AN: I'm sorry to all those of you who where following this story for how long I have been neglecting to write chapters. I assure you there is a long story to be told after this but I have lost my taste for writing "Original" plot stores. Again to all of you people who have already read this side chapter I am sorry for not supplying you with something new but to those who have not, enjoy.
This is a side story featuring Freya and assumes that she is well into her position of Dragon Researcher.
"Freya, my answer is no, it will always be no." Hiccup stated storming out of his house.
"Hiccup since you gave me this job I have not messed up once. I have done more to prove that I am an effective dragon trainer than even you have. How many extra pages were added to the Book of Dragons because of my work?" I pointed out desperately trying to change his mind.
"Freya you have no idea what we went through just to contain it." Hiccup stated still trying to walk away from me and stop having this conversation.
"Hiccup, I told you a long time ago what would happen if you purposely held me back or withheld any information from me." I threatened. Hiccup stopped in his tracks and stood with his back facing me.
He sighed and softly said "As much as this pains me to say it, I would rather you leave than wake up that Skrill again.". I was speechless. Hiccup then resumed his retreat but I didn't follow him. I never thought that this line would ever be crossed. Hiccup was willing to sacrifice all of what we had built. This place was my life. The only life I could remember, the only one that mattered and now it felt like I was unwanted here. I had heard the story of the Skrill and how it was resolved. Trapped in ice. When I heard about this I couldn't bare to imagine what that might be like. Was it awake? Every time I thought about this I couldn't help comparing it to being lost at sea. In both you were helpless to do anything. Then there was the cruel torture of temptation. Seeing the light piercing through the clear ice would be as horrible as being enveloped by water and unable to quench your thirst. How could Hiccup, of all people, condemn a dragon to such a horrible fate. In addition how could he be so sure of his condemnation to be willing to sacrifice our friendship for it.
As was in style for them, the twins spontaneously and ridiculously came out of nowhere. "Hey did Hiccup say we could thaw that Skrill." asked Ruffnut.
"When your not training it or riding it could we ... you know ... borrow it ... for a completely non-destructive purpose?" Tuff asked.
"If it see's us again, after we froze it in, I think it's gonna eat you ... and then I'll get to ride it all by myself" stated Ruff. The shock of losing Hiccup as a friend was slowly curdling into rage. I set off towards the Great Hall and I barely noticed when I shoved Tuffnut, who was in my way, into the well.
"That was great! I can't believe I have never been down here before. It's kind of ... cosy." a voice echoed from the bottom of the well.
"Tuffnut climb out of there. No one want's to drink 'Tuffnut stew' instead of water." Ruffnut yelled down at her brother. I barely registered my march to the Great Hall. Everything was dulled now as my rage boiled over. How did that arrogant little runt think that he has the power to rule over me or that Skrill? I should find him and beat the location from him. If he is willing to discard me as a friend and treat me like an outsider, fine. An outsider does not bend to anyones will. The more I ranted in my head the worse I felt. My feelings of rage had transformed once again into poisonous sorrow. It burned my insides as the sorrow raced through me. It was already late, I guess that was why I came here. I crawled into bed with my emotions having weakened me and instantly fell asleep.
I don't think I had ever had a dream as vivid as this. I actually can't remember if I had dreams at all since the crate. I was back there, on the crate in the sea. Thirst once again tortured my mind and my body. I stared at the girl under the water. She looked like me, no sea salt on her skin, tidy hair, and beautiful healthy red lips. I looked up and saw two Nightfury's hovering in front of me. They each had riders. On the left Nightfury, Hiccup stared down at me with judgmental eyes. On the back of the right Nightfury was ... Freya?
"Aren't you going to help her?" Freya asked Hiccup.
Hiccup shook his head and said "If I help her she will only cause problems for Berk.".
"But you can't just leave her, she will die." Freya retorted to Hiccup.
