Chapter Text
Jack wasn’t lonely. He had friends. Plenty, in fact! He was friends with the wind, the winter sprites, the Guardians (debatably), the Man in the Moon-
Well, maybe he wouldn’t call Manny his friend, per se, but Jack insisted upon the point that he wasn’t lonely. Even the dragons were good company. They certainly didn’t seem to mind him hanging around. It took a little convincing at first, but after they stopped seeing him as a threat, they took Jack under their less-than-metaphorical wing.
He had made quite the home for himself on what he dubbed Dragon Island over the past few decades. He still had a job to do on other islands, but he always returned with whatever little trinkets he found during his travels. He would give some to the dragons if they took interest in them, and used the rest for his makeshift home base among the trees.
Jack snickered at the baby Littlewing he was playing with. She was rolling around and chomping at the personal mini-flurry he made for her when suddenly the air shifted. The Littlewing tilted her head when snowflakes stopped landing in her open mouth, and instead began dancing around Jack’s head.
Jack shrugged at the Littlewing. “What is it, Wind?” He brought a hand up to his ear so the wind could catch onto his cupped hand. It took him, embarrassingly enough, a whole century to learn that trick.
It was hard to describe how exactly the wind communicated. It didn’t really talk to him–it felt more like a call that Jack easily answered. For the most part, he knew what it was trying to say, despite some misunderstandings over the years due to the language barrier. It was comparable to how Jack understood the dragons, but much more invisible and incoherent. If the wind rustled the trees around him, it was making itself known. If the wind howled, there was urgency. If the wind pushed him, he would follow.
The air being pushed around him was heavier than usual, so it wasn’t just joining their fun. It whistled lowly past his cupped fingers, meaning it was probably worried. Something was coming to the island.
“Let dragons through, but redirect any and all sails away.” Jack brought his hand back down. “Let me know if you find anything.”
They couldn’t have a repeat of the last time Vikings showed up on Dragon Island. They had come in on their boats and acted like it was a holiday—hunting for sport and taking trophies back. Jack had come back from spreading sleet in the North to mass destruction and had found bodies of both man and beast littering the beaches. He buried the dragons out of respect.
Jack vowed from then on to keep Dragon Island as free from Vikings as possible. This was his island, his clutch.
No man would take that from him.
———
The Son of Stoick the Vast, The Dragon Conqueror, The Embarrassment of Berk (and subsequently, the Pride of Berk); Hiccup Haddock had a million and one epithets across the Archepelego–some were earned, some stolen valour, and others were outright false. But the one trait no one could ascribe to him was sedentary.
Hiccup had never been the type to stay idling in one place for too long. A terrible trait for the son of a chief, if you asked him. It’s not that he wasn’t content with what he had; it’s that he knew there would always be more to strive toward—more to learn, more to see, more to achieve. He looked at uncharted territory like a puzzle to be solved. There was always just one more thing to do before he would be satisfied enough to settle down.
On this particular day, he set his sight Southbound. The dragon population around Berk had been steadily decreasing as the air grew colder, right on time for autumn to roll into winter. It wasn’t unexpected; they had a tendency to slow their attacks during the winter months. Hiccup used to attempt to track the dragon’s movements, squinting up at them from the cliffsides until losing sight of them to the misty mountains. But with it being the island’s first winter with the pests-turned-pets, he could finally follow their exact migration patterns along with them.
He shoved his field journal into Toothless’ satchel bag and fiddled with the straps to make sure they stayed secure. Toothless cooed, giving a little wiggle to test it out and make sure it was comfortable for what Hiccup assumed would be a long flight. Toothless was obviously getting antsy, lightly nudging at Hiccup’s side.
“Yeah, we’re going, bud. I’m just gonna let Gobber know we’re headed out.” Hiccup patted Toothless’ snout before walking into the forge.
Hiccup travelled light for now. This was only a brief scouting mission to know just how much the whole gang would have to pack, as well as to chart out any obstacles that might be along the way, though obstacles were usually few and far between when you flew for hours over open ocean. It had been nearly four hours with very little to note, which would have been a lot more boring if not for the occasional loops they had to do so as not to speed past the main herd they were following.
They were still well within the bounds of Hiccup’s map when the herd started to sink past the cloud layer. On one hand, Hiccup was glad they wouldn’t have to be flying for Thor knows how long, but on the other, he was itching to know what was beyond the sketched islands. How long would it take to get to the edge of the world? How far past it could he and Toothless go before they lost sight of the Earth?
