Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, heir to Berk and son of Stoick, tugged at the manacle around his left wrist. It was too tight for him to wedge his fingers underneath, so tight it cut into his skin and blood crusted around the wound it created. The manacle was connected to the side of his cell on the ship by five feet of chain, allowing him a limited range of motion. As if that and the locked cell weren't bad enough, someone had also taken his prosthetic leg so he couldn't stand – or fly if the occasion arose.

Of course, Hiccup sighed to himself as he laid his arm on the floor next to him, he didn't even know where Toothless was. He'd refused to allow himself to believe that Toothless, his father, and the other Riders were dead. He touched the center of his chest were the bandages were, remembering Lief's smile as he levitated the crossbow bolt above his palm before sending it shooting through the air towards Toothless. Hiccup didn't regret leaping in front of his dragon, but wished getting shot wasn't quite so painful.

Hiccup knew he was being drugged. It kept his mind too fuzzy to think of escape, but also dulled the pain. Until his wound healed further, he would have to put up with the drugs in his drinking water. He lacked a shirt, so it was easy for his fingers to feel the stitches beneath the bandages. He grimaced as a bolt of pain shot up his chest as his finger slightly tugged on one of them. Once it was healed and the stitches removed, then he'd be in a position to do something.

For now, he could only lie on the floor and wait. His mind kept slipping away from him, but he could think straight enough to be chilled. The Berserkers – Kata – were keeping him alive for a reason. What was it? Lief had said he was under orders to bring Hiccup to Kata alive before he'd tried to slay Toothless as well. He wouldn't like it, whatever it was.

With nothing to do and his mind too clouded to think clearly, Hiccup allowed himself to lapse into unconsciousness.

Hiccup awoke and lay in his cell for some indeterminate time in silence, wondering how long had passed since Berk's defeat. Berk's defeat. The very words twisted a knife in his stomach that felt a hundred times worse than the crossbow bolt. This was his fault. He should have realized Kata was lying, merely bidding her time. His riders should have eliminated Kata's rider – it had been one rider against all of them – and helped their warriors on the ground.

Yet they had been outflanked. Hiccup didn't even know how much time had passed since the attack.

Footsteps approached and Hiccup heard more than one set. Realizing it wasn't just the guard, he turned his head to look. A woman Hiccup didn't recognize stepped forward and the guard unlocked the door of green metal bars. The door swung upward rather than outward and the woman entered. The guard closed and locked the door behind her, though didn't leave.

Hiccup watched as the young woman, she looked to be in her late-teens, knelt by his side and set a leather satchel on the floor beside her. Without sparing him a glance, she began to undo the bandages around Hiccup's stomach. She was beautiful, Hiccup thought, attuning it to the drugs. Her long ink-black hair was tied in a four-strand braid that reached nearly to her waist. There were white seagull feathers, neatly trimmed, woven into the braid along with beads that looked to be bone – fishbone he hoped. Her storm grey eyes were focused on her work.

Rather unceremoniously, she rolled Hiccup onto his side so she could remove the bandages from under him and inspected the wounds. Her fingers traced the skin near the entry and exit wounds on his chest and Hiccup clenched his teeth, trying to block the pain from her touch.

"No infection," she murmured, "good."

"Who are you?" Hiccup forced himself to ask through his teeth.

"Jodi," the woman answered without missing a beat, opening the satchel and pulling out a small ceramic jar, "Berserker's healer."

Given their temperament, Hiccup was half surprised to hear they had a healer.

Jodi twisted the lid off the jar and an aromatic scent of crushed herbs suffused into the air. She dabbed her fingers in it and spread the gooey green substance on two folded squares of white cloth.

"Sit up," she ordered Hiccup.

Hiccup was reluctant to obey her orders, but knew that disobeying the healer would only hurt him. He tried to sit up, but new bolts of pain stabbed him as the exposed wounds stretched. He glanced down at his stomach and saw the ragged, mostly vertical scar from the crossbow bolt. It was stitched together with brown thread. There was no blood, but the discoloration of the skin made it look like it had been cauterized at some point, likely to stop the bleeding before Jodi had stitched it.

Jodi sighed and unsympathetically grabbed his upper arm, dragging him into a sitting position, ignoring his sounds of pain as she leaned his shoulder against the wall. Hiccup stayed where Jodi put him, spots flashing in his sight she stuck the two cloth pads on his wounds. Taking a strip of cloth, she wrapped it around his lower chest over the pads to hold them in place.

