CHAPTER 38: Entourage
Hiccup's boat, being sailed by just over a dozen of fellow Berkians, was now in the waters of the central archipelago, well beyond New Berk. Within the distance he spotted an island which looked like it dwarfed Old Berk. It was double the size of Old Berk.
"Chief, it looks like we're here, according to the map they provided us."
Upon hearing that, Hiccup walked across the boat as it continued gently swirling to the left and right on the seas. He stopped at the very front to catch a clear glimpse of what was Ancient Island. The island was huge, so much so that you'd have been able to fit two Berks in it to make up the size.
The structure of the island was quite similar to that of Old Berk, with its giant mountain of a hill in the middle, but this hill was, like the rest of Ancient Island, taller and double the size of the one on Old Berk. The island was covered on most sides by vastly more swathes of forestry on the shores.
The central village on Ancient Island was surrounded by the forests on the island. From the distance, Hiccup couldn't quite make out the huts yet, but he caught a small glimpse of some of them. The central village was basically trapped around all corners by the foresty terrain.
For Hiccup, the sheer sight of Ancient Island, a clear indication that he was now at his destination more or less, sent an everlasting ache into his chest. The fact that this island was double the size of Old Berk, housing a tribe that'd been committing the type of action it's done thus far, made for a surreal thought. Hiccup's initial impression of the island made him think of it as New Berk, just without the monstrous height.
"I've never seen an island so big before, so this has always been here?" Hiccup questioned.
"It seems so, Chief."
"I would've thought...Toothless and I would've come across this in the past on our morning flights, that's so strange to think."
It genuinely was shocking to Hiccup that at the time the dragons were still around, he and Toothless never once came across Ancient Island. That was because, prior to Yurlin coming to power in the tribe, it was a fully pacifist tribe that had no interest in conflicts or engagement with the outside world, in order to maintain its own vikings and safety. Not even Stoick knew of its existence, and he was arguably the most respected viking on the whole archipelago.
"Can you see the docks ahead?" one of the Berkians asked Hiccup, pointing to what looked like a heap of wooden platforms that briefly stretched from the shores of Ancient Island.
Hiccup nodded, catching a glimpse. They were still too far out to see if any vikings were legitimately waiting, but they were expecting to be welcomed given the planning that'd been arranged before between themselves and the Ancients.
"That's them over there, the docks?" Hiccup pointed.
"Yeah, that's the one. They'll be expecting us there. When we arrive, we'll probably get the welcome party. His delegation also said that they'd be escorting us to where you'll be meeting him afterwards."
"Okay."
Hiccup took a huge gulp of air as Ancient Island closed in between the boat and itself. He knew this was a serious moment about to take place. For so long now, Alfa Yurlin wanted to meet Hiccup to solidify some sort of Ancient-Hooligan alliance treaty to face off against the Warlords. Hiccup originally had no intention of meeting Yurlin, but given the tense situation on the archipelago, he was left with no choice.
"Do you know what you're looking to gain from this, Hiccup?" asked another Berkian on the boat.
"I'm going to go in there with an open mind, and I'm going to find out if there's a way we can avoid this breaking out into something it doesn't have to be. We also need to be wary of the fact Drago is still out there, somewhere."
"I wouldn't be too concerned about him, Chief - we're literally about to hit landfall on an island that claims to be the pure antithesis to Drago. They're the last place I'd have thought to be worried about encountering him."
"True. I just hope this all works out in the end - when I think too much, I think about the most apprehensive situations potentially happening, that's all."
Hiccup's boat was minutes away from stopping on the wooden docks that stretched out from the shores of Ancient Island. And as expected, a huge entourage of vikings on the dock were awaiting the boat's arrival. The wooden platforms, far from rotten and 'ancient', looked like they were freshly built, like they were built only a matter of months ago.
Hiccup instantly recalled Old Berk's docks, they were rotting up with moss and just the wood itself deteriorating. The docks on this island looked like they were freshly built only a short time ago, a matter of some months. Another thing he noticed, as he looked out to the docks from his incoming boat as it continued to gently swirl on the seas, was the attire of the vikings on the docks.
They looked exactly like the sort of gear the Hooligans themselves wore prior to the defeat of the Red Death. They had a more archaic appearance, with chainmail bodies, leather pants, brown boots, helmets with spikes as tall as the horns of a bull, and steel belts which were hooked on the back of their gear. Of course this wasn't exactly how the Hooligans used to look prior to peace with the dragons, but Hiccup could somewhat see a resemblance.
