(A/N: I know it's only the third chapter, but I feel like I'm on a roll with this story so far! Maybe I'm just excited because I feel like I'm doing really well with this. I also can't wait to get this started because I'll be writing a couple of my favorite scenes from the show in this chapter.
As mentioned before in the last chapter, I'm dividing the premier episodes "Dragon Eye of the Beholder" into three parts instead of two. The previous chapter was part one and this is part two, and I hope everyone likes this chapter as much as they did the last one.
That's all I have to say as of now, I just wanted to briefly catch everybody up on what's going on with the chapters, that's it. With that in mind, let's get on with the chapter, shall we?)
I-Y-V~*~o~*~V-Y-I
All seven of the Dragon Riders were flying through the clouds on their dragons, en route to the graveyard of ships Johann was talking about. For everyone, especially Hiccup, it was a pleasant time for all of them to be together for this mission.
The dragons, with the exception of Toothless, then suddenly did a sharp nosedive in a line. Toothless followed them as soon as they were blocked by the clouds, he was faster than they were and he led them once again as soon as they were all out of the clouds and soaring in the clear air.
"This is pretty great, huh, bud?" Hiccup asked Toothless. "Seems like forever since we all flew as a group."
He looked back at all of them, a couple of his friends hadn't been on a long distance flight in a long time, electing to stay on Berk for the most part. He wondered if perhaps they could be a little out of practice, and to what extent if that was the case.
"Let's see how rusty they are," he smirked a little. He spread out his arms, "V formation!"
The dragons positioned themselves into a 'V' shape in the air. It was impressive to him that they remembered how to get into the formation so quickly.
"Not bad," he commented. He then brought his hands together and bent his elbows, making a diamond shape, "Diamond formation!"
The dragons then positioned themselves into a diamond shape. It was certainly slightly more complicated than the V formation, he was impressed.
Tuffnut scoffed slightly at Hiccup's little test, "How rusty does this guy think we are?"
"Uh, guys?" Fishlegs choked slightly as he coughed. He was comically squished in between Meatlug's back and Barf and Belch's stomach. "Little tight on the diamond, aren't we?"
'That's no surprise,' he thought, amused. He chuckled, "Just like old times."
Hookfang's body ignited and Snotlout jeered as he flew ahead, "Five thousand pounds of flaming muscle coming through!"
He shrugged, still slightly amused, "Ever a class act."
They flew through the sky for the duration of the afternoon, it was night by the time they began to see the remains of ships. The ships were surrounded by a fog that eerily reflected the light of the moon.
It was almost spine-chilling, but for Hiccup, it was proof of what he believed. It proved there was more beyond Berk and the archipelago.
"I knew it! I knew there was more!" his voice was filled almost entirely with vehemence.
Even Astrid had to admire the ships, "Some of these ships, I've never seen anything like them."
Helene had to admire them as well, she hadn't seen these kinds of ships either. "Whoever sailed these ships were definitely not from our archipelago."
"Okay, everyone, fan out! If you see any sign of Dagur, send a signal," Hiccup commanded.
The riders and their dragons all separated from each other and went to search the area. None of them knew why, but there was a strange perilous feeling of something that was stalking them.
Helene looked over both sides of herself to look down at the wrecked ships and the dark waters. She didn't see anything, but she couldn't help but to notice how uneasy Ripwave was. She was growling at everything in sight and her tendrils were lit with her electricity, begging to be released.
"What's wrong, girl?" she asked, reaching down to her. "Do you hear something?"
After some time of fruitless searching, all of the riders reunited with each other. They landed on one of the shipwrecks to gather and talk.
"Not a sign of Dagur," Hiccup assessed what everyone knew.
"Looks like we got here first," Helene replied.
"What's the plan?" Astrid questioned.
"We wait," he responded sternly.
"Wait a minute, for how long?" Fishlegs asked. "This fog really gives Meatlug the willies." Meatlug warbled nervously.
"He has a point," Astrid uttered. "We can't wait here forever."
"Well, we can't just leave Johann's treasures here either, Dagur will steal them!" he affirmed.
"And use the profits to build a new armada," she added, agreeing with his point.
