Chapter 3
Hi! I know I didn't update since long! I'll give you a little summary of what happened:
Hiccup is adjusting to his new life when castaways are found on the beach. A family composed by Ryker, his daughter Heather and his brother Viggo. They are actually spies who are there to infiltrate the tribe. They manage to get close to the teens through Heather, though hiccup is having suspicions about them. AT the end of chapter 2, the strangers seemingly leave the island, but a few hours later, Astrid, Hiccup and their dragons are captured.
O o O
That evening, when the village dinned in the Great Hall, Stoick wondered where his son was. He knew he and his friends could spend a lot of times hanging around with their dragons. When he saw the other teens coming in the Great Hall minus his son and Astrid, he asked them where the couple was.
"Oh, they went together in the forest," Ruff said with a little giggle.
Stoick felt a bit reassured. Like any young couple who liked to flirt and all, they wanted some time alone. Yet as time started to pass, he was getting more worried. Dinner was almost over and they weren't here already. Astrid's parents went to him, wet from the rain outside.
"Stoick, we searched for our girl, but she is nowhere to be found. Does your son knows where she is?"
"Apparently they went together in the forest. They often do that."
"But they never miss dinner."
That was true…Where could they be? "Maybe they found shelter because thye didn't want to walk or ride under the rain," Stoick offered, though he was starting to doubt that. "Let's try to search for them.
A search party was organized, and though at first, most people weren't worried, they eventually realized there was a problem. By the morning, they were still nowhere to be found. Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins were really worried. They knew Astrid and Hiccup, they were perfectly capable to survive in the forest, they weren't simply lost or something like that. They rode their drgaons all around the island but found nothing.
"Do you think they got attacked?" Snolout asked.
"By who? The strangers left," Fishlegs pointed out.
"Maybe they came back, a bit like when Barf fake to turn his head to attack Belch right after," Ruff suggested, not really considering what she was saying.
Fishlegs thought of that. What if…What if it was indeed the case? What if they faked their departure? But Astrid and Hiccup were in the forest and those strangers didn't know the local woods at all. Or maybe it wasn't them? Maybe it was someone of the island who hurt them, like Mildew or that couple, the Leifman, they never liked the arrival of Hiccup and the dragons. Or maybe it was Spitelout…This was really possible after all…Fishlegs had always been worried that Spitelout might try something against Hiccup, but he didn't dare to speak much about it, because even if Snotlout loved his cousin, his father was still his father. But if it was indeed Spitelout…Then it meant than the boy would have to choose between his cousin and his father and Fishlegs feared that.
"Maybe they're really just exploring something, I don't know, Hiccup is always curious about everything," Snotlout suggested. It was obvious though that the boy wasn't really believing it. There was fear in his voice, and he was indeed very worried. His cousin was a wilding, and Astrid was so strong it was scary. So why weren't they coming back? What if they were wounded? He didn't want to lose his cousin!
Back on the ground, they saw an agitated Stoick, he ordered the people to continue the searches on the island and he gathered the best riders of Berk. He and Astrid's parents gave stuff belonging both to Hiccup and Astrid to have the dragons memorize their scent. Stoick would ride North with a few other riders trained by Hiccup while Astrid's parents would lead the search on the island. He looked at the teens: "I'm counting on you; you helped bringing my son and Astrid back in the past. If you come across them, do everything you can, and if you need help, call us as quickly as possible."
"Count on us, Chief," Snotlout bravely stated.
"We'll get them back in no time," Tuff added right behind.
Stoick hoped that was true. He couldn't bear it, thinking that his son could be in danger right now…For years he had believed him dead, for years he had mourned, then the gods had been generous enough to give him back. His only child, his son, the last remain of Valka, and finally he had been able to be a father again. The gods couldn't be cruel enough to take him back once more! He didn't know if they got lost, or if someone took them, but if it was indeed someone's doing, he would make them pay! No one took his son away from him!
O o O
Numbness was Astrid's first impression when she opened her eyes. She felt her body moving, someone was shaking her.
"Astrid! Astrid, are you alright?!"
She blinked several times and when her mind was clearer, she got on her elbow and looked up to see Hiccup sitting at her side. She noticed a bruise on his face and a cut on his lip.
