So…it's been a while lol - I haven't forgotten this story but I've been preoccupied with the others. I'm trying a new system of shorter updates - so instead of the eight pages I usually swing for with this story I'll be doing scenes at a time, unless I go on a roll and end up doing several scenes at once. Who knows? Lol, Onward!

Chapter 7: Sound the Horn

Berk was filled with tension. The strange occurrences have been forgotten with the very real threat of war on the horizon. The air had shifted. Hiccup couldn't ignore it any longer. The clouds thickened and blocked out the sun and left the entire island cloaked in shadow. The blockade of Berserker ships didn't improve the mood.

Hiccup stood with Stoick on the docks. Dragons and riders were on high alert and ready to move out on a moment's notice. They were waiting on Stoick, for his signal, for the wave of his fist into the air that would declare war. The horn would sound and hell would spill.

"There is the ship." Hiccup said, looking through his spyglass. He had been waiting for them to move. And a smaller boat and coming toward Berk. It was the messenger, the terms, preliminary courtesy of oncoming war.

"Let's go." Stoick nodded to his son. They mounted their dragons and headed to meet it.

Halfway between the Berserker army and Berk, dragons met ship. They hovered in the air above it. Dagur was on board along with several armored Berserkers. They stood still as statues and they gave Hiccup the creeps. The air around the ship was thin and the dragons were uneasy.

"It's alright, Bud." Hiccup patted him, but Toothless growled.

Skullcrusher was having the same reaction. Stoick tried to calm him but she shook his head and grunted with dislike.

"Hiccup!" Dagur greeted him with arms out stretched. He stood in front of his lined men. He dropped his arms and held them behind his back as a malicious sneer spread across his face. "It has been too long. I do hope you've been well."

"Dagur." Hiccup said. "What do you want?"

"Your surrender." Dagur said simply. He laughed, "Surrender, or I'll destroy you, your island, and everything else around it. It's really a simple choice, I mean, come on."

"No." Hiccup shrugged.

"You're not going to surrender?"

"Of course not." Hiccup shook his head.

Toothless growled and tried to pushed them away from the ship. Hiccup reached down and patted his head. He twitched to the side. Hiccup scanned below. He didn't see anything but there was something about that ship that the dragons did not like.

"We've beaten you time and time again, Dagur. What makes you think a few more ships will make a difference?" Stoick boomed.

"Oh, I've got more than just ships." Dagur grinned. "Yes, my army is bigger and my ships are more powerful, my weaponry is outmatched, but, I've got a secret weapon just for you."

"Is it a catapult?" Hiccup asked. His father glared at him. Now was not the time.

"No, dear Hiccup, it's something that you'll never see coming." Dagur said slowly, twisting his words downward.

The water around the ship began to churn. The water bubbled and foamed. Hiccup's first thought was of an earthquake. But Dagur was too unaffected, too coy, too happy to see their reactions. The air that bubble upward was heavy, thick, like water. It gave Hiccup a horrible gut feeling. The dragons reared up without a command and growled as the water rippled.

The side of the boat were darkened with clawing hands, skeletal, decayed, exposed hands. They climbed up the sides and pulled their sea-eaten bodies with them, boney mouths gasping for air, dripping sea water onto the desk, clasping broken swords and dented shields, barnacles grew from limbs and weapons.

"What is this sorcery?" Stoick shouted.

Dagur was on his knees with laughter. Hiccup and Stoick exchanged a serious and worry. Hiccup was unsure what his father was thinking but this war just took a very steep turn. Was Dagur controlling the dead? But how?

More and more climbed onto the ship until the deck was nearly full. The dead shouted anger fists into the arm and waves their broke equipment toward them. The dead had come to Dagur's aid.

Skullcrusher roared and fire into the crowd of skeletal beings, knocking several of them back into the ocean, and setting the ship on ship. Toothless joined him and fired into the dead, and the fragile peace was shattered.

A great thunderous roar filled the sky as ships closed in with shouts of war coming from thousands of armored Berserkers. The sky over Berk darkened with hundreds of dragons and their deafening calls. Fire and arrows filled the space in streaming arcs. They came together in a fiery crash.

Hiccup and Toothless maneuvered through the ships and dragons, avoiding catapults, nets, and arrows, and blasting holes in ships. He didn't understand how Dagur could be using the dead. Could Astrid do that? He needed to know what Dagur was planning and how he was pulling it off. But he couldn't wander freely on his ship looking for answers.

Toothless dove and narrowly missed a catapult flung stone. But missing it came at a price. Arrow streaked across the sky and Hiccup thought they had made it through when toothless began to wobble.

"Come on, Toothless!" Hiccup encouraged.

He looked behind to see the hole through the red tail. An arrow had pierced it. Toothless was loosing his altitude quickly. The ships below them were all covered in flames. But there was little he could do with such a short amount of time. They would crash.

X

Stoick's arm grew tired but he wouldn't stop until either he was dead or they were defeated. Among the clatter of the battle he heard the shrill cry of the night fury. Panicked, he looked to the sky. The black dragon crashed onto a burning ship.

"Hiccup?" Stoick mouthed.

He called to Skullcrusher despite the immediate threat around him. As they lifted into the air, Stoick could only watch as a dragon's stray fireball fell from the sky and the ship burst into splinters. Fiery pieces fell into the water that reflected red. Stoick was over the wreckage as Toothless scrambled from the water onto a piece of driftwood.

He was irate and calling back into the water. The rigging of his tail had been burned and bent in several places.

"Son?" Stoick scanned the water, but there was no sign of life.

Dagur burst into laughter, "The first victory of war!"

He let out a howl that was echoed by the thousands of men. The ships began to recede together as if one entity. Stoick was frozen where he sat. Skullcrusher gave a grunt and a shake. The rumor of death floated upward through the dragons and the somber flapping of their wings filled the silence left by warfare.

At Stoick's signal the dragons began to fly back to Berk, with Toothless between two, his broken tail flapping helpless. Stoick paused at the water with hope that Hiccup would pop up, fine as ever, but he didn't. The water stilled as the last bits of the ship still above water burned black.

Xxx

I have envisioned this story and have solidified it - from this part on the outline was really vague but now it's not! YAY!

…I love ending on a dramatic cliffhanger. Who doesn't?