"Not if we steal them first!" Ruffnut mischievously grinned.
"That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard! I hereby disown you!" Tuffnut declared.
Hiccup thought about her idea for a moment before he smiled, "Actually, you know what? I kind of like it."
Tuffnut smiled and held his hand out to her, "Welcome back to the family!"
He began to tell everyone his new plan, "Here's the plan, we search the ships, gather Johann's treasure and take it back to Berk. But keep an eye out for Dagur, he could show up at any time."
Suddenly, a loud hissing sound and shrieks could be heard. These sounds were definitely not from dragons, but it could be something equally dangerous.
"What is that?" Astrid questioned, holding back a shriek.
"Uh, has Dagur's voice changed?" Tuffnut obliviously asked.
Hiccup ran over to the side of the ship and looked down into the water. He was stunned to discover gigantic eels surrounding the ship, eels the length of a dragon!
"Eels! Everyone get to your dragons before they get spooked and take off!" he cried.
Fishlegs was hiding and quivering underneath Meatlug's stomach. "Hold me, Meatlug!"
Meatlug began to fly away without him, followed by Hookfang, Stormfly, and Barf and Belch. Only Toothless and Ripwave were left, although they were afraid just like they were.
"Hookfang!" Snotlout shouted for his dragon.
"Stormfly!" Astrid called after her dragon.
Toothless stayed behind because he couldn't fly without Hiccup, otherwise he would have probably gone with the other dragons. Ripwave stayed because she simply wasn't as afraid as they were, although she was definitely scared of the massive eels, but not enough to flee.
One of these large eels suddenly emerged from the water and tried to grab Snotlout through an opening on the side of the ship. It grabbed his foot and tried to drag him overboard, but it was forced to release him when it was electrocuted by Ripwave.
Helene helped Snotlout to his feet, "Are you alright, Snotlout?"
He nodded, "Yeah. Thanks a lot."
Hiccup mounted Toothless to help fight off the eels, his dragon growled at the threat around them. "Calm down, bud, it's only a couple of eels. Really… big, screaming… mean eels…"
Suddenly, the bow of the ship sank, causing everyone to slip on the deck. The eels wrapped their bodies around the bow and their weight was causing it to sink.
Toothless dug his claws into the wood so he and Hiccup were safe from the eels' technique for acquiring prey. Ripwave did the same with her claws, and Helene held tightly onto her dragon. The other riders, however, weren't so lucky, they couldn't keep their balance on the deck for much longer.
"The eels are pulling the ship down!" Fishlegs yelled.
Soon, the eels managed to get the ship to tilt at an angle that made it impossible for them to stand on it. They started to scream as they began to stumble and fall off the ship.
Snotlout grabbed onto the remains of the ship's mast, "Fishlegs, grab my foot!"
As he was falling by, he grabbed onto his foot, causing him to grunt due to his fellow rider's weight. The other riders did the same as they went by, grabbing onto each other's feet, saving their lives.
Snotlout grunted at all of the additional weight pulling on his foot, "Oh, you had a full breakfast! You ate everybody's breakfast!"
Tuffnut smiled, "We're gonna live!"
Astrid's grip on Tuffnut's boot began to slip, she wasn't sure if she could hold on too much longer. One of the eels struck and grabbed onto her, she tried to pull herself up to get it off of her and she failed, she lost her grip. Instead of pulling away from it, it ended up pulling her down.
"Astrid! No!" Hiccup and Helene cried in unison.
Tuffnut frowned, "Most of us are gonna live!"
"Hiccup!" she shouted as she was pulled into the water.
She was now in the water, surrounded by large, hungry eels, she drew her axe and began to swing it. Just as they approached for an attack, a plasma blast streamed through the water, startling the eels. Hiccup and Toothless came into the water and got her out of the deadly situation.
She could have hugged him when he got her away from the hungry eels, "Thanks, Hiccup."
With Astrid safely out of the water, Ripwave fired her electricity, shocking the eels and causing them to release the ship. The ship resumed the straight, horizontal position, allowing everyone else to safely stand on it.
