This wasn't going well, this is bad. No matter how many rocks we moved it felt like we weren't even making a dent. The islands that housed the Cavern Crasher or the Catastrophic Quakens were just too far to reach, it'd take days for help and with no access by ships, we could only use dragons. This had to be Krogan, it just had to be. He probably made Bashem too easy, left too much information to lure us out. It's like he was taking this new contract personally and instead of focusing on profit or power like before, he simply wanted Hiccup's head and anything leading up to that was a means to an end.

As Valka closes with Eret, she looks increasingly concerned by our frantic flying and moving of boulders as she reaches me. "Hiccup?" She asks in name only, but I knew her question and sighed.

"Him and Snotlout are… somewhere under that." I painstakingly answer as she lightly shakes her head.

"What happened?" She asks

"A trap most likely, think I heard Toothless's blast before an explosion that collapsed the entrance. No telling what happened but we're trying to clear the rubble and get inside." I explain and she shakes her head.

"That's not our only problem, I fear." She answers softly. "Come."

"Heather, with me. The rest of you keep digging. Eret, Skullcrusher can really be helpful with the rubble." I state and Eret nods.

"You got it, we'll save 'em, lass." Eret replies and flies back to help the others as Heather and I follow Valka. My eyes widened with anger and fear as several narrow ships approached from the west, towards the straight between the swallow sands.

"They knew?" I ask to no one in specific as Valka turns to me and shakes her head.

"Either that or its something else. Eret and I followed the straight and founds signs of a campsite with docks for ships hidden under a large rock formation, a perfect little harbor. We couldn't get inside but we suspect it has entrances to whatever underground tunnel Hiccup may be in." Valka says and my heart drops.

"They lured us here, knowing he would go investigate first and that we'd split our group, knowing they'd cut him off. How?" I ask, baffled.

"We underestimated their desire to get to Hiccup." Valka resigns and I shake my head.

"What's the plan, Astrid?" Heather asks and I wince. Plan, there was no plan at this point. Get them out alive and not let this happen again.

"Heather, take Windshear and go get Eret and Dagur. Fishlegs and the Twins will keep working on that rubble but tell them to listen for our distress call and tell them where this alcove is. We're going to hit this alcove and fight our way to them from this side." I state and Heather nods with a smile.

"You got it." Heather takes off and leaves me circling with Valka.

"You sure about this, Astrid? We don't know what they have under the formation. Could be another trap." Valka questions. "Not that I don't want to get to Hiccup."

"100%. We've taken on more ships than that alcove could hold, and in a confined area like that and our speed, as long as we go in fast and hard, they won't know what hit them." I state, I sounded sure, confident. I wasn't. I was sure we had to get to Hiccup and Snotlout before those trappers did.

"Good." She replies with a smile. Hearing that from her helped me feel more confident in my actions. Clouded by personal feelings though they may be, those are still two Riders and their dragons down there cut off from their friends and cornered by enemies who are purposefully trying to end their lives. From the air, we had superiority and I was confident that, while we would be at risk in our attack, we'd be at less risk and would be able to help them.

It wasn't long after that the trio returned and Dagur flew up next to me. "So, we're giving these trappers some Berserker love?" Dagur says with a grin and I smile.

"Let's give them enough that they don't come back." I retort and he gasps, glancing to Heather.

"Dear Sister, is she implying our hospitality is anything less than true berserker-ness?" He questioningly exclaims as Heather laughs.

"Okay, let's get ready. Dagur and Eret. You two will hit the ships, try to take out the lead ship and trailing ship in the straight, trap them between those and the swallowing sands then join us in the Alcove. Heather, Valka, we're hitting the alcove. Clear any decks, destroy the ramps and docks and search for caves. We'll fly together. Heather and I will be on Cloudjumper's wing as he's the largest." I state, glancing to the four and they nod. "Alright, let's go!" I call out and both Dagur and Heather do their Berserker Calls as we dive down.

Splitting apart, I can hear Dagur and Eret engaging the ships behind us as the shouts and sounds of ricocheting arrows and traps are sprung. Dagur's laugh is echoing as they go. Meanwhile, Heather, Valka and I dart low into the alcove and immediately fly under several nets launched towards us followed by arrows. They were ready for resistance, but they weren't ready for us.

The inner alcove of this formation was rather large, housing half a dozen ships and room for half a dozen more with tents layering the shoreline against the rock. This did seem like a real base, so maybe the information wasn't faulty they just anticipated us finding the cavern, not this alcove. They ended up giving it away themselves, and it was high enough for use to circle and avoid the masts.

Our first pass was swift and exemplified our anger at the situation as the decks were cleared almost completely on our initial sweep with several emplacements destroyed or set aflame with the sounds of dozens of trappers jumping into the water. Our next pass wiped out half their ramps using Stormfly and Windshear's spines and Cloudjumper's massive strength, stranding those on their ships from their camps and those on the ground from their ships. There were many more men on the ground but fortunately they hadn't built many emplacements or the like on the shore, relying on those on the ships.

