A little after mid-morning, 9 or so, everyone was at the Academy ready and raring to go. It was the best part of any given mission, the mission briefing, where you get to field all sorts of ridiculous questions and squash even more ridiculous ideas. Especially if you have the Twins and Snotlout on your team. They always seemed to have the most asinine ideas pop into their brains and rarely, if ever, filtered them before it left their mouth.
"Alright, any questions on the plan?" I ask aloud, looking across the floor as Astrid and my mother stand beside me.
"Okay, okay. Let me make sure I understand this." Tuffnut begins and I inwardly roll my eyes. "You want us to fly out on our dragons, and not blow anything up?" He finishes and then I outwardly roll my eyes as I nod.
"Yes, Tuff. That's the point of recon. Stealthy. Think, Changewing." I answer
"Yeah, but Changewings can actually turn invisible and spit acid. We can't do that." Ruff answers and I just shake my head.
"Any other questions?" I ask again and everyone shakes their head, I nod. "Okay, final part of this. When we reach the area, we'll be splitting up into three teams to cover more ground. If you spot anything, do not engage and instead signal using your dragon calls." I state and then look to Astrid briefly before looking back to the others.
"Okay, Eret, you, Fishlegs and Snotlout will be Team One. Astrid, you, and my mother are Team Two. Ruffnut, Tuffnut, you and I are Team Three." I state and point to the map around Hysteria. "These are your areas to cover. Again, you are not to engage anyone, that means on the mainland or the waters. Work with each other. Actually listen to each other, please. We do not want to engage these guys until we're ready. If we find them trapping, we'll regroup and revise on the fly. For now, we are trying to confirm intelligence and numbers." I finish. "Final questions?" When no one answers, I nod. "Okay, gang. Be safe, travel quiet and be ready. I'll see you in the air." And with that, everyone gets to their dragons for last minute prep before mounting and takeoff.
As I'm rechecking Toothless's tail and saddle, I feel a presence behind me cause me to turn as Astrid is standing there with an odd look on her face.
"You're okay, right?" She asks softly, looking down at my abdomen where the axe blade struck me, I smile and nod.
"I'm fine, Astrid. Be safe while you're out there, please." I say to her and she looks at me with a weak smile and shakes her head.
"You're the one who took the axe, Hiccup. Not me" She retorts with a smile and I shrug.
"I'll try to avoid that this time, I promise." I answer and she nods, leaning in and kissing me softly on the lips.
"You better, trappers or no, I can't lose you out there, Hiccup." She says softly and I grab your shoulders and pull her in for a tight embrace.
"You aren't going too, there's only one place I'll be going by this day, or any future day's end. Home with you." I answer quietly in her ear as I feel her grip tighten and she nods.
"Good answer. I'll see you in the air." She says and smiles. I pull her in for one final kiss before taking off and she nods, and before long, we are all in the air.
The flight southeast towards Hysteria was only about a couple hours at a comfortable pace and before much longer, we were splitting off in our groups. The twins and I peeling to the northern side of the island as the others peeled to cover the south eastern and western sides of the island.
Our initial canvassing of the waters around the island proved to be empty, which matched with intelligence. My mother and Astrid should see a ship and give us a call before too long. If we saw the ship it'd mean someone went wrong with the information or Vern was compromised. After a second sweep of no dragon call or ship sighting, I motioned for a nearby sea stack for the twins and I to set down on to rest the dragons wings briefly. And it wasn't long after that the twins were up to their usual antics.
"So, Hiccup. Chief. Chief Hiccup. Hiccup the Chief. Chiefly Hiccupouptus of the Haddokous." Tuffnut began with spouting various naming conventions of my name and title. Rolling my eyes I turn and look at him.
"Yes, Tuffnut? Just, Hiccup is fine." I shrug, I'd never been one for titles.
"I've got a serious question to ask you. A super serial question. Life or Death. As in, someone could die." Tuffnut adds.
"Yeah, maybe it's Tuffnut." Ruff chimes in and is ignored as Tuff continues.
"When are, you and Astrid the Bossy, going to get hitched. We've already planned one wedding, Dagur and Mala, quite successfully. You would be honored to have us plan yours." Tuffnut says, placing a hand to his chest and pointing a finger in the air and I roll my eyes.
"Uh, can we not talk about this on a mission?" I ask, looking back out over the ocean as I hear them both exclaim.
"Uh, when are we going to talk about it!? You and Astrid are like, glued together nowadays. I can't even remember the last time I saw Stormfly in her roost at Astrid's place." Ruffnut adds and I wince as I feel them both looking at my back.
