SURPRISE!
Hello, everyone! Who expected this? Not me, until about two years ago. After sitting on The Hidden World for a long time, I decided that I wanted to have a go at it.
I want to be very clear, though: there are many story beats, themes, and writing decisions in The Hidden World that I strongly dislike. This fic will only loosely draw inspiration from it.
Another important note: my time is severely restricted right now. This project is several hundred pages long so far, because I didn't want to post it if I didn't have a solid chance at finishing it. It's not finished, and I'm not sure how close to finishing it I am, but I do know this: what started as a novella has exploded into something much longer than Echoed Songs and I Hear Him Scream. There are some things I want to do, but may not be able to do, and I ask for your patience if that time ever comes. But we'll get there when we get there.
Additionally, I would like to thank all of my beta-readers: Crysist, Anticept, Dragon-Crusader, ReclusiveShadows, and kwizjunior for all of your hard work and for all of the laughs!
So, without further ado, I am extremely pleased to introduce you to A Seeking Call, third installment in the I Hear Him Scream series! I am so excited to go on this journey with you all one last time!
I hope you all have an excellent day!
Sincerely,
Rift-Raft
Chapter 1
Toothless
The best part of it all was our home.
The very shape of the islands of Berk shifted to accommodate its new culture. With the destruction of the entire island five years ago, the familiar task of rebuilding had taken a new turn. Instead of dozens of tree-nests squeezing together in tight, squat bundles, they sprouted all around. From the cliffs to the forests, human nests trailed about like tree roots seeking out new water. The forests were not knocked down, but rather built upon, creating a shelter for dragon and human alike. Tree-nests were even constructed for dragons, when huddling together from the cold couldn't provide enough warmth.
The deep wilds which sheltered the cove that changed everything were spared. Hiccup and I made sure of that.
Even the stone stacks surrounding the island were put to use. With the help of magic-infused claws, caverns were carved into the rocks to create more room. Originally, it was for the dragons, but humans are an odd bunch; where they saw their dragon-kin going, they, too, wanted to follow. This led to what I thought was an extremely precarious expanse of bridges and transport chains. To my relief, however, most humans simply knew to point at the cliffs out at sea to ask a dragon to kindly carry them over. Even the enormous cliffs to the docks took on this change, providing low-lying nests for anyone who wasn't particularly bothered by the occasional rush of saltwater into their living area.
Oh—and the nests. Gone were the dead-looking, boring, cramped wooden structures. The humans constructed their new homes in the image of dragons, placing the fires inside where the fire-heart of a real dragon was and carving heads, wings, and even tails into the wooden structures. The humans even knew how to make the wood change color, bringing each nest alive with vibrant hues and patterns. These nests were sturdy, wide, and spaced far apart, so that dragon and human may walk side-by-side without crowding. The entrances were huge, gaping maws, like a real cave in a cliff, that usually required some mechanism of Hiccup's creation to open and close.
The end result was an island that looked and felt completely alien to human and dragon alike. An island that took two completely different species, once filled with hate towards each other, and brought them together not out of need, but out of want. The humans cared for the dragons, and us dragons cared for the humans. Our home reflected that.
The humans couldn't speak dragon-tongue, but in a way, they didn't quite need to anymore. Not like they did when the dragons first arrived on Berk and the air smelled always of fear. Many dragons had learned Norse, and in return, humans had learned to read body language to a surprising degree. Which was important, because humans and dragons did everything together now.
We hunted together. We sheltered together. We ate together. We endured hardship and hunger together. We celebrated together. We grieved together. All that there was, we shared equally. That there was no direct communication didn't matter.
We were one nest, unlike any other in the world.
And for the first time since I was a yearling, I had somewhere to belong.
o.O.o
Berk rose on the ocean's horizon and my heart swelled. Although I was sore from flying the long distance from the Bog-Burglar nest, I found new strength to speed us forward.
Hiccup laughed. "Excited to be home?"
"Very!" I said. I could already taste our nest's unique scent on the wind: the strange mixture of dragon, human, forest, and metal. It tugged at my core, a home-sense that never quite faded no matter how far we travelled. We'd been gone for half a moon, and I had begun to get homesick. The pull back to Berk had intensified with each passing night.
"I'm ready, too!" Stormfly crowed from our right. "I'm hungry!"
