6 - Retrieved
Stoick let out a long whistling exhale as he watched a black form shrink into the horizon. The bright sun was waning, but it was only mid-afternoon and the weather was beautiful, so the departing Night Fury and company should have no trouble flying to their destination. The council agreed that sending them off would be a good idea, as did Stoick, but he just couldn't shake the feeling in the pit of his stomach.
It has been two weeks since his son's harrowing ordeal with Dagur. Stoick blamed only himself that this situation arose in the first place. Berserkers on his island. Sneaking around at that! The Hooligans have become too lax and careless since the dragon war ended. Needless to say, patrols all around the island were increased significantly since then. Vikings and dragons alike could use the exercise, anyway.
That night, Hiccup showed Stoick where all the action had happened so they could both piece together clues about this most unusual prisoner. Gobber oozed all over the workmanship of Skuf's daggers and sword that they found at the edge of the woods, but the journal revealed a lot about the decay of Berserker Island after Dagur seized power.
Stoick already heard much of it from gossip among traders and travelers. The Berserkers have always been focused on conquest. They had a strong military, expansive fleet, and were skilled in hand-to-hand combat. However, when the dragon raids intensified dramatically about twenty years ago, they were forced to re-prioritize.
Oswald the Agreeable's rule as chieftain was a breath of fresh air that arguably saved the entire tribe from extinction. It was he who backed off on their conquest efforts and instead focus on defending and rebuilding their home island. The tribe was forced to give up possession of some valuable outlying islands that had an abundance of ore veins, but only a fool dies for gold. He even commissioned a pure gold statue of a dragon impaled on a sword that now hung in the Grand Hall in exchange for training from the Hooligans in dragon-fighting tactics.
Oswald may have been a bit odd, but he was no fool.
They still kept their slaves, of course, but slave trade had dried up as a consequence of their focused efforts on repelling the dragon raids. Furthermore, you can't put a weapon in a slave's hand to go fight dragons the same way you toss them into a mine with a pick. Not only could they not be trusted to fight dragons, naturally, but able-bodied men would have to watch over them. In addition, they would need to be fed from the stores that survived the dragon attacks. Suffice to say the grounds of that island drank up a lot of unnecessary blood.
However, with the dragon raids ended over a year ago, the scene was primed for Oswald to be labeled as "old-fashioned" and "stagnant" so that some devious upstart, like Dagur, had little trouble organizing his takeover of leadership and restarting their conquest, slave trade, and mining operations.
Stoick couldn't help but agree with Skuf's suspicion that Dagur's new fascination with dragons would make his desire to control them the next big move. If Dagur had a substantial dragon army, would there be anyone who could refuse to bow a knee to him? Plucking up unsuspecting villagers couldn't be easier on the back of a dragon. Also, besieging fortified positions would become much more plausible with the mobility the beasts would offer. With the resources the Berserkers could sling around, a combined assault from sea, land, and air would be very formidable.
Dagur has been working with the Outcast and Lava Lout tribes to try to find ways to subdue and control the dragons they capture and put in cages, but there has been no noteworthy success to date. The apothecaries were full of empty promises, the dragons naturally would never accept subjugation, and breaking their bodies and spirits result in something very useless. Unless someone gets a pet Red Death, Stoick was confident he had no immediate scaled threats with how much the dragons in the area seemed to respect Hiccup and Toothless. Still, one should prepare for future possibilities.
The thing Dagur failed to realize was that dragons simply were never meant to be battle hounds or a war horses. To try to mold them into such goes against the very fiber of the natural world. Skuf saw this as clear as day and it took him a while to come to terms with seeing the riders playing tag high in the sky on their dragons. The beasts have always been free to fly off if they so desired, but they chose to stick to their riders. Why? One could only speculate, but Stoick was just glad it provided excuses to get the riders to take on responsibilities more willingly, like patrolling the coasts.
Skuf said he wanted to have absolutely nothing to do with Dagur's plots and such a claim became more credible with each passing day. His claim that he could commune with dragons was verified beyond any doubt. Toothless' counting was only the vibration that started an avalanche of tests.
