The Manticore set sail for the long trip North to Berk a couple weeks after the stop over in Syracuse. The Eastern dragons had been spotted several times, flying like ribbons close to the coastline. They didn't seem to be overly fond of the deep sea, even though both Li and Jin said that this kind of dragon was almost exclusively a fisher dragon. Tuffnut and Snotlout decided to try and lure the dragons to the Manticore somehow, they managed to fish up enough large fish to draw in the dragons.
Sinbad expressly forbid the dragons to stay aboard the ship, their combined weight drove the ship to ride so low in the water, that the lowest port holes were less than a foot above the waterline. He did allow them to use the ship as a rest stop when he found out that they could stay in the air as effortlessly as a fish in water, once they were high enough. He was also surprised by the giant pearls both dragons left aboard the ship whenever they went fishing.
Neither Snotlout or Tuffnut knew for sure that the pearls were eggs. They didn't explode like Berk dragon eggs, and just sat, gleaming pearlescent in the sunlight. Kale found an old eastern man in a remote port where they went for fresh water, and a trip to a midwife, so Rutila could more accurately predict when she would give birth to Snotlout's child.
The old man wanted one of the dragons as payment for his information. He said alive or dead didn't matter. The dragon would've perished anyway because he dealt in the black market for scales, blood, hair, whiskers, teeth, internal organs, and other things that made no sense to anyone but Jin and Li. They couldn't hurry the dragons away from the shack fast enough.
Sinbad seemed none the wiser when the dragons went below decks with their two eggs, and didn't seem to see that the ship stayed at it's proper level. He found out just how the dragons went into torpor, like lizards when it got too cold to stay awake. The dragons, named Ran and Shao by Li, were able to stay suspended in the enclosed hold indefinitely after reaching the colder western waters, and by the time the dragons were actually resting on the floor of the hold, Sinbad had the lowest portholes sealed over with waterproof blockages. They were out of the reach of late hurricanes by this time, though storms were still as dangerous as ever on the open ocean.
They put into port for the last time for the longest stretch of the journey and were resupplying, when Snotlout and Tuffnut saw someone they wish they hadn't met. Dagur, of the Berserker tribe of Vikings. He was just as tall and straight as ever, having reached his full growth, after taking the Chieftainship from his father several years ago and held onto it, even through attempts on his life, offers of alliance to Alvin the Treacherous, and many other attempts to overthrow him to keep the tribe from going on more raids than prudent.
Dagur hardly recognized Snotlout and didn't recall Tuffnut, until he made the connection between him and the Viking woman who had beaten the daylights out of him for stealing a kiss. Tuffnut laughed until his weak ale came out his nose, and Snotlout was trying to keep from laughing. Dagur didn't find it so funny and said his Viking honour would be restored when he took Tuffnut's head in place of Ruffnuts. That sobered Tuffnut up really quickly.
"You would kill me for what my sister did in retaliation for what you did?" Tuffnut asked archly, looking at Dagur like he was stupid, he was taller than the Berserker by a couple of inches and it was making Dagur angrier. "Are you really so obsessed with yourself, that you can't see how destructive you really are to your tribe?"
Dagur's response was to swing a fist at Tuffnut and then draw his sword to try and take his head off. Snotlout smashed his tankard over the head of one of Dagur's companions and waded into the fight before Tuffnut, unarmed and half drunk, got killed by Dagur. Coral, who up until now, had stayed hidden in the shadows next to Rat, was also ready to jump into the fight to save the man she planned on marrying, Tuffnut however, just didn't know it quite yet. Rat shoved her against the wall and held her there, women weren't welcome in a fight at these ports.
Dagur found himself in the middle of an all out brawl, and with no one directly challenging him, he had lost sight of both Snotlout and Tuffnut, but caught sight of one of there crew members. A small wiry looking man, with his back to the wall and someone even smaller behind him. A vicious, twisted grin worked it's way across his face when he realized that the person was a woman and that she was watching either of the two Berk Vikings. All he had to do was get past the man and she would make a good hostage.
