Standing near the rim of The Edge's volcano, Hiccup's hair rustled in the wind as he analysed the terrain around him. Finally feeling some sense of relief, he exhaled a small sigh. Finally. He thought. This whole thing is done. But Toothless growled at something Hiccup couldn't see… or hadn't seen yet. He assumed that the dragon was still on edge from the battle they had just faced against the Ryker and the hunters, and so he tried to soothe his reptilian best friend, instead of having another look for what Toothless had sensed coming up the side of the mountain towards them.
"We'll be okay, Bud. This nightmare looks like it's finally over." Hiccup half smiled. But that grin was half-lived, because his train of thought has been cut off by none other than the menacing voice of Vigo Grimborn.
"Are you sure about that Hiccup?" The two turned and saw Vigo and Astrid both sitting atop Stormfly, her own axe held to her neck by the previous leader of the Hunters. Once a scumbag, always a scumbag. Hiccup hissed internally as his fists clenched in anger and fear as he locked eyes with his long-standing nemesis, while Toothless instantly noticed something was not quite right. Not the fact that Astrid seemed in danger… but that Stormfly was calm about it. Her rider had her life being threatened by an unfamiliar man, or a man who should be unfamiliar to the Deadly Nadder... and yet she looked as natural and as collected as ever. Toothless put two and two together and realised that… Stormfly was used to Vigo. She knew him as well as she knew Hiccup or any of the riders. Toothless nudged Hiccup, praying that he would notice, but the young Viking was too engulfed by the glint of the axe at the neck of the woman he loved to notice the proverbial red flag: That humans can lie, but dragons, never do.
"Vigo. Let me guess; you want the Dragon Eye in exchange for Astrid" Hiccup scowled
"Oh it sounds so much colder when you say it like that." Vigo shrugged and continued: "But, yes." Hiccup's furrowed brow deepened in tension while the leader of the Hunters began to monologue. "While I do appreciate your assistance in putting my brother back in his rightful place, I must insist that you return the Dragon Eye to where it belongs. With me." He then shifted the axe closer to Astrid's throat as she let out a gasp at its vicinity. Hiccup turned without hesitation and grabbed the device out from satchel fixed to Toothless' saddle. The Night Fury desperately tried to get his rider's attention by fighting Hiccup's movements. But instead of noticing these motions the Viking just hushed his dragon and murmured a quick 'Not now, Bud' as he looked down at the Dragon Eye in his hand, contemplating the trade and his other options.
Astrid's sky-blue eyes were full of unrecognised mirth as she called out a feigned "Hiccup don't even think about it." And he looked back up at the two in front of him, desperately trying not to lose his cool and start to panic.
"Come now." Vigo interjected "Are you really going to sacrifice your future? All the wonderful years you have ahead of you? For that?" Hiccup's gaze fell upon the Dragon Eye again, before he glanced up and met the stare of the love of his life. Who shook her head as lightly as she could – seemingly fearful not to have her skin touch the axe right next to her jugular. And Hiccup made up his mind.
"Wow Vigo. When you put it like that…" Astrid almost smirked for half a second, but Hiccup didn't see "NO I'M NOT!" He yelled and threw it with all his might over the heads of the two. Astrid and Vigo's shocked expressions perfectly mirroring one another's. Vigo threw Astrid away from him and she landed on her hands and knees a few feet to the right. She all but growled in fury at the motion, but tried to hide it when she saw that Hiccup's eyes were on hers. He still didn't notice, and just assumed that Astrid was being her usual hot headed self, mad at the man for threatening her. With that thought he swivelled back to just in time to see Vigo as he leapt off Stormfly and clambered after the Dragon Eye. But he was too late, the device had fallen off the edge of the cliff and into the rippling volcanic lava beneath, leaving the Hunter to only stare in disbelief.
He pivoted as fast as the movements of a Speed Stinger. With a glare stating he was ready to kill, Vigo had finally snapped. He stepped forward, ready to do something, anything, to torture Hiccup in some way… but suddenly the ground crumbled beneath him and he, too, fell into the scorching abyss screaming Hiccup's name. Hiccup, always the Samaritan at heart, ran to the edge even though he knew he couldn't be quick enough, and stared at the lava which had engulfed Vigo's body. There was nothing to be found, of neither the Eye nor the man he had fought for so long.
The silence lasted a long moment before Astrid finally broke it. "Are you okay?" She almost cooed as she approached the brunette from behind.
