All rights to Httyd belong to Cressida Cowell and DreamWorks. All OCs and original story belong to NightShade248.
Goosebumps tinged the skins of the young riders as they flew in formation above the clouds. Their dragons' muscles tensed and theirs did as well. Movements were bumpy as they wobbled on the wind currents and some flew ahead of others. It was all they could manage by telling themselves it had been just like the Sky Parade, but potentially with a lot more fire and blood.
Niart threw up in his mouth at the prospect.
Along the thin mists, they caught sight of the fleet, a perfect platoon of warships in comparison. It struck them how Berk, among the larger tribes, still had enough influence to rally other smaller tribes in its weakened state. Each ship had a crew of about ten to fifteen men, and no doubt armed to the teeth with the weapons of Berk's glory days that could rip dragons' bodies in tow.
"Alright, Bone Heads, let's show these blowhards what happens when they decide war against dragon riders is a good idea!" Ruoy shouted signaling. "On my mark, full-on assault!"
"Okay, there's only one person here's who's the Bone Head. Spoiler alert, it's the guy who thinks taking that army head on is a good idea!" Nogard called back.
"You got a better idea, dung-brain!?"
"Actually, yes. Take out the head ship; Berk's the one who rallied them together. If they're gone, the others go!"
"Um, guys?" Woh called atop Violet pointing down. "While we're up here playing 'follow the leader', they're loading up on weapons!"
Per Woh's warning, the clanks and thuds of twisting rusted metal came from below. At the bows of the ships were harpoons with bloodied tips and catapults armed with massive boulders. The dragons growled as one, no doubt some having remembered the like from years ago.
"Actually, can I suggest a Plan C?" Ot offered flying between Ruoy and Nogard, who seemed ready to start a war of their own. "In the interest of time since there's going to be a hundred-plus weapons staring us down in a matter of moments, how about we engage in a little subterfuge?"
"Meaning?" Ruoy demanded turning red.
"Sneak attack, genius. We go around the ships, avoid enemy fire, and take 'em out from below."
"And who's to say while we're taking one ship down, the other 99 won't just blast us instead?" Nogard asked.
"Um, guys?" Niart piped in. "I think the leader's coming out."
Just as the timid rider had said, a man stepped atop the mast of the head ship. Rugged and brawny like any other Viking but with a near savage tone over it all. From his sheath his sword was drawn, pointed at the riders airborne above.
"Happy to see the runt sent a reception for us." The Viking cackled. "Dragon-riding heathens! I am Spitelout Jorgenson, hear my name and shudder! The events of weeks past have taken as much toll on you as the years have on my isle of Hooligans! Surrender the traitor Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, his Night Fury, and all dragons in your custody to us, and this war can end before it begins!"
The riders all exchanged a look to one another as they glared at Spitelout. 'What fun would that be?', he must think.
Nogard flew forward on Shadespine's undulating body. "Vikings of Berk! You have no dominion here, and we will not cow to the demands of an invader. Turn your ships around now and we will let you escape with your lives!"
"Afraid these men and I didn't sail all this way just to turn around, boyo." Spitelout growled. He waved.
A horn sounded from the ship he stood atop, the first sound of battle. Next came the grunts of Viking men in chorus, and the rattling of chains. The catapults fired in rising succession and boulders came raining atop. The riders swerved their dragons yanking for dear life on the reins. Some had done so like they had forgotten how to steer in the heat of the moment.
The boulders hit the water with large splashes. Each rider felt the hair they'd just escaped by in gallons of sea spray washing their faces. They'd barely remained together, and still they felt Spitelout's eyes hovering over them.
"Tell me, Johann. What is it you suppose that these dragon riders of Draak can do?"
Johann, the old sea merchant who'd have another tale to tell by the end of this, was quivering on the deck gripping the mast as his only lifeline. "V-Very d-d-difficult to say, Master Spitelout. I daresay I… say I have not had the esteemed pleasure to see these riders in little more than celebratory fanfare…"
"Really?" Spitelout guffawed. "Fresh meat, then."