It was a question for another trip, he supposed, as they closed in on the island all of the other dragons were drawn to. It was one of the larger ones on the map—it had to house a good chunk of the Archepelego’s dragons for the winter, after all. That meant it would likely take three or so days of scouting to get a good lay of the land.
Hiccup switched gears to get closer to the treeline, but as they approached, a massive gust of wind hit them. It very nearly blew Hiccup right off of Toothless’ back, had it not been for the saddle buckles keeping him attached. Toothless let out a grumble and tossed his head back.
“Easy, Toothless. Just some wind.” Despite his soothing tone, Hiccup tightened his grip on the saddle as Toothless whipped around. They tumbled off-course by the wind tunnel, away from the island.
Once they managed to get their bearings, they idled in the air, just above the water. Hiccup had to duck his head as a flock of Terrible Terrors flew past them easily. He furrowed his brows, looking between the Terrors and where the wind tunnel had been. He could still feel the breeze of it pushing against them, even from several metres away.
“Let’s try again over there.” Hiccup angled Toothless’ head to the right, following right behind a large Zippleback.
The Zippleback flew straight onto the island with no issue, but while they got a little further than before, Toothless was once again blown back with incredible force. It was like the island itself was barricading them from getting any closer. It had to just be some weird weather phenomenon, but even the other dragons, who glanced over at the pair stumbling around in the air, were able to carry on toward the island.
Toothless huffed, and Hiccup seconded the notion. “I hear you, bud. Let’s go back home and brainstorm with the gang.”
Hiccup couldn’t help but glance back to watch the island as they flew away. They had flown through plenty of storms and even wind tunnels before without batting an eye. Why did this one feel so personal?
———
“How are we supposed to explore the island if we can’t even get close?”
Hiccup sighed and set a large basket of fish in front of Stormfly. “I don’t know, Astrid. All I know is something weird is happening on that island.”
Tuffnut hauled a saddlebag toward Belch. “Maybe Thor is mad at you.”
“Or Loki,” Ruffnut added with a nod, like she was giving sage wisdom.
Hiccup rolled his eyes and knelt down to tighten his prosthetic for the long ride. “Loki has nothing to do with the wind.”
The siblings shot each other a skeptical look, but didn’t dare comment on what the Gods could and couldn’t control.
“I think your dragon is just broken.” Snotlout shrugged, arms crossed. “Hookfang and I could easily take a little wind.”
Hiccup watched Snotlout try to pat Hookfang’s head, only to have his hand nearly chomped off. He huffed and put a fish basket next to the dragon. “Toothless and I are very capable, thank you very much. You’ll see when we get there. It wasn’t your normal wind tunnel.”
Astrid hopped gracefully onto Stormfly’s back and clicked her harness into place. “We should at least find a nearby island as a backup campground, just in case. I would rather not get there and end up having nowhere to sleep.”
Hiccup followed suit, hoisting himself onto Toothless. “We should make it by midday. We can plan along the way.”
The sun was just overhead when they caught a glimpse of the island. A few other dragons accompanied them as they flew, all going to the same place. Hiccup watched the few ahead of them glide past the ‘wind gate’ (as he had been calling it) and land somewhere among the trees. The wind hadn’t been particularly strong today, but as they drew closer, he could feel that same light gust tugging at his hair.
“Alright, we’re going in!” Astrid called out to the others, flying ahead of the group. Stormfly had no difficulty landing on the rocks below. Astrid looked up to the riders and waved them over. Everyone followed Astrid’s path.
All but Toothless and Hiccup.
Toothless was clearly struggling to get any further, jerking his head around, almost trying to bite at the wind that pushed them back. Hiccup switched gears a few times, trying to find one that would help navigate the rough winds, but all it seemed to do was drop them a few feet in the air and send them reeling backwards.
“Hiccup! What’s wrong?” Astrid yelled several yards away from her spot on the beach.
Toothless idled in the air like the first time they came across the wind gate. The dragon growled and started charging up a plasma blast. Hiccup couldn’t help but agree with the frustration. Toothless shot out at the air in vain. It did nothing to aid their situation.
Hiccup called down to the group on the beach, “You guys set up! I’ll find another way!”
If he really couldn’t get through to the island, he would turn back. As much as it would bum him out to be the only one not on the trip, he couldn’t take their research opportunity away just because the Gods chose to spite him today. Since when did he let the Gods dictate what he did anyway?
