AN: Hey guys and girls! Long time no see. Well don't worry. Exams are over and I'm as good as free. Summer-break is only two weeks away and things are pretty easy going right now.
I had this chapter going for a long time and I can't say I'm really satisfied with it but yeah, it makes the story go on so sorry if it's not as good as the last ones. The next will be better.
Also thanks for the reviews. They give me a nice cozy and warm feeling inside my chest.
But I should stop waffling around and come to the point. The next chapter.
Enjoy.
Love Kate.
Chapter Seventy-One: Where is my place?
Groaning Hiccup sat up.
His whole body arched. His chest felt as if it was one giant bruise.
"Oh look who decided to rejoin us in the land of the living."
He blinked like an owl and stammered: "K…Kate?"
She grinned at him, stretched her arms wide and made a small turn on the spot.
"The one and only." She smiled.
Hiccup jumped to his feet and crushed her in a hug.
Though she had been healed by Thea days ago, Kate had spent most of their time at camp asleep or resting.
"Whatever they gave me did one hell of a job. I only feel a little bit stiff but that's it." She said smiling and hugged him back.
"That is fantastic." Hiccup beamed.
"Come on, we're having lunch."
"Lunch?"
"Yep. Nothing could wake you up. We even asked Toothless to lick your feet. Nothing worked."
She stepped through the tent entrance and into the shadow of canopy. Hiccup followed. Surprisingly a soft wind moved around them, playing with the cloth width and ribbons and letting Kates hair fly around her shoulders.
Josh and George were sitting in front of the tent next to a fire over which a pot hung. The smell of stew was overwhelming and Hiccups stomach gave an approvingly growl.
"Hiccup my man." Josh said smilingly. "I see you finally woke up. About time mate."
"Why, have I missed something?"
George snorted. "You could say so. Everyone's getting ready for the apocalypse."
Hiccup frowned alarmed.
"Why?"
"The beast's back and it's been circling the camp for ages now. It's putting everybody off." Josh mumbled and the added: "Everyone's convinced that they are going to die."
Hiccup looked around. "So where is everyone?" he asked.
"Preparing for war. They are determined to kill it this time. Or die trying, which is more likely." Josh said dryly.
Kate handed Hiccup a bowl with stew but he jumped to his feet.
"Has any of you seen Hope?"
"Why?" she asked.
"I really need to speak to her."
He didn't wait for any response, just started running.
It was madness.
Everyone was up and hurrying along, the smiths were working ferociously.
He saw Torren and Thea prepare the healers tent.
Soldiers ran back and forth.
Mothers hold on to their children, older teens cared for the cattle.
It was chaos on a whole new level.
Somewhere on the way he collided with a small but strong figure.
He fell back into the sand.
"Garret!"
But the warrior didn't look happy to see him.
"This is your entire fault. I told them. But no one would listen to me. But I'm not going let some stranger doom us all." He snarled and grabbed him by the collar.
"Garret I didn't want any of this to happen. You can't blame me!"
"Tell that the beast that is circling us. But we're going to put an end to it. Forever!"
"There has to be another way."
Garrets eyes were hard as stone.
"There is no other way. We've cowered long enough. Long enough have we allowed traitors in our midst." He hissed. "Maybe we should throw you and your friends to these things as appetizers."
"You stand no chance."
"We will see that."
"Garret this is madness!"
"You just watch me!"
With that Garret strode way.
Hiccup cursed and turned around, Hope momentarily forgotten.
"Grab your stuff! This is going to be messy." He shouted and whistled. Toothless appeared next to him, ears perked up.
"The people here won't stand a chance. It'll be a blood-bath. But maybe we can do something about that."
"And what exactly would that be?" George asked with arms folded. "This is so typically." he added groaning. "Every time I think we are relatively safe, BAM, you manage to get us into another life-threatening situation."
"Well if you don't want to fight then you can hide with the women and children." said Kate innocently.
George mumbled something under his breath and unsheathed his sword.
"Let's go." He growled.
Hiccup smirked and patted his shoulder before rushing outside, knowing his friends were behind him.
They reached the peak of the sand-dune but they weren't the first ones.
It seemed as is all of the tribe had gathered here. There were far more than Hiccup had expected.
He even saw Thea. What was she doing here?
She spotted them first when they landed a few paces away and nodded at him. He nodded back.
Then Garret saw them and scowled.
"What do you want?" he growled.
"You need our help." Hiccup said as a matter of fact from the back of Toothless' back.
"We don't need your help. You are not our allies. Since you arrived here bad stuff has happened."
