Dreamer clenched his teeth and folded his wings as he spotted the unassuming ship carving its way through the waves. The wind rushed past him, sliding smoothly over his body and guided into his sub-wings to further control his descent.
He had debated whether to produce the herald of doom, the rising shriek that gave him sight and his targets fear. He had debated a lot of things in the two days it had taken to track the trader down; he was incredulous that he hadn't realised sooner that Johann had repeatedly led them into traps. In the end, he'd decided not to imply that he was coming in on an attack run.
Of course, that did mean he was dropping out of the sky with no warning whatsoever, but he didn't feel inclined to be courteous. He hit the deck hard, his powerful legs absorbing the impact, and the various crates and clutter bounced a little. There was the expected frightened yelp from the traitorous trader, who shoved his guard forward and ducked behind a crate.
"I ain' fightin' it," the guard said slowly. "Were a reason ah left the 'unters." He stood there warily, still expecting a fight, but Dreamer just stared levelly back at him.
Astrid then landed on Stormfly, shortly followed by a hard thump as Hookfang dropped the macabre Nightstriker statue onto the deck, the Nightmare then landing behind it. "Want to guess where we found this?" Astrid said sharply.
"Oh dear," Johann said quietly, and Dreamer growled.
"You betrayed us!" Snotlout shouted angrily.
"I betrayed you!?" the merchant responded incredulously, standing and holding his arms out, though Dreamer was suspicious of the way his fingers disappeared into his sleeves. "What part of our agreement said I had to trade with you alone? Why do you think I'm even out here in the first place?"
Confirmation he was working with the hunters. It had been stupid to just assume otherwise, Dreamer realised that now even as he hissed angrily… but still, trading a few bars of iron between each side was very different to specifically obtaining his hide in order for weapons to be developed against it, weapons that could not otherwise exist. That was most certainly not worth the deal they had struck, and Johann would have known that.
"You said someone wanted the whole thing!" Astrid retorted. "You knew exactly who you were selling it to, and what he would do with it! Weapons, Johann, he tested weapons on it. One of our dragons got badly hurt because of you!"
Dreamer couldn't stop his ears flattening. He was partially responsible for the arrow that had hit Wanderer, and it made him sick with guilt. But Johann had been the one to actually do the deed, knowing exactly what he was doing.
"And why would that bother me?" Johann asked loudly. "I am impartial, I have always said this."
"Because Viggo is evil!" Astrid snapped.
Johann stared at her. "Evil? You are calling-..." He rubbed his forehead, looking bewildered. "Allow me to get this straight. You are a Viking, correct?"
"You need a reminder?" Astrid asked, deftly sliding her axe from her belt and hefting it.
"Certainly not," he said wryly, "just checking that you still call yourself part of a people whose very way of life revolves around murder! And when killing each other ceases to be enough, you come and kill our families, burn our homes!" He was becoming quite animated now, gesturing wildly, and his face was scrunched into an angry scowl. "But even that is not enough! No, now you literally ride the most dangerous creatures on Midgard, and you consort with," he flicked a hand at Dreamer, and then at Wanderer circling high above, "demons! And yet you name evil the man pledging to make this world safer for everyone!?"
He stood there, breathing heavily, while they digested his rant, then straightened his bracers and regained his composure. "Yes, trading with such individuals, and at such reasonable prices, is heinous indeed."
"Wh-... But then… Why?" Astrid stammered.
Johann scoffed. "If not I, then who? Oh Viggo bought those cursed scales, but who else would trade with you? Who else would help you oppose the hunters?"
"Man, are you stupid," Snotlout said condescendingly, leaning on Hookfang's horn. "Why would you want us fighting the hunters if they're sooo great?"
Dreamer glanced at Astrid, seeing she had come to the same realisation. "You're playing both sides against the other," she said quietly, an edge of anger and disgust to her voice. "You sell tools to Viggo to use against us, and tools to us to use against him."
"But why lead us where Viggo want?" Dreamer growled.
"And," Astrid growled, levelling her axe at the man, "you sent us into Viggo's traps."
"Occasionally," Johann agreed, "when he pays me to use my 'connections'. But, occasionally I overhear talk about how inconvenient it would be if you found something. The more you destroy, the more that needs… replacing."
"You sicken me," Astrid said darkly, giving him a filthy look.
"The feeling is mutual," the merchant replied primly with a casual bow. "But were you not opposing him, Viggo would be well on his way by now. These islands would be bare of these dangerous beasts, and the world would be a better place. But in such a world, I would not be nearly so wealthy."
"We're not the evil ones-"
Dreamer growled over the top of Astrid, silencing her; Johann strongly believed in what he was saying, there was no convincing him with words. This was… not what he had been expecting. Viggo was a callous man, and his hunters cruel on top of that, but could he argue that Vikings were kind and peaceful people? That they did not despise the Southerners, and prided themselves in daring and lucrative raids? Many of them still even took slaves, though Berk at least did not.
He couldn't help but see it from Johann's perspective. From any sane person's perspective, were that person not a Viking or a friend of dragons.
Johann groaned mightily. "If you're going to kill me… just get it over with, and make it quick. You at least owe me that."
