Chapter 221

Hiccups POV:

Seven days have passed since the party and that time has been one headache after another since the nobles were more determined than ever to get into my good graces and weren't afraid to use their family members to do so. Henite I am sad to say was the most persistent of the nobles since she wouldn't stop bothering me no matter where I went or what I was doing. It drove me nuts and, in some cases, very dangerous since she went so far as to bother me when I was practicing with my new Anubis khopesh and starsword. This nearly led to people getting seriously hurt since when she distracted me, I was often sparring with a few people but was doing my best not to hurt any of them. Thanks to Henite though I'd get distracted and the people would end up with scratches at the least and bleeding to the point that they needed to see a healer at worst. I eventually got so sick of it I began bringing Toothless and Heatwave to keep her and those like her away from me so I could train in peace. Sadly, it didn't help my family who were the next best choice so Astrid and Blanca couldn't go shopping in peace, Brant couldn't train with the me and the guards in peace and Chara couldn't even play in peace.

Surprisingly the only peace I got was when I went out to hunt down a few bandit groups that had been taking advantage of the damage done to some villages and raiding them in their weakened state. I didn't mind since it gave me an excuse to leave the city and get away from the nobles, but it also got me yelled at by Astrid and glared at by Blanca for leaving them to deal with the nobles alone. They also made their displeasure known to me by kicking me out of the bedroom on those nights, forcing me to sleep on one of the clines in the house on those nights. On the bright side, I was able to sleep easier at night knowing that the people who called this land home would be safer with those crooks behind bars where they belong. Unfortunately for my family this had the added effect of increasing my fanbase, so we had to deal with more headaches caused by the people.

This brings us to now with me and my family standing in the throne room so we could say goodbye to Cleopatra and Asim, both of whom knew the trouble we were going through. I had just finished telling her about my family's decision to end our vacation now since it was clear that we were not going to get any peace in Egypt anymore. Cleopatra sighed and said.

"Although I can understand that this trip was always meant to be a short trip, it does not make saying goodbye any easier, especially after what you have done for my people." I smiled.

"I was only doing what I could to prevent a major disaster for not only Egypt but the entire world."

"And for that you shall be well rewarded in the next life." I sighed.

"Yeah, with a lot of large headaches since I've been to the afterlife that awaits people of my culture and although I admit the mead and food was good, but the company can get pretty nuts when a fight breaks out." She smiled.

"Yes, I remember your tales of your time in the afterlife when you rewarded for your deeds by your gods." I nodded.

"Yeah, good times but I believe it is time for me and my family to head out since it best we get back to the island with enough time to greet all its inhabitants and let my family know we're back and before the nobles find out we're leaving." She nodded before we all bowed to her. "Till next we meet your majesty; stay safe and healthy during your rule that I hope lasts for many more years." She smiled before we all made our way out of the throne room so we could return home to our island and continue with our normal lives.

3 weeks later

It's been three weeks since we got back from our trip to Egypt and that time has been spent with all of us pretty much just doing our own thing and getting back to our normal lives. Of course, our first day back was spent in the great hall catching everyone up on what happened on our vacation and as expected, my parents weren't too happy to find out what happened between me and the Pharaoh's Serpent. My father yelled his head off when he found out what that thing was and how I was nearly killed by it while my mother hugged me so tight that I thought she'd break my ribs. When she let go, I went through the motions of showing everyone what happened before going through the question and answer session with people asking me to demonstrate my weapons new abilities. After two hours of going through the various moves I was able to go home with my family so we could enjoy some down time in our own home.

The only thing that's changed in our lives is Brant's training has improved with his skills getting to the point that they were able to surpass those of Berk who were in his age group and of course he'd grown muscles. Although they were small, he was more buff than the other kids and he knew this, but the sad thing is he was beginning to act a bit like Snotlout in the way he looked at his body. It was a pain because it's led to some awkward moments when me and the girls have walked in on him when he was admiring his shirtless body in the mirror. The first time this happened I had to have a little talk with him about how he should take pride in his appearance but not to let his new muscles go to his head since that could lead to problems involving arrogance which comes before the downfall.

