Chapter Text
Once again Hiccup finds himself aware that he’s dreaming, with no real way to pull himself back to reality. He’s unsure if he just naturally knew that it was a dream, or if it was just the absurdity of the scene in front of him. It doesn’t matter, Hiccup finds the dream quite enjoyable.
He was in a great hall somewhere — it has to be at least four times bigger than the one on Berk. For some reason Hiccup is aware that it’s a meeting of chiefs from all tribes in the Barbaric Archipelago. The Hooligans sit to his right, the Outcasts his left, and the other tribes are sitting on the other side of the table. It is a bit hard to distinguish who’s who given that everyone in the room except him is a dragon.
Hiccup smirks looking around the room of dragons sitting awkwardly perched on chairs around the great hall.
A Skrill, which Hiccup assumes represents the Berserker Tribe, speaks first. He lets out a deafening roar, followed by deranged, cackling laughter — in a perfect imitation of Dagur. Hiccup shudders at the sound, he has no idea what was said, but he doubts it was anything good. Another chief, this one represented by a Scauldron, roars loudly in response and shoots boiling water towards the Skrill. That’s one way to settle an argument. Hiccup smiles as the Skrill roars back angrily, but is unable to shoot lightning at anything.
It’s surprisingly calm, compared to how Hiccup imagines a meeting between the real chiefs.
“Is it everything you wanted?” Hiccup jumps at the sudden voice behind him. He turns his head around to see the Lycanwing standing right behind him. It looks like the same one he’d dreamed about weeks before, paint chippings and everything. “Oh, it’s you again,” Hiccup greets flatly. He really wasn’t that crazy about it anymore, seeing as looking for it had only caused him pain.
“I don’t think I’ve ever wanted this,” Hiccup says, watching another screaming match break out between the different tribes. It was amusing to watch, but nothing he thinks he’s ever wanted.
“A world where everyone is a dragon,” the Lycanwing continues. Hiccup supposes he had thought about how nice that might be, but still — “I never asked for it.”
The dragons around the table roar loudly at each other. A world like this would be complete chaos.
“Perhaps not outright. But you wished that people would be more like dragons,” the Lycanwing continues. Hiccup supposes it was true. But he didn’t mean for everyone to actually become dragons — he just wanted people to be able to accept and love the way dragons did. “Not literally,” Hiccup comments with a small smile. As funny as it was to watch the dragons fight around a table, this isn’t what Hiccup had in mind.
The water on the Skrill finally evaporates and the dragon immediately fires lightning blasts around the room. A Rumblehorn roars loudly from his side, Hiccup winces at the noise. “Y’know, he does kind of remind me of my dad,” Hiccup comments, ears still ringing. The Rumblehorn continues speaking, much lower, much more sincerely about something. He falls quiet, and the Whispering Death on Hiccup’s other side speaks up.
Looking around the room Hiccup notices a strange pattern, the dragons are all taking turns talking in low voices. The growls are all the same — short affirmative responses. “Are they voting on something?” Hiccup asks with a furrowed brow.
As much as he knew about dragons, the only one he actually understood was Toothless. From other dragons he could really only pick up the emotions; hungry, bored, scared, and in this case angry.
“The fate of the Dragon Conqueror,” the Lycanwing sounds disturbingly amused.
Hiccup’s blood runs cold. In an instant the strange but pleasant dream had turned incredibly dark. He understands what they are saying now. They’re all agreeing with what the Rumblehorn had said. And Hiccup knows what his father would say.
The Dragon Conqueror must be stopped. Hiccup doesn’t know why it’s so surprising to him — given what he had done, it was only a matter of time until someone came after him. No viking would ever forgive his actions.
Hiccup frowns looking between the different dragons. “Okay, this world makes no sense,” Hiccup complains after a few seconds. There weren’t any vikings in the room. “If everyone is a dragon, then why would they vote against me?” He asks. Hiccup’s actions had saved the dragons.
Hiccup turns back to the Lycanwing who just stares at him, corner of his mouth twitching upward as if he was fighting back a smile. “...Because none of them are actually dragons,” Hiccup says. The dragons wouldn’t have a trial for him.
Suddenly the dragon scales disappear and he can see the trial for what it really is. Every single chief in the Barbaric Archipelago, deciding Hiccup’s fate in a single meeting. The chiefs talk in low voices — even when Hiccup stands right next to them he can’t make out the words.
“Is this really happening out there?” Hiccup asks, heart pounding. “Did they have a council meeting to decide what to do about the Dragon Conqueror?”
But he doesn’t get an answer of course — Hiccup was dreaming. He didn’t know anything in here that he didn’t already know consciously. The Lycanwing has disappeared again, and Hiccup stands alone waiting for the judgement of the chiefs.
Hiccup’s not sure what to believe — it seems like a reasonable meeting to have. But that meant they would actually come up with a ruling.
