Chapter 290
Hiccups POV:
It's been three months since the signing of the peace treaty and the attack by Moonscar and since then I've dropped Moonscar and his crew back to their homeland and handed them over for a big reward. Apparently, the people I handed him over to had been after him for years and wanted to make him pay for his various crimes and they had a list of them longer than my arm and as thanks they let me keep the items from Moonscars ship and the ship itself with no issues. Other than that, before I left the Fanged Vine tribe, Chieftess Idunn requested I build her tribe a bath house like I'd done for the Grown Hills tribe and I couldn't blame her since winter was coming and it was nice to soak in a hot bath to chase the cold out of your body. I told her I'd consider it, but I needed to focus on helping my own tribe prepare for the coming winters since from Bucket's screams, there were going to be some harsh blizzards coming to Berk.
It's because of this I'd spent the last three months helping people board up their houses, stock up on firewood, ready the barn, stock up on food, preparing blankets and getting everything ready for a long winter. I'd also spent a lot of my time doing a lot of bounty hunting jobs since the pirates, bandits and crooks I hunted often stocked up on winter gear and items, so it was more for Berk which my dad was grateful for especially since it was free. This was good as we had to keep Berks gold ready in case of emergency and a lot of the items were high quality, so they'd help make the coming days a little more bearable for Berk. I'd also used this time bounty hunting as a way to train the kids by bringing them with me on jobs to help them get a little real-world combat experience and they'd been doing well with them claiming a few bounties themselves. Other than that, I'd spent a lot of my time carving out games from the lands I'd been to since they'd be a good way to pass the time and keep a lot of families sane during the long boring days trapped inside and making winter equipment for the people in case they needed to leave their homes for some reason and to help them when they could come out of their homes.
Besides that the chances are the people of Berk would be sealed up for weeks and of course this would mean when the storms passed, Toothless and I would be busier than ever melting the snow keeping doors blocked, delivering food and wood to people who lived away from the village, making sure nobody froze to death during the storms, checking on the animals and a lot more which I am happy to say would be easy thanks to Toothless and my cold loving dragons. The only headache was I'd had to deal with people asking, begging and demanding that I allow them to stay on my island during the blizzard since my island was always warm except in the arctic part. I'd already had to take care of a few people cozying up to my kids with a few also trying to get close to Toothless to try and convince me that he enjoyed playing with them.
Now though, devastating winter had come and all of Berk was covered in snow due to snowstorms that have buried the houses and left everyone trapped inside their own homes. Me and my family were alright though since we spent most of our time on my island training or enjoying ourselves but right now, Brant, Chara and I weren't on my island. We were on Berk in the forest section farthest away from the village in the middle of a blizzard with each of us wearing winter gear which in my case was my wolf armor. The kids on the other hand wore their usual equipment but with fur coats, boots, pants, gloves and goggles with Brant's gear being black and Chara's being grey.
I stood in front of them and saw them shivering with Lucia, Frostbite, Avalanche and Snowbell standing behind me since they were the ones most suited for this training. This training was to help prepare them for when they were out during the winters on Berk since there have been times when enemies have used the blizzards to their advantage to attack Berk when we were all stuck inside and couldn't warn others about the attack. In the past it had succeeded in doing a lot of damage to Berk with some people nearly losing their lives but we're Berkians and we don't go down easily. Sadly, with the sad fact was that these guys were often prepared for tough blizzards and would always manage to escape in the dense snow.
I stood in front of the kids and smiled before I said.
"Alright kids, today we'll be training to find opponents when you find yourselves in blizzards." Brant asked.
"So how are we going to train?"
"That's what the snow wraiths are for." I signaled the snow wraiths forward. "These guys are experts at hiding themselves within blizzards and your test is to find them in the blizzard winds and snow." Chara then asked.
"Why are we doing this kind of training daddy?"
