I woke up again slowly and tried to sit up, only to find that it was difficult as my hands had been tied behind my back and one of my feet was chained to my brother's.

"Wh-where are we?" I asked, heart pounding. The big black-bearded Viking stepped in front of me.

"You have been captured by the Bashing Barbarians of the Savage Islands." He laughed a menacing laugh. "Behave, and you will make a very nice slave." He walked away back towards to front of the boat.

"He's a poet and doesn't know it," Herryk mumbled, but I could tell he was afraid too. We had all heard what happened to Hairy Hooligans who were taken captive by the Bashing Barbarians. They had captured dragons and kept them in cages like we did on Berk. If you behaved, like the black-bearded Viking had said, you became a slave, serving the Barbarians for the rest of your most likely short life. If you misbehaved, rebelled, were caught escaping, or if the Barbarians got bored, you were tossed into a pit with a weapon and a shield to fight a dragon. If you killed the dragon, they would release another, but that rarely happened, as the dragons were kept hungry and very angry by their keepers. Only two Hooligans had ever escaped to tell those tales, but they were hard to forget.

I looked around- they hadn't bothered to gag us, we were on the open ocean and nobody would hear us if we yelled for were seated at the front of the longship, along with fifteen other Vikings of various ages and from various tribes. I recognized two ten-year-olds from Berk, but that was it. The rowers sat on benches up and down the sides of the ship, but weren't currently rowing as the wind was in their favor. Now that the sail was unfurled, I could clearly see the sign of the Chief of the Savage Vikings.

I twisted and managed to get a better look at our fellow captives. One of them, a youth about my age or older, probably from another Viking tribe, loudly complained and threatened his captors. He received a slap across his face for his efforts.

"Don't talk or complain," I muttered. "Act submissive for now." Herryk swallowed nervously but nodded in agreement.

We continued heading north for a the rest of the day. When the sun began to set, the black-bearded Viking, who was probably Chief Thorgrim the Merciless, eyed us. "You two. Stand up."

I did so quickly, or at least as quickly as I could with my leg chained to my brother's and my arms tied behind my back.

"Give supper to the rowers." He sliced through the bonds tying our hands behind our backs. "Try anything and I'll slit you throats."

I gulped and we nodded quickly before following him as best we could to the back of the ship, where there were a few spare wooden shields, a cask of water, and crates of food. It wasn't quite as difficult as a three-legged race, because we did have half a foot of chain between us, and we managed to bring food to all the crewmembers before our hands were tied again and we sat down at the front with the other captives. After a while, we fell into an uneasy sleep.

The next day was much the same as we continued northward. Apparently we had done something right, because we had been 'asked' to bring breakfast around as well. They allowed us some food this time, along with the other slaves, but the portions were very small and were finished quickly.

We sat again with the other captives until midday, when we gave the crewmembers lunch. After that, the wind died down, and the rowers started rowing again.

In the middle of the afternoon, an island came into sight, but the ship made no move to turn towards it, still continuing northwards.

"Probably the southernmost of the islands," Herryk muttered, probably thinking back to the maps we had seen. "It's uninhabited." I quickly shushed him as Thorgrim came back towards us.

"You. Get water for the rowers," the Chief growled at us. He untied the bonds around our wrists and we stood up and walked to the back of the ship. We filled up a jug and started working our way down the rows. We ran out of water partway through, and went back to the stern to refill a few times.

I tripped over the chain tying my ankle to my brother's, and splashed some water on the arm of one of the rowers. My heart thudded and I gasped as he grabbed my arm and jerked me toward him.

"Watch your step, girl," he snarled, his beady black eyes glinting. Herryk stepped forward, a furious look on his face, but I held out my other arm to stop him and stuttered an apology.

The rower released my arm and I stumbled away, tugging Herryk with me, but my brother couldn't help giving a last glare to the Barbarian, which fortunately went unnoticed.

"Be careful," I hissed. "If they don't like you, you'll be one of the first to be fed to dragons."

"I can't control what they like or dislike," he replied, scowling.

