Stoick led Gobber, Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and the dragons down a path that took them further down the underground river. He led the way, with Hiccup still over his shoulder, while Toothless was the caboose.
The dragon walked with his head lowered and ears down. In the three years he’d known Hiccup and saved him from devastating dangers, he had never felt that guilty. Who knew a dragon could feel such things?
An hour into the underground expedition, Stoick paused and looked up. “Here we are.”
Directly before the Vikings and dragons were two stone doors with torches on either side. Algae, moss, and cobwebs covered them, and the torches were unlit. It had been a long time since someone had come down there.
The teen’s jaws dropped to the ground at the sight of the old, run-down doors.
Snotlout let out a little high-pitched, “Eee!” He brought his fingers to his lips and chewed his nails. “So cool.”
“Welcome, Dragon Riders, to the secret chamber,” Stoick announced.
While the Vikings and dragons admired the doors, Hiccup stirred. He groaned and reached for his head.
Astrid noticed that and gasped. She pointed at her friend and told Stoick, “Chief! He’s waking up!”
“Ah, perfect,” was Stoick’s answer. He took Hiccup off his shoulder and dropped him on the ground.
Hiccup landed on his butt and yelled.
Stoick approached the doors and worked with Gobber to push them open.
In the meantime, Toothless’s spirit immediately brightened at the sight of his friend conscious again. His tail wagged like crazy, and he hurried to him.
Hiccup smiled feebly and hugged his muzzle to his chest. “Hey, boy. I missed you.”
Astrid laughed and breathed a sigh of relief. She fell to her knees beside Hiccup and took his shoulder. “Oh, thank Thor! Are you okay?”
Hiccup glanced at her and set his hand on top of hers. “I am now. Thank you, Astrid.” He looked like he was back to his regular self.
Ruffnut groaned playfully and joked, “Aw, man. I liked him better when he was unconscious.” Although, deep inside, she and Tuffnut were happy to see Hiccup awake and no longer suffering from a nervous breakdown.
Hiccup noticed the worry on everybody’s faces and questioned, “Um, why are you all looking at me like that? Uh oh. What happened?”
Astrid sniffed and rubbed the side of her eye. “You don’t want to know.”
“Um, yes, I do. I very much want to know.”
Therefore, Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut sat down with the confused young man and explained what happened when they tried to pull him into a conversation.
Hiccup’s eyes grew wider as the story progressed until he finally asked, “Wait a minute! I went berserk?”
“It looked that way, yes,” Astrid answered. “Don’t you remember?”
“No.” Hiccup shook his head. “I just remember screeching.”
“Screeching?” The panic in Astrid’s voice increased. “What do you mean ‘screeching’?”
“It’s hard to explain.”
“Hiccup.” Astrid crossed her arms. “Are you feeling all right?”
“I feel fine. Please don’t worry.”
Astrid was not convinced. After Hiccup’s berserk episode, she knew something was going on.
Gobber noticed the tension between the two friends and came between them. He pulled them apart and said, “Come on, now. Let’s save it for the honeymoon. Welcome back, Hiccster. Why don’t you and Toothless lead the way into the secret chamber?”
“‘Hiccster?’” Hiccup asked with a very unamused look. He threw his arms. “Why me?”
Stoick the Vast pulled him to his feet and shoved an unlit torch into his son’s tummy. “Take this.”
“What secret chamber?” Hiccup asked.
Stoick pointed at the doors behind them. “That one. Duh.”
“And of course,” Tuffnut complained, “young Hiccup has the honor of stepping into Valhalla first.”
Hiccup’s eyes landed on the chamber doors. “Um, I don’t know if that’s Valhalla, Tuff.” He lowered the torch and peered into Stoick’s face. “Why do I feel like I’m the guinea pig here?”
At the same time, the Vikings glared at him and crossed their arms.
“Okay! Okay!” Hiccup waved his hands and backed up to the chamber doors. “I’ll go in.”
Toothless grumbled and shook his head.
Before long, Hiccup glanced at him and held the torch up to his face. “All right, Toothless. Slow flame.”
