Hey!
There's some OOC
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Chapter 3 - The Letter
A few days later, Stoick, Gobber, and Astrid are discussing what to do about the dragon when Fishlegs burst through. He's panting, hand on his knees, in his other hand is a rolled up piece of paper. "My gods, Fishlegs!" Astrid says, standing up. "What's the matter?"
Fishlegs manages to catch his breath. "I just got something back!" He waves the piece of paper. "Well tell us what it says, boy." Gobber says, waving his hook.
"It's just a picture of a dragon," Fishlegs says. "It says it's called the Echotri. It says it takes its victims for food, it's like a cannibal. It can only come out when the sun is at it's lowest point, but can't come out when the moon is out, which explains why it came at sunset. Um. Wingspan, forty feet. It breathes this mist that hypnotizes you into going with it willingly. It has no known weaknesses"
"An Echotri? A new dragon?" Astrid says. Hiccup would love this, she thinks.
"Let me see that, Fishlegs." Stoicks says, and Fishlegs hands it to him. He looks it over, but cannot read it. "How did you read this Fishlegs?" Fishlegs' brow furrows. "What do you mean? It's in viking." Astrid takes a look at it. "He's right. How can you read this?"
"What? Let me see it again." Fishlegs says, and Stoick hands him the paper. He looks it over again. "Oh! Sorry. It's in a different language." Fishlegs squints. "It's a modified version of dragon language. No one uses that anymore!"
"Who would use this? Who could remember it?" Stoick says, taking back the paper and looking at it again. "It's been years."
"It also says to send the Terror back if we need help." Fishlegs says, pointing to a jumble of unknown symbols at the bottom of the page. "We might have to do that if this gets worse. We could use some help right now." Fishlegs points out.
"Yeah. But who's help?"
He sits on the edge of the cliff, one leg hanging off it. He sent the Terrible Terror back to the island the day before. He knows he will have to return, he knows they will send it back. They're dealing with a Echotri, those things are extremely dangerous.
He wishes he won't have to go back, but knows he will. Because he has to protect those vikings. He's just afraid. Afraid of what they might think of him. They didn't recognize him, they won't accept him. He didn't see any dragons there, but knows why.
His dragon comes up behind him and nudges him. He turns to him and smiles.
He gets up and walks away from the cliff, waiting for the Terror to arrive.
Astrid sits upon a rock, looking at the ocean. She hears screaming. She rushes to see the dragon-Echotri-grabbing a child. A child? Astrid quickly reaches for a spear and hurls it at the Echotri. It doesn't affect it at all. She notices another thing in its talons, its Gobber. He's smacking and clawing at the beast's leg, but it has no reaction. He manages to wiggle out of its grasp and fall to the ground, but he is seemingly unharmed.
It gets away with the child.
"That was my child!" A woman shrieks in horror. Astrid looks over to see the woman crying. Astrid feels bad, like she didn't try hard enough. It's like she was waiting for that masked stranger to swoop in again and save the day.
What is wrong with her? Waiting for someone to come save the day for her?
She remembers Gobber and rushes over to where he fell. He's sitting there smiling. She shakes her head and looks him over for injuries. There's nothing but minor cuts. She holds her hand out and helps him up.
"Really Gobber? What were you thinking?" Astrid says, putting her hands on her hips.
"I was thinking, hey, wouldn't it be fun to drop 60 feet to the ground." He says sarcastically.
"But seriously Gobber. You could've gotten hurt!"
"I know Astrid. But I know how that thing works now." He says, dusting himself off.
"What do you mean?"
"It got in my head." He taps the side of his head, smiling. "I know where it's going."
"Really? Where?" Astrid asks.
Gobber suddenly sways, hand going to his head. "Gobber?" He rubs his head. "Where am I?" He says drowsily. "Who are you?" He falls to the ground, unconscious. Oh no, Astrid thinks, he's got amnesia. She attempts to drag his very heavy to Gothi. When she's about half-way there, Stoick sees and helps her out.
"What happened?" Stoick asks, voice full of concern.
