CHAPTER 39: Face-to-Face
"I hadn't planned to do this initially but circumstances meant I had to do it I suppose," said Hiccup, as the handshaking continued.
"I'd have wanted this to happen when I became the sole protector of this tribe, on the very next day after as a matter of fact! but it's better now than never. I cannot express how delighted I am that you have come to our island, Hiccup Haddock."
Yurlin was beaming with delight at seeing Hiccup. Putting aside the politics and what was at stake, he was genuinely delighted to have Hiccup Haddock on his island, knowing his past with the dragons and his father's unfortunate death.
"We'll go inside, follow me and we can discuss whatever needs to be discussed, Chief Hiccup!" Yurlin said, gesturing towards his grand hut as he turned around to face it.
At Yurlin's gesture, all of the vikings around them in their hundreds started scurrying off without a word spoken. As a result, hundreds of thumping viking boots could be heard against the dry mud of the forest.
The entourage of Ancient army vikings began escorting all of them, including the ones who led Hiccup here, away from the vicinity. The only other vikings who'd be remaining here would be the troops assigned to guard the area of the hut whilst the meeting took place inside.
Yurlin and Hiccup slowly walked through the door of the hut, with two guards standing on either side of the door. Upon them entering, the guards closed the door.
Hiccup was astonished at the inside of the hut. There was a large rounded wooden table in the middle of the room with black leather chairs surrounding the table. Heaps and heaps of bookcases surrounded the back walls of the room containing many books, there were mysterious paintings of none other than Hiccup's own father on the wall, and there were various green plants in wooden pots scattered across the room almost like a decorative addition.
"Have yourself a seat, was your journey a good one?" Yurlin asked, taking a seat on one of the wooden chairs just on the far side of the room.
Hiccup had yet to notice the portrait of his own dad on the wall, as he took his chair, just directly opposite Yurlin as the two men faced each other at a slight diagonal angle.
"The weather was quite calm. Coming here was no easy feat though!"
"I cannot believe this is the first time you've ever visited our island."
Hiccup nodded in agreement.
"Then again, prior to myself becoming Chieftan, this tribe lacked the dignity to be perceived as a tribe. So I'm not surprised that you hadn't come across our island until this point."
Hiccup looked around the room to try and ease the awkward aura. It was at that moment that, upon looking around, he noticed what looked like his dad's face painted on a frame on the wall.
"Woah woah, hold on a minute...is that my dad?" Hiccup said, pointing to the painting before looking back at Yurlin, who chuckled.
"It is. I've long respected you, Hiccup, because I respect the legacy of your dad. To me, your dad was and is the epitome of all I'm trying to achieve. He was a viking of convictions, he knew what it meant to live in the true viking lifestyle. Your dad...in a way, feels like my dad. So this portrait is a beacon of respect on my part towards you and your family."
Hiccup had no idea how to react to that. It felt weird for someone else to say that about his own father. He laughed it off and tried to move the topic on.
"And I know...I fully understand what happened to him, Chief. I get it. And that's why I'm doing what I'm doing. I'm as angry as you were, and still are, at how he murdered your father. Not least, using the same sort of beast your tribe grew connections with, to put the blade in further emotionally to you, it makes me outraged!"
"You're referring to Drago?" Hiccup asked - he knew the answer, but Yurlin's tone sounded so unusual that he felt the need to ask that, as stupid as a question it was.
"I'm referring to him. He doesn't deserve to be called by his birth name, Hiccup. I don't refer to it as anything but a bug that needs to be squashed. And that's why I'm also delighted you're here. Our two tribes share a mutual interest in seeing the destruction of the Warlords and him - now that we've known for this long that he is still alive. We can build an alliance."
With Yurlin getting onto the discussion of alliances and such, Hiccup felt like he had the perfect opening to talk about his actions in regards to Dragon Island and the Wingmaidens who've made a little village on there.
"On the topic of alliances and all of that stuff...what's the problem with the Wingmaidens on Dragon Island exactly? I agree that we both hate Drago, and I hate him more than anyone can authentically say because of what he made me lose. But this situation with Dragon Island has left me thinking and I've never, from the moment I heard about it, been able to put the pieces together."
Yurlin cleared his throat.
"I understand-"
Hiccup quickly interrupted Yurlin.