The only other change that's happened is I've begun bounty hunting since hunting the bandits back in Egypt reminded me how much I enjoy hunting down normal crooks and putting them away so they couldn't threaten anyone again. These jobs were mostly easy to handle with me using my ship to hunt down the bounties who were often on their ships and then simply pulling them in, capturing my bounty, their ship, crew and taking their loot. It wasn't always like this though since there were also jobs where I had to get my hands dirty and go onto dry land to hunt down my bounty target. In these cases when it was on an uninhabited island, I'd always capture their ship first so they wouldn't be able to escape the island and then it was just a matter of hunting them down on the island.

Now I was wearing a black cloak that covers my face while I sat in the corner of a bar on a small trading island that was known to be a place for old seamen to stop and restock their ships and just enjoy a bit of time on land. I was in the seedier side of the town in a bar that was known to be a hangout for crooks, thieves, pirates and any other kind of scum that lives in the archipelago. These guys didn't cause trouble on the island since the town may be small, but their guards are skilled enough to make sure they don't even make it to the dock where their ships are kept. The reason I had come to this filthy place is it was where my latest bounty is known to frequent, according to the information the client was able to provide. My client was different to my other clients since I'd normally just get a wanted poster and go after the target, but this client sent one of his men to Berk to hire me for the job after hearing about my other jobs. I knew he could be trusted since the client is also an old chief friend of my dad, who knew the man wouldn't betray us and had made it clear to him how important the sword was to his tribe.

My target was a trio of men who were wanted for burning down some buildings to distract some villagers while they stole some of the villages supplies and a sword that has been passed down from chief to chief. It's not worth a lot but the sentimental value is priceless which is something that they knew since they already sent a ransom note for the sword. The price was not something I liked since it was small fortune that would even be able to make a noticeable change to the fortune resting in my vault. What disgusted me the most though was they'd also demanded the chief's daughter who from what I heard was quite the looker in appearance.

This was not something I could ever approve of which is why I took the job without hesitation and why for the past hour I'd been sitting at the table and watching the three men, two tables down, drinking, joking and getting slapped by the waitress on occasion. I was grateful that part of my ninja training was learning patience since I knew stirring up trouble would just be more trouble than it was worth so it best to wait for them to leave and then take them down using strategy.

It was then I was brought out of my thoughts when they stood up and made their way towards the door and I knew it was time to head out and take them in. I followed them out the door and although I kept my distance I did my best to keep them in my sight as they marched until the middle one laughed while patting the sword on his side and said how it was going to make them a ton of money. It wasn't that hard to figure out that it was the sword that was stolen from my client and smiled since it made my job a lot easier since it meant I wouldn't have to force them to tell me where it was hidden.

With this new information, I decided it was time to take them down and ducked into an alleyway before picking up a stone and threw it at one of the men. I quickly hid back in the alleyway while creating an illusion of a laughing kid standing outside while using the eye of the dragon to watch the reaction of the men. They all growled while the one on the right who was struck with the stone rubbed the back of his head where the stone hit before they all charged at my illusion which I made run into the alleyway where I was waiting. I quickly used my ninja training to climb up one of the walls and sit on the roofs edge while tossing some blackish green makibishi onto the ground with my illusion on the other side of them, standing at the dead end.

I smiled from my place above them as the men reached the entrance of the alleyway before they smiled when they saw my illusion at the end of the alley. The one who was hit by the stone I threw immediately rushed towards my illusion before I smiled when he reached the spot where my makibishi were set up. I had to stifle my chuckle when his body froze up and the momentum caused his body to come tumbling down making his brothers stare in shock and begin to rush over to their fallen brother. The one who was originally on the left of the group rushed ahead of the other and followed the same path as his brother, collapsing and tumbling after being paralyzed. This was when the remaining brother stopped where he was standing and stared at his brothers in shock and began backing away from them while I smiled as I quietly said.

