CHAPTER 35: Taking the Rookery
Rookery Island. The mating grounds for the dragons, the grounds that they used to come to whenever it was Snoggletog. The place was obviously notable for the situation involving Hiccup and Toothless during Berk's first ever Snoggletog with dragons at the time, where Hiccup roamed on the warm, copper-looking, hard terrain of the island, surrounded by shiny, almost green, and transparent steamy water, looking for Toothless.
This island was littered with valuable situations like that one. Sure, it was just a regular, rocky island surrounded by steamy water that the dragons came to, but it's got a connected history with the Hooligans, because when all of the dragons 'left', at the time, during the first ever Snoggletog with their vikings, it turned out to be the case that they had all arrived upon Rookery Island.
When Hiccup had arrived back at Berk on the night that had followed, when he was given a ride by Hookfang back to Berk, and when Hiccup himself had successfully came up with a plan to transfer all of the babies of the dragons from the island to Berk, the Snoggletog gathering inside the Great Hall that had followed was one of the best nights he had ever had.
The feeling of being reunited with Toothless and the dragons, the dragons themselves scattered all across the Great Hall as everyone celebrated and drank/ate their typical Snoggletog foods and drinks, and just the 'party-ish' atmosphere, Hiccup still hadn't forgotten about how fun that night was. That was five years before the situation with Drago had arisen. Life on Berk at the time, as a young teenager for Hiccup, with Toothless, was stress-free and ultimately, a dream come true every day, and that Snoggletog night where Toothless had found Hiccup's helmet, was an example of why life at the time was so stress-free and good.
The very island that had been involved in that situation, Rookery Island, was no longer packed with dragons, not even when it was Snoggletog for the Hooligans on New Berk. The dragons had obviously left for The Hidden World.
But it wasn't just that, that had made the Rookery Island a totally different place nowadays from how it was all those years ago, when Hiccup was a teenager, and Stoick was alive; the other fact was that now, it was under threat, from a gradually growing viking regime of fanatics, intent on conquering the whole archipelago, island by island.
The Mentranians and Berserkers were going to invade Rookery first, before moving onto the other island invasions that the overseers party had ratified.
We might recall the above, and the memories of that Snoggletog years ago when Hiccup was a teenager, but the Mentranian regime and its defenders, in their pursue of victory and archipelago unification, were intent on totally wiping out the history aligned with the archipelago, including the history aligned with the Rookery. Gustav, the second-in-command viking of the regime, knew all about its history, and how Toothless and Hiccup had a feel-good moment in the Great Hall that night, when Toothless had returned with Hiccup's helmet.
On that basis, they wanted to absolutely wipe the whole archipelago clean of any history or alignment with the Hooligans, and that was just one part of their motivation for the invasion of the archipelago. Rookery Island, and its history, in terms of it being the island Hiccup was 'kidnapped' to by Meatlug on that day, was fully known to Gustav. They wanted to wipe all of those occurrences clean from the past, for when the regime eventually, in the event of victory in the war, expands its living space to the rest of the archipelago for its vikings.
The armada had sailed firmly through the seas and the waves, as the numerous boats looked to arrive to Rookery Island as apart of the invasion plans laid down firmly by Hawkon and the overseers party.
"We're just looking for a copper looking island of rock." a Mentranian armada captain uttered, as he kept a clear look out of the open seas ahead.
"The air is supposed to be slightly warmer there, or whatever." one Mentranian said, as he stood besides the captain.
"That'll be beneficial for us. It'll make it easier for us to fully conquer the heap of rock."
Some minutes had passed, and now, the Mentranian armada had came within a sighting distance of Rookery Island, and the seas below had notably turned from blue, to an ever so subtle green.
"There it is. The heap of rock we've been looking for." the captain pointed, as he waved to the other boats behind his own, wanting to get the armada into the same direction as his boat was going.
"THERE IT IS, GENTS!" one Mentranian yelled, as a couple of Berserkers had readied themselves up for arriving at the island.
