Chapter 8

Hiccup

...

Hiccup had spent most of the night going through every map and journal in his great great grandfather's trunk. One of the many things he had discovered was that he and Hiccup the first shared many similarities. For instance, his grandfather was a great inventor, much like he himself. Hiccup came across a number of interesting blueprints and designs drawn up in great detail. He discovered his grandfather was also a talented sketch artist. Hiccup found that his ancestor had drawn nearly everything he observed, often sketching people places and things that interested him on his many travels. Much like Hiccup did on his scouting missions. Hiccup the first also observed and catalogued multiple types of dragons and even contributed his sketches to the dragon manual. Hiccup the first was also an apprentice to the blacksmith when he was just a boy and had become an expert weaponsmith.

Besides the interesting details about his ancestor, Hiccup also discovered that during the time before the dragon war, the Hairy Hooligan tribe was considered a band of legendary dragon hunters. They were often hired by kings and chieftains to rid their lands of dragons.

Hiccup's search, albeit interesting, was ultimately for naught as he found absolutely nothing of the island which he had recently discovered. He could only conclude that either he truly was the first of his tribe to find it or the evidence, if ever any existed, must have long been lost to history.

Once again, Hiccup awoke suddenly to find himself sitting at his workbench in his study. He yawned as he stretched his arms over his head. He stood up groggily from his work bench chair, still feeling the affects from his poor nights sleep. For the second night in a row he'd had the dream of the mysterious woman, yet he was no closer to any answers as to who she was nor what the dream meant. He sighed heavily and began collecting all the maps and journals to put back into the trunk. When he had finished cleaning up, he took the trunk and started heading up the stairs with it. Suddenly he heard the unmistakable stomping of his favorite, yet most impatient dragon.

"I hear ya bud, " he called out, "give me a few minutes okay." Just as he got to the top of the stairs, Toothless bounded through the door and headed toward his rider.

"No...no...no bud," Hiccup cried out, "wait til I'm..." Before Hiccup could finish, the dragon pounced on him knocking him back down the stairs with the trunk in hand. He landed on his back with a thud on the floor of his study. The trunk crashed to the ground a mere foot from his face in a cloud of papers and splintered wood.

"Off the stairs," Hiccup groaned. He sat up and glared at the dragon. With ears back and eyes wide, Toothless sheepishly cowered behind the door at the top of the stairs.

"Really, Toothless," Hiccup groaned as he glared up at him, "outside...Now!" He could hear the patter of the dragons large feet as he scampered quickly back outside.

"Insufferable dragon," he huffed as he began to clean up the mess. He carefully lifted what was left of the trunk. As he flipped the trunk right side up once again he noticed something strange. The bottom of the trunk was cracked but there was something hidden underneath.

"What is that," he muttered to himself. He carefully pulled the bottom panel up.

"A false bottom," he muttered. He found more journals and maps hidden in the very bottom of the trunk. He pulled out one of the folded maps. When he unfolded it he was shocked to discover the very island he had come across just a week prior. Written on the top of the map was the word DunBroch.

"Are you kidding me," Hiccup chuckled, "It's been literally under my nose the whole time!"
He excitedly laid the map out flat upon the floor and began to study it closely. He could see the castle and village roughly drawn exactly where he had marked them on his own map. He noticed a circle drawn in the middle of the forest with the words 'Standing stones' written beside it. A waterfall was drawn a little ways north of the circle captioned 'Fire Falls.' He quickly pulled his own map out to compare the two.

"Hiccup," he heard his mother calling to him. "Hiccup are you here. Toothless is outside, and he's acting nervous."

"Down here," Hiccup called out. He could hear his mother's footsteps as she headed down the stairs.

"Oh my," Valka gasped when she saw the mess, "what happened?"

"I found it mom," Hiccup replied excitedly as he motioned to the old map. Valka's face broke into a smile.

"That is amazing, Hiccup," she exclaimed," Was it in the trunk?"

"Well, that's the weird thing," Hiccup replied, "it was actually hidden...under a false bottom in the trunk, along with a few journals and other papers."

"That is strange," Valka replied, "I wonder why he would have hidden it?" Hiccup shrugged.

"Good question," Hiccup replied, as he got back on his feet. He bent down and picked up one of the journals. "I wonder if we can find any answers in here." Valka began to sift through the rest of the papers as Hiccup leafed through the pages of the journal. He found that the book was mostly full of drawings. He found sketches of all of the land in question, a sketch of the castle of DunBroch, a view of the town and its people. There was a beautiful waterfall, cascading down from a towering cliff, and the ancient ruins of a castle. He paused suddenly when he found an all too familiar image, a ring of large ancient stones, the exact ones he had seen in his dream. The caption under the image read. 'Standing stones.'