"You're always hungry," Hiccup and I said at the same time. The other dragons of our flare—Hookfang, Meatlug, and Barf-and-Belch—all snickered.
Stormfly shook it off easily. "I can't help it!"
"You could if you didn't run around everywhere!" Hiccup lightly scolded her with an amused overtone. Thankfully, the humans of the other nests were used to Stormfly's…antics. The first few times she had rushed around their nests, excited to explore somewhere new, had resulted in some very tense discussions about accidentally destroying human things.
"I have lots to do!" Stormfly protested.
Like usual, as we dragons spoke among ourselves, the humans did the same. "Hey, earth to Hiccup!" Snotlout interrupted from his perch on Hookfang. "We're asking you a question!"
"What? I mean, what?" he said, jolting upright and shifting back to Norse.
It was the humans' turn to laugh.
"We were just gossiping about you!" Ruffnut teased.
"Yeah! Look at his hair! So fluffy!" Tuffnut said.
I looked up just in time to see Hiccup run a paw through his fur somewhat self-consciously. His dragon-self had a piece of it that he could draw up and over his head, with little ears and side-frills sticking out from it for good measure. Normally, he wore it when we were around other dragons, but the wind must have blown it completely back.
His dragon-self, made from human materials and woven with my own shed scales, covered most of his body. Over the years, he had added so much to it that he truly appeared himself. There were spines that ran along his back, his calves, and his elbows. His hind paws had some of my shed claws firmly attached to them. Base-fins could snap open from his hips when he pushed a mechanism on his abdomen. His wings no longer stopped at wrists, but instead extended far beyond his paws, fanning with wing-spines just as a Shadow-Blender's wings does. He had added little rings of leather to them so that he could slip his paws into them, open them, and control the general shape of the wing. Even more delicate, finite things controlled the individual movement of each wing-spine. His wings, like his base-fins, tapered all the way down to his hind paws, connecting just above where his base-fins inserted at his ankles.
In other words, when he was wearing his dragon-self, the fur on his head was nearly the only human feature about him.
Although I would secretly admit that it was quite fluffy.
Rolling my eyes, I looked at Astrid and asked, "What were you really talking about?" I threw my head towards the others for emphasis.
Astrid, like all humans—except, to a very small degree, the human King—was not fluent in dragon-tongue. However, over the years, most had learned to read body language, facial expression, and the most obvious of tones. "We're discussing report," she explained. "Fishlegs is handling all the trade logistics, and I've got a letter from Bertha to the Chief, but what should we put in on the dragon side of the report?"
Hiccup straightened. "All is well," he said, and it was like music to my ears. "The dragons there feel just as safe and happy as they did two months ago. Even though the Bog Burglars have been squabbling with the Meatheads, neither side has brought the dragons into it. Our nestmates there told us the same thing."
Astrid nodded with a satisfied smile. Behind us, Fishlegs had a little book out and was frantically taking notes.
"We've given nearly the same exact report for months!" Snotlout complained. He slumped backwards on Hookfang's neck. "It used to be fun, but now it's boring."
"It's boring because we're doing our job right," Astrid told him sternly. "What you called 'fun' was conflict between them and the dragons."
"And it was not fun," Hiccup grumbled under his breath. I snorted in agreement. To the surprise of nobody, the transition from fighting with dragons to living with dragons was rocky. Especially without someone like Hiccup there at all times.
"I agree with Astrid," I said. I paused for Hiccup to start translating to the others and went on, "I wouldn't trade the constant stress and fear of those times for what we have now. Ever. It's foolish to call such things 'fun'."
Snotlout looked properly cowed, so I backed off. While he was boar-headded and very stupid, being so closely related to the human King made him more powerful than your average human. And when he called peacetimes boring and lamented the ending of war...well. With Hiccup to translate for me, I would make my thoughts on that very clear to him.
Especially since it was well known to everyone, human and dragon alike, that Hiccup would not be the heir of the human King.
"This will be almost a year of clear reports now," Fishlegs piped up. "'All good's every other month, and barely any reports through Terror-mail in between." His eyes flicked towards Hiccup, almost as if reading my mind, before quickly looking away.
I smiled up at my brother, who beamed back at me.
"Maybe we should celebrate with some sauce?" I suggested. Hiccup rolled his eyes and laughed.
By that point, we were upon Berk, just above the sea stacks. Dragons flocked in the air, some carrying humans, some carrying cargo, and some simply flying for the joy of it. I roared to announce our return, and our nestmates cried back in welcome.
