Chapter Text
If Hiccup had to choose one thing he loved most about flying with Toothless, it would be the feeling that he could finally breathe freely. Up here, there were no conflicts pressing to be solved, no Vikings that needed his council, and no chiefly responsibilities that weighed on him like a rock whenever he walked on his own two legs (well, one leg, but point stands).
Only up here could he somewhat push away the memories squeezing his mind like a vice.
Sensing his rider's thoughts returning to darker places, Toothless spun into a happy twirl and released a plasma blast that exploded into a ball of fire in front of them. Hiccup rolled his eyes and laughed with abandon as they sailed through the dissipating inferno, the heat passing harmlessly over his scale armour. It brought back memories of when he was just learning to ride, and Toothless did much the same thing, although the consequences back then were a bit more drastic.
Simpler times...
"It's been a while since I've heard you laugh like that," a voice carried to him over the rushing wind, and Hiccup looked to his right just as Astrid led Stormfly to match their pace.
Swallowing the lump in his throat, Hiccup pulled on a smile.
"After the year I had, can you blame me? This is the first time in months that we've been able to get out of the village, and even longer since we went anywhere together. Seriously, if I have to convince Sven that Loki isn't trying to enthrall his sheep one more time, I might just hand the chiefhood to Gobber."
He wasn't lying -- he really did need a break, they all did. Despite that, Astrid's frown only deepened. They both knew that wasn't what she meant.
"Hiccup--"
"Look, we're almost to Outcast Island!" Fishlegs shouted as he came up on Hiccup's other side, cutting Astrid off.
Hiccup squinted at the sea below, where a small black and green dot just appeared over the horizon. It would only be a few minutes now before they reached it, but that was still plenty of time for Astrid to try and get him talking again.
Knowing that, he subtly unhooked his safety and locked Toothless' tail so he wouldn't fall out of the sky. The Night Fury gave a questioning warble when he felt the change, the sound quickly turning annoyed when he realised what his rider was planning.
Hiccup patted the dragon's head with a chuckle and stood up in his saddle, wobbling slightly in the rapid wind.
"I'll race you down!" he called to the other riders just before he let gravity take hold of him.
The feeling of free-falling rushed through him, tearing away all emotions except joy from his regained freedom, and an elated laugh burst from his lips.
It had been months since he had anything to be so purely happy about.
A wave of hot air knocked into him, throwing him slightly off-course. A red and orange ball of fire barrelled past, Snotlout's signature chant getting lost in the wind as he and Hookfang hurtled towards the island. Astrid and Stormfly passed him a second later and were quickly catching up to the first duo.
Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief that she didn't chase him instead and continued plummeting until he could distinguish the individual spikes on the rocky sea stacks dotting the sea below. Then he put his hands through the loops on his legs and spread the wings of his flightsuit, wincing slightly at the sudden change in pressure when it halted his descent.
When he stabilised himself, he found Toothless gliding next to him. The Night Fury looked down at Snotlout and Astrid, who had by then landed and were arguing over who was first, and then back to his rider with an annoyed grumble. Hiccup stuck out his tongue at the dragon and started descending in a wide spiral towards the other riders.
After a few near misses with some buildings and a group of Berserkers, he half-skidded, half-hopped to a stop in the small plaza his friends landed in. Toothless landed almost at the same moment as him, considerably more gracefully.
"You know you could actually win these races if you stayed on Toothless for once, right?" Snotlout remarked when Hiccup joined him and Astrid.
Hiccup grinned as he folded his wings. "And where's the fun in that?"
Toothless rolled his eyes and snorted, engulfing the group in a small cloud of smoke.
Nearby Outcasts were already stopping to stare at them, the adults whispering among each other and pointing their way while children stared mesmerised at the dragons. Hiccup hoped the other riders would land soon so they could go find Alvin before anyone gathered the courage to talk to them.
As if hearing his thoughts, Fishlegs and Meatlug joined them, both looking entirely unbothered that they lost the race.