"Yeah. I'll be fine." He turned to face her with every intention of embracing her…. But instead he was met with sharp pain in his abdomen. He coughed, and he swore he could taste blood as he looked down and saw a small dagger impaled in his lower stomach. Hiccup looked up, betrayal clear in his gaze, but he was met with only a cold smirk on the face of his lover. He started frantically looking around, trying to call out for Toothless, but when he finally caught a glance of his best friend, Hiccup realised that Toothless had been muzzled by a group of Hunters that appeared from nowhere. Hiccup scanned the surroundings and realised they must have emerged from the bushes while he had chased after Vigo. Looking back to his reptilian friend his heart began to hurt more than from the physical wound Astrid had inflicted; there was a spine from Stormfly's tail imbedded in Toothless' side, leaving a trail of blood as the Night fury was carted away. Hiccup screamed for his best friend… but as blood trickled down his own form, he realised there was nothing to be done, Hiccup was losing consciousness slowly but surely.
"I'm surprised you didn't just give Vigo the stupid Dragon Eye." She then twisted the dagger which was still embedded in his flesh, and Hiccup fell to his knees in agony "Not even for life the woman you loved" Astrid put on a mocking voice as she the words, and Hiccup finally grappled with what was happening. Even when the knife first entered his stomach… he couldn't fathom that… that... His complexion twisted into a dark scowl and his eyes flashed with rage.
"Y-you've been double crossing us?" He spat some blood on her tunic deliberately, and she didn't even blink. Instead, Astrid decided to finally pull the dagger from Hiccup's body, as he slumped to the ground unable to keep his own weight up. "For how long?" He coughed his words out, losing his strength. Astrid bent over Hiccup's crumpled form and wiped his blood off her dagger by wiping it on his tunic.
"Not that long. But long enough." She calculatedly examined her knife to see if she had any more of Hiccup's blood on it before returning it to its original place strapped to her thigh "It was after my dad was killed by that Changewing 6 months ago, and my mother - rightfully -decided started to hunt them down…. And your father EXILED her and my baby brother, left them on a boat in the middle of the archipelago with no food or water, he essentially sentenced them to death. Even if the Scaldron hadn't gotten them first." Hiccup's eyes widened in shock as Astrid spoke "See?! You never even knew! About my father… my mother … none of it! And while my mother and baby brother were being boiled alive by that monster, you and I and those fucking Dragon Riders were - of all fucking things - relocating a baby Death Song to an island with another such monster! Both of which would have kill us in a heartbeat if we gave them the chance! By the time I realised… it was too late. And now I know… if they ever did have a purpose… it's that all dragons are more useful as profit than as friends. So, I decided to meet up with Vigo and one thing led to another."
"But what about Stormfly?" Hiccup couldn't believe his ears when Astrid made her response "Though Stormfly is a good weapon, and faster than a boat. She knows her place." She held out a fist threateningly at her dragon, who flinched but didn't move away. The vicious blonde scoffed with laughter for a moment before she mounted her dragon. "And I think that it's about time the rest of the world knew their place! Especially since now Vigo and his brother are gone, it's about time I took over as leader for the Hunters." She started to walk away following the direction the other hunters had taken Toothless.
"Astrid… Please! I'm so sorry that all that happened to your family… but you must know it's not the Dragons' fault!" Astrid stopped in her tracks. Listening to Hiccup's voice as he slowly lost more and more of his alertness, consciousness ebbing, but he pressed on nonetheless. "I can't change what my dad did, but … s-surely hunting dragons is never the answer!" Astrid's face fell unreadable and she turned to re-approached him, slipping off her dragon again as she reached his side. She leant down over the blood soaked young Viking she had once admired, maybe even loved… and whispered in a deathly tone that Hiccup knew he'd never forget.
"A chief protects his own. Doesn't he?" She paused, but knew no answer would come "So why didn't your dad protect my family?" A silent tear fell down her face and she used all her force to kick Hiccup in the stomach, right by his wound. He blacked out immediately.