A charge to be placed on him. He’s not sure there is an adequate charge already. Maybe he’ll get a new one named after him. And then -
“Y’know I’ve - I never really thought about what it meant,” Hiccup says numbly. He knew of course that people would be talking, and would be coming up with a judgement. But he didn’t think about the people. “To have the entire Barbaric Archipelago turn against me,” Hiccup clarifies to no one.
Hiccup had been too busy focusing on staying out of their waters, worried about being caught without ever thinking about what that meant. He’d only ever worried about losing Toothless, but Hiccup would be punished too. And not just the tribes he didn’t know. “That means my people, my dad would turn against me too,” Hiccup continues. “I can’t imagine having to face him like that.”
The scene changes as the chiefs come up with their ruling — they turn to him slowly. Dark shadows fall over their faces, rendering their expressions impossible to read. But Hiccup is more concerned with the hands reaching for their weapons.
Stoick was standing the closest to him, but Hiccup didn't worry about the axe in his hand.
“He’d probably have me rot in the prison on Berk,” Hiccup mutters. He’s certain his father wouldn’t actually be able to kill him. Which meant most other chiefs wouldn’t dare either — they’d just send him back to Berk.
Hiccup lets his father grab him by the arm and drag him out of the great hall. He doesn’t say anything, Stoick doesn’t even look at him. Suddenly they step out into the plaza on Berk, walking through a mob of people.
They’re not wearing their usual scowls, instead their faces are all pulled in the scared grimaces. The one time his people don’t look disappointed in him and they are terrified of him instead. Shaking hands are reaching for weapons as whispers sooth the crying children.
Hiccup finds the thought of his old village being scared of him strangely funny. Who thought he’d ever see the day when Useless was the most feared enemy of all?
Stoick shoves him along the path toward the prison. It seemed like far too light a punishment for him, but he knows better than to argue himself into his own execution.
There’s a high pitched roar in the distance that causes Hiccup to freeze in his step, cold sweat running down his beck. “No, no, no,” Hiccup says when he hears Toothless approaching them. Stoick pulls his axe forth, and shoves Hiccup to the ground. “Dad don’t!” Hiccup pleads.
Toothless jumps down from one of the roofs and growls angrily at the huge viking between him and Hiccup. The Night Fury charges a blast and Hiccup yells loudly: “Toothless don’t!”
The Night Fury looks at him anxiously — unsure of what to do. “Dad, you can’t do this!” Hiccup yells, pushing himself of off the ground. Stoick ignores him and continues forward. “You don’t understand, he’s not dangerous!” Hiccup pleads. He grabs Stoick’s arm, trying to hold him back, but the viking just tosses him off. Toothless growls loudly as Hiccup falls onto the ground.
“You have to make a choice,” the Lycanwing’s voice prompts from directly above him.
Hiccup watches Stoick swing the axe high as Toothless charges a plasma blast. The Night Fury could win easily — but he won’t fire without Hiccup’s say-so. Toothless looks at Hiccup eyes scared but determined — he can’t leave Hiccup there, but won’t go against his wishes.
His one true friend, too loyal to run and hide. Unable to leave Hiccup behind.
Hiccup can’t let his dad kill him.
The Lycanwing leans down and Hiccup feels its breath on his neck. “Say it,” the Lycanwing says coldly. Hiccup shakes his head — there has to be another way. One that didn’t involve any bloodshed.
But Stoick’s axe was already raised high.
“Fire,” Hiccup demands, sniffling.
He closes his eyes, flinching as he hears the sound of Toothless’ blast. He knows it’s just a dream, but it’s still too painful to watch. It’s not right. To kill your own blood, Hiccup wouldn’t do that in real life, would he?
Surely he hadn’t gone that far. Hiccup might have done questionable things, but he wouldn’t have killed someone intentionally.
When he finally manages to open his eyes, Hiccup finds himself back in the Lycanwing cave. The dragon lies in the corner where Hiccup thought he’d seen a skeleton. “You would turn on your own blood, to save your dragon,” the dragon says tiredly. Like he had heard Hiccup’s inner thoughts.
Hiccup’s jaw clenches — it was just a dream. Hiccup wouldn’t actually do that. He wouldn’t kill his own father.
“It’s no wonder you’ve chased me for so long, if you were at least part dragon you could justify your actions,” the Lycanwing mocks. Hiccup can’t even look at him anymore, face turned down and flushed in shame. It was true, wasn’t it? At least to some, small extent. There might be limits to what he would do for dragons, but they were decreasing. Hiccup found himself more and more dependent on Toothless, if he had to choose between Toothless and anyone else the answer was clear.
“Blame the dragon blood for your lack of remorse,” the Lycanwing drawls.
Is that really what he wanted? Was he just looking for an excuse to do bad things?
“I don’t want this,” Hiccup decides. His reasonings weren’t that twisted, they just couldn’t be. He still felt remorse for his actions, even though it was growing weaker every day.
