Chapter 15

"Uhm...." Snotlout fumbled while answering the question as the Nightfury made full use of its body weight to crush and cuddle Hiccup. Gobber meanwhile, casually lit several lamps in the forge as if all of this was a normal occurrence.

"A little help here guys!" Hiccup groaned.

"You reap what you sow Hiccup. This is what ya get when you have a Nightfury and go out on your own," Gobber muttered.

"Yeah, that's right!" Snotlout then said. "If I left Hookfang alone for so many days I'd be barbeque!"

"Snotlout you'd be barbeque either way!" Hiccup said as he finally managed to extricate himself. "Hookfang loves setting you on fire."

"Can't argue with that logic," Gobber hummed as he placed an oil lamp on a rickety wooden table.

"That was one time! ONE TIME!" Snotlout exclaimed as he came down the rest of the steps.

"Snotlout, that was three times on the day I left," Hiccup deadpanned.

"Besides..." Snotlout said, totally ignoring Hiccup's statement. "I just spent an hour clutched to the back of your Nightfury as he was going at an insane speed! How do you even do it?! I couldn't breathe! I think I swallowed a few bugs! We even went right through a freaking storm!"

"That's not so bad," Hiccup mumbled as he sat down.

"NOT SO BAD? NOT SO BAD?! WE NEARLY GOT HIT BY LIGHTNING! TWICE!" Hiccup's cousin uttered frantically. "I now wholly appreciate Hookfang's laziness in stormy weather. YOU AND YOUR DRAGON ARE INSANE!"

"Toothless bud, you shouldn't have come," Hiccup said as he stroked the dragon's head, ignoring his cousin's outburst mostly. Toothless had curled up around the stool Hiccup was using and batted the back of his head with his tail to get some attention.

"The Lightfury isn't exactly why we came here...." Snotlout confessed which caused Hiccup to still in his ministrations and look at him perplexed.

"It's not?"

"Well, you see...." Snotlout nervously chuckled. "Uhm...."

"Snotlout spit it out already!"

"Okay okay! Soooo there might have been a little spat in one of the Nadder colonies." Snotlout uttered. "We went to investigate and found that one of the dragons had left the island. Apparently, they didn't accept the advances of one of the males during breeding season and were chased off."

"Don't tell me it's THAT Nadder..." Hiccup grumbled.

"Uhm..." Snotlout muttered.

"I knew it! I just knew it. Bucket shouldn't have been so hasty with introducing them into the general population." Hiccup frowned.

"I'm a bit confused here." Gobber said as he scratched the back of his head with his prosthetic.

"Remember when I hurt my hand?" Hiccup questioned, holding up his left hand to emphasise, and Gobber nodded. "Right, well that happened when we found a rogue Nadder nest. It was in the territory the Changewings suddenly claimed. Only one of the Nadder babies survived and they were extremely confrontational. Nadders are proud and prim dragons by nature but this was a bit more violent case. So we took her in, intending to release her to one of the colonies once we slowly introduced her to her new environment."

"You're thinking she wasn't adapted enough?" Gobber then asked.

Hiccup nodded and then sighed. "Male Nadders are proud creatures. Especially during mating season. They take pride in being able to snag several mates. If the female doesn't accept any advances violence ensues and they may be chased out."

"Yeah and Toothless chased after them with me clutching onto his back for dear life!" Snotlout uttered while looking sick at imagining the ride again. "Hiccup, it was bad. The Nadder left Berk territory and got captured."

"WHAT?! HOW!" Hiccup's eyes widened. "They couldn't just have been laying in wait at the exact spot!"

"I don't know but Toothless and I followed them up to here." Snotlout confessed.

"This is bad, this is really bad," Hiccup muttered. "First the Lightfury and now a Nadder?!"

"Personally lad, I think tha Lightfury just got caught in bad weather and then captured. There is no way this kingdom knew we were hiding dragons." Gobber stated. "But they might have stationed vessels close to our borders hoping to catch another."

"How are we going to find them now? Did you make any progress?" Snotlout asked with a frown.

"No, No progress yet. Wherever the dragons are being kept it's a closely guarded secret. Even the twins couldn't find anything and they have more access than me." Hiccup sighed. "This is a mess."