She sat back once the new bandage was secured and balled up the old one, setting it in the satchel as she took out a small flask. Holding it to his lips, she ordered him to "drink." He did so, feeling the honeyed potion run down his throat. It was drugged, but dulled the pain.

He coughed when he swallowed wrong, and Jodi paused for a moment until he caught his breath again before pouring the rest of it into his mouth.

"You can lie down again," Jodi told him, replacing the flask in her satchel and standing with the strap in one hand.

"Not very gentle," Hiccup muttered as he used the chain to lower himself to the ground and lay back down.

"You're an enemy," Jodi rolled her eyes, "what do you expect?"

"Don't healers have some sort of code to help anyone in need, no matter the circumstances?" Hiccup asked.

Jodi chuckled, "my you Berkians are naïve. If Kata hadn't told me to I wouldn't be wasting my herbs on an enemy like you. I'm certainly not wasting them on the other Berkians."

Hiccup's heart seemed to freeze. "Other Berkians?"

Jodi smiled and waved at the guard. He approached and unlocked the door.

"What other Berkians?" Hiccup demanded. "Do you mean the other riders, or my father, or…"

Hiccup's voice trailed off as his sight blurred, and he felt his muscles relax as the sedative mixed in with the painkiller took effect. Jodi didn't even give him a snippy parting comment as she left his cell and everything blacked out.

Hiccup's hands were bound in front of him with coarse rope and he looked around in horror at the sight of his village. The huts were burned or wrecked, and Berkian bodies, some in multiple pieces, were strewn about. Berserkers looted the huts that were still in relatively good shape and helped themselves to Berk's supplies. A few Berkian women were serving the men, filling mugs with mead. Many were bruised and limping, their expression downcast.

His father's body lay skewed to one side, forgotten. His throat was cut and someone had stripped him of his armor and helmet. The other riders lay scattered among the village, their prone forms not far from their dragons'. Astrid moved as Hiccup stood there and she raised her head, trails of blood running from her hairline to her chin. Her expression was mournful and defeated. Where were you? It seemed to ask. She stilled seconds later, head dropping to the ground of blood and mud, never to move again.

Hiccup was unable to react or process what he saw before him. Only his sight worked, leaving him unable to hear or smell the blood or feel. I wanted to be here, he wanted to shout. I wanted to help you, but I was shot. I couldn't.

Hiccup kept turning in place and saw Kata was standing next to a young red-haired man. Blood ran off a large carving knife in the man's hand, but he was standing in front of whatever he was doing. He couldn't see who it was, but he could guess. His ears didn't work, but he could see Kata chatting with him, leaning her forearms on the table he was working at. She smiled and giggled at something the man said, the bangs of her red hair neatly tied back with her blue ribbon.

Hiccup found himself rooted in place, watching, heartbeat loud in his ears. She said something and the man paused in slicing though whatever it was. He glanced over his shoulder, revealing it was indeed Dagur. There was blood coating his hands past his wrists and he smiled wickedly at Hiccup. Unable to look away, he stood locked in place as Dagur stepped aside and revealed what he had been working on.

It was Toothless's head. Dagur had been flaying the black skin from the skull.

"I need a new helmet," Dagur sneered, running his fingers dripping with blood through his loose red hair.

Hiccup jolted awake with a gasp, sitting up so quickly his vision blackened and he fell back to the floorboards, fighting for several long seconds for consciousness. He won the battle and stayed where he laid, breath rasping in his throat, heartbeat thundering in his ears. It seemed like hours before he was able to calm his heart. The links of the manacle's chain clicked as he looked around, reacquainting himself with the cell. He could hear the creaking of wood as the boat rose and fell in time with the waves. The guard walked along the hallway, boots thudding on the floor.

"Just a dream," Hiccup muttered to himself, "just a really bad dream."

Or was it? He had no idea what the current circumstances of Berk were. Jodi's snarky comment made it sound like there were other Berkian prisoners. Had Berk actually lost? He might have misinterpreted her. They could have other prisoners without winning, though he couldn't hear any other prisoners in this cellblock.

Hiccup turned the possibilities over in his mind as the guard, who did not have the key, gave him a half-filled bowl of light broth. He ate it to keep up his strength, dreading the drugs. To his surprise, his mind did not dull alongside the pain, leaving him free to think. Had they mistaken the dosage or purposely changed it to keep his mind clear? Did they want to interrogate him? About what? They wouldn't want to do that if Berk lost, right?