“I don’t want this!” Hiccup says angrily. He needs to hold on to whatever humanity he has left. The Lycanwing laughs at him, a quiet, low noise. Hiccup looks up at its scarred face and recoils.
The dragon was badly injured, bleeding from several wounds on its wings and body, right into the ground where Hiccup had seen its skeleton.
“It’s already too late.”
Hiccup wakes up with a start, once more finding himself surrounded by dragons. Sneaky and Sharpshot had snuck into his bed while he was sleeping and decided to nap on top of him. Hiccup groans under the weight of the now fully grown Terrible Terrors. The last time they’d slept on him they had been a bit smaller.
“Morning guys,” Hiccup greets them as they start to move around. The Terrors squawk happily and purr as Hiccup scratches them behind their horns. “I’ve missed you guys too,” Hiccup says, feeling the dragons practically melt over him. He feels a bit bad about staying away for so long, he had just been too anxious to face the Defenders.
“You know, we found this really cool island if you wanna come with us?” Hiccup asks. The question is definitely lost on the two small dragons.
They seemed pretty settled on Caldera Cay already, but Hiccup thinks they would like living on Dragon’s Edge even more. There were plenty of open fields with small, wild animals for them to chase around. Hiccup had already figured out where he could put a perch inside his hut if they wanted to sleep in there. They did seem fine with sleeping inside.
Hiccup looks around the still dark room, neither of the healers were anywhere in sight. He sits up, careful not to knock the Terrors off of the bed. He could see the sun peek through the gaps in the curtains, but it doesn’t tell him much. The Summer Solstice was upon them, it was bright out no matter the hour.
Not that it really matters. Hiccup doubts he was allowed outside, odds are he’d be chased back inside immediately.
Sharpshot starts chewing on a bandage wrapped around Hiccup’s arm. He frowns at the sight of it before remembering the crash. Right after the scratches from falling into the Lycanwing cave had healed.
“Why are you treating him?”
Hiccup’s heart sinks hearing someone yelling outside the healing center. Considering he was the only person currently inside, it was pretty clear who they were talking about. “Send him back wherever he came from! Nothing good can come from this,” the angry, male voice continues.
“He has won the Queen’s favor,” Hiccup recognizes the older healer’s voice. A testament to his many, many visits to the healing center no doubt. “Question his being here and you are questioning your Queen.”
Hiccup shushes the Terrors who squawk at the noise outside. “Those barbarian vikings are hunting him!” The angry man yells back at him. Hiccup swallows down the sour taste in his mouth — someone was looking for him? “What do you think they’ll do to us when they find out we’re hiding him?”
A viking tribe, maybe more than one, was after him.
“I cannot speak for yourself, but I will gladly die protecting anyone willing to risk their life for dragons,” the older healer's voice, though low, travels through the wall. The unfamiliar man yells back loudly — “they will come for all of us!”
He was right, wasn’t he? If the vikings found out about Hiccup hiding there, the Defenders would be targeted as well. Sharpshot squawks loudly as Hiccup squeezes him too hard. “I’m sorry,” he whispers, letting the small dragon free.
Hiccup doesn’t want to think about what would happen if someone from the Barbaric Archipelago found him there. The dragon worshippers may be strong fighters, but they’d be no match for an armada.
Hiccup looks up as the door to the healing center opens — suddenly becoming aware that the argument had quieted down. The older healer walks back in and immediately locks eyes with Hiccup. “How much of that did you hear?” He asks as he closes the door behind him.
“What did he mean by the vikings that are hunting me?” Hiccup rushes, ignoring the question entirely.
“Ignore him,” the older healer orders. “He’s just paranoid, one of the side effects of not sleeping,” he says matter of factly.
Hiccup frowns, he supposes it makes sense. Back on Berk he remembered the strangest fights breaking out after the first week of the midnight sun as people grew sleep deprived. “No vikings are even aware of our existence,” the older healer reassures.
That makes even more sense. “Oh, that’s good then,” he says quietly. There wouldn’t be a people of dragon worshippers if the vikings knew about them.
The older healer has Hiccup clarify what landed him in the healing center this time. Apparently his sleep deprived explanation had been unclear. Hiccup re-tells the story about the Shadow Wings and the crash. “I see, and why were you on this island?”
Hiccup had hoped to avoid that part. “...I was looking for the Lycanwing,” he admits bashfully.
“I had hoped that that was the sleep deprivation talking.” The older healer steps close to the bed and in a hushed voice asks: “Can you clarify why you were looking for the Lycanwing?”
Hiccup does remember talking about the Lycanwing, and feels very embarrassed about it now. But he doesn’t remember the specifics of the discussion. “That depends a lot on what I told you,” Hiccup says. He had already dug himself into a hole, why dig deeper?
“You said you had it on ‘good authority’ it existed,” the healer clarifies.
“Right,” Hiccup doesn’t remember saying that. But he remembers thinking it at one point. “That’s just ‘cause I found the map to a Lycanwing cave.”