An absence of weight on my back, the sound of wings snapping open, and Hiccup lifted up on the air currents bouncing from the ocean and cliffs. He shifted with the wild winds as naturally as any dragon, tilting his wings and wing-spines this way and that to better catch the air.
"We'll give our report to Dad," Hiccup called out to his human companions. All of them were looking at him with that mixture of jealousy and awe all humans did when he flew like the dragon he was.
"Alright then," Astrid said. She turned to our nestmates and commanded, "Fishlegs, you finish writing up the report for the archives. I'm going to go check on the stores for the winter and deliver this letter to the Chief. Ruff, Tuff, you guys...go looking for sea dragons to make friends with."
"With pleasure!" Ruffnut cried, directing an exasperated Barf-and-Belch back out towards sea.
"You're just jealous we can find them!" Tuffnut shouted over his shoulder.
They could not, in fact, find them. Sea dragons like the Deep-Swimmer visited on their migration routes, but they didn't live here. But the task would keep the absurd little humans busy, so I wasn't going to complain.
"I'll see you guys for dinner!" Fishlegs said with a wave of his paw.
"Fair winds, my Kings!" Meatlug said in farewell.
"Fair winds!" Hiccup and I returned. The duo bundled off to some large, stone-enforced structure that humans collected 'books' and papers in.
"Hey, forget anyone important?" Snotlout said, pointing indignantly at himself. Hookfang also looked anxious to see everyone get a job but them, giving myself and Hiccup a pleading look.
Astrid glanced towards us with a grimace; there was only so much to do after our monthly visits to the other dragon-human-islands, especially with everything going so well now. Even I felt a small pang of guilt; I knew the feeling of not having a need somewhere all too well, as did my brother.
"You can come with us?" Hiccup offered. He swayed side to side and couldn't seem to help an enormous grin. A particularly strong gust of wind shot up from a nearby sea-stack, knocking him about. He curled into it, letting it shoot him into a spinning ascent.
"Careful!" I hissed, eyeing just how close he was getting to one of the pillars. Hiccup, now above me, flipped upside-down and raised an eyebrow at me.
"I'm always careful!" he teased, and then laughed at my offended scoff.
Snotlout considered the offer, ignoring our exchange. "Okay!" he said. "After all, if I'm going to be the next Chief, I should learn from Uncle Stoick about this kind of stuff."
Hiccup, Astrid, and I shared a very quick glance.
"Well, bye!" Astrid said almost immediately. "Let's go, Stormfly!"
"Let's go fast!" Stormfly crowed. She spread her wings wide, put an enormous effort into her downstroke, and zipped away. Astrid's shout to slow down died on the wind.
"Fantastic," I groaned with half-lidded eyes. I glanced up at Hiccup, who was still flying upside-down and craning his neck to look at us. "And can you at least look where you're going?"
He glanced in front of him and let out a small yelp. With practiced speed, he flipped over and took a sharp turn just in time to avoid a Flame-Skin who also wasn't looking where she was going.
"Oh, sorry!" she shouted over her shoulder. The human on her back, who probably was the reason she was so distracted, also called out an apology.
I grumbled. Hiccup laughed.
"Well, let's go!" Snotlout called. "You can frolic up here later, can't you?"
"Frolic?" I repeated, shooting him a look.
Hiccup was in too good a mood from flying, however, so he just said, "Alright, alright, let's get going." Then he curved his wings, turning towards the nest the humans called the 'Town Hall'. It was close enough for him to glide to, so I didn't insist on snatching him out of the air for his own good, which he hated with a passion.
All three of us tucked our wings into shallow dives. I kept myself firmly behind Hiccup, just in case. He didn't normally crash now, except when he was being exceptionally stupid. Which was often. With his new dragon-self and years of experience with flying as a not-quite-dragon, he was more and more eager to test his own limits.
We swooped down at a slow angle, the wind singing in our ears. Far above the nest, Hiccup braced his wings against the wind, spread his wing-spines out as far as they could go, pushed his hind legs down like they were a tail, and began to twist around the nest. After just one turn around it, he had slowed to a gentle descent and came to a neat landing just in front of the entrance.
I alighted next to him. "Showoff."