"Wait...what," Hiccup muttered in surprise, "it's real!?" He gazed at the image in disbelief.

Valka turned her attention back to Hiccup in intrigue.

"This is it," he said firmly, "this is the place I saw in my dream and...and it's right smack in the middle of the island I found." He pointed to the circle drawn in the middle of the forest on his grandfather's map.

"Hiccup this is incredible," Valka replied, He continued to flip through the pages of the journal more eagerly. He stumbled upon the exact image of the blue flamed spirit. He could feel his heart racing with intrigue as he flipped hurriedly forward. It seemed his search for information about this new land and his search for answers about his dream had turned out to be one in the same. His heart froze when he came upon the sketch of a beautiful young girl. She was stunning, with long flowing curly hair and nearly hypnotic eyes. She wore a long gown with a dark cloak over her shoulders and she was clearly not a Viking. But the detail that shocked him the most was the all too familiar pendent that hung around her neck. He audibly gulped at the sight of her and felt as if his mouth had gone suddenly dry. As he gazed upon the sketch, he couldn't help but flash back to the woman from his dream. He could almost hear her voice and feel the touch of her hand. Could this be her? He sat back against his desk and continued to gaze at the sketch. How could this actually be?

"What," Valka questioned in concern of Hiccup's noticeable reaction, "what did you find?"

"I...I can't explain it...but I," Hiccup replied in a shocked tone, "I think it's her."

"Who," Valka questioned in confusion.

"Her," Hiccup replied, "her...the...the girl from my dream." Valka looked at him in confusion. Without another word he held out the journal to his mother. She took the journal in her hands and gazed at the sketch of the young woman.

"She has the pendent," Valka replied in surprise,"Hiccup this is not your great great grandmother."

"Yeah no kidding," Hiccup replied, "what do you think it means?"

"I don't know," Valka answered truthfully, "Stoick never knew his great grandfather in life, all he ever knew about Hiccup the first was from stories that his father told about him. As far as the pendent is concerned, Stoick's father only told him that his father, Hiccup the second had given him the pendent when it was time for him to chose a bride. He told him of the tradition that was started by Hiccup the first to only give the pendent to your one true love. When the time came for Stoick, your grandfather passed it to him with the same instruction.

"So, if this woman had the pendent," Hiccup questioned, "then could she have been great great grandfather's true love?"

"That's a good question Hiccup," Valka replied, "If it's true, I wonder why he married your great great grandmother when his heart belonged to another?" Hiccup could feel a pit in his stomach forming as his mother spoke. As he continued to gaze at the image of the mysterious woman, a feeling of sorrow seemed to pull at his heart.

"Maybe something happened to her," Hiccup replied solemnly as he gazed at the drawing, "maybe...maybe he lost her." Hiccup couldn't put his finger on why, but as he spoke those words his heart seemed flooded with a deep melancholy feeling. Almost like the feeling of a broken heart. He turned his gaze back to Valka.

"This has to be what this is all about," Hiccup said with determination in his voice, "maybe...maybe I need to find out what happened, maybe that's why she reached out to me!"

"Do you really believe the woman from your dream could be the mystery girl in this drawing, " Valka questioned.

"It...it has to be," Hiccup replied, "I...I mean she's wearing the pendent, what other explanation could there be?" He quickly collected all the maps journals and papers that had been hidden and began to pack them in his satchel. He then folded his own map and put it with the others.

"What are you doing Hiccup," Valka asked.

"I have to go back," Hiccup replied firmly, "I..I have to follow where this leads, I..I have to figure this out."

"You're going now," Valka asked.

"I need to...I...," Hiccup paused as something caught his eye. He moved past Valka quickly. He bent down to pick up a drawing from the floor. He gazed at it in disbelief and intrigue.

"What is it Hiccup," Valka asked. Without a word Hiccup laid the paper down upon his work bench. He sat down in the chair and quickly lifted the pendent from his neck. Valka watched in curiosity.

"It's a blueprint," Hiccup said as his gaze flipped back and forth between the drawing and the pendent, "he designed it with some sort of a hidden compartment."

"You mean the pendent is actually a...locket," Valka questioned as she watched over his shoulder.
Hiccup nodded, "I just have to figure out how to open it." As Hiccup held the oblong shaped pendent in his fingers he carefully twisted one side upwards diagonally until it came back together with the other half but now formed the shape of a heart. He then slid the face of the heart upward revealing the hidden compartment.