"Yes, but if you are unnoticed in the first place, he'll never have a reason to dislike you."

Herryk sighed in annoyance, but I could see the frustration and fear in his eyes. We continued to move down the rows, distributing water.

"Dragon pack!" A voice from the front of the ship rang out in warning. The chief went forward to the front of the ship to assess their position.

"Row faster," he commanded. "We will cross paths with them but we can get through the worst of it if we speed up. Ready your weapons and shields."

I squinted up at the sky. I could make out the silhouettes of a small flock of Monstrous Nightmares and Deadly Nadders about to fly in front of the ship.

"Fire!" Thorgrim ordered after a minute of tense silence. Archers shot arrows at the dragons, nearly piercing the wings of a couple of them. The dragons turned toward the ship and a few of the Nightmares burst into flame in anger and indignation.

A Nadder fired the first shot at the ship, the blaze colliding with the deck near the front. The nearby crewmates ducked under shields while others dipped buckets into the ocean to put out the fire.

A Monstrous Nightmare let out a roar of fury as one of its wings was pierced by arrows and it landed on the prow of the ship. A few of the rowers stood up to help battle it as it shot a rippling pennant of flame down the length of the ship.

I ducked with everyone else as the fire went over our heads. Suddenly I got an idea- a crazy, all-or-nothing Viking idea.

I dragged Herryk with me to drop the empty water jug by the barrel, and hissed into his ear.

"Wait for my signal. When the Nightmare or another dragon fires from the starboard side, we jump over the port railing here at the stern. Chained foot first."

"But we'll drown with this chain on our feet!" We winced as a Nadder let out a piercing scream, but I didn't look back to see if it had been hit or not.

"Before we jump, we each grab a wooden shield. They'll assume the shields fell off, we can hide under them if we're shot at, and use them to float later," I whispered as quickly as I dared. Herryk nodded resolutely.

"Wait for it… Now!" I hissed as the Nightmare drew breath to let loose another wave of fire. We each grabbed a shield, stuck our chained legs over the side of the boat, and swung our free legs over in unison as the Savage Island Vikings hid from the fiery onslaught under their shields. We landed with a splash, but the sound was covered by the roaring of the flames.

"Stay under the shield as long as you can, and take breaths when you can't," I said before grabbing the handle of my shield, taking a breath, and going under. The chain around my ankle pulled me down, but I kept a tight grip on the shield strap and didn't sink any further. After about a minute, I came back up for air to see the ship rowing furiously away, but it was not yet far enough that we wouldn't be spotted if someone looked our direction.

I held my breath five more times before the ship was a safe distance away. I tapped Herryk and he came up.

"I-is it s-s-safe?" he asked, teeth chattering.

I nodded, also shivering. "Take your shoes off, but tie them to the shields, we might want them when we get to the island."

"I-Island?"

"You thought we were going to jump out without anywhere to go afterwards?"

I had never before seen a Viking manage to shiver and look sheepish at the same time.

I pulled the shoe off my free foot, then did the same with the chained foot. Unfortunately, the manacles didn't slip off once our shoes were off.

I climbed up on one of the shields to look around. The Blahg Viking ship had only gotten further away, a few dragons still attacking, but they probably wouldn't for much longer.

I turned to the island. "Let's go," I said, sliding back into the water, and we started kicking and paddling.

The first few minutes were tricky as we figured out how to swim with our feet chained together, but we soon got into a rhythm. We both could swim fine, and had some experience paddling through cold water- there was an annual almost-freezing-to-death swimming competition on Berk, when the weather just started to warm up again after winter. I had participated once, but my brother had every year since he was eight.

I kept my eyes fixed on the island, but it didn't seem to be getting any closer. Herryk and I started breathing harder and shivering despite the exercise.

Still, we persisted. After a prayer to the gods and what seemed like an eternity but was probably only an hour or so, the island loomed over us and my foot hit the sandy, rocky bottom. Herryk and I half-walked, half stumbled onto the beach and collapsed.

"We… did it…" he said, panting. I only nodded in agreement.