The fact that the Night Fury acted so friendly and protective towards Skuf was a sign the Council couldn't ignore. Toothless certainly wasn't the village overlord, which was a funny conjecture Skuf was wondering about that first day he woke up, but it did demonstrate that Skuf had a certain connection to dragons. The beast was often seen with Skuf and Hiccup and even licked the gash in Skuf's leg. For the most part, only Hiccup ever got that dragon's tongue and not even Astrid would get more than a poke of the snout as a "Hello".
As Skuf's leg started to heal and he engaged in sparring with the Hooligans - the best way to make friends, of course - he discovered that he may have found his niche to occupy his time when he wasn't acting as the dragon translator. The past five days were filled with Skuf demonstrating the more delicate art of fighting competent swordsmen.
For their whole lives, Hooligans were used to killing dragons, which were larger and stronger than any Viking, but slower, too. Being so close to the dragon nest, Berk was never the target of any serious Viking raids with the frequency of dragon attacks and the relatively impossible-to-siege coastline that the tall, jagged cliffs afforded. In fact, before Stoick's time, it is said that the frequent dragon raids have actually laid waste to a couple invading armadas en-route to Berk.
The large Vikings would always go for the heavy weapons and prefer a big wind-up over a quick jab. A light blow would only glance off scales, but could kill a man if the blade found the right spot. Parrying and dodging were quaint in their eyes when they preferred to block, draining their stamina. It was simply instinct and reflex to dodge a dragon, but it took some discipline to consider a "cute little sword" to be a significant strain. Even though he was a mute, Skuf's demonstrations, aided by occasional scribbles on his slate board, showed the Hooligans the advantages of fighting with a little more tact.
His fighting style quickly gained the widely-used label: "dance of the annoying wasp." Learning to deal with him would drive his students mad with rage, which would only exhaust them with nothing but bruises to show for it. He had written on the wall of the training ring, "Honorable swordsmen killed by a dishonorable insect." Below that, Skuf scratched in a running tally that lengthened every day.
Granted, it was usually only after a prolonged sparring session that people would start to get sloppy. The little devil would always drag it out to frayed nerves. Dragon raids were quick and frantic. You either kill the dragons, they kill you, or all the above. They were explosions of steel and claws, fury and fire. In contrast, the length of time that this short swordsman would drag out a sparring match was simply appalling. Next to Skuf's tally, someone wrote, "Spectators who fell asleep watching Skuf drags out a spar until Ragnarok." The two tallies were neck-and-neck.
Skuf had even started to teach Hiccup to take advantage of his light frame by parrying, deflecting, and dodging. With his long-standing reputation as being a weak and timid pushover, that spawn-of-Loki son of Stoick had a knack for drawing rage out of his opponents, causing them to tire themselves out with uncoordinated and overpowered strokes. Astrid was a rare exception, of course, even though she wouldn't deign to drop her ax for a sword. She didn't hurt him too badly.
Hiccup did have a milestone moment, though, when sparring with Snotlout using blunted weapons. Snotlout had worked himself into a blind rage, swinging his broadsword in wide arcs as he charged into each attack. After Hiccup danced around the umpteenth power-stroke, Snotlout was completely expended. Hiccup slapped his angry, exhausted, and enraged peer on the arm with the flat of his slender training sword and dryly commented, "Man, I'm starting to break a sweat!"
Skuf grinned as he scanned the crowd and scratched two tallies, one under each heading.
Aside from sparring, Skuf had discussed with Hiccup his desire to free a certain dragon of his from Berserker Island. The fact that said dragon was of a species Hiccup had never seen before certainly helped to persuade him. The council decided that such a jailbreak mission would be a breach to the peace treaty on the account of stealing property, but if done right, the Berserkers would think some fool from their own tribe let the dragon out of its cage, allowing it to fly away. If the mission went bad, there would be very little risk of any connection being made to Berk. What really sold the council, though, was the promise of valuable information Skuf could filch while on the island to better prepare for the coming storm.
