"Okay, gang! Stay with your teammate and lock down your specific island. This dragon hunter is sneaky." He ordered, looking at each Rider. They'd practiced this over what felt like a thousand times and really, the only person who didn't look tired of hearing about the Plan was Astrid. Maybe Heather but she was in the back so it wasn't like Hiccup could really see her.
"He comes in, transfers his cargo, and slips out under the cover of darkness. Very mysterious," speaking of Heather, Fishlegs briefed her on the details of their target. She'd been out getting supplies at the Northern Markets before this as well as medicine for Jack who was stuck back at the Edge.
Hiccup was almost proud of him for not trying escape sooner. Though it was safe to say he wasn't quite compliant all the time, especially with the way flying was prohibited for at least another day or two.
If he could keep sane that long.
"Very boring. Can we get to it?" Snotlout snapped, and proceeded to fly off without a yes or no from anybody. Without any incentive to stop him, the others including Hiccup decided to take that as their cue to fly in closer. "So, I need you to put in a good word for me, Hiccup," Snotlout said, as Hiccup caught up to him.
"What? With who, Astrid?" He asked, barely dodging the instinctual urge to roll his eyes. Back when they were kids, if it wasn't insults, it was, Astrid this, Astrid that. Back then he thought Snotlout was creepy, now he just thought Snotlout was an idiot.
"Please. I'm so over Astrid. You can have her."
Oh. That was not what Hiccup was expecting, "Wow, thanks, I appreciate that," he sneered.
"Anytime, I'mma giver–listen, I know Heather's beendyingto approach me but her fear's got her… 'scurred'," was what he got in do I hope anymore?
"Yeah, I-I don't think Heather gets'scurred,'Snotlout. Besides, I'm not sure you're ready for a woman like Heather. She's far too, uh… sincere, honest, brave," he told him, listing the traits he named on his hand. It was true too, Heather would never accept a confession from Snotlout, she was too...
"I can fake honesty, I can fake sincerity, I can fake all those things."
That was the word he was looking for, "Oh, yeah, and by the way, she's smart, too," he finished, making sure to fly ahead of Snotlout before he could open his mouth again.
It was about five seconds before the first explosion, which, in hindsight, should have been an achievement at this point.
Hiccup was halfway across the island making sure the Hunters didn't lay any extra help that they didn't know about so it's not like he saw exactly what happened. What hedidsee was Stormfly's distress signal burst into a million different shades of yellow above him, interrupting Snotlout's fifth rant about Astrid and Heather.
What happened next was a flurry of pure panic and confusion. One moment the egg was apparently on the ship, the next it was soaring through theair.
What?
Hiccup could question that later, he needed to get the egg first. This task, which should have been relatively easy, consisted of the twins and Snotlout smacking into each other in an attempt to catch the egg– they missed by a lot so it's not like any of them would've actually caught it anyway –Fishlegs and Meatlug batting the extremelyfragileegg with the end of Meatlug's tail, Astrid batting the egg away with Stormfly's wing, and Heather missing the egg by a couple inches, finally, it was suspended over the edge of a cliff about to fall into the water.
Although Hiccup was already there to catch it. "Well, that was fun. Hey, I've got an idea, how about we get this back to the Edge,safely."
"It's definitely not a Changewing," he said, brows furrowed and flipping through the pages of a book quite literally the size of his torso. "Thank Thor," Fishlegs sighed, "and it's not the type of any of our dragons," Hiccup finished, rather confused. If it wasn't in their notes, then what was it?
"Can you imagine Meatlug with her very own egg?" fishlegs practically squealed, turning to hug his dragon near the doorway, "It would be so cute!"
"I don't think it's in here, Fishlegs," Hiccup told him, skimming the pages again. It was night when they got back, they'd spent a few hours looking through pretty much everything before they decided to get some actual sleep and look through it again with fresh eyes. Aka, the morning.
What good that did them. It was mid-day.
"Well, someone certainly has their own ideas on what it is," Tuffnut cut in. Chicken cooed before jumping onto the egg, "look who's feeling motherly! Aren't you, little chicken? Give me a kiss–Ow!Easy, pal, I'm on your side," he continued, rubbing his finger where Chicken had bit him.
"If you're gonna hatch that egg, I think you're gonna need a little bit more power than that, Chicken. But it was a nice try," Fishlegs chuckled as he came up to stand next to Hiccup. Tuffnut encouraged Chicken anyway, clucking and cooing at her.
Moving on from that, he decided, turning away to further discuss what this dragon could possibly be when they heard a loud–
CRACK
The egg… was hatching, "Tuffnut!" He scolded, whipping around, "why didn't you say something?" Fishlegs agreed.
Tuffnut just gave them a blank look, "Really?"
