CHAPTER 15: Island of bodies
Monstrous Nightmares, Gronckles, Deadly Nadders, all of varying colours, wingless, either on their sides or their front, on the stone cold grounds of Dragon Island, scattered like sprinkles, were all that could be seen within the foggy, historical island. The arrows that impaled them with the venom initially were still hooked onto their bodies. At this point, you may as well just rename the island 'Dead Dragon Island'.
Casually turning the island into a surface graveyard of wild dragons with proudness, the Mentranians had a whole range of wooden tables near the shore that they sailed to, with those tables having various coloured dragon eggs on them. The plan was for the Mentranians to keep the eggs here with themselves during the duration of phase one, and then when it's completed, they'll take the eggs back to Mentra to commence phase two. They had a firm plan in place for working towards the dragon deterrent.
Guddorn was roaming the island, walking past the dead, impaled, and poisoned dragons in light of his crew forcing all of the reptiles to breed together before killing them, subsequently taking the eggs. He was expecting phase one to be completed by the end of the week, but progress has exceeded major expectations in terms of speed.
As the leader of the program, he had all the confidence in the world of its prospects, in light of the progress. He was initially going to be the leader of phase one, not two, but the overseers party on Mentra has since given him the true top role of overseeing all of it, after hearing back on the progress being made under his watch.
Guddorn was walking past the dead reptiles, ticking the number of dragons that have been forcefully bred, and killed, on a wooden notepad with paper, to record the numbers they've dealt with. And he's also wrote down the species of them. He was coming up to a couple of Mentranians fully patrolling the vicinity as well, as they looked to report on how the phase was going thus far.
"Guddorn, sir." the Mentranian on the left saluted, lowering his crossbow.
"Good work so far, gentlemen." Guddorn nodded, appreciating the gesture.
"Indeed. We've managed to breed about 20 or so eggs out of them at this point." the Mentranian subsequently said.
"And you did dispose of them right afterwards?" Guddorn asked, looking up as he took notes on the wooden pad.
"Yeah. We've made sure of that entirely. Not a single one around here on the ground is alive."
Guddorn nodded with a brief smirk.
"And also," the other Mentranian said, "given that we've gotten the amount of eggs we have, we can safely say that we won't need much more time to complete this phase. We can probably conclude it tomorrow and take the eggs back to the paradise then."
"Good." Guddorn proudly said, "who knows, when we get to phase two, these guys won't just become our deterrent...they can help us all personally, fetch us stuff, and just be our reptilian servants..." he chuckled, prompting a collective chuckle from the two men in front of him.
Three boats worth of Berkians, the front one containing Hiccup and the gang, with Blavery, who now has his own scaly gear equipped, were sailing their ways across the vast waters leading towards Mentra. But they weren't actually heading to Mentra. They were going to Dragon Island to put an end to the Mentranian development of a dragon deterrent.
Blavery sat at the front of the boat whilst Hiccup, Fishlegs, Eret, etc, all remained in the middle amongst each other. Blavery was just trying to come up with the best way possible of approaching the island without catching the attention of the Mentranians straight away.
And it was that question of 'how should we do this?' that prompted Hiccup to walk up to Blavery, as the defected Mentranian adjusted his gear and ensured it was all stable and arrow-proof. Fishlegs looked petrified, even in his wing suit, the rest looked solemn as the waters wobbled the boats slightly.
"Blavery?" Hiccup asked, looking like a resurrection of his past self from wearing his Toothless wing suit in its entirety, "how should we go about approaching these guys?"
Blavery turned to Hiccup.
"We can't afford to just sail directly towards the area of the island they're on, wherever it may be, Hiccup. We need to come in from the side and approach them on-land from a distance. Wait, did we take any weaponry of our own?" Blavery asked, his chest suddenly aching.
"You think we were gonna come to this without weaponry? I've brought along the battleaxe Astrid used to fight with, the guys have their own stuff."
"Yeah, I guess that was pretty stupid of me to assume. There's a ton of stuff going through my head at the moment, and to be honest, I'm still feeling the horror of getting out free from Mentra. It's...not nice. It's somewhat hurt my ability to think straight."
"You're safe with us, and will continue to be so once we've sorted these guys out." Hiccup pledged, patting Blavery on the shoulder.
"I just hope we don't do something we'll regret later on. They aren't as weak as you're assuming, Hiccup."
"We'll soon find out, one way or another. I want Astrid back, so we'll go through whatever it takes."
Blavery wasn't so sure that it'd be that easy. But he was still determined to bring down the Mentranian viking regime externally, with Hiccup's help.