The riders swooped and flew amongst the ships stopping on pebbles and nearly falling over their dragons' wings in the process. Boulders flew and brushed their rough sides on the tips of their noses. The dragons screeched when arrows from the Vikings on other ships grazed their scales. Niart had tried to gain altitude, but harpoons going over his head forced him down to sea level.
Ot and Blueskin twirled amongst the ships, spinning in turn to bat arrows away like flies. Going upright, the boy's vision came into focus and caught a rush of deep red. Blueskin smashed into Violet, both dragons bobbing and weaving between vessels. Their riders felt the impact also when they near headbutted their dragons' skulls, the world rocking, sea level uneven and tipping in their views. The two pulled away just as harpoons were about to go through their necks.
Nogard had been lucky enough on his own when he emerged from the bow of another ship in a burst of splinters. With the cover of gushing water that sunk the ship, Shadespine rose and readied his blast. Rings of fire burst aiming for the deck of another but fizzled before an ember could touch the wood. A blast from Boomer had cut the sneak attack short.
Blueskin looped and took target towards another ship. The Nadder dive-bombed, air rushing past like an arrow of wind poised to break into the wood and sent the ship and its warriors to watery graves. A deeper red sliced the air before them, Blueskin opening his wings and catching air to slow. It was Ruoy atop King who seemed intent to bathe the ocean and any toy boats atop it in flame. Watching the hotshot was Ot's undoing as a boulder hit them dead center.
To cut it short, ballads would hardly be written on Draak's behalf this day.
Spitelout's laughter came as the riders regrouped, panting, bleeding and winded. "Is this what I amassed an entire army for? Five children on their pet dragons that can't even put up a decent fight? Hiccup's soft and clearly he's made you sorry lot just as such."
"He's got a point." Niart mumbled. "For dragon riders, we're a hot mess!"
"Shut up, Niart!" Rouy shouted.
"Men, launch again!"
The boulders came in perfect unison, crushing even the air around them. Draak's riders fumbling and dragons squawking, they crashed into one another before flying off. Hearts hammering, they were given a full wash of seawater and were left flailing in air. Vikings watching laughed at their antics, turning from confident to mocking.
Maybe having dragons wasn't guaranteed safety after all.
If only his bad memories could have been as easily locked up as the people who made them.
The old dungeons of Draak, hardly used since Hiccup had ushered in his era of peace. No need to lock up traitors and criminals as who would betray or commit crimes? The old chains and manacles had practically begged to trap prisoners' hands as their locks had rusted over and barely closed. Shadows and dim firelight from the torches on the walls made Hiccup only human in shape, a menacing shadow to his former tribesmen as he drew the bars closed.
Stoick made no move to resist, nor did the others. Any free body part was shackled and bound to the wall. Hiccup no longer trusted them to lift a finger without some threat behind it.
"Release us now, son." Stoick growled, resistant but reduced to begging. "You are making a mistake."
"The only mistake I made was even letting you within five feet of me." Hiccup leaned in, growling back. "I can't believe I even let my guard down for a second! That whole race was just a distraction, wasn't it? So you could sneak in that fleet without us even noticing! Now here we are unguarded and our dragons ripe for the picking!"
"That isn't true!" Astrid shouted. "This had nothing to do with my challenging you."
"I am not about to let you just take everything from me again." The young chief seized the bars staring down his elder. "You're going to tell me everything there is to know – their numbers, their weapons, their commander."
"I know none of that! As Astrid said, this was done without our knowledge!"
"You really think I'm gonna buy that?"
"We would never strike an unguarded foe!"
"So you admit I'm your foe? Took you long enough." Hiccup stepped back to the torchlight. He wanted his father to see disappointment on someone else's face, for a change. "I'll admit I'm pressed for time, but I'm willing to wait for you to change your mind."
