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Hiccup didn't tell the other Dragon Riders about the note he'd found under the Maces and Talons board that Viggo had left for them with Heather's broken piece.
And he didn't tell them about the note Viggo had slipped to him while Hiccup was getting the Buffalord saliva for Astrid.
Toothless was the only one who knew.
Now, by lamplight, Hiccup looked at the two he had... so far. He felt like there would be more coming.
He didn't know what they meant. At all. It was like poetry, really, just little couplets.
Hiccup scratched his head. He had four lines of poetry from his enemy. What could that possibly mean?
Where the horse sleeps behind the stars
A distant raven will caw
That was the first one. It didn't even sound like it made sense. But, then again, Hiccup had never been much of a poet. Maybe if he showed these to Tuffnut...
But he couldn't. He couldn't let his friends know that his enemy was giving him notes and he hadn't just burned them.
Eight limbs awaken
Reaching for the sky
That was the second couplet. Hiccup could see a slight relation to the first. Maybe. But he couldn't be sure. He just couldn't be.
"Gah!" Hiccup threw up his hands, then took the couplets. He was ready to crumple them up and tell Toothless to burn them, but he suddenly stopped himself.
What was Viggo trying to say to him?
"Maybe this can be the end of our war," Hiccup mused, looking down at the papers he'd almost ruined. He decided that he would keep them, just in case they meant something, just in case Viggo gave him anymore.
Hiccup took the lantern and the pages, and went up to the loft. He was slipping the pages under his pillow when there was a knock on his door.
Hiccup looked at it questioningly. It was late - he had made sure of that before looking at the messages. Who could be up and at his door? It couldn't be an emergency, or else whoever it was would have just come in.
Curious, Toothless sniffed at the door, tried to slide it open. Deciding that the person on the other side had to be friendly and that he was just feeling overly cautious, Hiccup went to answer it.
"Astrid! What are you doing here? It's late."
"Was uh- couldn't sleep," Astrid said. "Saw you had a light on. May I come in?"
Hiccup nodded, let Astrid in, then closed the door behind her. Toothless hopped up onto his hind legs and licked Astrid over the head.
"Toothless! I just washed my hair!"
Hiccup laughed, tugging Toothless away from Astrid by putting an arm around his head. "Come on, bud. I know she smells nice, but-"
"You think I smell nice?"
Hiccup stopped, realizing what he'd just said. He blushed furiously, looked down at the floor. "D-did I say that?"
Astrid crossed her arms, smirking. "You did."
"Um... uh..."
"Hiccup, it's fine." Astrid smiled, shook her head. "Anyway, what are you doing up?"
"Reading." Was that a lie? Lie of omission, maybe.
Astrid crossed her arms. "You look bothered though."
"Character just died," Hiccup lied.
Astrid sighed. "Hiccup, you know you're allowed to talk to me about things."
"What things?"
"Big things? Serious things?" Astrid came closer, put a hand on his shoulder. "Tell me what's really going on."
Hiccup pursed his lips, looked at her. What was he to say?
"I can't."
There. That was the truth of it.
Astrid's hand fell away from Hiccup's shoulder. "I thought we were closer than that Hiccup." She sounded upset.
"Astrid, it's not like that!"
"Whatever, Hiccup."
She left his hut, and Hiccup tugged at his hair with both hands, letting out a small sound of frustration. He looked to Toothless for help, but the dragon just made an "I don't know" noise.
Hiccup wanted to kick something, but decided against it. He didn't need to go messing up his toes or the end of his prosthetic. Maybe he should go for a flight instead.
"Wanna go for a flight, bud?" Hiccup asked. Toothless cooed and warbled at him. So he knew he was using it to de-stress, and had agreed to help him.
After waiting a few moments to make sure Astrid was gone, Hiccup mounted Toothless and left his hut, taking off into the night.
Viggo wasn't actually at the next battle with the Dragon Hunters, but there had been a note anyway, as if he'd planned this, as if he'd known that Hiccup and his friends would come for this exact shipment.
It was a shipment of marble blocks, the dragon cells crowded with it. Hiccup almost missed the note, but Toothless was sniffing at something near one of the blocks.
"Hiccup, you coming back up?" Fishlegs called.
"In a minute!" Hiccup yelled back. He bent and picked up the little slip of paper, and Toothless watched him read it.
It was another couplet, another poem that seemingly made no sense.
Follow the dragon's tooth
To the lair once filled with smoke
Hiccup read it a few times before putting it in the pouch on his belt, questioning it as he and Toothless went back up to the rest of the Dragon Riders.
"Find anything interesting?" Snotlout asked him.
"No," Hiccup lied, because how could he tell any of them about these notes? Especially when this one was telling him to do something? That's what was so different about this one. It made little sense, but it was clearly a direction. He'd have to think on it later though. They had more pressing matters to deal with. "It's just marble."
