Later, all of us were inside the Great Hall, but in a separate room from the main galley. We were all sitting at a large table that seemed to be color-coordinated. I was told by Astrid that this was some kind of meeting room for the Riders to plan their next move or something.

Hiccup and Astrid sat together (not surprising at all) at one end of the table with black-red and blue-orange colors. Eret and I were at the other end, which wasn't colored. I guess that meant this was reserved for guests, but no one confirmed that. The twins were on my left with their section being green, and to my right were Snotlout and Fishlegs, whose section was red-yellow and brown.

"So, wait, let me get this straight." Tuffnut said, scratching his head in confusion. "That armored lady said you were one of Drago's, right? I'm not the best at paying attention to stuff." Can't imagine why. I thought in response. "But you defected, like Eret did?" Snotlout added in. I nodded. "That's right. The woman you saw was my former commander, Laura. She, uh, basically doesn't like people that run."

"So what made you?" Astrid spoke up. I only stared at her. "I-I'm sorry?" I asked curiously. "I said, what made you run away?" Slowly, I remained silent as my mind was once again filled with the screams and horrors of that day. "It's… kind of hard to talk about." I murmured.

Eret cleared his throat. "Well, if you don't want to, then I…" "No, no, no, Eret. Please. I can tell them." I say, holding up a hand to interrupt him. "It's my story, after all." I pause, taking a deep breath before starting.

"Okay, the day that made me decide to run was one of the worst days of my life." I began. "I still have nightmares about it to this day." Hiccup rose from his seat. "Wait, wait, hold on. Was that what it was when I went to check on..." "Yes, Hiccup, yes. I lied about the rat, okay? It was just to get you off my back." I confirmed, motioning him to sit back down.

"Where was I? Oh, right. I was part of an elite group of Drago's army. A local village had been giving us a hell of a fight, so we decided to get rid of them. And I had no idea what I would be getting into. Up to that point, I had never experienced actual combat."

Our transport boat bobbed up and down in the waves. I could already hear ballista ammunition thunk harmlessly against the armored prow of the ship. The sound of dragons flying overhead followed by explosions from fireballs filled my ears. We were all silent, indistinguishable by our gleaming metallic helmets and armor with the symbol of Drago's army on our chests. I was near the back since I was a ranged unit with a crossbow. Our squad leader was in the very front.

The boat suddenly slowed down, indicating it would soon stop at the beach. Our squad leader stood and drew his sword. "Listen up!" he barked. "These people have been giving Drago a lot of trouble lately, so we're here to return the favor! Remember, if you see anyone worthy enough to join our ranks, you bring him in! Understood?"

"By the will of the master!" we all answered with weapons raised, which was our way of saying "yes sir" in front of any leader, including Drago. A group of five Vikings with twin hatchets let out a beastly roar, eager to spill blood. I never liked those guys, but I didn't tell Drago or anyone else that. They would just say I had to deal with it.

"Good! Shields, you'll be our defensive perimeter! Move forward while keeping everyone else behind you!" our squad leader ordered. "Swordsmen! You take the offense! Cut down anyone who dares attack you!" Finally, he turned to my section. "Archers! You're our ranged support! Cover us while we advance! Do all of you understand!"

"By the will of the master!" we shouted again with the Vikings joining in. The ship then stopped entirely and the first set of doors on the hull opened. That meant the ramp held up by dragonproof chains would soon follow. "Get ready, men!" our squad leader yelled as the ramp slowly began to lower to the sand. When it touched the sand, we all stormed out as our squad leader followed, yelling "Go! Go! Go!" as we charged.

The Vikings charged right ahead of us, those beasts. While they were screaming bloody murder, one of them was struck in the heart with an arrow as one of our men was hit by a spear and fell off the ramp into the shallow water. I just kept running, ignoring the incoming dragon support and arrows flying all around me. Eventually, I saw a rock, which I dove beneath and placed my crossbow on top of.

One man saw me and charged, ax raised. I easily put him by shooting him through the skull. I immediately took cover to reload and wait for another target. Soldiers were engaged in swordfights, along with axes clashing against shields and maces shattering bones. Archers constantly let their bowstrings loose. A fireball from an airborne armored Thunderclaw sent two locals flying. Every so often, I changed cover to get a different angle on my targets, jumping whenever someone shot an arrow in my direction.

As I peeked from a destroyed weapons cart, one of the catapults went down with a fiery explosion. As I was admiring the scene, I heard a new scream. I whirled around to see a young woman charge at me with a hammer. Without hesitation, I pull the trigger and shoot her in the heart. She collapses close to my cover.

The young woman crawled slowly towards me and I got ready to shoot again. But when I aimed… something's different. The girl looked… young. About 16, maybe 14, or even 12 years old. When she lifted her face, I saw fear and raw terror in them… along with tears. After whispering something I couldn't hear, she fell lifeless.

My body felt weak and stunned. What have I done?! I had just killed a child. Someone not truly ready for combat! I peeked up and stood to see the chaos. A woman was reaching out one hand, screaming her lungs out as a soldier ran his blade through a man's- her husband's chest. Two more snatched up two bundles near dead bodies and I could hear the cries of terror inside as they retreated to the ships.

Shortly after all of the villagers had been subdued, every soldier was ordered to stop attacking and 'make way'. My squad leader instructed me to stay where I was as the rest took up a perimeter.

I looked back to the boats and saw a new one coming in. The ramp lowered, and two men with swords and shields disembarked, followed by a scarred man in a black cloak.

Drago Bludvist.