Dreamer heard the fear, the resignation in his voice, and groaned himself. The dubious trader would of course not understand his words, but an exaggerated roll of his eyes while pointedly sitting on his haunches and folding his wings to his sides easily got the message across.
"Oh thank heavens," Johann wheezed, collapsing over one of his crates.
Seeing the man was going to be there a little while, Dreamer gestured to the statue with a growl, and Hookfang picked it up again and took off with it. He carried it a short distance and then flung it into the air.
Dreamer fired a big shot, almost half his fire, which rocked the boat a little as it left his mouth. The shot streaked across the water and slammed into the statue, which disappeared in a big smoky explosion; he winced as a large torn section of hide was flung out over the water, but at least he didn't have to acknowledge its existence anymore.
"Consider yourself lucky," Snotlout growled as Hookfang landed on the rail. "But if we ever see this ship-"
Dreamer cut him off with a bark. He wasn't yet sure what they were going to do with Johann, but making a decision now seemed unwise. Emotions were running rampant, and everything they had learned was still too new.
"Wait," Snotlout said, sounding confused, "so we're not killing him, and we're not even going to chase him out of our waters?" Dreamer chuffed at that assessment. "But he probably led Viggo right to us!"
Astrid rolled her head – they had already given that information through Heather – but Johann spoke up first. "That would have been dreadfully stupid," he said dryly. "Viggo has never had the money to buy that information from me, and you lot ensure that remains true. And just as well… These new ships are as unstoppable as they are impossible, and there are whispers of something even more insidious going on. I'm not even sure I want to know what he has planned next."
"Screw this," Snotlout huffed, then tugged on Hookfang's horns and took to the sky.
Astrid watched him go, her expression flat, then turned back to Johann. "What new ships?"
The atmosphere in Dragon's Nest had been grim since learning of what had been done with the Night Fury hide, and it hadn't improved upon learning their trader's true nature. In addition to that, it was now raining, a light but persistent drizzle that just added that little bit of dreariness to top it all off.
But what could they do? Astrid had no answer; they could change Johann's attitude no more than wipe the clouds from the sky. But they couldn't exactly just stop trading with him, it would only be a matter of time before they needed iron to replace something, or fabric to repair clothes, or any number of little details that she wouldn't think twice about until she no longer had them.
She shook the rain out of her face and wiped it from her fringe, then paused as the signature screech of Night Fury fire echoed up to her, closely followed by the louder explosion. Leaning over Stormfly's side and peering through the drizzle, she spotted a dark shape on the ground, by a line of odd lumps.
"That was great!" Tuffnut exclaimed as Stormfly flapped into a landing nearby. "Those things pack a punch!"
"I think you could have aimed a little closer," Ruffnut said mischievously, and there was a growled reply.
"What are you guys doing?" Astrid asked as she jumped out of the saddle.
"Oh, right," Tuffnut said excitedly, "so he has this theory, right? Heh, a dragon with a theory… Er, well they keep having weird stuff happen when they fire indoors."
"Yeah," Ruffnut said just as enthusiastically, "so we built a bunch of little huts for him to blow up!" She folded her arms. "But he's been using all his fire since then. Quick, go do another one!"
Astrid eyed Hiccup, at the way he ignored the conversation, glaring vacantly at one of the huts. "Hey," she said softly, "you okay?" He didn't reply for a long moment, then growled and tossed his head.
"Ready!" Tuffnut shouted, having apparently run off somewhere in the last few moments. Hiccup then fired at the next building, the shot disappearing inside-
The little hut exploded, wooden splinters and planks flying off in all directions, though much of it remained intact. "What exactly is this trying to prove?" Astrid asked.
Ruffnut hummed thoughtfully. "Something about the explosions being stronger while inside. Those shots were the same strength?" Hiccup nodded tersely. "Then I guess that proves it!"
Tuffnut crawled out of the ruined building, literally crawled, dragging himself out onto the wet grass and flopping onto his back. "I don' feel too good," he slurred, taking off his helmet and holding his hands to his head. "Tha'waz no… not a good owwie…"
"Alright," Astrid announced sternly, crossing her arms and staring at Hiccup, "what's going on with you?" Those big green eyes turned to stare at her, stubborn and defiant. "I mean it. Literally firing on Tuffnut? Are you crazy? You know how strong your fire is!"
"No," he growled, "I not." He then took a few steps to stand between two of the huts, one ruined with Tuffnut groaning outside of it, and another that looked perfectly fine.
"Both huts got hit with the same shot," Ruffnut provided. "One exploded inside, and one outside. Our running theory is that the expanding thermic reaction is pressurised by the walls of the hut, or ship as it may be-"
"Or cave," Tuffnut slurred.
"-causing adverse effects on any occupants. Tuffnut, your analysis of such effects?"
"Pain," he groaned. "Ears hurt. Chest hurts. Four… no, five Ruffnuts. And they're all spinning. Hard to hear over this buzzing sound… Think I'm just gonna lie here a while…"
"That matches previous observations. But you should definitely blow up the rest of these huts."
