CHAPTER 35: Planning
"You're what?" one of the vikings in the crowd asked, as if they were bemused at Hiccup's declaration.
"You heard. I'm sick of hearing about all of this, and I don't want my kids to be fearful at this point in their lives. I don't want this war rhetoric being the only thing they hear for their whole childhood. If it takes a face-to-face meeting to put an end to this whole...debacle sort of thing, then that's what I'll do."
The reaction in the crowd of vikings in the hall compared to those on the long table were contrasted. Everyone, from Atali, Dagur, Heather and Alvin, to Snotlout, Tuff & Ruffnut, Fishlegs, Astrid and Gobber had a hopeful sort of feeling. Gobber himself had already met Yurlin as did Eret.
"I still remember when one of his vikings came with a letter from Yurlin, when they sailed Gobber and Eret back here from meeting him. From what I remember of the actual content, it was a pretty positive letter. So if I meet him face-to-face, a bit of personal diplomacy should surely calm down the flames. I don't want to have to be doing this, but because of the kids, I'll go down this route."
It was pretty notable that Eret hadn't spoken a single word in the hall. He was keeping to his promise to Hiccup that he wouldn't ever make a suggestion or talk about the ongoings of the Ancients, but right now, he was completely dumbfounded at Hiccup's declaration to meet Yurlin face to face.
Having met Yurlin alongside Gobber, Eret had long detected a shifty, non-trustworthy individual. And as far as Eret was concerned, he only had to look back to a fairly recent point in history to see why this attempt would fail on its head. Hiccup tried talking to Drago, it didn't get anywhere. He tried talking to Grimmel, before the Night Fury killer both times subsequently tried to kill Hiccup.
To Eret, Hiccup thinking that a personal diplomacy would be enough was the biggest miscalculation he could make. Yurlin was the most powerful viking on the whole archipelago, leading the largest tribe on the whole archipelago, conducting territorial demands to an aggressive scale. Succumbing to his demands would make talking to Drago, as Hiccup attempted, look like an amateurs mistake. Much more was at stake here arguably. Eret felt strongly about all of that.
"I think you're...onto something, ya know?" Gobber said, nodding at Hiccup.
"You really think?" Hiccup asked.
"Absolutely! the amount of praise he was giving to you when me and Eret were there...he'll be rolling down the red carpet for you laddy!"
Hiccup was relieved to hear that from Gobber. He was happy to hear it from him especially. To Hiccup, it felt like he'd invented a solution that could unite the whole tribe. Of course, he was still subtly gutted that Old Berk was no longer independent and was a militarized island, but he was hoping by talking to Yurlin directly and personally, it'd lead to something positive, an end to all of these gloomy prospects being thrown around for a war.
"I have to say son, I agree with the idea too," Valka said, "talking to people is smarter than...killing people, if I can put it that way."
Everyone on the table nodded. Some of the Hooligans within the crowd nodded, others weren't so certain. For the latter portion of the crowd, they didn't want to give credibility to a brutal tyrant of a Chieftan who shared none of their values as a tribe. Alfa Yurlin and his regime of a tribe was in complete contrast to the lives they practiced, and they didn't want to give the abhorrent leadership of his a platform.
"Provided of course, I can come with you?" Atali insisted, standing up from her chair.
Hiccup looked at his mum and Astrid, before looking at Atali. He didn't see any reason why she wouldn't be able to come.
"Absolutely, I don't see why not. Again, it'd have been helpful if you told us about your settlement on there way before any of this, but it's no worry. If I can convince him to do the right thing, then it'll be no problem."
Hiccup honestly didn't want to have to do this. He was done with this sort of thing at this point in his life. The main reason why he was going to meet Alfa Yurlin face-to-face was his kids. The last thing he wanted was for them to be fearful and apprehensive about a potential war coming down the tracks. They were at the peak of their childhood and he didn't want them to have any sort of apprehension about conflict given how young they both were.
The other reason was so he could prevent such a war breaking out. A war breaking out, in the post-dragon era as they were now in, would be brutal and would lead to endless suffering. Hiccup didn't want that to happen.
And as much as he wanted to just stay put on New Berk knowing the tribe was firmly save from any potential invading force or enemies due to the height of the island, he felt like he had an obligation to do this.
"So this is it," Hiccup said, looking out to the crowd of Hooligans in the hall, "as late as it is right now, I've found a solution which I think will benefit all of us. We don't want war, I don't want it, I'm a dad for crying out loud, and if all these other Chieftans here agree with me, then the best move is for me to go out there, talk to Yurlin, and sort the problem out."
Quite a lot of the Hooligans nodded as loud audible mutterings could be heard from them. Some were nodding, others were quite concerned about the stakes of giving credibility to a barbaric chieftan, not least a chieftan who militarized their old island of seven generations.
But to Hiccup, that had to be brushed aside. He didn't want war to break out - he saw what they'd look like in the form of his battles against Drago and Grimmel respectively, and even the war with the dragons. The war against Drago led to the death of his father, and he wasn't prepared to let anything like that happen to the vikings remaining on the central archipelago surrounding Old Berk.