"Things aren't going to be that easy for you."

I let my bandage wristbands reach out towards him as he backed away from his brothers towards the entrance but before he could I had my bandages wrap around his upper body, starting with his mouth to keep him from screaming. A second after the bandages wrapped around his mouth he began struggling as the bandages wrapped around his entire upper body, pinning his arms to his sides. When he began doing this, I had the bandages reel him up to me while they continued to cocoon him and when he reached me, he resembled a mummy. I smiled when he looked up at me as I pulled him onto the roof and laid him down before I said.

"Sweet dreams!" I then slammed my fist into his gut knocking the air out of him and knocking him out cold as I sighed. "Time to get these guys back to my client and get my money." I pulled out my Celtic bag and launched the tarp out at the body pulling it in before jumping down to the ground and repeating the process and heading to the docks while creating an illusion to make myself look like one of the brothers and have two others at my sides so I could get their ship out of the dock and so I could capture it where nobody could see.

4 hours later

It's been four hours since I captured the men and, in that time, I've pulled their ship into my own after I'd sailed it far enough from the island that nobody would see it get pulled into the sky. After I threw each of the men into a cell, I went down to the storehouse to go through the items their ship had and saw it was mostly just food and some old supplies. When that was done, I took them back to the island where my client was which is where I was given a major headache that I was not expecting. I admit after the men were dropped off and thrown into the village's dungeon, I went to return the stolen sword to the chief which wasn't so bad but then something I wasn't expecting came up. It turns out the chief's daughter had heard about my adventures and become a big fan who had also heard about me taking multiple wives and tried to make herself seem appealing by showing off her womanly assets and flirted with me none stop while me and her father were doing business.

For three hours I had to endure this with her father just chuckling, thinking it was cute, but the second business was done I was on my ship and on my way home. Getting home only took half an hour and when I got there, I dropped off the rewards in the vault and sorted out the supplies I got from the ship. When that was done, I put the helmets of the men on the wall in my trophy room among the other souvenirs from my other bounty hunting jobs. Once that was done I took a step back and admired my collection of helmets and assorted weapons I'd claimed from the various bounty hunting jobs and I admit it felt good but not because of the money I made but because I had made the archipelago a little safer for everyone. Still though, despite this I figured it would be best to take some time off to enjoy spending some time with my family and along with this, my dad had been talking about running me through some chief training.

Now I was making my way out towards my bedroom in my alpaca fur bathrobe while rubbing a towel against my head to dry it off after a bath to relax my muscles before bed and calm my nerves. The reason I wanted to calm my nerves is I was trying to shake the feeling that there was something wrong but I figure it was just me being nervous after putting so many bad people away with some possibly possessing allies. It was then I pushed the door to my room opened and what I saw made all thoughts of sleeping and having a good rest left my mind at the sight of my wives who were waiting on top of the bed in their bed robes with looks on their faces that I knew all too well. I smiled and closed the door before joining them in bed knowing things were going to be very enjoyable for me this evening.

Berk

Nobodies POV:

Stoick was sitting in his favorite chair in front of the fire, staring at the dying flames of the fires in the pit while wondering how he was going to explain his latest mistake to his son. The mistake he'd made is in the past few weeks he'd been getting confirmation letters from his relatives for the family reunion that was coming up in a weeks' time. The problem is in the letters he'd been getting requests for this reunion to be held on Hiccups island since everyone had heard about how it's changed but wanted to see the whole thing for themselves. Stoick constantly told them that Hiccups island was off limits but sadly the pestering wouldn't stop so eventually he caved and sent out letters telling them that this family reunion would be held on Hiccups Island. The problem is Hiccup doesn't know about it and Stoick hadn't had the chance to even tell him about the reunion since for the past two weeks, he'd been out hunting down wanted criminals.

