Dragonling - The Gathering Storm [a HTTYD 3 rewrite]

Chapter 6 - Escape Route

I'm not going to be posting twice a week anymore, Mondays got too busy, so it'll just be Thursdays from now on. Sooo... here's the next chapter, enjoy! :)

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        Hiccup smiled. “I’m glad you asked, Flame. You see, I've had a feeling for a while now that this would happen. So here’s my plan.” He took out his map from a pocket in his flightsuit, unfolding it on the ground. “Have any of you heard of the Hidden World?”

        The Hidden World. 

        The home of the dragons.

        Of course I’d heard of it. Every Viking was told the legend of the cavern beyond the edge of the world. But it was nonsense. It had to be. I mean, nothing could be beyond the edge of the world… right?

        Flame seemed to share my doubts. “Didn’t your father find the home of the dragons already? You know, the giant volcano with the massive dragon-mountain in it?”

        I hadn’t heard of that story before. I leaned closer, curious as to the answer.

        Hiccup’s face grew sad for a second, before he replied, “My father did discover a dragon’s nest when he fought with the Red Death. But it wasn’t their home. Legends say that the true Hidden World is far away, at the edge of the sea, hidden by mist and guarded by the dragons who live there.” He looked into the distance. “My father believed the legends were true. He wanted to find the Hidden World and kill every dragon in it. To keep us safe.” He looked back to us, eyes lighting with excitement. “If we could only find the Hidden World, we and our dragons would be safe. Even Grimmel wouldn’t follow us there. No one could ever find us.”

        We all thought about that for a minute. It all sounded good, in theory, but there was one detail that Hiccup had seemed to overlook.

        “There’s one thing we’d need to think about before we uproot all of Berk and start flying to the edges of the Archipelago… Where is the Hidden World? And what would we do if it doesn’t exist?” I questioned.

        Hiccup nodded at me. “Excellent question. That’s where you come in.”

        “Me?” I asked in surprise.

        “Yes, you. You and Spirit can fly faster than any of us. You can scout out good places to stop, and if you haven’t seen the Hidden World after a while, we’ll just settle down at the last place you picked.” Hiccup looked so excited at his idea, I didn’t even notice what he’d let slip until Flame raised her hand cautiously.

        We both turned to look at her, and she lowered her hand quickly. “Um, I was just wondering, because you said Rowen could fly ahead of the rest of us… she doesn’t have a dragon, so how could she do that?”

        Darn it. Hiccup looked at me apologetically. I sighed. Better to get it over with. “Well, um, I probably should’ve mentioned this earlier… but I actually do ride a dragon.”

        Flame’s eyes grew wide. “You ride a dragon and you never thought to mention it?!”

        Her voice was getting a bit too loud and I looked around nervously to see if anyone was paying attention. “You can’t tell anyone. At all. Understand?”

        She nodded, then continued in a quieter tone. “Why were you keeping this a secret from me? I thought we were friends.” The hurt in her voice was obvious.