Chapter 137

Hiccups POV:

It's been three weeks since I got back from my African adventure and the majority of that time had been an absolute nightmare for me whenever I was on Berk. After that first night where I used my golden spiders' power to show them my adventures in Africa everyone wanted me to do the same with the other adventures I had starting at the beginning with my first adventure in the Mayan jungle. I did at least five of these little shows a day in the great hall, which got me a lot of thanks from the people and admiration from the village people. Sadly, it also earned me a whole lot of unwanted attention from my parents who were horrified to discover the true level of danger I'd been put in. I swear when they saw how I was forced to sever my own arm in my battle against Morgan le Fey a few of their hairs actually went white from horror. Along with this after the memory of how Akuhei stole my god made weapons and how I nearly lost my life defeating him they both hugged me for so long that I was worried they'd never let me go.

They weren't the only ones who were causing me trouble though since the certain members of the village were also causing me trouble but in different ways. The kids and rest of my generation were by far the worst of them all though considering that they would not leave me alone for even a minute when I'm on Berk. Fishlegs was constantly asking me to recreate the illusions of the places I'd been and asking so many questions I would always leave with a major headache. It was driving me nuts to the point when he was in the same area as me I'd use my ninja training to hide from him and on one occasion use my phasing ability to jump through the wall and into a nearby hut of a family that was enjoying dinner. They were shocked and confused by my sudden appearance before I simply said 'Fishlegs' and they nodded before returning to their meal since everyone saw how annoying he had become with all his questions.

Snotlout wasn't any better since he kept pestering me to take him to some of the places I've been to and introduce him to some of the girls I'd met. I knew he wanted to use the fact that he was my cousin to hopefully get a little attention from these girls since it was obvious by the look in his eyes and smile on his face. I of course turned him down and told him that I was not going to take him anywhere or introduce him to the girls but not for the reason some might thing. The real reason was because those girls would more than likely try to use him to get to me and although we had our problems he was still family and I couldn't in good conscience do that to him. Of course, he was a Jorgenson so he was nothing if not thick skulled like his father who had been demanding that I take him to El Dorado to get some of the gold they had since there was so much of it. Now the difference between my responses to him from the one I gave his son is with Snotlout I yelled at him no but to answer Spitelout I just released my lion gauntlets and punched him in the gut sending him flying into a manure pile for wanting to steal from the city which was ruled by a man I call a friend.

Then there's the twins who had only gotten worse with what they'd originally been bothering me plus a few new ways they've been bothering me to the point where I was close to using my new club on them. To begin with Tuffnut would not leave me alone trying to convince me to make him a new weapon to cause trouble or at least give him some of my bombs. I told him if I did that then the rest of the village would never forgive me since he'd do more damage than the dragons ever did considering the fact that he could cause trouble with an old shoe. As for Ruffnut, I didn't think it was possible but she got worse with her attempts to ensnare me with the knowledge of what I'm capable of and the treasures I'd gathered. Fortunately, I was able use my illusions and ninja skills to avoid them most of the time but there were times I wasn't able to avoid them and was close to actually bringing my axe down on them.

Astrid wasn't as bad as the others since at most times she simply asked me to teach her some of the moves I used to take down enemies. This was understandable since she was still a shield maiden in training and like any shield maiden would want to improve their own fighting skills to help defend the village. I was happy to show her a few moves since she picked up most of them fast but sadly word spread that I was helping train Astrid which sadly lead to more than a few people coming to me wanting to be trained as well. It didn't help that people noticed how much Astrid improved after only a few lessons the number of people only increased with my dad asking me to do it as well since along with wanting to keep the tribe ready for any future threats he also wanted to keep an eye on me. He didn't wasn't too happy with all the danger I ended up throwing myself into and now wanted to keep a close eye on me to make sure I didn't end up in more trouble.

