Chapter 6
~ Eva's POV ~

Gobber led me to a great stables where he said Toothless was sleeping.
The dragon jumped up at the sound of human voices and nuzzled Gobber's stretched out hand.
"Is that what I think it is?" I asked, glancing nervously over the beast.
Gobber laughed heartily at my question. "Oh yeah."

The Night Fury before me kind of smiled at me and sniffed me over while his tongue was lolling out like that of a docile dog.
"Wow...I didn't think any of you existed any more..."

Gobber rested his hands on his hips and grinned. "Yeah! Good old Hiccup shot him out the sky when he was a boy! No one believed him. Then he trained him and saved us all on the back of our greatest foe. Nutty that."

I gasped in sudden realisation.

"Hiccup! Toothless the dragon! As in Hiccup, THE dragon trainer! The one who killed Drago Bludvist!" I half-yelled while emphasising a little on the 'THE'.
Gobber frowned with a puzzled glare on his face. "Yes..."

"Of course! How could I be so blind! I need to talk to Hiccup, I'll be back later!" I called, already running away.
I heard Gobber groan in retaliation but I ignored him.

I had to find Hiccup.

After searching the village, I finally found him in the woods. I came up behind a tree and was about to run out to him, but I stopped.
He was skimming stones into the nearby lake. Instead, I very slowly made my way out to him. I was good at creeping up on people.
"What are you doing here?" He asked without turning around.
I frowned.
How had he known I was behind him?
"How did you know I was here?" I asked nervously.
Hiccup chuckled and turned around, his green eyes shining and a half smile lingering on his quiet face. "Come' on! I have a Night Fury for a dragon! The master of stealth! If I can tell when he is behind me, I can definitely tell when a human in behind me."

I tucked a rebellious lock of hair behind my ear and made my way beside the man. "Yeah, about that...You need to get Toothless out of here."

Hiccup turned to me with his eyebrows scrunched together leaving a confused expression plastered on his face. "Why?"

I looked down because I was frightened of looking into his gentle face. "Toothless is a Night Fury, the only Night Fury in fact that I have ever seen out of Eddval's army..."
Hiccup's face fell hard and intense. He knelt down so he was looking right into my face. "Army? Eddval? What are you talking about?"

I felt myself clamming up again. It was so hard to talk about these things. "Hiccup. Night Furies are hunted. Their saliva has healing properties so Eddval uses them for business. Using their saliva as medicine and them in general to get himself money. He has a Night Fury army, Hiccup, and he won't stop until he gets his hands on every last one."

Hiccup stood up straight and turned his attention back to the lake. "For ten years I have been looking for other Night Furies! How do you know about this?! How have I not heard of this?!"

"Because...I escaped from the Granite Skull...An island prison that was once my home, the Isle of Berdwick."

Hiccup turned to me with his eyes fixed on my face. "The Granite Skull. The Night Furies are being held there. I knew they were out there! I knew it! Come' on, let's go!"

I grabbed Hiccup by the arm. "No! Hiccup! Do you know what the Granite Skull is?! It is a dungeon and a torture chamber! And...I would know that because my brother was tortured to death there! I escaped and I will not let you go to that place! They have dozens of guards, thousands of weapons and an army of Night Furies, I might add. Besides. If you go, he will kill you and take Toothless away to be hurt and beaten and tested on.
No. You need to think this through, carefully."
Hiccup glanced over the scar running down my face and hesitated for a second. He knelt down and looked back up into my face again, his eyes pained and impatient. "What should I do, Eva?"

I looked deeply into his hard expression trying to work out what he was thinking. Was he angry or excited at the thought of more Night Furies?

"I don't know....but Eddval will not stop until every Night Fury is under his rule."

~*~*~*~
~ Hiccup's POV ~

I had to tell Astrid immediately.
She should be the first to know, then Gobber and Valka, then the other dragon riders.

"Astrid! Astrid!" I called, darting toward my mother's house

She and Lucy were in there making some lunch and she hurried to me at the alarm in my voice, her face flustered with worry.
"What?! What is it?!"

I grabbed her by the shoulders, breathless and tired from my run across the island. It seemed so much bigger when you weren't flying a dragon.
"I know where all the Night Furies are!"