In other words, the Ancient Tribe looked like it was back in time about...seven generations ago, as if the whole world had been closed off. It was surreal to Hiccup.
A beefed out Ancient viking on the docks started gesturing his arms, pointing to the empty space next to one of the wooden platforms, gesturing for them to halt the boat right there.
"A BIT MORE TO THE RIGHT!" he yelled.
Hiccup backed away and moved more towards the middle of the boat. As a couple of the other Berkians adjusted the sails to get the boat's direction in line with what was just yelled, Hiccup gathered his fellow vikings to discuss last minute preparations. They could feel the boat slow down with the sails as they looked to make contact gently with the docks.
"These guys look...weirdly oldschool, if I can put it like that? like how we used to more or less look when I was a boy!" Hiccup claimed.
"It's very strange indeed, Chief. What's the plan now?"
"We'll wait for the guys to halt the boat, we'll gently hop on off and presumably we'll be greeting this group."
Hiccup honestly didn't have much more to say at this point. He had a plan in his head as to what he was going to discuss with Yurlin, what he was aiming for, all of that stuff. But amid all of this, he also couldn't help but notice that the village ahead was a lot emptier than he expected.
Maybe because the council of Ancient Island had put in security measures which meant all of their normal vikings were forbidden from being around there initially for the time being whilst Hiccup was on land. Or because a good chunk of the boys and men in the tribe were conscripted in the army, it'd only be the women that he'd see. Not that Hiccup was aware of the conscription imposed upon the tribe by Yurlin, but he did notice the village, from here anyways, looked quite empty for such a big tribe carrying out the action it's done overseas thus far.
Finally, after five more agonizing minutes, the two Berkians sorting out the sails had successfully dropped their anchor into the sea, halting the boat firmly in place besides the wooden platform. The floor of the boat was perfectly linked up with the wooden path.
Hiccup, surrounded by his fellow Berkians, nodded at each other and they made their way towards the wooden platform. The gap between the boat and the platform was very minimal, it was impossible for anyone to physically fall through it, but they all nonetheless hopped over it anyways, just for a safety precaution. Upon them all arriving on the docks, they stood face to face with the opposite group of vikings, the entourage of Ancient vikings, all of whom looked delighted at their arrival.
"Good afternoon, fellow friends. Welcome to our island."
"Likewise, mate."
Hiccup walked forwards in front of the group of Berkians to face the Ancient entourage directly. The waving seas below their feet was the most prominent sound of nature right now.
"Hiccup Haddock?" asked the middle Ancient viking.
"That I am."
The Ancient viking rushed to put his hand out towards Hiccup to shake it. Hiccup subsequently grabbed his hand and the two slowly, and somewhat awkwardly, shook hands.
"It is of the upmost privilege to be able to welcome you, Chieftan. My leader has been awaiting your arrival for so many years since he became our proud protector from the danger overseas."
"I've heard. I have to say, your tribe looks very...different, in a good way."
"We're very proud of our achievements, Chief. We have a united tribe with vikings who want us to live the way our ancestors did, seven generations ago. The viking lifestyle is one we wholeheartedly believe in. We're glad you notice the distinction!"
Hiccup nodded. So far, so good.
"With that being said, we will escort you to the home of our leader, the great Alfa Yurlin, he's awaiting your arrival. We will escort you through our village where you can get a good look at our lifestyle, our infrastructure of huts, and our routines."
The Ancient entourage started walking ahead. Hiccup and the Hooligans followed them from behind. Hiccup's heartbeats felt like they were turned up by about a hundred beats per minute, the nerves were starting to kick in. He had no idea what to expect other than a tough diplomatic environment with Yurlin.
The Ancients, in their engagements with Hiccup, had long planned to moderate their language around him, so there wouldn't be any mentioning of the unvikings or anything that they were doing to them behind closed doors, in order to keep Hiccup on board diplomatically.
Yurlin himself wasn't going to hide his disdain for the settlement on Dragon Island by the Wingmaidens. He was going to moderate his language in regards to his hatred of the unvikings, but so far as what he wanted overseas, he wasn't going to sugarcoat it.
Hiccup studied the infrastructure around him as he was being led through the village. The huts were built differently to the ones on New Berk. They were more rounded and quite a lot of them had perimeters of wooden fencing around the back, where various crops were being grown, like carrots and potatoes as well as other vegetables. Some of the crops were being collected by vikings, many of whom looked like mothers who lived in the huts.