Along with this, when Valka found out she hit him in the head with her staff claiming he needed to have a good whack to the head to knock a little sense back into his head. She then claimed that a goodnight sleep on the chair instead of the bed would help teach him a lesson about not giving in to peer pressure and arranging things in ways that they effect other people's homes. Stoick knew Hiccup wasn't going to be the least bit happy about what he's done, and chances are he was going to immediately deny his request to use the island for the reunion. The reason he knew this is he knew Hiccup wasn't too big on letting people onto his island and he wasn't blind to how his family treated his son in the past.

He always believed it would help toughen Hiccup up a bit, but the difference now is, he's realized how stupid he was to ever think that the beatings and bullying would help toughen him up when all it did was tear him down. Stoick knew that there were members of his family who'd be itching for a fight with Hiccup, wanting to see how much his skills have improved since the last family reunion. Stoick sighed knowing the longer he put off telling Hiccup, the worse he would react so best to do it the next time he sees him and when he does it might be best to wear gronkle iron armor since his son did have his mother's temper. Stoick allowed himself to fall asleep with all of this in mind and knew that while he slept, he needed to think of a way to explain things to Hiccup in a way that didn't make him want to kill or pummel him.

6 days later

It's been six days since my last bounty hunting job and those days had been unsettling for me to say the least even though the morning after I got back starting off peaceful and me thinking I'd be able to enjoy my day, the thoughts of peace ended when I reported to my dad to let him know I was back. When I came to Berk though my mother dragged him by the ear to me, confusing me until my mom told me that he had some things he needed to tell me. It was after this he explained that the family reunion was coming up which would have been annoying enough but then he told me that he'd given into peer pressure and arranged for the reunion to be held on my island. When he said this, I was so angry, I couldn't remember the last time I was so angry but fortunately, thanks to my training I was able to hide my anger and accepted that there was nothing we could do. After that I went home to let the islands inhabitants know what's happened while leaving my father at the mercy of my mother who could tell how I was feeling.

When I let the dragons know they were not happy since they all heard from Toothless how I was treated by my relatives, so they all growled and looked ready for a fight. The girls didn't take it too well either, remembering my relatives from my wedding to Astrid in which my cousins would flirt with Astrid despite her being the bride and flirting with Blanca despite her telling them that she was a married woman. We all knew that chances are this reunion was going to be the same thing since knowing my cousins they would cause even more trouble for me since when all my relatives were more than likely going to want a full tour of my island. To make things worse my younger more adventurous relatives would probably wonder off from the party and go to explore my island, wanting to see what experiences it has to offer. Then there's Brant and Chara, I was worried about how my relatives would treat them since they were adopted into the family and I wouldn't put it past some of my meaner relatives to give them a hard time.

Now I was in my bedroom, wearing my bed robe, with my hands in my pockets and looking out the window at the night covered garden while watching as the wind gently shook the leaves and flowers while I was thinking about the reunion tomorrow. It was then the feeling of arms wrapping around me, brought me out of my thoughts followed by the voice of Astrid saying.

"Hiccup, what are you doing out of bed?" I sighed and didn't turn to her as I answered.

"Just a little worried about tomorrow with all my relatives coming to the island." I sighed. "I just know there are going to be a few of my cousins, causing trouble around the island by going exploring or some of the younger ones picking on Brant and Chara." I felt her come to rest her head on my left shoulder.

"That's why I taught him the 'Tiger Claw Strike'."

"Astrid, we can't allow our boy to go around hitting his new relatives."

"Why not, it's what I intend to do to those of them who get on my nerves."

"Yeah, that's why I'll be having some healing herbs and other healing supplies on hand and ready to use."

"You really think we'll need them?"

"Knowing you and knowing my relatives, what really worries me is we'll run out before the end of the day." She pulled away and punched me in the real arm.

"Very funny Hiccup."

"Funny but true my dear." She then took my arm.

