CHAPTER 40: Stunned
As Hiccup was away for the rest of the day in uncharted territory over on Ancient Island, apprehension had naturally grown within his friends and family back at New Berk. They knew Hiccup wasn't at any risk per say, but they were apprehensive about him not being on the island. They knew this was something he had to do, but they were still apprehensive nonetheless without his persence. Valka, Astrid and Zephyr with Nuffink were all particularly apprehensive.
"How do you think it'll be going for him?" Astrid asked, with her and Valka sat inside the hut.
Zephyr and Nuffink were also in the hut, but the two of them were playing out near the front of the hut. They were looking to mimic the drawings in the ground with sticks like Toothless did when he first met Hiccup. Hiccup had told the two kids about the Night Fury doing that, and ever since he did, they were obsessed with copying it. And plus, it'd help them distract their minds from worrying about their dad.
It was also funny in a way to them that a dragon was able to do that, which made them want to imitate it even more. They were trying to draw Toothless in the dry mud with their sticks. They weren't having too much luck, but they were trying their best. Not least because they were also joined by the 'gang'.
Fishlegs, Ruff & Tuffnut, Eret, Snotlout, Gobber and a couple of other Hooligans as they studied their attempts at the drawings. It was like they were all teenagers again with wanting to draw.
Dagur, Heather, Atali and Alvin were all in their own separate places on the island, still remaining put on New Berk for the duration of time that Hiccup was on Ancient Island in talks with Alfa Yurlin, eagerly awaiting to hear the outcome of such talks.
"I think he'll be doing alright, Astrid, I really do."
"I know these past few days he hasn't been feeling himself. He genuinely does miss the dragons, it's been about a hundred times now that he's mentioned them. He has sleepless nights on a lot of occasions, you know? it's not nice to see."
Valka completely empathized with the words of Astrid. The thought of her son having sleepless nights because he was missing his best friend in Toothless was a thought that made her upset too.
"I never want him to be upset. Especially after what we went through with Drago and what he did to his father. I think he's doing the right thing in pursuing these talks, though."
"Do you...ever miss Cloudjumper?" Astrid asked, the question catching Valka completely by surprise.
"Of course, Astrid. I miss him every day. I think what Hiccup needs to learn more than anything is that no matter what, our dragons are going to be happy for us. They'll want the best for our tribe, and we saw that when Toothless and the Light Fury came back that day after our latest Snoggletog, after the pageant, for a reunion of sorts. They're always thinking about us."
"This is what I've been trying to hammer home to him, but he still misses him. I miss Stormfly, but I know she's safe and sound in The Hidden World. This Yurlin situation isn't helping."
"Odin only wonders what this would be like if Stoick was still around."
"We certainly would've remained put on our old island, I think anyways?" Astrid said.
"He'd always made a big deal out of that island being our home of seven generations. But as someone who simply...abandoned you guys for 20 years, all for the sake of living in a dragon sanctuary, I can't realistically comment on that either way."
"No Valka, you didn't abandon us. You just got into a bad situation that night which led to you being taken away. Nobody, not me, not Hiccup, and especially not Stoick held that against you."
This discussion they were having was enough to take the apprehension of Hiccup's progress on Ancient Island away from their heads.
"I know Astrid, I know, and I appreciate that completely. I just don't know if I can ever shake that thought off. I mean...in the end, I got Cloudjumper from it, but at what cost? seeing my little boy grow up into the man he's become today. I missed 20 years of his growing up."
Astrid looked Valka in the eye, she didn't want her feeling that way about her past at all.
"He's got you, in a world where he doesn't have Stoick. You're a great mother to him, and look at how he's turned out as a result. I don't know why or how I decided to treat him the way I did when we were all teenagers, he was the laughing stock of the tribe on the old island prior to Toothless...it was pretty selfish on all of our parts."
"You do stuff like that though when you're kids, don't you? it happens. I just hope it's common knowledge now that I never wanted it to be that way...to have abandoned my family like that. Not Stoick, not Hiccup, anyone. I appreciate your words, Astrid, I really do - you're great for Hiccup too, you're bringing up a lovely family with him."
"THAT'S NOT HOW YOU DRAW A DRAGON!" yelled someone from outside the hut.
"Oh god, what's going on out there?" Astrid asked, getting up off her chair.
