Chapter One-hundred-and-four:
Before they could make it back to the cove Hiccup and his friends were intercepted.
"What are you doing here? The debate is still on as far as I know." Hiccup said with a frown.
"Screw the debate, they will fill us in later." Snorted Ruffnut.
His hair was even longer than Hiccup remembered but less dirty
All in all did the male twin look a lot more kempt and…grown up.
As did his sister for the matter.
Hiccup detected unmistakable tattoos on their left forearms.
"I see you two married. Guess a year really does change a lot."
"It hasn't even been a year." Astrid said quietly.
Her arms were crossed and she too had the unmistakable mark of marriage on her forearm.
"I guess." He said.
"Aren't you going to introduce us?" Fishlegs asked.
Hiccup marveled at how much bigger the blond had grown.
"Why?" he asked warily.
"Because it's polite?" Snotlout sneered.
Hiccup stared at his cousin with unconcealed disbelieve.
"Don't look at me like that, just stating a fact." The older boy growled.
I guess some things truly never change.
"Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, meet my companions and good friends Will, Kate, Josh, Hope, Illiona and Conner" Turning to his friends he said "Guys, these are my cousin Snotlout, the Twins Ruffnut and Ruffnut, Fishlegs and Astrid."
Both parties just stared at each other for a few moments, Hiccup standing between them.
"Hello." Kate finally said and nodded at the Viking-teens. The others echoes her greeting.
The Vikings stayed silent for a few more seconds before Astrid nodded back. "Welcome to Berk. Do you really think you can help us?"
"We do." Hope said.
"Then I guess we'll have to take your word for it." Astrid said.
She turned to Hiccup.
"Your father will never say it but since my husband is Hyllas nephew I get to be part of some council meetings and I hear stuff around the house sometimes. We have no plans. We've gone through every plan we could think of and nothing worked. We need help and by now it really doesn't matter where it comes from. I guess Stoick is just cautious because of the disappearing stunt you pulled and the thing with the dragons. He doesn't want to make it worse."
"How could this get worse?" Ruff snorted silently.
"Whatever the case I am positive that they will accept your help. And I have a feeling that even if they vote against you it won't keep you from doing your stuff."
Hiccup was surprised at her words.
He had expected and offensive, insults, aggressiveness and that sort of thing.
But then he looked into their eyes and he saw that they were scared.
Of course they were.
Stoick and the others were battle-hardened warriors who had faced many gruesome battles and had survived.
But the people standing in front of him were his age and although they had seen bloody battles, they had never witnessed something this horrible and since killing the threat didn't seem to work they didn't know what to do and that terrified them.
Stoick could hide it.
They couldn't.
They were so frightened and desperate they would take anything.
Every last glimmer of hope they clung to so they wouldn't drown in despair.
He smiled at them reassuringly.
"You are right. It is good to hear that we do have some supporters. Maybe you can talk to the others. I'm sure Gobber and Gouthi are with me and my father's new wife. But we need more, much more."
"Well you're not popular because of the dragons." Snotlout reminded him.
"This has nothing to do with the dragons." Hiccup snapped. "Remember that time our tribe went to war against the Uglythugs because they had invaded neutral territory? We joined forces with the Bog-Burglars and the Meatheads. Did we like it? No! But it was necessary. This is the same thing. View our dragons as the Meatheads if you have to. Not necessarily wanted but dearly needed." He added.
Snotlout just shrugged and said: "Whatever."
But he could see that they all accepted the analogy.
"Tell that to the others as well. Hearing it from you might sound more convincing." Hiccup suggested.
He suddenly felt rather tired.
"We will." Fishlegs promised.
"And what now?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup shrugged. "Right now there is little we can do but prepare for another attack that is likely to happen soon. Catch some rest, eat, drink, sharpen your weapons, whatever. Just be prepared."
"And you?" Ruffnut asked.
Hiccup looked at his friends. "We'll do the same." he said evenly.
Astrid stepped forward and extended her arm.
"We'll follow your lead." She said.
Hiccup grasp her arm in the traditional grasp of warriors and nodded.
"Thank you Astrid."
They had never been friends. Not really.
They had always been opponents, fighting against each.
Now they would fight together.
.
.
.
"You think they'll do it?" Kate asked as they entered the woods.
"Accept our help?" Hiccup asked.
Kate nodded.
"Even they aren't so foolish. At least I hope so."
"What do we do if they want to throw us off the island?" Josh asked.
