Don't really have anything to say, so just enjoy.
Chapter 6
The next few days went by like a storm. Hiccup put himself in way too much danger and therefore, Astrid lectured him many times about keeping it safe. The only constant was, the Dragons they encountered. It turns out, their reactions to humans are largely based on their species. With that, most of the Dragons they fetched up belonged to a few species they deemed as outgoing and not too aggressive.
Another constant, that just Hiccup felt, was the voices. Ever since their beginning of this little trip, Hiccup started hearing them more often and started to block them out. The voices never seemed to build a full sentence, always just saying one or two words as a general statement.
Today would be the last day, they didn't sleep in their beds at home. It still felt a bit weird calling their Island that, but truthfully speaking, the Island was the closest thing to a home they had after leaving.
"Astrid." Hiccups voice broke though the silence.
"Yes." She looked up from their makeshift campsite to look at him.
"You remember when we started this trip and I said I heard voice." He added.
Astrid nodded. She still wondered about it, but didn't hear voices herself, so eventually gave the thought up.
"I don't think I imagined it. Since then I have got enough sleep, but the voice never goes away.".
Astrid could see the worry in his eyes. "Okay. So when have you been hearing this voice." She asked. If nothing stopped these voices, they should at least know where it came from.
"Pretty much all the time." He answered.
Astrid nodded again while intaking that Info. If that voice was real and there all the time, it was either invisible or talking to Hiccups mind.
"And when is it the strongest." Astrid continued. With more Info's, more possibilities could be excluded.
"Most of the time while flying."
Astrid slowly dawned an idea, if he heard the voice all the time, it was very much a constant in this journey and if it was strongest while flying, one possibility that seemed impossible to her could very much be the explanation.
"Okay. This may sound crazy, but I think the explanation for that voice is," She started. Hiccup immediately had hope fill his expressions. This voice haunted him for days and any solution to his mystery, as crazy as it sounded, would be welcomed. "I think you are understanding Toothless."
Surprisingly, Hiccup didn't scream or fell slack to the shock of that possibility. A human understanding a Dragon sounded insane to pretty much everyone, but Hiccup very much liked this Idea. With the ability to speak to Toothless, he could learn so much more than assuming what he is saying.
Seeing Hiccups reaction, Astrid though he had considered this possibility, but disposed of it for sounding too absurd. "Think about it. It is the strongest while flying, where you are closest to Toothless. You hear the voice nearly the entire day and you see Toothless the entire day. It all adds up." She reasoned.
As weird and impossible as it sounded, behind imagining the voice, understanding Toothless seemed like the logical answer. With that possibility in mind all the pieces slowly put themselves together. The reason this voice seemed familiar, was because he heard it the last few months from his companion, he just didn't understand it and even why he heard the voice, but never saw anyone unknown that belonged the voice.
"I still don't know how, but maybe because you and Toothless never parted over the last few weeks, you associated the sounds he made with a meaning, you assumed from his body gestures." Astrid guessed. To her own surprise, that sounded incredibly reasonable of an explanation.
"That opens up so much new things. With Toothless actually answering, we can learn so much more about Dragons." Of course learning more about the species he has been trained to hate was his first thought, but who can blame him.
"Now let's get to sleep dragon whisperer." She teased him. "You can think tomorrow. Night Hiccup." She yawned and curled herself up against Stormfly's side.
"Night Astrid. Night Bud." He said and did the same as his companion with Toothless as a pillow to sleep on, feeling every breath of his draconic friend.
"Night." Toothless crooned out. This Night, Hiccup wasn't surprised or angered at the voice for haunting him even before his sleep, but relieved at having the possibility to speak to his best friend.
…
The next day, Hiccup and Astrid got back to the Island, surprisingly many Dragons backing them up. Had they just taken the Dragons, Hiccup and Astrid personally encountered, only about half of the could have followed, but apparently in the Dragon world, word spread quickly and even more Dragons wanted to see this supposed Dragon loving pair.
What didn't surprise anyone though, was the new number of houses build. The Bog-Burglars didn't have to rebuild their homes as often, due to the raids mostly going after Berk since it was the nearest to the nest, but still, they were Vikings and Vikings know how to build a house.
A little surprise though was, that as they neared, all the houses were build below theirs. Hiccup and Astrid build their house relatively high for a good view, but having no houses near their altitude seemed a bit extreme.
When landing Hiccup and Astrid immediately got surrounded by the new inhabitants of the Island, asking for how the trip went and of course, if they could get a Dragon now.
