To whomever it may concern, my name is Ferð, the third shaman of my beloved village, Berk.
What I have recently discovered had me branded a madman by my fellows, and perhaps that is for the best, for I too find this knowledge too dangerous to share with many of those roaming the Archipelago. Still, I record it here, in this tome, for you, the future shamans of Berk, so that it is not forgotten and you may understand and help those that would find themselves in the same situation as I have.
Weeks ago, strange new beasts have started roaming near our homes. Majestic scaly creatures of various sizes, each possessing their own signature powers. I was eager to study them and perhaps, one day, even befriend them. Images of our tribe, high in the sky on the backs of those mighty creatures, filled my dreams. The chief was doubtful, still is, he fears these 'dragons' could bring destruction onto our village, but without some outer influence, I doubt that shall happen.
For this reason, I began to look deeper into the world of dragons, and soon stumbled upon things no other viking could begin to dream of. But nothing prepared me for what happened eight moons ago. I had simply been walking through the forest, looking for herbs I'd been running short of. All it took was one wrong step, and my world was overtaken by golden dust. When I awoke, I was standing amidst a flock of hungry Changewings - dragons with the ability to merge with their surroundings.
By some miracle I escaped, but after I got back to the village, I stumbled into a world - or rather time - not my own. The houses I remembered standing tall were but small huts, yet to grow, the people, though bearing some form of resemblance, weren't those I had left back home, and their knowledge was but a fragment of ours.
My position had been occupied by a woman named Aevi, who I had known as my elderly teacher recently passed away. With her was a boy, her young apprentice that had barely begun training - me. It was then that I had realised that, by some strange cause, I had traveled back in time. Not only that, I suddenly had the appearance of a mighty warrior with scaly skin and voice like thunder.
Understandably, the Berkians of the past feared me - it was my younger self who was the only one able to hear my true voice. My only luck was Aevi believed him when he told her my tale. If not for her help, I would long be dead. She sent me away from the hostile Berk, to search for a way home beyond the Archipelago. That was when I discovered our world is much larger than I believed. The things I had seen would fill entire books, but that is not what I want to leave you with here.
Eventually, I found the cause of my travel through time and my strange change. The dust I had thought of as just a side effect of my regression was in fact the cause of it all. In reality, it was a flock of dragons so small that individually they are invisible to the human eye. The Time Sands, as I have come to call them.
I had observed one of their colonies for a long time and discovered much.
They build their nests akin to bees, from a material I can only describe as powdered golden crystals . Should this hive be intruded upon in the smallest way, they have the ability to immediately disassemble it and use the intruder as a vessel to traverse time, hiding on their body in the process.
Not only that, using the nest's materials, they also seem to have the ability to transform their 'vessel' into a shape that would give it the best chance at survival in whichever time they move to; how they predict what form to take is still a mystery to me. That is why I had changed upon my arrival here; this form was intended to protect me from the Changewings. For some reason however, this seems to only work partially on the past counterpart of said vessel, as I have seen on myself and multiple other creatures.
From my observations, the Time Sands can only travel to a time closest to theirs when their hive had previously been in danger, making the cloaking ability crucial. They also appear to be very intelligent, capable of understanding the vessel's needs. I have seen multiple instances of wolves transforming from the cub versions they assumed to appease their pack, into giants when they were threatened. The only limit for the vessel's transformation seem to be the resources.
The way back to the time of origin is surprisingly simple.
It seems either the vessel allows the Time Sands safe passage back into their nest, or waits until the traversed time passes and their future counterpart disappears, which seems to prompt the Time Sands to vacate the vessel and search out a place for a new nest. The second option is to return the dragons to their nest once the danger has passed, after which they once again leave the vessel, and without them to anchor it in time, it is thrust back to its own, shedding the illusion that had been cloaking it in the process.
Armed with this knowledge, I returned to Berk, bid farewell to my teacher and - strangely enough - myself, and finally made my way back home. From the start of my entry, you know how the other Berkians reacted to the tales of my journey. In their time, I was missing for but a few days, and I am not sure whether anything I did in the past was preserved in the timeline. The changes I have observed in the animal world were so small I couldn't say for sure, and while there are legends of a beastly man with a voice that calls on thunder circulating through the village, Berkians are people of great imagination, so there is no saying whether those tales have anything to do with me.