"And just for what it's worth, all of this talk of war and conflict from you has been making my kids utterly terrified back at home."
"Chief. Let me tell you something. You and me? we're more alike than you think. In fact, had you taken a slightly different path following the unfortunate loss of your father, you could've ended up like me. I wholeheartedly believe you'd be taking the same sort of action I'm taking if you did go down my path."
Hiccup watched Yurlin with a solemn expression, waiting to hear the Ancient leader's explanation.
"I'm obsessed with destroying what I call the unvikings. I believe there's a race of humans out there well beneath vikings like us, hence the name. They're a group of people who I believe played a significant role in the rise of both Drago and Grimmel respectively, people who contributed to the poisonous modernization of the viking lifestyle which led precisely to their rise. My actions overseas have been solely based on that."
Hiccup was listening.
"Call it a theory or a conspiracy, as some people do, but I wholeheartedly believe in the idea that when someone's born an unviking, with characteristics which render them too weak or too naive to live like a viking in a way that prevents the rise of figures similar to those disgraced two, there's no hope. In a way, Hiccup, what I am doing is that by going after these worthless things as they hide around our tribes like cockroaches, I'm ensuring that our archipelago, not mine, but ours, the archipelago of all tribes, yours and mine included, never faces the same sort of conflicts your tribe had the unfortunate reality of facing."
"But many people back at my island think you're up to something beyond that, Yurlin. People think that this is just the first step of many conquests, and given that I'm a father now, ten years from all of our dragons going away now, the last thing I want is a conflict breaking out. Do you see what I mean here?"
"I do, Hiccup. I've already made it clear that this is my last territorial demand I have to make on the archipelago."
"So you don't think you can be persuaded to back down from going ahead with this?"
"Nothing will stop me from taking what I believe is the right choices, not only for my tribe's wellbeing, but also the protection of this archipelago. It's both a matter of sovereignty and protection. The Warlords are still out there, a common enemy between you and me."
Hiccup felt his throat drying up. Yurlin had been extremely respectful and welcoming to him, but despite all of that, it sounded like he wasn't budging on plowing ahead with his plan to take out the Wingmaidens on their settlement they've built on Dragon Island, and in doing so, starting a conflict of sorts. That was creating internal stress in him hence his dry throat.
He didn't like the sound of Yurlin's unviking hatred. It sounded like an extremely loose definition - he got the gist of it and in theory Hiccup would've agreed with it given he too despised Drago especially for killing his dad, but for him it sounded far too loosely defined. Almost dangerous in a way. Anyone could be classed as an unviking and it sounded dangerous on that basis.
But the biggest priority to Hiccup was making Yurlin delay his deadline more than anything.
"Can you please, I'm honestly asking from a position of being a dad who doesn't want his kids to be fearful when they're this young, at the very least delay pushing ahead with it?"
"What's your idea?"
"The Wingmaidens did a lot of good for this archipelago, especially when the dragons were around. With Razorwhips in particular. You don't need to do this, at the very least could you just not add another week to your deadline instead of the two days? we could potentially find a solution to all of this in that span of time."
Alfa Yurlin was surprised at Hiccup's pleas to delay his attack on the Wingmaiden settlement.
"Because, and again I may be a broken record with this, I'm a dad. I don't want to wake up every morning and cry, and not just that, but cry throughout the night. I miss our dragons, I miss Toothless, and now this, I can't face the prospect of something like what we faced with Drago and Grimmel, especially without the dragons here anymore."
Yurlin cleared his throat - he took a sip of water from a wooden cup.
"There's been a misunderstanding, Hiccup. Rest assured, when that island is free of any vulnerabilities to the unvikings, I will have no more territorial demands to make. I don't want the Wingmaidens, there's no Wingmaidens I want. I don't want war, and in an era where he's still alive, you have to make good on your vocabulary and words. I don't want war, I've never once advocated for war."
Yurlin was lying - he'd threatened war at his own initiative during his speech where he verbally attacked the Wingmaiden village on Dragon Island. But Hiccup was too stressed in the moment to recall that.
"But there's a fear that after this, you'll just do it again and again, vikings across here fear you're planning more beyond just protecting them from Drago."
