"Hey Hiccup, is that the ship?" I pointed and he immediately flew down. "Guess that's a yes…" I tucked in and Tesla and Stormfly followed. Faster than I thought possible, there were at least ten archers shooting their arrows at us, as well as bolas flying through the air. "Oh yes, let's just fly straight at the dragon trappers who almost killed your fiancé, brilliant idea Hiccup, just brilliant." I grumbled as Tesla dove to dodge a bola. I ducked to dodge an arrow that quickly followed it.
'I'm so going to make Hiccup pay for this.' We landed on deck and Tesla growled at the weapons being pointed at us.
"Easy boy…"
"Here I was worried that we might turn up empty handed. Wait, is that what I think it is?" A tall man with black hair pulled into a man bun lazily pointed a sword at Hiccup, then moved it over to Tesla and I. Tesla growled, and I placed my hand on his head.
"Nope, it's your lucky day. We give up!" Hiccup threw his hands in the air. The look on that guys face was about how I was feeling right now. Hiccup dismounted, Astrid and I following suit.
"That's one Night Fury. One Skrill. One Deadly Nadder, and three of the finest dragon riders west of Lucktuk. That outta make the boss happy, right?" Hiccup threw a net over Astrid and I, and I was ready the throw him overboard. We pulled the net off and Hiccup started pushing us towards the ship's hold, with our dragons following. "Excuse us."
"What are you doing?" Astrid and I climbed down the ladder, looking up. I gestured for Tesla to stay where he was. He circled around to the other side of the hold, so when I looked straight up, he looked like he was upside down.
"Toothless, stay. Uh, the dragons don't really care for cramped spaces, so they'll just hang out with you. They won't be any trouble." I heard weapons being drawn, and I could see Toothless jump. He and Tesla crouched down and growled. "Uuunless you do that. You know, wooden boats. Big ocean…H-how is your swimming?"
'Not as bad as yours you one-legged sociopath.' I thought to myself. Hiccup reached down and grabbed his Dragon Blade, shoving it through the partly open door. He ignited it, making most of the men jump. "Oops, almost forgot, can't have armed prisoners!" He looked down at me.
"I'm not handing my sword over to a bunch of hoodlums." I folded my arms with a glare to match. He simply shrugged.
"How is this a plan?" Astrid was just as lost as I was, apparently.
"And are you trying to get us killed?" We might as well have not even spoken.
"Just what every Dragon Trapper needs. One end coats the blade in Monstrous Nightmare saliva. The other sprays Hideous Zippleback gas. All it takes is a spark and…" I ducked down out of pure reflex. A sharp explosion rocked the boat. "Oh yeah, there you go!" I heard a couple of men coughing and I had to quell a laugh.
"Once they see you as one of their own, even the testiest dragons can be trained, right Bud?" I heard a 'Gimme that' and heard Stormfly fly off.
"What game are you playing?" I heard the head honcho ask. The boat rocked slightly as Stormfly landed, and the guy grunted, leading to Stormfly leaping off the other side.
'He's playing fetch without even realizing it…this guy's an idiot.'
"No game, we just want to meet Drago."
"Why?"
'Dude, I've been asking myself that question all morning…'
"Because I'm going to change his mind about dragons." Everyone started laughing as the boat rocked again, Stormfly screeching playfully. I hopped up behind Hiccup, sitting on the ledge of the trap door. Tesla was standing behind me, and nudged me with his nose, I gently scratched his chin in an attempt to keep him calm. Astrid popped up beside him.
"He can be really persuasive." She said.
"Once you've earned his loyalty, there is nothing a dragon won't do for you." Hiccup added.
"You won't be changing any minds around here!" Eret said.
'Cocky manbun.'
"I can change yours. Right here, right now." He pulled the lever on Toothless' saddle that spreads the tail fin. He stood up out of the ship's hold and gestured towards Toothless. "May I?"
'This idiot! Wait!'
