CHAPTER 8: Shock
Hiccup couldn't believe it. He was stood still like he was frozen, up from his wooden chair, in awe at seeing Dagur, Alvin, Atali and Heather after all these years. It was like a blast from the past. The feeling was mutual on their part towards Hiccup too.
And the entire hall was silent as the moment was taken in.
"How do you do, old friend?" Dagur said, breaking the ice.
Just the sound of Dagur's voice after all these years was enough to make Hiccup feel a sudden flashback to his younger days. It was like he was in a block of ice, unable to move. He genuinely couldn't believe that these five were here. He wasn't even questioning how they found New Berk, he was that shocked and stunned.
"Who are they?" Valka asked Hiccup, whispering to her son.
Valka and Eret, as well as Zephyr and Nuffink, weren't sure who these vikings were, so all they could do was look utterly confused and unaware of their significance.
"It's...been so long, I..." Hiccup stuttered, clearing his throat, "I had no idea..."
"Same here, Hiccup boy, same here. I have to say, you look entirely different from the last time we clashed!" Alvin said, sounding not as shocked as Dagur - he didn't even look as shocked as the others at seeing Hiccup for the first time in years.
"Son, why don't I go and take the kids back to the house for the night?" Valka asked, as Hiccup turned to face his mum.
"It's fine, mum, I know these people...I just can't believe after all these years they're actually here, on our island," he whispered to her, "I'm gonna talk with them in private, you keep the hall running and look after the kids."
Valka nodded.
"So these people aren't hostile?" she further asked.
Now that was a question and a half - Hiccup, Dagur and Alvin all had history together, but given the mannerisms and the entire vibe that was being emitted from them right now, it'd be interesting to see if the past was simply put behind them all for whatever reason they were here on New Berk.
"Well...not really, uh...it's complicated mum, I'm gonna take them to the hut and talk with them, I need to see why they're here," Hiccup declared.
"Just be careful, son, alright?"
"I've got it under control."
Astrid sat up off her chair and walked over to Hiccup - as she did so, Dagur in particular couldn't believe that he was also seeing Astrid for the first time in many years - he'd already recognized the others like Fishlegs and Snotlout, but they too, even Ruffnut and Tuffnut, were too stunned to say anything in their usual stupidity manners.
"Hiccup, where're you going?" she asked him.
"I'm gonna talk to them, just sorta catch up and...figure out why they're here, we know them, no funny business is gonna happen Astrid."
Astrid simply shrugged her shoulders.
"I mean, you're known to be Hiccup most of the time, so do as you please. Seriously though, we'll keep the kids here and watch the hall."
Hiccup nodded.
"ALRIGHT FOLKS, BACK TO EATIN', NOTHING TO SEE HERE!" Gobber yelled, banging a load of metal shields together as he tried to restore the hall from its shocked, stunned silence at seeing the five vikings in front of Hiccup's table.
And it somewhat worked. As Hiccup stepped off the wooden platform towards the group, all of the ranting and talking of the hall started echoing throughout the corners of the wooden building again, but a few Hooligans continued looking at Dagur and Alvin in particular. They couldn't comprehend, much like Hiccup himself, seeing them ever again, not least on New Berk.
In the event, Hiccup walked up to the group.
"Come with me guys," he said to them, not stopping as he said that.
He walked directly through them and walked up to the large wooden doors. At that point, the group started following the Berkian Chieftan towards the exit of the hall. They were here for a specific purpose and they wanted to directly talk with Hiccup.
Everyone was now inside Hiccup's hut, albeit with bits of snow on the wooden floors after walking through the cold night on New Berk. Hiccup never thought after ten years since leaving Old Berk he'd ever be hosting Dagur, Alvin, Heather, Atali and Mala in his new hut on his new island, but circumstances had called for it. He was still taken aback at seeing them all again.
"You look...mega different Hiccup, how's it been?" Dagur asked, talking to Hiccup like a long lost friend.