"A few years back when I was your age, Berk got caught in a massive blizzard which allowed an opportunity for group of bandits who were prepared for the weather." They nodded. "These guys were able to do a lot of damage to Berk, stole a lot of our supplies and hurt a few of our people before disappearing into the blizzard with the village guard not being able to follow them." I sighed and looked down while shaking my head. "A lot of families nearly lost at least one member that day and the village was barely able to make it through the remainder of that winter since they got away with a lot of our sheep, chicken and yaks so food needed to be rationed a lot more than it already was." I shook my head. "I'm not sure if there will be more bandits like them but if there are I want you two to be ready to help Berk defend against them." They nodded. "Now let's begin training." I whistled and signaled the snow wraiths to hide, and they took off into the blizzard, disappearing into it. "Close your eyes, count to ten and then open them and find them but remember that your eyes aren't going to be much help so open up all your senses to find them." They nodded before I walked over to Lucia and leaned against the Frost Fury. "Think they'll be able to find them?" She growled while shaking her head. "I know, it took me a long time before I could find them and see my way through the blizzard winds." She nodded as the kids opened their eyes and began looking around for the snow wraiths.
6 hours later
It's been six hours since the training began, and I admit the kids have improved since we first began but only by a little since this is their first day of training in blizzards. Still though, even if it wasn't by much, I was still proud of how far they'd come, and I knew that they'd be going a lot farther in the future with the right training. I felt they'd had enough training though when I saw icicles begin to form on the bottoms of their sleeves which brings us to now with all of us up in the air with the Brant on the back of Avalanche and Chara riding on Snowbell while I rode on Lucia. I looked down at Berk from above and could easily tell we'd need stoker class dragons just to defrost the doors and get rid of some of the snow so people would be able to come out of their houses without needing to break their doors down.
It was then I noticed something in the water between my island and Berk and after getting a closer look using my eagle eye, I gasped and steered Lucia toward the ocean shocking her until she also caught sight of what was floating there and sped up. I couldn't blame her though since despite her cold outside, she had a very warm heart, especially when it comes to children and the thing, we were heading to be a small fishing boat with a child on it. When we were close enough, I jumped off Lucia and used my own wings to glide down to the boat, landing on it and found the childs skin was blue and he was curled up in a ball, not moving but I could hear his heartbeat. I picked him up before jumping high and allowing Lucia to pick us up and signaled Frostbite to bring the boat while I took off to the wolf's forest since it did snow there but it was not as cold as the weather. If I brought the child straight into heat, it could do a lot of damage to his body and muscles since it would be a really big shock for him that could end up being lethal. We came to land near the wolves' den and I quickly dismounted before I took off inside with the kids soon following after landing the snow wraiths.
Nightfall
Night had fallen over my island and the residents including my family had all gone to bed over an hour ago except for me since I was in the library staring at the burning embers of the fire. The reason for this is sleep was not coming easily to me since I was too worried about the child from the boat, with the child now in one of the guest rooms beds unconscious and the boat being placed in my ship-shed. I had spent the entire afternoon keeping an eye on the child with my family since we could all tell he was only a few years younger than Chara in age so for him to die at such a young age would be a true tragedy and what's worse, after getting inside I found that his arms and legs were tied meaning someone had sent this kid out to die in the cold and that made my blood boil. Fortunately thanks to the wolf walkers magic, he was brought back from the brink of death but still unconscious and cold which is why we put him in the guest room with a few extra furs to help keep him warm. It was during our time watching over the child that we took some time to examine his appearance and saw he had hair that was very light blond almost white and pale skin due to how cold he was.
As for his clothes, he had a dark blue long-sleeved tunic, brown pants and fur shoes, with various patches sowed on to cover holes but these patched made up most of the clothing and they were dirty and ripped in places so they were not fit for this weather. Furthermore, we inspected the boy's body and found various healing cuts and bruises that I healed with my mystic ganji waters, but we couldn't do anything about the multiple scars running along his body. It wasn't that hard to tell that this kid had been beaten on a regular basis but by his parents or bullies, I did not know, and chances are it was going to take some time to get him to open up to us. For now, though, all we could do is pray to the gods to help us heal the child and have him let us help him heal both physically and mentally from what's been done to him. I sighed knowing it best I go to bed and at least try to get a little sleep tonight since I had a busy day tomorrow delivering food and wood to the farmers who lived outside of the village, so I got up and left the library to go to bed.
