Days passed, and no word from the men. Astrid had done little but grumble to herself about how she never should have married Hiccup in the first place. She kept thinking about all of the times he'd done things like this to her before. He deeply regretted it when he came home, of course, but all of the scolding and sleeping in the barn in the world couldn't stop him from leaving on a stupid and dangerous mission another time. Astrid knew that eventually she'd just have to accept it, but this wasn't the day.
Ever since Hiccup left, Hope spent less and less time out in the village and more in the workshop. At a very young age, Hope had shown a fascination for learning. She'd often walk into the forge and see her father smelting some new creation. She'd always wondered how the lava-like substances he moulded turned into metallic masterpieces, like a replacement for Toothless' tail fin or a pendant for Astrid or a new dagger for Valka. One day, Hiccup decided to teach her how it worked. Even at five, Hope struggled to pick up her father's tools and help out with the creation of the art. Hiccup merely laughed and pulled up a stool for her so she could watch. She knew when to keep away from the heat and sparks, and she knew when she'd have to squint over her father's shoulder into a magnifying glass to see the intricate patterns he was carving. She wondered how he could be so good at making such tiny details.
As she plunged the red hot blade of her brother's sword into a barrel of icy water, she still wondered that. The only reason Hope had volunteered to fix the sword was to have some time to herself. Even Sugar knew to stay away. She thought of her father, far away on Dragon Island. He had been gone for days, what could be taking so long? Cold fingers closed around her heart when an awful thought struck her. Maybe he was already dead. Maybe whatever had scared off the dragons had gotten him and the other men. Her hammer blows wavered briefly as the horror of the thought settled into her gut. As quickly as it came, she dispelled it. That was ridiculous. It couldn't be that bad. Something scared off the dragons. They were probably already back on their island, and Valka was going to come gliding back to Berk on Cloudjumper. Hiccup and the men would be back within the week, and then everything would go back to normal.
Her father had told her that working at the forge calmed him. He had to focus on the job at hand, leaving no room for the thoughts of whatever was troubling him. The same did not hold true for Hope. The constant hammering stopped being a comforting rhythm and started being a pounding headache. After three hours in front of the forge, Hope set aside her brother's sword to sharpen later and left the workshop, fiddling with the key around her neck. She had been tempted to open the box every now and then, but she felt as though if she read the letters and he was alive, Hiccup would never come back. She knew it was probably just paranoia, but after riding dragons since she was six, she'd learned to always trust her gut.
The day was nice, not a cloud to be seen. She knew that by the evening, it'd be hailing for certain. She revelled in the smell of the salty sea air and the hearty stew that Astrid and Ingrid were making. Hope wished she was going to get to enjoy it hot, but she had to get away from the village and the others for a little while. She didn't even need to ride Sugar for this one. A while back, Alvin and the Outcasts had tried to destroy Berk using Whispering Deaths. The plan had, of course, failed, but the tunnels the Whispering Deaths had made were still open. They were also easy to navigate, once you get a map. Luckily, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, bored on a snowy afternoon, mapped out the entire tunnel system. Naturally, they charged three gold pieces a map and five to enter the tunnel from the main entrance, but Hope could handle that. She already had a map, and five gold was more than a reasonable price for where she was about to go.
As Hope approached the toll booth, she saw that it was neither Ruffnut nor Tuffnut manning it, nor was it Freya or Darren. It was Frigga, Ruffnut and Eret's only daughter. She had her father's complexion and eyes, but her mother's crop of blonde hair. She chose to keep it short and shaggy. She was about Magnus' age. It was no secret that she had a crush on him, but Magnus was far too concerned about himself to notice someone like Frigga. She wasn't loud-mouthed, strong, heroic, or popular, but she was good-hearted. Hope could only dream of having her as a sister-in-law one day.
"Well, look who it is," said Frigga, perking up from her slouching position. Hope smiled in return to Frigga's own bright smile. "If you're headed to the beach house, I must warn you that someone has already asked for specific directions to the secret beach."
"Really?" asked Hope, suddenly on guard. She clutched her coin purse tighter and looked over both of her shoulders. "Who was it? Why did they want to go there?"
"Relax, Hope. It was just Destiny," said Frigga, with a laugh. Hope breathed a sigh of relief and laughed along with Frigga. "She wanted to go watch the dolphins. She said she saw them from a cliff and she wanted to get a closer look."
"Oh, the dolphins are out, are they?" asked Hope. That just made going to the beach house all the more worth it. And having Destiny for company wouldn't hurt. Hope pulled five gold from her coin purse and held it out to Frigga. "Well, that's great to know. Here you go, five gold pieces. Real gold, too."
"Nah, just go on ahead," said Frigga, waving Hope ahead. She sometimes did that, letting her friends get in free. "Mom's never gonna find out I let you through free anyways. I just hope Destiny and the dolphins can undo whatever stress you've been putting yourself through lately."
