6 The Miracle of Dragon Island

Dust and ash settled all around as the Vikings slowly emerged from their stunned silence and began to take stock of their situation. Victory had come, but nobody cheered; the long nightmare was over, but no one felt like celebrating. No longer would they sleep lightly in their beds in constant fear of the next dragon attack, but no one yet realised that fact.

Together they had stood behind their Chief as he bravely led the charge against the hated foe, so together they had discovered the horrific truth and what followed on Dragon Island would never be forgotten; it could never be forgotten. The entire army of brave, steadfast Viking warriors, the strongest women and men, the most skilled of all fighters, the best the Isle of Berk could give, had just been saved by six children not yet fifteen years of age. These children had saved them by defeating a beast of such incredible size, that no exaggeration would ever be required when the story was later told (although it would often be suspected), and they had done it from the backs of five relatively smaller dragons.

The Chief's son had bravely used the giant dragon's size against; it in a brilliant manoeuvre Hiccup had lead the beast high into the clouds, where he had repeatedly taunted it until it burned with anger before finally diving back to down earth at such a speed, that the giant creature had no hope of ever overcoming its momentum and pulling away from the ground again. It had struck with such force that the entire island was shaken, and almost no one had been able to remain on their feet. The dragons own fire, that it used to destroy the Viking armada, had exploded inside its body thus making sure that nothing would remain to show that this incredible monster had ever even existed; and so with almost no fanfare, the giant dragon passed on into legend.

Astrid Hofferson blinked her eyes; she exhaled and began to breathe again for the first time since she had seen her friend Hiccup fall into the... she stopped, blinked again and started to look around, aware for the first time that people were moving and talking all about her. From the distance, a voice was calling; it was the voice of the Chief, Stoick the Vast calling to his lost boy.

"HICCUP" Astrid could see the people around her were searching also.

"HICCUP" the Chief called once more. "SON!"

The calling ceased. Astrid saw that the crowd had stopped their search and were now coming together twenty yards away; she drew a quick breath. Had they found him? Was he alive?

Desperately the young girl ran forward to where all the people were gathered, and pushed her way to the front; on bursting through the crowd, she came to an abrupt halt. Before her was Stoick the Vast; on his knees, back to the others, head down, a few flakes of ash softly coming to rest on his shoulders, a black dragon lay on the ground in front of him. The hope that had been rising insider her fell back into deep despair, but no tear came. Slowly the dragon lifted its head and opened its eyes while emitting a low and painful moan; it looked straight at Stoick and gave a faint whine, acknowledging his pain.

"My son" Stoick whispered faintly "I'm so sorry".

The dragons eyes opened wider and it slowly spread its wings out to reveal the body of Hiccup; son of Stoick, hero of Berk.

Stoick leapt up and rushed to the dragons side; he knelt back down and gently picked up his son, checking him for any sign of life by throwing his helmet to the ground and placing his head on the boy's chest.

"He's alive" Stoick declared; his voice again like a booming roar and yet still very frail "You brought him back alive".

A huge cheer arose from the crowd behind him while Astrid brought her hands to her face and gasped with relief, a tear at last welling within her eye.

Stoick placed his mighty hand gently on the wounded dragons head.

"Thank you... for saving my son"

Stoicks trusted friend Gobber, to whom Hiccup was apprenticed, looked over his Chiefs shoulder.

"Well... you know, most of him" he noted undiplomatically.

Stoick followed Gobbers gaze and saw that, although the dragon had done its very best to cover the boy entirely, Hiccups left leg had protruded from the safety of the Night Fury's fire proof wings and had been completely burnt off below the knee.

"Quickly Gobber; go see if you can find Olvor".

"Right Chief" Gobber replied and hobbled off to find the Viking surgeon who had taken such wonderful care of his own missing limbs for so many years.

Stoick raised himself up and carried the boy over towards the other Vikings; seeing Hiccups missing leg for the first time, Astrid gasped and her whole body shuddered; a few of the other Vikings had various limbs missing, but none so young and none so close to her. She ran to him and followed closely behind the Chief.

Stoick wanted so much to stay with his boy, but he knew that as Chief, it was his place to put the wellbeing of the entire tribe first, and so he scanned the crowd before him for someone he could entrust with his dear son. Soon he noticed Agnar, who had been the medic on Stoicks flagship, treating one of the warrior's flesh wound.

"Agnar, how does it look, are there any casualties?"

Continuing to treat the arm in his hands, Agnar answered his chief "I haven't seen any yet Stoick, but I've seen a few bad burns from when the fleet went up and a couple of broken limbs." He finished his work and began to rise.

"All in all we appear to have been luck..." seeing the boy in the Chief's arms, Agnar stopped in mid sentence and began to examine Hiccup's leg.

"We're going to need Olvor's skill here."

"Aye, I've sent Gobber to find her" Stoick replied. "It will be dark in a few hours so take the injured back off the beach to the base of the mountain and see if you can get a fire going; we'll make camp there for the night."

"My dragon can make us a fire."

Stoick turned to see where the voice had come from and found young Astrid looking eagerly up at him; Stoick had briefly forgotten that, although he was still the Chief, the world he knew so well had changed abruptly in the last few hours. Looking up, Stoick took in the scene around him; standing in a small group nearby were the four dragons that had been his captives in the training arena back on Berk, and now were standing free and being guarded by Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins while some the tribe looked on in amazement, but a short distance behind them were several wild dragons that had not fled when Stoick's catapults had opened the side of the mountain and the battle had begun. Stoick instantly assumed that a fight was about to break out and he steeled himself once again for battle, when he suddenly realised that these 'wild' dragons were not readying to attack at all. They were simply curious, watching what they too had never experienced; Vikings riding dragons.

"Thank you Astrid" he finally replied "come and see me when you're done."

"Oh" she hesitated "I was going to stay with..." her voice tapered off and a look of realisation came across Stoicks face as he smiled.

"Of course, I'll come and see you later."

His paternal instincts screamed inside of him as he handed his unconscious son over to Agnar, but he knew Hiccup would be taken well care of and he had to see to the welfare of his people; his people... and his dragons? As Astrid ran off to get her Deadly Nadder, Stoick strode over to the group of Vikings who stood nearby and appeared to be discussing the wild dragons in a very nervous way. As he got closer he called out to the other Dragon Riders so the Vikings could also hear him clearly.

"Fishlegs; go and see to Hiccups dragon; it's badly hurt so make it comfortable as best you can lad." He turned to the next boy.

"Snotlout; I want you to take your dragon for a trip around the island and report back anything of importance."

"Right Chief" the two boys replied in unison and flew off to their tasks with pride.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, bring you dragon over here please."

"Coming Chief" shouted Tuffnut.

Stoick turn to the men and women of his tribe and addressed them.

"Two days ago Hiccup tried to warn me of what we would find here, but I did not believe him. He also tried to tell me dragons were different to the way I had thought them to be, but I did not listen because I have lost too many friends, including my own dear Valka to dragon attack. But today I have learnt that just as a man can be good or evil, so it can be with a dragon. I know this won't be easy but these five dragons have shown themselves to be worthy of our trust, and our thanks, so from this time forward let us treat a wild dragon as we would any other wild animal and fight it only if it threatens us."

No cheer came at the end of this short speech, just general murmur of agreement as the people of the tribe considered their future and the wisdom behind Stoicks words. They did feel a certain level of relief to know that they could fight back if they were attacked, but that looked increasingly unlikely as even some of the wild dragons nearby were curling up to rest and appeared to be completely at ease.

"Right then" declared Stoick "Let's get on with salvaging some gear from these ships before we lose the light."

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