"Wait however long you wish, my answer will be the same." Stoick was getting riled, pulling on the chains. Again, given their age, he was sure even Alvis could yank them out after a struggle. In the Berkian chief's case… "Even if I had the information you wanted, I would never cow into speaking with unjust imprisonment or intimidation!"
"You'd be surprised how effective those tactics can be. They always made me do what you wanted."
Fishlegs shrunk. "Are we really going to start this again?"
"No, I'm going to end it, here and now." Hiccup paced towards the exit and grabbing the handle. "Whether you talk or not, I am going to take that army down."
"And what about us?" Fishlegs asked.
Hiccup turned back to them. There was a sense of cold finality to it, but it was what he, a young man risen to be a leader, understood now as a Viking's justice. "Every one of you will be dropped at Outcast Island when this is over and I will personally ensure that's where you'll spend the rest of your days."
"What!? Outcast Island!?"
"Hiccup, you can't do this to us!" Astrid struggled in vain. "Are you really going to attack and betray your people!?"
"For the last time, my people are here!" Hiccup shouted turning back. "My wife who you attacked, my best friend who you nearly killed, my son who you threatened! You're just the stalkers who followed me here for your own reasons! And as for betrayal, would you have acted any different?"
"Care to elaborate, lad?" Gobber asked.
"Tell me right here, right now. If it had all been different, if you had found me that day with Toothless, saw that your heir had befriended a dragon, would you have heard me out? Would you have welcomed this peace as Draak did? Or would you have done to me what you find so unjust in my doing to you?"
Stoick turned away in silence. Nothing but water dripping and the whoosh of flames for an answer.
It made Hiccup seethe.
For Stoick, the answer should have been obvious. For a man who claimed to have wasted away into a shadow of his former self, the chance to see the family he'd lost should have been Valhalla's blessing. He couldn't remember how many times he'd asked the question to the Stoick in his head and now to the Stoick in real life. It was only because he was doing that same old song and dance. Giving second chances, believing in people's better natures. That no matter how he'd built up a righteous anger, he still wanted to see the side of his father he admired in the shadow that was.
But Hiccup had learned in his long journey that the greatest threats came from shadows. Men couldn't tell what lurked beneath the dark just as they could only imagine how deep the oceans fell or how long Midgard stretched. What Stoick had to say, on the other hand, couldn't be more obvious. Silence said it all.
"Everything I accomplished was to make life better for everyone." Hiccup grasped the bars, clouds of breath puffing as he heaved. He dared Stoick to look back at him, look and see the consequences of his choice. "Everyone would have been safer, happier. A world where we all live together would have been perfect. You've already seen it! How is any of this wrong to you!? You're the ones who didn't want it! You ruined everything, attacked innocent people, because you were only thinking of yourselves!"
"Wrong as usual, Useless!" Snotlout, who had been bounded in every which way, finally spoke. He had been bound so tightly that only his head stuck out from an endless coil of rope. "That's all you!"
"What are you talking about!?"
"Get real! You're the one who ran away." His old bully cackled. "You wanna tell us you did it to help your widdle dwagon fwiend? You did it 'cause you couldn't man up. Berk had to pay because you couldn't take a little pressure!"
"Snotlout, for Thor's sake, you better-"
"Oh, shut up, Astrid! I can't believe any of all this! 'Hiccup would have been the better chief?' 'Hiccup was so smart' What I heard was more like 'Hiccup can't do any worse than the Snot-man!' 'We could have settled for the runt!'"
"That is definitely true. In fact you should have heard the heavy-drinkers." Tuffnut mentioned.
"Nothing induces honesty like 50 gallons of the good stuff." Ruffnut added.
"You even said it yourself! Since when did anybody start thinking Useless here could have fixed the Berk he broke?" Snotlout tried to lean on the bars looking smug, but only fell to his side. To a small delight in Hiccup, Snotlout's face was now covered in blackened moss. "It was just luck that Useless managed to ride a dragon and got you thinking that somehow he was the man for the job."
