Chapter 259
Hiccups POV:
It's been three weeks since we got back from our Mayan vacation and I am happy to say that in that time, things have been peaceful with no issues outside of the usual chieftain duties. First thing we did when we got home though was let everyone know that we were back and as expected, people wanted to know how our trip was while my dad joked to my wives about how he hoped they were able to keep me out of trouble this trip. Sadly, Chara ran up to greet her grandpa who scooped her up and asked her if she enjoyed the trip which she said she loved except for me getting attacked by stone creatures. Hearing this my dad turned to me and demanded I begin explaining what she meant and as anyone could expect, everyone who was within hearing distance of what Chara said, wanted to find out what happened to me on what was meant to be a vacation.
I spent over an hour showing the illusion of what happened and had to make regular stops since Astrid kept punching me whenever she saw me trigger a trap. I then had to endure my real hand being crushed to death by Blanca when she saw me going up against the rock creatures with no weapons other than my mind and my close combat skills. Then I am sad to say I was asked to show what was behind the door, meaning everyone saw the tomb, body, treasures and all there was to offer in that room. As expected, it got me a lot of attention with people trying to cozy up to me while saying how my vault must be and made offers to take some of the treasure off my hands. As anyone could guess, it was the Jorgensons who did the most to try and get at my treasures but while other people would at least try to be nice about it by cozying up to me and offering me deals. While they offered to sell me some stuff while others offered their services in some way but the Jorgrnsons claimed that I had enough riches so it wasn't like it'd make a difference, stop being selfish and to hand over some of the treasure. I didn't give either of them any treasure but I did want to give them each a punch in the face for being idiots, only for Astrid to beat me to it and nobody blamed her since a Viking blinded by greed needed a good punch before my darling aunt dragged both her husband and son out by the ears.
Not wanting to deal with anymore of that we left to return home and sort some things out while trying to get back into our regular routines. I spent over an hour sorting through the various treasures I brought back and having my serving automatons take them to their proper vaults for storage. When that was over, I went around the island to see what happened while I was away and learnt that the Grown Hills tribe had been sending in my share of the profits for the bathhouse and ship shed. Turns out it'd been building up in the time we were away meaning I had even more things to sort through such as the various forms of payment such as gold, jewels and letters sent with the profits.
Considering there was no way for anyone to sort them into the various vaults, the ones who collected the profits had no choice other than to dump them down the hole and into the waiting container in the middle where they remained under the watchful eye of Táojīn zhě. It was because of this that altered the loot sharks that I send to the island using my third arm sash with the claws heated up to carve patterns into the bodies so Chief Nigren would know to put gold in the first, jewels in the second, various items in the third and messages in the fourth. Along with that, I made a special dock for these sharks beneath the island that was connected to some new pipes leading into the vaults for the items they held where containers were waiting to hold them until they could be sorted. The loot shark that held the messages though had its own dock in the ship shed where I could pick up all the letters and go over them when I had the time.
Besides that, I'd mostly been practicing with my new arms abilities and believe I now have a pretty good grip on what it can do and how to properly use it. Along with that, I'd also been helping Abund and Yatzil settle into their new lives on the island by giving them a tour of the land but as anyone could expect, they mostly preferred to stay in the Mayan jungle. Yatzil didn't need me that much since Hadasa had begun taking care of her after we got back and after their first ride, it was clear they'd formed a bond like my other wives and their dragons. I couldn't blame them though since they went pretty well together since Hadasa could control the plants, making them grow and move to her will so obviously she belonged in a plant filled environment like Yatzil. As anyone could guess, they made quiet a team, especially when I saw both Yatzil and Abund had webbed feet which allowed them to run on water so travelling together wouldn't be a problem and besides, me and Abund enjoyed riding together with them through the jungle.
Now I was sitting in my private room with all the letters that my loot shark brought back from the Grown Hills tribe and I had to say, it was impressive how many people visited that island. These messages had been coming from all over the archipelago from multiple tribes asking me to come build a bathhouse and ship shed for their tribes as well with the promise of high payments in gold, jewels, furs and other things. I wish these were the only letters I'd received as some of the families of the tribe had daughters they were looking to marry off and knew that I was making a lot of money so I was an ideal son-in-law for their family. What was worse is some of these letters came with detailed drawings of the girls in poses that showed off their feminine features and would make a grown man blush. I'm just grateful I'm doing this in private since if my wives saw these, then I'd have to spend hours trying to calm my wives down and possibly restrain them so they don't go to the Grown Hills tribe to kill those women. It had happened enough times in El Dorado with the girls who kept trying to flirt with me and occasionally tried to steal a kiss or a feel of my muscles.