The duo trudged on, committed to landing on the island. They rounded the island, trying to approach it from the other side of the beach, to no avail. Toothless was shaking his head around in agitation. He growled, glancing back at Hiccup.
“Let me think for a second.” Hiccup scanned around, biting his cheek in thought. Trying to fight an invisible force was proving to be understandably difficult.
They couldn’t keep just throwing themselves at the wind and risking Toothless’ tail fin ripping. It was already struggling against the force, if the sound of whipping fabric was anything to go off of. Not to mention if their saddlebags came unsecured with all the rolling through the air…
Wait. That was an idea.
Hiccup twisted to the side, unbuckling one of the bag covers and pulling out a piece of bread. Toothless watched on, giving Hiccup a deadpan expression. Hiccup chuckled before ripping a small piece off and throwing it ahead of them. It blew right back into his face. He was glad they moved to the other side of the beach, out of sight from the other riders. This did not seem to be a very self-explanatory plan.
“Go higher, I’m trying to see if there’s anywhere the wind doesn’t have a personal vendetta against us.” Hiccup instructed, continuing to toss breadcrumbs into the air.
For the most part, they were coming right back towards them until they were high above the island. The wind wasn’t pushing them to the side–if anything, it was helping them hover above the trees. It felt a bit like floating in the ocean.
Hiccup threw a piece of bread down, and it fell slowly, but it didn’t come right back up at them. He threw his head back and groaned. “Of course. Do you know what that means, Toothless?”
Toothless watched the bread fall to the ground, tilting his head. Hiccup unfastened the harness around his waist, and Toothless seemed to catch up, narrowing his eyes in disapproval.
“Oh, come on. We’ve done this a million times.” Granted, not weighed down with baggage, and certainly not with an unknown wind tunnel created by the Gods to spite him, but he didn’t really want to think about that right now. “Just be sure to catch me.”
Hiccup slid off the saddle and was immediately hit with the realisation that he wasn’t being pelted with gale-force winds anymore. It was like it stopped the second he got off of Toothless. Was it just that wind was no match for gravity, or that it decided to cut him a break?
He had to bury his urge to flip over in the air to see how Toothless was faring. He learned a long time ago that being caught by a dragon back-first was a great way to get the wind knocked out of you. He just had to believe that Toothless would get to him in time.
The trees were getting much too close for Hiccup’s liking, though. “Toothless! Make some noise, bud!”
A plasma blast zipped past Hiccup’s head. Not what he meant, but good to know he was on his way.
Now, Hiccup was not exactly the overtly religious type. He held the Gods in high standing, just like everyone else on Berk, but it was mostly only times like this where he prayed like his life depended on it. Which, in all fairness, it kind of did. He closed his eyes and prayed to whatever God would listen.
He could have reached out and touched leaves by the time Toothless swooped in and wrapped Hiccup in his wings. They barrelled through branches and skidded to a stop in the dirt. They lay like that in the grass for a minute, both breathing heavily and double-checking they didn’t die.
Slowly, Toothless lifted his wing and blinked at Hiccup, chirping happily.
“I’m good, I’m alright.” Hiccup stood up, brushing dirt off and scanning himself for injuries. “That was certainly one way to get here.”
They set off to find the beach where they left the others. He hated to spoil the new island discoveries for himself without the gang, but there was only so much that could be done. He only hoped that they had better luck setting up camp.
They had been walking for nearly an hour through thick trees and brush. Hiccup was riding on Toothless’s back after getting his prosthetic caught on one too many roots. He lay on his back while he ran through all of the possible explanations that the Gods would be mad at him. It was most likely Thor, seeing as he was the weather guy. Maybe he didn’t like the statue Hiccup proposed the Berkians put up in his honour? Maybe he was upset that he figured out Thor’s affinity towards metal? Who could say.
There were dozens of dragons along their path, but most didn’t pay Hiccup any mind, especially since he was lying on the back of a Night Fury–and probably smelled like one too. They had a small run-in with a baby Gronckle, but Toothless forced it to back down with a firm growl. Hiccup wondered if they would find a new species here. He was pretty sure that was the main reason Fishlegs was so adamant about coming along.
The trees weren’t as dense here as they were in the middle of the island, which was a relief. The woods had a nasty habit of feeling claustrophobic when under the cover of darkness, and Hiccup had been trying to shake the feeling of being watched for the past twenty minutes. He was only human, and a vaguely spooky, uninhabited island wasn’t exactly his idea of a fun Tuesday.