They walked over and Hiccup felt a slight excitement pool into him. He wondered what it would look like, its markings, its colors. "Kind of makes you wonder what came first, the chicken, or the chicken–
Tuffnut screamed as the egg exploded. Hiccup covered his eyes for a moment hoping no stray shards would hit him in the face.
"What is that?" Fishlegs asked.
"It's familiar, but I can't place it," he responded, mulling over every dragon he'd seen in the past few years. It was colorful, painted in mostly oranges and yellows, and a splash of blue was added in for the ears. It did look familiar, painfully familiar yet he just couldn't place it.
Then it screamed. More like screeched if anything. Hiccup quite literally dropped the book in his hands to cover his ears. "I liked him better when he was inside," Fishlegs pointed out. At least that's what Hiccup thought he said. If he heard that right, he agreed. However, if this kept up Hiccup might never hear right again.
"Astrid can you please go torture Snotlout somewhere el–
He watched as Jack, who had his hands slammed over his ears as well, stop by the doorway and stare for a moment. "Hiccup?!"
"Yeah?!"
"What the'Fʌk'is that?!" He asked, the sound of his voice muffled by Hiccup's own hands. It screeched again, louder this time and Hiccup cringed away from it. He'd heard babies cry before. He usually wasn't one to be annoyed by the sound a baby crying but Gods could this thing cry.
"It's a dragon?" He half-shouted sheepishly.
"No kiding! Why is it screaming bloody murder and where did you get it?!"
"The Hunters! I thought I told you about that!" He responded as the hatchling cried again. "Can you two stop flirting and take that thing somewhere else?! Some of us are trying to sleep!" Shouted a new voice. Most likely Snotlout. "We aren't–
The dragon squealed again, causing everyone in the vicinity to duck down with their hands over their ears, "What?!" Snotlout asked.
"Never mind!"
• •
"Can someone please shut that thing up!?"
Jack actually agreed with Snotlout on this one, a phenomenon that he learned was a rare thing to happen. Though he was almost a hundred percent sure that the others would have to agree too. The poor dragon had been screamingall. Day.
Jack had been regularly running off to Hiccup's hut whenever his actual headache got just a little too painful. But even he'd been dragged out of bed to discuss what the Hell they were going to do with their literal banshee.
"Aww, it probably needs its mother. Poor thing, all by itself," Heather sympathized, and Jack found himself agreeing somewhat. Babies cry when they need something, the Riders just needed to figure out what exactly it needed considering its mother wasn't an option.
The screeching grinded on Jack's eardrums and all he could do was grit his teeth and pray. That's all anyone knew to do really. Though it seemed Tuffnut had learned to just block it out.
"I got it!" Tuffnut shouted above the cries. Jack wished he could block it out like him but he could barely think as it was. "What! What is it?" Hiccup asked, sounding comically hopeful. "Garffiljorg," Tuffnut answered.
"What?"What?Jack had the urge to uncover his ears to hear better and quickly slammed them back when the dragon's next scream had his brain trying to implode on itself.
"Its name," he clarified, and Hiccup's shoulders dropped, "Who cares what we call it?! Not like it's listening to us anyway!" Ruffnut yelled from the corner, "Chicken cares. I mean, it did come out of her."
"Tuffnut, she didn't actually…" Hiccup trailed off once he saw Tuffnut's glare, "N-never mind."
They decided to move the dragon to the stables. "How are the dragons gonna sleep with this little guy in here?" Fishlegs asked, looking worried. Meanwhile Jack was starting to wonder how its lungs fit into its body.
"It's them or us, Fishface. But, please, feel free to babysit that thing if you want to," Snotlout yelled, stomping off towards the door. Yeah, Jack was sneaking out later to let Arti do her own thing, there was no way he was subjecting her to this. Or the dragons… Or the Riders. She was grumpy enough already. On second thought, she might just kill it.
"Maybe I should stay with it?" Heather suggested and lo and behold, Snotlout came running back with, "that's exactly what I was thinking. Oh, we're like two yaks in a stall, you and me."
"Pease, for the love of God do not make me fall asleep with that image," He groaned while Astrid agreed with a sound of disgust.
"Look, i-if we shut these doors, plug our ears, and sleep under our beds, we just might be able to catch a few winks," Hiccup suggested, stepping forward only to be interrupted by a particularly loud screech from the baby dragon. Jack found himself wishing he could turn his eardrums into a concrete wall, "yeah, okay, let's just get out of here before our heads explode," he finished, throwing his hands up in defeat. Jack was quick to follow.
Then, halfway out the door, the crying stopped. In fact Jack almost started crying because of it. "Oh! he stopped cry– He stopped crying…" Hiccup said, finally able to stop yelling.
"That's because Chicken sang to him. Didn't you hear that?" Tuffnut chuckled, "oh, the pipes on that chicken," he finished wistfully. Then he screamed. But maybe every slightly louder noise that came out of someone's mouth was starting to sound like screaming to him.
