Howling Echoes - A How to Train Your Dragon Story, The Echoes, Book 1

Chapter 75: I Lost Him

   "What do you mean, you lost Viggo?"  Hiccup stressed.  "Like, you buried him in a closet and forgot where you left him?"

   I gave him a dead serious look.  "Yournsky took him.  We've been over this."

   "A HUNDRED TIMES."  Snotlout chimed in from the back.  "Thank you!"  I called over my shoulder to him.

   "Well we - we have to do something!"  Hiccup cried.  "Why didn't you grab him then?"

   "I TOLD YOU THIS ALREADY."

   "Well then tell me again."  Hiccup's voice turned more authoritative and Stoick-like as he added:  "By order of the chief of Berk."

   "Look, Yournsky is basically Ryker and Viggo combined,"  I said with an intensity to my voice that directed everyone's attention toward me.  "His moves are unpredictable, especially when he has a blade at someone's throat.  His tongue is sharp and his mind is sharper.  I couldn't rush in like that - it could've gotten Viggo killed.  It could've gotten one of the dragons killed."  I explained.

   "So what do we do?"  Hiccup asked, then buried his hands in his palms.  "Oh...it's a mess."  "Don't beat yourself up over something you didn't cause,"  I said, tripping the chair legs out from under him.  He grunted in surprise and a little bit of pain as he came crashing down onto the dusty floors of the Great Hall.

   "But if I had come with you -"  Hiccup started. 

   "You would've tried to save him, and who knows what would've happened beyond that,"  I interjected.  I glanced across the room, and my eyes met Astrid.  I tilted my head towards Hiccup, then nodded.  She nodded, too.  Then I nodded one final time and walked away.  If anyone could reason with Hiccup when he blamed himself, it was her.

   It was midnight.  I was trying to explain Yournsky's....needlessly complex way of travel to the riders.

   "He usually has at least three sea stacks along the route, and at each sea stack he does this super wide 8 figure thing - and no, I don't know why Tuff,"  I said just before he could interject.  Dagur and Heather were there, too.  "That's needlessly complicated,"  Dagur commented.  I shrugged.  "Welcome to my world."

   "Is there any place that he might've left something useful - maps, charts, notes, anything?"  Hiccup asked.  Then it hit me.  "Hiccup, you're a genius!"  I cried, racing to Frostflake, who was waiting outside.  "Wait here!"

   "Ok....just when you thought she couldn't get any weirder..."  Fishlegs commented.

   But Dagur caught up halfway and insisted on coming, and I was ok with that, so I let him.

   I landed on a cliff overlooking a foggy ship graveyard, not unlike the one that marked the edge of the Archipeligo.  

   Someone was waiting there, and I was surprised to see that it wasn't Yournsky.

   It was Viggo.

   "Wait,"  I told Dagur, holding my hand up.  I hesitated a moment.  'Come on, Yournsky, I know you're there.'  I thought, glancing around the area.  I was also fairly certain this was one of his lifelike dummies...

   Like the Ruffnut one I found on Viggo's ship.  Did they have contact in the past?  Why was it there?  Was someone spying on me?

   I shook my head, a billion questions swarming them when I heard soft, light footsteps that were purposefully loud in comparison to the usual unnoticeable ones.

   Frostflake and I whirled around, instantly detecting eight green-Nadder-spine-tipped arrows through the trees and bushes.  "I knew I'd find you here."  I narrowed my eyes.

   Yournsky chuckled.  "I thought it might help...boost morales, no?"  "Mm, definitely getting more sinister vibes,"  I admitted.  "Ah, well,"  Yournsky said, seeming slightly deflated at the defeat.  But I knew it was all part of the act.

   "I didn't come here to talk, Yournsky."  I snarled.  "Oh, just Yournsky?  No 'brother' for your brother?"  Yournsky asked.  I stiffened, biting just below my lower lip within my mouth.  "When have I ever called you that?"  I asked flatly.  "True, true."  He said.  "But how I miss our time together."

   "Half of which was spent with you practically trying to KILL me."  I spat, my anger simmering just underneath the surface.  "Where's Viggo?"  I asked sternly.  "Our father is...otherwise engaged in a different process,"  Yournsky said.  I groaned and slapped my palm to my forehead.  "Yourn, why do we do this?"  I asked.

   "Because we're humans, and it's natural for humans to fight, to kill, to take advantage of the weak,"  Yournsky said.

   What he didn't realize was that he had revealed the center of his whole plan in those few words.

   I raced up to him, my sword edge barely brushing his throat within a matter of a moment.  "I won't ask you again, brother."  I spat.  His crystal blue eyes gazed into mine.  "Where.  Is.  Viggo."