Layering the tents with a magnesium blast with the other two dragons, we laid to flame the tents on our fly by and found several deeper cavern entrances. The larger one on the northern side of the alcove was the best bet, seemingly leading towards the north where the other entrance was located. Dagur and Eret joined shortly thereafter and blew up a few more emplacements we missed as I point towards the cavern.

"That one! Eret, Valka, and Dagur, stay here and keep them on their heels and off our backs!" I call out and we dart down the larger alcove. They had the larger and more powerful dragons; they could keep these trappers busy if not completely decimate them by themselves. We'd catch up and save Hiccup and Snotlout, Thor have mercy they were still save. We hadn't heard any other dragon blasts, but this island was pretty large and depending on how deep they went, we'd be hard pressed to hear anything. That and the cavern entrance was dark, making me wish either Toothless or Hookfang were with us, we could use their abilities to see. Though, Stormfly answered the darkness by a low burn as we flew into the darkened cavern.

There were empty cages and barrels and crates littering the area and certain signs of recent traffic. Though dark, there were lit torches every fifty feet or so that provided enough ambient light as well as the growing sound of commotion up further ahead. And one of Toothless's blasts; there it was, that was it. Stormfly knew and kicked her speed into gear as we barreled down the passage with Heather close in tow.


This cave was absolutely riddled with barrels and crates, empty metal cages and more. They've been here awhile and planned on staying, or at the very least, not cleaning up after themselves.

"I think we should revisit what the twins said about there being a fine for littering." Snotlout exclaims as we fly down, Toothless sending out his sonic wave as Hookfang ignites, giving us light.

"Yeah, then we'd need to enforce it and that just leads to a whole new world of trouble." I retort with a smile as Snotlout shrugs.

"This cave is massive, how far down do you want to do?" Snotlout questions and I shake my head with a shrug.

"Not sure, let's go a little further. We'll see if we can—SNOTLOUT LOOK OUT!" I call out as a large metal net envelopes Hookfang from a carved-out indent in the wall, sending him to the ground as we suddenly being pelted by arrows from seemingly all sides. Toothless launches a volley of plasma blasts as we double back and grab the metal net off Snotlout and Hookfang before anyone can stop us and they take to the air.

"Let's go!" I call out and Snotlout is already flying with me back the way we came. Looking ahead, I see a glowing residue connecting to the barrels and crates that had been littered and in what feels like slow motion; I watch them explode ahead of us. "DIVE!" I call out and both our dragons hit the ground as the explosion rocks the cave and sends a trail of explosions back towards the mouth of the cave. Toothless and Hookfang doing their absolute best to dodge falling debris, forcing us back to the crossfire as the way behind us is being filled entirely with rocks. We were hundreds of feet inside the cavern, there's no way we could dig ourselves out.

We find a small indent in a curve of the tunnel and duck inside, barely avoiding the falling debris as it finally subsides.

"This was a trap! We're trapped, Hiccup!" Snotlout exclaims and I nod.

"Just wait." I say, pausing and he glares at me which I ignore.

"Wait for what, them to come to us!? The only way back is through that fricken shooting pen. What's your plan?" Snotlout retorts, crossing his arms. "It's not like we can just fly through all that."

"Snotnot, that's it, that's exactly what we do." I state with a smile and his baffled expression still brings me joy.

"What? Did you take a rock to the head?" Snotlout asks, semi-seriously.

"Look, they had to get in here some other way. They don't have dragons, they must have a base here. A base that connects to the other side of this network of caves. The cave in is meant to corner us, right? Problem is, we aren't cornered. Unlike these guys, we have dragons, and dragons can see really well in the dark. We fly dark, get to the other side of the kill zone, blast them from behind and get out." I explain and his expression goes from baffled to a grin.

"Okay, I get why you're chief. I love it." Snotlout replies and I nod with a smile. "Hey, did you bring a stash of Nightmare Gel?" He asks as I turn my head, briefly confused before I nod and smile.

"Why indeed I did, Snotlout. Got an idea?" I ask. Snotlout didn't always have ideas, and when he did, most of the time were bad. But on occasion, he had real gems of ideas.

"Go with me on this; we use a rag, stuff the top and light it. Toss it at the emplacements as we fly by and when the jar shatters with the flaming rag, it ignites all the gel." He says with a mischievous grin and I stand back, genuinely impressed.

"Wow, that's actually a pretty good idea. I'm surprised we never thought of that back on the edge. Only one problem, the flame would give us away." I state and his shoulders drop as he nods.

"Good point." He sighs and I place a hand on his shoulder.

"Still, that's brilliant, and I think I know where that could be helpful. Let's prep the gel jars, then focus on getting to the other side." I say and he nods, we each had a pair of them, so that's four total and we always carried a rag to wipe our dragons down. A nice slice from Hookfang and we had a pair of small rags in the jars ready to go. Not that we'd use them to start but the idea was fascinating.