Hiccup decides to leave out the details of the wooden Lycanwing he saw and the dragon skeleton he might have seen. It just sounded like a sleepless hallucination.
“Where did you find this map?” The older healer asks quite sternly.
Hiccup winces — he can’t actually tell that part of the story without sounding absolutely insane. “...You know that booby trapped cylinder I brought with me last time I was in here,” Hiccup starts, eventually. Even with the mask Hiccup swears he can see the healer frowning at him. “Yeah, well I unlocked it and it -”
Hiccup really doesn’t like having to bend the truth like this, but it’s the only way it sounds believable. “It was filled with maps of ship routes and islands with dragons. That kind of stuff,” Hiccup explains. It was technically true.
The older healer nods. “You said you found it on a ship. Whose ship was it?” He sounds incredibly serious. Hiccup finds his heart rate picks up at the tone — what could be so important?
“I don’t really know, I’d never seen anything like it before,” Hiccup admits. The older healer just stares at him until he continues talking. “It was way bigger than any viking ship, and they had this crest of just a white fist,” Hiccup explains after a few seconds of thinking.
The older healer exhales deeply before answering. “That’s the Dragon Hunters’ crest,” he explains. Then in a very low and strangely calm voice he adds: “You stole something from the Dragon Hunters.”
“Dragon hunters,” Hiccup mutters. It did make sense. All the information about dragons, and traps and ship routes. To think he was benefitting from an invention made by such a cruel organization was incredibly ironic. But Hiccup still can’t quite see the issue remembering the state of the ship. Skeletons usually didn’t care whether you stole from them.
“They will want it back,” the older healer stresses.
Hiccup’s mind goes blank for a few seconds. “They’re still alive?” He asks incredulously. That ship had been sitting there collecting dust for decades. If the tribe was still around, then why wouldn’t someone have gone to fetch Thing? It was far too valuable to leave behind. “I’m sorry, it’s just that Thing I stole is ancient, I don’t even understand most of the writing on the proj- pages.”
Hiccup frowns at the near slip up, but the healer either doesn’t notice or just ignores it. “You cannot keep it, even if the information is old they might still value it,” the older healer argues immediately. “It is not worth the risk. You cannot fight the Dragon Hunters.”
Hiccup’s brow furrows — the dragon hunters and the Defenders should be mortal enemies. He doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t fight them, why the Defenders wouldn’t support that. Hiccup isn’t fond of fighting, but he can’t stand by and watch someone hurt dragons either. Even if he could only do something small like steal their strange artifacts.
“Okay,” Hiccup says anyway. The older healer just stares at him, seemingly sensing his insincerity. “Okay, I won’t,” Hiccup repeats, head turned down to avoid the glare.
“I understand that you want to, many of us do too,” the older healer continues. “But believe me you cannot win against the Dragon Hunters.”
Hiccup bites back his initial response — Hiccup should probably believe that the older healer knows what he’s talking about. While strong, the Defenders were a small tribe.
“No matter what dragons you have fighting on your side, there is no winning against them. There are too many of them, they are too powerful and they are ruthless,” the man continues in a low voice. “They will take the Night Fury and kill you.”
Hiccup bites his cheek and nods.
“Did you bring the cylinder with you?” The healer asks.
“No I - I left it behind,” Hiccup says. Honestly, he’s happy he did. If he had brought it along they would confiscate it and get rid of it. And there was still so much information left on it. So, so much Hiccup could use to help dragons.
“You cannot keep it.”
He sounds genuinely angry and Hiccup shies away from his glare. “Come outside, there’s something I want to show you,” the older healer says suddenly. Hiccup winces under the stare and grabs the nearby pair of crutches wordlessly.
He follows the older healer outside, just around the building to the dragon stables. “This is the work of the Dragon Hunters,” he says seriously, pointing at a Monstrous Nightmare lying on its side.
Hiccup frowns — the dragon was badly injured with fresh cuts running over its body.
“Mao,” the older healer prompts. The younger healer turns to them from where she’s sitting by the Monstrous Nightmare’s head, feeding the dragon with fish. “We found her stranded on the northern beach,” she explains. The dragon didn’t just look injured, her scales were pale and flaking. Hiccup walks closer subconsciously and picks up on the strange, pained wheezes the dragon emits. “She’s lost her ability to flame up,” Mao adds after a while, petting the dragon gently.
Dragons didn’t live the easiest lives, they got into fights with their own kind and the people that tried to kill them, but it didn’t look like this. The cuts seemed too controlled to be from dragon claws or teeth, they had to be from swords and axes. But why would someone injure a dragon like this and not just kill it? “We found her with two Dragon Root arrows embedded in her skin, it’s amazing that she made it this far.”
Hiccup frowns, he’d seen the effect a buried Dragon Root could have on wild dragons. “Dragon Root arrows?” Hiccup asks. He can’t imagine the effect the root would have directly in the bloodstream.
