King of Shadows HIATUS

Chapter 10

"NO, Absolutely not" Hiccup said sternly, taking the others by surprise. They have never seen Hiccup talk like this, not even that one time Hiccup went against Snotlout, that time was angry this, this is protective. 

"what do you mean no? this could change everything Hiccup! we could end the war with the dragons" Fishlegs said, excitement seeping into his voice at the thought and the others look like they agree with him, Hiccup popped their bubble real quick. "you think its that easy to end a 300 year war?" Hiccup said incredulously, "you think that just because we, a bunch of thirteen year olds, know now that dragons aren't monsters that the tribe will suddenly let go of their hatred, the suffering, forget all they lost because of the war that we brought upon ourselves?" Hiccup continued, his voice filled with disbelief at the thought that the others even thought of it. 

"No, but if we can spare the coming generation of that then shouldn't we try?" surprisingly, Astrid said that, she was looking in the fire, as if remembering a distant memory. "I want to do that Astrid, believe me, but who will believe us? they will either laugh at us or come here and kill Toothless because what tribe doesn't want to say that they manage to kill a Night Fury" Hiccup said, relating to Astrid's want but while he is a dreamer he was also a realist, he knows of the pride of vikings and what it could lead people to do. 

They were quiet, realizing the truth in Hiccup's words, Vikings were taught to kill dragons on sight, they would not just let go of a belief as deep rooted as that, the only reason the teens manage to let go of that this quickly was because they were young and they weren't as close minded as the adults, the adults will fight tooth and nail to keep that belief even when it was proven wrong. 

Toothless didn't like this conversation, he crooned sadly. Hiccup scratched Toothless' chin, wishing they could talk but they can't while they have company.  "so, we just let them fight and die" another surprising turn of events, Snotlout was the one that said that, so he has a conscience, who knew?

"No, I'm tired of the fighting too, I'll think of something" Hiccup said, looking into the fire, trying to think of a way to avoid more deaths on both sides, unfortunately he failed. 

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Fortunately the rain stopped before dawn, the teens managed to get back home before anyone knew they had been gone. 

Nothing exciting happened the next few weeks, the teens bonded over their shared secrets, some people did notice that Hiccup has been getting closer to the teens though, like Gobber and the teens' parents, who tried to tell their children to stay away from Hiccup, but Fishlegs and Astrid were not going to abandon Hiccup a second time and it was clear the other teens were not going to abandon him for the first time. 

They all learned about dragons together but they never learned about Hiccup's mark or that Hiccup can understand Toothless. Hiccup wasn't quite ready to tell them that, so what if they were friends now? if they find out that he was more of a freak than they realized then they would leave and he doesn't want them to leave. 

Toothless noticed Hiccup getting happier with his new friends so he warmed up to them, after all, he knew they were not going to hurt Hiccup. 

Hiccup goes into the forest with his friends in the day and when they part ways in the night he would pretend to go into his house and sleep but when everyone is asleep, he goes to the forest so that he can go to the nest with Toothless. 

Currently he is at the nest, sitting crossed legged in front of the wildebeest. "Breathe in, then breathe out" the king said, "you are the king of shadows, you command them and not them you" he continued, "you must not drown in them"

Hiccup's eyes were closed, sweat was pooling on his brow. The effort of keeping himself afloat as he sat on top of the shadows, trying to prevent the shadows from swallowing him like it did his bag. Toothless was watching nervously, ready to pounce if something goes wrong. 

"Good" the king said when he saw that Hiccup stopped struggling and got used to it, he has been training keep shadows contained for weeks now, he must've gotten used to it, "let yourself lower into the shadow", that was met with alarm, Toothless roaring and Hiccup losing focus. The shadow expanded, it grew large and reached some of the flower bed where it consumed the flowers, it almost reached some hatchlings who didn't know how to listen when the king told them to get away. 

Hiccup gasped and the shadows went back to their natural place between crevices on the rocks, behind the dragons and behind himself, everything was natural again. Hiccup turn to look at the hatchlings and once he saw that they were ok, looked at the now absent flowers, no doubt in the fountain of his mind. 

It scared him. The thought of losing control and hurting others scared him. 

Toothless bounded over and sniffed him, seemingly looking or injuries, when he found none, he placed his head in Hiccup's lap and crooned worriedly of the shaken state Hiccup is currently in. 

"You must learn to be among shadows but not be one of them, you must not be consumed" the gigantic dragon said, "that is all for tonight" the continued then he lowered on to his resting place and rested. 

Hiccup, catching his breath, looked at his hands, he called upon the shadows and commanded them to bring those flowers back. He closed his eyes and when he opened them, piles of flowers filled his hand.