"Alright, remember, we're flying dark and silent. Get to the other side at all costs, out of the kill zone. We'll fly together." I state and Snotlout pauses.

"Uh, Toothless is way faster, you know. You could get to the other side easier." Snotlout adds and I shake my head.

"Not risking you getting caught alone. Let's go." I state once more, ending the discussion. I've never left anyone behind, even with Toothless's speed, and I wasn't going to start now.

Mounting our dragons, we hear movement and see torches up ahead. I snap my finger and get Snotlout to look towards me and point up. We'll fly as close to the ceiling as we can to avoid the torches. Less maneuverability but we can also glide, less wing flapping means less noise. We both launch and aim high in the cave, our initial burst so fast and silent we completely glide over a group of trappers walking towards where we just were with crossbows and torches. There was another group up ahead that was larger. Taking the moment between groups, we got another flap in and kept gliding over them. I had been watching for Krogan, and sure enough, there he was.

I swear, Krogan had an extrasensory to him as he looked up and quickly shouted. "Above us!" And hurled his large hammer-axe towards Toothless's underbelly. Flipping quickly with my shield in hand, I feel its impact send waves through my body as I grab one of the gel jars.

"Snotlout, Now!" I yell and ignite Inferno, using it to ignite the jar and drop it over Krogan's larger group as Snotlout does the same. They did exactly what I expected them too, they tried shooting at the jars which they hit, and only cause the gel to spread over a larger area after igniting, causing them all to run for cover.

"Excellent!" I call out. "Let's go!" We kick it into gear and approach the kill zone that forced us back the first time. It was well lit, but we were fast and had no intention on slowing. There were nets launched, men screaming and arrows flying the moment they spotted our dragons on the ceiling, but our angle made it challenging for them to aim due to the stalactites on the ceiling, with at least one net hitting another emplacement as we heard them call out in anger.

Diving through, we didn't stop and continued on. The killzone was easily a hundred feet long with dozens of men and emplacements. They had been planning this trap for a while, to bad for them, we weren't going to make it easy for them. Together, dodging everything by staying high and only flying faster, we made it to the end of the killzone and immediately landed, turning around.

"Shoot the stalactites!" I call to Snotlout and together we unleash a volley of fire at the stalactite above and watch them crumble. "They wanted to give us a cave in, we'll give them our own." I state with a grin. My grin is short lived as I hear commotion behind me and another large group with crossbows pointed at us.

"Surrender!" One of the men calls out as the rocks fall behind us.

"What now, Hiccup?" Snotlout says through gritted teeth as I shake my head. Too many crossbows trained directly on us, we'd never make it straight past them. Toothless's ear twitches as I glance to him.

"What is it, bud?" I whisper and he coos and nods past the men and seconds later, I see the silhouettes of a Nadder and Razorwhip before the men are fired upon from behind. "Fire!" I call out and we both engage with our resourceful friends.

"Hiccup!?" I hear Astrid's voice amid the firing as the men scatter.

"Astrid! We're here. Let's go!" I call out and we take off, Stormfly and Windshear pulling a hard u-turn and leading us out. The tunnel was impressively long even for dragons flying at maximum safe speeds but still, moments later we emerged in an alcove. I could see Dagur, Eret and Valka laying absolute waste to what must've once been a camp as countless men dive into the water to avoid the fires.

"Brother!" Dagur exclaims, "Son!" my mother adds, "Chief!" Eret yells, all at the same time.

"Let's make sure these guys never want to come back here." I say and glance to Snotlout. "Care to show them your idea?" I say, taking one of the gel jars and he grins.

"Oh, you are so gonna love this, guys." He exclaims and together, we ignite them and fly over a pair of boats not yet fully aflame and toss them down. The Nightmare Gel seeping between the cracks of the wood as it ignites and sends the deck into flames.

"How did we never think of that?" Astrid asks, baffled.

"I asked the same question, but I like it. Alright, gang, let's get out of here. Where are Fishlegs and the Twins?" I ask and Astrid shrugs with a smile.

"Moving rocks on the other side of the island. We didn't know how deep the cave in was so." She explains and I shake my head.

"It was deep, it'd take a pair of Quakens to get through that rubble. Let's go get them and go home. This base is toast." I state and Dagur pulls up close to me.

"Krogan?" He asks and I nod.

"He was down there, but Snotlout and I gave him a cave in of our own." I explain.

"So, he's dead?" Eret asks and I shake my head.

"I doubt it, honestly. We'll be on guard, just in case. This place is too unstable to stay and too many loose arrows in that cave. Let's get back to Berk and call it a day." I state and Astrid smiles and nods.

"I like the sound of that. Let's go." She adds and I smile. We collect our trio of riders in the north of the island and head back to Berk to rest. That had been a disaster averted but now I had to wonder how many traps like that they had, and how they knew our plans.