The Fire Tides Chapter 3: Meetings to a Close
Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait, I've just started uni so we're kind of in the process of adjusting to everything. Chapter 3 was getting too long, especially with all the dialogue, so this was a bit of a hard write. Hope you guys enjoy it!
The respective chiefs began to gather around the table, finding their places and getting seated. Some were holding mead, some sharpening their axes and others gossiping about other tribes (the Berkian tribe was the main topic, for obvious reasons).
Hiccup started shuffling his papers, going over his notes and checking on each point he was going to bring up within this meeting. He knew that his main proposal would arise some issues amongst the other chiefs, but he had to persuade them somehow. In fact, he was determined to do everything in his power to assure some form of provocative agreement was made.
Reaching out to the arm of his chair, he moved his eyes from the papers to the seat. He eyed it with unease. A wise and powerful leader once sat in that very seat, with a reputation of honour and pride and admiration from all of the chieftains. Now, remaining empty and desolate, it was to be filled with the risible workings of a young and inexperienced boy.
Hiccup sighed and sat down. The place looked very impressive – whoever was leading the meeting sure had stockpiles of gold in their pockets. With dim-lit candles crowded on the table and stringed lanterns gleaming with the apricot glow of fireworms, the hall held a disposition of incandescence, slowly, yet reassuringly, pulling in all of the leaders to have an enlightened and engaging communal discussion.
Hiccup was met with a vigorous hug, banging his head to the back of the chair and causing the dislocation of his two shoulder bones.
“Oh, look at you! After all this time!”, Dagur laughed ecstatically, squeezing Hiccup’s cheeks together, “I must say, brother, I am loving the new look! Hmm, the jacket really does bring out those Hiccupy biceps and did you get a new haircut?! Wow! You are looking as dashing as ever!”
“U-um, D-Dugur, you-” Hiccup tried to speak with his face being squeezed to the likes of a puffer fish.
“Oh Brother, I think it’s best you don’t take away Hiccup’s oxygen supply before the discussion starts,” Heather walked towards the two with a growing smile.
“Oh! Sis, you’re right!” Dagur took a step back, “Sorry! Sorry! Just very happy to see you, Brother!”
Hiccup let out a sharp breath and plunged downwards after being released from his death grip,
“S-Same here. Hehe, my cracked ribs and broken cheekbones are happy to see you too!”
Toothless warbled, prodding to his rider in worry as he glared at Hiccup’s attempts to restore his breathing.
“Hey T!” Dagur leaped at his head, “New tail? Looks awesome!”
“Hiccup, we heard about what happened. We’re so sorry. We were planning to fly over to Berk a long time ago but some things got in the way and-” Heather looked at Hiccup, apologetically.
“N-no, no! It’s fine, honestly. I’m okay now, somewhat at least,” Hiccup gave a solemn smile, petting Toothless, “It’s great to see the two of you though, how have things been over at your end?”
“Much better since the days of Johann and Viggo,” Heather replied, “We’ve been training new Berserker riders, so something like that doesn’t happen again.”
“Yep, we may have borrowed some of the A-Team’s counter-productive methods…” said Dagur, sheepishly.
Hiccup laughed, “Not sure how Astrid’s going to take that, but if it helps the island, then –”
“Speaking of which, where is Astrid?” asked Heather, curiously, “And the other riders?”
“They should be at the back somewhere, on the other table,” said Hiccup.
“Have fun!” Dagur quickly whispered in her ear before she left, “Remember, Fishlegs is the kindest Viking in the entire Archipelago. I’m sure he’ll understand, sis.”
Heather looked at him doubtfully, slowly walking off to the riders as the meeting between the chiefs began.
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The meeting was signalled to a start as a tall and pretentious man walked towards his seat, causing a disperse in conversation amongst the fellow Vikings. He was a chief in his fifties, perhaps the eldest of them all, with a robust and sturdy stride echoing his wise demeanour. The glow of the fireworm lanterns transmitted an orange glint into his eyes, reflecting a look of power and prudence as he opened his mouth to start speaking.
His face seemed to resemble Eret’s.
“A warm welcome to all of you,” he smiled, “Chief Aries of the Axehorders Tribe, Chief Isire of the Volsungs Tribe, Chief Sebastian of the Mercenary Tribe, Chief Dagur of the-”
“Berserker Tribe! The best and the greatest!” Dagur exclaimed, throwing his hands on the table.
