CHAPTER 19: Night's edge
Hiccup and co were on New Berk, following yesterday where they had driven the Mentranians off of dragon island, to ruin their defence program, subsequently taking the dragon eggs back to New Berk for their own safety. Now, though, Hiccup wanted to get to the core of Mentra. Astrid was still imprisoned there, he wanted to save her today, no questions asked.
Hiccup, Blavery, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, Eret, Gobber, Valka and the two kids, were all situated within the big hall once again, the great old colourful hall where Hiccup had first revealed to the Berkians of the existence of a regime on Old Berk.
"Now that we've completely snatched their program off their hands, the threat they would've became has been neutralised." Blavery nodded, as everyone was sat on a long table in the hall, with Blavery sat next to Hiccup in the middle, with Zephyr and Nuffink standing on either side of their dad.
"But they've still got Astrid, Blavery." Hiccup said, sounding anxious.
"They won't uh...'K word' her, Hiccup." Blavery said, not wanting to use the 'kill' word in front of Hiccup's two children, "they'll probably know at this point that she's your wife, with Gustav Larson informing them of that. Chances are, Guddorn and his lot have already told Hawkon's upper team your name, and Gustav knows Astrid's your wife, I'm assuming. So they'll be using her as a bargaining chip, if anything." Blavery guessed.
If only he knew.
"So...how do we approach this from a perspective of destroying them entirely, to the point of getting to my wife?" Hiccup asked.
"How about I rip out their ribs and show it to them?" Eret asked.
"Crikey Eret, you reckon you could do that?" Gobber asked, surprised by the tone Eret was going for.
"I've seen them, Gobber. They're little dwarfs compared to the likes of Drago and Grimmel. I'd be able to hand them a knuckle sandwich fairly quickly." Eret nodded.
"Hold on a moment, guys, this is important stuff. I need to hear Blavery." Hiccup gestured, towards Eret and everyone else.
Valka got up off her chair to stand directly behind Hiccup as he was sat down. She wanted to keep him company in light of this debacle. Hiccup had told her of what he and the rest did yesterday, when they drove the Mentranians off of dragon island to ruin their defence program. She didn't like Hiccup doing this because of how risky it was, but he was able to survive for 20 years without her, so that was the only thing keeping her at bay about it, albeit very very slightly.
"If we really want to do this, we have to cause instability inside it. The only way I can think of us doing that is killing the four guys who're the most influential and powerful. If they get killed, with Hawkon being the last target, the defenders will start defying Hawkon in his weakness of leadership, for letting his closest allies be killed, where they'll consider him unfit and incapable, and then at that moment, we strike at them. Hawkon has to appease his hard line defenders, you might not have known that. If they get angry and start defying him, his power becomes at risk, so that'll be our best bet."
"So who're the other three, apart from Hawkon?" Hiccup asked.
"Fludgeon the Feared, the leader of the Berserker tribe, Guddorn the Glorious as his full title is, the now-former leader of their defence program, since Hawkon will most likely keep him on board because of the work he did in that program, and the second most powerful in that regime below Hawkon, Gustav Larson."
Despite Gustav totally overturning and becoming the second in command of a fanatical regime, Hiccup was having hesitations about...actually killing him.
"Gustav? I.." Hiccup was shrugging his shoulders.
"What?" Blavery said.
"Rather than killing him...why don't we just capture him, and for the other three, kill them?"
"Hiccup, he's the second most powerful in a regime that starves its own vikings, runs isolation camps, which're pretty much death camps, and he's endorsed every action Hawkon's taken, like he endorsed the previous Mentranian leader. He's behind your wife being captured, why wouldn't we kill him?"
"It's...hard, he used to be with us. It was because of 10 years ago, with him being unhappy with me sending the dragons away when, in his mindset, they didn't need to leave at all, that he's became this different person...I know he's responsible for Astrid being there, but..."
"I can understand where Hiccup's coming from, Blave..." Snotlout said, leaning his head over the table, "Gustav and I were basically like twins at one point. He had his own Monstrous Nightmare like I did, it was called Fanghook, like mine was called Hookfang. Was a little jerk at times but I still liked him. I'd feel hesitant as well."
"Well...I guess we can work something out about him. So as things stand, if we want to bring Mentra down, we have to dispose of the three influential figures, and capture one of them in Gustav. That'll be our plan. And also, I think I've got a lead for you on where they may be holding Astrid as we speak."