“They coat the heads in refined, concentrated Dragon Root. Even a small cut makes the dragons dizzy and ill, a direct hit can force them out of the sky,” the older healer explains. “The Hunters are quite fond of using them to knock dragons out of the sky to capture them.”
The injured Monstrous Nightmare whines a low noise. She’s barely even able to keep her head up. “The effects are normally temporary in Monstrous Nightmares, but with the dose and all these injuries…” Mao trails off. “She’s lucky to still be alive,” she mutters after a few seconds.
Hiccup watches the shaky rise and fall of the dragon’s chest, followed by the wheezing breaths. She was dying. “...Can you do anything to help her?” Hiccup asks, unable to stand there watching the dragon anymore.
“Sure, Stoker class dragon’s flame can be reignited using Fireworm dragons’ flame and venom,” Mao says with a tired sigh. But it wasn’t that easy, of course. “She won’t make the flight to the closest Fireworm nest and our boats are too slow. I have people out looking for Fireworms, but we don’t get a lot of them.”
Hiccup understands that this would be an issue for the Defenders, but it’s not one for him. “Well, where’s the closest nest?” Hiccup asks, already itching to call Toothless over.
“You’re injured,” the older healer reminds coldly. Hiccup winces under the glare he gets, but doesn’t cave.
“I’d be sitting in a saddle the entire time,” Hiccup counters. “Besides, it’s just a sprain. She needs help now, doesn’t she?”
Hiccup decides to ignore the fact that his arm is wrapped in bandages too.
“...He’s right,” Mao mutters quietly. Normally Hiccup would be happy to get his way, but when the life of a dragon hung in the balance. “There’s a nest on an island northwest of here. I’ll go get the map.”
The young healer walks back inside and Hiccup finds himself stuck with the older healer who still stares at him. “Fine,” he says grimly. “But you return the second the Monstrous Nightmare has been escorted there.”
“Sure,” Hiccup says, crying at how insincere it sounds. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean for that to sound so sarcastic.” He really needed to get better at talking to people. Hiccup had grown so accustomed to only talking with dragons, very few of which seemed to understand what he said.
Mao shows up seconds later with a rolled up map in her hands. She rolls it out on the floor of the stables and points to the island with the nest. Hiccup looks at the placement and calculates how long it would take to fly there. “Shouldn’t take more than half an hour,” he mutters out loud. Mao whistles in response. “But I’m not sure Toothless can carry her on his own,” Hiccup adds.
The Night Fury was plenty strong, but carrying an adult Monstrous Nightmare nearly three times his weight seemed unreasonable. “There are wild Monstrous Nightmares around here, right?” Hiccup asks.
Really, any flying, trainable species would be fine. But Hiccup thinks a single Monstrous Nightmare could carry the injured one on its own — together with Toothless they’d have no issue getting her to the nest. And it would mean less work for him to train the dragons to cooperate.
Mao nods in agreement. “Then I’ll call some over,” Hiccup mutters, and cups his hands over his mouth in a dragon call.
“You just get weirder and weirder each time you come back here,” the young healer mutters under her breath. “Thanks,” Hiccup snides back with a sigh.
It doesn’t take long before a nearby Monstrous Nightmare flies over them, roaring curiously in response to the call. The dragon must have noticed the injured Nightmare in the stable, because he lands in the road, carefully moving closer.
“...I want to make fun of you, but that was incredibly effective,” Mao says. Hiccup ignores her and approaches the wild Nightmare. The dragons on Caldera Cay weren’t particularly weary of people, which made sense considering the island was home to dragon worshippers only.
The Nightmare rests his snout against Hiccup’s palm easily.
It wouldn’t be much of an issue to get the dragon to cooperate — even though many lived solitary, Monstrous Nightmares didn’t hesitate to help their own kind.. “Could someone get me some rope?”
Hiccup doesn’t have to do much after that — he doubts he’d have to do anything even if he wasn’t injured. He sits back on the raised floor of the stable, watching a small crew of Defenders use leather straps to secure the injured Monstrous Nightmare.
He keeps the wild Monstrous Nightmare in place while they tie a rope around his shoulders. The dragon is a bit antsy, but he doesn’t struggle that much. Hiccup thinks he’ll probably be pretty easy to train, he might bring him back to Dragon’s Edge.
Knowing Toothless would struggle, Hiccup decides to tie the ropes around him on his own. The Night Fury grumbles, but doesn’t move as Hiccup secures the rope around him.
They’re in the air only a few minutes after coming outside, veering north west of Caldera Cay. The injured Monstrous Nightmares whines a low, painful noise below them when they take off, but soon quiets down as she gently rocks in the air.
Toothless grumbles as the wild Monstrous Nightmare knocks into him from behind. “C’mon, bud, be nice,” Hiccup reminds him. He had to admit it was a bit annoying, but the Monstrous Nightmare wasn’t doing it intentionally. “He hasn’t been trained for this.”
