cdchromebook Moon: 'Haha what you don't like Jokul? I'll have you know it was a popular name back in those days.' *Gives a smirk and then proceeds to roll eyes* Moon: 'Ok I'll put you in the story again; hold on tight!'

Disclaimer: see Prologue

Chapter 5

'Where is my son?!' If looks could kill, the Outcast viking currently facing Stoick's wrath would be knocking at the gate of Valhalla right now.

The moment the island was within sights, the dragon riders flew low to the surface of the ocean in an attempt to avoid detection. Although none of them were confident their element of surprise could last the whole way, it did give them a few precious minutes of confusion to interrogate the nearest few Outcasts for the location of their heir.

Although the whimpering viking currently pinned to a nearby rock by Stoick's axe started muttering and shaking while he his eyes darted around him full of worry, he did not loose a word and Jack noticed Astrid's patience was wearing thin.

This is why it was no surprise to him when Astrid suddenly charged towards the Outcast with her own axe before Stoick even had the chance to register the movement. She swung her weapon towards the viking and it indented itself not two centimetres from his face.

She put her face close to the Viking as she lowered her voice: 'Where's the dragon conqueror you son of a half troll?' She spat out the title sarcastically, but a light of a flash of recognition passed through the Outcast's eyes anyway. Astrid caught this look.

'ANSWER ME OR I SWEAR I'LL-' 'He- He's in the d-dungeons! To the west!' The Outcast Viking yelled between rattling teeth. 'P-Please j-just get her away from me!' he shouted to no one in particular.

Astrid furiously wiggled her axe out of the rock and raised it menacingly above her head, but before it could make contact with the Viking's face, Stoick had already stepped up and grasped her lower arm in his hand.

He pushed her away gently and stepped closer to the shivering Outcast, casting a large shadow over the smaller viking: 'You're going to lead us to him. Is that understood?'

The threat did not need to be uttered; the viking knew the consequences if he disobeyed the foreign chief's 'orders'. He contemplated his options.

He and his fellow Outcasts had received direct orders from Alvin to not compromise the location of their captive, and although the Outcast did manage follow this command for now, he did not want to be there when this particular group of vikings found out he gave them the wrong directions.

'THIS WASN'T A REQUEST!' He felt himself being lifted up by his collar – the absence of ground beneath his feet a completely new sensation for the Outcast – and looked into the burning eyes of the furious chief that held him up.

He made up his mind.

'I-' He struggled to breathe as his tight collar narrowed his airways and his voice had trouble passing through. He desperately patted Stoick's arm as a sign of surrender and the viking lowered him towards the ground again, still holding on to his tunic.

'I-.' Stoick's eyes narrowed even more. 'The dragon conqueror, he's-'

The Outcast's eyes suddenly widened as he felt an incredible pain surging through his torso. He looked down instinctively and paled at the sight: the tip of a spear protruded from his chest, the metal glazed with blood – his blood. The foreign chief's looked surprised as he stared at the weapon as well and when he looked back at the Outcast in his hands he saw the eyes slowly loosing all focus as life left the Outcast's body.

'WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!' Fishlegs yelled frantically and Stoick saw Outcasts rushing downhill from a nearby ridge, shields up and swords drawn.

Stoick threw the now dead Outcast to the side. 'ARM YOURSELVES! READY YOUR DRAGONS!' He yelled as he grabbed his main axe from the ground and drew his secondary axe from the scarab attached to Thornado, who was already letting loose a great sound towards the approaching Outcasts.

'Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh!' The Ingerman boy started his panicked mantra, but Jack wasn't as worried. 'Well, we had to attract attention one way or the other; well apparently this is the other.'

'Easy for you to say.' Snotlout said sarcastically as he grabbed his axe from his mount. 'You're useless in a battle!'

Jack took offence to that: he – together with the other guardians of childhood - took out the largest threat to humankind in 500 years not two months ago.

'Says who?!' Jack stomped towards the narcistic child angrily.

'Look at you! Why did we even bring you along anyway?!' Snotlout gestured to all of Jack. 'You're just a random scrawny teenager with a flimsy stick as a weapon!'

Jack felt his power surging through his shepherds staff, ready to freeze the loudmouth child's mouth shut, when suddenly Astrid grabbed Jack by his collar and pulled him out of the way from an approaching arrow.

