Dagur sat in the forest on Dragon Island. The head of a Monstrous Nightmare sat to his right, invigorating him to continue his hunts. The boy had taken down many dragons in his attempt to learn how they operated. It was dark, so he had started a fire and was cooking a yak leg on the flame. A noise caught his attention and he went on the offensive. Whatever it was came into his camping ground and he tackled it to the dirt.
His eyes widened when he saw Hiccup and he got up off the small boy. "What are you doing here?" he asked, rasing the Berkian back to his feet by his shoulders. Hiccup was flustered, "I'm here because.." he dragged out. Dagur's brow rose and he offered something, "Because you're hunting dragons? Seems like the only reason unless you got stranded." A light turned on in Hiccup's head, "Yes, I'm hunting dragons." "Alone?" his friend pressed. "Kind of." Hiccup tried. Dagur eyed him, suspiciously, and then beamed brighter than the sun, "Well, great then!"
"Do you know what this means?" the Berserker asked, excitedly. Hiccup rubbed his neck, "Not really." "It means," Dagur began, "that we can hunt dragons together! It'll be so fun. Come on. I'll show you what I've won." He put his arm over Hiccup's shoulder and brought him to the fire. Dagur pulled the dragon head out and placed it between them, "Isn't it cool? It's one of my first trophies, so I'll bring this back home when I leave. Maybe my bedroom would be a good place for it. Ooh! Or the throne room. Which do you think?" he asked, with an innocence that would not fit someone inquiring as to a good skull location.
Hiccup was repulsed by the poor creature's corpse being treated as nothing more than a new piece of furniture and mumbled, "Throne room, I guess." "Yeah, that'll remind people who they're dealing with." Dagur reached behind him to grab something else. A Deadly Nadder spine was in his hand, "Dumb thing shot me in the leg with this. Still got it, though! They ahould take the deadly out of its name."
"Gronckles aren't all that either. Sure, they're faster than I thought and pretty fun to take down, though." He took the yak leg out and laughed, crazily, then stopped on a dime, "You're looking a bit green, brother. Are you okay?" Hiccup swallowed the bile that was piling up to his throat, "Is that-" he paused. Dagur looked at the meat and chuckled, "No, it's yak. Don't think I'm in any rush to try dragon." he made a disgusted face. Hiccup was beginning to relax, but after Dagur finished chewing a bite, he asked, "Hey, Hiccup. Did that Night Fury ever come back?" The tension flew to return to the Berkian, "It, uh, got away. Real shame." Hiccup was unsure how, but his friend shone even brighter than before.
"Our fortune's even better than I'd hoped!" he said, theatrically, "Hiccup, my friend, we're going to take down that Night Fury tonight. Picture it!" he held the smaller boy sideways and used his other arm to gesture in the sky, "The Berkian heir and Berserker chief working to rid all of viking kind from the tyranny of the unholy offspring of lightning and death, itself. No one could think any less of us, no matter how hard they tried!"
Dagur grabbed his crossbow and put his sword and ax in their sheaths that were on him. "With us working side by side, that beast won't stand a chance. What did you bring?" Hiccup glanced down at his lack of conventional weaponry, "A shield. Just a normal shield. Gobber always says it's the most important weapon." The Berserker gave a, somewhat, agreeing nod and stayed in front of Hiccup, should any dragon pop out. A rustling was heard and Dagur prepared his crossbow. Hiccup was about to hit the bow, messing up his shot, when Snotlout emerged.
Dagur could not help the scowl that formed on his face. "We're cool now, remember?" Hiccup whispered, noticing the coldness that was emitting from the older viking. "Right, right. That's easy to forget, though. I guess, this is why you said you were kind of alone. Might as well been by yourself." Dagur said the last part, under his breath. "Dagur!" Snotlout said, in an overly happy way that was not helping his cause. "What are you doing here?" the dark haired viking asked. "Hunting dragons, Snot-" Dagur eyed Hiccup and sighed, "-lout." If this were one of Hiccup's friends, he would be nice and not use one of the many derivatives of the teenager's name.
"What?" Snotlout questioned, receiving a look from Hiccup. "Yes, we're hunting dragons because that's what we do as vikings. It'd be weird to do anything else. right?" the Berkian heir tried to cover, "Go up ahead, Dagur. I'll tell him our plan." The Berserker complied and Hiccup was able to explain the situation. "Oh," Snotlout said, numbly, when he had completed, "We're not really going to kill any dragons, though, are we?" "Of course not. But, I just have to find a way to get him to quit and then we're in the clear." he assured. Hiccup went back to Dagur with Snotlout in tow. The latter viking's scream, coupled with one of a newcomer, drew them to see Fishlegs.
"Fishy!" Dagur exclaimed, happily. Snotlout grumbled, "How come I didn't get that reaction?" "You're hunting dragons too? Seems out of character for you." Dagur commented. Fishlegs asked Hiccup for help with his eyes and was given and, subtle, nod. "Yes," the boy said, trying to sound confident, "I'm hunting dra-I'm hunting." He left it at that because he could not get himself to say such a terrible fusion of words. "I'm glad you're here. As much as you know about dragons, you'll be a great help. Plus, it's been too long, pal." Dagur told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. They continued on and Fishlegs stopped Hiccup, "What do we do when he finds one of our dragons?" he asked, in a harsh whisper. "He won't find any of them. They're in the cave, remember?" Hiccup stated. Fishlegs scoffed, "Yeah, being watched by Tuffnut. Not the most comforting situation I've been in, Hiccup."