After another hour, and subsequently sailing through a maze of fog, Hiccup, Eret, Blavery, everyone, the three boats, had all arrived to Dragon Island. Blavery was in a semi-stood up position at the front, readying himself for the danger that lies ahead as soon as he and the Hooligans sail out of this fog.
Suddenly, the entirety of the fog dissipated, and as the three Hooligan boats sailed into the clear, a land of rocky nature could be seen, with a bunch of folks walking on it and patrolling, looking menacing with a bunch of wooden tables set out near the shores, with colourful eggs.
Hiccup hadn't been back here for years, so to see it empty, and looking collapsed, (no surprise with that one due to the carnage the Red Death gave to the whole landscape of this previously-valuable island, before her death), was another flashbacker for him. But with it seemingly occupied by the folks with the wooden tables, patrolling about, it had the same feeling as Hiccup was given when he first saw Old Berk when trying to find Astrid some time ago; it just felt different.
"DUCK! GET DOWN GUYS!" Blavery quietly yelled, dropping chest first onto the hard wooden surface of the boat.
Hiccup & co did the same; before Hiccup dropped down to his chest, he gestured with one single palm for the other two boats behind, for everyone on board them, to duck down as well.
"Ouch...I can't...breath..." Fishlegs coughed, after hitting the wood harshly.
"QUIET, THEY'RE LITERALLY OVER THERE..." Blavery demanded, hiding directly in front of the wooden sides of the boat from the view of the Mentranians.
As all the Hooligans remained flat on their chests on all three boats, Hiccup was wondering why they were doing this; the Mentranians could quite clearly see that there were three boats heading their way to the island at this point, surely?
"Why are we doing this?" Hiccup whispered, gesturing for everyone to remain as quiet as possible in light of Blavery's reaction.
"They'll think that these boats are empty, like ghost boats...'ghost boats' being a term for boats that have been stranded on the waters with nobody on board for months, maybe years..but we're literally swaying on the waters towards them at the shore the moment, and that's far too dangerous...we need to head in a different direction. By us hiding on the floor like this, they'll most likely see the boats and think nothing of them because they'll look empty from their view..." Blavery whispered, sweating by the second.
Eret slowly raised his head up to glare at the grey, pebble-covered surface that was ahead of the shores; a ton of wooden tables were set up on the island, with colourful looking objects on them. A couple of figures came by the tables, and because the boats were so close to the shores, everyone was able to overhear the conversations being given by the Mentranians.
"GET DOWN!" Blavery whisper yelled, looking at Eret.
"They can't even see me, the bloody idiots...what have they got on those tables, and who sets tables outside on a gloomy, ancient, rocky island like this?" Eret asked himself.
"They're most likely the eggs they've been breeding from the dragons remaining on this place...they've probably killed them all already, we have to move-" Blavery shut himself up as he could hear a voice being echoed towards the boat from the island.
"Hey Larick, catch those three boats just over there?" a Mentranian asked, pointing at three medium sized boats with healthy looking sails, swaying on the waves of the seas very gently literally just a tiny bit outside the fog.
Larick looked at the boats as he stood near the wooden table, whilst his fellow Mentranians patrolled the other portions of the island.
"How did we not see em?" Larick asked.
"It's not even been that long. Think we should go and check em out?"
"Nah, not worth it. If anything, they appear to be empty boats with nothing on them. We'll get them once we've finished up with phase one."
"Alright then. It's just...weird..." the Mentranian said, glaring back at the boats as they gave off a spooky aura...how the heck were they able to, being supposedly empty boats, also known as 'ghost boats', sway on the seas to this direct area when he and his fellow Mentranians were on this island?
"Forget about them, we'll get them and use them as a way back once we've finished up here."
"Got it."
At that, both Larick and the Mentranian defender walked off back towards the area where all of the dead bodies of the wild dragons were, a bit further on the island from the shores.
"Oh my god...can you feel my heart? that was far too close." Blavery said, holding his palm to his chest.
"Hey sis, those guys looked taller than you...why not skip out and swim to them?" Tuffnut laughed, as he was laying on his ribs on the wooden surface of the boat.
"And yet they could throw you about like a feather, whereas I'm tough-" Ruffnut said, before being cut off.
"Will you two ever just shut the heck up?" Eret asked.
"I wanna go home..." Fishlegs stuttered.
"Guys, just calm down...I've never seen them before, but Blavery, they're clearly apart of that regime on the old island, right?"