"The warm heap of rock we've been looking for is about to come into our hands, what do you say?" the Mentranian viking captain uttered, taking out a wooden telescope to glare right towards Rookery Island.
"It only takes our might to get what we want, but luckily for us, there's no sort of force or tribe to be dealt with-"
"Hold that thought, buddy. I'm seeing a couple of wings move about over there. SLOW YOUR MOVEMENTS, I REPEAT, SLOW YOUR MOVEMENTS!" the captain yelled, quickly sprinting to the end part of his boat to echo his command to the rest of the armada.
"THERE'S SOME DRAGONS ON THERE! HALT YOUR MOVEMENTS RIGHT NOW!" he yelled.
The Mentranian armada captain was keen to get the armada into a state where it could approach Rookery Island in a stealthy manner, as to not get the immediate attention of those dragons on the island.
The captain quickly rushed back to the front of the boat, and he took out his telescope to glare through it once again.
"What's the plan, sir?"
"We'll all remain ducked down in our boats, so our whole armada...looks like a collection of abandoned boats sailing past. Those dragons won't know any better, they're that weak minded. You got your crossbow at the ready?"
"Aye."
"Good, because we may have to do some quick manoeuvring here." the captain declared.
As the captain looked into his telescope as the whole armada sailed slowly, with each viking on each respective boat adjusting their sails to get in line with the wind so their speed could be decreased, he sighted the copper-coloured island itself. The half-circle shape of the island, the big pillars of rock that had resembled towers, the steaming, green waters in the middle, were all within the glaring sight of the captain through his telescope.
The water in the middle of the island looked awfully clear in the midst of its green, steaming colouration. Nonetheless, the captain and his armada of Mentranians and Berserkers, in their route to unifying the archipelago in the war, were looking to approach the island with a stealthy entrance. Their rocky, yet steady boats were nearing Rookery Island by the minute, so it was only a short matter of time until they physically arrived.
"Steady on a second...those dragons happen to be rather medium sized." the captain observed, being able to take a glance of their size through his telescope due to the armada closing in on the island.
"What does that mean for us, sir?"
"It means that we could probably catch them by surprise, we run up to them and land on top of them, to keep them in position. But we'll have to see what the circumstances are, when we're actually on the island itself."
Just to think, the island that Hiccup was taken to by Meatlug, during Berk's first ever Snoggletog with the dragons at the time, was about to be engulfed by the fanatics of Mentra.
The two dragons appeared to be Monstrous Nightmares, not fully grown up. It was weird that they were still here, given that they should've left for The Hidden World all those years ago. It must be the case that there're still dragons out and about in the open environment of the archipelago, just not as many perhaps, as there used to be.
Five more minutes had passed, and now, the whole armada was within a physical presence of the island. The captain and his fellow Mentranian were the first ones to depart from their boats, and instantly, they had knelt down and remained crouched as they looked to take on the dragons from behind. They were clearly mates, the two Monstrous Nightmares.
The captain, in his crouched position, had quietly turned around to the open, steamy waters of the island, where the armada was, whereby the other Mentranians and Berserkers were still on their boats. He waved his palms left and right, gesturing for them to stay put for the time being.
"Come on." the captain whispered to the Mentranian viking besides him, as he equipped his crossbow.
"This rock is...oddly...warm, it's like there's lava beneath us." the Mentranian observed, as he crouched and sneaked around the island, out of the eye sight of the two Monstrous Nightmares.
"Just imagine what that green, pale water would be like." the captain whispered.
"I can see why this place used to be the...uh, I think our second father said it was the mating grounds of the dragons, or it used to be? I can see why it'd be, it's so warm..it's like it's summer."
"It won't be any mating ground after today. We're going to install those giant, border crossbows we've got on our island, to prevent any dragons coming back here, so we can fully take it for ourselves." the captain declared, "get ready, we're going to get those two reptiles from behind."
The two fanatical vikings continued their stealthy crouching around the island and its rocky structures. The two Monstrous Nightmares were actually sleeping together at this point. Their wings had initially lifted upwards into the air, enough for the captain to have initially observed their presence from the seas just now.