When no one else appeared, Hiccup looked up and frowned.
"Does anyone see the twins and--" His answer was an explosion from a couple houses away. "Aaand I shouldn't have asked."
Sighing, he motioned for the other riders to follow him towards the growing commotion.
They only walked a short distance but it was enough to see how much Outcast island had changed since entering into a peace treaty with Berk and the other allied islands. Countless new houses had been built, looking far more homey than the old patchy huts of metal and scrap. Scorch marks and claw marks from dragon raids had faded, and even plant life was starting to thrive on the once barren stone and coarse dirt.
Hiccup couldn't help but marvel at the amount of work done in just a few years.
That marvel was then replaced by the profound feeling of dejection when they reached the source of the earlier explosion.
The twins were staring at the house they'd already managed to set on fire, looking very much like they were observing an artistic masterpiece. Barf and Belch were standing behind their riders, somehow managing to look both extremely guilty and completely innocent at the same time.
They all had yet to notice the very displeased Alvin standing right behind the Zippleback with his arms crossed, and the steadily growing crowd of angry Outcasts.
With four dragons at their backs, the arrival of the other riders didn't go unnoticed. The gathered Outcasts parted to let them pass, though some still shot them dirty looks. When it came to grudges, Vikings -- and Outcasts especially -- had a long memory.
Hiccup looked over the house, trying to gauge how much of it could be saved.
It wasn't much.
"Astrid, could you..." He gestured vaguely towards the house. To his relief, Astrid didn't stop to tease him, she just hopped onto Stormfly and went to help the Outcasts that were trying to put out the fire.
Their take-off finally alerted the twins to Hiccup's presence and they quickly hurried over to him, eyes shining with excitement.
"Hiccup! Did you know a Zippleback instinctively creates an explosion when it crash-lands while blind?" Tuffnut shouted, waving his hands around like a maniac. "And you said we didn't have anything to add to the Book of Dragons!"
Hiccup closed his eyes and let out a long, slow, and very tired sigh. He really thought the two couldn't do anything worse than that time they accidentally cut off the thumb of the Meathead tribe's Chieftess. He should have learned not to underestimate Thorstons when it came to disasters.
"Sorry, Hiccup. Windshear and I tried to stop them, but they're surprisingly..."
"Slippery?" Hiccup finished, half-smiling as he turned to Heather and Dagur who approached them with Sleuther and Windshear at their backs.
"Yes, even more than I remember," Heather agreed, her expression mirroring perfectly what Hiccup was feeling.
"But you do have to admit, brother, that explosion was kind of impressive," Dagur said, leaning over his sister's shoulder. His words earned him a starry-eyed look from the twins and a jab in the stomach from Heather.
The two siblings joined the riders as representatives of their islands; Heather as chief of the Berserkers, and Dagur in place of Mala for the Defenders of the Wing. Hiccup still remembered the meeting where the other chiefs agreed that all dragon-accustomed Alliance islands should help the rest train their riders, as well as those very chiefs' expressions when they realised that didn't just encompass Berk.
Hiccup himself had initially dreaded having the two Berserkers -- well, having Dagur -- along on such a delicate mission, especially since he was already taking the twins, but he actually ended up being thankful for it when Heather proved to be invaluable in keeping all three of the troublemakers in check.
Heavy footsteps thudded towards them and Hiccup turned to the approaching Alvin, putting on his I-am-sorry-for-whatever-the-twins-did-this-time face.
"I'm sorry about them, Alvin. They're always a bit restless after a long flight. I'll send some gold and woodworkers from Berk once I get back to help you rebuild that house, and I'm sure the twins will be more than happy to help with it," Hiccup added sharply, shooting a hard look at the twins, who had enough decency to look at least slightly ashamed.
Alvin looked over the charred remains that had by then been almost extinguished, very much looking like he was deciding what mood he was in today. Finally, he shrugged.