Now that the crisis was over, they all gathered onto the ship together. That was a very intense situation, the most tense in a long time for them.
"Pardon me, but does anyone think Johann could have warned us about… I don't know… the giant screaming eels?!" Snotlout snapped.
Helene nodded, "Leave it to my Dad to leave out the most important details." She internally flinched when she referred to Johann as her father, he wasn't.
"Snotlout, would you relax? The dragons will be back. In the meantime, we stick with the plan, we find Johann's treasure," he told everyone. "Quietly."
He then turned to look behind him, where there was a ship, not just any ship, the Reaper. The moonlight casted a shadow that eerily cloaked over the wrecked ship. Yet, this ship was calling out to him, beckoning him to explore its secrets.
Astrid noticed him looking at it and knew what he was thinking, but hoped she was wrong. "Why are you staring at that ship?"
"Because I'm thinking of checking it out," he answered.
"The Reaper?" she questioned in disbelief, although she wasn't entirely surprised. "The ship Johann warned us about?"
"Exactly. A ship covered with booby traps from stem to stern. I'm thinking, what is on there they don't want people to find?" he inquired to himself.
Helene listened to what he was saying, and while she didn't know what could be on it either, she did know what they were likely to see. She saw some very disturbing things when she was younger, things that she was unable to get out of her head, even though she had been very young at the time.
"I should go with you, four eyes are better than two," she told him.
"Uh, I don't know," he replied. "I mean, I don't want anything to happen to you and Ripwave."
"Ripwave won't be coming," she interjected before he could go any further.
This earned her a worried growl from her dragon. She nudged her hand with her snout, moving her head under her palm.
She scratched her head reassuringly, "Don't worry, girl. Everything will be alright."
Knowing that any further arguing with her was futile, he sighed, "Fine, you can come with me to investigate the Reaper."
While she was glad he was willing to take her with him to investigate, she also mused that he didn't have much of a backbone. It was so easy to win an argument with him, and while that didn't mean much to his magnetic nature in attracting friends, both human and dragon, it could have an impact on his future as the next leader of Berk. She was learning more about chiefing than he was and understood how important it was to be a leader to all, not a friend.
She turned to her dragon, "Ripwave." She perked up when she heard her name. She pointed upward with her finger, then pointed at a nearby sea stack, pointing at the top. "Wait there." She huffed through her nostrils, understanding her, and left for it, hoping her rider would be alright without her.
She got onto Toothless' saddle and waited for Hiccup to mount him. He did so and inserted his metal leg into the pedal of the saddle, spreading the tailfin and allowing them to fly the short distance to the Reaper.
They landed on the deck and the first thing they did was admire its foreign features. Hiccup had only caught a glimpse of the ship when he and Toothless flew over it a while earlier, and right away he noticed how different it was from every other ship he had ever seen.
"This ship is definitely not from the archipelago," he uttered, continuing to admire the ship.
"No, definitely not," she agreed, examining some carvings she found on one of the many cages discovered on the deck.
"These carvings…" he looked up at the sail and saw the unique and unusual design, "...the design on the sail. I've never seen anything like this."
She looked up at it as well, vaguely recognizing it. She was certain she saw the design before, but she wasn't sure if it was the same as the one she saw as a young child. She did remember seeing a ship when she was a child, but it was very brief and all she could remember clearly were the cries of dragons being tortured.
He then examined the metal of the cages, they were an unusual turquoise color, not the usual grey color he was accustomed to. He thought it was rusted at first because of the odd color, but looking at it he realized that it was not rusted, just badly worn and beaten.
He ran his hand along the cage, touching the metal, "And this metal…" As he touched it, he thought he could feel narrow scratches and dents on the surface, like those caused by dragons.
Toothless sniffed the metal before he growled at the cage. There was something about it that told him it was once used for nefarious deeds.
"What's wrong, Toothless?" Helene inquired after noticing his behavior.
Hiccup saw this as well and tried to assure him, "Come on, bud, it's just an empty cage."
As if on cue, a bird suddenly flew out of the cage, startling them. It flew away and Toothless gave Hiccup a pointed look and warbled in a manner that matched his face.