"Affirmative. We need to sail away from this area before they see us..adjust the sails and get the heck away from here, we need to find a better way of getting onto the main land without being seen right away...there's huge numbers of them here, you just can't see beyond the shores at the moment..."
That was the first time Hiccup had heard the voice of what was known as 'Mentranians'. They were quite obviously vikings, but different kinds of vikings. They were very unpredictable in that regard. It was now up to him and Blavery to subtly and quietly adjust the sails so they could get to a better point on the island to step foot on its land.
After a good half hour of sailing around to get to the other end of the island due to everyone remaining on their chests, the three boats with Hiccup and the gang, including a decent chunk of Berkians, finally made a collision with their boats to the rocky, pebble-like land. They were all gradually kneeling and standing up as they got away from the area where the two Mentranians were standing half an hour ago.
"We're here, everyone. Let's get off quickly!" Hiccup yelled, as the two other boats behind similarly made a stop at the direct shores of the island, on either side of Hiccup's boat.
"QUIET, HICCUP, QUIET, we don't want to bring any attention upon us..." Blavery said, leaping off of the boat onto the pebble land of the island.
"Trust me buddy, we're going to be bringing our attention to them in a second." Eret declared, climbing off of the boat with dignity.
"Alright, everyone, let's just gather around and make most of the time we have before they come down here. We need a way of safely retrieving those eggs and drawing those guys off of here." Hiccup declared, as Fishlegs, Ruffnut, Tuffnut, and Snotlout all rallied besides Hiccup straight away.
Fishlegs was petrified. Snotlout didn't really have much of a feeling about it. The twins were still too focused in their internal battle of overcoming one another to realise what they were about to walk into. Eret, on the other hand, was treating this in the same manner he treated Grimmel and Drago, and as a large, puffed out viking, that meant he was going to be the perfect asset for the Berkians.
All of the Berkians, in their old-school fighting gear, briefly stood together in a choreographed-looking formation, with the shores and the boats directly behind them. Blavery, Hiccup and co were all standing in front of them.
They were on the same island as the Mentranians working on the defence program, time wasn't going to last any longer for the Berkians as a result, so they needed to be quick.
"Alright, we're all here. All of our wing suits ought to protect us from any form of arrows that they may or may not fire at us. Blavery, what do you suggest we do to make this a successful sort of...mission? I really want to find Astrid with this, as well..." Hiccup said, turning to Blavery, removing his face cover of his Toothless wing suit.
"First and foremost...given that they're in a pact with the Mentranians, there may or may not be a few Berserkers with them here as well..." Blavery said.
"Why are they here, if so? a new Chieftan of theirs doesn't automatically mean they're our enemy? we had a peace treaty?" Hiccup said.
"Remember what I said back at your island? Fludgeon executed Dagur in light of the Berserkers being unhappy at ever making peace with you guys. They're very much our enemy in this instance. But there aren't going to be a lot of them, thankfully, I'd say around two."
"I couldn't give two wings about them. If they're our enemy, they're our enemy...I'll slash em in the face and make em experience what it's like to have a full on rock pelted into your face." Eret said, more than willing to do physical combat with the Berserkers if they're truly here with the Mentranians.
"I'm honestly not sure about this...I'm really not..." Hiccup said, rubbing the back of his neck in hearing that there may be Berserkers here, who've turned back into the enemy again if it's true.
"Again...it's...well actually...think of it this way..the Mentranians are all required to keep the spirit and the cult of personality alive, that's the basis of Hawkon's power. If they ever hear anybody or a large amount of people chanting down the regime and calling it out for what it is, a heartless system that imprisons its own vikings and starves them, it'll really make their hearts ache, because they're then vulnerable to personally being punished by the regime for letting such statements get out without stopping them...so...we could perhaps march towards their area, and then when we're in their field of vision, we could chant out anti-Mentra stuff...the vulnerability they'd be put in would possibly prevent them from doing much?" Blavery said.
Hiccup sighed with a heavy chest.
"Alright, let's go and get em." he declared.
"Down with Mentra, return to Berk? that sounds effective to me?" Blavery said.
All the Berkians nodded and started walking in a huge group in their major numbers.
"Alright, we'll do it. Come on guys, let's put a stop to this, and let's go and save Astrid..." Hiccup declared.
They've yet to see the dead dragons on this island, on behalf of the Mentranians, but when they do, they'll already be in a closing distance to the Mentranians. Hiccup and the lot were gambling massively here, but he was willing to go through with it if it meant bringing down Mentra, and saving Astrid.