"Hiccup look ou-!" He was suddenly snatched off the deck. Suddenly, the boat rolled, almost capsizing, as a dragon ripped through the sails.
"Dragon riders!" Someone called. Toothless jumped back and forth between sails, trying to gain height. He landed on a cross beam and roared, only to stop in confusion. I looked up and saw the rest of the riders from Berk, Hookfang holding Hiccup in his talons. Hiccup was yelling at Snotlout the whole time.
"Shoot them down lads!"
"No wait!" I shouted. Hiccup couldn't swim if they shot them down over the water.
"Who do you think you are?" The man bun demanded.
"I'm the guy trying to stop you from killing my friends!" Astrid and I bashed into one of the bola launchers, knocking its aim off. Hiccup suddenly landed on the ship, rapidly putting away his wing suit.
"Um, what are you guys doing here?!" The whole ship sank slightly in the water as Grump and Gobber landed on deck.
"We're here to rescue you!"
"I don't need to be rescued."
"ENOUGH!" I cringed.
'Oops, Chief's here…'
"Well, didn't you just pick the wrong ship!" Manbun spoke up, pointing his sword at Stoick.
'Yup, he's dead.'
"I am Eret, son of Er-!" Stoick simply grabbed his face and shoved. "I wil-!" Gobber whacked him over the head with his mace prosthetic, and Grump lazily dropped his head on him, shoving the breath out of his lungs.
"Anyone else?" Leave it to Gobber to have a sense of humor right now…
"You! Saddle up, we're going home." Stoick said stiffly.
"No."
'Hiccup, you're a moron…'
"Of all the irresponsible-"
"I'm trying to protect our dragons and stop a war! How is that irresponsible?!"
"Because war is what he wants son!" Stoick explained how the Chiefs were all gathered one day, when a man entered the room. Scars, war wounds, the whole nine yards of looking evil. The man called himself Drago Bludvist, and that he could free mankind from dragons. But of course, he wanted all the Chiefs to bow down to him.
The other riders were laughing.
"Aye, we laughed too." Everyone stopped laughing at that point. I stayed silent, knowing how dangerous someone that power hungry cold be.
Apparently Drago hadn't taken well to being laughed at and stormed out. "Fine then, see how well you do without me!" Armored dragons blasted down from the ceiling, spreading fire everywhere.
"I…was the only one…to escape…" Everyone went quiet, realizing the gravity of the situation. Stoick looked directly at Hiccup. "Men, who kill without reason, cannot be reasoned with."
"Maybe-"
"Hiccup!"
"I'm still going to try! This is what I'm good at! And if I could change your mind, I can change his too." He hopped on Toothless and flew off. Astrid and I started to follow, but Stoick stopped us.
"No! Lead the others back to Berk! I've had enough mutiny for one day!" Astrid and I looked at each other and flew off. I stopped Tesla and we hovered in the air. Astrid pulled up next to us.
"What?"
"Astrid…I'm going after Hiccup."
"Stoick is going to kill you!"
"I'm sorry, but when it comes down to it…I'm not actually a member of your tribe, am I?" Tesla turned around. "I'll be back with him by the end of the day."
"Rai!"
"Yeah?"
"Keep each other safe." I smirked.
"Of course, otherwise you'd hunt both of us down and kill us!" I tucked in and Tesla quickly jumped into a bolt of lightning, moving to get ahead of Stoick and Gobber. We left the bolt a few seconds later and scanned the skies. I caught the faint sound of someone yelling and focused in on a small dot on the horizon.
"There, Tesla!" I tucked in and Tesla jumped again. We reappeared in time to see something slowly floated up out of the clouds. "Wait…what?!" We had just closed the gap enough for me to see a person standing in the sky. They were wearing full leather armor with a fur hood in the back. They had a green painted mask on, which had long, bending spikes coming out the sides of it, making it look like a green sun. They were holding a strange staff that had a hook on either side. They made a small motion with their arm and they sunk into the clouds. We pulled up right next to the others.