The grass looked like it had heaps of fertilizers dropped onto it over the past years, because it looked as green as grass could be. The village itself was incredibly spacious, and Hiccup couldn't help but notice how the vikings who walked past were simply carrying on with their daily lives, collecting resources and carrying around gear. Some of the vikings did stop to notice Hiccup, and he in turn would smile at them, to which they smiled back.
It felt nice to build those sort of connections. The further up the village they walked, the more vikings became present. Hiccup noticed that the male vikings that he saw were the only ones walking around outside the huts. He had yet to spot any lady vikings anywhere other than inside their crop gardens.
"Do you like our village?" asked one of the Ancients leading the escort.
Hiccup gently passed through his group of Berkians to join up with the Ancients ahead, as they continued walking along the path of the central village.
"You look very well structured...no different to what we do on a daily basis."
"We believe in many things, we have a strict routine with our vikings. Some of them stay put at home to raise kids, some of them will go on to train to become fighters for the wellbeing of our tribe, and we have plenty of camping excursions across our forests for our younger boys to get them ready for the boots of combat."
Hiccup had never heard of that before. He hadn't ever heard of such a strict day-to-day routine in a tribe. Even when he was a boy and his dad was Chieftan, he wasn't as strict as these guys seemingly were.
"That's incredible, you've all got a routine at least. You seem to be doing something right, good on you all."
Of course, what Hiccup didn't know was that the Ancient council had forbade its women vikings within the tribe from doing anything but staying in the hut to have kids and raise a family. That was the Yurlin council's view on female vikings and it was being put to action, whilst the men went off to do the fighting and defending and such. The less he knew, the better. Hiccup would never have enacted such a policy, ever, nor would his dad have done so. It was a completely different ballgame in the Ancient Tribe.
They continued walking through the village, with more and more of the regular Ancients stopping to curiously look at Hiccup in particular. Somehow, they all managed to recognize him as being Hiccup. He tried his best to look at them all and nod at them as a form of communication, but the numbers of them were growing in such big numbers that he couldn't keep up.
They walked past a few stone wells filled with water, with dangling buckets hanging over them. These were in the middle of the village and were a great water supply for the tribe. But after the central point in the village came the divisive wooden signs the council had authorized to be put up in regards to the unvikings, and this was to be Hiccup's first ever experience of what it meant to be hated and targeted as an unviking by the Ancients.
Walking along with the escort, one of the Berkians couldn't help but notice a larger than usual wooden sign that was planted right above the door of a hut. The language and tone of the sentence on the sign was what caught his attention.
"Chief," he whispered to Hiccup, who moved back to his group of Hooligans, "look at that, see what it says?" he pointed.
Hiccup looked up at the wooden sign.
UNVIKINGS ARE NOT WELCOME HERE!
Hiccup tried to put the pieces together.
"Unvikings?" he asked, rhetorically.
"There's another one just on the small open plains over there, just outside these collection of huts."
Hiccup looked at the other wooden sign, this one was a lot bigger than the one above the door.
UNVIKINGISM IS CRIMINALITY!
The font of the writing on that sign was much better, and it was planted in a position where any passing viking would inevitably read it.
"Criminality? criminality for what?" Hiccup whispered.
They were starting to head towards the forests of the island where a much bigger entourage was waiting. As they passed by the wall of a much larger hut, a graffiti-looking set of writing was on this wooden wall, in white, and it was much bigger in font than either of the two signs Hiccup and the Hooligans had already seen.
THIS HUT HAS BEEN POISONED BY AN UNVIKING. DO NOT ENTER! THE DEATH OF THEM WILL CALM OUR DISTRESS!
This one was much more distinctive than the other two because of the message that Ancient vikings shouldn't enter the hut. Whoever lived inside that hut was clearly no longer in there based on that message. Hiccup somewhat recalled hearing about Yurlin's hatred of perceived unvikings, but he'd forgotten exactly what, in the Ancients' view, made someone an unviking. The language these signs used was extremely divisive and it came across as barbaric. The tone of them made Hiccup a tad uncomfortable.
Hiccup and the group of Ancients escorting him and the Hooligans walked towards the forests ahead where an even bigger cohort of Ancient vikings stood. Many of them took their steel helmets off as a gesture of respect. Once again, they all seemed to recognize Hiccup as being the son of Stoick the Vast, even though none of them had met him before.
"Hiccup?" one of them uttered.
Hiccup looked ahead.
"Can't tell you how pleased we are to see you."
The Ancient viking walked up to Hiccup and held out his hand. Hiccup too raised his hand out and this handshake was much faster than the other one.
"Our Yurlin," said the head Ancient viking who was escorting Hiccup and the Hooligans.
