CHAPTER 51: Making a promise
Eret was collecting piles of logs, carrying them on his shoulders intending to take them to his hut. It was a bright early morning for him on New Berk as he sought to gather wood, and he'd already succeeded. Three long logs that were more than enough to be crafted into something useful. He was walking his way through the peaceful forests of New Berk as the birds sung their morning chirps.
"ERET?!" he heard, the voice sounding frantic and urgent.
Upon hearing his name be called, and initially not seeing anybody nearby - he carried on walking. He simply cleared his throat and nodded to himself.
"ERET?" yelled the voice, this time with it sounding a lot closer.
The pure beauty of the forests intertwining with the magnificent heavenly waterfalls as they splashed crystal clear heaps of water onto the rivers below meant that Eret still couldn't see anyone. The only things with him were hatchets and the logs he'd just collected.
"ERET, SON OF ERET?!" yelled the voice for a third time.
As Eret walked ahead on the dry gravel path, at long last he saw the source of the voice, and he knew who it was the first time anyways. It was Hiccup. He was rushing frantically like his life was on a timer. He'd never seen Hiccup sprint so quickly before, and he was sprinting pretty impressively despite having a prosthetic leg.
"Ah, Chief?!" Eret yelled back, as the gap between him and Hiccup closed, "I forgot to send you my good mornings!"
Hiccup's steps hit the gravel path hard, as the weight of his steps collided viciously with the path leaving clear footprints. The sound of small pebbles scattering all over the place with each running step he took was hard to not hear. Hiccup was sweating at his forehead, and he looked like he'd been running away from something, he was that exhausted and sweaty.
"Did you not hear us all go to the hall?" Hiccup, in a flustered manner, asked Eret.
"I think we all heard it, Hiccup. We all heard it indeed, I just thought I'd take the courtesy to do what we vikings do best - gather supplies and such, someone needed to kickstart it."
In reality, Eret hadn't come out here first thing in the morning to do that, which was the reason why he only had three logs. He had a specific reason for deliberately missing Hiccup's calls for everyone to come to the hall.
"You...you know what's happened, don't you?" Hiccup asked, his face looking like he'd just witnessed a death.
"Elaborate?"
"It's...the Ancients. They've seized Wingmaiden Island, overnight."
Eret dropped the logs onto the ground, as he did the hatchet. The steel blade of the hatchet landed firmly on the dry mud, sending it halfway through the ground.
"They...actually seized it?" Eret asked.
Hiccup was walking unevenly. His body twirled like he was in a dance, he was pacing at such an uneven pace and random directions.
"Yeah, last night. Atali was supposedly taken to their island and nobody's heard from her since. Apparently Yurlin himself forced her to come to their island to meet him, and then ever since...she's just gone missing."
Hiccup was dangling with panic and fear. But most importantly, he was also clustered with pure humiliation personally from Alfa Yurlin. The promise he made that he had no more territorial demands, the fact Hiccup stood side-by-side with him which, following the seizure of Wingmaiden Island, made him feel like an idiot and an incompetent Chieftan. The Berkians were already uneasy with Hiccup giving Yurlin unchecked permission to seize land for the sake of avoiding war, but this latest move from the Yurlin regime was particularly hard to swallow.
"I called it from the start, Hiccup. I'm shocked that it's happened but I knew well before you that this happened."
"Wait a minute...you knew?" Hiccup asked.
"Well, let me put it this way. I didn't technically 'know' before anyone this morning what happened with the Wingmaidens, but I saw it coming."
Hiccup briefly planted his palm on his chest, pacing towards the direction of a waterfall in the not too far distance. He looked drained out of his mind.
"You were right, Eret. All of this time," Hiccup slowly confessed, "this is just like when I first stumbled across Toothless as a boy, and I kept it hidden from my dad. For some reason I just can't do anything right. Nothing. I let myself be humiliated and for what?"
"No Hiccup, you didn't let yourself be anything. Don't for a minute suggest anything like that about you. I was the one who voluntarily said I wouldn't speak a word about this situation anymore when I was clearly going overboard with it."
"Overboard? Eret, after what's happened overnight, you weren't overboard with it. You were the only one who saw Yurlin all this time for what I realize he truly is. You were underboard, if anything."
"That's...not a word, Hiccup. But the point is, Chief, my time in Drago's ranks, and with my lot knowing Grimmel back in the day as the famous dragon hunter he was, I have the foresight that nobody else has. I know a snake when I see one. I used to disgustingly work with them, Drago in particular being an example."
Hiccup felt guilty. All of this time he'd brushed aside Eret's comments about Yurlin, and had forced him to be silent. And he truly did feel like this was something his dad would look down at him on and be ashamed of him.
"My dad never would've gone to the silly extents I did to try and do what I thought was going to stop all of this happening. He'll be ashamed of me."
Eret walked over to Hiccup as he looked down at the grass. Hiccup was overwhelmed, like a dark cloud was surrounding his body with vicious thunderstorms hitting his head. He patted Hiccup on the back and held onto his shoulder.