Unfortunately, the adults weren't the only members of the village who were driving me nuts as the children of the village were just as bad as their parents. They were always asking me to show them my adventures again, tell them about the places I've been, begging me to show them my island so they could see the different environments and animals, asking me to teach them a few moves and of course many asking me to take them on as an apprentice or give them their own dragons. It drove me nuts to the point that I was ready to pull my hair out with Gustav and Lars being at the head of all this but I knew that now was not a good time to train new riders. The reason it's not a good time is the same reason I'm rarely away from Berk these past few days and that's because the fire weather has yet to pass meaning a single stray spark could send the entire island up in flames. Because of this I kept on Berk with my rain drum, my ice spitting dragons in the village, my scauldrens in the waters by the dock in case a fire broke out.

Of course, I didn't spend all my time just flying around over the forest and being annoyed out of my skull by the people of Berk who refused to give me a moments peace. I'd also been helping Gobber train Jamie in the forge and I had to admit the boy has made remarkable progress in his training to which he had no trouble repairing some swords as long as they weren't too damaged. All in all, I had to say that young Jamie Hofferson had the makings of a fine blacksmith in the future and I had to say he'd make a good replacement for Gobber when he retired. Other than that, I'd been helping Ylva with her training since I wanted her to be able to defend herself against Lars and his friends if they tried anything again and so far, she was shaping up to be a fine warrior and if Lars and his friends tried anything again they'd be in trouble.

Presently I was sitting in the Great Hall with Toothless laying behind me next to my flying carpet and rain drum while my parents sat in front of me while we went over a map of Berk where I could find some old dragon traps that I'd been meaning to deal with in order to avoid any wild dragons being hurt and setting the place a flame by accident and just as a precaution I was bringing my drum. The plan was for me to disarm the remaining traps before bringing them back to the village using my flying carpet so they could be dismantled and recycled so they could be of use to the village. Coming with me was Toothless who refused to let me do anything like this on my own considering how dangerous this weather was and no other dragons since the less fire breathers the better. I was keeping my ice spitting dragons and Scauldrens in the village in case a firebreak out so they could hold the flames back so they didn't touch the village. I looked down at the map as my father said.

"Hiccup, I know you've been meaning to collect the left-over dragon traps but are you sure now is the best time?" I looked up at him.

"Dad, I know the weather is dangerous but it's even more dangerous with those traps out there since if a wild dragon gets caught it'll breath fire and I don't think I need to tell you what that means for the island." I then looked down at the map. "Besides Gobber's been running low on scrap metal and the builders could use the wood while the fisherman can use the nets from the netters." I shrugged. "It's better that they be recycled than leaving them to collect dust in the forest." They nodded.

"But do you know how to disarm them?" I smiled at him.

"Dad have you forgotten that I was Gobbers apprentice and helped him build some of those traps and part of the construction was knowing how to put in the releases." My mom then asked.

"What about the snappers since those things are more dangerous to disarm than the others."

"Don't worry, I've got plans on how to disarm them without getting near them until they're disarmed." My dad looked at Toothless.

"I hope this method isn't to have your nightfury blast it."

"In this weather?" I looked at him as if he'd gone mad. "How stupid do you think I am?"

"Just making sure son and please be careful." He turned to Toothless. "You to dragon." Toothless just tilted his head as I stood up.

"Now if you'll excuse me we've got a whole lot of traps to disarm." With that said I picked up my carpet and drum before leading Toothless out so we could begin gathering the traps.

1 hour later

Nobodies POV:

Gustav Larson was a young man on a mission and that mission was to become the apprentice of Hiccup Haddock who had turned him down more times than anyone cared to remember but Gustav wasn't anything if not stubborn. He wanted to grow up to be just like Hiccup, a hero who had everything with riches, fans, women throwing themselves at him, his own island and travelling the world to experience new lands and cultures. Travelling the world was his main reason for wanting to be Hiccups apprentice since he'd spent his entire life on Berk, which is an island in the middle of nowhere where anything much happened since the dragon raids, ended. This is why everyone looked forward to Hiccup coming back since he always brought back amazing stories of the places he's been but hearing the stories was nothing compared to actually seeing them like everyone had seen since he got from Africa with the illusion power. Seeing the adventures, he'd gone through this had only fanned the flames of Gustav's desire to be Hiccups apprentice but sadly for Gustav he wasn't the only one looking to be Hiccups apprentice. Every child with the exception of Jamie and Ylva along with the rest of his generation with a few adults wanted the title of Hiccups apprentice for their own reasons. The main reason was most of them in Gustav's generation wanting to amass their own fortunes by accompanying Hiccup on his travels and getting a share of the treasures he has a habit of stumbling upon and the younger generation wanting to see a bit more of the world away from Berk.

