The Night Rider

Chapter 38: Ships on the Horizon

HICCUPS POV.

"Oh yeah!" Yelled Ruffnut kicking her legs around in excitement. "Breath fire, breath fire!" Yelled her brother trying to command their Zippleback to make a deadly explosion but both of the heads of their green Zippleback looked at each other as if trying to say 'why did we get these ones?' A terrified scream soared past Hiccup, "Oh, oh Hiccup I'm not sure if I can do this." Said Fishlegs pale as a ghost as his dragon, a brown Groncel flapped it's wing excitedly glad to be out of its cage. All of these dragons had been sealed in the arena cages on Berk for who know how long but training them hadn't been to difficult.

To train the Zippleback all he had had to do was introduce it to the twins, they had immediately engulfed half the arena in Zippleback gas and almost blew it up. Next he had trained the Groncel, this had been the easiest of all out of all the dragons as she and Fishlegs were almost the exact same mind in two different species,. They were both dependable, smart, kind, and loving. And then there had been... Snotlout and his mount. Hiccup had decided to give Snotlout a Monstrous Nightmare which now that he looked back was most likely a mistake. Training it had been another problem entirely because he had failed to put together the connection that the dragon that the twins had captured and encaged had been the Monstrous Nightmare that he had buried under a pile of ruble and had almost eaten him. But Hiccup didn't back down, and without the dragon being controlled by the Queen, it had been easy to tame it.

And finally there was Astrid, who hadn't required being given a dragon at all as she had already found one and bonded with it in a way. The blue and yellow Nadder they had easily found and she had no problem allowing Astrid to ride on her back. "You can do it Fishlegs." Hiccup reassured his friend trying to keep him steady upon his dragon. Fishlegs whimpered worryingly looking down at the sea miles below them. "Ahh Hiccup why did we have to fly so high up?" He asked. "To make the dragons feel comfortable." He responded. "The majority of dragons thrive at higher altitudes so it's best to keep them calm especially when their carrying you." He explained and Fishlegs gulped catching onto his meaning.

"How are you doing?" Hiccup asked Astrid who sat in front of him, they were both riding on her Nadder since Toothless was... indisposed. "Oh I'm fine, hundreds of feet in the air on a dragon I hardly know what could go wrong." She said trying to conceal her worry with sarcasm. "You don't have to worry Astrid, I'll always be here to catch you." He said and suddenly Hiccup remembered what had happened or more like what had almost happened the last time they had been up here. The memory replayed in his mind, they had been so close to one another. Their lips a few moments from touching. He had almost kissed her but the opportunity had been squandered. Hiccup looked behind him, traveling farther behind the pack was Snotlout on his Monstrous Nightmare.

"You should talk to him." Astrid told him after she must have seen him looking over at his cousin. "What am I supposed to say Astrid? I just left, I left him I left everyone. And I had no idea it affected him this much." He said, Astrid could probably feel the sadness in his voice. "I knew that when I had left a few people had been affected. My dad, Gobber. But Snotlout, he had always been so mean I had no idea..." Hiccup trailed off with his sentence instead of explaining in full he just released a downcast exhale. "Look I am the most surprised about how Snotlout reacted but I think that if you want forgiveness then you need to talk to him." She was right, Hiccup looked back at Snotlout and he looked up together the two of them locking eyes making Hiccup pull away with his eyes.

Hiccup sighed again and shook his head mentally preparing himself for what was to come. Hiccup grabbed a scale of the Nadders back and lightly pulled back on it making the Nadder brake quickly letting Snotlout catch up before resuming its flying. The two of them sat in silence waiting for who was going to talk first. Hiccup mentally scolded himself for not having something to say to his cousin. "So, Night Rider. Who's idea was it to use that lame of a name." Snotlout asked trying to breaking the ice. Hiccup laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his neck. "It was an old acquaintance." Hiccup said. "He had said 'it's almost like you ride on night itself, a Night Rider would you say?', it just kind of stuck from there."