"Eh, don't worry about it, boy. We were about to tear that one down anyways. But next time, maybe don't descend on my village like a volley of catapult fire, ey? Some of my warriors still 'ave twitchy bow arms when it comes to dragons, especially when those dragons explode."
Hiccup nodded quickly, suppressing a relieved sigh. "Yes, that... that was actually my fault. I'll make sure it doesn't happen."
Alvin gave an unconvinced harrumph just as Astrid and Stormfly returned, joining the semicircle the other riders created behind Hiccup.
It had been only about a year since the riders last saw Alvin, and yet he had changed almost as much as his island. He now had grey streaks accenting his hair and beard and many new wrinkles on his face, mostly in the corners of his eyes, as if he laughed more than before. More than anything though, he seemed calmer.
And if the look in his eyes was anything to go by, they had changed as well.
After a moment, he shook his head slightly and spread his arms.
"Well, with that out of the way, welcome to Outcast Island! As you can see, we've redecorated quite a bit, so I hope you find your stay more comfortable than the last couple times." He laughed, the booming sound drowning out their nervous chuckles. "Now, no need to dally. Come, I'll show you lot to the arena. The trainees 'ave been gathered there since mornin'. I'll 'ave your things taken to your 'uts and send someone to show you where you'll be stayin' once you're done."
"You're not going to join dragon training?" Hiccup asked, opting not to question the time the Outcasts were gathered.
He had to stretch his steps a little to keep up with the older chief, while the other riders fell a few steps behind to guard his back. It wasn't that they didn't trust the Outcasts, but rather a simple force of habit. Heather kept Dagur to the very back of the group and away from Alvin, which he loudly pouted about.
Alvin's armour rattled as he guffawed at Hiccup's question.
"Nay. Flyin' on those fiery beasts ain't nothin' for me. I'll keep my feet planted on the ground and fight my battles with a good ol' axe and shield till Odin calls me to Valhalla. I'll leave the skies to you dragon riders."
Hiccup nodded, not really that surprised. He couldn't imagine being trapped on the ground for the rest of his life, but he understood his aerial escapades weren't for everyone.
"Besides, I 'ave my hands full with things down 'ere," Alvin continued with a scowl. "Last night, some band of 'alfwits snuck into the village and robbed 'alf the 'ouses, including mine. They're dumber than a senile Hobblegrunt if they think they're goin' to get away with all their limbs attached, but they rival a Changewing at hidin'."
"You didn't catch them?" Hiccup asked, quickly regretting it when Alvin's face scrunched up in barely contained anger.
"Not yet, but our sentries saw no ships leavin' the island, so they're still 'ere. And even if they're not, nowhere is far enough when you anger an Outcast."
Having firsthand experience with that, Hiccup could only agree. It now made sense why Alvin dismissed the twins' mess so quickly and was rushing to get them settled. Knowing someone invaded not only his island but his own home and yet was still walking free must have been occupying all his thoughts.
Rather than risk angering the man further, Hiccup opted for a different topic.
"Do your trainees have their own dragons already?"
"Every one of 'em, though it was a wee bit tougher with some. But I'm sure you can straighten 'em out."
Hiccup suppressed a shiver at the image of a group of uncooperative Outcasts on dragons. What was Odin still punishing him for?
As they entered the village square and the distant arena came into view, a group of children ran across their path, laughing as they waved wooden swords at one another. They didn't even notice their chief or the group of dragon riders and nearly ran right beneath Hookfang's claws.
Hiccup noted with satisfaction that although their clothes were slightly dirty, they looked well-fed and healthy. There weren't many children on Outcast before, and certainly not ones that were well cared for.
"This place is really starting to look up," he remarked as looked around, seeing even more signs of the island coming back to life.
Alvin nodded. "That it is, and it's all thanks to that treaty you drew up, boy. Best thing that's 'appened to this island since we settled 'ere."
"It wasn't just me," Hiccup said hurriedly, his face flushing. "You, Dagur, Mala, and all the other chiefs were just as big a part of it as me."
