Chapter 6: Gone Gustav Gone
The chief of Berserkers, Dagur the Deranged, had his men go back to the site where the Reaper was to pull it back above the water in order to collect anything that could be used against the Berk Dragon Riders.
Savage was overseeing the operation. "Pull! Pull!" Savage commanded. "Keep pulling, you maggots, unless you want to be giant eel chum!" Knowing full well his chief anger, the right-hand man knew that he needs to get the job done as soon as possible.
To his relief, the ship was starting to appear in sight. "The Reaper is starting to surface, sir." He reported to Dagur, who was right beside him.
"I can see that!" Dagur said with irritation, making Savage shrink back.
"Oh, right." He said meekly.
As soon as the Reaper was fully above the water, the Berserker troops climbed aboard and took every trap they could find.
"That's the last of it." One of the soldiers reported as soon as he brought the last trap on the Berserker ship.
"Well, now we have everything of value from the dragon-hunting ship." Savage concluded, examining some of their new weapons.
But Dagur wasn't satisfied. "No. Not everything." Dagur said. He threw a dagger at a drawing pinned on his ships' mast, one which had a drawing of the Dragon Eye.
Oblivious to what his nemesis was up to, Hiccup was in his hut studying the different lenses of the Dragon Eye. Since discovering the information hidden in this device, the Haddock boy wasted no time testing out the different lenses to see what he could find. Normally his twin sister, Hicca, would be there with him, but she and Midnight went to Healer's Island to stock up on essential medical supplies for Hicca's new healer hut that was located right next to Hiccup and Hicca's hut.
Hiccup then turned to his dragon. "Okay, give me a slow burn, bud." He asked. Toothless did what was asked and the image appeared on the wall of the door once again. "Okay, I've seen this before, but what happens if I push…" He pushed one of the buttons on the end of the Dragon Eye and the information on the wall suddenly change. "Cool. Dragon classes. What do you say we check out the Night Fury, bud?"
Toothless yawned, preferring to take a nap over studying anything.
"Try to contain your excitement, would you?" Hiccup said, chuckling.
Hiccup went back to his studies. "Now, Monstrous Nightmare gem plus Night Fury equals... nothing. Okay." That's when Astrid opened the door, causing the images from the Dragon Eye to appear on her instead. "Oh! Astrid class." Hiccup joked with a chuckle.
But Astrid was not in the joking mood at the moment. "Hiccup, we have a problem, a huge problem."
Hiccup quickly became serious. "Dagur?"
"Worse." Astrid replied.
"What could possibly be worse than Dagur?" Hiccup questioned.
His answer came crashing through the door, knocking into Astrid on the way in.
"Gustav!" The younger boy cheered enthusiastically as he got up from where he tumbled in, with Fanghook raising his head.
"Gustav?!" Hiccup exclaimed in shock, definitely wasn't expecting to see the younger boy arriving all the way from Berk.
"Gustav." Astrid confirmed, getting up.
"Gustav, what are you doing here?" Hiccup asked, but quickly rephrased to keep himself from sounding rude. "I... I mean, to what do we owe the pleasure of this visit?"
That's when the other teens, minus Hicca, came to the hut. "Hiccup, did you hear Gustav is…" Snotlout started to say before he noticed their new guest. "Standing right beside you. Perfect." He said unenthusiastically.
Tuffnut got a look at the younger boy, who has grown taller over the years. "You're looking a little different there, Guster."
"Yeah, I'm growing a beard." Gustav said proudly, jutting his chin out.
"Really? Let me see." Tuffnut said, getting a closer look at the so-called 'beard'. He scoffed at what he saw. "Ha! Even Ruff has more hair on her chinny-chin-chin than that."
Tuffnut pulled out the single strand of hair which Gustav counted as a beard. This move caught the younger boy off guard and he tripped and tilted the table where Hiccup placed the Dragon Eye on. The object then fell right into Gustav's vision.
"Hey, what's that thing?" The aspiring Dragon Rider wondered, picking it up.
Hiccup tried to grab the Dragon Eye as Gustav started viewing it as a telescope, but was too late because the younger boy got daze because of the sunlight shining through it.
"Oh! Whoa! You see these spots? Some sort of sun sword?" Gustav asked, still in a daze.
"I'll take that." Hiccup said, taking back the Dragon Eye. "No, Gustav, it's not a sun sword."
"It's the Dragon Eye, and it's very old and very fragile." Fishlegs explained.
Gustav wasn't paying attention because he was still seeing spots in vision. He started walking towards the wall which had Toothless prosthetic tail-fins hanging on them. "Whoa, these spots, they're not going away."
CRASH!
"Ow!"
"It isn't something to just be touched." Fishlegs finished with his explanation.
"Relax, Fishlegs, I know what I'm doing." Gustav reassured, even though he was still momentarily blinded by the spots in his visions. He then walked back to the wall he crashed into a few seconds ago.
CRASH!
Fanghook, trying to be helpful, picked up some of the prosthetic tail-fin...and tossed them right on Toothless' head, much to the dragons annoyance.
"Gustav, Gustav, over here." Snotlout called, getting his former protege attention. "Uh, when are you leaving?"
"That's funny, Snotlout, but I'm not leaving. I'm moving here." Gustav declared.
The others gaped in shocked, not expecting to hear that.