They walked on and the bushes moved in front of them. "Let's see. Friend or foe? We'll find out, won't we?" Dagur said, drawing his crossbow. A head popped out of the foliage and it was Toothless. "We did it, brother! We found the Night Fury!" He cackled as his finger was about to pull the trigger on the bow. A cluster of Terrible Terrors swarmed around him and made him miss as Hiccup thanked Odin. Astrid came out of the trees, angrily. "You made me lose them. They were right in my sight!" Dagur shrugged her off, "Hey, I was here first. Besides, Terrible Terrors are, small, burly cakes compared to a Night Fury. And Hiccup, I know you said 'kind of', but the answer should have been 'no'."
Dagur kept going after Toothless and Astrid looked at the other vikings, "Hiccup, what are you guys doing? He's hunting Night Furies?" "I know, I know. Toothless was supposed to be safe up in that cave. I'll figure it out." he said, hurriedly, seeing Dagur coming back for him. "Go back to Berk. You've already made us lose the Night Fury once." he told them, as he was being dragged away. The sound of a large dragon walking made Dagur stop. He saw a blast coming and pushed Hiccup to the ground. "Get down." the Berserker stated, simultaneously as he forced the boy to do the action. "You good?" he wanted to confirm and Hiccup nodded.
Sadness came over Hiccup. "Dagur really is my friend, but so is Toothless. How do I make it so that they don't kill each other?" he wondered. From the corner of his eye, he saw Dagur raise his bow. Hiccup hit the weapon and it took everything for Dagur not to bite his head off, almost in a literal way. "Mind explaining that?" the Berserker inquired, with a calm air that was more disturbing than rage. "Night Furies are really sensitive and he would've known that we were on his trail." Hiccup lied, through his teeth. Dagur pondered over that for a moment, "Fair enough." He lowered the weapon and walked on.
"You didn't bring the armada or anything, did you?" Hiccup inquired. Dagur shushed him and listened for a sound. Hearing none, he answered, "Nope. Just me. It would defeat one of my purposes for coming out here in the first place, if they helped me." Dagur divulged. Hiccup let out a breath he had been holding after learning that. The hunt raged on and Toothless was going to be cornered between them and a rock wall. "Why did that shot have to mess up his tail?" Hiccup lamented. The dragon was trapped and there was only one thing, Hiccup could think of, to do.
The dragon trainer made a call and Toothless went to his side. Dagur stared in shock at the two and saw something. "He has a saddle?" he asked. "Yes, we don't kill dragons on Berk." Hiccup confirmed, "We train them." Dagur felt numb, "So you, your father, Gobber, Fishy. Everyone lied to me?" he asked, more to himself than to receive an answer. "I never wanted to, but it seemed like the only way to keep peace between our tribes." Tremors went through Dagur's body, "The only way was to make me look stupid and act as though I'm your enemy?" his voice raising.
"We weren't treating you like an enemy." Hiccup stated, getting frustrated. "Then why didn't you just tell me?" Dagur pressed. The Berkian hesitated, "Because, we weren't sure if you would turn against us." Hurt was evidently on Dagur's face, "You don't trust me. You all think I'm just some crazed viking too. I wouldn't have been angry about the dragons. That's cool to train them. It could have been another bonding thing for us!" "Dagur, I didn't know if you'd be dangerous with a dragon at your command. You're not the most sane viking ever. I mean, you've tried to use me as a target for your knife throwing! You have to be monitored." Hiccup said.
Dagur looked at the Berkian. He did not know what to think, "Has he really been my friend or did he just think I had to be watched? If that's the case, why did he help me against Ansson?" he wondered. Hiccup sat, uncomfortably, on Toothless. Dagur was never so silent and it concerned him. "Say something, Dagur." he requested. "You've never called me 'brother'." he replied, sadly, "We've been like buds, Hiccup. You acted like it too. You didn't have to help me with Ansson, but you did. Did you do that because we're friends or because it seemed like the right thing to do?"
Hiccup stayed quiet, looking for how to convince the teenager that they were really friends. "You shouldn't have thought that I'd do that. I wouldn't hurt any of you. Not purposely." Dagur retorted. The other viking's eyes lowered, "Where do we go from here? Are we still allies?" he asked, with a pleading expression. Dagur saw that and it reminded him of how he must have looked when his father spoke about leaving. He began to pace. Berserkers were a vengeful bunch, but he did not want to go after Hiccup.
He stopped pacing, aburptly. "I want us to be allies still. Brothers even." He started to pace again in fury and anxiety. The boy let out a roar that made Hiccup shrink and Toothless snarl. Dagur saw this and frowned, "Really? We're settling this yak dung now." The Berserker marched over to the dragon, "Are these things good at judging people?" he asked. Hiccup looked at his reptilian buddy, "Yeah. I think so." "Then, sick him on me." Dagur stated, firmly. Both the dragon and his rider's eyes went wide. "W-what?" Hiccup stammered. "I don't stutter. Well, sometimes, but I didn't." Dagur said and Hiccup almost shook his head at him, but was too tense.
"I'm not siccing him on you, Dagur." Hiccup said. Dagur crossed him arms, "I'll be fine. He won't hurt me because I won't you. Trust me, Hiccup. For once, if you never have before." He outstretched his arms in a peaceful stance and kept his gaze cool. Hiccup took a deep breath and patted the dragon's head, dismounting. "All right, Bud. If there's a threat around here...e-eliminate it." The Berkian's heart pounded in his throat as he watched the Night Fury run over to Dagur. Hiccup closed his eyes when he heard the sound of the dragon's plasma blast preparing.