CHAPTER 42: Conference
"You AGREED to his demands, Hiccup?" Atali asked, as she gathered with Alvin, Heather, Dagur and Mala inside Hiccup's house. Standing outside the house awaiting all of the Chieftans was one of the Ancient vikings who'd joined them on the boat back to New Berk.
Every single Berkian alongside the lone Ancient viking was stood outside the house. Inside, the Chieftans were all discussing last minute arrangements - but Atali was not happy. When Hiccup told her that she potentially had to evacuate Dragon Island in order for this to work, she didn't take it lightly. She was basically being asked to budge.
"What else could I have done, Atali? you tell me?" Hiccup replied, with Valka and Astrid in the house with him - he lacked the time to discuss with them in detail how his meeting with Yurlin went, given the urgency to return to Ancient Island for this all important conference.
"You're the Hairy Hooligans for crying out loud, aren't you guys the ones who dealt the final blow in Drago and Grimmel? well, we know how that worked out with Drago because he's still alive, but the last time I checked, your tribe was never one for throwing another under the bridge for their own benefit!"
Hiccup stuttered initially after Atali's words. He felt like there was no other option at this point - he was desperate to ensure peace prevailed on the Barbaric Archipelago, and he honestly thought Atali giving up her settlement on Dragon Island was a minuscule request, it wasn't as if Yurlin was plotting to invade the Wingmaiden island. It was simply Dragon Island, a place that had no historical links to any tribe in terms of it being any home island. It was only the home island to the dragons. This wasn't a sovereign issue to Hiccup as a result.
"Look, you need to just accept that this has to happen. I'm not throwing anyone under the bus, Atali. What I am saying is that we're at the brink here - do we want to see the same sights, the same environment, the same sort of losses we entailed during Drago's peak, and during our battles against Grimmel?"
"I hate to say this, Hiccup, but my tribe hadn't experienced ANY of those two, so frankly those words ring hollow. Why don't you have a backbone like your dad, and actually stand up to a bully who's taking advantage of your naivety?"
"Hey," Astrid said, walking besides Hiccup, "don't ever say that again, do you not hear what he's saying? if it wasn't for you guys stealthily setting up shop on that island without telling us, ANY of us, we wouldn't have to do this. So don't ever call Hiccup naive or spineless. He's the son of the most backboned viking any tribe had seen, do you understand?"
"I'm sorry, Astrid, I have to call out what's going on here. You're going to make me give up and succumb what we built - a settlement that our tribe mentally uses to recall the historic memories of the dragons, because you're being played. All of you, you're being played."
Mala and Dagur, next to Heather, could only gulp and look at each other. None of them knew when to involve themselves in what was becoming a heated discussion. Alvin was the same. Atali was more than ready to defend her ground on this - she felt like she was being thrown to the wolves for the sake of a mirage - with Yurlin, there could be no peace, and now with her tribe's settlement being the target of his aggression, she knew and understood that no appeasement, no accepting his demands, would halt the predator. It'd only make him hungrier for more.
"We haven't even set sail to the island," Dagur interfered, with Mala nodding.
"That's right - we need to actually go to this conference before we jump to any conclusions," Mala said.
"The conclusion should have been met ages ago, you guys - don't you remember when Gobber and Eret went to visit Yurlin, he barred us from that meeting? he doesn't respect ANY of us."
"It's as Hiccup says, we can't let our children suffer the same sort of wrath we faced as youngsters ourselves. Drago Bludvist is still alive and out there, but more than anything he feels more like a dormant figure. Alfa Yurlin is an exploding volcano, we just need to turn him dormant too."
"And plus," said Hiccup, "this is going to be the first gathering of Chieftans since the one my dad attended that fateful night when Drago burned the hall down. We need to actually get there and arrange the details. With us all there with Yurlin, we can come up with a universal agreement that makes everyone happy."
"It doesn't make me happy - attending this gathering of the Chieftans, or conference, is a surrender meeting as far as I'm concerned, because I'm being forced to give up land."