Tuffnut then started laughing. "Ha ha! Yeah, yeah, you are. Imagine... he would never…" He looked at Gustav and the others and realised that none of them were laughing. "Wait, he's serious? I'll get the stake and firewood."
Hiccup quickly stopped Tuffnut before he stepped out of the hut. "Oh, hold on, hold on. No one is burning anyone at the stake."
"Hiccup's right." Ruffnut agreed. "Let's just throw him off the cliff."
Hiccup stopped her as well. "Guys, I'm sure there's a simple explanation."
"Please say there's a simple explanation, Gustav." Raeda pleaded.
"Yeah, very simple." Gustav said, finally recovering from the spots in his visions. "By the way, do not look right into that sun sword thing." He warned with a laugh. "Whoo! Anyway, Hiccup and Hicca said when I was ready, I could join the Dragon Riders. Well, I'm ready and I'm here to join. Where's my hut?"
Hiccup mentally face-palmed. This was not the explanation he was hoping to hear. Of all the times his twin chose not to be here…
"Wait a minute, why do I have to watch him?" Astrid questioned.
Since Gustav was adamant about staying here, Hiccup had no choice but to let him stay at least for the time being. But that doesn't mean he can let the younger boy roam around the edge unsupervised, if the past actions were any indications. He needed someone to watch him and that someone was Astrid. So he took her outside the hut with Gustav still inside (hopefully not breaking anything), and asked Astrid to do so.
"Hicca would normally volunteer, but she's not here. I would do it, but I'm making some, just, major breakthroughs with the Dragon Eye."
"So?" Astrid asked.
"Well, Hicca and I did promise him that when the time was right we would train him to be a Dragon Rider. But neither of us thought that said time would be today."
"What am I supposed to do with him in the meantime?" The blonde girl asked.
"I... I don't know. Just keep him occupied."
"Great, so I'm a babysitter." Astrid asked. She wasn't as enthusiastic as Hicca is in spending time with younger kids.
"Babysitter!" Hiccup chuckled. "No, I mean, come one. He's... He's 16. How much trouble could he possibly be?"
They were interrupted by a sudden shriek. The two teens and dragons ran to the source and saw Smidvarg landing next to them looking exhausted. The concerned teens quickly looked over the tired dragon.
"Smidvarg, what is happening?" Hiccup asked.
"Hey, Hiccup, did you know they could do this?" Gustav called from above. "Awesome!"
Turns out that the younger boy had flew out of the hut on Fanghook and decided to explore their new home in the air. While exploring, they came across Smidvarg and the Gang. Not familiar with the boy or dragon, therefore not knowing whether they were a threat or not, the Night Terrors used their defense mechanism against the duo. But rather than being scared, the boy got excited at seeing that and decided to fly Fanghook to see what would happen. He then repeated this action multiple times, much to the dismay of the Night Terrors.
Hiccup turned to Astrid. "Please? I just need more time. At least until Hicca comes back."
Astrid sighed in defeat. "Fine!" She turned to where the boy and dragon in questione were flying. "Gustav, arena, now."
The boy immediately directed his dragon to fly in the direction of the Arena. Astrid got on Stormfly and followed them, leaving Hiccup, Toothless and Smidvarg.
The auburn boy turned to the Night Terror, who was still resting after the recent encounter. "By the way, your timing... impeccable."
Since she was left to babysit Gustav, Astrid decided to make it productive for both of them. She and Stormfly could train and Gustav and Fanghook could learn more about air combat. She started off with a lecture. But Gustav's mind seemed to be somewhere else, specifically imagining a romantic flight with Astrid, where the blonde girl was praising him.
"Gustav!" Astrid called, snapping the boy out of his daydream.
Gustav blinked before speaking. "Oh hey Astrid. I was just dreaming-"
"Uh-uh-uh, don't creep me out." Astrid said quickly. She has seen that awestruck look from Snotlout way too many times to now what Gustav was thinking of. "You're gonna help with target practice. Do you think you can handle that?"
He immediately straightened up and saluted. "Oh, I can handle that." He said with a wink obviously seeing this as a chance to impress Astrid.
"Ugh." Astrid muttered. Never let Snotlout take in another protege ever again. "When I say throw, you throw." She got on Stormfly and took to the skies. Gustav sat on his saddle with the target in his hands, watching in awe as the two girls performed some very clever tricks.
"She sure is something, isn't she, Fanghook?" He said to his dragon. The Monstrous Nightmare snorted in agreement, only he wasn't looking at Astrid, he was looking at Stormfly.
Once Astrid had Stormfly fly towards the boy and dragon duo, did she give Gustav the signal. "Okay, Gustav, throw!" Unfortunately the boy was still too starstruck to listen and he kept the target in his hands. The blue Nadder, not realising that the target was not where it's supposed to be, shot her spines right at Gustav and Fanghook! Thinking quickly, Astrid grabbed her axe and threw it at the line of spines, deflecting them just in time. But doing so caused the spines to fly off in different directions, a few of them right at Stormfly. Being caught off-guard, the Nadder tried to dodge, but Astrid did not have a good enough grip on her saddle and was flung right into Gustav and Fanghook.
Gustav saw this as a chance to be a hero in Astrids' eyes and reached out his hands to catch her. But instead, she crashed into him and knocked off Fanghook and into the ground with her.
"Hi." Gustav said with another wink.
