Chapter 215

Hiccups POV:

Two weeks have passed since I got back from Camelot and in that time a lot has happened with me and my family with most of it being good. To begin with a day after I got back, I took the new crystal island piece to the volcano and went through the motions, allowing the new piece to take its place on the crystal model of my island. I was surprised when it placed itself on top of the great planes, above the giant statue and then as expected the ground shook meaning the new addition to the island was coming in. When the shaking stopped, me and Toothless took off to see what the new island part is and what I found was Excalibur, in its stone with the stone pillars surrounding it, all on the cliff that was overlooking the ocean and above the statue. I'm guessing the lady of the lake who gave me the new island piece to begin with believed Excalibur would be safer on my island than back in Camelot.

Another thing that has happened is I spoke with Brant and Chara about how they saw me and my wives and accepted their feelings towards me and accepted my official role as their father. After that I took Brant to the training room to see what new moves he'd picked up and I had to say, his skills were impressive for a child his age and knew that with a few more years of training he'd give the archipelagos best warriors a run for their money. It was because of this I began training him in dragon style kung fu and encouraged him to use what me and Astrid taught him as tools to come up with his own moves and develop his own style of fighting but to only use it to defend himself and others but never use it to bully others. He understood this perfectly and promised he'd never become a bully as he wanted to be respected for his skills and not feared for how he uses them.

After a few hours of training I gave Brant the day off while I went to test out the slime I got from Merlin and see how it would work on some of the treasures I got from my undersea exploration that I'd been meaning to clean up before sending to the vault. I dropped a few gold coins that had small barnacles and had slightly decayed over their time in the salty sea water and was not disappointed with what happened to them. The barnacles came off and dissolved as the decay seemed to just melt off before the coins were spat out onto the table the slime was on, looking good as new. After that I spent an hour feeding the slime every artefact, I found on my undersea trips that I'd been needing to clean before taking it all down to the vault to be put into storage.

I'd also been experimenting with my magic bag and learnt that it could pull more than just people into it and even when it was people, they weren't all put into cells. I learnt this using my parents, Gobber, Bucket and Mulch who volunteered to help me test it and learnt the people who weren't hostile were left out of the cells and placed on the large center floor and even had tables to sit down at while they wait to be let out. They also told me that when they were let out the floor beneath them seemed to open up, pulling them in before there was darkness and then light as they were let out. What was surprising was that the tarp came out of the bag lay down and pulled back in leaving the people standing there as they looked around confused. After that I decided to see what else it could pull in, I decided to test the bag out on some chickens I had and when I was able to pull them in without any issues, I tried it on some sheep and then some yaks, all of which went in with no problem. I knew this would make my life a lot easier when it comes to transferring human troops, prisoners, people I'm evacuating and livestock since with it I'd be able to transport them all in the bag.

A few days after getting settled back into the rhythm of my normal day to day life with a few additions like spending time with the kids by playing with Chara and mentoring Brant in blacksmithing and combat. Speaking of blacksmithing, I'd been working with the sentinel gold I was given to try and forge some new items that would help me in the future when it comes to combat and other things, depending on the situation. Out of one ball of the metal I made thirty needles that didn't seem like they'd be able to do that much damage in combat or be useful for anything other than sowing, but appearances can be deceiving.

These needles were fast and strong making them very lethal weapons which is something I know to be true after I tried using them on a dead tree in Berks forest. The result was the tree having multiple holes going right through it with them being slightly wider than the needles due to the force of the strikes and bringing the tree down. These needles were mainly going to be used for quick stealth attacks, nerve attacks, killing victims without leaving noticeable marks and acupuncture. I'd taken to keeping these needles with me at all times by having them hide themselves in the torso of my grootslang coat by pressing against the inside.