"Hey…What happened?"
"We got taken."
Her eyes widened. It didn't take long to realize they were in a cell, and giving the movements of the wooden floor, it was easy to understand they were on a boat.
"Who? What happened?"
"I don't know. When I…opened my eyes men were putting us here. I tried to fight, but they hit me."
She touched his face gently: "Are you okay?"
"Of course. But I don't know what they want. If they wanted to kill us, they had killed us already?"
"You're right," she declared, not bothering to correct him grammar. "But I wonder what they want. And who are they?"
"They said nothing…Well, they insulted me for hitting and biting them. But they didn't say why we are here. And I don't know what they did with Toothless and Stormfly!"
This scared her deeply. Maybe their captors didn't want them dead, but what if their dragons had no value for them?! Maybe they just killed them to bring back trophies! They stood up and tried to look through the bars to see anything which could help. There were other cells around, but they could hear no one.
"Astrid, if our dragons aren't here…"
"We…We can't be sure if they're dead."
She almost felt nauseous at her own words. Dead…She remembered now how they were falling unconscious in the forest. Hiccup put his hand over hers, though he was as worried as her, he wanted her to keep hope. Suddenly, a noise was heard, a trap door was opened and a man started to descend. The teens held the bars, bracing themselves for whatever would happen. The man saw them standing and turned back without a word.
"Wait, who are you?!"
This was left unanswered; the man went up and closed the trap door. "Well…That wasn't weird at all!" Hiccup huffed.
The trap door was opened again soon and this time, they saw Viggo coming down, followed by Ryker and a few soldiers. Both teens felt their gut tighten at this, and Hiccup growled. He was right: He knew it! Astrid felt a pang of guilt for all the time she told Hiccup he was wrong. He had good reasons to distrust those strangers! Both of them were smirking.
"Not feeling too dizzy?" Asked Ryker mockingly.
"What did you do with our dragons?" Hiccup growled.
"Well, I personally wanted to skin them and wear that Night Fury as a coat, but Viggo reminded me we had greater purpose for those."
Viggo rolled his eyes in an amused way: "I can assure you that your dragons are okay. Certainly not happy to be caged, but alive and well. And you'll all stay as such if you're nice."
"How can we know you're telling the truth?" Asked Astrid. "You're obviously neither honest nor trustworthy."
"Harsh words, my dear, we're not as deceitful as you might think. Put chains on them," he ordered to Ryker and the guards. "Oh, and if you think of resisting, we'll send a signal to have your dragons punished."
The threat was enough to make the teenager docile enough, although they both wished nothing but to fight back and beat them. Yet they couldn't take any risks for their dragons. The shackles around their wrist were both linked to long chains which were kept firmly in Ryker's hand. They were led on the deck. Hiccup immediately winced in disgust, his nose quivering. A strong smell of blood invaded his nostrils and he saw the mast had been partially covered with blood. There were probably blood elsewhere, and he wondered what the hell they had been doing. Astrid didn't notice the mast, her smell wasn't as strong as Hiccup's one. However, she saw Heather, standing still, her arms tightly embracing her form. Astrid felt a rush of anger. She rushed suddenly toward her and was pulled away by Ryker who harshly tugged on her chains. She almost lost balance as she was forced to step back. She spat of the floor.
"Bitch!" She yelled at Heather. "We accepted you! We trusted you!"
"I do what I have to do for my family."
"I'll murder this family of yours! I can promise you that!" Hiccup sneered harshly. "I knew you were bad!"
Heather didn't say another word and just walked away. Viggo laughed at those words. "Calm down, the two of you. You might not find your fate that bad. Come."
They led the teenagers to the other end of the boat where two cages in which they saw Stormfly and Toothless. Both had their paws chained and were muzzled. The teens tried to run to them but Ryker seized Astrid while Viggo restrained Hiccup. AT their sight, the two dragons struggled against their bonds and tried to smash their bars.
"Stop, you'll hurt yourself," shrieked Hiccup. Viggo put a hand over his mouth.
"I don't know what you're saying to him, but I'd rather avoid any communication between the two of you."