Chicken had been covered in an amber looking substance spat out by the baby dragon who conveniently started squealing again just in joy and amusement this time. "Bad dragon!" Tuffnut shouted before getting a good look at his pet, "um, does this look familiar to anyone but me? Impenetrable amber cocoon, vicious hungry dragon, terrified Vikings?"
"It's a baby Deathsong, Tuffnut. Believe me, we know," Fishlegs said before continuing to walk out. Jack followed hearing an exasperated, "oh, that's just perfect," from Snotlout.
• •
Hiccup flinched back just in time to avoid slicing Chicken's head off… again. Thank Thor for his fast reflexes. He huffed, "Tuffnut, could you please help me out?" He called to his friend who was pacing like a father outside of a pregnancy ward. "And do what?!" He sobbed.
"Calm your chicken! It's not doing any of us any good to have the entire Edge freaking out," maybe it was an exaggeration but by the way Tuffnut rushed over to do as he was told only to break down in heartbroken wails told Hiccup that it was pretty much been warranted.
"You know, that'd go much easier if you had some Monstrous Nightmare gel. Plus, you could get yourself somerotisseriechicken while you're at it," Snotlout digged from behind them and Hiccup could only watch in exasperated apathy as Tuffnut lunged at him tackling Snotlout to the ground and cutting off his, "that sounds good."
After some scuffling hey both stood up, Snotlout in a headlock and Tuffnut screaming demands Hiccup couldn't understand. Hiccup honestly wondered why Snotlout even tried to sell his dragon's Monstrous Nightmare Gel to him. Hookfang let him take some whenever he wanted without any complaint.
"Actually, Tuff, Snotlout may be onto something," he said, suddenly standing up as if someone gave him an on switch and took the dagger with him, "Oh, sure, what's next, roasted Toothless?!" Tuffnut asked in hysterics as Hiccup walked over to Hookfang, "Just stay with me here," he told them, smearing some Gel onto the dagger before walking over to Barf and Belch, "remember when we were at Melody Island?" He asked, holding up the dagger so the dragon could light it.
"Don't do it, Hiccup! You'll singe her little feathers. And that's all she has in the whole wide world. Except me, of course. Feathers and me!" Tuffnut cried as Hiccup ignored him and walked over to Chicken with a lit dagger in his hand.
He'd made a sword with a similar idea but apart from the one time at the Northern Markets. Hiccup had never got it to stay lit for an indefinite amount of time until he himself turned it off. It always went out after about three to five minutes if at all. Using Monstrous Nightmare Gel would probably get him what he wanted. He'd build it later.
"I'm just doing enough to get it started. I won't go deep enough to get remotely close to Chicken," he reassured him. Thankfully, she didn't flinch too much this time, she seemed too scared to move lest the flames singe her feathers as Tuffnut had pointed out.
"See?" He asked, turning to show Tuffnut his work, "now, Toothless?" He cued. In response his dragon raised a claw to the cocoon before slicing it all to pieces. Chicken, fainted.
"Chicken is free!" His friend cheered, throwing Hiccup to thegroundand swinging his chicken around in celebration. That is, until the baby Death Song appeared in the doorway carried by Heather who was flanked by Astrid, Fishlegs, and surprisingly, Jack.
Hiccup didn't think Jack would be out so early in the morning, usually he'd sleep all day and only leave to send updates to his mysterious… mentor? He was up surprisingly early yesterday as he's feeling better.
"You!" Tuffnut growled, "we need to remove Garffiljorg from this island, immediately!" He shouted, shaking his fist in Hiccup's face.
"Okay, Tuff, don't you think you're overreacting?" He asked, holding his hands don't throw me to the ground begged in his mind, only sort of joking. Tuffnut did neither, instead he threw Chicken into the air, contradicting his earlier worry for her health, and leaving Hiccup to catch her. "Nonsense!" He shouted and proceeded to stomp away.
Hiccup hesitantly set Chicken down and watched as she ran after him. "It is getting difficult to handle this guy, Hiccup. You gotta admit," Astrid told him, shouting to be heard over the screeching, "she's right, Hiccup, I mean, he just went afterChicken. How long before he goes after us?" Fishlegs questioned.
"He's gots to go! Back to Melody Island with you!" Snotlout shouted from the opposite end of the room. Hiccup ran to block him when he started walking forward to grab Garfiljorg who was still screaming at the top of their lungs, "Snotlout, did you forget how the Death Song tried to eat all of us and our dragons?" He reminded him.
"Well, Ihad, until you just brought it up. Thank-you-for-that." He answered.
"Oh, no,no, it is too dangerous to go back," Astrid agreed.
"And we don't even know if a baby dragon can bond with a dragon that's not its parent," Fishlegs added.