I then used the remaining seven pieces to construct an entirely new type of equipment that would help me with steering when I'm flying and help me deal with attacks from behind while also able to deal with multiple enemies at long distances. This creation was a tail made of seven separate joints with a pointed end and the thing about this tail is it could split into separate pieces that can float around me and move so fast they'd be a blur. These joints could be used for both attacking enemies, block attacks or grab enemies by wrapping around them, but they'd mainly be used as a tail since that's their main design and I'd even filled the end with speed stinger venom to be injected through the small stinger at the end. I knew a tail would draw attention to me if people saw me with it hanging from my back so I kept it split up and stuck on my leather chest plates front in a V shape so it looked like part of the armor.

I did need to field test all this gear though, so I spent a lot of time in the training mirror going through various battle situations in different environments and against different foes. This allowed me to sharpen my skills with them and design new combat methods using them and now with them I highly doubt any normal person would be able to even get near me easily. The first new method I came up with is to have the tail joints separate and surround me before spinning around me at such speeds they looked like a single golden ring that slowly grew and anyone who got caught in it was killed. As for the needles, they'd hover a little closer to me, forming a circle cylinder in shape around me with all the needles pointing out and away from me as they rotated around me. I'd then have them launch out in various directions, striking any creature who got past the ring, either killing them by puncturing their hearts, brains or major artery or at the very least seriously injure them. My shields though would always hover close to me and block any ranged attack if anyone tried to attack me at a distance when they can't get past the ring.

Now I was taking a flight on Toothless with little Chara sitting in front of me laughing happily while Astrid and Blanca flew behind us on their own dragons with Brant riding with Astrid and little Twilight flying next to us. I enjoyed the sound of her laughter while we flew around, doing some tricks making Toothless growl in joy since it'd been a while since we last enjoyed a good flight together. The reason for today's flight was a simple family outing on an uninhabited island I go to in order to hunt wild boars from time to time but despite the wild boars, it's still a nice place to visit with warm beaches and quiet meadows making it perfect for a picnic. It is true that we could've had this picnic on my own island since it has more environments than the island, we're heading to, but I felt we needed a little change of scenery.

It was then the island came into view making me smile and signal the girls to descend a bit so we could pick a good place to land and have our picnic. I spotted a nice peaceful clearing where we could land and have our picnic making me smile and steer Toothless down towards it so we could land. When we landed, I looked around at the clearing and smiled since it was truly a nice and quiet place making it perfect for our little family picnic. I dismounted Toothless before I turned and picked Chara up off him as I watched the girls come into land in the clearing with their own dragons making me smile. Astrid dismounted Stormfly, helping Brant down while Twilight flew down next to Toothless. When Blanca landed with the picnic supplies, I walked up to her and took the basket and blanket from her before walking into the middle of the clearing and saying.

"Alright, let's get to work."

Half-an-hour later

I was sitting down on a blanket that had plates of food spread out on it, with Astrid and Blanca on either side of me, as we watched Brant and Chara run around the grass chasing after Twilight while the dragons flew above us, playing in the sky. It was then I decided it was time to eat so I stood up and said.

"Alright kids, time to eat so come on before we eat it all ourselves." The kids ran up towards us giggling but when they reached us the sound of branches breaking behind us caught our attention, followed by a gruff voice asking.

"Did someone say eat?" We turned around to see a group of four men with two of them armed with spears and two armed with crossbows, each giving off a vibe I didn't like one bit and my dislike only increased when I saw the look they were giving my wives before one of the men holding a crossbow who was at the front walked forward. "Cause me and my men haven't eaten today." I looked at him and saw he had a brown moustache, large chin, a no horned helmet with metal coming down the middle and a spike on the top and white fur cape on his back and a chainmail vest. "And looks like you lot have just enough on your little blanket for me and my men." I stepped in front of the kids while hiding Twilight from their field of vision since a nightfury, no matter how young is still very valuable and I didn't want to find out what they'd do if they found out about her and I did not want the kids to think all our troubles need to be solved with violence so I decided to try talking to these men and see if they could be reasoned with. I quickly gave the dragons above to stay in the air before I began slowly walking to the men as I said.

"Listen, I'm sorry but there's only enough for me and my family."

"Well I guess your family will have to go without lunch then." I could tell they were threatening us but before I could reply he continued. "Now why don't you take the brats home but leave the food behind and while you're at it leave the girls behind as well since it's been a while since me and my men enjoyed the company of a woman." I growled as did Astrid while Blanca glared and hissed but I raised a hand to signal them to stand back while I stepped forward.

