The ocean mist cast a dull, cold stillness over the three ships, leaving them stranded in the water as they wait for the fog to dissipate. A wait made longer by the dread of guarding their cargo. A group of four soldiers patrolled the deck, with their lanterns squeaked as they swung. But suddenly, they heard the sound of something igniting. The four dashed towards where the sound came from, but when they arrived, the only thing they saw was an empty metal cage.
"Wait, where's the cargo?" A large guard asked. The others don't answer immediately, instead pointing their spears towards the fog. The large guard then draws his sword, before looking towards a smaller guard. "You! Go warn the captain, we've got a dragon on the loose!" The small guard nodded as he ran off into the fog. But he did not get far, as he was whacked upon the back of his head before collapsing on the wooden the floor. The three other guards shifted their attention towards where the smaller guard had collapsed. Cautiously edging forward towards the downed guard. Once the three reach their comrade, they hear something land on the wooden floor with a deep thud. The guards immediately turn around, pointing their spears at the figure standing before them in the fog. The figure seemed to wear black armor, covering his body from head to toe. He seemed to be rather slim, almost lanky for a person of his size. Other than is strange armor, the figure seemed uninteresting. Then he pulled out a cylindrical object from his hip. With a click, a slotted blade extended from the hilt, before igniting itself into bright golden flames. The guards' eyes widen at the sight.
"A flaming sword?" One of the guards said, slowing backing away. The armored figure then placed a finger to where the lips would be. The big guard then growled.
"Come on lads. We can take him!" He barked. "He's one man, and a skinny man to boot! He can't take all three of us!" The big guard then charged, with his spear ready to skewer the figure in his place. But the figure swung his blade, knocking the spear off course and nearly out of the guard's hands. And before the guard could react, the figure cocked his right arm, and then punched the guard right at his face, knocking out in one blow. The remaining two guards stood back. The figure returned its gaze back at its enemy. One of the guards twitched his eye, before letting out a decent war cry. The two guards then charged at the figure, but this time, the figure did not stay where he was. He two charged at the two men. The figure parried all attacks from the guards before knocking out one of them with his left foot. Unfortunately for the guard, the left foot was in-fact a metal peg leg, which caused the guard being kicked further back than expected. The final guard began to shake, before backing away from the figure. The figure then raised his sword, ready for one last duel. But instead of repeating what his comrades had done, the final guard opted to just run in the opposite direction, screaming out from his lungs.
"What? Nonononono!" The figure yelled, before giving chase. The chase wasn't long, as the guard wasn't very fast. The figure then retracted his flaming blade, before throwing the hilt straight at the guard's head, finally knocking him out. The figure then sighed, "That could have gone a little better," he then said. He then looked up above one of the cages, motioning for something to come down. With that queue, a large black, winged creature jumped down to the deck, emitting a blue glow from its spine. The creature then used his tail to smack the back of the man's head. "Yeah, I know. This was supposed to be a stealth mission." The creature then groaned before nudging the man forward. "Hey, Toothless. What are you…?" The man asked. The creature, a legendary dragon known as the Night Fury, continued to move the armored man forward, as if trying to hide him from someone, most likely the other guards who had heard the previous racket.
"ATTACK!" A guard yelled. The man and his dragon immediately jolted, before dashing away from the horde of soldiers charging towards him. But luckily for him, the man wasn't alone. The guards were suddenly accosted by several sharp objects raining down on them, before a majority of them were rammed by a large mass of a dragon. The man looked back to see two other dragons hovering above him.
"Astrid! Fishlegs!" The man yelled. "You two literally couldn't have timed that better." Astrid and her dragon quickly dropped to the deck. She was a slender woman who wore blue armor, exactly like that of her dragon, the Deadly Nadder.
"Well, don't relax just yet, Hiccup." Astrid then stated, armed with her ax. "We've still got more trappers to deal with."