"Okay, now- now it's an empty cage," he smiled sheepishly. His dragon grumbled.
"Come on, guys, let's search below deck," she told them, walking towards the latch that would take them to the lower deck.
He followed her, and Toothless started to growl with hostility and uncertainty, which his rider took notice of, "Come on, bud. Don't you want to see what's down below?" He responded by continuing to growl. "Okay, I guess we're going alone. Need help with the latch, Helene?"
"Yeah, I might," she answered. She reached down to lift it up a little while she waited for his help with it.
When she did, a rope suddenly grappled onto his leg and started to pull him away. Toothless ran to catch up with him before it could pull him over deck and shot a plasma blast at the rope to free him.
Helene went over to him and helped him to stand, "Are you alright, Hiccup?"
"Yeah, sure," he replied. He looked down at his leg and the rope that was still wrapped around it. He untied it and tossed the rope away, declaring, "Okay, no one goes to this much trouble unless there's something on this ship that they don't want found."
She looked at the still closed latch and looked back at him with a slight shrug, "Shall we?"
"I suppose, but be careful," he told her.
They went back to the latch and opened it together, there was a ladder leading down. She hid behind him and he held up his Gronckle Iron shield to protect them in case of another trap.
When nothing happened, it was assumed it was safe for them and Toothless. The ladder led down into the darkness of the ship, it was difficult to see below.
Hiccup stepped onto one of the rungs of the ladder and began to cautiously make his way down with Helene and Toothless following him closely. "Watch your step."
"Right back at you," she responded.
He set foot on the floor of the lower deck and soon as he did, another trap clamped around his leg. Fortunately, it only caught him on his metal leg, he was unharmed.
He removed his leg from the trap as he remarked, "One of the benefits of a metal leg, I suppose." She laughed when he said that.
She jumped off the ladder to avoid the trap he triggered. Toothless did the same, landing beside both of them.
It was very dark and difficult for them to see anything besides each other. Hiccup found a lantern and had Toothless light it with a small plasma blast.
They walked through the ship, wary and fully aware of the potential traps waiting for them. Eventually, they came up to the ship's brig, there were cells that flanked either side of them and led directly to an ornate door, the quarters of whoever used to take command of the Reaper.
Toothless sniffed the brig, as if trying to smell for more traps. Or, maybe, he did smell something strange, but not traps, something more tragic.
Knowing there could be more traps, Hiccup tells them, "Okay, let's take this nice and…"
Toothless began to wander off and laid down in front of one of the cells, whining sadly. Hiccup shined the lantern around the brig and saw that the cells all contained the skeletal remains of dragons. Helene felt sick to her stomach, she had seen live dragons in cages before, but not dead ones, even if they were only skeletons.
"Dragon bones," Hiccup and Helene whispered softly and sadly in unison.
The saddest thing was that it was entirely possible that these dragons were alive when the ship wrecked and had been unable to get out. It was a sickening thought for all three of them to think these dragons were taken away from their homes and probably tried countless times to escape, only to die in the cages they were imprisoned in.
Both Dragon Riders wrapped their arms around Toothless to comfort him. This was harshest on him than it was them, considering he was the last of his kind.
"I'm sorry you had to see this, bud," Hiccup muttered. "Whoever commanded this ship was certainly no friend of dragons."
Helene stood up from the floor, "Let's get out of here." He nodded, agreeing.
They started to walk away from the bones in the cages, mainly to get Toothless away from them if anything else. They weren't able to get far, Hiccup accidentally stepped on another hidden trap, triggering arrows hidden inside the walls.
Toothless blocked the flying arrows with his wing to protect them. They got into a blind spot behind a barrel, the arrows couldn't reach them, but Toothless still had his wings shielding them to be safe.
Hiccup noticed that the arrows went nowhere close to the ornate door, that was their chance to get past them, he commanded, "Alright, come on, let's go!"
Toothless spread his wings as wide as he could to shield them as they made a run for the empty space before the door. Once they were safe, Toothless joined them, his wings had a few scratches on them, but he would be alright.
