9. Meetings part 3

A small boat with a lone passenger reached Berk two hours after sunset. The passenger went by the name of Eret, the one who owed the life debt to Berk's chief. The whole village was at the docks to great him, it made an imposing image for the one leaving the boat. But while everyone was busy trying to intimidate, they forgot to stay vigilant and nobody noticed the two figures blatantly sneaking into the Meade hall.

After making sure that Eret came alone the tribe split, a smaller group of people made their way to the hall while other stationed themselves around the village or made their way to the look-out towers. Berk's chief entered the Meade hall first, it was vacant to their eyes, nobody noticed the two figures crouched in the shadows, on the support beams once again. They would have noticed if they bothered to look as the pair weren't cloaked this time, their plan was to be seen when the time was right.

When all the people filled the hall, Eret was left in front of the chief, he had his hand clasped together, clearly nervous to stand alone in front of people who could turn hostile in seconds. The chief stood in front of the crowd, motioning for them to be quiet. Stoick's stance was confident, drawing all attention to him.

"Attention!" he bellowed. "This man standing in front of me has promised us information that is valuable to our survival as a repayment for a life debt. We will hear him out first, then you'll be able to ask any relevant questions. Understood?" a chorus of 'aye' was heard and finally the attention was back on Eret again.

"I am Eret son of Eret and I bring nothing but the truth. Drago Bludvist is a threat to your island, I don't know why he targeted you, only he does and he hasn't told his followers why and those who asked either ended up tortured for speaking out of line, or dead. From what I gathered he decided that your island isn't a threat but he will still attack in two months time –"

"Why!?" shouted someone from the crowd, Stoick glared in the direction the shout came from, having clearly said that they would let Eret tell them everything first and question him later. Although he did want to know as well, if Berk was not a threat to Drago, why still attack it? He looked at Eret and nodded, a sigh that he could continue talking.

"I was getting to that," he mumbled, annoyance entering his tone. "He gave a completely self-centered monologue explaining the reason when one of us asked the same question. He said that although you're not a threat, he will still destroy you because you have, according to him, a small chance to become a threat, as for why he is waiting, he said that he wants you to suffer, he wants you to live in fear not knowing if he'll strike sooner or later, he wants you to expect his attack and try to fight back and to fail. He said he wants to see you beg for your lives. He says he has a secret weapon for wiping you out and a secret that will cripple you from the inside, I asked around as much as I could without it becoming suspicious and as far as I know, no one but Drago knows what he's talking about."

Chatter filled the hall again. Cripple Berk from the inside? The village had no such powerful secrets that could do that, that they knew of that was. Stoick was thinking about that also, when he remembered the other reason they let Eret on their island.

"What information you have about the Dragon demons then?" He asked, giving Eret his full attention once again.

"Ah, yes, them. The last encounter I've heard of was about two weeks ago, when a small ship was sent to spy on your island, but they didn't reach your island, they were intercepted by one of them. From what the crew told me, the demon wordlessly threatened them until they gave up information on why the ship was there. After that the demon partially destroyed their ship, in a way that slowed the ship down yet didn't endanger any of the crew. Earlier encounters, like this one, were never expected or prepared for, no matter how hard we've tried. The crew saw the dragon fly south, that's the best I can give you."

The building was silent, people were either processing the information or thinking what questions they could ask the man. The pair upon the rafters looked at one another, Storm tilting her head in question, Hiccup shook his head. Not yet then.

Both wore helmets more or less corresponding with what dragon each rode. Storm's helmet was adorned with spikes that went atop her head like a crown, mimicking the spikes on a skrill's head, the helmet was also reinforced with Shadow's scales so it was the same color as the dragon. Hiccup's helmet had the same idea, it was sleek, had small spikes going on the sides and the top of the helmet and was reinforced with Toothless' scales.

"What dragon was seen?" unsurprisingly it was Fishlegs that asked the question.

"At the latest encounter? More than half say it was a skrill, the others said that the person just materialized on the ship, so - umm – we're going with skrill this time."

"This time?"

"Person!?"

"The Dragon demons had been spotted with different dragons at different times, the dragon hunters and even Drago aren't sure how many of them exist, but the general believe is that there's no less than two consistent ones who Drago hates the most. As for them being people, that is a fact."

"How is that a fact? How can you be so sure?" Astrid skeptically asked.

"Well, while never properly prepared the dragon hunters have made damage," Eret stated. "And I don't believe that demons bleed."

"Bleed? You've killed one of them?" came from somewhere in the crowd. The people in the hall were in various stages of shock, tales of the Dragon demons doing unexplainable things were told all around the archipelago.

"We haven't, thankfully, if we had the Gods themselves would have ended us. They are human, but they have strength and brains gifted by the Gods. What I'm going to tell you no one has heard before." His tone was somber, full of dread, like he was scared to tell them anything. He shuffled closer to the center platform and half turned to the crowd he previously had his back to.

"Let me start this by saying, I was the only one that survived this run in and it happened about two years ago. To this day I don't know why I survived. The hunters had a large shipment of dragons on the way to Drago when they intercepted us. We fought, but they managed to free the dragons, all of them, and I thought we were going to get by without any casualties, but a few of my men got cocky and reckless. They shot arrows at the retreating forms I yelled at them to stop shooting, to leave them alone. They didn't listen. Two arrows hit targets, one hit a skrill, the other it's rider. They went down, the dragon not expecting an arrow to it's side, and the ride had an arrow straight in their shoulder." He took a deep breath and continued.

"As they went down my men rushed them, I was still telling them to stop because I knew a losing battle when I saw one. I knew that the downed pair wouldn't go unnoticed and it wouldn't matter that we had killed one of the demons if the other came with hundreds of dragons to wipe us out. But I was wrong in thinking that the pair would wait to be avenged, especially the rider." The hall was completely quiet, everyone was engrossed in the story, even the pair on the rafters wanted to hear how the story went for the other side of the battle.

"I will never forget the persons eyes filled with rage and hatred, then and there I dropped to my knees prepared to beg for a quick death, but I knew I had no choice in the matter when the rider tore the arrow from their shoulder, took their bow and shot the arrow in between the eyes of the one who shot it, in a matter of second he was dead and the others soon followed. The rider had a sword on hand, the first few fell from its blows, the others followed, killed by their own weapons. The battle lasted less than a minute, eighteen stupid men dead. I was still kneeling when the rider advanced, their bloody sword limp in their hands, their metal leg made a sound I thought would be the last thing I heard. The stopped in front of me, looking straight into my eyes and uttered one word: 'Smart'. Then they were gone, carried to complete safety by the dragons they had rescued."

A quiet clanking sounded through the building, the place that Eret was standing in the beginning filled with green gas. Gasps echoed in the hall, everyone was looking around trying to figure out where it came from. Suddenly the gas exploded, revealing two ominous figures standing in its place side by side. When they spoke, they spoke perfectly together, their voices merging and becoming undistinguishable from one another.

"We heard you were looking for us."