Chapter Text
"It's okay, Hooky." Snotlout whispered, his dragon's ruff burgundy scales, capeing agist is skin, doing little to pause him as he continued rubbing his head against his friend's snout. For once, Hookfang did not rebel or take the moment to playfully slap him away as they held each other in an embrace of shaking breaths, Snotlout hoped would never end.
And yet it did
Snotlout felt himself almost shake with the storm of emotions writhing within himself as he was forced to slowly let his hand glide across Hookfang's muzzle and down to unclip the stark, soft leather saddle resting along his neck. Snotlout breathed in sharply with a low sniffle as he stepped back, his vision blurry as he met Hookfang's haunting yellow eyes. He didn't say anything.
How could he? His truest friend was leaving him; he wasn't Fishlegs, no grand ballad or proverb fell from his tightly pursed lips, he wasn't Hiccup, he couldn't nod deeply in connection, knowing it was the right thing to do because he did not, he wasn't Astrid, he couldn't remain strong, face unblemished by light tears, and he wasn't the twins. He couldn't create light through this festering gloom of misery.
And so he stared, and stared. Stared as Hookfang returned his gaze, stared as Toothless ' dull roar whispered against his ears like an unheard whisper, stared as Hookfang hesitated with a low flap, stared as he finally took flight, stared until his dearest friend was nothing more than a red blemish against the sky, until he wasn't even that.
And Snotlout was alone, Berk was around him, he supposed. Perhaps someone was even talking to him; shapes seemed to shift in his vision, but that did not matter, as for the first time since that crazy Haddock boy had guided his hand along Hookfang's snout, Snotlout was truly alone.
Hiccup was leading the group down the freshly trodden path to their makeshift village, New Berk, dotted with scaffolding and unfinished wooden frames. To Snotlout, looking at them felt like staring at monuments to a lost dream and yet meeting the other riders' faces and sharing in their misery felt worse, so he turned his head away until Hiccup stopped at the centre of the village. There they were planning a statue of Stoic, one of the last things Hookfang had helped with had been carrying that marble block from the nearby quarry to help mark the spot.
Hiccup seemed different then, though he was only a couple of days ago; he seemed younger, his gaze light but focused as he and Toothless carefully glided around them, marking the exact spot and ensuring the marble wasn't at all chipped. Snotlout had brushed him off, proudly proclaiming Hookfang knew well what to do, and that the two of them together could accomplish anything as Hiccup tried to hide the way his eyes rolled away from his head. Now he turned back to them with a large wooden box in his hands, his gaze distant and posture stiff; they were all carrying something. Snotlout's grip tightened on Hookfang's saddle, knowing what was approaching.
"Every dragon on Berk deserved their place here, but here we will mark our dragons. The first dragons to be ridden on Berk, will live on here with the marks of our bond." Hiccup declared, gently resting the box on a pedestal below the unchiselled statue. "Time may test our minds, but here our saddles will always lie." Hiccup opened the lid, placing Toothless's saddle inside and stepped back towards Astrid. She held her hands firmly behind her back, occasionally shifting as she clenched, forcing that stoic stillness onto her face. Her head slightly bowed
After a long, heavy silence, Fishelgs was the first to move forward. His voice was soft as it carried him away to distant memories, "I'll always remember the dragon who made me an Ingerman of my own making. Meatlug will never be forgotten as long as I'm able to preserve her memory with my dragon knowledge." He asserted, carefully placing her saddle into the box, with a determined smile.
Astrid was stiff as she moved next. "There is no other I would rather fly into battle with. May you continue to fly just as bravely so that we might join one another in the halls of Valhalla, Stormfly" Her pace quickened as she joined Hiccup once more. Hiccup placed his hand on her shoulder, their eyes meeting in a soft, mournful smile as they leaned on one another.
Ruffnut snickered, a forced, choked laugh coming from her mouth as she spoke, "I'd rather barf joined me in Loki's palace so that the 4 us could- well, I guess do the things we can't now..." She trailed off as Tuffnut placed his hand on her shoulder and they put the saddles in the box together.
Then it was Snotlout's turn. He didn't say anything as his feet dragged against the fresh grass; he hadn't since Hookfang had left, it felt cursed, too, now. They all watched him, their understanding made it worse. The way Hiccup nodded lowly allowed him time before eventually walking back to the centre again.
"Journey well, our friends, though you may remain unheard and unseen, you continue to carry on in our minds forevermore as we bow in this ode to the lost."
The first weeks after the dragons left were a bit of a blur to the riders. They had work to do, of course; building an entire village wasn’t easy, but every time they tried to join in with the rest of them, it all felt so pointless. At this rate, shouldn’t they even just return to Berk? Instead of living in a shrine to a futile hope of staying with the dragons. Snoutlout certainly thought so, but Hiccup had just sighed at his suggestion in no mood to have the conversation, simply saying he felt it was best they stayed close to the hidden world to protect it.