At least, he assumed it was uninhabited. There were a few odd pieces of junk lying about, and the closer he looked, the more he spotted. A couple of arrowheads buried deep in tree trunks, a pendant hung over a tree branch, a couple of helmets lined up with their horns dug into the dirt wherein some Terrible Terrors were making themselves comfortable. Most confusingly of all, though, were the wooden planks connecting some tree branches. Hiccup probably wouldn’t have even noticed if he wasn’t on Toothless’ back.
It looked intentional enough, but he refused to believe anyone would be crazy enough to live on the island dragons migrated to every winter. Maybe he was just missing something—he would have to ask the others for their thoughts.
If he didn’t get ambushed before reaching them, that is. Seriously, why did he feel like he was being watched? He sat up and hovered a hand near his hip, ready to draw Inferno as he scanned through the trees. Toothless sensed his unease, or maybe he felt it too, because he stopped in his tracks.
Hiccup narrowed his eyes. “If someone is there, I’m really not in the mood.”
No response. Maybe he was just freaking himself out over nothing, but Hiccup was used to trusting his gut when it came to these things. Better safe than sorry.
“Look, I’m just trying to get back to my friends. We crash-landed here and–” Something flew past him, narrowly avoiding hitting him in the back of the head. He unsheathed Inferno and whipped around to squint in the direction the projectile came from. There was no one there. Not even a dragon.
Hiccup stared into the trees for a full minute before deciding that there really was nothing there. He slid off of Toothless and marched over to the tree the weapon came in contact with. At the base, there was a white powder mixed with what looked like shards of glass.
He knelt down to inspect it more closely when Toothless rumbled a warning. It was too little too late, as something hit Hiccup square in the back. It didn’t hurt, but it wasn’t necessarily pleasant either. The same white powder sat in a pile at his feet.
He scooped some up, taking care to avoid the bigger shards, and gasped. It was... snow?
But how? They were too far South for snow this early in the winter, and even if it was a dragon, it didn’t make sense for a snow dragon to migrate here for the season.
Toothless growled in the direction the ice-lined snowballs came from. He was poised to attack, mouth drawn back to expose his sharp teeth. But just as quickly, Toothless shook his head and chirped. He sat up on his haunches for a second, tilting his head.
“Toothless..?” Hiccup crept closer to the curious-looking dragon. He shifted his thumb off of the ignition button on Inferno. If Toothless didn’t seem worried, he would trust him.
Toothless chirped playfully and pranced toward a tree. Hiccup followed the dragon’s gaze and noticed a branch with frost slowly creeping across it. He began to reach up to feel the ice, but stopped halfway when he heard a light growl.
“Too close.”
His blood ran cold. That didn’t sound like a dragon or a person.
He whirled around, igniting Inferno. Who in the name of Odin was that?
He turned around twice, keeping Inferno drawn and ready. The strangest part of it all was that Toothless seemed completely transfixed on the one tree.
Hiccup narrowed his eyes, trying to find a sign that anything was there. It was unlikely that all of this was because of a snow-wielding, invisible dragon, but it wasn’t out of the question entirely. Some dragons were known to mimic speech patterns. Maybe Hiccup just heard something adjacent to words.
Yet he heard it again, clearer this time. “Looks like I’ll need to watch what I say for once.”
Or maybe Hiccup was just going crazy.
———
Jack was never surprised by much. He had seen a lot in his life. A lot. But even this came as a shock. Three new discoveries in the past five minutes of things he believed to go against universal laws.
Discovery number one: a new species of dragon he hadn’t encountered even once yet. Something like that hadn’t happened in the past two hundred years. He had faced and befriended dragons all around the world and didn’t remember seeing anything close to this one. And yet, on this one random day, someone comes along riding a never-before-seen-by-Jack dragon species?
Which brought him to finding number two: since when were there dragon riders? It seemed all people knew how to do was hunt and kill the poor creatures for the hell of it. Jack refused to believe the same Vikings who took the lives of countless dragons simply decided to grow half a brain in the last decade and start giving them the respect they deserve. Humans were simple–they saw dragons as a threat, and therefore needed to eradicate them. Attack what you don’t understand.
To be fair, Jack reached a similar conclusion with revelation number three.
“Looks like I’ll need to watch what I say for once,” Jack hummed to the midnight-black dragon watching him from below.
This man could hear him. That much was made clear by him frantically spinning around, waving his firey sword. It would have been laughable if it weren’t under such strange circumstances. He admitted the snowballs were a bit childish.