"No she won't" Hiccup replied. At that they turned around and started to fly away. As they left the ocean began to freeze in a circle around me. The ice closed in and squeezed me and shattered the crate. I pushed on the ice hoping to free myself from it's clutches only to find that it grew over my left hand, pinning it. The ice grew both upwards and downwards. It reached my chest and then my knees, then my neck and then my feet. It accelerated as it passed over my head and pinned my arm from flailing above my head. I did not die. As promised by Hiccup I was alive but the ice did not stop. It continued to grow above me and the light began to fade.
ALONE. COLD. AFRAID.
Then darkness.
I inhaled sharply as I awoke from my dream. I was breathing as if I had just sparred with Astrid for three hours. It was still the middle of the night but I felt I could not sleep anymore. As I sat on the edge of my bed and regulated my breathing I noticed Starfire had left the Haddock house and had come to join me with a concerned look on her face. Had I really been that distressed during my dream that she sensed my stress all the way from Hiccups house? I wasn't angry with Hiccup anymore I just needed to show him that he was wrong. I got up and exited the Great Hall with Starfire. I walked down to the town and stood in front of their door. I opened it and saw the twins sleeping like bats off of the rafters. They opened their eyes and looked at me before I grabbed them and tore them from the rafters.
Tuff was surprisingly little trouble to bind, gag, and get outside. Maybe I only thought he was because he was easy compared to how hard it was to tie up Ruff and leave her there. I would definitely have some bruises showing up by tomorrow thanks to her. I got Tuff up on Starfire's saddle and mounted her myself. I earned a quizzical look from Starfire before we took off. While we were in the air I undid Tuff's gag.
"Tuff, you can make this simple. Tell me which way the glazier is that has the Skrill frozen in it or ... well you know how this goes." I demanded.
"I will never tell you anything no matter what you ... wait ... you want to unfreeze the super-destructive Skrill? Why didn't you just ask? East." Tuff replied.
"You would just tell me, just like that. Even though you know that Hiccup doesn't want the Skrill unfrozen and it could destroy Berk? Where is your loyalty Tuffnut?" I asked.
"Uh ... I'm confused. Shouldn't your loyalty be worse if you are the one who is trying to unfreeze the Skrill?" Tuff replied.
"I'm not a Berkian and Hiccup seemed to feel just fine with that yesterday. Besides in a way I am helping Hiccup. He is wrong about the Skrill and since he can't accept that, I'm going to show him." I replied. We continued to fly east and I made a few course adjustments as Tuff instructed. As dawn broke, a massive glazier came into view. How was I going to find the Skrill in something that massive?
As if answering my thoughts Tuffnut said "See that little crack in the ice? That used to be a big ravine until we collapsed it and trapped the Skrill.". Starfire landed and I dismounted while Tuff fell off.
"You may want to stay back once I free it." I suggested to Tuff.
"Ya right. I didn't come all this way to not watch the Skrill get angry and electrify everything in its path." He replied.
"You came all this way because I forced you to and when the Skrill gets out, there is a chance that it will recognize that you are the one who trapped it in there. So the 'electrifying' would be focused on you if it sees you." I reasoned.
"Oh ... ok I'll just watch from over there. Good luck not getting fried." Tuff replied as he ran off over a snow embankment. I took my horn off of my belt and positioned my fingers in the appropriate slots. I had made it a month ago as I realized that not everyone in our group of dragon riders could perform dragon calls as well as others. I was intending to give it to Snotlout or the twins but I realized that the horn could also amplify how loud the call was. I kept it as it seemed just as impossible to teach them how to use the horn as it was to have them make the sounds themselves. I blew into it and a few minutes later a pack of Gronkles landed in front of me. Gronkles were the first dragon that I had mastered, aside from Starfire but it would be a long stretch to say that one could 'Master' a Nightfury, so it took me little time to tame them and set them to work turning the ice into steam with lava. It took an hour but I could now see the Skrill under the ice. It's eye was open but motionless. The Gronkles had melted the ice down farther in front of the Skrill so I could prepare. I took my sword and any other bits of metal I had on me and stuck them into the ice between me and the Skrill. With a final command from me the Gronkles melted the ice surrounding the Skrill. The steam billowed around the Skrill obscuring my view. Without warning lightning bolts shot out in every direction and the ones that could have hit me were absorbed by my sword that was stuck in the ice. This scared the Gronkles away however the lightning was caught by my sword. I bowed, as this would be most effective with a highly aggressive and powerful dragon, and then slowly walked towards the barrier of metal. The Skrill looked extremely agitated, as it should after being frozen in ice for several years and who knows how long before Hiccup found it. However, it started to move towards the barrier too. I stuck my hand out and it retreated slightly but it calmed down and resumed moving towards me. We were almost together when something caught its attention. It looked up out of the hole we were in and saw Starfire, standing there passively watching. It let out a loud roar and flapped it's wings and exited the hole. The Skrill and Starfire had started fighting as I heard the shots of both a Nightfury and a Skrill being fired. I then heard the roar of a different Nightfury and the Skrill left. Starfire jumped into the hole and I got onto her back and we exited the hole.
