Chapter Text
They watched from the Heavens (as they always did since that day) as the three children began to cross the mountains of the land the Humans called Katolis and their heart went out to them.
So young yet so brave already and so compassionate.
Just like Leola had been.
She had been so young and innocent and hadn't deserve what has been done to her. Even more so when they learned the true reason of why she had been punished.
"Why ?"
The word echoed in the void between them and, while he was facing away from them, they knew he was listening.
"Why did you altered Aaravos' proposal ? It had been more than fair. Leola may have possibly broken the rules but she had still been a child. We could have taught to be more respectful of the Cosmic Order."
Silence reigned for a moment before the Stern One finally answered them.
"Because it didn't matter."
"I do not understand."
"What Leola did. What Aaravos will do in the coming millennia. And everything else. All of it had been written by the Stars long ago. Our role as Cosmic Justice is to ensure the world stays on the path set by the Stars no matter what."
His words were so cold and matter of fact that, had they been in their physical form, they would have shivered.
"Does that mean you do not care about all the pain and the destruction Aaravos is sure to cause in his revenge ?"
"We are merely observers. Never interfering in the lower planes unless it is the Will of the Stars."
He didn't say more but he didn't have to. They already had their answer.
They would not.
"Why wasn't I told of that particular part of our duties ?"
This time, he turned back to look at them, his rigid expression a stark contrast to the glittering stars they were made of.
"Because of what you are."
That had been his way to say that they were too kind. Too merciful. And that the Stern One likely only allow them on the Council because it had been written in the Stars and no other reason.
Their attention went back to the children and their desire to help them except they didn't know how.
Their previous attempts to sway Aaravos from the path of destruction he was falling into because of his grief had been for naught.
They were starting to fear the Stern One had been right and that nothing could go against the Will of the Stars.
But then, an improbable idea crossed their mind.
'What about ones who were outside the purview of the Stars ?'
There were other worlds, under the watchful eyes of other Stars and powerful beings. And they knew the perfect people to help the children in their quest.
For an instant they wondered if the Others would notice what they had done but then thought better. The Others had barely spare Xadia a glance ever since Aaravos had been imprisoned as they didn't believe mere humans and the other races of elves could be strong enough to threaten their Order and Avizandum has still been alive the last time they checked.
Their decision made, they begun the spell that will brought those they had chosen to Xadia.
They hoped they would be able to ask for their forgiveness and that their presence will be enough to stop what was coming.
~°~
Hiccup and Astrid were flying high above the deep blue sea and under a clear sky without one cloud in sight. The weather was so nice that far into the horizon both sea and sky blended together as one entity.
Him and Astrid were coming back from their annual weekly retreat which was, in the words of their friends, a full week where the two of them get to completely relax away from New Berk.
(And to give the village a break from them too. Once again their words.)
And now that week has passed and they were making their way home though if, Hiccup had to be honest, he was starting to get impatient to be back.
And it was all for one reason only.
"You're missing her aren't you ?"
Hiccup turned his head in the direction of his wife who was watching him with a fond smile which he returned.
"Well, can you really blame me ? Our little girl is growing so fast after all. I can't wait to see her and see all the progress she has made while we were gone." He answered her with a proud look making Astrid chuckled.
"Hiccup we were barely gone a week. I swear Zephyr is scarcely two years old and she already has you wrapped all around her fingers." Astrid said with a shake of her head and her husband shrugged in response.
"What can I say ? She is Daddy's little girl after all." He replied cheekily and the two of them broke out laughing.
The moment however was interrupted by worried croons from both Toothless and Stormfly.
"What is it Bud ? Is there something wrong ?" Hiccup asked his long-time and faithful friend and Toothless simply answered him with a low growl while nodding his head in the direction of the South.
Hiccup turned to look in said direction and his heart sank at the sight that greeted him.
Where there had been nothing but a clear blue sky a few moments ago there was now nothing but dark clouds that were quickly rolling in and turning the day into night. And they were coming really fast.
Too fast actually to be natural.
But Hiccup didn't have the time to wonder at what the Gods may playing at. Right now, him and Astrid, along with their dragons, needed to get out of its way.
Without requiring any prompt from their riders, Toothless and Stormfly switched direction and began to fly as fast as they could. Unfortunately, despite being two of the fastest known dragons, it soon became apparent they wouldn't be able to outfly it.
Before they realised, the storm hit them and the powerful winds threw them around as if the four of them were nothing but rag dolls.
Hiccup cried out to both Astrid and Toothless but his voice was easily lost in the cacophony of the storm and before he knew it, the world turned black.
~°~
When Hiccup finally came to his senses, the first thing he noticed was the soft and cold soil he was laying in.
Wait...
Soft ? Cold ?