"We stay anyway." Hiccup replied firmly.
Seeing their unsure glances he explained: "It's not like we can just say: 'Okay, great, see you later then.' I gave them the option to decide solely to give them the illusion of being in charge. If Vikings don't like something it is not being in control."
"But in reality you already made that decision for them." Conner said dryly.
"I'm not going to let everything I, and we, fought for go down the drain because of a bunch of dunderheads that live of a giant wet rock." Hiccup growled. "For that I have given up too much, sacrificed too much and hurt too much. And you too! If they don't like it they can kiss my butt."
"Whoa, calm down tiger." Will grumbled.
"Just saying."
"Do you really think we don't have much time left?" Hope asked silently.
"You saw Savage. You heard what he said. We beat Alvin here but that doesn't mean he won't be far behind. He's being slowed down by his army but he'll be here soon enough."
"What do we do about those creatures?" Illiona asked nervously.
"Not much we can do. Our weapons seem to be the only ones that can kill them for real. They take some time to reform though so I guess that is a small advantage."
They walked on in silence.
That was until there was a giant 'BOOM'.
They swirled around; facing the direction they had come from and just saw the remains of a fireball fade in the air in the general direction of the village.
Hiccup cursed.
.
.
.
.
.
They weren't that far away from the village but the path back to it was steep and long all the same.
Even though they ran as fast as their legs could carry them, they arrived late.
The Shadow beings were tearing through Berk, their attack more vicious than anything they had witnessed before.
Nothing was safe.
Without thinking much about it Hiccup tore his sword from its scabbard and slashed the closest thing across its ugly monster chest.
His silver glowing sword turned it to stone before it exploded into a cloud of dust that settled on the ground.
He turned to see another one pounding towards him but a golden glowing arrow slammed through its right eye, continuing flying as the thing disappeared and hitting another one behind it.
Hiccup nodded thankfully at Conner, how just knocked another arrow and let it fly.
Hiccup was relieved to see so many Vikings up on their feet, fighting for their lives.
Although their strikes and weapons only made the monsters disintegrate he was glad they were holding their own so well.
He lost himself in twirls, slashes, hacks, rolls and blacks. He fought like a daemon himself, wading into the thick black clouds of monsters.
He felt the presence of his friends all around him, caught a glimpse of their glowing weapons here and there and reassured he resumed fighting.
But as formidable as their fought, it could never have been enough.
The beings that weren't killed by Hiccup or his friends simply reformed and attacked again.
They couldn't keep this up for much longer.
Hiccup halted for a second, catching his breath.
He held his hands to his mouth forming a cone and did his best Night Fury call impression.
"What was that?" someone asked suddenly next to him.
He turned to see Snotlout.
His cousin was covered in grime and was bleeding from multiple cuts. His armor was crushed and torn in many places and most of his weapons seemed to be gone.
Still he had the crazy glint of battle in his eyes and was actually looking quite content.
"I was calling for back-up. It should be here any second." he replied, thrusting one of his daggers backwards with his free right hand , impaling the creature that was trying to sneak up on him from behind.
"What kind of back-up?" Snotlout asked.
"What do you think?" Hiccup asked him.
Before Snotlout could reply, there came a loud roar from above and five shadows fell over the central courtyard while a sixth shadow raced over the ground towards the two cousins.
Hiccup whistled sharply, drawing Toothless's attention to his position.
"The Dragon kind of course!" he shouted at Snotlout as he started running.
Toothless caught up with him and Harry leapt mid-run onto his back, clicking his prosthetic in place and with the next bounce Toothless was airborne, catapulting them higher and higher.
Despite the battle still going on all around them Hiccup couldn't help but whoop with joy.
"DRAGON RIDERS WITH ME!" he roared and five winged beasts fell into position around him with Kate and Josh flanking him.
"LET'S GET THEM!" he shouted, pushing Toothless into a dive towards the raging battle below them.
Toothless roared delightedly and blasted the nearest shadow creature with his plasma bolts.
It exploded into a shower of bright red sparks before its remains settling like dust on the ground.
Next to him Nightlight let out a torrent of fire as Kate steered her over a line of monsters pounding towards the market place and all of them met the same fate.
Seeing the dragons destroy the creatures just as well as they could gave Hiccup new hope and determination. They could do this.
With the dragons on their side now, most of the battle transferred into the air above the village.
