. He bowed his head in farewell to the sisters before settling on top of Toothless, and the two took off flying towards the bright light.