All the Ashes in My Wake

by mx_nymph, SevenRestDays7

Summary:

Hiccup is different from the other Berkians. He always has been, and he always will be. When he’s finally pushed too far, finally sick of their treatment, he leaves.

And he doesn’t go quietly.

Where will he go from here? What will he do now? He’s finally free to do whatever he wants, no more being looked down upon.

(Aka the fic where Hiccup has the crash out he deserves, and his ensuing adventures)

Chapter 1: The Voices Died with Me

Summary:

“Hiccup has figured that if he has to change everything about himself just to be accepted by them, then maybe they aren’t the kind of people he wants to be accepted by.”

Or, in which Hiccup finally gets fed up and makes a plan.

Notes:

Hello everyone! So, special note about this chapter/fic, I am not the only author!!!! My best friend, Seven, is my co-author for this fic… only at the time this is being posted, they don’t quite have an account just yet. So unfortunately I can’t add them as a co-creator right away! That will, of course, change as soon as Seven gets their account. Just please know that this chapter was written by both of us together!

Now without further ado, Seven and I hope you enjoy this chapter and look forward to more! Thanks for reading!

(—Nymph/Faye)

Hiccup is different from the other Berkians. He always has been, and he always will be. He needs no reminder about the fact that he is nothing like the others, and he most likely never will be.

And yet, the reminders never stop. Ever. The people of Berk don’t like Hiccup, and they make sure he knows it. It seems like the only times he’s not being looked down on by the other Berkians is when he’s being so entirely ignored by them that they wouldn’t notice if he disappeared for days at a time.

It used to bother him. He used to be so eager to do whatever it took to become one of them. But as time went by… well, Hiccup has figured that if he has to change everything about himself just to be accepted by them, then maybe they aren’t the kind of people he wants to be accepted by.

And as he started to figure that out, he also started to figure that… maybe if they didn’t like something… it’s worth double checking if that something is really all that bad. That’s probably why he kept going back to that cove.

Back to the night fury within it.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪

He may have stopped seeking their acceptance, but Hiccup still doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life being hated by everyone for his very existence, so when he’s put into dragon training he uses what he’s learned from Toothless to make his way to the top, all without hurting any of the dragons.

(It doesn’t sit right with him, seeing those dragons caged. Maybe he can plan an “accident” where they all end up escaping.)

His plan works, and the Berkians start being nice to him, celebrating him, praising him. They actually take notice of where he’s at now, no longer ignoring him. It makes it harder to visit Toothless, but he manages.

All the attention feels hollow. Just meaningless praise offered to someone that isn’t really him. They don’t like him— they like who they think he is, and that person doesn’t exist. Every compliment that he’s given, every bit of praise that he receives just alienates him further. He’d thought fitting in would make things easier, make them feel better, but now that he does, it still just feels off. The way the Berkians treat the dragons keeps building up that resentment… and Hiccup isn’t sure how much longer he can handle it.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪

It all boils over when his father returns. Their relationship is better now… at least, that’s what Stoick thinks. He’s actually proud of his new, “dragon conquering” son. But Hiccup doing well in the arena isn’t as much of a bonding point as Stoick thinks it is. For Hiccup, it just drives the wedge between them further.

Stoick is talking with—no, more like at him, and everything he says just further emphasizes to Hiccup that he’ll truly never be the son his father wants.

“All those years of the worst Viking Berk has ever seen! Odin, it was rough! I almost gave up on you!” Almost gave up on him? Could’ve fooled Hiccup. To him, there were so many moments where it felt like his father already had. “And all the while, you were holding out on me! Oh, Thor almighty! Ah, with you doing so well in the ring, we finally have something to talk about.”

Hiccup’s eyes narrow for the briefest of moments at that, before he catches himself. This conversation has already been frustrating, but something about that comment cut deep. Is Hiccup knowing how to handle dragons really the only thing his father can think of for them to talk about? Does he not have a single other redeeming quality in his eyes?

“…yeah. Thanks, dad, I’m glad you… appreciate me. Well, I should get going— lots of practicing I need to be doing if I want to keep it up in the arena,” Hiccup offers a half-hearted smile, trying to keep the edge of annoyance out of his voice.

“Oh, son, I… before you go, I brought you something. To keep you safe in the ring.” Stoick holds up a Viking helmet, holding it out to Hiccup.

“Wow uh… thanks.” Hiccup takes the helmet from him, surprising himself with how sincere he is about his thanks.

“Your mother would’ve wanted you to have it,” Stoick tells him, “It’s half of her breast plate. A matching set,” he points to his own helmet, “It keeps her close, y’know? Wear it proudly, son. You’ve kept up your end of the deal, you deserve it.”

The reminder of their “deal” drags Hiccup’s mood down again, frustration building anew, “Right, well, I really should… get going…”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Toothless, let’s go!” Hiccup pats Toothless’ side before hesitating a bit, remembering the helmet his father had given him. He runs his hand over the metal, thinking for a moment, “Actually… I have an idea.”

Hiccup thumbs at the side of the helmet one last time before heading towards the forge. Making sure nobody’s around, or awake, with a quick once-over, he brings Toothless into the forge.

“Toothless, melt,” Hiccup instructs after placing the helmet into the crucible, knowing he could get the job done a lot quicker. Toothless obliges with a plasma blast, heating the crucible in an instant.

Hiccup recasts the molten metal into a mask— an intimidating, menacing one. Not exactly his style, but that’s the point… he doesn’t want to be recognized. He quenches the mask before holding it just in front of his face, sizing up the still-warm metal. A perfect fit.

Now came the hard part. He needs to come up with a way to free the arena dragons and get off of Berk, without being caught. The mask is a start, but not many Vikings are built the way Hiccup is. Unless… they have a dragon to do the heavy lifting. That’s it— he can use Toothless! Masquerade as some sort of dragon-riding vigilante… the Berkians will be fine if a few things end up on fire. They’ve dealt with that before.

But even the most prepared village can face… casualties, if something unexpected happens, and an entire arena’s worth of dragons being freed is definitely unexpected. It wouldn’t be all that shocking for the world’s worst Viking to be the only casualty when it happens.

It’ll help all the more to keep him from being recognized if the Berkians think he’s dead. After running through every scenario in his head and talking with Toothless, Hiccup’s ready. It’s time for the arena dragons to finally be free… and it’s time for Hiccup to die.

Notes:

Hey again, Faye (or Nymph, call me either /gen) here! I hope you enjoyed this chapter (and so does Seven!) and thank you so much for reading!!

Seven and I cannot wait to start working on the next chapters, and we hope you’re looking forward to them. Feel free to leave us a comment if you liked this! We’ll always appreciate hearing from those who enjoy our work :)

(Oh! And if you’d like to find me on tumblr, I’ve got a httyd secondary blog there, you can find me as mx-dragon-faye)

Chapter 2: Staring into Open Flame

Summary:

It’s time to free the dragons from the kill ring… and for Hiccup to die.

