How To Bring Father And Son Back Together Ch4

Ch4

The sun started to rise above Outcast Island.  Alvin and his men had a victory feast after they got back from Berk, to celebrate the capture of the Dragon Conqueror, which is now lying unconscious in one of their cells and soon after he wakes up, the birth of their dragon army will begin.

Hiccup woke up two days later; he was lucky to have no bounds or chains on him and to have food and water when he woke up; but that still didn’t change the fact that he was kidnapped by the Outcasts and then placed into a cell on their island.  It was no mystery why they brought him here; they want him to train dragons to make a dragon army to destroy Berk.  Despite the fights between him and his father, he couldn’t do that to him or to their people; he’s a member of the Hooligan tribe and its future chief.  It’s his duty to protect them.

As the days passed by, Hiccup tried to pick the lock with a fish bone from his food; that food was the only meal that was given to him since he came to.  Every time the guard came to check on him, he would hide the bone and pretend to still be unconscious to buy him some time and so they couldn’t put him to work.  He ate the food little by little to help him convince the Outcasts that he hadn’t awoken yet.

Hiccup’s plan to buy time has worked well, but he was running out of time.  The Outcasts would soon notice that the food has been eaten or nibbled on and Alvin would soon get impatient and come to get him, unconscious or not.  Hiccup tried much harder and tried not to make too much noise as he picked the lock.

“Almost got it” Hiccup said under his teeth, “Just one more-”

Without noticing or hearing them come, Alvin and Savage came into the cells to check on their prisoner and saw what was happening.  Savage grabbed Hiccup’s arm before he could move away from his cell door.  Savage also took the fish bone out of Hiccup’s hands and handed it over to Alvin.

“I knew that my men weren’t going mad when they said that they heard some ‘clinking’ down here,” Alvin snarled.  “You may have fooled us into taking you to your dragon the first time and escaped from us three times, but this time, Dragon Conqueror, there will be no escape or tricks, not when you’re in our hands!  Or you’ll...,” Alvin snapped the bone in half with only two fingers, “End up like that.  A fish bone that can be so easily snapped.”

Hiccup stared at the now broken fish bone after Alvin threw it across the room, he knew that Alvin meant business, but he didn’t dare show his fear to him and he wasn’t going to train any dragons for this man.

“I am not going to train your dragons, Alvin!” Hiccup answered bravely, “No matter what you do to me, I won’t betray my tribe!”

“Oh you will, Hiccup.  One way or the other, so you better pray to both Odin and Thor and even to Loki if you want to live from what I have in store for you!” Alvin turned to the guard, “Get some manacles to bind our Berkian’s wrists, we need to make sure he doesn’t rudely run off when we are showing him our new recruits!”

Savage let go of Hiccup’s arm so the guard could open the door.  Once the door was opened, Savage and the guard quickly grabbed Hiccup and put the manacles on his wrist, in front of him before he could get away.  Hiccup struggled to break free from their hold as he was shoved out of the cell.  Once Hiccup was secure, Alvin and Savage led him to their dragon den, so Hiccup can see the dragons that they’ll have him train.

They escorted Hiccup to the den blindfolded, just in case he escapes from his cell and sets their dragons free so they’ll have to catch new ones. Along with him escaping on one; but if he didn’t know where the den is, he’ll have trouble finding it.  Hiccup didn’t struggle, knowing that it would do him no good.  Even if he could escape their grip, his hands were bound and he couldn’t see, he’ll be bumping into things like a fool; his only way to get around is being shoved by his captors.

When they arrived inside the den and away from the door, they took the blind fold off before Alvin and Savage shoved Hiccup deeper into the den, to their caged dragons.  Hiccup felt sorry for the dragons as he passed them.  He tried his best not to show any emotion of worry and fear in front of the two head Outcasts, but the chained, scared, frightened and badly treated dragons weren’t making it easy for him.  He knew that if he escapes, he’ll take these dragons with him to Berk or send them back into the wild where they can be free.

Even if he didn’t want to admit it, he was impressed.  The Outcasts not only have Monstrous Nightmares, Deadly Nadders, Gronckles and Hideous Zipplebacks, they had managed to get their hands on dragons Hiccup hasn’t even trained, yet.  A Whispering Death that was on a short chain to keep it from digging out of its cell, a Scauldron that was given half a bowl of water and a Changewing that was muzzled and has chains all over its body.  If these dragons don’t trust him and try to kill him, he wouldn’t blame them.

Hiccup was glad that Toothless was back home on Berk and not in these cages; he didn’t want to think of what the Outcasts would to do him.  The chained dragon rider tried to keep a brave face as they kept going, but shock and amazement got to him as he laid his eyes on one of the caged dragons, a Skrill.  It’s his first time seeing another strike class, other than Toothless, with his own eyes.

Alvin caught Hiccup taking a great interest in the Skrill, who wouldn’t.  Hiccup had remembered reading about Skrills in the Book of Dragons and hearing stories about them from Gobber and his father when he was little.  The Skrill looked like a female and somehow Hiccup could tell that she was worried about something or someone and needs to get out of her cage and back into the wild.

“Wouldn’t we all” Hiccup muttered, feeling compassion for the dragon.

“Excuse me?” Alvin snarled after hearing those words.

“I was talking to her” Hiccup replied, without showing any fear.

“Her???” both Alvin and Savage wondered why he would say that, there were no women on their island.