Since my return, I have investigated many places and found traces of Time Sands almost everywhere. Working with them is a delicate process, and I will admit there have been more than a few errors. Luckily, most of their nests are well hidden and tightly sealed as to avoid predators, but I have found one, most likely recently created, while visiting a village of a tribe called Berserkers with a new peace treaty. This one I have brought home with me to prevent any accidents. I ask you and every healer after you, to look after this nest and the knowledge of the Time Sands, and never use it for selfish reasons.
This is where my story ends, and I hope so does the Time Sands'. Hopefully now I can rest easy knowing I have left at least something of value behind.
Be cautious, time is not a toy.
Hiccup finished the page and fell silent, leaving only the crackling of fire to fill the room. Everyone was silently processing whta they just heard, even Gothi was deep in thought, staring at her predecessor's writing in wonder.
"Wow... so dragons took us to the past?" Astrid said after a while, breaking the others out of their daze.
"Wait, does that mean there are dragons on us right now?" Tuffnut asked, looking mildly concerned.
"Yes, Tuffnut, apparently there are."
"And they can change our bodies? Wicked! Hey dragons! Make me a Buffalord!"
Tuffnut shot his sister a disappointed look.
"Really, sis? A Buffalord? I mean sure, the thing's cool and, like, crazy rare, but a Bewilderbeast definitely tops it."
"Well, I hate to disappoint you two, but I don't think you'll be changing into either of those," Fishlegs interrupted before the twins could go full Loki, "Look, here Ferð says that 'The only limit for the vessel's transformation seem to be the resources.' I think that means the Time Sands can only change our appearance if they have that material they build their nests from. So unless you have some of that up your sleeve, I don't think you'll be shapeshifting any time soon."
"Aww, but that takes all the fun out of it!" the twins groaned in unison.
"I wish he didn' t call us vessels. Makes me feel like a boat or something," Snotlout grumbled from the sidelines, his voice mixing with their disappointed grumbling.
"Guys, I think we're getting pretty far off point," Astrid jumped in, "What Ferð describes is exactly like what we experienced before we were transported here, so the cause was probably the same too. We finally have a way to get back home!"
"So now the most pressing question is why and how would there be a Time Sand nest on a hunter ship, and where is it now," Fishlegs finished, his smile faltering a little at the mention of their enemies.
Before anyone could raise any theories, Gothi cleared her throat to get their attention and pointed back to the book. She must have turned the page while they were talking, because the one she was on had a wide array of sketches, the style reminiscent of those in Hiccup's notebook. Many of them depicted a dragon with a slender build, a snub nose with a thin horn on the tip that curved back to its forehead, and a spiky tail, almost twice as long as the rest of the dragon. A triangle was sketched on both of dragon's wings, their tips touching in the middle of the its back creating the image of an hourglass.
"A Time Sand," Fishlegs breathed in wonder, already copying the most detailed sketch on one of his blank dragon cards.
Hiccup was about to do the same when he noticed Gothi was pointing at one specific drawing which had a short caption simply stating 'Keep safe' in thick red ink and underlined several times. It depicted a chest covered in engravings, that looked remarkably finely crafted even in the drawing.
A chest that was very familiar to one of them.
"Hey, that's mine!" Snotlout exclaimed when he also noticed what Gothi was pointing at. At their questioning looks he explained, "I found that chest on the hunters' ship just before we got thrown into the arena. I forgot about it because of what happened, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't with me when we arrived. Why would that be in this book?"
Hiccup's breath hitched when he realised the implication of what he said.
"Hiccup... you don't think," Fishlegs started slowly, paling considerably.
"That this chest is the Time Sand nest we're looking for? I do. And depending on where it is, we are either about to get home, or into serious trouble."
The both of them turned to Gothi, their expressions slightly panicked.
"Gothi, please tell me you have the chest with you."
