Author's Note:

Hello and welcome to the next chapter of this story. We finally get to some action this time around and several of the elements of this chapter have undergone alterations from their original forms. Thank you everyone who is supporting this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

When Chieftains Meet

As they carried him towards the beach Snotlout saw the Outcasts and Berserkers gathering by the docks and the small ship that was approaching.

Dagur was seemingly bouncing along in glee and he spoke almost jovially to his bound hostage, "Oh look Snothat, here comes your dearly devoted uncle to save you. Too bad he's not going to last out the day."

They'd reached the crowd and everyone parted to let through their chief and the one who was carrying Snotlout. People leered and laughed at the gagged boy as he was taken past and soon they had made their way to the front where his uncle's ship could be clearly seen. Dagur then turned to Snotlout and gave him a smile that made the boy tremble fearfully, "Now then, seeing that you've been exceptionally well behaved while you've been here I will spare you seeing what we're going to do to your uncle. The whole point of this is to kill him and I might get slightly carried away so I think I'll be nice and make it so you won't actually see the deed."

He gestured to his men and one of them came from the crowd carrying the all too familiar sack. Snotlout struggled desperately but between his bonds and the man holding him he stood no chance of escape. He heard everyone laughing and jeering as in one swift movement he was shoved into the sack and left bound and gagged in darkness.

Stoick could see the large group amassed near the docks of Outcast Island as he approached and he easily recognised Dagur standing at the front of the group.

He steered his boat towards them and leapt ashore as it landed upon the beach, he strode confidently forward managing to appear a formidable force to be reckoned with even without the weapons Dagur's demands had made him leave behind. He stopped several feet away from Dagur who was standing smugly before him, "It's so nice to see you Stoick! How's Berk getting on?"

Stoick was in no mood to bandy words with the deranged chief, "Where's Snotlout!?"

Dagur sighed, "I hoped to start off with a little small talk but I guess we won't get much done until you've seen him." He spoke loudly to his men, "Show him the boy!"

A man holding a large, wriggling sack came forward and dumped it on the ground, he untied the top and roughly hauled the bound Snotlout out by his hair, the boy giving muffled cries of pain through his gag as he did so.

Stoick's blood boiled at the sight of his nephew being put through such pain and humiliation and he growled out with barely contained rage, "I came here alone and unarmed as you demanded Dagur. Let Snotlout go."

The Berserker chief smirked and the man holding Snotlout shoved the boy back into the sack and retied the top as Dagur answered, "If you remember correctly Stoick my message only said I wouldn't kill him not let him go and technically you didn't come alone."

Stoick gave no indication that he knew what he was hinting at as he answered, "What do you mean?"

To his surprise Dagur began laughing and the Berserker replied sounding almost amused, "I have to say that you're an excellent actor Stoick, I almost believe that you don't know what I'm talking about," he suddenly became deadly serious, "however your little band of Berkians warriors tell me otherwise."

Dagur had obviously discovered his plan and his mind was whirling trying to come up with a new solution and he attempted to stall the Berserker chief to gain some time, "What have you done with my men Dagur?"

The young chief shrugged carelessly, "Oh my men are probably fighting them as we speak and provided that the plan was a success they should finish killing them all fairly soon." He grinned maliciously, "But I think you should more concerned about your little nephew here seeing as his fate is entirely in your hands." Dagur paced in front of him, "Now I should really just kill him seeing as you didn't properly uphold your end of the bargain but I can quite reasonable occasionally and I'll let him live on one condition."

Stoick glared, "What condition."

Dagur stared unflinchingly back as he answered, "That you kneel before me and accept your death by my sword."

Stoick's Viking spirit recoiled in disgust at the thought of kneeling to his enemy and he could feel it screaming at the mere idea of dying like a criminal at the hands of a man using the tactics of a coward. However another look at the sack containing his bound, gagged and terrified nephew made his heart of a Father scream louder and he slowly dropped to his knees and prepared to sacrifice everything for the boy.

Inside the sack Snotlout couldn't really hear what was going on outside his dark prison and although he hated to admit it he was really scared.

Dagur had made it quite clear that he intended to kill Stoick and the boy was well aware that holding him hostage was going to make that considerably easier. Also the question remained on what would happen to him if the Berserker chief succeeded, the same tactic would be as effective on Hiccup but once his cousin was gone that only left Snotlout himself as a possible heir making keeping him alive more of a hindrance than a help. He couldn't face the thought that his helplessness could result in him losing his family and seriously damage Berk's future.

Desperately he renewed his struggles and strained against his bonds trying his best to force himself free. A kick came from outside, no doubt from one of Dagur's men to try and get him to stop wriggling, but he ignored it and kept up his struggles. Then he felt the sack being lifted and he wriggled even more. It was dumped on the ground once more and after a quick pause light pierced his prison as the sack was opened. A rough hand shot in and violently grabbed his hair and yanked him upwards. The teen couldn't stop the yelp of pain but his gag reduced it to a pitifully high pitched 'mmf' adding humiliation to his physical pain.