Toothless obeyed. He spit out a tiny Plasma Cannon and lit the torch on fire.
Hiccup held it up to his face. “Perfect. Thanks, bud.”
Toothless looked proud of himself.
The remaining Vikings and dragons scrunched closely together and stopped a few feet behind Hiccup.
Astrid wanted to join him, but with Stoick right there, that would not happen.
Like Toothless, he felt Hiccup relied too much on her and wanted him to try something himself.
Before stepping into the chamber, Hiccup leaned down and picked up a rusty, old shield he retrieved from a skeleton behind one of the doors. Inhaling, he held the shield in his left hand and the torch in his right. “I’m going in.” Just like that, he and Toothless stepped into the gates of Niflheim.
***
Toothless stayed alert. He moved his ears back and forth and constantly checked his surroundings. The first part of the chamber was a small, narrow hallway with lines of torches and designs on the wall that showed Vikings battling dragons.
Hiccup held his shield behind him and followed the light of the torch. This place gave him the creeps, but he had to stay strong. He had his dragon with him.
As the two marched on, the young man asked himself, “What is this place?” As soon as he said that, he walked into a mass of cobwebs. “Ahh! Yuck!” he yelled, ripping the webs off him.
“Hiccup! Are you and Toothless all right?” he heard Astrid ask from the chamber’s entrance.
“Yeah!” Hiccup called back. “Just walked into some cobwebs!”
Where Astrid, the other Vikings, and dragons stood, Astrid glanced at Stoick. “I have to go in after him.”
“No. Not yet,” Stoick sternly told her. “Hiccup has to learn that he does not need somebody to hold his hand all the time. If he’s going to be chief, that is a total basic.”
“Wait a minute.” Fishlegs scratched his chin. “Are you saying that sending Hiccup and Toothless into the chamber first revolves around a trial for Hiccup?”
“Yes.” Stoick nodded. “Gobber and I talked about it when we came to get you guys at breakfast. Now let’s see how far my son gets without calling for help.”
Toothless helped Hiccup pull off the cobwebs, and his friend thanked him. Afterward, they went on their merry way, but that did not last long. The Light Dragon got in Hiccup’s head again.
When he and Toothless neared the end of the first tunnel, the torches surrounding them lit as if by magic. Actually, it was more that Hiccup saw the torches light up, but Toothless did not.
What was going on there was a mirage. In reality, the torches did not light up; the Light Dragon created the image and stuck it in Hiccup’s brain.
“What’s going on?” he asked, freezing in his tracks. “Toothless?” Nervous, he backed up to his dragon and bumped his neck. “Why did these torches suddenly light up?”
“Hm?” Toothless seemed to growl. He tilted his head to the left. What was Hiccup talking about? It was still dark like crazy in the tunnel. Unlike his friend, the dragon was not stuck in a mirage. He double-checked the area, and sure enough, the only light came from the boy’s torch.
In Hiccup’s mind, though, all the torches were on now and waving like crazy. Then he heard it—the Light Dragon. The fearsome growl came from the end of the tunnel, and the young man held his torch out further to get a better look.
Outside the mirage, Toothless noticed he was staring into outer space. Just in case there was danger, he crouched down and growled himself.
In Hiccup’s head, he heard shuffling coming from the end of the tunnel. The heterochromatic eyes of the Light Dragon appeared in the darkness. In reality, there was nothing there. The chamber was still the Chamber of Emptiness, but not according to Hiccup. The Light Dragon had total control of his mind because of the bruise he received on his head when he fell down the hole.
Before Hiccup knew it, the Light Dragon’s eyes shimmered.
SCREEEEEEECH!
“Ahh! Not again!” Hiccup yelled. Although it was merely a mirage, it felt so real.
The Light Dragon shot a fireball toward Hiccup and Toothless, and Hiccup gasped at the sight of it. “Toothless, get down!”
Before Toothless reacted, his friend pulled him to the ground. He had no idea what was going on. What did Hiccup see? He saw nothing.
The Light Dragon put all its energy into the mirage, hoping the torture would worsen. Hiccup did not know its blind spot yet. The Light Dragon hoped to drag him into its trap before he figured it out. If there were any dragons in the world he could not tame, they would include this one.
