7. Welcome to Selardalr Part-1

Previous chapter-

"Really? Why not?" Asmund asked, confused. Even Raoul raised an eyebrow in curiosity as he halfway turned to face the girl.

"Because I intend to ask him myself."

Enjoy~~

................................................................

Slowly, and with surprising difficultly, Hiccup opened his eyes, only to see another pair of wide, bright green eyes staring at him. If it wasn't for his condition and that feeling of heaviness still plaguing him, Hiccup could have literally jumped out of his skin, he was not used to waking up with someone staring at him; then again, no one had ever really bothered to look his way at all. Taking a few moments to let his senses reorient themselves, his somewhat blurred eyesight sharpened, seeing the eyes on a black, scaly body, and his ears could pick up on quiet moans of concern. The clues soon came together in an instant as Hiccup realized just what, or rather who, he was looking at.

"T-Toothless!" He cried out with pure relief as the Night Fury barked and cried out in a fit of joy at his riders' awakening. Toothless lifted up and lashed back his tail pinned on the Viking youth's stomach, and began hopping around Hiccup in excitement while wagging his tail, smiling his gummy smile and letting his tongue loll out like an innocent puppy. Hiccup was awake and alright, which meant they could play and fly together again; really, though, more than anything, Toothless was just glad that Hiccup was alright. He may have been thrilled at the thought of spreading his wings, but his protective instincts toward his rider would win out every time in the end.

Hiccup chuckled softly at the sight of his friend as he ran his fingers through his hair; the chuckling abruptly stopped as they felt the rough texture of cloth wrapped around his forehead. For some reason, he was wearing bandages, and after several moments of pondering why and what had happened to require them, his last few immediate memories before blacking out flashed back in an instant. Hiccup groaned as he silently cursed himself for being so stupid: of course he would need bandages, he and his dragon were shot out of the sky.

With the what and why figured out, all that was left to learn was where and how, Hiccup figured as he analyzed his surroundings. He was lying on the floor in a large bundle of straw, a fur blanket covering him and a pillow under his head. He was in a bare room with a door and window, a room not much bigger than his old one back at home. It seemed almost weak of him that the slightest aspect of his old home could make him so homesick.Perhaps this was a mistake, Hiccup thought to himself. Perhaps... perhaps it wasn't too late to turn back and go home to Berk; he could tell his dad he was captured by pirates - a legitimate enough excuse given most of the circumstances of his disappearance. His dad may have been sharper than most Vikings, but even he wouldn't have thought anything of it. Just go back, hide Toothless back in the cove, and everything would go back to the way it used to be. The way it used to be...

Hiccup shook the thoughts all out of his head; who was he kidding? That way was the whole reason he left: the lies he told and the lies told and shown to him in turn. He knew what was real, what their true thoughts were, and he didn't like it. That place was no longer his home, he reasoned: a home was supposed to be safe and comforting, and he had to be on guard every second against everyone around him who could practically be considered enemies themselves. Besides, it's not like his father would buy into any lies he tried to sell - he'd left him a note for Thor's sake! Like it or not, there was no turning back..

All thoughts of Berk aside, Hiccup still had no idea where he was. So to see if he can escape from here he tried to get up but a massive pain erupted in his chest the second he moved. He cried out loudly and Toothless gently forced him to lay back down with his head. The dragon's cooes could be obviously translated as 'take it easy.'

"Great, looks like we're stuck here," he grumbled. Toothless looked at Hiccup with an apologetic look on his face.

"It's okay, bud," Hiccup said, patting the Night Fury's nose. "It's not your fault. We had no way of knowing that there was a village on this island. Just our specialty-brand rotten luck."

Hiccup studied Toothless as he rubbed his snout. He was ill-at-ease to find that atop the tough black scales, the dragon had several bruises and scratches covering his body, and his prosthetic tail was practically ruined.Hiccup was upset at the sight of the wrecked prosthetic and wondered how long it would take to fix it before turning his attention back to their present situation. He imagined they were quite a ways away from their original campsite and started thinking of ways to get out of the room and back there undetected. It was then that Hiccup realized while taking a sudden inventory of all the items he left back there that there was something missing. Hiccup's face suddenly went pale as he realized what it was.