The rest of the day was a wild mess of questions about befriending Dragons and asking for help, since not everyone had a house yet. When evening approached, Hiccup and Astrid were more than ecstatic to be back in their house once more, now without any Bog-Burglar sleeping over for the night.
Hiccup promptly sat himself on a chair to rest for a bit.
"Hey." A voice called out from the door. Hiccup turned around to see Cami standing in the doorframe.
"Great." He mumbled under his breath. "Why are you here?" He asked the blonde, still tired from running around all day trying to pacify Dragons as well as humans.
"I wanted to talk with you and by extension with Astrid." Cami said. Her tone showed she had a serious matter to discuss, so Hiccup promptly went upstairs and got Astrid out of her room. She had already put off her armor and was now just in normal clothes, which both surprised Cami and was expected from her.
"So, what led you here?" He asked, slowly feeling his exhaustion take a toll on him.
"While you were gone, me and the others thought a bit." She began. Hiccup already knew this was going to be something he didn't appreciate by the looks Cami gave him. "We came here to learn about Dragons and maybe have our own ones. That seems to be going quite well, but what do we do if we befriended them. Leaving them here would be possible, but also not a thing we would like to do and going back home with them is also not the best Idea. So we thought to settle here with you, maybe one day go back when the Dragons are more accepted."
Hiccup sat through her speech quite emotionless. He already told them, they could stay here for as long as they wanted so where was the Issue with that. Seeing his stare, Cami decided she couldn't talk about her real reason any longer.
"Hiccup. The others have thought, that if they stay here, we should start a tribe and teach others about Dragons as well. The hard part about that is, they also decided, that you should be Chief of said tribe, because you were the first to discover the truth about Dragons." She mumbled. Cami knew how hard it hit him to be sent away from his tribe, because he searched for a friend in Toothless and now taking Chiefdom after being disowned as heir would certainly be a thing that could ruin him emotionally.
With her announcement ended, Astrid nodded at Cami and the girl understood her completely. What he needed now was some time and maybe a talk with Astrid.
Cami slid out and closed the door behind her leaving only the teens and their dragon friends in the dimly lit heart of the house. Once she was gone Astrid turned to Hiccup and saw his eyes once again filled with uncertainty and hopelessness.
Instead of giving him a talk Astrid just went over and enclosed him within her arms. She had talked to him many times about this and Hiccup knew exactly what Astrid thought.
Once again, that special hug portrayed more genuine support and affection than any words she could have said. Hiccup knew, if he decided to go this route, this time it wouldn't be alone.
Together the two Dragon rides sat there, feeling as if the world stopped turning just so that they could enjoy this moment to the fullest.
…
That Night, Hiccup nearly got less sleep than sleeping on the floor the days before. Hiccup understood why he was chosen as Chief. He had the most knowledge and the strongest bond to his Dragon. At this point even strong enough, so that he understood him.
When finally going outside to have a good morning flight with Toothless, Hiccup got jumped by a bunch of Bog-Burglars asking if he made his decision already. It didn't take him long to figure out what decision. Understanding he probably was the best for the Job, having already attended Chief training at a young age and more knowledge than anybody here, Hiccup gave a slight nod before bouncing on Toothless and flying off, hearing south of joy from below.
Up in the sky, he nearly forgot the absurdity and extreme consequences his decision had. He was no longer heir of Berk, but now a Chief of an entirely new tribe. Back in Berk everyone hated him for being the heir, but not having the build of one. Now he was a Chief without the build or right to be one.
"You okay?" Toothless asked out of concern for his Rider. Dragons had the uncanny ability to take in emotions from humans way better than humans themselves could, so often times Toothless didn't even have to look at him to know if something was up.
Hiccups shoulder slumped and he let himself fall on his Back. "It's alright bud." He lied party to Toothless partly to himself. "I just have to think a bit. About everything.".
Not only could just being chief turn out troubling, what should he actually do as their new chief? Normally chiefs give orders to run the village, but they didn't really have a village. They had about 20 people, all of which Bog-Burglars except for him and Astrid. The first order of business was certainly helping everyone with their Dragon. That's what they came for, so out off everything the most important. But then there were houses needing to be build, food supplies that had to be made and the worst, they had to trade with others. No tribe in the entire archipelago ran without any trades.
Oh gods. He had to actually trade with Vikings sometime soon.
…
Luckily for him, the Dragon problem turned out to not really be a problem, but a timely effort. He expected most Bog-Burglars to go for the craziest Dragons he brought with, like Vikings would, but faced with the truth about what they'd been taught most their life seemed to take them out of that mindset.