Hiccup stared at the brig, at the dragon bones, at the cells. It was difficult for him to comprehend who could be cruel enough to cage dragons like criminals, but he also remembered that his own father, and village, was the same way only a few years ago. Little did he know, Helene had similar thoughts in her mind, and he had no idea of the inhumane acts she had witnessed.
She tapped on his shoulder, "Hiccup." He looked at her, she pointed at the door.
"Commander's quarters," he uttered.
He felt that whatever was behind that door was what the previous occupants of the ship were hiding, and the reason for all of the traps. What that could be, only facing the risk of the unknown would tell.
"Okay, here's the plan," he began. Toothless didn't let him finish, he fired a plasma blast, shooting the door open. "I like yours better." Toothless let out his own version of a laugh.
Helene couldn't help but to smile as well and struggled to hold in a laugh. "Shall we, Hiccup?" He nodded.
They walked up to the door, which he held open for her and his dragon, and they all walked inside. On the walls, flanking the door, were the large skulls of two dragons. One was the skull of a Boneknapper, the other was the skull of a dragon they didn't recognize, although it was a little similar to a Monstrous Nightmare.
In the room was a desk, sitting at it was a skeleton, most likely the ship's commander. It didn't have a skull and the skull of a dragon was on top of the back of the chair the skeleton sat in. The skull appeared to be that of a Deadly Nadder, yet there was a slight flatness to it, which made it look slightly more like that of a Skrill.
The skeleton was holding something, as if protecting it. The object was cylindrical, very ornate, like the door, and appeared to feature a dragon's head with small red jewels for eyes and a short cylinder in its mouth. Overall, the shape reminded them of an elongated spyglass or a telescope.
"What is this thing?" she inquired, admiring it and its unusual shape and intricate design.
"I don't know," he responded, "but if it's on this ship, it's no good for dragons, which means we're not leaving it here for Dagur."
He removed the skeletal hand, grimacing as he did, then slowly and carefully, brought his hands to it, wary that there could be more traps waiting to be released. Toothless gulped and Helene clenched her hands tightly with nervousness and anticipation. Finally, he touched it and slowly lifted it from its pedestal, his heart was in his throat and he held his breath, waiting for anything.
He could breathe easily when nothing happened, "Huh. Well, that wasn't so-" Suddenly, an axe fell in front of him out of nowhere! "Giant axe! Toothless! Helene! Run!"
They were about to run out of the room, but then spikes emerged from the floor, preventing them from leaving. Toothless was undeterred, he was getting them out of there, he leaped over them and grabbed them in his claws as he jumped over the spikes.
"Watch it, Toothless!" Hiccup shouted.
More arrows fired out of the walls, but he was so fast that they never even touched him, or them. He was determined to get to the ladder and get out of the Reaper.
Hiccup and Helene held onto Toothless as he practically flew up the ladder and out of the lower deck. They were finally out, but now they had an even bigger problem to deal with.
Once they were back on the upper deck, they found Dagur and his soldiers standing before them. Johann wasn't kidding, he was more berserk than he was three years prior.
Toothless growled and prepared to fire a plasma blast, but Hiccup stopped him, "Toothless, hold!"
He looked happy to see them, Hiccup and Toothless especially. "Hiccup! Did you miss me? 'Cause I sure missed you?" He gripped his hair in anger, "Every day for three years, I thought about you."
He stepped aside to reveal the other riders locked up in one of the cages on the deck. They were captured while they were searching the wrecks for Johann's treasures.
"Astrid!" Hiccup cried, horrified to see them in a cage.
Toothless growled again, which Dagur definitely took notice of and wasn't fazed by, "And you too, Mr. Night Fury."
Astrid reported what happened, "Sorry, Hiccup, he got the drop on us while we were searching the-"
"Quiet!" Dagur snapped. "Can't you see my brother and I are having a moment?"
"I'm not your brother and we are definitely not having a moment," he retorted.
"Oh, well, I was. Look at you! All grown up. And quite the ladies' man, I'd wager?" he asked playfully. "Hmm? Hmm?"
"What the hell do you want, Dagur?" Helene practically growled at him.
He wasn't fazed by her growls either, instead he smiled wryly and laughed derisively as he held up his hands in a mocking manner, "Still as feisty as ever, huh, Princess Outcast?"
