Author's Notes:

While I stick very closely to the HTTYD movie/TV show lore, I take liberties with the LoZ elements. Please read with an open mind, as if this were a new game.

New chapters on Wednesdays. The whole thing, 30 chapters plus Prologue, is written and will be posted!

***I'm thinking of taking a break from weekly posting just for Christmas, so even if there's not a new chapter next week, you can expect the story to continue in the new year!

Breathe. You've been in worse situations before. You just need to keep your head until Toothless and Astrid … Hiccup exhaled as realization sank in like an anchor. He shivered, suddenly realizing how alone he was.

Taking another breath, he thought, It's fine. I'm fine. This is just a dream. None of this is real anyways. The ropes digging into his wrists said otherwise.

He twisted his hands behind his back, trying to work the scratchy ropes loose, or at least, looser. The fidgeting earned him a sharp prod to the back of the head.

"Ow," he said, glaring over his shoulder. "Was that really necessary?" He bristled as the attacker's cloak brushed his fingers, and his hands snapped into tight fists. He expected for his captor to make a move, say something, do something, but the sniffing that had persisted since he woke up in this dungeon only continued.

As frightening as his current situation was, though, it was a welcome relief from the nightmare that began as he was carried off by the shadow beast. Even with a layer of fabric between him and the beast, his whole body had gone numb in a matter of minutes. And then came the voices. Screams, moans, and wails had shifted in the darkness of his unconscious, clawing at him, pulling him down to join them in that frigid oblivion. He thought back to the shadow beast he'd encountered in the Lost Woods and remembered with embarrassment how he had tried to connect with it as if it were an ordinary dragon. He didn't want to think about what would have happened if his skin had actually touched it. Link was right; things in this world were black and white.

He shook off the memory and tried to ground himself. His hands were tied behind his back, but he was otherwise free—his bonds didn't even attach him to the chair. His shield, bow, and quiver were nowhere to be seen. He was in a cylindrical room, and the narrow window slits high on the walls revealed the black night sky. Outside he heard the now familiar grunts of bulblins. Since he couldn't see the door, he assumed it was behind him or in a hatch on the floor or … He groaned. Please do not be some convoluted puzzle.

Three torches bolted to the stone wall flickered fitfully, giving off more smoke than light. Between the hazy shadows dancing on the wall in front of him and the constant sniffing, he easily tracked his captor's prowling behind him. As far as he could tell, they were alone.

He wanted to test the limits of his bonds. He thought he could wrench his shoulders over the back of the chair, but that would hurt … a lot. And he definitely couldn't try that with his captor whacking him on the head every time he twitched. Maybe he could distract him.

Hiccup cleared his throat. "So, who goes first? You talk first? I talk first?" The sniffing abruptly stopped. Hiccup shrugged casually as if he were having tea with an imposing neighbor. "Well, maybe you do things differently in Hyrule, but usually in situations like this, there's a little more, you know … back and forth."

The creature gargled and resumed sniffing. At least it had worked a little. Besides, speaking gave Hiccup a chance to continue surveying his prison.

"You know, this isn't my first time being captured. First there was Alvin the Treacherous, till he had a change of heart." On the edge of his periphery was a rough table with two levers on the side and gears attached underneath. "Dagur the Deranged is back, but he's easy to escape from." Above the strange table on chains and metal pegs hung blades of various sizes which would have glistened if they weren't covered in dirt and grime. Those could be useful … if he could get to them.

"Now there's this Ryker fellow—" Hiccup froze as something between a snarl and a hacking cough echoed behind him. "Gesundheit."

He realized the sniffing had paused. Hiccup held his breath and waited for the next move. Blood pumped in his ears, drowning out the bulblins' grunts outside. The night breeze tickled his face. His chest began to burn as the pressure and lack of air mounted. Still, nothing.

After several agonizing seconds, he took a shaky breath and eased back into his monologue. "As I was saying, Ryker's not— Hey!" He jumped as something grabbed his left arm. Chills raced up his arm. It wasn't just the prying fingers digging into his skin or the foul breath puffing against the back of his neck; there was something else that made his skin crawl and made him want to hold his breath and scream at the same time.

The tugging stopped, and the creature gurgled again.

Hiccup forced his voice to stay level. "Did you want something?" The creature jerked on his arm and gurgled again. "I really have no idea what you're saying." The creature released his arm with a groan and resumed sniffing.

Hiccup released a shuddering sigh and would have laughed if he weren't nearly scared out of his mind. So this creature was trying to interrogate him, but they couldn't understand each other? That's what you call "ironic". With direct communication off the table, the creature's terror over him began to crack.

