AN: to 'Guest': The twins are always blowing stuff up. I figured they did something similar already, so why not pretend? :-D

Oh and: Happy New Year!

Chapter Forty-Six: Dream a dream

With cuffed wrists they were thrown in front of Hamish. He towered over them with a fresh gash on his forehead that was still bleeding.

"I would really like to know what is going on here!" he growled. "First of all, you are supposed to be in cages. Second you supposed to be two, not three, where did you come from?" he said, directing his words to Kate. "And most of all, what was that fire-display you just made? Magic? Here? I haven't seen such things in quite a while! Now talk! Before I make you!" he shouted.

"Told you he wouldn't take it well." Hiccup hissed at Josh. "Well, he's also not going to like what you are about to tell him!" he whispered back.

"SILENCE!" Hamish roared.

Blondie, who had cleaned up, stood behind him, grinning smugly.

Hiccup was annoyed.

"Sir. I'm sorry. I tried to talk to you but you wouldn't hear me…" he started but Hamish interrupted him. "So now it's my fault?" he growled. "Well, it certainly isn't my fault that the dragons attacked." Hiccup hissed back.

"Of course it is. You North-people attract problems like light attracts moths." "Us North-people? I'm sorry but I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't play stupid on my boy. You're not the first Horrendous Haddock to come here. And you are like pest! The first time you came here, you brought us dragons!" Hiccup groaned inwardly. Great. Another dude who couldn't stand him thanks to his family.

"Can somebody please explain to me what we Vikings did to set you all off so badly? Because I have no clue whatsoever!"

Hamish growled.

"Then let me enlighten you, please!"

Hamish swirled around and sat down in his throne/chair. He raised his hands and pointed outside where men and women and children were picking up the debris of the previous nights fight.

"Don't you see what they do to us for generations? Port East was destroyed because of them! The balance of power was interrupted centuries ago when that blasted Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Second showed up here like some kind of Messiah! He claimed to bring peace to the world by uniting men and dragon again.

But all he did was incite them against us.

He killed the chief in the past, married his wife, disowned his step-sons and founded his own line of heirs and took over control of Port East!"

Hamish roared the last sentence and there was madness in his gaze.

Hiccup shook his head. "No. He wouldn't so such thing."

"And yet he did."

Hamish's face was deep red. "For centuries his dirty blood controlled this part of the world. Until maybe forty years back. Do you want to know what happened then?" Hiccup didn't move. His face was blank.

"My father, a descendant of the original blood of chieftains, killed him and restored everything to its original way. But do you know what happened then?" Hiccup just stared at him.

"Your ancestors had on last trick up their sleeve." Hamish's breathing was hard and his face looked like swollen strawberry.

"Once my father had killed the last of his blood, something happened with the beasts. With no apparent reason they started to attack us at night. Tried to kill my father, my mother, my siblings; they tried to kill me." Hiccups own heart was beating fast.

"And should I tell you why? Because Hiccup the second knew that the true heirs one day would reclaim Port East from his dirty Viking hands! So his children cursed us all! They controls the beasts. You control the beasts! You Haddocks are power hungry, selfish, immoral and dirty people."

"They only wanted to help!" Hiccup shouted. "Help with what?" Hamish roared back.

"To defeat the Darkness! The Evil! To prevent bad things from happening!"

Hamish jumped to his feet.

"ENOUGH! THAT WAS JUST WHAT HICCUP THE SECOND CLAIMED TO DO!" "Because he was on the same mission as we are!" "LIES!" "I tell the truth! Midgard will fall if you don't overcome your anger and grief and listen to what I have to say!"

Hamish backhanded him in the face and he struggled to stay on his feet.

He could hear Kate and Josh hiss in anger.

He remained calm.

He had to.

"Please. We can help! We don't ride dragons for nothing! I'm sure we can figure out what's wrong with the dragons and bring you peace!" He tried to sound convincing but Hamish's glare was freezing his insides.

The chieftains hands were clenched into tight fists and his breathing didn't sound healthy.

"You little bastard! I knew I should have killed you. But don't worry I won't make that mistake again!" Hiccup felt a pang of panic creeping up in him.

"I did nothing wrong! Please, you have to let us go and do what we must! I can promise this all will stop if you let us go! We need to get to Talkin!"

"LAIR! Everybody knows Talkin is on lockdown! I know what you really want! You want revenge!" Hamish roared.

"Revenge for what? And what lockdown? I don't know any of that!" Hiccup shouted back, desperate now about the chief's stubbornness.

Hamish leaned down to him.