Notes:

Seven still doesn’t have their account yet, but once again this chapter was written by both me and Seven together!! Some scenes they wrote more of than me, some scenes I wrote more of than them, but we both put in a lot of work into this chapter, and we hope you enjoy it!
(—Faye/Nymph)

Hiccup stands at the edge of one of the cliffs overlooking Berk, his hand resting against Toothless’ side. He’s a little nervous— the people of Berk haven’t exactly been kind and accepting, but they’re still his family and friends. He’d hate for someone to get hurt… but this needs to be done. A message needs to be sent, and he’s the only one willing enough to send it. Subtle isn’t the way to go— the people of Berk wouldn’t know subtle if it hit them in the face. He needs to do this, and the message needs to be as clear as possible. The Berkians know their way around fire. They’ll be fine.

…for the most part.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Everything is in place for his plan. It’s just a matter of lighting the fuse to send his message… metaphorically and literally— there really is a fuse involved in his plan. You see, for this to work, he needs everyone to think he’s in his room. Which means he can’t be seen headed out just before the dragons in the kill ring all break free, so with a fuse in the right place and instructions for Toothless to light it at a certain time, the arena dragons will escape, and no one will know Hiccup isn’t still in his room. Then he can move on to the other part of his plan…

Hiccup takes one last deep breath of the morning air. The sunrise is beautiful… one last moment of calm before a firestorm overtakes Berk. He returns to his room and takes a look around, the last he’ll ever see of it, of his things that he’s leaving behind. They’ll all be in ashes by the afternoon.

Nobody’s awake yet. Good. He isn’t either, as far as the rest of Berk knows. He carefully leaves the village, donning his mask before finding Toothless. Wordlessly, he gives the signal for Toothless to light the fuse he set up to free the arena dragons.

Together they watch as the fire races along the fuse, and distantly they can hear the clanging of metal as the contraption Hiccup built is set into motion, the locks on the cages sliding out of position. In moments, the fuse reaches its end, lighting up the small pile of explosives (small enough no dragons will get caught in the blast as they escape their cages, but big enough to be attention grabbing if the dragons don’t do that on their own).

Hiccup takes that as his cue to hop on Toothless. They fly into town amidst the newfound chaos, hovering near Hiccup’s room. Stoick, having just come outside to check what’s going on, stares dumbfounded as Toothless fires a plasma blast, completely demolishing Hiccup’s room in an instant. Hiccup turns to look at his father, looking him in the eyes for the first time in years… and it’s from behind a mask. This realization erases any pretense of guilt that he had moments prior.

Hiccup drops his voice to the lowest register he can, “I’ve been watching you, Stoick of Berk. Your flagrant oppression of dragons has gone unpunished for too long. You take their freedom without a thought for their true nature… now I’m taking it back.”

The confidence that being unknown gives Hiccup surprises him, but it’s a good thing. Now he can finally speak his mind.

“You and your peoples’ war on the dragons ends now, unless you want another catastrophe like this,” Hiccup motions to the rubble that was once his own room, “I’ll be taking your dragons now. Take this as a warning… hurting dragons only ends with people getting burned.”

Hiccup waits only for a moment, eyes locked on his father, but Stoick is hardly acknowledging him anymore, instead staring at the fiery mess that was once Hiccup’s room, everything in it burned to ash… including, as far as he knows, his son.

When he notices Stoick’s grip tightening on the handle of his axe, Hiccup decides it’s time to leave. Without a word, he takes off on Toothless, circling the kill ring that’s now empty of dragons. He has Toothless fire off a plasma blast into the ring, and then they fly higher, joining the newly freed dragons in the sky. He hovers there for a moment, the dragons circling around him and Toothless, staring down at what used to be his home before taking off once and for all.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

They had flown for only a short while, just to the nearest area where they could land after leaving Berk, and rather inexplicably if you ask Hiccup, the dragons he freed seem to want to stay with him.

“You guys are free now! You can go!” Hiccup tells the dragons from the kill ring, who for some reason are sticking around. He turns to Toothless when the dragons make no effort to leave, “Well bud, I guess we’ve got some new friends. You guys are gonna need names, if you’re staying.”

He turns to the Terrible Terror first, “I remember you, little guy. Feisty one with a powerful nip. You can be… Nipper!” The newly dubbed Nipper playfully nips at Hiccup’s hand.

“And you two… hm…” Hiccup turns to the Zippleback, “You light the gas on fire… and you look rather splotchy with your pattern… ah!” He nods, “Your names can be Spark and Splotch!” Both heads look at each other before their tongues loll out like a dog.

“Now as for you,” he tilts his head at the Nadder, “How about… Spines?” The Nadder huffs at him, narrowing her eyes, clearly displeased with the name. “Alright, not Spines then! Uhm… blue and yellow… like the blue sky… and firelight… okay girl, how about Skylight?” she presses her nose into Hiccup excitedly, and he laughs a little, patting her gently. “Alright then, Skylight you shall be!”

Moving on to the Nightmare now that Skylight has accepted her name, Hiccup needs no time at all to think this one over, remembering what he thought of the first time he ever saw a Nightmare in action, “I’ll name you Blaze, since you light up in a real powerful blaze of fire, eh?” Blaze stands proudly, igniting.

Finally, Hiccup turns to the Gronckle, “And I think… Rocky ‘ll fit you nicely,” he nods decisively. The Gronckle hops excitedly for a very brief moment before deciding that’s too much work.

“Alright,” Hiccup smiles, “this’ll be a… fun new adventure, I’m sure!”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

If there’s a better feeling than flying with his dragon friends, soaring through the sky on Toothless’ back, wind in his hair, weightless and free, then Hiccup hasn’t found it yet. It’s only been about a day since he left Berk behind in a storm of fire, and he’s spent most of his time flying Toothless, and learning what the arena dragons like.

They’re out flying again now, Hiccup planning to search for an uninhabited island to make his new home—a home for both him and the dragons he’s befriended—on, when suddenly Toothless and the others start acting… strangely.

“Toothless, what’s happening?” Suddenly, Hiccup finds that he’s surrounded by a lot more dragons than just those he befriended on Berk, “Whoa! Ok, bud, what’s going on? Toothless?” Toothless doesn’t seem to be hearing a word he’s saying, almost like there’s something else… calling to him. Enthralling him, and the other dragons.

Soon enough, they come to an island with a volcano on it, and Toothless and the other dragons all fly into it. Hiccup watches as many of the dragons drop food down into the middle of the volcano, flying over and settling amongst the ledges along the inner wall once they do.

“What…? Why is all this food just being… dumped down a hole?”

Hiccup gets his answer as he watches a Gronckle drop a single, small fish into the pit below. A roar sounds out, shaking the volcano, and the Gronckle squeals fearfully as it’s grabbed by something.

Slowly rising from the lava pit, Hiccup sees the head of a gigantic dragon, one probably as large as a mountain if its body is proportionate to its head, emerge and eat the Gronckle alive.

His eyes widen, and he nudges Toothless, “Alright, buddy, let’s get the others and get out of here. Now!”

Notes:

Okay, so if you’re wondering why we don’t have Stormfly, Hookfang, Meatlug, and Barf and Belch as names, well, we decided to go with names as if Hiccup had named them, because in this fic, well, he does. And! The terrible terror is here too! So he gets a name as well :)

Guys if you want go check out this post about me renaming Stormfly to Skylight

I came up with the names myself, actually, so I hope you like them (—Nymph/Faye)

Thank you for reading! Seven and I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and any positive comments you’d like to leave are of course always welcome and appreciated!

Chapter 3: All You Have is Your Fire

Summary:

Hiccup turns an island he found into a home, and spends some time with his dragon friends while he’s at it.