Astrid immediately got up. "Okay, definitely creeped out."
She doesn't know when Hicca will return, but she certainly will not wait
"Wow! Nice place you got here, Rae." Gustav said as he walked in, causing the Henderson girl to look up from her table and see the boy walking into her new art shop/blacksmith.
"Gustav, I thought you were with Astrid." The raven haired girl said.
"Actually she dropped me here and told me to help you out." He explained.
"Well thanks but no thanks. Right now I need to finish with these decorative swords before Johann comes to take them to Berk." She said, lining up one of said swords with three others on the table.
That got Gustav excited. "Oh, you're making weapons! That so cool I want to try." He said going to the fire that was set next to the table.
"Actually Gustav, it's not that easy. You need to know-"
"Light 'em up, Fanghook." Gustav ordered, ignoring Raeda's warning.
Before the older girl could stop him, the Monstrous Nightmare blasted the furnace, but with a little too much fire then needed, causing the teens to move back. Luckily Sparkfire grabbed a trough of water and threw it at the fire before it could spread.
Raeda gave a sigh of relief...until she saw that the four swords she put on the table melted because of the fire.
"I'm telling you, if you get five boars, you can stack them on top of each other. That's a four-boar stack…" Tuffnut said to his sister as they walked outside. He stopped, however, when he and his sister noticed Gustav and Fanghook in their path, the boy grinning proudly at them. "Aah!"
Feeling weary of the grin, Tuffnut turned to his twin. "What's he smiling about?"
"I don't like it." Ruffnut said.
"Whatever he's selling, I'm not buying." Her twin agreed.
"Yeah. We don't want your cookies!" Ruffnut said to Gustav.
"Hey, guys. Raeda dropped me off, told me to help out around here. Or at least that's what I think she wanted me to do." Gustav said.
After the little incident at the workshop, Raeda just brought Gustav to this spot and simply told him to "do something here." Unbeknownst to the younger boy, she was doing her best to keep herself from saying or doing something that she would regret.
"Yeah? So? What's it to us?" Ruffnut asked.
"You know that big hole under your hut? Filled it in." Gustav happily informed them.
It took the twins a second to realise what hole Gustav was talking about. "Oh, no. He doesn't mean...Oh!" They both ran to the exact place under their hut and saw that indeed the hole was covered with rocks. But it wasn't just a big hole, it was Ruffnut and Tuffnut's boar-pit!. "He filled in the boar pit. He filled in the boar pit!" Tuffnut exclaimed. He then dropped on his knees and started sobbing. "Who fills in a boar pit? What kind of sick monster would fill in a boar pit? It's a boar…"
Gustav, who was feeling confident about his deed a second ago, became uneasy when he saw the way Tuffnut reacted. He moved to a hand on Tuffnut's shoulder when Ruffnut swatted it away. "Hey, back off! Haven't you done enough?"
The younger boy decided to walk away before the blonde twins decided to get their revenge, even though he didn't understand why.
Gustav and Fanghook then decided to hang out Fishlegs and Meatlug instead. The Ingerman boy figured that the duo would benefit from meditation, therefore, brought them to his new meditation garden to do so.
They went to the middle of the river in the garden, standing on the rocks there. Fishlegs clapped his hand, giving Meatlug the signal to fire a lava blast into the river, sending steam upwards.
"This... This feels weird, Fishlegs." Gustav said, as he and Fishlegs had their arms raised.
Fishlegs kept his eyes closed. "Trust me, Gustav, this is exactly what you need. You're not centered, you're all over the place. Just breathe in, breathe out. Focus on avoiding all conflict. Breathe in, breathe out."
Gustav decided to follow the instructions, even though he still felt weird. Curious, Fanghook decided to do the same as well. Unfortunately, he accidentally breathed fire on the flowers. Quickly he tried to extinguish it, only to make it worse.
Fishlegs opened his eyes to find the flowers in front of him burnt to crisp. "Aah! My topiaries!"
After that failed meditation with Fishlegs, Gustav and Fanghook then decided to hang out with Snotlout and Hookfang instead. It went as well as it did with the others and soon enough, Snotlout brought his former protege back to Hiccup and Hicca's hut.
"I have had enough of you, Gustav! Stay. Stay." Snotlout commanded.
Gustav, however, was looking at Snotlout's helmet, which caught on fire. "Uh, Snotlout, your head-"
"Stop! I'm not falling for that again." Snotlout said adamantly.
That's when he noticed his helmet on fire. Screaming he quickly jumped off a nearby ledge, into the ocean, extinguishing the fire.
Gustav meanwhile, went into Hiccup and Hicca's hut, hoping to find the Haddock girl there. He always did like spending time with Hicca. She would definitely let him hang out with her for more than five minutes. "Hello? Hicca? Hiccup?" He called out, only to find the hut empty of the older teens and their dragons. With the hut empty, Gustav decided to stay there and wait for someone to come. At least he wouldn't be sent somewhere else. He decided to look at some more things in the hut, but in doing so he accidently knocked down a prosthetic tail-fin on the wall. "Aah!" He then backed up, but accidently tripped over the chest that was behind him, knocking over the contents. Quickly, the younger boy tried to put everything back before someone came into this hut. He paused, however, when he noticed the contents of the chest. "Huh. What have we here?" He grabbed one of the contents, which was a spare prosthetic leg, and pretended to be Hiccup. "Gee, Gustav, there must be a simple explanation for you being here."