"I'm sorry, this thing is a cannibal?" Jack backtracked, pointing to the screaming baby dragon. "Well then I've been feeding it wrong, let me go get some Terrible Terrors," he sneered when nobody responded, "Okay– guys, heneedsto go home," Jack finished and something about the use of "home" put things into perspective. Heather seemed to follow a similar train of thought.
"You guys, he's too young to know right from wrong. He's just following his instincts. I know what it's like to be all alone in the world. We can't just shun him," she announced, her voice strong.
"I mean... Wouldn't it be better if it had a mother? Something other than the humans that can't actually feed it correctly and would rather leave it to the wolves?" Jack agreed, pushing his point further. Sure, maybe the dragon wasn't even born yet when the Hunters took it but the Riders just couldn't afford the resources to keep the baby alive.
"Guys they're both right. We have trained everything from a Night Fury to a Night Terror. We cancertainlytrain him not to eat us. Right? We can go back to Melody Island, I just need time to figure out a way to do that without putting us or our dragons at risk of certain death," he assured them. The statement/request was met withmostlyagreements and optimism. Tuffnut and Snotlout however?
"Speak for yourselves," Tuffnut said shortly, holding Chicken in his arms and eyeing the Death Song suspiciously. Said Death Song then let out one of its notorious louder screams, "and what about that? Doesanyoneelse,notnamed Hiccup, have an idea before I take a running leap off the top of the Edge!?" Snotlout screamed.
"Nobody say a word."
"Funny, Astrid. By the way, I'm over you, in case you haven't heard. And I'm just being honest with you, because I'm nothing if not honest. Did you hear that, Heather?" During Snoutlout's rant, Heather had started to hum some sort of melody, no pun intended.
"The sky is dark,
And the hills are white,
As the Storm King Speeds from the north tonight,
And this is the song,
The Storm King sings,
As over the world his cloak he flings,
Sleep, sleep, little one, sleep,
He rustles his wings,
And gruffly sings,
Sleep, little one, sleep."
The Death Song was purring by the time she was done. The Death Song was sleeping. Which meant silence. Finally.
"That was… That was just beautiful, Heather," Fishlegs whispered, stepping closer to her. "'That was just beautiful, Heather'," Snotlout mocked, kissing his fingers. Meanwhile Astrid groaned, "Ugh! Thank Thor something worked."
"Well, would you look at that, Garff wasn't the only one it worked on," Fishlegs gestured to the twins and their dragon snoring asleep on the ground. "It makes perfect sense. The Death Song sings to its prey to draw them in. That might be the primary way it communicates," Hiccup concluded, walking over to Heather to peer at the now sleeping dragon.
"And it might help us train it," she added, to which Hiccup told her it was interesting. Then Snotlout covered his, "Yak dung!" With a poorly faked cough. Of course the Death Song woke up and started screaming… again. Due to his close proximity, Hiccup was forced to slam his palms over his ears again and he found himself wondering how in the world Heather carried that dragon around all. Day.
"Well, you better keep singing then!" Snotlout told them.
"You mean, 'we'," Hiccup raised an eyebrow.
"I do?"
"Oh, yes, you do!" Heather confirmed.
"Oh, yes, of course, I do."
• •
Hiccup was never a good singer. Like, at all. People like Heather who could open their mouths and suddenly Valhalla was singing impressed him to no end. He still tried… And failed.
He sang about the literal only thing he could think of, which was how he met Toothless, but he ended up with his leg encased in amber. At least it was the metal one. Talk about symbolism. Considering he kind of needed his leg to walk he handed the responsibility off to Fishlegs.
He found Jack walking towards his hut as well, coming from the opposite direction. "Oh hey," he greeted before noticing Hiccup's leg and the fact he was leaning on Toothless. "At least you don't look like Meatlug," Jack shrugged, opening the door for him. Hiccup raised an eyebrow at that, "and what does Meatlug look like?"
"Pissed. But I think Fishlegs ended up handing the dragon to Snotlout, so I can only imagine what he looks like right now," Jack told him. It was probably the longest sentence Jack had said to him in a long while. Hiccup hummed as he grabbed a knife and some Nightmare Gel. He had Toothless light the blade before cutting around his prosthetic, "Actually, I've heard Snotlout sing before and he's surprisingly good at it. Better than me at least."
Jack stayed silent as Hiccup finally got enough amber chips onto the floor to call it a day. He stood up to see what his relatively new roommate was doing when he swore his heart leapt into his throat. "Ah! Sorry! I- uh, I forgot to– put those away!" He pretty much sprinted across the room, fumbling to cover up the drawings he left on his desk. He cringed internally, Why would you leave them there?! His mind screamed, but Jack seemed amused, not angry or creeped out. Which was weird. Wait, is he teasing me?
"You're good at drawing."
Hiccup .