"I told you the Skrill was to dangerous to be unfrozen. Why can't you ever just listen to me?" Hiccup scolded, landing Toothless on the glazier.
"And I told you what would happen if you tried to stop me from unfreezing that Skrill. Tuff is over there behind the snowbank. Take him an fly back to Berk, this isn't your concern." I yelled back at him.
"Freya, I am telling you that that Skrill will cause destruction wherever it goes and we need to contain it ..." Hiccup explained.
"I am not yours to command and that Skrill is not yours to control! You are a leader Hiccup, not a god. You don't have the right or the power to dictate my fate or that Skrill's. Something else is going on here and I am not about to attack a frightened dragon that had been cruelly sealed in ice for years without knowing what that something is." I yelled at him.
"Freya it attacked you as soon as it was unfrozen." Hiccup replied.
"It was calm with me, it attacked Starfire for no reason and I intend to find out why. This is the last time I will ask you Hiccup, take Tuff and go back to Berk." I threatened.
"If your not going to help me contain it then I will do it myself." Hiccup said as Toothless took off in pursuit of the fleeing Skrill.
"HICCUP!" I screamed at him as I got Starfire to follow. The Skrill was flying away at great speed and it didn't look like it was trying to run but was headed somewhere. Hiccup and Toothless were gaining on it as a Skrills speed was slightly slower than a Nightfury. Unfortunately for Hiccup, Toothless's speed with all the weight of his prosthetic and related mechanisms was no match for Starfire's.
"Fire past them!" I commanded and Starfire shot out a plasma bolt that exploded in front of Hiccup and Toothless. Hiccup barely had time to look back before Starfire was nudging Toothless's tail to knock him off balance. They evasively flew through the clouds trying to lose us.
"No, follow the Skrill. Stay just below the clouds." I commanded to Starfire. There were a few moments of silence before the clouds broke in front of me and I could see Hiccup and Toothless, once again, pursuing the Skrill.
"Cloud break maneuver." I said to Starfire. She then angled up through the clouds and then dived into the area where Hiccup was most likely at. She roared at the last second to find their exact position and we broke through the clouds. Toothless had enough time to figure out where Starfire's roar had come from and he had flipped so that both Nightfury's were clawing at each other while falling through the air. However, with Toothless upside down Starfire was in control of the dive.
"Freya I'm not leaving that Skrill out in the world and waiting for it to attack Berk!" Hiccup screamed at me from the other side of Toothless and Starfire.
"If you haven't noticed it's not headed for Berk." I yelled to him.
"I'm still not going to be trusting you to deal with it alone if it does." Hiccup replied.
"Fine, come with me. We can figure out a way to train it together but if you decide to come with me we do things my way, I lead you follow." I offered as the angle of our dive increased. Hiccup was silent and I caught a glimpse of him looking at the rapidly approaching ocean.
"What's my other choice?" Hiccup asked warily.
"Either your with me or your swimming back to Berk so if your in I need to hear it. Better make it fast too." I finalized.
"Fine!" Hiccup affirmed with a shout. I pulled up on Starfire's saddle and she released Toothless from the dive. Toothless quickly flipped upright and pulled up stopping him and Hiccup from falling into the ocean. Toothless was motioning towards his counter attack on us before Hiccup pulled him away and calmed him down. We moved over next to them and I eyed the two of them suspiciously. Hiccup was having a private conversation with Toothless which I didn't like. I assumed that they were discussing when and where to betray us.