The first few days, went relatively smoothly. A little burn here small fights there, but nothing serious ever happened. Nearly like he wasn't even Chief at all, but even just nearly. The people still came to him for answer, if for the Dragons or how to run the place. With the help of three or four whispering deaths, they even build a great hall astonishing even that of Berk. They still weren't much, but imagine having a place as populated as Berk with the same number of Dragons also living there. Certainly it would pay out sometime.
Thought everything went smoothly, Hiccup longed for some kind of output other than flying. Back in Berk, his output had been inventing and hammering in the forge, but they didn't have a forge here and slowly but surely, they also ran out of other materials.
Hiccup knew what had to be done, but going would still never be on his favorite activities. With very hard convincing, and maybe a few punches to the shoulder, Astrid eventually got him to take her with, just for safety reasons. While Hiccup saddled himself up, he mentally listed everything they needed. He really needed to update that saddle. Strapping himself in every time, slowly became useless, the more he flew with Toothless.
With a swift pat to the Dragons head, Toothless sped off into the distance closely followed by Stormfly and her rider. Hiccup already though of a route with different markets, so he could get everything without being noticed.
Surprisingly for him, everything went smoothly. The wares he needed were still available and nobody noticed them when they landed their Dragons in the forest near markets.
He wanted to round up the day with some leather for saddles. Nobody openly said it to him, but he could nearly feel the want everybody had to riding their Dragons. Unfortunately for him, this also meant being on the market for a bit longer and little did he know, this little time would impact his life more than he maybe thought.
He finally got all the leather he wanted when some people, obviously drunk, went past him.
"Have you heard. They have a new species in the Dragon Arenas." One slurred to the other.
"I heard its tail can cut straight through steel like it's paper." The other responded equally drunk
"You know where it is?" The other asked and Hiccup snapped back to reality. He hadn't even felt that he turned around to follow them, making it seem like he just wanted to get to another stand.
"Somebody said something about the Outcasts wanting to make cash, so I think they do it this time."
With all the info's he needed, Hiccup quickly took off into a side alley and dove straight to the forest. After a short sprint, Hiccup found himself back at the place Astrid stayed with the Dragons, so that they wouldn't attempt sneaking in.
"Hey Hiccup. Have you got everything?" She asked. Before turning around and seeing the distress in his eyes. "What's wrong? Did somebody recognize you?" This time worry filled her voice.
"No not that." He said with a hint of laughter. "But I found something out."
…
"So let me get this straight. You heard some guys talking about a Dragon arena and now your plan is to fly in there tonight and free the Dragons." Astrid asked incredulously. On the way back, Hiccup told her about his encounter with the two drunken strangers and his quickly formed plan to help the Dragons.
"Pretty much that." He answered in a small tone. Astrid couldn't be blamed for thinking that he was insane. The Outcasts only real thing is, if you land on their Island with no Intention of joining them, you are practically dead.
Surprisingly to him, Astrid shrugged. "But you are definitely not going alone." She said with a tone of finality.
Hiccup was so surprised that she actually allowed him to go through with it that his replay came automatic. "You are the best." He said, a huge grin on his face.
Astrid looked away, lightly blushing at his words. She still didn't know what their relationship could be considered as, but as long as he was happy, so could she be.
"Let's get this stuff home first." She said, laughing as Hiccup realized they still had something to do.
…
The next time, the sun began to dawn and moonlight illuminated the skies, Hiccup and Astrid were already halfway to Outcast Island. Some others, especially Cami wanted to go with them, but none of them had even sat on a Dragon before and certainly not ridden one.
"I still don't like this. Do you at least have a better plan than just trying to sneak around with we don't know hoe many Dragons and hoping not to get noticed." Astrid said over the howling of the wind against their faces.
"Well, not really to be honest." He answered, suddenly self-conscious about his crazy plan. "I suppose, we could scout first and then free the Dragons." Hiccup continued as a way of trying to be strategic.
"Please Odin, let this just go okay." Astrid mumbled under her breath. Of course Hiccup had to storm in head first, without actually using his head for once.
A short flight later and the sharp shape of Outcast Island could be seen barely appearing over the horizon. Unfortunately for them, it appeared that Odin had already been asleep and hadn't heard Astrid's wishes, since the whole Island seemed to be flourishing and worse, awake.
Both teens were never on Outcast Island, even though they themselves could be considered Outcasts after leaving their tribe. It didn't surprise them one bit that even going near the Island an odor of rotten food and death seemed to radiate of the Island. All the commotion, that held the Vikings awake that night concentrated on the wide arena, nearly the same as in Berk with a roof made out of steel grid and embedded in the stone floor. Although this one didn't have an entrance from on top like Berk, but rather doors at the stony sides from an underground labyrinth.