"I'm going to give you and your men one chance, leave now or you're going to get hurt." The leader smirked.

"Are you threatening us lad?" I glared at him.

"I'm warning you; I don't like people threatening my family." He smirked.

"Clearly you don't know who your deal with lad." He turned so his right side was facing me before he lifted his cape to reveal a tattoo of a familiar symbol on his shoulder. "We're former soldiers of Drago Bludvist and we had to deal with dragons on a daily basis so a man like you isn't even going to be a challenge." Hearing this I growled.

"And I thought Drago's army was disbanded." They chuckled.

"It was but a few of us stuck together like me and my crew here and trust me lad, we've got more hunting groups on this island." I smirked.

"Sounds like I'm going to be busy after dealing with you guys." They growled.

"Who do you think you are?" I smirked and cracked my knuckles and willing the discs to get ready.

"I'm Hiccup Haddock, the one who took control of Drago's bewilderbeast before capturing Drago but right now, I'm the guy who's going to give you guys a beating and then-" The leader cut me off by firing his crossbow at me but the discs came out blocking the arrow. "Now that was rude." I then willed my discs to protect my family. "Don't bother trying to harm my family, the floating discs will stop any attacks aimed at them." He growled.

"It was a sweet job working for Drago and you ruined it." He reloaded his bow. "Now you're going to pay." I smirked.

"Bring it on." He and the other bow man each launched an arrow at me, but I quickly caught the arrows with no problems thanks to my kung fu and ninja training making the men stare in shock. "Nice try but I've gotten more skilled since my battle against Drago." The leader glared and yelled.

"GET HIM!"

The spear men ran at me as I walked towards them as one man ran ahead of the other making me smile as he stabbed his spear at me, but I side stepped, avoiding the blow. I quickly grabbed the spears pole and shoved it back into the man's stomach, knocking the breath out of him before I pulled the spear out of the hands of my opponent. I then quickly raised the spear up before bringing the pole down on the guy's head, knocking him out cold and taking him out of the fight. I then spun the spear around quickly, using it to block two arrows that the two bow men had just fired at me before raising the pole to block a downward strike from the other spearmen. I then slammed my palm forward towards the guys stomach but he held his spear up to try and block the blow, only for the spear to snap in two right before my palm made contact, knocking the air out of the man while also sending him flying back.

With the two spearmen out of the way I turned my attention to the two bowmen who were now looking at me in fear making me smile since fear made enemies easier to deal with. The one next to the leader shivered as he aimed his bow at me but I smirked and tossed up the end of the pole of the spear I broke and caught it in my real hand as I leaned to the side, avoiding the arrow, fired at me. I then tossed the end at the guy who just fired the arrow, striking him in the head and knocking him out cold, leaving just the leader of the group who was staring at me in fear. I just smiled at him before he turned around and began to run, dropping his crossbow while I smiled and released the tail joints and let them fly right at the fleeing man and willing them to wrap him up. The pieces wrapped around his torso before connecting, pinning his arms to his sides before I willed the pieces to stop him and they pulled him back making him fall. He was slowly dragged to my feet before I kneeled and said.

"I was having such a nice day with my family, but you and you cohorts had to ruin it." I then slammed my fist into his gut, knocking him out before I willed the tail pieces to drag him over to the other archer while I walked back to my family. "Are you all alright?" Astrid smiled.

"We're fine Hiccup, but how did you think we could be hurt when those guys didn't touch us." I smiled.

"It doesn't hurt to double check." I then looked at the men. "Turns out these guys are stragglers from Drago Bludvists disbanded army." I sighed. "Even in death that guys causing me a headache." It was then Brant walked out from behind Blanca and asked.

"Who's Drago Bludvist." I smiled and kneeled before rubbing his head.

"Just an old enemy that I took care of a while back so it's nothing for you to worry about." I then turned back to the men. "As for those men, don't worry, I'll take care of them." Blanca then said.