Opening the door, she was completely bemused to see Snotlout critiquing Zephyr's attempt at drawing Toothless in the ground. It actually looked really good. Valka followed Astrid from inside the hut, and standing around like a semi-gathering was the rest of the gang.
"Mum, remind Snotlout whose dragon bullied them the most?" Zephyr asked.
Astrid could only laugh.
"Snotlout, how is it that our kids know that Hookfang threw you around like a play toy?" she chuckled, jokingly.
"Oh HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, very funny, Astrid junior!" Snotlout replied to Zephyr, "you can say all of this as much as you want, but until you can complete and win a Thawfest, come back to me!"
Zephyr looked at her mum.
"And your dad lost to me EVERY SINGLE TIME!"
"Except for the games that included our dragons, Snotlout?" Fishlegs pointed out.
"OOFT, you've just been zapped, you got OWNED!" laughed Ruffnut.
"He needed Toothless to beat me, but before all of that, I bested him at every single Thawfest we did. And I'd best him again if we ever brought those games back!"
As Snotlout and Zephyr both argued at each other like little kids, Fishlegs unexpectedly walked over to Astrid and Valka standing near the hut door. Fishlegs didn't have much to say recently, but he was extremely anxious.
"When's Hiccup gonna be back?" he asked, his long mustache making him look about ten years older.
Fishlegs still had a helmet that was a significant mismatch to his actual head size. He stood out from the rest of the Berkians, every single time.
"I don't know, to be honest Fishlegs."
"I know, I know...I haven't really spoken much to him, I've just been thinking about Meatlug...especially after Stormfly and uh...Toothless came back for a ride with you and Hiccup after our previous Snoggletog. But I really hope Hiccup comes back okay."
"He'll be fine, Fishlegs, it's Hiccup we're talking about after all," said Valka.
"I loved playing Stoick in the pageant, and it made me go back in time...you know when you sleepwalk and you have a dream about the past, about a time when we were all younger? I swear I sleepwalked one night out into the forest whilst dreaming about being back on our old island. I somehow ended up on a spiny batch of nettles when I woke up."
"What?! you actually did a sleepwalk, when was this Fishlegs?" Astrid asked, chuckling about it.
"My memory struggles to remember that. But to be honest Astrid, the pageant we held for Snoggletog this time around took me back to the first one we had with the dragons...that one night when they all came back, do you remember when you all caught me keeping Meatlug?"
"I think we all remember that, Fishlegs. It was only when you saw the eggs that day that you realized she was actually a girl, not a boy!"
Valka listening to all of this further made her realize how much she'd missed back at home whilst remaining under Cloudjumper's care at the Bewilderbeast's mountain. She didn't want to show her guilt through her expressions though, whilst such a positive, memory-recalling conversation was going on between Fishlegs and Astrid.
"Good times, good times. I only did what I did to Meatlug because I was worried, you know?"
"We know, Fishlegs. I think at the time we were all uncertain about it because we had no idea the dragons would migrate to have babies."
"And ironically enough, uh, haha, I've just had a thought - the same way our dragons came back that night at the time, it'll be the same feeling when Hiccup comes back from these talks later on. I really do appreciate Hiccup for all he's done, and one day hopefully we can celebrate again with our dragons fully!"
"We all do, Fishlegs. We're all one big family really, we all had great memories as teenagers with Stoick at the helm," Astrid said.
Eret walked up to the three of them, and joined Fishlegs by his side. He looked at Astrid and Valka.
"How're you feeling, Eret?" Valka asked.
"I've just been staying quiet, I suppose. I didn't want to be too sensitive, maybe I was being too gloomy about it hence why Hiccup's reacted the way he did in the past to my warnings about Yurlin."
"It's just a heightened situation, we're all gonna feel a bit more on the edge. How do you think we all felt when you told us about Grimmel, when we discovered his little 'handy work' on our old island ten years ago?" Astrid asked him.
"Oh blimey, I remember that much. That was a crazy point in time. But it was for the right reason. I fully respect the fact that I've probably given my opinion on Yurlin too many times, which has probably made Hiccup all the more apprehensive."
"Oh Eret, you've done enough for these vikings already, don't be too hard on yourself. Of course there's probably a time and a place for everything, but don't ever think you owe us any debt or anything. You've long played your part in keeping this tribe going on safe grounds, especially with Drago and Grimmel," Valka said.