"Wait a minute." Tuffnut says, having Belch move him closer to my left as I grit my teeth. "Come to think of it, I've seen a particular Nadder at our Chiefly Hiccup's House on recent days, a lot. Questions, questions." Tuffnut continues, him and Belch now hovering besides me as I try to ignore them and gaze out into the ocean. Odin only knows why I thought it'd be a good idea to take the twins.
"Yes, questions indeed, Brother Nut. What have you to say, Hiccup?" Ruffnut adds, her and Barf now on my right as I shake my head.
"Uh, nothing to say besides I'm Chief and Leader of the Dragon Riders. So, what I have to say is focus on the mission." I answer and I hear Tuff sigh.
"Typical deflection. Maybe we'll do some scouting of our own tonight." Tuffnut adds and internally I wanted to scream at them but luckily their train of thought was interrupted by the sound of a Deadly Nadder's dragon call.
"Dragon Call. Twins, to the air and be ready. Astrid and my Mother must've found something!" I exclaim and hear them both shout.
"Yeah! Finally, I was getting bored. Wait, what were we even talking about?" Tuffnut asks and Ruff just shrugs as I internally thank Thor that these two muttonheads had such a short attention span. Most times it was annoying, sometimes it was quite helpful. Taking to the air, we fly to the western side where my Mother and Astrid were canvassing.
Peeling away and heading to the western side of this island was arguably one of the more challenging times I'd have leaving Hiccup to do his own thing. Sure, I've been paired with everyone from Snotlout to Fishlegs to the Twins and have had no issue because it was what Hiccup asked. But this time, this was his first mission after nearly being cleaved in two by that Ragnar. Just thinking about it made my blood boil. I was also sort of annoyed with Hiccup for pairing me with his mother, I loved Valka, don't get me wrong, but she was far too keen for my liking.
"Something troubles you, Astrid?" Valka says as she glides besides me and I groan internally and shake my head.
"I've just got a bad feeling about this." I admit
"About what? You know Hiccup gave us the area to expect trouble, he trusts us both more than the others. What troubles you, m'dear?" She asks in a truly motherly tone that honestly made me feel like opening up. It was annoying how mothers could always seem to do that; whatever internal armor around your feelings you were wearing, they ignored and pried open.
"I just, I know it's just recon. But none of our recon missions were ever just recon. The last time we did this Hiccup almost died. I'm not ready for that." I struggle to say aloud as we glide close together, surveying the sea on our first pass.
"No one ever is, Astrid." She says somberly and I mentally kick myself for forgetting who I was talking too and who she just lost.
"I-I'm sorry." I stammer and Valka just shakes her head and smiles.
"No need. It warms my heart knowing Hiccup has you to look after him when he fails to do so himself. He's a risk taker, he needs the safety line even when he doesn't think he does." She says and I nod. Thinking back to the countless times back on the Edge, I could write several books about all the times he nearly died, or I did, for that matter.
"Thank you for being so supportive of us, Valka. It means a lot." I say and she laughs and nods.
"Of course, Astrid. You know, Stoick and I weren't the traditional Viking couple either. I've walked your path and can see a lot of me in you. Attitude wise, you're closer to Stoick though." She says with a smile and I laugh.
As we laugh together, my eyes trail to a sea stack with a trio of boats anchoring and my laugh subsides as I point it out to Valka. Her smile fades and her face grows stone cold in a heartbeat. Glancing to me, she gives me the nod and I do my dragon call as our dragons start to climb high to avoid being seen. Though it seems that was too late as both Valka and I hear a loud metal clank and as I finish my dragon call, I look back down mid climb and see a large metal net about to engulf us.
Valka darts back and does a trick maneuver to avoid it but my hands were tied with the Dragon Call I couldn't move Stormfly quick enough as I feel the net encase us. Just like when Dagur got the drop on us while we were in Breakneck Bog.
"Astrid!" I hear Valka cry out as Stormfly and I start to fall hard and fast. Luckily, I feel the powerful Talons of Cloudjumper latch onto the net as I hear the familiar sound of a Night Fury as Hiccup races in and unleashes a volley of blasts towards their net guns. As Hiccup and Toothless spiral down towards the ships, I hear him call out.
"Get her to safety. Twins, Fog of Fire!" He shouts as I can barely see him perform another barrel roll and lob another series of shots. Toothless was truly one of a kind. In rapid succession, he has around a six shot limit, but his shots seem to recharge so quickly if he spaces them out, he can fire indefinitely. I hear the familiar spark of Belch as there is a massive explosion as Cloudjumper lands on a nearby sea stack and Valka undoes the trap.
