Author's Note - This story takes place two years after the events of HTTYD 2 and will feature all the major canon characters we know and love while also my own OCs that will play important roles within this story.
This is my first fanfiction and constructive criticism and reviews are welcome.
It has been two years since the defeat of Drago, his army of Dragon Hunters, and the Bewilderbeast. The people of Berk were able to relax for a while, given the chance to settle down after Stoick's death, and for Hiccup, as the new chief, to get a grip on his new responsibilities. For a while, there was peace and the Riders continued to work towards their idea of a Dragon Utopia, rescuing dragons and slowly transforming Berk to accommodate dragons better alongside the humans.
However the peace didn't last long as rumors of a new power started coming in, traders came in bearing news of increased Dragon Hunter activity in areas that had been left dormant after Drago's army fell into chaos and dispersed. Mysterious ships bearing an unknown emblem were reported moving along trade routes and forming blockades, moving from island to island, hunting and capturing dragons. Their movements were much more organized. There was a new leader that had set a plan in motion.
The Berkians and their allies had learned from past mistakes to not sit idle in the face of such a threat and formed their own fleet to patrol the borders of their territory and discourage any Dragon Hunters from coming close. Hiccup and the gang meanwhile decided to put the dragon academy to use, having considerably expanded it. Training the ones who volunteered in Dragon riding to bolster their numbers with Astrid taking charge.
After all, they were Vikings and they had stubbornness issues.
Chapter 1 - The Raid
"You guys remember the plan, right?" Hiccup asked, twisting his head to face the others with a slight frown on his face.
"Yes Hiccup, for the last time." Astrid grumbled, subconsciously patting her Deadly Nadder's neck while looking around the seemingly deserted cove that was little more than a tiny crevice between the converging highlands on the beach.
Hiccup dismounted Toothless, chewing his lower lip in silent anticipation. The Riders had managed to land on the western side of the island undetected, into the cave and waiting for the signal. All of them were present except for-
"I still think this is a terrible idea." Snotlout complained. "Are we really going to depend on the twins, out of all the people, for this?"
"Well technically speaking, if we are counting on them to cause destruction and chaos, it'll certainly happen one way or another." Fishlegs said in reply.
"I just- Hiccup, do you really think putting them in charge of the trainees was a good idea? What if something goes south? What if it's a trap?" She said, jumping down from her dragon and onto the sand with a soft grunt, glancing towards the Chief who seemed rather absorbed in his own thoughts. Hiccup jerked his head up and shook his head.
"Don't worry Astrid, while they may not be in the most responsible hands, the trainees can certainly handle themselves. All we have to do is wait for the signal."
They went quiet, each occupied in their own thoughts as they waited in anticipation. Not too long after, a loud boom echoed through the night sky, accompanied by a large plume of smoke rising from the center of the island.
"Huh, I think that'll be the distraction." Astrid said after a second of silence.
Flying across the moonless night sky, even the twins might've sat back and enjoyed this if they weren't headed to a hostile island to 'cause a distraction' as Hiccup put it. Fortunately for them, it was slightly foggy which helped them remain undetected from the few sentries around the island.
Tuffnut's face was scrunched up in thought, which was a look that didn't fit him at all.
"So... the way Hiccup put it, we could cause as many explosions as possible and as big as possible, right?"
"Yup, that's about right."
Ruffnut agreed and glanced down to the ground which was barely visible due to the fog. Orange lights stood out clearly, telling them they were directly above the Dragon Hunter's encampment. It was up to them over when and where to go on the offense. It was rather amusing when considering the fact how Hiccup was reluctant to trust them to do anything other than sheer destruction, especially in situations like these, not that the twins ever considered the thought of that.
However, they weren't the only ones that were given this job.
"Well, which building are we blowing up first?" Agnar Thorntree asked impatiently, slightly hopping up and down on his Monstrous Nightmare, Ash's neck eagerly. Following Ruffnut's gaze down to the surface and then turning to face his sister.