Astrid gasped and a half smile broke out on her face, but she could tell that I wasn't all excited.
"What! You think you know where all the Night Furies are?!"

I nodded again, but I wasn't smiling, I was serious.
"Yes, but, they're being held captive, trapped by a crazy man who goes by the name of Eddval Skull-Hunter I-"

I was cut short by Gobber joining the conversation that was happening in the middle of the plaza, in the doorway of his workshop.
"That's why you never found them. Hiccup, Eva told me everything...if he has built an army of Night Furies. We can't stand against him."

I waved my arms angrily in his direction. "Gobber, we're talking about Night Furies! The dragons I've been searching for, for half of my life!"
I gestured to the dragon that was excitedly following a grasshopper as it bounced along the ground.

"Toothless is a great dragon, he's really a lovable over-grown puppy dog, but he is also the dragon who absent-mindedly murdered you father with one plasma blast.
We are talking about hundreds, maybe thousands of these same dragons under the control of a mad man. If one blast can kill a man, there's not much we can do. We are talking about people's lives here! Please, as you're chief now, don't do something stupid, if not for your own sake, for all of ours; including Toothless'."

I turned to the playful dragon at my feet and ran my fingers over his tough black scales.
"I will be careful, but there is nothing that can stop me from saving the Night Furies."

"How do you know it's not a trap?! Eva could be the bait for one, you of all people know about traps!" Astrid asked.

"No...It's too real." I argued.

"But how do you know that your feelings aren't blinding your judgement?" She demanded again.

"Excuse me?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows and glaring at her.

Astrid rested a warm hand on my cheek and looked me square in the eyes, that serious angry look on her face. The same determined expression she held on our first day of dragon training with Gobber all those years ago.
"Hiccup...I of all people know how much this means to you...but please, before you do anything...be sure you're doing what's right." she requested, wrapping me in a hug.

"I already know I am. I have to, for Toothless."

~*~*~*~
~ Astrid's POV ~

Hiccup rushed around me with Toothless' saddle bag in hand packing food and other supplies for his two day flight to the Granite Skull.
"Hiccup, think about what you're doing! We're talking about an island prison! A deranged man who's aim is to rule the world! Ring any bells?!" I ordered, trying desperately to break down his fixation on the this suicide mission.
He stopped and frowned for a moment before continuing in his packing. "Astrid. Relax, it's just a scouting mission, I promise not to engage. It won't be like at the Sanctuary."

I slowly walked up to him with a knowing sigh and coiled my hands around the back of his neck. With my eyes locked on his, I kissed him quickly to try and pry him from his state of being blinded by the love for a dragon.
"A scouting mission?...Seriously? You think I buy that?"

He snorted and rested his forehead against mine, the pulsing heat and perspiring sweat warning me of his nervous state.
"No..."

"Hiccup. I'm coming with you."

"Over my dead body. Do you know what I'm getting myself in for?!"

"Yes. It's the exact reason I have to come with you."

He pulled away from me and wagged his finger in my face before he continued his intense packing and fell back into that worried state of mind that I had managed to drag him from for just a moment. "No way, I can't let you do that."

"I'm not asking you to let me." I whispered, looking determinedly up into his face.

He slapped his thighs with his sweaty palms and growled disbelievingly. "Ugh, fine. But if you mention this to any of the other dragon riders I'll-"
I covered his mouth, Hiccup had a habit saying way more words than were necessary. "Got it."

"No, no, no! I need the words, 'I promise not to tell the other dragon riders or anyone else for that matter.'"

I rolled my eyes and, even as he was still speaking, kissed him hard and long, holding there long enough to shut him up.
"Is that promise enough?" I mumbled with grin.

He caught his balance and opened his eyes, his cheeks flushing red and his eyes sparkling. "I-I...er....Y-yeah...I could.......Sure."

I laughed and leant on his shoulder as we walked out the door. "We leave in the morning though...You have a daughter to say goodbye to. No running off without giving her what she deserves." I ordered.

He nodded glumly with a glance out the window. "Ah fine."