Alvin snorted. "You think this is the first peace treaty the clans ever tried to create? There were dozens of attempts like yours, some successful, some less so, but none came even close to this, not even the one that created the old Council of Chiefs. You 'ave a talent, boy, a talent for peace. That's rare in a Viking."
"Well, if teaching Outcasts to ride dragons is anything like teaching Berkians, that talent might come in handy," Hiccup joked, and the two chiefs shared a laugh before falling into momentary silence.
"I'm..." Alvin paused, as if the words were hard for him to say. "...thankful you all came. Considerin' our history, I wasn't sure you would want to take all of Berk's best fighters away just to train my people."
Hiccup shrugged slightly, pushing back unpleasant memories.
"Of course we came. Whatever might have happened in the past, we're allies now, Alvin. Berk will be fine without us for a while; they've got the Auxiliary riders on standby and my mom as acting chief. If anyone can keep them all in line, it's her and Cloudjumper. If those two weren't there, I'm pretty sure Berk would have burned down within a week of me being chief."
Alvin barked out another laugh and clapped Hiccup on the shoulder. It seemed much of the man's old yelling had been replaced with equally loud laughter.
"Aye, that mother of yours is as fierce as a Valkyrie and as sharp as a dragon. Back when we were kids, she was the only one that could keep Stoick and me in line. But don't sell yourself short either, boy. Not many could lead the life you and your dragon 'ave."
Hiccup swallowed thickly and nodded his thanks.
The mention of his father prodded at old wounds that refused to heal and he had to take a moment to recompose himself.
Alvin must have understood, because he spent the rest of the walk cursing out the thieves that robbed him and listing off his favourites of the items that were stolen.
Just like the entire island, the large stone pit that was the arena had changed since the last time the riders were there. All damage from both the fight with the dragon hunters and the long-passed attack of the Screaming Death had been repaired. The large chasm that once split the space was repaired with sturdy, dragon-proof metal plates. The jagged, rusted bars that once closed off the individual pens were gone, replaced by iron-reinforced wooden gates meant to keep in heat, not dragons.
In the middle of the arena stood a group of Outcasts and dragons, all of which quieted down when Hiccup's group entered.
There were mostly young adults and a couple teens, about three dozen in total. Their dragons were mainly of the more common species, but a woman near the back was grooming an adolescent Typhoomerang, and the youngest one, who looked barely thirteen or fourteen winters old, was affectionately scratching the chin of a Whispering Death.
'Good, we can work with this.' Hiccup thought as he surveyed the gathered trainees. Save for one or two exceptions, they all looked to be comfortable with their dragons.
"Well, they're all yours," Alvin said, ready to take his leave. "I 'ad my people clear out a part of the southern coast if you want to take them out of the arena. Just be careful out there. Those thieves could be hidin' in one of the lagoons, and if they're dumb enough to try robbin' my people, I wouldn't put it past 'em to attack a group like yours."
Assuring them he didn't need any help in his search for the thieves, Alvin left, and the riders quickly got to work. After a quick discussion, they split the trainees into three groups based on the strengths and weaknesses of their dragons. To the riders' relief, they all cooperated without complaints, and most even looked excited to learn.
After rechecking the groups for the final time, Hiccup clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.
"All right, listen up! This is how we'll split up for today," he called out, his voice echoing around the arena. "Ruff, Tuff, and Snotlout will take group one. They will have you focus on your firepower, teach you how to best make use of their dragons' shot limits and size, and how to make up for their lack of maneuverability. Astrid and I get group two. We'll get you started on evasive exercises, hit and run tactics, and anything else that makes use of your speed and agility. Fishlegs is in charge of group three. He'll show you how to best engage in a fight with limited speed and provide support for your teammates. We'll rotate the groups going forward so that you develop all abilities equally. Any questions?"
To his surprise, there were none.
"Well then, saddle up, everybody."