She had been to the prison on Outcast Island numerous times during the last three years, thoroughly enjoying seeing him imprisoned. He was crude and vulgar to her often - she saw more of him than anyone would want to see willingly - and each time he got shot at by Ripwave. In fact, she was the one who gave him the scar on the side of his face.
However, at that time, he was not safely locked away, they were standing face to face, and had a fair number of soldiers with him, ready to fire their arrows. Not only that but Ripwave wasn't with her, she was somewhere else observing, awaiting a signal or distress call, as it was how she was trained.
When he didn't give an immediate answer, she questioned him again, almost gritting her teeth, "I'll ask again, what the hell do you want?"
"Duh," Snotlout interjected, flipping the hair he found below deck on another ship, "he wants the jewels."
"Well, he's not getting my family's jewels! No way! And I'll protect them at all cost!" Tuffnut declared. The jewels he was referring to were inside of Ruffnut's mouth, they found them below deck on a different wreck. "Also, what is with that hair?"
He chuckled and flipped his newly-found hair again, "It's royal hair, I'll have you know."
"Haven't gotten rid of the Greek chorus, I see," Dagur remarked. "Anyway, yes, I'll take the jewels. His, too."
A guard jabbed Ruffnut in the stomach, causing her to spit out her jewels. "Hey! Watch it, pal!" He laughed at her and she spit a jewel in his mouth, choking him.
"Oops, thought that was the guy, never can tell with those two," he commented. The guard coughed out the jewel and it hit him in the face. "And I'll also take whatever it is you're hiding behind your back. Come on, hand it over like a good boy. Brothers share, you know."
Reluctantly, he gave him the mysterious object they found in the commander's quarters. "You know you're not going to get very far with that thing, right?"
He scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Oh, boy, here we go. Must we do the same dance, Hiccup, you and I? Not that you're not a fabulous dancer." He secretly snuck a wink at Helene, who held back the strong urge to hit him.
Toothless growled at him again and the guards pointed their crossbows at him. Hiccup put his hands on him to keep him calm, "Easy, bud. Not yet."
"That's right, Mr. Night Fury, today is not the day, but it's coming, and soon," Dagur proclaimed. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I've got people to see, an army to build, revenge to plot… Ooh, so much to do and so little time! Isn't this exciting, Hiccup? You must have been so bored over the last three years."
"Yeah, you got a point about that," Tuffnut casually remarked with his arms crossed. "Not enough explosions."
"Alas, my time here has come to an end." He gripped Hiccup's shoulders, "Farewell, for now, brother. Until we meet again," he walked away with his soldiers, "in the field of battle." They jumped over the side and landed on Johann's stolen ship.
Hiccup and Helene ran up to the cage with their friends inside. To his surprise, she pushed him away and got to work opening it herself.
"I can handle this, Hiccup," she told him.
"Forget about us, go after him!" Astrid practically demanded.
"What are you waiting for?" Snotlout nearly yelled, blowing the hair he found out of his face.
He looked at all them questionably, "Are you guys sure you'll be okay?"
"We're fine," Astrid insisted. "Go!"
Reluctantly, he mounted Toothless and they took to the air, flying after Dagur. Meanwhile, Helene started to get to work on the cage, trying to pull it open while the others tried to help her by pushing on the door with their combined body weight.
One of Dagur's soldiers informed him that Hiccup was following them, he simply smirked and chuckled wryly, he didn't need to be informed to know that he was following them. "Still predictable. Aren't you, brother?"
His soldiers started to prepare the catapults, loading them with boulders. Dagur shielded his eyes as he looked on, but he wasn't looking at Hiccup.
"Fire!" he commanded. Boulders started to fly through the air at his command, but none hit Hiccup and Toothless.
"You missed, brother!" Hiccup gibed.
He could have laughed, didn't he know him better? "Hiccup, you should know by now, I never miss."
Realizing what he meant and his real target, he turned by to the Reaper, shouting, "Oh, no!"