Hiccup awoke many hours later. It was now well after night had fallen, and he found himself a cell beneath the deck of a hunter ship. He could tell that the ship wasn't swaying enough to mean that it was on the high seas, so he deducted that it must have been docked somewhere. Maybe the Hunters were looking for more prey before they returned to wherever their destination was, with their cargo from The Edge. They clearly were not in a rush. Clutching his bruised and bloodied stomach he shuffled around the space in the dark, trying to grasp the room's dimensions, as he heard the voices of the guards in the distance:
"Wait why did we throw his prosthetic leg overboard and not the Night Fury's tail fin?" Hiccup huffed looking down at his stump, only just realising its absence. It's funny what you don't notice after you've been stabbed Hiccup quipped internally, but kept on listening anyway. "Because that Astrid chick was worried about them somehow escaping. She said we had to get rid of either his leg or the fin, but that if we got rid of the fin we'd lose a lot of the dragon's value since it can't fly… so leg it was!" The two laughed as though it was some act of genius… but to be fair it really did hinder Hiccup and Toothless' chance of escape.
Scrambling onto his one good leg, and using the walls for support, Hiccup started to move around the cell. His gut was still in considerable pain, but at least it had stopped bleeding. He was thankful it was only a dagger used against him, and not one of Astrid's many other weapons from The Edge, otherwise the wound would have been much bigger and deeper… And he'd be in a lot worse shape. As his eyes slowly adjusted to the darkness, he found the side of the cell with bars so as to get a good look of his surroundings. There were two other medium sized cells in the hull all in a row facing a walkway on the starboard side of the ship and presumably leading up to the deck. The cell he was being kept in was nearest what he guessed would be the captain's quarters at the bow of the ship, he craned his neck to see down the walkway. The other cells were on the way out towards the staircase to the deck, and he knew Toothless had to be in one of the two of them.
Hiccup sat back down and began to brainstorm ways for his escape, leaning on the wall perpendicular to the bars so that he could watch what happened in the walkway as events unfolded. And Hiccup was glad he did place himself in such a position because less than half an hour later, he heard the rest of the crew re-board the ship. From listening to the rowdiness of the soldiers up top, it became clear to Hiccup that they'd clearly caught something worth getting riled up over. The deck's hatch to the cargo cells was thrown open with a decided clang and the moonlight instantly illuminated the room. Two hunters came below deck. One of them had an already-bloodied whip in hand, and the other hunter behind entered, leading a white and pale blue Triplestryke by her muzzled snout into the hull. Hiccup had never seen a Triplestryke that was coloured as such, and he couldn't help but smile at how beautiful she was.
But then a frown etched into his face when he remembered the terrible place she had ended up, and that this was no time to be admiring a beautiful dragon. The hunter with the whip called out the guards in the captain's quarters and yelled at them to light the torches on the wall lining the walkway. One guard emerged from the room and as he was providing light to the room the first hunter went into the cell in between Hiccup's cell and the one he assumed held Toothless, since he knew Astrid wasn't dumb enough to have them in adjacent cells.
Suddenly, Hiccup's heart skipped a beat and he winced as he heard the distinct sound of a whip cracking on flesh and a frail voice crying out in pain. Hiccup instantly realised in horror that there was another person being held in here. The whip cracks repeated a few more times, each one resulting in a smaller outcry than the last from the victim. The horrific sounds eventually ceased and a few moments later the hunter reappeared dragging the body of a young woman into view and then in front of his cell. She had a tangled mess of red curls for hair, and cuts and bruises on every inch of skin Hiccup could see.
"Boy you better get back from those bars right now or else" the huge man boomed, but Hiccup felt defiant and yelled back "Or what? You'll whip me too?" But the hunter just grinned the most menacing smile Hiccup had ever seen and dropped the red-headed girl in a heap on the ground. "No, you'd like that, being a hero. Astrid warned me about your guts. So instead…. I won't whip you… but I might whip her for it." He hissed out and then pressed one of his heavily calloused thumbs into one of the many open cuts on the girl's arms. She let out an almost animalistic howl of pain. Hiccup blanched and held his shaky breath… Her scream was overwhelming, and Hiccup scurried back as fast as he could, desperate to provide the girl with some relief. But the hunter only pressed harder, she screamed even louder as Hiccup's eyes began to tear up.
"Please! Stop!" He yelled "I did what you wanted! I'm away from the door! Please just stop!" The guards' eyes were now on Hiccup not the girl, they relished in the sight of his reaction as much as they had the sounds of her screeching in agony.