"Amazing," Valka whispered, " in all the years I've worn it, I never knew."

Inside the hidden compartment there was a small braided lock of fiery red hair. Hiccup carefully removed braid and examined it. He pulled out the journal once again and opened it to the sketch of the woman. He gently lay the lock of hair against the image of her face. He gazed at the image in amazement and intrigue. There was no question in his mind, the woman was real, not just a figment of his imagination. He closed his eyes and tried to picture her in life. He imagined her pale complexion, draped by long fiery curls, eyes blue...or maybe green gazing straight into his soul, her pale pink lips curled up into a smile that could melt a man's heart.
All at once the feelings from his dream came flooding back to him. Hiccup sat back in his chair and took a deep breath. The strong emotions he felt as he thought of this woman baffled him. He could not understand why he felt so drawn to this woman that he didn't even know and thus far had only seen in his dreams.
Perhaps it was his great great grandfather's spirit that was driving him to find the truth and his were the feelings that Hiccup felt so strongly now. Whatever the case, the only way he could figure this all out, was to return to the land of DunBroch.
...

"Merida

Merida awoke with a start, she sat up quickly and looked around her room in confusion for a brief moment. When reality came upon her she groaned and rolled her eyes as she flopped back down upon her soft pillow. It was the third time she awoke after having had the strange dream about the Viking and still she was no closer to figuring it out. She gazed up at the canopy above her bed as she contemplated the dream once again. Nothing was different, there were no new details that she'd missed from before, and the Viking didn't do or say anything differently then the last two dreams. As before the one detail that haunted her the most were his intense green melancholy eyes that seemed to peer into her very soul. She couldn't figure out why she kept seeing this vision over and over again, nor what the significance of the vision could be. No matter how much she thought about it, the dream continued to baffle her. Clearly she was missing something, but she couldn't quite put her finger on what. She and her mother had been to the archives and still could find nothing about the Vikings of Berk nor their banishment. It was almost as if they'd been erased from Dunbroch history completely.
The only real proof she had was word of mouth from her father's story and her great great grandmother's journal. It was very strange for the archives to be missing what seemed, at least to her, to be such a crucial portion of Dunbroch history. Unless of course it was all just a story that Mairead had told her great grandson and nothing more. Merida guessed that could be a possibility but then there would be no explanation for the journal, or the sketchbook, or the mysterious lock of hair that was contained within the pendent. Also there was the fact that the wil o' the wisp had led her to her discovery of the journal in the first place. Clearly the wisps were leading her to find some truth lost to history, but what?

She sat up once more. She threw her soft blankets off of her and stretched her arms over her head. She got up and headed over to her window and threw open the curtains. She inhaled the crisp morning air and exhaled slowly as she gazed out over Dunbroch. She smiled to herself in content. She swore she had the best view of her homeland from her chamber window. Her smile faded and she sighed heavily as her eyes fell upon the Dingwall longship in the harbor.
She hated it when any of the lords came to visit. Mostly because she was expected to act as a princess should, cater to their guests, stay put in he castle and barely had any time to herself at all. She hadn't always felt that way though. When she was a wee lass she remembered being excited with all the visitors, and happy that she could play with kids her own age for once, even if they were all boys. When she got a little older the boys began to treat her like an annoying little sister teasing her and leaving her out of games that were just for 'boys.' This infuriated Merida to no end. But she turned her anger into determination and she strived to be the best at everything she did. She'd then compete with those spoiled boys every chance she got, much to the dismay of her mother. Then when she became a teen she noticed the boys treated her much differently then before. They tried to show off their brute strength and to impress her with their accomplishments and fighting skills. She remembered one time when she was thirteen Ryan Macintosh tried to kiss her and she punched him square in the jaw. She was grounded from riding Angus for a week after that.

Merida sighed again as she let the far off memories of the past slip from her mind. The good thing about this visit was that wee Dingwall had stayed home so the most she had to deal with was Lord Dingwall's exaggerated tales of his son's feats, which were already bad enough. In five days time Lord Dingwall would soon leave but until then she'd still have to act the part of the proper princess.
She turned from the window and walked over to her armoire. She chose a simple hunter green gown. She slipped it on quickly over her kirtle and then fastened her quiver at her hip. She hoped after breakfast she'd have a small amount of time to take Angus out for a ride. But, of course, that all depended on what her mother's plans for the day would be. She grabbed her satchel and cloak and headed out of the room.

...

Hiccup

...

Hiccup stood beside Toothless in his full armored flight suit as he finished up strapping the saddle to Toothless' back. Next he attached the saddlebag of supplies he'd need for his journey to Dunbroch to the back of the saddle.

