Hiccup's Secret

Part 21~Mixed Up Stories

Restlessly, I tossed and turned in my bed, the conversation with day playing over and over in my head.

"Dad, first thing you need to do, is promise me you won't shout. You won't speak. You won't say anything until it is all over," I said quietly.

Dad was about to say something. I could feel it even though I was looking down at my lap.

"Dad, please. Just don't say anything." I gave a shy look to him, his head jerked ever so slightly in a small nod. "It started after I was announced the winner of dragon training. I decided I needed a night away from the town and went to the cove. It's beautiful there dad, you've never bothered to go but it is. The lake is always crystal clear and the greens are always fresh. It's never hurt or damaged, just peaceful.

I was down there when I could hear growling behind me. Within a second, a black blur wrapped around me and I was in the sky. At first I was afraid, I thought the dragon was going to kill me, take me off and kill me like they did to mum, but instead he took me to an island. White beaches and beautiful seas. Dragons of all colours and species were asleep on that island. It wasn't cold rocks and spikes sticking out the sea, it was warm grass and a sea that could only splash against your ankle."

I laughed slightly, I remember that day. Of course I couldn't make anything up, Dad could see through that. That was the first day that I met Toothless. He had kidnapped me from the cove and brought me to a beautiful island. It was weird to think back on because I was six and terrified.

"They didn't really do anything. Just kind of continued with their lives. The black dragon that brought me there watched me but didn't attack me or do anything. I wasn't sure why I was there or what they wanted but I was there. Nothing really happened. The black dragon got me fish and I found a source of water but nothing happened.

About three days after, the dragons started acting weird. They looked as if they were under a trance. The black dragon seemed to resist it more but he still fell under it and dragged me to the dragon nest. Or what you would call the dragon nest. He tried to hide me in the corner so that the Red Death didn't see me but she did. The black dragon tried to get me out of the island but the Red Death came after us. We must have made it halfway across the sea when the riders came and saved us."

Okay, that was about three different stories mixed into one. The Red Death attacked us, the first time Toothless took me to dragon island and the first time I met the riders. Three normally very different stories that end in three very different ways.

"The dragon conqueror led the attack on his nightfury. When they battled, the sky cracked and was lit up with purple lights. The Red Death didn't stand a chance. She fell to the Night fury. The riders stopped the Red Death and took me to a different island. That's where I met the riders properly.

There was The Dragon Healer and her dragon Cloudjumper. The two acted like the mother henses of the group. Then there was Eret, son of Eret, an ex-dragon hunter turned rider and his dragon Skull crusher. Skull crusher was the second in command, after Cloudjumper of course. Eret on the other hand was a little like the little brother. Good in some ways but was new to the riders and what they did. Then there was Heather and Windshear. The little siblings of the group, innocent but get them in a fight and they turn on you like a stray cat. Proper nasty to get in a fight with, I'm sure they could even beat you."

Dad hadn't liked that, he huffed out his chest and folded over his arms as if daring me to say it again.

"Lastly, there was the dragon conqueror. He and his Night Fury Toothless and the leaders of the little group. But he only stays up there half the time. Most of the time he is in other places. No one really knows what he does; he just disappears and leaves them alone."

I had felt weird, talking about myself in third person. Talking about how I acted around the family.

"Since I met them, they've gained new recruits, apparently. There is the Forger and his dragon Grump. Then the Loki Twins and their dragon Barf and Belch and then there is the dragon shifter. But I don't think he has a dragon. Not that I can think of anyway. And that's everyone. All the Riders."

Dad must have been confused, because he opened and closed his mouth like a fish for about ten minutes. He couldn't understand how I talked, like I idolised them and he couldn't understand why that event would cause such a change in me.

"It confused me, Dad. That world. One of peace. One of dragons and humans living side by side. And it confused me. You always told me that dragons were bad, that they were evil, that they are mindless beasts that could only kill. But then I go to these islands and they seem so far away. So, so far away. Almost like a different world. And I look around here, and I wonder, could this place become like there. Like those lands I saw."

I noticed the look on Dad's face, the look of betrayal and deep thought. I couldn't have him looking at me in that way and left after, with a quiet apology and quick shuffle. I was upstairs and trying to sleep.

"Hey, you look like you could do with a midnight fly."

I jumped out of my thoughts as I noticed Avery poking his head through my window. I gave a shy look to my door before smiling.

"Yeah, Ave. A midnight fly would be perfect right now."