Hiccup received several handshakes and pats on the back as the victory celebration went on. Vikings were dancing, laughing, and drinking as he watched from the chief's seat. However, he saw no sign of Astrid, which was incredibly unusual, as she usually sat next to him at events like this. Valka saw the worried look in her son's eyes and stepped up next to him. "Go," she said, "I'll look after the party. Besides..." She gestured to Gobber who was throwing himself around in a completely drunken dance whilst the rest of the vikings encouraged him to drink more, "I think their entertained enough." Hiccup looked at her with a thankful smile and sneaked out the door.
As Hiccup walked down the steps towards Toothless, Fishlegs and Snotlout came up from behind him. "Where do you think your goin' cous?" Snotlout asked. "Looking for your fiancée, hmmm?" Fishlegs elaborated. Hiccup rolled his eyes as he climbed onto Toothless. Snotlout and Fishlegs smiled. "Sweet, we'll escort you. That party wasn't worthy of me anyway," Snotlout said as he and Fishlegs ran to their dragons. Hiccup smiled, it was always nice to have some company. When the other two were saddled up they set off to the other side of the island.
They landed in a clearing not far from the coast and began the short walk towards the beach. "Astrid!" Hiccup called out, the other two following suit. "Astrid!" Hiccup felt a small crunch under his foot. He looked down to find a broken sheet of white ice in the grass. "Ice?" He questioned as he knelt to pick it up. "In the middle of summer?" He ground up the ice in-between his fingers to check if it was actually there. "Ummm...Hiccup?" Hiccup looked up at Fishlegs who was a little further in the woods. "There's some on these trees, too." Fishlegs said. Hiccup walked up and looked at where Fishlegs was pointing. Sure enough a large collection of trees had white streaks across their trunks. "Hiccup!"
Snotlout was shaking from head to toe when Hiccup ran up in front of him. "What is it, Snotlout?" He asked. His cousin just whimpered and pointed behind Hiccup. Hiccup turned to find a viking two inches from his face, perfectly frozen in an attack stance, axe still held in striking position. Fishlegs looked behind the frozen viking and gasped. Hiccup glanced where Fishlegs had just looked. What he saw astonished him. An entire group of frozen vikings and dragons were massed in a thick line that spanned all the way to the beach. Some of the vikings still sat on their dragons, and others were frozen mid-strike. However, the most frightening ones were the dragons who had froze mid-blast with iced areas where their fire had been. The three looked on in amazement and fear, Snotlout still shaking from the shock of it. They were only snapped out of their trance when Meatlug growled out-loud from the beach.
The frozen Nadder had its wings up in an attack stance, its mouth open like it was breathing fire, and a long funnel shaped protrusion of ice with a spiked end came out from where the fire should've been. Meatlug was circling it, sniffing and clawing at it, obviously trying in vain to free it from the icy prison. Hiccup recognized the dragon immediately. "Stormfly?" he said, "Then where's..." A glint of light near a washed up log caught his eye. He ran over to the log and slowly peered around it. "Hiccup," Fishlegs said as he reached for his friend's shoulder to comfort him. Hiccup ignored him and walked towards the axe. When he reached it, he fell onto his knees and tears began to flow from his eyes. He grabbed the weapon carefully. "This is Astrid's," he said, as he began to cry even more, "I made it for her." He pulled the axe close to his chest as the tears began to flow in waterfalls. Snotlout and Fishlegs just stood behind him, the sight of their devastated chief bringing tears to their eyes as well.
A large bang pulled the two out of their trance. "What was that?" Fishlegs asked. Hiccup began to wipe his eyes, realizing something else was happening. "It came from over there." Snotlout responded, pointing towards a wrecked ship they had previously overlooked. Hiccup slowly stood up, holding Astrid's axe tightly in his hand. Another loud bang came from the ship and they saw a few of the boards fall out of a hole in the wreckage. Snotlout pulled out his hammer and Fishlegs unsheathed his blade. Hiccup began to slowly advance towards the ship as he lifted the axe over his shoulder into a ready stance. Another bang came from the ship as a figure stumbled out the hole in the wreckage. He stood up tall and the boys had a very good look at him. Fishlegs' and Snotlout's eyes widened as they darted from Hiccup to the stranger.
The stranger had rich green eyes, a short chin, thin lips and a rounded nose. His hair was mostly silvered from age, but enough auburn remained to show that it was his natural color, and it fell in separated sections, a lot like Hiccup's. Hiccup observed that he must've been a slave or prisoner because he wore dirty, ragged clothes and two broken chains around his wrists. He also seemed to have scavenged some of the deceased crew, because he wore a Legionnaire's belt with a sheathed sword and a pair of leather boots. He stared at them intently for several seconds before collapsing onto the ground.
Astrid struggled against her bindings as the two guards shoved her onto the smaller ship. The carrier had opened up the front to let in a smaller ship which was now being loaded with prisoners, including Astrid. The guards pushed them around until they were in two straight lines from the bow of the ship to the stern. The prisoners stood at an uneasy attention, scared of where they were being herded. The guards examined the lines one last time and then stopped back onto the carrier's deck, signaling the smaller ship to exit. The ship captain complied, and the small ship pulled out of the wooden cave of the carrier. Astrid watched the dragon cages as they departed. Most of the dragons peacefully complied with their masters' rules, but others, such as the Skrill, were crazily slamming against the steel. Astrid felt sorry for those dragons, how horrible it must be to lose your best friend and then be ignored. However, she could only shed a few tears before the carrier closed its hatch, hiding them from her.
