Riders Dragons of the Archipelagos

VIII

The flight to James's homeland took about three days with several pit stops. Hiccup and Toothless had no time to spare, Hiccup wanted to be home as soon as possible, and no doubt, so did Toothless. They could only tell they'd reached their destination when they saw Stormfly lounging underneath a large tree. Astrid sat beside her, throwing her ax into the dirt over and over again.

Toothless let out a roar, and both of them looked up at them. Hiccup was shocked to see that his wife looked worried, mabe even surprised they'd shown up. Toothless landed beside them, and Hiccup jumped off. He ran and gave Astrid a hug.

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked, then looked around. He was surprised to see just a single house on the island. The inhabitants were nowhere to be seen. "Where's James, actually where is everyone."

"His family's up there," Astrid said, and pointed at the mountain.

Hiccup glanced up and saw a small cave opening, "Okay."

"James is there," Astrid whispered and pointed out over the ocean. "Him and his sister, Hope."

Hiccup looked out over the ocean and saw the flames licking the sky on a far off island. Hiccup looked back at Astrid, "what happened?"

"Someone or something attacked the dwarves-"

"Dwarves?" Hiccup whispered, then smiled. "Really."

"Yes, James is there," she said, "His friend sent a distress signal of some sort."

"Okay, I need to go and help him."

"You can't," Astrid stated. "I don't think any of us should go there."

"What's he got that I don't have?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid gave him a glare, "He can channel lightning through his body, that's what," she said, "and so can his dragon."

"So can mine," Hiccup told her.

"We should stay here, and protect his family," Astrid said.

"Astrid, he saved your life," Hiccup whispered, "what if he needs us to do the same for him."

"He has his sister," Astrid explained. "She's a mage, and also a Rider."

"His family is in a cave?" Hiccup asked.

Astrid nodded, then motioned to his armor, "Did you bring mine?"

"No," Hiccup said, "I didn't think you'd need it, after all I left right after I talked to Gobber about watching the village."

"You need to give Snotlout and the twins a shot," Astrid told him, "they're trying to prove themselves to you, you need to let them try."

"I've given them plenty of shots!" Hiccup exclaimed, "they just have all been aimed in the wrong places. First Snotlout when he almost caught the whole island on fire, there's still an entire forest regrowing itself. Then the twins, gave them a chance to look after Bucket's sheep, come back to check on them and all the sheep were gone!"

"At least Barf and Belch had a good meal," Astrid said.

"And what is it with them and making Boar Pits wherever we go?" he asked, "First the Edge, and now over where Mildew used to live."

Astrid smiled, "Actually they did a good job of giving the place a makeover," she said, "Looks better than the rickety old dump that man used to have it in."

Suddenly Toothless's head shot up, he looked directly at the mountain. Hiccup turned towards where the dragon was looking and saw the small figure waving their arms outside of the mouth of a small cave. Hiccup waved back, and the little figure ran back inside.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"Cindy," Astrid whispered, "It's such a cute family, just James and his sisters and wife."

"And the dragons,"Hiccup said.

"Yes of course," Astrid stated, "and the dragons."

Hiccup looked once more around the island, and suddenly had a feeling of awe. "This place makes Berk look like a playground," he said, "it's so green here, and warm."

"This would be a good place to plant new roots," Astrid noted.

Hiccup looked back at her, "What?"

"This is a village with not many villagers," she explained, "what if we could change this place for the better. We could make this the most advanced place in the Nine Islands. And there would be so much more space for the dragons to roam, they wouldn't be crowding the village anymore."

"Astrid, we can't," he said. "Berk is our home, we can't just leave it. My father's origins are there, everything I learned from him, I've learned there. He gave me this responsibility, and I plan on keeping it there. We have everything we need there, safety, food, everything."

"But-"

"No," Hiccup stated, "ask James, see what his opinion would be if he had a choice to stay or go. I think he'd stay, for the same or similar reasons."

"Fine," Astrid whispered, although Hiccup knew she'd bring it up again in the future. "We should get to the cave, we can't keep them waiting forever."

"I guess not."