"I can honestly assure you, and all those who doubt me, that I have no more territorial demands to make after this. If you think about it, Hiccup, this isn't even a territorial demand that needs to descend into the gutters. The island we are talking about is a large bulk of rock that the very queen of dragons used to live on, something you'll be very well aware of."
"Uh huh?"
"So this settlement that's been built onto there, that island, they themselves have no historical right to claim the island as theirs. All I want to do is ensure that wherever there's vulnerabilities to the point the Warlords could take advantage, no such vulnerabilities exist. That's all I'm seeking to do here."
Hiccup wasn't sure how to approach this. Yurlin had just made the exact same point about Dragon Island as he and the others did to Atali back on New Berk. It made him struggle for a response, because it was a point he himself had made in the past, and secretly he couldn't disagree with it.
"Think about it, Chief - do you want a strong, formidable presence on the very island you created history, as a way to barricade the incoming Warlords, or do you want them left open to a takeover by those very same venomous invaders? peace is at the forefront of every action I take."
Hiccup sighed as he looked to the ground whilst sat on the chair.
"This is a matter of sovereignty for my tribe, as much as it is preventing the vile Warlords. And as I highlighted in my speech, innocent Ancient vikings have been butchered and killed on that island from the Wingmaidens living on there. Some may not believe me, but that's what I fully consider to be the truth."
Hiccup obviously wasn't going to believe Yurlin on the latter point he'd just made, which was a laughably exaggerated claim.
"All I'm asking, Hiccup, and you know I have respect for you, your tribe and your father's legacy. All I'm asking is that my men can march onto that island, with the goal of safeguarding this archipelago from the likes of the Warlords and their vile overweight creature. I've said it multiple times but I'll say it again - it is to be the last territorial demand I make on this archipelago."
Hiccup had no idea which way to turn on this. Does he take the word of Yurlin that this'll be his last territorial demand, does he acknowledge the reality that this didn't need to be the thing that causes the outbreak of a new war? an island that used to contain the Red Death, now being used as a settlement by the Wingmaidens, an island that no viking had ever lived on before? was it really a breach of sovereignty if the Ancients marched onto the island? these were the questions Hiccup was pondering.
"Whatever you do, please don't do this tomorrow. Can you hold back for a while longer whilst we talk about this?" Hiccup asked.
"I'm prepared to do that. My deadline can be extended as per your request, but provided that at the end of the week, my troops can arrive onto that island and turn it into a guarded post as to prevent the Warlords ever utilizing it to their advantage?"
"You can't just send your men onto the island with the Wingmaidens on there, though."
"Of course - they can have the full week to evacuate. This is as far as I can go in terms of a deal on this, Hiccup. No matter what, I am still going to take this course of action one way or another. I think you should be welcoming it because of my desire to see the extinction of those Warlords."
"Alright. Thanks a ton, honestly, for being this pragmatic. I think I can accept that offer. As long as you don't harm or attack the Wingmaidens on there, and you give them time to do what they need to do, there'll be no problems on my part, I think."
Yurlin nodded.
"Mark my words, Hiccup, I am the last person to break my word on anything. I'm not going to mislead you on a matter as important as this."
"Thank you, again, Chief Yurlin."
Hiccup had an urgency of optimism upon getting Yurlin's acceptance of a delay to the impending takeover of Dragon Island, and also allowing the Wingmaidens time to leave the island before the takeover commenced. Hiccup himself was sympathetic to the notion that Dragon Island wasn't anything worth getting into the gutters over - it'd never been an island of vikings in its lifetime, Atali herself hadn't told ANY of them her tribe had set up a settlement there up until this point, and ultimately, if Yurlin meant what he was saying about safeguarding the archipelago from the still-alive Drago, he didn't see the harm in Yurlin doing this.
Provided that he doesn't attack the Wingmaidens themselves on the island and gives them the week that he'd just promised to evacuate the island.
"Thank you more, Hiccup. We're going to build a grand coalition against the Warlords, I'm sure of it."
The two men stood up off their chairs and once again shook hands. A deal seemed like it'd been struck, after such a short time.
"I'd do anything to prevent anything like that breaking out. I miss my best friend Toothless, I love my family too much for them to have to go through anything like what we went through with Drago and Grimmel, and I have sleepless nights wanting my best bud to be right there with me again like when I was a boy. With all of that in mind, thank you a lot Yurlin for being so understanding."
"No, Hiccup, thank you."