'I can't believe I'm saying this, but Snotlout is right.' She send Jack a scrutinising look. 'Useless people should stay back.' She said before turning, she and the others engaging with the enemy as the Outcasts finally reached them.

Jack wanted to retaliate so badly, but Stoick suddenly grabbed Jack's shoulder. The teen turned his head from the viking girl to look at Stoick, who looked towards Jack pointedly, so very much like Hiccup's. Toothless was by his side.

'Jack. A distraction.'

On the way to here, Stoick and Jack both agreed that to find Hiccup as quickly as possible, the winter sprite's gift could be a useful asset. Jack insisted that his identity remained secret however, so he could not just take to the sky whenever it suited him. But with the right distraction…

Jack looked around as he and the Night Fury slowly backed away from the battlefield, hoping that none of the Outcasts as well as the riders would notice the two exiting. Taking three steps without any reaction from the kerfuffle, the two turned around and ran westward.

After they turned the corner, Jack put up his hoodie and summoned the wind to cover more ground. "The dungeons to the west" was not a whole lot to go on, but it was better than no clue. When he looked at Toothless though, the dragon did not look nearly as lost. On the contrary, the Night Fury's steps were resolute as he navigated himself through the labyrinth of paths.

It then dawned on Jack that this was probably not Toothless' first time on this island and he was very grateful since it did not take long before they reached a structure that very much resembled a dungeon.

'Hmmm… Should we knock?' Jack cupped his chin with face contemplation. 'I mean what's the proper etiquette in these situations?'

Toothless let out a plasma shot towards the thick door, instantly blasting it out of its hinges and with a little push, it fell to the ground with a loud thud.

Yeah that seems about right.' Jack said with a smug grin as stealth was obviously not in their agenda; just how he liked it.

They split up: Toothless zealously tried to pick up his rider's scent in every corner of the passages while Jack flew past and inspected every cell he could possibly find, both throwing as many Outcast as they possibly could against walls, hoping to find Hiccup unharmed and patiently waiting for them.

Jack rounded an intersection he already passed earlier and found Toothless looming threateningly over an Outcast, growling loudly. Jack wasted no time flying towards the two, scared that the dragon couldn't control his temper.

Toothless started opening his mouth while starting to make a small screeching sound. Jack had heard that sound enough times to know what was coming. 'TOOTHLESS STOP! HE MIGHT KNOWS WHERE HICCUP IS!'

Toothless looked towards Jack in annoyance, but moved away from the Outcast nonetheless.

'Now that I have your undivided attention,' Jack started as he walked towards the Viking while broadening his shoulders as much as he possibly could, 'I'm sure you can tell me where our Dragon Conqueror is.'

The viking's body started to relax as he looked at his new opponent, a little grin starting to appear on his face. 'Ha! I'll tell you nothing!'

Jack looked bored towards the viking as he leaned on his staff: 'Well it's good to know that you know something isn't it.' He looked behind the viking towards the offspring of lighting and death itself and hated to admit that if he wanted to retain his identity, Toothless would be a bit more efficient for this job: 'Little help?'

Not a moment later, the Outcast's high-pitched screams rang through the caves as Toothless started charging a plasma blast not two centimetres from the Outcast's face.

'WHERE IS HE YOU BASTARD! WHERE IS HICCUP!'

The screeching became louder. 'NO STOP!' Jack's ears started ringing as the sound became deafening. 'ONLY IF YOU TELL ME WHERE THE FUCK HE IS!' Toothless drew his head back as his energy was almost fully focused in his mouth. 'HE'S-' The outcast placed is hands in front of his face as he feared for his life, finally breaking.

'HE'S NOT HERE!'

Toothless loosed his plasma blast. Jack had a sudden doubt as to Toothless' intentions, but when the smoke cleared, he saw the plasma blast had hit the ground just next to the viking's head instead.

The Outcast breathed heavily, as if his body was trying to convince his mind that he was indeed still alive. His eyes were wide as he looked off into the distance with a terrified expression and he shook furiously.

Jack shooed the dragon off of the viking and placed himself in his line of vision instead. He rested the base of his staff onto the Outcast's chest and let a tiny bit of magic flow into the body underneath.