“The Skrill!” Hiccup sighed.

The dragon was surprised that the thin human knew that she was a female; the brutes that captured her have been calling her a male and an ‘it’, but he didn’t.  Maybe he wasn’t like the ones who brought her to the filthy island.

“It’s a girl?” Savage was surprised.

“Girl or not,” Alvin snarled, “She is still going to be part of my army.  Just like ‘her’ kind were used as weapons by the Berserker Tribe; All those years ago!”

“Dragons aren’t weapons” Hiccup fought back. “They have lives, hearts and the right to live and to be free!”

Alvin knocked Hiccup next to the Skrill’s cell with one of his large, strong arms.  The Skrill saw the manacles on Hiccup’s wrists and realised he was also a prisoner like her and the rest of the dragons in these cells.  She knew that if she escapes, she’ll take him with her, so the large brute human couldn’t harm him anymore.

Hiccup did his best to get back up, but Alvin yanked him up by his hair and then tossed him into Savage’s grip.  The Skrill roared at the two men to leave the boy alone!  Alvin saw how the dragon became protective of the boy so quickly and knew right away which dragon to get Hiccup to train, first.

“Place him back in his cell” he ordered Savage.

A guard helped Savage to place the blind fold back on Hiccup before he led the struggling boy back to his cell.  Alvin called for another guard to come up to him as the boy was being led away.  Alvin smirked as he saw how worried the Skrill was for the boy, it was like Hiccup was her hatchling or something.

“Place this dragon in the ring” he ordered the guard.  “I’ve got big plans for both you and the boy” he told the growling dragon.

The guards started to get ready to move the dragon to the ring as soon as they knew that the boy was safely back in his cell.  They didn’t want anything to go wrong and to lose both their captive and the strike class dragon.  Once Savage came back, the Outcasts started to move the dragon out of her cage.

They had trouble along the way to the ring, but they eventually got the Skrill into a cage in the ring, so she can come into the ring when she is released.  Alvin chuckled as the Skrill tried to scare him with her lightning charged skin.

“What is that boy to you?” Alvin asked the dragon.  “He’s just a one legged boy who’s going to help us to bring down his own village!”  Lightning sparks appeared on the dragon’s body, as she was growling at him.  “Even if you two don’t like it, that boy is still going to train you and the other dragons and you will do as we say!”  Then an idea came to him.  “If he doesn’t, I might have to force it out of him with my sword!”

The Skrill gasped and then roared at him to say, “no!” or “leave him alone!”, but it wasn’t going to stop Alvin as he knew that both of his captives were helpless.  Alvin and Savage left the ring and left two guards to stay behind to watch the dragon.

Two guards were also stood outside Hiccup’s cell to prevent him from escaping.  The food he had earlier was taken away and he wasn’t going to get anymore unless he trains their dragons.  Hiccup had planned to try to pick the lock again, but the guards weren’t going to make that easy for him.  If he tries anything to escape, they might take it out on the Skrill or on any of the other dragons, or on him.  All he could do is sit in his cell and wait for the Outcasts to let him out when Alvin asks for him.

Hiccup started to wonder if his father has realised that he is gone and what has happened.  He was about to get some rest to save whatever strength he has left, but as he made himself comfortable, he overheard the guards talking.

“What do you think it would be like?” the first guard asked.

“What would?” the other guard replied.

“When this boy helps us to conquer Berk!  What would it be like when its ours?”

“Well we’ll finally get off this dead island and can conquer the whole Archipelago with our dragon army!”

“Alvin has always said that Berkians are weak and need a new chief to show them what true Vikings are like!”  The two guards started to chuckle.

“Especially Stoick,” the second guard added.  “He always sees other’s problems as his own and wants things to be right.  Like he’s afraid that his village- no the whole island would fall into the ocean if he didn’t!”

“Believing that a chief should be out there for the people and to be at peace with the rest of the islands of the Archipelago, as well as taking responsibility for his own actions.”

It finally came clear to Hiccup, why his father is so mad about both the carving and him.  He didn’t want him to be like Alvin and to stand up for his own mistakes.  It was true that he had nothing to do with the carving getting burnt, but Stoick didn’t know that and was only taking it out on Toothless to help him to understand the ways of becoming a chief.  A chief must be out there to help and to make sacrifices for the people and for those he cares for.

The words he said in their last fight came back to him.  ‘You’re making things difficult and not just for me, but for all of Berk!’  Hiccup then remembered the look on his father’s face when he had continued.  ‘Sometimes I think that Berk can do with a better Chief, one that isn’t so stubborn and one that would listen to his own people, and son!’

Oh what a fool he was.  What he had said to his father must have hurt him more than it had him.  Would Stoick still come for him and accept his apology?  Or will he just leave him and never want him back?  If Hiccup could go back in time, he would have never said those things and try to understand what his father was trying to do.  But he couldn’t and he might never see his home again.  All he can do now is hold back his tears so the guards wouldn’t see him crying.

Stoick was thinking the very same thing back on Berk.  Everyone wanted to help him to bring Hiccup home, but only a few knew how to ride dragons and he didn’t want to rage a war that might risk Hiccup’s life if Alvin uses him as leverage.

Would Hiccup still be mad at him?  Their last fight........  He didn’t want to think about it.  All he wanted is for his only child to be safe and back home and to let him know that he really does care about him, with all of his heart.