"Right." Hiccup said. He then looked up at Fishlegs, a large tub of a man riding an equally tubby dragon, the Gronckle. "Fishlegs go release the other dragons," Hiccup then said, "And maybe try and find the others and hope they haven't killed themselves."
"You got it, Hiccup," Fishlegs replied as he rubbed the side of his dragon's head. "Come on, Meatlug. Let's go meets some new friends." With that, the two of them flew off to the other ships, leaving Hiccup and Astrid to deal with the rest of the soldiers. A task that would have been infinitely harder had they lacked fire-breathing reptiles that have survived many battles. The soldiers attempted to get close to the Dragon Riders but they were only met with a hard strike from both the dragons and the rider's fending them off. Several soldiers were already down as the two riders and their dragons easily pushed them back. But before any further combat, an explosion rocked the vessel. When the rider's turned their attention towards the blast, they saw that one of the ships; free of any caged dragons was split in two, as a two-headed dragon soon made its way towards Hiccup and Astrid.
"Behold; the greatest terrors this side of the archipelago!" A male voice screeched.
"And behold the greatest terrors' Zippleback!" A female voice shrieked. As they did, their yellowish-green double-headed dragon fired a mixture of green gas and sparks, causing a massive explosion to rock the ship again. Hiccup and Astrid struggled to keep their footing.
"Tuffnut! Ruffnut!" Hiccup yelled, "Stop blowing holes in this ship!" The two riders of the duel-headed dragon immediately stopped in confusion.
"Excuse me Hiccup, but have you gone insane?!" The male rider exclaimed, with his eyes wide open with shock.
"Tell me something, Hiccup, how long have they been paying you to keep caging dragons?" The female rider then demanded. Hiccup simply groaned, pinching where the bridge of his nose would be behind the mask, with Toothless chuckling at the situation.
"No, Ruffnut. I'm not being paid by the trappers." Hiccup answered.
"Well if that's true, then why don't you want us to sink these suckers to the bottom of the cold depths of Aegir's oceans?" The Tuffnut then asked, with a disapproving look on his face.
"Because if you sink the ship with all the dragons still in their cages, they will drown and we will lose a massive batch of dragons." Hiccup responded.
"Why can't we just go save them while they're in the water?" Ruffnut then asked.
"Because if you do, than we run the risk of drowning both ourselves and our dragons." Astrid pointed out. "So tell me this, are you really willing to drown Barf and Belch and lose them forever?" The twin dragon riders said nothing; Tuffnut did attempt to open his mouth to say something, but was immediately cut off by Hiccup.
"Ahh ah ah! Save it until after we save these dragons." Hiccup said, he then called for Toothless circle him in a defensive position. Toothless then fired a blue blast at a group of soldiers charging their way towards them. As he did, Hiccup used his fire sword to cut through the strange locks of the cages. Once he got inside, he immediately cut the leather binds which the now unbound dragon took the queue to stretch its wings and fly away. Hiccup continued this routine with the other cages, unbinding the dragons inside with Toothless keeping unwanted soldier off his back.
Astrid was currently fending off a group of five soldiers with the aid of her Nadder. Astrid barely needed to swing her ax at her enemies as her dragon simply picked up the soldiers and threw them overboard. "Thanks, Stormfly." Stormfly let out a satisfied sound as it nudged the azure-clad rider. Astrid then unlocked the final cage on the ship, where Stormfly then used her tail, spikes popping out, cutting the leather binds. With that, the final dragon was freed, and Astrid signaled to the other riders. She then mounted Stormfly and flew off the navel vessel.
"That's our queue!" Hiccup yelled, he then mounted Toothless, sitting on-top the leather saddle made specifically for the Night Fury. "Let's head to the final ship!" Toothless then ran down the deck, before flapping his wings and taking to the air. "Has anyone seen Snotlout?" Hiccup then asked, looking around.
"You telling me it's hard to keep track of a muttonhead who sets himself on fire despite never fireproofing his butt?" Tuffnut then asked.
"Thanks for your ever so insightful comment, Tuffnut." Hiccup responded.
