Fire and Ice | HTTYD Fanfiction [Book One]

Chapter Eight ~ New Threats

Indigo

      I wandered around the woods aimlessly. It had been two weeks after we moved into Berk. There had been a ceremony that made Adira a Viking, a feast thrown in honor of defeating the Outcasts for good, and even a little festival that held dragon racing games. Someway or another, Hiccup and Adira tied, which was a huge surprise to the native Berkians. Almost no one even comes close to a Night Fury's score.

      As I flew along the trees, a strange scent drifted to my nostrils. It led to a place almost a half day's journey away. I decided to follow it.

      I arrived at a strange island. Huge in size, but small in population. Inside the center sat a huge man, bigger than Alvin, Stoick, or anyone I've ever met. His dark gaze seemed to dispel evil and malice.

      His straggly black hair was a curly mess of dreadlocks, and his eyes were so dark they looked like black holes. A man approached and bowed to him.

      "Master Dimitrice," he uttered, "the preparations are almost complete. We shall be conquering new lands by next week."

      "What direction will we be heading?" Dimitrice spoke. His voice was deep and scratchy as if he hardly ever used it.

      "West, Master Dimitrice," the man responded, "we plan to take the first ten islands we meet, then change directions." West. Uh oh. I had flown east from Berk, which meant I would be going west to head back. Dimitrice and his men would be going straight through Berk.

      "That's good. Well done," Dimitrice dismissed him with a wave of his scarred hand, muttering, "we, the Conquerers, shall live up to our name," with a smirk.

      I flew straight back to Berk as fast as possible. My aim was to tell Adira, Citrine, Melanite, even Canna or Toothless. They all needed to know the danger we were in.

Toothless

      I was sitting on the ground, listening to Hiccup trying to figure out how Adira tied with us during the festival. The answer was obvious, Melanite and I were from the same class of dragons meaning our characteristics were the same, as well as our thinking.

      Finally growing bored, I let out a huge yawn and left the training arena. I found Indigo the Flightmare crash-landing in the middle of the square, panting.

      "Are you alright?" I asked as she picked herself up.

      "Yes, fine. Listen, there isn't much time. There's this guy named Dimitrice and his army called the Conquerers who in exactly one week will be heading west and taking ten islands in that direction. Unfortunately, Berk is westward and we are only six islands away." She explained with haste. This was very bad news.

      "Adira!" I called out, running around, "Adira, where are you? I really need to speak with you!"

Adira

      "Adira! Adira!" I heard Toothless and Indigo's call. It must be very important if they were searching Berk for me. I stopped my work on a fancy shield with different abilities, not unlike the one Hiccup has.

      "Come on Melanite," I said, jumping on his back. We flew towards the desperate calls and in a matter of seconds were seated perpendicular to the two dragons.

      "This man called Dimitrice and his army, the Conquerers, are heading west which is towards Berk and capturing ten islands in that direction," Indigo informed us, wasting no time.

      "Is Berk one of those ten islands?" I asked, eyes wide with concern.

      "Yes." Toothless answered, his expression grim.

      "Then what are we waiting for? We have to tell Hiccup or Stoick!"

      When we filled everyone in on the new threat, Stoick immediately ordered almost a full day's worth of training for the dragon riders, every day. The dragon riders were to work on different battle techniques while I was in charge of whipping the dragon pack into shape. 

      Citrine and Melanite called a dragon pack meeting and asked if anyone would volunteer to have riders for the duration of training and the battle. It was almost surprising at the number of dragons that stepped forward without a second thought.

      The days flew past in a blur. We sent out Sunny and his Terrible Terror friends to spy on the Conquerers. They were actually very good at the job. We uncovered most of their plans, including how they will attack each island they will encounter. We've discovered that there are dragons who are forced to fight for them and we convinced them to turn on the Conquerers when they reach Berk.

      What I learned while training with Hiccup I tried to translate into a group attack. For example, when we practiced rapid firing skills, I had the dragon pack alternate dragons who were shooting, so no one met their shot limit. Before I knew it, the battle was only a day away.

      "Rest up, you'll need as much energy as possible tomorrow," Stoick ordered. After tossing and turning for a good portion of the night, I knew I would be getting next to no sleep.

      I slid from my bed and out of the house, searching for any signs of life. The only one up and about was Toothless and Hiccup doing, guess what, sneaking out. This was at least the fifth time he's done that all week.

      "Where are you going?" I asked quietly.

      "Just thought I might check to see where their ships are..." He trailed off. I immediately knew that was not what he was doing.

      "Well wherever you're going, you're not going out alone," I let out a low, quiet whistle. A few moments later Melanite came bounding towards us, his eyes suggesting he hasn't slept a wink.

      "You called?" He growled.

      "Yeah, we're going out flying," I responded and clambered onto his back, grabbing hold of the metal handles.

      "Let's go." Toothless warbled and took off into the night. Melanite and I followed.

      While we flew, I thought of the other islands that the Conquerers have already destroyed. I felt slight guilt and a little remorse for not helping them out, but every second of our time had to go into training. If not, we wouldn't have been prepared enough to stop them at the sixth island.

      I sighed and glanced down at the open sea, scarcely making out fifteen ships slowly sailing towards Berk. At this speed, they'd get there late by morning where we would be waiting, heavily armed and prepared.

A/N: May seem like a filler, but it's not.