The boulders made contact with the ship, blowing holes into it and immediately causing sea water to pour inside. Almost immediately, the ship tilted as it began to sink into the water. Helene began to lose her footing and had to stand on the tips of her toes to keep her balance as she held onto the cage.
All at once, everyone started shouting for Hiccup to come back to the ship to help them. Meanwhile, he was still in the air as he thought about the best thing to do, all while listening to the pleas and cries from his friends.
"Hello?! We're sinking here!"
"Hiccup! Hiccup!"
"Hiccup! Help us!"
"Get us out of here!"
"Help! We need you!"
"Get your ass over here!"
Meanwhile, Dagur was jeering at his enemy's conflict, "What's it going to be, Hiccup? Catch me? Save your friends? Ooh, tough one. Glad I'm not in your shoe!"
Hiccup and Toothless looked back and forth between their friends and Dagur, conflicted on what should be done. Saving their friends and letting a maniac escape, or capturing him and letting them drown? There was a negative outcome no matter which was chosen.
Dagur's voice bellowed in the graveyard of ships as he cackled, "Isn't this exciting? What will he choose, ladies and gentlemen? Catch me? Or capturing his mortal enemy, his brother?"
Ultimately, he decided to save his friends, it wasn't a difficult decision in the end. He could live with Dagur escaping, but losing his friends was something he wouldn't be able to live with, he would never be able to live with himself if he let them die.
Dagur simply shrugged when he flew away, disappointed but not surprised, "Huh, disappointing. But oh so typically Hiccup."
They landed on the sinking ship, he dismounted immediately, clinging onto the deck. "Move back from the door! Toothless, plasma blast."
Toothless fired a couple of plasma blasts at the cage, causing a light cloud of smoke. When the smoke cleared, the cage wasn't opened, it was perfectly intact.
"Oh, what the-" Hiccup trailed off, shocked.
"Dragon-proof bars?" Fishlegs questioned, bewildered. He then smiled, "Oh, fascinating."
Hiccup touched the metal, admiring how it resisted Toothless' firepower, "Whoever built this ship really knew what they were doing."
The ship began to tilt, tossing everyone in the cage into each other. Hiccup and Helene held onto the cage to prevent themselves from falling, Toothless kept them standing by pushing his weight into the backs of their legs.
"Oh, you know what would be more fascinating?" Snotlout retorted. The ship tilted again, tossing Fishlegs into him, pressing his face in between his and the door. "Getting us out of here!"
Helene realized that they would never be able to get the door open with Toothless' firepower alone, "Hiccup, we need more firepower if we want to get this cage open."
"Agreed. Guys, dragon calls," he told them.
All at once, everyone used their dragon calls to call out to their dragons to return to them. Helene held onto the cage with one hand as she used the other to cup the side of her mouth. She let out a silvery howl-like sound from her throat, her dragon call for Ripwave.
Fortunately, the sea stack Ripwave was perched on wasn't too far from the Reaper and the wind carried her call to her. She perked when she heard her rider calling for her and immediately flew down to her.
As she neared the Reaper, she saw one of the giant eels from earlier jump onto the cage. Her eyes narrowed and her pupils dilated, she hated those eels, she fired her electricity at it, shooting it off.
She landed next to her rider, rubbing her head against her, happy that she was safe. She returned her affection by scratching her chin.
"Alright, let's try this again. Together, fire!" Hiccup commanded.
Toothless and Ripwave started to fire at the door together with their respective firepower. Despite their combined firepower, it still wasn't enough to open it, it wasn't even making a dent.
"Dammit!" Hiccup shouted, pounding his fist the deck.
In his frustration, he failed to hear the hiss of more of the large eels, but Helene did and saw as one of them lunged up at him, "Hiccup, look out!"
It grabbed onto his leg and tried to pull him down. "Toothless!" The Night Fury immediately shot a plasma blast at it and it released him.
The ship continued to sink and tilt, to the point where it was as steep as a flat, mountainous slope. They didn't have much time and they were getting even more desperate to open the cage, so desperate that Hiccup was using his prosthetic to try to unlatch it.
"Hookfang! Help us! I'm important!" Snotlout cried.
The ship was now in a straight position, it stood erect among the wrecks. Everyone now had no other choice but to cling onto the cage to prevent themselves from falling.