Stoick had entertained the idea that maybe Skuf was still loyal to the Berserker tribe and would take any information he gathered about Berk there, but the council ruled that out as highly improbable because Skuf's journal entries showed he was confident of tamed dragons on Berk as far back as when the peace treaty was signed two weeks before he "rode" the Night Fury. The chief agreed to the mission only on the terms that Hiccup and his dragon would be the only ones going with Skuf and that they would not get directly involved. All they would do is take Skuf to the island and fly him out of there without being detected. After all, Hiccup, in his dark flying gear, on top of a Night Fury, would be invisible as long as they went during the night under cover of darkness.
In the end, Stoick was satisfied that the reward justified the risk. Many suspicious eyes were already cast towards Berk and this information Skuf could acquire from the stolen documents could help Berk avoid a war or, at least, prepare for it better. Hiccup would be safe as the chief made him swear that he would not land on the island except to drop off Skuf and pick him up under cover of darkness and only in a safe spot. The boy could be trusted to obey.
However, even these precautions did little to ease the burden of knowing his son was out there with nothing to protect him but a dragon and a man the tribe had only recently taken in, all alone in the dark.
Stoick never liked the dark. It was in the dark of night that he lost his beloved wife. All things bad seem to happen at night.
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The darkness of night always helped Hiccup feel at ease. Before Toothless came along, it was, by far, the greatest provider of mercy and comfort. Growing up on Berk, the darkness was a kind cloak to shield him from the things he sought to avoid in life.
Hiccup had always been the least in everything that defined a Viking. His father would always give him looks of disappointment whenever he saw his son struggle to lift an ax or when a wooden target dummy would defeat him in battle. Hiccup always took abuse from his peers throughout the day as he did his training and chores. Any act of defiance to a sound beating was met with only more pain and he quickly learned to be divisive and manipulative just to survive. The sunlight of day always beat down the diminutive boy physically, mentally, and emotionally.
However, the darkness of night brought relief. It hid the world from Hiccup and, more importantly, hid Hiccup from the world. Under its protection, he was free to express himself in ways he would never dare under the sun. He would wander off by himself, blissfully lost in his thoughts and musings without people around to judge him.
The darkness was the siren's call that sent everyone to bed, granting Hiccup time to find a quiet corner to sketch his dreams. At certain times of the year, on walks through the woods, the darkness of night would yield the most mesmerizing sights of uncountable Fireflies lazily flickering their lights. Even the sky would put on a captivating display of shifting colors and shooting stars that would put any person in utterly slack-jawed awe if they only had the patience to stare long enough.
In the familiar embrace of night, Hiccup shot down his best friend, back before they united to destroy the Red Death. The cozy shroud of the dark clouds was what had turned the tides of battle when he and Toothless engaged the enemy, gaining the ability to hide and strike out repeatedly, precisely where they wanted to, instead of simply struggling to survive. The solace of night was always Hiccup's favorite time to fly with his best friend, who was a Night Fury after all.
However, the darkness of the night did little to soothe him as he sat atop the back of Toothless, circling over Berserker Island.
He had dropped off Skuf in the middle of a forest a short distance from the town after the sun went down. They agreed to meet up halfway through the night, which would place the moon around the bottom edge of Odin's beard. Rider and dragon had passed the time by landing on a tall sea stack a short distance from Berserker Island to just loaf about and watch the scenery.
There wasn't much for Hiccup to see besides the dimly lit waves below and the stars above, so he spent most of that time idly telling his dragon about the constellations he knew. At one point, he saw a pod of whales skimming under the water, flipping their tails up into the air as they went. If he pressed his ear and palms to the rock, he could swear he almost felt and heard the vibrations from the subsonic calls of those beautiful creatures. Toothless even joined his rider in such an activity and Hiccup so desperately wanted to hear if his dragon could pick up anything noteworthy.
Finally, the appointed time was approaching, so Hiccup and his dragon got up, stretched, and flew off to circle high above Berserker Island.
"What'cha see down there, Bud?" he idly asked.