Notes:

Hey everyone! Seven has their account now, so yay! We come bearing gifts (a roughly 5k word chapter) that we hope you’ll all enjoy!
(—Nymph/Faye)

“That’s why there’s so many raids, isn’t it?” The dragons watch as Hiccup paces back and forth, talking mostly to himself, “That dragon… she acts as a… as a queen of sorts! She forces you all to bring her meals, or you become her meal. She rules through fear and it’s gotten so many dragons hurt… and people,” he adds.

Hiccup absentmindedly taps a curled finger against his chin in a thinking gesture, “I wish I’d kept at least a few of my notes…” Hiccup pauses for a moment, the memory of Berk’s… incident clearly having an effect on him.

He shakes his head as if to clear the memory from his mind, refocusing on the bigger—quite literally—issue at hand, “We can’t leave that queen be. Something needs to be done about her before anyone else, dragons or people, get hurt. But how to do that…”

In that moment, Hiccup turns to see Nipper attempting to steal a fish from Toothless. Toothless warbles in warning and Nipper opens his mouth to gear up for shooting fire, but Toothless beats him to it, firing off a small burst into his open mouth. Hiccup huffs out a laugh watching as Nipper sulks off.

“Huh, not so fireproof on the inside, are you, little guy?” Hiccup pats Nipper, “We’ll take a mental note of that.”

Hiccup sighs, his mind wandering back to what he did in Berk. Would it have been better to have just left? No, then the arena dragons would have been trapped forever. He had to do it how he did… because he wouldn’t have been able to face his father. Not as himself. So why does he get this pit in his stomach every time he thinks about it? Nobody got hurt… not physically.

Toothless nudges him, warbling softly in comfort.

“Thanks, bud,” Hiccup leans against Toothless, patting his head.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Hey there girl,” Hiccup smiles at Rocky as she hovers next to him excitedly, “You up for a ride today?”

Hiccup holds his hand out to her, and Rocky presses her nose into it immediately, evidently very excited to stretch her wings.

Toothless huffs from where he’s standing off to the side. “Aww don’t worry bud, I promise we’ll go for a ride later, no need to get jealous,” Hiccup tells him.

“Alright Rocky,” Hiccup turns back to her, “I don’t actually… have a saddle made for any of you except Toothless, so I hope you’re alright without one for this ride. I’ll have to build a forge soon if we stay here much longer, which this wouldn’t be a bad place honestly…” Hiccup trails off, getting lost in thought, and wishing not for the first time since leaving Berk that he had a notebook and charcoal with him.

He’s brought out of his thoughts by Rocky nudging him with her nose, staring at him like a dog excitedly waiting to go on a walk.

“Right, okay, let’s get up in the air then,” Hiccup smiles.

And the two of them do just that, Hiccup riding Rocky high above the ground as Toothless watches them from below.

“Alright girl, nice and steady now,” Hiccup says, “That’s it, we’ve got this,”

And they do have it… for about five minutes.

“Whoakay, that’s a no without a saddle,” Hiccup groans as he gets up from where he and Rocky crash landed back on the ground. “Sorry, Rocky. We’ll try again when I finally can build a saddle for you. Thanks for the flight, though,” he smiles and pats Rocky on the head.

Toothless comes bounding over, nosing Hiccup to check him for injuries from the crash landing. Finding Hiccup uninjured aside from a few places that’ll definitely bruise a little, Toothless warbles out something that’s probably a scolding based on the way he’s looking at Hiccup, and then whacks him lightly with his tail.

“Yeah, sorry for the scare bud,”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Hiccup looks around the island he and the dragons are currently stationed on, taking note of the terrain. There’s plenty of space and resources here, if he wanted a place to settle down and build the forge. The dragons seem pretty attached to it already too. He’ll have to get paper and charcoal to sketch out some basic floorplanning for the forge, perhaps map out the whole island while he’s at it— and it would be nice to have notes again.

If he’s going to do this, though, and settle down on this island, he’ll need to check that it’s as safe as it can be, with no immediate dangers lurking just around the corner or something. Notes and maps can wait until he knows they’ll be safe on this island, as much as he’d like to get right back to his writing and sketching.

“C’mon bud!” Hiccup waves Toothless over, “Time to go scouting.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

His scouting with Toothless was more of a success than Hiccup imagined it would be. Not only did he not find any dangers lurking around the island, but he also came across a shipwreck. Investigating inside the wreck led Hiccup to discover not one, not two, but three fully intact and unused journals, a separate stack of loose parchment sheets, and more than enough charcoal. He of course took all of it with him, putting it in Toothless’ saddlebag before looking around the wreck some more.

There wasn’t too much more laying around the wreck that Hiccup found worth taking, though he did grab a couple swords to melt down later for the easy access to metal, plus he took as much leather as he could find, and he nabbed some spices on his way out of the wreck. It won’t hurt to be able to cook his food with a little extra flavor.

When they land back on their new island, because Hiccup has made up his mind and he and whatever dragons want to stay will definitely be settling here, Toothless sniffs at the spices curiously, and Hiccup can’t help but laugh when Toothless sneezes so hard he lets out a small plasma blast.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

That night, Hiccup is woken from his peaceful sleep tucked under Toothless’ wing by the sound of something rustling in the nearby trees. Getting out from under Toothless’ wing, he looks around where he heard the sound, and sees a gigantic, shadowy dragon flying just overtop the trees.

“Toothless,” Hiccup nudges the sleeping Night Fury awake, “C’mon bud, let’s go check out what dragon that was,”

Rising up into the sky on Toothless, Hiccup takes off, pointing Toothless in the direction he saw the large dragon going. The mystery dragon seemed to blend into the night sky almost as well as a Night Fury does, so Hiccup is keeping a sharp eye on the sky, not wanting to miss seeing it.

That’s when he spots the dragon circling the island, as if it were… protecting it? Could this large dragon be keeping away other, more hostile dragons? …hostile humans, too? It must be, Hiccup decides. It would make sense.

And he’s proven right just moments later when he sees a Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare approaching the island, looking… angry, to say the least. Definitely not a dragon that will just settle peacefully on the island. That’s when the mysterious large dragon Hiccup had been following… changes shape? He hasn’t heard of any dragons that can do that. Change color like a Changewing, sure, but shape?

Its form changes into the shape of another Titan Wing Monstrous Nightmare, and Hiccup and Toothless watch from a distance as the shape changing dragon swiftly scares off the invading Titan Wing. And as the Titan Wing flies off and the dragon changes its shape once more, that’s when Hiccup realizes…

“Look, bud! That’s not one big dragon, it’s tons of little ones!”

Hiccup watches in fascination at how coordinated the small dragons are, noticing how they seem to check the sky and begin flying off to somewhere on the island when they notice the sun beginning to rise.

“They must be nocturnal… let’s follow them, Toothless, maybe we can get a closer look and find out where they sleep during the day!” He’s not sure this species of dragon is in the book of dragons, so discovering a new species… Hiccup is incredibly excited to find out more about these small dragons.

“They’re headed there,” Hiccup points, “let’s land and go check it out.”

Toothless lands, and Hiccup climbs off, walking over and peering around the edge of the cave opening, Toothless nudging his head around Hiccup’s side to peer into the cave as well. Seeing all the small dragons asleep, Hiccup carefully steps inside the cave, quiet and slow, to take a closer look at them, trying not to disturb their rest.