"So what you're saying is, because of Hiccup, all our forests got ruined since we chopped 'em all down?" Tuffnut asked.
"And because we wasted time looking for him, we didn't get to focus on putting out fires?" Ruffnut added.
"Oh, and no one helped Gobber, so our weapons couldn't be fixed."
"And the fish. Don't forget the fish. Or lack thereof since he didn't help fix the fishing boats."
"Shut up!" Hiccup slammed the bars. "Shut up!"
"Huh, you know come to think of it, we should really be angry at you for pretty much ruining our lives." Tuffnut mused for all of two seconds. "Thanks a bunch, Hiccup!"
Snotlout laughed. Just like always. Even bound in a dungeon, he was getting the last laugh. "Get it now, Useless. You have got to be the biggest failure ever born. Berk is in ruins and now this tribe is going to get blasted to smithereens and all your pet dragons'll be taken, all because of you! It's all. Your. Fault."
The riders of Draak were a pitiful sight, that was clear. By now they'd been given a fair share of cuts, burns and bruises, and were about ready to fall off their saddles. Draak's best defense was children whose only experience was doing loop-de-loops to the cheers of adoring fans. If they weren't heaving, holding their limbs together, they'd scold themselves.
It had to stop.
Ot was the first to realize that. "Okay, riders! Real time!" He flew before them as if to shut out the Vikings still laughing before their motley group. "We are a hot mess. But right now, we're the best Draak has got. So let's get our dragon-riding rears in gear and kick some invader tail!"
"What do you think we've been trying to do!?" Ruoy shouted.
"Showboat, for starters. But this isn't about who can look the best and stand on a mountain of skulls for the record books!" Ot flew into Ruoy's face for the hotheaded Viking's clarification. "This is about Draak! About Hiccup! So show them what we fight for and how hard we'll fight for it."
Ruoy glared an eternity's length into the wandering youth's eyes. Ot only glared back, putting humor and antics aside for the sake of victory. Ruoy flew off, needing nothing else.
Atop his Nightmare, the blues of the sea and sky went orange as King blew clouds of flame, setting the ships alight. Masts fell like melted candles and Vikings jumped into the ocean, toppling over one another. Ruoy and King smirked to see the enemy look the part of fools for once.
The rest of the ships took aim. Arrows flew once more, harpoons dwarfing them as they flew in tandem. Ot flew forward launching spines from Blueskin, and Niart followed with Boomer's sonic blast. The quills knocked the arrows by the tips, and both plunked into the sea. The harpoons' chains either wobbled dropping them or shattered completely. The winches met similar fates as Violet launched globs of acid. The smell of corroding metal and burning liquid cast the Vikings in droves.
Though the loss of their weapons may have rattled them, a Whispering Death emerging from their decks gave them little time to mourn. Nogard and Shadespine popped from ship to ship leaving a trail of sunken vessels in their wake. Little by little the fleet withered, and enemies swam screaming for their lives. About twenty or so ships remained at the end of the onslaught.
"Ha! Guess dragon riders are a force to be reckoned with after all!" Ruoy shouted towards Spitelout.
The commander had lost his playful gaze, but his smile had remained. It unnerved the riders beneath their airs. "Oh, absolutely. But on the other hand, it was good confirmation for some of the non-believers in our ranks."
"And what is that?" Woh asked.
"That a dragon rider truly can turn the tide of war. And in more ways than one." Spitelout whisked his hand once more.
"What is he doing?" Nogard asked.
"NOW!"
Harpoons launched again, at least to the riders. Bot Woh was the first to suffer to that as Violet was yanked down. A hook had caught onto her neck, no doubt digging into her scales as she roared in panic. Slowly and without panic, the Changewing was pulled to the ship from where it fired.
"Woh!" Nogard shouted. "Hold on!"