"Thanks for that. I just...I just feel like a storm is coming, you know? I don't like the feeling of it."
"What do you honestly think will happen? we're not gonna criticize your opinion, just tell us openly what you think of the whole Yurlin situation?" Astrid said, curious as to what Eret had in mind - his opinion was a valuable one given he dealt with the likes of Grimmel and Drago in the past.
"As a summary? Alfa Yurlin is a snake who portrays himself as the savior of vikings from the likes of Drago, except he only uses that claim to push forward his own plans of conquest. A huge viking empire covering the whole archipelago, all of those islands unified as one big block, all under the Ancient Tribe, where freedoms are curbed and vikings are forced back into a barbaric era, the sort of era that was only seen well beyond seven generations ago."
"You really think so?" Astrid asked, making sure Zephyr and Nuffink weren't around so they didn't hear Eret just now, for fear of them once again getting apprehensive.
"I do. From the moment I met him with Gobber by my side, I just knew this viking wasn't right. He strikes me as even more dubious than either Drago or Grimmel. My personal prediction is that he'll promise to stop with his land grabbing tactics like he's done with the Northern Markets, our old island, and now potentially Dragon Island with the Wingmaiden settlement, and some point down the line he'll break his word and the cycle will repeat, until we're helplessly next to come under his subjugation. I'm just going by this based on my experience within Drago's ranks. I know liars when I see them, and I genuinely think Yurlin is much more dangerous with much bigger ambitions than even Drago himself. He's also obsessed with the unvikings theory which I reckon will lead to a slaughtering of innocent vikings, something we cannot let happen."
Astrid and Valka were astonished. Hearing Eret, with his experience and past, claim all of this about Yurlin, was akin to an eye-opener. Fishlegs had also listened to everything Eret had to say just now.
"When Hiccup gets back, we'll see what the situation is. I do think it'll possibly help Hiccup to have you voice that opinion of yours to him, Eret," Valka said.
"I have done, but the reaction he had last time when I gave it, he got stressed out and as a result I felt bad, so I promised him that I wouldn't ever get involved in a discussion involving Yurlin and the crisis at hand. But I still believe everything I just said about Yurlin."
"No matter what, Eret, your opinion is always valuable to have considering the circumstances. Keep doing what you're doing if you think it'll help Hiccup in getting through this - neither me nor Valka will ever slate you for having that opinion, as much as we want to believe that this isn't as deep as that."
Eret nodded, as did Fishlegs, astonished at hearing what Eret had to say just now.
It had been a good few hours since Hiccup concluded his first initial talks with Yurlin, where he got the Ancient leader to agree to a delay to his impending attack on Dragon Island and its Wingmaiden settlement, giving them a week to evacuate. He'd just gone on an island tour across Ancient Island, guided by a bunch of Ancient council vikings. He was shortly set to depart Ancient Island back on the boat home.
He was brought back inside Yurlin's hut where the Ancient Chieftan remained sat for the past hour or so, with his two top vikings next to him, in Herrick Herald and Krimm Hiss. The two of them had previously shook Hiccup's hand after the conclusion of his first meeting between himself and Yurlin.
This was to be the second and final meeting, and a much shorter one, at most 10 minutes long, before he sailed back home to New Berk.
"Did you like our island, Chief?" asked Herrick Herald, grabbing one of the other wooden chairs around the rounded table.
"I uh, yeah. I think you guys have a great infrastructure going on, it definitely feels like I was back in time, in a good way!"
Yurlin looked up from the table towards Hiccup, as the Ancient Chieftan stood up from his chair. Krimm Hiss subsequently sat down in Yurlin's chair. Hiccup stood back up and the two men walked up to each other to shake hands.
"Hiccup Haddock," Yurlin said, as he shook hands with him, "can I just clarify one thing?"
"Uh-huh?"
The hand shaking stopped, as Hiccup held his two palms together behind his lower back subsequently.
"Do I understand that you have given me permission for the transfer of Dragon Island, from the Wingmaidens, to the Ancient Tribe?"
"Yes. When I return home I'll have to inform Atali and the other Chieftans, but yes, that's what we've agreed. The Wingmaidens will have to evacuate the island before anything happens."
"I'm sorry Chief," Yurlin stunningly said, "that won't do anymore. This is a worthless solution to me."
Hiccup's face dropped like a rock, his heart felt like it stopped beating. He was utterly stunned.