"Stormfly!" Astrid called out.
"Barf! Belch! Get your butts over here!" Ruffnut yelled.
The vertical position of the ship was the least of their concerns, the eels were still below them and shrieking, pleading for them to loosen their grips on the cage so they could have a smorgasbord. They were in between a rock and a hard place numerous times before, but this seemed to be something they would have to pray to the gods to help them get out of it alive.
Toothless snarled at the large eels below them, he tried to fire plasma blasts at them, but he had reached his shot limit. Desperate and out of options, he howled for the other dragons to help them.
Unfortunately, the riders couldn't hold onto the cage any longer. Everyone inside of it let go and their combined weight caused the door to open. Fortunately, they somehow managed to grab onto the door and each other, preventing them from falling into the hungry jaws of the eels below.
Tuffnut was hanging upside down by one of the other riders grabbing onto his foot, he held Hiccup's prosthetic leg after he grabbed it. "Ah, that was great!" Suddenly, the eels lunged up at him and he swung the prosthetic at them. Barf and Belch saved him by releasing a small explosion, causing the eels to flee. "Oh, so now you decide to show up?"
One by one, everyone let go of the cage and landed on the backs of their dragons. Tuffnut gave Hiccup his prosthetic back so he and Toothless could fly up with the others, safely off the Reaper.
Fishlegs let out a breath of relief, "That was way too close."
"Hiccup, what are we doing?" Astrid inquired in between gasps.
"You guys go back to Berk, I'm going after Dagur," he responded. "Whatever that cylinder-looking thing is, I know one thing's for sure, it shouldn't be in his hands."
"Will you be alright?" Helene asked.
He nodded, "Yes, I'll be fine. Go, I'll see you there."
Dagur was sailing away from the shipwreck graveyard in Johann's ship with all of the treasures. They were sailing through a foggy area, but he was more focused on the object he took from Hiccup.
"Amazing. I've never seen anything quite like this," he grinned as he continued to admire it.
"Me neither," Savage said as he cleaned out his ear. Dagur scowled. "What do you suppose it is?"
"Don't ask ridiculous questions, Savage! Just know this, it's mine now! All mine!" he laughed. "Now, what exactly is it that you do? Tell Dagur, now. That's it. Don't be afraid. Tell Daddy Dagur."
Savage could see a silhouette approaching them in the fog, but Dagur didn't pay any attention to it. "Uh, Dagur?"
"Ugh! What now?! Another stupid question?!" he snapped, raising the object like a club, as if threatening to bludgeon him with it.
"More of an observation," he said.
Hiccup and Toothless flew closely over him after finally managing to catch up to him. They were so close that Hiccup was able to nonchalantly take the object out of his hand, "Thank you kindly."
Dagur stared at his empty hands and let out a rage filled scream. Two of his soldiers fired arrows at them as they flew away, but missed. He threw one overboard in his rage and the other jumped into the water on his own after he sneered at him. He was beyond angry.
"See what you did?!" he yelled. "You distracted me. And now my beautiful, mysterious, cylindrical object is gone!" He grabbed Savage by the collar of his tunic. He then shouted after Hiccup as he shook him by his tunic, "Good for you, Hiccup! Good for you! But I still got all the gold! You hear me? All the gold! All! The! Gold!" He cackled and threw Savage to the deck. He then casually remarked as he stepped over him as if he wasn't there, "You know, you can never have nice things around that guy?"
I-Y-V~*~o~*~V-Y-I
(A/N: Whew! Finally done! This was one hell of a chapter to write!
I wrote the first couple of minutes of "Dragon Eye of the Beholder Pt. 2" in this chapter because I didn't want to deal with it in the next one. I want the final part to focus on the Dragon Eye and the Snow Wraith, and the only way to do that was to take the focus off Dagur and the Reaper.
Also, I really wanted to write the part where Dagur had his meltdown when the Dragon Eye was stolen from him, it's hilarious. I personally prefer Dagur in RttE than in the original cartoon because he not only seems more like a villain, but he has more motivation to do what he does. And in the end, it actually takes him out of that world.)