Fall From Grace: Dart's Pain
Chapter 5: Choices Are Made
The two months went by, and in that time Pouncer and Ruffrunner training had been progressing quite well. For Dart however, things were not so great. Ever since the fight with Ruffrunner, Dart had become cold, distant even, and it worried his family a lot. He was especially cold to his siblings and pretty much ignored them all together.
However, he had just gotten ungrounded and was ready to put his plan into action within the coming days.
However, just because he was grounded did not mean he was just going to sit there in self-pity; he decided to think about what Ruffrunner had said to him. 'Well if I make you so unhappy, why don't you just leave!' That sentence had been replaying in his head non-stop, and after thinking about it for the first month of his grounding, he decided that he would do just that.
For the second month of his grounding, Dart had been planning. Planning how he would leave and get revenge. Then it hit him! The perfect plan fell into place. Instead of just trying to overthrow Ruffrunner, which would also involve overthrowing Pouncer since the defenders would be an issue, he was going to create his own kingdom and then take over the Hidden World.
This made Dart stop and think about all the stories that his father had told him about when he was with Hiccup and how they constantly fought Warlords and other threats. This made Dart smile, "Yeah, that's it! A Warlord, that's what I'll become! I'll become the most powerful Warlord the Hidden World has ever seen! I'll be the most power Warlord New Berk has ever seen!" he shouted to himself triumphantly.
Dart was very pleased with how his plan was coming together and all he needed to do now was find away to leave without anyone noticing. A few options crossed his mind: fake his death, fake getting dragon-napped, even leaving a decoy made of whatever he could find. In the end, Dart decided that just leaving in the middle of the night without a trace was going to be the best. All he had to do was wait till nightfall and he'd be gone.
The day was drawing to a close and the sun was setting, as the time got closer for Dart to enacted his plan, he stared to doubt himself. 'If I go though with this, they all see me as a villain… is that what I want? Do I want to be seen as evil?' Dart thought to himself. 'Even though I won't be evil- just powerful and intimidating to get my point across- will they see it that way? Probably not. If I do this, then I have to accept the role of a villain too. Very well, it seems I have no other choice. If I have to be evil to get my point across, fine, I'll do it.'
With his mind finally made up, Dart went outside to go wait for the rest of his family to arrive for dinner and have one last meal with them.
The family was enjoying the fish dinner that was caught earlier that evening while discussing the events of the day. And, not to Dart's surprise, the compliments of how well Ruffrunner and Pouncer's training had be going began. Dart just sat there in silence. He didn't need to say anything and he wouldn't contribute to the conversation at hand by saying anything anyway. So he just stayed silent and watched as his family continued on talking as if he were invisible.
As Dart finished up his portion of the meal he was about to get up and return to his spot in the den hoping to make a quiet exit, but before he could, his family seemed to all of the sudden remember his presence there.
"What about you Dart? How was your day?" Pouncer asked as she turned her attention to her other brother.
"Oh, it was fine. Just stayed here at the den all day as normal," Dart answered back, making sure his true emotions were not shown in his facial expressions or voice.
"You do know your grounding ended last week, right?" Ruffrunner questioned as he look to his brother.
As much as Dart wanted to make a smart remark in reply, he knew that with the plans he had for tonight, starting something petty was not going to help anything. "Yeah, I know. But since all I seem to do when I'm out and alone is cause trouble, I might as well stay here where I'll be out of the way and not causing any problems," He answered, with no emotion in his voice.
That caught the whole family off-guard, no-one expected Dart to say anything like that, and with no emotion behind it either.
"Dart, are you alright? Whats wrong?" Luna asked, knowing that her youngest son was hiding something.
"Oh, I'm fine. I'm just being responsible. Isn't that want you all wanted? For me to be more responsible and not getting into trouble?" Dart questioned back.
The family sat in a surprised silence again. They had to admit, though, Dart was right. After another few seconds of awkward silence, Toothless spoke up.
"I believe what your mother is trying to say is; yes we want you to be more responsible and to stay out of trouble, but not so much to the point where you're unhappy," Toothless tried to clarify.
"I understand, but to be clear, I'm not unhappy. Even if you think that I am. If anything, I was just using this time to clear my head. And before you bring up my lack of emotion, I'm just working on trying to control it. After all, none of us want another fight, isn't that right, Brother?" Dart said as he turned from his father to his brother.
Ruffrunner didn't reply, but gave a single nod as to not be rude. Once Dart received his brothers nod he turned back to his parents.
"And since I'm working on being more responsible, I can assure you that if I'm feeling unhappy or anything I'll come to you. After all, that's what a responsible dragon does, correct?" Dart asked as he looked between his parents who both nodded in reply. "Good, now if I may, I would like to be excused, please."
Luna finally found her voice again and responded, "Okay Dart, you're excused, but please tell us if something is troubling you."
"I will," Dart answered, before entering the den again and leaving the rest of his family, still worried that he wasn't as 'okay' as he claimed to be.
After a long silence, Pouncer finally spoke up once she knew Dart was out of ear-shot. "I don't think Dart is okay. The way his voice lacked any emotion whatsoever just doesn't sit right with me."
Ruffrunner nodded in agreement. "I agree that is not the normal Dart, or even Dart trying to be better and please us. This is a side of Dart that I have never seen before and it worries me to think what it could mean."
"I think he's just hurt and needs some time to come around. He's probably still upset that I had Stormfly watch him while he was grounded," Luna said, though she had trouble believing her own words.
"Your mother's right. Dart is probably still upset with us and doesn't want to show it. I'm sure he will be his old self again in no time," Toothless stated, backing up Luna.
The siblings traded uncertain glances before turning back to their parents.
"We hope you're right mom," Pouncer said with a bit of worry still lingering in her voice.
Ruffrunner looked to his father, "Yeah, what Pouncer said. I don't like this new side of Dart."
"Neither do I Ruffrunner, but we have to give him the benefit of the doubt, he is still apart of this family," Toothless agreed.
"I know, Dad," Ruffrunner answered.
With that, the rest of the family went into the den as they got ready for another night of sleep and rest.
Authors Note:
Hey, thank you all for your patience on Dart's Pain. I know its been a while since the last chapter, but since then I have graduated College and now have a job and on top of that I did have a bit of writers block on the story, though that is no longer the case. The main reason this chapter took so long is because its a key chapter in the story and I want to make sure its the best it can be, because this is the first part of the key plot point of the story and I want to make sure it lives up to its full expectations. In fact, I have actually rewritten this chapter a few time, just to make sure I have it portray things the way I wanted and needed them portrayed.
I can't say when the next chapter will be out, but I'd say six to eight weeks should be about right.