"Seriously?" Astrid asked incredulously. "You knew this might happen and you did it anyway? Hiccup, this is reckless."
"It's science!" Ruffnut exclaimed.
"Just make sure to save one so Ruffnut can experience this too," Tuffnut added.
"No!" Astrid yelled at the Night Fury. "You're not shooting anyone else!"
Tuffnut pointed into the air. "To be fair, we literally begged him for this."
Astrid ignored him. "Hiccup, you almost had a nervous breakdown because you thought you might have killed a hunter, someone who would love to skin you and mount your head on his wall. This isn't like you."
"I did kill that hunter," the Fury growled.
"Yeah, but he was going to die anyway, and that made you feel worse." He said nothing to that. "Is this because those ships Johann mentioned weren't there when we got there? And that we haven't been able to find any hunters in days?" His lips curled back a little to reveal his teeth as he stared at the remaining huts. "Is it because Snotlout's run off on his own and hasn't come back?" A low rumbling growl became audible over the drizzle. "Is it because you feel like Viggo is winning?"
He turned to glare at her, almost looking as if he was about to attack her, but she wasn't afraid. She walked right up to him and held a hand out towards his head, though didn't quite touch him. "I'm worried about you," she said gently. "What if you'd badly hurt Tuffnut? I know he means a lot to you."
"I helped him when he needed it," Tuffnut said, sounding a bit more lucid. "Doesn't make me his mother or anything." Hiccup rumbled a wordless agreement.
"Besides," she said more happily, touching her fingertips to his chin, "we are hurting Viggo. You heard Johann, he'd have wiped the dragons out by now if it wasn't for us. Johann's guard left the hunters because of you. Imagine if Viggo had sold all those dragons at that auction, if we'd not interrupted it, and we scared off all his customers. Not to mention all the dragons we've freed from his ships, must have been over a thousand of those. Plus everything the Defenders are doing, now that they can sail freely again. We are winning, slowly, and it's all just starting to come together. Don't lose heart now."
His eyes flicked up to meet hers, and somehow, in an instant, he went from being a fearsome and angry Night Fury to a vulnerable and tired little dragon. Sometimes she forgot he was, what, five years old? Four and a half? Something like that. "Hang in there, okay?" she said, stepping forward to awkwardly hug his head to her side. "And find something to do that doesn't involve blowing up the twins… as tempting as they make it…"
"I'm not even offended," Ruffnut said plainly.
One of his ears hit the back of her arm, and then he turned his head to look back towards the Nest. A minute later, during which time the twins got bored and left, Meatlug's buzzing wings could be heard, and Astrid spotted the dragon approaching with a rotund silhouette on her back.
"Hiccup!" Fishlegs shouted as he landed. "I did it!"
"Did what?" Astrid asked on the dragon's behalf.
"I cracked it! I made Gronckle Iron!" He ran up and held out a flat plate of pale metal, rivulets of water running off it to the sodden grass.
"There you go," Astrid laughed, "something less dangerous to put your mind to!"
Hiccup reached up and tapped it with his claws. "This good," he agreed. "Come, I have thought." He then hopped into the air and flew back towards the Nest.
Suddenly, the rain was all that was vying for Astrid's attention. She flicked her head, then when that didn't do anything, wiped her fringe out of her eyes, and walked back to Stormfly. "Come on girl," she cooed, "let's go dry off by a fire and then preen your scales. You'd like that?" She laughed as the Nadder chittered excitedly and practically threw her into the saddle.
Tonight was a night for mischief.
Ruffnut grinned and rubbed her hands together as they descended in the darkness, the island below them only visible as a big shadow with a patch of light at the edge. Dragon's Nest had become so boring since Snotlout had flown off, and he still hadn't returned. At least Astrid was increasingly chipper with him gone, more fun to hang out with, but Ruffnut wanted to cause some mayhem. All the better if she could do so for the hunters rather than her fellow riders.
And particularly the Furies. Even she was getting the impression that it would be really, really stupid to carry on their prank war with the dragons, and she barely understood dragons at all.
"What'ya reckon, Barf, ready to knock some hunters' heads together?" Barf croaked happily, bobbing his head and bouncing her in the saddle. "Reckon we'll get to see the Furies blow something up?" she asked quietly, leaning to her dragon's head, and he croaked happily.
Not that he would be happy if either Fury started firing on something, he liked to be the one blowing stuff up. He was just agreeing with her because he liked the tone of her voice or something; at first impression, it was almost as if the dragons could understand Norse, but living with one for so long regularly proved the Furies to be the exception, not the norm.
The patch of light below them seemed to grow as they neared, and she frowned. "That's kind of a big camp," she said.
"Well, Heather said there was something big going on here, some sort of weapon, using a lot of materials. It would be a big camp."
"Yeah, but even still," Tuffnut said slowly.
"And," Astrid added sternly, "remember that Dagur is down there somewhere. Whatever you do, just stay away from him."
Ruffnut rolled her eyes in anticipation of the snarky remark about being scared… but it never came. The feud between her and Snotlout was so ingrained and persistent, Ruffnut was still expecting it even though Snotlout had been missing for weeks.