"You cannot blame that on us!" Hiccup growled back.
"Yeah, be glad we're not on and about." Josh said with folded arms.
Garret narrowed his eyes.
"I should run you through, right where you stand." He growled at Hiccup.
"Then you wouldn't have one dragon but three more to fight. And three very experienced fighters."
Garret snorted.
"Get in my way or do anything suspicious and I run you through."
Then he turned back to his men.
"We really have to be careful with him." Hiccup mumbled and checked the buckles on the saddle.
Kate rode up next to him.
While pulling her hair back into a ponytail she asked casually: "So…we're fighting…again…"
He nodded.
She sighed. "This is getting boring. It's not fair. For our enemies."
He barked out an insane laughter.
The joke wasn't very funny and this was still a dire situation but there had been so little laughter these past weeks Hiccup just took the opportunity.
Kate laughed too.
He smiled at her.
"Be careful. If I had it my way you would be with the other women and children, resting your shoulder. But I know you by now pretty well and I know that you would kick my butt, if I even as much as suggested it or hinted at it."
She smiled. "You learn fast." He snorted. "Sure."
"I will be careful. After all, someone has to look out for you." "Dream on. But Kate?" "Yes?" "It's really good to have you back." "It's good to be back. Thanks for keeping that promise." "No problem. You'd do the same."
For a few minutes there was absolute silence on top of the dune. The midday heat was burning down on them.
Sweat ran into Hiccups eyes and he had to wipe it away.
All eyes were glued on the shape under the sand moving fore-and backwards not too far away from the camp.
Nobody spoke a word.
The wind played with their cloth and hair but no one paid it any attention.
They looked like statues, left forgotten in the sand.
"What is it waiting for?" Josh mumbled under his breath next to Hiccup. He had asked himself the same question only seconds before.
"Is it me or is it getting closer?" George asked alarmed.
Hiccup squinted his eyes.
He was right. The dragon indeed was coming closer.
At first it was not noticeable but the more time passed the closer it got until it was right at the feet of the dune they all stood on.
Nobody dared moving one muscle.
There was one single question on all their minds.
Will the barrier hold?
The answer came in form of a high pitched shrike followed by the sound of glass breaking and the entire golden barrier collapsed, disintegrated and was gone within seconds.
For a terrible second nothing happened.
Then a purple head rose slowly from the ground, sand falling form it like waterfalls.
The head was lifted upwards by and enormous tail covered with spikes. Tall bat-like wings beat heavily.
When they were on eyelevel the dragon opened its jaws wide and roared.
The battle had begun.
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Hiccup didn't bother anymore with making plans. They usually never worked or the situation made it impossible for them to work properly.
But looking back at it he thought having at least an idea of what to do would have been nice.
As the dragon roared its battle-cry Garret roared too and charged at it with his men.
Hiccup gave the signal to ascend together they circled the dragon, which was momentarily distracted by those puny little humans poking it with pointy sticks, yelling obscenities.
Hiccup thought about driving it away from the camp, to make it run.
But he saw the determination in Namhera.
The dragon was here to claim his rider back.
He'd waited so long.
Hiccup could understand him.
And then it came to him.
"Of course." He mumbled to himself.
"Be right back! Keep them from killing each other!" he shouted.
"And how do you suggest we do that?" Kate asked. She was already panting and had sweat on her brow.
Hiccup knew it wasn't just because of the heat.
"You think of something, I'm sure. It won't be long, I promise."
With that he shot towards the camp.
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He found her easily. She sat in her tent cross-legged and was holding her mother's pendant in her palm.
Despite the obvious stress all around her she was calm and starred at the pendant.
"Hope!" he barked.
She didn't look up.
"Hope, snap out of it! You have to do something. Otherwise they are going to kill him!"
She didn't look up, she didn't say anything.
"Hope! He's here for you. You can't deny your connection any longer. Please believe me when I say that everything will be alright. I know you don't want anyone to decide for you but this is fate. I didn't think I could and would end the war between Vikings and dragons. I thought I would end up the village runt, disowned by my father and would lose all rights to be chief one day. And now look at me. Please, you are the last hope these people have or there will be a bloodbath. Namhera waited thousands of years for you. He will move heaven and hell to have you." He shouted desperately.
Finally she looked up. Her eyes were full of indecision, pain, anger and desperation.
"Do you think I don't know that?" she whispered as she put the pendant back around her neck. She looked back outside where chaos reigned.
"I don't want any of them to be hurt any further. But…I don't want to end like Brave. I don't want people to remember me because of my betrayal."
