I have so much fun talking to readers of this story, because its always "WHAT IDIOTS I LOVE THEM" or something to that effect. And it's true. They are idiots and I love them.
-HTTYD-
"Do try not to get yourselves killed!"
Eret rolled his eyes, picking up his armour. Valka couldn't deny he'd done an incredible job on it. They'd been on a few test flights and his movement was not impeded in the slightest, he and Tripfire were increasingly good together in the air. And the detail of his Stormcutter influence, from the streaks of colour made of Tripfire's scales to the horns and frills on his helmet... it was incredible, and nobody looking upon him like that could possibly envision that beneath was somebody who had once captured dragons.
And honestly, she could use the help. Drago and the Hunters had really upped their games the last few months, and Valka had been out on rescues almost every night some weeks, added a hundred or so dragons to the sanctuary in the last month and a half.
Eret tucked his swords into the new sheathes he'd made, which sat against him more neatly so they wouldn't wobble in the air. Tripfire could barely contain herself, excited to be finally allowed to go out and exact some justice for her kind. Eret barely managed to climb up on the saddle, laughing as she shuffled her wings, looking expectantly over at Valka who was lifting her own helmet on.
"Ready?"
"Ready. Remember Tripfire, if Valka tells us to get out we gotta. Don't want you getting hurt now, do we girl?"
Tripfire huffed, but she was purring when Eret stroked a hand across her neck, soothed by her rider. And quite smug, Valka imagined, about Eret's colour scheme. The helmet muffled his voice some, but not so much Valka couldn't understand him. It ought to help disguise him, should there be trappers who could recognise his voice. As soon as Valka was up on Cloudjumpers back, they took off.
Above the clouds, their helmets came off to enjoy the night sky for a moment. Eret was far more adjusted to the thin air now, and when Valka looked over at him the only word to describe his face was peaceful. No hands on the saddle, just sat calmly amongst the darkness with Tripfire's wings beating steadily beneath him. To see such a difference in the man she'd met only months ago, insisting dragons were dangerous, flying them madness... Valka's heart skittered in her chest at his serene smile. Incognito chittered, returning from beneath the cloud to let her know they were close.
Tripfire turned to the rattle of Valka's staff, which caught Eret's attention and his helmet slid back on, leaning forward in the saddle slightly and preparing for the descent. They dove, circling the island of cages filled with dragons, a few of their own already peeling off from the group to start smashing up the living quarters - a quick and easy way to make it harder for the trappers to stay, if the choice was try to rebuild charred remains or move on. Only Vikings were stubborn enough to repeatedly rebuild... Valka shook off the faint thoughts of Berk, Stormcutter fire to her right garnering attention.
Eret crouched on the saddle, sword in hand, Tripfire pouring flames across a line of trappers to clear them from in front of the cage. For a few seconds, Cloudjumper was frozen in place, apparently too entranced by watching Tripfire cause wanton destruction to remember they were supposed to be in it too. He leapt into action at last - well, flew into action - and they dropped down to where the cages were, picking locks and knocking aside any especially stupid, insistent trappers who kept trying to stop her.
In a frankly spectacular and stupid move, Tripfire had Eret hang on her tail and used it to swing him into the fight without her having to come down, and he barely even stumbled as he landed before drawing a sword and standing ready at her side.
"Oh great, there's two of 'em now!"
"Just means more bodies to burn, move!"
Well, now it was definitely out Valka had a recruit of sorts. Not that Eret had been 'recruited' so much as adopted by a persistent dragon and dragged, kicking and screaming, into accepting them as friends before he became the type of man who slept amongst baby dragons.
Still... he was there to help, and Valka believed in his conviction, his strength for the fight. She held a hand up - a silent signal of "ready?" and Eret nodded, both moving as one to take down the trappers there. Eret was a skilled fighter and it showed, taking down three on his own while Valka knocked out a couple more with solid blows from her staff to their heads. Before she could warn him there was one behind him, Eret turned and slammed an armoured elbow into the beefy mans stomach, and as he doubled over Eret clocked him with the hilt of his sword, sending him down.