The chiefs sighed in unison.
“Thank you for that, Dagur.”
Hiccup giggled quietly. Some things never changed, huh?
“And our youngest leader, Chief Hiccup of the Berkian Tribe,” he turned to him with a smile.
“I believe I ought to introduce myself to you all,” the elder rubbed his hands together, “I am Eret, Father of Eret, retired dragon trapper, now enlisted within the trading business. Our tribe mainly tends to deal with the sources of fish now, especially in the east coast.”
So the facial resemblance was no coincidence. This was Eret’s father?
“Now with the introductions completed, I believe we should head to the points of discussion. Who would like to –”
“I believe my brother would like to go first! He has got quite a lot he wishes to disclose in this meeting,” Dagur smirked at Hiccup, nudging his elbow.
Hiccup let out a sigh, quickly scanning his papers again for reassurance.
“Very well. Chief Hiccup, if you would like to start us off,” Eret’s father gestured to him with his open palm.
“R-right! Okay, erm,” Hiccup looked at the other respective chiefs, glaring back at him with a sense of unspoken vulgarness, “I believe that the dragons have been such a huge change for all of us, good and bad. And to prevent the bad from happening, I guess it’s a process of consistently protecting and training them in order for us to live in harmony. With Toothless as the alpha, that procedure can be easier for us so –”
“Can you just get to the point, boy?” Chief Aries tapped his fingers impatiently.
“I would like to propose the task of opening up Berk’s borders to all dragons in need.”
All of the chiefs slammed their fists on the table.
“Stoick would never do such a thing!”
Hiccup had expected this reaction, thankfully he had mentally prepared himself for such comments.
“Enough!” Eret’s father placed his hands on the table, “Let him speak.”
Dagur gave Hiccup a reassuring look, placing his hand on his shoulder.
This wasn’t going to be easy.
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Heather walked over to the back table, smiling as Astrid gestured her to come and sit with them.
“Long time, no see!” Astrid exclaimed, hugging Heather tightly, “How have things been with your crazy Berserker brother?”
“Luckily Berserker Island hasn’t burned down yet!” Heather laughed and gave Astrid a knowing smirk, “And how about you and your heroic, unassuming dragon-rider? Will I get to be a bridesmaid soon?”
“W-what?! Oh gods no! We’re just a couple!” Astrid shaked her head, “Quite a long way to go till that happens.”
“Really?” Eret smirked, “That’s not what Hiccup tells me…”
“Please ignore him, he’s had too many drinks and clearly needs to see a healer,” Astrid slapped Eret’s head.
“Eret, Son of Eret,” he reached out his hand to Heather, “I’ve only had a cup of mead, quite the responsible man I am.”
“Heather,” she shook his hand, smiling back, “I’ll try to believe that!”
“I’ve finally got it! My yak butter parfait!” yelled Snotlout, punching his fist in the air.
Snotlout, Fishlegs and the twins came running with mead and food, with suspicious yells echoing from behind them.
“So, are we stealing his yak butter parfait again?” Tuffnut whispered to his sister.
“Shh! We need to stick to the plan, bro. Distract and infiltrate,” replied Ruffnut.
“Per-fait,” Tuffnut snickered, “Did you see what I did there, sis? I mixed perfect and parfait together to create a miscellaneous response.”
“One may say, yak-cellent!”
“Guys, I told you to pay for those!” Fishlegs pointed at the handful of fruit buns in the twins hands, “The owner will probably kick the two of you out if he sees you! Be careful-”
Fishlegs’ eyes widened as he caught a glimpse of a familiar face from his Edge days. It was Heather, she was smiling at Eret. He could never forget that smile, no matter how far apart they were, that smile would be engrained within his brain till he reached his end in Valhalla. She seemed different now, much more content and stabilised, almost as if she had finally found a form of peace after so many years of being without it.
He approached the two with a smile. Heather glanced at him, wide-eyed, attempting to hide her worries away by putting on a quick smile too.
Astrid darted her eyes between the two, deciding it was best to leave them alone.
“Alright, guys! I think it’s time we put Eret’s gag reflex to the test. Anyone want to take him on?”