Barf backwinged into a landing – Ruffnut supposed Belch helped too, a little – and they all touched down on a shadowy outcrop of rock overlooking the majority of the camp. It was a massive thing, sprawling down the rocky decline to the water, and around out of sight. "Hey," Ruffnut said quietly, "ever wonder where Viggo gets the food for all these people?"
There was a draconic groan, and then a purring at her elbow; the green eyes were all she could see of whichever Fury was beside her, she'd always had trouble telling one from the other. "What's that supposed to mean?" she asked, clueless.
"It means no, he hadn't thought of it," Tuffnut supplied.
"Well it seems kind of important," she added, "I mean there's like half the population of Berk here."
Fishlegs sidled up to the edge to look down over the camp. "Which means," he whispered, "we should be really, really quiet." It was a surprise he was here at all, really, stealth wasn't really his thing, or his dragon's. Astrid probably bullied him into it, feeling short-handed with Snotlout missing.
"What are we waiting for, anyway?" Ruffnut asked impatiently, before slinking down the steep slope towards the camp.
"I think I'm just gonna stay here," she heard Fishlegs say nervously behind her. "Keep the dragons quiet. Back you guys up if you get caught."
"If Astrid gets caught, he means," Tuffnut said quietly beside her.
"When Astrid gets caught, he means," Ruffnut corrected with a grin. And then they were within earshot of the camp, and thus moving silently.
Stealth was a delicate balance of speed, awareness, and reliance. Staying in one spot was just begging to be caught. Similarly, awareness of the targets was key, to not step out in front of one. And lastly, relying on those same targets to be stupid and unobservant allowed the first two to coexist. They were scrawny compared to the big burly hunters with muscles rippling down their bare arms, but as long as they didn't look like they were sneaking, nobody questioned their presence from a distance.
And thankfully, there was a lot of interesting stuff to look at without anyone nearby to wonder what they were doing. Such as a big pile of barrels stacked up against a cliff. Acting as if they were just talking inventory, they set about prying a few open with their belt knives to find…
"Why do these guys need so many rocks?" Ruffnut complained, quietly but not hushed. That was such a boring thing to find in a barrel! They were literally stacked up against a rock wall.
"Maybe they have a lot of hungry Gronckles?" Tuffnut suggested.
"Whatever." Ruffnut replaced the lid on the last barrel she'd opened and casually walked to the nearest shadow, one cast by a large building at the edge of the camp. There, she resumed creeping and peered around it into the path, noting the hunters milling around. The building they were loitering around was near the end of the path so it didn't have much traffic nearby, and she leaned against the wall in the alley to look out without looking suspicious.
"These hunters seem off to you?" she asked her brother. The path was well lit by regular torches casting their warm light off the sporadic building and occasional boulder, and despite being well after dark there were quite a lot of hunters dragging themselves around.
"No… Do they smell worse than usual or something?" He sniffed under his arm, then pulled a face. "Sorry, it might be me."
"Not that, you dummy." She rolled her eyes and watched the men wandering around, casually leaning against the wall as if she had every right to be there. They seemed aimless, maybe a little confused? Their conversations were all… somewhat speculative, and disappointed. "Something's happened recently," she deduced.
"Alright, but how do we find out, and how do we cause havoc?" her brother asked speculatively. "Too many hunters to bring B and B in… Lots of bows…"
An earlier thought came to mind. "If we can spoil their food, they'll get really mad."
"Yeah but they won't be storing it all together in a camp this big."
"We don't need to hit all of it, just enough they'll start feeling it. You know, like the winters of old." Nothing drained morale on such a scale as hunger; Berk knew that from experience.
"Yeah, I-... Wait, that guy looks suspicious." He turned his head and subtly nodded in a direction.
"As in, he's suspicious of us, or you're suspicious of him?"
Tuffnut was silent for a moment. "Why does that phrase mean both of those things?" he asked, sounding annoyed. "I mean he's looking this way. Wanna do the ol' number three?"
"As in, the number three for being spotted sneaking around, or the number three for pranking people following us?"
"Why do we do this to ourselves," he moaned. "The first one. I think. Look, just split up and meet me fifty yards north of here. You go, I'll lose him."
"Fine," she said shortly, jogging out into the path and throwing a half-hearted wave back at him. He walked out nonchalantly behind her, a much easier target to follow, while she quickly crossed the path and disappeared into another dark alley.
Her contemplation on the absurdity of language was short-lived, as she turned a corner and ran into a dead end. "Who builds two walls when there could be one?" she incredulously asked the wood around her. The ground under her feet felt uniformly lumpy, so she supposed it had been host to some crates or something, but even still, this was just poor planning. It could at least have a roof over it.
She hurried back, just in time to see Tuffnut about to follow her in. She hurriedly jabbed her fingertips into the palm of her hand, signalling the dead end, then waved him away, and he casually changed direction. He would be walking outside the camp by going that way, on rocky and probably treacherous ground, but if the hunter was following then Tuffnut would easily lose him there.
A few moments after he walked out of sight, a hunter jogged to a halt just outside the alley, looking after Tuffnut and scratching his head. Ruffnut slowly backed around the corner, heart racing, and the hunter just started turning her way before she was out of sight; he knew this was a dead end.