"You know something, Hiccup? and never forget this - I actually somewhat respected you for having the viewpoint you did, disagreements put aside. Know why? because despite where we are now, you were nonetheless decisive in what you thought, you stuck with it, and you saw it through to the very end till now. Stoick knew what he thought and was a decisive Chieftan."
"I suppose my question really is...what's your point?" Hiccup slowly uttered as he looked ahead, like he was having some sort of epiphany with his serious eyes.
"My point is that you're far from incompetent or a failure. I get it, Hiccup, I really do - you think any of us want to relive the sort of conflicts we faced as a tribe against Drago, my former...mentor, my former leader? of course not. But you've got that decisiveness mate. That's why you created history with Toothless at the time, that's why you were the one who brought us all together as vikings and dragons."
Hiccup's head slowly elevated upwards as Eret's words gave him a much needed boost of assurance.
"If anything, I owe you for that decisiveness. Whilst I was still hanging out with Drago and his irk before coming across you for the first time ever, you'd already set the precedent. I was still a dragon hunter even after I saw you and Toothless and Astrid and Stormfly working together, and it was your decisiveness which took me out of the dark path I was in, without your efforts of peace with the dragons I'd have remained a gutless mercenary of a viking."
Hiccup nodded, as he continued looking ahead to the distant waterfall in the middle of the isolated forest.
"It's just that on this occasion, many of us didn't see Yurlin for what he truly was. But much like your decisiveness in creating peace between vikings and dragons at the time, you were decisive in thinking that you could change the route of events involving Yurlin for all of our sakes, and that's the unifying theme here Hiccup. You're decisive, much like your dad was."
Eret let out a big puff of air from his mouth after finishing his talk. The words he'd spoke had provided Hiccup with a much needed assurance.
"I'm just...I'm sorry for being ignorant, Eret. You were right all of this time."
"Don't be sorry mate, it's not you who needs to be apologizing. It's that monster overseas, Alfa Yurlin, who should be apologizing."
For the first time ever, Hiccup realized that Yurlin was a man who couldn't be negotiated with nor reasoned with. No amount of appeasement or giving land would end his lust for grabbing sovereign tribe islands against their will. This latest seizure of land, the Wingmaiden Island, was all too clear in what it revealed; Yurlin, having violated the conference agreement Hiccup signed with him last month, had NO excuse anymore to attack other viking tribes, and with this latest annexation, it was clear that Yurlin was after much more than just destroying the Warlords.
The barbaric, merciless, archaic nature of the tribe Yurlin was leading, evident particularly from the night of the burning huts, was also a factor in leading Hiccup to the conclusion he now had - that force was now the only thing that Yurlin would back down to. He had to be stopped.
This man was clearly desiring to take over all of the archipelago and establish an archipelago wide tribe under his dictatorship, and to have such a barbaric killing factory of a tribe on the doorstep of New Berk, the size of a whole archipelago, was something Hiccup couldn't allow to happen.
He couldn't allow it to happen for his tribe's safety, for his family and friends, and especially Zephyr and Nuffink. There was a growing feeling even before today that Ancient aggression needed to be confronted with force, but that feeling had now culminated in a realization that it was compulsory to do it.
He lied to him at the conference, making him look like a fool, despite the pleas and promises. Hiccup felt like he'd just had his dignity in the eyes of the Berkians axed away from him, which also gave him feelings of anger.
"Come on, let's go back to the hall, we need to discuss this with the others."
It'd been a few hours later, primarily because Hiccup had invited Dagur, Alvin, Heather and Mala back onto New Berk for this latest and most crucial meeting in the hall of New Berk. The mood was incredibly downbeat, not a single voice could be heard bouncing from the mossy corners of the hall. Even the usual jokers like Snotlout, Ruff and Tuffnut didn't smile. This was a serious situation which had dangerous implications for their own tribe.
"You were all right," echoed Hiccup, "for the longest time I turned my eyes away because I was scared. Scared because the dragons are no longer here with us, I've never led our tribe into a conflict WITHOUT our dragons, ever. That's why this is so significant, because all of this is happening in the post-dragon era. They're no longer here to keep us safe...to comfort us, and to just generally help us in maintaining the peace we established when I first met Toothless."
The tribe had fully listened with their ears. Valka stood up and walked besides Hiccup as he held himself over the table, his palms firmly on top of the wooden table, and his chest dangling over it as he looked directly at the crowd of Berkians.
"But you know what? I'm sorry, I truly am. I'm really sorry to you all. I'm sorry that I didn't take it seriously when they sent their vikings onto OUR old home of seven generations. I'm sorry when we didn't even blink an eye at their cruel annexation of the Northern Markets, and I'm sorry I sucked the masculinity out of our tribe at that conference. My dad would've hated me for it."
"DON'T YOU SAY THAT LADDY, DON'T SAY THAT AT ALL!" yelled one Berkian, heavily supportive of Hiccup.
Valka patted her son on the back as he suddenly had tears running down his cheeks, like waterfalls. Even as the emotions blurted out from his eyes, the vikings in the hall didn't speak or interrupt the moment once, purely out of respect. This was a time to be united, and seeing their Chieftan upset and remorseful having realized that he was dealing with a monster who conned him, made them all rally around him.