Hiccup raised his head up, as did Valka and Gobber, literally everyone, at Blavery revealing that he may have a lead for Hiccup to follow to save Astrid.
"What is it?" Hiccup asked.
"You ever heard of an island called outpost?"
"Yeah?"
"There's a ton of buildings on the shores of it, wasn't it called like...edge or whatever?" Blavery asked.
"Dragon's Edge, we used to use that as a home for our dragons. Why?"
"In the past, the Mentranians, when I was serving them, would often take prisoners of the camps to the edge. They've been using that edge as a secondary imprisonment base. The reason they like to use it is because of the week-long journey it takes by a ship to get there, from Mentra. In that week trip on the ship, they often leave the prisoners with little to no food, and when they're on the edge, the prisoners are allocated to even more newly built camps on that edge. They have a few on Mentra, but there's a secret collection of them on the edge. Astrid may be there, so I think our best bet for now is to go there, explore it, and see if Astrid's there."
"But Astrid's been captured by them for what, two days now? and it takes a week to get there, as you said. I doubt it'd be likely." Hiccup said.
"Yeah, but this is Mentra, the secretive regime, what if they have their own dragons that they use to fly back and forth between the edge and Mentra itself? it's worth a shot, and one I'm willing to go with if it means saving your wife. They do keep some secrets from their own defenders, after all." Blavery said.
"I'd be down to take a trip there, Hiccup." Eret said.
"Well, I doubt she'll be there because it's only been two days, but...another thing as well though, is that spending a whole week travelling to the edge, personally, is far too much time to waste. What if they...you know what, to Astrid, during that span of a week?"
"They're most likely using her as a bargaining chip, because of us destroying their defence program. It'll be fine, Hiccup. That's coming from somebody who's been internally within the regime. Take my word." Blavery said.
"God, I wish Toothless was here..." Hiccup conceded.
"So do I, son." Valka said, patting Hiccup on his shoulder.
As Hiccup took the time to think, whilst wishing Toothless and the dragons were here to help, Eret was keen to get some more detail.
"Blavery, how many of them will be on the edge?"
"Less Mentranians, more Berserkers, because the leadership's allocated the guys they're in a pact with to running the camps. There'll be some Mentranians there, but a lot more Berserkers."
"I've headbutted one before, I'll deliver more to that lot then if need be."
"We'll do it..." Hiccup whispered.
"Son, are you sure?" Valka asked, as Zephyr and Nuffink looked at their father with worry.
"It's okay, kids, we'll be bringing mum back very soon." he said to them both, "and mum, if it gives us even a remote chance of saving Astrid, it'll be worth it..."
At that, the mission was on; go to outpost island, go to Dragon's Edge that has since been taken over by the Berserkers and Mentranians, and save Astrid.
If only they knew, though, what happened to Astrid a short while ago on Mentra, when the whole regime organised an island-wide public execution event with stunts of anti-Hooligan messages. If only Hiccup and Valka and the kids in particular knew. When they find out, who knows what'll become of their ability to continue.
It has been eight days later, and it was pitch black in the skies. Despite Mentra declaring war, the regime had been fairly quiet over the past week. But it's not a quiet situation for the Hooligans at this moment, who've finally made it to Outpost Island from another angle to avoid the once-Dragon's Edge village, now overtaken by the Mentranians and Berserkers, used as a secretive prisoner bay by the regime.
In the moderate, relaxed, calm forests of Outpost Island, standing in a circle with one another, Hiccup, Eret, Snotlout, the twins, and the other Hooligans were contemplating a couple of minor details. Shiny, calmly flowing ponds were swaying with soothing water in the forest night near them.
"We're in total Berserker territory now, keep your eyes out folks." Blavery said, with Hiccup stood next to him.
"Why don't I just headbutt them again?" Eret said, as everyone began following Blavery's lead.
"Well we aren't, we'll have to take them out by their own method, if we're to save Astrid..." Blavery said.
"Right behind you on that, Blave." Hiccup nodded, as he, alongside the other Hooligans, held their own crossbows.
They all, as a group glued together, walked up the steep forests as the crickets echoed thickly amongst the trees. They were walking directly past that soothing pond, as all seemed quiet and relaxed, but straight away, the group caught a glimpse of light, with what appeared to be a hut of some sorts. It wasn't the actual edge, however, just yet.
"Stop..." Blavery gestured, with Hiccup and co stopping directly behind him, subsequently ducking down as a lit up hut, with two large Berserkers in front of it, came within their view.
