This chapter contains extreme violence that some might deem disturbing, if you are not okay with extreme violence please turn back now.
"Wait" Rosie asked stopping the story "Reby is supposed to be a good guy, she wouldn't really go throw with this right?"
"Pain and sorrow can do a lot to a person," Cloud Guy replied "Especially in a time of war. Those dragons was everything Reby had, and to lose them on top of Heather losing her tribe, Reby was hungry to make them pay."
"But I'm sure Branch would have thought of something to stop them that didn't involve attacking his island. That's just as evil, what if a innocent troll got killed?"
"Well..." Cloud Guy gave a nearvous chuckle that caught Rosie's attention.
"A innocent troll did get killed?
"I think I should continue with the story."
"So everyone knows the plan right?" Reby asked as she, Heather, Creek, Satin, and Chenille flew above Grim's village, along with a army of nearly a thousand dragons. It was nightfall as the riders hovered above the village and most every troll had gone to bed, making it the perfect time to unleash their attack. The past two days Reby and her small crew spent from sun up to sun down getting ready for their invasion. First they gathered all the remaining dragons from Dragon's edge to act as their army. Over the past few years Reby learned how to communicate with the dragons and while speaking the dragon language she persuaded them all to join her in her quest for vengeance, giving them almost a thousand dragons at their disposal, more then enough to burn Grim's village to the ground.
Next though was the tricky part, they needed to ensure that when they gathered the villagers up that they stayed put and didn't fight back, that was when a certain plant came in. Known as the paralysis, it was a certain plant with the toxin to paralyze a troll for up to eight hours. Branch had used them more than once in his war with the hunters and now it was Reby's turn.
"Yes," Satin replied "We circle the village with Ash and Cinder, having them spray gas all around the outer limits of the island. Then we light it causing a mass explosion preventing the villagers to escape by leaving the island."
"Then we strike," Heather replied "Having the dragons round up as many villagers as possible, leveling the island to the ground along the way, we shoot these paralysis laced arrows at the villagers to paralyze them."
"Then while they are all paralyzed," Creek finished "We find out which one of them are involved with Grim, strike them down, essentially crippling Grim's fleet making it near impossible for him to pull off a successful attack on us."
"I just want to be the first to say, I love this plan." Chenille spat out. "It's chaotic and I love chaos."
"Remember," Reby added "We only kill those involved with Grim, we are not monsters, we will not kill innocent blood."
"Got it," The other four said in unison.
"Good," Reby then turned to the twins "Satin, Chenille, your up."
Flying down towards the village on Ash and Cinder, at Reby's signal, Ash fired out gas, circling the entire outer limits on the island. Reby watched down on the twins through the scope of her crossbow, making sure to keep a eye out in case anybody spotting them. Sure enough a few trolls did spot them, thankfully at different times so that Reby could take them out with a paralysis laced arrow before they could sound the alarm.
By the time they finished spreading gas around the entire outer limit of the island a good chunk of the gas had spread to the inner parts of the village, increasing the blast range when lit. Cinder lit the spark then Satin and Chenille laughed as the gas exploded into a giant firewall. Engulfing the entire outer edge of the island in tall flames, making escape impossible.
"That's our cue" Reby ordered "Attack!" Reby, Heather, Creek, and the dragons all swooped down as terrified trolls ran outside their pods at the sound of the explosion. Most of them screamed at the sight of the riders as well as the ring of fire making escape from their island impossible.
"Lay waste to this wretched place my babies," Reby ordered the dragons. The dragons separated and started burning the place to ashes.
Circling around the island, Reby took out her crossbow and loaded a paralysis arrow, aiming it at a troll cornered by a home wrecker. Reby fired the arrow, and laughed as the troll fell to the ground, the toxins taking instant effect. The troll twitched for a few seconds but soon his entire lower half became numb and he couldn't move.
"Like fish in a barrel," Reby laughed.
"Light em up boy!" Creek laughed as Blue Fang lit himself on fire. They then blasted through several pods, engulfing them in flames causing the inhabitants in them to flee. Creek then took out several perilysis arrows and shot each troll in either the leg or shoulder, causing their bodies to go numb.
"This is for my people you sadists!" Heather screamed as Windstorm lit up several businesses. The owner of a weapons store ran out of his store and aimed a crossbow at Windstorm, only for the dragon to fire some of her scales at the troll pinning him to the wall.
Then something they tried to avoid happen. Due to having to act in self defense and pinning the troll to the wall of his burning store, the troll quickly found himself engulfed in flames. Heather watched in horror as the troll screamed in agony, his entire body burning. Stepping, off of Windstorm she put her ax to his head, a act of mercy to the troll she wasn't aiming to kill.
