Arin sat in a cell on the pirate's flagship with a bored expression. He leaned up against the flat strips of green metal that made up the door, crisscrossing vertically and horizontally. There were runes engraved on bars in a language he had never seen before as if the ship wasn't from the Archipelago. This whole ship had an alien look to it. The pirate's flagship was three times the length of a normal Viking longship, and it had a pontoon the size of a longship on its port side.

When he had been brought to the ship, he remembered it having two masts and white sails painted with the pirate's crossed-sword crest. On the deck of the ship had been a symbol like a flaming fist, painted over in green artificially. It was a tribal crest of some sort that didn't look like it was from the Archipelago. Was this ship really from beyond their Archipelago?

Arin stood to try and alleviate the pressure on his wrists, wincing at the tightness of the rope that bound them. As curious as he was about this ship, he needed to focus more on escaping. These pirates were going to attack Berserk and that meant the armada would engage them. Naturally, Arin didn't want to be on the enemy flagship when the counterstrike occurred since it would be the first target.

The pirates had taken the dagger from his boot, so Arin had no way to cut the ropes. Even if his wrists were free he had no way to get out of his cell, and knew better then to think about jumping overboard and trying to swim to land. Hours had passed, and he knew the pirates had to be drawing close to Berserk. He needed a plan.

The door at the end of the hallway opened, and Arin glanced up. He watched the hallway as footsteps echoed on the wooden planking of the deck. Three pirates appeared, wearing mismatched scraps of leather, cloth, and the odd piece of metal armor. They lacked the bones worn by the Outcast tribe, and preferred green cloth over red, but were just as mismatched as Alvin's men were.

Like all pirates, these three wore green paint on their faces and bare skin. Green was the color of victory and immortality, and the pirates painted the green on themselves to evoke victory. Perhaps if Arin had been wearing green pain the pirates wouldn't have captured him. The idiotic idea that a little paint could determine who won and who lost almost made him snicker, but he stopped before he actually made a sound.

The three pirates stopped in front of his cell and one of them pulled a chain from the roof. Arin's door swung open vertically rather than horizontally, and the other two pirates approached. He watched as they approached and roughly dragged Arin out.

"Hey," Arin complained to them. "You can just tell me to move. I do know how to walk."

His comment earned him a prodding in the back with a sword hilt, and Arin walked with a hmph, lucky it hadn't been the point of a sword. His escort took him down the hallway and past more giant cells large enough to hold a dragon. All the cell doors were made of the same green metal and engraved with the same runes that his cell had been.

Arin was brought before an ornate door set with gold so it looked like there was a dragon on the door. It was very well done for the pirates, so Arin assumed that whoever had made the ship had added it. The design was a nice touch, and he glanced back at the cells that were large enough to hold dragons curiously. He looked between the members of his escort, noticing that they were scared all of a sudden. Only their superior would scare them, so this room must be the captain's quarters. It appeared he was about to meet the leader of this fleet. A plan would be nice.

The pirate in the lead knocked strongly and someone called out almost instantly to enter. With a slightly trembling hand, the pirate opened the door and ushered Arin inside. Only one of his escort accompanied him, and the other two waited outside to either side of the door. As long as they were there, he wouldn't be able to take advantage of the opportunity to bolt.

Sitting behind a desk was a man in leather armor. Bright green paint decorated his body in swirling stripes that looked like waves. There was a mismatched metal shoulder pad on his right shoulder and a dark green tunic under the armor. His eyes were as dark brown as his long and somewhat matted hair.

"Hello Berserker," the pirate greeted Arin in a calm and collected voice. "I am Fargim, the commander of this armada."

Arin bowed at the waist as well as he could in a mocking way. "It is an honor to meet you."

"I'm sure," Fargim remarked dryly. "There are some questions I have for you."

"I'm not the highest ranking Berserker back home," Arin said nonchalantly. "But I can answer any questions you have about your surrender to me."

Fargrim leaned back in surprise, and the pirate standing behind Arin stared at him as he tried to comprehend what the Berserker had just said.

"Surrender?" Fargrim asked once Arin's offer sank in. "I'm not surrendering."

He laughed after a second and shook his head. In amusement, he nodded to the pirate standing behind Arin. Arin's escort hit him in the head with the pommel of his sword and let him fall to the deckboards. The pirate who hit him grabbed the back of Arin's tunic and dragged him back to his feet, leaving Arin to look at Fargrim through sight that was now slightly blurred.

"Hey?" Arin asked in mock surprise as he looked at Fargrim though his blurred sight. "Why are there two of you now?"