He blinked in the harsh daylight and soon saw his uncle standing only feet away. Snotlout didn't hear what words Stoick said as he was distracted by the ongoing pain of the man continuing to seemingly rip his hair out at the roots. Suddenly he was roughly plunged back into darkness as he was shoved back into the sack and it was retied.

He resumed his desperate struggles but his bonds would not loosen in the slightest. Tears came to his eyes as he realised that it wouldn't be long before Dagur carried out his plan and he gave a frustrated roar into his gag which no one heard.

Overwhelmed by his own helplessness Snotlout stopped struggling and waited fearfully.

Hiccup was flying Hookfang as fast as he could towards Outcast Island though the dragon needed little encouragement to keep his speed up. The other dragons were hard pressed to keep up with their scorching pace but Hiccup was ignoring any pleas to slow down as he felt that he had to reach the island as soon as possible. He didn't know why but some instinct was telling him that they had little time and it spurred him and Hookfang on to even greater speeds.

They reached Outcast Island in record time and soon they were soaring over it. Something down below grabbed Hiccup's attention and he looked to see Gobber and several other Berkians locked in combat with Outcasts and Berserkers. The other riders saw it too and they instantly dived down to assist their people adding to the chaos of the battle. Several of the enemy turned and fled at the sight of the dragons but most stayed to continue the fight. Hookfang managed to make several more run with a widespread fire blast and sent others flying as he flew low clipping their heads with his wings and body leaving a trail of unconscious men behind him. Astrid and Stormfly had trapped some of the enemy with some well aimed spines while the twins kept leaving trails of Barf's gas through the battlefield and then setting light to it causing confusion amongst the Berserkers and Outcasts, this then allowed Fishlegs and Meatlug to charge through like a battering ram ploughing the enemy to the side. The other Berkians dealt with the rest and soon the enemy was in a full disorganised retreat, helped along by Gobber giving them a few well placed kicks in the rear yelling as he did so, "AYE YOU BETTER RUN YOU GOOD FOR NOTHING, LOW-LIFE, COWARDLY KIDDNAPPERS!"

Hiccup landed Hookfang beside the battle roused blacksmith, "Gobber, what is going on?"

It took mere moments for Gobber to relate everything they'd missed and Hiccup prepared to get Hookfang back in the air, "We better hurry, Dad and Snotlout are going to need us."

Gobber agreed, "Aye you lot get yourselves in the air and find them, we'll follow behind as quickly as we can."

Hiccup nodded as Hookfang took off, "Okay Gobber, we'll be as quick as we can."

The dragons shot into the air after them and they headed for the main Outcast settlement, apart from the people they'd already routed there was hardly any other people in the settlement itself but as they approached they saw a huge crowd gathered near the docks. Landing behind some nearby rocks the riders peered out at the scene before them. Hiccup could see his father standing in front of Dagur who was in middle of saying something, behind the Berserker chief was a sack laying on the floor in front of another man. The sack was wriggling and Hiccup realised that it held Snotlout. Like his father anger surged at the thought of what his cousin had likely been through and he mentally heaped abuse onto Dagur's head.

Reigning in his anger Hiccup turned back to his friends and relayed the plan he'd just thought of, "Ruff, Tuff, I need you guys to act as a distraction so Astrid and Stormfly can try and get Snotlout away from the Berserkers, me and Fishlegs will watch her back and keep anyone from trying to stop her."

Tuffnut interjected a question, "Err how are we going to be a distraction?"

Hiccup grinned with just a hint of maliciousness, "Well I think that leaving their base largely unguarded is just asking for someone to come along and blow stuff up."

Ruffnut stared at him in amazement, "Wait…you're actually encouraging us to blow things up?"

"Yes, yes I am." Hiccup's grin grew wider, "As of now I am giving you full permission to destroy anything you want in the Outcast's base."

The twins high fived and then got Barf and Belch into the air almost shouting in glee, "This is gonna be amazing!"

They flew off and Hiccup and the other two watched as Dagur began pacing in front of Stoick still speaking before stopping and locking his gaze with the Berk's chief. Though he didn't know what the Berserker had said Hiccup could tell from his father's expression that it wasn't good, there were a few moments when the two chiefs did nothing but glare at each other until Stoick slowly knelt down and bowed his head. Working out exactly what was about to happen Hiccup looked desperately in the direction the twins had gone, "They need to blow something up over there soon."

He looked back to see Dagur raising his sword preparing to bring it down, with no time left Hiccup and Hookfang braced to charge forwards distraction or not, Dagur tensed ready to swing his sword…when a massive explosion sounded from the Outcast's base.

PS-A little bit of a cliff-hanger there but I should update soon, until then please let me know what you thought.