Is this what he got for all his restless nights screaming at the Moon? Why now? Why this guy? What made him so special to have super hearing and a cool, unique dragon friend?
Jack took a mini-vow of silence to spite the nuisance (and the Moon). But he wasn’t going to let this new dragon out of his sight. It seemed friendly, even before Jack used his fun-flakes to ensure it wouldn’t fly at him. Dragons could be unpredictable as-is, and he didn’t know if this one was trained to attack.
Jack silently nodded for the dragon to follow him as he floated down from his perch. It chirped and walked alongside him.
“Did you find something, Toothless?” The guy asked, limping over to catch up.
Jack guided the dragon–Toothless–out of the trees and toward the beach with a plan. The stranger said he was looking for his friends. Jack assumed they were the dragon-riders who landed near the coast. He would drop the Viking with them, lead Toothless away while they slept, befriend him, and then scare the humans away with a mini-blizzard. He would get to keep Toothless on Dragon Island, and they would never come back. It was a win-win!
The stranger limped a few paces behind them, Jack purposefully keeping him far away enough to not even potentially risk an accidental phase-through. He could hear the man swear every so often when his fake leg would catch on something.
He strategically placed ice patches to make him slip, eliciting another curse.
“For a dragon-rider, you sure do have the mouth of a sailor,” Jack mumbled under his breath. The guy froze, and his head snapped up, seeming to make direct eye contact. But Jack knew better.
“Alright, guys, funny joke. You can come out now,” he called out, sarcasm dripping off his words. He craned his neck to see around the trees to no avail. “Tuff? Snotlout..?”
Now that they were at eye level, Jack snuck closer to study him. He was scrawny for a Viking, but stood taller than Jack by a few inches. He looked to be about Jack’s age, likely not any older than 19. The most striking thing about him was his eyes. They were a brilliant and piercing green, even as he squinted into the dark forest.
Jack quickly backed away as the guy heaved a heavy sigh, giving up. Jack hadn’t been phased through in years; he wasn’t going to risk it with this Viking. He walked backwards, still eyeing the guy. He was dressed in colours Jack hadn’t seen any other hunters in before, and was sporting an unfamiliar crest. He was certainly human, but that raised even more questions about how he could hear Jack.
Jack tried to convince himself he couldn’t care less, though he couldn’t ignore the small glimmer of hope spreading in his chest. If a random dragon-rider could hear him, maybe–
“Hiccup! You made it!”
The sun had begun setting when grass and sticks turned into sand beneath their feet, where a young blonde woman ran up to the treeline to greet them–or rather, to greet Hiccup and Toothless. Jack stood by, watching her berate him for throwing a wrench in their plans and taking so long to get to their rendezvous spot.
“Hiccup? What kind of name is that?” Jack whispered to himself, smirking when Hiccup’s brows furrowed. Of the very few things he missed about being around humans, learning names was certainly not one of them. Vikings had a knack for choosing the most confusing names–and forget even trying to remember the names of anyone related to each other.
“Did you hear that?” Hiccup lowered his voice and leaned into the woman, as if Jack wasn’t right there.
“Hear what?’ The woman shook her head, confused. She glanced around, waiting for anything out of the ordinary. “What is it?”
Hiccup huffed, and his face twitched between frustration and worry. “Probably just the wind. I just need to get some rest after the day I’ve had.”
“Alright... We’re pretty much finished setting up, but I’ll wake you up for supper, and you can tell us all about it.” The woman gave him one last worried glance back at Hiccup before starting toward the camp.
“Thanks, Astrid. Let’s go, bud.” Hiccup sighed and followed after her.
———
Hiccup and Toothless had skipped their early morning flight in favour of more rest, and also to avoid getting caught by any more wind tunnels. He formed a game plan while the others were out taking their own dragons out, much to Toothless’ dismay.
After one too many huffs from the Night Fury, Hiccup tossed him a fish. “I know, bud. We’ll explore soon. They should be back any minute now.”
His sketchbook sat open in front of him with all the terrain he remembered from the day before sketched out. He felt bad for not letting the gang know about his strange encounter in the forest, but what was there to say? ‘Hey, an invisible person started talking to me and tried to murder me with snowballs’ didn’t exactly sound plausible. Snotlout already seemed suspicious of the whole wind thing already.
Luckily for him, the voice hadn’t come back since then, even as the other riders landed on the beach, ready to take on the island. Hiccup couldn’t help but be a little less stoked than them, but he was still eager to find out more. Dragons were his whole life–paranormal activity be damned.