"Uhm… Th-thank you…" Hiccup couldn't see why or how Jack didn't think Hiccup's borderline obsessive drawing of him wasn't creepy, but he'd take what he could get. The others were never interested in his drawings. Not even Fishlegs. Which made sense, why would they be? Fishlegs was more book knowledge based and the others were so self explanatory it was almost painful. Jack had looked at them for a while too…
He took a leap. "Do you… do you want to see them?" he tried, probably looking more nervous than when he faced the Red Death. But to be fair. The adrenaline was so high Hiccup didn't feel much at all facing the Red Death. Even afterwards, it took a full week for the shock to wear off and for Hiccup to actually register, I lost a body part in that battle. To which he then got very confused as to why he was only thinking about it then and not, say… when he lost his leg. The entire ordeal felt like an out-of-body experience.
"Sure," Jack said, looking excited. The excitement was muted but it was there and Hiccup found himself more than happy to share his hobby with him. This definitely did not feel like an out of body experience. Hiccup was now hyper aware of the placement of his hands, the way he was standing, his facial expressions. Why? He didn't know for sure, but he was ready to just chock it up to nerves. Jack was a pretty new person anyway.
"I haven't looked in a mirror so long I think I forgot what I actually looked like," the statement was meant to be a joke based on the hidden laugh in Jack's words and the smile on his face but Hiccup could sense there might be some truth to that. It made him a little sad to think about. "Is that what you're working on?"
Hiccup looked to where Jack was pointing. It was a drawing of the new sword he wanted to build, or– well, a concept drawing anyway. "Yeah, it's what's going to save us when we go to Melody Island," he explained.
"I thought you already had a fire sword," Jack recalled.
"Yeah, but I used different materials for that one and it'd go out too easily. This time I'm using Monstrous Nightmare Gel, which should last a lot longer," Hiccup explained, remembering that he should probably start on that if he wanted to stay in the Rider's good graces.
But then Jack picked up a drawing of a dragon Hiccup had buried under some other thing he forgot existed. It was a sketch of a Flightmare. "I haven't seen one of these yet. Not up close," Jack told him, just admiring the picture. "They usually appear along with the Northern Lights because something about it illuminates the river that holds all the algae they eat," he explained.
The dragon was pretty hard to draw because of the lighting, shadows were weird sometimes."'əˈrɔrə ˌbɔriˈæləs',"Jack murmured, setting the drawing down. "Huh?"
Jack smiled at him, "sorry,'ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ'stuff," he said, waving him off. "What does it mean?" He asked anyway. Hiccup leaned further over the desk, resting his elbows on the wood. "I'm finally taller than you," Jack commented, looking down at him and for that, Hiccup swatted at him, "will you answer the question?" Jack sat down chuckling before taking a breath,"'əˈrɔrə ˌbɔriˈæləs'is another term for the'ˈnɔrðərn laɪts',which means... the- Northern Lights."
"That's… a little confusing," Hiccup told him and Jack smirked, "sure," he nodded but based on the glint in his eyes Hiccup knew there was probably a thousand words and rules Jack could think of that would confuse the Hel out of him. Jack smirked like he knew that already,"'jʊr ˈbɪldɪŋ ə laɪt ˈseɪbər,'"he murmured staring at the concept drawing of the sword Hiccup was planning to make, "...what?"
Jack snapped his gaze toward Hiccup like he'd momentarily forgotten Hiccup was there, "nothing," He responded, then smiled and shook his head.
Later that night he found himself pouring Nightmare Gel into a tiny hole at the base of the sword. Like the other one, it wasn't going to be used for combat but at least he could melt the amber on Melody Island now. With any luck the Death Song will still be in its cave.
"Youwere the ones who trapped it in that'dæm'hole?!"
Hiccup winced. Okay, maybe not the best thing to wish for… Who was he kidding? He was lazy with the Skrill and he was lazy with the Death Song too. Hiccup pressed down on the handle–
"Ow! Wha–?
Jack stepped past him and sat on the bed, a book in his hand– the one he just hit him over the head with –and started straight into Hiccup's eyes, "ah yes. Put ypur unprotected hand on the flaming fire sword," It was his fake cheery-ness that led to Hiccup finally registering that his hand was indeed holding the blade up like he was still fifteen and unable to hold up a sword without using both hands.
He removed his hand and tried again. Sadly the only thing he was greeted with was the welcoming click of a button without fire. He hummed, "Well, that was supposed to work."
"Hiccup!" The shout was immediately followed by furious complaints and grievances, as well as the screaming of the baby Death Song. "Well, that paints a pretty vivid image," Jack retorted from his side of the room. Hiccup stood up and opened the door to every one of the Riders and their dragons covered in amber, all with the exception of Heather who was holding the Death Song.
"This is officially out of hand! We cannot go on like this!" Astrid shouted, getting off of an amber covered Stormfly. "But we can't abandon him. We just can't! I'd never forgive myself!" Heather argued. That was met with even more and louder arguments from the people around them. Pointing to their new found amber appendages.
