Chapter Text
… ”It‘s what makes us… well, us.“ Hiccup extended his hand towards Astrid. ”Deal?“ She grabbed his hand with both of hers. ”Deal“, the fighter confirmed with a smile, then pulled him towards her and kissed him. Hiccup was surprised by her action, still kissed her once again before they were interrupted by an ‘Ooh‘, coming from the other dragon riders, who just arrived at the edge of the volcano.
”This“, Snotlout started, and Fishlegs continued: ”Changes.“
”Everything“, Ruffnut completed with a wide smile on her face.
”Wait, so does this mean you‘re not dying?“, Tuffnut questioned him with actual confusion and concern, again being the only one who hadn‘t catched on until yet.
Hiccup exchanged a look with Astrid, then turned his head back to his friends, who started cheering and running towards them. Tuffnut hugged both of them, and soon everyone joined into a big group hug, some were even laughing.
The leader broke the hug by commanding with a happy facial expression: ”Okay, gang. Once more around the island. Let‘s make sure the edge is secure.“
So they started walking to their dragons, as Snotlout began to talk to him with a serious tone. ”Hiccup, I was thinking, I might have a way to help with this gambling problem.“ He gestured dramatically with his arms in the air. ”Now, it‘s gonna take some time, there‘s like 10 to 12 steps to finish it…“
Hiccup glanced confused to Astrid, and back at Snotlout again. ”For the last time, what are you guys talking about?!“, he asked, although he chuckled while saying this, and his girlfriend was quick to join him.
Then, all of a sudden, everything around them went white. There was bright light coming from everywhere and it caused Hiccup to squeeze his eyes shut.
The next time he dared to open them, he was shocked. Hadn‘t he just been with his friends, walking peacefully on the corner of the vulcano? Hiccup let his gaze shift around him. He was in some kind of hall, bigger than the great hall at Berk. Someone groaned and Hiccup noticed that he wasn‘t alone, and all of his friends including the dragons appeared next to him.
”Huh?“ ”What‘s happening?“ ”Where are we?” ”Hiccup?” Many different questions were fired at him at once, and he defensively raised his arms in the air. ”Guys, calm down.” His friends shut their mouth and studied their leader expectantly. ”I don‘t know where we are, nor how we got here, but exaggerating doesn‘t get us any further“, he tried his best to explain. He earned some nods and a frustraded comment coming from Snotlout, which lead Hiccup to roll his eyes annoyed.
”So what are we going to do now?” Atleast Astrid tried to be helpful.
Hiccup examined the massive room, when he felt something warm underneath the palm of his hand. He lowered his gaze to notice Toothless, who nudged at him in attempt to get his attention. In response, Hiccup knelt down next to his dragon and petted his head in order to calm him. ”Yeah, I don‘t know either, bud“, he muttered silently to himself.
Suddenly, the room went white one more time.
———
”So, what do you think of it, Chief?“, Gustav asked Stoick. Team Auxility had showed him and Gobber a new defensive trick they had been practicing for two weeks, and they wanted to hear his approval.
Stoick was actually impressed on how quickly their team learned to work together, and he exchanged a look with his old friend. Gobber shrugged and nodded, not having anything to complain about. So, he cleared his throat before he spoke. ”Well, I don‘t see why we shouldn‘t use it. Seems very practical to me.“
Gustav and the other riders fell into cheers and high-fived each other. Stoick and Gobber smiled satisfied, atleast something worked out well.
All of a sudden, they were wrapped in bright light.
The next thing Stoick noticed, was, that he wasn‘t at the same place he had been five seconds ago, and he spun around. Gobber suddenly appeared next to him and fell to the ground with a grunt. ”Where are we?“, he questioned with a deep accent. Stoick frowned and slightly squinted his eyes.
”Dad?“ His eyes widened as he heard a familiar voice calling him, and Stoick whirled around as to where he thought the voice came from.
”Hiccup! Son“, he said with a calm voice. It was then as he noticed that his son wasn‘t alone, but all the other teenagers and dragons aswell as every other Berkian was with them.
”Chief, where are we?” ”What happend?” Questiones were shouted from every corner of the hall and Stoick had trouble recognizing each one.
”Silence!”, he yelled loudly, causing everyone to shut immediatly. ”Hiccup.“ He focused on his son again. ”Do you know where we are?“ The heir studied his father for a second, then shrugged. ”I have no idea, dad. We‘re as clueless as any of you.“
All at once, it went white again, and the next thing Stoick saw, was six people along with two dragons appearing in the middle of the room. Among the humans, he identified Dagur the Deranged, together with Heather and their dragons, and four more people he didn‘t know.
”Wha- What happend? Why aren‘t we at Berserker Island?“, Dagur hysterically cried out as he turned around. His gaze fell onto Hiccup, and Stoick noticed his face litening up. ”Brother!“ The Beserker chief called out, and he spreaded his arms out in a welcome gesture. The Berkian Chief raised one eyebrow at this. Hiccup and Dagur aren‘t related?
”Ohhh, heyyy, Dagur!“, Hiccup responded while he chuckled akwardly. Then his eyes landed on the people beside him. ”Oh! Hello Heather, Queen Mala, Throk, Atali and Minden!“, he politely announced them, so that his father and the other Berkians got names to unfamiliar faces.
Stoick walked up next to his son, and rested one hand on his shoulder. Hiccup quickly glanced at him, before he continued talking and adressed his next words to the strange guests. ”May I introduce you to my father, Stoick the Vast and chief of Berk.“ He turned his head to watch him. ”Dad, those are some allies we made due to the war against the dragon hunters.“ Stoick studied each of the persons in front of him and apparently greeted them.
After a while, where everyone tried to figure out where they are located (Tuffnut made the most absurd suggestion) and why they‘re here, a flicker was heard at the one side of the room and every head turned in its direction. A black writing started to appear on the wall.
Vikings screamed in panic and dragons started to growl grimly, no one has ever seen anything like this before. Stoick eyes widened, was this work from a witch? He didn‘t believe in witches, it was just a fairytale told to young children to scare them.
”Everyone, stay calm. Let‘s find out, what it has to say“, he shouted with a strong voice. It took a few minutes, until even the last whisper was silent.
”Sit down. Don‘t worry, you won‘t be harmed, you‘re only here to react“, Fishlegs read out loud for everyone to hear.
”React to what?“, Snotlout shouted in frustration in attempt to overplay his fear, and some Vikings agreed with him. But the wall stayed blank.
”We better do what it says“, Stoick declared. ” It‘s not like we have any other choices.“
After everyone was settled down and found a comfortable place to sit or stand, the wall wrote again. ”Thank you. You will be seeing what the dragon riders have been up to at dragons edge.“
Stoick raised one eyebrow. ”Now, this could actually be interesting“, he murmurmed to himself.
Hiccup and Astrid exchanged horrified looks. They weren‘t all too happy that their parents were going to find out what they‘ve been doing.
”This won‘t be good“, the blonde whispered to him in a played serious tone, which made Hiccup snicker. But he was quick to put on a not amused facial expression, as the wall began to write again.
”Zippleback Experience, Season 2 Episode 6?“, Ruffnut read out loud with a baffled expression. Some Vikings turned their head in surprise, who knew that one of the twins could actually read?
”Let‘s begin“, Tuffnut continued to read out loud, which lead more Vikings to peek in his direction. Both of them could read??? The twins noticed the flabbergasted faces. ”What?“, they blurted in unision, and as no one said anything, Tuffnut shrugged and he and his sister settled down next to their dragons.
The wall went black.