"You're welcome; I've got plenty more to give, no extra charge." Tuffnut replied. Hiccup promptly ignored Tuffnut, before calling out for,
"Fishlegs! You up?"
"Yep! I'm still here." Fishlegs responded.
"Good, anything on the last ship?" Hiccup then asked.
"Not much, other than the fact that the ship lacks any dragon cages from what I've seen." Fishlegs responded. Hiccup was not expecting this information.
"Wait, that doesn't make sense," Hiccup then stated, "The Trappers obviously had a quota to fill, why send out an empty ship? That would just be dead weight."
"Oh, my poor Hiccup, you focus way too much on the 'reasons' and the 'why' of the situation," Tuffnut then replied.
"We, on the other hand, prefer to simply take action and blow them up to kingdom come!" Ruffnut said, before immediately flying towards the final ship.
"Hey, wait guys!" Hiccup then yelled, as he followed the twins. Luckily for Hiccup, Toothless's speed was far faster than the Zippleback, which meant that the duo managed to catch up to and cut off the twins. Though that did also mean that the Zippleback had nearly collided with the Night Fury. "Can you too just wait for one minute?" Hiccup than asked. The twins gave each other a look of confusion, before giving Hiccup a look of annoyance.
"We'll be counting down." Tuffnut then said.
"Okay, listen." Hiccup then started, "If a Trapper ship has no cages, don't you think there's a big chance that they're trying to hide something from us?"
"I don't know, but if they are hiding something then Snotlout will probably find out what it is."
"Wait, Snotlout?" Hiccup then asked.
"Huh, so you saw where that muttonhead went?" Tuffnut casually asked.
"You mean to tell me that you knew where Snotlout was and you didn't think to tell us anything?" Astrid then asked.
"Well, honestly Astrid, these two don't really think about anything, so…" Fishlegs then started, but when given an irritated glare from the blonde rider, he promptly kept his mouth shut.
"If Snotlout's on that ship and if he's in trouble, then we need to get him out of there." Hiccup then stated. He then turned to face Astrid and Fishlegs. "You two stay back and watch our backs." Hiccup then shifted his attention towards the twins. "You guys are coming with me."
"Uh, Hiccup?" Astrid asked.
"I know, Astrid." Hiccup responded, before finally shifting his attention towards the final ship, still close by. "Tuff, Ruff, let's go! And try not to sink the ship with us still onboard." Hiccup then zoomed at high speeds towards the Trapper ship, with the twins following closely.
Getting on the final Trapper vessel was a lot less harder than getting on the other two ships, mostly due to the fact that the top deck was empty.
"This doesn't make much sense." Hiccup said. "Where's the patrol?"
"Shouldn't that be a good thing? Less trouble for us, am I right, sis?" Tuffnut then stated.
"I don't think so." Hiccup replied. He then turned back to face the twins, "You two stay up here. I'll look for Snotlout down on the lower decks."
"How do you know Snotlout's in the lower decks?" Ruffnut then asked.
"I don't, but since he's not flying above us, and is not on the top deck, I'll bet that he and Hookfang are below us." Before the twins could say anything, both Hiccup and Toothless rushed towards the stairs to the lower decks.
The first lower deck was completely empty. No dragon cages and soldiers. But the area wasn't clean. As Hiccup ignited his blade he could see that the floor of the deck was riddled with splintered wood and what appeared to be small puncture holes on the walls. Both rider and dragon were on edge. But he had to find Snotlout.
"Snotlout!" Hiccup then yelled. His voice echoed down the chamber. The flames from his blade only illuminated a short distance around him and Toothless. "Hookfang!" Hiccup yelled again. The rider then looked back at Toothless, who started glaring his teeth, letting out a low, aggressive growl as his pupils narrowed from their rectangular shape to slits. Hiccup then looked forward again. "Hold steady, Toothless." Hiccup ordered, as both took a defensive stance. Then the sound the something clanging could be heard from below. Hiccup held steady, as the inside of Toothless's mouth began to glow blue.