"We won't abandon him," Hiccup told the others, Jack joining at his side on the doorway, "we'll take him to be with his own kind." He continued, pressing the ignition button. Turns out the first trial was just a chance outcome because the blade immediately lit up with flames that danced and licked at his hand.
"Are you saying what I think you're saying?" Astrid asked over the screams and cries of the dragon, "Yes, we're going to Melody Island to find that Death Song."
• •
"No you're not."
"What do you mean, 'no you're not'?"
"I mean no. You're not coming with us Jack." Hiccup was trying almost desperately to get Jack to stay on Dragon's Edge while he and the Riders went to Melody Island, "you're still recovering from getting shot."
"That wound is long healed, you know that," Jack argued, watching Hiccup rush around the room looking for that one tail fin that Toothless probably hid under his bed… again. "The wound maybe, but I remember there being poison involved," Hiccup reminded him, finally checking under the bed, "that poison is long gone. If I was going to die, I would know."
"It's not like the poisons the only thing that's going to kill you," he heard Hiccup mutter, straining his body to reach. "Hey!" Hiccup finally got the tailfin out from under the bed, blowing on it to dislodge any dust, "I'm not joking Jack. What if you end up falling off your dragon or–
"Artemis wouldn't let that happen," he saw Hiccup open his mouth to respond but Jack continued, "Hiccup, I want to know if I'm fully recovered as much as you do because I'm planning on leaving in three days."
They paused for a moment. Jack had made the decision a while ago. He wanted to choose a time that didn't make him seem rushed but was also the soonest possible moment. Jack swore he liked the Riders, yet he knew he could fool anybody with the way he was acting. He knew Hiccup couldn't stop him either, he could leave whenever he wanted.
"I'll stay out of the way, I promise," he tacked on when the silence continued to stretch.
Finally, Hiccup sighed, running a hand through his hair before trailing it down his face, "alright fine. But please, really, stay out of danger," Jack couldn't hide the smirk on his face if he tried, which he didn't; he let Hiccup see his smug satisfaction. It ended up paying off because Hiccup ended up cracking a gentle smile in the face of Jack's sharp one.
• •
"Hey, genius, have you thought of the fact that the Death Song mind-melts our dragons?" Hiccup suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, "actually, I have," he responded.
"Good, good, good, good, good, good. So do you have a plan for that, or are we just gonna wing it?" Snotlout continued as Hiccup placed some moss into Tuffnut's hand. He was pretty sure Tuffnut didn't even register that there was something in said hand, "pun intended. Get it? You said 'wing it'. You know, and dragons have–
"We get it, Tuff," Astrid interrupted.
"We're gonna handle that, Snotlout, by using these," Hiccup explained, handing Fishlegs the moss ear plugs as well, "moss ear plugs! Awesome!" Fishlegs exclaimed, allowing his dragon to sniff them, "right? I custom-made them for each dragon to keep out the Death Song's call," he explained, now handing a pair to Astrid.
"Great. As if this guy needs another reason to not listen," Snotlout grumbled, getting a hit to the head from his dragon for the comment. "You didn't happen to make any for us, did you?" Astrid asked quietly. Snotlout still heard her, however, "very funny, Astrid. You should take that comedy routine on the road," Snotlout shouted, laughing sarcastically.
"Maybe I will," she told him as if accepting a challenge before flying away on Stormfly to go join Heather. She happened to be busy pacifying the baby Death Song and had already received the earplugs. "'Maybe I will'. Except you shouldn't because it's completely contextual!" Snotlout shouted after her.
Hiccup handed the remaining earplugs to Jack, who smiled at him before inserting them into a very annoyed looking Artemis. "So… do you… do you like the plan?" he asked, for some reason needing to hear Jack's opinion specifically. The foreigner looked at him puzzled for a moment, "I think it's genius. Better than whatever I would've come up with," he told him. Despite the casual and probably obvious answer, Jack's praise felt… nice.
• •
They flew at a fast pace. Artemis just followed the pack next to Hiccup. Probably because Toothless seemed like the only dragon amongst the group that Artemis was truly comfortable with. It made sense, they'd met a while ago and Toothless was a subspecies of the Light Fury.
From what Jack gathered Hiccup and Fishlegs were talking about Dragon-nip but Jack had zoned out the second they hit hour two of the flight. Which was impressive for him because usually he hit out by twenty to thirty minutes.
"How do you get a one-armed Jorgenson out of a tree?!" Astrid's shout from behind them was the only thing that broke him out of his running thoughts, "You wave to him!" She answered as the Riders started breaking out into laughter. Despite Jack not even registering the previous question all the way, he found himself chuckling all the same.