"Perhaps we could get back to our picnic once these men are dealt with." I sighed and shook my head.

"This isn't over yet, there are more men of their group wondering around the island." Astrid then asked.

"I take it they're all former men of Drago Bludvist?" I nodded.

"Best to take them all out and drop them off on Outcast island."

"But that'll take a long time." I smiled and held up my prosthetic while pulling out my Celtic bag.

"Not as long as you may think." I switched my prosthetic into its plant form making the girls smile.

"Alright but at least stick around long enough to have a bit of lunch with your family." I was about to reply that I needed to get this done soon but then I saw Chara giving me a sad look, so I smiled.

"I suppose a quick lunch with the family couldn't hurt but let me put the men away first." They nodded as I walked up to the unconscious men and willed the tail pieces to return to me and they took their place on my leather chest plate before pulling all the men into my mystic Celtic bag by having the tarp throw itself onto them one by one and pull them all into it and then turning to my family. "Alright let's eat." I then walked back to the picnic blanket and we began our picnic.

1 hour later

It's been an hour my family's picnic was interrupted by the former soldiers of Drago's army and that time has been busy after I had lunch with my family. After lunch I had the dragons come down with the order to watch the family while I took care of business on the island by dealing with the remaining men roaming the island. Thanks to my plant prosthetic allowing me to enter the trees and see what's going on all over the island since it was mostly covered by dense forest. Because of this I was able to find the men and then use the trees to catch them by surprise and take them down as if they were nothing before throwing them into my Celtic bag. Doing this took half an hour but there were still those on their ship who I still needed to deal with, but they'd be easy enough since I'd sent in a scouter and found there weren't that many people on board.

Now I was standing on a cliff, overlooking a beach where the ship the soldiers were using was docked, my prosthetic back in its normal form and my family was behind me with the dragons. I smiled and turned to my family as I said.

"Stay here, this shouldn't take long." Toothless walked up and crooned making me smile and rub his head. "Don't worry bud, I'm not doing this without you." He growled and nodded as I got ready to mount him, but Astrid stopped me making me turn to her and Blanca as Astrid said.

"Be sure to come back to us Hiccup." I smiled and mounted Toothless.

"Don't worry, this shouldn't take long and compared the orcs, humans are a piece of cake." With that said we took off towards the ship and glided down to land on the back of the ship deck as I released my golden arrow, just as the men turned to look at us in surprise. "Let's make this, quick boys, I'm meant to be spending a quiet day with my family." They all just stared at me before pulling out their weapons making me sigh as I looked down at Toothless. "Why do they always want to do these things the hard way bud?" Toothless crooned as I willed my golden arrow to float. "Well let's get this over with quick." I let the arrow fly going right through each of the charging men, knocking them out cold before allowing the arrow to fly back to me and putting it back in my prosthetic. "That's them dealt with." I then pulled out my Celtic bag and allowed the tarp to cover the men up before pulling the men into it. "Well that's the top deck taken care of, now let's go clean up the lower decks." Toothless growled and nodded before we made our way down the trap door the ships lower levels to handle things.

When we got down to the bottom I looked around and found that we were in a typical ship storage hold with a few crates and ropes, laying around. It was then my eyes landed on a door and knew it had to be the commander's quarters making me smile and point at the door as I said.

"Hey bud, want to knock so we can greet our host." He growled and nodded before shooting a plasma blast at the door, destroying it. "Nice knock bud." It was then a coughing sound caught our attention as a well-muscled man with a small brown beard, wearing a polar bear skin with the top jaw over the top of his head and a blue shirt stumbled out coughing.

"What in the world?" He looked up at me as I held up my prosthetic while smiling.

"Hey there." I then launched a bola disc at him tying him up before he collapsed to the ground as I dismounted Toothless and walked up to the man who looked up at me in shock.

"Who are you?"

"An old enemy of your former employer who's not too happy that you lot have decided to reappear on what was meant to be a quiet day." I then pulled out my mystic Celtic bag. "Now let's get you back with your men." The tarp flew out and watched as it wrapped up the man before pulling his struggling form in. "Well that takes care of them." I put the bag away and turned to Toothless. "Alright bud, we might as well check out what this place has before going back to the family." He crooned. "You sniff around here, and I'll see what our friend was working on in his quarters."

