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The harsh twang of bows and the whistling of quarrels and arrows followed the call, and the battle had officially begun. Many of the projectiles found marks, in some cases several arrows striking the same targets. Fishlegs watched on with grim analysis and even keeled anticipation.
"Load!" He called again, although he didn't have to. Almost the entire garrison had already done so and were ready.
"Fire!" The whistle went up again, and more missiles that the first volley found marks. Astrid watched carefully, noting that no matter how many of these monsters they killed, it only seemed that their numbers fell in minuscule numbers. Even with Snotlout's constant fiery rain, the enemy did not seem to falter or even shy away.
The leviathan was coming ever closer, now into the shallow waters that led to the beach. The monsters atop its back screamed, roared and hissed, their myriad of deformed limbs waving in a blood lust that could only be attributed to evil magic.
With the rain of both fire and ranged bolts of death, the number on the leviathans back were slowly diminishing…but a further horror was appearing with every second. The shallower the water got, the higher the beast rose, and more hide was revealed to them. It's belly was massive and bulbous, and how it didn't sink, Astrid did not know.
"Fire at will!" Fishlegs bellowed, and the torrent of arrows and bolts changed from a wave after wave assault to a never ending pelting. The forces on the creatures back could do nothing about it either, because, regardless of whether their horrid mutations made them incapable of it, or they simply did not have the equipment, they had no means with which to return fire.
Astrid turned and growled to the twins, and Ruffnut spun around to the soldier attending them, pointing to a leather bag nearby. "Unpack that and be quick about it. Commander is going to shift." By the time she had finished the words, Astrid was already starting to change, her scales beginning to recede, her wings retracting into her back, and the spines sinking back into her skin.
The storm of twanging bows and thunking crossbows didn't diminish as she did, but the noise simply dimmed as her dragon senses reduced to human levels. The twins were ready with various items of clothing and armor for her as her shift finished, and speedily, she was prepared to fight on the ground. Not that she thought she would need to. At this point, the still living forces on the leviathans back numbered maybe less than a full hundred. Simple to handle that when they struck the beach.
She clasped her gronkle iron gauntlets into place as the last piece of preparation she needed and took her battle ax from Ruffnut. "Thanks." She said in gratitude to them. Helping each other with in battle shifts was always something a binder appreciated. Snotlout, having wheeled off of his attacks, landed nearby with a rumble in his belly.
"Shift, Snotlout," She called. "This battle will be over soon," It was a good feeling. Their first real pitched battle, and they'd handily won against a clearly evil foe. It was small, to be sure; nowhere near the size of the Battle of the Black Veil where Stoick had taken victory. Some say there were over a million total combatants on both sides of that battle. Official numbers put it less, more like half of that number, but when people who actually fought there say it, it's hard to discern fact from fiction.
He did so, quickly donning his own armor and arming himself with the equipment that he normally fights with. The shifting to and from dragon form was a process that they had spent many hours streamlining to the most efficient, and safest, process that it could possibly be. If they ever needed to do it in the middle of combat, then they would need to have it be efficient.
"Commander!" The yell went up and all the Scalebinders looked out at the water. The leviathan was still surging towards the island, but all the monsters on its back were either dead, had fallen in the water, or jumped there themselves.
"Victory!" The twins cheered, slapping leather gauntleted hands together in celebration, but Astrid narrowed her eyes.
"Why is that thing still coming here…" She mumbled, glaring out to see if she could find any explanation. She could tell from the motionless form of Fishlegs, right next to her, that he was thinking the same thing. He turned to his left and the trio of soldiers who stood there, still hoisting crossbows.
"Three of you go to the other parts of the island, east, west and south. I want situation reports." He said quietly. Astrid followed his logic immediately. They had mistakenly focused all of their attention on the single leviathan, and he was thinking that maybe there were more out there, coming from different directions while their attention was claimed.
At the same time, the leviathan began to crest even higher in the water, giving them a full view of its ugly maw and large, milky white eyes. With a dull crash, the leviathan ran itself straight up on the beach of the island, the land itself uttering a laden groan as the immense, moist bulk of the sea monster slid up onto it.