I groaned and rubbed my head to try and soothe the headache as one of my serving automatons walked in with a tray that held a cup of tea and a letter. It walked up to me and held up the tray to me as I smiled in appreciation before I picked up the cup and letter before it lowered the tray and left the room. I sipped the tea and opened the letter and read it was from Blanca who thought I could use something to soothe the headache that comes with handling letters from others and knew how I didn't like anyone entering my private room. I smiled at the thoughtfulness of the snake guardian I was lucky enough to call my wife and sat back down while I continued to sip the tea I was given and get back to work.
As I did this though I caught sight of my prosthetic arm and thought back to my childhood when I used to think that magic was nothing more than something in old stories told to children at their bedtime. I remember how that all changed for me when I first went to Greece and ended up finding so many things that I didn't believe existed like centaurs, the Nemean lion, the Stymphalian birds, Geryon the three-bodied giant and so much more. Honestly, on that trip I thought I was going insane with all the bizarre things I saw but then again, with the way my life turned out after I left, it was actually normal for a trip to a new land with me needing to take on a new form of evil to protect the people of the land.
I sighed and lay back into the couch as I leaned my head back and stared up at the ceiling while thinking back to Athens since to be honest, I always thought of it as the place where my journey to become the champion of the gods begun. I sat there and realized that I hadn't been to Athens since the Chronos incident and that was years ago, so it might be nice to revisit the city to see how it's doing after the incident while also giving the kids a chance to take in a new culture. I sighed and decided that it was time for another trip and maybe this time, I'll be able to enjoy a nice quiet time in Greece with the only problems I need to deal with being traders wanting to sell me items and fans bugging me. With this in mind I continued to go through the letters and tried to figure out how I was going to talk to my wives about it at dinner since they would not be too big on going to a place where I've had the most trouble in my life and where I've come so close to death.
Nightfall
I was lying in bed with my wives with each of us not wearing a shred of clothing beneath the sheets and our bodies covered in sweat due to our earlier activities. I stared at the ceiling while smiling as I enjoyed the afterglow of our activity but then frowned since I was going to talk to my wives about taking a trip to Greece after dinner but before I could, they dragged me to bed after I tucked the kids into their own. It was then I was brought out of my thoughts by the feeling of a hand gently caressing my cheek and looked to see the hand belonged to none other than Hadasa who said.
"Alright Hiccup, what's bothering you?" I looked at her before I asked.
"What makes you think something's bothering me?" Astrid was the one who answered.
"Come on babe, we know you well enough to know when something's bothering you and it was easy to tell that even when your mind should have been focused only on us, it was elsewhere at times." Blanca then asked.
"Does it have something to do with what you read in the letters?" I sighed and covered my eyes.
"No, this has nothing to do with those letters even though they were a bigger headache than usual." Astrid then rubbed my chest.
"Come on, tell us what's bothering you so much."
"Well, while I was going through the letters, I caught sight of my prosthetic and began thinking back on how my life had gone from isolated, dragon riding explorer into champion of the gods and where it all started for me which got me thinking that maybe it's time to revisit that land." Hadasa asked.
"You mean you're thinking of revisiting Greece?" I nodded.
"I was thinking that it might be nice for all of us to take a visit there and see Athens since the last time I was there, the city-" Astrid cut me off.
"It was being completely torn apart by the beasts who were being sent by the time controlling titan Chronos." I nodded. "And you think it'll be nice to visit this place where you not only got killed by a titan but also fought multiple other threats wherever you went?"
"Yeah, it doesn't sound so good but I'm pretty sure things calmed down after my last trip."
"You mean where all the leaders of the land were enslaved by that insane king Diomedes who wanted you dead for freeing his man-eating horses." (AN: Chapter 159) I nodded. "Then why would you want to go back there."
"Last time I was in Greece, I was focused on visiting Sparta and didn't get the chance to visit Athens with all that was happening and I wouldn't mind seeing how well it recovered after the incident and maybe visit the island where I'd camp out during my first trip." Blanca then said.
"Maybe it would be nice to see this city." All eyes turned to her. "I remember when Hiccup and I went to Greece for the first time, it was a lovely land and I would have loved to see more before we left." Hadasa asked.
"Why didn't you both go for a trip around the countryside and see more then?" I rolled my eyes.