2 days later
It's been two days since we found the child in the fishing boat and since then not much has happened outside of regular deliveries around the village, training the kids, making sure everything is alright on Berk and checking up on the child who has still not woken up. It's true that we didn't even know his name, but the child was still a child and none of us wanted to lay him down to rest, especially using an unmarked grave. Sadly, all we could do for the child now is keep him warm, watch over him and pray to the gods that he'd be alright and make it through these difficult times at least long enough to tell us who did this to him since we all wanted to punish them and the only clue, we had was the boat we found him on. Unfortunately, the boat didn't have much to go on other than a piece of an insignia on the sails that were torn up with the pieces going into the ocean before it reached anywhere near Berk, so we had no way of knowing what the symbol was.
Now I was making my way into the child's room to relieve Mebh and Robyne of their guard duty but as soon as I entered the room, I noticed the sound of something and looked at the bed where the boy was still laying. I looked to the girls who were sitting by the window playing a game of maces and talons to pass the time before I coughed and said.
"Okay young wolves, you've done your time so you can go out and play now." They both smiled before leaving me alone in the room with the boy and I walked up to the side of his bed, looking down at him. "It's alright, there's nobody else here besides me so you can stop acting." I could hear his heartbeat faster. "You don't have to be afraid, I'm not mad and I'm not going to hurt you, but I would like to ask you some questions and I'm guessing you have some questions of your own." I heard the child sigh and open his eyes to show they were ice blue. "Nice try but you have to get up pretty early in the morning to trick me." He just looked down at his lap and examined his arms. "We already patched up the wounds on your body but I'm sad to say there's nothing we can do about the scars." He nodded. "Now why don't you tell me your name and who sent that ship of yours off into the cold." He tightened his grip on the blankets, and I knew this meant he was scared so I gently placed a hand on his back and rubbed it. "Don't worry, you can tell me when you're ready, but I feel it only right to warn you, there are a lot of people on this island who are worried about you and are going to want to get to know you." I walked away from the bed. "I'll have someone get you something to eat since I'm pretty sure after two days of no food, your stomachs begging for something to enjoy." As if to tell me I was right, his stomach let out a loud growl making me chuckle before I left the room to both prepare a meal and to let everyone know our guest had woken up.
5 days later
It's been five days since our guest woke up and since then he hasn't said a word, and it was obvious because he was scared of something and he'd yet to leave the bed. He had opened up to some of us though in the form of playing maces and talons with those of us who offered a friendly game to him which is how we each introduced ourselves and our positions on the island to him. This brings us to now with me sitting down in front of a small table next to the bed with a maces and talons game sitting on top of it as we played in silence. I smiled as I made my last move and won the game and looked up at the boy as I said.
"Good game, keep improving like you are and you'll be able to beat me in no time." He smiled at me. "Now how's about I have a snack brought to us, so we have something to enjoy over another game." He smiled and nodded as I had one of my serving automatons pick up a bowl of sugared dates from the kitchen and come up but the second it walked in the child screamed in fear and asked.
"WHAT IS THAT THING?" My eyes widened when the child finally spoke, but I felt too bad to enjoy it since I forgot he'd never seen any of my automatons before, so I quickly placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him.
"Don't worry, it's just one of my automatons that I invented, and I promise you that I am in full control of it, so it won't hurt you." I had the automaton walk up to me making the boy lean away. "I just had it bring us a snack." I took the bowl of sugared dates from it and then had it rush out before it could freak the poor boy out even more. "Well, it wasn't exactly the way I wanted it happening but at least I got you talking so maybe now you can tell me your name at least." He looked down and grumbled something. "Excuse me, I didn't get that." He looked up at me.
"What's the point, when I'm back to normal you're just going to toss me back on my boat and ship me off since I'm nothing but a useless burden to everyone around me." My eyes widened.
"Who told you this?" He looked down and kept his mouth shut so I placed a hand on his shoulder. "I want to help you, but you first have to let me help you." I saw him tighten his grip on the blanket. "Please, tell me why you think this so I can help you." I saw him tighten his grip again before loosening it.