"Make the shot count, Toothless." Hiccup then stated. The clanging and banging grew closer and closer. Toothless opened his mouth, as he aimed his plasma blast at whatever was making the noise.
"Hiccup! Is that you?" A voice then yelled, or more squealed. Hiccup relaxed as Toothless stopped growling, dousing the plasma in the mouth.
"Snotlout, what were you doing?" Hiccup then yelled. "You almost made Toothless plasma blast you."
"First of all, that's cruel." Snotlout responded. "And secondly, can you get me out of here?!" Snotlout's voice was filled with fear and desperation, something that Hiccup quickly caught on to.
"Snotlout, what happened?" Hiccup then asked, cautiously moving towards the stairs to the second lower deck. Toothless's eyes narrowed once more, as he prepared his plasma blast in his mouth.
"I don't know!" Snotlout then yelled. "Hookfang and I walking around the ship, and once we got down here, something just jumped out and knocked Hookfang out!" Hiccup was now confused, but that confusion was overshadowed by an uneasiness that caused the rider to shiver lightly.
"Is Hookfang still out?" Hiccup then asked.
"No, he's back up. But he hasn't made a single noise since getting up!" Snotlout yelled. Now this was getting strange. Hiccup always knew Nightmares to be proud dragons, often flaunting their strength with intimidation and boastful roars, and Hookfang was no exception. Sure, there were dragons that were bigger, stronger and more dangerous than the Nightmare, it still didn't change the fact that they were a species with a lot of pride to spare and rarely become silent with fear. Whatever had terrified Hookfang, Hiccup had hoped he would be lucky enough to avoid for now.
"Okay, just stay there. We're on our way." Hiccup then said. He then gestured for Toothless to stay behind him, as he slowly made his way towards the stairs. Then, Snotlout let out a terrified and frantic scream. "Snotlout!" Hiccup yelled, as both he and Toothless bolted towards the stairs. But before the two could reach their destination, a large, black and red blur flew up from the opening, crashing through both the stairs and the ceiling of the deck. Wooden splinters and sharp planks flew everywhere. Luckily for Hiccup, Toothless was fast enough for him to cover his rider with his wings, protecting Hiccup as the splinters and shards harmlessly bounced off the dragon's wings. Once the coast was clear, Toothless unveiled his wings.
"Thanks bud." Hiccup then said. He then ran towards the newly formed hole, trying to catch a glimpse of Snotlout and Hookfang. He didn't have to wait long, as Hookfang shoot out of the hole, with Snotlout clinging tightly to the dragon's snout. Hiccup took in a deep sigh as he mounted Toothless. The two then fly through the hole out of the ship where they notice Hookfang finally calming down, though he still kept Snotlout dangling with his legs flailing about. Relief came over Hiccup and Toothless as they saw that the Nightmare had no serious injuries on him. Not to mention, they did Snotlout desperately hanging from the red dragon to be pretty humorous.
"Okay, you two seem fine." Hiccup then stated.
"Do I look fine?!" Snotlout hollered, as Hookfang chuckled at his rider's peril. But the Nightmare had his fill, as promptly flung Snotlout to the saddle on his back. Snotlout then glared at the dragon. Hiccup let out a light chuckle as he turned to see the sun rise out of the horizon.
"Okay, since you're safe, let's find the twins and meet up with the rest." Hiccup then said.
"You do that." Snotlout spat out, "In the meantime, I'll look for Astrid and Fishface." Wasting no time, Snotlout flew at a random direction, with no regards to the fact that he really had no idea where the two riders actually were. Thankfully for Hiccup, Hookfang managed to realize this and went straight back to Toothless. Snotlout said nothing as he spitefully avoided eye contact with Hiccup.
"Alright Toothless, let's go." Hiccup then ordered. Toothless then bolted off in one direction, with Hookfang following closely. But during this minor banter, the thought of the red and black blur and what it was doing on the Trapper ship remained in the back of his mind, like a string constantly pulling him back.