"You might wanna be careful Agnar, wouldn't want you to lose your balance at this height. The freefall might ruin that precious hairstyle of yours." Samirah Thorntree smirked, looking more than a little amused at her little brother's antics.
Comfortably situated over her own Razorwhip, Fenrir, who grunted softly, obviously tired of both siblings taking a shot at each other constantly. Ash had a similar reaction, jerking her head and giving her rider a slight shake to voice her displeasure.
Agnar scoffed, rolled his eyes, and looked away, but reached a hand up to his hair self-consciously. The siblings shared the same ashen-colored hair that always remained unruly as well as the same light green eyes. They unfortunately also had a lot in common with the Thorston twins in terms of traits and appetite for mischief and the amount of trouble they've gotten into together is quite an incredible feat in itself.
Damien Took groaned, holding the bridge of his nose between two fingers, sighed, and announced dramatically.
"Yeah, this is it. We're gonna die now, more specifically me and there is not a thing I can do about it."
He reached down and scratched between Firefly's scales, the Dramillion responding with a soft purr that was lost to the sound of wingbeats. His light brown hair only slightly swayed, his tortoise eyes half shut against the rushing wind.
He didn't understand why this job was entrusted upon Tuffnut and Ruffnut, along with the Thorntree siblings, and moreover, why was he stuck out here with them. It wasn't too farfetched to assume he was the smarter of the bunch, not that they ever listened to him anyway. Considering they ignored his dramatic complaining.
The group went quiet for a couple of seconds until Ruffnut leaned forwards on Barf, looking at one of the lone buildings at the edge of the Dragon Hunter's settlement. Bulky in shape and clearly serving as a storehouse.
"What about that place? That looks like it's important. And flammable."
Not hearing any objections, she angled Barf in a slight descent towards it and her twin and the trainees followed suit. The fog cleared up slightly, showing that there weren't any sentries and the entire encampment was silent, most of its residents had probably turned in for the night.
The twins seemed to know what they were doing, landing on the opposite side of the structure, out of sight of the camping grounds, and had their dragons land quietly. The other three managed to do the same. They had been in training for well over a year, they could hold their own with their dragons in most situations.
It wouldn't be long before they were spotted, their dragons weren't exactly easy to hide in such open terrain.
Tuffnut and Ruffnut dismounted quickly and approached the storeroom, the door was locked but a firm hit from Tuffnut's mace broke the chain. Quickly opening the large oak door and looking inside while the others stayed by their dragon's side.
"Aha! Jackpot!" Tuffnut exclaimed softly, moving towards one of the nearby shelves and picking up a loaf of bread and a piece of cheese.
The other blonde sighed, smacking her face lightly in annoyance before moving up and ripping the contents out of his hands. Tuffnut put on an indignant face.
"Hey! What gives?!"
"Stay focused ya knucklehead, stick to the pla-"
As the result of that action, her arm accidentally smacked against the metal containers, causing a chain reaction as many of them toppled off the shelves, causing a mess and an ear rattling noise that was sure to have alerted some of the Dragon Hunters.
Ruffnut grimaced, cursing under her breath. She glanced behind her towards the doorway and yelled. "Barf! Belch! Light it up!"
The Zippleback squeezed through the doorway as Barf started to excrete the sickly green gas, quickly filling the vast open space of the structure.
Samirah followed the dragon inside, having a small frown on her face.
"What in Thor's name was that racket!?" She hissed. "Because I think we've been spotted since there is an angry mob of dragon hunters coming over to pay us a visit, so you two better be done quickly."
With that, she ran outside again as shouting and yelling could be heard in the distance, long shadows being formed and the darkness lightening up as more torches were being lit and brought towards their position in the hands of the enemy along with lethal-looking weaponry.
"Alright, I think that's the most gas we've ever stuffed in one place!" Tuffnut called out. "This might be our new record!"
The twins mounted their Zippleback as Barf and Belch slowly backed up, a thin line of the gas still drifting out of Barf's maw to serve as a fuse. All that was needed was a tiny spark.
