Aylius North
Chapter II
Hiccup opened his eyes to see Gobber, Astrid, Gothi, and the rest of his friends crowding around him all with worried face for their chief. "Get back let him breathe", barked Astrid. They were back at the village and were in Hiccup's house. Hiccup sat up and took a quick look around the room rubbing his throbbing head. What did he hit? He looked up at Astrid and asked, "What happened?" "You got flung at me that's what happened" Hiccups memories flooded back and he asked where the man was. "I don't know you fell on top of me and I saw him sprint into the forest", answered Astrid. He sat up and pondered for a minute before he stood up and ordered, "Assemble the war council and village together at the Great Hall" "No Hiccup you need rest, you've done your job, we have it under control", pleaded Astrid "Oh please Astrid the chief's 'job' is never done, hurry up and get the town together they need to be aware" retorted Hiccup. Astrid was uneasy about it but followed her chief's orders.
At the Great Hall, Hiccup was trying to quite down the worried townspeople. Once quite, Hiccup cleared his throat and spoke, "We have an intruder on the island" This did not go well with the townspeople. They started shouting asking for what the best approach is. Hiccup, again, was trying to quite down the people. Spitelout, council member and Hiccup's uncle, boomed for everyone to "Shut the Hel up"
"Umm thank you Spitelout" Hiccup's uncle just responded with a nod. "Like I said earlier we have an intruder on the island. At the moment we do not know his intentions, but he is armed and knows how to fight which is good enough to be worried. I believe he is from the smoldering fleet from earlier today. He has facial bandages wrapped around his face only exposing his right eye, a black coat, pants, and boots. He is armed with dual swords and he does know how to use them so be aware. He is most likely hiding up near Raven Point lets get search parties there and lets lockdown the island. No one in or out, we'll use the dragons to get an overhead view on the island. Suit up ladies and gentlemen we have to make sure or security fails" Cheers erupted in the Great Hall and the people started to leave and get ready for whatever is coming. Hiccup was standing out side talking with his advisors and giving them orders. "Be sure to lock the kennels, armory, storage house, and don't let any ships leave port" Hiccups advisors, Spitelout, Gobber, Astrid's mother Lleda all followed Hiccups orders to the letter and began preparations. Hiccup walked over to the rest of the group and Fishlegs ran up to Hiccup with a worried look on his face. "What are we gonna do Hiccup, and intruder how do we deal with that", sputtered Fishlegs, clearly out of breath. "Don't worry Fishlegs we'll fly patrols around Berk find him and get answers" assured Hiccup. Fishlegs calmed down and said, "Well where do you want to start first?" "The beach we'll start there, mount up guys lets get moving!" Hiccup turned to see Valka, Hiccup's mom, standing in front of him holding his armor. "Thanks mom" Hiccup walked up to her and took the leather armor. "Just be careful Hiccup" worried Valka. "When am I ever not careful" Hiccup responded with sarcasm. Both of them chuckled, smiled, and gave each other a hug. "I'm so proud of you Hiccup, you're a wonderful chief now go get 'em" Hiccup smiled, gave a salute, and joked "Yes ma'am"
The riders were in the air now flying along the coast looking for anything out of the ordinary. "What exactly are we looking for?" asked the twins. "Jeez do you two ever listen?" yelled Snotlout. "What sorry we were looking at that dead guy on the beach!" yelled the twins. Everyone simultaneously yelled a "Dead guy!" and looked down to the ground. Sure enough there was a black body lying face down in the sand surrounded by debris. The riders landed and slowly walked up to the lifeless figure. "Cool!" the twins ran past everyone else up to the body and got close to it. "Ruffnut Tuffnut get away from him," scolded Hiccup. "Don't worry Hiccup he's dead, see," yelled Tuffnut as he turns and pokes the blood-covered body with the end of his spear. The gang surrounded the bloody body just looking at it. Everyone's, except the twins, stomach churned, the body had been sitting in the sun and ocean for hours apparently, and it reeked of death and decay. Fishlegs felt sick, he turned around and spilt his breakfast all over the beach. The twins responded with a amused "Eww" "Lets get a look at his face," yakked Hiccup, not far from spilling his breakfast too. They flipped the body to bare witness to the horror of what lied in front of them. The man's skull was completely beat in and his face was completely unrecognizable. Teeth, bone, black strands of hair, and cartilage were all mixed in and it was all covered in blood. Everyone turned away gagging, Fishlegs again heaved up his breakfast all over the beach. "Is this our guy?" grunted Snotlout. "No I don't think so, he had bandages that covered his face and what happened to his swords and coat" observed Hiccup. "Maybe he pissed off the wrong dragon and got mauled," responded Snotlout. "Eh I'm not sure, Fishlegs go to Gobber and tell him what you saw." ordered Hiccup. "Gladly", answered Fishlegs, he was about to turn around till… "Hey wait Fishegs", dammit so close… Hiccup saw a folded piece of bloody paper in the man's shirt. He reached for the bloody parchment and opened it up to read. It was hard to read because the writing itself was written in blood as well. Everyone crowded around Hiccup. "Well what does it say Hiccup?" questioned the twins. "Ughhh, you're next," stuttered Hiccup. Everyone gasped in disbelief the situation is now getting dangerous. Burning fleet of ships, mysterious intruder, a dead body, and now a threat. This is starting to look like a recipe for war. "You think the bandage guy did this?" asked Astrid now with a little sense of fear in her voice. "I don't know but we don't have time to 'think', Fishlegs take this to Gobber and tell him the situation. Fishlegs gave a nod and ran to his dragon. Once Fishlegs was out of sight, Hiccup turned to the rest of the gang. "We don't have much time now, we need to get moving and find this guy before he kills anyone else, got it?" No one opposed and then they were off to stop a potential killer and threat to Berk.