Through applied reconnaissance and dedication, we were able to actually track down their ships in the Hysteric waters. They were moving under the cover of darkness and staying relatively close to the sea stacks in the day to avoid being seen by our routine flybys. It wasn't until Heather suggested we go on a night run that we started getting lucky. Flying with Heather again on reconnaissance was like old times back at the Edge, I'll be honest it was good having another girl around that wasn't Ruffnut or Hiccup's mom. Valka was awesome, and I have a great respect for her, but she is also his mother which means conversations get awkward quick. Of course, flying with just us meant that conversations could get awkward quickly as well, in different ways.
"So, Astrid! How long?" Heather calls out from Windshears' back as I glance to her with a raised eyebrow. Laughing, she nods her head with a smile. "You know, have you and Hiccup been that serious."
"Didn't we have this discussion over dinner!?" I call back and just hear her laugh.
"Totally not what I meant! The others might not notice you guys sneaking off, but I'm not them. Where'd you guys go last night for the whole night?" Heather retorts and I feel my face flush. We'd had our boy talks, and our family's sort of had an idea but we've never actually talked about it with anyone else.
"We, uh, we were at the spring." I admit, no sense lying to her honestly. "A few weeks." I answer her other question and see her stifle a laugh.
"So, you know the obvious next question, right?" Heather asks and I shake my head with a shrug.
"Contrary to popular belief, Heather, I don't have a lot of close friends on the island I talk to about this sort of thing. And I'm not sure I should even be talking about it." I explain and she shrugs.
"Fair point. I won't make it any worse than it needs to be. I'm going to assume its, you know, consensual and you actually want it. I've known people who've done bad things." She states, her voice trailing off as I fly closer and nod.
"You know Hiccup. I practically initiated it and I enjoy every second of it. He's so worried about doing something to anger me even though I'm not sure he ever has. Like he thinks one day I'll wake up and not want him anymore; which is never going to be the case." I state and she glances at me with a knowing smile.
"Never?" She confirms and I nod.
"Never. I actually think it's cute in its own way." I admit and she laughs.
"You two are a perfect couple, I said so years ago back on the Edge. I'm surprised you waited so long to make it official, to be honest." Heather says and shrugs before adding. "I'm honestly surprised you two didn't cross that line at the Edge, no adults or anything to worry about."
"Yeah, no. We actually talked about that briefly. We were talking about it a little but then the whole Krogan incident happened and Johann. Now we're not letting those things stand between us, and we've grown. We can separate during missions, even if it hurts." I answer, my hand gliding up my chest and gripping the carved Nadder emblem Hiccup had given me. Heather nods and quickly points out ahead.
"We're here! More talk later, I mean that; you aren't getting off that easy with me." Heather says and I shrug and smile. Following where her finger is pointing, I see a trio of large sails cresting around a sea stack with a large net between them. They're scoping out the Doomfang.
"Alright, the other riders should be ready since we've been taking shifts. Let's do a closer flyby staying out of eyeshot for more information and head back and rally the others." I state and she nods, taking my wing as we start our circle.
It looked like they were trying to net, without success, the Doomfang. No signs of Krogan or Khan on deck, just a lot of trappers armed with bows and a few arrow installations on the decks. Just like the Hunters; Krogan had given these trappers more knowledge. After our second flyby and no changes, we headed back to the Academy to rally everyone and let them know. Hiccup was already there with Toothless, waiting for us it seemed.
"Astrid. Heather." Hiccup says with a smile, greeting us and hugging me briefly as he nods to Heather.
"We found them. They don't have the Doomfang yet. No signs of Krogan or Khan." I say and Hiccup nods.
"Okay, let's go rally everyone else and send those boats to the bottom of the sea. Meet back here." He states and we all nod and break off. It doesn't take us long to rally everyone as Hiccup had us all on near standby; even the Aux riders were there at the Academy as the moon began reaching its high point in the sky.
"Alright, Riders. Listen closely; we are going to send these trappers a message. Their trade is not a welcome trade and so long as they are within range, we will not allow it. We can't guard the world's dragons, but we can protect those in and around the Archipelago." Hiccup states and I have grown fond of listening to his passionate pleas.
"Snotlout, Twins. You two will take the first boat. Dagur and my mother will take the second. Eret and Fishlegs take the third. Destroy their emplacements and disorient those on deck. Astrid and Heather, you are our fastest and will go in first, drawing their first salvo. You'll then circle and help pick off archers from all boats and watch for any signs of Krogan or Khan specifically. I'm going to take Toothless into the water and attack them from underneath." Hiccup explains as everyone steps near their assigned partners. Snotlout groans again at being stuck with the twins but doesn't contest it. Turning towards the Aux Riders, Hiccup nods.
"The Auxiliary Team will be on patrol mode over Berk and its surrounding waters. If you don't hear from us within three hours, Spitelout, Gustav, Bucket and Mulch, you will fly out and reinforce us. Sven, you'll take over Berk's perimeter with Magnus and Agnar. That is only if you don't hear from us." Hiccup states, looking to them for acknowledgement.
"You got it, Chief. Gustav got it under control." Gustav says and the others nod.
"Alright, this isn't like the edge. There is more at stake now than ever before. Watch each other's backs, watch your own and your dragons. Don't take any undue risks and no one plays the hero. We work as a team, like we always have. It's why we've beaten them before, and it is how we'll beat them now." Hiccup finishes and I smile softly listening to him, he had a way with words that rallied those around him. Even if our eyes met for a lingering second when he mentioned the stakes. "We're up in five." Hiccup finishes and everyone moves to their dragons as I let loose a breath I didn't know I was holding. Heather walks up next to me and places her hand on my shoulder.