"You know we could just use force right," Snotlout suggested. "I mean with our ships and all our dragons they'd be at a disadvantage either way."

"Snotlout we are not going into fullscale siege mode!" Hiccup grumbled. "Do you know how many people on both sides would be injured if we did that?!"

"And what's to stop this kingdom from just killing the dragons just to spite us once we do start a siege?" Gobber added. Snotlout was quiet for a moment, thinking. "So what now?" Snotlout asked. "Are we out of options?"

"Well....." Gobber muttered. "I didn't want to bring this up but...." He stopped and then looked Hiccup right in the eye. "Ya could ask the lass for help. She'd probably be able to go where envoys can't."

"Lass? What lass?" Snotlout questioned the same time Hiccup said "Gobber, I can't take advantage of Astrid like that!"

"She's a Hofferson, Hiccup. She at the very least deserves to know Berk's secret. Especially after what her family did for us." Gobber muttered causing Hiccup to look conflicted.

"Wait wait wait.... Wait just a moment! Hofferson, as in THE Hoffersons?!" Snotlout's eyes widened. "Why in Thor's name is there a branch of that family here? They're scary as hell!"

"Snotlout have you been sleeping through history class again?" Hiccup sighed as his cousin gave him a confused look.

"What?! You know I'm right!" Snotlout stated. "Their loyalty to Berk is... is... terrifying!"

"They are so well respected because of their loyalty to Berk, and Gobber is right, Astrid has a right to know but she never grew up on Berk so she might not feel the same sense of kinship to it."

"Uhm... right..." Snotlout murmured.

"You know, I expected the twins to fall asleep during history class but not you," Hiccup rolled his eyes. "Let me just tell you that forty-one years ago, because of Evelyn Hofferson's sacrifice, Berk had the time to build up its defenses to what we have today."

"Skjaldborg!" Someone commanded as the warriors lined up in position to create the formation. More commands of skjaldborg followed as the invaders were being driven from the Berkian shores. Blood and violence was rampant on the beaches while part of the village burned from the persistent catapult shots that several of the enemy longboats persisted with. The man commanding the Vikings that were defending their homes called them all to rally. Any able-bodied person that could fight, would fight.

"Father!" A young red-haired boy, no older than twelve, called out once he saw an arrow pierce through his father's shoulder.

"I'm fine Stoick! Focus on the battle!" The man ordered as he grunted in pain but got up. Blood was flowing from his injured shoulder yet he kept slicing at the enemy that dared to invade his tribe.

"TAKE AIM!" Was suddenly shouted and the Chief looked to the nearby cliff to see several flames blazing. The moonlight only illuminated part of them but they were definitely warriors brandishing bows. "FIRE!" The flaming arrows flew through the night sky and over the shallow water where the enemy longships had situated themselves. Soon the boats and sails of the enemy ships were on fire as volley after volley of flaming arrows hit their mark.

"It's the hunting party that left two days ago! They must have returned early when they saw the smoke," the young Stoick exclaimed as new hope filled the Vikings.

By daybreak the raiders had been defeated. The longships had left and the enemy warriors that had been left behind, alive but injured, were taken as prisoners of war to later work as serfs under various families.

Stoick's father was being treated by a Healer next to everyone else. His father's wound had bled significantly causing the Chief to nearly collapse from pain and blood loss after the battle.

"Father, the leader of the hunting party is here," A ten-year-old Spitelout uttered after having been ordered to fetch them.

"Chief, I am Evelyn Hofferdottir," A young lady with her long blond hair in braids and wearing tan leather armor approached and bowed. She had a quiver slung over her shoulder and a sturdy bow gripped in her left hand.

"Come on," Spitelout said as he tugged Stoick's tunic. "Let's go find the others. Do you really want to be around boring adult talk?"

Stoick nodded and left with Spitelout so he didn't hear what his father and the huntswoman spoke about. They found their friends Alvin and Valka working on putting out the fires in the village.

"There ya are!" Valka exclaimed upon spotting Stoick. "Grab a bucket and help will ya."