Luckily, the pitch blackness of the midnight meant the Berserkers couldn't see the Hooligans. One Berserker was stood far out the front, and the other was nearer to the hut.
"Go for the head." Blavery said.
Straight away, Hiccup and Blavery fired their stealthy crossbows up towards the first Berserker, from the bushes they were ducked into, subsequently impaling the Berserker with the arrow, causing the large hostile to collapse. They couldn't afford being caught by the Mentranians and Berserkers whilst Astrid's practically being held hostile, so they had no choice but to do it this way with finishing whatever hostile they came across off.
And at the end of the day, these guys were fanatics, and murderous ones, so Hiccup didn't really have an issue with finishing off the vikings that were personnel of the regime.
They fired their arrows once again, this time at the second Berserker, and surprisingly, they accurately caught him in the head. The hostile went down to the floor as the Hooligans successfully flung their crossbow arrows into his head with the help of precision.
"Both down. Let's move, could be some more inside..." Blavery said, toning down to a whisper.
There were about 30+ Hooligans, that figure including Hiccup, Snotlout, Eret, Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and Fishlegs. Gobber wasn't here, and of course, Valka was back at New Berk with Gobber, looking after Zephyr and Nuffink. Even though they had the bigger numbers at the moment, it was still risky to be caught.
The Hooligans had found themselves walking in what felt like a pond that was engulfing the grass; sort of like a muddy texture, as they got up to the hut. As they got up to the medium-sized hut, steps and voices could be heard inside it. Blavery and Hiccup both stopped by the door.
"Get ready to raid, take them all out." Hiccup gestured, his hand on the doorknob.
They bashed the door open and instantly wrestled with the Berserkers; before they could yell, the Hooligans, totally engulfing the room with their numbers as the Berserkers tried to reach for their knives on the table, were knocked out cold before being impaled once again. Hiccup and co backed off straight away, as soon as the hopeless bodies of the Berserkers were on the wooden ground.
"Nice one guys. I think there'll be a couple more of these buildings just a couple of minutes ahead, and then we should be reaching the main edge village."
Inside the hut was a little note, left on the table. It was a type of message for the Berserkers, on behalf of the Mentranians. Hiccup & co didn't even notice it when they left the hut.
Every foreign tribe, including the Hooligans, wants to carry on the work of Drago and Grimmel. Do not trust them, kill upon first sight if you come across any, for the protection of the Mentranian vikings.
That was what it read, in viking symbols, but again, Hiccup and co simply left it on the table.
Moving upwards through the hilly forest in the midnight blackness, a couple more huts were approaching their eye vision. These ones had Berserkers sitting on chairs outside of them, but this time, a couple of Mentranians amongst them. The Hooligans all ducked down and sneaked within the bushes and forests that surrounded the guard huts.
They were nearing the edge. But these two guard huts, filled with hostile vikings, were a much bigger obstacle to get past than the first guard hut. Hiccup looked to Blavery, as Eret was shaking with the desire to just run at them all and knock them out.
"Some of us will have to sneak to the opposite direction, and get their attention." Blavery said.
"Me and Eret and some of the guys will go." Hiccup insisted, as he whispered in order to prevent the hostile vikings sitting outside the guard huts hearing them in the bushes.
A couple of minutes later, thankfully due to the midnight blackness, Hiccup and Eret, with a couple of other Hooligans, were able to sneak around the area in front of the two guard huts with Mentranians and Berserkers, to get to the other side. The plan was to distract them so Blavery's side, who had much more Hooligans with him, could fire at the hostiles.
"FANCY A KNOCKOUT?!" Eret yelled, to which the Berserkers and Mentranians both stood up, rapidly getting their weapons out in light of noticing the 'foreigner'.
"HOOLIGANS! ATTACK-" they yelled, before being absolutely pummelled by the arrows from the Hooligans from the other side.
Some of them missed, and there was a brief rumbling in the air from the sheer exchanges of arrows between the Mentranians and Berserkers, but in the end, Blavery's plan had worked. That was another set of guard huts down and eliminated, and it didn't look like anybody was inside the huts.
"Alright guys, let's move." Blavery whispered, gesturing for the Hooligans on his side to catch up with Hiccup.
"All of this sneaky stuff is intimidating, man..." Fishlegs said, as he glared at the fallen bodies of the Berserkers and Mentranians in front of the two guard huts.