He laid out their itineraries as they ate breakfast, holding out his crudely drawn map. “Alright gang, it’s a big place, so we should divide and conquer. Fishlegs, Ruff, and Tuff, you go along the coast and take note of where each type of dragon lands. Snotlout, you see what you can find about the wind barrier. Since I had a preview of part of the forest, Astrid and I can go inland.”
“Wait, wait, wait–you want me to go investigate your made-up barrier so you can go off alone with Astrid?” Snotlout objected, mouth full of bread. “I know your game, Hiccup.”
Hiccup rolled his eyes and ignored him. He pointed at a clearing on the map. “We can all meet up here after you’re done.”
“Who died and made you King of Dragon Island?” Someone murmured.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow at Snotlout. “We aren’t on Dragon Island.”
Snotlout scrunched his nose and crossed his arms. “Are you only just figuring that out?”
Hiccup blinked at him for a few seconds. “No, I was correcting–” He shook his head, giving up. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter. Just be careful, everyone. We don’t know what’s out here.”
The group split off to their respective assignments, but Astrid stuck around while Hiccup packed up his charcoal.
She gave him an unimpressed look. “Alright, what’s wrong?”
Hiccup spared her a glance, but kept packing. “Nothing, Snotlout is just giving me a headache and–”
“No, what’s wrong with you, Hiccup?” Astrid clarified. “You’ve been weird ever since you crashed. Do you have a concussion or something?”
Hiccup sighed and turned toward her. “I haven’t been weird. I’m fine, really.”
“You’re a terrible liar.” She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “If you really don’t want to tell me, fine. But if I find out you got hurt out there, I’m stealing all of your spare legs in your sleep.”
“Glad to see you still care,” Hiccup said sarcastically. Luckily for his prosthetics, he really didn’t get hurt in the turbulent landing. At least, he thought so. Maybe all of this could be summed up by a concussion, though it didn’t explain the wind that made him crash in the first place.
The island really was beautiful in the early morning light. Lush forests were split by rushing rivers, and were absolutely brimming with wildlife. Thick grass was sprinkled with dew, giving the island a lingering smell of freshness and petrichor, and even with winter coming, the trees still had a mix of green and red leaves, speckled with gold as the sun shone through them. They fell with the wind’s encouragement, making the woods even more ethereal.
Astrid and Hiccup kept to the river, steering clear of the slippery rocks. Hiccup was able to walk on the ground this time, finally able to see the moss carpet his leg kept getting caught on. He led them toward the small clearing where he had the one-sided snowball fight as well as he could. The snow would have melted by now, so he wouldn’t be able to prove to himself what happened was real, but if it was a dragon, he was going to find out.
Hiccup turned when he realised Astrid was no longer following him. She had her eyes zeroed in on a moss-covered tree.
“What is it?” He asked before getting shushed.
She reached out to trace something. Hiccup crept closer and noticed a carving of what looked like either a Gronckle or a wild boar.
“Did someone follow us here?” Astrid whispered, meeting his eyes.
“Or someone was here first.”
Hiccup swallowed the urge to turn to the voice this time. He didn’t want to make a whole scene, especially since Toothless and Stormfly didn’t seem threatened. In fact, they seemed happier than ever. Astrid certainly didn’t hear it, or she would have thrown her axe clean through a tree before Hiccup could react.
“Or someone was already here.” Hiccup supplied, cringing at himself for parroting the voice in his head. “Let’s keep an eye out. Someone had to have made this.”
Hiccup made an etching of the mark, and they proceeded on their path along the river with more vigilance than before. The more they saw, the more they couldn’t deny that someone had been living there. Most notably, the dragons were tamed. For the most part, anyway. Most were indifferent, but every once in a while, one would bound toward them excitedly, only to tilt their head and back off. Most feral dragons would either be aggressive or afraid when it came to humans. These ones seemed indifferent, or even confused.
Something in the back of Hiccup’s mind supplied him with an old myth that Gobber and the twins would spout about Hulder–spirits tied to the forest, protecting the flora and fauna within it. They would seduce young men into the trees, and he seemed to remember something about them guiding ships astray with the wind. For all of their nonsense, Gobber, Ruff, and Tuff might’ve been onto something for once.
Though Hiccup thought there were only female Huldra, and the voice he was hearing certainly didn’t seem to be a woman’s. Maybe it could be a Huldrekall, but-
No. There was just no way. Why was he even entertaining this? On one hand, the idea was utterly absurd. Just because dragons weren’t afraid of them and he was hearing weird voices in his head didn’t mean there was some mythological creature after him. On the other hand, the wind was guiding him specifically away from the island, and to be fair, he was more inclined to believe that was Thor’s doing.
