Left In The Night

Chapter 51

Just as Hiccup had anticipated, he received word that the Outcasts and Wingmaidens arrived, shortly followed by the Bog-Burglars and the Meatheads. But Alvin the Treacherous, who in spite of his good deeds for Berk the past few years, still retained the title. The mentioned hurriedly shoved his way through the crowd, needing to see Hiccup right away.

Of course, Hiccup was delighted to see Alvin again, but the moment he met with the massive brute of a Viking, Hiccup saw the look on the Outcasts' chief's face, something was wrong. Everyone urgently hurried into the Clubhouse, where Zyrah, Konall, Rurik, and the Edge's newest guests stood to the side, listening intently.

"'Iccup, I regret being the bearer of bad news during this time," Alvin began, to which Hiccup slightly narrowed his brows, listening closely, "but we were attacked on our way here. Yer Meathead friends were kind enough to help us fight off the attacker, but we are down a ship and a few men."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Alvin. Did you recognize any crests?" Alvin shook his head.

"Wish I knew, but they were quite aggressive. They reminded me of the intensity of Krogan and his band of mercenaries." Hiccup frowned at this, having somewhat expected there to have been stragglers left behind by Krogan since it wasn't too long ago. If Drago could have remnants lurking about, so could Krogan.

"My sympathies... though, honestly I can't say I'm surprised people have been attacked unprovoked, as unfortunate as it is. We're living in high tensions, and we need to exercise caution with our plans." Murmurs of agreement rippled through the crowd. With that out of the way, a more solid outline of the plan Zyrah had proposed began to formulate. The aforementioned sat off to the side, silently pleased with herself for coming up with something that chieftains of other tribes she had not met before were agreeing with.

Rurik playfully nudged his sister upon seeing the grin on her face. He could tell she was proud of herself.

Once everything was agreed upon, Hiccup left the Clubhouse to work on his part of the project. Making Toothless a new mechanical tail.

It had been years since Hiccup had attempted such a thing, and he was nervous that Toothless might reject it, but it was worth a shot.

He brought out the old blueprints of the old mechanical tail, and called for Toothless so he could take measurements. In the past five years, Toothless had grown quite a bit, and every once in a while Hiccup would have to fix the tail, especially the rods to accommodate any extra growth.

Hiccup was unsure of how much more Toothless could grow, but considering he'd seen the size of Blueheart's father... it was possible that the young Alpha had some extra growth left in him, though likely nothing too outrageous. But who really knew? After all, Blueheart could possibly grow more, but then again, she wasn't disabled.

And so began Hiccup's long night of working in the forge, even requesting Gobber's assistance. As the old master and his former apprentice worked between heating the metal, shaping it, and cooling it, they reminisced about the past, especially when Hiccup first began working with Gobber as a very young boy. It didn't take long for the topic to soon shift to Stoick, and the pair fought off becoming emotional about the late Chief.

Much like Zyrah was still grappling with the loss of her birth parents, Hiccup was still silently grieving the loss of his father. With having three teenagers to basically look after on top of running the village and managing the Riders, the young chief felt overwhelmed. He knew that he wasn't really running everything by himself, as the Riders doubled as his council, but he and Astrid were not married, so there was that one little piece missing from his life... and his heart.

Their talks about marriage had essentially gone down the drain with all the current upheaval and chaos. He did want to marry Astrid eventually, but now was not the right time. Not to mention, he had overheard Zyrah and Konall actually discussing the same topic themselves. Hiccup never brought it up, as it was personal between them, but he couldn't help but feel a little envious with how casually they were able to bring it up considering everything; that said, he was genuinely happy for them, and prayed to Freya that they could marry eventually.