Everything went silent, the troops closest to the leviathan back away slowly, led by a lieutenant, bows and crossbows leveled just in case. The adrenaline of the leviathans approach had almost disappeared, now replaced by a somber curiosity. There were dead mutants littering its back. Astrid could see plenty more floating in the water behind. None of it made sense.
Then…and it was just a flash, she heard something. It was like groan…but distant. And it was coming from the leviathan itself. She quietly padded down the earthen battlements, various soldiers parting so she could pass. All of them were silent, weapons at the ready, not moving at all. Well trained from months of being yelled at by Astrid and the other Scalebinders.
As she got closer, she heard it again. A distant echo of something. Her ears strained, even with the magic flowing through her blood expanding her senses. She reached the final battlement at the head of the beach, the soldiers there falling into step behind her, without any orders. A small part of her flared with something that she couldn't exactly place with that.
She got as close as she dare to the beast, its grotesque face looming before her. She spun her ax in her hand, more of a reassuring twitch than a coordinated move. As she got closer to it, the echo rang out again, closer this time. It was strange…what would make such a sound? She took her ax and prodded the bulbous, moist flesh of the beast. As the metal cap on her ax handle pushed into the flesh, something that smelled rotten and old seeped out of its pores.
"What is it, Commander?" One of the soldiers behind her asked. She narrowed her eyes on the skin, backing away slowly, the soldiers moving with her.
"I don't know…but it's dead, I think…" She muttered. It wasn't breathing, or at least she could see no sign of that. No inhale of air. No movement in its sides to indicate breathing. The movement that it was showing before, as it swam into the shore, was gone. It was unmoving. Large, reeking of death, and unmoving.
"Astrid, we should get rid of this thing," Fishlegs said, appearing at her side, his hammer over his shoulder and his helmet under his arm.
She couldn't shake the horrible feeling that this was not over as an event. There had to be more to this than simply a suicidal run at the island. If anything was behind the planning of this, then there was far more, and that is what worried her. There was no way that the mutants on the creatures back could have planned and executed this attack by themselves.
Just as she was going to order the removal of the beast, an alarmed call rang out. "On the water! Two marks!" She and the others ran up the slope again and looked out past the leviathan that had beached itself. Storming towards them were two more leviathans, their backs similarly covered in mutated horrors. Another thing quickly became apparent; these leviathans were moving far faster than the first.
Astrid came to a decision quickly. "To stations! Fire at will! When the first leviathan lands, spearwalls lift and set!" She bellowed out, her grip on her ax tightening as the magic poured through her blood, the first sounds of bows cracking around her. As soon as the first volley went out, the leviathan that had beached itself exploded in a shower of gore, blood and more mutated freaks. Astrid sprinted down the slope, a feral roar coming from a fang filled mouth as her ax sliced through the first of many kills.
XXX
The following hours blended together in an infernal cacophony of battle, screams, roars, blood and death. Astrid lost track of how many she killed. She knew it had to be many, because she doesn't remember a moment where she wasn't fighting in those hours. She didn't know how many landed on Norsgaard, but she did know that none had survived. The leviathans themselves were useless once they beached themselves, and time took care of them.
Even now, in the aftermath of the battle, an official count had yet to be made. Astrid and the other scalebinders, covered in blood and gore as they were, had set to the task of assessing damage and casualties. The soldiers stationed on the island had done well; the spearwalls had done their job with vicious efficiency, holding the pathways further up the beach and preventing the invaders from ascending to attack the archers that continuously peppered them.
The moment when the walls failed came when they were so inundated with the dead that the tips of the spears were no longer able to pierce more targets. Thus, the mutants climbed over their dead brethren to attack further up the beach. In response, Astrid and the scalebinders had separated, each of the taking a separate path and holding it along with their squads.
Fishlegs had held his path so totally that the mutants ended their assault there and moved to the other four. Even these mindless creatures shied away from the large man's complete control of the battlefield. Astrid's team had done well. Only one had perished, and that was in sacrificial heroism to protect two men whom were retreating with injuries.