Back on Dragon’s Edge Hiccup realized that getting dragons to cooperate wasn’t as easy as it seemed. Even though they were happy to help, getting them to coordinate for a task was a bit of a struggle.
Luckily, the flight to the Fireworm nest island isn’t very long and they arrive there without major incident. “Now where is that nest?” Hiccup asks, looking down at the small island. Hiccup had seen a few Fireworms running around on Berk. The dragons were very small, only two or three inches long, and bright yellow. Odds were they’d be hiding in a cave somewhere.
Toothless roars and Hiccup looks down to see a handful of Fireworm dragons running along the side of a cliff. “Let's follow them,” Hiccup says.
It’s easier said than done. The two Monstrous Nightmares in tow make it nearly impossible to follow the Fireworms. They’re just too big to fly through there.
Eventually Hiccup lands them outside of a small cave opening, biting his lip as he considers his options. It was too small for the healthy Monstrous Nightmare to fly through. And the injured Monstrous Nightmare didn’t appear strong enough to walk inside, let alone stand up.
Hiccup would have to untie the dragons and take Toothless inside. Hopefully they’d be able to scare some Fireworms out through the cave opening toward the injured Nightmare. It’s not his greatest plan, but he doesn’t want to waste anymore time.
“Just hang in there a little while longer,” Hiccup mutters, petting the injured Monstrous Nightmare. The species typically felt warm to the touch, even more so than other dragons, but she was the same temperature as him. “We need to hurry,” Hiccup says and signals for Toothless to fly inside.
They continue flying through the dark tunnel for a few minutes before Hiccup sees a light around the corner. “We have to be quiet, I don’t want to spook them out some other exit,” Hiccup mutters quietly.
Toothless slowly rounds the corner of the tunnel, landing by the entrance to a large chamber. “What the Hel?” Hiccup asks quietly. There were honeycomb-like structures covering every wall, filled with a glowing fluid. Around them a handful of small Fireworms were drinking from the combs. Hiccup could only count eight of them, he doubts that would be enough to help an entire Monstrous Nightmare.
Hiccup watches as a nearby Fireworm glows stronger after drinking the strange liquid. “Starting to understand why Bork called them Flame Eaters,” Hiccup mutters. He signals for Toothless to walk closer to the wall and runs his fingers through the liquid. It’s warm to the touch, but not quite burning hot. “What is this stuff?” Hiccup asks.
Toothless growls, suddenly turning to face the center of the chamber. “What is it bud?” Hiccup asks, but he soon hears a loud roar and the heavy footsteps of a large dragon running toward them. “Oh great, the Fireworm Queen,” Hiccup mutters seeing the nearly ninety feet long dragon run towards them.
The dragon stops right in front of them roaring angrily as Toothless growls at her. “Toothless, we’re intruders, she’s just protecting her nest,” Hiccup mediates. “Which means we’ll probably be able to lure her outside,” he realizes with a grin.
Toothless roars at the Queen to rile her up, before shooting off of the ground. With the large Fireworm on their tail, they weave through the winding tunnel, back toward the injured Nightmare. “Woah!” Hiccup yelps as they dodge the huge flame the Queen fires at them. He really doesn’t think the name Fireworm does these dragons justice.
They race through the cave, turning straight up as they reach the exit to hide against the cliff above. The Fireworm Queen flies out a few seconds later, roaring angrily as she searches for them.
The injured Monstrous Nightmare whines a low, pained noise, drawing the Queen’s attention. The large dragon sneaks closer, sniffing the air around the injured Nightmare curiously. “So - do we just wait?” Hiccup asks, watching as the Queen slowly inches closer.
The large Fireworm Queen picks up the injured Monstrous Nightmare by her neck, roaring loudly. “C’mon, she needs your help!” Hiccup yells at her. Toothless jumps down from the cliff onto the ground close to the two wild dragons.
The Fireworm Queen sinks her teeth into the Monstrous Nightmare. Mao did say that venom works. “Uh, is that what we want to happen?” Hiccup asks quietly, reeling Toothless back. It seemed too aggressive to be helpful.
The Queen drops the injured dragon back on the ground and Toothless rushes to her side. “She should be getting better, right?” Hiccup mutters, carefully getting out of the saddle. He winces as he walks over to her on his sprained ankle.
Crouching by the dragon, Hiccup runs his hand over the Monstrous Nightmare’s head. “She’s really warm,” he says curiously, feeling the heat radiate through the skin. Far warmer than him, back the way it was supposed to be.
The Monstrous Nightmare opens her eyes — now much clearer and alert. “Are you feeling better?” Hiccup asks. The injured dragon cooes a low noise that vibrates through his palm. She was already getting some color back in her scales.
Behind him the Fireworm Queen roars loudly, Hiccup turns around at the noise. “Thank you!” Hiccup calls after the Fireworm Queen as she disappears inside the tunnel. She didn’t seem all that angry at them, more so annoyed that they had disturbed her nest.