"Land which you technically have no historical CLAIM to, Atali," said Dagur, "face it, what's there to lose with you giving up a small village on an island that used to house the nest where the Red Death resided?"
At that, Atali had enough. She couldn't handle the unified message of these other Chieftans in the room, asking her to give up and bow down to Yurlin's demand. She had no more fight left in her.
"You want to feed me to the wolves? you want this to turn into something much more dangerous? fine. I'll do it, but I'm telling you, you're all naive. You won't even come to my defence on this one because of a mirage of peace. You'll request peace but you'll be getting conflict, one way or another. Thanks for throwing me under the bridge."
"No, Atali, it's not like that. Look, just hear me out, okay?" Hiccup pleaded, "we'll go to this gathering, all of us will be in that room with Yurlin for however many hours, we'll work out the details, we'll finalize an agreement of sorts, and then that agreement will have assurances that'll make us all happy, including you. He might even back down from it with all of us there in the room!"
Atali entirely disagreed. She was happy to keep a somewhat open mind, but she wouldn't ever forget this moment for the rest of her life. The other tribes she thought she could call allies and friends, asking her to succumb to Yurlin's demand to have the island ceded to him. This mattered personally to her as that settlement on Dragon Island was their tribe's way of recalling all the emotional work they did with the Razorwhips. She was never going to forgive or forget this.
She'd attend the conference, without a doubt, but no matter the outcome, she would never forget this moment in time when the others had practically begged her to surrender the settlement.
The first gathering of the Chieftans in years was imminent. Word of it had spread like wildfire across the whole archipelago, including beyond the archipelago, given the stakes. Nearly every Chieftan was invited to the conference - there was one notable exception. Drago Bludvist.
Drago had not been invited by the Ancients, for obvious reasons. The tribes attending the conference all hated Drago for his past of causing terror to Berk, being responsible for the death of one of the archipelago's most respected Chieftans in Stoick the Vast, and just the vast reign of terror he inflicted using dragons that'd been controlled against their will. The Ancients despised him, Hiccup despised him, everyone at that gathering despised him.
To Drago, this was the biggest sign yet that the Ancients were being groomed by the other tribes to turn specifically to his direction, as their 'attack dog' to bring him and his Warlords down. Drago would've wanted a place at the conference given he knew it was specifically going to be addressed about him still being alive, but there was absolutely no chance of that.
Drago was carrying a spear in his hand as he roamed the open beach of the base where the Warlords continued to rearm. He studied the sunset as he walked back and forth. The despised, murderous thug had been outraged that he'd been left out from this conference taking place on Ancient Island, basically the only viking 'leader' to have not been invited.
"They're plotting against me...COWARDS!" Drago yelled, to the open seas ahead of him.
Griselda the Grevious walked up to Drago from behind. She fully understood what was going on across the seas.
"Sir, it seems like-"
"I KNOW what it seems like, I am not DUMB!" Drago yelled, as he turned to her.
"What are the plans for us?"
"We must keep preparing. The gathering I'd attended that night with Stoick the VAST should mean I also get a voice...but these tribes are plotting against us. They are going to use Alfa Yurlin...the naive boy that he is, as their weapon against me. I may not have my challenger of a Bewilderbeast anymore, but I am no easy challenge for ANYONE! how dare they not invite ME!"
"But Drago, this conference is including Hiccup Haddock, the one who defeated Grimmel and who...well," she was hesitant to mention Drago's own defeat at the hands of Hiccup.
"Precisely why I want to ATTEND. Hiccup Haddock...the son of Stoick...must know that I am not a gone man. I am STILL the man I was when my challenger pricked his tusk into Valka's weakling of a Bewilderbeast. My presence at that meeting tonight would've given me a head start in my recovery of my reputation!"
The sunset was clear and rife in the distant skies as they turned orange, and the waves of the seas were joined by mild winds. Drago continued staring out to the seas as Griselda contemplated the plans.
"If they dare consider Yurlin...my equal, my opposite...the wrath I intend to impose upon them all, with or without my challenger, will DWARF what I'd already accomplished with him. I was the controller of dragons, and I will be the controller of their fear!" he proclaimed, out towards the vast seas of openness ahead of him.