Hiccup silently ate and passed the empty bowl through the bars. After relieving himself in a bucket, not an easy task since he could barely walk without his prosthetic, he laid back down. He didn't get to rest very long before he heard a set of footsteps. His first guess was that it was Jodi, here to change his dressing again.

It was not.

"Wakey wakey," an all-too familiar voice called out in a singsong tone.

Terror gripped him and he held still, terrified that turning his head would make the voice real. Metal screeched on metal and Hiccup grimaced at the sound, finally turning his head towards the source. Kata Oswalddottir stood on the other side of the cell door and raked a knife across the bars, creating another screech. She paused before doing it a third time and smiled at Hiccup.

Kata was in remarkable shape for having been through a battle. The only real wound he could see was the right sleeve of her jacket; it looked like it had been torn and hemmed again, and was bulky from bandages beneath. Several mostly healed scratches and bruises decorated her face. Her hair had been washed and combed and the bangs were tied back with her blue ribbon. There was no sign of her dragon though her shield was slung over her back.

"Hello Hiccup," Kata greeted with a perk in her voice.

She appraised the knife she'd raked across the bars and clicked her tongue.

"I don't believe it," Kata angled the blade a few different ways, letting the lantern light run across it. "It scratched the blade. What are these bars made of?" She chuckled. "I suppose it's a good thing I used an eating knife and not one of my daggers."

She was in a good mood, Hiccup noted. Would she be in such a cheery mood if she had been defeated by Berk? Probably not.

"Berk's been defeated," Kata added without looking up from the blade.

Hiccup had been expecting that, but it was still like a slap as he sat up and leaned against the back wall. He didn't think she was lying. Perhaps it was the casual way she said it, or the smile that played around her lips as she glanced from the knife to him to see his reaction. The nightmare taunted him with its scenes.

"I didn't kill them all if that's what you're thinking," Kata assured him in a voice that might be sympathetic if any other person had said it. "Stoick's in custody, as are the rest of your tribe's survivors."

"Are you going to… to…" Hiccup struggled with the word, "execute them?"

"I was," Kata nodded thoughtfully, shoving the bared knife into her belt, "until I got a better idea."

Using her left hand, she reached into her jacket and took out a scroll. Hiccup watched warily as she unrolled it and held it up to the cell's bars.

"I recently had Merrik – my dragon rider in case you didn't know his name – take a message to Herrig," Kata leaned an arm against the bars lazily. "This is his response."

Herrig, Hiccup felt he knew the name but wasn't sure where he'd heard it.

Kata, noticing his confusion, shifted the paper and motioned to the wax seal at the bottom of the parchment. The seal was crimson, and the design pressed into it was that of a thin, wingless dragon breathing a tiny flame from its mouth, curled into the shape of an "S". He knew that symbol.

"Lava Louts," he whispered, barely managing to force the name past his lips. Herrig was the chief of the Lava Louts.

"Yes," Kata smiled, "the Lava Louts. I know you can't read this from where you are so let me summarize."

"I agree to do business with you," Kata summed simply. "I will immediately dispatch a slave ship and escort to your location to pick up your goods. Price will be arranged upon acquisition of materials and payment given on site."

"Slave ship?" Hiccup echoed, barely able to breathe.

"Of course," Kata smiled, rolling up the scroll and tucking it back into her jacket. "It really is a good idea. I get my revenge by selling your tribe and my Berserkers get gold as payment from the Lava Louts – a no-lose situation."

"You're doing this for gold?" Hiccup couldn't help but blurt out, baffled.

Kata didn't seem the least bit annoyed by the interruption and smiled, "not at all. The gold is just a pleasant side effect."

She slammed a hand against the bars, making them shake, and Hiccup flinched at the intense, hot undercurrent of anger in her blue eyes. When she spoke her voice was smooth as silver, her smile never faltering.

"I'm doing this because you deserve it," Kata assured as she leaned forward so her forehead nearly touched the bars. "You Berkians have killed my people, destroyed our ships, and humiliated us when you defeated us. You've turned us into the laughing stock of the Archipelago, and we're seen as so weak that the pirates recently tried to eliminate us. The pirates!"