“Hey, Astrid. Have you ever seen snow this far South this time of year?” Hiccup tried to ask nonchalantly as they entered the clearing where he had the impromptu snowball fight.
Astrid whacked a tree limb out of the way with her axe. “Berk hasn’t even had its first snowfall yet, and we’re hardly out of autumn, so I’d say not. Why?”
Hiccup hummed and sat with his back against a tree to wait for their friends. “I was just wondering why the dragons come here instead of going further. It’s not like they’re avoiding devastating winter by being here.”
Astrid shrugged and sat next to him. “Maybe the mountains act as a wall for the worst of it. Dragons run warm anyway, so I’m surprised they migrate at all.”
Hiccup was struck with a thought. It was their first devastating winter with their dragons. “Do you think our dragons will migrate too?”
“I doubt it!” Someone called from overhead. Meatlug’s wings buzzed as Fishlegs guided her to land in the clearing. “If they haven’t made moves yet, I’d say they’re happy to stay with us.”
“Let’s hope so. They would be a big help to keep our fires going,” Astrid said, watching the skies for any newcomers.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut followed closely behind, fighting as usual. Hiccup was honestly surprised they still had things to argue about after all these years. He ignored them whenever he could.
Barf and Belch had landed, but the twins stayed saddled on their respective heads, pushing and pulling at each other. “Someone tell my stupid brother he can’t talk to dragons.”
“If I hit my head hard enough, I can!” Tuffnut countered.
Astrid sent a look Hiccup’s way, silently telling him not to engage. He grimaced, but didn’t respond, instead calling out to Fishlegs. “What did you three find out?”
“We didn’t directly follow any dragons, but I did take notes.” Fishlegs paused, scratching Meatlug’s chin to grab his notebook from his satchelbag. “A couple Monstrous Nightmares landed near the base of the Southernmost mountains, and most of the Deadly Nadders and Gronckles stuck closer to the shores. We saw plenty of different types of dragons, but no new ones. At least that we noticed.”
Hiccup nodded along. That made sense; Monstrous Nightmares probably wanted to stay insulated from the wind so they didn’t expend too much energy staying lit, and the other two being near the coast wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. But Hiccup couldn't shake the feeling. “Were the dragons acting weird at all?”
Tuffnut joined the conversation, seemingly done arguing about the supernatural effects of brain damage. “No, they didn’t seem to care about us at all. Which is weird, because I was trying to talk to them the whole time.”
“You can’t talk to dragons, idiot. You didn’t even–”
“And they’re back at it,” Hiccup sighed, pinching his nose. “We didn’t find any new dragon species either, but the ones we did seemed... off? Like they were already used to people. Which makes sense because we also found this.”
He opened his sketchbook to the etching from the tree. Fishlegs lit up immediately.
“Ooh! A Gronckle!”
Astrid looked at the crude drawing again, squinting her eyes. “You can actually tell what it is?”
Fishlegs nodded. “Can’t you? Look, girl! It’s the spitting image of you!” He nuzzled into Meatlug’s face.
“At least someone appreciates my artistic skill.”
Hiccup bit his cheek with an exasperated huff. Not only did the voice feel so tangible, like it was right behind him, but every new smug comment raised even more questions. It was claiming the drawing as its own. How would a disembodied voice in his head carve anything into a tree?
He shook his head to force himself to get back on track. “We think someone else is here. Or was here at some point. Someone who knows these dragons.”
The telltale shriek of a Monstrous Nightmare rang out as Hookfang landed with an unceremonious thump.
Snotlout grumbled to himself as he dismounted, but turned immediately to Hiccup, face pinched in anger. “You sent me on a wild yak chase. We went around the entire island twice, and there wasn’t even a stiff breeze.”
The group went quiet for a beat, save for Snotlout’s muttering. No matter how much Snotlout wanted to deny it, they all witnessed Toothless’ struggle to get to the island. Hiccup ran through the memory countless times as he fell asleep last night, but this was undeniable evidence that something was keeping him and Toothless from landing on the island. This couldn’t just be a weird weather pattern.
Ruffnut broke the silence, “Dude, maybe Thor really does have it out for you.”
