Dragon Club (HTTYD AU) (DISCONTINUED)

Chapter 4

I don't own HTTYD or any of its characters (even if I'm a huge fan!)

Warning: this is going to be a long one...

Several weeks later, they had saddles built. A ledge built into the cave wall made a perfect desk, papers littered it at all times with dragon sketches, saddle and other gear ideas, and ideas to furnish the cavern system. When they elected Hiccup as the leader, they had made a good choice, since he and Toothless kept ideas flowing and finding eggs. Until they found a problem. "We need more recruits. We have plenty of dragons and more than enough gear ideas. But we need some Riders." "Agreed." Hazel, the second-in-command, nodded. "John and I will keep an eye and ear out for more possible recruits. But right now, let's head back to Berk. I'm hungry and tired, making those empty books all night is exhausting." "I know. At least you weren't working on building a forge." Hilda yawned, stretching. It was early in the morning, before dawn, they met at night instead of during the time to avoid suspicion. "See you tomorrow night." They funneled out one at a time, heading home and crashing into their beds to catch a couple of hours of precious sleep.

When Hiccup woke up, he went straight for the Great Hall to grab something to eat. The other kids his age looked at him scornfully. "Why are you so tired?" Snotlout sneered, "Did the baby get nightmares again?" "Nope. I was just thinking." Hiccup lied, devouring the bread and fish in front of him. He hadn't eaten in a day or so, working in the forge in the village and the forge in the Caves. He caught Hazel's eye across the room, she looked just as exhausted as he felt. But she had it worse since she had training. And Gobber was brutal with Dragon/Warrior Training. He walked out to the blacksmith forge, pulling a blueprint out of his pocket and studying it. A way to efficiently and permanently break the weapons that were used against dragons. Jam something in the catapult controls, disconnect the trigger on the ballistics, weaken sword hilts, and mace spikes. He and John had devised it the night before and hoped they weren't caught tonight when they pulled it off. He crammed it back into his pocket and started heating the forge. He was going to build some Gronckle Iron shields for the club after Rose (nickname for Rose Quartz) accidentally spewed some on the floor, Silvershot and Hazel had pried it up for him to build things with. Hiccup superheated the metal, then poured it into a special mold he'd made, dunking them in water to cool. He popped each shield out and brought out some paints, painting dragons on the shields. Once it had dried, he set them aside to take care of the order and covered up the shields. "What are those?" The Viking asked. "Something for some friends" "You doesn't have friends." Tuffnut snorted as he walked past. He ignored the comment and repaired the blade, the Viking slipped him some coins and left. Hazel walked over. "Hey, Hiccup." "Hi, Hazel. How can I help you?" "Broken axe. Like left blade completely shattered." "That I can't fix. You need a new one. But I built you something." He swung her the shield with the Razorwhip. "Nice, how tough is it?" "It's very strong, trust me. Those straps loosen to attach to your back." "Thanks. See you around." "See you around." He handed the sword to the Viking, who handed him a few coins and walked off. Letting the forge cool a bit, he gathered up the other shields and hurried off to deliver them. Freya and Gertrude's were smaller and lighter, they were perfect for the girls. Hilda's was slightly thicker than the others since she enjoyed a good fight and would need better protection. John's was light and made so he could ride Skyslash with the shield without slowing them down. Hazel's shield was sturdy and strong and had an attitude like her, it was the hardest to meltdown, pour, and get out of the mold. His was thicker like Hilda's, but instead of pure metal, it had thin sheets of leather between each layer of the Iron, causing it to be lighter. As it started to get darker, he gathered up his supplies to sabotage, dressing in darker clothes and pulling a black mask over the lower part of his face and a hood. He met John and Hilda near the first ballista, while the others loosened the huge arrowheads, he expertly disarmed it by dislocating the trigger. With a soft whistle, the trio moved on, slowly but surely ruining every weapon. The twins herded the sheep into specially designed covers Hazel had installed to keep dragons away from the livestock. Then an ear-splitting roar shattered the sky. The dragon horde flew over Berk, hunting for livestock. They didn't find any. They instead attacked the fish baskets. 

Stoick ran up to a ballista, loading one of the giant bolts in and pulling back the string. He took aim at a group of Nightmares and pulled the trigger. It clicked, but the bolt didn't move. "Stoick! The catapults aren't firing!" a woman yelled, throwing her axe at a flock of Nadders. "Hey, Stoick." Gobber limped over, "Let me take a look." The blacksmith knelt down, studying the underside of the ballista. "Huh. It's been disarmed." "Blasted dragons." "Nope, this is human hands. Dragons can't squeeze under here and clip the wires with a pair of sheep shears, by the looks of it. Same issue with the catapults. The gears and strings have been broken and/or clogged with small hunks of metal." "Can you fix it?" "Yes, give me a minute." With some fiddling, he stood up with a satisfied grunt. Stoick pulled the trigger, the bolt shot forward. But halfway, the tip started quivering, and they both watched as it fell clean off. "Someone has been tampering with our defenses!" The chief roared. "Mama, why do we have to kill dragons?" He watched a young child, maybe two or three, ask. "Because they attack us, child. Now get inside." A flicker of movement caught his eye, a figure clothed in darkness jumped from one rooftop to another, a glint of silver on their backs. He watched as the figure met up with another on the steps of the Great Hall, he took off running to see who they were. But the figures noticed him coming, one dove off the cliffside, and the other soon followed suit. He peered over the edge, no sign of the figures. With a grumble, he returned to using the ballista. 

Hiccup and Hazel grasped hands tightly on the ledge, relieved. "That was close." She murmured. "Yup." He agreed, panting. Once the attack had slowed, Toothless arrived and ferried him back home, he stripped the black clothes off and climbed back into his normal outfit, hiding the shield he carried on his back away. He entered the house just in time, his father came in a minute later, grumbling. "What happened?" He asked, sketching in his book. "Someone or something disarmed all of our traps. We were totally defenseless and exposed!" Stoick bellowed, "Took half of the attack to fix everything, Gobber is now going around making sure everything is okay. Bet they didn't get to all of our defenses, though." "Stoick! They got to all of our defenses!" Gobber burst through the door, panting. "Even the smoke bomb storage?" "Soaked in what looks like dragon saliva. Some of the best weapons we have were melted by some kind of acid or something!" Changewing Acid. The resident Changewing gladly gave some up to keep the Berkian 'defenses' broken. Ah, well. They'd just have to sabotage everything all over again. He'd enjoyed it, actually. Plus Hazel had found a new recruit. "Thor's mighty fists! Those mongrels got into everything!" His father roared. Hiccup swallowed back a smirk and a sarcastic remark, focusing instead on his flaming sword sketch. It was so amusing to him how one of 'those mongrels' was his own son, and his father had no clue. "Well, I've got a long night ahead of me." Gobber sighed, standing up. "Take Hiccup with you." "Nah, I've got this. Besides, the lad must be exhausted." Hiccup let out a yawn, agreeing, then trekked upstairs to  get some sleep. He slept peacefully for the first time in weeks.

That was a long chapter. I'm going around 1460 words. Man, I can ramble. I wonder how long I can do this before even I get annoyed. Okay, I'll be quiet now.