A few gasps came from the vikings standing around Astrid. She turned her head back to the front and let out a gasp of her own. The island was about the size of the entirety of Berk. The rock half mimicking the mountain that stood above her village, whilst the other half was roughly the size of the village, maybe even larger. But the real amazement was the fact that the village-sized half was completely built of wood. Huge purple banners with symbols of Romulus' crown draped over the side. Small protrusions covered the entire thing at four uniform heights, each with a Roman mounted-crossbow looking over the sea.
The small ship circled around the side of the island to the front. Astrid gasped again. The entire front of the island was built like a carrier except it was 100 times the size. The carriers looked like toy boats floating into a full-sized house, and small boats like the one Astrid rode looked like insects. Instead of dragon cages there were large openings in the walls, the ones on the surface of the water being much larger than the others. Long chains hung from the ceiling of the cavern. Astrid watched as a ship stopped underneath a small collection of chains near the wall. The crew pulled out long metal rods with hooks on the ends and grabbed the chains, pulling them towards the ship. They moved the ends of the chains next to specific points in the ship and Astrid realized that they were hooking the ship to the chains. The ship crew checked the chains to see if they were sturdy and then signaled to a man on the wall. The man signaled back and moved some sort of device along the wall. The ship was lifted up to the height of the fourth row of openings. The ship was then rotated slowly by the chains so the stern was facing the opening. Two dragons then flew out of the opening and grabbed something along the wall. They pulled out a large tub-like wood structure which the ship was lowered into, and then pushed it back in.
Astrid was amazed how perfectly that had unfolded and then realization hit her. Each of these openings housed a Roman ship. She looked around the cavern. There were hundreds of openings, several of which were for carriers, which, in turn, housed almost 50 dragons. Astrid became severely frightened. They didn't just want Berk, they wanted the entire northern waters. Astrid was so busy figuring this out that she hadn't noticed the ship had stopped until the sound of clanging chains brought her back.
The prisoner ship sat in the very center of the hangar. Astrid watched as the crew used the long metal rods to pull blood-red chains towards the ship. "I bet you're wondering why they're red, huh Missy?" Astrid almost jumped at the captain's voice. "It's because, you're not going into the shipyard," the captain said, "You're going to the arena." He began to laugh as he signaled to a fishing boat-sized ship ahead of them. The man on the ship nodded and moved a small dish. Astrid almost fell over from the sudden lurch upward.
The people cheered as Astrid and a few of the other vikings were shoved out of a gate into the dirt battlefield. "Welcome, ladies and gentleman, boys and girls to the coliseum of Neptune." Astrid looked up to see the black-armored man addressing the crowd. "Today, the vikings of Berk,"Romulus said as he gestured towards Astrid and the other vikings. "Versus our reigning champ, the Crimson Flame." The crowd roared in excitement. "Are the fighters ready?" Romulus asked and nodded at a small teenager standing next to a lever. Astrid lifted her axe as the boy pulled the lever down, releasing the locks on the gate in front of her. "Then let the battle begin!"
The gate blew open in a fiery blast as a large Monstrous Nightmare crashed through. It fired a blast of fire at the group of vikings who just barely dodged it. A dragon, really? Astrid thought as she threw her weapon to the ground and charged the beast, yelling out her signature battle cry. The crowd roared in approval. She dodged one of his fire blasts and ducked under his head. Quickly, she lunged upward and grabbed his horns, pulling him down to the ground. The dragon roared and then ignited, almost catching Astrid off-guard. She was surprised by its response as other Nightmares responded well to that treatment. It blasted another stream of flame at her, which she tumbled away from. Think Astrid, what else can you do. She dodged another fire blast. Nightmares respond well to a gentle hand. One of the other vikings charged the dragon, but was swatted away by its tail. But he'll never let me get close to him. Another fire blast almost got her while she was thinking. Think. Why do Nightmares like a gentle hand? "That's it!" Astrid exclaimed as an idea hit her. Slowly, she walked towards the dragon with her hands up. The crowd became very quiet as they watched the unusual behavior. One of the other vikings stood up to strike, but she motioned for him to stay down. The dragon watched as Astrid approached, quietly growling under his breath. When she was a few yards away, she lowered herself onto her knees and raised her hands up higher. Then, she bowed to him.
Romulus watched as the dragon approached the girl and nudged her hands with his snout. Slowly, she stood up and placed her hand on its snout, calming him down. The crowd began to boo, and the dragon blasted at them. Romulus turned to a man on his right. "Stop the fight,' he said calmly. The man nodded and ran off. A few seconds later, several Legionnaires charged into the arena. The chained up the dragon and the vikings, including Astrid. The dragon began to flail around and blasted at Astrid's attackers before it was locked back in the gate. "First." Romulus called. First ran up next to him and bent his ear down. "Bring her to my quarters," Romulus said pointing at Astrid. "Yes, sir." First responded and walked off. Romulus smiled under his helmet. "You may be even more useful then I previously thought, Astrid Hofferson."