"You will regret the day you were born. You will regret it all!" he whispered so only Hiccup could understand it.

Then he shouted: "Bring them back to their cages. Tomorrow evening, when we have fixed the damage he has done, we will have them executed in the name of my blood! Every last bit of treacherous Haddock Blood shall be extinguished from this world and I'm more than pleased to do it myself!"

"What damage?" Hiccup shouted as he as dragged away by his arms. "I haven't done anything!" "I wouldn't say that." Hamish said coldly. There was something in his gaze that made Hiccups insides jolt around.

"We only tried to help." Josh shouted. "A great help you were." Blondie sneered.

Then the doors closed and they were dragged back to the prison.

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"Well, this sucks!" Kate stated, once they were alone.

Now all three of them swung softly back and for, three meters above the ground.

"No kidding." Josh mumbled.

Hiccup said nothing. Too much went through his mind.

Kate groaned and burrowed her face in her hands.

He frowned concerned.

"Are you alright? What happened to you? Your cloths are torn. Were you attacked?" "You could say so."

Kate told them what she had seen from Nightlights back. "That would explain what they mean with 'lockdown' I guess." Josh said. "But what for?" Hiccup asked.

Nothing made sense.

Kate shrugged. "I don't know but it must be serious stuff because they shot us down with a bola…" at this words Hiccup flinched badly.

Worried he slid closer to the bars in his cage.

It titled to the side and he banged his knee against the bars.

"Are you alright? Were you hurt?" "Just a really bad headache. Some cuts and bruise. I was lucky. But Nightlight was hurt…" Again Hiccup flinched and asked: "Not bad I hope?" "Just the paw. I actually wanted you to look at it but now…" she trailed off.

"We'll get out of her." Hiccup promised and gave her a smile. She smiled back.

"Ahm, guys? This reminds me, what about the dragons?" Josh asked. Kate shrugged. "I left Nightlight in a cave for protection. She won't leave it. At least not as long as I'm not back or she is really hungry or in danger. But I haven't seen Toothless and Zhang since I was flying out to look for you."

"Toothless will look for me. He'll probably follow my smell. He eventually will find this place. I can only imagine what will happen then. But I'm sure he'll find me." "So he could break us out?" "Maybe. But…I don't know. Something's fishy about this place and the chief. Something happened here their not talking about." Hiccup mumbled.

"Maybe I can help." Kate said. She told them about her founding's in the forest around the village and her conclusions.

Hiccups frown had deepened by the time she'd finished.

"But…this makes totally no sense!" he argued. "I know dragons. They wouldn't do this." "Well, they did." Josh said. Hiccup closed his eyes. "The last time they acted like this was back on Berk." He said. "But that is thousand of miles away from here. How can there be a connection?" Josh asked. "I don't know." Hiccup was exhausted.

Kate saw that too.

"Sleep Hiccup. There is still plenty of time to think about it. But a sleeping brain won't bring you far. Sleep. We will keep watch and be here when you wake up."

He smiled at her.

"I'm glad your back. I'm glad you're alright. I missed you. I was worried." He mumbled and stretched his hand through the bars. She reached out too and squeezed his hand too.

"Me too. Now sleep."

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In his dream Hiccup was back in a familiar cave and as soon as all came into view and the world stopped spinning around he was tackled by a flash in brown.

"Gods I've been trying to contact you for ages! I never got through!"

"Illiona?" "Of course it's me stupid. Come and sit. Are you hungry? You haven't eaten in a long time!"

The young girl dragged him over to a fireplace.

Everything was exactly like last time. Tapestries on the walls, the big one in the back had gotten even longer and Illiona was still wearing that brown dress and the jingling bracelets and necklaces.

She pushed him down on a colorful pillow and pushed a bowl with stew into his hands.

"Eat!" she commanded. "Yes mother." He said but took a spool-full. It was delicious. Eagerly he ate more.

She sat down across from him and began to tend the small fire.

When he had finished he sat the bowl aside.

"Why am I here? Another vision? You didn't tell me much about the other one." "And I won't tell you more. It's with you to figure out its meaning." Hiccup rolled with his eyes. "Being cryptic again, are we?" She glared at him but he couldn't take it serious.

"No really, why am I here? Is something wrong?" For a moment he thought he saw panic and fear in her eyes but she shook her head and smiled and it was gone.

"Well, not yet. It's just…oh Hiccup I saw bad things coming. Really bad things this time!" She was shaking really badly and he edged closer to her.

He put one hand on her shoulder and she leaned into the touch.

