A/N: Hello again! Guess what day it is?! Things start to get moving in this chapter, thanks for waiting! Thank you to all of you who leave comments, it means a lot that people are enjoying this work. I'm working on a scene right now where Hange goes ham over the dragons, I can't wait to publish that one! I hope you enjoy this chapter!
The Scouts had tied up their horses to some trees near the edge of the forest and began their journey on foot. Hange was fascinated, it was very rare to find a forest this undisturbed within the walls, it was no wonder that Sasha had been able to catch something so easily. The trees were tall too, perfect for their ODM gear.
Eren had pulled out a poorly drawn map with some landmarks labelled and some arrows, it would presumably lead them to some freshwater.
"You know that isn't a really good map," Armin said, walking up to Eren.
"But it's better than what the Captain or Mikasa could pull off," Eren retorted. They both smiled at Eren's attempted joke. Eren had slowly been sorting through his thoughts and other memories and was finally able to live in the present a little bit, he was just taking life one step at a time, or at least trying to.
Levi was on guard, that nagging feeling of unease had only grown stronger.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Mikasa asked.
Levi stayed silent, not having a concrete answer anyways.
"I feel it two," She whispered, "Something is different from yesterday."
"Did you hear that?" Sasha said, stopping in her tracks.
Everyone snapped to attention, all daydreams stopped, time seemed to stop.
Hiccup yawned and stretched his arms over his head blinking awake, the sun was already fully risen and he was the first Viking awake.
"Good morning there, bud," Hiccup said, patting Toothless's head as he groaned and rolled over to face him, "The sun's already up, I guess we all slept in. What do you say, wanna get some breakfast, bud?"
Toothless's eyes lit up in response.
"Okay then, bud. Let's go!" Hiccup climbed onto Toothless's saddle securing his right foot in a mechanism that controls Toothless prosthetic tail fin and giving it a few flicks before taking off. They flew low beneath the tree line in their little clearing, finally able to see it all clearly. It was a decent sized clearing with a pond in it slightly bigger than the one at the cove back on Berk with dense forest surrounding them on all sides, there was no obvious path in or out of the clearing. They dove down and skimmed the pond's surface as Toothless grabbed at the fish. They managed to catch a decent amount of fish and they weren't flying anywhere near Toothless's top speed.
Somehow the rest of the Vikings knew Hiccup and Toothless had caught them breakfast and were slowly waking up. Astrid had gone with Stormfly to grab some firewood, not that they needed much though with fire breathing dragons and all. By the time Hiccup and Toothless finished their third trip over the pond everyone was waiting by the fire Stormfly had lit. They each took a fish and began to roast them over the fire and let the dragons eat the rest.
"Hey, Astrid, does Stormfly still have the Rockfins scent?" Hiccup asked as he dismounted Toothless.
Stormfly made some chirping noises and moved her head around like a confused bird.
"No, she lost it. It was pretty weak to begin with though," Astrid said, taking Stormfly's head into her arms calming her down.
"Okay," Hiccup said, running a hand through his brown hair, "We should at least stay here a day or two in case it comes back."
"Stay here?" Tuffnut said.
"In the forest?" Ruffnut said.
"Well, we could go say hello," Hiccup suggested.
"A-are we really going to go introduce ourselves?" Snotlout asked, his voice quaking, "I like it in the forest much better."
"I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I'm with Snotlout on this one," Fishlegs said.
"We can't just hide in here all day," Hiccup argued.
"But I don't have the best track record when it comes to meeting new people, Hiccup!" Snotlout shouted.
"Are you still upset about the time the Wing Maidens tried to eat you?" Fishlegs said.
"That was just a misunderstanding! And besides, the twins have done much worse." Snotlout huffed and crossed his arms.
"Like the time we almost buried you alive?"
"Or the time we made you-"
"Okay, we get the point," Astrid cut in, "You guys enjoy toying with Snotlout."
"We just like toying with everyone," Tuffnut said and Ruffnut cackled in response.
"I don't care what the reason is, I'm not going to introduce myself!" Snotlout huffed.
"Come on guys they can't be any worse than what we've already seen-"
"Are we just going to fly on over there on fire breathing dragons and tell them we mean no harm!" Snotlout shouted, he was angry and very quick to anger this time. Hiccup glanced around to look at his friends, none of them seemed to disagree with Snotlout.
"What if they have dragon killing machines that we didn't see!"
Hiccup was taken aback, Snotlout usually didn't have smart arguments. But that thought was quickly silenced but Toothless. His head had suddenly shot up and faced the forest.
"What is it, bud?" Hiccup whispered.
"How friendly do you think we look from the sky, Hiccup!?"
Hiccup wasn't listening, he was too focused on Toothless who had begun moving slowly towards the forest in a stalking manner. The rest of the dragons were on edge as well.
"We've got a Monstrous Nightmare and a Zippleback! Not to mention your N-" Astrid clamped her hand over Snotlout's mouth effectively shutting him up.
"He does have a point, Hiccup," Fishlegs said through shaky breaths.
"Shhh," Hiccup said, holding up a hand.
That's when they heard a sound unlike any they had ever heard before. It was a high pitched hissing noise and every so often there was a sound of metal against metal.
"Could they be Razorwhips?" Astrid asked, her voice getting a bit frantic.
"I-if they were Razor Whips then w-we would have had p-problems with them l-last night, not this l-late since our arrival." Fishlegs barely got out.
"Could-could it be g-g-giants?" Snotlout said.
"The ones with four heads?"
"And bloodied fangs?" The Twins said.
"If they were real, there is no way they could get through that forest without making much more of a racket," Hiccup said, his voice level but his eyes were searching the trees for any sort of movement.
That was when they realized how dense the forest truly was, how tall the trees were, and how cornered they were. The sounds had only gotten closer but they had spread out to surround the one half of the clearing. But the sounds also seemed to be coming from higher up in the trees.
"Surround them!" Someone called from within the forest.
The Vikings had all drawn their weapons and stood in a semicircle with their backs to the pond. Hiccup stood at the front with the hilt of his fire sword in his left hand, with one flick of the wrist he could bring the flaming sword to life, and his right hand in front of Toothless. Toothless was in a very low stance, his teeth on full display and growling, waiting for Hiccup's signal.
Astrid had her axe raised and ready to strike, in reality, she was terrified but wasn't about to show it. Her eyes were darting wildly trying to find the source of the noises. Stormfly was right behind her, ready to protect her if anything went wrong.
Fishlegs was by far the most terrified, he was shaking at the knees sending shockwaves all throughout his chubby body, he could barely keep a grip on his sword.
Snotlout was also terrified, but it only showed in his eyes, he held on to his hammer with a death grip ready to whack the first thing that approached.
The twins were unusually silent, Tuff had his mace out and Ruff held her sword, though they weren't really sure what they were supposed to do. Barf and Belch were ready to pull them out of danger the instant it came.
Everyone looked towards Hiccup, waiting.
They all took an involuntary step back when green cloaked figures jumped from the trees wielding two swords each surrounding the front of their semicircle.
Hiccup flicked his wrist and his sword came to life. This simple, mundane action halted their approach. The Dragons began emitting low, territorial growls and everyone took up a fighting stance, unsure if their next few moments would be their last.