Fanghook started laughing at his riders' antics.
The human spoke in a normal tone. "Well, yeah, Hiccup, because I'm awesome." He went back to imitating Hiccup. "You are awesome, Gustav. Definitely ready to be a Dragon Rider."
Gustav was so busy enjoying his little game of pretend that he didn't see Fanghook's wing before accidentally stepping on it. Taken off guard and angered by this, the Monstrous Nightmare lit himself on fire, causing one of the tail-fins on the wall to catch fire!
Now panicking, Gustav quickly ran to the wall to try to put out the flame using the prosthetic leg. That failed when the leg went through the torn up tailfin. "Oh, no. Oh, no." Panicking even more, Gustav mentally scrambled to find a good explanation for Hiccup when something caught his attention. The Dragon Eye, which was left on the table, projected and image of a map on the wall thanks to Fanghook's flames. That got Gustav excited. "Oh, yes! Is that... a treasure map? Oh, Fanghook, we are so in!"
Soon the duo arrived at the island in the Dragon Eye. The boy was filled with excitement. Once he shows the others the treasure he brought on his own, he will prove to them that he is a competent dragon rider, who should be given a place in their team. He and Fanghook landed at the entrance of the cave, with the human bringing out a map from his satchel his made which is identical to the one shown in the Dragon Eye. "That's it, Fanghook, just like the Dragon Eye said. All we gotta do now is find the cave, grab the treasure, and guess who's gonna get his own hut on Dragon's Edge? A-Gustav!"
But before either boy or dragon could set foot in the cave, the ground started shaking with rocks falling from the ceiling.
Gustav looked at his dragon once the shaking stopped. "Uh, I'm not worried. Are you worried?" Fanghook snarled in response. They need to be in high alert in this cave.
The entered the cave with caution but were unable to see because it was poorly lit.
"Fanghook? Flame up." Gustav ordered. The Monstrous Nightmare set himself on fire, lighting up the cave. "Which way do we head?
He checked the map, but before he could figure it out, the cave shook once again, causing Gustav to lose his grip on the map and for the piece of parchment to catch Fanghook's fire.
"Oh! Ah!" Quickly, Gustav tried to extinguish the fire, only to make it worse. The map got burned to ashes. But that boy wasn't deterred in his mission. "Good thing we brought this along. Fanghook?" His dragon gave another flame showing the same map on the cave walls. "I think we go this way. It says it's just up this way. He started walking around, not paying attention to the cracks on the ground. The cave shook once more, causing the cracks to expand and break apart. Gustav was about to fall in, but Fanghook was quick to save his human and pull him to safety. "
Oh, whoops!" He said with a nervous chuckle. "Whew! Ahh. Huh?" He looked in his hand and saw that the Dragon Eye was gone! Eyes widening and frantically looking around, Gustav found it rolling towards a big hole in the middle of the cave. "No, no, no, no!" He ran as fast as he could to grab it before it falls, and he succeeds.
Unfortunately for the boy, he didn't stop himself in time and started falling into the hole. Thankfully, he grabbed onto the ledge. "Whew. A little help here, Fanghook? A little help?" He called out. Help was then given to him as he was pulled up. However, the boy's moment of relief was short-lived when he saw exactly who helped him. "Hiccup!"
It was indeed the Haddock boy. He returned to his hut not long after Gustav left for the treasure, and instantly knew there was something amiss, considering Gustav didn't bothered to clean up his mess. The auburn boy quickly learned of the days events. Once he realised the Dragon Eye was missing, he put two and two together and realised where the younger teen went. It didn't take long to find the place since he's already been there before.
Which brings him to the cave staring at the boy in question, looking less than happy with the stunt he pulled.
"I can explain…"
Hiccup and Toothless wasted no time bringing Gustav and Fanghook back to the edge. It was night-time when they got back. The four of them went straight to the clubhouse, which was a mini-version of the Great Hall, where the others were, still without Hicca.
"Of all the irresponsible, insubordinate…" Hiccup went off, still mad at Gustav. There was no way he was going to let the boy off for the stunts he pulled.
"Don't forget idiotic, imbecillic, inane." Tuffnut cut in, earning deadpanned looks. "What? I've heard a lot of words for stupid. I mean, come on, people say that more than my proper name."
"Not now, Tuff." Raeda told the blonde boy.
Not in the mood to listen to Tuffnut, Hiccup turned his attention back to the guilty party. "Of all those kinds of stunts you could have pulled, this was the worst! Do you know what Dagur would do to get his hands on the Dragon Eye?"
"I just thought if I came back here with the treasure, you guys would accept me." Gustav explained.
That did not do anything to dissuade Hiccup. "First of all, there is no treasure. Second of all, we've already been there. And that entire island is honeycombed with the most unstable caverns we've ever encountered."
"I'm sorry, I just…" Gustav tried to say.
"You could've been killed, Gustav! Fanghook could've been killed!" Hiccup continued. "Look, this isn't Berk, Gustav. The rules are different out here. You have to be smarter than this."
"I just wanted to prove myself." Gustav said weakly.
"Oh, you have." Hiccup said. "You have proven that you are not responsible enough, you're not mature enough and you're not trustworthy enough to be one of us. Now, it's been a long day. We all need some rest. We'll talk about this in the morning."
He left with the others following.