Crap crap crap, this was really bad. She frantically looked around, but the alley was empty, and all she had on her were a half dozen little knives; what she wouldn't give for a spear or mace right now. She put her hands to the hilts of two of her knives, but didn't draw them yet so as to not alert the hunter with the sound. He evidently had no such qualms, as the rasp of a sword sliding from its sheath echoed around the corner. Her only hope was to jump him, and hope-
Her breath caught in her throat as something grabbed her collar and yanked her off her feet, and semi-familiar scales pressed against her face as the world went dark. She could hear her heart beating, and another pulse through the smooth scales against the side of her head, but no shout of alarm went up.
"Could'a sworn," she heard from below, and then a scuffing of dirt and metal against wood as he checked the darkness for her.
Finally, she heard the rasp of the sword returning to its sheath, and footsteps leading away. She exhaled and started breathing again, starting to wonder about the position she was in. No light whatsoever penetrated her hiding place, and she'd apparently tucked her legs in a bit which were nestled into what felt like a wing. Something was still holding her collar, if not really holding her up by it, but something was hooked under her arm as well, and she was sort of sitting on something.
The wings unfolded and revealed the dark alley, but the column of light spilling in from the path was enough to confirm it was one of the Furies who had grabbed her, hanging upside down. He was holding her in a very compromising way, with his hindlegs sort of wrapped around her shoulders. "Toothy?" she asked as he adjusted his grip on her.
Huff
"...Hiccup?"
Grunt
"Oh whatever," she grumbled as she was lifted, then grabbed the edge of the roof and hauled herself up. "I'm sure I could have handled him, but thanks."
Grunt
"Oh boy," she said under her breath as she carefully looked out over the path, staying low. "Guess this is as good a way to go as any." She crept along the roof to the wall that had blocked her in, finding it to be part of another building – really, the layout of this place was a mess – and followed it around.
Huff!
"What?" she quietly asked the Night Fury at her elbow. "You can come, but I gotta make it back to Tuffnut."
Groan
"Well I suppose I don't have to, but I really should." She crested the peak of the roof and edged along it, careful not to alert any occupants to her presence. Really, she should get back to the ground as soon as possible; it seemed the chaotic nature of this place would work in her favour, as long as she didn't run into any more dead ends. The path she was moving alongside was shorter, not as well lit, and ended in a building and more shadows. She dropped down in the corner and resumed walking casually, in the darkness where the light of the torches did not quite reach.
The dragon of course did not follow her, and she shrugged to herself before casually ducking into another alley to avoid a hunter coming her way – ensuring this one had an exit before committing to it, though thankfully she didn't need it.
Huff
"You following me or what?" she asked the green eyes watching her from the alley. They moved forward, and then she lost sight of them before she was grabbed and pulled back. "Hey, quit it," she whispered tensely, flailing to keep her balance and then twisting to get her feet planted on the ground again. He let her go and resumed staring at her. "I don't get you guys," she grumbled before walking back to the path to peer out, then resumed her journey through the camp. Presumably Tuffnut had just followed the edge of the camp around and was already there, wondering if she'd been killed and if it was time to start causing mischief on his own.
She carefully made her way through the camp, which was not all that difficult with how few hunters there were around, only two or three in each section of path. That made sense, the snoring coming from many of the walls around her indicated these were the sleeping huts, not really of any use to her. The more interesting targets would be in the middle of the camp, and maybe closer to the docks, which were on the other side entirely. Unfortunately, there was a big, well-lit path between her and where she was trying to get, so she just had to keep going and hope there was a gap in the hunters occupying it, or some sort of end to it.
"Oh thank Loki," she whispered to herself as she came across a swathe of path that was entirely unlit, barely visible in the faint moonlight. No way anyone would recognise her from any distance without carrying a torch, which she would see coming.
Growl
"Look, I don't understand Dragonish," she groused at the dragon trotting along beside her. "Come if you want but stop bugging me." That seemed to do it, as he stopped trying to distract her, though half the time she wasn't even sure if he was there or not.
An isolated conversation caught her attention and she veered towards it, passing through another alley and emerging into a path. A short way down, light spilled out across it, which seemed to be the source of the voices. She quietly walked up to lean against the wall just around the corner from the conversation, just close enough to hear.
"That's a lot of complaints," an even-toned voice was saying, masculine but not overly deep.
"He ain't the greatest guy to follow," a burlier voice replied. "Reliable though. Dunno how 'e does it, like 'e knows wha' we're gonna find before we ge' there. Jus' a lot o' little things, yeh can tell 'e ain't in it for the hunt, and 'e don' care 'bout us grunts. So why?" This sounded promising.
"Ryker seems like he'd make a good Berserker," the first voice said casually.
"Maybe? Dunno wha' gets you lot's blood runnin'. Dunno why 'e jus' up an'… 'owever 'e go' tha' boat thing outta there."
A third voice spoke, much more quietly than the other two.
"How should I know? It weren't a boat, no sails or nothin'. Weird shape."
"Bor-ing," the first guy called out. "Man, what have I gotta do for some action around here… Hey, wanna fight?"
