CHAPTER 24: Reorganising
Hiccup and everyone were under a day away from returning to New Berk, due to it taking a whole week to travel from the edge to Mentra, with it taking a week back and from New Berk to the edge as well.
Their boats had sailed the calm seas in an orderly fashion. The winds weren't as strong. But in the back of Hiccup's mind was a self-loathing, and a cloud of failure, for the fact that he still hasn't managed to find Astrid and save her from the fanatics that're still hopefully keeping her alive.
On the way back to New Berk, Hiccup's had the chance to catch up with Alvin the Treacherous. His Outcast vikings were scattered upon the other boats of the Hooligans as they intended to come back to New Berk with Hiccup to support him in the war.
He and Alvin, with Blavery, were all on the same boat. Hiccup was barely able to maintain a calm mood as the three of them sat on the chairs of the boat, drinking cups of water as they engaged in discussions. His inability to stay calm was down to the fact that Astrid was still out there, in severe trouble.
Luckily for them, the seas being so calm and relaxed meant they didn't need to focus on the sails as much, and the same was true for the other boats.
"So, when did they start attacking your island?" Blavery asked Alvin, as he sipped on the wooden cup of water, with Hiccup sat opposite Alvin.
"Oh, this was fairly recently. Until they started it young lad, we had no idea such a system of life existed. It surprised me when it became clear that Berk had been totally transformed into a different kind of island, led by different people. It's often astonishing. I'd say some weeks ago is when they first started it."
"I've completely forgotten to tell you, Alvin. I used to be a defender in Mentra. So I've got inside knowledge and awareness of their plans."
"You used to be apart of that?" Alvin said, raising his eyebrows.
"If I could take it back, I would. From first hand experience, you feel watched, threatened, and you feel isolated from the real world. As a defender, you have to risk your life for the leader, no questions asked. They were going to kill me before I defected." Blavery said.
"Kill you?"
"Yeah. That overseers party, pretty much the governing body of the island that Hawkon implemented fairly recently, thought I was incompetent. I still dream and have nightmares about being there, and it's something I never want to return to." Blavery shivered, raising his wooden cup up to his face to take a drink.
"So Hiccup, how have you been over these years?" Alvin asked, turning to face Hiccup.
"I...uh...good, I guess."
"It must've been. I just want to say that I'm glad that we're working together on bringing down Hawkon and Mentra. Your father would be proud of you doing this, Hiccup."
"Sorry Alvin, I'm not really focusing on the conversation, I've got anxiety right now..." Hiccup revealed.
It did feel like there was a rock-sized lump in his throat. The reason was obvious.
"I mean, we've just spent about two weeks in total fighting those guys, with the goal of capturing Astrid. She wasn't there. I'm starting to worry that she won't have much longer in their hands."
"It only takes us a week when we're going to the edge, Hiccup. It takes a week to get there from Mentra as well. Mentra itself is only about a day, give or take, from your home island, we won't be spending weeks travelling again." Blavery said, wanting to reassure the Chieftan.
"My point is that we've let them get away with possibly...so much in those two weeks. They've still got Astrid, who knows how long she has left to live before they do anything to her? I've managed to hold myself back from crying, but at this point I'm going to give in. I just want Astrid back..." Hiccup softly revealed, looking down at the floor as he held his cup low.
"What about the dragons, Hiccup?" Alvin the Treacherous asked, "why don't you use Toothless? we wouldn't have spent these weeks travelling to the edge and back, it'd have taken your entire tribe a day with the dragons?"
"They left for The Hidden World ten years ago, Alvin...it's hopeless. Despite the fact Toothless and the Light Fury-"
"Light Fury?" Alvin asked, "is that...a different type of Night Fury, son?"
"It is. She and Toothless visited us on the seas near the entrance of The Hidden World. But as I was saying, despite the fact that we got to see them for the first time in years, they're back in The Hidden World now, they'll never come back out. It's just...hopeless, and now, with Astrid still in dangerous hands, I always dream at night of having Toothless and the dragons be back...to comfort me as my best bud, just..."
Hiccup rubbed his eyes as tears began generating. The dragons will never come back out from The Hidden World, which is unfortunate, because if they were still here with the Berkians to this day, they'd have easily helped their vikings overpower the Mentranians, thus ending the war quickly, and saving Astrid.
This whole conflict was much more difficult, and the Mentranians, propped up by the resurgent Berserkers, were much more powerful, both problems rampant because the dragons weren't here anymore. Hiccup genuinely wanted Toothless back.
"This Hidden...World as you speak of, Hiccup...boy, couldn't you just enter it yourself, or ourselves, and get the dragons back?"
"It's not as easy as it sounds, Alvin, it's like this underwater volcano, that leads into boiling caves..it...it's a giant place, it's filled with wild dragons, and without a dragon anyways it's impossible for us to go into it."