It was because of these multiple people pinning for the position of Hiccups apprentice that Gustav was now in the woods looking for a wild dragon to train. He was hoping by doing this he'd be able to prove to Hiccup that he'd make a great student and because of this Hiccup would take him on as an apprentice. Sadly, for him these days' dragons rarely roamed the forests of Berk and mostly stayed on Hiccups Island in the dragon nests his alpha dragons had created to house all the dragons. It's because of this the forest was pretty much scarce of any dragons but there was always a few that could be found running around the forest to remember their past or some other reason. Gustav just hoped he'd be able to find at least one dragon to train so he could prove himself to Hiccup but so far, he'd only seen birds, wild boar and the occasional terrible terror, which he was not interested in since he doubted it, would impress Hiccup.

As he continued his search he let his mind wonder to what his life will be like when he's Hiccups apprentice and how much better it'll be. He pictured himself joining Hiccup on his adventures to new places and being his apprentice on trips to places he's already been means that the local people will treat him with respect. Along with this he'd get to enjoy being treated like a hero by the people of Berk when he returned with Hiccup from stopping some sort of monster. With all of this he might be able to make some gold like Hiccup does on his journey and maybe even get his own magic weapons from the gods. He was so wrapped up in his thoughts of possible future glory he didn't notice the net on the ground that was connected to a netter trap that was placed in a tree next to him. He didn't notice this until the trap was set off and he found himself hanging from the tree in a net completely trapped. He looked up and let out a huff as he said.

"I knew I should've paid more attention in dragon trap school." He began struggling swinging the net around trying to get free before he struck the tree hitting his head making him groan in pain before he snapped his fingers. "I forgot about my knife." He reached to the side of his belt and pulled out a small dagger. "I'll just cut the net and free myself from it."

Before he could begin though a hot breath hitting him on the back of his neck caught his attention making him turn to see a typhoomerang with orange wings staring at him along with a rumblehorn with green scales and a red head. He let out yelp leaning back and dropping his knife to the ground below as his knife fell to the ground and out of his reach leaving him trapped in a net with a two dragons staring at him. Gustav stared at the dragons in fear as the typhoomerang tilted it head in curiosity as Gustav did his best to lean back away from the dragons' face but couldn't do anything to avoid its leaning face as it sniffed him. It was then Gustav realized something making him say.

"Wait a minute." He rubbed his chin. "If I could train this dragon then Hiccup will have to take me on as an apprentice." He was brought out of his monologue by the typhoomerang nudging him with its muzzle before he turned back to the dragon. "Easy there big guy, we can be friends." It just tilted its head before pushing the net again making Gustav swing again only for his outstretched hand to accidentally poke into one of the typhoomerangs nostrils making the dragon growl and pull its head back while Gustav held up his hands in fear. "Easy there big guy, it was an accident I swear."

The dragon wasn't paying attention to him though as it reared its head back and began sniffling a bit before it let out a large sneeze of hot air. Gustav let out a sigh of relief seeing the typhoomerang wasn't going to roast him for sticking his fist up its nose but sadly the rumblehorn was now glaring at him and when the typhoomerang let out that sneeze it did light something. When the typhoomerang sneezed, it lit a single leaf that was blowing around in the dry hot wind and was blown up into the air away from Gustav and the tree. This tiny little leaf that was lit a flame was all that was needed to begin a fire that would light up the forest. The leaf slowly drifted in the air until it slowly began to float down with the pieces still hot from the fire that had gently gone out as it flew around in the wind. Sadly, when the leaf came to land on a dry patch of grass the heated parts of the leaf were more than enough to ignite the grass and begin a small fire that was the beginning of a raging inferno that would begin but not by Gustav's actions alone.