“Alright, then what are we supposed to do with you?” Hiccup wonders out loud while petting the Nightmare. She did already look a lot better, but she didn’t look up for the flight back yet.
Hiccup calls back the healthy Monstrous Nightmare from wherever he’d flown off too. He greets the injured Nightmare excitedly, nuzzling at her and flaming up. “Woah,” Hiccup stumbles back from where he was approaching the dragon with the rope. In hindsight he shouldn’t have brought another Nightmare. “Why don’t you just hold this in your talons?” Hiccup mutters and throws the rope at the ground. At least that way it wouldn’t catch on fire.
After a short flight back and a less than gentle landing, they find themselves back at the healing center. Mao practically cooes at the injured Monstrous Nightmare. “Well, well, well, already looking much better!” She gushes and quickly starts ushering the dragon back inside the stables.
Hiccup is also ushered back inside, in a much less welcoming manner, once more wishing he was a dragon.
A few days later, Hiccup finds himself hiding from Throk in the volcano again. He feels a bit bad about running off, but Hiccup really doesn’t want to deal with the life debt right now.
He’s looking through his notes for details about the Dragon Hunters. Hiccup had tried asking Mao, but she shooed him off immediately. Odds were her father didn’t want Hiccup to find out more about the tribe.
Hiccup frowns as he looks through the pages — he didn’t add the ship routes from the fourth lens. He sighs, trying to remember what they looked like, but it’s useless.
“Hiccup Hofferson,” Mala’s voice interrupts his train of thought. “I hear you have stolen something from the Dragon Hunters.”
“Yeah, I heard that too,” mumbles only to immediately cringe. He really shouldn’t make sarcastic snides at the Queen of the island he was currently staying on. “I uh - I’m sorry, I meant I didn’t know that it was theirs beforehand,” Hiccup rushes to explain.
“I also heard you intend to keep it,” Mala’s expression is incredibly hard to read. “Explain yourself.”
Hiccup winces. “It’s just - the thing I stole is this ancient artifact with endless dragon information,” Hiccup starts carefully. “If it gets back in the dragon hunters’ hands…” Hiccup doesn’t even want to imagine what would happen.
“Then I would suggest you destroy it,” Mala says calmly.
She doesn’t actually seem all that angry, but Hiccup gets a sense he will change that. “...I can’t,” Hiccup admits. There was just so much information on it — so much dragon knowledge he had yet to discover. So many secrets worked into the strange cylinder.
Besides, Hiccup doesn’t think Thing itself is that important. “And it’s really not that easy — there are these lenses hidden everywhere that work to unlock information. I’ve found four of them but I’m sure there are a lot more.”
It could take years until he’d found all of them — even then there’s no saying he’d ever know if he was done.
Mala waits quietly for him to continue. “I’ve picked the thing apart, it’s intricate, and it would be hard to recreate, but if you have the lenses you could just build a new one and obtain the same information,” Hiccup explains.
“I see,” Mala says with a nod. “Then the lenses should be destroyed instead.”
It was the straight forward solution.
“...It’ll take a long time to find all of them,” Hiccup starts slowly under Mala’s stare. “There were clues to find others on the lenses, but they’re really hard to interpret. I uh - I still don’t understand most of the language written,” Hiccup explains.
He starts flipping through his notebook to the translations he’d uncovered. “I mean this is all I’ve got and I first unlocked it on Snoggletog,” Hiccup explains flipping through the few pages. “That’s uh - I mean Winter Solstice,” Hiccup clarifies when he remembers Snoggletog was a viking thing.
To his surprise he looks up to see Mala actually looking at his messy notes — on Berk Stoick would have told him to stop talking minutes ago. “I really only know the dragon-related words so far,” Hiccup mutters somewhat bashfully. She really does seem invested.
Hiccup flips over to the few maps he’d copied. “I haven’t even investigated a fourth of the islands I’ve discovered with Thing, and the hiding spots for the lenses can be intricate. I mean someone built a fake Lycanwing out of wood.”
Hiccup wants to smack himself for mentioning the Lycanwing again. “That’s not the point I was - I just - there’s so much going on with this thing and I - I don’t…” Hiccup trails off. “I don’t think I can destroy it.”
Mala just stares at him for a few seconds, jaw clenched. “...The Dragon Hunters have been our enemies for a long time,” Mala starts quietly. “Long ago, the Defenders lived on a different island,” she reminisces.
“Then the Dragon Hunters attacked, decimating our army in an instant. But they didn’t stop there, the entire village was brought to ruins. Only forty eight Defenders survived, escaping from the island only to come here, with a young Eruptodon.”
Hiccup doesn’t know how to respond to something like that and just keeps his mouth shut. “Today they must have a hundred times more men, ships, gold and weapons than us. Yet they are still growing,” Mala continues, strangely calm. “With every dragon captured and sold they expand their forces. You must remember, Hiccup, that we are the minority. Most people see no issue in the mistreatment of dragons.”
