Love in the Time of Dragon Riders 3 (HTTYD FanFic)

Chapter 12: Problems

Hiccup’s P.O.V

I watched as the silver dragon closed his scale-lidded eyes. Willow spoke quietly to him, an assortment of growls that I didn’t understand. He gave a gasp and opened his eyes. I looked at his scales. Black lines, starting from his heart had spread out across his body, their dark gloss interrupting the stunning silver.

“Gods above.” Cursed Skylar.

“Fantastic, just fantastic.” I grumbled my hands curling into fists. I tried to rub the exhaustion out of my eyes. I could hear shouts coming from the Great Hall. “Look, I need you two to take care of him, make sure he turns back, I have to deal with this mess.”

Before entering the great hall, I calmed my features and put on a confident look, a leaderly look. In the hall chaos had erupted. On one side, several of the Jorgenson’s had stood up and were shouting at everyone.

“Are you fools going to sit here while we have a traitors in our midst?” Shouted Spitelout, Snotlout’s father. I desperately wanted to go out to Astrid. After I had regained consciousness I had said not so wittily ‘so much for good timing.’ She had stormed out furiously ignoring my attempts to stop her. The sooner I got this under control, the sooner I could find her.

I could see there was no chance that the crowd was going to pipe down.

“Plazma Blast please.” I muttered tiredly to Toothless taking my spot next to him at one of the tables. He shot a blazing hot ball of electric fire into the middle were the smoke dragon had appeared. The fire pit roared with the sudden energy. The crowd stopped shouting at one another and turned to face me.

“I know that many of you are confused and scared.” I began followed by a few sarcastic comments from some people. I continued on nevertheless. “But we can get through this, we always have, we’re Vikings!” I said shouting the last word. There were no roars of agreement. Only angry faces.

“What did the demon creature mean?” Shouted someone from the crowd, whom I identified to be Mulch. I winced, they wouldn’t like the truth, I was sure of that, but I couldn’t lie to my people.

“It was one of the Shapeshifters, in some kind of form.” I said my voice echoing in the silence. They had all been told what the shapeshifters were and they didn’t like them. “It was requesting that we turn over three of our warriors. Skylar and Willow, along with Glenn.” I tried to continue but was blocked out as people spoke their thoughts.

“Why don’t we just turn them over, we can stop this whole war from happening!” Shouted Spitelout.

“Don’t be a coward you great fool!” Gobber shouted back. “You think that will stop them from marching on this land? They’re just like every other enemy we have faced, obsessed with power. No, turning over 3 teenagers won’t do any good.” I nodded appreciatedly to Gobber.

“Gobber’s right, turning over 3 of our best warriors will not help. Willow has family here, Glenn was raised on this island, Skylar is new but like everyone in this room he will protect Berk. Each of these people call this island home. So I ask you will you send them away for your own benefit?” A few people shook their head vigorously. “Those in favour of not sending away spoken inhabitants say aye.” There was a chorus of ‘ayes’ Along with several no's, mostly from the Jorgenson family. “They will remain her and fight with us to defend our home, we will not let this island be taken, it is ours and has been for centuries, we are Vikings!” This time the followed my lead and shouted we are Vikings!

“Double the night watchers, protect our home.” I shouted moving away from the table as people began standing up and walking out of the hall to their homes, while others gathered in front of Gobber as he posted people at different watch places over the island. I sighed climbling onto Toothless and slipping my prosthetic in to the slot hearing it click into place. Once I was settled in he jumped up beating his wings staying close to the ground, people ducked as we flew over their heads and out the open door.