"Now come back to bed, going to the party when you're tired and irritable is just asking for trouble and besides, I'm sure Blanca is wondering where her favorite pillow is." I smiled and allowed myself to be led back to bed where a sleeping Blanca was waiting for us to return.

Afternoon the next day

It's been a few hours since my day began and, in that time, with the help of my family and automatons I've been able to make the final preparations for my relatives' arrival and set up food for the party. When we finished, one by one ships arrived on my island with each of these ships belonged to one group of my relatives who had come for the big family reunion. This reunion was a lot bigger than usual since as soon as word got out that this reunion was to be held on my island, every member of my father's side of the family made time to come, probably hoping for a tour. The last of the guests arrived an hour ago so I'd lost my excuse to avoid the party that had been going on for the past few hours with all my relatives socializing. I had been keeping an eye on my kids and wives through the eyes of my scouters and was relieved to see that the only form of torment the kids have been going through is cheek pinching from my aunts and older cousins while the other kids were surprisingly kind to them. Blanca and Astrid on the other hand had it a little tougher with some of my older cousins trying to flirt with them, despite them knowing they were both married.

After I joined, I could describe the party as a minor headache at worst since it had been question after question for me since all of my relatives wanted to know about my adventures, which stories they heard were true, what new gear I'd been given, would I be doing a demonstration and other such things. I had still been keeping an eye on my wives and kids though and found out that the parents of the other kids had realized the mistakes made when they allowed bullying to go on at the reunions and made it clear it would not be allowed anymore and to be nice or face punishment. I could easily tell with the kids it wasn't just fake kindness that they were putting out because of their fear of punishment but real kindness they were showing Brant and Chara which made me happy.

Now we were all in the middle of the forest where the party was being held with me standing in the middle of a large crowd while swinging my new Anubis khopesh around to show its new capabilities as requested. For the past hour I'd been demonstrating the abilities of most of my weapons and gear with my sentinel metal items and mystic Celtic bag being the favorites. I pulled my khopesh back into my prosthetic before I threw a few of my grey shuriken at some targets that had been set up for the demonstration. Everyone cheered at this but despite how everything seemed to be going fine, I couldn't help but think there was something wrong and I couldn't shake this feeling no matter how hard I tried. I shrugged and continued my demonstration figuring it was just me being paranoid with some of the relatives who used to bully me being around.

The library

Nobodies POV:

In the library of Hiccups home were a group of five of Hiccups cousins lead by none other than Hiccups cousin Butcher and Skinner, all of whom were going through the books on the shelves and tossing aside those that had no interest to them. The reason for this is they were hoping to find the answer to Hiccups ability to train dragons so they could train their own dragons and become a great as Hiccup. The reason for this is since the last family reunion where everyone saw what Hiccup had become thanks to his nightfury, they'd been forced to deal with their parents training them harder than before claiming they wanted them to become as strong as Hiccup. Along with this they had to deal with all their peers who had heard about Hiccups adventures from traders, asking them if they could write Hiccup and get answers to their questions or invite him to the island to meet them.

They hoped that by gaining Hiccups dragon training secrets and getting their own dragons it would get their parents to cool off on the training and get their peers to back off and gain a few fans of their own. They didn't care how much damage they did to Hiccups home as they searched for Hiccups secrets and with everyone occupied with the demonstration of Hiccups skill outside, he'd never know it was them. If they couldn't find the dragon training secrets they figure they could at the very least find a few pieces of gold that they could take for all their trouble since if Hiccup was even half as rich as he claimed then he wouldn't miss a few coins or a few jewels. It was then one of the cousins on the shelf's ladders looked down at Butcher and Skinner before he said.

"Hey, are you guys sure this is a good idea?" They looked up at him. "I don't think Hiccup will be happy if he finds out we're going through his stuff and I highly doubt he'd be crazy enough to leave his dragon training secrets in a book that he keeps in his library." Skinner was the one who answered.