"Let's do what we came here for, shall we?"
Cloudjumper and Tripfire had burning things down well in hand, leaving Eret to prove he knew how all the various locks worked as he helped Valka open cages. There wasn't time, but she couldn't help noticing how he soothed each one, tucking a sword away so he appeared unarmed to them and holding his hand out until they saw he meant no harm.
A gloved hand gripped the horns of his helmet, pulling up the front visor to free his mouth so he could call Tripfire down with a sharp whistle - she'd never hear Valka's staff with all the yelling. Tripfire immediately turned toward him, swooping over and roaring a "follow us!" to the rescued dragons while Cloudjumper gathered a few of the stronger to carry the injured.
Valka leant down to pick up her staff, where she'd dropped it to unlock a cage, admittedly paying not enough attention for a few brief seconds. And it almost cost her dearly.
"Duck!"
She dropped to a crouch on instinct as she heard Eret's voice, twisting in time to see a hunter behind her get hit in the head with a hefty hammer, thrown by Eret from several feet away. She took in her surroundings with more focus then, saw nothing of immediate concern and straightened up. Eret dropped his visor again, and Valka wondered if she'd have even heard him with it down to muffle his voice. Hopefully the hunter didn't remember a distinctive tattooed face...
"Thank you."
Her hand laid on Eret's wrist, the only bare skin between his arm brace and gloves, helmet turning toward her and in the firelight, Valka could see his amber eyes alight.
"You're welcome. Come on, let's do a sweep and get out of here."
A sweep satisfied them they'd cleared that spot tonight, and so they took off with their latest rescues. Eret waited until they had cloud cover again, lifting his helmet and Valka could see the excitement in him, the joy.
"That was amazing! Oh wow, what a rush! Look at all the dragons we saved!"
That we saved...
He spread his arms around to indicate the dozen or so flying alongside them, another three on backs of bigger dragons as they weren't strong enough to make the flight back. They were the sort to be sold for hide rather than fight, and Valka was thrilled they saved the dragons from such a fate. As was Eret, clearly, practically bouncing on his saddle and congratulating Tripfire for her amazing work.
"We make a good team, huh girl?"
"Rrrowwwwwww!"
Tripfire roared happily, spinning in mid air - there was a time Eret would have been thrown off, but now he anticipated and held on, coming out still on the saddle right way up... except his dropped helmet. Before either could go for it, one of their rescued Zipplebacks ducked down and caught it, beginning to have something of a tug-of-war with it until Tripfire growled. They gave it back then. Eret laughed, making a note.
"I better add something to my saddle to keep this on, huh? Either that or convince Tripfire to slow down the acrobatics..." Tripfire huffed "yeah I'll adjust the saddle."
Valka joined him laughing. He'd saved her, saved dragons, and he was now flying alongside her celebrating the very thing he'd once loathed her for doing.
Yes, it had been a very good night.
It was only a matter of time, Eret knew, before he faced someone he'd once worked with.
He just hadn't expected it to be Drago himself.
They didn't square off one-to-one, but they'd gotten word he was moving part of his operations, and that was the right kind of time to interrupt them. So they packed up Eret's saddlebags with smoked salmon and yak jerky, collected up all the dragons who could tolerate the brutal cold weather, and they went.
Tripfire picked up on Eret's tension, and it took all his strength to stop her going after Drago personally. He feared she'd get hurt - Drago was not afraid to kill for something like a minor inconvenience, never mind a dragon literally trying to set him on fire. They focused on the pairs specialty - springing the traps. Between them, they'd sprung several while Valka and Cloudjumper kept Drago occupied, far more skilled fliers and able to dodge the shots from the ships, landing several well-placed shots themselves that tore ships apart. Eret faltered mid-air when Tripfire turned to ask "where next?", eyes fixed on something in the water.
