The spirit of celebration was in the air. Although night had fallen over an island, its Vikings continued to dance, sing, and feast. Torches were lit to illuminate the village. A young man and woman were in the center of dancers, dressed in wedding attire. When the musicians finished their song, the couple stopped and heard more clapping. They got approached by one Viking who patted the groom on the back.
"You two will make a fine chief and chieftess," he said, smiling.
Proudly, the bride kissed her new husband. "Thank you. We're excited to lead together."
A dreamy look was in the man's eyes. "That we are," he stated. "We've got some new ideas to preserve food. Considering how much we have here, that'll be needed."
"Well, we couldn't let there be a wedding without a feast. It all began with those delicious drinks–"
"That my family got to serve the first arrivals," the groom boasted.
His wife lightly hit his shoulder. "Yours only beat mine in the race because you cheated."
"It simply matters that we got there first," he teased. "The process isn't important."
"Well then, maybe we should have another race to see if you're still as successful."
The man looked intrigued by this. "Alright. One final race and the loser has to serve dessert to the last arrivals."
Without warning, the woman took off running. Her husband laughed as he ran after her. They rushed through the village, getting closer to the homes. The man's head turned slightly when he noticed a new sound. It was peculiar and unfamiliar. When it was gone, he thought nothing of it and kept running. Then it returned.
"Hold on!" he called.
The woman was far ahead of him and smirked. "I'm not letting you win this time."
Frowning in concern, the other Viking kept running, but there was that sound again.
"What is that?" he wondered.
Suddenly, he heard a crash. A pale light shot out of the pitch black sky, hitting a hut. The building went up in flames. The man stopped running, face turning pale. He looked upwards, but he could not see any dragon the fire belonged to. Regardless, another pale light shot a different hut. The woman had stopped running as well. Her eyes widened upon seeing this sight. It seemed like more blasts were being sent in the direction of the celebration. Immediately, she began running back. The couple stayed at one another's side, watching in horror as more buildings went up in flames from seemingly invisible creatures. Additional Vikings had heard the noises and rushed towards their homes to put out the fire. One reached for a barrel of water near the table of food, but he cried out when another shot hit his arm. Panic filled the groom when the night momentarily became bright. He realized the beasts were not invisible. Plasma blasts lit up the sky like stars. They got bright–blinding. Afterwards, it was nearly impossible to see the black dragons against the sky. The chief grabbed a shield and held the chieftess close, hiding them both underneath.
"Everyone, take cover!" he ordered.
Vikings tried to follow the command, but blasts rained down on them worse than a hail storm. They hit everything except the tables. Cries filled the air as Vikings were burned and bitten. Almost blindly, they slashed around to hurt their camouflaged attackers. Dragons flew down and grabbed the food in their claws, flying off as others continued to fight the Vikings.
"Night Furies!" someone yelled out as a warning.
This sent fear into the crowd, but they still continued to battle. Unable to see their opponents, the people lost limbs and blasts shot through their cores. Blood splattered everywhere. The chief was going to join them, but he did not dare lose sight of his wife. Suddenly, she gasped in horror. Their friend was standing near one of the tables, jabbing at a Night Fury he managed to get close to. He did not see the one behind him. The chieftess knocked her husband's arm off from around her and ran out from under the shield. A strong sense of dread consumed her when she saw the reptile opening its mouth. Blood was shot onto her face from her friend's wound. He sputtered for a moment before falling forward. The chief started running to them, drawing a sword to attack the dragon as well.
"Dahlia!" he cried out.
She was too numb to move far, but she turned her head to him. He saw a haunted look in her eyes that only faded when the Night Fury clawed through her back. She slumped over, getting caught by the man. He nearly stopped breathing. Freezing, he watched as the Night Fury prepared to fire another plasma blast. This gave him the push he needed. He lifted the woman into his arms and ran as fast as he could. Ducking, he narrowly avoided the shot and those that followed. He ran through the forest, maneuvering around trees and boulders. He only stopped when they reached the other side of the island. There was a cave. Once inside, he set down the other Viking and tried to apply pressure to the wound. She was completely unresponsive, but he still ripped up some of his tunic to create a bandage.
"You're going to be alright," he assured her. "You'll be fine as soon as we can get you to the healers. I-I'll find one to bring here. At least one still has to be alive."
As much as he hated to do this, he left her to find one of these healers. He quietly ran back to the village. His gaze lifted as he heard wings flapping. It was difficult to see the dragons, but he sensed them flying above him. He hid under the canopy of the forest so that they would not attack again. This allowed him safe passage to the village. When he reached it, he never would have believed there had been a celebration that night or any other. The area was scorched, all the food had been raided, and there was more blood on the ground than grass. Speedily, he looked for a healer. There had to be some at the celebration. They would not miss the wedding of their new leaders. In horror, he found one.