They were high up and flying in wide circles around what must be the arena that housed their escapee. Toothless' large, cat-like eyes would have no trouble tracking the activity below, but Hiccup could not see much that wasn't directly under a torch as he peered over the front of the dragon's wing.
The Night Fury gave a non-committal grunt as he continued his lazy circles.
"I promise, Bud, I'll learn to hear you, someday. Unless Skuf was born with magical fairy dust that gave him this ability, I'll figure it out."
Toothless crooned softly between deep inhales as Hiccup patted his head. He and Skuf were clearly having a conversation with those unspoken words on the way over. The man had written down some things to keep Hiccup in the loop, but it did inspire an amount of jealousy.
"Just let me know when you see the dragon out of his cage."
Sometime later, Toothless gave a sharp, low grunt. Hiccup nudged his dragon lower and leaned over his wing. Below, a large green dragon with red highlights stood in the center of the arena, tentatively flapping his wings, as if testing them. This must be the Rumblehorn that Skuf had written about and drawn. The people on Berserker Island called him Skullcrusher in a most Viking show of clever naming. Hiccup could not see much more detail than that, but he prayed to Thor that Skuf remembered to put a rope around that dragon. He didn't want to have to catch him in free-fall.
Toothless gave another grunt and Hiccup could see Skullcrusher outside the arena, which was located on a bluff over the sea. Skullcrusher was starting to leap off the edge with his wings spread. Hiccup thought he saw a second head on top of that dragon's back, but couldn't be certain. If there was, he would have something to say about it. He did not like surprises introduced into his plans, especially with how desperately he wanted to impress his father as a responsible young man.
A sudden jerk to the side snapped Hiccup back to the present as he clicked Toothless' tail fin into position.
"Yeah, let's go get 'em, Bud."
The dragon and rider duo entered a glide to catch up to Skullcrusher. As they drew close, Hiccup noticed something large fall from the dragon's mouth, but in the dark, he couldn't tell what it was. Toothless, on the other hand, could see quite well and seemed to be upset about it. However, Hiccup forgot about that when he saw Skuf broadly waving an arm at him.
Skullcrusher gave a start when he first saw the Night Fury. The two dragons went through some chuffs and grunts Hiccup had learned to be a casual greeting. He knew dragons could talk to each other with the unspoken words Skuf had talked about, so maybe they were introducing themselves to each other. What, exactly, they were saying was a mystery.
To his great surprise and dismay, he heard a little girl's voice.
"You're right, Skullcrusher. That must be the Night Fury from the demon's lair... No, I've never met him before... well tell him his name is Skuf or Dragon Whisperer, not Badger... and that he's not insane! He's just... resourceful and determined."
The little girl held in Skuf's lap crossed her arms and stuck out her tongue at Toothless, who responded with a chortle.
Hiccup groaned as he looked over at the pair "Skuf, what happened to just you and your dragon? Who is this? This wasn't part of our plan."
Skuf and the little girl looked over at Hiccup and the girl spoke up, pleading, "Please, sir. Uncle Skuf just could not leave me behind. I promise I'll be quiet and I don't eat much. They won't even know I'm missing since children from the orphanage run away all the time only to be found dead in the wilderness or washed up on the shore. If it weren't for uncle Skuf, that probably would have happened to me already."
Hiccup felt an arrow pierce his heart, violently slicing through his reservations. "You're an orphan?"
The little girl seemed a little sadder, but still in control of herself. "Yessir, Mr. dragon rider sir. My mother died on my birthday and my father died a year ago in the Oswald Coup."
Hiccup could see Skuf make a fist and angrily strike one of the carapace plates on Skullcrusher's neck, which the dragon didn't even seem to notice.
The little girl continued, a little quieter. "Really, uncle Skuf, please stop beating yourself up over that. You said you asked Oswald to allow you to... it doesn't matter that you weren't there. You would be dead, too, if you were, you silly man!" Then, speaking up again, "No, Skullcrusher, the Night Fury won't mind control you like the demon queen. I bet he is the one who freed you and the other dragons in the first place. Be nice and say thank you."