As everyone went to mount their dragons, Hiccup approached the twins separately.
"Alvin put us on the least flammable part of the island, but I don't doubt you'll make do with anything no matter what I do or say. Just please try not to cause another inter-island accident, will you?"
The two Thorstons looked at him like he was accusing them of treason.
"How dare you accuse us of such things?! Have we not earned your trust by assisting in your chiefly duties?" Ruffnut asked in a hurt tone as she mounted Barf.
Hiccup raised an eyebrow. "While I appreciate you helping with Berk's defences, I'd say training a pod of Submarippers to surround Berk with whirlpools didn't exactly convince me of your trustworthiness in training new riders."
Tuffnut gasped, holding a hand over his heart.
"How dare you! I'll have you know, that idea was only slightly flawed!"
Ruffnut shook her head sadly and pulled her brother onto Belch. "Our crafts are just not appreciated here, brother. Now come on! Our impressionable young trainees await!"
Hiccup just resigned to his fate and let them take off, their group of trainees following clumsily behind. If worse came to worst, he could always send them back to Berk. Not that it would lessen the damage, but Berkians were at least already used to the Thorston clan's mayhem.
"Keep an eye on them, will you?" he said towards Snotlout. The Jorgenson let out a long groan that faded away when Hookfang took off after the twins.
Hiccup had to chuckle at the absurdity of the situation. Just a few years ago, he couldn't imagine asking Snotlout to oversee anything, especially not the twins.
He was just about to take off too when he noticed Dagur and Heather were still in the arena, looking slightly lost.
"I can't tell you two what to do, but I think Dagur will be the most useful with those three while Heather helps me and Astrid," he called out to them.
"Precisely what I was thinking, brother! Great minds really do think alike!" Dagur exclaimed happily, leaning down from Sleuther's back to pull Hiccup into a bone-crushing hug before taking off as well.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to put them all in one group?" Heather asked worriedly while Hiccup tried to reinflate his lungs.
"Good?" Hiccup gasped, laughing. "Not in the slightest. But they have the most trainees, and their skills will be best at use there."
He looked after the four and saw long tendrils of fire already bursting from the twins' direction.
"It should be fine as long as we don't lose sight of them... Probably."
Several hours later, as the sun was already beginning to dip under the horizon, Hiccup very much felt like he just repeated the entire first month of dragons living on Berk.
While the older Outcasts were wary of dragons in the same way Berkians used to be, they were even less trusting, and although the younger ones were more open-minded, they got easily discouraged when they didn't succeed at first try. This made it hard to address everyone's problems at once, but most of the trainees were still making considerable progress.
Hiccup's friends were all doing relatively well in their roles, although Fishlegs was having a bit of trouble getting the Outcasts to listen to his instructions, and the twins frequently got sidetracked by their own spur-of-the-moment quests for destruction that Snotlout had to hunt them down from, leaving the trainees to Dagur Hiccup was slightly terrified by the fact that the Berserker actually seemed to be the one having the most success.
Astrid wasn't doing half bad either, even more so while she was working with Heather. The two women's methods pushed their trainees to the limit, but allowed them to make the most progress.
That couldn't be said for two particular trainees that were the source of most of Hiccup's exhaustion.
They were incredibly hard-headed and remained firmly rooted in their belief that their shared Zippleback should subject to them. After many fruitless attempts to get them on the same level as the rest of the group, Hiccup took them aside for personal instructions, but no matter what he tried, the two just wouldn't stop throwing their Zippleback around like a wooden horse.
In the end, Hiccup just sent them to take another lap around a nearby sea stack. He didn't expect it to help anymore, he just really needed a moment without their confused and defiant faces staring at him.
As he tried to ease the painful pulsing in his temples, Astrid approached him with her half of the trainees. They had just finished a series of complicated loops and spirals meant to get them used to rapid changes of direction, and many of the Outcasts -- and even some of their dragons -- were now looking somewhat green.