"I don't know. One minutes he's fine. He said something about the Echotri was in his head and he knows where it is. Then he's asking me who am I and he's passed out cold." She says to Stoick, trying to hold up Gobber's enormous feet. "I think he's got amnesia."
"Let's just get him to Gothi and hope for the best." Stoick says.
Gothi concludes Gobber does have amnesia. "She says it have been caused by the mist for the Echotri." Stoick reads what Gothi has written. "But he's going to be okay, right?" Astrid asks Gothi. She writes something in the dirt with her staff.
"She says she doesn't know. He might remember, he might stay this way." Stoick reads. "She says she can't tell if it's temporary or permanent yet."
Astrid takes a deep breath. They might lose their Gobber. Stoick might lose his best friend. Great. Just Great.
Astrid stays and helps Gothi take care of Gobber, but Stoick walks out of the hut, and heads straight for a certain house. When he gets there it takes everything in his power not to bang his fist on the door, he knocks as softly as he could, which is still loud.
Fishlegs opens up the door and jumps a little when he sees its the Chief.
Stoick says two words to Fishlegs then walks off. He hopes this is the right thing to do. It's the best chance he's got to try and save Gobber and the twins and everyone else the Echotri has taken from him and Berk.
He gets back to his lonely house and sits in his chair. He puts his head in his hands. He can't help but feel this is all his fault. He's the one who basically drove Hiccup away. He basically told him to not come back. Then the dragons left and they didn't have very good defences anymore.
It's all my fault. He keeps repeating in his head.
Astrid is cleaning Gobber's cuts when she feels him stir. She hears him groan, and takes a step back to look at him. He seems to be waking up. "Gothi, i think he's waking up!" Gothi hobbles over to where Astrid and Gobber are.
Gobber sits up, holding his head in his hand. "What-what happened?" He asks.
Gothi writes in the dirt with her staff. "She says you suffered minor cuts and a concussion. Are you okay, Gobber?" Astrid says, reading Gothi's writing. Gobber rubs his head, his face is slightly contorted in pain. "Yeah, I'm good Astrid." Gobber says after a minute.
Astrid sighs in relief. He doesn't have permanent amnesia, it was only temporary. She smiles. "Gothi, I'm going to tell Stoick. I'll be right back." She tells the old woman and walks out of the hut towards the Chief's house.
Everyone's in their houses asleep now, so it's deathly quiet. Almost too quiet. But Astrid shakes off the feeling. At night it's always deathly quiet, there's no dragons to screech anymore. She misses Stormfly. She couldn't stop her dragon when she flew away. None of the dragons were listening to their riders that day. No one's seen a dragon for years.
She gets to Stoick's house and knocks on the door. It takes him a minute to get to the door and open it. She smiles brightly at him. "Gobber's awake," she says. "And he doesn't have amnesia." Stoick smiles, relieved. "That's good."
His chest tightens. It's back. He squeezes his eyes shut and sighs.
He calls for his dragon and mounts him.
Time to go back.
Stoick and Astrid are walking back to Gothi's hut to see Gobber. It's still deathly silent in the dark. There's a bitter cold wind blowing through Berk, making it colder than normal. They finally get to Gothi's hut and see Gobber is no longer there, and Gothi is on the ground unconscious.
They rush over to her and help her up. She's in a daze, but seems to be fine other than the lump on the back of the head.
"Gothi! What happened? Where's Gobber?" Stoick asks, concern present in his voice. She writes in the dirt with her finger. "She says he knocked her out and left." Stoick reads. "But where did he go? Where would he go?" Gothi writes again.
"To the dragon."
"He must still be under it's spell." Astrid says. She grabs a mix of herbs she recognizes as pain killers and gives them to Gothi. She takes them gratefully, she's surprised Astrid recognized them so quickly. Gothi writes once again. "You need to find Gobber now, don't worry about me." Stoick reads. Astrid looks at her. "Are you sure you're okay?" She asks. Gothi gives a small smile and nods. Astrid sighs.
They both, reluctantly, stand and leave Gothi.
They wake the sleeping for an emergency meeting in the Great Hall.