Hiccup then stopped talking to Toothless and turned to me and said "Well are you going to lead like you said you would?".
"In a way, you and Toothless will always fly slightly in front and to the right of us. If you make any move that is not approved by me I will destroy Toothless's prosthetic and you will be swimming. We are only going to be following the Skrill until it gets where it is going. There is no need to be traveling at top speed so if Toothless accelerates too fast the prosthetic is gone." I dictated.
Hiccup did as I commanded and then asked "Why the precautions? I said I would do things your way and, out of the two of us, I am the most trustworthy.".
"So do I. I told you I would leave and I did and excuse me, you are not trustworthy?" I gave a small laugh and then continued "To keep someones trust you have to keep a code or creed which lets them know what you will do in certain events. You broke my trust when you betrayed your ideals.".
"I haven't betrayed anything." Hiccup defended.
"So what you are saying is that I never really knew you and the real Hiccup would leave a dragon in a living hell, trapped forever, and not care about learning about it. What happened to the Hiccup who took pity on a trapped and wounded Nightfury? The one who was adamant making peace with 'all' dragons despite how many people disagreed with you?" I reminded him. Hiccup just stared blankly into the back of Toothless's neck for several seconds.
"Ok." Hiccup responded.
"Ok, what?" I asked, needing a little more context.
"Let's tame a Skrill." Hiccup responded with enthusiasm.
The Skrill was headed north east and it seemed to be in a hurry but that wasn't a problem for two Nightfury's. It seemed to grow weak and slowed it's pace considerably but it looked like we were already at it's destination. Three mountains stretched out of the sea and an formed a U-shaped island with a large basin of snow and ice permanently frozen between them in this northern climate. The Skrill approached this island and started hovering looking confused. It turned to see us keeping our distance and roared at us. The Skrill then turned around again and fired a lightning bolt into a seemingly random part of a mountain. However, a cave was exposed and the Skrill dived into it and disappeared into the mountain.
"No no Freya. This is bound to be a trap." Hiccup cautioned as I started to advance towards the hole.
"Right, because the second most intelligent and rare dragon in the world tired itself out flying all the way here, wasted one of it's shots to enter this mountain, and put itself in a position where there is no access to clouds or thunderstorms so it can recharge. Oh yeah this is definitely a trap." I responded sarcastically.
"There could be other Skrill's waiting for us." Hiccup responded.
"Yes because the mutton loving Skrill's would choose a cold barren Island, with no sheep for miles, as it's choice habitat." I responded, once again, sarcastically. Hiccup looked like he was about to respond again but then gave up. We approached the cave and landed near the entrance. We slowly moved into the cave. It was dark but neither Starfire or Toothless gave warning growls so we entered further and lit a few torches so we could see. The cave was immediately identifiable as an unnatural creation. There were no stalactites or stalagmites and the tunnel was uniformly wide enough for a Skrill or Nightfury to fly through it. The only variations in the smooth walls were some small cracks and rough patches of different ores..
"What is this, a mineshaft?" I asked Hiccup.
"No. There is ore everywhere in the walls, no pickaxe marks, and miners would have support beams holding up the ceiling. It looks like this tunnel was either melted out or blasted." Hiccup observed.
"So it had to be dragons but why? A Whispering Death is the only dragon that makes tunnels and they don't melt the rock in order to dig." I elaborated.
"I don't know but this Skrill obviously knows about this place and I don't want it escaping through a different tunnel. We need to follow it in quickly." Hiccup stated.
"Were was this hasty need to follow and learn about the Skrill yesterday?" I mocked getting on the back of Starfire.
"Could you just drop that? We are here, following the Skrill, aren't we?" Hiccup complained mounting Toothless.