———
After searching around the forest for a little while longer, seeing if they could find the mysterious dragon-tamer, they headed back to base camp to regroup. Hiccup just hoped that whoever it was that might have been on the island didn’t find them first. In theory, he and his friends would outnumber them, but who knows what the wild dragons were trained to do. They hadn’t attacked yet, but maybe it was only a matter of time.
There were many things that were eating away at Hiccup’s psyche. The strange voice, the ice, the dragon’s strange behaviour. He didn’t regret coming to the island, but with each new discovery he made, seven more questions cropped up. He cursed his stubbornness and fascination for the unknown.
Maybe that was the Huldra’s strategy. They couldn’t lure him with physical seduction, so they targeted his intellectual desires instead. As much as Hiccup tried to keep his cool, even he could admit he was easily goaded by teasing and curiosity. Whatever it was, be it a God, a Huldra, a concussion—if it was smart enough to do that— Hiccup wanted very little to do with it.
“Hiccup!” Fishlegs called over to him, effectively pulling him out of his stupor. “You didn’t tell me you got into woodcarving.”
Hiccup blinked at Fishlegs like this was a setup to a joke he didn’t get. “What?”
“Oh, don’t be modest. You got her down to a T!”
Hiccup caught a small object Fishlegs tossed to him. It was a small figurine of a Gronckle with a saddle on its back. It was unmistakably Meatlug, much more intricately detailed than the carving in the tree, but… it wasn’t made of wood. It was an ice sculpture.
“Who’s a bad artist now?”
Hiccup’s blood ran cold. He stiffly turned to Fishlegs with a carefully neutral expression. “Where did you get this?”
“I wasn’t snooping, I swear!” Fishlegs said quickly, waving his hands around. “Meatlug was hungry, and your knapsack was around all the good rocks, so…”
“It’s fine, Fishlegs.” Hiccup nodded slowly, keeping his face as unreadable as possible as he turned the figurine around in his hand. It wasn’t melting. It wasn’t melting. “I’m gonna go lay down.”
He threw the ice sculpture back to Fishlegs and tried to maintain a level tone. “Keep it. It’s all yours.”
Hiccup tried to sleep that night; he really did. He gave up after two straight hours of tossing and turning and staring up at the abyss. He used to love charting the stars, but now it felt like they were mocking him. Or maybe that was just the lingering notions of the voice in his head. Regardless of what it was, he desperately needed answers.
He sat up, making Toothless stir awake. “Come on, bud.” He whispered to the Night Fury so they didn’t wake the entire camp, but more importantly, Astrid. She would no doubt question his well-being, and he didn’t particularly want to deal with that right now.
Hiccup padded across the sand as silently as he could, envious of Toothless’ natural stealthy ability to blend into the night. He only needed to get far enough away from camp to take off unnoticed.
“Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe I’ve finally lost it–who knows? Something is out there, and we’re going to figure it out.” He wasn’t sure if he was reassuring Toothless or himself at this point. “Something doesn’t add up. You noticed too, didn’t you, bud?”
Toothless trilled and nudged Hiccup forward. It nearly toppled him over, but a gust of wind blew him back, keeping him upright. Toothless sat back and tilted his head, hitting Hiccup with a wave of nostalgia. The look the Night Fury was giving him was so reminiscent of when they first met, both of their eyes wide with curiosity and disbelief. Maybe rose-tinted glasses coloured the past, but for some reason he was a lot more scared now than he remembered feeling back then.
“I can’t tell if you’re messing with me right now,” Hiccup deadpanned.
Toothless huffed, and Hiccup had a feeling that if a dragon could roll its eyes, he would.
“If there’s somewhere you want me to go, take me there.” Hiccup moved around to Toothless’ side and saddled up. If there was one thing he was certain of in all the mystery, it was that Toothless would never put him in danger. They trusted each other inherently.
They took off–or rather, they left the ground. Though they didn’t make it very far.
The pair hovered about three feet off the ground, as if they were frozen in place. Toothless twitched, flapping his wings to no avail. He looked back, where Hiccup blinked dumbly for a few seconds. His brain hadn’t quite caught up.
They were just... gliding in place. Which was possible for a Gronckle, but Night Furies couldn’t just hover. He looked down at the dragon he was sitting on, praying that Toothless had somehow miraculously swapped places with Meatlug. He didn’t.
“Toothless stays here.”
That voice. That fucking voice.
Hiccup squeezed his eyes tight and pinched himself. This was all an elaborate dream. The voices, the dragons, the ice, the wind. It was a nightmare. It had to be.
“Open your eyes, Hiccup.”
He did.
Cold, ice-blue eyes met his.