As quick as a flash, the young man held his shield before him and waited for the beast’s inferno.
Only a minute later, something else joined its different-colored eyes. A bright, crystalized foot stomped the ground and caused it to shake.
The shaking knocked Hiccup down, but he tripped over his foot in reality. He stared at the beast, horrified, and whimpered, “Oh, Thor.”
Soon after the dragon’s foot entered the scene, it pulled the rest of its body out.
Unfortunately, Hiccup could not look at it again; it glowed too brightly. Once again, Hiccup entered a state of mental insanity. He thought the dragon was in the room with him and Toothless when it was not.
He leaped to his feet and yelled, “Run, Toothless! It’s back!”
Poor Toothless was so confused, but he feared for his friend because of his insane behavior.
Hiccup ran his fastest toward the chamber’s entrance, but his metal leg slammed into a rock and bent it. Great. That was two legs in one day. The young man fell to the ground and landed on his front. He closed his eyes against the Light Dragon’s glare and covered his head when it stormed toward him. At least, that was the message the mirage gave him. “Help! It’s going to scorch my other leg!” he screamed.
***
“Hiccup!” a voice shouted at him on the other side of the mirage. “Wake up! Come back to us!” It was Astrid. Her touch pushed Hiccup out of his traumatizing mirage before it got out of hand.
The Light Dragon vanished. The only thing the young man was looking at now was the glaring faces of the Vikings and dragons. Even Toothless glared at him.
Astrid, who swiped his shield from him, threw it to the ground and yelled at her friend, “What is wrong with you? We can’t even leave you alone for five minutes without you having a nervous breakdown!”
“Nervous breakdown? What do you mean by ‘nervous breakdown’?” Hiccup asked.
“You know perfectly well what I mean! We thought a dragon attacked you, but when we came to help, there was just a skinny, one-legged boy performing a ridiculous dance move on the ground!”
“But there was a dragon! I saw it! It won’t leave me alone!” Hiccup argued.
“Aw, shut up, Hiccup! Stoick is right! You cannot survive one simple task without relying on Toothless or me! That’s it!” Astrid stood and put her foot down. “If you’re going to lose your mind in this secret chamber, then we will leave you behind!”
Behind? She didn’t mean that, right? She did.
Hiccup refused, “No,” and used Toothless to help him stand. “I’m not going to let you, the others, and the dragons have all the fun. Danger is my middle name.”
He noticed the worry in Astrid’s eyes there. “Face it, Hiccup. Something is wrong with you. We will take you to Gothi as soon as we finish here.”
Gothi was the name of the village Elder and Healer. Since Hiccup and his friends started looking for new dragon species, they were regular clients.
Even though Astrid had a point, Hiccup refused to let her, the others, and the dragons take advantage of him. He placed his hands on his hips and asked, “Last I checked, Astrid, didn’t Dad say that you and I are the two heroes? Therefore, I think I must come with you.”
Astrid groaned and puffed out her cheeks. “Fine.” She narrowed her eyes and poked Hiccup’s shoulder. “But you better not go insane again.”
As soon as she said that, Hiccup cracked a small smile and cheered, “Yes!” but then he lost his smile. “But first, I need a new leg.” He flipped up the top of Toothless’s saddlebag for the second time and pulled out his second spare leg, which he switched out with the bent one. Terrific. The last time he lost two spare legs in one day was when Barf and Belch became indebted to him and Toothless when they saved them from a deadly avalanche.
While Hiccup worked, his eyes landed on the small cluster of light yellow crystals he found. He put them in the bag so he wouldn’t lose them.
Hiccup planned to use the crystals and Dragon Eye that night to see if he could uncover a new map. He would share his discovery with his friends and father if he found one. Until then, he wanted to keep it a secret. That was typical of him. However, what was waiting for the Riders deep in the chamber? Why was it such a big deal?
Hiccup and Astrid wondered if what Stoick and Gobber were about to tell them would help them understand what Stoick meant by “The two heroes.”
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