"Go talk to him, he said that for us, but he could probably hear it from you." She says softly and I nod. I was planning on it anyways, but it was still good having her here. Moving towards Hiccup as everyone is distracted with their own dragons, even him, I slip my hand in his from behind as he turns to look at me, I place a soft kiss on his lips which he reciprocates.
"You've got a way with words." I say softly and he nods.
"Trying to keep them in positive spirits, this is going to be dangerous." Hiccup answers and I nod, placing my hand on his cheek as my other hand grips his.
"I know, and like you said, we'll beat it together, as a team. Another dragon saved, another evil plot foiled, another…" I pause and lean in, whispering. "Reason to celebrate when we get home." I say and he laughs lightly and nods.
"You're right. We've got this." He answers, pressing his lips to mine in a strong kiss I wish I could melt in before we part. Pulling away to go back to Stormfly, I feel his grip with my hand tighten as I look back to him. "Be careful." He whispers and I smile, nodding.
"I will. You too." I add and he just squeezes my hand and smiles. We'd win this time; Hiccup's plans were grand in scope and Krogan was no Viggo in strategy. He even looked more confident than before, which gave me confidence; I think it gave us all confidence.
We were going to win this time. We were going to send those three ships to the bottom of the ocean and let the trappers try and escape on dinghies or let the sea own their sins. The thought of seeing Krogan out here while we sink his ships, the thought of letting the sea take him once and for all, it was appealing to say the least. Trappers like this would probably always be a problem. So long as there were humans there would those who cared not for honor and cared only for material worth. And so long as they were here, we would be here to stop them.
Astrid and Heather flew ahead of the group and soon we had the ships in sight; still no Doomfang, thank Thor. The two swift sharp class dragons dove in and unleashed a volley of spines and blasts before spiraling away, attracting a large volley of arrows and catapults there way with the screams and cries of men on deck. Next wave went in with everyone taking their target. These ships were not reinforced to be dragon proof, thankfully. Either that wasn't done yet or it was a secret that died; hopefully the ladder.
While they begun their assaults, Toothless and I dove towards the water, giving me just enough time to cover my eyes with the Deathsong Amber Goggles as we fully submerged. Using his powerful wings, he scooped the water while kicking through it. By no means was Toothless a tidal dragon, but we had practiced attack runs from under the water. Toothless, fortunately, fired plasma ball-like bolts that were able to move through the water with relative ease where other dragons' flames would be snuffed out.
No sign of the Doomfang under the water yet, hopefully it got spooked the last time it was nearly captured and went in hiding. No time to worry about that now, I honestly didn't want to encounter it again. Turning Toothless back towards the surface, we could see the Keel Hull of the three ships, and I grinned. Patting Toothless as he swam, he unleashed a volley on the first ship from below it, each of his strikes landing true and once the bubbles cleared, I could see large holes and gaps in the ship's hull as water flooded in. Spiraling upwards we left the water as the first ship begun sinking and various trappers begun diving into the water.
"Snotlout, you help Dagur and my Mother. Twins, help Eret and Fishlegs. Move!" I shout out as my eyes trace the other ships. Still no sign of Krogan or Khan, and I could see Astrid and Heather circling above. All's going well so far, I nod. Diving Toothless back down I repeat the attack on the other two boats and before long all three had been sunk. None of them had dragons on them this time, their hulls were emptied of everything except supplies and extra space to hold the Doomfang.
As I resurfaced the last time, I saw four dinghies with about three to five trappers per slowly sailing north. Cupping my hands to my lips, I imitate a loud dragon call that gets all the riders attention and we land on a neighboring sea stack.
"Great job, everyone. That went really well, any sign of Krogan?" I ask, looking towards Astrid and Heather who shake their heads.
"No, nor Khan. We could try capturing one of the hunters? Not all of them made it to the dinghies and will likely end up on Hysteria shores." Astrid says and I wince.
"What a horrific fate to befall them, such is the tale of life." Tuffnut says and I shrug.
"They must reap the consequences of their actions. We're not saving them; if you can try to grab one and we'll take them back to Berk." I state towards Astrid and Heather who nod. "Mom, Dagur, follow the dinghies and see where they go. I've got a feeling they've got a base nearby. Everyone else, head back to Berk and tell the Aux Riders to start defensive rotations around the island." I add towards Eret, Snotlout, the Twins and Fishlegs.
"You got it!" Fishlegs says as he and Meatlug take off followed by the others while Dagur and my mom take off. Glancing towards Heather and Astrid I nod.
"Okay, let's scour for a loner and see if we can't invite him back to Berk." I state and they smile, nodding and leaping into the air. Heather's dragon was far more capable at capturing loners in the water than anyone else's. With Astrid and I on her wing, we had nothing to fear and everything to gain. And gain we did, for there was a loner floating on a log adrift at sea. "There!" I call out and Heather nods, Windshear diving down and before long we had our own trapper being hung upside down by Windshear's tail. Pulling Toothless up to the Trapper who has been yelling obscenities since being scooped up, I nod to him.
"Don't you worry, you'll be on solid land and then we're going to have a nice chat. The better your answers, the better your treatment. The worse, and I'll leave you in a room with Dagur alone." I state and, while this particular trapper may not know Dagur, the other two girls knew what sort of threat that could mean. Now we could get some real intelligence, perhaps their base and leaders' intentions. Hopefully Dagur and my mother were successful in locating a base, because Krogan had effectively declared war on Berk and we were going to respond in kind and shut down his operations inside the Archipelago; for good.