The elderly healer took another look at the drawing and her momentarily eyes sparked with recognition. She slowly scribbled out her answer.
"So you did have it, but you have no idea where it is now?" Fishlegs read, for the first time hoping to get a staff to the head because he interpreted the drawing wrong. Instead Gothi just nodded.
"Great, so that means the chest is now either somewhere on the entirety of Berk, which would take weeks to search again, or with the dragon hunters completely outside of the Archipelago, where, guess what, everyone wants to kill us!" Fishlegsthrew his hands up in resignation.
"Not... necessarily."
The group's attention turned to Hiccup who was fidgeting uncomfortably. His left foot was tapping out a steady rhythm, a nervous tick indicating what he was about to tell them would undoubtedly put them in danger.
Astrid put a hand on his shoulder and managed to give him a reassuring smile, despite not feeling sure of anything herself.
"Whatever it is, it can't be worse for us than going into the hunters' lair or looking around this version of Berk any longer than we already have."
Hiccup grimaced.
"In our time yes. Now... it's like choosing between Ruffnut and Tuffnut on who is going to be chief, with Snotlout as a last resort."
He threw a meaningful glance at the two Thorstons who were currently playing tug-of-war over Tuffnut's helmet... using their teeth. Snotlout let out an offended sound, but otherwise didn't protest. With how often he worked alongside Hiccup in their time, he came to know the position of chief was most definitely not for him.
"Gothi, when you noticed the chest missing, was it before or after Alvin the Treacherous was cast out from Berk?" Hiccup turned to the old woman again.
Gothi looked surprised at the seemingly random question, but thought for a bit and then scribbled out a short sentence.
"She says it was the night after he'd been forced to leave the island. She knows because her hut had been ransacked then and she was making a list of what went missing to give to the chief," Fishlegs translated and looked back with a confused expression.
"Hiccup, what are you saying?" Astrid asked, feeling a knot forming in her stomach. She had a feeling she knew.
"Well... remember how when we were on Outcast island Alvin told us about the stuff the hunters stole from his house?" all three grimaced as they remembered the man's long rant. Hiccup, as the Berk's proxy at that time, was the target of most of it.
"Well, what he complained most about was a chest, which was one of the things that he borrowed from Berk when he was banished. He was pretty angry about it, since he kept it under lock and key for years as his secret weapon. Apparently one of his men tried to open it a few years back - I'm guessing that's the moment we time traveled to - and disappeared, so he thought he could use it to vanish his enemies but never got the chance to use it."
Astrid and Fishlegs stared at him in horror.
"So you're saying, that the chest," Fishlegs began.
"Our only way home," Astrid continued.
"Is currently on Outcast island, in the hands of Alvin the Treacherous," Hiccup finished, noting with grim satisfaction that for the first time he had the undivided attention of his entire group, even the twins.
"Well, I'm out. Been nice knowing you all," Snotlout said as he jumped up from the fireplace and to everyone's surprise headed for the door.
"Snotlout? I know this situation is far from ideal, but we've been in far worse, what's so terriblethat you of all people want out?"
The Jorgenson's steps faltered but he kept going.
"True, but we're talking about going right into the lair of a viking who currently hates Berk, dragons, and anything related to either of the two, when we can barely defend ourselves against a Terrible Terror. Everything about it is terrible!"
"Oh come on, Alvin isn't so bad," Hiccup protested half-heartedly.
"In our time maybe. He tried to kill us multiple times before he allied with Berk!"
"Dagur did too, and you basically worshiped him for years," Fishlegs pointed out, flinching back when the Jorgenson shot him a glare.
"Look, something about that guy just rubs me the wrong way, ok?" he mumbled and looked away.
"Well, it's either getting that chest from him, or waiting for Stoick to find out we ride dragons," Astrid offered, effectively freezing him in place just a few steps from the door.
"...let's go get that damn chest."
I really enjoyed writing Ferð's message, something about writing old-ish english is just really fun for me. Sorry if it was too long for you guys, the Writer took over and there was no escape ;)
See ya in the next one