"Are you sure about this Hiccup," Fishlegs questioned. Hiccup turned to Fish and grinned.

"I'm sure that the only way I'm going to find any answers is by going back to this Dunbroch place," Hiccup replied.

"No, I mean leaving me in charge," Fish said in uncertainty.

"You're my second in command Fish," Hiccup replied, "taking over while I'm gone is part of the job description."

"Uh...I think you mean temporary second in command," Fish replied, "I really don't feel all that qualified to take over as Chief completely." Hiccup shook his head as he continued to stock Toothless' saddle.

"You'll be fine Fish," Hiccup replied, "I wouldn't have chosen you to fill in for Astrid if I didn't think you were fit to carry out all her duties, including this one."

"Yes but Hic," Fishlegs protested, "I don't know..."

"Look, Astrid will be back in like two days," Hiccup replied, "I think you can manage two days of being Chief, besides my mom is here to help too."

"Then why don't you just wait until she gets back to leave," Fishlegs inquired. Hiccup sighed heavily. He could wait two more days, but having to explain to Astrid where he was going and why was the last thing he wanted to deal with.

"Because Fish," he replied, "I can't explain it, I just, I need to go now."

"And what exactly am I supposed to tell Astrid when she gets back," Fishlegs asked as he crossed his arms over his chest. Hiccup rolled his eyes.

"I don't know Fish," Hiccup huffed, "tell her the truth if you want, I don't care." Hiccup replied matter of factly.

"Oh, you mean I can tell her that you're heading to this new island in search of your dream girl," Fish grinned.

"First of all" Hiccup huffed, "that dream girl has probably been dead for the past hundred years at least, and second I'm only going to Dunbroch to find out what happened to her and my great great grandfather while he was there, none of which really has anything to do with me, or soul mates or...or love at all!"

"Right," Fish replied flatly, "If that's true then why are you so eager to leave before Astrid gets back?" Hiccup rolled his eyes again and groaned as he turned away and continued his adjustments to Toothless' saddle.

"Is it because you want to avoid telling her yourself," Fish questioned.

"I'm not avoiding anything," Hiccup groaned in aggravation, "why would I, what would it matter anyway, this has nothing to do with her. Believe it or not Fish, not everything I do is because of Astrid." Hiccup turned back to Fishlegs once again. Fish smirked at him knowingly. Hiccup groaned in aggravation and rolled his eyes again.

"Okay look, you know how she is," Hiccup went on, "she...she questions me about everything I do, I just, I don't want to deal with her about this. This is none of her business and I don't need her butting in and telling me her opinion about it!"

"Avoiding," Fishlegs replied, "as usual."

"Whatever Fish," Hiccup sighed, "I'm still going."

"Not without saying goodbye to me I hope" Valka called out. Hiccup turned and smiled at his mother.

"Of course not," he grinned. He walked over to her.

"Do you have everything you need," she questioned. Hiccup nodded.

"Pretty sure I remembered everything," Hiccup replied, "food, water, sleeping bag, weapons, clean underwear in case of an emergency." Valka burst into laughter.

"I'm good mom," Hiccup chuckled, "believe it or not this not my first trip."

"Well, I guess you better go then," Valka replied, "may you see the way, wherever the journey takes you."

"Thanks mom," he replied. Valka smiled warmly up at him. He wrapped his arms around her in a quick hug. She smiled as he pulled away. He quickly mounted Toothless and gazed down at his mother.

"Remember, keep an open mind and an open heart Hiccup," Valka called up to him, "and fate will be sure to find you." Hiccup nodded and grinned at her one last time before he slipped his helmet on.

"Alright bud," he said as he leaned down to the dragons ear, "let's go!" With that Toothless took off into the sky, headed South toward Dunbroch.

"Well...now what," Fishlegs sighed.

"Now we wait," Valka sighed as she watched Toothless grow smaller on the horizon, "and pray that Hiccup finally finds what he's been looking for."

"Do you still think the dream is about him finding his soul mate," Fishlegs questioned. Valka turned to Fishlegs and smiled.

"It doesn't really matter what I think," Valka replied, "this is about Hiccup, and whatever he believes."

"Yeah well, because of his quest for meaning he has left me in charge of Berk," Fish whined. Valka chuckled.

"You'll survive Fish," she replied, "I have full confidence in your leadership. Besides, I do know a thing or two about helping to run a village."

"Well then, as my first order of business as chief," Fishlegs replied, "I'm appointing you as my second in command."

"It would be my honor," she replied.