I hadn't noticed, but the metal net had dug into my arm and left a searing burn mark on my right arm that actually stung quite a bit. Looking over the edge, I see a large area engulfed in smoke from the twins unleashing their fog of fire. Snotlout, Fishlegs and Eret also seemed to join the fray as I look to Valka.
"Go help them, I'm fine." I say and she shakes her head.
"All due respect Astrid, I'd never hear the end of it if I left you up here hurt or not. Let's give them a minute to sort it out." She answers and I sigh. Great, now I get to feel bad for making Valka sit on the side lines cause I was dumb enough to let myself get netted.
"It was just supposed to be recon." I mutter as I watch the five dragons lay siege to the boats that attacked me.
"You said it yourself. Recon never stays recon for long." She answers as she leans over the edge and narrows her eyes, looking at something. "Where's Hiccup?" She asks and I feel my heart drop as I rush back to the edge and glance over. Where once there was five dragons there are now only four and none of them are firing.
"No, no, no." I mutter and move to hop on Stormfly as I feel Valka grab my wrist.
"Where do you think you're going?" She asks.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to Hiccup. Period." I answer and shake her grip off and dart down the sea stack with Stormfly. My arm hurt against the wind but it was nothing to what I'd feel if I let him get hurt again. Valka was right on my tail with Cloudjumper and made no point to stop me, maybe she realized she couldn't.
The two of us dart onto sea level and charge towards the boats. I can see Hiccup on deck with a blade out facing a couple men and a couple caged dragons. Of course, he jumped down to save the dragons, he's Hiccup. Why wouldn't he risk his life to save a few dragons. I swear to Thor, I'm going to hurt him myself.
I see one of the men about to lob a hatchet at him and tap Stormfly on the neck, unleashing a precise spike attack that knocks the hatchet down and I land next to Hiccup and dismount with Valka close behind me.
"Uh, hey, I had this under control. Are you okay?" Hiccup says, glancing to the burn mark on my arm. I glance back to him and sigh.
"Don't. Let's save the dragons." I answer and he nods. Valka moves off and undoes the cages while Hiccup and I tag team the people on the deck.
Truth be told, I had grown to love fighting side by side with him. It was as though we read each other's moves. Where I hooked one man's axe and sent him stumbling, Hiccup was ready to strike them in the gut with the pommel of his blade, then hit them in the back of the head. Ducking as he did, he gave me clearance to swing my axe and slice at the man coming up behind Hiccup.
Flipping his dragon's flame sword, he spiraled the hilt and unleashed the Zippleback Gas towards one of them and then igniting it, creating a small cone blast the blew him right off the boat. Turning to me, Hiccup smiles and I feel any anger I had towards him for jumping on deck evaporate and all I wanted to do was kiss him. There'd be time for that later, though.
"That's all of them." Valka says, running up to us.
"Okay, back on the Dragons. The other ships seemed empty and none of these ships had either Khan or Ragnar. We lucked out, but we'll need to check that intelligence report. For now, we saved some dragons, so that's enough." Hiccup says and both Valka and I nod. Hopping back on our dragons, we take off with a Gronkle and Zippleback in tow.
"THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME!" I hear Tuffnut shout at the top of his lungs.
"YEAH! Okay. Fog of Fire. New Favorite." Ruffnut adds and Tuff nods.
"Absolutely, Sister Nut."
"Eret, anything on your side of the island?" Hiccup calls back and Eret shakes his head.
"Nay, it was all quiet til we heard the Dragon Call. I'm concerned that this doesn't match up exactly with what Vern said. He's usually a stickler for details. I want to pull him out." Eret finishes and I feel for him.
"I agree. Do you have other contacts you can use?" Hiccup calls back and he nods.
"I still now a few trappers who are old friends. One or two of them might even be sympathetic like Vern is. I'll see about getting word to them. I've been keeping it shallow in case any of them were caught, they wouldn't give the others up." Eret says.
"Would they betray each other?" I ask, glancing back to Eret. He sighs and I see his hand cover his chest where Drago branded him.
"Torture can break even the strongest of hearts, if applied with enough cruelty. I wouldn't wish it on my enemies." Eret says and I feel myself shudder as I glance back up to Hiccup who has shifted his gaze to me. His face softens as he nods.
"More of that when we're on dry land. For now, good work everyone. Mom, can you find these two a home when we get back?" Hiccup asks.
"Of course." She says and I let loose a deep sigh. The flight back would be riddled with challenging thoughts of what ifs and maybes. These new trappers were playing for keeps, just like Drago, only they didn't have a Leviathan under their control. That made them no less deadly or evil in their machinations. I just hope we can stay ahead of their curb.