They circled above the Island a few times, thinking about a new strategy. Clearly sneaking around wasn't smart with nearly everyone awake and on high alert.
"Okay. I have something." Hiccup broke the Silence. Astrid looked up from her own thoughtful expression and saw his face light up with the Idea he had.
"What is it?"
"You search for the Dragons. I go down there and distract them by playing along." He said, instantly going back to strategic, as to how to get in there without being noticed.
"Hiccup what do you mean 'playing along'" She asked, this time more annoyed at his clearly not safe plan than interested in how it would go.
"Just get the Dragons and give me a sign when you are done." Hiccup spoke and before Astrid could counter anything, he dipped down and disappeared in the dark Night sky.
"He really isn't good at explaining his ideas." Astrid mumbled half to herself, half to her Dragon friend and with that dipped down towards something that looked like an entry to the undergrounds.
Due to most guars being at the Arena, Astrid had no problems smashing the door open without being noticed. Once inside, she began to sneak around, making sure not to alert any Dragons or guards she came across which can be quite hard with a Nadder following your every step.
Along the cells, she saw many Dragons, some even ones she never saw in a raid. Nearly behind every gate was a Dragon, either nuzzled and trapped, or too weak to hardly move.
One certain gate caught her eye. Inside wasn't a Dragon, but rather cuffed and lying on the hard stone floor a girl, about her age. She wore only a few lumps of clothes, probably ripped flags from shipwrecks and her face showed a certain lack of food and rest. She had free flowing black hair, filled with specks of dirt and tangled in itself.
Normally a Person caged on Outcasts Island wasn't unnatural, since traitors and criminals were sent here to rot and if the Outcasts didn't like them, it's either death or imprisonment, but this one seemed different. What could she have possibly done to get here.
A few minutes of stumbling later and Astrid finally found what she had searched for. At the end of the hallway, stood a Barrel and to her luck, on the Barrel lay a keychain.
"Bingo." She said, quit enough so that she was still not noticed. Astrid sneaked up on the Barrel, making sure no one was around and quickly snatched it. Once she acquired the keys, Astrid sprinted back to the Cell she saw along the way with a stranger.
At the sound of the gate opening, said Person instantly awoke. Sleeping on the ground was bad enough, but on the Outcast Island no less, her sleep wasn't deep at all.
She wanted to speak, but couldn't, due to being silenced by a hand in front of her mouth. Slowly stirring, the stranger looked up and saw that the hand didn't belong to one of her captors.
"Who are you?" Astrid asked her, still keeping quit enough so that the unknown Person nearly didn't hear her in the half-sleepy state she was in.
"Heather." She answered equally quiet. Heather was still confused who this stranger was and why she opened her prison. She didn't seem to be like the Outcasts with their Intentions.
"I'm Astrid. We're gonna get you out of here.". Heather couldn't be more confused.
Who was this Astrid and why would she break her out and who was meant with we. "Why?" she settled on that question.
"Because you seem like a good Person. Now come with me, but stay quiet." Astrid again shushed her and together both girls turned to leave the cage.
That was when Heather noticed the Nadder standing right in front of it and screamed as loud as she could.
"Oh right." Astrid slapped her forehead. "I don't have time to explain, but this is Stormfly, she's not going to hurt you." She sneaked around more. Around the corner she could her Outcasts advancing on their position, probably from the screech they just heard. "Where is Hiccup and his distraction?" She asked herself, and Heather again had no Idea what she was talking about.
As if he heard her, right after that another Outcast stormed at the others and screamed directly in to their face. "Quick. There is a Human in the Dragon Arena, but they aren't attacking him. Everyone was told to get in there and incapacitate him."
Of course that was Hiccups distraction. Storm in and lead all the traction on himself. "Hiccup I am so going to kill you if you survive that." She mumbled to herself, which planted even more questions in Heathers head.
"I don't want to interrupt, but can we please get someone if guards are all gone." She said and caught Astrid's attention once more.
"Okay. But first we have to get out the Dragons." Astrid said and this time Heather was really confused.
"Why would you want to get out the Dragons?" She asked now confused beyond belief. If they got out of here, she had so much to ask this stranger.
Astrid turned around to look Heather in the face for a short second. "That's what we originally came for. Long story short, Dragons aren't bad and we are trying to free them." She said and again turned to look at the now empty corridor.
Although Astrid didn't see it, Heathers reaction was drastically different to everyone else's they encountered so far. She simply shrugged and peeked out to look at the same corridor Astrid did.