All of the tribes attending the conference on Ancient Island were united in their hatred of Drago. The tribes attending the conference also considered Drago to still be the bigger evil of the two between him and Yurlin. They wanted this to work, all for the hope of stopping the resurgent Drago who many of them hated more. It hadn't dawned on nearly any of them the prospect that Yurlin could be just as bad, if not worse, than Drago himself. That was the only thing that kept them going in this process.
Hiccup was especially of this mindset. He didn't like Yurlin, but out of Drago and Yurlin, Hiccup feared Drago MUCH more, which was why he was so keen to preserve peace and make this work, as well as for the sake of his children back at home.
The hall on Ancient Island was ram packed with vikings from the Outcasts, Berserkers, Hooligans, Defenders of the Wing and also the Wingmaidens. Vikings of the upmost seniority from all of those tribes were gathered inside it. Yurlin had personally greeted every single one of the Chieftans as they arrived inside the hall. The normal Ancient vikings outside were barred from being anywhere near the hall.
As were Atali and her Wingmaidens. And she didn't have a choice.
Despite being the main topic at this conference, a conference Yurlin had decided to call the 'Conference of Peace', when Atali was set to enter the hall after Hiccup, a couple of Ancient guards had blocked her from entering, and they'd escorted her to the docks where she was forced to wait outside - this was a deliberate bit of action from Yurlin's part.
If Atali had been permitted to enter the hall and actually be apart of the meeting, Yurlin would've called the conference off. Hiccup had actually agreed with Yurlin, when he and the other Chieftans arrived, for Atali to be kept outside the hall. Yurlin didn't want the Wingmaidens to have any consultation nor did he believe they had any right to attend the meeting due to their tribe being one led by a woman in Atali herself. She was seen by Yurlin as a fraud vulnerable to the Warlords themselves.
Yurlin had initially agreed to Atali coming along, but he'd only requested for her to not actually be allowed into the meeting when they all got here, as a way of bringing them all in without any prospect of the meeting collapsing before it'd even begun. He once again lied to Hiccup as a result, but he, desperate to avoid a conflict, agreed to it.
It was like a party gathering inside the hall, it was that busy. Voices of all the vikings, discussing the matter, were running rife in the air as their hands were holding wooden cups of water, some of them holding the finest ale in wooden cups. Yurlin was in the middle of all the Chieftans nearer the back of the hall, where all of the wooden chairs were alongside a big table.
It seemed like he was having relatively upbeat conversations with the various Chieftans. He'd shake their hands up and chuckle with them. Yurlin sat down on one of the chairs, and looked up to Dagur and gestured towards the chair next to him, inviting him to sit down. Hiccup was reading a bit of paper being held by Mala, stood up next to Yurlin as the Ancient Chieftan sat down.
And all of this was going on whilst Atali and the Wingmaidens who initially sailed on the boat to the island were being kept outside. Atali hadn't even met Yurlin because she was kept outside. Yurlin had no desire to meet her.
The council of the Ancients had put in place the strictest entourage of Ancients around the vicinity of the hall, and it seemed to be paying off given it was empty around the part of the village the hall was situated.
Overall, the 'Conference of Peace' between the Chieftans and their respective vikings in attendance seemed to be going well. They didn't look like they were finished yet, either - negotiations looked like they'd be carrying on to the middle of the night. Hiccup himself looked a lot more upbeat as he continued reading the scruffy bit of yellow paper in Mala's hands, as Dagur and Yurlin sat next to each other talking about something.
"This'll all be for the greater good, Dagur," said Yurlin, smiling, "no matter what happened in the past, this'll be for all of our security."
Dagur nodded, struggling to hear Yurlin due to the many voices across the hall.
The first gathering of the Chieftans in years, which Yurlin was calling the 'Conference of Peace', would end only when all of the Chieftans agreed on a finalized plan for the settlement on Dragon Island, with the ultimate hope being that after this, and after all the concessions, Yurlin would no longer be making territorial demands.