"I...I can't actually believe you're all here, I'm tempted to say this has all been a dream and I'm asleep back at our old island," Hiccup replied, completely ignoring Dagur's question.
"I noticed you've got two kids now, they look like they've been taken care of well, good on you!" Dagur said.
It felt weird to Hiccup that, after everything he and Dagur went through in the past, he was talking to him like a close friend.
"I'm sorry."
Hiccup was puzzled at Dagur the Deranged's random apology.
"Pardon?"
"I'm sorry, Hiccup - everything that ever happened in the past between us two, I'm sorry about it. I know it's probably awkward for you to see me again after what we all did back on the edge and all sorts, but I've become...I'd like to think so anyways, closer to my father, Oswald the Agreeable, now than when I was in my youth."
Heather could only subtly chuckle.
"As if," she whispered.
"Sorry, Heather the UNHINGED," he loudly replied to Heather at her attempt at being funny.
"No no, it's okay Dagur, really, you know, it's been ten years since we made an exodus from Old Berk because we had to escape Grimmel, all of that is in the past now, and trust me, what I went through with Drago and Grimmel is lightweight compared to what we went through. It's honestly so good to see you again," Hiccup said.
Seeing all of them again made it feel like his dad was still alive, and that he was back on Old Berk as a young teenager. As Hiccup lowered his guard and grew more confidence at his former rival from the days at the Dragon's Edge, he started embracing the atmosphere.
"But genuinely though, it's good to see you guys again, all of you."
All five, including Atali and Alvin alongside Mala, nodded and seemed to signal that the feeling was mutual.
"I just...I just have one question I guess, what are you doing here?" he asked Dagur, who seemed to be the leader of the 'pack'.
Dagur cleared his throat as Mala gave him the nod to talk about their reason for being here.
"Did you know, Drago Bludvist is still alive?" Dagur asked Hiccup.
"Yup, I found out five years ago as everyone back there presumably did. But I got over it, because as a dad now my priorities rest on keeping them safe and living in peace for their future. Our island is lucky in that we're geographically hard to climb and enter unless we assist any outsiders in doing that."
"This is kind of a by-product of his continued living...whatever. Over these past five years all of our tribes came together and we signed a treaty, mostly at the initiative of the Ancient Tribe - you heard of them too?"
"I've heard very small mentions of their Chieftan...Yurlin is it?" Hiccup asked, "but don't ask me if I know anything about him or their tribe, since I never knew they existed until fairly recently."
"Neither did any of us...well, mostly anyways. Before he became Chieftan of that tribe, he built up quite a name for himself given the ideas that he was throwing around. I'm mentioning this because his ideas...aren't what you'd normally hear from a Chieftan - you couldn't even call him a Chieftan, Hiccup. He rules his tribe in fear, his vikings live under a regime of sorts, but he's consistently said that he's the direct contrast to Drago Bludvist and his view of the world."
Hiccup was listening.
"Under their initiative, all our tribes came together on Berserker Island, only a short while after the revelation five years ago by the Warlords that Drago was alive. The Ancients didn't send their Chieftan to our summit but they sent one of their upper vikings of their council, Herrick Herald. We all came together and we signed a Treaty of Collaboration as it was called."
Dagur reached into his gear and pulled out a long sheet of paper - it was the treaty that the tribes, The Ancients, Berserkers, Defenders of the Wing, Wingmaidens, and assortments of others had signed at the time of the news that Drago Bludvist was still alive. Hiccup grabbed it and slid it across his wooden table to take a read of it.
"Yurlin reached out to our tribes to sign the treaty precisely so we could all make one big alliance against Drago Bludvist and the Warlords, because truth be told Hiccup we fear that tyrant and we were willing to put aside Yurlin's archaic method of leadership - he's more so a dictator than a Chieftan in how he brings fear and rules with an ironfist and a grip on the council, but we were willing to put that aside."
Hiccup started reading the treaty.
TREATY OF COLLABORATION
OUR YURLIN!