Dejected from the days event, Gustav and Fanghook stayed at the Dragon Stables, where the former was feeding fishes to the dragons.
"'Talk about it in the morning.'" Gustav mocked. "Like there's anything left to say." Fanghook gave a growl as he ate the fish. "That's right! It's not fair. I did everything they asked. I shoveled dragon poop for two years without a single complaint! For what? So they can tell me I'm not good enough?! Well, I am good enough. We're good enough."
He gave the last of the fishes to his dragon and got up to get his saddle. "And someday they'll find that out, but it'll be too late. We're leaving." He quickly fastened the saddle back on the Monstrous Nightmare and took off, not looking back.
A few hours later and they were still flying, not really paying attention to where they were going. "They're gonna be so sorry when they wake up in the morning and see that we're gone." Gustav ranted. "Once they realize that we're missing, they're gonna be begging us to come back to Dragon's Edge. Those huts were lame anyway.I can't wait to get back to my-"
He was cut off when he saw a net flying right at him and Fanghook!
"Whoa! Fanghook, dive!" Quickly, the Monstrous Nightmare was able to avoid the net. "Ha ha! Missed!" Gustav cheered... only for him and Fanghook to get captured by another net! "Aah!"
With his wings bounded by the net, Fanghook fell from the sky and landed right into a ship, which just happens to be a Berserker ship!
"We captured a Dragon Rider." Savage reported to Dagur.
The Berserker chief gave out a laugh, happy with the sudden success. "Which one is it? Oh, I sure hope it's brother Hiccup or sister Hicca. Or I suppose one of the two other girls would work, too."
"Which two other girls?" Savage asked.
"There's more than three?" Dagur questioned, genuinely confused. The net was removed and Gustav and Fanghook were held by the Berserker soldiers. Dagur looked at his new prisoner. "This is not one of Hiccup and Hicca's Dragon Riders. Who are you?" He demanded from the boy.
"Larson, Gustav Larson. And that's all you're getting out of me." Gustav said with confidence.
"Hmm." Dagur said before shrugging. He didn't seemed to bothered by the boy since he wasn't part of the Berk Dragon Riders. "Fine, feed him to the eels."
The confidence quickly left Gustav and he struggled to find something that would save him. "But I know Hiccup and Hicca, I know the Dragon Riders, and I have information!" He said quickly.
Dagur signalled his soldiers to stop. "Oh? What kind of information?"
"I can get you the Dragon Eye." The younger boy said, remembering what Hiccup said about Dagur wanting said object.
"And what's the Dragon Eye?" Dagur asked, not knowing the named the Haddock twins coined for it.
Gustav looked around, thinking of a way to describe the object. He then saw an exact drawing of it pinned to the mast. "That. That's the Dragon Eye."
Dagur's eyes lit up after seeing what Gustav meant. "Oh." He then gave a maniacal laugh, happy at a new way to get back at the Dragon Riders and retrieve the precious Dragon Eye.
Dagur, with Savage in tow, took his new 'accomplice' to the cabin of a ship, where food was already laid out on the table. The younger boy, who hasn't eaten anything since arriving at the Edge, helped himself.
"So, are you enjoying your meal?" Dagur asked, sitting on the opposite side of Gustav with Savage standing by his side.
"Mm-hmm. Mmm!" Gustav nodded, with food still in his mouth.
"Good. Good, good, good, good, good. So, here's the plan." Dagur said. "We'll draw Hiccup, Hicca and the Night Furies into the open."
"Actually Hicca and Midnight are gone somewhere else. Not sure where though." Gustav interrupted.
"Fine then, I guess just Hiccup will do." Dagur conceded. "We'll draw Hiccup and his Night Fury, neutralize the other riders and seize the Dragon Eye by lethal force, as if there is any other type of force. I mean, really, come on." He chuckled. "Then the Dragon Eye will be mine."
"Yeah, that's one way to do it. And you might get the Dragon Eye. Or Hiccup could crush you just like every other time you faced off against him." Gustav commented.
Savage raised his sword, ready to attack the boy who dared to make a comment like that, when his leader stopped him. "Mm. You have a better idea, Gustav?"
"Can you hand me the sauce, please?" He asked. Dagur did so, though mildly annoyed. "I do, one that will guarantee Hiccup delivers the Dragon Eye right to us."
Back at the Edge, the Dragon Riders were up and have realised that Gustav and Fanghook were missing. They were looking all over the island, hoping to find the duo.
"Anything?" Hiccup asked the others as they regrouped.
"I checked the clubhouse, your hut, even the stables. He's not there." Astrid reported.
"He's not in the Academy, the forge or Hicca's healer hut." Raeda stated.
"Nothing else is on fire around here, so he must be gone." Fishlegs observed.
"Well, we have to find him." Hiccup said, still determined.
"Or... do we?" Tuffnut questioned.
"Yeah, why are we worried?" Snotlout agreed. "Shouldn't we be celebrating the fact that he's gone?"
"Not until we know he's safe." Hiccup said. "Hicca will kill us if she found out. And when I say 'if' I mean 'when'."
"Well, we could ask Fanghook." Ruffnut suggested.
Snotlout scoffed at that. "And, Ruffnut, how do you suppose we do that?"
"Turn around." Ruffnut answered smugly.
The others turned and saw that indeed, the Monstrous Nightmare in question was flying right towards them, feeling anything but calm.