Snotlout and the Twins had seen tougher luck. Their teams had suffered worse casualties from the harsh press of mutated beasts, Snotlouts getting the worst of all. The twin's team directly benefited from having the both of the hellish fighters with them, nut at the same time, their blatant disregard for defense led to many deaths.
This all came with a large caveat, and a feeling that not only Astrid and the scalebinders felt, but also the human members of their teams. They had won their first battle against Blackreach. As soldiers of Dragonoa, even if they weren't wearing the blue just yet, they had won their first battle. It was a searing feeling, leaving at least Astrid hungry for more.
They would honor the dead, as was tradition. Dying in battle was both a sad event, but a happy event. There was no better way to die in most eyes, and they would spend their time with honor among the gods in Valhalla. Some might call Dragonoa a modern country, and not everyone put full stock in religion, but everyone knew where they dead went.
Astrid sat on a barrel, her body dirty and sore from battle and aiding in the cleanup of the island, watching the second shift work. They had split the cleanup effort in such a way that half of the garrison worked while half rested, in two hour increments. A mug of mead in hand swished as she slowly rotated it. It wasn't nearly as strong as the hefty liquor drank in Berk, but it left a warm sensation on her tongue.
"Commander." She turned at the word, finding two men flanking another woman. All three had bandages in a few spots, bruises and dirt covering them. Soldiers who had fought and survived. "A sail on the water, from the south. Blue."
Astrid nodded. "Probably from Helheim. Accompanied?"
"No," The watch answered. "Alone."
Astrid hummed as she took a drink. With a flick of her eye, she noted the slightly hungry look the trio gave her mug as they stood there. "How long have you worked the watch?" She asked.
The trio looked between themselves. "All night before the battle. The first leviathan appeared a half hour before the end of our shift." The answered, doing well to hide the shake in their voices. Astrid's ears were sharper than human ears though, and she could sense the waver of exhaustion in them.
"Go sleep. I will arrange the next two shifts." She nodded towards that barracks, and almost immediately, all three drooped. The woman smiled gratefully.
"Thank you, Commander." Astrid simply nodded as they left. She remained in her spot, quickly arranging a new watch and informing them to keep track of any movement on the water. She finished her break time and resumed helping with the clean-up of the beach. The most time consuming part of this was the removal of the corpses of the many mutated freaks that had attacked them. Their bodies were numerous and heavy, as well as some being so covered in claws and horns and talons that crews had to tie them with rope and drag them away.
Which slowed down the process considerably. They were still many long hours from having the island clear of dead flesh. And so she worked alongside the others to get it there as fast as possible. She was in the middle of yanking dead corpses off one of the spearwalls when a frantic tapping caught her attention. She turned her head to her right to glare at him, only to find that he was staring and point past her head.
She followed his gaze and immediately, her task fell by the wayside as a firm thrum of anger coursed through her. Even on the grim backdrop of the still blood soaked beach, Night Fury and his black cloak stood out ominously. Next to him, Commander Frost looked around the beach, for all purposes looking as grim as the situation looked.
Behind Night Fury and Frost, the other Scalebinders stalked, slowly following the pair, but all of them had their eyes firmly set on Night Fury's back. She met Fishlegs eyes and shook her head, as if knowing that all Snotlout and the twins wanted to do was try and best their trainer.
She swallowed her wish to get a second round after the last humiliating defeat she suffered at Night Fury's hand and resuming pulling off the bodies of horrible creatures from the spearwall. She and the men working with her managed to get another two off by the time Frost cleared her throat nearby.
"Astrid."
"Commander Frost." She answered back icily, her eyes still on Night Fury. She obviously couldn't tell otherwise, but she felt that Night Fury was glaring back at her. "Welcome to Norsgaard."
"What happened here?" The Commander demanded, still looking at the destruction of the beach. Astrid wiped her face, the rough dirt and dried blood on her arm rough against her cheek, and spat into the blood soaked sand.
"We fell under attack early this morning. Three leviathans, each crawling with mutated freaks, beached themselves. The first came alone, and we killed all hostiles before it reach the island. The other two made landfall, and we fought defensive battle. We claimed victory a little over twelve hours ago. Recovery efforts have been underway since." She reported, meeting the Commanders eyes with a stern confidence that came from a mixture of exhaustion and mental fatigue.