As she removed her ax from the troll's head and watched as his body was consumed by the flames she turned and saw the incident around her. She saw the businesses burning to the ground, the pods, the houses. She saw the trolls running in a panic. The scene was just like what she witnessed when she lost her own tribe. The only difference was they wasn't trying to kill any innocent trolls. But she did kill one, even though he was pointing a weapon she reacted wrong and he died because of it.
"He was just trying to defend himself," Heather realized "And I killed him." Heather turned to Windstorm, her eyes becoming wet with tears. "I think, we have made a mistake."
"Hey Heather!" Chenille called out as her and Chenille flew over to her."Least amount of destruction caused has to wash our dragon's afterwards."
"And, your losing," Satin finished as the twins laughed while flying off.
Heather lowered her head in shame once the twins were out of sight and stared once again at the charred remains of the troll she killed. "Your right Satin, I am losing, losing my humanity."
On the other side of the island Reby was rounding up the remaining of the trolls trying to flee them. Not that it would do them any good, there was no way they were going to escape the island. Taking out a flaming arrow Reby shot it in front of the fleeing pack, causing the ground in front of them to burn and the retreating trolls to stop in their path.
Reby then landed Arrow and took out her crossbow and pointed it at the group of terrified trolls. They instantly put their hands up and surrendered to Reby, though that didn't stop her from putting a paralysis arrow through their legs, paralyzing them.
Then with all the trolls gathered up, they sat them all in a big pile, their hands and legs tied up for precautions just in case their paralysis wore off early. The dragons surrounded the trolls ready to fire if they made any wrong moves. As the riders approached the terrified villagers Reby spoke up.
"I don't want to kill all of you."
"The why are you here?" A terrified troll asked.
"You see this girl behind me?" Reby pointed to Heather "Your so called chief murdered her entire tribe senselessly, just to go after my tribe. He murdered hundreds of good trolls. I know for a fact that some of you were there that day her people died, and I want them so they can face the justice for their crimes."
"Nobody is going to confess to something like that."
"Your right, but I'm sure Heather here knows the faces of those who did."
Heather sighed, despite feeling guilty for the actions they have caused, she knew this might be the only way she could get the justice she was craving for her people.
"Goodbye morality," Heather whispered to herself as she approached the terrified villagers and started to study the faces of each and every one.
"He's one," Heather replied "He approached the storm dweller I was hiding in, he was going to kill me."
Reby approached the troll. "State your name, so your people knows who it was that helped kill Heather's tribe.
"My name is Mildew, second in command to Chief Grim, and he is going to kill each and every one of you for this."
"I dare him to try," Taking out arrow Reby slit Mildew's throat with the arrowhead, as all the villagers could do was watch and scream.
"Who else was there that day?" Reby demanded.
Heather continued down the many rows of trolls, pointing out all who was involved in the murder of her people, Reby slitting the throats of all involved in the massacre. By the time Heather was done more than a hundred trolls had been executed in all.
Reby's thirst for vengeance satisfied she had her team board their dragons to leave but not before issuing a warning to the surviving trolls. "Let this be a warning to you all, stop your massacre and slaughter of dragons, or else it will be a call to war. This is your one and only warning!"
Then Reby flew off, followed by Creek, the twins, the dragon army, and then finally Heather. As they flew off Heather looked back at the destruction they caused, the trolls they murdered, she murdered. Lowering her head in shame she closed her eyes a tear fell from her face, in her quest for justice she feared the just became as bad as the enemy they were fighting.
A few hours later Grim arrived back to his island. He had been at a meeting with the chiefs of the other tribes on his team and wasn't there to witness the attack Reby led. When he arrived and saw what had been done to his tribe, he gasped.
"What in the name of Valhalla happened?" Grim gasped as he walked through his island studying the damage.
"Chief Grim, please help!" He heard a female voice cry out. Grim ran to the sound of the voice and saw his entire tribe bound to the ground, their hands and feet tied behind them.
"What happened?" Grim asked as he worked on untying the terrified troll.
"Dragon riders came and attacked us, the terrorists that you and the other good chiefs have been fighting. They attacked us, they killed Mildew, they killed over a hundred of us."
Grim gasped as he saw the bodies of his men laying in a pool of blood, their throats slit, he lowered his head and beat his chest as he honored the men he had lost.
"What are you going to do Chief Grim?"
Grim then snarled as he turned to his people "I'm going to burn the entire troll tree to the ground, and make Branch watch as I kill each and every person he ever cared for. He thinks he can kill my people, burn my home? Forget the Gas Sprayer, I'm going to lead an invasion and burn the troll tree, Branch and everyone who lives there, to ash."