From across the room, the raven-haired girl saw a lever and remembered the times when Outcasts used those to open the cages. "Astrid those Levers can open the gates." She exclaimed to share her train of thought.
"Perfect." Astrid mumbled to herself. With nearly every guard possibly attacking Hiccup at this moment, he was definitely not getting out of this one without a few lectures from her, Astrid stopped sneaking around and Sprinted to the lever, opening every cage that was linked to it. "Now we just have to calm them down."
Surprisingly this went well. Astrid and Stormfly calmed as many confused and angry Dragons as they could, with even Heather calming down one or two, Astrid wondered where she learned that. Some of the Dragons didn't need calming, either resigning to whatever new fate awaits them or happy these strangers freed them.
"How do we get the weak to fly away?" Heather asked after they freed another entire hallway of Dragons from their captivity.
Astrid thought about it for a while. Stealing a boat would raise even more suspicion, but Hiccup already ruled out that necessity. "The other Dragons can help them if they need to. Dragons are very social and friendly creatures and if they have been captured here for a long time probably became friends, so they'll help each other." She concluded. To her it was just a theory, but from everything they learned so far, not very far-fetched.
As they went to the next Passageway, Heather eyes widened in realization where they were. "This is the Prisoner part." She said to Astrid.
"Then we are leaving. The people locked up in here probably have a reason to be." Astrid snarled. Outcasts only took Prisoners from shipwrecked or other Outcast people.
Heather grabbed her wrist before she could storm of to free more Dragons. "No wait my Parents are here. We shipwrecked on the Island and since then they kept us here as Prisoners."
Astrid seemed to think for a second, evaluation if she could trust her. Most People washed up on here were outcast from their tribe for some reason, but Heather seemed like a nice person and even helped with their goal of freeing the Dragons. "Which cell." She settled on. she still wouldn't take the risk of freeing potential murderers and worse being set free, but she still had the keys so they could free only Heather's parents.
Quickly Heather pointed to a cell the Outcasts had shown her were for her parents to keep her silent. Astrid opened the door and instantly Heather sprinted inside to hug the people she missed for so long even if they were on the same Island.
"I've missed you so much." She spurted out before retaining her composure. Her parents again hugged her close, embracing their daughter to a point she could nearly pass out due to Oxygen lack.
Her parents took a bit less time to notice the girl and giant Dragon standing directly in front of the cell, but before they could scream as loud as Heather had, she holds her hands in front of their mouths.
"Don't worry. This is Astrid and Stormfly. They helped me break out and she won't hurt you." She shortly explained before taking her hands back to her sides. She left the cell again, this time her parents following close by asking every question under the sun about a supposed friendly Nadder and why this girl was here to begin with.
After two or three hallways, honestly how many were on these Islands, some with some without Dragons, Heather once again remembered one of them.
"Over here." She tucked at Astrid to get her attention. In the hallway were mainly exotic races of Dragons, either nearly extinct or so strong nearly no hunter wanted to capture them.
Astrid once again pulled the lever and to her as well as Heather's parents surprise, the brunette stormed in one of the caged. Astrid wanted to see why she was so eager to get into that one particular cell, and when coming near she saw Heather petting the Dragons long neck.
This Dragon was definitely exotic, one she never saw before. It scales as shiny as her axe, a slim body with an even slimmer tail. Unlike most other Dragons they freed, this one seemed more tended to and better fed.
"Heater, girl. What are you doing there?" Her mother asked in concern of her daughter sitting directly next to an animal they knew nothing about.
"Oh right. Mom, dad, this is Windshear. I saw the Outcasts transport her here and since then, I frequently came to see her and tend to her." She tried to gesture to the Dragon with her hands.
Astrid watched with awe. Heather actually managed to figure out something about the Dragons by her own, just like Hiccup and that even while being trapped in here for who knows how long.
"I think that's all." Astrid said after the last captured Dragons ran through the tunnels to her freedom. "Now we need to get out of here and find a way to signal Hiccup." She said to herself, but caught the attention of a Heather, still followed by Windshear.
"I can help with the getting out part." She chimed in. "I know this whole system by heart." She added at Astrid's partly confused glance.
With that the group of four and two Dragons ran of to the exit, not wanting to waste any more time in this labyrinth.
As you can probably tell by now. From this point on, every cursive speech will be in Dragonese. As I said, this Chapter is way longer than any of my others, but I didnt really know when to end this.
Once again so much thanks for every bit of interaction with this story. Thank you to all the followers, favourites and silent readers.
Don't really have anything else to say so have fun waiting for next week I guess.