"Thanks, Frigga," said Hope, smiling gratefully. "Have a great day!"
Frigga called back a reply as Hope headed into the tunnels. Near the entrance was a row of torches, lit and waiting to be needed. Hope grabbed the last one in the row and continued on deeper into the damp, musty tunnels. The only sounds were the muffled thuds of feet overhead, and the occasional trickle of water or shift of dirt or rocks. Hope wondered how on earth it was that Ruffnut and Tuffnut had mapped the tunnels. She would've guessed her dad had done it, seeing as how the maps were accurate and nobody got lost in the tunnels. Somehow, Ruff and Tuff had pulled maybe a week's worth of intelligence out of their sock drawers and put it to use for once.
Hope couldn't help thinking about how different her parent's friends were from each other. Ruffnut and Tuffnut were goofballs, nearly incapable of taking anything seriously. Fishlegs was a big, nerdy, and somewhat uptight walking encyclopedia of dragon facts. Snotlout was a proud narcissist who spent all of his time boasting. Astrid was a violently-inclined warrior queen. Hiccup was an intelligent, crafty, soft-hearted and friendly guy. She wondered how the friendship of the group had lasted so long. Mixing in the fact that Astrid and Hiccup had managed to squeeze a marriage and a family out of their few similarities just boggled Hope's mind. She didn't even want to get started on Ruffnut and Eret.
As she approached the mouth of the tunnel that led to the beach, she wondered if others thought the same about her and Derek. Were they too dissimilar to work out in other people's minds? They shared the same group of friends, but it seemed like the friends were going to be hereditary. After all, they were the second generation of the original Riders of Berk. Derek seemed to have come out of nowhere. Literally. One day his house was empty, the next day, he was living in it. No parents, no siblings, no friends, no family of any kind. Not even a dragon. All he had to his name were the clothes on his back, the house, and a flock of sheep. That had been when he was ten years old. He'd just become another one of Berk's unexplained mysteries at this point. The only thing she knew about his past was that his mother was dead and his father wanted nothing to do with him. He wouldn't tell why he came to Berk, or where the sheep came from, or where he was born. It was almost like he was hiding it on purpose…
Hope let those ridiculous notions leave her already troubled mind and rounded the final corner. At the end of the tunnel were three holders for the torches. The first one held a recently extinguished torch. Hope dunked her torch in the bucket beneath the torches and placed her now smoking torch in the holder in the center. As she exited the tunnel system, the beach house came into view. It was intended to be the Chief's house for when Hiccup came of age, but Stoick realized that the yard was too small for even one dragon, let alone two, and that the beach itself was too far from the village. Instead of having it removed, Hiccup suggested turning it into a vacation home for him and his future family to visit during nicer weather. That is what it became. Hope's earliest memories were from this beach house. They hadn't been in a while, ever since Magnus declared himself 'too old' for visits to the beach with his family.
Destiny was sitting on the dock, facing the waves. The only thing that was visible to Hope was the back of her crop of long curly black hair and of her dulled periwinkle dress. Hope found it odd that Destiny wore dresses so frequently. On Berk, the girls only wore dresses for the Snoggletog ball or for Freya's Feast, a sort of holiday banquet with music for lovers. Granted, Destiny wasn't from Berk. She was from Outcast Islands. Ever since the truce had been arranged between Stoick and Alvin, the Outcasts had been free to come and go from Berk. That included Destiny and her parents, although her parents accompanied her less frequently as she got older. Destiny's mother, Heather Leon, was good friends with Astrid, which was how Hope and Destiny had met in the first place. Destiny's father, Erik Leon, didn't usually join them on their visits. When he did, Hope realized where Destiny got her hazel eyes.
"Hey, Destiny," said Hope, sauntering across the dock to join Destiny. She looked up and smiled as Hope plunked down. Hope noticed that Destiny had taken off her shoes and was dipping her toes in the frigid water. "I don't know how you can stand to do that. You don't find that water cold?"
"Oh, on the contrary. It's freezing," said Destiny, moving her feet around in a swirling motion. The hem of her skirt hovered a few inches above the lapping water. Hope crossed her legs to keep her leather boots out of the very same water. "I find it keeps me alert and in the moment. When I saw the dolphins in the afternoon light, I couldn't resist dipping my feet in. I didn't want to forget them."
"Destiny, that's very deep and poetic, but you'll catch a cold if you keep that up," said Hope, giggling at her best friend's strange way of speaking. Destiny was just a poetic person. Destiny rolled her eyes and pulled her feet out of the water and back into her simple leather flats. Hope saw the dolphins leap from the waves and smiled. Her dolphins were Hope's favourite thing about the beach house. She felt as though the dolphins came just for her. The sound of all the wind chimes strung up in the trees around them was soothing. "Oh, I could just stay here like this forever. I'd never have to worry about getting married or going off to wars. Nobody would die on me. My dad would stop rushing off to the rescue every time something didn't seem right. Maybe Magnus would stop being such a brat. You would never have to leave. We could stay like this forever."