Hiccup knelt down in front of her and grabbed her hands.
"I promise that this will not happen. You'll be their hero." He said softly.
She looked at him with these unbelievably bluish-silver eyes. They were so deep, so ancient and yet so young.
"No. I will not. I will be an outsider. I will be the descendant of traitor. Everybody will know. They will avoid me. I will die alone, just like Brave did. I won't even be able to keep Namhera close to me. They will make me send him away or kill me. And then the circle will repeat itself." She whispered with tears glinting in her eyes.
"Then why not coming with me, with us? You wouldn't be alone, you could be who you are and you could be free."
"Free to fight a war? Do you think that's what I want?" "I don't know what you want. But I know that I don't ask you to fight for us. Hell, I don't think George will either but we can care for you, maybe find you a suitable home somewhere else. Maybe you can find friends there, start a family sometime in the future."
She looked at him.
"Why would you do that? I wasn't even friendly to you."
"Because you are like me, despite what you want to believe. I know you don't feel like you belong here anymore. Open up to that feeling and be free."
She shook her head. "I can't Hiccup."
"Why not?" he asked frustrated. "Would you rather want everyone here to die, knowing that you could have stopped it from happening? Believe me that guilt will be worse that your 'betrayal'. Hope, I believe I was brought here for a reason. And that reason is you. Our lives are connected. Please Hope. Do something."
With that he got back up but at the entrance he stopped.
"You asked me what I would do if I were in your shoes. I would give a damn fuck about what the others think and want from me. This is about you Hope. And you only." and then he ran back to his friends.
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"And…did it work whatever you did?" Josh asked.
"I'm not sure yet." Hiccup said sand steered Toothless around Namheras head, dragging his attention to him.
He thought he saw recognition in the dragons face. The again he was no expert in dragons facial expressions. It could also have been a devilish smirk that meant: "No I will finish you off!"
The dragon shot fireballs at him but Toothless rolled away.
"Dang, he's good." Josh panted as he steered Zhang next to him.
"We have to lure him away." Kate shouted as Nightlight shot a stream of fire at the dragons face. It screamed and leashed out with its tail, spines flying everywhere.
Nightlight let herself drop like a stone, only catching herself inches above the ground.
Suddenly a blue and yellow flash rushed past Hiccup and stuck in dragons tail where it hold on for dear life with its teeth while the dragon tried to lose it by whipping its tail wildly around and roaring.
"CONE! What the hell?" Hiccup shouted.
Indeed it was the small Terrible Terror that followed him like a shadow.
"What is he doing?" Kate asked confused.
"Helping." Hiccup said grinningly.
Namhera was so distracted by the small worm biting down hard in his tail that he no more paid attention to the humans.
From below Hiccup could hear Garret shouting and the bristling of weapons.
The warriors that remained advanced at the dragon, ready to use its obliviousness.
"NO!" Hiccup shouted.
He swirled around to his friends.
"Help me keep them away!"
"And how do we do that?" George asked from behind Josh on Zhangs back.
Hiccup was about to respond when there was a different voice yelling loudly over the battlefield.
"STOP!"
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All eyes turned and faced the person speaking. Even Namhera swirled around at the sound of the newcomer.
One lonely figure stood at the top of the dune against the bright sun.
Hiccup blinked against the sunlight that made his eyes water.
"Hope?"
The girl slithered down the side of the dune.
She came to a stop near the soldiers.
"STOP! You cannot win!" she shouted.
"Stay out of this Hope!" Garret shouted and turned around to continue fighting.
Namhera had managed to get rid of Cone. The little dragon flew through the air, crashed in the sand but a few seconds later he emerged again, looking pouting but unharmed.
Namhera roared again getting ready to charge.
Garret aimed with his spear…
Namhera pounced but...disappeared underneath the sand!
A split second nothing happened but then the ground shook wildly. Everyone fell to their feet. Walls of sand rose and fell.
It was chaos on a whole new level.
Even the dragon rides just barely managed to stay in the air.
The sight was clouded by flying sand and shouts filled the air.
What the hell was going on below?
For a brief, very brief second Hiccup spotted the dark shape of Namhera rushing through over the ground beneath him.
He seemed to know exactly where he was going.
And then Hiccup knew it too.
He was aiming at the foot of the dune.
Hope.
He screamed her name but Namhera smashed right into the place where she had stood.
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When sand and dust cleared, the most amazing pictured opened to their eyes.
Namhera's long body was curled up around Hope, who stood unharmed where they had seen her last.
