The hunter dragged his feet as he was led away from his only responsibility for the time being. While annoyed at being pulled from his duty just because the spy who outranked him couldn't stand what would have been the end of a dragon rider, he chose to say nothing but instead bore his gaze into the back of Heathers skull. She led him all the way to the bow of the ship before turning around and begun to demand an explanation.
"What! Was that all about?"
...
"Do I need to remind you how valuable that prisoner is to us?" She snapped. "If Ryker were to hear of this..."
"Ryker is the one who gave me the order to kill her if she didn't offer any information. When she admitted that willingly, I took it as an invitation." Farran replied.
"And you were willing to do it?"
"Orders are orders. Simple as that." The hunter shrugged. "Is that not my purpose here?"
"Wow. You know, out of all the hunters on this ship, I would have expected you to have the most restraint. Wasn't that the reason she was under your care to begin with?"
"It was because I was the one who caught her."
Heathers frown grew. Her look was a mix between anger and disappointment.
"Well perhaps I should switch you onto moping the decks if this is the way you treat prisoners! I can't believe that you'd have such disregard for human life."
Farrans eyes flashed in anger.
"You dare question me on doing what you've done on a much smaller scale?" He restrained himself from yelling lest he caused a scene more than he already had.
"What are you going on about?"
"You know well what I'm going on about. The deserted ship on the island. Don't think I forgot about that. I remember all too well how quick you were to turn tail instead of look for survivors."
"Hey, I gave you plenty of reasons why we should have headed back! And if you recall I DID help you search!"
"After convincing you. If you had it your way you wouldn't have even suggested it!"
Heather hesitated.
"Again. I had my reasons..."
"You didn't give much care back then. So why do so for the enemy?"
"It's different! Think about it. Dead, she's worthless but alive we could ransom her for anything we want."
"Including the dragon eye." Farran caught on. He grumbled something under his breath before looking Heather in her eyes. "Fine. We'll play it your way for now. Suppose I have little choice anyway."
The hunter began to walk away.
"Oh, and Farran? If I catch you trying that little stunt again, we'll be doing more than simply talk." She patted the hilt of her weapon.
Farran smiled in reply and left. Unknowingly to the both of them, Ryker had been watching the two from his elevated position on the bridge. He rubbed his chin in thought as an idea entered his head.
In the hours that passed, Farran, true to his word had restrained himself from attempting to kill the prisoner. Ever since the incident, she had remained mostly quiet but so far hadn't done anything that made the hunter repeat his actions. Although that was mostly because he was in thought over Heathers rash decision to jump in out of nowhere and save the prisoners skin. Perhaps it was coincidence that she happened to show up at that particular time, but a more likely explanation was that she was keeping an eye on either him or the rider. If so, then why? Surely a spy would have other tasks more essential than keeping an eye on others. Especially prisoners under someone else's guard. It seemed odd. It also occurred to the hunter what she had briefly mentioned about ransoming the prisoner for the dragon eye. It hadn't clicked before but why would they need to ransom for the dragon eye when that was what they had come for? It was as though she expected this invasion to fail. But why would she think that? It didn't make sense to him.
When Rykers attack finally got underway it was early morning. Hoping to catch the riders off guard he had already sent two attack ships into the mouth of the island, closing in on the front of the riders base. Chances were if they had not already noticed one of their own was missing then they would be asleep, making the operation a breeze. If not and they were out searching for her, it would be that much easier to ransack the base and find the dragon eye. The rest of the fleet stayed behind. Meanwhile Ryker, the other leaders and a small assortment of troops along with the prisoner had to make another trip back to the island. If the dragon riders had woken up and were able to react in time to the ships approaching their main harbour, the forces on the beach could sweep in unnoticed and crush them with a simple pincer tactic. For Ryker to reappear on the beach front suggested that he too would want to help deliver what would be the final crushing blow to the dragon riders.
It was incredible how quickly the mood and morale had changed when the two attack ships that had been sent ahead were so suddenly and easily met with such strong resistance, as well as being delivered enough firepower to sink both vessels almost right away. Since Ryker had landed on the far side of the beach, neither he or anyone on board his rowboat had seen or even heard about the defensive capabilities of the dragon base. At least not until on very reluctant hunter filled him in on the news. He did not take the news well.
"Both ships?! They sunk both ships?!" He all but screamed at his hunters who were too shook to reply. The mans face had become as red as a beetroot quickly. Even quicker than the time it had taken for both said ships to take on water and sink to the ocean floor, which was not long at all.
Ruffnut, who up until now had been as quiet as a night terror couldn't resist opening her mouth once more, mocking the hefty hunter. Even going so far as to admit how much he would regret this attack. Ryker beat Farran to the punch as he drew out his sword.
"The only thing I'm sorry about is that my men took you alive."
"Ryker!"
Farrans hand curled up into a fist.
"We've been over this! We don't kill any of the dragon riders until Viggo tells us too."
