SO ACTION TIME! HOPE IT COMES OUT OKAY, ENJOY!
Still own nothing...
Astrid and Ruffnut landed on the beach that they had seen from the air and dismounted Stormfly, quickly, both eager to explore.
"So lets go check out that hunter gear and see if they're still hanging around the area or not." Astrid said in her all business tone. Setting her sights on the crates in the distance.
"Ooorrrrrr we could enjoy ourselves a bit, swim in the ocean, sun bath on the beach. You know, pleasure before business, right Hoff." She said bumping shoulders suggestively with her team member.
Pinching the bridge of her nose frustratingly Astrid replied, "Ruffnut you were the one who found this island and fought for us to come here; and now that we are here you want to goof off? Even for you, Ruff, that makes no sense."
"The way I see it Hoff, the island that I found is real, the hunters stuff that I saw is on it so I'm good until, we'll say Snoggletogg, in the whole doing my job department. I can't get to good, then you guys might expect it, like, all the time."
Astrid gave an audible eye roll to Ruffnut's lack of work ethic and started trudging towards the hunters gear, ignoring her. Clearly ending the conversation of what they will or won't do at the moment.
"Ugh Astrid you're no fun," Ruffnut whined as she begrudgingly followed.
For the most part the beach was fairly flat with only a few boulders and rocks scattered towards the tree line; which happened to be almost where the hunters crates were located.
It took only a few minutes to reach their destination, Astrid, leading the pack followed by her trusted dragon Stormfly and Ruffnut kicking sand like a child the whole way. Immediately Astrid noticed that the crates that they thought were filled with supplies were empty. Completely empty.
First red flag.
She stepped closer to inspect the crates while Stormfly began to patrol the area clearly picking up her riders tense form.
Ruffnut came up behind her and gazed at the empty crates as well, "aww man their empty? Well that sucks, why would there be empty crates on the beach?"
Exactly.
Why would there be empty crates. Deciding to investigate further she walked around the crates and found broken dragon root arrows scattered randomly about. Like they had been broken while being taken out of the crates, obviously haphazardly. But hunters weren't haphazard, they took care of their weapons because it was their livelihood. Whomever emptied these crates didn't care about what was in them, more like they wanted to steal it and move on.
Red flag number 2.
Leaving Ruffnut and Stormfly around the front of the crates she followed the sparse trail of hunters items behind them. An arrow here, a chain there even some armor; until she was walking into the tree line.
To say this situation was putting her on edge would be an understatement, her jaw was clenched in almost painfully and her whole body was ready to spring into attack.
Just when she she was about to turn back, gather Ruffnut up and hop on Stormfly because something was very wrong here is when she smelled it. That awful stench that once smelled burned its way into your brain never to be forgotten. A smell that you would give anything to never EVER experience again.
Death.
She thought back to the only other time that horrible stench had filled her senses-an entire fishing boat of dead and dying men.
The Scourge of Odin.
Flashes of that horrible day began filtering through her memory and she felt her stomach roll and her heart begin to pick up speed. If she's smelling death like that again then there was only one conclusion; somewhere close, very close, there were dead bodies. More than likely the missing hunters.
Taking a breath through her mouth Astrid pushed down her anxiety and decided to push forward. She did not want to find what she knew was most likely out there but she knew she had to confirm it. They needed as much information about what was going on here before they hightailed it back to the Edge and brought the other riders back.
She wouldn't run yet, she had to know.
Taking a final bend around a tree, she stopped, frozen in her tracks.
Gods, it was worse than the scourge. So much worse.
There hanging from several limbs of a very large single oak tree were the hunters. Ten of them. The men had multiple wounds on them; some missing limbs, others with large gashes across their body's, some she could see through. Wounds that she knew would have killed them prior to the hanging and yet there they were strung up decomposing on sickening display.
Whoever did this were monsters, with no honor. Pure monsters.
Shaken from her thoughts by a crunch of leaves Astrid whirled around to see Ruffnut rounding the same bend she did only moments ago.
"No Ruff, stop!" Trying to save her team member the brain searing image she was about to experience. Unfortunately for Ruffnut she was to late.
"Astrid what the Hel is that awful sme...," she never finished her question due to her immediate vomiting by a tree.
Ruffnut joked about bodily damage and death with her brother quite a bit but she never really wanted to get incredibly hurt. A scar or two is fine but anything beyond that she didn't actually want to experience. It was just joking between her and her brother. Complete bullshit.
So to see so many horrific deaths right before her eyes was to much. Bracing herself with her left hand on a tree her lunch came up immediately.
Astrid walked over to try to offer some kind of comfort to Ruffnut, though how do you comfort someone after seeing something so damn horrible. So awkward patting on her back while she continued vomiting was all she could offer.
"Ruff, finish up, we need to get out of here-now." Astrid said as she scanned the woods looking for any danger.
"Ugh, Gods what the fuck happened here?" She asked while still hunched over spitting occasionally at the ground.
"I don't know but I'm not wanting to find out right now. We need to head back to the beach, find Stormfly and get the Hel off this island." She said as she turned her back to Ruffnut.
Still bracing herself against the tree Ruffnut panted, "I couldn't agree more let's get the fuuuuUUUCCCKKKKKK!" She finished in a deafening scream.
It only took Astrid a fraction of a second to spin around and take in the whole scene happening around her. The hand that Ruffnut had been using to brace herself against the tree now had a small dagger running through it, effectively trapping her to the tree. And a short distance beyond the two, standing behind a bush was she assumed the man who threw it.