She held the dragons face in her hands and their eyes were locked.
She was carefully stroking his nose.
And Namhera was purring.
Hiccup sighed with relief. That could have been worse.
Of course that was the moment Garret stumbled through the sand, spotting the pair on the ground, circled by three dragons overhead.
And of course he came to the wrong conclusion.
He raise done accusing finger at Hope and shouted: "You…you traitor!"
Hope swirled around, eyes huge with fear.
"No! No Garret! It's not what it looks like! I'm…I'm not a traitor!"
She whispered these last words.
Behind her Namhera growled and curled closer around his rider, eyes narrowed.
Hiccup knew whoever tried harming Hope would not see another sunrise.
Garret seemed to know that too.
He spat on the ground.
"Bad blood has its way of reappearing again and again. But it doesn't surprise me. Go. Go with your beast and those filthy dragons riders. Go and never come back again!"
Hopes panic was obvious.
"No! Please Garret, don't! I…I saved you!" she tried.
He sneered. "No. You betrayed us."
"I didn't mean to!"
"We don't want scum like you here."
Hope looked desperately around.
"Torren! Please. I…I'm your sister!"
Torren looked torn.
But then he straightened and his face grew hard.
"No sister of mine would consult with the enemy." He whispered.
Hiccup could see Hopes heart break then and there.
And he blamed himself. He had told her they wouldn't hate her.
"GO!" garret shouted and raised his spear.
Namhera growled and Hope was shaking badly.
"Please." She whispered, close to tears.
Hiccup couldn't watch this anymore.
"You are all fools! Hope did save you. She is Namheras rider. Don't you see? Her bloodline released you from this curse! Without her courage you would still be hunted." He shouted angrily.
"It was her bloodline that cursed us in first place!" Garret shouted back.
"And even if, why didn't she react earlier? Why wait so long? Why didn't her parents do anything? No. They are all traitors!"
There were shouts of agreement.
Hope looked like she was about to collapse.
Hiccup flew closer to her.
"Hope. Come on. Let's go. They don't seem to appreciate what you did." He said silently.
She looked at him with those huge bluish-silver eyes.
Without any further words she climbed onto Namheras head and hold onto two big and hard spiked sprouting from his head.
Four dragons rose high into the air and disappeared shortly after somewhere over the sand-lands.
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"I'm sorry Hope." Hiccup mumbled as they flew side by side through the clouds.
She just starred ahead and Hiccup expected her to ignore him but he was wrong.
She sighed.
"You were right."
"What?"
"I'm not going to repeat that." She said softly, playing with the sleeve of her left arm.
"But right with what?" Hiccup asked.
Hope took a deep breath.
"This was about me. Namhera has searched for me. And…I think…somehow I…have always called out for him…unconsciously." She whispered but pated the dragons head. "I…never really belonged there. I know see that."
She sighed.
"Last night when…when I connected with him…I…Afterwards I…I couldn't …I can't explain it." She dragged her hands through her hair, looking desperate and lost. "I feel like…something is…not right!"
"You need him." Hiccup said simply.
"Yes." She whispered.
She turned her head to look at him.
"You think I did the right thing?"
"Yes." Hiccup said confidently.
She smiled slightly but it was a sad smiled.
"I will not be able to return there. I will never see my brother again."
"You don't know that." Hiccup said.
She shook her head. "He made his point quite clear. And so did the others." "People change." "Sometimes they do. Who knows what happens inside someone's head. But Hiccup, this I do know for certain; I will never be welcome again. Brave wasn't. Why would I?"
He didn't respond to that. How could he. She was right.
"But" she smiled, this time happier, "I know more. If the offer still stands…I would like to come with you. I know I said I didn't want to know but…now I do want to know what happened all those years ago. And what my place in this story is."
Hiccup smiled and then looked at his friends that flew next to them
"Well, what do you say guys? And girl?" he asked with a side-smile at Kate.
George shrugged. "I don't care." he said. Hiccup rolled his eyes but so did Hope.
Josh smiled. "Why not?" Hope beamed at him and made him blush.
Kate grinned madly. "No question. We need another girl in the group!"
Hiccup turned back to Hope. "I think they agree."
Hope smiled weakly but then shivered.
"What's the matter?" Hiccup asked.
"Nothing. It's just that…I never left my camp. And now…now I'm about to see the world. The world I was never allowed to see. This is just…huge."
"Don't worry. Unlike others we stick to each other." Hiccup promised.
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Had Hiccup been able to see the future at that point he would have kicked himself hard in the butt. This was only the calm before the storm.