The man had a broken neck. Not getting discouraged yet, the chief found another healer. She had lost both legs and bled out. This made the man begin to panic. There were not many healers on the island. He had one last hope. This hope was crushed when he found the severed head of the final healer. Everyone was dead. His last option was to use their supplies for his wife. He went to the three huts, gathering as many healing herbs and ointments as he could find. His long legs brought him back to the cave quickly.
"I've got something that could help," he said anxiously. "Let's try these. They have to work. The healers can't help. They're…everyone is…" He stopped, frowning. "Let's focus on getting you better."
He approached the chieftess and tried each ointment he had found. Neither these nor the smelling salts caused her to awaken. Finally, he did what he had been avoiding. He accepted the truth. The chief felt sobs building in his throat, but he did not let them out. He only held the chieftess to him and tightly shut his eyes. Gradually, they reopened with a coldness.
"I'll make them suffer, Dahlia," he promised. "I'll kill each one of them."
This oath hung in the air and stayed there as time passed. A lot of it did. Thirty-four years went by and more dragons were flying through the sky. Below them were ships of Hunters and Trappers with wenches and catapults. The Dragon Riders soared, each one dressed in armor and helmets made from the scales of their dragons. One of the attackers launched a net at a Rumblehorn, but a Razorwhip cut it with its tail. Toothless roared in encouragement, then flew towards the rest of the flock. This time, a boulder was shot at a Deadly Nadder. A Raincutter got spooked by this and started to fly away. Meatlug ate the boulder and Toothless sent the other dragon a chastising look. Hiccup patted his head assuringly.
"Go easy on them, Bud," he said. "They're still learning."
The dragon seemed to roll his eyes at the lenient Viking. Toothless expected greatness from his dragons. He was not going to be king only for them to get killed or captured on his watch. It was a simple matter for the Riders to defeat their enemies, but that was not the purpose of this mission.
"Do they need any more testing?" Astrid asked.
Hiccup glanced at Toothless who gave a little huff.
"Maybe one more set of boulders and nets," the young man stated. "Just to end things on a happy note before we wrap up things here."
The Night Fury's eyes lit up at this as the Hunters and several Trappers fired their weapons. This time, the Raincutter knew better than to abandon allies or become paralyzed by fear. It stopped a net from catching Stormfly and received a happy roar from its king as a result. A Catastrophic Quaken was rewarded with praise next when it saved Hookfang from a boulder. Toothless signaled to the dragons that they could end there for the day. Seeing that he had done this, Hiccup sent a wave to his friends. With their dragons, they blasted holes into the vessels and caused them to sink.
"The dragons are learning this pretty well," Astrid said, smiling.
Snotlout nodded, then puffed up. "Did you see how that Quaken couldn't wait to help me and Hooky out?"
Barf and Belch flew over, letting Ruffnut hit her friend's helmet. "You make good bait."
"Tha–" Snotlout stopped, wondering whether or not this was a compliment.
Fishlegs chuckled and grinned. "And we all made good time. If we leave now, we'll reach the meeting long before dusk."
"Then let's go," Tuffnut encouraged excitedly.
His friends turned to him in surprise. He shrugged, confused.
"What?"
"Nothing," Hiccup said. "We're just a little shocked that you're this eager to go to a meeting."
"It's the first one with all of us as leaders. I can't wait to see those old-timey chiefs and chieftesses' faces! I bet they're each gonna have a yak!"
"Ah, that makes a lot more sense," Astrid commented, chuckling softly. "I guess there's only one way to find out what their reactions will be. Let's start heading that way."
The group flew off for the meeting of chiefs. They felt slightly nervous, but they were just as ready. None of them had ever gone to something like this before. Still, it was comforting to go together. They had been planning the day out for several months. After a couple hours, their flight came to an end and a landmass came into sight. The friends knew they had to approach carefully. All the chiefs were inside so that made it easier to begin this without getting any strange looks sent their way. Hiccup and Toothless landed first, followed by the others. The young man pressed his hand against the large doors before looking back at his friends.
"Ready?"
"Born ready," Snotlout said, punching a fist into his other palm.
The others had the same kind of certainty on their faces, so Hiccup opened the doors. There was an audible gasp as the Vikings entered, but they did so with confidence.
"What's the meaning of this?" one chief asked.