“There’s so many of them…” he whispers to Toothless, who lets out a low, quiet croon of agreement.

“You know, they look a little like Terrible Terrors, actually,” Hiccup tilts his head in thought, “Nocturnal… similar to Terrible Terrors… we could call their species Night Terrors!” Hiccup says excitedly, though still quietly.

Maybe not quiet enough, though, considering the low growling coming from one of the newly dubbed Night Terrors. Hiccup looks over at the source of the growling and finds it’s coming from a slightly larger, white Night Terror.

“Ah, hey there little guy…” Hiccup raises his hands to show he’s got nothing on him to hurt them with, “Are you the leader, then? You must be, I saw a flash of white in the center of your flock, you probably keep the others together and coordinated, don’t you? I promise I’m not here to cause trouble on the island,” slowly, Hiccup puts one hand out for the Night Terror leader to sniff, “See? I’m not gonna hurt you…”

The Night Terror sniffs his hand, and then presses his head against it. Hiccup smiles, scratching the Night Terror’s head as one might a cat’s. “Yeah, there you go little guy. Thank you for protecting the island. I’ll let you go back to sleep now,” Hiccup and Toothless slowly make their way out of the cave to fly back to where the freed arena dragons are all still resting.

Watching the sunrise while flying with Toothless is… incredible, and Hiccup basks in the quiet peace of the early morning.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Later that morning, Hiccup is up high in the sky on Toothless’ back with a journal and some charcoal in hand, making a rough sketch of the island from a bird’s—or dragon’s—eye view. Once he has the rough details of the island down, he can work on refining it into a more official map on a separate sheet of parchment later today. Maybe he can make a couple copies of it, and make one on a much smaller scale so he can add surrounding islands to the map later…

An annoyed warble from Toothless on account of being stationary in the sky for so long pulls Hiccup from his thoughts, “Ah, sorry bud, just a minute longer and we’ll be done up here, I’ve just gotta…” Hiccup trails off as he adds the finishing details to his sketch of the island layout. “There we go!”

“Hm… y’know, I think this island needs a name… how about ‘Dragon’s Edge,’ bud?” When Toothless croons in agreement, Hiccup quickly scribbles the name down above his sketch, and then slides the journal and charcoal back into Toothless’ saddlebag. He then has Toothless go for a quick flight around the island, really getting the chance to fly rather than just hovering while Hiccup draws, before the two of them land.

“Welcome, officially, to Dragon’s Edge, Toothless! Welcome home,”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Alright, since we’re staying here I need a forge. Maybe that can go… here?” Hiccup puts a quick mark on a copy he drew of the map of Dragon’s Edge, “Yeah, that will work. And then I can build a hut over… here! That’ll be where you and I can live, bud,” he absentmindedly pats Toothless’ head.

“We’ll need a place for the other dragons too, so that they won’t need to find an open cave. If the Night Terrors are any indication, probably most of the caves here are occupied, so we should build some dragon stables. Maybe those can go… ah, there should work!” He adds another mark on the map. “And then… that takes care of what’s most important, but eventually we should build a place to store food, and somewhere else to store my inventions when the forge and my hut aren’t enough room. Ah, we can figure out what else needs building once we’ve got the basics down! What do you say we get my forge built first, bud?”

Toothless warbles out an agreement. Hiccup pulls out a journal to start planning the specifics of his forge— what it will look like, the resources they’ll need to gather, and all that sort of stuff. Curled up against Toothless as he writes, a smile spreads across Hiccup’s face as his plans come together in his mind, making Dragon’s Edge really start to feel like home.

Honestly, even before it began coming together in his mind, just settling here where Toothless and the other dragons can be free, and where he can speak his mind out loud without being mocked or disregarded… this place already left him feeling more at ease, more accepted, more at home, than Berk ever had as far back as Hiccup can remember.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Hiccup vigorously marks his notebook, charcoal smudged across his face. These floor plans for the forge he’s drawing are really starting to come together… now he just needs to build it.

“Toothless, Blaze, I’ll need you to help me melt down some metal for reinforcement… Rocky, Spark, Splotch, I’ll have you do the heavier lifting. And eventually, Skylight and Nipper, you can help me with some of the finer details.”

Having dragons to help really speeds the building process along. In no time at all they have all the necessary resources gathered, and actually building the forge goes quite smoothly. Working through the entire day and most of the night, Hiccup and his dragons manage to get a basic forge up and ready to use in the span of two days. Some improvements could be made, but that can come later.

For now, if he wants an easier ride on his dragon friends, he’ll need to get to work on those saddles right away. It’s a good thing that he found a lot of leather on that shipwreck.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Hiccup stands, staring up at the dragon in front of him, “…I’m not sure I thought this one through very well.”

He had made a few different saddle designs for Spark and Splotch, using trial and error to figure out what would work best for the two headed dragon. And somehow, through all of that, he forgot that when it came to riding a Zippleback, it would probably go much smoother with two riders.

Toothless warbles out a laugh at the situation Hiccup has now found himself in, having promised Spark and Splotch a chance at trying out their new saddle, the dragon getting very excited at the prospect, only to now have no idea the best way to actually direct both heads as he rides them.

“Yeah yeah bud, laugh it up, see if I take you flying later,” Hiccup huffs, though it’s an empty threat and they both know it.

He does get up in the air with Spark and Splotch eventually, seated on a saddle at the base of their necks. It’s… not the smoothest of rides he’s been on, and despite the saddle there are still some tricks that a Zippleback with only one rider can’t safely pull off. Like with Rocky’s first ride without a saddle, Hiccup ends up crash landing on the ground.

Toothless—having ran over when he saw them going down—once confirming Hiccup is unharmed from the crash, looks very unimpressed with his genius yet reckless young rider.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

With the forge now built, Hiccup decides it’s time to get a house built as well. You never know when the weather will take a turn, and it’ll be nice to have a place that isn’t a cave to take shelter in. So, out comes the journal and charcoal, and he gets to work on a floor plan.

“Alright everyone,” he says to the dragons, “same deal as last time. Let’s get this thing built!”

About three days later, Hiccup and Toothless settle into their new house. It isn’t a perfect building, not yet—though Hiccup is already planning out everything he could add to it later—but that’s okay, because it’s home nonetheless.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

That same evening, Hiccup finds himself sitting on a cliff, legs dangling off the edge of it as he watches the sunset. It’s breathtakingly gorgeous, but he barely takes notice of that, so lost in thought at the moment.

He doesn’t move as Toothless joins him, curling a wing around Hiccup as he sits down beside him.

“…do you think I made the right decision, Toothless? Was leaving… the way I did… really the right thing to do? I— I couldn’t have left without freeing those dragons. And if I had— if I had let them think I was alive, well, even they can’t be that dense. They would have known it was me who did it. They’d all have… have called me a traitor. Maybe a coward. Useless was already bad enough.” Hiccup sighs.

“Plus… I don’t know if I could have— have disappointed my father like that. I shouldn’t— it shouldn’t bother me, because Hel, he hardly paid me much attention. Too busy running Berk to give much attention to his useless runt of a son once I started to grow up. I wasn’t… the type of son he knew how to bond with. He loved me, in his own way, but we were so… different. I was always so different.”