Toothless growled and nodded before I walked into the commander's quarters and found a desk up against the right wall, a bed against the left and a bookshelf against the back wall. I walked up to the desk and saw it had a map, that was surprisingly leading to Breakneck bog which made me wonder why the leader was going there of all places since the smothering smoke breaths would sink their ship in two minutes at most. It was then Toothless pushed his head through the door letting out a growl making me turn to him as I asked.

"What is it bud?" Toothless pulled away from the door and ran back to a space between the crates before using his head to point at a trapdoor. "Huh, didn't notice that when I was walking down the hall." Toothless pawed at it. "Alright bud, let's see what these guys had down below that's got you so interested."

I opened the trapdoor before climbing down and when I turned around what was down here any thoughts of just letting the men off since they were just following orders had vanished. The reason for this is what I saw was none other than the death song Garff, chained to the floor of the deck with a muzzle keeping his mouth shut. When he saw me, he crooned through the muzzle as I walked up to his head and gently embraced it while stroking his head as I said.

"Easy there now, I'll get you out of here in a moment." I grabbed the lock on the muzzle with my prosthetic and broke it off with a small drizzle of acid from a green crystal before pulling the whole muzzle off him and then chuckled as he growled and nuzzled me. "Calm down big guy, you can thank me after we get these restraints off you." After that getting the remaining restraints off him didn't take long before I was pinned down by Garff who nuzzled me until I pushed him off. "Alright, now let's get out of here." I looked around. "How did they get you in here anyway?" Garff ran over to the back wall and gestured to it with his muzzle before I walked up next to him. "What is it pal?" It was then Toothless growled from the side and I turned to him to see him standing by a lever on the wall. "What do we have here." I walked up to the lever while petting Toothless on the muzzle and pulled it down right before the back wall fell down, leading right to the outside. "So that's how you got here." I turned to Toothless. "Good work bud." I then turned to Garff. "Let's get you out of here big guy." With that said I mounted Toothless and led Garff out of the ships hold.

2 hours later

It's been two hours since I freed Garff who'd gotten along well with the kids and helped the other dragons keep the kids entertained while I explained to the girls what happened. After they got an explanation as to why Garff was now with us we brought out the commander and questioned him on what he was doing with Garff and none of us liked the answer we got. Apparently, he was planning to attack Break-neck Bog by using Garff to lure the smothering smokebreaths into the hull with his song before trapping them in it with Garff, leaving their nest unguarded and all the treasures they'd gathered easy to claim. When I asked what he intended to do with the dragons after they'd looted everything from the nest and what he answered with made me want to punch him in the gut but Astrid beat me to it. The reason for this is he and his crew intended to sell them for a good amount of gold as they already knew some people who'd be interested in buying them.

After that I put him back in the bag until we could transport him to Outcast island where he belongs but before we do that I figured it be nice to visit the smothering smokebreaths and see how they're doing since it's been a while. This brings us to now with me in the smothering smokebreaths nest, loading up various treasures into my spiderpack that had been laid down and opened up wide to make the job easier. I took a breath and looked back at my family before chuckling since what I was seeing was pretty cute since the kids were riding on Garff, playing chase with the smokebreaths while Twilight was running away with them. The girls on the other hand were laying against their dragons and watching the little ones enjoy themselves making me smile since it was nice to see the kids with dragons and made me think about the future where they have dragons of their own. It was then I felt a nudge on my sides and looked back to see both Toothless looking at me with his head tilted but I just smiled and rubbed his muzzle as I said.

"I'm alright guys, I'm just doing some thinking about the future." They then growled and gestured to the remaining treasure. "Yeah, it's best we get the remaining treasures and get out of here before nightfall since we still need to drop the men off on Outcast island." With that said we got back to work on loading the treasures.