"Fanghook, where's Gustav, boy? Where's Gustav?" Tuffnut tried asking, only for Fanghook to roar and light himself on fire in response. "Ah! He's not talking, you guys. He's completely shut down. Typical."
Hiccup approached the dragon slowly, trying to get him to calm down. "Hey, hey, Fanghook. Hey, it's okay." He soothed, causing Fanghook to simmer down. "Easy, boy, easy." As soon as the dragon doused off his flames, Hiccup moved to check up on him. "Well, doesn't look like he's injured."
"But he's definitely upset." Fishlegs noted. That's when he saw the note attached to the dragons' horn. "You guys, look."
Hiccup took the note and read it. His face turned grim as he read the contents. "Dagur. He wants to make a trade. The Dragon Eye for Gustav."
After reading the instructions and finding the location on the map, Hiccup got on his saddle on Toothless, ready to leave. The note specifically wanted Hiccup to come and not any other rider.
"I don't like this, Hiccup." Astrid said.
"There's no doubt Dagur is setting you up for a trap." Raeda said.
"Well, we have no choice." Hiccup said to the two girls.
"You sure we have no choice? Like, none? Zip? Zilch?" Tuffnut asked.
"This is all my fault anyway." Hiccup stated.
"Ninguno?"
"I never even gave the kid a chance." Hiccup continued trying to ignore Tuffnut.
"Ni Portugal?"
"Tuff, that's really not helping at all."
Strangely, Tuffnut agreed. "Yeah."
"If I wasn't so busy tinkering with this thing, I don't know, maybe I could've kept him busy." Their leader finished.
"Uh, yeah, nobody can keep Gustav busy." Fishlegs said.
"Except Hicca, and still do her studies at the same time. So we really have no excuse." Raeda said.
"At least let us back you up out there." Astrid requested to Hiccup.
"Dagur was very clear. I have to come alone." Hiccup said. "We don't know what he'll do to Gustav if I don't follow his demands to the letter."
"We know what he's capable of doing." Raeda said.
"Exactly, we can't risk it. I'll be careful, I promise." Hiccup reassured the blonde girl though it didn't really help. If Hicca returns while I'm gone, let her know what happened. Dagur never said anything about her not allowed to be there."
With that Hiccup took off, towards the location, hoping to rescue the aspiring dragon trainer from the clutches of the Berserker chief, with Fanghook already flying ahead to find his rider.
Soon they arrived at the Ship Graveyard and found the Berserker ship.
"There!" Savage spotted.
Gustav was ecstatic to see his dragon come back to him. "Fanghook! Oh. I was worried about you, boy." He exclaimed, hugging his dragon.
"Aww, dragon and Dragon Rider love. Makes me want to hurl." Dagur sneered. "Blech!"
Hiccup and Toothless were not far behind. Toothless was the first to spot the boy. "Yeah, I see 'em, bud." They landed on the ship. "Gustav, are you okay?" The boy nodded in response. Dagur walked towards Hiccup. "That's close enough, Dagur." Hiccup warned with Toothless growling for emphasis.
The Berserker chief feigned hurt. "Oh, wow. Where's the trust. After all we've been through together? No?" Hiccup just glared at him, remaining silent. "Nothing? No Hiccupy barbs, quips, snappy comebacks? But I really love those. We've developed such a nice shorthand, you and I."
"Dagur, let's just get on with this." Hiccup interrupted. "Send them over."
"You first." Dagur countered. Hiccup was reluctant. "You have no choice. One false move and my men will take out you, the Night Fury and the kid! So roll it over and I'll let him go." Realizing that Dagur was right, Hiccup took out the Dragon Eye, placed it on the ground and rolled it over to him.
The older man picked up the object and inspected it. "Oh. It... It really is one beautiful artifact. And I hear it can be very useful to those who possess it? Hmm? Is that true?"
Hiccup chose not to answer it and went to Gustav. "Gustav, let's go. It's okay."
But Gustav simply looked at Dagur and then turned back to Hiccup with a smirk.
"Yeah, about that, Hiccup." Gustav started. "I've been treated much better by these guys than I ever was treated by you and the Dragon Riders."
Dagur laughed at that. "Ooh! And the plot thickens."
"Gustav?" Hiccup questioned, hardly believing his eyes and ears. This couldn't be possible. Gustav wouldn't do this. Were they that bad that Gustav would to side with someone like Dagur.
"You could've given me a chance, you know? All you guys ever did was tell me I wasn't good enough, tell me I didn't belong. Well, I belong here." The younger boy continued.
"Gustav, you have no idea what you're getting into!" Hiccup pleaded.
"Oh, yes, I do, Hiccup. I know exactly what I'm doing." Gustav said with full confidence.
"Awkward!" Dagur said in a sing-song voice, causing Hiccup to glare at him. "Well, I'd say your work is finished here, brother. Ordinarily, this is where I would double-cross you and fill you full of arrows. But the kid is squeamish. He made me promise to let you go, and in return, he's gonna take me to a treasure."
That brought confusion to Hiccup. Treasure...
"That's right, Hiccup." Gustav said, stepping in. "We have the Dragon Eye and Fanghook's fire. And you know what that means. Untold treasure awaits."