Another chain sprouted and wrapped around the Changewing; two more and Woh herself was pinned onto her dragon's back. For his efforts to save her, Nogard was met with chains wrapping around Shadespine, pinning his wings and locking Nogard pressed atop his head. The two went down like lead weights. Niart was frozen in place, a perfect target for three more chains to wrap around himself and Boomer.
The three dragons crashed on neighboring ships one by one. Both rider and dragon struggled to break free but were met with steel and the cold glares of ten Vikings apiece. Some were wet, having swam from other boats, and likely looking for a chance at payback.
"What the hell just happened here!?" Ruoy shouted. "We had them on the ropes!"
"Well now, they've got us in chains." Ot called behind him. "Oh, and we're surrounded."
Surely enough, they were caught on all sides by a ring of ships with angry Vikings. Some ships still had chains left to use and in their battered state, it wouldn't be long before Spitelout claimed two more prizes.
But the chief stood atop the mast once more. The sun had begun to sunk, as did his opponents' spirits. Its golden glow tinted his brutal smile. "I'd say you're running out of options as well as riders."
"You have ten seconds to let them go or I start roasting Hairy Hooligan butt!" Ruoy called. King's maw lit with flame.
"Do that and you roast yer friends' keisters as well!" Spitelout pointed to the three vulnerable Draak riders on adjacent ships. "But I offer you a chance to spare yerselves once more. Hand over Hiccup and the dragons and I may let yer friends escape with their lives if not their steeds!"
"We're not about to cow to invaders!" Ot shouted.
Spitelout paid no heed to the youth's defiance. "I will allow one of ye to return to yer island and let yer chief know. If he is a leader, he'll be sure to make a smarter decision. So… I'd best get to flyin' off if I were ye."
Three cliffhangers in a row, am I right? Some of you might start hating me for this. But the next chapter might make you wish you weren't so anxious.
For those of you who might have some confusion regarding how Draak's riders fared, well I tried to put some logic into it. Draak has lived in peaceful times ever since Hiccup's defeating the Red Death, and because of that, they haven't really had much battle experience. Sure their time in the Dragon Academy might have sufficed, but this is their first real war. Not to mention, Spitelout and his army are much older, more efficient fighters.
Besides, the TV show has given enough proof that you may feel invincible on a dragon, but that doesn't mean you ARE. For the sake of realism and building suspense, I thought it made a little more sense that these guys weren't going to do all that well.
Anyway, thanks once again for all the reviews (yes, even the ones which were just death-wishes for Snotlout). I do want to address a few of them, though. I did a lot of direct addressing in my Skylanders story, and it's good to establish communication.
Scrumblenut: Let me know if you can remember the name of that racing story you mentioned in your last review. I'd like to check it out and use it as reference. Thank you for your suggestion.
stephanieeiche10: To answer your question, I have a rough draft of the basic plotline and I am working from there. The past week I've been working on that, my Dragons racing story, and my own original story on top of this chapter. In case that might seem rushed, it is really a good idea to let base ideas for your stories mull in your head a bit.
T-Biggz: Thank you for the offer, but I have my hands full as it is. I have the three stories I mentioned, a possible Pokemon story, and my new semester will be starting up soon. I have my hands full.
CzarnyKot356: Thanks for your enjoyment of this hot mess that I ended up creating. Seriously, I look back on regular chapters and just go 'UGH. Did I really write this?' These last few chapters are my way of trying to fix something that was kinda screwy and I didn't even notice.
As a final note, if anyone hasn't done so yet, go look at my newly published story, 'Dragons: Race to Tomorrow.' So far it's only a prologue and I want to see people take a look to gauge interest. I've already explained the situation there, but I'll say it again. I want to know if people will invest in that story. Whether I continue it or not depends on what you, as readers, think. By the end of this fanfic, I will check the numbers, and if I like what I see, it will go on. I want to do a proper story this time.
As always, review, favorite, follow! Until next time!