"Too many nobles were trying to get close to us and we all know what a headache that can be." The girls all rolled their eyes and nodded. "I'm hoping things have calmed down in Athens with people finding other hero's to worship and pushing me to the back of their minds so we can enjoy a quiet trip to Athens followed by some peace in the countryside and visit some of the small villages." They looked at each other before nodding and then Astrid turned to me while saying.
"Give us a chance to talk about this in private in the morning and we'll let you know when we've come to a decision." I nodded as she got a smirk on her face. "For now, let's get back to what we were doing." With that said she pulled me into a hard kiss and my worries were quickly forgotten as my attention was turned to my wives.
7 days later
It's been a week since my chat with my wives and a day after that talk, they came to the decision that a trip would be nice but we had to keep our guard up and this was a condition I could understand. On this trip we'd be bringing our dragons except Twilight who would be looked after by Toothless' family and Maelstrom since I needed some way to keep the fans away without drawing too much attention since people in Athens already know about him, I wouldn't have to explain what was what to them. Now we were on my ship since I never got the chance to open a portal in Athens in my last few trips to Greece and the only other times, I'd been to Athens were before I had my portal door. Fortunately, with my ship, getting there didn't take that long, two and a half days max which brings us to now, with me and my family, docking on the island that I originally stayed on when I first came to Greece.
We'd been discussing what to do after I set up a portal door so I could come back anytime I wanted and after that we begun speaking about what to expect in the city from the stalls to the people. I made it clear to the kids that they were never to leave my side or their mothers since there would be people who would do their best to kidnap them. It was because of this I had Brant keep his spear on his back while Chara would be keeping some custom kunai, I made her that released speed stinger venom when they cut the victim. The last thing I wanted was for any member of my family to be kidnapped, injured or placed in any form of danger and in the city, there would be a lot of people who will want to get to me through them whether it to enhance their reputation or for ransom. Now we were on our way to the city via ship and as I looked at the approaching city, I couldn't help but feel a sense of dread in my stomach knowing what awaited me in that city.
1 hour later
It's been an hour since we arrived in the city and that time has mostly been a major headache since the dock workers had never seen a ship like mine so it caught a lot of eyes and then I disembarked my ship and a few of them recognized me. It didn't take long for them to tell those who didn't recognize me who I was and as expected, a few ran off to spread the word to others in the city and then soon, all of Athens knew of me being here. This of course started a landscape of rumors about why I was back, who were the women and kids the men saw with me, did the gods send me to save them from another beast or evil that has claimed the land. It's because of this when we first entered the city, we all got mobbed with me keeping Chara right at my sides so she didn't get lost in the crowd while Blanca made sure Brant stuck close to her side. Fortunately, a few growls, barks and the occasional snap at the hands of some of the people who reached towards my kids from Maelstrom was enough to get the majority of the people to back off but a few fans lingered.
Now we were making our way down the streets as I pointed out some of the more well-known places of the city while also keeping a close eye on those who were hiding in the shadows. It was then we came to a familiar building which used to be blacksmiths shop but had been shut down a while ago and smiled as I pushed the door open. I looked around and saw an old dust covered forge which just looked like an old abandoned forge but to me, this simple dust covered place brought back so many memories. It was then I was brought out of my thoughts when Chara asked.
"What is this place daddy?" I chuckled.
"This is where I first me the Greek god of the Forge Hephaestus who at the time I thought was just a kind blacksmith who I could help out to make both as a way to gain a bit of the local money." It was then a voice from behind me said.
"And make a new friend." I immediately turned around recognizing that voice despite the fact that I hadn't heard it in ages and hearing it made me smile since standing there was none other than Hephaestus in his mortal form as Aetes. "It's been a while Hiccup." I bowed.
"Indeed, lord Hephaestus but it has been even longer since I last saw you in your mortal form." I stood up straight. "So, what's the occasion?"
"No occasion, just every now and again I like to come down here and mingle among the mortals of this land." His eyes then landed on my family. "Speaking of mortals, I do believe introductions are an order." I smiled and gave some quick introductions before everyone bowed to Hephaestus who chuckled. "No need for that now, to be honest with you all, I've never really been big on all that formal stuff." His eyes then landed on Brant and he kneeled down to eye level. "So, what the Norse gods have told me you've got a bit of skill when it comes to the forge." Brant nodded.
"I've helped out in the forge since I was young lord Hephaestus." Hephaestus nodded and held out his hands.