1 hour later

An hour has passed since we finished up on Breakneck Bog and in that time not much has happened other than me loading up all the treasure the Smokebreaths had gathered and promising both the kids and dragons we'd come back and visit sometime. Now we were on Outcast island with Astrid, Blanca, their dragons and Garff down at the pier watching the kids while I handled the men with Alvin. Presently I was standing next to Alvin with Toothless at my side as we watched the guards march the prisoners down the tunnel to their new cells. It was then I was brought out of my thoughts when Alvin said.

"We'll sure those men don't see the outside for a long-time lad." I nodded.

"Thanks Alvin and sorry for the trouble, I know you guys are running out of cells with all the people I've dropped on you guys in the past." He smiled and patted my back.

"It's alright Hiccup, you make up for it by supplying me and my men with those gronkle iron weapons you send every month." He then stroked his beard. "You might have a point about it getting cramped though." He then shrugged. "We'll have to do some expanding some time if we keep taking in new prisoners." I nodded.

"Just send me a terror mail if you need any help with the expansion like construction or supplies." He smiled.

"I will lad but one of these days ya gotta tell me what things you got from the gods and what ya had to do to get them since I wouldn't mind a bag like the one you used to bring in those prisoners." I chuckled.

"Well I doubt you'll be able to get one of your own but I'll be happy to tell you the story." He chuckled.

"I always do enjoy your stories lad, especially if they're like your wedding to that Hofferson girl." I smiled and rolled my eyes.

"It's times like these I think the battle was your favorite part of the wedding." He chuckled.

"Well what do you expect, I'm a Viking who loves a good brawl." I just chuckled and nodded.

"Understandable!" I then saw all the prisoners were gone. "Well I better get back to the family before they start wondering what's taking so long." He nodded before we left the prison.

Nightfall

It's been a few hours since our trip to Outcast Island and in that time not much has happened other than us coming home and preparing for the evening with the kids getting a bath from the girls while me and Toothless took care of Garff, putting him in one of my personal dragon stables. We supplied him with enough fish to make sure he didn't try to go after any of the other dragons since his species did eat other dragons so I made sure to lock the door to his room. Following that we all had dinner before retiring to bed which brings us to now with me lying in bed with Blanca and Astrid using my shoulders as pillows as they slept. Sleep didn't come as easily to me since I worried about Drago's army since even though it had been a good while since Drago's defeat his men still popped up. It made me worry that others in my past might come after me or my family even though the majority of my enemies are either locked up or dead. I sighed and shook my head knowing there was no use in worrying about events that might not happen since it was simply a coincidence that I encountered some of Drago's men so no use dwelling on it so with this in mind I drifted off to sleep.

Unknown location

Nobodies POV:

A hooded figure stood alone in a cave looking at a table and looked down at the three items sitting on it while examining each of them with a frown. He looked at a mangled black branch in a crystal ball as he said.

"A corrupted branch from the world tree," He turned to a small pile of stones. "dark rune magic used to bind a rainbow serpent," He then turned to the final item, a crystal ball with a black substance moving around the inside as if it were alive. "and dark essence of the apocalypse, taken from the book created to control the four horsemen." He growled. "Still not enough to bring my master back to this world." He then looked to the caves entrance into the darkness of the night. "Hurry and go on another adventure Hiccup Haddock so that you might provide me with another ingredient for my masters resurrection." With that said he turned back to the table and got back to work.

AN: And that brings an end to this chapter and yeah, I know it's not very exciting but I'm doing my best here since the pool of ideas for what happens between adventures is very dry so sorry. By the way, sorry about all the confusion in the last chapter but my autocorrect has been acting up lately which lead to all the confusion in the last one but I fixed up the big issues so hopefully there won't be any more complaints about it. Also, in the future I'd appreciate it if you PM me and not review the mistake as that sticks through the entire story even after the mistake is fixed. Anyway, I have a plan for the next chapter and I hope it'll be a little more exciting than this and will help Hiccup gain something in the future and lead his training to a new level. Until then however I ask that you review kindly, enjoy the story and have a nice day and if you're having trouble picturing the tail just look up the manga overgeared as that's where I got the idea for it.