Elsewhere in the forest

The twins Ruffnut and Tuffnut were making their way through the forest for their own separate reasons with Ruffnuts reason involving the most sought after bachelor on Berk and possibly the archipelago while Tuffnut was just bored. The reason Ruffnut was out here was she was looking for some herbs that were often used as beauty products that were said to enhance ones natural beauty. Now Ruffnut could've used her mothers beauty herbs but her mother refused to let her even go near them after the last time she allowed her daughter the use of them, which resulted in multiple horrified people and enough complaints to fill a book. Tuffnut on the other hand was just tagging along with his sister for no noble reason such as wanting to look out for his other half but of sheer boredom. He'd just been bored in the village since his parents threatened to put him and Ruffnut on manure duty for a month if they caused any more trouble during the fire weather and was now hoping to find some excitement in the forest with his sister on her hunt. Sadly for him things weren't anymore exciting here in the forest than they were in the village, which lead to him letting out a sigh as he looked at his sister before he said.

"Come on Ruffnut, this is so boring and if I wanted to be bored I could've stayed back in the village."

"Well nobody told you to come with me."

"I thought things might be cooler in the forest but nothings happening." He sat down on a log.

"Hey it's not my fault things are so boring now."

"Yeah, it's Hiccups fault since he took all the dragons and won't share them."

"Hey don't worry, when I get together with him I'll talk to him about giving you your own dragon." Tuffnut snorted. "What's that about?"

"You still think you have a shot with Hiccup." He rolled his eyes. "You saw the girls who threw themselves at him in those illusions he made?" She nodded as he smiled. "Those girls were way hotter than you and with those Amazons better warriors to so if her turned all of them down then there's no way he'll ever settle for you." She just glared at him.

"Well we'll see about that when I'm done with my new makeover."

She then continued her search as Tuffnut stood back up kicking a rock off a nearby cliff onto some large rocks below causing a spark that went onto the dry grass lighting it which would start a fire that would join the one Gustav started but there was one other person who'd add to the flames. The twins didn't take notice of this though since they were too wrapped up in their own thoughts but were brought out of them by the sound of a loud dragon roar echoing through the forest. They immediately ran towards it to see what was happening but they had different reasons for wanting to see it. Ruffnut wanted to see if it was a dragon she could train to help her get Hiccups attention while Tuffnut was just hoping it was something cool he could watch.

Elsewhere in the forest

Snotlout Jorgenson was not in a good mood but then again since Hiccup came back to the village as some big time hero with his own dragon army he rarely was in a good mood. Ever since then he felt as if Hiccup had completely stolen his spotlight with how awesome he'd become with his god made weapons, his own island, his blessings from the gods and everything else. Now he's found out that Hiccups got exotic beauties practically throwing themselves at him for practically no reason other than thinking he's cool only for him to turn them down because they weren't his type. Seriously was the first thought that occurred to Snotlout when he first saw this in Hiccups illusions since he'd kill to have that happen to him.

Ever since he saw this he'd been determined to prove himself better than Hiccup and had been training nonstop to try and beat Hiccup, which is why he's out here now with only his sword. He was doing some immense training in the forest to try and improve himself so hopefully he could convince Hiccup to let him join on one of his trips. This way he might be able to enjoy a bit of attention from those lovely ladies who Hiccup kept turning down since when their down and vulnerable, they'd most likely settle for him. He slashed his sword across a rock making sparks fly to the ground before he heard a loud roar echo through the area and ran to see what was going on, not noticing that the sparks he made had started a small fire that was growing quickly.

Back with Gustav

Gustav was still stuck in the net with the typhoomerang and rumblehorn just standing there and examining him before the rustle of bushes coming from both his left and right side caught both his and the dragons attention. The bushes on the right were pushed aside to reveal the twins while the ones on the left were pushed aside to reveal Snotlout all of which had their eyes not on the boy in the net but the dragons looking at them. For a few seconds there was silence before Snotlout broke it by saying.

"Could someone tell me what's going on?" Gustav was the one who replied.

"Just me training some dragons here Snotlout." Tuffnut replied.