"Show me your hands!" Brant looked at me and I gave him a nod of encouragement before he gave the Greek god of the forge his hands before Hephaestus examined them while humming and nodding in approval. "You can tell a lot about a person from their hands and your hands show the makings of both a fine warrior and blacksmith." He then looked up at Brant. "Do you work a lot in the forge." Brant nodded.
"Not as often as I'd like since I've got combat training and need to spend time with Chara." He nodded before he stood up and turned to me.
"You should have him spend a little more time working with you in the forge, he has potential that is barely being tapped into." I nodded before he smiled. "And I know just the way to begin tapping into it a little more." He snapped his fingers and there was a strong wind blowing away all the dust, followed by a burst of flame from the forge as the metal storages refilled. "Would you and your son care to join me in breathing a little life back into this old forge?" I turned to my wives with each giving me a smile and a nod while Brant looked eager to work with him and I smiled.
"Lord Hephaestus, we'd be honored." It was then Blanca said.
"And while you do that, we will go out and enjoy exploring the city." I smiled and nodded but gave them a look of concern.
"Just be careful, there are some real monsters out there who'll see you as easy targets and come after you." The girls all giggled as Hadasa asked.
"Have you forgotten who we are?" Astrid then said.
"We're your wives and you didn't marry weak women who need to be protected from scumbags." She then picked up Chara. "And neither does Chara since after all her training under the ninja masters, anyone who kidnaps her will last an hour at most before returning her to us while begging for prison." I chuckled and nodded before the girls gave me a kiss on the lips and Brant one on the head while I gave Chara a kiss on the head and said goodbye before they left but the second, they left I summoned my ninja and said.
"Follow them, make sure no harm comes to any of them and stay hidden from everyone!" They nodded and vanished into the shadows as Hephaestus chuckled.
"You really do worry too much about your wives and daughter." I shrugged.
"They're meant to be on vacation so I figured it better for them to have someone else to handle the crooks in their place." He nodded.
"Well, enough talk, let's get to work and see if your forging skills have improved since we last forged together." He then turned to Brant. "And I'm looking forward to seeing what your boy here can do." I could see Brant was getting nervous but I put a hand on his shoulder and gave him a reassuring smile before he gave a smile and with that done, we got to work.
Nightfall
Night had finally come and I was now back on my ship and had a nice dinner of traditional Greek food followed by everyone going to enjoy their own thing while I took Toothless out for a flight. Now the kids were asleep in their own room and I was on my way back to my room after a nice relaxing bath where I was able to look out at the stars and think about my day in the forge. I had to admit it was a good day since it'd been a while since I got to work in just a regular forge and get my hands dirty without the need for magic and it was nice to work alongside Hephaestus again along with my son who was already showing improvement in skill. The girls had a few run ins with some scum bags who assumed they were escaped slaves by how they dressed but fortunately the guards nearby knew who they were and cleared things us, getting the punks to back off. Unfortunately, there were some crooks who took notice and made their interest in the girls clear when the girls went into a less crowded area and surrounded them. Those bandits didn't last thirty seconds against my wives who then handed them over to the guards to deal with them for attempted kidnapping. After that the girls were left alone and able to do a little shopping which wasn't a lot since the stores didn't have that much, they wanted but they did buy food for dinner.
I took a breath and walked into the bedroom and collapsed into bed while letting out a sigh of relief and it was then I felt a familiar hand caress my face before the voice said.
"I'm guessing it was a long day for you in the forge."
"The forge work is something I don't mind since the work's something I enjoy and it's a chance to bond with Brant but it's the drawbacks that are going to come with it that I'm not looking forward to." Hadasa then asked.
"And what are these drawbacks that you're not looking forward to?"
"You remember what happened when we first began walking through the city?" She nodded. "Well it's going to be worse for me at the forge since the weapons and equipment both me and Hephaestus make are high quality, there are often large crowds of people who are hoping to buy from us but it's mostly rich nobles wanting to talk up their daughters to me." I sighted and ran my hand through my hair. "It's always such a headache." Astrid then groaned.
"And no doubt there are going to be those with daughters who are closer to Brant's age." Blanca then said.
"They are no doubt going to try and get Brant to take an interest in their daughters." I nodded.
"And that's the biggest headache but it's a lot worse than you girls think." They all looked at me confused. "There'll also be women there who are at least ten years older than him who will try to get to him." As soon as I said that all girls sat up and stared at me in horror. "I know, I wasn't big on the idea either when I first discovered it and it got even worse when I got some loos from women who were only a few years younger than my mother." I shivered in disgust. "That was not a pleasant experience and when I left the city to go on the adventures that would make me famous in Greece, I thought I would have an easier time in some of the smaller villages but instead it was worse with the single women who were looking for a way out of their small villages." I shook my head until I noticed the look the girls were giving me. "Don't worry, I make sure those types of girls get nowhere near our boy as does Hephaestus." They nodded before Astrid said.
