The Gray Area (2/2) - A Viggo Love Story

3

"Viggo?" Fishlegs, who'd been quietly avoiding the twins in the arena, spoke up in shock.

"Sessa?" Astrid added, just as surprised, as she walked into the arena with Stormfly. Her face was already painted with bright yellow and sky blue paint. She sped up into a light jog to meet the Night Riders. "What are you guys doing here? Especially during the day?" She wondered. Though she had a bad feeling that this wasn't just a friendly visit.

"Vigg-ster said he needs to talk to Hiccup," Tuffnut responded enthusiastically, "urgently."

"Oh no..don't tell me it's more hunters or something," Fishlegs fretted as he walked over to join the group as well.

Viggo opened his mouth to speak, but was immediately interrupted but Ruff. "Nah, Sessa eats dragon hunters for breakfast; no way they'd need help with that," she insisted with a cool laugh, throwing a friendly arm around the nearly blind girls shoulders. "I vote new, vicious, uncontrollable dragon that eats riders for breakfast."

Sessa gave Ruffnut an awkward smile before shrugging the taller girl's arm off of her shoulders. "Well, maybe if you guys actually let them speak..." Astrid implying, her gaze staring from Ruff to Tuff.

"Thank you, Astrid," Viggo began, then frowned, "though Ruffnut isn't entirely wrong." The twins nodded proudly and shared a cool look.

"It is dragon hunters, but..not like what you're used to," Sessa continued.

"For starters, they seem to be working under a much larger operation," Viggo explained. "They sail in from the North on ships, then set up bases around where they indend to do their trapping."

"Well, you know what I always say: gas 'em and blast 'em, am I right?" Tuffnut chimed in.

"We've been hitting them with everything we have," Sessa went on, "but as many as we take out, more always come."

"What about the new, vicious, uncontrollable dragon? Hm? You said I wasn't wrong," Ruffnut asked with excitement in her voice.

Viggo looked from Ruff to Sessa. "..Just on our way here last night," Viggo explained, "we witnessed the destruction of one of the trapper bases. Ice spikes the size of trees tore out of the ocean and obliterated it."

"Ice spikes," Astrid repeated, her eyes going wide, "that sounds like what Hiccup saw underneath Berserker Island.."

Fishlegs gasped. "The King of Dragons? But that doesn't make any sense, what would she be doing outside of her island?"

"We believe it's a completely different one," Viggo inquired, "assuming the baby is still not nearly full-sized?"

(Yes, the baby bewilderbeast lives on Berk in this story!)

"No, he's only about half the size of Meatlug so far," Fishlegs told Viggo.

Just then, a loud horn was sounded throughout the entire village. The sounds of chattering Vikings began to draw nearer. Viggo looked up to Nightshade and Grimtalon, who were now flying in circles high above the arena, playing in the clouds. "Apologies," he huffed, "it seems we've dropped by right in the middle of an event."

"What makes you say that?" Tuffnut asked casually.

The Night Riders looked around at all of the Vikings and dragons wearing paint. Their were a few decorations up around the arena. And now, Vikings were funnelling into high-standing seats like wooden blechers around the arena. Viggo and Sessa exchanged a look. "A lucky guess," Viggo shrugged sith an amused smile.

"Ah hah! And I suppose you'd know all about luck," Tuffnut replied, "Mr. I survived a volcano, dragon hunters, and a skrill."

Ignoring Tuff, Astrid turned to Viggo and Sessa. "Any chance we could finish this conversation a little later?" She asked with a crooked smile, "all of Berk has been waiting for this race since last year."

"Of course," Viggo answered, "I hope you don't mind if we stick around."

"Not at all," Fishlegs answered kindly. Then, the four went to their dragons and began getting ready for the race to begin. "Where's Snotlout? Late as usual, I assume?"

Sessa walked out of the arena, closely followed by Viggo and the Skrill. Once outside, she took a deep breath. "I know, it's a bit crowded," Viggo spoke softly to Sessa.

Sessa nodded and asked, "can we just wait out here?"

With a light chuckle, Viggo answered, "of course, Sessa."

And so the two Night Riders stayed outside of the arena with Lilith. Soon, the dragon race began, but Sessa was too blinded by the light to see anything that was going on. All she could see of the race were the occasional wisps of souls as dragons sped by in the sky.

But Viggo could see. As he watched all of the riders compete, he quickly realized that Hiccup was missing. And when the race finally came to an end, Astrid flew off with Stormfly to find her betrothed. She figured he'd want to hear directly from Sessa and Viggo what they had to say.

"Wha-?! You guys are here?!" A familiar shout came from behind Sessa and Viggo as Stormfly flew off with Astrid. "Urg, no one tells me anything!"

The two Night Riders turned to see Snotlout coming their way. "Hello," Sessa greeted, though she let out a small sigh of annoyance.

"What brings you two around?" Snotlout asked, then looked at Sessa to add quietly, "you miss me or something?"

Sessa rolled her eyes. "I'm certainly missing my time before meeting you," she retorted.

"Hey, relax," Snotlout insisted in a chill tone. "I've moved on, Sessa, it just never would've worked between us. But I hope we can still be friends."

Viggo frowned at the younger Viking. "Perhaps you should go tend to your dragon," he suggested passive-aggressively, gesturing to the exhausted Hookfang who laid behind Snotlout.

Getting the hint that he should back off, Snotlout smiled awkwardly. "You know what? You're totally right," he agreed, then began to walk off toward a close by dragon feeding station. "Come on, Hookfang."

Viggo held his temples and sighed. "Will he never stop this?" He asked rhetorically.

With a small smile, Sessa elbowed him. "Maybe making 'us' a little more obvious would help," she implied with a small laugh.

Now, Viggo wasn't sure what Sessa meant by this. But his mind immediately went to the betrothal necklace he'd been crafting over the past couple of weeks. "Whatever do you mean by that?" He asked, a hint of his nervousness escaping in his tone.

Before anything else could be said, a low voice came from their side. "I wasn't aware we had visitors," said no other than Stoic the Vast. Viggo's heart dropped to his stomach, for he wasn't yet certain of how the he would react to meeting him, after knowing his past with Hiccup. But to his surprise, when the Chief stood before them, he greeted them as allies.