"And is there something wrong with your nose? Hay fever?" The creature fumbled and spat behind him. Hiccup just grinned. "Try warm water with lemon. Works every time."

Any cockiness Hiccup had mustered melted when the captor swept before him. He could have guessed it had a snout from the wheezing and sniffing, but what really set him on edge were the glowing red eyes lurking in the black hood. He recognized him in an instant.

"Vabblin," Hiccup breathed. The creature, a little higher than eye level with Hiccup seated, cocked his head to the side and nodded slowly. "But— but you went off the side of the cliff. I saw you get washed off by the avalanche," stammered Hiccup. Vabblin simply rubbed his long fingers together and gurgled again, those glowing eyes staying fixed on him.

"I … I still don't know what you're saying," Hiccup croaked. In response, Vabblin sneered.

Hiccup had no idea what was going on, but he seriously did not like the way Vabblin was staring at him, as if looking through him. And the sniffing, that rapid, sniveling puffing, it never stopped. The wrinkled snout, just inches away, roamed up his chest, into the crevice between his neck and jaw, along his hairline …

"STOP THAT!" Hiccup shrieked. Vabblin jumped back. Hiccup was almost as surprised as his captor but knew this moment of control wouldn't last long. "What's with that sniffing anyways? Is that how you keep finding Link?"

Vabblin rolled his eyes, shuffled toward the wall of implements—letting the prisoner babble on—and fished a black paper bird from the folds of his robes. The only thing he could understand from the prisoner's incessant gibberish was his own name. So he was intelligent after all; he could be of use. More importantly, that bracer reeked of the goddesses' power. There must be something to that.

After whispering a few garbled words, the bird sparked to life and flitted out one of the narrow windows. Vabblin turned to the knives, letting his ashen fingers caress each malicious handle. Even if he couldn't carry out the interrogation himself, maybe he could prime the subject before the real work began.

Suddenly two words clarified in the prisoner's speech. Vabblin whirled around. "What do you know of the 'Blood Moon'?" he hissed. The prisoner stared at him like a freshly speared fish.

Vabblin rushed over and leaned in, squeezing the boy's bony legs. The prisoner squirmed beneath his grip and sputtered something. Drat it all! He couldn't understand the loathsome creature! Thoroughly frustrated, Vabblin stepped back and muttered to himself. "He knows. The Hero knows. This is not good. Oh, but it is inevitable. He cannot stop what is coming."

Vabblin eyed the prisoner—shrinking back against the chair and panting like a cornered rabbit—and a twisted smile crossed his shrouded face. Even if this brute couldn't understand him, it still gave him immense satisfaction to watch the horror take hold.

Drawing himself to his full height so that he looked down on the cowering boy, he said, "Her Grace will rise with the power of the Moon. All will kneel before her and succumb to darkness." The prisoner swallowed and pressed his lips tight. Vabblin nodded satisfactorily. If nothing else, this had gotten the aggravating imp to cease his endless honking.

He swished his robes and, returning to the wall of knives, selected a particularly wicked looking dagger. He turned back towards the prisoner and stopped short. The chair was empty, and the door stood ajar.

\\\

Hiccup raced down the hallway, his metal foot pinging down the stone corridor. The night air chilled him through his thin sleeves, but he kept going. Up stairs, down hallways. He didn't care where he was going as long as it was away from that thing. He could still feel its hot breath against his skin, investigating every inch of him. If the door hadn't been unlocked … He shuddered and kept going.

Eventually he hunkered down in an empty room. Taking a seat on the floor, he wriggled his long legs through his hands. Even still bound, having them in front of him gave immense comfort.

He dropped his head onto his knees and forced himself to breathe. He was well acquainted with danger, but that creature, whatever it was, was in a league of its own. And the way its eyes sparkled after he mentioned the Blood Moon was truly terrifying. He thought he had dreamt those words—in the midst of the screams of his mist-induced nightmare, the myriad of voices kept whispering, "Blood Moon"—but maybe there was something more to it. Either way, he didn't want to stick around to find out.

He could tell the adrenaline was wearing off when his shoulder started throbbing from wrenching it over the top of the chair. Not bad enough that he feared any serious injury, but not great either.

Getting his feet, he peered at the hallway from the shadows. Nothing. He took a breath and crept out. Thankfully, he had a great sense of direction, and before long he managed to find the main exit. A hoard of twenty bulblins along with some larger, nastier creatures guarded the way.

He found a shadowy corner to hide in and considered what to do next. A whirring and clanking of metal behind made him jump. He peeked into the empty storage room where the sound was growing louder. In the center of the room was a platform surrounded by metal arms bent at odd angles. They hummed as they spun above the platform, the tone punctuated by the rhythmic rattling of bolts and the grinding of several large gears. Before Hiccup's unbelieving eyes, the sparks of light swirling on the platform coalesced into bright silhouettes. Hiccup gulped. Someone was coming through.