"Good, I intend for him to remain away from that sort of thing until he's married or at the very least, with a girl his own age who he can actually have feelings for." I watched as the other girls nodded.
"Don't worry girls, I know my son well enough to know that he wouldn't even think of doing it with anyone he doesn't have feelings for and as for those women who may come after him, he's too young and focused on his work to even notice those women." The girls nodded. "Now we've all got to keep our guard up so let's get some sleep." With that said we all took our regular sleeping positions and drifted into the realm of sleep.
5 days later
Fivedays have passed since we first arrived here in Athens and it has been one headache after another concerning the people of this city in more ways than one. There were of course my adoring fans who would wait for my ship to dock before following me and Brant through the city as we made our way to the forge, asking me questions and invites along with other things. Brant didn't have it any easier with the parents practically shoving their own kids in his face the moment we set foot on the streets asking him to come play or show off some of his combat skills I'd taught him. Their true intentions were clear as the suns light, with them wanting to use their friendship with my son to get closer to me for both the benefit of them and their parents. I didn't get it any easier at the forge since the orders for weapons personally made by me were going through the roof with many of the orders being for custom made designs but there were the occasional apprentice applications mixed in with them.
Brant and I weren't the only ones who were having issues with the locals as my wives had also been running into trouble with the people trying to cozy up to them but they were able to avoid them most of the time since I had Maelstrom escort them. Sadly, he wasn't enough to dissuade some of those who had more questionable intentions towards my family members and by that, I mean those who intended them harm. Fortunately, it wasn't anything to really worry about since my wives and daughter had no trouble dealing with mediocre combat skills at best and thought my wives would be weak. Every one of those criminals were handed over to the local guards and then shipped off to the dungeons for their crimes until they could be properly dealt with.
Now I was in the forge with a smile on my face as I looked over a freshly finished sword that I placed on the weapons rack but the thing that made this sword special was half the work was done by my son as were most of the weapons in the forge. Seeing him sharpen his skills, I couldn't help but feel a great deal of pride in him since the way he worked with that burning flame of confidence in his eyes reminded me how far he'd come from the scared little boy he once was when I first found him. I smiled as he dipped the hot sword shaped metal in the cooling water and let it steam but it was then, I noticed some girls at the store window and saw they were eyeing my young son like a piece of meat. I sighed but before I could do anything, Hephaestus took care of it and shooed the women away before walking up to me with an annoyed look on his face as he said.
"Those darn women will stop at nothing to get a strong child, even going so far as to go after the young men before they can even be called men." I nodded.
"Maybe it's best for me and my family to cut our trip short and go home." Hephaestus shook his head.
"Now don't do that lad, there's more to this land then the big city." I rubbed my chin in thought knowing he was right. "Why don't you visit some of the the countryside using that ship of yours?" I smiled at the thought and nodded.
"You might be right; I'll discuss it with my family and if all goes well then we'll be off on a trip in a few days." He nodded and slapped my shoulder.
"That's the spirit but for now, let's get back to work." I nodded and got back to working on the axe I was making.
Nightfall
I was laying down in bed with my wives in their usual positions with Astrid and Blanca at my sides while Hadasa had lay down on my chest as I staired up at the ceiling. Earlier today I'd discussed things with my wives and they were all for getting away from the city and getting the kids away from the adults who intend to try and use them. We'd been discussing the possibility of using my carriage instead of my ship so we could get a better view of the countryside but it'd also make us a target for roadside bandits. We all then laughed at this knowing those bandits were mostly just low-ranking crooks who wouldn't last a minute against us, especially if I brought in Shāndǐng to pull the carriage like I normally do since him turning into his dragon form would send them running. For now, though, I could just lay back and enjoy goodnights sleep since I'd need it for whatever challenges were thrown my way tomorrow and knowing Greece, it would have a lot of challenges and with that in mind, I drifted off into the realm of slumber.
AN: And here's the new chapter after so long but what do you expect, I'm on holiday with my family meaning it's mostly just me taking some down time to spend with my folks for the holiday season. Anyway, not sure when the next chapter will be out but I will be working on it so just be patient for the time being and please remember to review. Until the next chapter, stay safe and have a nice day.