The six friends drove into the swirling clouds of darkness from all sides, blasting at everything they could get in front of their dragon's fire-holes.
Hiccup swung his sword blindly left and right, each swing taking out at least one monster.
Their ashes rained like a strange disgusting rain onto the village, covering everything in a thin sheet of it.
The Vikings on the ground watched eth display above with their mouth hanging open in awe.
They way the companions and their dragons moved together, as if they were one, was mesmerizing and beautiful to watch.
The aerial stunts they pulled had their hearts beating in their throats yet they looked so calm and collected.
Stoick watched as the Night Fury his son sat upon pulled up into a long stretched loop.
As Hiccup hung upside down on the dragon he held his sword above his head, slicing through one of the more gigantic beasts.
As the dragon started its away downwards and towards the horizontal again Hiccup held his sword out wide to the left and a long dagger to the right.
As the two of them passed by the oncoming monsters, Hiccups blades cut neatly through their middles, destroying them all in one go.
One winged shadow-beats with a dozen arms and legs, all covered in twice as many talons, rose up in front of them but the Night Fury shot three of its bluish-white plasma blasts and the beats exploded in a shower of sparks through with dragon and rider flew.
Hiccup was highly concentrated on the battle, keeping an eye out on his friends who flew all around them as if they had never done anything else in their lives.
Even Conner and Sharp Claw, who were still very freshly bonded, moved fluently and Conner was able to hold onto her with just his legs while firing arrows all around him.
Hiccup watched with interest how every time he took an arrow form his quiver another one appeared in its place so that he would never run out of arrows.
Hiccup had noticed that his blade too didn't seem to dull one bit and daggers he had thrown reappeared in his belt and their sheaths.
Maybe it was part of the magical glow that surrounded them…
Hiccup shouldn't have hesitated to think about it.
His inattention proved to be disastrous.
"HICCUP TO YOUR LEFT!" Kate shouted, panic clear in her voice.
He turned to look at her foolishly.
Her eyes were wide with fear and she was looking at something behind him.
He cursed and forced Toothless to swirl around only to have one second to register the winged and horned and gruesome beast stretching out its talons for him, before it hit him in the chest and catapulted him out of the saddle.
With a surprised yelp he felt himself falling.
Above him he heard Toothless' fearful roaring as his beloved dragon too began a rapid descend.
Stupid artificial tail.
But his attention was drawn from Toothless' peril to his own.
The beast that had attacked him was still after him, madness burning in its red eyes as it snatched him out of the air and threw him back up into the air like a toy, playing with him like a cat with a mouse.
Hiccup lost all sense of orientation as he was tossed around. Up was down, left was right, sideways was forward…
He tried to twist and angle his body so he could control his flight but nothing.
He could hear his friends call out his name in fright and terror but he couldn't tell where they were.
He saw fire and the flash of weapons from his corner of his eyes.
Luckily the thick leather armor he wore took most of the blunt force of the attacks and kept the talons from shredding him but still he didn't get away unscratched.
Fiery pain blossomed on his left cheek and he felt blood gushing down his jaw.
Above him the creature screeched in delight.
He managed to face the direction from which it came.
Its talons were already raised as it approached once again and somehow Hiccup knew that the time of playing was over and that it was time for the kill.
This was a bad way to die, he thought.
There was nothing heroic about it! He was about to be eaten or shredded to pieces by some monster!
The thing was only meters away from him when it suddenly was hit by a wave of fire, rolling over its body, making it scream in pain and disintegrate into a pile of dust.
The fire rolled over Hiccup as well but he was fireproof so he felt nothing but a soft tickling sensation.
He didn't know what was going on as he fell straight towards the earth, his cloth slightly burning or smoldering. He only had time to take in the flapping of wings close to him before he was grabbed by a pair of talons.
This pair held on to him as they descended downwards towards the ground.
Toothless was there blow him, frantically running back and for, jumping into the air and flapping uselessly with his wings as they approached.
Hiccup looked up but all he could see was the green scaly belly of a dragon. Judging from the talons that held him he would say it was a Deadly Nadder.
And there was no way to overlook the wide leather belt that ran down the underside of said dragon's belly.
Hiccup craned his neck but suddenly the dragon let go off him and he fell with a startled yelp.
But Toothless caught him, if not a bit painfully, on his back.
Hiccup's head swirled back upwards, searching for the dragon that had rescued him.