"Son, it's okay. We were all the same, alright? your father would've opted for the exact same solutions that you did."
"AND YOU KNOW SOMETHING, CHIEF?!" yelled another Berkian, causing everyone on the wooden table to look at him, as did every other Berkian in the hall, "YOU WERE THE STRONGER MAN FOR TRYING TO MAKE IT WORK. FORGET OUR GRUMPY REACTIONS, IT'S WHAT YOU GET WITH US VIKINGS. BUT TRUST US CHIEF, MORE THAN EVER WE'RE FULLY BEHIND YOU AND WE'VE NEVER DOUBTED YOUR ABILITY TO LEAD US LIKE STOICK DID!"
Everyone in the hall briefly uttered whispers with each other, nodding in agreement with that fellow Berkian. They all didn't care anymore about Hiccup's past words. In a time of crisis, the Hooligans had always rallied around their Chieftan and more than ever, they wanted to do that now.
Hiccup wiped the tears from his eyes as small puddles of them were on the table below. Gobber and Astrid walked up to Hiccup on the other side and they too patted him on the back. He felt incredibly guilty about Atali too, the fact she wasn't here anymore.
"You've always been strong, Hiccup," said Astrid, loud enough for the whole hall to hear her, "we've got two amazing children, we've raised them well, we led the way in a trailblazing bit of history with the dragons. Any obstacles we've come across, we've jumped over them."
Dagur, Alvin, Heather and Mala all walked up to Hiccup too. Snotlout, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs and Gothi, emerging up onto the wooden platform where the table was, also stood up to stand with the group in front of the whole hall. Eret subsequently walked up to Hiccup from behind.
"Don't forget it mate, you're the son of Stoick. You brought me into this tribe, I'm a changed man because of you. We're all in this together fella."
Alvin, Dagur, Heather and Mala all nodded. There was a unified consensus in the hall, and they were all fully united behind Hiccup in the midst of what was a dangerous situation following the actions of Yurlin.
"So," Astrid asked, "what are you gonna do about it?"
At Astrid's question, Hiccup raised his face up, looking directly at the filled up hall of Berkians who were proudly looking on. All of their eyes were concentrated on him. Hiccup let off a big sigh. He knew what he had to do about it.
"We're gonna make it abundantly clear that Alfa Yurlin no longer has free reign to attack sovereign tribes."
Silence was utterly covering the whole hall as Hiccup started uttering what he felt needed to be done.
"I failed to see the monster I was talking to. The monster who now, I realize, needs to be slaughtered and put away back in his box. We're going to get back our old island, we're going to make sure all of those innocent vikings back there on the central archipelago are freed from his brutal reign of terror, where he's mercilessly imprisoning his own vikings and those from other tribes under his annexations for no wrongdoings. My dad would've done the same, and I'm gonna do the same now."
Hiccup's voice gripped the whole hall as he started revealing the next steps in light of Alfa Yurlin's actions.
"If this man thinks we're going to sit by and let him embark on some sort of world domination by force, gradually sucking up tribes to get to that, or if he thinks that it'll be easy to butcher and destroy tribes for the sake of creating one big unified archipelago which'd take our world back thousands and thousands of years to an archaic era of executions and murder, if he thinks it'll be easy to achieve just because the dragons are no longer in our world, he couldn't be more mistaken. No greater mistake could be made than to underestimate a tribe who seeks to uphold a world of morality, a world of freedom where vikings can be whoever they want without fear."
"So I'll make this promise. We aren't going to try and take back our old island, we WILL. We'll smash his brutal regime of a tribe back into its box and save those being subjugated under his dictatorship, all of the annexed tribes and Ancients suffering under him - the next time his troops march onto a sovereign tribe's island, we'll swiftly declare our desire to fight them and to save the world from being engulfed under his disgusting killing machine of an ideology."
A huge roar of applause broke out across the hall. Across the long table in the middle, claps were bouncing off the palms of EVERYONE. The thunderous cheers of the vikings in front made the hall rumble in the floor and walls. Hiccup ducked down to Zephyr and Nuffink and hugged the two of them as tightly as he could, right in the middle of the applauding and cheering Berkians.
In order to have his two kids grow up in a world where freedoms could be preserved, tribes could freely exist without fear of being taken over by a killing machine of a dictatorship, and in order for them to have security in their lives as adults, Yurlin didn't just need to be confronted with force, he had to be stopped and his whole ideology had to be dismantled.
For the first time since the dragons left for the Hidden World, a conflict was coming down the road between the tribes. A conflict which was evidently set to decide whether the world Hiccup and his friends grew up in under Stoick could be preserved, or a dark age taking the viking archipelago and way of life back thousands of years to the days of public executions, subjugation and no freedom of thought and fear of death would prevail.
He wanted to avenge Atali and the Wingmaidens for throwing them under the bus, especially with them essentially no longer existing as a tribe anymore, and Atali's fate remaining unknown. He wanted to avenge all of those vikings suffering under Yurlin. Atali was always going to remain in the back of Hiccup's head, but he knew that by defeating the Ancients and ending their reign of terror, he'd avenge and hopefully rescue her if she was still alive.