"My tribe members along with my aunt, uncle and cousin." He sniffed. "My mom died shortly after I was born and my dad died four years later of heart attack leaving me in the care of my aunt and Uncle who treated me like a slave from day one, making me clean the house and shovel manure while their son didn't have to lift a finger and got away with bullying and beating me every day with his friends." I could tell tears were beginning to leak from his eyes. "They'd constantly tell me how I was an unwanted burden on the village since I was born a runt and that I should've died with my mom when I was a child." He sniffled as tears began to fall from his face. "Everyone in the village agreed with them so none of them ever stepped up to help me since I was always clumsy and weak compared to everyone else." He began crying a little harder. "All I ever did was try to do what I was told, and it always led to punishment even when it wasn't my fault and whenever my cousin and friends did something that would make someone angry" His knuckles tightened. "They'd blame me even when everyone knew it couldn't have been and I'd still get punished for it." I sighed and leaned back into my chair.
"Odin, do I know what that's like!" He looked up at me.
"You do?" I nodded.
"I was also born the runt and suffered daily beatings, insults, scorn from my people and my father's disapproving gaze every time he saw me." I sighed and ran a hand through my hair. "Every day, I'd do something to gain some approval, but nothing worked out until one day I did something that would lead to me making a friend who would not only help me realize a lot of things but also lead to some incredible adventures around the world." I shook my head and looked back at the boy. "Still, the most important thing I realized is that being weak wasn't my fault, just like how you being weak isn't your fault." He looked up at me.
"It isn't?" I shook my head.
"No, it isn't." I placed a hand on his shoulder and wiped away his tears. "The fault lies with the people who torment and beat you, they keep you weak by destroying your confidence and stopping you from training by dumping their responsibilities on you and beating you so it would hurt too much for you to train." He nodded. "Now listen, there are four months until devastating winter comes to an end and it'll still be a week before your well enough to leave the bed but as soon as you've recovered, how's about I train you a bit in kung fu and ninjutsu." He looked confused.
"Kung fu and ninjutsu?" I nodded.
"Kung fu comes in many styles, each strong in their own way while ninjutsu is used by ninja and when it comes to fighting like a Viking and fighting like a ninja, they're like day and night, complete opposites since ninjas focus on speed and stealth." I rubbed the back of my neck. "This does not mean a ninja is weak in a fight though, trust me on this." I shook my head. "Anyway, I'll train you like I've trained my own children and I'm not going to lie to you, the training will be tough, but nobody will be able to call you weak again." I placed a hand on his shoulder. "Are you willing to commit to this?" I saw fire ignite in his eyes before he nodded.
"Yes, I am!" I smiled.
"That's what I want to hear." I removed my hand and sat up straight. "Now let's get to our game and before we begin, let's hear your name." He smiled at me.
"Egil, my name is Egil." I smiled.
"Well now I know what to call you during training."
4 months later
It's been four months since I learnt Egil's name and since then he's made a full recovery and has been training under me and my ninja in hand-to-hand combat and fighting with weapons. It was during this time we learnt he had a natural skill with the sword and just needed time and the right sort of training to unlock his true potential and in a month, he used the practice swords as an extension of his own arm which is a key to becoming a great swordsman. Honestly, from what I've seen, he'll be a great one someday with the right training and although I hated to say it, his training would be in the hands of another since he'd be leaving us to return to his own tribe. I admit that the time we'd all spent with him had been short, but he already felt like a member of the family with Brant and Chara treating him like a brother and my wives treating him like a son. To be honest, I couldn't blame them since I'd been treating him like a son myself and who could blame me since I also had a rough childhood so I could easily relate to him.
I'm not going to lie though, his first few days on the island weren't easy for the little seven-year-old since he kept getting scares whenever he saw one of the dragons, my mystic beasts, my animals and the island residents who weren't human. It took a week for him to feel comfortable leaving the house now knowing what was out there and calling this island home and even then, he wasn't comfortable leaving without me or one of my family members. It was a full month before he felt comfortable enough to go out on his own, but he was still hesitant to get near any of the dragons who were flying around and often got spooked when he saw some of them and would fall back or run away. It was because of this that his already torn and patched up clothes became even worse, and my wives decided enough was enough and made him some new clothes including items for winter clothes. He now wore a long-sleeved ice blue tunic that matched his eyes, brown pants, a white fur vest made from alpaca fur, white boots lined with alpaca fur, matching gloves and ear warmers. When he wasn't out in the cold though, he kept the gloves and ear warmers in a brown leather satchel I made for him that he keeps on his belt.