"Gobber has been taken. A child has been taken. Tuffnut has been taken. I've had ENOUGH!" Stoick slams his good hand on the stone of the fire pit. The vikings shout "YEAH!" Their weapons held high in the air. "We are going after this dragon TONIGHT!" He yells. The viking agree.
There's a laughing in the back. Everyone quiets down, confusion present on their faces. There's gasps when they turn around, but Stoick still cannot see who it is. "LET ME SEE YOU!" The viking part so there's a clear line leading to the door.
Where the masked stranger is there with his Night fury.
"You really think you can take on a dragon you barely know about?" He asks.
Stoick just stands there, fuming. How dare that stranger laugh at him. "Oh, did you lose your friend? Gotta go get the big lug?" He teases, knowing it will make Stoick angry.
"How DARE you speak to me like that in my own domain!" Stoick yells. The stranger smiles behind his mask. He's struck a nerve. But he knows what will make him even angrier.
"Are you still sad you basically kicked your son out? Still hasn't come home, huh?"
Stoick is so mad you can see the veins in his neck. He throws a dagger straight at the man's face. The man only laughs when he catches it inches from his face. He looks at the dagger. "I was looking for this." He tucks the dagger into a pocket of his upper armor.
"Do you have my sword or..?" He asks.
How could this stranger know these things? Astrid thinks. He's missing part of his leg. I wonder…
"YOU ARE TO LEAVE THIS INSTANT!" Stoick orders, he's really mad. The stranger raises his hands in defence. "Okay, I get it. You don't want my help. Fine. I'll go. Have fun losing." He and the dragon begin to walk out the door when Astrid cries out, "WAIT!"
"Astrid, what in the name of THOR are you doing?" Stoick hisses. "We need all the help we can get."
The stranger and his dragon turn around. "How could you help us?" Astrid asks him. He screeches like a Night Fury. The Night Fury nudges him. "Oh, sorry. Living with dragons for a few years, you forget how to speak normally. I said, I've encountered this Echotri before."
"Wait, you can speak dragon?" Astrid says.
"Yes, I can." He replies.
She turns to the Chief. "Stoick, he could be useful. He can speak to dragons for Thor's sake!" She says quietly to him. "We cannot trust him, Astrid." Stoick replies. "He's disrespected us."
"I know. But we can always get rid of him if we really need to." She says. Stoick sighs. "Fine."
"We can't trust you until you take that stupid mask off and tell us your name." Astrid says to the stranger.
"Oh, you don't wanna know either of those, really-" The dragon screeches at him, interrupting the stranger. He turns and screeches back at the dragon. They continue back and forth like this, like they're arguing, and it gets louder. Everyone stares at them like it's the strangest thing they've ever seen, while the masked stranger and Night Fury continue like it's something they do everyday.
They finally seem to agree on something, because the screeching gets quieter. The stranger glares at the dragon and crosses his arms like he's lost.
"Guess who I am." He says simply. The dragon doesn't look too happy. He wacks him on the back of the head, not happy with the stranger's answer. "What?" He looks at the dragon, rubbing the back of his head. The dragon roars. "Really?" He sighs, defeated. "Fine."
"You just gotta take all the fun outta things, don't you bud?" He reaches for the mask.
Wait. Bud? Night Fury? Astrid thinks, and a light bulb goes off in her head.
"I can't believe," He says, taking the mask off and dropping it to the floor. "My own father didn't recognize me." He looks at Stoick. "Um hello? So many clues. Astrid figured it out." He says, looking over at Astrid. "Didn't you?"
Hiccup has changed, so much. He seems more confident. The slight chubbiness in his cheeks is long gone, replaced with a structured jaw and slight stubble. His hair's the same only it's a little messy. He's grown at least a foot since the last time anyone saw him. The eyes, they've lost all traces of kindness in them, replaced with cold, hard stone.
He's not the same Hiccup that left Berk.
Not the same at all.
A/N~ There's going to be OOC in the next chapter, mostly Hiccup. I'll have it up in a few days!
It took so long to figure out a name for that dragon.
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