"Our Yurlin!" the Ancient viking shaking Hiccup's hand replied back.
Hiccup looked at the two men, in confusion. The utterance of 'Our Yurlin' was something he couldn't quite put together - it sounded like a greeting for them, but he couldn't comprehend why it would be, considering it was the actual surname of Yurlin himself. It was strange.
"We've been waiting for this day, as has our leader, right?" said the Ancient viking besides Hiccup, before turning to face him, "Chief Hiccup, you'll be following this fella up through the woods where our leader's hut resides. He's been looking forward to the occasion!"
Hiccup nodded at the viking in front of him, as the two of them let go of their hands following the handshake.
"Nice to meet you, I have to say, this is all surreal to me right now, from everything I've seen so far!" said Hiccup.
"Truly, it'll be a once in a generation thing, a history making moment when you step face to face with my leader. Emphasis on 'history making', not that you're short of those moments already eh, Hiccup?"
Hiccup nodded. He was bemused by how much all of these guys knew about his past, including the history making ones as was just hinted at, like making peace with the dragons, and such.
"I suppose we ought to get a move on then. We're hearing more chirping birds near these forests than we are vital footsteps to our leader's hut where he awaits!" uttered one of the other Ancient vikings.
Hiccup cleared his throat. In the distance within the forest he could see a couple of marching vikings, due to the heavy security measures thrown upon this part of the island due to the imminent meeting between himself and Yurlin.
"Follow us, Chieftan, and before you know it we'll be there."
Hiccup and his group of Berkians obliged, and they followed the bigger cohort of Ancients into the forest where Yurlin's hut rested.
Nearly 40 minutes of walking finally paid off. Within the deep cluster of trees and branches, of which the environment made Hiccup recall the cove given the similarity of the forest of this place and the forest that surrounded the cove on Old Berk, a gigantic wooden hut with a grand entrance of fencing and wooden steps came to his vision.
As well as hundreds of Ancient vikings, many of whom were in combat gear with chain mail bodies and legs, bigger steel helmets and battleaxes rested firmly upon their shoulders, all marched up in a big line on either side of the fences. Initially, there were uttering voices from the hundreds of vikings gathered around the entrance of Yurlin's hut, but the moment they caught a glimpse of Hiccup, silence fell upon the vicinity. They were in awe, many of their eyes widened.
It was him - Hiccup Haddock, the Chieftan their leader had always spoken highly of, the son of Stoick the Vast, the one who could help them in their goal to eradicate the filth of the Warlords and, in doing so, the unvikings.
At this point, Hiccup's heartbeat was once again turned up a notch, with sweat feeling like it was emerging on his forehead. He couldn't handle all of the hundreds of eyes watching him from either side of this giant looking hut, which looked like it had two big floors.
"Stand here, Chieftan," gestured one of the Ancients.
He pointed to a spot that was directly adjacent the wooden steps leading up to the doors of the grand-looking wooden hut. Hiccup obliged and he took a few cautious steps out of his Berkian group, to stand directly opposite the hut with a distance of about 10 meters from him and the steps. Silence was fully upon the vikings.
The doors of the hut opened.
An all too familiar leather coat popped out of the door, followed by big tall brown boots, and a helmet with spikes so tall they'd just about managed to avoid scraping the top of the doorway.
Hiccup gulped as he got his first look at the man himself. Alfa Yurlin, all in person.
Yurlin walked down the wooden steps onto the bare dry muddy path, walking directly towards Hiccup with the biggest smile a man could've possibly had. Hiccup nodded as a sort of greeting towards Yurlin, and he kept his position carefully. Hiccup for his part returned a much smaller smile, and the contrast in their attires couldn't be more different. Yurlin was clothed up like a military leader with his over the top spiky helmet, his leather coat, and his inner chain attire and olive green trousers made of some sort of hide.
Hiccup on the other hand looked much more approachable with his typical brown tunic and black leather vest, with the usual three buckles on the front.
Yurlin reached his hand out to Hiccup as everyone around them watched on. Hiccup returned the gesture as the two men shook hands, officially meeting one another for the first time. Yurlin placed his other hand on the top of their two shaking hands, as he couldn't hide his delighted smile.
"I have dreamed of this moment for so long. The son of Stoick the Vast?" asked Yurlin.
Hiccup nodded, "Hiccup Haddock, that is correct."
Yurlin continued holding his other hand upon Hiccup's hand that he was already shaking.
"Meeting you is the biggest dream I have ever fulfilled, much bigger than coming to power. I greet you onto my island with my warmest gratitude, Chieftan."