Hiccup & Toothless' Fate

Chapter 8 - A Storm of Hunger

Chapter Eight

(Astrid's POV)

When I'm on Berk, I see kids and adults holding their stomachs in pain everywhere I look. Children curled into balls, moaning weakly. Adults trying not show their hunger, but it's obviously getting harder to hide the way their stomachs grumble. Sheep and yaks are dying, and it's not us over-eating. The vegetation and crops are practically non-existent, thanks to the shortages of water. Fish have been scarce. Any that are actually caught are pitiful. Everything's dying out, including the people of Berk. Already a baby has died from lack of nutrition. It's awful, and it's just going to get worse. Winter is coming, and we have no food to stock up the warehouses. Worst of all, wild dragons keep raiding the island, at least twice a week. Every single time I search relentlessly for the Dragon Chief, but I never see him. Him, or his devil-dragon. They are simply never involved in the raids since that last one months and months ago. I would like to say that Berk scared him away, but how could we? No-one had seen him except for me – I checked.

Chief Stoick was also being a prideful, pig-headed, stubborn fool. At least, according to Gobber. Privately, I agreed. He wasn't accepting help from any tribe nearby, always turning away any ship that had come to help. The only ships that made berth at our harbour were our own or any trader who dared to risk visiting our island. They were apparently having as much trouble as we were when it came to dragon raids and resources.

As Chief's Heir, my priority was to continue looking for food; sailing to uninhabited islands further and further out in the Archipelago to see if there was any animals, plants or fish that my team and I could catch and take back home. So far, there was nothing. The few islands we traveled to – inhabited or not – were having just as much trouble surviving as we were. Eventually, my team and I decided to sail outside the Archipelago. Wind, rain, hail and storms battered us relentlessly from all sides, but eventually we had broken through the clouds and storm waves. Ruffnut had nearly fallen over the side during one of these storms. If it wasn't for her twin catching her at the last second, she would have found herself at the bottom of the dark ocean, never to see the weak sun again.

The choppy sea around us reflected the skimming dark clouds above and on the far horizon. 'Another storm will hit us soon'  I find myself thinking. A cry from the tip of the mast above interrupted my daydreaming. "Island ahead!" Snotlout's voice came from the mast of the ship, cutting through the rising wind. "Looks like one we haven't been to before!"

"It's not on the map, that's for sure." Fishlegs padded up to the tiller where I sat, scouring the large piece of parchment in his hands. "Hopefully we'll be lucky?"

I sighed and made a correction to our course. "We have to be. We've sailed for a week and we're nearly out of food ourselves. There must be something there that can help Berk and us. There just has to be." I turned my eyes back to the island, noting its layout. Two stretches of land reached outwards from it, curving inwards and making a natural harbour. My warrior subconscious noticed that the island would be fairly easy to defend from there with the right equipment. Right in the middle of the land dead ahead, a cluster of smaller grass-covered ledges bunched together with the different levels raising and lowering at different intervals. Large boulders covered a few of these, each with strange corners jutting down towards the ground, almost like some sort of structure. Forests dotted the island in clusters, and from the bird and animal noise carrying faintly across the water, they were inhabited. 'This time.' I thought, my braid swinging in the stormy gale. 'This time for sure, we will find food. And Berk will be saved.'

xXx

(Hiccup's POV)

A ship was approaching Dragon's Edge.