Toothless croons lowly, nuzzling the top of Hiccup’s head in comfort.

“I think it’s worse that, before we left, I finally had a glimpse at the relationship we could have had… if only I were anyone but who I truly am. He was… he was so proud, bud. So proud of a lie. And I think that hurts worst of all, in the whole situation. I know he always loved me, but he was never really proud of me. And when he finally was… it was over something I could never really be, something I would never be proud of myself for. Maybe… maybe I was always destined to just… always be someone my father could love, but never be someone he could truthfully be proud of.”

There’s tears welling up in his eyes now, but Hiccup has more still to say.

“…it was the right decision, wasn’t it? Berk is rid of Hiccup the Useless, they’ll probably be happy thinking I’m dead, unable to cause them anymore trouble. My dad won’t have to clean up my messes anymore, he’ll probably be sad but… he’s got Berk to run, he’ll be able to give that his full attention now. I didn’t really have any friends to leave behind, and Gobber ‘ll miss me I’m sure but… it doesn’t matter. What’s done is done. I needed to die so I could finally live. I’m… I’m happy here, bud, with you, with the other dragons.”

Toothless warbles quietly, but happily, tugging Hiccup closer with his wing.

Slowly, Hiccup wipes his tears away, taking a deep breath, “I uh… I feel a bit bad about how I did it though. There were— there were probably better ways I could’ve faked my death, huh? The uh, blown up room was a touch dramatic, maybe. Hopefully the threat sticks though, I would hate for more dragons to end up in that kill ring.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Alright, Blaze. Let’s figure this out together,” Hiccup’s self reflections last night dragged down his mood a bit, but he’d be a liar to say he’s not excited by the idea of dragon riding. “Think we can do this without you setting yourself on fire? This saddle isn’t exactly fireproof. Though, actually, if I could figure out a way to fireproof leather, maybe cloth too, then I could— ah, I can do that later. Let’s get up in the sky, eh?”

Hiccup finishes fastening Blaze’s saddle, feeling a smile creep onto his face, before hopping on. Blaze hesitates for just a moment to make sure Hiccup is on securely before taking off.

“Woah! Bit of a rough flight style, compared to Toothless,” Hiccup pats Blaze. “I wonder… just how fast can you go?”

Blaze seems to take that as a challenge, and shoots off at what Hiccup assumes is his top speed. And it is really fast, but it doesn’t compare to Toothless’ top speed, that’s for sure.

“Guess it’s a little different when you’re not built for speed. I’ll have to put that in my notes. It makes sense though! Those big spines can’t be as aerodynamic as Toothless.”

Hiccup and Blaze fly for a bit longer, taking the time to get used to the turbulence that flying on a Nightmare comes with, before heading back to reunite with the rest of the dragons.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“You know, I wonder…” Hiccup says, tilting his head at Rocky who decided to join him at the forge today, “you eat all these rocks and ores, and you can shoot out lava with enough of it… if ores are smelted just right then… maybe if I have the right combination… would you be willing to…?” Hiccup mutters, lost in thought about the possibility of an easier way to get ready to use metal he can handle in the forge. “Plus, maybe it would have special properties? Would being Gronckle made affect it? That’s assuming this even works… what would the right combination be?”

Hiccup reaches for his journal, swiftly writing down his ideas. “Rocky, would you be alright helping me test out these theories?”

He gets an excited yip and an eager twirl from the Gronckle in response, and so he gets to work on gathering rocks and ores to test out.

Several hours and countless combinations later, nothing Rocky produces has thus far been new or very workable in the forge.

“Alright, girl, let’s give it one last try before we call it a day. This time, how about we use… one part iron ore, and then, maybe, two parts sandstone, with… three parts limestone? And then, how about a big spoonful of some hardened Gronckle lava. That… hopefully will make something. Thank you for your help, Rocky! Now let’s see if…” Hiccup trails off, tickling Rocky to get her to spew out her lava.

“Whoa! That is a lot of lava there girl, and… hey! It’s colored differently than normal! Let’s try…” he gathers some and gets to work on forging an axe, figuring it’ll be nice for cutting up wood rather than having the dragons knock it over.

Once it’s ready, Hiccup goes to test it out, and quickly discovers that this new metal is lighter and stronger than any of the best iron tools he had seen back on Berk.

“This is… Rocky, this is incredible!” Hiccup scrambles for his journal, a grin on his face, and he rewrites the formula for this new metal on a clean page, labeling it ‘Gronckle Iron,’ and notes down everything he can about the weight and strength of it. “This could have so many uses! Oh the things I could make with this!”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Hiccup laughs to himself as he watches Nipper splashing around on the shore of the island’s lagoon, attempting— and failing— to catch fish. Nipper huffs at Hiccup’s laughter, tilting his head and making an overdramatic angry face.

“Don’t worry, I’m not laughing at you. Well, I am, but it’s ‘cause you’re cute!”

This doesn’t help, as Nipper hops over and reminds Hiccup why he’s named the way he is.

“Okay buddy, I get the message. You’re a dangerous and terrifying predator.”

Nipper exhales smoke proudly before going back to (very cutely) trying to catch fish.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Okay, yup, right over there,” Hiccup points, “Uh huh, just drop it— yup! Thank you, Skylight. Now let’s see,” he moves over to the new materials and gets to work, “if I just… then this can go here… and… that’ll go right… there!”

He steps back, looking at his work of reinforcing the forge with Gronckle iron, plus the expansion on the side of it.

“Alright, this should be a lot more resistant to any potential accidents in the forge,” Hiccup nods to himself, “Now I can get up to all kinds of experiments! I wonder if I could— no, cause then I’d need to— but if I had— oh I’ve got time to figure it out later.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Hiccup, charcoal in hand—and also smeared on his face—is expertly directing the dragons on how to build a stable for them.

“Uh huh, that’s perfect, Skylight, Blaze, good job. Now Rocky if you’ll… yup! Thanks, girl, that should help reinforce it. And then… Spark, Splotch, we’re gonna need more wood. Will you go get some? And Nipper, go to the forge and grab some tools for me? The ones that look like this,” Hiccup flips his journal around to show the little dragon which tools he wants, “Thanks, little guy!”

Within three days they’re able to build a fairly large set of stables for the dragons. Reinforced with Gronckle iron, the stables will definitely be the perfect place for any dragons to shelter in if they don’t want to be in a cave. Several areas of it are mostly open, though Hiccup did add in a few cages.

He doesn’t like the idea of caging up any dragons, but he’s aware there are some dragons that likely won’t always be nice to the dragons already here, and he’ll always put Toothless’ safety first. If that means locking up an angry dragon so it can’t fight and probably hurt Toothless, then he’ll use the cages.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Alright Skylight! Let’s see what tricks you can do,” Hiccup says, high in the sky over Dragon’s Edge on Skylight’s back.

“How about… a twirl?” Hiccup asks, and Skylight shoots forward in a barrel roll, twirling down towards the ocean. “Whoakay! Nice one, Skylight! Can you take us back upwards now?”

And the Nadder does, flying high up into the air in a spiraling motion.

“Oh yes! This is awesome, Skylight!”

It’s not like flying with Toothless, and Hiccup misses that every time he’s on a different dragon, since flying with Toothless just feels… seamless. Natural. Like he and Toothless were made for each other. But he will admit, being up on Skylight is pretty fun, too. Being up on any dragon, really.