Heathers word managed to deter him as he walked away, probably to take out his anger on whichever troops crossed his path. The spy turned to Farran.
"She needs to be out of our way before she causes any more trouble. Could you take her to where those trees are and-"
"Execute her?"
"Tie her up!"
"As you command, miss Heather."
Half dragging, half carrying the prisoner to the trees that Heather had pointed out, Farran managed to secure her with rope. Tightly. Any tighter and it would have hurt to breathe. At least she wouldn't be escaping him. The only way she would be able to do so was through death.
"Second wave! Go! Now!" Rykers voice yelled out moments after Ruffnut had been tied up. Farran turned to see a fair portion of troops making their way through the woods before hearing his bosses grizzly voice ring out again, this time directed at Heather. "You! Take the dragon and your partner, and attack from the sky!"
Having the finger pointed directly at him as he uttered the word 'partner', Farran made his way over to Heather. As much as he wanted to ask the reasons why he needed to go with the spy, as well as protest, he knew he couldn't lest he wanted his head removed from his shoulders. Heathers face seemed to think the same thing and the pair walked off towards Windshear. Heather mounted the beast quickly while Farran took a little while longer to do so. Unlike last time, he was now facing the other way so that he and Heather were back to back. Something that didn't go unnoticed to her.
"What are you doing?"
"Covering the rear. Do you really want me to fire this right next to your face?" He lifted his crossbow to emphasise his point. "Besides, its the most exposed target on this thing. Be thankful I care enough to cover that target."
Heather said no more and allowed her dragon to carry the two high into the air, allowing them to shadow the second wave from the sky. Now that the riders were clearly aware of their operation, they would be playing defence, and perhaps combing the nearby areas for enemy forces. For now, everything seemed quiet enough. Although it didn't take long before they came across something else. Or rather, Windshear did as she stopped in her tracks.
"What's going on?" Farran questioned. He turned his head to see Heather soothing her dragon. She then faced him.
"She's caught the scent of their dragons. A strong one too. They must be close by. My guess is they're setting up an ambush for us."
"What do you propose?"
"We should retreat. If they have this area cordoned off well enough, the amount of casualties we receive won't be worth breaking through."
"Damn. But what's to stop them from shooting us all in the back while we fall back?"
"You don't waste resources when the battle is already won. They're smart enough to know that."
"Then we should have the men fall back while we scout out the rest of the forest. See if there's a weakness or an opening we can exploit."
"That might not be..."
"Might not be what?"
"... Never mind. Alright, we try your way. Guess I owe you one for earlier anyway."
Silently, the dragon escort signalled for the ground team to make their way back to the beach head until given further instructions. Meanwhile, the hunter and the spy stayed behind and soared over the forest, poking at every nook and cranny that would provide a safe path for their forces. It didn't seem to offer any good news to the duo as the dragon they were riding stopped once they reached a certain distance from the riders base throughout different parts of the forest. According to Heather, the dragon was able to detect more scents from other dragon riders waiting for them. Yet to Farran there was one flaw in the riders plan.
"Don't you find this strange?" He asked out of the blue.
"Find what strange?"
"I've been pinpointing every spot we've come across an apparent ambush. So far I estimate that the dragon riders have set up these ambushes two kilometres from their base, forming a semicircle perimeter."
"Meaning?"
"We know that there are six riders max. Five if you take away our prisoner. So how in Thors name are they able to set up such a large perimeter and defend the main base at the same time? They don't have the numbers to hold both positions."
"Maybe they've training some wild dragons to help out?" Heather suggested.
"That's... possible."
"Any other ideas?"
"Could we try sneaking round the back of the island and flank them?"
"Not with their night terror sentries. We'd be caught before we even come close to their base."
Farran didn't offer any reply. When Heather looked back, she found him staring right at her, deep in thought. Almost glaring at her in a judging manner.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing. Just a thought that entered my head is all."
"Care to share?"
"Not really. It's not something worth sharing."
In reality that was far from the truth. In the time it had taken for them to search the 'fortified perimeter', Farran couldn't help but recall Heather rushing to the prisoners aid. Both against himself and Ryker. She claimed that it was merely because Viggo hadn't told them to kill them, but that seemed unlikely. The dragons, yes but their riders? Why would a dragon hunting leader choose to spare a riders life? Again it didn't make sense. And how would the riders have been able to set up a perimeter of wild dragons so easily and so quickly? The more he played it out in his head, the more he thought that Heather was making excuses. But why would she do that? Unless...
…
Surely not...
././././././././././././././././././././././.
Looking over the Edge of Disaster episodes there seemed to be a number of transitions between night and day during the hunters invasion, as well as the dragon hunters switching from the beaches to the ships and back to the beach again. It made it a little difficult to think up a reason why they kept doing this as well as taking so long for the invasion to get underway. Hopefully I managed to overcome these miniature plot holes and give convincing legitimate reasons to cover them. Other than that, I hope you enjoyed reading. See you next chapter