"Think you can teach me how to do it?" Snotlout just groaned and slapped his forehead.

"He's in a net you idiot, he isn't training a dragon." He was stopped from saying anything else when Gustav said.

"I hate to interrupt you Snotlout but I think we've got a problem." Snotlout looked up at him.

"And what's the problem?" Gustav pointed to the sky above them and they all looked up to see the large smoke cloud flying above them and knew they were in trouble.

Hiccups POV:

I was standing in the middle of a large clearing with Toothless next to me on my left and my carpet unrolled on my right with the drum resting on top of it and a pile of disarmed dragon traps in front of me. I looked at the large pile of disarmed dragon traps that me and Toothless had been able to gather with our search of the forest making me smile knowing they weren't going to be harming any wild dragons. I smiled as I turned to face Toothless with a smile never leaving my face until I looked past him and into the air only to see a giant plume of smoke floating in the air. I knew this meant there was a fire that was growing fast and judging by the direction of the wind making its way towards the village meaning big trouble. I quickly hopped onto Toothless and we took off to see what was happening and I was not happy with what I saw considering the fire looked like that of a red death and making its way towards the village. I sighed and turned to face Toothless and said.

"We've got trouble bud and by that, I mean big time trouble that spells danger for the village." He crooned and tilted his head. "We've got a large fire heading towards the village so we need to act fast." I hopped onto my carpet which quickly began to lift. "I'm going to stick to my carpet since it's easier to play the drum and begin bringing down the rain."

He growled and nodded before we both took to the sky but before I could begin playing I noticed something in the distance and using my eagle eye I saw it was not only a typhoomerang but a rumblehorn, Gustav Larson in a net with the twins and Snotlout looking up at him. I sighed and shook my head in annoyance knowing they was most likely here to try and do something to earn him a place at my side as my apprentice. Knowing I couldn't leave him there to be roasted by the dragons or the coming fires I steered my carpet towards them with Toothless following close behind. When we came to land the typhoomerang looked to me as the rumblehorn growled while I slowly walked over to the typhoomerang with my arms spread out but as I looked at it I couldn't help but feel it was familiar somehow. When I got closer Gustav looked down at me he gave me an uneasy smile as he said.

"Hey Hiccup, what do you think of my new dragon." I just gave him a glare.

"We'll go over this later but for now I need you all to keep quiet and let me take care of this before the fire gets here."

Before I could say anything else though the typhoomerang closed its wings around me in a tent for a few seconds before opening them up and leaning its head down next to me allowing me to gently pat it. When I did this though I flashed back to memories of my past when I first discovered the typhoomerang by finding a baby typhoomerang and taking it home with me and given it the name Torch which he seemed to like. (AN: Mentioned in chapter 76.) It was then I realized why this typhoomerang looked familiar, this was Torch all grown up making me smile as I rubbed his head and chuckled as he nuzzled my chest as I said.

"It's been a long time Torch." He just growled in pleasure before Tuffnut asked.

"Uh, Hiccup What's going on?" I turned to him.

"This typhoomerang is an old friend of mine who I let go a few years ago when he was a baby and his mother wanted him back but we'll have to go over that another time since for now I have a roaring fire to deal with." Gustav then said.

"Do you think you can let me down first." I rolled my eyes as I released one of my scimitars throwing knives before throwing it at the net and cutting him free while also making Gustav fall to the ground and land on his butt, however before he could say anything I held up my hand.

"We'll talk about you all being out here when my dad said the forest was off limits till the fire weather passed later." I turned to Torch. "Hey Torch, do you think you could give these guys a lift back to the village while I'll deal with the fire heading to the village." He growled and nodded before Torch lowered his wing allowing everyone including Toothless onto his back while I hopped onto my flying carpet before we took to the air and hovered. "Toothless, Torch you two get the guys back to the village." I turned to the rumblehorn. "Going to need you to make sure nothing happens to them." He growled with a nod as I turned back to the burning blaze. "I'm going to put out the fire using my rain drum."