A few stray arrows hit the grass around them, fortunately nowhere near their intended targets. Damien got his bow in hand, notching an arrow into the string and shooting it into the approaching rank, and quickly ducked down, narrowly missing one himself, and shivered.
"Nope, there is no way I'm doing this."
He mumbled, quickly running to Firefly's side who protectively curled around her rider, eyes narrowed and gave a roar. The dragons were large enough targets and were clearly exposed to the incoming spears and arrows.
Samirah quickly took charge, vaulting onto Fenrir's back and taking off from the ground, the Razorwhip roaring out to the others to follow suit, which they did. Firefly and Ash leaned down and let their respective riders get on before launching into the air. They all tried to gain as much altitude as possible, and just barely managed to avoid a potentially lethal volley of arrows as the Hunters came in range.
Meanwhile, Barf and Belch were just finishing up, placing a good distance between the storeroom and themselves. Ruffnut had her spear in hand and used it to whack someone on the head who was foolish enough to try and rush the Riders without any backup.
"Belch! Fire it up!" The male blonde shouted, tightly clutching to his dragon with one hand, having his mace frailing in the air in the other.
The dragon responded by clicking its tongue, emitting a spark which was all the gas needed to light up the gas. They were already in the air and joining the others as the fuse trailed all the way back into the building and then-
BOOM!
The entire place simply exploded violently in a flash of orange, blinding as splintered, burning wood flew in all directions. Some of the men close to it yelled in alarm, caught in the blast radius. Now if that didn't serve as a slap to the face to every soul on the island, nothing could.
The twins whooped and cheered eagerly, Agnar joining in while Damien and Samirah rolled their eyes, their expressions much more reserved.
"Well, what are we supposed to do now? Think this is good enough?"
Damien asked, watching the chaos on the ground as the shouting and flurry of movement kept up, the smoke adding to the fog and making it harder to see. They all flew higher to avoid any more arrows that might come flying their way.
Agnar glanced at him and shrugged, rubbing his hands together and blowing on them to get the blood flowing, wishing he hadn't forgotten his gloves.
It was cold tonight.
Toothless landed outside the dragon stables, shortly followed by Stormfly and the other dragons, lowering themselves and allowing their respective riders to dismount.
Hiccup took out Inferno, the blade looking blackened in the absence of a proper light source. Being careful to not activate the flame to prevent possible detection. Slowly nudging the door open and walking inside to find it deserted.
As planned, all the hunters had converged on the explosion, leaving the other areas of the island unattended.
"See Astrid? Told you the twins would make it work. You don't always need to be so- uh..."
Astrid narrowed her eyes as she followed him inside.
"Be what exactly? I'm listening."
"Well.. uh- so.. uptight? Since it all- OW!"
He yelped as the braided blonde punched his shoulder, the hit still quite noticeable through the dragon scale armor he made. Astrid snorted and walked past him, her expression hidden behind her helmet.
"I'm supposed to be all uptight because it's my job. Those are my trainees and I'm responsible for their actions and any mess they manage to get themselves into. Sort of similar to how Toothless feels about you, every time you get yourself into one problem or another."
She chuckled in amusement, choosing to not glance back at the chief who rolled his eyes but said nothing back in reply. Fishlegs and Snotlout joined them inside along with Toothless who rumbled softly at her words and lightly nudged Hiccup as a small tease.
Then they all turned their attention back to the reason why they were here in the first place.
The entire stable was stuffed to the max with cages. And many of them held dragons captive. It was their plan to break in and release these poor beasts.
Now out of the open area, Hiccup ignited his sword, illuminating the dark structure, and grabbed a few torches, lighting them up as well and handing them to the others who then wordlessly split up. The explosion and also the present movement had caught the attention of a couple of dragons, their eyes trained on the riders through their cages.
Many were bound up in chains and muzzled but some were so wounded, a few even maimed that they didn't pose enough of a threat to anyone. Hiccup clenched his jaw tightly in a moment of anger towards the captors. All the other bases they had raided were exactly similar to this one.