"I don't think I should like that," said Destiny, the afternoon sun bathing her face as she looked up at the clouds. "It isn't that I don't care for you or this place, and indeed Magnus can be a burden, but I wish to do something more exciting with what little time I have left on this earth. I should like to fall in love, and if time froze at this instant, it would never happen."
"I suppose," said Hope. She ran her hand over the sea-weathered wood of the dock, careful not to get a splinter. She supposed no matter how awful things might turn out to be, Hope had to dive into it headfirst, ready or not. "Oh well, I guess that's the price of being human. You can't go forward, you can't go backwards, and you can't stop time."
"Indeed, to be mortal is one of life's greatest trials," said Destiny. She turned to look at Hope, a look of sympathy coming over her features. "You are worried for your father, aren't you?"
"Of course I am," said Hope, hanging her head. She took a steadying breath and looked back up. "Destiny, it's been days. What could have happened to them?"
"Fear not, your father is a noble and wise warrior," said Destiny, placing a hand on Hope's shoulder. "He will return to you. He may be wounded when he does, but he will live. I know it."
"Well, that's reassuring enough," said Hope, breathing a sigh. Destiny had just repeated, with grand words, exactly what everyone else had been telling her over the past few days. "Whatever, I came here to get rid of my worries, not to stress out about them even more. Tell me a story, Destiny."
Upon those words, Destiny made up a tale of fantastic proportions. It told the tale of a noble maiden fighting her way back to the throne, wading through the carnage of all those she had slain to save those she loved. Hope though Destiny's stories had far too much gore or romance, but then again, Destiny was a strange one. The thought of the girl skewering a man through the heart did not help to alleviate her worries about her father.
Meanwhile, on Dragon Island, Hiccup flopped down on his bedroll for some much needed rest. He'd taken the night watch, something he really shouldn't have done. He was yawning all the way through his report. He didn't have much to report. Every so often, Hiccup would decide that it was time to pack up and leave, but then something so bizarre would happen that Hiccup had to investigate. When the trail went cold, he'd order the pack-up again, but then another thing would happen, and they'd begin all over again. Hiccup had the odd feeling something or someone was trying to keep him here. He knew he'd already been gone long enough to have worried Hope and angered Astrid. He was almost certain Magnus didn't care whether he came back in three days or in three months. He wasn't even sure if Magnus would miss him all that much, but then again, Magnus was just going through his 'I only care about myself' phase. He'd get over it. Unless he turned into Snotlout. Hiccup didn't know how he'd handle that.
Just as Hiccup's eyes shut, a battle cry startled him into a bolt upright position. Hiccup saw what was coming through the tree line and watched as his men rushed to his defence. Hiccup unsheathed Inferno and was about to join them when Fishlegs stopped him.
"Hiccup, you have to go!" exclaimed Fishlegs. Hiccup gave him a confused look. "You're the chief and you have the only Night Fury. We'll hold the defensive line for as long as we can, but we'll be right behind you if we can't beat them."
"But what about your families?" asked Hiccup. Fishlegs took the Book of Dragons from it's pouch around his waist and handed it to Hiccup. Hiccup's eyes widened with realization. "Fishlegs…"
"Give it to Treetrunks when you get back to Berk," said Fishlegs, drawing his dagger. "You don't have much time, go!"
Hiccup knew that Fishlegs was wrong. As Chief, he should be on the front lines, not running away from the fight. However, Fishlegs wasn't going to let Hiccup jump into the fight, no matter what. Hiccup, admitting defeat, pulled himself up into Toothless' saddle and belted himself on. He tucked Inferno back in its sheath and stuffed the Book of Dragons into one of the saddle bags. After a regretful look back at the pitiful defensive line, Hiccup took to the skies, guilt weighing down his heart.
The feeling of guilt was replaced my searing agony, coming from his left side. He nearly fainted from the pain, but Toothless steadied him and doubled his speed. He knew that Hiccup had been hurt and he needed to get him home as fast as possible. Hiccup looked down at his side and resisted the urge to gag. Protruding grotesquely from his side was an arrow, blood seeping sluggishly around the sides. More arrows were fired, but it was only the one that had already pierced his flesh that touched him. He took a deep breath and tried to calm his heart rate. If he panicked, his heart would beat faster, and he'd lose more blood. He thought of Hope and Astrid and Magnus, of Valka and Stoick and Ingrid, of Fishlegs and Snotlout and Ruffnut and Tuffnut. He thought of everything he had to live for and vowed to hang on long enough to get home. He winced and bit back a scream when his elbow accidentally grazed the arrow's shaft. He thought of how much Astrid was going to yell at him when he got back instead of the pain. That gave him the courage to go on. For Fishlegs and the men. For his family. For everyone.