Hiccup slapped his face, groaning. Then, shouted over to Skuf. "Well, if you're gonna – gods, I can't believe we're really doing this. We should get her on Toothless."
Skuf nodded in agreement.
"Ummm, hold her above your head, we'll come in above. Little girl, would you mind if I fly above you and grab you?"
Suave, Hiccup thought to himself. Of course she would mind! What kind of child would want to be tossed from dragon to dragon high up in the sky? It would be absolutely terrifying and-
"That sounds fun!" she shouted with excitement as Skuf lifted her up to his shoulder. "Weeee!"
Eventually, Hiccup found his tongue and shouted over to Skuf, "Just make sure Skullcrusher flies steady. Have him glide as we make our approach from behind."
The young Hooligan tightened down the leather straps connecting the shoulders of his flight harness to the saddle and twisted around to hook another strap to the back of his harness, along his waistline. This allowed him to hang upside down in the saddle with both hands free, but still gave him some mobility to lean forward.
Digging his feet hard into the stirrups to test how the straps held him down, he said to Toothless, "Alright, Bud, just like we've practiced. Go upside-down and keep it smooth and steady. See, I told you we weren't just goofing off - we were training!"
Hiccup kicked the tail fin into a new position as they backed off behind Skullcrusher and gained some altitude. When they were in position, Toothless locked his wings out and started to glide down, trading altitude for speed.
As they approached Skullcrusher, Toothless gave one hard flap of his wings to gain some upward momentum while twisting his aileron fins to roll upside-down, allowing Hiccup to reach up and grab the outstretched girl, pulling her tightly to his chest. It wasn't really flying or even gliding as a dragon has nowhere near the necessary muscle mass nor the skeletal support for actual inverted flight, but it was more like a controlled free-fall as they arced past the zenith of their upward path.
With the girl secure in Hiccup's lap, the Night Fury gracefully slid just in front of the other dragon's wing and rolled over again to take up a position in front.
"Great job, Bud!" Hiccup rubbed the top of his dragon's head, who let out a joyful bark in between heavy breaths.
Hiccup lowered the little girl to his lap and placed a protective arm around her. She was young, not even a teen, and was bundled up in a heavy blanket with a yak hide wrapped around for protection from the cold wind. At least Skuf remembered that little detail about flying. The little girl leaned forward and affectionately placed her hands on Toothless.
The rider couldn't help but smile as she started giggling suddenly and he asked, "What do you think of the Night Fury? Quite a bit more maneuverable in the air than Skullcrusher, eh?"
The little girl glanced back with a big smile on her face, before going back to hugging Toothless. "Your voice is so pretty... No tooth? Oh, No Teeth? Nice to meet you, Mr. No Teeth sir. I'm Tofa, but Skullcrusher calls me Little Butterfly... I dunno, it's starting to grow on me. I figured since he saved me, he gets to name me, right? ...Firefly? I like it. Better name than Badger, but I guess it kinda fits. He is wily with his shiny claws... That's how Skullcrusher views swords - tee hee hee."
She turned to Hiccup. "I love him, Mr. Firefly sir!"
The rider was dumbstruck for a moment. "You just... You're... How did... You can hear dragons?"
Tofa looked up at Hiccup, peeking out from under the blanket wrapped around her, and smiled widely. For the first time, Hiccup noticed some light freckling on her face. Her red hair was long and straight, but in desperate need of washing. Hiccup grimaced at the lack of care the orphanage seemed to give her, but at least her teeth appeared to be in good condition.
"Yessir, Mr. Firefly sir. He has such a pretty voice. He hums the sweetest tune."
Toothless warbled happily at that.
"I meant your unspoken words, but your song is nice, too."
Hiccup looked over at Skuf, who turned to face him and simply shrugged with a look of feigned innocence on his face that was probably intentionally unconvincing.
Looking down at the little girl, he said, "Well, Ms. Tofa, it's nice to meet you. I'm Hiccup. I like the Firefly name, but it would probably confuse most people on Berk who haven't learned my... uhh... dragon name."
Hiccup suddenly stared ahead as something dawned on him.
