Cold Heart

Deals Not Friends

A/N: AHH! 10k views!! Thank you all so much for the support! It honestly makes my day when you guys read, vote for, or comment on this story. Thank you!

I had a broken past. Nothing would ever change that. I had a broken future. My future was solely an existence because I wanted to save dragons. And that was only what I kept telling myself. Did I really want to save dragons? Or did I just want the people fighting them to die?

Dragons were beautiful, beautiful creatures, full of understanding and personality. Dragons, though, were not humans. They didn't have the intellect. I was riding on Toothless, drifting over Berk, and in many ways, I was still alone.

I had always been alone. I didn't think that was ever going to change.

And it wasn't. Not really.

I landed on Berk in front of the Great Hall, and I took off my helmet with a sigh. It didn't matter now. People surrounded me, all of them giving me confused and intimidated looks. I was surrounded by people, but it was like I was underwater. They couldn't hear me. I couldn't hear them. I was alone.

I walked into the giant building, approaching Stoick with an impassive face. His eyes went wide and he pulled in a sharp breath as I approached. Gobber, who was again by his side, surveyed my face as if it was scripture he needed to interpret. Neither of them spoke.

I raised my eyebrows in annoyance. "So. Who hasn't met with me yet? Who should I meet with today?" My tone was impassive. I wasn't going to show the emotion that was surging through me with each breath. Most of it was anger, anyway, and that wouldn't do the situation any good.

He opened his mouth to respond, but the 'great' Stoick that I had always seen broke down. He stared at me with zero filter over his facial expression. Tears filled his eyes.

"I would say I was proud of you, son, but you're hurting my people."

I clenched my fists. Not more than you hurt me. And really, I'm saving hundreds of them from dying because of dragons. Instead of responding I simply stiffened and turned to get on Toothless again. I had mounted him before Stoick again spoke.

"Hiccup? How are you keeping the dragons from attacking?"

Toothless swiveled around. I hesitated. A lie almost escaped my lips, but after a few seconds of consideration I figured it wasn't worth it.

"I'm not."

Some of the pain left his eyes, only to be replaced with confusion. "Why aren't they, then?"

I furrowed my brows. "I don't know."

Gobber cleared his throat. "Aye, but there's always an attack this time of week."

This was one of the only questions I didn't know how to answer. I was sure it had something to do with the man in the mountain. Drago- as Heather called him. He evidently had some control over the Red Death, or he would be dead by now. Perhaps he had heard I was on Berk, and he had stopped the attacks. It still didn't make sense. I mean, I was glad. Very glad. But I really did need to return. I needed to know things. 

I needed to destroy what controlled the Red Death or destroy the Red Death itself. That way, dragons would be under the control of their own minds, not controlled by a higher power. It would be okay if I was the higher power, if anything, but I had no idea how to befriend a Red Death. At times I thought that maybe Toothless could defeat it, but I still wasn't sure exactly how I was going to do that. My mind drifted to my source of information.

I was destined to be alone, but I needed Heather.

She knew so many things. I got the impression she grew up with Drago and Alvin overlording over her. If that were true, she would know things about both of them. Things about their power, their personalities, and etc.