More silence passed between them before Hiccup spoke. "I'm sorry I left." He said so fast Snotlout had to ask him to say it again. "It's fine." Snotlout said and Hiccup was shocked and Hiccup thought maybe he knew why. "It wasn't because of you that I left." Hiccup said and Snotlout quietly scoffed looking away. Yep, he had touched a nerve. A very sensitive one. "I made your life a living hell." He said and even though Hiccup couldn't see his cousins face he was sure it was pinched with sadness. "You can't blame yourself Snotlout you were just a kid." He said but Snotlout didn't respond, but it didn't matter. Something else had caught Hiccups eye, it was so far away it could have been easily missed, no larger than a small insect from his current location. "Hiccup what is it?" Astrid asked noticing that he was no longer focusing on the reunion with his cousin. Hiccup blinked twice hoping that what he was seeing would go away, like what he was seeing was a hallucination and blinking could get himself out of it. If it was a hallucination it was certainly a bad one.

"Hiccup?" Astrid asked again following his gaze and she saw it to. A fleet of dragon hunting ships sailed off the in distance in a diamond formation. Hiccups thoughts flashed back in time, back through the last two years in his life. Hiccup gripped his wrist where one of his scars was placed feeling the pain like it was new. Another scar on his back had the same feeling and then on his chest. They were back, the dragon hunters were back in the Archipelago... and now he knew it for sure. When he and Astrid had stumbled across Ryker's ship he had hoped that it had just been a scouting vessel, that it wouldn't mean that the dragon hunters were returning. But Ryker's ship must have just been the first in the line of many to come. "What are we going to do?" Asked Astrid looking to Hiccup for answers.

"It's just a bunch of ships what's the big deal?" Snotlout asked. "Nothing." Hiccup lied turning his head away from the ships. "I thought it was something else." Hiccup pulled away from Snotlouts dragon and found unpopulated airspace far enough away from the other riders so there conversation wouldn't be heard. "What are you going to do?" Astrid asked. "Nothing Astrid." He said and she responded in a confused tone. "But what about all the dragons that could be on those boats?" She asked and Hiccup rubbed his temple. "We don't have time to save those dragons and save my father and everyone else." He explained, it looked like for a moment Astrid was going to object but she didn't.

"Here we go." Hiccup said as Hellhimens Gate looked before them. "Everyone stay close and don't fight your dragons for control they know where to go." He said and all the other riders nodded back to him. When they entered the fog all the other riders around him disappeared from his sight. Although he knew they were there due to their agitated breaths. All the dragons took a sharp right and then a sudden left increasing and decreasing their altitudes at random. "I don't like this Hiccup." Said Fishlegs. "Hang in there were almost through." He reassured. Around them the sea stacks rumbled lightly. "Umm we probably shouldn't ignore that right?" Snotlout asked after that the sea stacks rumbled again. "Hey what's that ahead?" Asked Ruffnut. "Well it's either a flock of panicking dragons or it's a flock of panicking dragons heading right for us." He said and suddenly they were surrounded but hundreds of dragons flying frantically away from whatever was causing the rumbling.

"Ahhhhhg Hiccup." Fishlegs cried out. "Fly up." He instructed and they all went up flying through the dragon flock. "That was new." Astrid mumbled. "No, no!" Hiccup heard echo through the sea stacks and off the water. It sounded like... "Hiccup was that your dad?" Astrid asked and Hiccup shook his head grimly in response. An almost overwhelming orange light erupted through the fog and the temperature around them rose. "Do you guys smell a campfire?" Ruffnut asked. Hiccup picked up his helmet that had been sitting in his lap and dawned it all the other riders, including Astrid watching him as he did. "Good luck." Hiccup said, and they broke through the fog.

(Authors Note)
Like always if you notice spelling or grammar mistakes please point them out and I'll fix them when I can. Hope you enjoyed. -Samuel Scutter