The smile didn't fade, though Hiccup wished it did. A smile didn't belong with the hostility of her voice.

"This is payback," Kata cooed. "I thought it would be fun to execute all of you and burn Berk, but this is better. Now you will slowly suffer as you're worked to death in the mines. Your friends and neighbors will wilt and die before your eyes and you will be helpless to do anything. Or maybe you'll fight to your doom in their coliseum: human vs human, dragon vs dragon, and my favorite, dragon vs human. You might even be resold to a third party. There are so many fun possibilities. A fox-hearted tribe like yours deserves it."

"We're fox-hearted?" Hiccup defended. "I know we defeated Dagur, but it was war!"

"Of course it was," Kata's expression was one of agreement as she gave a short nod. "That's how wars work. There's always a loser. The problem is you Berkians let Alvin keep Dagur, knowing he would mistreat my brother. But did you comment on it? Oh no, you simply let Alvin take him away. You washed your hands of the whole affair, rationalizing that anything that happened was Alvin's fault and not yours. And you call me cold-blooded. It's no wonder humans like you scare the gods."

Hiccup felt irritation and a small prick of guilt. Kata wasn't wrong about Dagur and Alvin.

"So now you'll know what it felt like," Kata promised, eyes glinting with malice despite her smile. "After Dagur was taken to Outcast I looked over the sea every day, but there was nothing. No sign of my family. At least not until I got the message he had died. Now it'll be your turn to know your friends and family are dying. Their bodies stripped of clothing and tossed out in the sun until there's nothing more than bleached bones – a fate befitting a slave."

Hiccup's breathe choked as he tried to respond, seeing only the icy current swirling in her eyes as she dug her fingernails into the metal bars, lips slightly pulled away from her teeth as if she were a cat showing her teeth. Her smile was on the verge of a snarl.

"I never knew you had so much rage in you," Hiccup whispered.

"What can I say?" Kata asked as she straightened, clasping her hands behind her back and flashing him a smile that was more akin to a cougar baring its teeth. "I'm the world's best actor."

Hiccup had no idea how to respond to that. He swallowed.

"What does Dagur think of all this?" He said as he tried to find something to say that would stand up to Kata's glee.

Kata blinked for a second and then snickered, not bothering to suppress the mirthful laugh that bubbled through her lips.

"Oh Hiccup," she groused when she regained control of herself, "you are hopeless. Is that the best you can think of? Turn my brother and I against each other? It's no wonder I always beat you in Maces and Talons. As you likely guessed from my good mood, Dagur has regained consciousness. I've told him what he missed and he thinks I've done a wonderful job. Since he won't recover in time, he's told me to barter with the Lava Louts on his behalf."

Barter, as if she were chatting about wool or cabbages.

"And what about me?" Hiccup challenged, "I doubt you'll sell me given the trouble you went through to catch me. You already have a rider so I can't imagine you want me to train dragons."

"Right on both counts," Kata nodded. "You have a very special fate. You're my present for Dagur."

"I'm what?" Hiccup retorted loudly in shock, recoiling inwardly.

"A gift," Kata repeated with knife-like smile. "I'll let him decide your fate. Knowing my brother, I'm certain whatever he picks will be quite suitable."

It probably would be, Hiccup thought. He was the reason Dagur had been defeated time and time again.

"I just hope he doesn't start calling you brother again," Kata frowned briefly, smoothing a lock of her bangs between two fingers. "I love Dagur to pieces but he can be a bit strange at times."

Hiccup opened his mouth to ask about Toothless when he heard the sounds of horns being blown. Habit silenced him as he listened to the horns blow twice.

"The lookout," Kata said in surprise, "twice for the Lava Louts." She frowned. "I almost don't believe it. There's no way the Lava Louts' ships are visible from land already. That giant slave ship of theirs can't move fast."

She shrugged. "I suppose I'll have to check it out anyway. Chat with you later Hiccup."

She waved at him as she walked – sauntered – away. Hiccup hesitated briefly in surprise. All trace of her earlier rage was gone.

"What about Toothless?" Hiccup called out as she walked down the hall.

She didn't answer and her footsteps began to fade.

"Kata!" He shouted after her. "What about Toothless? Kata!"

Not much to say for this chapter but I hope Alvin is up to helping them and that Astrid is ready. Hiccup isn't in a position yet to do anything though, knowing him, he'll probably find a way out on his own... Did Kata surprise anyone?