"No thanks to you." I cooed taking off on Starfire and ending the conversation. My torch blew out immediately and I couldn't see a thing but luckily Starfire could see everything. We flew deeper and deeper into the mountain but then I could see a pale light at the end of the tunnel. Soon we broke free of the tunnel and into the light. Starfire immediately landed and hid behind a snow embankment. The Skrill was standing several feet ahead of us and looking over a large hill of snow with it's back turned towards us. Hiccup soon made it out of the tunnel and landed next to me. We were in some sort of ice cave which, I assume, is beneath the basin of snow and ice between the three mountains.
"Okay. It looks calm now. We should approach it without dragons and see if we can tame it." I dictated.
Hiccup nodded and I jumped off of Starfire and it made a satisfying poof noise when my feet hit the snow. Hiccup jumped off of Toothless but when his metal leg hit the snow it made a clanking sound. We both looked at Hiccup's feet to see he was standing on a white object that was not snow or ice. Hiccup brushed the snow around the object and revealed that it was a bone. Upon seeing this Toothless dug around the bone to reveal the skeleton of a dragon.
"Hiccup!?" I exclaimed "This is the skeleton of a Nightfury!".
Hiccup looked stunned but then replied "How ... how does this Skrill know about this place and why would it come back to a place were there were once Nightfurys".
"I don't know ... maybe this was a Skrill nest before Nightfurys took it over. I just wish there was more light so we tell the bones apart from the snow." I replied. I pulled out my torch again and had Starfire light it. As I lifted it above my head I saw three more bones sticking out of the ground. One of them was visible enough to be identified as another Nightfury skeleton. I walked over to another one and began to dig.
"This was a Skrill?!" I exclaimed "and with only a few breaks in the bones. This doesn't make any sense. If this was a Skrill nest taken over by Nightfurys or a Nightfury nest taken over by Skrills they wouldn't leave the skeleton of there enemies laying on the floor for all the years they would use it as a nest.". I looked back over for Hiccup to get his opinion but he had left from where he was last. I looked around and saw both Hiccup and Toothless standing to the Skrills left and staring over the snow hill.
"Hiccup!" I half shouted and half whispered. I instantly thought he was going back on our deal and trying to neutralize the Skrill himself. However, as I watched him I saw that he was just standing there, next to the Skrill and gazing at whatever lay beyond the hill. I decided to approach them as Hiccup didn't seem to be making any attempts to tame the Skrill. As I made my way up to the Skrills right I gasped and was frozen at what I saw on the other side of the hill.
Thousands...
Thousands of skeletons, Nightfurys and Skrills alike, all strewn out across the massive ice cave in front of us.
"It's not a nest." Hiccup said, his emotion cracking his voice "It was a fort and this was a battleground.".
"The Skrills were fighting the Nightfurys?" I asked. The Skrill turned to me and stared into my eyes. It's eyes then flicked past me to look at Starfire and it's pupils narrowed. Instead of attacking it let out a mournful roar and continued gazing out at the graveyard.
"Apparently." Hiccup stated blankly.
"Then ... how come Starfire or Toothless didn't know about this?" I asked still trying to get over the shock of this realization.
"My guess is that they were born after the war. What I don't understand is how we didn't know. This was only one battle in what looks like would have been a massive war. How is it that not a single person saw any part of this war happening and didn't write any of it down?" Hiccup asked. We stood in silence after Hiccup's statement and continued looking out over the graveyard.
"They did." I stated as something clicked in my head "Fishlegs told me what that text was that you struck out in the Nightfury section of the Book of Dragons. 'The unholy offspring of lightning and death'. The only Nightfurys left in existence today were the ones that were not yet hatched. The only ones to survive were the offspring that hatched after the war with the lightning dragons that nearly caused the death of two species.". The Skrill let out another loud roar into the cave and started looking back and forth at Toothless and Starfire. They both didn't like the Skrills attention and started growling and getting into defensive postures. Hiccup and I tried calming them but it wasn't working. The Skrill roared again and turned around and moved to the other side of the hill stretching out its wings and roaring. Starfire and Toothless retreated and stood side by side roaring back at the Skrill.