"So, are you regretting this yet?" Astrid asked, a wide grin on her face.
Hiccup rolled his eyes. Astrid had been telling him he would regret his decision to help train new riders the moment they left the room they signed the treaty in.
"Maybe a little. I might have to tell Alvin that these two are a lost cause."
Astrid's grin widened, and Hiccup, who felt an "I told you so!" coming on, threw up his hands.
"Well, it's not like I could have just straight up refuse the chiefs when they asked! It makes sense that we help them adapt to a life alongside dragons. And--" He glanced at the trainees to make sure they were out of earshot and lowered his voice. "-- even though we're allies now, knowing some of the chiefs, they might as well start a war if I don't agree to their requests. Or the less crazy ones at least."
Astrid laughed.
"Well, war or no war, you need to learn to put your foot down a little. Your mom and I can't solve tough negotiations forever."
"All right, then I'll leave negotiating the next treaty that Dagur is a part of to you. Happy?" Hiccup said, and it was his turn to laugh when Astrid's expression was overtaken by unbridled horror at the idea.
Before either could continue their banter, a yell tore through the sky.
The two trainees that Hiccup sent towards the sea stack were plummeting towards the ocean, their Zippleback's wings tangled in a bola.
It took Hiccup all of three seconds to locate the ship it had been launched from. The symbol on their sails was more than familiar to him.
Dragon hunters.
"Get back to the ground and warn Alvin! We'll take care of this," he shouted at their trainees before giving Toothless a nudge and pointing him at the enemy ship.
They dove straight down, Astrid and Heather right behind them. In the corner of his eye, Hiccup could see the other riders converging on the same point from their parts of the beach, their trainees also returning to the village.
They reached the ship before the hunters could even gather themselves enough to try to shoot them down. Toothless landed on top of a hunter and immediately knocked two others overboard with his tail, while Hiccup jumped on a third. Seconds later, the other riders landed all around them and eagerly joined the fight. There were only about fifteen hunters on deck and they obviously weren't prepared to face experienced dragon riders, so the fight was short and mostly one-sided, accompanied by Dagur's maniacal laughter.
Before long, the captured Outcasts were freed and on their way to shore, and Hiccup and his friends stormed the cargo hold, freeing the few captured dragons and chasing the remaining hunters out for their dragons, Dagur, and Heather to throw into the sea.
Snotlout was in his moment of glory, kicking the last hunter outside into Hookfang's claws, when his eye caught a flash of gold through a small barred window on a locked door.
He retreated a little and peeked through it to see a room that was most likely intended as a storage for the hunters' loot. It was packed with scrolls, weapons, pieces of furniture, and countless other trinkets, but what inexplicably caught Snotlout's eye was a beautiful, albeit small wooden chest with shiny golden engravings.
"Hello, gorgeous," Snotlout whistled, his mission to free dragons forgotten. With a bit of cursing, he managed to break the lock on the door and strode over to the chest. "Now you look like you're hiding something worthy of the Snotman."
After striking his (very necessary) pose, he gingerly pulled the chest out of the pile and looked it over. It was obviously old; the wood was scratched and brittle, and the lock nearly rusted off, but the gold was spotless and shiny, almost as if someone had just polished it. Snotlout couldn't understand why the hunters would only take care of one part of their loot.
He went to open the chest, but just as his fingers brushed the top, he heard Hiccup calling them from the direction of the cells. That made him remember they were currently inside a dragon hunter ship and very much separated, so he tucked the chest under his arm and ran back to his friends.
Hiccup had meanwhile just released the last dragon from its cage and called for his team when Astrid found him. Other than the usual dishevelment from fighting, she looked fine, but Hiccup knew her well enough to tell something was bothering her.
"Everything all right?" he asked, nudging her side.
Astrid hummed and squeezed his hand, steadily scanning their surroundings for any attackers.
"I'm just thinking. Why would the hunters be so close to Outcast Island? Most wild dragon colonies are farther east towards Berk and Dragon Island."