Fargrim narrowed his eyes at Arin's arrogance, but did not nod to the pirate behind him to hit him again. "You misunderstand your place Berserker. I am here to ask you a few questions about your home, not for you to ask me."

Arin's sight returned to normal and he noticed for the first time the woman standing behind Fargrim.

"Who are you?" He asked her.

Fargrim nodded and motioned with a hand for the woman to step forward. She was younger then Arin had first thought and likely only about the age of Dagur.

"That is my daughter Ingrid," Fargrim introduced. "She is here to watch."

"Watch what?" Arin asked innocently.

Fargrim's lips twisted in a smile. "What happens if you don't answer my questions. You see, Ingrid here is still learning how to master the art of getting answers from prisoners."

"You mean torture," Arin corrected.

His light-humored voice had suddenly become serious. Arin had known this was going to happen the moment he had been caught, so he wasn't too surprised when Fargrim tipped his head in agreement with Arin's statement. Cautiously, Arin flashed his eyes back to Ingrid, but she didn't look like she cared about the word torture. It figured that a pirate wouldn't.

Ingrid watched him coldly with an uncaring demeanor. Her dark brown hair reached down to her shoulder blades, and was out of her face thanks to a leather headband. She didn't have bangs on the right side, but she had some on the left side that framed her face. They were tied in two braids. Like most pirate's, her build was tall and slim with an athletic build that lacked even a scrap of fat.

Pirates were based on the southern reaches of the Archipelago, and it was warm enough that they didn't need to worry about wearing clothes to stay warm. Rather, they had to worry about staying cool and not getting overheated. Like the other pirates, Ingrid had green paint on her bare skin like ribbons curling around her, and she had a lot of exposed skin.

Her top of was little more than a bra made of brown leather, and her skirt didn't even reach her mid-thigh. If she had leggings then they were even shorter. On her forearms were a pair of brown leather bracers with laces on the inner forearms, and there were wide silver cuffs on upper arms engraved with runes.

There was a buckled leather collar around her throat, and grey studs were in her ears. She wore a pair of knee-high boots made of leather laced up in the front. In addition to her clothes, she had a pair of thin belts crossed over her waist in an x-shape.

Green paint was applied to her eyelids like eyeshadow, making the gold and copper color of her irises even more brilliant. Amber eyes, Arin thought to himself, better known as wolf eyes. Those with wolf eyes were said to be natural predators and killers just like the wolves who shared their eyes. From Ingrid's stance and the coldness in her gaze, Arin thought she lived up to the reputation someone with wolf eyes was supposed to have.

What troubled Arin more than her eyes were the two 18-inch short swords clipped onto her belts, one on each side. Pirates considered woman servants and bedwarmers, inferior beings to bear their children and amuse them. Normally they were enslaved. For one to become a shield-maiden was extremely rare, and Ingrid must have incredible warrior prowess in order to have earned the right to wear her blades and stop being a slave to the men of her tribe.

"Berserker," Fargrim ordered, drawing Arin from his inspection of Ingrid. "With Alvin in control of your main fleet, how many ships remain to guard your island?"

"I don't know," Arin said stupidly. "I haven't counted them recently."

Fargrim nodded and the pirate beside Arin knocked him to the ground again. Ingrid watched impassively as Fargrim asked again and again. Two hours later, Fargrim had gotten the information he needed and Arin was dumped back in his cell.

Arin smiled to himself, wincing at the pain from his split lip. His ribs had undoubtedly been cracked so he knew better then to laugh and damage them more. It was still hard not to. Fargrim had no idea that Arin had lied about the number of troops defending the island. Now the pirates, believed that the Berserker's fleet was not only on Outcast but that the island itself was relatively defenseless. By taking a beating before leaking the false Intel, it had become credible.

Well Kata, Arin thought smugly as he took shallow breaths to lessen the pressure put on his lungs. Thanks to the false Intel, you've been set up quite nicely, and the pirates are going to arrogantly waltz onto the island. Whatever her plan was should be able to work now. He hoped it worked, and Arin hoped that the plan involved rescuing him.


Hiccup is now flying back from Outcast to Berk, and since nothing is going to happen on his end the next few chapters will be the Berkersers dealing with the pirates. Before too long, the views will no longer be split between the Berserkers and Berk because they'll both be on Berk. There is importance to this fight besides introducing Ingrid's character, but mostly the aftermath.

Yeah, the pirate's have a Dragon Hunter ship. I'm not sure if i described it as well as i could, so if you have suggestions i will hear you out.