The Hooligans had all joined up once again, this time continuing their walk upwards in the steep forest, no longer in a wet grass environment where it felt like mud. The pond from earlier on didn't extend all the way here, so it was a totally dry area. Their footsteps within the grass, however, made them a dead giveaway, and they needed to be careful about that as a result.
As they moved upwards, they finally came to a flat land in the forest as the climb came to a halt. Movement within the forests and trees surrounding this flat piece of area had prompted the Hooligans, including Hiccup and co, to aim their weapons up. Hiccup specifically felt his heart ache at hearing footsteps emerge within the trees ahead.
"DON'T SHOOT US..." a manly voice echoed.
That was a voice Hiccup recognised, strangely enough.
"WHO ARE YOU?!" Blavery said, trying not to yell, as the midnight darkness meant he was basically talking into a void, he could barely see the trees ahead.
"LET ME AND MY MEN COME OUT...WE CAN TELL YOU AREN'T ONE OF THEM..." the voice yelled.
"KEEP IT DOWN THEN, THEY MIGHT HEAR US!" Blavery replied.
The source of the voice stepped out, arms slightly raised up; a full on beard, a helmet with many spikes, and just a general resemblance to Stoick with that beard, had prompted Hiccup to gasp. It was Alvin the Treacherous, with the Outcasts slowly regrouping behind him. Both the Hooligans and Outcasts instantly turned their voices down.
"H-Hiccup?" Alvin gasped.
"A-Alvin? what're you doing here?!"
"You've grown up...so much?! it's been so long...and what're you doing here?!"
The both of them were genuinely shocked to see each other. And for Hiccup, Alvin seemed to have changed into a whole different viking; he just didn't have that dark, cruel, ruthless nastiness to him anymore, and despite the numerous causalities Alvin's caused in the past, and the hostility Hiccup and Alvin once had, the wide, Outcast Chieftan seemed like somebody who never would've had such a past. Something's happened to him over this decade, it seemed.
"We'll talk more about it at a better time...but...what're you doing here?"
"It's those Mentranians. Our island is only an hour away from Mentra, well, you know what I mean, right? once Berk, now Mentra, which is still weird to grasp..." Alvin conceded, "they've been launching attacks against us over recent times. We didn't even know of their existence until a few months ago, so we're off to put an end to them. But their grasp on Mentra is far too strong to attack directly, so we've come here to destroy them from the outside. You?"
"It's the same here. They've captured Astrid, though. We put a stop to their so-called defence deterrent of dragons that they were looking to build, and now we need to rescue Astrid before they do something bad to her."
"You guys...know each other?" Blavery asked.
"Yeah, it'll be fair to say that we haven't exactly had the bestest of pasts...but it seems like we have common ground, old boy..."
"Uh, we do?" Blavery said.
"You know what, I think we do indeed." Hiccup said.
"They even killed Dagur and replaced him with an insane maniac, even more so than Dagur...Fludgeon the Feared, they call him. Those Mentranians...and Fludgeon's Berserkers...their brutality, Hiccup boy, they've changed me...I've never seen anything like it, they're running some sort of cruel, closed off life style for everyone back on what was once Berk...what would your father think?" Alvin said.
"He'd be distressed at the fact my wife is being held hostage."
The outcasts behind Alvin, all sharpening their bright, giant, steel battleaxes, all were eagerly awaiting for the next direction to go in.
"Tell you what son, we'll catch up at a better time...let's work together, save your wife, and we'll go from there..." Alvin proposed, putting his hand out to a much older, bearded Hiccup, something Alvin was struggling to comprehend after not seeing him for so long.
Hiccup gladly shook Alvin's hand.
"It's...I dare to say, great to see you again...I do hope we can help each other in bringing down this fanatical system on Berk..."
"That's the spirit, son..." Alvin said, looking to his men shortly afterwards to brief them on the new plan.
"Alright, so we're working with these guys? that's fine by me, as long as we can cooperate all the way." Blavery insisted.
"Trust me, Blave, with your help and Alvin's help, that regime will be down like a waterfall. Astrid will be saved, and we can pay them the favour back afterwards." Hiccup nodded, feeling much more optimistic, in light of reuniting with Alvin the Treacherous.
"Alright Hiccup son, the Mentranians, from what we know, see all of the outside tribes as workers of Grimmel and Drago, and that we know for sure when they've attacked our island. But it's odd how they've signed some sort of treaty with the Berserkers, possibly because the new Chieftan of them is a bigger maniac than Dagur."
"Alright, we better get a move on to the edge, quick, everyone, and uh...you guys too, follow me..." Blavery instructed.