This treaty obligates all the tribes of the archipelago to work, talk, collaborate, and form an alliance against the Warlords as Drago Bludvist's been revealed to still be alive. Drago Bludvist caused this mess in the first place, the conflicts with the Hooligans, and produced a vermin in the archipelago as a result.
This treaty ratifies the Ancient Tribe's reaching out to the other tribes that we will work together in the hope of peace and collaboration to take a stand against Warlord aggression.
This treaty makes clear the Ancient Tribe's promise to be the sole defenders of the archipelago, battling the evil ideology of Drago Bludvist that led to the death of the most patriotic Chieftan in history, Stoick the Vast!
In doing so, this treaty proposes that the tribes, in an alliance against the Warlords, reaches out to the Hairy Hooligans, the Ancient Tribe has the upmost admiration for them given their past and with them being victims of the evil of Grimmel and Drago.
Signed by Herrick Herald, top council viking of Ancient Tribe! OUR YURLIN!
Reading that treaty just now had made Hiccup realize that a LOT more was going on since he left the central Barbaric Archipelago than he had realized.
"So you've come here because you want us to join this treaty?" Hiccup asked.
"I wish we could say that, Hiccup - the Ancients withdrew from the treaty only last month," Dagur revealed, to the confusion of Hiccup.
"What?"
"Yeah. They've got a serious obsession with a group of vikings they call the 'unvikings' - their definition of an unviking is basically a viking who worked to create the alienation which led to the rise of Drago and Grimmel. To him and his tribe, those sorts of vikings aren't vikings but just animals. Part of their aim is to return the world back to seven generations ago. They recently announced to the entire archipelago that they had rearmed, we haven't seen that level of rearmament for years now. They withdrew from the treaty because we didn't agree to do the same nor did we agree with their violent take on the so-called 'unvikings' and we openly called it out for being divisive."
"My god," Hiccup said, scratching the back of his neck, "but that doesn't fully explain why you've come to me."
"We were hoping you could step in and try and soothe things over a bit. Yurlin in his speeches constantly mentions you and he feels as much loss about your dad as you do."
That was a red line for Hiccup.
"I cannot do that. Look, put it this way...I'm a dad now, I've got a whole tribe to look after, we're in our element up here on Berk-well, New Berk I suppose. I never want to live through what I lived through with all those conflicts and I want my kids to have the safest lives possible, free of any conflict."
"But Hiccup, it feels like tensions are brewing back in the archipelago - could you not send just someone over to meet the Ancients and get to...know them? don't get us wrong, and I can speak on behalf of Alvin and the rest of us here - we hate Drago, we want to make this alliance work with the Ancients if they truly mean it when they say they can stand up and act as a deterrent to Drago Bludvist - we just don't like how they're talking about ordinary vikings, it feels like their 'unvikings' definition could mean anyone they want it to be, and their level of rearmament is also a cause for concern."
Hiccup sighed.
"We just don't want anything to break out. We've loved the peace for the last ten years too, but since Drago was revealed to be alive five years ago, it's just felt like a bit of a bumpy ride. We came to you not because this treaty had asked us to do it, we came to you precisely because the Ancient Tribe withdrew from it after their pretty extremist talk of the so-called 'unvikings' and their aims. We want to deter Drago, but we can't deter him with someone like Yurlin who could easily be a similar sort of Chieftan or leader to Drago. Ultimately, we want to keep the peace, we feel like you can do it given how much the Ancients admire you."
It sounded like a full blown crisis was emerging back on the archipelago - but Hiccup genuinely meant it when he said he wanted nothing to do with anything that involved any potential conflicts. He was past that point the second Grimmel dropped to his death in the ocean - he wanted to live in peace, not just for his tribe's sake, but as a dad, for the sake of his kids.
"I still stand by what I said, but...listen, why don't you stay on our island for the night, I'll at least try and gauge some sort of solution."
Hiccup, even though he wanted nothing to do with any of this, was ever so slightly considering sending someone at least to the tribe of the Ancient Vikings, who he was barely familiar with apart from hearing the name 'Alfa Yurlin' once or twice over the past ten years.