Wait, why did I even mention the idea of her coming to Berk?
Tofa hugged Hiccup's arm that was wrapped around her. "Nice to meet you, too, Hiccup. Thank you thank you for taking me with you! I love No Teeth and I love you!"
With a melted heart, Hiccup decided he would keep her with him on their journey back to Berk. It's not like the decision whether to keep her would be in his hands, anyway.
"Actually, his name is Toothless, but No Teeth is really close."
Then, speaking up, "Alright Skuf, even though this wasn't part of our plan... You knew my heart would melt when I met her! I mean... gods! I love her already, but I really hate the way you do things, sometimes"
Skuf looked over and nodded with a grin on his face as he pantomimed scratching a tally, as he often did under that message about honor-driven swordsmen killed by the subversive and crafty. Skullcrusher gave out some sort of broken gurgling chortle through forced breaths of air. Toothless looked over and let out his signature chortling imitation of laughter and Skullcrusher did it again, but much closer, this time. Skuf seemed to be really enjoying this interaction.
Hiccup playfully slapped one of his dragon's sensor lobes. "Don't encourage them, Bud!"
Looking over at Skuf, he said, louder, "Alright, we'll take her back to Berk, but the council will have to decide on what to do. That's not my decision to make."
Hiccup looked down at Tofa. "By the way, how old are you? Ten?"
"I'm eight! Well, closer to eight-and-a-half.
Hiccup shrugged. "Yeah, I'm not that good at guessing ages."
Tofa continued to talk to Toothless in an awed voice. "Skullcrusher says he saw you as he escaped the demon island, all alone and trapped on that ship... Yes, he felt bad that he didn't help you. Firefly saved you? Awwww, that's so sweet... oh, really?"
Tofa leaned over to her left and looked back at Toothless' tail fin, then down at Hiccup's prosthetic leg as it worked the control mechanism, and then sheepishly at Hiccup's puzzled face. If she was anything like Skuf, Toothless could have told her his entire life's story in the blink of an eye.
She continued her seemingly one-sided conversation. "Well, now you're even, Toothless - tee hee hee. I'm sure he understands that you had to bite his leg... no, I didn't mean that you actually bit it off... oh... oh no, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean… to…"
Tofa started sobbing quietly in Hiccup's lap. The rider looked down at her and asked, "What's wrong, Tofa?" Then, more sternly, "What's going on, Toothless?"
The Night Fury looked back with a sad, pleading look in his eyes as Tofa spoke up between sobs. "It's my… fault sir. Toothless... didn't want... me to tell... you that he..." She stole a quick glance at Hiccup's prosthetic leg and buried her face in her hands again.
Seeing this, Hiccup casually said, "What, you mean the leg? Yeah, it was too beat up to keep after we hit the Red Death's tail. Is that what you were going on about biting?"
Tofa slowly nodded, wiping tears out of her eyes.
Hiccup went on, feeling it strange he had to plead on his dragon's behalf to a little girl he just met who could talk to dragons.
"Toothless did not harm me. He saved me, in fact. I'll lose part of a leg over my life any day. Don't you worry about that, Tofa."
Tofa started to get her sobbing under control. "He... he said he had to... you were falling and he dove after you as fast as he could... he almost had you in his paws but a... sudden blast knocked you away, above his head. He couldn't twist around in time, he had to grab you somehow... Aww, don't feel bad, Mr. Toothless. He said it was alright. He probably would have died if you didn't do that. I bet Mr. Firefly doesn't like dying."
Hiccup didn't know what to say. He had the sinking feeling his dragon was using this girl to unload his grief. It's like the dragon was pouncing on this opportunity to confess something weighing on his heart and to make amends. Hiccup had no memories of what happened after impacting the Red Death's tail. He had theories about what tore up his leg so bad that it had to be amputated, but always kept it to himself. Everyone always assumed it happened from the impact. Even now, Hiccup didn't believe his dragon did any additional damage. The stirrup his foot was in would have been a death trap if it was violently jerked to the side and that was secured to a dragon whose head alone weighed more than the rider.