It’s incredible. They don’t need riders, and yet they’re willing to fly with Hiccup anyway, because they see him as a friend. It’s… a little sad that his first real friends are dragons. But honestly? Hiccup wouldn’t change this for the world.

“Alright girl, take us home!”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

He sets about making some improvements to his and Toothless’ house, figuring that now that he can reinforce things with Gronckle iron, a reinforced house on an island full of dragons is not a bad idea.

“Okay, bud, what do we think?”

Toothless lets out a satisfied warble.

“Yeah, I agree. And hey, we’ve got the perfect spots to expand our house later on! That’ll be a fun project. It can wait though. Now that we’re through setting up the very basics we need here on the Edge… that giant dragon at the nest… we need to take care of her, bud. All those dragons, trapped by her, starving under her command… it isn’t right. We need to end it.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

That night, Hiccup stays up late, unable to fall asleep. There’s just too many thoughts in his head. Instead of staying in bed, he finds himself on another cliff, staring up at the stars.

He hears leaves crunching behind him, thinking nothing of it since it’s probably only Toothless, but he’s proven wrong when he spots that white Night Terror leader walking towards him.

“Hey there little guy,” Hiccup holds out his hand to the Night Terror, “I remember you. You come to say hi?”

The Night Terror lets out a low purring sound, sniffing Hiccup’s hand.

“Maybe I should give you a name… hm, what do you think of Whitenight?”

The Night Terror croons happily, nuzzling into his hand.

“Alright, Whitenight it is, little guy,” Hiccup smiles.

“You know, it’s real nice knowing that you’re looking out for this island. Maybe I’ll build you and the other Night Terrors some dragon watchtowers. Then you could keep protecting the island while resting your wings until you spot danger. Would you like that, Whitenight?”

Whitenight lets out a quiet screech that Hiccup thinks sounds like agreement.

“Yeah, I’ll build those for you when I get back from freeing the nest. Right now, there’s a really big dragon queen there, and she’s not a good queen. I’ve gotta stop her, those dragons don’t deserve to be trapped under her control. You’ll keep the Edge safe till I’m back, won’t you? Yeah. You will.”

Hiccup lets his mind wander after that, sitting in silence with Whitenight by his side. Toothless joins them after a bit, wrapping a wing around Hiccup, but not breaking him from his thoughts.

Hiccup is probably the most scared he’s ever been at the idea of fighting that dragon queen, but he knows himself well, and he knows he won’t stop until she’s defeated and all the dragons trapped in her thrall are free. He’ll stop her, no matter what it takes.

Notes:

Thank you for reading, we hope you enjoyed this chapter! Positive comments are very welcome and always appreciated if you feel comfortable leaving one!

Many thanks to those on tumblr who helped me decide via a poll what to make Smidvarg’s name in this fic. If you’re interested in seeing what the other options were, you can find the poll on my httyd blog, it’s there on tumblr under the name mx-dragon-faye (—Nymph/Faye)

Hello everybody! I’m so glad I get to be a part of this, and I’m very excited to see more of how all of you receive our work! Thank you for reading, and I hope you’re having a lovely time so far! (—Seven)

Chapter 4: Watching Still Living Roots be Consumed by the Flame

Summary:

The Berk/Stoick pov of Hiccup’s departure from Berk and the aftermath of it.

Notes:

So we’ve been stealing titles from Arsonist’s Lullabye by Hozier but there’s only so many lyrics to use so this chapter title is actually from Would That I (also by Hozier)

We hope you enjoy this chapter!

Also you’ll notice the tags for the story have been updated. All the characters aren’t in this yet but they’re planned to be so expect their appearances eventually! Tags will continue to be updated as needed/as we see fit

It’s early morning when the distant sound of an explosion sends Berk into a whirlwind of Vikings rushing out of their homes, ready for a fight. An alarm is raised, waking any too far from the explosion to be woken by its sound.

Stoick wastes no time at all in grabbing his axe and rushing out from his house. He can see fire burning in the distance, coming from the kill ring, and the dragons they had kept there rising into the sky. He feels an unnatural breeze, hears the sound of wings nearby, and turns to see a Night Fury hovering just outside his house.

A Night Fury… and its rider. There’s a person on the beast’s back, they’re small, and wearing all dark clothing, with a mask covering their face and hiding their hair from sight. Stoick feels dumbfounded, a baffled rage building within him, because how could any human side with these beasts? It’s wrong, traitorous to humankind. But here this person is, riding on the back of a dragon.

Before he can speak, the beast opens its mouth and fires off a blast… right at his house. Right at the part of his house where his son’s room is located. The room goes up into flames, wood shards blasting out at all angles, the entire room becoming completely demolished in an instant, along with everything inside it. Along with his son.

Because Stoick knows Hiccup was up in his room. He hadn’t come racing down when the alarm was raised. He never left the house this morning. His son was still inside there. And now— and now…

Stoick turns his head to stare at the beast and its rider. To— to yell, to demand what the Hel this was about, why the Hel that traitor had their beast do this, to throw his axe at the rider before they have the chance to escape. But before he can do any of that, the rider speaks, voice low.

“I’ve been watching you, Stoick of Berk. Your flagrant oppression of dragons has gone unpunished for too long. You take their freedom without a thought for their true nature… now I’m taking it back.”

‘Oppression of dragons’ he says, as if the beasts deserve freedom after all they’ve done wrong. All the families they’ve torn apart. Stoick’s eyes stray back to his son’s room… or, the place where it once was… the place where his son has just— just died. Where Hiccup has just been burned by that blast, probably burned to ashes like his room. Gods, is there even going to be anything left of his son?

“You and your peoples’ war on the dragons ends now, unless you want another catastrophe like this. I’ll be taking your dragons now. Take this as a warning… hurting dragons only ends with people getting burned.”

A… warning? His son… his small, smart, odd, precious Hiccup… was killed as a godsdamned warning?

Stoick tightens his grip on the handle of his axe, turning to throw it at the rider who dared to take away his son, but when he finally tears his eyes from the wreckage, the rider and his beast are gone, flying high in the sky with the dragons from the kill ring alongside him.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“Stoick! ‘ave you seen Hiccup? ‘e’s meant to have been in the forge by n…” Gobber trails off as he really looks at his old friend, and at the home sitting before him. The home that’s still dancing with flames licking up the edges of the walls, a glaring absence of a particular room in the house standing out, now nothing but ashes. “…no… Stoick was he— oh, no… oh, Hiccup, lad…”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Stoick sighs, trying not to think about the burning rubble that once was his son’s— his only child’s— room. Instead, he thinks, perhaps gathering his things from the forge will help. Things that haven’t been destroyed by those beasts. Though truly, the things he finds are of little consolation in the end— how much of Hiccup did Stoick not know? How much of himself was he unwilling to share with him? Rightfully so. He never showed Hiccup the love he deserved… and now he can’t.

A small, whittled wooden figurine catches Stoick’s eye. It’s a bit stylized, but still very obviously a Nightfury— good craftsmanship too (though he does have to wonder when Hiccup could have gotten close enough to one to craft this, when Night Furies are known for never being seen). Hiccup always was capable, just… maybe not in the ways Stoick wanted him to be. He should’ve told him that he was proud of him when he had the chance. A small, tired smile creeps onto Stoick’s face, before the irony kicks in. Hiccup admired these creatures so much— was fascinated by them, wanted to know everything about them. And they killed him without a second thought.