Hiccup could only shrug. He was asking himself the same question.
"They might be the people Alvin said snuck onto the island," Fishlegs offered as he approached them with the twins in tow. "They could have been hiding here, waiting for the search for them to die off when they saw us. We were pretty high up so they probably thought our dragons were wild and wanted to capture them on top of the loot they got from the village."
"The storage room full of junk I found says Fish is right, but I don't get what Alvin would have that would interest the hunters so much. Most of the stuff in there was either burned or had little to no value," Snotlout said as he joined them with something tucked under his arm.
Hiccup looked around at the clearly unkempt space, the slash marks on the walls and empty tankards littering the floor.
"Without a leader, they're getting desperate. Desperate people do desperate things," he said quietly.
Their conversation was interrupted by agitated voices along with their dragons' warning shrieks. The riders shared a single look and ran back the way they came, almost trampling one another in the tight space.
When they burst outside, they found their dragons grouped protectively around Heather and Dagur. They were facing off against a single hunter that was standing on the opposite side of the ship, shakily holding a crossbow in one arm and a barrel of Monstrous Nightmare gel under the other.
When he saw Hiccup and his friends, his face lit up with recognition and his fear was replaced with hate.
'Oh great, he knows us,' Hiccup thought dryly as their group came to a stop, afraid to make a move in case the hunter decided to shoot at one of them.
Taking a deep breath, Hiccup took a careful step forward, drawing the hunter's attention to himself. The crossbow was immediately turned towards him, the bolt aiming squarely at his chest.
The other riders froze while Toothless let out a warning hiss. Hiccup slowly raised his hands to his shoulders to show he wasn't armed, simultaneously signalling for all of them to stay put.
"You don't want to do that," he told the hunter, his voice calm but clearly warning. "You know who we are and what our dragons are capable of. You can't win against all of us, and killing me will only make the others angrier. We're not savages, we won't hurt you if you surrender. Just put that crossbow down, and nobody gets hurt."
The man's resolve wavered as he looked between their group and their dragons. Dagur was scowling at him and sliding his thumb over his throat, while Heather looked ready to chuck her axe at him.
Hiccup almost thought the hunter would actually give up, but then something in his eyes broke and his face twisted into a deranged scowl.
"Damn you, dragon-loving scum!" he yelled and dropped the crossbow so he could jam a nearby torch in the opening of the barrel before throwing it at the riders.
This much gel would cause a blast big enough to hit all six of them, but Hiccup would take the brunt of it. None of the dragons would get to them in time to protect them.
Time seemed to slow.
Screams and shrieks pierced the air.
Hiccup stumbled back, tripping over his own feet.
And then at the last second, Snotlout jumped in front of him, arms spread wide.
"Snotlout, don't--!"
The barrel exploded, shaking the entire ship and knocking Snotlout into Hiccup. The object the Jorgenson took from the ship was knocked of his hands and slammed into the deck, shattering into splinters just as a second barrel was thrown towards them.
Hiccup saw the hunter jumping overboard and their dragons scrambling towards them, but then his world was suddenly overtaken by golden dust that exploded from somewhere to his left. He felt the shockwave of the second barrel's explosion slam into him, but couldn't hear or see it. He did hear Toothless' worried shriek, but it was suddenly cut off, like his head was plunged underwater.
When he tried to call for the dragon, no sound came out.
In seconds, the golden dust completely blotted out everything around him, including the other riders and even the deck below him. All he could hear was the familiar rustling of dragon scales coming from everywhere around him. A feeling akin to an entire flock of Fireworms crawling underneath his skin spread over his body, and if his voice was working, he would have cried out.
All he could do was hang onto Snotlout's limp form, suffering silently as he consciousness slowly slipped away from him.
"Hiccup!"
Someone was calling his name, someone who sounded like... his father.
But that was impossible. His father was dead.
Because of him.
The golden glow pulsed brighter, and then everything was swallowed by darkness.