Unbeknownst to Dagur or any of his soldiers, Gustav gave Hiccup and wink and the auburn teen realised what the hidden plan was and really, he had to admire the boy for this courageous yet risky plan. It is definitely something that he or his sister would come up with.
With that in mind, Hiccup played along. "You are going to regret this."
"I don't think so, Hiccup." Gustav retorted with a smirk.
Taking a pause, Hiccup got on Toothless and flew off. With one last look back at the ship, Hiccup led Toothless to their next destination.
With Hiccup gone, Gustav started playing with Fanghook while Dagur watched. "You know, I'm actually going to feel bad when I kill this kid." He said to Savage in a voice low enough that Gustav couldn't hear.
There was no way he was going to split the treasure with that little punk from Berk.
The ship soon docked the same island from earlier with Dagur, Gustav, Fanghook, Savage and some of the other soldiers setting foot on land.
"This is it." Gustav said, but he didn't make a move to go inside.
"Why are we stopping?" Dagur asked, getting impatient.
"No reason." Gustav answered with a shrug. "I was just kind of impressed that you trusted your men enough to show them exactly where the treasure is hidden." He then spoke in a lower voice. "Especially when there's so much of it."
Gustav's words seemed to have gotten to Dagur, because he turned to his men. "Stay here." He ordered.
"Why?" Savage questioned.
"Oh, uh, let's see, uh…" Dagur pretended to think. "I don't know. Maybe because... I SAID SO!"
That was enough to get the soldiers to stay where they were. "Oh, good idea, sir. We'll stay here." Savage said meekly.
Dagur caught up to Gustav inside the cave and handed him the Dragon Eye. "Fanghook, slow burn." The boy said, holding the object close to his dragons' mouth.
The dragon did so and Dagur's eyes widened as he saw what was projected on the wall. "Ah, I see. You outdid yourself, Hiccup. I love this thing."
Suddenly the ground started shaking for a minute, much to Dagur's alarm. "Uh, so, does that happen a lot?"
"You get used to it." Gustav answered nonchalantly, before leading the way.
"Are we there yet?" Dagur asked when they were a few minutes into the path.
"We're close, very close." Gustav said, recognising the area.
"Good, that's what I wanted to hear." Dagur said with a low chuckle. He approach the boy, about to draw out his sword, when Gustav suddenly turned around used that Dragon Eye to blind the chief the same way he got blinded by it earlier.
Dagur shouted. "Aah! Aah! Oh, bright light, bright light, bright light!" He recovered faster than Gustav did and quickly went in search for the boy, who seemed to have disappeared. "Come out, come out, wherever you are!" His eyes went to one of the boulders ahead, which had a bright light glowing from behind.
Gustav, who was hiding behind the boulder with Fanghook, was trying to cover the Dragon Eye to block the bright light. He peered over the boulder and saw that Dagur was gone. Breathing a sigh of relief, he turned back, only to find the Berserker chief right in front of him!
"Gotcha!" He exclaimed, getting his sword ready.
"No... we've got you." A familiar voice said. But it wasn't Hiccup.
"Hicca!" Gustav explained, surprised to see her.
The Haddock girl and her dragon did come back while Hiccup was gone and the others immediately told her what had happened. As soon as she heard the whole thing, she and Midnight took off. Their first priority was to get the two boys and dragons to safety. Then once assured they are out of danger, the auburn girl was going to have a stern talk with everyone, because Gustav shouldn't be here by himself and seriously seven grown vikings who have overcome dangerous missions in the past couldn't keep an eye on one boy and dragon.
So she and Midnight soon caught up with Hiccup and Toothless once they left the ship and all four of them went to the caves with the girls brought in on the plan.
"Glad to see your safe Gustav." Hicca said, smiling at the younger boy.
"Good work, Gustav." Hiccup praised. He then turned to their enemy. "Oh, what's the matter, Dagur? No barbs, no comebacks? I thought we had a shorthand, I thought you loved that stuff." He mocked, causing the others, except Dagur to laugh.
Angered at being tricked, the Berserker chief lunged at Gustav and before the others could react, he snatched the Dragon Eye and tossed the boy away. Luckily Hicca caught him.
"Dagur, you hand over the Dragon Eye." Hiccup demanded.
"I don't think so." Dagur taunted, his smirk returning.
"He wasn't asking." Hicca said. Midnight and Toothless snarled at the Berserker. They both fired at the ground, creating a big hole.
Dagur peered down the hole, pretending to be curious. "Oh. It's a long way down, isn't it?"
"Dagur, you've got nowhere to go. It's over." Hiccup stated.
"It's over? Really?" Dagur questioned. He then dropped that Dragon Eye into the hole. "Whoops."
"Oh, no!" Gustav exclaimed. Then on an impulsive, and impromptu, decision, he dove right after it!
"GUSTAV!" Hiccup and Hicca yelled. Without thinking twice, Hiccup and Toothless flew in after him, with Hicca, Midnight and Fanghook after them.
Dagur laughed at them, his idea going exactly as he wanted it to go.
"Got it!" Gustav yelled as soon as he grabbed the object. He then have new problem; how was he going to stop himself from falling? He looked up and and saw Hiccup and Toothless flying after them. "Hiccup!"
The male Night Fury quickly grabbed the boy and Hicca was able to pull him on her saddle behind her. "We got you, Gustav." He reassured.
"Great! Now let's get out of here." Hicca said from above.