Now though, it had come time to return him to his tribe and although the goodbyes were painful, we all made it through it before I took Egil on my ship and we began the journey to his home. When we got there, I decided to do a scout out mission and see how things were and it was from this I learnt that the people were told he took the ship willingly instead of being forced and if he returned he's be branded as an outcast and be forced to live alone on the far end of the island in a small shack with nobody to show him any kindness. What's worse is I found Egil's cousin and his friends who were the ones who sent Egil on the ship in the first place and the thing that made my blood boil is they were proud of what they'd done to him.
It was because of this that I'd decided these kids needed to be taught a lesson as did the entire village for how they treated Egil and that's what I'd been doing the last two weeks. I'd spend my evenings creating an illusion of a frozen Egil wondering around the village and having the guards spot it before making the illusion vanish, making an illusion of Egil's ship sailing near the docks with shredded sails and ice shards all over it with Egil's spirit staring at the people from the deck, having Adal send a cold breeze into the village with Egil's spirit standing in the town square for all to see and more. The main people I'd been tormenting though was the ones who put Egil on the ship by having Egil's spirit appear in their room and having a cold wind flow in to extinguish their candles while the illusion would stare at them with a cold look on its face. I'd also go to their regular hang outs and write the words 'CONFESS' and 'MURDERERS' in ice on the walls scaring the heck out of them and now the chief had called in a full tribal meeting in their tribes Great Hall built into the side of a mountain to discuss the haunting which is where I'd make the final ghost appearance.
This brings us to now, with me and Egil sitting in the rafters as we looked down at the gathering of people who were all talking about their latest ghost experience. It was then their chief who I learnt was named Magnor the brave raised his hands to silence everyone before he announced.
"Alright everyone, I know we have all had some crazy experiences these past few days with the so-called ghost of that runt Egil appearing along with the ship he stole but I am here to put an end to it." There were various mutters. "After giving it a lot of thought and decided on the fact that this is all some prank being pulled and I as chief order the one who's been pulling it to knock it off as winters harsh enough as it is." He looked around hearing mutters of agreement. "And just to be clear, there is no such thing as gh-"
I decided to cut him off there and used my fire control ability to make the torches extinguish before having the firepit blast with a pillar scaring everyone and then having the pillar pull back in and extinguish the flame. As soon as the flames were extinguished, I began the illusion and had Egil's spirit rise and form from the smoke before floating towards the chief who shook in fear as he stared at the ghost and asked.
"Who are you?"
"The ghost of Egil, the young boy who you all tortured for no other reason than him being born different."
"You can't be!"
"But I am, and I cannot pass onto the next life until I receive justice for my murder."
"Murder?" I made the ghost nod. "But you sailed off at your own free will after stealing your uncles favorite fishing boat." The ghost shook his head, and I could see the ones who threw Egil into the boat were beginning to sweat in fear and I could tell Egil was liking what he saw.
"No, I was tied up and thrown into the ship before it was forcefully sent off while those who did it laughed."
"Who did it?" The chief stood up. "Tell me and I will see to it that they're properly punished." I saw Egil hold in a yell and I couldn't blame him so I had the illusion make his thoughts known as I made him ask.
"Properly punished?" I made the illusion grow big with ice bursting from every part of its body. "PROPERLY PUNISHED!" Chief Magnor fell back in his chair in fright as did a lot of people. "NEVER ONCE WERE THE ONES WHO DID THIS TO ME EVER PUNISHED FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST ME AND INSTEAD TURNED A BLIND EYE TO IT OR PUNISHED ME FOR THEIR MISDEEDS WHEN THEY BLAMED THEM ON ME EVEN WHEN I HAD WITNESSES THAT COULD TELL YOU I WAS ELSEWHERE WHEN THEY DID THEIR FOUL GAMES AND NOW YOU EXPECT ME TO BELIEVE YOUR WORDS OF DELIVERING PROPER PUNISHMENT!" He leaned back in fear.
"I swear to Odin and on my honor as a chief that I will deliver proper punishment to the ones who sent you off on that ship and give them all the punishments I gave you over the years that were given to you for what they did." I had the illusion nod. "Please just tell me who the ones who did the deed."
"I CANNOT FOR THEY MUST CONFESS THEMSELVES AND SHOULD THEY NOT STEP FORWARD NOW THAN THINGS SHALL BECOME VERY COLD FOR EVERYONE HERE IN THE HALL!"
