Dark Valkyrie

Three: Quests

Three: Quests

"I'm going to end them all."

There was an aeons-long pause as the assembled Vikings stared at the slender blonde, her body tense, before Stoick took a pace forward and rested a paternal hand on her armoured shoulder. He sighed. In his younger days, he had been known as 'Stoick the Vindictive'-before he qualified to be called 'the Vast' and he could fully appreciate the absolute need to wreak fiery vengeance upon those who had tormented and broken his son in such cruel and vicious ways...but he knew as well that Hiccup needed them more than ever now.

"Astrid-vengeance can wait for another day," he murmured. "Hiccup needs our help now..."

"And what help can we give him?" she asked baldly. "Make him live a little longer-so they come and claim him? Or capture him again and break more pieces off my love? And you know they will try to stop us finding any cure so that we have the triumph of rescuing him...only to watch him die, feeling utterly helpless?" Her brow furrowed. "Someone has to stop them-and I am that person."

"Then I will go with you, lass-because he is my son as well," the Chief told her firmly.

"Don't forget ole' Gobber!" the blacksmith volunteered eagerly.

"Chief-you are needed here-by your son and your Tribe," Astrid said calmly. "If they attack here to kill him, you are needed to lead your people..."

"And so are you!" he reminded her. She gave twisted smile.

"They have their missions-and I have mine," she said. "Hiccup only stands a chance if we all do our part-and that includes my stopping them getting close enough to harm him again."

"Lass-he needs you," Stoick tried and she nodded.

"I know," she said. "But I can't imagine a world without him in. I can't imagine a world where I have to live every day, knowing I could have stopped the people who did this to Hiccup." The Chief stared into her face and then nodded.

"At least wait until we have given the cure a shot," he asked and the girl gave a reluctant nod, her eyes trailing back to the motionless shape on the bed. Apart from the shallow rise and fall of his chest, there was little other sign that Hiccup was still alive. Quietly, she crouched down again by his bed and lifted his hand to her mouth.

"I'm here, babe," she assured him. "Don't stop fighting, Hiccup. Toothless needs you. Berk needs you. And I-I can't imagine a world without you. You said there should always be a Hiccup and Astrid. I need you to make sure that's the case. We'll find the cure...and then we'll end Viggo and Krogan."

oOo

Frost Isle was a remote, desolate hunk of rock situated even further north than Freezing-To-Death and was the original location of the AllThing, the council of the Viking settlers of the Archipelago, four centuries earlier. As the number of Tribes expanded and the weather deteriorated to the point where Frost Isle became uninhabitable, the outpost had been abandoned and the Council of Chiefs had replaced the AllThing with a rotating location. The inhabitants of Frost Isle scattered and joined other Tribes and the place was largely forgotten.

The dragon riders closed on the remote speck, the silver shape of Windshear leading with Snotlout and the twins vying for second place in the phalanx. Fishlesg brought up the rear-as usual-with Gothi flying beside him on her Gronckle. The Healer was focussed and silent, her staff carefully stowed on her saddle while Fishlegs was scanning every book on botany he possessed as he rode. But no one had even mentioned the Wine of Hela, let alone any hint of a cure. So the riders pressed on, wrapped in their warmest clothes until, as night fell, they made it to Frost Isle.