Astrid's survival instincts immediately took over and before she could even comprehend the weight of her actions she had ripped the dagger out of Ruffnut's hand and had flung it in the direction of their attacker. Eyes re-focusing and adrenaline pumping heavily through her veins Astrid looked at the man and saw that not only had she hit him but it was a killing blow. The dagger stuck lodged in his throat blood already pouring out and his eye wide with shock staring into her own shocked stare. Then like someone had kicked his feet out from under him he hit the ground.
Dead.
She had killed someone.
Not giving the body in front of them another thought, not that it didn't deserve it but because she knew that now was not the time. Now they had to run, they had to find Stormfly and get out of there.
She was in pain. Oh Thor was she is a lot of pain. Her hand felt like it was on fire and even though Astrid had pulled out that damn dagger she felt no relief. Grasping her injured hand with her other hand to hopefully stem some of the pain and bleeding she looked up in time to see the bastard who stabbed her hit the ground. Good, stay that way, ass.
Before she could wallow any further in her pain she was being ripped off the ground by Astrid and they were racing through the trees towards the beach.
Branches smacked both of them all over their bodies. Leggings and hair getting caught on branches, ripping and tearing at them but neither felt it. All they could focus on was the pumping of their legs and harsh breathing. Finally breaking through the tree line to the beach Astrid and Ruffnut came upon their worse nightmare.
Five savage looking Vikings surrounded the still form of Stormfly. She had what looked like two dragon root arrows sticking out of her side, effectively knocking her out. They were tying chains around the now drugged dragons body and had yet to notice the two blondes standing near the trees. Luck seemed to not be on the girls side today because only seconds later one of the men facing their direction lifted his head and locked eyes with them.
Several things happened all at once; war cries rang out, weapons were drawn and pings of arrows could be heard launched in Astrid and Ruffnut's direction.
Realizing that if they stayed they would be quickly killed or captured, Astrid made the decision to run. Spinning back around, Ruff's arm still firmly in her grasp, she took off back into the coverage of the trees.
She weaved them in and out of trees, down embankments and around boulders not going in a straight line and most definitely not stopping. Hoping her haphazard trail and speed would lose them. She finally dared to look back to see if their pursuers were insight; she saw that there was know one behind them and also that Ruffnut was beginning to look very pale.
They needed to stop and soon.
Facing forward again their luck seemed to be turning; directly to their right mostly hidden by brush and limbs stood a small can entrance. Big enough to hide in, it was perfect.
Making a bee line towards it she quickly got them both inside of the small cave and pulled more tree limbs to effectively conceal them from view. Harsh breathing was all that could be heard for several moments while the girls waited to see if their pursuers would find them.
Then they saw them.
All 5 men broke through the trees looking in all directions. Astrid gripped her axe handle, which she had pulled from her back holster as soon as they got into the cave, a bit tighter. She knew if they found them she would have to fight. Ruffnut was in no shape so she was the only hope they had of not dying today.
"Where did those two lil' bitches go?! Sven you see any thin'?!" One of them shouted.
"Nah, Gunnar we lost 'em. Damn it, the chief will be pissed! It's gettin dark anyways, lets jus' take the nadder back to the village an' see what he wants us to do with it." Yelled another one of the men in a thick accent. Moments later all the men were gone heading back towards the beach.
Relaxing her grip on her weapon Astrid turned to look back at her wounded companion. Ruff didn't look good. The poor girl was incredibly pale and her whole hand was covered with blood. Clearly her adrenaline had worn off and she was now crashing into a semi shock state.
Walking over to her Astrid dropped to her knees, put her axe down and began to access her wound. All the supplies the two had packed were still strapped to Stormfly's saddle so unfortunately they had nothing and were going to have improvise treating Ruffnut's wound.
"Hey Ruff you still with me?" She asked gently shaking her shoulder.
"….uuuggghhhh….what the Hel just happened, Hoff?" Ruffnut grunted out in obvious amounts of pain.
"Take off your vest and we can talk about it, huh?"
"Hoff, just because one person out of our motley crew is letting you into their leggings doesn't mean I'm going to also." She said grinning lazily at the other dragon rider. The twins sense of humor seemingly still intact.
Cocking an eyebrow and deciding to play along to help distract Ruffnut from her pain. "Well you know I do like the lanky types, don't tempt me Ruff." She grinned half heartedly. "Now hand over that vest, so I can wrap your damn hand up. Unless you would like to keep loosing blood."
"Fine, fine." Ruffnut drawled stripping off the vest and leaning back against the cave wall.
Astrid made quick work of tearing the vest into strips and handing back the remaining to be a pillow to put behind Ruffnut's head. As she began to wrap the wound she started to talk through all the thoughts rapidly running through her head.
"So the hunters landed on this island, obviously not knowing what dangers were here. They run into those monsters that live here and get slaughtered. We show up, they use the hunters weapons to capture Stormfly and now we're trapped…. The way I see it is we have two options; we wait until the others show up, but by then they might have…killed Stormfly…also I would rather our friends not get anywhere near these savages." Hesitation filling her voice.
"100% agreed, option one out."
"Ok, so option two, they took Stormfly to their village so I say we find their village, go get back my dragon back and get the fuck off this island." Astrid finished with a deadly look in her eyes.
"Hel yeah Hoff, I'm down…well maybe after I rest for a while…because honestly I feel like yak shit." She said cringing while trying to lay down.
"You sleep I'll take watch, Ruff. Don't worry." A soft snore caught her attention and she looked over to see Ruffnut already asleep.
Shaking her head she turned to stare towards the entrance when her thoughts drifted to a certain auburn haired man who held her heart. She knew how worried he would be when they didn't show up tomorrow. She hated to worry him.
I'm so sorry, Hiccup.
So there it is my first shot at action scenes, I hope they read well. I tried. Also I hope it wasn't to gross for y'all, it's not going to get better any time soon. I wanted to make this a little grittier than the show and movies.