It was already climbing back upwards. And there was unmistakably a figure sitting on its back. Said person was whooping loudly as the dragon shot fire-blast after fire-blast at the creatures and reduced them within seconds to nothing more than a pile of dust and bad memories.
Hiccup and Toothless rose back into the air and he wasn't the only one that stopped and stared.
Almost all his fellow Dragon Riders were pausing in their movements, watching with astonishment at what unfolded before their eyes.
As the green dragon whizzed past them the person on top of it shouted gleefully: "Somebody ordered extra fire-power?"
"No it can't be." Hiccup mumbled disbelievingly.
And then all of a sudden the shadow creatures gathered together in one giant cloud and shot upwards, disappearing in the grey clouds overhead.
"Yeah you better run you disgusting beasts of hell!" the rider shouted.
And with that the fight was over.
Hiccup hastily landed and slid down from Toothless' back.
The other riders came down too.
Kate looked at him with big round eyes.
"Hiccup it's…" she whispered.
"I know." Hiccup replied.
The green dragon sat down in front of them.
Around them the Vikings slowly approached. They all were wary of the dragons but equally curious about this newcomer.
Hiccup's friends on the other hand were shocked.
The rider grinned at them through the slits of his helmet.
"Hey guys. Sorry it took so long." he apologized while sliding down from his dragons back.
The movement was graceful and practiced.
The dragons affectionately nipped his riders shoulder.
The rider patted its beak.
Hiccup made a wary step towards him as the rider took off his helmet and smoothed his white-blond hair with one hand down.
"George? What…what…what are you doing here?" he asked cautiously.
Georges grin dropped.
He looked utterly guilty and pained.
Then he did something Hiccup hadn't expected him to do in a million years.
He knelt down on one knee and bowed his head, in front of all their friends and the gathered Vikings.
"Hiccup, I am so sorry for what I did. I behaved like a total buffoon and ran away when you needed me most. You could have died today and it would have been my fault. But I was so angry. I know it's no excuse and I know you warned me that I was doing the same mistake as my ancestor but I didn't care back then. It was stupid and foolish and wrong. I let my emotions instead of reason lead me and it took me away from your side. It took me away from all of you, even though I swore an oath to stay by your side. Please, forgive me!"
"What changed your mind?" Kate asked cautiously.
He looked up at her.
"I came to my senses but it was a bit late. I was already back in Port East when I realized how much had changed, how much I had changed. And how right you had been. I thought I would be glad to be home again. The truth is I felt like stranger the moment I touched down on the shores of the island. And I was treated like one. I soon realized that it wasn't where I belonged anymore. It was a painfully realization but I have came to terms with it. And I may be my ancestors heir but I am not him. I will not do the same mistake as he did. I will embrace who I am and what my destiny is. I set out again almost immediately again, trying to catch up with you but I was always a bit behind. I only got your last Terror-Mail. And I was so close by them I simply decided to follow Cone back instead of answering you. I'm glad I was still on time."
He sighed and looked back down and Hiccup saw silent tears of anger and anguish roll down the pale boy's cheeks.
"I simply can't tell you how sorry I am. I swear that I will never leave again. I hope I didn't ruin everything."
Silence fell over the gathered masses.
The Vikings probably didn't understand much but judging by the boys kneeling position and his downwards pointing face it had to be serious.
Hiccup felt something heavy in his chest. But it wasn't anger.
He stepped closer to the kneeling boy who had been his enemy, then his companion and tehn his friend.
"Get up and look at me." he demanded.
George got up but didn't look at him.
It only showed how much time had passed.
They were almost on eyelevel now.
"I said look at me." Hiccup growled.
George reluctantly looked up.
Their eyes met and the heavy feeling inside Hiccups chest melted away when he saw the raw emotions in the other boy's eyes.
Without another word he grabbed George and pulled him into a fierce hug.
"I forgive you." he mumbled. "We were both idiots. I too should have listened to you. I made a terrible mistake that day by sending you away. I should never have done that. A true leader listens and takes in the advice and the critique of his fellow soldiers. Even if the truth is harsh, sometimes that is the only way you can understand it."
George, first stiff and surprised by the hug, loosened and hugged him back while around them their friends broke out in cheers and swarmed them.
It all ended in a massive group hug.
"Thank you." George said honestly, taking in the familiarity of his friends, sighing and returning their hugs.
"It's good to be back." he admitted.
"Come on, there are people I want you to meet." Hiccup said, one arm slung around the older boys shoulders, as he dragged him over to the crowd.