"We didn't ask for a troop to be sent," another added. "Only the leaders are supposed to be present at this meeting. At most, that would be two Vikings, so you're disrespecting us all by making a mockery of this."
"Maybe you should hear them out before you jump to conclusions," a more familiar voice said, anger hidden under a thin veil of calmness.
This caused the chief's glare to fade slightly. The Berkians saw Dagur and smiled at their friend.
"We understand that only leaders are allowed at these meetings," Hiccup admitted. "That's why we're here. We all carry the title of chief or chieftess of Berk. We function as a council."
This seemed to intrigue the group, but they also were looking at the reptiles with the Vikings.
"You brought your dragons with you," a chieftess commented. "Not everyone is as comfortable around them as you are."
"We know," Astrid stated, "which is why we want to begin changing that."
A suspicious look crossed the other leaders' faces.
"You want us to have dragons as well?"
"You don't need to have them," Fishlegs clarified. "We just want more Vikings to understand them."
This barely eased the worries of the others.
"Without understanding dragons," Hiccup said, "the Archipelago had been plunged into a war with them for centuries. That war's ended, but there are always going to be Vikings who want to control the dragons. That's unavoidable."
The twins nodded.
"Yeah," Tuffnut said. "You tell somebody that there are fire-breathing beasts and suddenly, everybody wants one. That can turn ugly quickly if they just want to use dragons as weapons."
"So, instead of waiting for that to happen and then not knowing what you're up against, we want to teach Vikings how to work with dragons," Snotlout informed them.
"It's a win-win," Ruffnut said. "Either you'll have some backup if somebody controls dragons to use against you or you'll have some new buddies."
There was a slight pause in the group as they considered this.
"We have heard of your work," a chief stated. "We've heard of you working with Vikings who fly with the aid of young dragons, so we know there are tribes who regularly use them." The man turned to the Berserker. "We also know other tribes have begun adopting this custom, but it's a major change to some of our cultures."
"It was that way for us too," Astrid assured him. "Still, sometimes change is exactly what we need. It's hard to improve if everything remains the same." She gave a warm smile. "But we're not here to pressure anybody. We just wanted to let you know that starting next week, we're going to be training new students at the Academy every noon. You can learn to fly or just to understand more dragon behaviors if that's what you want to do. Everyone's welcome."
There was a small pause before a chief regarded the team curiously.
"What you offer sounds promising, but after hearing everything that we did about Drago, it makes many of us hesitant to see more Vikings with dragons. We don't want another situation like the one involving him."
"Neither do we," Hiccup stated. "That's why we're teaching dragons to defend themselves and each other. At their core, they're just like anyone else who wants food, shelter, and companionship. As long as they can't be captured by power-hungry Vikings and Vikings know safe ways to interact, there shouldn't be anything besides peace with our groups."
A calmer mood could be felt in the building. The other leaders began to relax slightly.
"Very well," one chieftess stated. "I'll inform the Hysterics of this and we might see you in that academy of yours."
"Great!" Hiccup said happily. "Hope to see you there."
With the initial shock of the Berkians' arrival out of the way, the rest of the meeting could take place. It was not terribly interesting, but it was helpful to learn more about the neighboring tribes and some of the struggles they faced for various reasons. When it concluded, the friends met up outside.
"Thanks for getting them to calm down long enough to listen," Hiccup said.
"Don't mention it," Dagur responded. "Can't let them start going after our friends like that. It was boring until you all showed up anyway."
"It was a bit boring after we showed up too," Snotlout stated.
"Unless there is a major issue, they tend to be this way, it seems," Mala mentioned. "I know that my first time attending several years ago was quite the surprise. Still, I believe you all gave them something to think about."
"I hope so," Hiccup said. "I don't want another Drago situation. If someone like him could be out there, we don't know what other enemies we might have to deal with.
Astrid nodded. "Whenever we get too comfortable, a new threat shows up. So, we're trying to work on some preventative measures this time."
"I like the sound of that," Dagur said, an impressed expression on his face. "Well, you all know where to go if you want some more backup." He paused, looking at Mala. "Depending on when you send your Terror mail, we might send one to you first."
"Is something wrong?" Fishlegs asked.
"Not at all, Fishy. It would be good news."
The Berkian looked curious and tapped his chin. It mildly frustrated him to not be given the complete answer, but the idea of the mystery was also fun. He was far from the only one experiencing this and Hiccup had to laugh as he saw the twins and Snotlout be about to start a string of theories.
"Before this becomes something I can't stop," he said, "we should start heading back to Berk."
"We wish you all the best with your Academy," Mala stated sincerely.