Commander Frost nodded. "It would appear so. Congratulations, Astrid. What are your casualties?"
Fishlegs stepped around her to come to Astrid's side. "Currently, forty nine."
"And your full force?"
"Two hundred and thirteen." The Commander searched around her, looking at both the beach itself and the slopes. Many of the soldiers who were working had stopped at this point, none saying anything really, but all watching silently. Astrid wouldn't be surprised if they were more concerned with the black cloaked stranger than Commander Frost.
"It looks like you fought a much greater force…is this true?"
Astrid nodded, her arms remaining motionless at her sides. "Yes."
The Commander crossed her arms on her chest, a short, rare smile gracing her face. "I see. Excellent work, Astrid. This is one of the reasons why you were dispatched here."
Astrid snarled lightly. "One of the reasons? What were the others?"
The Commander shook her head, beckoning with her hand in a waving motion. "Not here. Come; get your troops ready. You depart back for Helheim within the hour."
Astrid narrowed her eyes. "Not yet."
To those words, Frost narrowed her own steely eyes, her entire visage becoming hard. "Excuse me? That was an order, soldier." Astrid noted that she had chosen to not use her name that time. A common ploy that she used when she was attempting to pull rank.
Astrid jerked her head around the beach. "Look at all of this. I am not leaving until we finish the recovery of Norsgaard. I, and my troops, fought side by side with the garrison of this island. We will not leave them now."
She could see the twitch in the Commander's eyes. Frost hated it when people refused her orders, and even more so when Astrid did so. The two of them butted heads more than any of the other Scalebinders, solely because Astrid was the de facto head of their team. Some of their clashes have been vicious, but never resulting in hand to hand combat or anything like that.
"You try my patience, Astrid."
"Your patience is secondary to me, Commander. Aiding in the recovery of soldiers who fought for me comes first." Astrid snapped back at her, growling dangerously. Commander Frost glared at her for another moment and relented.
"Fine. I will be on my ship when you are finished."
She walked off, but the ever silent Night Fury remained, still staring at Astrid. Around him, the Scalebinders slowly moved to encircle, leaving probably ten feet between himself and them. Astrid had to say that if he knew they had circled him, which he undoubtedly did – the bastard seemed to have eyes in the back of his skull – he showed no signs.
"Last time I saw you," She began sourly, growling as she spoke, not seeing any point in containing her hatred of this man. "You had ambushed me in the armory corridor like a coward."
Then it happened. He finally spoke words to them. And words they could understand.
"Cowardice is a notion soaked with foolishness. The strong do what is necessary."
Astrid wanted to cheer, roar, growl and hiss all at once. His voice was thick and deep, but smooth as it emerged from the murk of his cloak. Completely different from when he spoke dovahzul to her in the corridor. The other scalebinders wore grins on their faces, as it would appear that they had somehow won a small victory against Night Fury. Despite that they had won no such thing.
"What is necessary?" Fishlegs asked curiously. "Is there some necessity to you training us? Even the word training is a stretch."
"Indeed. The balance has shifted. Bonaar Los Mulaag. Humility is Strength. You will need it in the battles to come. Prepare yourselves, zeymah ahrk briinah. Your mulaag shall be tested." With that, he turned and left, not caring to stop as she brushed past Snotlout. The binders watched him go with a mixture of elation, hate and confusion.
"Fishlegs," Ruffnut grumbled. "Any translation on those words?" Astrid looked over at him, expecting an answer. They all learned what Berk still knew of dovahzul in school, but really, they mostly forgot it. Fishlegs was the only one who could readily translate without a book.
He looked at them with an interested look. "He told us the first phrase…and the second...zeymah ahrk briinah…means brothers and sisters."
Sorry this took so long. I hit a long patch of projects and other things for my students. Not much time to write while I grade.
I hope you readers are enjoying the story. I can say that while I might not be the fastest to update, I will never abandon this story. I really like it, and I'm really excited to get further in. I always appreciate reviews!
Have a good Thanksgiving!