The group flew upwards, but as they were doing that, the ground shook once again, causing a boulder to fall in. Midnight and Fanghook were quick to dodge it, but Toothless, given no warning, was hit on the wing, knocking Hiccup and Gustav off the saddle. With no one to control the stirrup all three of them started falling!
"Aaaah! Toothless!" Hiccup screamed as they fell.
"Oh no!" Hicca yelled in horror.
Both dragons flew in after them once again.
Hiccup tried to get back on the saddle while free-falling. "Don't worry, bud. Hang on, bud!" He said as he tried to go for the saddle. He succeeded just in time and got his prosthetic onto the stirrup. "I'm gonna have to come up with something in case that happens to us again." He said.
But that thought was cut short when he saw Gustav still falling. Fortunately he got rescued in time by his own dragon.
"Fanghook! Yeah!" Gustav cheered. "Thanks, boy."
The cavern shook again and the group went back to their task of finding their way out. The found another passage and quickly flew that way, which brought them to another cavern.
As soon as they were brought to safety, all three humans breathed a sigh of relief.
"You okay?" Hiccup asked Gustav.
"Yeah. Hiccup, I'm really sorry." He said.
"I'm sorry, too, Gustav." Hiccup replied. "You're still irresponsible, immature and reckless, but the way you handled yourself with Dagur, maybe you do have what it takes to be a Dragon Rider... someday."
"Someday?" Gustav repeated. He then grinned. "I will take someday." After the days events, the younger figured it's probably best if he didn't rush it
"I'm glad that all of you are okay." Hicca said. Her voice then turned stern. "However, keep in mind, neither of you are safe from me." Both boys gulped at that. "In fact no one on the edge is safe. When I come back from a three days one of the things I don't like to hear is how aloof and irresponsible you guys have been. Hiccup, we need to talk about the time you spend with the Dragon Eye, because it is not healthy."
The cavern shook once again, cutting her off. "Hey, sis, what do you say you finish this back on the Edge and we find a way out of here?"
"I completely agree." Gustav said, getting on Fanghook and flying off in search for a way out.
"Don't think that because of this you guys are safe. We will have that talk." Hicca promised to her brother.
"I don't doubt that." Hiccup said, getting on Toothless. He was about to follow the younger boy when something on the walls caught his attention.
"What the Thor is this?"
Hicca turned to where her twin was looking and saw a chest in the walls on the cavern. Curiously, she got the chest, but before she could open it, the ground shook again.
"Let's go, guys." Hiccup said.
The four of them took off after Gustav
They found their way out of the cave and with Dagur and the Berserkers long gone, they went back to the edge, meet up with the others in the Academy, and caught them up with what happened.
"Now that that's cleared up." Hicca said, once they finished the story. Her expression turned stern again and the others winced, knowing what was coming. "First things first. Gustav, does your mom actually know your here."
That caught the older teens by surprise as the younger teen smiled sheepishly. "Uh, well, not really. Heh, heh."
Hicca pinched the bridge of her nose. "Gustav, your mom had a talk with you about this. I know she did because she told me. None of us would even think of doing something like this. What if you got captured by Dagur before you reached this place then what?"
"Well, my mom usually notices I've been gone after about three days." Gustav said, trying unsuccessful to come up with a good answer.
"Uh-huh. Well she's is going to find out exactly what you've been up to these past two days, once I drop you off back to Berk." Gustav groaned in protest. "Sorry Gus, but I made a promise to her after the last time. Now let's go."
"Wait." Hiccup said. "I'll drop him of. Hicca you just got back from a three day trip and immediately flew into a fight with Dagur. You should rest. Toothless and I will handle this."
Hicca conceded. She and Midnight actually do want to rest. "Fine, I'll give you two days for this. But be sure to tell his mom what happened. I don't care what Gustav tells you, she needs to know."
"Alright." Hiccup said, getting on Toothless.
"Bye, guys!" Gustav said, as the four of them took off. The others waved to them.
Once they were far away, Hicca turned to the others. "Meanwhile I can have a nice, good talk with you guys on your inability to look after someone."
Snotlout and the Thorston twins groaned at that.
Hicca then went to get the chest from midnight's saddle.
"What's that?" Astrid questioned.
"Just something Hiccup and I found at the bottom of that cave." Hicca answered.
"I thought there was no treasure in those caves." Raeda said.
"I thought so too." Hicca said, opening the chest. None the teens, however, were expecting to see a lens there, looking identical to the one they use for their Dragon Eye.
"Oh, a new lens." Fishlegs said excitedly, looking at their newest acquisition.
"Yeah, the Dragon Eye was giving us clues on how to find it all along. We just weren't looking in the right place." Hicca inferred.
"And if there's one of these out there, that means there has to be more." Fishlegs said, practically vibrating with excitement. "Ooh-hoo-hoo!"
"Huh. And to think, we never would've found that without Gustav." Astrid pointed out.
"Awesome, so let's just tell Gustav." Hicca joked, knowing what the others reactions would be.
Sure enough. "No! No, no, no!"
Hicca just shrugged. "Oh well then. That just brings us to…. Clubhouse, Now!" She demanded, taking the others by surprise. "Did you think I was joking when I said I was going to have a talk with you guys? Come on." She pointed to the direction of the Clubhouse and reluctantly the others went to their dragons.
"And no one tells Hiccup about the new lens for another three days after he gets back."