Toothless growled and nodded before Torch took off towards the village while I flew towards the burning fire on my flying carpet with my rain drum under my arm. I flew above the flames that reminded me of the destruction the red death caused on Dragon Island when the Berkian fleet attacked the nest. I sighed as I looked up at the sky and said.

"When this is over I'm going to kill those four idiots for starting this."

I then began beating my drum fast and hard causing the smoke to come out of the holes as if there was a hurricane within the drum blowing it out. The clouds formed within seconds and seconds after their forming the sound of thunder echoed over the island as the downpour began falling upon the raging fire below. I listened to the flames hiss with pain as the water struck them causing steam to slowly replace the smoke as I felt the rain hit my face. I ignored the rain hitting my body and continued to beat the drum hard and fast, never breaking my pace to ensure the roaring flames had being extinguished without a chance of them restarting. I don't know how long I beat the drum while sitting on my carpet in the pouring rain but when it was done I was completely drenched and knew the fire had been completely extinguished with no chance of restarting. I stopped playing the drum and smiled as the clouds cleared to allow the sun to shine down on the land once more but when I looked down at the land I frowned seeing the immense damage the flames had caused to the forest. I sighed and shook my head and said.

"It's going to take a lot of forest arrows to bring the life back into this forest." I then turned to the village and glared. "But first I need to deal with the four idiots responsible for one of the biggest fires Berk had ever seen." With that in mind I flew my carpet back to the village to both confront the ones responsible and inform my parents of what happened.

Nightfall

Night had finally fallen and I was now walking into my bedroom wearing only my pants after a bath as I let out a sigh and jumped onto my bed and stared up at the ceiling while going over todays events. Shortly after I returned to the village I went to Torch to thank him for his help and to confront his passengers about how they started the fire. Along the way my parents joined me wanting to know what was going and after telling them what happened they were eager to join me with my dad wanting to have a word with the ones responsible for the blaze and my mom wanting to study Torch. While my dad dealt with the ones responsible I introduced mom to Torch and the rumblehorn. My mom was over joyed at the chance to study a fully-grown typhoomerang but I had to stay by Torch's head to keep him calm since my mom was a bit too eager to study him while also keeping an eye on the rumblehorn who seemed protective of Torch. My dad however was only focused on the ones who started the fire and dragged them off but I could hear his yelling from my spot in Town Square.

After my mom finished studying Torch I was happy to bring him back to the island where he took up residence in Volcana's nest seeming to enjoy the heat alongside his rumblehorn friend. As for the ones responsible for the fire, they were put on manure duty with their bare hands for the next three months for endangering not only themselves and the village but also the entire island. He also was beyond angry when him and mom went up on Cloudjumper to survey the damage done to the forest and when he saw what had happened his face was so red I was actually worried he'd pop a vein and when we got back he doubled the time of the punishment of those responsible. He did calm down a bit when I told him I could help heal the forest using my forest arrows and the pan pipes to help regrow the damaged sections. He was grateful for this and even more grateful that I was able to stop the blaz ing forest fire from reaching the village and turning it into ashes while also bringing an end to the fire weather at the same time. When they were both settled in I began the long and difficult task of repairing the damage done to the forest which took the remainder of my day so as expected by the end I was ready to get some sleep so it was with these memories I allowed myself to drift to sleep.

AN: Hey all, yes I know it's short but hey I told you my ideas for Berk chapters are limited so cut me some slack folks and although I appreciate the ideas you're all offering there aren't that many I can use at this time. I'll still try to bring in another Berk chapter or two before moving onto China where Hiccup shall meet his first love that shall not be cruelly taken away from the cruel hands of fate which in this case is me just wanting to make things more interesting out of boredom. Anyway I hope you've all enjoyed the chapter despite its short length and lack of excitement but one of you requested I show the flying carpet, Aylen and Cheveyo but it's not that easy. Anyway I hope you're all keeping safe during these tough times since I know what it's like to have the virus and let me tell you it is not fun and would not want anyone else to suffer from it. Well till next time have a wonderful day and don't forget to review and please keep it friendly and remember that me updating a day earlier than usual is not going to be a regular thing and the only reason it's out early this week is because things have been quiet here at work.