Alvin the Treacherous genuinely was taken aback at the revelation, in his perspective, of a 'Hidden World' of dragons, and also the revelation that there was now a Light Fury. He wasn't around during the events of Grimmel and Drago, after all.
"Can we please...just move on from this topic? the more we talk about it, the more I fear for Astrid, and the more I miss Tooth-" Hiccup simply collapsed into a waterfall of tears, practically speaking.
Blavery stood up and gently walked over to Hiccup, kneeling down. He placed a hand on Hiccup's shoulder.
"It'll be fine, Hiccup. I absolutely assure you, like I did back at the bay...we will rescue your wife." Blavery said, genuinely feeling a close companionship with Hiccup.
Hiccup looked at Blavery, with tearful eyes. His cheeks were practically shiny, he was crying that much. Alvin the Treacherous subsequently stood up and walked over to Hiccup.
"And no matter what, Hiccup son, you'll always have the support of myself and my men, to bring down this rogue regime that's formed on Berk..and to rescue Astrid. Whatever differences we may have had when you were a young boy, they're all gone as far as I'm concerned. We'll be working together through and through to achieve victory."
Hiccup felt weak. He rubbed his whole face, including his beard, before looking at the both of them, as the boat swayed gently over the sea water.
"Thanks guys...it's...I.." Hiccup began glaring in an open direction, where his expression froze.
Alvin and Blavery could see that Hiccup was thinking. They could just tell from the face. And given his emotional state, they were more than willing to wait for him.
He continued to stare...like he was contemplating something in the midst of his tear-covered eyes. His mouth was closed, and slowly but surely his general face turned solemn as he glared.
"Uh, Alvin is it? myself and Hiccup created a plan to take down Mentra's leadership figures, one by one. It'll cause instability with Hawkon's leadership, due to the hard line defenders seeing him as weak and incompetent, for letting his top guys get killed. I'm just not sure how viable it'll be now, given how Hiccup's currently feeling."
"We'll do it..." Hiccup said, breaking his silence, and wiping his eyes again.
"We will?" Alvin said, curiously wondering what the entirety of this plan was.
"Yeah. I'm sick of crying and feeling down all the time. That's what Hawkon would want of us, and me. We're gonna destroy his regime and then we're going to save Astrid." Hiccup declared, getting a surge of confidence.
"That's the spirit, Hiccup, that's the spirit." Blavery said.
Hiccup knew the war had to go on if it meant ending Hawkon's rogue regime on Old Berk, and if it meant saving Astrid.
"But I just feel like...at this point, our actions on dragon's edge, forcing them to retreat, hasn't actually meant anything...Astrid wasn't there.."
"But it's started up our process, you see. Hawkon's cult of personality portrays him as a god, who's never defeated. If his defenders acknowledge that Mentra had to retreat from a land that they intended to take over, it'll damage his credibility. It's nowhere near enough at the moment, but it's a start." Blavery said.
"And here's the good news. We won't need to go to the edge again as a result of us pushing them back from it. That means that we won't need to spend anymore weeks sailing. Mentra is only a day, give or take, away from New Berk, so we can easily resume our strike at them without wasting time."
That assured Hiccup entirely. Travelling to dragon's edge back and forth has taken them two weeks, one week for each trip, which was far too much time wasted. But ultimately, as Blavery said just now, they had forced the Mentranians to retreat from the edge, so it was technically worth it.
"Alright. Once we get back to our island, Alvin, you and your men can come up with us, we have a contraption due to how high up it is."
Alvin the Treacherous nodded.
"And we'll need to fill him in on our plan, Blave. And then possibly reorganise."
Blavery nodded.
It's been a couple of days later. Hiccup had caught up with his mum, Gobber, and Zephyr and Nuffink, in which they were all genuinely relieved to see Hiccup after being gone for 2 weeks. Alvin got to meet Valka, and was generally finding his stride on New Berk. The island was so gigantic and big that all of the outcast vikings were able to make it their home without any issues, to the acceptance of Hiccup.
But now, it was time to reorganise. Alvin the Treacherous, Hiccup, and Blavery Borhid were all sat inside Hiccup's hut, with Zephyr and Nuffink playing in the corner of the room as Valka and Gobber remained sat with them.
"The Mentranians won't stay quiet, you guys," Alvin said, "they've attacked my island on a consistent basis whilst we were still there, so I know. Hopefully though my men who're still on the island have held them off."
"This war isn't about them wanting to take over the entirety of that archipelago, if I'm correct in thinking. So apart from the occasional attacks, your island should be fine. Just to fill you in on how this whole thing started as well, Alvin, Hiccup's vikings had put a halt to Mentra's dragon deterrent program. After that, Mentra's and Hawkon's declaration of war became very clear."