Groggily, Hiccup opened his eyes only to close them again when they were assaulted by the blinding light surrounding him.
Blinking slowly and sitting up, he took a good look at his surroundings only to stare dumbfounded.
For there was nothing but snow and mountains in his line of sight.
How was that possible ?
They had been flying above the open sea with no land that could be seen from leagues away.
His musings were interrupted by movements and sounds coming from behind him and Hiccup turned his head to see Astrid come around. A bit further, he could also spot Toothless and Stormfly waking up though Toothless looked grumpy at being covered from head to toe in snow.
Hiccup got up and went to help Astrid who grumble as she removed the last of the snow from her clothes.
"What in Hel just happened ?" Astrid asked out loud and Hiccup merely shrugged.
"If I had to guess ? The Gods probably thought it had been some time since they had some fun at our expense." He made a pause before gesturing to the mountains around them. "Because I rather doubt this is still Midgard."
Astrid arched an eyebrow at his statement.
"What makes you so sure of that ?"
"Well, that storm that hit us came out of nowhere. Literally. Like one second there was nothing but a clear blue sky and the next, the world had turned black. Now there is nothing but snow-covered mountains as far as the eye can see. So yes, it doesn't take to be a genius to figure out that the Gods likely thought we were in dire need of some new adventure. Which is fine by me. I love adventuring. However, I could have done without the whole storm thing. I suppose simply crossing the Bifröst was over-rated for Dragon Riders of more of a decade."
Astrid watched as Hiccup had launched into another of his tirade with her arms crossed. When he was in this mood, best thing to do was to wait. Once she felt safe enough to do so, she opened her mouth to speak but was cut short by Toothless who, having enough of his rider's behaviour, swept his tail under the latter's feet making him fall down back into the snow. Hiccup laid down in the snow for a few seconds before he propped himself up on his elbows and gave his dragon a deadpan stare.
"Really Bud ?"
The dragon only laughed in response and was quickly joined by Astrid and Stormfly much to Hiccup's disappointment. Their little moment of fun were interrupted by a crack in the distance, followed by a deep rumble they were all familiar with.
Hiccup and Astrid shared a look, the same thought crossing their mind.
An avalanche
Astrid helped Hiccup back on his feet and they both mounted their dragons before flying in the direction sound had came from, the two of them hoping no one had been caught in it.
~°~
Callum got his head out of the pile of snow he was in, panting heavily after using the Aspiro spell to ward off the avalanche. Which had only been partially successful. Making sure the Primal Stone was still clutch in his left hand, he fully got out of the snow and called out to his brother and Rayla.
"Everyone is alright ?"
Movements on his right side caught his eye and Callum watched as Rayla got out of a similar pile of snow looking rather grumpy.
"I'm fine." Rayla stated while dusting herself off. "Now, where's that hiccuping, juice-thief frog?"
Callum winced slightly at her menacing tone. Not that he could blame her since Bait was the reason the avalanche ended up falling on them.
"He is right behind you." His brother's voice rang out and both Callum and Rayla turned their head a bit to see Bait popping out of the snow farther up ahead. Callum then looked back towards his brother to see if he was okay too only to blanched when he realised where Ezran was.
"Ez do not move." Callum said to his brother while sharing a panicked look with Rayla who had joined him.
Because his little brother was laying down on the surface of a frozen lake. Ezran though didn't seem too worried by it.
"I'm okay Callum." Ezran shouted to his brother as he was trying to get up then alarm spread on his face. "Wait ! The egg is gone." The younger prince looked frantically around him only to spot it a bit further away on the ice. "Don't worry. I've got it !" He shouted back to his brother and Rayla before getting up and slowly made his way towards the egg.
From the shore Callum and Rayla exchanged concerned looks as they watched Ezran advanced bit by bit in the direction of the egg. They breathed a sigh of relief when Ezran grabbed the egg only to tense when they heard faint cracks coming from under the younger prince's feet.
"Ezran ! Do not move !" Callum repeated hoping using his brother's full name will make him listen. Thankfully Ezran was scared enough of the situation to simply nod in understanding.
Before him or Rayla could do anything though the cracks widened and both Ezran and the egg fall through the ice and disappeared under the surface.
"EZRAN !!" Both Callum and Rayla screamed in unison but, before Callum could go after his brother, Rayla stop him by grabbing by the arm.
"Callum wait ! We can't just go running on the ice like that ! It will break the moment we step foot on it."
Callum was about to snap back at her that he didn't care, because Ezran was his little brother and was more important than anything to him, when a high pitched whistle coming from the sky was heard and a black blur dropped down from there before disappearing under the surface.
They were so taken by what they just saw that they didn't notice the sound of wings coming from behind them.
However, they did heard the woman's voice.
"Are you two alright ?"