Another few minutes had passed, and the two fanatical vikings were directly behind the resting Monstrous Nightmares; their long tails, their overall body structure, and their intimidating facial structures, where their teeth had stuck out from their lower mouth segment, had been easily identified by the two, but still, this was their time to make their mark.
"Alright, if they put up a fight, you've got the venomous arrows, we'll simply knock em out." the captain declared.
"Aye, sir, it's ready to go."
"When we land onto them and grip them by their necks, the rest of the guys will rush onto the island so we can fully cement it as ours."
"Ready when you are, sir."
"Alright."
The captain began counting down, as he and the other Mentranian viking readied up to leap onto the respective sleeping Monstrous Nightmares.
"One...two...THREE!" he yelled, as the two, at the exact same time, ran forwards and leapt over the tails of the sleeping Monstrous Nightmares, startling them and causing the medium-sized dragons to awaken.
They gripped the snake-like, scaly neck of the two Monstrous Nightmares as they rapidly shook their heads left and right, and tried to flick their tails up at the two vikings on top of them, but their smaller, medium size meant they weren't effective at all. They yelped, and continued to struggle, but the weight of the vikings had overwhelmed their ability.
"YOU GOT EM?!" the captain yelled, as he gripped his two palms around the scaly, snake-structured neck of the Monstrous Nightmare he was on.
"IT'S...NOT...STAYING STILL..." the Mentranian struggled, as his Monstrous Nightmare growled and flicked its head up, often causing the Mentranian to nearly lose his grip on the neck of the dragon.
The dragon started blowing flames from its mouth, as it roared and growled, as its pupils shrunk in pure rage. It flicked its spikes and its tails all up into the air, trying to get the Mentranian off; meanwhile, the Monstrous Nightmare the captain was on, had seemingly surrendered already. The captain was, after all, sat on the neck of the dragon, and he had a firm, tight grip of the dragon's mouth to keep it shut; the Mentranian didn't have such a grip.
"FIRE IT, FIRE IT QUICK!" the captain yelled.
The Mentranian nodded. He placed his crossbow down so it was directly touching the neck of the struggling Monstrous Nightmare, and he flung the wooden trigger. The arrow pelted through the Monstrous Nightmare's scaly neck, and straight away, the entirety of the dragon turned motionless.
"Good job, good job. This one here's being a rather good reptile." the captain chuckled.
Their small size was a clear disadvantage to them, and now, the Monstrous Nightmare that was being held down via its neck and its mouth, by the captain sitting on it, didn't have the energy to fight back, and having just seen its mate be knocked out from the pelting of an arrow from these...hostile vikings, it didn't want to suffer the same fate; how intelligent was that thinking, for a wild dragon?
The armada had began unloading from the boats; the numerous Mentranians and Berserkers began rumbling their way all over Rookery Island, in light of the captain and the other Mentranian neutralising the two wild dragons just now.
"Here come the men. I think we ought to have a spare arrow with that venom made for us by the overseers party, huh? give this little dragon here beneath me a taste of it, so we can give ourselves a breather."
As the two vikings chuckled at that prospect, and as the Mentranians and Berserkers unloaded from the armada of boats ahead, arriving onto the copper-coloured island, the Monstrous Nightmare tightly and harshly gripped to the ground let off a yelp, a saddened, squeaking yelp, and its eyes had generally decreased.
Its mate was just killed, and now, it could sense that it was about to be given the same fate. The dragon continued to yelp in sadness and fear, only to the pure amusement of the two vikings in the captain and the Mentranian themselves.
The tiniest shine of a tear came in a subtle manner, rushing down the deadly-looking, medium-sized Monstrous Nightmare, as it took a side-eye glance towards its collapsed mate, and as it could hear more vikings emerge onto the island. Yes, it was crying.
The chuckles and cheers kept emerging though, from the vikings, as they arrived. The captain had heard the yelping of the dragon, but it had only motivated his drive to get the war won and to cement this island as a future land of living for the Mentranian vikings.
