How was everyone's thanksgiving (I already know yours Riverajocobed1, sorry for what you went through). I had a great Thanksgiving and we got a new puppy for our niece who lost her previous dog just a couple months back.
Now on with the story.
Outside of Peppy who spent most of his nights staying late at the shop to work away his grief over his daughter, nobody took Poppy's loss more then Branch. With no body they couldn't even give her a proper send off, having to resort to filling a boat full of portraits of Poppy in her place.
Branch found himself unable to stomach attending Poppy's funeral, instead watching from a hill in the distance as Peppy lit the boat on fire and watched as the boat sailed off to sea, then sinking to the bottom of the sea.
Branch stayed on that very hill for hours after the ceremony, with only Melody to keep him company as he grieved the loss of Poppy. Why Poppy? Out of all the riders who could have sacrificed themselves for him why did it have to be Poppy? wWhy not Creek, or Dagger, heck it would have hurt but even Reby would have been easier to get over then Poppy. Losing Poppy was something Branch felt he would never be able to get over.
The sun was starting to set, within a few minutes the sky would be completely dark, Branch was just about to consider finally heading home when he saw Cloud Guy walk up to him.
"Sorry about what happened," Cloud Guy replied. "Poppy was a amazing warrior."
"Did you know this was going to happen?" Branch asked through his tears.
"I did, I saw it in a vision three years ago. I'm sorry."
"And you didn't warn me?" Branch snapped, his grief causing him to lung after Cloud Guy. "I could have stopped it, I could have thought of a way to prevent this!"
"You know good and well by now I can't tell you the future. But even if you did know there was nothing you could have done that would be able to change that. The future is already set, you might try to fight it, but it is already determined. Neither you or anybody else can change what is already set."
"Well determine this, I'm done. I'm done with all of this. I'm done leading my friends on life threatening missions. The hunters are gone now. And so is the dragon riders."
"No their not." Cloud Guy corrected. "The hunters are still out there."
"What? But their leader Johan is dead. Poppy's sacrifice took his out."
"Johan was the leader, but he was never the main head. There is someone else out there, someone more dangerous then even Johan. The riders are still needed."
"No their not!" Branch snapped as he saddled up on Melody. "As I said the riders are finished, for now on I'm taking this battle on myself. No one else will die for me."
"You can't change the future Branch! It's already determined!"
"Watch me!"
"Your only going to get yourself killed going down this path."
"Well better me then them!" Branch flew off, leaving Cloud Guy to sigh and shake his head at Branch's stubbornness.
"You know I really thought we got over the stubborn faze, your even worse then your Grandma, I didn't think that was possible."
Branch saw his friends waiting for him at the old dragon arena. When Branch didn't show up for the funeral a lot of them started getting extremely worried, Rosiepuff even sent out a search party looking for him.
"Branch, there you are!" Reby cried once Branch landed. "Your grandma sent out a searching party looking for you, she's worried sick."
"Well, I'm back now."
"You know, I'm kind of disappointed that you of all people would skip Poppy's funeral." Dagger replied. "Considering what you two had I thought you would be the one to light the boat."
"Brutally honest and hurtful, just as always Dagger,"
"Excuse me?"
"Woah I know your hurting but dude no need to be a jerk Branch!" Creek snapped
"Well excuse me? I'm kind of going through a rough time right now!"
"We all are but still you can stop with the..."
"No I will not Stop Suki!"
"Oh my gah,"
"Wow, I never thought I would see the day Branch goes crazy?" Sating whispered in Chenille's ear.
"Branch, please calm down we're only trying to help you." Heather begged.
"No, I will not calm down! Poppy's death is own me! If I hadn't have started that war with the hunters, if I hadn't gotten us involved Poppy would still be here right now. That's own me! Her death is because of me!"
"Wow, your right, he has gone crazy." Chenille whispered back, but loud enough for Suki to hear and give the two of them a stern look.
"Branch if you hadn't have gotten involved hundreds, if not thousands of dragons would have died."
Branch sighed knowing Reby was right, if they hadn't gotten involved dragons would have died, possibly even theirs.
"I know it hurts." Heather replied walking up to Branch and putting a comforting hand over his shoulders. "But there was nothing you could have done to prevent this. But you can ensure her death was not for nothing."
"There's still hunters out there." Dagger added, "Several of them escaped when we overpowered them. And the main head is still out there. Johan may be gone but during my time working for the riders I came into counter with the head of the hunters, and believe me he makes Johan look like a amateurs in comparison. We need to start coming up with a plan to bring him down."
"So what's the plan now Branch?" Reby asked
"There is none."
"What?"
"This is the end Reby, the end of the dragon riders."
"No!" Reby cried
"Oh my gah."
"Branch you can't be serious?" Heather gasped
"I am! Nobody else is going to get killed because of my actions."
"But what about the dragons?" Biggie asked "You can't just leave them to the hunters fate?"
"I won't. For now on I'm going at it this war alone. And don't anybody try to stop me. I know the weaknesses to all your dragons."
"But Branch...?" Suki started to protest.
"If you see my grandmother, pass the word to her. Tell her I'm sorry, but this is the only way to ensure everyone's survival."
Branch walked to the weapons supplies and stocked up on weapons that he intended to use against the hunters. Then he saddled back up onto Melody. Before he flew off however Reby ran up to him.