"Hiccup I'm afraid. You…you're running low on time. I…I couldn't see anymore. It was all consumed by darkness and…and…"

Hiccup pulled the little girl into a gentle embrace.

"Hey…sh…it's alright." He whispered.

Normally he would've felt awkward because he'd never done such things before but it was different. Illiona, in a kinda creepy way knew him and he also felt like he knew her. It was strange but he knew he could trust her and she was only a kid.

She relaxed slightly.

"Hiccup, no matter what happens, please never doubt the decisions that were made, okay? And please don't be angry at them. Please believe me when I say it's all meant to be like this!" He looked at her. "What do you mean?" "I told you bad things will happen. I don't see the actual future or the actual results but I see part of the way that lead to the future. Sometimes I even see the past to understand the future. That was when I realized that you still need to know. You need to be prepared. You will think they lied to you. But they only did what was best for everyone, okay?"

"I don't understand." Illiona opened her mouth but Hiccup suddenly felt like a wall of bricks had hit him full force.

He saw Illiona scream in horror but he already felt himself being pulled back into a black hole.

He hit hard cold stone face first and all breath was pushed from his lungs.

Coughing he came to all fours.

"Pathetic."

His head jerked up. He couldn't make out where he was. There was only the stone floor on which he knelt and a circle of light but otherwise…there was just darkness.

Something hit him again and he fell back.

"Weak."

The voice seemed bodiless. And it was deep and taunting and it cackled. Hiccup jumped to his feet, arms up ready to defend himself.

Again something hit him, this time in the back.

"Useless."

Hiccup groaned as he stumbled back to his feet. "Where are you? What do you want? Who are you?" he shouted and tried to see something.

Again, humorless laughter. "The question would be: What am I?"

"Okay. What are you?" "Oh, I'm known under many names. Satan, devil, evil, chaos or jinni. To you…well to you I can be Darkness. Not 'the' Darkness please. Just Darkness."

Hiccup shivered.

"You are right to be afraid of course. Only a fool is not afraid. And I have the feeling you're not a fool. But let us talk about that later. Now let's see…"

It trailed off and Hiccup had the surreal picture in his head of it walking in circles around him, eyeing him, judging him with his eyes.

"Well, is this all? I must say I'm…confused and a bit insulted too. You are the one they all make such fuss about? You're nothing more than a toothpick! A walking talking fishbone, a…" "Thanks, I can get the image myself and if I wanted to be insulted I would ask Kate. Or better, my father and my cousin."

Darkness laughed.

It felt weird to address something like that as if it was a person….

"Oh no dear Hiccup, I'm not a person. I just am. I'm a state of mind. I'm everything. And I am nothing." "Are you reading my mind?" "Not exactly. But I can feel your emotions, your very soul. They tell me a lot about you. Oh…and I see beautiful things there. I see destruction, pain, loss, sarcasm, oh and death! I didn't know you were such a…many-sided personality. And I certainly didn't think you were so dark. I thought you were just like the others. All good and all humble and modest and so on." It paused. "No. You are more than that. Aren't you Hiccup?"

"What do you want from me?"

"Oh, I just came to chat. I wanted to get to know you a bit. Such a shame. You seem like a quite interesting person. I hate killing the interesting ones. The other ones are just boring and have nothing to offer to entertain one nowadays."

Hiccups teeth chattered but he pulled on a brave face. His voice only quivered slightly when he talked again.

"We will stop you."

"Oh not again that speech. I heard a thousand times. 'You can't win, we're stronger, we have the dragons, we are a unit, we have the love, we are in favor of the gods, you understand nothing about us' -jadda-jadda-ja!"

Again something hit Hiccup and he fell backwards. He wanted to get up but something invisible pushed him down.

"Let me tell you something, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third. Trust is something fragile. Just like loyalty. They're not absolute. Everything comes with a prize. And what will you do, if you can't pay that prize anymore?"

"What…" Hiccup stared but he was thrown across the floor.

"If I was nice, I would kill you right now. So I could prevent all the disappointment that is about to come. But I'm not nice and besides" its vice grew bitter "That little seer-friend of yours is chanting a protection spell. You may want to keep an eye on her in the future. Ore otherwise something might happen to her. And to be honest I quite like it when people suffer." There was a silent, private laughter as if it was sharing an inside joke with itself. "Goodbye Hiccup the Third. But be assured. I will meet you soon enough. In one way or another."

As Hiccup felt himself being pulled back again, he saw something loosen from the shadows. It was a vaguely human form and only for a second he could make out a face.

Fangs like lion. Pitch-black holes for eyes, no expression at all, wet-grey skin and spines around its head like a crown.