~*~*~*~
~ Hiccup's POV ~

I swallowed my last gulp of ale and sat back in my chair as I gazed into the fire swirling and swaying beneath a pot of Astrid's so-called food.
I sighed to the rhythm of Toothless' slow and gentle breathing as I heard the familiar scampering of little feet on the pine floor.
"Daddy! Why do you have to go tomorrow?" asked the sweet voice that belonged to the little child I loved so much.

"Well," I lifted the bright-eyed four year old onto my lap. "I have to go for Toothless, if there are more Night Furies out there, I have to find them."

"Okay...Will you bring them back?!" she giggled excitedly, starting to fiddle with the threads that weaved between the slit V shape down the front of my shirt.
I ran my fingers through her golden wavy hair and smiled. Her cheeks were rosy with the warmth from the fire and the flames bounced in her moss green orbs.

I couldn't resist her.

"Hopefully. Hopefully we'll bring them all home."

"Shouldn't we set them all free?" she asked, pouting on their behalf.
I frowned.
The thought had never crossed my mind.
Set them all free?
"Maybe. If they want to go. They might want to stay. Not that there would be room for all of them on Berk, we would have to find an Isle of Night."

She nodded in agreement and sighed deeply. "When will you come back for me?"

I found my thoughts curling a smile on my face as I watched her being her inquisitive, complicated self. She was so perfect and I marvelled at how she was my own.
"Soon." I assured her.

"But I'll miss you...Promise me you'll be back really, real soon!"

I laughed and snuggled her close.
"I'll be back before you can say 'Great Odin's Ghost'!" I chuckled, waving my hand for effect.
She threw her arms in the air and squealed, "Great Odin's Ghost! You're back!"

"I haven't left yet, pumpkin!" I laughed, bopping her on the nose.
"Oh...It still felt like you were here with me." She smiled.

"I am always with you. Look, I'll give you something to look after until I come back."

I tore a slip of paper from the notebook in the sleeve of my flight suit hanging on the back of the chair.
I scribbled down something and handed it to her all folded up.
Her golden brows huddled into a puzzled frown. "What can I do with this?"

"Protect it, until I get back. If I never come home, then you'll always have the piece of me I gave you here and," I rested my index finger on her heart, "Here."

~*~*~*~

Leaving Lucy was much harder than I had anticipated the night before.
She gave me a big hug, but I was scared of leaving her when it came to us giving her into Valka's care.
"Be careful." my Mother ordered, warned and asked all at the same time, kissing my cheek.
"Yeah..." I smiled, hugging her. "We will be."

We boarded our dragons and took to the skies. One last look at Berk as it faded through the morning fog was the last thing we saw as we began our two day flight.

Why were we always chasing after trouble?

We silently flew over the ocean with casual light conversation every now and again for a few hours.
"My bum's stiff..." Astrid moaned eventually, shifting around to try and get comfy.
"Nice...I could have gone my whole life without knowing that." I groaned sarcastically, rolling my eyes with a smirk.
"Is your butt not stiff?! We've been flying for four hours! And I'm starving!"

I took a deep breath and huffed slowly. "A little...But, I'm afraid we can't stop anywhere for food. The nearest place from here is-" I pulled a map from my satchel and checked it for the first stop point between here and the Granite Skull. "We reach a small island called Pavla Skerry, meaning little island. And we won't reach there until dusk. Look's like it'll be a fly through meal." I shrugged, I hadn't even known the little place existed until Gobber had found the old map.
I could only hope it was still there.
"Great. Okay, I'm eating now. Take the wheel, Stormfly." Astrid ordered, pulling out a sandwich from her bag.

"What's in the sandwich?" I asked, suddenly smelling something rather foul.
"No idea, Valka made them. It tastes good though, you should eat."

I shuddered at the thought. I would rather share a regurgitated fish with Toothless than eat one of my mother's sandwiches.
"No thanks...I'm good."

~*~*~*~

Was this chapter good? What did you think about Eva's strange story about Eddval's Night Fury Army? What about Hiccup saying goodbye to Lucy? What about Gobber's warning about the Night Furies? Are the dragon riders in agreement about this?
Yeah so, any feedback is much appreciated! Thank you for reading! I hope you enjoyed!

~ Httyd_2014 <3