So they did.
Over time, Hiccup and Astrid settled bussing themselves with their predestined roles as leaders of berk. Even Ruffnut and Fishlegs found themselves with more direction when they decided to set up a school on the island. With Fishlegs leading lessons on dragon biology and taming in order to preserve the knowledge, and Ruffnut making efforts to expand the Vikings’ general understanding on culture and history (mostly Loki, she was still Ruffnut after all). The only two people who seemed stuck were Snotlout and Tuffnut
The only thing Snotlout seemed to get up to was constantly quarrelling with Spitelout, as his father attempted to push him towards taking on a leadership role amongst the riders that no longer existed.
Snotlout despised every second of it, a bitterness like none he'd ever felt before threatened to burst like a gushing volcano every day he spent drifting from meaningless task to task.
Then, a few long weeks later, Hiccup called a meeting, uncertain of what their leader had to discuss. Most of New Berk sat in the makeshift town hall watching as Hiccup and Astrid took their places at the head of the room. Valka and Eret flanked them as the rest of the riders faded into the crowd, no longer holding notable enough positions to be seated alongside them at the head of the tribe.
"Sooo." Tuffnut started with a low drawl, "Why are we here?" watching Hiccup with crossed arms leaning back in his chair, Snotlout supposed it was because he was so close, but something about the man next to him's actions seemed contrived. The pointed question was almost too light, and he was almost lying against the chair rather than sitting on it. The lazy action completely overdone. Snotlout huffed mutton head
Hiccup breathed in. "We have to reach out to our allies, and tell them of the hidden world. We need to convince them they belong there"
Snotlout scoffed, offended on their behalf at the idea. "Yeah, and how do you think Mala is gonna take that one? Hey, Queeny, sorry we disappeared without a trace, but hey, we're back to make you give up the dragon protecting your island."
Hiccup pulled back, "We're not going to make them, and Mala will understand. Her tribe has a connection to their culture and history, sure, but they can't rely on the eruptodon forever."
Silence overtook the room as Snotlout raised a brow. They all remembered how Mala reacted when she had thought the great protector had been kidnapped. Whoever asked for them to give him up had better go armed at the very least, but a small army wouldn't hurt either.
Hiccup sighed, taking in the mix of concern and low mutterings of unease with fatigue "None of us wants to give up our dragons, but we have to tell them that the hidden world is their true home. We'll work on a solution for the defender's island, but they need to know, as does Atail, and the Beserkers"
Ruffnut tilted her head, "But Dagur and Heather only have 2 dragons? 3 if you count Shadowmaster, and he can't even fly. How would we even get them here, let alone to the Hidden World?"
"Right, they aren't much of a target on Berserker Island, especially with the Bewilderbeast there. Maybe we should hold off on removing all dragons, at least not the ones who can kill us?" Fishlegs echoed, concern clear in his strained tone.
"We saw a Bewilderbeast in the hidden world." Astrid explained, "It very well could have been from Beserker Island; it probably didn't care for its egg getting stolen or that whole battle. Heather assured me they would not enter again, despite Dagur's interest. I doubt anyone knows if it's there."
Hiccup tapped his foot "We can discuss actions later, for now, regardless of whether our allies agree to let their dragons go to the hidden world, they need to know what has happened. Our plan was to leave Berk deserted, and not to send word to make it look like we had been abandoned in our time of need, but now that they aren't at risk of attack, we need to tell them we are alive and that Berk wasn't wiped out." Hiccup explained. "So let us move on for now, and decide who will go?"
"We can't spare a lot of men, that's for sure." Eret gripped his shoulder with narrowed eyes, his warning foreboding
Astrid nodded, "That's right, we've seen ships along the coastline that have no reason to be there, we shouldn't kid ourselves into believing we're the only ones out here. We may soon have to gear up for another fight."
"Without the dragons", Hiccup confirmed, "We'll all need to be better prepared, and train ourselves to be a force to reckon with in the region, lest any of these new tribes find the hidden world or decide to test our claim to New Berk."
Valka stepped forward. "Then who should go? They'll need to be familiar with the waters..."
Snotlout suddenly looked up, his absent-minded daze snapped. He was... the end of the archipelago was west of here; the only reason they even knew of the island was because he, Astrid, and the twins had scouted this way to see if there was a quicker way through. They'd tested it a few times and even charted a map along the way, it led to Berk but...
Snotlout startled. What was he doing? Was he really about to offer to go on a month-long voyage to their allies, to try and convince them to set free their dragons? After all the pain it caused him. It was crazy, it was completely mutton-headed, it was just a desperate attempt to escape the shrine to his-What was his hand doing? Snotlout suddenly surged forward, his body moving faster than his mind as he declared.
"I'll go"
And yet, he realised another voice had joined his own. Snotlout turned to find silver blond hair next to him. Tuffnut had risen in a shared sudden declaration, his evergreen gaze blazed as he repeated
"I'll go"