Blavery had no idea; it was like he said, the regime tends to keep secrets from its own defenders, and that was the case now. Mentra's intention with this war was, contrary to what Blavery said just now, to end up with the whole archipelago under its control, as well as New Berk, and pretty much any island that had foreign tribes on it. Mega Mentra was what it was going for.
"I need to just...vent off really quick, gentlemen." Alvin said, "I've known about Mentra since it first started attacking my island and my men, but why is it...so...rogue? and like this? I've never heard of anything like it...we were getting so many stories of how the vikings living on it are treated..it's just...shocking, really."
"Hiccup, we touched on this when you took me to this island after you saved me. Do you remember what I said?" Blavery asked.
Valka and Gobber were keeping Zephyr and Nuffink distracted, so they didn't hear the discussions going on around the table in the room. Hiccup didn't want his two children overhearing anything in regards to the war. Meanwhile, Valka and Gobber were both keeping a keen ear on the conversation whilst tending to Zephyr and Nuffink.
"I..-"
"No worries. I won't put the burden on you to explain it, Hiccup. Given your circumstances with Astrid, it's probably for the better if I tell him."
Alvin the Treacherous was genuinely curious; how did Old Berk morph into 'Mentra'? was the question roaming in his head, as well as why it's such a rogue and mercilessly-ran place, and he was about to get the answer.
"The leadership of Mentra, dating back to the times Grimmel was alive, with Drago, were victims of imprisonment. Specifically, Hawkon's father and Hawkon himself were prisoners of Grimmel. Hawkon was 10 at the time, so this was pretty much a decade ago exactly. When Grimmel was killed, Hawkon's father staged a resistance against the remainder of Grimmel's men. They overran Grimmel's men and pretty much liberated themselves. Afterwards, they took all of the equipment at the base, before swimming away, which is how they found Old Berk. They swam to it. You need to understand Hawkon's background when it comes to his fanatical behaviour."
"He's 20 years old? only?" Alvin asked, genuinely shocked at hearing that the leader of the rogue regime was supposedly that young.
"Yeah. And this all ties into why Mentra's what it is today. Hiccup, we've heard them say stuff along the lines of 'all outsider tribes are our enemies, and are wanting to continue the work of Drago and Grimmel', haven't we? By being a rogue and merciless regime, they believe that they're ensuring nothing like Grimmel or Drago ever happens again, and if they were to ever seek to take over the archipelago, it'd be because of that again. The personal experiences of Hawkon and his father are why Mentra's what it is."
"Hold on a minute...so...they're on your side? if they're against Drago and Grimmel and still are?" Alvin said.
"That's exactly what I thought, Alvin, I thought I could just negotiate with em to get Astrid..." Hiccup said.
"But it goes back to them seeing every other tribe, apart from the Berserkers obviously, who they're in a pact with, as their enemy. The leadership's personal experiences of imprisonment at the hands of Grimmel and Drago are why they're completely closed off to any outside tribes. They see them as continuations as Grimmel and Drago. So whilst Mentra and ourselves have the same views of Drago and Grimmel and their actions, Mentra views us as their enemy because of the above. They won't negotiate with their enemies."
"To think...had we, when we were saving caged dragons from those warlords shortly before Toothless came across that Light Fury in the woods, saved Hawkon and his dad from Grimmel's imprisonment..none of this would've happened." Hiccup said, "but still, their past doesn't excuse them holding my wife hostage, nor committing the acts they've done. I intend on treating them as the same calibre as Drago and Grimmel for what they've done thus far, especially Hawkon."
"Alright, Alvin, now you know why Mentra's what it is, we need to talk about the plan and summarise it up..."
"You've got it, boy.." Alvin said, fully understanding the background of Mentra's leadership now.
He was by no means sympathetic to it due to Hawkon and his leadership team being despots at the head of a merciless regime, but more so intrigued. Drago and Grimmel created such a backlash and emotional trauma with those people who'd go on to become 'Mentranians', that it's led to them becoming just like the two. Drago and Grimmel pretty much made Mentra an inevitable formation.
"Four names. Guddorn the Glorious, Fludgeon the Feared, Gustav Larson, and obviously, Hawkon the Second himself. We need to come up, ideally quickly, about how we're going to get to these prominent vikings...they'll be well defended with barricades and hundreds of Mentranians and Berserkers due to their positions in the regime." Blavery stated.
"What about Astrid?" Hiccup asked.
"I think I know what we can do to save her, as well, Hiccup..."
The discussions started. Gobber and Valka were still keeping Zephyr and Nuffink distracted from overhearing the discussions.
It was time for Hiccup, in his surge of motivation to defeat Hawkon's regime, to reorganise the plan with Blavery and Alvin. But he wanted to reorganise fast, because he wanted to rescue Astrid first and foremost.