"Huh," Tuffnut said. "Thought Viggo mostly dealt in dragons."
"He does , Tuff," Astrid said, clearly irritated. "That's why we have to figure this out. What's he using the marble for?"
"I don't know," Hiccup answered. "Snotlout, Heather, Astrid, you follow that other shipment. It probably has marble too. Figure out where it's going. Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, and I will find out where this is coming from."
Hiccup felt a little bad separating himself from Astrid, but she was still clearly upset with him for not telling her the truth the other night. She could probably tell he'd lied earlier as well. She knew him too well.
But that was that. No one asked questions. They just set out to do their work, and Hiccup wondered if he would find anymore notes from Viggo.
Hiccup waited. He didn't want to listen to Viggo's request and go to wherever these notes were leading him to. He'd even procrastinated in figuring out where they could possibly lead to. Because now he knew that they pointed somewhere. What would be at the end of that? Viggo? Just another trap?
He hadn't received any other notes despite having a few more run-ins with the Dragon Hunters. No run-ins with Viggo though. Not a single one.
But now, he couldn't sleep. The notes were under his pillow; he kept feeling at them with his hand. Three slips of paper that could lead to his doom.
Frustrated, Hiccup took them out, turned up the lantern on the nightstand beside him. He read them over again.
He understood some of it now. Viggo was using religious references in the first note, a reference to Sliepnir and Odin's ravens. Sliepnir Island. That had to be the place. The other notes? Well, they had to be clues of where to go on the island. Hiccup didn't know the island well, so he would have to bring the clues with him and figure it out when he got there.
"Toothless, you awake, bud?" Hiccup asked, beginning to get out of bed and tie on his prosthetic. He'd gone to bed dressed, too bothered to do anything to prepare for sleep.
Toothless grumbled from his sleeping stone, put his tail over his nose.
"Toothless, this is kind of important."
He lifted his tail and eyed Hiccup. He seemed to be asking what he thought Hiccup meant by "important."
Hiccup sighed. He would have to explain. "The notes I've been getting? They lead somewhere. They're clues."
Toothless put his tail back over his face.
"Toothless, come on ." Hiccup stood and went over to his dragon, tugging on his tail. "I need you, bud."
Toothless grumbled again, but stretched and stood. He smacked Hiccup in the face with an ear flap as he went by, but he was going downstairs to where Hiccup kept the saddle and tail fin. Hiccup rubbed at his cheek, shook his head, and followed.
It didn't take long to get Toothless' prosthetic on and get him saddled. He still seemed hesitant about going, but Hiccup had made up his mind. He had to see what was at the end of this trail of clues.
So he took off into the cold night air, heading towards Sliepnir Island.
Hiccup circled the island a few times before landing. It was hard to see if there were any ships docked. Maybe he'd gotten here before whoever was waiting for him.
He landed in a clearing, mulling over the clues in his head. He dismounted from Toothless, took out the notes to read them while his friend gave him a low flame. The writing looked chilling in the purple light.
"Trees," Hiccup said quietly. He didn't really want to alert anyone to his presence. "It's gotta be trees. But how am I supposed to know which eight?"
Hiccup rubbed at the bridge of his nose, then met Toothless' questioning gaze.
"Yes, bud, I'm going to follow it, so you're coming too."
Toothless sat, pressing his paws into the earth like he wouldn't be moving.
"Okay," Hiccup said, disbelieving in Toothless' act. "Guess you'll let me wander into danger on my own. All alone!" He chose a direction and began walking. He didn't look over his shoulder, but he didn't have to to know that it didn't take long for Toothless to follow him.
Hiccup didn't know what kind of trees he was looking for exactly. There were a lot of trees on the island. Maybe the eight tallest ones on the island?
It took him about an hour of searching to find anything. He came to another clearing bathed in moonlight, and found it surrounded by exactly eight very tall trees.
"Oh, this has to be it!" Hiccup looked around. No one was there - no sign of anyone either.
"Dragon's tooth," Hiccup muttered to himself, thinking about the last clue he'd been given. "Lair once filled with smoke. So there must be a cave of some sort."
Toothless could locate things better in the dark than Hiccup, but he didn't know exactly what Hiccup was looking for, so he couldn't help much. He could just follow and keep him safe.
It took some searching and multiple times of retracing his steps to the clearing for Hiccup to find it. It was a giant rock that shot up from the ground and looked, well, like a dragon's fang. Then, beyond that, Hiccup saw light flickering off stone walls.
Someone was here.
"Be on guard, bud," Hiccup told Toothless. He drew his sword, and carefully approached the cave. He hid behind the giant rock to get a look at it, but still couldn't see much from there.
"I guess I have to go in."