To emphasize the point I had the illusion rise up to cover me as I brought out my ice claws and launched a few icicles at the wall through the hands of the illusion and that was all it took before Egil's cousin and his friends rushed forward and threw themselves at the feet of Chief confessing that they're the ones who did it. I turned to Egil who smiled and nodded as he whispered.
"I think they've learnt their lesson." I nodded and made the illusion disappear before picking Egil up.
"Let's go explain things to them." I jumped from the rafter while releasing my wings and gliding down to land behind Egil's cousin with everyone backing up in shock as Egil walked up to his cousin who looked up in shock and fear,
"Just to be clear, I'm not dead, that ghost you just saw was a trick made by the magic of Hiccup Haddock." I did a mock bow before turning to chief Magnor.
"A pleasure to meet you chief Magnor and my apologies for all the trouble chief, but after hearing what those boys did and how your people treat Egil, I decided you all deserve a good scare." He sighed and shook his head before looking up at me and saying.
"It's nice to meet you to Hiccup." He stood up. "I've heard many things about you, and I'm impressed since I've heard about your adventures and your abilities but they're nothing compared to actually witnessing it." He then turned to Egils cousin and his friends before sighing and turning back to me. "As for your trick on my village, after seeing what lack of punishment has led those boys to do, I don't blame you since the responsibility falls on me for not ensuring they were properly punished for all their misdeeds as it was just easier to blame the orphaned runt." He glanced at Egil's cousin and his friends before he shook his head. "You don't have to worry about those troublemakers getting away with anything they've done or will do in the future." I nodded.
"That's all I can ask for and that you look out for Egil now." It was then Egil's brown mustached uncle wearing his dirty brown tunic walked up.
"Hold on there." We all turned to him. "You're honestly going to believe this stranger and the claims of my useless orphan claims about my boy and his friends trying to kill him." Chief Magnor replied.
"It was your son and his friends who confessed to the crimes after being scared into telling the truth."
"All said out of fear." He turned to glare at Egil. "You're going to get your well-deserved beating when we get home runt." I saw Egil walk up to his uncle looking down before a smile came to his face and then struck his uncle in five places using two fingers on each hand and his uncle stiffened.
"A little trick I learnt called a nerve strike in my time away along with this." He dropped to the ground and did a quick leg sweep, making his uncle drop to the ground and looked down at him with a glare. "I'm not afraid of you anymore." He glared up at Egil. "That nerve strike will leave you paralyzed for an hour so you won't be able to move for an hour." He glared at him.
"Don't even bother trying to get home you little runt, you can consider yourself kicked out and on the streets you ungrateful rat." I walked up next to Egil and looked down at his uncle.
"Scum!" I turned to Egil who looked at me.
"Well, I've been just made homeless." I nodded.
"Looks that way."
"I don't suppose your offer still stands, does it?" I chuckled and ruffled his hair.
"It's still there Egil and I know everyone back on the island would love it if you accepted the offer."
"I do." It was then Chief Magnor walked up and asked.
"What offer are you talking about?" I turned to the chief.
"Over the months he was with me and my family we all grew close to him and after hearing what his life's been like for years under the care of his relatives, I offered him a place on my island in my home." Chief Magnor nodded before turning to Egil.
"You sure you want this lad?" Egil nodded.
"They showed me nothing, but kindness and it felt like I was part of a family which is something I never felt with my uncle and his family." He nodded.
"Then I wish you luck in your new life lad."
He nodded before I lead Egil out of the hall but not before I spat on his uncle and as we left on my ship, I decided to give Egil's uncle his boat back and dropped it on his hut, wrecking them both as a punishment for their cruelty. As my ship headed home though, I looked and Egil and wondered what kind of relationship I'd have with him in the future since he might be an apprentice, fellow villager or something more. I shrugged knowing that the only thing that would answer my question is time since I don't know what the future holds but whatever challenges they were, I'd gladly take them all head on if it was for my family.
AN: And here's another chapter for you all with a new child added to the family before the baby comes along and I hope you will all like him in the future. Anyway, remember to review as I need some to read with the month I've been having moving tens of computers everyday while taking care of peoples problems and more. Your reviews make me happy and it's always nice to read them so please write some for me to read.