"How do you sink a Jorgenson battleship?! You put it in the water!" That time Jack laughed a little louder, "Do another one! Come on, more, one more," Fishlegs begged. "That's right, laugh, all of you," Snotlout rolled his eyes, mocking their laughter, "but don't come running to me when you're out of Nightmare gel!" Jack rolled his eyes, wondering if Astrid somehow knew Jack was out of it and chose the perfect time to snap him back into reality.
"All right, gang, the Death Song strike is very precise. Streamlined. So we need to spread out. That way, it can only go after one of us at a time," Hiccup explained just as they came upon the island.
Jack and Artemis dove down through the bank of fog, smiling as the familiar adrenaline from flying rushed over him. That, paired with the cold moisture from the water was efficient at finally waking him up. They flew for a bit before landing in a clear area devoid of fog, Fishlegs looking around in fear and shuffling nervously.
"Hey, how do you confuse a Jorgenson? Put him in a round arena and tell him to go to the corner," Astrid joked after a while. They were now waiting for Hiccup and Toothless to come back from searching inside the mountain. Hookfang laughed.
"It's not in there. That's good news for Garff," Hiccup called out, emerging from the mouth of the cave, "and bad news for us," Snotlout continued, looking grim. "All right, let's find this guy," Hiccup ordered, taking off on Toothless, probably knowing the others would follow. Something like anticipation stirred in Jack's gut.
• •
They flew high in the sky when the sounds finally reached the Riders ears; which also meant it was reaching the dragon's ears. "The ear plugs are working, Hiccup," Fishlegs cheered, when the dragons didn't seem to be affected, "great. Now let's get in closer. Everyone on high alert," he told them, flying lower to the ground earning him a, "no kidding," from Snotlout.
It's too hard to see through the fog, he realized, mentally hitting himself for not thinking of that earlier. A feeling of foreboding curled around his stomach. They passed by skeletons encased in amber. He heard the Death Song– the baby one –start to stir and wake up from its sleep, "Oh, no. Hiccup–
"Yeah, got it," Hiccup told her, twisting on his dragon and waving her off. When they made it to the clearing where they had last run into the Death Song, Hiccup held up a hand to tell them to stop and wait. He really hoped Jack would keep his promise and stay out of the fight because–
"Fishlegs!"
"Heather!" Both Riders went down, crashing into the ground covered in amber. Alarm rang through Hiccup's body, "remember, if we don't bunch up, it can't–
He cut off as the Death Song, which was now hovering over the clearing in a face off, tried to blast Toothless and him out of the sky, "..gah! Heads up!" He yelled, narrowly avoiding the amber. The other Riders however were not so lucky.
"Aah! I forgot how much I hate this guy!" Snotlout screamed on his way down. Hiccup looked around seeing that yes, all of them except him were down for the count. Nevermind, he realized, noticing Jack had actually remembered and had spread out from the rest of them. Thank the gods. Jack had seemed to be fine with just circling the clearing for now and looking for an opening to get to one of the Riders. Hiccup didn't know whether to hope he found one or not.
Suddenly, the baby Death Song came down from the sky like a ripped-off Valkyrie and proceeded to start screaming again, "never thought I'd be happy to hear that," Snotlout said from where he was stuck to Hookfang.
Hiccup noticed the two dragons seemed to be performing some sort of initiation or ritual. The adult Death Song would spit out some amber and the baby would copy, "well, at least they're not shooting it at us," He said to himself, flying a bit closer and trying to get a better view. The adult Death Song roared out some sort of tune for a second time when the baby copied… sort of. Hiccup decided it might be safe to finally land and did so somewhere to Astrid's right.
"Hey, I-I think they're bonding!" He shouted up to Jack trying to get him to land as well but the foreigner didn't seem so quick to oblige. Then, like a personal spite to his words, the Death Song flicked the baby away with its tail.
"Garff!"
"That can't be good."
"Hiccup!"
The chorus of shouts had Hiccup pulling out his makeshift– What did Jack call it? A fire sword? No, it was something else– Not the time! –His thoughts only earned him a new amber shirt and Toothless an amber saddle. His sword was now lying out of reach on the ground. Great job Hiccup.
The Death Song roared in defiance. Now I'm deaf too.
"I knew this was going to go bad! Why does no one listen to me?!" Snotlout whined as the Death Song stomped up to him. Hiccup struggled but in the end there was no way he was going to be able to move. Everything was going wrong. "Fishface! What are you doing?"
Hiccup stopped struggling for a moment, "I'm sorry, I hum when I'm nervous!" He answered.
"Hum later! I heard they love humming in Valhal–
"Hey, that's my favorite lullaby, and I was the one who taught it to Garff!"
A light sparked in Hiccup's head, "Well, that might be the problem. He's singing our songs, the ones we sang to him, and the Death Song doesn't like them," he explained, praying Jack didn't decide now was the moment to get reckless. "You know, everyone's a critic."
The Death Song went up to Astrid next, roaring in that same familiar tune, "So, what do we do?" She asked.