Nadders, Nightmares, Gronckles were the ones most commonly caught and caged in these places, along with a few Zipplebacks and Hobblegrunts. Even the occasional Dramilion or Razorwhip.
Hiccup approached the nearest cage that held a Monstrous Nightmare, its jaw muzzled shut and its eyes following his every move, uncurling from its previous position and stood up as much as it could with the cage restricting movement.
Toothless stood beside the young chief as he moved to unlock the cage, smacking the hilt of Inferno against the padlock and watching it shatter. Sheathing the sword and pulling the heavy metal gate open. The wyvern inside glared at him in suspicion and gave a muffled growl in warning when the human stepped inside.
Hiccup carefully approached the beast, stretching out his hand, ignoring the growl. His palm feet or two away from its muzzles when it snapped, about to lunge at him with talons outstretched but discouraged when the Nightfury gave a low snarl, his spine flashing blue for just an instant as he established his presence as the Alpha.
The wyvern backed down in submission, still distrustful of the human male. Taking the chance, he moved forwards and quickly unfastened the clasps of the muzzle, which came loose and fell to the ground. Slowly backing out of the cage and moving out of the way. The Monstrous Nightmare saw its chance at freedom and instantly darted out of the cage, clumsily knocking into a few empty cages, and took flight the moment it exited the stable.
Sighing in relief, Hiccup briefly scratched Toothless's neck.
"Thanks, bud, for the help." He said. "Hmph, come on. There are many more to see to and we're running out of time."
Hiccup then moved to the next cage that contained a Nadder. Minutes went by as each of the riders busied themselves in releasing the caged dragons and set them free from the chains with Toothless assisting them. It wouldn't be long before someone spotted the dragons flying away and realized that they were duped big time, by the Riders.
It went on like this for the next couple of minutes. They had managed to free the greater part of the captive dragons but the process was too slow and the fleeing dragons made too much of a noise.
Hiccup had decided to send Snotlout outside with their dragons to keep watch and alert them when the Hunters arrived. He just released a Gronkle, trying to guess how many more trapped dragons were left when he heard Astrid call out rather urgently.
"Hiccup! You might want to take a look at this!"
Astrid's voice came from the further back of the structure. He frowned, glancing at Toothless who seemed to give him a shrug with his wings, evidently just as clueless.
Both of them made their way towards her, rounding a corner to find Astrid and Fishlegs standing a short distance from a cage that was oddly separated from the other surrounding cages. It was currently shrouded in darkness so Hiccup couldn't really tell if it was occupied, even with the help of the feeble glow their torches offered from where they stood.
"What is it, Astrid?" Hiccup asked, looking around as he came to stand beside her as she stared at the cage for a moment before blinking and glancing at Hiccup, then nodding towards the enclosure and passing him her torch. "I think you should check this out for yourself."
Astrid had a great poker face which gave nothing away, though it wasn't the same case with Fishlegs who had a mixed expression of awe and surprise plastered on his face.
Hiccup wasn't sure how to feel about that. It actually made him rather slightly nervous to walk towards the cage but what really unnerved him was the fact that as Toothless sniffed his surroundings, his ears suddenly shot up and his pupils slightly constricted with wide eyes staring at the darkened enclosure.
What in Odin's name was in there?
The young chief stepped forwards slowly, cautiously, as if expecting something to leap out of the cage. His torch illuminated the edges of the interior as he stopped, coming to stand right beside it. Nothing horrifying leaped out and attempted to eat him alive. That was a good sign at least, he thought before raising the makeshift lamp.
The light fell over a rather small, prone form that seemed to have curled up in the middle of the hold. He could make out black scales along with short, stubby legs and leathery wings.
Hiccup blinked. It only took him a second to realize what exactly he was looking at.
"Nightfury." He breathed out softly, the word barely more than a whisper.
So that was the first chapter, and I feel like this all could prove to be pretty cool if my motivation holds and doesn't drop halfway through.
I apologize if this contains any inconsistencies or grammatical errors because I'm still pretty new to all this.