The Outcast started squirming as his thoughts were brought back at the situation at hand and an uncomfortable feeling started spreading from his torso.

Jack crouched down and his glowing sky-blue eyes looked down intensely: 'So if he's not here… where is he?'

The Outcast found that he couldn't stop the shaking, no matter how much he willed his body to stop. Was he scared? He glanced at the dragon staring at him unblinkingly. Yes he was. But was he more scared of a scrawny kid and his tamed night fury than the fury of his chief.

No, he wasn't.

'We- we threw him with the dragons! In the prisons near the arena!' Jack looked at the viking skeptically. 'You threw someone who could tame dragons… into a den filled with dragons?'

After a second, the viking nodded furiously. 'Well, wouldn't be the dumbest thing you guys did.' Jack shrugged as he removed his staff from the Outcast's slightly blue-tinted chest.

'… He's lying.'

Toothless and Jack's heads both snapped towards the direction of the small sound from a nearby cell. Toothless sniffed the air as he cautiously approached it, but was confused by the smell. He recognized it from somewhere…

Jack peered into the darkness and saw two green eyes looking back at him. As his eyes adjusted more and more to the dark room, he saw the figure of a woman with long matted black hair that was barely held together by a French braid on the side. She was sitting on the floor with her legs propped up and he arms resting on her knees, allowing Jack to see the deep bruises and cuts running along her entire arms.

Toothless screeched again and let loose a plasma blast on the hinges of the cell. The woman- no, girl jumped at the sound.

He nudged the bars out of the way and approached her without hesitation. As he squeezed his head in between her legs and torso while purring softly, the girl couldn't help but smile at the dragon's antics.

'Hey Toothless.' She sighed as she slowly unfurled from her position, wincing every so often, and started rubbing the dragon's head. Jack smiled at the interaction and was slightly surprised the girl wasn't more weary of the offspring of lightning and death itself.

Jeesh Toothless is therapy animal your default trait or something. Jack thought as he shook his head lightly.

He's lying…

Jack felt for the obviously tortured and neglected child – the scars and bruises became more visible now that the girl was sitting straighter – but he had more pressing matters to attend to.

The winter teen kneeled in front of the girl who was eyeing him warily. 'Really?! You're more suspicious of me that the freaking night fury?!' Jack was flabbergasted.

She looked back at Toothless who started gnawing and shooting at the chains holding her feet in place. 'Well I already know Toothless; he wouldn't hurt me,' her voice was raspy as she turned back to Jack, 'But I don't know you.'

Jack mentally stored away the many question he had for this girl for later. Instead, he softened his expression as he relaxed his body.

'I'm not gonna hurt you kid, trust me.' The girl's expression immediately hardened at those words as she scoffed.

'Trust you?! No way. You haven't done anything to earn that yet.'

'Hey hold it I'm saving you aren't I?' Toothless finally managed to free the girl from her bonds.

'Did you bring down the door then?' She slowly attempted to stand. 'Did you cut my bonds?' Toothless roared worryingly, knowing that moving is the last thing this girl has to be doing. 'No you didn't. Toothless did.' He legs gave out on her and Toothless quickly moved to prevent her from hitting the floor.

'… You trust Toothless don't you?' She eyed him again but said nothing as Jack slowly walked towards the two. 'And Toothless trusts me.' He looked down at the dragon and put his hand on the creature's head. 'So if you don't trust me,' Jack held his hand out slowly for the girl, 'then at least believe that I want to help.'

The girl looked in between the dragon and Jack's outstretched hand with doubt.

'I'm Jack by the way.'

She slowly looked into the teen's eyes again to search for signs of a lie, but found none. When she returned her gaze towards Toothless, she saw that the dragon was completely at ease with the situation. Her hands slowly unfurled from her tattered shirt and she hesitantly took Jack's.

'I'm… Heather.'

Jack smiled as he felt that was her actual name.

'Nice to meet you Heather.' They held each other's gaze for a few seconds more before Jack snapped Heather and him back to the present again.

'Come on let's get you out of here kid.' He started as he carefully helped Heather onto Toothless' back. 'And while were at it, why don't you tell me everything you want to say about the big bad lie that mean man said on the way.'

With that, the three took of running towards the nearest exit as Heather started to recall her ordeal.

See you lovelies next chapter~