The gears whined and belligerently came to a stop. The light faded and in its place were three burly bulblins, twice as tall as Hiccup and clad with nothing but loincloths and scowls. Hiccup hid again and pinched his nose as they bumped each other on the way out. As soon as they'd passed, he coughed into his arm and waved the stench away, vowing never to complain about herding wet sheep ever again.

He slipped inside, checking to see if anyone else was there. It seemed empty enough.

He ran to the platform. Hisses from unseen gear boxes escaped all around, but the machine was still. He waved his bound hands, jumped up and down. Nothing. He furrowed his brows, and then noticed a wide, stone podium off to the side.

Leaping from the platform, he recognized it was a map of Hyrule. The Lost Woods, the Sage's Summit, and the Valley were all there just like on Link's map and dotted throughout were names in the Hylian script. He touched one of the names, and it glowed. That's when he noticed an emerald and ruby embedded in the podium next to the map. He rolled his eyes. What is up with gems? He pressed the emerald. Nothing. He pressed the ruby, nothing. The name which had glowed faded.

"Can't make it easy, can they?" he muttered.

He was about to try a different combination when he felt a hot wind on the top of his head. His nose wrinkled as he turned to face two of the burly bulblins.

"Hey," he said, backing up against the panel. "You don't know how to work this thing, do you?" In response, they grabbed him by the arms.

As they dragged the boy out, the gears clicked to life. The arms creaked and then spun faster and faster, the magical sparks whizzed around the platform. When the light faded, a single figure was left. The man, clad in the red uniform of the Yiga, strode off the platform, a black sword strapped to his side.

\\\

The moon shone brightly on the wild field, casting strong shadows from broken fences, warped walls, and teetering roofless houses.

Link wiped his tears as he jogged through what had been the main street. This was Ordon, what was left of it. He had never visited, but a jolly Ordonian and his wife would deliver the best goat's milk in Hyrule directly to Castle Hyrule where he trained. Sometimes they brought along their toddlers, twin girls. One had her mother's golden curls, and the other had her father's ruddy cheeks. He didn't want to think which of these wooden skeletons had been their home or what had happened to them.

In the distance, he spotted his destination, the Old Garrison renamed the Fortress after the take-over. He glowered. This village probably was the first one hit.

Anger ate at him like the acidic river. No one else was going to pay for his mistake.

Tears watered the dusty road as he sprinted ahead.

\\\

Hiccup tugged at his newest bindings. Metal shackles and chains loosely pulled each of his limbs across the table with gears he had noticed earlier. This day just keeps getting better and better.

The door creaked. Hiccup wrenched his head around but couldn't quite see far enough. He swallowed hard. No matter how creepy Vabblin was, he was determined not to show fear.

Calling out over his shoulder, he said in a strong voice, "For the record, the service is terrible here." He did his best to still his thumping heart as the echoing footsteps approached and went bug eyed as not Vabblin but a man stepped into his field of vision. "Oh! You're new." His heart raced even more as he recognized the figure from the description he'd received from the other prisoner. The red suit, the pale mask. This was a Yiga, and the black sword that hung at his hip distinguished him as the Captain. Vabblin's the tracker, and the Captain does the dirty work.

Hiccup continued with a light conversational tone. "I would shake your hand, but …" He smiled wryly as he waved his chained hands.

He could not have guessed what happened next: the Captain sighed. His imposing muscles, easily visible under the tight crimson suit, relaxed, and the voice, muffled behind the pale mask, was surprisingly gentle.

"I'm going to be straight with you. I don't want to be here, and I doubt you do either."

Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "That's very perceptive. You should be a detective."

The mask shifted up ever so slightly, as if he were looking at something on the other side of the room. The Captain sighed again and then grabbed one of the levers. Hiccup yelped more out of surprise than pain as the chains tightened, pulling his arms tight against his ears. The metal dug into his skin, but it was bearable. For now.

"Can't say that's an improvement," Hiccup whined.

The Captain spoke again, adopting the deliberately slow cadence when doing this kind of work, each word placed with the maximum care. "I can make things much worse." He let the words sink in and left the rest to rumor and imagination. The boy's eyes dilated, and he swallowed. Perfect. This would be over soon. "Or …"

"Or what?" the boy murmured. He shrank back as the Captain leaned close.

"Or you could tell me what I want to know."

Author's Notes:

Anyone catch the "Pirates of the Caribbean" reference? (There was a little in the last chapter as well :P )

Thanks to Ari Lewis and Luke for beta reading!