"Thanks. Good luck with–"
"New soldiers!" Tuffnut offered, chiming in.
"New land!" Ruffnut added.
Neither of them received any indication of being right or wrong.
"A more secure prison," Snotlout mentioned.
"A better training regime," Astrid commented.
"You too?" Hiccup asked.
The blonde shrugged. "They made me curious."
"You'll all find out soon enough," Mala promised.
Reluctantly, the group stopped guessing and started to go back to their dragons. They took to the sky, beginning to return to Berk.
"This went better than I expected," Astrid admitted.
"We're just too amazing for the other leaders to not love us," Snotlout said, beaming.
"I hope we'll really have those new trainees," Fishlegs stated.
"It's their loss if they don't show up," Ruffnut said.
"Yeah, we'll be the best teachers in the whole Archipelago!" Tuffnut declared.
The friends smiled at this thought, but Astrid's eyes moved to Hiccup.
"Is something wrong?" she asked. "You've been quiet since we left."
"Nothing's wrong," he assured her. He paused briefly as a frown came over his face. "You all keep going to Berk. Toothless and I will meet you there."
"Where are you going?" Snotlout asked, lifting an eyebrow.
"I just want to check on something while we're out this way. It won't take long. I'll be back before nightfall."
Trying not to pay attention to the skeptical gazes of his friends, Hiccup flew off with Toothless. The others continued on their way to Berk as the duo went in a very different direction for an even more different purpose. Hiccup could not go that far without searching.
"Do you sense anything, Bud?" he asked.
Toothless let out a little noise to let his friend know that he did not.
"Let's try over there. Maybe we'll have better luck."
The pair went to the right, finding a small island. It was quiet–far too quiet to have anything besides small dragons living there. They kept searching the nearby islands, but it was the same at each one. Hiccup sighed heavily, discouragement filling him.
"She couldn't have disappeared into thin air. She's out here somewhere."
Toothless warbled softly to offer some comfort. Hiccup knew what he was doing and patted his head.
"Thanks for trying to make me feel better. It's just…frustrating. We've been searching too long without even getting a sign of her." His shoulders slouched slightly. "I guess Mom really doesn't want to be found."
The Night Fury let out a huff. Valka might not have wanted that, but he thought she was the one missing out. His friend was worth her time. If she did not see that, then she would be the one to suffer. Alas, he knew Hiccup wanted to find her. So for his sake, he would continue the search for as long as it took.
"Let's stop looking for today," Hiccup said, sounding a little disheartened. He took a breath and began to smile. "Gobber and the others will be glad to hear about today."
Toothless liked that happier tone to his voice and eagerly began flying them back to Berk. While they traveled, a ship was making its way towards an island. Horns alerted Berserkers to the newcomer and Heather left the village to go to the coast.
"Who is it, Vorg?" she asked.
"Not sure," the captain admitted, frowning. "I don't recognize the sails."
Vorg handed her the spyglass and she looked, her brows pinched together. The young woman could not identify the insignia either. It almost looked like there were dragons on the sails, but that offered no valuable information to Heather.
"We outnumber them," she said. "If they want a fight, they won't win. If they don't, we can figure out why they're here."
The captain nodded and signaled to the nearby soldiers to not attack with weapons or dragons. Heather walked closer to the harbor, watching the ship dock. A tall man with short, gray hair disembarked. He saw her and dipped his head in greeting.
"Are you the chieftess of this island?" he inquired calmly.
"Acting chieftess," Heather corrected. "The chief will be back in two months. Who are you?"
"I'm Grimmel the Grisly. I came here because I heard that Berserker Island was allies with Berk. Is that true?"
Heather's eyes narrowed suspiciously. "It is. Why's that important?"
"I'm a curious man. I also heard that Berk has a Night Fury. Is that the truth as well?"
Heather began feeling uncomfortable with this line of questioning. She stepped back further onto the docks.
"I don't like sharing much about what our allies do. If you want to know that, you should ask them yourself."
Grimmel looked at Heather for a moment. His expression was completely unreadable. She hated how she had no idea what he was thinking. He dipped his head again and turned.
"I'll take your advice. Thanks for the information you gave me."
Heather frowned as he boarded the ship again and hoisted the sails. An icy look was in the man's eyes when they locked with hers. It made Heather feel colder than she ever had. The man's vessel moved out of the harbor and was set on its new course. As it was, it had two additional watchers. From the clouds, a dragon and Viking were closely observing. Valka might not have been seen in a year, but that did not mean that she was not watching others. With this new information about the stranger, she was much more encouraged to continue her observation. If anyone was going to come after her son, they would regret this.