A Runaways Resolve, A Dragon Master's Legacy

Hunters?

Sorry for the very late update, I have had things to do the last month and still have other things but I wanted to get this done so here you are, it's not the longest chapter but it's not the smallest either.

It's been 4 months now since I left my home, 4 months since I started living alone with Toothless and about 1 and a half months since I left the archipelago entirely for a whole new adventure. Having found the island Johann told me about I got myself settled quickly, within the first week of arriving I had made plans and designs for a proper forge and even a hut, though of course I knew it would take a while to build alone, but then again I'm not alone, I have the dragons. The next week I had built a small forge to make materials to build my hut and checked the surrounding trees to see what ones I could use for building, during this I found many more dragons on this island including one I didn't know, it was a strange species, it used extremely well coordinated displays to appear like a larger dragon. I ended up calling them Night Terrors seeing as they weren't much bigger than the Terrible Terrors but were also almost exclusively nocturnal as well as having black scales, all except the flock leader which had white scales. Johann also visited again that week and we extended what was a weekly meeting to once every two weeks as it fit his schedule with my new location. By the end of the week I had built up the foundation for the forge and my home and with the help of Toothless and most of the other dragons from Berk had begun collecting wood and stone for the build. The Zippleback was overjoyed to be able to blow things up and the Gronckle was happy because the excess materials became extra food. The Nightmare just looked at me funny before shooting fire at me that Toothless thankfully blocked all the more reason to make some kind of armour, though I didn't think there could be a dragon with the same temperament as Snotlout but I guess I was wrong. The Nadder took a bit of convincing but eventually she helped with transporting materials for me. Weeks 4 and 5 were more of the same, cut some trees down, blow up some stones, make more materials, trade some things with Johann to find out how Berk is doing and by the end of the 5th week I had finished the outer walls of the hut and forge. And now we get to the present, my 6th week here the day after I finished my hut, Toothless made it apparent he was sleeping with me but the rest of the dragons seemed to like a small cave that the crack in the stone circle led to. With a home to call my own and a small group of dragons somehow more loyal than Berk ever was. "Berk, why do I keep thinking of that place?" I say aloud with a sigh as I put my pencil down, pausing my writing for the night as Toothless crooned at me in concern at my remark. "I'm alright bud, just thinking about my old home I guess." I responded to my onyx scaled friend getting a predictable huff in response as the now grumpy dragon turned around and put his back towards me, clearly not wanting to hear about Berk himself. "Yeah, yeah I know, thanks for being supportive you useless reptile" I say with a sarcastic chuckle as I tore out a page from my journal and threw it at him as he started to mock me. Surprisingly I was successful in my attempt and hit him on the top of his head causing him to sit there looking like a lost puppy. "Ohh playing all innocent are we? Just go to bed, you overgrown lizard." I say to him as I get ready myself and extinguish my lamp's flame.

The next day I woke up early to the sounds of agitated Night Terrors, angry at Johann again I assume, it's kind of funny how much they dislike him. "Hey Toothless time to get up bud, we need to see what the Night Terrors are disagreeing with today" I say, nudging the sleeping dragon gently stirring him from his seemingly great slumber. Toothless, as displeased as anyone who had been woken from a deep sleep grumbled and rolled his eyes as he got up. "Yeah yeah, save your sas for the Night Terrors and our ever so talkative trader" I remark, throwing him a fish as I do so. A little while later we are in the air following the sounds of the small dragons until we spotted the small outline of a ship in the water. "Yep it's Johann, they really don't like him huh." I murmured out as we began our descent, closing in on the weary traveller surrounded by the flock of Night Terrors. "Alright time to get their attention bud, think you could get them to back off?" I ask as we glide over the circling flock. Toothless almost immediately roars and gets the Night Terrors to back off before moving into a dive and landing on the deck of Johann's relatively small ship. "Master Hiccup! Thank the gods you're here, I was worried something might have happened." He spoke up, walking over to us from the other side of his ship. "Worried? Why? Did you hear something whilst you were out trading?" I ask him as I get off of Toothless taken aback by his sudden concern. "Ah yes, well, I heard that some rather unsavoury individuals are going to be expanding their territory through here soon and I feared they may have sent scouts ahead and." Johann replied, his voice growing faster as he did so before I cut him off. "Johann slow down, what unsavoury individuals? Why would they be a threat to me?" I asked, looking at him as I tried to figure out what he was trying to say. "Dragon hunters, and a particularly dangerous group of them led by two brothers, the muscle is the older brother Ryker Grimborn. He is as ruthless as he is strong, from what I have heard and seen he would stand a chance at beating even Chief Stoick in combat." the weary trader started before I once again cut him off, "Dragon hunters? And you believe their leader would be a match for even my dad? Are you sure?" I question him, my shock evident in my voice as I do. "Oh no Master Hiccup, Ryker isn't their leader, no that title goes to his brother, Viggo Grimborn. He is quite possibly as gifted as even you, in fact I'd wager that as of now he is smarter than you. Whilst Ryker is a brute and uses his strength to get his way Viggo uses his intellect. With Viggo leading them they have become the greatest and most proficient dragon hunters quite possibly in the entire world. Know this Master Hiccup, if they find out about your Night Fury they will stop at nothing to get him." and with that Johann finished leaving me standing there in shock struggling to find words as fear took hold of me for the safety of Toothless. "Thanks Johann, I really appreciate the information. Now I would say let's talk business but unfortunately I haven't had much time to do any proper forging yet, I just recently finished my hut and begun some more experiments, something Toothless isn't too happy about after more than one of them resulted in an explosion." I say trying to change the subject as Toothless rubbed against me in a comforting manner to which I reciprocated by rubbing the top of his head. "I understand Master Hiccup. You have been through a lot in the last 4 months after all, leaving your home, then being forced from your second and leaving everything and everyone you knew behind. For someone of your age to do all of that and still be sane is payment enough for now. Since I don't tell anyone about this island I can't stay for long otherwise some of my clients will begin to be suspicious of where I am." At that he went back to his ship's rudder and prepared to turn away from the island. "Yes of course, and thank you again Johann, I mean it." I say as I get back on Toothless and take off again headed back to my home.