Callum whirled around (while Rayla tensed at his side afraid that the woman noticed she wasn't human) only to stop dead on his tracks at the sight before him.
For behind the blond-haired woman was standing a dragon.
An actual breathing, living blue and yellow dragon. With a saddle on it's back.
He was about to tell Rayla when the whistle from earlier was heard again, catching his and Rayla's attention, and the black blur reappeared above the lake before it headed towards them.
That was when they realised that it was another dragon.
And it had two people on it's back.
An unknown man who was holding in his arms a smaller but very familiar figure.
Callum never felt as relieved as he was at this moment and the instant the black dragon landed on the shore, he ran up to them and quickly pulled his brother into a hug not even caring about their unknown audience.
"Oh Ez ! I was so scared ! Please don't do this to me again."
There was a croak of displeasure coming from his feet and both brothers looked down to see Bait looking at them with a look of annoyance.
Rayla for her part look at them with a small smile simply giving a short glance at the ribbon on her left wrist. She never thought she will ever be so happy that it was still there and causing her pain.
"That doesn't look good."
Rayla was startled by the voice and looked up to see the woman observed her with something she never expected to see from a human (other than Callum and Ezran that is).
Concern.
That human woman she didn't know was looking at her, an elf, with worry in her eyes. And that went against everything she had been taught.
Sure, meeting the two princes had shown her that not every human were bad but, apart from them, every other human she had met (from the young dark mage to the boy's aunt or the tracker who attacked her this morning), they had all treated her with contempt and hatred.
"May I ?" The woman asked gesturing to her hand and Rayla simply nodded too stun to speak. Instead she took the time to assess the woman like Runaan had taught her.
Of a similar height to her, the woman had fair skin and long blonde hair put into two braids. She was wearing a blue short-sleeved shirt, a spiked fur skirt above a pair of dark pants along with fur armbands and knee high fur boots. She also had a leather band around her head with golden markings on it which she had not seen before on her other women. Granted most of them had been soldiers but Rayla still wondered if it had some cultural significance similar to the cuffs and rings married Moonshadow couples wore.
There was one thing clear to Rayla though. Which was despite how gently she was handling Rayla's wounded hand, the woman was clearly a warrior. In the same veins Callum and Ezran's aunt, the renown General Amaya, was.
She would need to be careful around her. Just in case.
"I take it you haven't remove that ribbon because it was put there through some sort of ritual which is not easy to undo ?"
The woman's voice broke Rayla out of her thoughts and the young elven girl merely nodded.
"Not that it can be removed anyway." Rayla muttered under her breath and if the woman heard her, she didn't made any comment about it.
The woman let go of her hand before turning around and raised an eyebrow at the dumbfounded look Callum was giving her.
"What ?"
"Uh... nothing ?" Callum said in a hesitant tone. "It's just that all the people we met didn't really react well to Rayla." The older prince trailed off not knowing what else to say though he didn't have to as a snort came from the man who still seated on the black dragon (which, if Rayla was honest, was nothing like the dragon she had heard about unlike the one of the woman who was somehow similar to some drawings she had seen in books) with Ezran still in his arms.
The man then gave her and Callum the most deadpan look she had ever seen.
"In case you haven't noticed, our best friends are dragons. We are not the type of people who are going to be mad because you are friends with an álfr. If those people were stupid enough to judge your friend for what she is instead of who she is, then it's their problem. Not yours."
Rayla blinked before sharing stunned look with Callum and Ezran. But then, hope began to raise into her chest.
It was one thing for her and the two princes of Katolis to believe that returning the egg of the Dragon Prince to his mother would end the war and maybe they will all start to try to live together once more but the truth of the matter was...
They were still kids (even her as much she didn't like to admit it). It would be easy for the Dragon Queen to dismiss them as too naive because of their age.
However, if other human adults and dragons back them up ? Then they may have a better chance to succeed in their mission. And from Callum's expression, it seemed he had come to a similar conclusion.
Not that she was going to instantly trust them.
"Achoo !!"
Every heads (even the dragons) turned to look at Ezran who was the one who had just sneeze and who was now wiping his nose.
"And I think it's time we take care of you by warming you up before you get sick from your little dip into that icy water." The man said before looking at her and Callum. The two of them exchanged a look before nodding. "Alright, there is probably a big enough cave somewhere for all of us to settle down. Come on."
The black dragon started to walk away from the lake back towards the mountain with the man and Ezran still on it's back and Callum, after picking Bait up, caught up to them and walked beside them. Rayla followed suite with the woman walking next to her and the blue and yellow dragon bringing up the rear.
So yes, she will still keep her guard up just in case.
But Rayla was having the same feeling she had that fateful night so she was ready to give them a chance.
Just like she did with Callum and Ezran.