"What am I? Yak dung?" Spitelout exclaimed upon being ignored. Valka just looked back and smirked before saying in a teasing manner "No, ya just short."

The teens went about their work, not knowing that Berk would change after that day. The news came in the early morning of the following day. Scouts were assessing the damage and one reported that the damage against the cliffside had uncovered a previously undiscovered grotto. There were noises coming from deep within the grotto that worried some of the Vikings. Stoick saw his father, dressed in armor once more, off as the Chief and several warriors went to explore the newly uncovered area.

A terrible screech echoed through the village by midday which caused numerous Vikings to rush out to see what it was. What they saw on the beach were several Viking warriors battling a giant creature with wings. More Vikings rushed down to help including Stoick, Valka and Gobber, who had been cooped up in the forge all day.

"What the hell is that?!" Stoick exclaimed as his red brows shot up to nearly his hairline as he came closer to the creature. He then noted that the person under the creature's leg was none other than his father. "Da!" Stoick raised his axe, intending to charge at the thing but someone stopped him.

"Stoick wait! Look!" Valka said as she gripped his arm. "Look!" She once again said while pointing at the creature.

"What?!" Stoick nearly spat, not knowing what she saw.

"It's only on the defensive!" Valka uttered and then desperately called for the villagers to lower their weapons. When her cries fell on deaf ears it was Stoick who bellowed "LOWER YER WEAPONS DAMNIT!"

Valka was shocked that Stoick had listened to her. His voice carried and several of the Vikings stopped their charge to wonder what had gotten into the boy's head.

Some Vikings were conflicted but they did as Stoick told them to. Their Chief was out cold under the creature and the next in command was his son after all.

Once the Vikings had put some distance between the new creature and them Valka cautiously stepped forward, keeping her hands up as if to show she wasn't a threat. The creature backed its clawed leg off the Chief and retreated back into the grotto from whence they came.

"Well that was weird," Alvin muttered as two warriors helped their Chief up.

Later the next day a town meeting was called to discuss what had happened. There were a lot of anxious Vikings in the crowd. Having just had a raid everyone was on edge. It was revealed by the warriors that had accompanied the Chief that the grotto extended further into the ground than previously imagined. There the scouting party had uncovered a hidden world filled with these winged creatures. The reason the creature had attacked them at all was because they had disturbed a nest.

"So are these creatures good or bad?" Someone in the crowd asked.

"We don't know," Stoick's father answered. "What we do know is that they are very protective of their young."

"We also don't know how far the cave system extends either," he then added.

"So what now?" Someone else asked. Stoick wondered that too as he, Valka and Alvin were in the crowd.

"We have no choice but to keep this a secret," Mildew, one of the council members proclaimed. "Imagine if other tribes, or Thor-forbid the mainland kingdoms find out about this. Berk wouldn't stand a chance if they wanted these creatures."

"Oh..." Snotlout said as he listened to his cousin recount the tale.

"Six months later merchant sailors brought news of one of the mainland kingdoms expanding their borders at a rapid pace. There was no way that Berk at that time could even contend with such a force so we had to bide time."

"That we did," Gobber stated. "Meeting after meeting was called and the only solution they could find was to offer a peace treaty along with a royal marriage. It would also act as a deterrent for the other tribes that kept trying to raid us. Marriage to such a powerful ally would mean we had enough time to consolidate our armies."

"Evelyn Hofferdottir volunteered to carry the treaty and offer herself up as the marriage candidate so that Berk would have time. Her father granted her the name Hofferson for her selfless act." Hiccup explained.

"That she did, and the lass and her family are respected for it," Gobber nodded.

Meanwhile, in the depths of the colosseum, Prince Grimmel made his way through the narrow torch-lit catacombs. "This better be good Krogan," He called out upon seeing the smug man leaning against one of the damp stone pillars with his hood down.

"You've asked and I've delivered," Krogan said as he then dramatically gestured to the cell behind him where chains rattled. The Crown Prince walked closer and his eyes widened upon seeing what was inside. His smile then looked quite predatory as his eyes shone with ambition.

"Very good Krogan, very good." Grimmel said as inside the cell a spike-tailed dragon struggled against the numerous chains binding its beak, legs and wings.