"Branch, wait."
"Don't try to stop me Reby."
"It took us three years with all of us to even do what we did to those hunters. You'll never get take them all out by yourself."
"Well then at least all of you are safe."
"You may never come back if you go at this alone."
"Well if I don't it's been a honor knowing all of you." Branch then flew off much to this horror of his friends. Off to fight a impossible war all by himself.
"Branch!" Reby cried out, tears forming as she watched her friend fly off onto a suicide mission.
"So we are totally not just going to sit back and allow him to fight this alone right?" Suki asked.
"I don't know if there is anything else we can do." Reby admitted.
Floating on her back in the ocean was Poppy's lifeless body. At the end of the dark hole in the cave was a body of water. After landing in the water Poppy was washed away in a tide and eventually ended up in the ocean. There she remained floating adrift completely still and without any trace of life for the past twelve hours since her brave sacrifice.
Eventually she bumped into a small three passenger ship. A net was flung overboard too retrieve Poppy. Poppy was drug onto the ship and a black troll put her head to Poppy's chest to search for any possible signs of life. She was quickly met with good news
"She's alive." The black troll gasped before turning to her only other passenger, a dragon whose skin was as dark as hers. "Shadow quickly, get the first aid kit, she's in need of serious medical attention."
Shadow flew down to the bottom deck of the ship and within thirty seconds flew back up holding the medical kit in his teeth. The black troll sat Poppy's unconscious body against the mass and taking a rag and pouring it in a bottle of whisky, she pulled the arrow out of Poppy's back and pressed the rag to her wound.
"You're going to make it I promise." The black troll replied "Your going to make it."
On a completely different island Johan was seen being drug to a cliff by two other dragon hunters. Like Poppy Johan had also survived the fall and was rescued by one of the retreating dragon hunting ships.
But unlike Poppy, Johan's luck was about to change for the worse. Johan's boss, the head of the dragon hunters had heard of his failure and was not pleased. As soon as Johan was rescued from sea the hunters took him to their boss and threw him to his feet. Their Johan looked as a dark crimson troll glared down to him, his right arm was replaced by a metal prosthetic and he had long black dreads and a braided black beard. His left arm was coated from his shoulder down to his finger tips in tattoos and he wore clothes made out of the skin of dragons and a robe made out of bear skin. Johan shivered in fear as he gazed upon his boss's disapproving glare and bowed at his feet as he pleaded for mercy.
"Blood please? I was so close!"
"Well you wasn't close enough!" Blood roared. "With that dragon I could have lured all the other dragons to me without wasting money on ships and supplies. But you failed!"
"Please it was those dragon riders they..." Blood grabbed Johan by the throat with his metal hand and started choking him as he lifted Johan off his feet and glared into his eyes.
"I gave you a army, and your telling me you couldn't dispose of a handful of dragon riders!"
"One of them had a feathered fury. One of the most rarest and powerful dragons in the world."
Blood's eyes widened and he released his grip on Johan at the mention of the feathered fury. Johan started coughing violently as he tried to catch his breath.
"A feathered fury. I have only seen pictures of those things."
"Well he has one." Johan wheezed and it's so powerful he was able to burn through most of our ships in a single blast.
"If I could get my hand on that Feathered Fury, I could be the wealthiest troll on this side of the seven seas. It's hide will go for more then any dragon we have ever captured before."
"Good luck with that, because you have no idea what your messing with, his rider..." Blood turned around and kicked Johan in the gut causing him to wheeze in agony more and topple over in pain.
"His rider won't stand a chance once I'm done with him. We already know where the ice giant is, the riders probably believe they have won, they won't expect another attack until after we have the dragon in our grasps. Once I have the king of dragons it will lure every dragon, even the Feathered Fury to me."
"Don't underestimate him, Branch is..."
Blood pressed his boot to Johan's chest and squeezed down, causing Johan to gasp for air again. "Branch is nothing without his dragon. And you Johan are nothing to me anymore."
"What do you mean?"
Blood snapped his fingers and two hunters came and grabbed Johan by the arms. Blood pointed his index finger to his right and the two hunters started dragging Johan away.
"What are you doing? What are you doing?"
"You are about to learn the price for failure Johan," Blood roared "Boys open the cage."
"Cage to what?" Johan heard a demonic roar and his eyes widened with terror as he saw the jaws of a giant lumpy dragon that was the size of a house.
"Meet the Hill terror. The biggest dragon in the boulder class. And also one of the ten most dangerous species of dragons known to men. Who have been known to eat trolls on a regular basis."
"Wait Blood don't?!"
"Oh, Hill Terror, dinner time!"
"Wait, Blood please?!"
His pleads fell on death ears, the hunters tossed Johan in the cage and within seconds the hill terror grabbed Johan in it's jaws, ripped him to shreds and devoured him. Blood just watched the whole thing his face sporting a amused look. Once all that was left of Johan was a few drips of blood dripping from the hill terror's teeth Blood turned to the hunters.
"Ready the boats we will capture the ice giant then use it to lure the feathered fury, and the dragon utopia to us. Both Oaken and Branch will soon learn the consequences of messing with me."
To the surprise of no one, Poppy is still alive.
As you can probably already tell this is nothing like Httyd2. I basically just have taken the bare minimum and done my own thing. But hey that makes it more original right?
Till next time.