Hiccup shook himself off the dragon way, smiling, and rose to his hind legs. He tucked his wings against his back and pressed something on his dragon-self to lock them in place. Then he spun another metal...thing…to draw his base-fins in. By the time he was done, Hookfang and Snotlout had landed at our side.
"Could you have gotten any closer to the building?" Snotlout asked, exasperated. He leapt off of Hookfang and dusted himself off. "I thought Hookie and I would have to rescue you."
"I would be doing the rescuing," I said, raising my chin and lifting a brow at him.
Snotlout huffed at me, needing no translation. To Hiccup, he asked, "So Uncle Stoick's here?"
"Yeah," Hiccup said. "He told me just before we left two weeks ago that he'd be working on trade, so we'll probably find him and Gobber in here."
We climbed up the rock-steps to the nest, nodding at other dragons and humans that called out in welcome. The entrance was already open, allowing the cool sea air to waft through it. A huge heart-fire burned at its core, and a golden rock shaped into a flying dragon hung above it. I had been told that the rock used to have a sword piercing through the fake-dragon's heart, but it had long since been removed. Now, the sword's blade was clamped firmly in the fake-dragon's jaws.
Several humans and dragons milled about. Fresh food for eating was brought here often, since some humans were tasked with cooking for everyone. Food that wasn't left in the nest was divided between feeding-nests for dragons and for humans to store away for the winter. Like squirrels.
The smell was enticing. I lifted my head up to get a good whiff of it, taking in the glorious sauce-smell. I could tell they were using some of my favorite plants in it. My stomach rumbled. While the humans and dragons of the nests we visited always offered food, it was never like this.
As expected, we found the human King seated at the end of the large platform surrounding the heart-fire. He was buried in some sheets of paper, muttering to Gobber and other humans about this and that, who wanted what for what, how much shiny stuff they needed for it, how much Berk needed for the winter, blah blah blah. Useless boring human things. Everyone knew the dragons could hunt for everyone if food became scarce after the ocean froze over. Why worry about this in the summer?
The King was so engrossed in his work that he didn't even notice when we came to a stop just next to him.
"Good morning, King," I said casually.
"Hello, Toothless," the King mumbled, running a claw along a specific part of his paper.
A moment passed.
The King's head snapped up. His serious expression melted into joy. "You're back!" he exclaimed, springing to his feet. He spread his paws wide, laughing, and clapped both myself and Hiccup on our shoulders. Hard. Hiccup winced and I tried not to. "How long have you been back? How did everything go? Are you hungry?"
"Yes!" I said, nodding frantically and eyeing the passageway that led to where the humans were making the food.
"He wants sauce on his," Hiccup explained. The King shook his head with a knowing smile.
"I have good taste!" I complained. "Why is that so funny to you?"
"We just love how much you love it," Hiccup crooned with a loving overtone, rubbing his side against mine with a purr.
"We're here to give report!" Snotlout proclaimed, puffing his chest up.
The King regarded him with a somewhat surprised look and asked, "Astrid's not doing it this time?"
"She's checking the stores," Hiccup explained. "We decided to come do it while Fishlegs went to the archives with the written report."
"Ah," the King said. Then he gave us his expectant look.
"Everything's totally boring—I mean, totally great!" Snotlout immediately blundered into it. "The Berserkers are shunning everyone like they always do, which is totally rude but I guess doesn't matter if they just keep being jerks on their island, and the Hysterics are keeping up with their dragons good and all, and the Meatheads and Bog-Burglars are arguing over something stupid but they haven't brought their dragons into it, and nobody's heard about the Drago pirates bothering the outside tribes in a long time, and all the tribes that don't have dragons on them at least didn't attack us, even though they still give us mean looks from their ships when we pass by, and—"
"Stop," the King said.
Snotlout's jaw snapped shut with an audible click, his eyes wide.
The King looked at Hiccup and me. "What's this about the Meatheads and Bog-Burglars?"
In the corner of my eye, Snotlout drooped and scowled at the ground.
"Trading dispute," Hiccup said. "The Bog Burglars purchased materials for their new fishing ships, but apparently got much lower quality than they thought they would and don't want to pay the whole price. Both of them were pretty heated when they told us about it, but no fighting or dragons are involved. Bertha actually wrote you a letter complaining about it, but Astrid has it."
The King stroked his fur thoughtfully and shrugged. "Well, they'll settle that among themselves, then. And the pirates?"