"Alvis! Where's Alvis?!" He almost yelled, whipping his head around back and forth and scanning every corner of the room trying to find the child, ignoring the pain that travelled down his neck. Toothless started making growling and barking noises, trying to explain what happened while Hiccup was unconscious, but in his panicked state with his parental instincts in overdrive, Hiccup could not so much as guess what he was saying. Hiccup's eyes threatened to spill tears and his heart rate skyrocketed as he began to fear the worst for the poor baby; what if the people who shot them down hurt him? What if they left him behind in that forest filled with wild wolves and boars and dragons? What if he was dead?! As if on cue, there was loud talking from outside the door.

"Syn!" Said an enraged, slightly concerned, male voice muffled by the large wooden door. "I'm comin' in there with you, and that's final!"

"No, dad," said a much younger female voice, confident but slightly wavering in tone. "You'll only scare the boy and make things worse."

"I don' care!" Said the male voice. "It's the dragon I'm worried 'bout. You and I were prob'ly only lucky to have gotten on that dragon's good side. It seems harmless enough, but one wrong move, and ya could be dragon bait!"

"Even more reason for me to go in alone," Said the female voice. "Dad, face it. You're kind of scary looking. I look a lot less like a threat, and I'm already on its good side. The dragon is probably more likely to let me near the boy than you."

"Syn, I don' want my only daughter to be mauled by that dragon!" Said the male voice.

"What do you even care?! We both know you don't exactly hold me in the highest regard!" Said the female voice, who must have been Syn. "Now shut your trap, and open the door! I AIN'T GETTING ANY YOUNGER!"

There was a moment of tense silence, then were a few grunts, a grumbled 'thank you' and an audibly muttered 'we'll talk about this, later.' A loud clicking sound was heard, confirming Hiccup's earlier suspicion that the door was indeed locked but now wasn't, and the door opened. A girl walked in, carrying a tray in one hand, and a bundle full of blankets in the crook of her other arm. With some effort due to the handful, she immediately closed the door behind her using her foot. She was rather pretty, Hiccup had observed, even prettier than Astrid in an admittedly dorky kind of way. Her attire was pretty simple - she honestly didn't look like the type who could jump out the bed at the ready to maim a dragon like anyone else would. The fact that she came in unarmed also helped in lowering Hiccup's guard slightly.

Taking a closer look as she approached with the tray in hand, she didn't look like much. She seemed strong, but rather scrawny, like Hiccup. But she lifted her head and that's when he saw it: Her eyes... Hiccup's heart almost stopped in apprehension.It feels like he can get drowned in an ocean..A mix of awe filled him all at once as he couldn't even begin to think of a word to describe those eyes.It was such a beautiful color like light blue..He never seen those eyes before. It feels like he is seeing the infinite deep sky mixed with the ocean. It makes him want to fly freely and also it makes him feel..

HOME...

"Hi!" She said cheerfully. "How are you feeling?"

"Uhh..." Hiccup droned, at a total loss for words. Aside from anything else, she was still pretty, and it wasn't every day that a girl like her talked to him all friendly-like, or even at all, and didn't look at him like he was a nuisance. Toothless backed away from the two: reality-wise he was the elephant, or dragon-in-the-room and wanted to give the two as much space as possible. For the most part, he figured the girl was okay, especially since she was bringing his boy food.

Syn didn't wait for an answer. She came up to Hiccup and set down the tray with a loaf of bread, some cheese, and a mug of water on it. Then she handed Hiccup the bundle of blankets, holding a lump of something that was inside rather firmly at the sides. "I believe this little cutie belongs to you," she said with a smile. Hiccup took the bundle and pulled back some of the sheets. Inside was little Alvis, just waking up from a nap and starting up at Hiccup with a soft, happy coo.

"Alvis! You're safe!" Hiccup exclaimed as he hugged his new son for all he was worth with all the strength his tiny frame could muster.

"Your brother?" She asked.

"Son, actually," Hiccup said as he turned his attention back to the girl somewhat, looking at her from the corner of his eye. Syn was momentarily confused, obviously surprised that a fourteen-year-old boy had a son and for a second wondered how something like that happened. She soon deemed it unimportant and so decided to ignore it as she stuck out her hand. "I'm Syn," she said. "What's your name?" Hiccup was taken aback somewhat at the girl's straightforward attitude.

