Author's Note:
Hello everyone and welcome to the next chapter. This chapter contains Toothless (as promised) and Dagur who I must confess I find quite fun to write. As always I hope you enjoy the chapter.
I own nothing.
A Plan Conceived and a Hunt Begins.
Dagur grinned manically and despite himself Snotlout cringed away from him.
The Berserker chief crouched down and eyed him as he spoke, "I remember you. You're Stoick's nephew or something aren't you?" he then straightened and paced thoughtfully, "What was your name? Snotbrat… Spinelout...Doesn't matter." He casually stepped over Snotlout as he addressed the leader, "Well done. I now won't disembowel you for not bringing a full hold of food from your hunting mission. Now get back out there and find more supplies!"
"Yes sir." The man hastily answered and retreated out of the arena.
As the man left Dagur returned his attention to his captive and stared down at him musing out loud as he did so, "Now what to do now that I've got you? I could torture you for information, ooh that would be fun, or I could try and force you to train some of my dragons…nah that might give you a greater chance of escape. Alternatively I could always kill you slowly and painfully and send your body back to Berk as a statement…but that doesn't really help me in the long run…" He then clapped his hands with glee and his manic grin returned, "Oh I know!" He looked at Snotlout excitedly, "I'll use you as leverage to get Stoick here. I'll send a message telling him you're my prisoner and if he doesn't come to Outcast Island then I'll chop you up piece by piece and feed you to the fish. He'll then be all 'I must save my nephew!' and come to rescue you at which point I'll slaughter him. Then Hiccup will be like 'Oh no my father is dead!' and as he and his tribe are torn with grief I'll strike Berk and take it, Hiccup's Night Fury and all its dragons once and for all!"
As Dagur's finished his declaration he burst into deranged laughter and Savage was quick to congratulate his plan, "An excellent plan sir. Perhaps we should send the message right away?"
Dagur instantly stopped laughing and looked deadly serious, "Yes we should. Now what should we send with it to prove we have him?" He eyed Snotlout who began to feel really uneasy as the Berserker continued, "Maybe some fingers or perhaps a leg…or maybe we should just go for a hand or one of his eyes."
"Perhaps we should just send his helmet sir."
Never had Snotlout been so glad that Savage existed than he did then. Especially when Dagur sighed in disappointment, "Well maybe that is better…the blood would destroy the message otherwise."
Snotlout mentally sighed with relief as Savage plucked off his helmet (which had somehow stayed on his head throughout his ordeal) and handed it over to Dagur asking as he did so, "What shall we do with the boy sir?"
The Berserker chief was already composing his message to Stoick and he waved him away distractedly, "Put him in one of the spare cells. We'll need him for when Stoick gets here."
Savage pointed at one of the nearby men and he heaved the bound Snotlout over his shoulder and easily carried him away. They'd actually been in the Outcast's replica of Berk's Dragon Training arena and Snotlout was carried out of it and through the Outcast/Berserker camp towards the caves that held the cells. Outcasts and Berserkers stared as he was taken past them and many openly smirked at him, others simply carried on with whatever they were doing while a few leered at him in a way that made him very uncomfortable and scared.
The man took him into the cave system beneath the island and threw him bodily into an empty cell; Snotlout landed heavily on the floor, adding to his growing collection of bruises, and heard the door clang shut behind him. He struggled to sit up in order to look around as all his tight bindings and gag were still in place; he idly wondered if he should consider it to mean that he was considered such a threat that a cell alone wouldn't hold him but he decided it was more likely because they couldn't be bothered to untie him. Eventually he managed to get into a sitting position and looked around his cell. It was quite large but that wasn't much good to him if he couldn't move about anyway and there was little else in it apart from stone walls and floor, there were some large iron rings embedded in the back wall but he decided that he would prefer not knowing how they could be used.
He fell back and lay on the floor, which was slightly more comfortable then sitting up, and stared at the ceiling. Though Dagur's plan worried him it also gave him a glimmer of hope, if Dagur told his uncle that he'd kiddnapped him then his chances of rescue were much higher because Stoick would then know where they were holding him. Of course Dagur most likely wanted the chief to make a rescue attempt and would plan for it but his uncle had faced greater odds before and still won so he could do the same again.
He held onto that thought instead of considering the alternatives.
Toothless had spent an uncomfortable few days in his tiny hiding place on the other ship. Fortunately he could go far longer without food or water than a human and there had been one or two opportunities for him to snatch some sustenance and remain undetected.
Apart from these moments the rest of the voyage had remained uneventful and the people around him had shown little interest in the cover he was hiding under. When they finally arrived Toothless recognised the scent of Outcast Island straight away and he knew he needed to get Snotlout away from here as soon as possible. As he heard people bustle around him Toothless carefully made his move.
Cautiously sliding out from under the cover he used his senses to pinpoint the positioning of the humans around him, the nearest was disembarking the other ship carrying a sack of some kind as he followed a group of men. None of the people he could see or smell were Snotlout so Toothless decided to play it safe and stealthily nipped over the side and disappeared into the sea. He swam below the surface as far as he could go and managed to make his way around an outcrop of rocks unnoticed and sneak onto the beach. From there he quickly bounded into the maze of rock that formed a large part of the island and away from enemy eyes.
From there he began to familiarise himself with the area and was careful to not encroach upon the native dragon's territories much. Dragons were actually fairly tolerant of other dragons and would often be quite happy in large groups; however they did have small areas which were theirs. In the case of Berk's dragons the home of their respective rider was theirs as well as their pen in the arena, for Toothless Hiccup's house was his but since Snotlout also lived there Hookfang used it as well but the Nightmare did respectfully kept his distance from it if his rider wasn't present. Other dragons could pass through the territory of another but they could not remain without permission, again this rule was slightly bent on Berk if the visiting dragon had their rider with them who was there for a valid reason. This meant that Toothless could pass fairly easily through territories of the rider less dragons but they did keep a suspicious eye on him while he was present.
Eventually he came across a suitable cave near the territory of the humans which was unclaimed and he set about making it his. With his territory claimed Toothless then began a tentative hunt for Snotlout in the human territory.
One of the first things he noticed was that there had been a major change since he'd last been on this island. All the signs indicated that a new alpha was now in command of the humans, the scents he caught on the wind showed a lot of unease and slight friction between the newer members of the pack and the ones that were here before. Also the scent of the previous alpha was still present but it was slowly being smothered by the newer one. He recognised it as the younger alpha that seemed to hate his Hiccup and had used the lightning dragon to attack them before and he was concerned by what this alpha wanted with his Hiccup's relative. Unfortunately the sheer number of human scents made locating the one he was after difficult and he was largely limited to hunting by sight and hearing.
After some time he had to give up his search in order to sate his body's need for nourishment and he headed for a quiet beach to catch some fish. Without flight it proved difficult but soon he managed to acquire a reasonable sized meal, he then moved on to one of the few pools of fresh water scattered across the island. A couple of the rider less dragons were there drinking as well but as long as he didn't bother them they wouldn't bother him, with thirst and hunger sated he resumed his hunt. He patrolled the edges of the human territory but found little to indicate where the teen he was seeking had gone and he realised he'd have to hunt further in. As such Toothless returned to his newly claimed cave and entered a light sleep to conserve his energy for a night time hunt into enemy's home.
PS-So there we go and I hope you liked that. Please let me know what you thought and I'll try to update soon.