That particular tangle of humans had been a nuisance, but nothing more. After the destruction of the shadow-nest and its shadow-man, many of the humans enslaved there had fled the north. However, some had decided to stay and band together. Now they made a lifestyle of dishonor, stealing from the vulnerable, attacking other nests in the dead of night, trying to trap any human or dragon they could get their filthy paws on, and all-around being an itch we couldn't scratch. There was no island they lived on; they had spent so long aboard a permanent floating-nest that they were used to it, so nobody ever knew exactly where they were at any given time.
Thankfully, they never dared to approach Berk. The human nests that lived with dragons had solved the problem by just taking some of our nestmates with them on their floating-trees. The humans that refused to live in peace with dragons were attacked and, in my humble opinion, got their just rewards.
"The tribes with dragons haven't been bothered by them much, so they've been looting just a small number of tribes," Hiccup said with a helpless shrug. "I guess they've run them dry and have to go further south to get everything they need."
The King sighed and shook his head. "And to think, all these years later, we're still dealing with them."
Hiccup frowned and pushed against my side. I did the same.
We had tried—truly tried—to find and end this last gasp of the shadow-nest. But the ocean, as it turns out, is a big place. With the rogue humans pillaging further and further south, it became all the more difficult for Berk's dragons to even find them. In the five years since the shadow-nest's destruction, our nestmates had only spotted them a few times.
"Maybe we could…" Hiccup began, and sighed. He'd tried to convince the other human nests to help stop them, but everyone thought it was a waste of time when they weren't the ones being attacked.
"It's not your fault, Hiccup," the King said. "And it's certainly not your responsibility. They were Drago's men, but they're not following his orders anymore. They're just very efficient pirates now. And Eret and his men are seeing to it that they don't try any dragon-trapping."
"I know," Hiccup groaned. "I just wish we could do something about it."
The King smiled. "That's because you care." He rested a paw on Hiccup's shoulder. Hiccup gave a small smile and leaned into it. "Now, no use in mulling over all that. Is that all you need to report?"
Hiccup and I nodded. Snotlout began nodding right away once he saw us doing it.
The King grinned at Hiccup and me. "That's great to hear, boys. Now, I've got work to do here—" he gestured at his boring papers, "—so I'll see you tonight for dinner. But I've got something to ask of you. It's Haugaeldr."
Hiccup and I shared a grim look. The hatchling that was once Sphere, and whom the King had named Haugaeldr, had been...difficult. I couldn't blame him.
He'd been strictly forbidden from learning magic by the elders and, therefore, was the only dragon in all of Berk that didn't know how to use it. Hiccup felt it was unfair and argued with the elders about it constantly, but I found myself inclined to agree with them. With his complicated past and his history of using powerful magic for all the wrong reasons, it seemed for the better.
Even if now, in his new life, he didn't understand why. Nobody except Hiccup, myself, the King, and the elders knew of his true identity. It would stay that way. Haugaeldr would, eventually...hopefully...find something new to focus on.
"Upset again?" I asked. Hiccup translated.
The King nodded. "He's been bored and moping ever since you left. And that means he bothers me. Give him something to do—something important. I've set him on a scouting mission around the island for now, but soon he'll see through it and come back."
Hiccup gave me that sad, poor-thing look he always did when we discussed Haugaeldr's restrictions. I flattened my eyelids.
"We'll go find him," Hiccup said in a low voice, his shoulders drooping.
The King deflated in visible relief. "Thank you," he said. "I swear, if he tries to grab my ink from me and scribble all over these documents one more time…"
I couldn't help but grin at the visual. "Well, at least you entertain him!" I said. To Hiccup, "Should we go now?"
He nodded and clambered onto my back. "We'll see you later, Dad," he said.
"Yes, and you'll have to tell me more about your trip," he said. He got back to his papers and the humans who had been not-so-patiently waiting for us to stop talking.
"And I'll, uh, do something important!" Snotlout shouted, as if he had to re-insert himself into the conversation through volume alone.
I spared him a glance and then looked up at Hiccup. He glanced towards the entrance of the nest.
"We'll see you later, Snotlout!" he said.
Taking that as my cue, I turned, ran out of the entrance, and took to the air. Berk dropped below me, with all of its familiar smells and sounds. I took in a deep breath and closed my eyes, purring. Hiccup pressed his forehead against mine and rumbled along with me.
It was good to be home.