"Rai?! What are you doing here?!" Toothless and Tesla were both scanning area, when a huge dragon flew up out of the cloud cover with a roar. We pulled our dragons to a hover, clouds billowing around us, as a strange, masked dragon rider circled above us. The masked man pointed their staff at Hiccup and the two dragons growled. The big dragon came to a stop in front of us, hovering there with two sets of wings.
"Hold on! Hold on!" Hiccup and I were nervous. Monstrous Nightmares were big, but not this big! Tesla and Toothless respectively roared and growled at the dragon, which returned the favor. I heard more wings behind us and without looking, nudged Tesla with my left knee. He immediately went into a rolling dive and we leveled out, only to hear Hiccup screaming Toothless' name. I saw Toothless falling into the icy ocean.
"NO!" We dove to see if we could help, but I was suddenly yanked off of Tesla's back. I yelled as my arms were almost ripped out of their sockets. When I looked up, I saw a Deadly Nadder holding me in its talons. "Let me go!" Tesla roared and bolted towards us, but the Nadder was surprisingly agile. I could tell Tesla wanted to blast the dragon right out of the sky, but he would hit me too.
"Tesla! Go help Toothless!" I could tell he didn't want to leave me, but there was nothing he could do without hurting me. He hesitantly nodded and spun around to go after the fallen Night Fury. The dragon that was holding me rushed to catch up with the others. I heard Hiccup up ahead, yelling at the other dragon rider about Toothless' inability to fly on his own. The other rider didn't even acknowledge him.
We flew under an ice arch, and in the middle of nowhere, there was a giant, unnatural ice structure. We flew to a hole in the side of it. We came to a dark cave where the dragons roughly dropped Hiccup and I on the ground. We both stood up and went back-to-back, covering for each other's blind spots instinctually.
"Hey! We have to head back for my dragon!" I whipped out my sword when a couple of dragons came too close, and noticed they paused for a second. I tilted my head slightly only to jump when Hiccup ignited his own blade. He waved it in a circle, gaining the attention of almost all the dragons. I stayed silent as he did his thing. A couple of dragons were still getting too close, and I tapped my sword on the ground. They stopped and tilted their heads at the sound again.
'Interesting…' I heard a couple of metal clicks and ducked down, covering myself with my coat. I heard the hissing of Hiccup's sword releasing the Zippleback gas and flinched when he ignited it. The dragons all stopped approaching, and Hiccup slowly walked up to the closest dragon, his hand reaching for their nose. I jumped slightly when the other dragon rider jumped down to our level and Hiccup and I grew defensive.
"Who are you?! The dragon thief? Uh…Drago Bludvist? Do you even understand what I'm saying?!" The masked rider shifted their grip on their staff and swung it around, hitting one end of it on the ground. The staff had some spinning parts in it, and they made a haunting hum. Suddenly two dragons flew over the group and dropped Toothless and Tesla on the ground.
We ran to our dragons, checking them over. Tesla had obviously protested to the treatment, the proud dragon that he was. I turned and saw the rider shake their staff twice, and the dragon right behind them ignited their mouth in flames. Soon the whole room lit up as all the other dragons followed suit.
Tesla and Toothless protectively curled around us. I could feel the sparks of static running through Tesla's scales and placed a comforting hand on his wing. Toothless growled and the rider dropped their shield and staff, lowering themselves down to the dragon's level. They slowly crawled forward as Toothless and Hiccup backed up. The rider reached forward as Toothless hissed as them. When they made a strange hand motion, he fell onto his back, seemingly unconscious. Tesla growled louder and moved to protect both of us, only to fall under the same "spell" as Toothless.
'Oh great! Now we're dealing with wizards?!' The rider slowly reached for Hiccup's face, and fearing they were about to do the same thing to him, I started to get in between them. The other rider suddenly pulled back from Hiccup and crouched down. Then they muttered a word that I never expected to hear.
"Hiccup…?"