Stoick can feel the rage building up within him, fire hotter than any forge’s coursing through his veins. If he could slay every dragon in the world he would— but he can’t. This just makes him all the more furious. He can’t dwell on that, though. His son deserves a proper funeral, and Stoick needs to choose what items of Hiccup’s shall be used as his burial goods.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

They send a ship drifting out to sea with a few items of Hiccup’s on it in place of a body that they don’t have, a body already burned to ashes by dragon fire. The flaming arrows are lit, waiting to be fired off at the ship, but first comes the eulogy.

Stoick feels like the words he’s speaking are hollow, realizing not for the first time since his death just how little he knows about his son. Gobber would’ve given a better eulogy, he knows the man knew his son far better from how much time Hiccup spent in the forge, and he tries not to feel too bitter about that.

He finishes the eulogy and raises his bow, shooting a flaming arrow to light Hiccup’s ship, and everyone else present follows suit.

“I’m sorry, son.” Stoick says quietly. “I’m not the father you needed me to be.”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Berk as a whole mourns for about a week out of respect for the fact that their chief just lost his son, but once that week has passed, everything goes back to how it was before… for the most part.

For once, Stoick takes notice of how the other villagers treat Hiccup— though, at this point, it’s how they treat his memory. And if this is how they speak of him when he’s dead—

“Ay, ain’t it a good thing he can’t go destroyin’ anything with those machines of his anymore at leas’?”

…

“I feel bad for the chief but the lad was useless anyways.”

“Oh don’t be so heartless, he was still jus’ a kid,”

“Aye, and it’s sad, but let’s be honest, he wasn’ doing us any good.”

“Well no, he wasn’t, and I’ll be glad to ne’er have to patch up a broken doorframe from one o’ his machines again, but keep your voice down, we don’ need the chief hearing ya!”

…

“Now Stoick will need a new heir, do you think he’ll choose you, Snotlout?”

“Of course he will! I’m a great option, especially compared to Useless!”

…

“Ay, good riddance to the lad, I say!”

“Oh quiet won’t you, if chief Stoick hears ya talking ‘bout his son that way—”

“Well chief Stoick never noticed before, where’s the harm now?”

“I s’ppose you’ve got a point there. He must’ve been really embarrassed of his son when the lad was still alive. Why else would he pay so little attention? Can’t even blame the chief, that lad would embarrass any true Viking parents ‘e had!”

—then how badly did they speak of Hiccup when he was alive? How much did Stoick never notice? How much did he let the village get away with?

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

Life in Berk carries on after that. If Stoick doesn’t want the whole place to fall apart, he needs to keep up with his duties as chief, and so he does, putting them above his own grief. As he slips back into his duties with ease, he wonders if Hiccup died resenting him for all the times he put his duties as chief above his duties as a father.

He thinks that—since realizing how he acted, how little he knows of his son—he definitely resents himself for it.

Notes:

Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed this and please feel free to leave a comment if you have something positive to say! Seven and I always appreciate a kind comment and they are always welcome!
(—Nymph/Faye)

Yes, thank you all for reading! I hope you’re having a wonderful time so far with our work!
(—Seven)

Next Up: Back to Hiccup who starts planning to takedown the Red Death. We hope you’re looking forward to it!

Chapter 5: You Soon Find You Have Few Choices

Chapter by mx_nymph

Summary:

Hiccup plans to take down the Red Death

Notes:

Faye/Nymph here! I wrote this chapter on my own so hi everyone I hope you enjoy it, and say hi to Seven anyways because I am always excited to have their help in writing this fic and it just happened to work out that they didn’t have anything to work on in this chapter

The chapter title is from Arsonist’s Lullabye by Hozier

This is a much shorter chapter than you’ll typically get from us in this fic! I made it short on purpose, I thought it would be an interesting way to dive back into Hiccup’s pov after seeing Berk’s, and I didn’t want to jump right into the next major event just yet so that’s why this got a chapter of its own!

“Okay— okay what do we know about her?” Hiccup taps his charcoal against one of his notebooks. “She’s… colossal. As large as a mountain, probably. She has no care at all for the dragons in her nest, she’ll kill them if they displease her, and she’s killing them anyway through starvation, making them give her all the food and leaving nothing for them. We know fire and lava will do nothing to her on the outside, since she was sitting in the lava pit itself.”

He scribbles some notes into the notebook, “So then… she’s too big for weapons to do anything more than scratch her at most, and that will aggravate her. We don’t need that happening. She’s too fireproof on the outside for your blasts to have any real effect on her.”

“What to do, what to do…” Hiccup bites at his lip, deep in thought, trying to think of everything he knows about dragons that might help him. That’s when it hits him, thinking back to the other day with Nipper. His own words ring in his mind, ‘Huh, not so fireproof on the inside, are you, little guy?’

“If we can make her mad enough to fire at us, which shouldn’t be an issue, then we should be able to time it right to light her up from the inside… hopefully, she’s not fireproof there too.” He keeps tapping his charcoal against his notebook, working through the vague plan in his mind. “We need to get her out of the volcano. If we set her alight while still inside… we’ll almost certainly be caught in the blast. The lava will only amplify it. You’re fast, bud,” he pats Toothless’ head, “but I don’t want to risk it…”

“We should get the dragons away from the nest first. Their safety is why we’re doing this, so we can’t risk that. And then we get the Queen out of the nest and… and make her mad, I guess. We could probably get her out of there if we annoy her into chasing us…”

Toothless grumbles disapprovingly at that.

“I know, I know bud. But we’ve gotta do this. This is our best shot at taking her down and saving those other dragons from her tyranny and starvation. And then when it’s over, we can lead the dragons who don’t want to stay in that nest anymore back to the Edge. Or make sure they have a way back home… I’m sure her thrall caught dragons who were just passing through. Let’s just… keep them away from Berk. We don’t need to lead them from one death trap to another.”

Toothless warbles in agreement.

“Hey, thank you Toothless. I couldn’t do this without you. And… I’m really sorry to drag you into this.”

Gently, Toothless smacks the back of Hiccup’s head with his tail, a look in his eyes that says Hiccup is a fool if he thinks Toothless isn’t willingly at his side, helping him with this. Then he nudges Hiccup with his nose and licks his hair.

“Ugh! Bud, you know that doesn’t wash out easily!”

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹

“You can all stay back, you know?” Hiccup says to the dragons standing in front of him. He’s standing next to Toothless, preparing to leave the Edge and head to the tyrant queen’s nest. “I just freed you from one death trap, I won’t drag you into another…”

Despite his insistence that they don’t need to come, Skylight, Blaze, Rocky, Splotch and Spark, and Nipper all stay standing right in front of him and Toothless.

“You’re sure about this…” Hiccup is a little in awe, he won’t lie. He’s never had any friends before who so resolutely stuck by him and his decisions. “…thank you. I promise, whatever it takes, I won’t let you get stuck under her thrall. I won’t let this be just another death trap for you.”

“Alright,” Hiccup climbs into his saddle, “let’s do this.”

Notes:

Next chapter will be longer than this one and will be the fight with and subsequent death of the Red Death, so I hope you’re looking forward to that!!