"Stop this! You are one the most intelligent dragons so I know you can understand most of what I am saying" I said to the Skrill standing between it and the two Nightfury's "This war has been over for years! Look around you. Do you think there was any winner here?". The Skrill stared at me and I could see an ancient hate in it's eye. A hate for the Nightfurys that it had fought for years and a hate for the humans that had caused it nothing but pain. I took a step closer to the Skrill.
"I know you must be angry. Your race is about as rare as the Nightfurys so you must have lost loved ones. But fighting doesn't bring the ones you love back. You can only keep yourself strong enough to hope that you can find them one day." I stated taking another step closer to the Skrill. Lightning sparked all around its body but I did not relent my approach.
"The only thing any war is about is proving who is strongest. Look around you again. Is this what you want the legacy of your race to be? does this look like strength to you? You may be one of the last Skrills in existence and all you want to do is prove your strength by fighting." I reasoned stepping closer to the Skrill. It roared as it perceived this as a threat, its body was still sparking with lightning. I was right in front of the Skrill now.
"Your strength is not measured by what you can do alone but by what those you surround yourself with can do. If you want to be strong enough to ensure your races future you first have to be strong enough to bury the past." I said putting my hand near it's snout. If it didn't calm down and I touched it I would be fried by the lightning bouncing around its scales.
"I am going to give you a chance to prove your strength without endangering your species. I know you are strong enough to find peace ..." I said.
"... Now you just have to prove it." I said as I closed my eye's and reached forward with my hand.
My hand touched the Skrills snout.
A sensation shot through my body coming from my arm. I opened my eyes and looked at the calm Skrill in front of me. It purred softly as it folded it's wings. I smiled but the Skrill retracted from my hand and looked back over the graveyard of Nightfury's and it's kin. It let out an ear splitting roar and it's body began sparking again. Suddenly it let out a lightning bolt at the ceiling of the ice cave. The ice above us began to crack and groan. It unleashed another one into the ice and there was still no major effect. The Skrill roared in frustration as the cave did not collapse. Suddenly a purple light appeared behind me and then a plasma blast hit the ceiling. Both Starfire and Toothless fired at the ice in key spots and it began to crack. With the Skrills final shot it hit an area in the ice and a massive crack appeared and continued to grow.
"We need to leave, now!" Hiccup commanded getting on the back of Toothless. I got on Starfire and all three dragons flew to the tunnel we had come from and out into the open air. We turned around and hovered as the ice cave collapsed and buried the remains of the war.
Berk prepared for an attack as they saw the Skrill flying behind us. They must have assumed that it was chasing us but Hiccup flew down first and straightened everything out. I took the Skrill to the feeding stations and got it some mutton. I left it as I saw Hiccup walking through town and joined up with him.
"So ... it looks like the Skrill was tamed and no harm was done to Berk. Just ... like I said would happen." I taunted as I walked with him.
"Fine Freya you were right and I was wrong is that what you wanted to hear." Hiccup said defeatedly.
"Oh yeah. That was it exactly. Thank you." I said taunting him.
"And because you were right and I was wrong the punishment for your mutiny won't be as severe." Hiccup said.
"Really? I just tamed a Skrill and ended a dragon war and you are fussing about the details?" I said.
"You tied up Ruffnut in her own home and kidnapped and interrogated Tuffnut. Those aren't details. That is high treason. Any citizen of Berk would be lucky to have as light a punishment for those crimes as my dad is giving you." Hiccup explained.
"First of all, ask would be a more appropriate word than interrogate and secondly I am not a ..." I complained but Hiccup cut me off. He stopped walking and put his hands on my shoulders.
"Yes you are. You may not have been born here but if you are willing to accept it, this place can be your home. You will always be a Berkian in my eyes." Hiccup explained looking me in the eyes. I was speechless and was unable to respond. Hiccup continued "So for the first part of your punishment you will need to report to Gobber's forge tomorrow morning. You will be there right?".
"Yeah. Of course. I promise." I replied softly.
Hiccup looked over my shoulder and said "If you want to keep that promise, you should start running.".
"FREYA!" I winced as I heard Ruffnut scream my name from behind me. This was going to hurt.