Chapter 13

After they were more than far enough from Johann's ship, Hiccup let himself slip off from Toothless's back. He breathed a sigh of relief as the air rushed beneath him, and he let his dragon form come out. 

Shaking out his muscles, Hiccup floated back up towards the other dragons, taking his place at the front of their flying formation.

"No offense, Toothless," Hiccup said, "but your back is incredibly uncomfortable." 

Toothless snorted, "None taken." 

"Yeah, I don't think I'd want anyone on my back either," Barf said. 

"But where would a human sit on our back?" Belch asked, "Would it be where our necks meet? Or would two different humans sit on both of our necks?" 

"Hmm, that's an interesting point," Barf responded. "Captain, what do you think?" 

Hiccup sighed, "I don't know, guys. I suppose it would have to depend on your and the humans' preferences." 

"Oh, yeah," Belch said, "that makes sense." 

"What would you want, brother?" Barf asked Belch, and Hiccup directed his attention away from the Vapor Spark as the heads began discussing between themselves. 

The sun was only a little bit past its zenith, and its rays of light glittered on the ocean below them, sending warmth up against Hiccup's scales. Hiccup breathed in a deep gulp of air, the smell of the salt and sun filling his nostrils. Oh, how he loved the sky. He loved being away from Berk. He loved finally being able to be himself. 

"What are you thinking about?" Toothless asked him, breaking him out of his head as he sidled up to him. 

Hiccup gave the other Moon Sweeper a small smile, "Nothing." 

Toothless smiled back, "Nothing?" 

"Well," Hiccup considered, "I guess it wasn't only nothing. But I like think it was nothing, that it never happened. This is my life now, and that's all I need to think about. I hope that everything that came before this will eventually fade away, become nothing but a whisper of a memory." 

"What's making you think of that?" 

"I don't know," Hiccup said, turning back to the sky. "Freedom, I suppose. The sky always feels like freedom." 

"That's because it is, brother," Toothless said. 

* * * 

The four of them landed back on the island an hour later, and Hiccup called for his Flight to all gather in the mountain cave. 

"So, did you get the map, Captain?" Stormfly asked once they were all settled into the cave. 

Hiccup smiled, and shifted into his half dragon form. Carefully, he pulled the map out, and rolled it down on the ground. Sounds of admiring coos and growls filled the cave, and the dragons all crowded around to get a closer look at the map. 

"Careful," Hiccup warned, shooing Sharpshot off of the map and onto Hookfang's horn, "we do not want to ruin this thing." 

"How in the world did you get this?" Stormfly asked incredulously, "It's incredibly beautiful. I would've thought you'd have to fight to the death to get this."

"Oh, did you have to fight to the death to get it?" Sharpshot asked excitedly. 

"No, I did not have to fight to the death," Hiccup said, laughing. "Humans may be violent, but they're not that violent." 

"Of course," Hookfang said, nodding, "they're not dragons." 

"Yes, they resort to more civil things instead," Hiccup said. "Usually." 

"Usually?" Barf asked, his and Belch's confused looks matching the other dragons'.

"Well, wars still happen," Hiccup said. 

"What's a war?" Hookfang asked, seeming intrigued. 

Hiccup furrowed his brows, "Do dragons not have wars?" 

"It depends," Sharpshot said, "what is it?"

"A war is basically where two or more kingdoms fight each other until one of them surrenders, usually either for goods, land, or to get rid of a bad ruler," Hiccup explained. "Do you guys not have those? I would've assumed you would, considering how territorial dragons are." 

"Well, usually if we're short on goods then we find another nest or Flight to swear ourselves to," Toothless said, considering, "and if we're short on land we'll just find a new place to live. I suppose the thing that would be closest would be when a dragon challenges a Leader or Alpha. But that is incredibly rare, as Leaders and Alphas are usually either very kind or too powerful to be taken down." 

"Interesting," Hiccup said. Even though it seemed like humans were far more intelligent than dragons, and dragons were clearly more used to violence, dragons were far better at achieving peace than humans were. 

"Anyways," Hiccup said, redirection to the task at hand, "I think the best course of action would be to examine the map and try to find any possible allies. Perhaps large Flights or even another nest that could help us within the archipelago." 

They all nodded, and Hiccup directed them on how to examine the map, Sharpshot scuttling over the paper and pointing out specific islands in the archipelago that he knew housed Flights. 

"Wait, what's that?" Belch asked, leaning in closer to look at the map. 