"How are they gonna survive like this? How will they drink and eat?" Astrid yelled, desperate at the sight of the two dragons, especially Stormfly, caged and chained like this.
"We'll undo those when necessary to give them water and food every day," a guard explained.
Viggo and Ryker brought the two prisoners back into their cells. Although they were partly relieved from seeing their dragons alive, that didn't solve everything. They were still prisoners.
"What do you want with us?"
"You'll discover when we get there, but I assure you we have no intention of making you rot in a cell. Except if you do something really stupid. It would pain me to have to kill you, but if you become a threat, I wouldn't hesitate. Or maybe we could gut one of the dragons under your eyes."
With that, they left the teens in their cells. Hiccup slid against the wooden wall. He couldn't believe this was happening again. He remembered the Hooligan jail, back then when he and Stoick didn't know they were father and son, when he was Berk's enemy. The despair he had felt for Toothless had been devouring, and now it was exactly the same. Astrid sat at his side and passed an arm around his shoulder comfortingly.
"It's like when I was your prisoner…I hated that cell…And I was scared for Toothless."
"We'll get out of here," she whispered. "You managed to get out of your cell and make Toothless escape, remember?"
"Of course…I bit Snotlout's face…I didn't know we were cousins."
"How did you get out?" Asked she. "Maybe, we could try to do the same. I saw the cages, those aren't locked, we could open those easily. We just need to get out of here."
"I laid on the floor to let them believe I was dead…"
A few times later, when a guard came to feed them, he saw Hiccup agitated, whimpering like an animal, shaking the girl's body as she was unconscious over the ground. The man growled. What the hell was wrong with that brat? He called for help while opening the cell, but when he kneeled at the girl's side, a hard blow struck the back of his neck and before he could do anything, the girl rose her arm to hit his throat. His breath was cut off and he was completely dizzy. A few other blows and the teens had taken his axe and his knife and they were going out of the cell. Another soldier arrived and he tried to disarm Astrid who had the axe. She blocked the blow and attacked him. The man parried but suddenly felt pain in his side. The boy had sneaked toward him to plant the knife in his side.
The man fell down and the teens went through the trap door. It was dark outside and there were less men on the decks. The teens ran toward the cages, if they could take the muzzle off of Toothless's jaw, he would be able to break the chains…As they got closer to the cages, their ankle collided with something. They both fell hard on the floor. Suddenly, something fell on them and covered them. The teens realized it was a net. Astrid saw a thin rope stretched over the deck. That was what they tripped over…A trap…
"Prisoners escaping! Before they could free themselves, they were pinned by strong hands. More soldiers came to restrain them. Soon enough, they understood they failed. Viggo and Ryker arrived, Heather behind them. The dark-haired man smiled at them smugly.
"Too impatient…I was pretty sure you would eventually try something like that…Let's see…I promised that your dragon would be punished if you tried something foolish, didn't I, Ryker?"
"I don't remember, but we're going to do it anyway!"
"I'll let you the honor, brother. Not the Night Fury, though, he is too precious."
Ryker nodded, took a hammer from one of the soldiers and advanced slowly toward the chained Nadder. Astrid felt her blood freezing.
"NO! STORMFLY!"
The man wasn't bothered in the slightest by her desperate call. He opened the door and the Nadder tried to free herself from the chain. Yet that was no use. Making the hammer swirl, Ryker crushed it against Stormfly's wing hard.
CRACK…
The beats trashed in pain and though she couldn't shriek because of the muzzle, her eyes were tale-telling. Hiccup was breathless and Astrid screamed in horror. Ryker turned to them:
"Now, will you be nice, or do I have to break the other wing?"
"Put them back in their cell, and try to be more careful."
None of the Drogans' children tried to retaliate or resist. Astrid could only watch her dragon's body trashing in spasms of pain. Hiccup was enraged and remorseful. Why did they have to do something so foolish?! Why?! Once they got back in the cell, Astrid started to cry. He took her in his arms, and kissed the top of her head. He hoped the Nadder would be able to fly again…
While they were locking the teens again, Heather started to worry. Yes, they caught them back, but they really almost escaped. Plus, there were other risks. She took a deep breath and went to Viggo. Before he could speak, she asked bluntly:
"What if their friends find them?"