"No' with you," the rough voice said quickly. "With 'er, maybe…"
There was an instant of a scuffle, and a grunt. "Funny, that sounded a lot like a yes to me…"
A deep rumbling sounded nearby, so deep that Ruffnut almost wasn't sure she was hearing it. She glanced back, surprised to see the Fury there again but long since numb to the shock of it. His eyes were narrow slits, and it was tricky to tell with the angle but his teeth seemed to be bared. "What?" she whispered to him.
DAGER he wrote into the dirt.
"We're in the middle of a hunter camp, it's all dangerous," she said with a roll of her eyes. "Gimme a boost, will ya?" She looked up the wall, some teen feet high, too high to climb without a stack of crates or something.
She looked at the Fury expectantly, but he just leaped from the ground to the roof without even making a sound, and disappeared over the top; she had to admit, she was envious. His head reappeared a moment later, made a motion she had no idea how to interpret, and then he turned around and let his tail drop down.
"Am I supposed to grab this?" Ruffnut asked under her breath, then shrugged and got a grip on the long appendage-
It nearly pulled itself out of her grip, and then her arms out of their sockets, as she was unexpectedly lifted up onto the roof. "Thor, a bit of warning next time?" she whispered as she lifted her legs over the edge, but he wasn't paying her any attention. He was peering over the crest of the roof, rumbling that barely audible growl again.
She crept up to follow his gaze, finding two guys sitting in silence around a fire with a hunk of meat roasting over it. One was clearly a little old for her taste, but the other looked much younger, was exceptionally well toned all over, and had thick, muscular arms… "Mmm, I'd hit that," she hummed appreciatively.
Grah
"What would you know, you're a dragon. He's hot." Ruffnut was certainly no expert on dragon expressions, but even she could tell he was confused, looking at her sideways with wide eyes and an ear standing on end.
"Hey, is this done yet?" the hot guy asked, casually putting his hand over the fire to prod the meat.
"Nearly," a familiar voice said from out of sight, "don't touch it." Was that Heather? Which would mean…
"Wait, Dagur?" Ruffnut whispered, ducking down behind the roof. He hadn't been writing 'danger', he'd tried to write 'Dagur'. Stupid dragon. But now the growling, the intense focus, made a lot more sense. "Eh, I'd still hit that."
She considered what they'd stumbled on. Dagur didn't know they were there, had his guard down, and there was good cover on the rooftops around him. She could even get around behind him, given a few minutes, as the buildings were close enough to step over the gaps. But while she could throw a knife or two, her aim wasn't even close to being good enough to hit a vital at this distance. "You don't happen to have a spear, do you?" she asked the Fury. "Wait, why aren't you just shooting him?"
The dragon's gaze dropped to the roof, his eyes still narrow and intense, and then he turned and just vanished into the darkness. Now it was her turn to be confused; was he getting a better angle or something?
A minute later, she jumped as something prodded her in the side, and she turned to find him returned with a long spear in his mouth. "Wait, seriously?" He nodded, then held the weapon forward for her to take. "Alright then…"
She grabbed the spear and quickly made her way around the rooftops, spotting Heather laying against Windshear under where she had been before. Her breath caught in her throat as Windshear looked directly at her, but she didn't raise an alarm or anything, just sat there watching her. Heather noticed right as she was getting into position, then looked up and spotted her.
Heather's eyes went wide for just a moment, and then she slowly, deliberately, shook her head, looking a little frightened about something. Ruffnut looked between her and Dagur.
No. She had seen the state Hiccup had been in when they'd pulled him from Berserk. The surprise attack on Berk from the back of a Skill had been glorious, but in the same sense as losing a limb to a dragon; the dragon still needed gutting afterwards.
No, she was not going to pass up this chance. She lifted the spear, rotated it to get a sense of its weight, braced herself against the slope of the roof, pulled back – Heather watching her the whole time – and then threw.
The weapon sailed through the air, right on target, and Ruffnut watched gleefully as it sailed right for the middle of the madman's back, between his shoulder blades. Right up until Dagur just leaned to the side.
But it wasn't just that. Before it even hit the ground in front of him, he reached up and caught it.
She stared, her mouth open. That just wasn't possible.
"Huh," he said interestedly, turning the spear over to inspect it as if it was a strange bug he'd just caught, and then a tug on Ruffnut's collar got her moving.
Her legs carried her silently across the roofs and then down into an alley to race through the dark maze, but her mind was elsewhere. A Night Fury's fire made a short screech as it fired, maybe someone could be listening for that and dodge in time… But a spear made next to no sound at all. A very faint sound, perhaps, as did anything moving at speed through the air.
She stopped, leaning back against a wall and breathing heavily, and not just because of the light exertion. He had heard the barest sound, figured out where it was coming from, and got out of the way. That would be insanely difficult. But to actually catch it!? The time between seeing it and it hitting the ground was an instant, not measurable, and yet he had reacted in that time. "What is wrong with that guy?" she whispered under her breath.
Growl
"Yeah, I'm starting to get an idea," she said worriedly, trying to slow her breath, then continued making her way through the camp. If someone like that wanted her dead, she'd be jumping at every shadow.