"Oh, yeah," Barf said, also leaning in, "I see it too." 

"What?" Hiccup asked trying to find where they were looking. 

"There," Belch said, still just looking at the map. 

"Can you be specific?" Hiccup asked. 

"Hey, we don't have fingers like you do," Barf said defensively. 

"Oh, so you know what hands are," Hiccup said pointedly, side-eyeing Toothless. 

"Wait, I think I see it too," Sharpshot said, and scampered over to a spot a little bit Northeast of their island, and slightly outside of the archipelago. 

Hiccup squinted, and leaned down to get a closer look. It was a tiny illustration, as though Johann had tried making it as unnoticeable as possible. But when he looked closer, he could see faint lines surrounding the image, all jagged and dangerous. The image was a sort of ice-like color, depicting some sort of structure jutting out of the ocean, great spikes aiming towards the sky. The lines that surrounded it seemed to make some sort of shape, like some rough draft of a dragon claw holding a staff. 

"Do any of you recognize a structure like that?" Hiccup asked, looking around at the dragons. Toothless seemed to get lost deep in thought, as did most of the other dragons. 

"It looks like some sort of ice sculpture," Sharpshot observed. 

"Maybe it represents an ice field or something," Meatlug said. 

"Or the home of a dangerous type of dragon that lives in the cold," Stormfly said. 

"Oh! What if it's a nest ruled by a Glacier Titan?" Belch said excitedly. 

Toothless's eyes widened, "Do you think that it could be?" 

"There's certainly a chance," Hookfang said, his eyes sparkling with anticipation. 

"It looks exactly like how the elder dragons used to describe their nests," Sharpshot said. 

"Umm," Hiccup said, "what's a Glacier Titan?" 

The dragons all gave him incredulous looks before they groaned, making Hiccup wince. 

"Toothless, you did not teach him well at all," Hookfang scolded.

"Hey, I'd like to see you teach an ignorant human everything about dragon culture and life in a matter of weeks," Toothless said defensively. 

"You can't be ignorant if you don't know the culture exists at all," Sharpshot reasoned. 

Hiccup groaned, "Just tell me what a Glacier Titan is, please." 

Toothless sighed, "A Glacier Titan is a species of Alpha dragon that is almost like legend among dragons who do not live in their nests. Their kind are incredibly rare, as it can take centuries before their eggs hatch, but they can grow so fast and earn the respect of so many dragons that they are known to have their own nests at no younger than seven Winters." 

"Wow," Hiccup said, and he noticed how feverishly the other dragons nodded. 

"Glacier Titans are especially known among the Queen's nest for procuring their subjects by respect and only respect," Hookfang added. "Unlike the Queen, who gets her subjects through fear." 

"So, if this place really is a Glacier Titan nest, then it's a huge deal," Hiccup reasoned, and the dragons all nodded at him. 

"With the help of a Glacier Titan," Toothless said, "we really could take down the Queen once and for all." 

Hiccup smiled, "Then I suppose we're going on a field trip." 

* * * 

A day later, Hiccup, Toothless, Stormfly, and Meatlug were all flying towards the supposed Glacier Titan nest. It had been a real hassle to convince Hookfang that he had to stay on the island, but the second everyone had calmed down and was ready for the trip, Hiccup started speeding them North. 

Well, about as fast as Meatlug could go. 

Hiccup looked backwards again, seeing Meatlug once again start to lag behind. Sighing, Hiccup flapped his wings slower, letting the wind push him back so he was flying slower.  

"It really would have been better to leave Meatlug at the island," Toothless said quietly to Hiccup. "She really wouldn't have minded. Dragons know where they are and are not needed, and right now, we need to get to the possible Glacier Titan nest as quickly as possible. Lava Grubbers are known for their strength, not their speed. It would be beneficial for everyone to just leave her at the island as defense." 

Hiccup sighed again, "I know. I'm just too used to the human methods of trying to make sure no one is unhappy, and among Vikings, if someone feels like they're not getting enough attention from their leader, they're going to be unhappy." 

"Well, you need to get out of that," Toothless said, "it would help everyone." 

Silence filled the wind again as they went silent, and Hiccup could feel his scales starting to get colder the farther North they went. It made him think of the Sky Sweepers that had flown farther South to get warmer. At the moment, Hiccup was starting to some merit in the whole idea. 

