Sparky landed swiftly in front of her a minute later. Sobbing she hugged him tightly before grabbing her satchel and weapons. She pulled the pieces of her suit on and tied her leather helmet onto her head, fastened her weapons across her back then sat on Sparky.
"Let's get out of here. Head for the island with the volcano, we'll hide out there for now. Evasive cloud manoeuvres." She said through her tears and Sparky obeyed, sparing into the clouds and off into the night sky.
Hiccup stood up again and Astrid froze. All over the village the dragons froze, and those who recognised dragon calls stopped in their tracks. They could hear a dragon call, a distressed one.
"That dragon doesn't sound very happy. Are you going to help it Dad?" Finn asked but Hiccup was looking worriedly at his wife.
"Hiccup is that..."
"A Skrill call. Yes it is. It's here somewhere. I'm going to find it and send it away, and try and find Camicazi too. If she's run off scared, she might run into it."
"Be careful Hiccup, just remember the lightning from the Skrill is attracted to metal and you guys are wearing a lot of that." Astrid said a look of concern etched on her beautiful face.
"I will be, I promise." Hiccup replied putting an arm around her before kissing her briefly. "Stay safe, both of you." And with that he and Toothless left.
Hiccup and Toothless soared over Berk searching for the Skrill but couldn't seem to find a trace of it when...
"Woah! What was that?" Hiccup asked as they circled back over the area close the cove.
"EVASIVE CLOUD MANOEVURES!" A voice called from the forest and a shape darted up to the sky. "Let's get out of here boy. I can't deal with all this right now."
Hiccup froze. Someone was riding a dragon. The question now became, was it the Skrill? In which case how in the name of Thor was someone riding it? How had they trained it? He tried to follow but couldn't see it anywhere.
"Let's keep searching bud"
"You lied to me!" Camicazi yelled through the stream of tears. "Everything you ever told me was a lie! Were they even present when she died?!"
"Stop being so stupid. Levi, get that dragon under control, Vott, take Camicazi to the hold." Dagur spat. Camicazi though kept yelling at him.
"I came here to kill Hiccup, for her. For the dragons you told me were enslaved... And then I find out it was all a lie! You left out a lot of details like his son, his parents, the fact that he isn't a monster!"
"Where's my whip?" He snapped and one of the soldiers handed it to him. "You disobeyed me, you stole the Skrill, you are now yelling at me. You will be punished for this."
"GO AHEAD! Strike me again! You've done it a thousand times before!" She screamed. But he raised the whip over the Skrill. "NO! NO! LEAVE SPARKY ALONE!"
"I told you we are not calling it such a stupid childish name!"
"BE MAD AT ME BUT PLEASE, JUST DON'T HURT SPARKY!"
"THIS IS YOUR PUNISHMENT. WATCH YOUR DRAGON SUFFER!"
"NOO!" She shrieked and then she did something stupid. She leapt once more between Dagur and the Skrill, crying out in pain as the whip made contact with her flesh. Having had her flight suit taken from her when she landed, only a thin shirt protected her from the full force of the whip. After the first strike it tore leaving her already scarred back open to abuse. The whip struck her again, and again. Dagur did not seem to care if he hit her or the Skrill.
"You will not fail me I hope." He hissed in her ear as she collapsed to her knees from the strain of her beating. "Your precious dragon's life depends on it. Vott, take her back to shore. The rest of you secure the dragon." He spat dragging her to her feet and throwing her forcibly into a small rowboat.
Hiccup had been flying when he thought he'd heard his own words echoing back to him from the past "Be mad at me, just please don't hurt Toothless!"
But this time the name had been Sparky. Hiccup wondered if it was the mysterious rider, but then recalled Camicazi mentioning a dragon by that name but who could she be talking to? Hiccup flew towards where the sound had come from.
"Dagur." Hiccup gasped recognising the crest on the ships mast, lightning was flashing over the boat and Hiccup knew a Skrill had been here. He headed back to Berk. He had to prepare the village. But where could Camicazi be? Toothless did not seem to want to turn around and go back and this made Hiccup curious.
"Bud, we've got to go." Reluctantly the dragon turned away from the Berserker fleet and headed back to the safety of the forest. Hiccup could feel Toothless tensing, something had him on edge, something was angering him and that could not be good news.