She took a deep breath and continued moving. She was deep in the camp now, the murmur of conversation just audible over the wind whistling through the rooftops, the occasional crunching of dirt of someone walking nearby, metallic sounds as someone bumped their weapon against a buckle or helmet.
It was all just so… placid; completely at odds with how she currently felt, but there was no sign of pursuit, and she was slowly calming down. Even when she came across what must be the Hall, or equivalent, it wasn't the lively drunkenness she expected of somewhere full of food and alcohol. The hunters didn't seem happy with their big project being swiped out from under their noses. They might not have even been happy with having to build it in the first place, come to think of it.
A noise some distance behind her got her moving a bit more quickly, and she wedged between buildings and followed dark paths around the Hall to get an eye on the back of it, somewhere she could watch without anyone getting a good look at her.
Huff
"Are you still here?" she asked under her breath. "Just watch."
It must have taken at least several minutes, but finally someone exited the back of the Hall, and Ruffnut followed after them to a nearby building, one thankfully out of the way of the general hunter traffic through the camp. They left shortly after entering, carrying a barrel of something, probably mead.
Ruffnut walked up and ducked inside once she confirmed it was empty. More barrels lined one wall, stacked crates the other, and various jars and miscellania were arranged on shelves all around. "Perfect," she said with a grin, spotting a sack of flour and then some twine for binding a roast. "Hey, light this for me will ya?" she asked after having quickly made a torch out of a metal rod, a rag, and a jar of fat, and the Fury crept in behind her to oblige.
It only took a few minutes to set up, connecting the door to the sack of flour; she was practised at this sort of thing. "Come on, let's get out of here," she said, ducking around the corner and into the next path. The Fury warbled and presumably followed, it was honestly hard to tell in the dark.
Easier to tell when one flapped into a landing ahead of her though, particularly when Tuffnut jumped off his back. "Hey sis, you get lost or something?" he said snarkily.
"Yeah well I kinda got blocked off. Anyway, we found some stuff-"
The Fury that had landed with Tuffnut started hissing quietly, the two dragons staring at each other. "Oh, right," Ruffnut said with a grimace, "we found Dagur. Dude's a lunatic, tell ya that much."
"Riiight… If you'd found Toothy earlier, he could have just flown you over." Toothy, presumably, let out a low sound. "Oh, I'm guessing he tried…"
"Was that what that was?" Ruffnut griped. "Great, all that sneaking around… Whatever, it wasn't pointless at least. Whatever they're doing, Ryker took it, though nobody seems to know how. It was like a ship, but not one."
"Truly, that is very helpful, sister," Tuffnut said dryly. "We found something too, but it's a bit crowded. Need some sort of distraction…" Ruffnut grinned. Any moment now, someone would notice the light through the door, which she'd left slightly ajar…
A muffled whump accompanied by the sounds of splintering and cracking wood echoed from a few buildings over. "Can you believe some idiot left an open sack of flour on a shelf above a torch?" she asked incredulously; a little known fact about flour was that when thrown into the air it became flammable to the point of explosive.
"Tch, these hunters are so stupid," he agreed with a huge grin as he hopped back onto Hiccup. "It'll be quicker if you actually take his offer this time, by the way."
"Shut up," she snapped, "how was I supposed to know?"
Grunt
"You can shut up as well," she grumbled at him as he took off, and the camp shrank into the distance below them.
Dreamer sighed quietly in relief as he landed, and then again when Astrid and Tuffnut slipped off his back. Flying with one passenger was easy enough, but two was a burden.
"So did you guys find anything?" Fishlegs asked expectantly. "And the explosion, and the fires?"
Tuffnut set about explaining how Ruffnut had rigged up a storehouse, and how they'd hunted out a few more and simply set them afire; now that the camp was all riled up, it was definitely time to leave.
Meanwhile, Wanderer landed with a flourish that had Ruffnut stumbling to a halt on her own, and Dreamer wasn't entirely sure if she'd been on his back for the landing or not. "Brother," she groaned queasily. "Don't ever ask a Night Fury what he's got." Wanderer laughed.
Dreamer smirked at the other Nightstriker. "I not thought you like Ruffnut."
He hummed thoughtfully. "She very strange. Say she want hit rot-head-not-alpha. Then say he too hot. Strange Long-Paw. But she try, for us."
It took Dreamer a few moments to deconstruct that logic, and then he shook his head with a huff. "We should leave now. They know we here." He gave a low bark of haste, away, and the three dragons ushered their riders into the saddles before taking off.
They left the chaos of the camp behind them, the fires already well under control but the damage done. These hunters would likely be very disgruntled until they got a replacement shipment of food in, and Astrid had left a half dozen hunters snoring into the dirt and freed a bunch of Gronckles, so it was a win overall. Still, what exactly they had been working on worried him. Even looking at the plans themselves – made possible by Ruffnut's distraction – he had no idea what it was supposed to be.