Toothless made a small growling sound, showing his teeth. He'd protect Hiccup if it came to that.
So together the two made their way to the cave. There was a man there in the flickering light of torches, standing with his back turned. The smell of smoke was faint on the air.
"You know, I thought you would give me the courtesy of coming with no weapons," Viggo said, turning slowly to Hiccup. "As I am unarmed." He spread his arms to show this, and Hiccup examined him. His sword wasn't slung over his shoulder, and he had no daggers or anything else on his belt.
That didn't mean Hiccup could believe him, however.
"What do you want, Viggo?" Hiccup stood about a dozen feet from him now. He didn't really want to get any closer until he figured out what the point of this was.
"Sheath your sword and I'll tell you."
Hiccup glanced at Toothless, who gave a small shake of his head, but Hiccup sheathed his sword anyway, got into a more relaxing position, knees no longer bent like he was ready to fight.
"Good," Viggo said. He looked at Toothless. "Any chance of him not being here?"
"No," Hiccup said firmly, crossing his arms over his chest. Did Toothless make Viggo nervous? Good.
Viggo sighed, folded his hands behind his back. "Very well. I wanted to meet with you in secret, you see - away from the prying eyes of your Riders and my brother."
"Why?"
"We haven't really met on good terms, have we?" Viggo asked. "I wanted to see if a change of setting would... influence our relationship."
Hiccup didn't believe it. Not one bit.
"This is a trap," he said.
"No, no, it's not," Viggo was quick to assure him. He raised his hands in innocence. "I came alone."
Hiccup said nothing, just stood there, eyeing him, the cave behind them that fell into darkness. Anyone or anything could be hiding in that.
"It's an old Smothering Smokebreath lair," Viggo said, as if he thought Hiccup was questioning that. "Hence the smell of smoke."
Hiccup still said nothing.
Viggo shook his head. "It took you long enough to figure out my clues."
"I waited on them," Hiccup said. "I-I didn't know if they'd be worth it."
"And are they?"
"I'm not sure yet."
Viggo chuckled. He was coming closer, running his fingertips along the cavern wall. Hiccup, for some reason, didn't back away.
"Do you know how many nights I've come here hoping for your presence?" Viggo asked him.
"So I wasted your time?" Hiccup asked, snark in his tone. "Good."
Viggo smiled at him, and it reached his eyes. That was what Hiccup noticed. He'd seen the man smile before, but it had never really gone into those dark brown depths.
"Darling, any moment spent on you is not a waste."
He... he said that with such conviction, such endearment.
Hiccup cleared his throat awkwardly, blushing. He knew how Viggo felt about him, but he'd been trying to keep the thought of it away. He didn't want another enemy that saw him like that, not after Dagur.
"Don't call me that." Now that? That lacked conviction.
Viggo was right in front of him now, and Toothless looked like he wanted to back away, but he stood his ground with Hiccup. His friend was too important to him to back down.
"And what would you prefer I call you?" Viggo's voice had dropped, like he was trying to seduce him.
"Viggo..." Hiccup didn't know what to say. He knew why Viggo wanted him here. He couldn't give him what he wanted though.
Viggo reached up a hand to touch Hiccup's face, and Hiccup blinked in shock at the gentleness of it. Toothless growled, but neither Viggo or Hiccup made a move to stop what was happening.
Hiccup's breath hitched a little. The way Viggo was looking at him...
"You know what I want," Viggo said softly, without demand.
"Yes," Hiccup said just as quietly. "I... I don't know if I can give it." He stepped away from Viggo's hand, and Viggo curled his fingers for a moment before letting his hand drop. "We're enemies , Viggo. We can't do this!"
"We don't have to be enemies."
Hiccup shook his head. "W-we do." He suddenly felt an ache in his chest, a strange sense of longing. Did he want what Viggo wanted? "We're too different."
"Are we?"
"Maybe in some ways." Hiccup couldn't believe he was standing here talking like this with Viggo, that he'd let Viggo touch him. he couldn't believe he'd actually come here. Maybe he'd made a mistake.
"Hiccup, my dear, allow me to show you our similarities."
"No," Hiccup said firmly. "I-I have to go. This was a mistake. I'm sorry." He met Viggo's gaze, surprised that he was apologizing to him. There was such a deep longing there, and a sadness too. It made Hiccup's chest ache some more, made guilt begin to dig into his stomach.
But he would not let guilt give him compassion towards this man.
Viggo sighed a little, gave a small, sad smile. "Until next time then?"
"Until next time," Hiccup said. And then he was leaving the cave, Toothless by his side. He put a hand on his friend's head to comfort himself and him. Toothless looked at him, teeth retracted, and he seemed to understand.
"I know, bud." Hiccup rubbed him lightly between the ears. "I know."