Author's Note:
Hello and welcome to the second chapter of this fic. It's been extended slightly and has been slightly altered. Thank you those who are supporting this story and I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
Taken
There were six Berserkers besides the leader and all of them were heavily armed.
Snotlout's first thought was to attack but then he remembered the lesson that Gobber, his uncle and even Hiccup had hammered into him which was to know when to fight and when to retreat. Seeing as he was outnumbered and severely under armed, Snotlout was pretty sure he could just run away and keep his Viking pride intact. With this in mind he quickly did an about turn and sprinted off.
"You're not getting away boy!"
Snotlout ignored the leader's shout and pounded on, he could hear them pursuing him and he tried to lose them by darting between the trees and through thicker undergrowth. He was about to scream for Toothless when something large cannoned into him from the side bringing him down. He struggled desperately but he was pinned face down by a pair of beefy arms and could barely move, the man holding him snarled in frustration, "Stop struggling, yer not going anywhere."
There was the sound of more people approaching and Snotlout managed to lift his head to see the gang that had been chasing him approach. Taking advantage, the man on top of him clapped a hefty hand over the boy's mouth muffling the teen's cries.
Their leader grinned down at him, "I told you that you weren't getting away."
One of the others spoke up, "What'll we do with 'im?"
"See if he's got anything valuable then do away with him." another answered swinging his axe experimentally as he did so.
"He aint got anything on 'im. We should take 'im as a slave." The one holding Snotlout suggested.
One of the slightly smaller ones had been studying him curiously and then suddenly spoke out, "Hang on! He's one of Berk's Dragon Riders!"
The leader sharply looked at the one who'd spoken, "You sure?"
The guy nodded, "Aye, I've seen him before with the other brats on their dragons."
The leader quickly began giving orders, "In that case his dragon won't be far away, gag him so he can't call it and let's get him to Dagur before it comes looking for him."
The Berserkers swarmed him and despite Snotlout's struggles his hands, feet and torso were soon tightly bound and a thick cloth was shoved between his teeth and tied in place, however they weren't done and Snotlout was about to endure something he really didn't want to. One of them carted over something and it took Snotlout a moment to realise it was a large empty sack, the leader smirked at him evilly, "Just something to help transport you to the ship."
Snotlout barely had time to react to this before he was lifted up and unceremoniously stuffed into the sack, he landed uncomfortably at the bottom and instantly everything went dark as the top was tied shut. There was muffled noises and everything shifted as someone hauled the sack up and he felt himself being tossed around as it was thrown over what was likely a man's shoulder. The sack bounced regularly as whoever was carrying him moved at what felt like a run and the journey seemed to go on forever.
Eventually he caught more sounds from outside and suddenly the constant bouncing motion slowed and stopped. It lasted a moment before he found his sack landing hard on what felt like a wooden floor no doubt leaving him with several bruises. He wriggled around and gave some shouts which were muffled by his gag but stopped at a sudden, hard pain from someone kicking him from outside his stuffy prison. Getting the message he lay still and listened. There were shouts and thuds from outside and then the low sound of a horn being blown, more shouts and thuds accompanied by barked orders and then a lurch as whatever ship he was on began moving.
Filled with fear, Snotlout lay where he was miserably.
It didn't take a genius to work out that being bound, gagged and imprisoned in a sack rendered him helpless and with his captors being Berserkers it was clear they were taking him to Dagur. That was the last person Snotlout wanted to be a prisoner of (not that he wanted to be a prisoner of anyone) and he didn't really want to consider what the deranged chief would do with a Berkian hostage. On top of that Toothless would now be stranded on the island and Hiccup and the others would have no idea where he was leaving him with little chance of rescue.
Things were looking pretty bleak.
Unknown to Snotlout things weren't as bleak as he thought and Toothless was far from stuck on the island.
The Night Fury had woken before the teen when he'd picked up an unusual scent so he'd quietly left the boy to investigate and discover if the source of this scent was a danger to the Viking boy in his care.
The dragon moved stealthily through the forest with his senses perfectly tuned to the environment around him as he made his way towards the new smell. As he approached he soon identified the smell as human and that there were several of them but he didn't recognise them as anyone he knew. Keeping hidden in the shadows he observed the group of strangers as they progressed through the forest. All of Toothless' instincts were telling him that these men were a threat and he realised that he needed to return to the defenceless Snotlout in order to protect him.
Moving as quickly as he could while remaining undetected Toothless returned to the clearing he'd left earlier only to find that the young one was gone. He instantly took in the smells around him and quickly picked up the boy's scent, he also picked up the scents of a different group of humans who seemed to come from the same place as the one he'd seen earlier. He quickly began tracking the scents hoping to reach the teen before the other humans did; he soon came to a place where the scents were stronger indicating that they'd stopped there for a short while. Then the boy's scent vanished from the ground and Toothless couldn't find it anymore. Deciding the other humans must have the boy he began following their scent trail instead with the intention of catching up as soon as possible. The dragon picked up the pace even as he heard a strange bellowing sound coming from the direction his quarry seemed to have gone, he only just managed to stop before he exploded out onto a beach and he remained hidden in the tree line. He could see two of the floating masses of logs he remembered his Hiccup calling 'ships' but he couldn't see Snotlout anywhere. His instincts however were telling him that the boy was on one of them so he'd have to find a way aboard.
The two boats began moving off and Toothless knew that if they got any further out into the water he'd be unable to follow. Using some nicely positioned rocks he quickly approached the closest ship undetected, at the perfect moment he launched himself onto the boat's side, scrambled over onto the deck and dived under a handy cover before anyone realised he was there. As he crouched down in his hiding place he kept close attention to his surroundings in case he ran the risk of being discovered and to see if he could find out where Snotlout was.
It seemed he wasn't on the same ship as the boy but it seemed that both ships were heading the same way so he'd be able to find the teen sooner or later. He wasn't happy about leaving the island behind and going somewhere that Hiccup might not find him but Snotlout needed him right now so he'd stay as close to the boy as he could and hope that Hiccup found them both soon.
PS-Snotlout's not having a good time right now is he? Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon..