"Why do you think I put blood over the boat? Their dragons can scent nothing, and it would be a miracle if they managed to spot us in the middle of the ocean."
O o O
A few days passed and both teens were still worried about Stormfly. The way her wing had cracked…Oh and what if she could never fly again? Both Astrid and Hiccup were feeling guilty, it was their idea to try to break out even though they had been warned. They couldn't try that again, not only because they had seen the risk, but because they couldn't fly away without Stormfly. Sure, toothless could have carried the two teens, but they couldn't leave the Nadder alone with those men.
They wouldn't speak to the guards. The man Hiccup stabbed was being healed, but his friends had been pretty angry at the teens for what they did. That's why one night, five of them got into the cell and gave the teens a good beating. Although Hiccp and Astrid had tried to fight back, they had been outnumbered and unarmed. One of the man even told Astrid he would have gladly raped her, he was only sparing her because he feared to lose his head otherwise. So instead they had punched and kicked the teen badly. They couldn't wound them fatally, but neither Viggo nor Ryker would mind some bruises.
Being forced to stay in that cell allowed them to recover, that was the only positive point. At times, they could hear dragon's pleas or shrieks. Once or twice, those had been loud enough to allow Hiccup to decipher those. He had heard his brother cursing his captor, promising death in the worst way possible. At least, Toothless was still fierce.
One day, they were shackled at pulled by Ryker once again. "Good news, wildings, we're finally here! You'll finally get your ass out of this cell and do something useful."
Although they were still a bit sore from the beating they got and the confinement they endured, the prisoners did their best to walk with dignity. On the deck, their caged dragons were being transported by several men. The teens saw that they were before a shore, lined with high cliffs. It reminded Hiccup of Berk, above the harbors, stairs were leading at the top of the cliffs, were a village would probably lie. Ryker tugged on their chains and the teens advanced without putting a fuss. They knew they couldn't escape anyway, and they wanted to stay close to their dragons. Hiccup looked at Astrid, what would they do to them, now? She was as clueless as he. They could hear voices coming from above. They finally reached the top. As they were pulled to advance, they saw it.
There was a village indeed, and spikes marked the entrance of the village…Spikes with dragons' skulls on it. Hiccup hissed at this sight, and he did it furthermore when he saw the mass of villagers.
A lot of people were waiting at the top of the stairs, all pressing themselves as if there was something amazing to see. They all seemed amazed at the sight of Toothless. The Night Fury growled through the muzzle and shook his chains; oh, if only he could get free and murder all those humans keeping him prisoner! He struggled even more when people started to gather around his cage. A guard tried to keep them at bay: "The Night Fury is precious, back away!"
"Enough, back away!"
A strong voice yelled the order and the people backed away indeed. Hiccup and Astrid saw man with white hair advancing. In spite of his advanced age, he was still broad and tall. He was wearing a heavy dark cloak of fur and a necklace made of dragon teeth. An axe and a whip were at his hips, and a scar was adorning the right side of his face. The way people looked at him showed he was respected, feared even. Heather lowered her head in fear and even Ryker tensed a bit. Only Viggo kept his cool. He took the chains from his brother's hands. The old man smirked at him.
"A Night Fury…That's a good catch. But I hope your hunt was more proficient."
Yes, my chief. Me and my brother have the honor of offering you, the Dragon Prince and the Dragon Princess!"
At those words, he pulled on the chains and the two teens were pushed to stand before the chief. The villagers looked at the teens with fascination. Whispers were heard, but neither Hiccup nor Astrid could understand those. The white-haired man eyed the two with a satisfied look, and though he did stare at Astrid, his attention was soon mainly drawn to Hiccup. His eyes had an almost ferocious satisfaction. He approached and the boy hissed ferociously in an animalistic way, stunning several people around. It seemed to fascinate the chief however.
"A runt, but he has a fierce look."
He took the boy's chin and tried to look at him more closely but Hiccup bit his hand hard. After that, there was pain. Then he fell into darkness.
Yes, the old man is an original character, one I imagined a very long time ago for another story I dropped, but I decided to re-use him. The story wasn't much but I liked the character. You'll learn more about who he is in the next chapter. Don't hesitate to review!