“You bet!” Snotlout jumped out of his seat, “That guy has nothing on me!”
“We’re up to it too!” Ruffnut yelled, quickly whispering in Tuffnut’s ear, “Distract and infiltrate.”
“Right! Per-fait!” Tuffnut exclaimed, giggling as they followed behind Snotlout.
“I’d love to see you all suffer terribly with the high doses of mead you’re about to consume,” Eret sighed as the three headed to the bar.
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“Opening our borders to all dragons will be the best thing for all of us. The more wild dragons we aid, the less of a threat they’ll be to Vikings, hence it’ll be easier for us to build the utopia of human and dragon-”
“How would you deal with overpopulation?” Eret’s father questioned.
“That’s the same thing with Vikings, isn’t it? We’ll just simply expand our base.” Hiccup stated confidently.
“And what about food supply? If there are more dragons over at your end, you’ll require more fish. The other tribes would suffer.”
“Not necessarily. We’ll just outsource fish from the original areas that the dragons used to collect them from.”
“And what about issues with migration? Having all of those dragons fly over to Berk can cause disruptions in the other tribes transportation routes.”
“We can redirect the migration routes based on the days when the other tribes are travelling.”
Hiccup had been arguing about this same topic, for over an hour. If anything, he was getting more irritated by the second. How could they not simply understand? Building this human and dragon utopia was always the goal from the very start. Did these dumbfounded Vikings think that only a selection of dragons were allowed to live amongst them?
The more he thought about it, the more he felt like he was talking to a wall. It was worse than explaining dragon theory to the twins.
“Listen. We can work our way around all of these things,” Hiccup tried to stay calm, “I’ll make sure no trouble comes to the other tribes. You have my solemn word on that.”
“I understand,” Eret’s father looked at Hiccup, concentratedly, “There’s one more thing I wanted to ask you.”
“How will you deal with those who do not wish to live in the same world you dream of? Dragon trappers? Dragon hunters?”
Hiccup was beginning to lose his patience, “Drago’s gone. Viggo’s gone. Johann’s gone. Their operations have been obliterated to the ends of the archipelago.”
“And what if another dragon hunting operation is reconstructed? What would you-”
“If another dragon hunting operation is rebuilt, we’ll destroy it. It’s not like we haven’t done it before,” Hiccup sighed, scratching Toothless’ head.
“And you’d be satisfied doing that continuously? Devoting your entire life to dragons? Living in a continuous process of war?”
“Hiccup. I’ve heard so much about you, the young boy who dared to ride a dragon, with that dragon being a night fury out of all dragons. The boy who outwitted the Grimborns. The boy who defeated Drago. You’re intelligent, Hiccup. Very intelligent. However, you lack experience. You fail to realise that this process is a long one. One of a lifetime. And one day, when you grow old, become weak and fragile, would you still be able to hold up a sword against a dragon hunter? This idea, whilst it is a beautiful one, I fear that we cannot always change the world to how we wish. Sometimes, it’s best to leave the world be, and if it changes by itself, then we let it change.”
“I completely disagree with you there, Eret,” Hiccup remarked with a solid force, “Living in a world that is not what we desire for? Leaving it to become rotten as the days go by? That can’t happen. I can’t let that happen!”
“Hiccup. Please listen to me, ” Eret’s father spoke softly, “You aspire for change. And you’ve done so much. But some things cannot be shaped, no matter how hard we try. You can fix one thing, then another thing will arise. The world is too cruel for us to keep rebuilding it.”
He failed. He couldn’t do it. They just weren’t going to listen.
“Fine,” Hiccup stood up, “Live in your cruel world.”
With Toothless following his rider, Hiccup walked out of the hall in silence and dismay, slowly disappearing into the dark of the night.
And that's Chapter 3! I really wanted to show how fixed Hiccup is with his dream of building the ultimate dragon utopia at this point. Both arguments are valid in my opinion, but I feel sorry for our boy Hiccup here, he's quite relatable for a lot of us really!
Be ready for Chapter 4, the conversation between Heather and Fishlegs, Eret and his Father, Astrid consoling Hiccup etc! Chapter 5 should begin the start of the main plot of the Fire Tides :)
Also this will be uploaded on Ao3 soon, just trying to sort my account out :)
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