Even tho he still deciding to trust her or not but since he had no choice but to say his real name. So, with some effort since he was still in pain, he strained to prop himself on his elbow without opening the wounds on his chest and took her hand. "Uhhh....Hiccup."

"Hiccup?" Syn asked as she shook his hand. "That's a strange name."

Hiccup knew what she was thinking - it was what anyone in her situation would have asked; What parent names their child Hiccup?

"Don't remind me," Hiccup tiredly said, taking his hand back and returning to his previous position.

Syn shrugged. "Eh, it's not my place to judge. So, uh, how are you feeling?" She scanned him over as she spoke. Obviously he still looked pretty banged-up, but just to be sure.

"Bad," Hiccup said point-blank with a quick breath, even wincing a bit.

Syn winced a little herself in guilt. "Yeah. Sorry that the villagers shot you and your... dragon down," she apologized as she turned to Toothless, who had walked back over and was sniffing Hiccup and gently nuzzling him. "But we suffer some pretty nasty raids around here, and it's not every day you get the chance to take down a Night Fury."

"Tell me about it," Hiccup stated, remembering the shot he fired with his bola contraption that fateful night that came to be the start of his first real friendship in years.

"Your dragon really cares about you," Syn said when Toothless continued to nuzzle and even lick Hiccup before coming down to sniff Alvis. "And your baby. I was probably just lucky that he realized that he had no choice but to let me help out a little."

Hiccup tried to get up once again, but the pain crashed like ocean waves throughout his chest, causing him to scream in pain which caused Toothless to jolt back and Alvis to start crying a bit. Syn had to help him into a sitting position up against the wall; he tried to squirm away since he still doesn't trust her, but she wouldn't let him out of her grasp for a moment until she finally got his back propped up against the wood wall; an incredibly weird girl, Hiccup thought as he bounced Alvis in his arms to calm the child down, which he eventually did.

"Yeah, you're not going to be able to move around for a while. Not in this state." She confessed as she shook her head. Hiccup wasn't exactly happy with that diagnosis but ultimately had to agree; like it or not, they were going to be staying for a while.

Hiccup looked down to the blankets draped over him and said, "You're... really friendly".Even tho he still doesn't know her well she actually reminded Hiccup of what Gobber told him of her mother: she was very kind, as opposed to most Vikings, but still had a certain kind of feistiness to her. As he understood, Valka was rather rebellious herself and was never afraid to speak her mind, but her caring nature still stood prominent over anything else.

Syn chuckled. "Yeah, and I get the feeling I'm the only one who would be. No one else is very nice most of the time, especially to me. I mean, a Viking's normal idea of friendship is to dislocate your shoulder with a good punch." Syn even took her fist and jabbed the air for example; the chuckling soon stopped and she looked down to her own knees covered by her coat.

"I don't even know you, and you're probably the nicest person I've met," she mumbled.

"Same here," Hiccup said, turning to face her. "You're one of the few people who has ever been intentionally nice to me." Syn looked back up to stare into his own eyes: they were a bright and vibrant forest green. Syn was nearly lost in them - it was as if those eyes held the essence of life itself in its purest form. There was power and majesty, the earth, the sea, and the infinite sky all merged into one great, almost-primordial form and it makes her feel..

safe and peaceful...

She silently gaped for a few moments before a cough from Hiccup brought her back to reality.

"I hope you don't mind me asking," Syn started. "But why were you riding a dragon, and how, for that matter? I've never met anyone who's managed to even get close enough to actually get on one's back." She all but incredulously shouted with her arms flailing out for emphasis.

"It's a long story," Hiccup said.

"I have the time," Syn said.

"Well, before that, I have one question," Hiccup stated.

"What?", She asked

"Who are you people? Where am I exactly?" He shouted as he leaned towards her, ignoring the discomfort she felt as he did.

"Oh!" Syn said, returning to her feet and jumping in the air slightly.

"Right, no one's told you. Well, you can just call us the Silent Wolf Tribe."

Welcome to the Island of Selardalr!

To be continued....................................................................................

Need to make a part 2 since it was getting really long page!! 😅😅 And also I have so many drafts of this book some are complete and some are not ... aw man!!