"I'm going out there, tomorrow afternoon to meet him, and we'll settle this mess once and for all!" Hiccup declared, to the whole hall.
News of Hiccup Haddock's intention to sail out to Ancient Island to meet Alfa Yurlin broke across the archipelago like a tsunami. Suddenly, a wave of optimism had surged across the many tribes. The Outcasts, Berserkers, Wingmaidens and so on - they all broke out in a surge of optimism. Ever since Yurlin threatened war over the Wingmaiden settlement on Dragon Island just some hours ago, everyone was fearful.
They were fearful of the same sort of scenes the Hooligans witnessed at the mercy of the Warlords when Drago brought his Bewilderbeast to Berk, killing Valka's own and subsequently killing Hiccup's father. They never wanted to see anything like that again.
And news of the imminent meeting hadn't just broken out to the many tribes, it'd also gotten to the ears of the Warlords themselves, and Drago Bludvist. Upon hearing the rumour that Hiccup wanted to meet Yurlin, Drago grew much more wary. He thought for sure the likes of Hiccup and the other tribes were going to use Yurlin as some sort of attack dog, to push him towards their direction to destroy the Warlords.
For the Ancients, hearing Hiccup unilaterally declare he wanted to meet their Chieftan was the biggest victory in terms of diplomacy that they'd ever secured. He didn't even call out their annexation of the Northern Markets, their militarization of Old Berk, nor Yurlin's very recent threat of war unless Dragon Island was ceded to him. They were overjoyed, and for Yurlin, it had the potential to make him look like a credible overseas respected Chieftan in the eyes of the Ancients he was ruling over.
For the longest time, he wanted to meet Hiccup, and the best he'd ever gotten was Gobber and Eret. Ultimately, meeting them was something Yurlin brushed aside as a warm up act - they were two irrelevant vikings in the grand scheme of things. For Yurlin, Hiccup was the grand prize. So much so, that upon receiving word of Hiccup's intention, he was already organizing it with his council.
"I am more than happy to meet Hiccup Haddock, of course I am. I'm glad that somebody around these islands sees the sense in solving the settlement problem."
Yurlin was talking to his council in the hall, but for his meeting with Hiccup, in which there were background negotiations between the Hooligans and Ancients to organize it this morning, with some Ancient vikings at New Berk already, he wanted an entirely different area for it.
"Indeed," said Krimm Hiss, "it's long overdue and as you've mentioned in the past, my leader, the prospect of an alliance between our two tribes is finally a possibility!"
"I've long wanted ties between our two tribes and I couldn't agree more. Meeting Hiccup isn't only going to be the chance to deal with the question at hand regarding the Wingmaiden settlement, it's also our chance to build up the grand coalition against the Warlords!"
The biggest entourage was set to be unleashed in the area of choice on Ancient Island for Hiccup and Yurlin's meeting. It already had a massive entourage given the significance of the chosen area, but with all eyes of the archipelago on this meeting it'd be expanded even more than it was.
An isolated decently sized hut within the forests of Ancient Island, well away from the central village and all the work camps designated for political prisoners, would be the place in which the meeting would take place. This hut wasn't just any old hut built aimlessly in the middle of nowhere on Ancient Island, it was actually Yurlin's own home. He had a big hut that any viking would dream of, in terms of the size and the privacy.
Yurlin actually had quite a few huts of his scattered across the island, but they too were all in isolated areas on the island. This hut in particular he chose for the meeting was his main one though, and even when they were empty there was still a big patrol around them 24/7.
Mixed within the intertwining forest trees and green, it was a place that no regular Ancient viking would know was there, nor would they even get the chance to discover it. Because it was the home of the Ancient Chieftan, patrols of the Ancient entourage vikings roamed the forest surrounding it like predators. Anyone they caught would be instantly punished with a harsh detention in one of the work camps or even put to execution.
"We'll be looking at a point in the afternoon where he should be arriving here, my leader," said Herrick Herald, "we'll have an exact time frame to work with when our team comes back from their island."
"The sooner we can get this underway, the better. My deadline of two days is now just one for those cretins on Dragon Island to hand it over and abandon their settlement, and if those Wingmaidens think I've forgotten, they're dangerously naive."
Hiccup would have to navigate around Yurlin's complex demands and try and establish a one-to-one rapport to get him to drop his deadline. For Yurlin, meeting Hiccup was an honour as he fully respected Stoick the Vast and he had heaps of stuff to say to Hiccup, in terms of his past, and just wanting to get to know him in general. But the stakes were there. This meeting was just as, if not more significant, than the gathering of the chieftans that happened the night Drago subsequently ordered his dragon army to burn down the great hall on Berk.
The difference this time was that it was just between three Chieftans, in the form of Yurlin, Atali and Hiccup. And rather than a meeting to discuss the situations they all faced, this was to be a meeting to prevent a dangerous situation from blowing up into a war. The stakes were incredibly high and Hiccup needed to acknowledge that.