"He probably thinks nobody would think to look in the library and besides that, with how many books he keeps it would be like trying to find a small piece of silver in a pile of silver coins." Butcher than said.

"Plus, he keeps his island hidden most of the time, so he probably figures it isn't worth hiding too hard." There were mutters of agreement. "Now come on, we've got to find the dragon training book before someone notices we're not at the reunion anymore." Everyone then got back to work with none of them noticing the serving automaton, standing at the door.

Back outside

Hiccups POV:

I was busy demonstrating some of my ninja moves for my relatives when I noticed something through the eye of the dragon and what I saw made me growl. Looking through the eyes of one of my serving automatons, I saw five of my cousins tearing my library apart with Butcher and Skinner leading them. Seeing this I growled and went to get their parents so I could take them to the library to sort out their kids since I had the feeling they'd like to know what their boys were up to when they were supposed to avoid causing trouble on my island.

5 minutes later

I was standing outside the library entrance, with the parents of the boys, looking at what used to be a neat and orderly library that had turned into a massive mess of books laying all over the floor and empty shelves. Standing in the middle of this chaos was my cousins who hadn't noticed us yet before I heard Butcher say.

"Well we've been through every book in this damn library and none of them have any information on training dragons." I decided to make my presence known and said.

"That's because I keep my dragon training secrets in lenses that can only show their information through a special device, all of which I keep in a hidden section of my home." I kept a straight face as they froze up and turned to face me and their parents. "I was hoping you had a valid reason for entering my home without permission and then tearing my library apart, but it seems I was wrong." I turned to their parents. "I leave their punishment in your hands but before you do, please take them outside to do so since I have to summon my automatons to clean up this mess." Their parents nodded before walking to their kids and dragging them out of the library while I summoned my serving automatons to get to work while making a mental note to design a new automaton to look after my library before the automatons arrived and I set them to work.

6 days later

I was standing on the docks of my island with my wives and kids watching as the ships belonging to my relatives sailed away marking the end of the reunion. As I watched the ships slowly disappeared into the distance, I went over what happened after the destruction of my library by my greedy cousins. To start with, those who destroyed my library were forced to spend the remainder of the reunion on the ships they were brought in on, except for meals. Along with this, the bazaar was opened and as expected, my relatives flocked to it like there was no, tomorrow hoping to find something new for their homes. Other than that, things were pretty relaxed with the kids being fully accepted into the family and even taking some of their cousins on a tour of the island with my consent and I had them take a Scouter with them to keep an eye on them.

I took a breath since I had to admit that as much as I care about my relatives, it was exhausting to deal with so many of them at the same time so I was looking forward to having my island back to normal with just me and my family enjoying time together. For now, though I figure it would be best if I give Brant some time off from his training to just settle back into having the island to himself and Chara. As I watched the ships vanish though I couldn't help but think about some of the things I'd been asked by some of my relatives with the main one being when I was going to a new land to face new challenges. It made me think about how it's been a while since I last went to a new land that was on one of the many maps I had of various lands so it might be nice to go explore new land and possibly adding new pieces of art, treasures or other things to my collections. With this in mind I decided it was time for me to go on another expedition to lands I've never seen before and who knows, I might be able to find a place where I don't have to go up against some sort of evil. With this in mind I took off to my map room to see where my thirst for adventure would take me and what possible discoveries it will lead to.

AN: And this brings an end to this chapter and for the next chapter, you guessed it is going to be somewhere new with a new threat to the world for him to take on but where this place is, I am not saying. Also, sorry it's a little late but works been hectic with Microsoft causing all sorts of problems for a lot of people and along with this, I've had to deal with a mess of other problems at work. Then there's my aunt who's coming for a visit so the preparations have been keeping me busy but this is a visit, I am not looking forward to since she always wants a big kiss and it is not pleasant, kissing a woman with a fully-grown mustache. That however is another story but for now please review kindly since I am a little disappointed with the lack of reviews I've been getting for these last few chapters.