Then he was engulfed by light.

He shot straight up. His breathing was hard and uneven. Sweat covered his forehead.

It was still dark outside but his internal clock told him that sun was just about to rise. He hadn't slept long and he felt more exhausted than before.

"Hiccup? Are you alright?" He turned his head to see Kate sitting up with a bleary face. "Yeah. Just…just a dream. Go back to sleep." "You sure." "Very." "Okay."

He wasn't sure he'd be able to fall asleep again but as soon as his head touched the floor again he was gone.

This time he was standing in a giant golden hall. In front of him led several steps to a mighty golden throne. In said throne sat a man with white hair, an eye patch, dressed in grey and blue armor. In one hand he held a staff, the other rested on the arm of his throne.

He sat there straight and with his one grey eye he looked coldly around.

It was then that Hiccup realized he was standing next to Loki.

His friends' armor was shredded in multiple places, silver blood flow from minor cuts and his hair, usually flawless in a braid or loose, was a mess.

Thor stood next to him and he didn't look any better.

Both gods had clearly been through rough battles.

Hiccup looked around. There were many people; none of them seemed familiar to him.

He spotted Heimdall but that was it.

Though he could guess who the big fella on the throne was.

Odin, the All-father. King of the Gods. Father to Loki and Thor.

They seemed to be in the middle of an argument when Hiccup 'arrived'. He groaned. "Oh let me guess. It's again one of those dreams where I can hear and see everything but you don't know I'm here?" he sighed and listened to the argument.

"What tells us that he's not going to betray us?" Odin asked venomously. "My word." Loki said though his voice sounded somewhat desperate and annoyed.

"Oh, that settles it of course." Someone sneered.

"Shut up Magni." Loki growled.

"Look I know you don't like this…" he continued but Odin interrupted him. "Don't like it? That's the understatement of the century." Loki rolled with his eyes. "If you would just let me finish my sentences I could…" "None of that Loki. Watch your tong. Your task was so simple! Now, what have you accomplished? You set a boy of that blasted blood on this mission and all he did was to endow more problems than there already are!" "But he…" "He's of treacherous blood." "He's an entirely different person." "Nonsense. I saw him. I will not put our fate and that of the world into the hands of a boy. Call him off Loki, now."

"I can't. I met the oracle. She told confirmed his path. He is the right one. Please father.

You have to trust and have faith!"

"Darkness will not be stopped by a boy!" "He's not a boy anymore!"

"His mind is too easy to corrupt! Who knows what's really going on inside his head?" "Hiccup is not like his ancestor." "Of course he is!" sneered Odin.

Thor stepped forward.

"Please father. As hard as I find it to say: Loki's right." There were gasps.

"Excuse me dear brother, could you repeat that?" Loki asked. "Don't be so pleased. The rest of the time you're a complete fool." Thor growled.

"Loki found the real Hero. He stood up against the bonds of Darkness when he defeated he Red Death with nothing but his dragon and his wits.

He freed the dragons of the north from the chains of corruption und the spell of Darkness. He is the right one. It may not look like much what he accomplished up until now. But fate always finds a way. His previous success shows that eh ahs the ability to free them all.

So I am sure" at this part he swallowed hard Hiccup noticed "That he can do it. Because, who else is there? He's the last of his kind. There is no other heir. Besides, he has started his mission. You can't honestly think you can stop him now. What about his friends? And he can't go back, if you ask me. What would he do? I say we stay close to him and guide him as best as possible" he swallowed again "and learn from past mistakes."

Odin eyed his two sons.

"I sense trouble. A lot and I sense betrayal and mistrust. By all means, keep it going. We will see who's right in the end. Council dismissed. Go back and defend our city." All the gods bowed.

Odin raised his staff, brought it hard down on the ground and everything exploded in golden light.

Hiccup slowly opened his eyes.

Sunlight came streaming through the windows together with a cold sea-wind.

He shivered.

Underneath him he heard a door creak open. Shortly after, his cage began to descend. Slowly he sat up.

Blondie (what was his name anyway?) and two friends of his stood before him.

"The chief wants to speak to you, maggot." Blondie said coldly.

"Good morning to you to Blondie. Please, lead the way."

AN: So what do you think?

Oh and sorry for not updating sooner. I just had to get the following chapters perfect. Especially the next one! Gods above I nearly went crazy because I couldn't find the best way to put it. I hope I have now.

Any questions, anything not clear? Good, because it gets a whole lot more twisted and confusing and way back in time now!

Next one will be up in a few hours, I promise!

Love

Kate!