He did not say a word as he marched up to the rounded-up villagers. He glared at someone in the crowd. A man I believed to be the village's leader. Drago crouched down to his eye-level. "Shameful." He scolded. "Just shameful. You should have known from the beginning that no one… NO ONE has dared to resist the great Drago Blu…"

"No one should ever hear or speak your name!" the village leader retaliated. "Everyone across the archipelago knows what kind of man you are! Ever since you murdered everyone in that meeting of chieftains!" Drago responded by slamming the shaft of his bullhook spear against the man's face, causing the villagers to gasp.

"You have turned down my reasons!" he spat back at the leader. "You have refused to believe that I could have saved you from the tyranny of dragons." "You are the tyranny of dragons…" Drago ignored him. "And thus, you have refused to follow the proper path." He then backed away… and put his finger on his throat.

We all knew what was coming next.

Cries of "No! Please!" rang out from the mercy-demanding crowd, but they fell on deaf ears as we braced for the next order. Slowly, I raised my crossbow with the other archers.

Drago sliced his finger across his throat in a cutting, slicing motion.

Archers fired their last arrows as soldiers advanced and cut everyone up. The people screamed in pain as knives pierced their flesh, as swords severed limbs and axes chopped bone. I shook, finger on the trigger… but I never pulled it. the crossbow hung at my side.

I can't do it. I can't do it. I can't do it.

It was all over in seconds. After everything died down, we headed back to the transports.

Later, back at the ice cavern base, a soldier slammed me against a wall with his hands on my neck, snarling. "Don't think I didn't see you back there, rook. I noticed that you never fired a single shot. Tell me… why was that?"

I was too scared to respond. When I didn't, the soldier leaned in so close I could smell his breath. "You know how Drago Bludvist tends to failures, child." He growled. "You disobeyed a direct order!" That one made spit fly into my face. Ugh.

"Hey, what's going on over here?" someone else asked, running up to us. "Release the scout at once!" "Not after he tells me exactly what happened at the village. Why he didn't fire a single shot." The other man stepped forward. "His crossbow must've been jammed! I saw it! He even admitted it on our way here!" I realized he was defending me, so I seized the chance.

"It's true!" I choked out. "An archer fired at me but hit my weapon instead! I didn't think it was serious until the order to execute came in! I insisted the blacksmiths give me a new one as soon as possible!"

The man holding me up glared at me, deciding whether he should agree or not. "Look, just give him one more chance! He's only an 18-year old boy! He's got so much to learn here!" the other one pleaded. The first man pondered this for a moment, then released me.

"There's a patrol ship heading out to scout beyond the archipelago's borders to find more dragons for the master. I'll be putting you on board to have you prove yourself one last time. If you die, I will not have pity for you. Understand, rookie?" he asked with a hint of disappointment in his tone.

"I (cough) understand." I wheezed, holding my throat. The man hoisted me to my feet. "You understand?" I instantly realized my mistake. "Uh, I mean, I understand, SIR!" He chuckled. "That's more like it. Now follow me. The ship's departing in a few hours. You could use the exercise to get there."

A few hours later, I was on the main deck of the attack ship, navigating the water for signs of wild dragons. All the while, I couldn't stop thinking about the village. The screams of pain and fear. The crackling of flames that claimed innocent lives. The sounds of a body breaking apart.

I wasn't going to live with that. I wasn't going to kill for them. So I stood up and casually walked over to the door that led below deck. "Hey, where you going, Gavin?" someone asked me. "It looks like it's gonna be a while before we see any dragons, so I'm heading below deck for a while to get some extra nets. If we run into any, holler and I'll come running." I said before closing the door. "Will do." The guy answered.

Once I was in the clear, I knew what I had to do. I grabbed a lit torch and ran down to a supply room. When I went inside, the first thing that caught my attention was some black powdery stuff. I didn't know exactly what it was, but I heard someone say it was something for the new 'cannons', which blasted dragons from the sky.

I took in a deep breath. I knew that when I did what I had to do… there was no going back.

I closed my eyes… and threw the torch onto the black stuff, then bolted out of the room. I burst out onto the main deck, ignoring confused shouts from the crew about what I was doing, and jumped straight into the water.

SPLOOSH! The ocean consumed my body as I tried to stay afloat and not breathe in. I twisted myself around to look at the ship when…

BADOOM!

The black powdery stuff ignited, creating a massive explosion throughout the whole ship. Red and black clouds began to rise. A searing feeling in my lungs told me I was running out of air, so I swam as fast as I could for the surface.

I broke the water's surface with a loud gasp. Instinctively, I tried to swim for the nearby island's shore.

My arm muscles seemed to be straining from my exhaustion. My lungs felt like they were on fire. Coughing and gasping, I grabbed a small rock jutting out of the water and pulled myself up onto it and- thank the gods! -dry land.

After a few moments of lying on the sand retching up seawater, I turned back to the smoking shipwreck in the distance. It wouldn't be long before that ship vanished beneath the waves.

I stare at that symbol on the mast.

A symbol I had once looked up to…

A symbol that gave me inspiration…

A symbol… that I wished I had never followed…

"So, anyway, after blowing up the ship, I found myself on the place you guys called 'Dragon's Edge', where I stayed for a while thinking my next course of action like stealing a boat… until you found me." I concluded my story, pointing at Astrid. She smiled in response. "Then the rest of you took me back here, where I could start over."

Hiccup and the others stood up. "I'm glad you didn't want to kill those people, even though you didn't mean to."

"And we're all proud of you for doing what you did." Astrid added. "By destroying that ship, you basically hurt him."

A look of realization crossed Hiccup's face. "Speaking of hurting him..." he said, digging through his bag. "I have something you might be interested in." I leaned forward and caught a folded piece of paper he threw to me. "What is it?" I said while unfolding the paper. On it was a blue dragon roaring in victory atop another dragon with a sword through its head. I looked at Hiccup, who smiled at me.

"A chance to strike back at Drago Bludvist."

THE END