Dagur slowly battled his way across the room, not once making direct eye contact with Rat or Coral, but keeping them in his field of vision. He finally made it within a sword stroke of Rat, only to find a long, lethal, skinning knife being held to where his throat would be if he came within reach of Rat. Dagur feinted right, then left, only to keep being blocked by the smaller faster man and his knife. Dagur kept fighting, he was a consummate fighter, always fighting with or without opponents. He was young, had plenty of stamina and enough training to be more than effective against older more seasoned fighters. Rat was older than Dagur and could feel his strength ebbing little by little, the longer he held out against Dagur.
Dagur could tell that each time his sword was blocked by the smaller knife, the smaller man would wince and his shoulder would jerk spasmodically for just a moment. Rat was right handed and held his knife in that hand, his shoulder and elbow took the worst of the blows so his knife wouldn't snap under Dagur's sword. Then he noticed that Dagur was concentrating on his right side, so as to wear him out faster or break through his defence.
Rat was losing strenght faster now, his reaction time lessened significantly and no help in sight as the tavern brawl was concentrated in the middle of the room. Li and Jin were in the rafters, dropping down on anyone who was looking to jump their crew mates from behind, Kale was wrestling with three men and a fourth under his left arm, Sinbad was staying out of the fight, but was on the other side of the room, and the two Viking boys were buried in the middle of the melee with other crewmates and the Berserkers. Rat and Coral were on their own.
Dagur swung a powerful downward stroke and succeeded in disarming Rat and dislocating his shoulder at the same time. Dagur went in for the kill as Rat let out a howl of pain as his arm was rendered useless. Coral shrieked as Dagur came forward and thrust his sword at her vulnerable father.
A small eating knife lodged itself in the inside of Dagur's forearm, making him growl and unceremoniously pull it out. He looked in the direction it had come from and saw Rutila, holding a second knife, and a small flask of a clear liquid. She grinned nastily at Dagur and twiddled the flask with two fingers, while looking at his arm pointedly.
Dagur decided to leave Coral for later and headed towards Rutila, who was grinning broadly now. This confused Dagur and made him even angrier. Then he felt the pain. His arm from the elbow down felt as though it was on fire and cold at the same time. His sword fell from his right hand as it started turning pale, then yellowing and then turned a sickening green. Dagur was in immense pain as the poison began to spread to the rest of his body, causing organ failure and internal bleeding. In moments, the poison had turned him into a skin bag of liquefied meat. He was dead less than five minutes after Rutila's poisoned blade had struck him.
Dagur's death had a nulling effect on the brawl, and the Berserker's just stared as what was left of Dagur began to melt through the floor. Every eye turned to Rutila, who had gone back to her trencher of stew as if nothing had happened. Snotlout was the next person to be eyed uneasily.
"What? It was Chimera venom. She told me about it months ago." Snotlout said defensively.
"Now that you know what it does to a man, will you ever cheat or cast me aside?" Rutila asked with a wicked little smirk, everyone laughed as Snotlout just shrugged.
"Eh, we'll see." Snotlout said with a grin of his own.
I KILLED DAGUR! WAHAHAHAHAHA! I really didn't like that little jerk in Riders of Berk. He needed a case of dead really badly. Poison was the weapon of choice for women almost every where, especially in Ancient cities like Rome or in this case Syracuse.
Rutila would've been taught this in the bathhouse as well as from her mother, as poison was primarily used by women in ancient times. Need a father or husband ead? Poison. Need a rival out of the way? Poison. Want another mans wife? Woo her and have her off her husband. Want something another woman has? Pretend to be friends and poison her.
Also, women were usually only seen, so they could spike a man's drink with poison and be gone before anyone knew what had happened. They were great assassins at the time.
Rutila's knowledge was commonplace for a prostitute. You never suffered more than two beatings or violent couplings from the same person. They were usually dead by the third time.