Thank you for reading!! Positive comments are always welcome and greatly appreciated if you feel comfortable leaving one! I sincerely hope you’re enjoying this fic!!

Chapter 6: Allow the Ground to Find Its Brutal Way to Me

Summary:

The Red Death is defeated once and for all… but will all be well for Hiccup and Toothless in the aftermath?

Notes:

Chapter title from I, Carrion (Icarian) by Hozier

Heyyyyy guys, sorry this took us so long, but here’s the next chapter you’ve all been waiting so patiently for, and Seven and I sincerely hope you enjoy!
(—Faye/Nymph)

Yes, apologies for the wait! We’ve both been quite busy and burnt out, but we’re back now! Enjoy!
(—Seven)

It’s foggy and dark out as Hiccup and Toothless approach the nest, the other dragons flying just behind them, and the atmosphere sends a chill through Hiccup.

“Okay, we can— we can do this,” he reassures Toothless as much as he reassures himself.

Hiccup leads his dragon friends into the nest, staying quiet. He doesn’t want to wake the Queen and alert her to their presence just yet, not until the other dragons in the nest are safely out of the way.

“Alright,” Hiccup whispers just loud enough for his friends to hear him, “Think you all can lead the other dragons out of here?”

The answer is clearly a yes as they each shoot off in different directions, calling out softly to the dragons in the nest, grabbing their attention. Hiccup watches as his friends lead the other dragons away, flying out of the volcano, until he can no longer see them in the distance.

“Okay bud,” Hiccup takes in a deep breath, steeling himself for what’s to come, “just you and me now. Let’s get rid of this tyrant once and for all.”

Toothless fires a plasma blast into the volcano where the Queen resides. At the lack of response, Toothless rapid fires more plasma blasts. That seems to do the trick, the bellowing roar from within the volcano evidence enough of that. Toothless and Hiccup retreat as a growing rumble spreads through the volcano. The pair escapes just before the Queen bursts from the inside of the volcano, sending splinters of stone debris everywhere.

“Oh sweet Hel… she’s got wings.” Hiccup breathes out shakily, before taking a deep breath to try and calm himself. “Alright… Alright, let’s see if she can use them.” His eyes narrow as he directs Toothless to fly higher and higher, the Queen still chasing after them.

Up they go, shooting off into the clouds, the Queen roaring behind them, and the sound shakes Hiccup deep in his bones but he doesn’t let it stop him. This is the most terrifying thing he’s ever done, but it’s to free innocent dragons from a mind controlling tyrant, and so he braces himself and flies higher still into the clouds as the sun begins to rise, seemingly setting a part of the sky ablaze in a glow of soft orange, an eerie color against the dark clouds Hiccup and Toothless now find themselves shrouded in.

The Queen joins them in the clouds but cannot see them, wings flapping causing heavy gusts of air as she spins around wildly, roaring in anger when she cannot find them amongst the still dark sky. They will not have the advantage of a dark sky for much longer, and past that point the cloud coverage will only do so much to keep them hidden, and so Hiccup knows they must act now.

Wordlessly, he directs Toothless to shoot off a plasma blast at one of her wings, and more still in quick succession. The Queen lets out a loud screech of pain as her wings are torn into, holes ripping wider as she continues to flap her wings. Hiccup can see her jaw open wide, and then he is directing Toothless higher yet as the Queen shoots off one of her streams of fire.

They aren’t quite quick enough to fly higher, however, and Toothless’ tail catches fire quickly.

“Okay, time’s up! Oh I hope this is going to work…”

The Queen is right behind Hiccup and Toothless as they shoot downwards with a great speed, Hiccup can smell rotting dragon flesh and blood on her breath with how close she is to them.

“Come on, come on…” Hiccup turns his head to look back, spotting the tail almost entirely burnt, and the teeth of the Queen as she opens her jaw slightly.

“Alright, stay with me buddy, just a little longer now, that’s it… that’s it, we’re good buddy.”

The gas builds in the Queen’s mouth, “Hold, Toothless… hold… NOW!” Hiccup spins them around and Toothless fires off a plasma blast straight into the Queen’s mouth, lighting the gas before it escapes entirely into the sky for her to light herself.

As the Queen burns up from the inside, Hiccup’s plan having worked, the last of Toothless’ tail burns away, and with it any ability to steer.

“Come on…” Hiccup and Toothless are only just able to get out of the way of her great jaws as the Queen’s wings rip even further, unable to catch herself or slow her fall.

Hiccup can feel the impact reverberate within him as she hits the ground, the sound of it like thunder. He tries to look but the dust kicked up around her blocks his view of the giant’s slowly burning corpse. He can smell her burning flesh though, and bile wells up in his throat.

As he turns his head back around, guiding Toothless as best he can through the great spines on her back, like seastacks, he sees her tail, large and clubbed, coming closer and closer to them. But he cannot steer them away, Toothless’ tail entirely lost, and the Queen’s tail too wide to avoid with the small turns Toothless is able to make without it.

“No! NO!!”

The impact of it is perhaps the most painful thing Hiccup has ever felt, as he falls from Toothless and feels the sharp aches shoot throughout his body. Hiccup falls and falls, and then falls further into the fire below them, and it is excruciating as it catches on his clothes. He is powerless to do anything though, as he keeps falling down, the pain overtaking him. Slowly, Hiccup begins to black out, the last thing he sees is Toothless shooting down to try and reach him, to try and envelop him in his wings, to try and save him.

And despite it all, despite the pain, the burning, the fear… Hiccup smiles. His best friend is here with him, is coming to get him. Deep in his soul, he knows he’ll be alright, no matter the outcome. Toothless is here, he’s not alone.

Hiccup lets his eyes fall closed, unconsciousness finally taking him.

⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏࣪﹏𓊝﹏﹏⊹ ࣪ ﹏𓊝﹏𓂁﹏⊹ ࣪

Toothless shakes himself awake, clearly not uninjured. He lifts his wing slowly, turning his head to look at his rider. Hiccup lies there, unconscious… not only that, but his leg is completely destroyed. Skin charred down to bone, splintered unnaturally in a way that would be impossible to salvage.

He croons mournfully at the sight of it, but holds onto hope, because he can see the rise and fall of Hiccup’s chest. Weak, but there. His best friend is alive.

Toothless calls out loudly, roar echoing off the bones of the Queen, her flesh burnt away entirely, and the rocks around them. He calls for the dragons they had freed from the arena, the dragons that had given him and Hiccup their loyalty.

He may be unable to fly without Hiccup, without the tail his walking miracle of a best friend had crafted for him, but they are not. He needs them, Hiccup needs them if he is to survive.

As the sky glows around them with the soft and gorgeous orange and pinks of the sunrise, and the world sits quiet, not even a bird chirp to be heard for miles around them, Toothless continues to call out for help.

He hopes the other dragons will hear, that they will get here in time. It does not seem like Hiccup has much of it to spare.

Notes:

Alright folks, there you have it! We hope you enjoyed, and as always kind and positive comments are not only welcome but also greatly appreciated!

Next chapter: dragons are not qualified to heal humans, but they’re going to do their damn best

Thank you for reading!
(—Nymph/Faye)

Hope you all enjoyed! Something tells me we’re cooking up something a tad traumatic next chapter, and by “something” I mean “my brain” and by “we” I mean “me.”
(—Seven)