Something about the bubbling, bubbling, bubbling... it was familiar and he couldn't think why. He knew he'd seen it before, but where?
Tripfire dove out of nowhere, twisting out of the way of two armoured Thunderclaws that flew straight for them and Eret knew a moments hesitation.
He'd have had no qualms taking out dragons that could hurt him before. But now he knew... they weren't there willingly. He knew Drago broke them, forced them. He couldn't hurt them for that.
"Just stun 'em girl, we're not here to fight them."
Tripfire dove again, intending to swoop up and attack but she didn't get the chance before Cloudjumper swept in, using his back legs to grip one Thunderclaw and fling it into its friend, knocking both out of the sky with a clang! of metal on metal. The armour took the hit, but it took them out all the same... they'd obviously done that before. He saw Valka's go! signal, pulling at Tripfire and narrowly avoiding a volley of arrows. The temptation was to go back, to intentionally destroy everything they could...
But that was risky. And they were there to do what they could without risk to the dragons. They'd pulled twenty out already, and they'd have trouble herding many more. Tripfire's well-aimed fire took out another armoured dragon behind Valka and Cloudjumper, the two Stormcutters sharing a look that felt kind of like "we're even now" before they had to move again, Drago's men attacking more viciously, and he heard a piercing, primal scream from Drago. Valka stood up straighter, shaking her staff with urgency and gesturing at Eret with her other hand.
"Go! Go!"
They went. There was no choice, it was clear. Eret heard a pained shout, saw an arrow had found home in the belly of a Nadder and Tripfire turned before he had chance to think about it. Flying under, his dragon trembled with the new weight but managed, and Eret carefully pulled the arrow out with shaking hands.
"Can you fly?"
The Nadder struggled to right himself, but he managed to take off with an ungainly leap and Eret was relieved to see him get going - stomach wounds were painful, but had the biggest window to get treated in general. A sudden barrel roll from Tripfire almost unseated him, but he grabbed hold of the saddle just in time as the water broke over spines, and Eret realised many things at once.
The Bewilderbeast at Valka's nest looking familiar. The bubbles reminding him, Those memories were hazy with pain and the smell of his own burning flesh, but Drago had branded him personally and that dragon had been watching.
Drago's Bewilderbeast.
They pulled out of the fight just in time - Eret saw ice shards fly past him, knew a few seconds difference could have cost he and Tripfire their lives. Circling in the air, Eret's heart fell into his stomach when he saw Cloudjumper, but no feral vigilante woman on his back.
Drago's shout had he and Tripfire turning back, and with a worrying jolt that almost made him sick, Eret saw Valka far too close to Drago for anyones liking. He leapt from Tripfire's back, landing painfully on the closest ship and cursing the pain that lanced through his ankle and leg, but he could still move and it was all he needed, jumping up on to the docks and running toward where he'd seen them last.
Everything happened all at once, so fast he barely realised as he barreled into Drago and knocked the man flying, ignoring the loud splash and focusing on where Valka's helmet was several inches away from her, gash on her cheek clearly from the bullhook Drago carried and a dark stain beneath her head leaving Eret terrified.
"No no no..."
He looked up just in time to see one of Drago's men, sword raised - he intended to finish what Drago started. Eret leapt forward, gloved hands grabbing the bearers hand and twisting it. It wasn't until the man slumped with a groan that Eret realised what he'd done - the sword that almost took Valka now sat almost hilt-deep in the hunters stomach.A volley of fireballs landed around them, Stormcutters either side of them grabbing a human apiece as Eret scooped up Valka's helmet and staff. Tripfire dropped him on to Cloudjumper's back, then dropped under the dragon to give him somewhere to put Valka.
Eret leapt over to Tripfire then, heart in his throat for reasons other than the jump - it was riskier than he'd ever done before, and Drago might have drowned and his Bewilderbeast could be coming after them...
and none of it mattered if Valka wasn't going to wake up.
-HTTYD-
Ooooop. Bit dramatic?