"Well you should have done as you were told, when you were told to do it!" Both of the hunters laughed hysterically, and it hit Hiccup that Astrid had been training up a whole new breed of the monsters that constituted the Hunters. The man then began to rip a chunk of hair from the girl's head, blood coating the roots, and Hiccup realised that they had taken a piece of her scalp too with the motion. But Hiccup knew he couldn't move a muscle… or she'd only be hurt worse. The Triplestryke was becoming more and more agitated, straining against its muzzle and desperately trying to spread it's bound wings. Hiccup knew it was trying to help her, but the hunter pointed a dagger coated in dragon's root right at the tender beast's eyeball, and it instantly conceded and stopped thrashing.
The girl had reached the point where she couldn't take the pain any longer and emptied the contents of her stomach on the deck and on the Hunter's boots. As a result, he then back-handed her across her face in rage. As he looked down on his slightly wet hand, the hunter became infuriated with the fact that got a smidge of her vomit onto his knuckles he kicked her in the side which his already dirtied shoe. The girl grabbed his sides with shaky hands and looked up at him with a pleading face. But the man was so disgusted with her that he seemed even more angered by this and decided he had had enough of looking at her.
The Hunter then opened Hiccup's cell and he threw her small figure into it, Hiccup dove forward in an attempt to catch her from hitting the hard ground again. He caught her upper body and cradled her head into his chest. "I'm sorry" He whispered. And she groaned weakly in response, and Hiccup looked up to watch as the second hunter then put the Triplestryke in the middle cell. Hiccup had never been so filled with rage in his entire life, but he didn't know what else to do but watch and hold the poor girl in his trembling arms. The hunter that had just beat the girl pressed his scruffed face up against the bars and spat on the two huddled Vikings, and then wordlessly turned went up top to celebrate the catch with the others on the deck, alongside the other hunter who had finished locking up the Triplestryke. Hiccup tried to settle his stomach, he too felt like he needed to vomit after what he had just witnessed, but a big part of him told it to keep it together for the girl's sake.
Silence fell upon the air, and Hiccup's mind wondered from the red head in his arms to darker thoughts… to Astrid. How on Earth did the little girl he had grown up with… had fallen in love with… turned into a savage leader who would encourage her men to do things like this. He was revolted and clutched the girl closer to his chest subconsciously. He didn't realise for a few moments until the silence which hung in the air was broken.
"S-sorry…" She mumbled into his collarbones "But I can't breathe; you're crushing me a little there, buddy." And the girl even wheezed out a tiny laugh. "Plus, I think you're bleeding on me!"
Hiccup apologised quickly before awkwardly giving her more space. He moved, as best he could with only one leg, and propped her up against the back wall of the cell then shifted back to see her face. The torch light illuminated the two of them and the second they locked eyes they both knew they wouldn't be able to look away easily.
She had beautiful features, she looked like Iduna, the goddess of Spring and rejuvenation … or at least how Gobber had described the deity in the stories he had told Hiccup as a child while they worked in the smithery. Her features were striking and were somehow even brought out all the more by her sunken cheekbones due to what was obviously malnourishment. He figured she must have been trapped by the hunters for an extensive amount of time to have had this effect. And then his heart clenched, half out of pity for her situation and half out of sheer amazement of how stunning she was. The girl had full lips and a button nose dusted with faint freckles as plentiful as the night sky was dusted with starlight. But what really stood out was her eyes. Her purple eyes. Hiccup had never seen irises that colour before; they were magical and impossible… and perfect. The future chief of Berk was baffled, and more importantly, intrigued.
"I'm Hiccup-" He started but she cut him off, her voice breathy but now stable.
"-Hiccup Haddock from Berk, yes… I've heard the Hunters speak of you …" She smiled, "All terrible things, of course. But what a hunter thinks is a terrible thing, I happen to love" The girl raised her eyebrows enticing him, and he obliged her with a huge grin that lit up his whole face instantly. Her lips were parted as she took in Hiccup's bright green eyes. He had what seemed at first glance to be a scrawny frame, but as she stared more closely she could see his arms and torso were more muscular than they appeared from a distance. He was very handsome, though it was clear he was still growing into his looks. He couldn't be more than 18, she hadn't seen someone so close to her age in a long time… other than that Astrid girl, who had joined up 6 moons ago. She continued on "Well anyway, back to business; I'm Eira. No last name you need bother with. But we can talk more when we get out of here."
"Eira? …. Wait wait wait, what?" Hiccup for once couldn't quite keep up. "Get out of here?"