"Captain, how much longer do you think we have to go?" Stormfly called up from behind him, the wind almost sweeping her words away. 

"I don't know," Hiccup said back, "I can't check the map until we stop somewhere." 

"So how do you know that we won't pass it by accident?" Stormfly asked.

"I don't know," Hiccup said again. 

"Then why don't we stop for a second so that you can make sure that you know where we are," Toothless offered. 

Hiccup shook his head, "That won't work. We're smack dab in the middle of the ocean, there are absolutely no landmarks to point us in the direction of the Glacier Titan nest. We'll have to wait until we come across an island or something to mark where we are." 

They gave him concerned looks, but nodded their heads. Hiccup had been surprised when the dragons seemed to know what maps are, but he assumed that theirs were some kind of crude drawings one would put in the dirt. Though, considering how awful Toothless's drawings were, Hiccup doubted it. 

For another few hours they continued flying, Hiccup and Toothless getting colder and colder, and Meatlug dragging behind farther and farther. It seemed as though Stormfly was the only one that didn't have any trouble flying through the cold, and Hiccup wondered how she could be. It had always seemed strange to him that dragons were able to survive the harsh winters of the archipelago, as they were creatures that relied on fire and heat to survive. But maybe it was their internal fire gas that kept them warm, especially the dragons that Vikings would call Stoker Class dragons, the ones with immense amounts of fire. 

"Hiccup," Toothless shouted through the wind, drawing Hiccup out of his thoughts, "we really need to find a place to land soon, it looks like it's about to snow and we really wouldn't be able to survive that." 

Hiccup's eyes widened as he looked towards the clouds that Toothless had been gesturing to. They were dark and looming on the horizon, and Hiccup could feel their immense power emanating through the air. 

"But where would we go?" Hiccup asked, "I can't see anywhere we could take shelter." 

"I could try to track an island down," Stormfly offered, "It wouldn't be too hard with the winds blowing towards us. I think." 

"Alright," Hiccup relented, "see if you can find anything." 

Stormfly started sniffing the air as they continued onward, and Hiccup felt his hope getting smaller and smaller the longer they went with her sniffing and no reporting anything. 

"Are you sure that you could catch a scent in these winds?" Hiccup asked her after a couple of minutes. 

"I'm trying," Stormfly said, "but I don't know if it'll work. All I can smell is ice and snow." 

Hiccup sighed, "Then all we can do is keep going." 

"But Hiccup, we could freeze," Toothless warned.

"What other choice do we have, Toothless?" Hiccup asked, wincing as another cold gust of wind hit them. "Stormfly can keep searching for islands or other dragons, but that's all we can really do." 

Toothless growled in frustration, and they continued to fly through the cold as Stormfly kept trying to search for places to land. 

"Umm, Captain?" Hiccup faintly heard Meatlug call up to him.

"Yeah, Meatlug?" he yelled back, unable to look back at her at the risk of falling out of the sky. 

"Uh, I think there's something behind us." 

"What?" Hiccup asked alarmingly, already slowing down his wing beats. 

"Yeah, I think I hear other dragons behind us-" 

A mighty roar filled the air as a huge dragon burst up from under the clouds right in front of them, and Hiccup scrambled to get away from the dragon as the dragon rose up to a hover, their two wings splitting into four. The other dragons almost crashed into Hiccup as he came to an abrupt stop, making them all almost fall towards the city ocean below them. 

"Declare your purpose being here, stranger," the four-winged dragon hissed at him, and Hiccup noticed a human-like figure standing on the dragons back, their face and body covered in some sort of strange armor, and a staff and shield in their hands.

"Uhh," Hiccup stammered, looking to Toothless for support, "we're just searching for a supposed Glacier nest we heard about." 

The human and the dragon tilted their heads, almost in sync, before the dragon hissed at him again, "Where did you hear about the Alpha's nest?" 

Hiccup blinked, "We found it on a map?" 

"What?" the dragon hissed, narrowing its eyes, and Hiccup saw that the figure on its back also tensed. 

"We found it on a map," Hiccup repeated. 

"What kind of map?" the dragon demanded, "Where did you find it?"

"I traded for it," Hiccup said quickly, but immediately regretted his words. 

"Traded for it? Traded a human for it? How did you trade a human for a map?"  The dragons' questions bombarded Hiccup, too quickly for him to answer. 

"Wait a minute," the dragon said suddenly, eyes widening as it sniffed the air around Hiccup, "are you Dragonborn?" 

Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief, happy to finally answer a question, "Yes, that's how I got the map. I am Dragonborn." 

The dragon looked at him in shock, and the human on its back stiffened even further, before they motioned with the staff in their hands, and the dragon let down a mighty roar. Hiccup shrieked as a wave of dragons emerged from the clouds, talons and scales flashing as Hiccup felt himself be grabbed and dragged through the air. 

"What are you doing?" Hiccup exclaimed as the dragons grabbed hold of him and the rest of his Flight. 

"Unhand me this very moment!" Hiccup could hear Toothless yell through the fray, as well as Stormfly and Meatlug's attempts at an escape, but Hiccup knew that they were severely outnumbered, and far more weak than the other dragons. 

Hiccup groaned at his own bad luck as the dragons continued to carry them through the sky, unable to fight very hard before he had to give into exhaustion and let his aching muscles have a rest. He was slightly ashamed to admit it, but it was a huge relief to finally be able to rest and to have his scales reheated by the body heat of the other dragons. 

After a while of the continuous wing beats filling the air, the dragons suddenly began to descend, and Hiccup looked around to see where they were going. When he eventually spotted where they were, he gasped. They were flying directly towards a ginormous ice structure, its giant spikes jutting out of the ocean in the exact same way as the map depicted it. And if this many dragons were flying towards it, that could only mean one thing. It really was a Glacier Titan nest, and Hiccup and his Flight were being taken right to it. 

The large group of dragons dove towards the glacier, and Hiccup sucked in a sharp breath when they flew through a hole in the side of the structure, the dragons continuing to carry him as they weaved through the caverns. They continued to fly until they reached some sort of chamber, and the scents of dozens of different dragons filled his nostrils as he was plopped unceremoniously onto the rocky ground. 

Groaning, Hiccup stumbled to his feet as Toothless, Stormfly, and Meatlug were all dumped besides him, and he let his eyes adjust to the dim light around him as he spotted the many different kinds of dragons surrounding him. 

"Umm, hello?" Hiccup said, but was only answered with the dragons invading his personal space and sniffing him thoroughly.

"Hey, back off!" Toothless snarled at the dragons, his pupils slits as he batted heads away from their tiny group. 

"Toothless, be nice," Hiccup hissed at him, before turning to the strange dragons. "I'm sorry about him, I think that we're all just a little bit confused as to why we're here." The dragons didn't answer him, but continued to stare at him curiously. 

"Uhh, Captain?" Meatlug said unneasily, and Hiccup turned to see where she was looking, seeing the same strange human from before looking at him with their staff and shield raised defensively as they slowly stalked closer to Hiccup and his Flight. 

Toothless growled, and moved to step in front of them, but Hiccup stopped him, motioning for him to step back and protect the other dragons. Reluctantly, Toothless let out a growl and stepped back, letting Hiccup forward. 

Hiccup nodded gratefully to him and stepped forward, and Hiccup heard startled gasps fill the cave as the familiar blue glow spread across his body, setting the whole cavern alight. The strange figure before him jumped back when he began to transform, but he paid them no mind as his body shrunk until he was a human with a pair of dragon wings and tail. 

"Hello," Hiccup said cautiously to the human, "who are you?" 

The figure seemed to startle for a moment before slowly stalking towards Hiccup, first circling around him before shaking their staff again, and the dragons filling the cave responded by opening their mouths one by one and setting their throats on fire, filling the air with soft firelight. Then the person dropped their staff and shield, slowly creeping closer and closer towards Hiccup, who looked around awkwardly and backed up slightly. 

"Uhh," Hiccup stammered as the strange person reached their hand towards Hiccup's face, trying to angle his face away from the person's hand. But then Hiccup heard a sudden gasp from under the stranger's mask, and the person slowly backed away from Hiccup and down onto all fours, looking up at him from the ground. 

"Hiccup?" Hiccup heard the stranger whisper in Dragonese, making Hiccup's eyes widen as the person lifted the helmet from off of their shoulders, revealing the shocked face of a woman at least twice Hiccup's age, "C-Could it be? After all these years? How is this possible?" 

"H-How do you know my name?" Hiccup stuttered, not believing that this person could also speak Dragonese, "Should I know you?" 

"No," the woman said, downcast, her eyes struggling to meet Hiccup's, "You were only a babe." Her eyes finally met his, staring at him with an emotion Hiccup couldn't place, "But a mother never forgets."