A wide and flat hull, hollow and clearly meant for passengers, but with no clear objective. The bottom was flat, but the top was curved and shaped; or perhaps that was the other way around, the plans could have been made upside down. Wide planes of metal projected from either side, too thin to contain anything and looking similar to wings, but too narrow, and there was absolutely no way this thing would be flying. But its shape was sort of streamlined...
What did it mean? His best guess was that it was supposed to go on something... maybe a rock formation. He didn't dismiss the idea of it going onto a dragon, but he didn't know of any that big. It was extremely worrying. And then several ships, apparently led by Ryker, had come out of nowhere before they were even finished with it and somehow taken it without anyone knowing how; this had happened the night before, under cover of darkness. The hunters had been milling about with nothing to do ever since, but Viggo wasn't one to let manpower go to waste…
As he flew back to the Nest, he turned the design over in his head. There was a hatch on the bottom of the plans, which he was now more certain was actually the top, so it was designed to hold people… but why? He was looking at an answer, and he had to try to figure out what the actual question was.
And then, partway back, he was distracted by another conundrum entirely, Wanderer announcing it with a growl as the clouds parted below them. Five ships slid through the calm water, carried slowly on the night wind, and as Johann had said, entirely impossible for being made of metal. Gronckle Iron, if Dreamer had to guess, but even that didn't float. But then neither did wood, not if the ship filled with water… It kind of made sense, assuming he was missing some foundation of understanding as to how ships floated.
But that was irrelevant in the moment. The ships matched Johann's description, and bore the hunters' crest on the sails, which were their only weak point. If he had to return to blast through any spare sails, so be it.
He folded his wings and dove, guiding the air and producing his sound-sight out of habit; it revealed the area to be clear of everything except the ships below, which were startlingly clear to his ears despite the distance, and the dragons he was leaving behind, but it also conveniently alerted the riders to what he was doing. Wanderer of course dove with him, aiming at one of the ships at the back. "Hit wings," Dreamer called over, and he chuffed a response.
Dreamer began preparing his shot, but then let it die off with a growl of surprise as a hunter ran out onto the deck of the lead ship while waving a white flag. Dreamer levelled off, considering his options.
Snotlout had once heeded a white flag and been fine for it, but he wasn't a rare and valuable Nightstriker. But then there was only one hunter on the deck of each ship, and there didn't seem to be any hiding places; but he remained wary even still, given Viggo's past ingenuity. And Viggo didn't seem the type to call a truce and then strike without warning… His words were always picked carefully and spoken clearly, as if he put value on them.
Summons, Dreamer barked loudly, then started drifting down to the lead ship. The hunters each had their hands to weapons, but not drawn them, and he couldn't see any bows… Still, he landed on the roof of the hut on the upper deck, what was undoubtedly the captain's quarters, to look down over the ship. Any surprises would be quickly testing their resistance to Nightstriker fire.
"Hunters don't usually wave white flags," Astrid called out loudly as she and Stormfly landed in the middle of the lower deck, closely followed by Meatlug landing by the prow, and the twins on their Zippleback alighting on the top of the mast. The lack of Snotlout was dreadfully obvious, Hookfang's firepower and strength would have been a comfortable safety here…
The hunter didn't respond, and instead just kicked at the door Dreamer was perched above, making a horrible racket.
"Patience, I am coming," a voice announced that had Dreamer's hackles bunching.
"Viggo," Astrid snarled as the man himself walked out onto the upper deck. "Why am I not surprised?"
"If you are wondering that, perhaps you should be surprised?" Viggo offered casually. "But I do not wish to engage in wordplay…" He looked around. "One of you is missing? I hope no ill has befouled him."
"Get to the point, Viggo," Astrid growled, and Stormfly added a warning hiss.
"Very well. About a day's sailing north-northeast of here is a facility-"
"Yeah yeah," Tuffnut drawled, "you were building a big mysterious thing there and now it's gone."
"Truly, you and your dragons are a blight upon my campaign," Viggo sighed, rubbing his forehead. "But no matter. What I was having built there was a weapon. Not in itself, but rather to subjugate a particularly powerful dragon called a Shellfire."
Dreamer shared a glance with Wanderer, then dropped down with a growl, and Viggo turned to face him. "Dreamer, a pleasure to see you again." Dreamer growled a little louder. "Yes, yes, the cruelty, etcetera. The point is, the Shellfire has a devastating fire, one not dissimilar to your own. Its projectiles travel great distances and explode with extreme force. Much more destructive, however, capable of single-handedly, say, wiping an entire village from the map."
"And you're telling us this why?" Astrid asked sceptically.
"Because Ryker has taken the Shellfire and the construct to subdue it. It is now entirely under his control, but more importantly, not under mine."
Astrid took a long, deep breath. "Get. To. The. Point. We don't care about your little spat."
"Perhaps more than you think," Viggo replied wryly, putting his hand to his mouth to run his thumb down his short and impossibly tidy moustache and beard. "As far as I can tell, he has got it into his head that this has become too dangerous a venture, and taken it into his hands to remove those threats himself."
Viggo stood straight and looked at Dreamer, folding his hands behind his back much as Mala often did. "Dreamer, I implore you. For the sake of your own lives, and those of the Defenders of the Wing towards whom I hold no ill will, please… I need your help."