"Look," She huffed, half impatiently "I've been planning an escape for the better part of a month now waiting for conditions like this and it just so happens to coincide with the day they brought you and a gorgeous Night Fury in. Guess it's your lucky day… but then again I thought the Night Furies were all lost… So I guess it's my lucky day too" Her face broke into a smile again, but immediately went back to stern just as quickly as it had lifted "I'm on a bit of a tight schedule but you're welcome to come along, in fact it'd help if you did. And from the sounds of what the guards were saying before, you can't fly outta here without me anyway. So, are you in Mr Hiccup Haddock?" She said, determination glinting in her lilac coloured eyes. Hiccup breathed in with amazement, he didn't time need to consider, he didn't have many other options to get out of here alone either way. Hiccup nodded and responded with haste.
"Of course. But my only condition is we don't leave that Triplestryke behind either."
"Wouldn't dream of leaving such a beautiful Titan Wing to rot in a place like this, I've tried it myself and it's not exactly a fun vacation!" She gestured at her heavily injured body with a half joking smile. Hiccup didn't even acknowledge her joke, and Eira realised her gallows humour might not be as funny to everyone else had it had been to her solitary audience consisting of just herself since her capture. Hiccup, instead of indulging in her cringy joke, realised then why the colour of the Triplestryke had been so distinct, it was because of its Titan Wing status… Which meant, clearly, that this girl knew a thing or two about dragons. And he, of course, always wanted to learn.
"Okay. Tell me the plan." They locked eyes and she shuffled closer before pulling a small item from her pocket. Hiccup gasped when he realised what it was. "Eira! When and how on Thor's green Earth did you get the keys off those guards?!"
"After I'd finished ruining that hunter's awful boots." She laughed, but then her eyes turned steely. "I knew I wouldn't have many opportunities to touch the guards, so I figured getting a beating would be one of my only choices. But since my last, erm…" She paused, and a deep and dark pain flashed in her eyes in remembrance, but also trying desperately to keep things light, she refrained from what she had originally planned to say, and instead went with: "'ruffing up'… they'd taken it easy on me to give me some time to heal." Hiccup's stomach turned, after seeing her state… this was them taking it easy? "I didn't know how to piss them off enough to beat me again, so if I'm honest I'm kinda glad you fucked me over." She winked, and he winced at her insinuation, and her fowl language. But he figured it anyone had a right to use whatever words they wanted it was this girl who'd been through so much. "Better free and in pain than healthy and locked up." Eira continued, a knowing air filled her words like she was speaking of more than just this moment.
"I'm still so sorry." Hiccup made the move to touch her hand, she retracted it before he could touch her again. Hiccup was taken a little aback by her actions, but he figured it must have been a while since she was touched without it being from someone trying to hurt her. So he didn't push it; he was trying to comfort her not chase her away. Still, the awkward tension hung in the air for a few heavy seconds, so Hiccup made try to make it less awkward by continuing with their conversation "Okay, so back to the plan?"
"Oh… sorry, well it's simple, really. There's a storm in the air, I can smell it." She said, and didn't explain that part further, but Hiccup for some reason trusted her prediction nonetheless. "So as soon as it hits it'll be all hands on deck and even those guards in the captain's room next to us will be called up top to help. At that point we'll let ourselves out of this cell and get your Nightfury, we'll be able to blast out of the side of the ship since this one isn't made out of dragon proof metal. Almost all of the Hunter's resources went into some battle that happened on an island called, the … ledge?"
"-The Edge. Anyway, you were saying?" Hiccup reinferred, really enjoying not being the one delegating for once. He did find he had a knack for leadership, but that doesn't mean he couldn't recognise the skill in others.
"Yes, well it'll probably be best to release the Titan Wing from outside the ship so it doesn't attack us. If we open that cell it could go for the kill, since it'll still be scared from newly being captured. If we fly away on your dragon it shouldn't pursue us, since we'll no longer be a threat. So all we have to do is navigate the storm to the nearest island and avoid those damned Dragon Root arrows. It's simple and it'll work." Eira's fists clenched so tight that her knuckles turned white. "It has to."
"We'll definitely make it work." Hiccup responded, not moving to touch her again, but trying to let her know he was there. He wanted to reassure her, he didn't know the extent of what she had been through… but he knew that it had been terrible.
"Good." She breathed "So now, we wait. The storm is coming, and so is our freedom."