The next week saw me working probably too hard to finalise the obsidian gronckle iron mix, and design some armour. After all, if I am going to have encounters with dragon hunters then I am going to need to be able to protect myself from them. Though I was about to give up with fusing the materials again as I was starting to run out of material until on a whim I let Toothless pick the quantities. By some work of the gods it succeeded. Weeks of experiments that could have been avoided by letting the dragon pick, that's something I will be keeping in mind for future endeavours. Now having a second successful batch of the fusion I needed to name it and test it. With the second batch I forged a sword and once again dragged the slab from my first success out alongside standard gronckle iron equivalents and performed the final tests of the two alloys. Time seemed to slow as I brought the gronckle iron sword down on the obsidian slab, as the two objects met the distinct sound of metal scraping against metal could be heard, as with the previous tests the two seemed equal in resilience. It was when I did the test with the other blade. The obsidian blade swung down making way for the sound of metal splitting metal as my eyes widened at the result. The obsidian fused gronckle iron managed to break through the standard gronckle iron slab, it didn't go too deep but still it was something I hadn't managed to do before with the normal gronckle iron. With this result the only thing I could think of to decide which material was superior was to hit the obsidian fused slab with the sword and see what happens. The result truly surprised me as whilst the blade managed to cut through a few centimetres of standard gronckle iron it completely sliced through the slab of obsidian fused gronckle iron. In conclusion the standard gronckle iron is better for defence whilst the obsidian fused was better for weapons. With this discovery I doubled my focus on making armour. The first thing I did was make gloves and boots which took me 3 days, mainly due to trying to figure out where on the hand I could put armour whilst allowing myself to use it. In the end I settled on putting armour on the back of the hand and the palm as well as over the top of the fingers with my fingertips being completely covered, the armour covered a standard reinforced leather glove. In theory it would allow me to block a sword or other weapon with my hand but I didn't really want to have to test that theory. The boots were easy as I didn't have to worry about articulation. 2 days later and I had armour for my arms. I was able to mostly get away with completely covering them with the armour changing to the reinforced leather as it gets to the joints leaving them at a bit greater risk but still allowing me my full range of movement. Another 2 days and I had armour for my legs, the back of the legs was made with the same concept as the arms with thick but moveable leather by the back of the knee however the front of the legs were different as connected to the armour covering the lower part of my legs was an extended piece that covered my knee when standing upright increasing my protection further. With that done the only things I needed to make were a helmet and a chest plate. Unfortunately measuring those parts of my body alone is extremely difficult so I have to wait for Johann. The following week Johann of course returned as previously discussed and I got him to help me measure my upper body and head.

With all of the measurements done and most of the armour complete I realised I didn't have any iron ore left to make anymore gronckle iron and not wanting the island to be too obviously inhabited near any of the interest points I decided I would make a quick journey to another island to get myself the missing iron to finish the armour, though I guess I will have to replace that at some point, if I get any bigger. As I was thinking this, Toothless and I were flying over the open ocean heading towards a nearby island, my mind absent from the flight itself until I felt Toothless stop abruptly, crooning as he did so. "What is it bud?" I asked him as I gave him a light pat and tried to follow where he was looking. In doing so I spotted two small shapes cutting through the water, due to our altitude I couldn't quite make the shapes out but I figured they were either dragons or ships. "I see, let's get a little bit closer bud, don't worry we won't get too close, just close enough to see it better." I spoke up, shifting the tail position to allow us to glide in gently and get closer. As we did I started to hear what sounded like shouts and I could make out the shapes of large vikings running about on the deck of ships. Interesting, I don't remember that crest, a red possibly flaming fist, I wonder who that belongs to, I thought to myself as I watched them until I heard something I really didn't want to hear. "NIGHT FURY!!!" came from one of the men on the ships. As my eyes went wide in shock, only one word came to my mind "Hunters!".

Hope you liked this one, and yes I know cliff hangar, I am being cruel today, don't worry I am already working on the next chapter, though I have a surprise in the next one so we will see what happens. just to quickly clarify timelines this chapter finishes 5 months and 2 days after Hiccup left Berk, this timeline notice will likely be something I continue in the future as it will be helpful for something later, anyways I will work on the next one soon after I finish the next chapter of my other book. Bye for now.