The Alpha is Rising

Pushing Forward

The group flew a ways before needing to stop for the night, but by then, all of the new dragons were named, and Hiccup got the Lightning sign, a copper piece, as the storm passed overhead. That night, around the campfire, everyone began asking questions.

"How did Drago know where I live?"

"How did you know where to find us?" asked Astrid.

"Why is everything happening so fast?" asked Merida.

"Do we really need to be a part of this?" sighed Dingwall.

'How are the golden apples and the copper bell supposed to help?"

"Good question, Fishlegs," ginned Hiccup.

"Thanks," Fishlegs smiled back.

"Can we stay here forever?" came Tuffnut's question. Everyone glanced at him. "What? It's nice not having to worry about school and parents."

"You've got a point there," mumbled his sister as she leaned into MacIntosh.

"I think a better question is, are we going to survive this?" stated Eret.

Gobber sighed as he stood up, "And that is the hardest one to answer, the best I've got for you is, I don't know. We'll try our very best to keep you all alive, but, there are eleven of you, and only three of us, we can't keep watching for every arrow or every fireball that come your way. You are going to have to watch each other's backs. Your dragons will help, there's no doubt about that, but, when it comes to battle, we're not going to be able to help you. As for how Drago knew where you lived, Hiccup, it's not hard, actually. Drago is a smart man, evil, but smart, and observant. He knew about the prophecy, so he was watching for you as much as we were, the only difference is that we found you first. But when he figured it out, he's had someone keeping an eye on you."

"OK, that's creepy," muttered Tuffnut.

Gobber nodded, "But Drago only needed to know when you were going to start finding the signs so that he could attempt to prevent you from finding them. And it looks like that failed."

Snotlout raised his hand, "Uh, I hate to be the evil genius here, but, if Drago knew Hiccup was the Dragon Master of the prophecy, wouldn't it have been easier to kill him?"

"Hey!"

"It would have, but, then Drago would lose his passage to the Dragon World." Everyone glanced at Gobber questioningly. "Being untrained, Hiccup can call up portals without knowing it and cannot close them at command, and since the rest of us wouldn't have opened a portal for Drago, he figured that Hiccup was his best bet to entering the world of dragons."

"So, so basically, I let him in?"

Gobber shook his head, "No, you didn't."

"Right, that device those guys had," pointed out Fishlegs.

"Partially, but, it was mainly us." Their mouths and eyes widened in shock.

"What? You?"

Sandy sighed, nodding, "Yes, us, we pretty much had to choose between you or a portal. Not long after your family moved from Berk, a large portal opened up, and we had to choose either losing track of you, or letting Drago get through. We figured you were more important, and we let Drago get through."

"Uh, do you think this could have all been avoided had you closed the portal?" asked Eret.

Gothi and Sandy shook their heads, but Sandy spoke, "No, because Drago would have stuck close to Hiccup to get his chance. But things would have gone a lot more slowly if we had, that's for sure. The only reason why things are speeding up is because Drago has finally gotten through to the Alpha and is waking him up."