Regardless, Hiccup loved his dragon far too much to dwell on such things. Befriending Toothless was the absolute best thing that ever happened in his life by an immeasurable degree. The dragon would always show signs of grief and remorse whenever he sniffed at the stump, though he tried to hide it. Hiccup didn't want Toothless to feel bad and so hid the throbbing pain he would sometimes feel in his stump.
He rubbed his dragon's neck in slow circles, feeling upset that this came up now and also guilty that this still bothered Toothless. How many days did Toothless toss and turn, only to give up on sleeping? How many times did Hiccup wake up to hear stories of the Night Fury tearing around the forest, up and down trees, diving into the sea and out again, then in again, out, up, down. Forever and without pause until the dragon returned completely shaking from exhaustion. How much grief could Toothless have been spared if he could pour out his heart with more than just croons and licks and purrs? How much did Hiccup's beloved dragon suffer simply because his rider was deaf?
Hiccup groaned "Gods, Toothless, I never realized this bothered you so much."
Toothless whined. Pleading with his dragon certainly wouldn't be the right response to the dragon trying to make amends, right?
Hiccup tried a different angle. "C'mon, Bud, you saved my life! I'd easily give an arm and a leg for that, so I got off easy. Besides, trolls always steal the left sock. So, I'm now troll-proof!"
Toothless let out a long moan as if sighing. "You are my best friend... and I would never think anything bad about you, Bud. You know that, right? Please don't feel bad about that. I don't want you to be sad because it makes me sad to know you're sad."
"Toothless says he's sorry about making you sad."
Hiccup sighed. "Thanks, Tofa. C'mon, Bud, let's get our head back in the game, here."
Looking over at Skuf, he spoke up. "By the way, how's Skullcrusher doing? He looks a little winded."
Said dragon maintained a steady beat with his wings, but his breathing seemed to be very labored.
Tofa spoke up. "Toothless says that Skullcrusher says that he just hasn't flown for a while and is just getting used to the feeling again. However, landing soon would not be a bad idea. Also, Toothless says he sees the boat up ahead. He can recognize the Outcast crest on the sail."
Hiccup looked shocked. "You can relay messages like that, Bud? And recognize tribal crests? I never imagined... I mean I knew you were smart, but..."
Toothless shot an offended look back at his rider, who stuck out his tongue in response. Hiccup took a couple deep breaths, steeling himself for what was to come.
"You got that, Skuf?"
Skuf nodded.
"I cannot risk being seen – that was made very clear by the council... and I'm not really a fighter anyway, even if I can dance around Lout. It's all you and Skullcrusher."
Hiccup still didn't like this. They could still land on a small island he knew about nearby that had a cave for shelter. Skullcrusher could rest up and they could just island-hop back to home. However, there was a reason they took off from Berserker island towards Outcast island instead of Berk.
Skuf had shared information about shipping schedules between Outcast and Berserker islands. This boat may even have dragons on-board that they can free. The crew will see only a man with Berserker armor and a dragon. When they're forced to escape back to Outcast island on the dinghy, they will surely tell their people that the Berserker tribe has trained dragons and used one of them to attack an Outcast ship. That would divert some leery eyes towards the Berserkers instead of Berk for a while.
Still, Hiccup felt like he had to say something more. "And Skuf.. ummm, you know how much I hate violence. You take care of yourself, but... do your best to-"
He was interrupted by Tofa. "Toothless says Skuf says he shouldn't have to kill anyone with the fear factor of a dragon dropping out of the night. Maybe one at most, but he's confident he can get them to cooperate."
"Amazing" Hiccup muttered under his breath. "Simply amazing."
A/N:
Now, you may be saying, "FizzleMcSchnizzle, did you introduce a dragon whisperer who isn't a mute just to make writing easier?"
To which I reply, "Maybe. Most definitely maybe."
Also, yes, Mariah, I plan to probe into the minds of the other dragons. Only a little bit, but there will still be a heavy focus on exploring scenarios that would be made more interesting when a dragon whisperer is involved. Suffice to say, there will be scheming.