"Uh, keep singing? Maybe we can find a song it does like," He told her.
"I'm sorry, but I'll need some time to prepare. This golden throat is a very delicate instrument," Tuffnut said, gesturing to his throat. It was a dumb joke. A joke the Death Song clearly wasn't fond of because it grabbed Tuffnut in its mouth prompting him to sing, "Oh, Death Song, oh, Death Song You're big and bad and you kill a–
Hiccup caught some movement in the corner of his eye causing him to look up. Jack was trying to get in between the chaos, probably seeing if he could save Tuff. Hiccup waved him back, much to Jack's clear discontent. Regardless, the vigilante did in fact stay back… for now.
"Ooh, it's a scary, scary, bad dragon. He's gonna kill us all. He's gonna kill us. I hope he doesn't. I hope he leaves soon–
"Hey, that doesn't rhyme!" Ruffnut cut in, interrupting Snotlout's singing with her own pet peeves, "oh, like it knows," he snapped, when the Death Song's attention suddenly snapped to him, he had no choice but to keep it going, "Okay, sorry! The hotness of your goo gives me deja vu–
"Yep, that's it. Much better!"
When the song didn't work the Riders all found themselves trying quite literally anything and everything to get the dragon to not eat them, thank you very much. Hiccup didn't actually notice it until the others had stopped singing all together. Jack hadn't moved any closer, yet his voice carried itself around the clearing, bouncing off the walls like it wanted to personally enter every one of their ears.
Hiccup hadn't heard Jack sing yet, but he was glad he was hearing it now. He couldn't even understand the words, they were just… there really. He didn't need to either because Hiccup was sure that if he focused enough he could understand just fine.
The song itself seemed hauntingly familiar. When Hiccup thought on it a little more he realized Jack was trying to sing in the same melody the Death Song had when it roared. Hiccup mentally hit himself again. As it seemed, Jack's plan worked. Just as the Death Song decided it had enough of the situation as a whole, Garff shot up in front of Jack and finally sang the tune the Death Song wanted him to.
They all watched in amazement as the two Death Songs flew away into the air, encouragements erupting from his friends. "I don't believe it. Garff saved us," he breathed, and Jack saved us… again, at this point it was becoming a fondly-roll-your-eyes moment because Hiccup was losing track, "yep, we saved him, and he saved us," heather replied unexpectedly. Hiccup didn't really think anyone had heard him.
"I just had a thought!" Tuffnut gasped, "now that they're both on the same team, what's stopping them from both eating us?" He questioned. Hiccup just smiled and shook his head grabbing his sword from Toothless who scooped it up with his tail.
"The fact that you taste gross," Jack told him, landing next to Hiccup and his cocoon. "How do you know what I taste like?" Tuffnut asked narrowing his eyes. Ruffnut followed suit while Jack just gave them a look that said, "how do you think?" And Hiccup pondered over whether this interaction was a red herring or not.
Hiccup then used the sword to break the amber casing. The action forced Jack to flinch out of the way as the amber exploded around them in a mess of blue fire. He gave Jack an apologetic look for that.
"Hiccup, that's brilliant! If you find the weak spot in the cocoon, the rest will crack and fall apart!" Fishlegs cheered, and Hiccup felt a chunk of amber hit him in the back of the head as Toothless shook the rest off of himself. He paid no mind to it, "exactly. Now, let's get out of here before they get their appetites back."
• •
"You know, if that were, like, twice the size, it would make a really cool sword," Astrid called out, snapping Jack out of his mild embarrassment. Singing was fun. It was. But he'd never done it in front of other people, not for 300 something years at least. None of them had mentioned it thus far however so Jack assumed it wasn't that big of a deal. "Exactly. I'm gonna call this 'Inferno'." Hiccup responded, looking at the– but Jack swears to God it's a Light Saber –sword, which was flaming in his hand.
Fishlegs made an incredulous sound, "I mean, look at it!" Hiccup called, smiling, "Nah. Doesn't have the right eh… je ne sais quoi," Tuffnut told him, his voice dropping to some sort of growl. "Je ne sais quoi? How did you– All right, I'll come up with something different. Of course, I will have to make some adjustments. Lengthen the shaft, add another canister for more Monstrous Nightmare gel, make the gas canister airtight. Oh, I am getting to work on this thing right away!" He rambled, and Jack smiled about it, thoroughly distracted from his previous worries.
"And that's the last we'll see of Hiccup this week!" Astrid called out watching as said brunette flew away. It caused them all to burst out laughing.
Jack swore he was leaving in three days.
Three.
A week, he compromised, rolling his eyes at his own antics.
• •
I HAVE ATUMBLR!
In hindsight it's notthatexciting, especially sinceyou need an account to see my page(disappointing I know ), but if you want to interact with me more or see what's up you can come and vibe with me!