Hiccup knows that very well. “We cannot fight the Dragon Hunters — not when fighting them means exposing ourselves to the world around us.” Hiccup understands that too. “You cannot fight them either — not for many years to come and not without an army of Dragon Riders behind you.”
So, never.
Mala continues in a voice as cold as when Hiccup had stood for trial. “Under no circumstances are you to fight the Dragon Hunters. And as for the artifact, you may never bring it to this island, nor can you ever speak of it to anyone again. If you disobey these rules there will be repercussions. Is this understood?”
“Yes.” Hiccup has to grit the words out — he understands just fine. That’s not the issue. “You are good of heart, Hiccup Hofferson. I understand that you wish to fight this battle. But you cannot win this fight,” Mala’s voice is suddenly much softer.
“I appreciate your need to help dragons, but you can help no one if you are dead.”
Hiccup understands that the Dragon Hunters aren’t to be taken lightly. Honestly, Thing’s existence itself was enough proof. And he can understand the Defender’s refusal to go into a war they can’t win.
It was the sane decision.
And Hiccup hates that he disagrees with it.
When Hiccup eventually is cleared from the healing center, he manages to drag the two Terrible Terrors with him to the clearing where Toothless was waiting. He never thought he’d see the day when he actually wanted them to leave the island of Dragon Worshippers, but Dragon’s Edge might be even better for them. And he has missed their company.
The Night Fury roars happily coming to greet them. The jealousy had dissipated a long time ago now and the three dragons were close.
“Alright, bud, I think I’ve got everything I need,” Hiccup says as he’s tying the satchel to Toothless’ saddle. It’s not particularly heavy — most of what Hiccup had brought he was wearing. After the countless crashes, Hiccup had finally decided to start wearing armor. Well, Dragon Rider armor, which really only entails extra padding for when he gets thrown from the saddle.
The male Monstrous Nightmare would also be joining them on their journey back, carrying the materials Hiccup needed to build a fully functioning forge. He had in fact been incredibly easy to train.
They fly by the blacksmith stall to fetch him and find Sho is standing outside. “Dragon Rider,” she greets as gets out of the saddle. “Here,” she holds out a small piece of paper.
“What is this?” He asks, grabbing the note from her hand. It seemed to be a recipe for some medicine, with a list of ingredients and a set of instructions.
“Antidote for Dragon Root poisoning,” she says with a quiet sigh. Hiccup frowns looking at the frayed edge of the paper then back up at the young woman in front of him. “...You are Sho right?”
The sisters did look identical to him, though he thinks that might just be the black masks covering their faces. “Our father won’t let Mao leave the healing center,” Sho says, shaking her head. “He’s worried she’ll give this to you.”
Hiccup can’t help but snort. “You should stay away from the Dragon Hunters,” Sho clarifies.
“Then why are you giving this to me?” Hiccup asks, turning the piece of paper over in his hand. It did seem legitimate. Neat ink letters, dried on a stiff paper. No doubt ripped from some book somewhere. “Because I don’t think you will,” she argues, and Hiccup wishes she was wrong. Even after the talk with Mala, he was itching to follow the ship routes.
She did just forbid him from fighting them, that does not include minor sabotage. “And this way you might actually be able to make a difference.”
“Thank you,” Hiccup says and swiftly places the note between pages in his notebook. It felt like it might rain later, he didn’t want it to get ruined in his pockets. Hiccup glances back at Sho, who had just handed him a ripped out page. "...I just have to know, do you both hate books?”
“I have more respect for books than my sister,” Sho answers. Hiccup squints at her waiting for her to continue. “But I still don’t think important information should be written on paper.”
“Got it,” he doesn’t. Hiccup is even more confused than before.
They arrive on Dragon’s Edge a day later, slightly wet and all tired. Though the sulking Terrible Terrors quickly liven up on their new island as they fly around, exploring. The Monstrous Nightmare seems happy with the relocation too — quickly taking advantage of the feeding trough outside Hiccup’s hut.
And Hiccup gets to work uncovering the Dragon Hunter’s routes. Strange as his dream had been, he couldn’t deny that some part of it was real. There was next to nothing he wouldn’t do for Toothless. If there was a way to protect him and all of dragon kind, Hiccup had to at least try.
Pulling down his door he starts painting up a map of the Archipelago and the islands he knew of beyond, finished with the dragon hunter routes drawn in with a bright red color.
There was only one route somewhat near him, but he’d be foolish to attack those — showing exactly where he was hiding. Hiccup looks at the map until he finds three routes passing through the same waters. He could do a lot of damage there. But it was too far for him to travel to and from.
Hiccup sees three small islands in the surrounding area — hours away on ship, but only a short flight between each other and to the routes. “Hey bud, remember when I talked about making emergency bases?” Hiccup asks, marking the islands with small huts. Toothless grumbles tiredly in response.
“Well, I’ve picked the islands.”