I Own Nothing

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Chapter 17

"I've got this idea…"

It was the fifth night since the kidnapping had taken place. The repaired ships had left a few days ago for the Bog Burglars and the Owl Guts, Berk's nearest allies, but they would still take nearly 10 days to return, assuming nothing went wrong. Other ships had gone out searching in every direction for Stoick and the others. Meantime, every night at the appointed hour Fishlegs and the Twins went into the woods and waited. This was the third time they had done so and their tempers had not gotten any better from the previous nights of futile waiting. Still, Fishlegs held hope that each passing night meant the odds were better that Hiccup would show up on the next one. As for the Twins, whenever they complained he suggested they go home and he would wait alone, but they declined the offer. Perhaps they were as anxious to see Hiccup as he was, or perhaps they wanted to feel that they were doing something to help Astrid and the others. Whatever their reasons were, they stayed with him.

Fishlegs wished he had not asked Hiccup to meet him in the woods. He had done so because he knew Hiccup would never come to the Village now, and he had no idea how anyone else would react if he did. But he wished he had chosen somewhere else. There was virtually no light where they were, except for a small lantern, which made matters worse in some respects. The shadows it made seemed large and evil. Any visible shape seemed like some new danger waiting to strike; the smallest sound seemed amplified and made them all jump. The three of them fidgeted anxiously, and often looked around wildly at the slightest sign of movement or sound, both of which sometimes only existed in their nervous imaginations.

"How—" Tuffnut's sudden words made the other two jump, "sorry—how long do you think we've been waiting here now?"

"We came up here just after sunset, so at least an hour. Maybe two." Fishlegs said wearily.

"Fish, do you think he's going to come this time?" Ruffnut asked in an unusually small voice.

"I hope so…he's got to." This last was said more to himself.

They sat in silence again. Each one wanted to break the silence but could not think of anything to talk about that they had not already discussed. Unbidden, thoughts of what the hostages might be going through at that moment came into their heads, making the darkness and silence even more disturbing and nerve wracking.

"Well?"

They jumped again. The Dragon King emerged from behind a tree. The yellow light from the lantern contrasted viciously with his black clothes and helmet, making him look very menacing.

"Hiccup! Thank Odin, I thought you might—!"

"Just so you know: there are a dozen dragons hiding around us right now. If there are any traps, I'm the only human who will be leaving this place alive. If you can call me human anymore…"

"What's that supposed to mean, Hiccup?"

"That's not my name, Fishlegs."

"Uh, yeah, well, um, sorry about…all that…but…look we really need your help!"

"You do, do you? I thought as much."

"Yes, we've been waiting for days since I sent that message to you. Did it really take that long to reach you?"

"Not for the reasons you might think…Tetry was so overwhelmed by the importance of his duty and so proud of not giving his captors any satisfaction he got lost for a while. He finally reached the Sanctuary this morning but I was gone until this afternoon."

"Well, better late than never…"

He suddenly laughed coldly. "Sorry, but it does seem rich, doesn't it? The boy who was beaten and deserted by his friends, the teenager who was scorned and neglected by his village, the man who was nearly murdered by his own father—he is now being asked to help them out. I fancy there's a Greek tragedy on this subject."

"Look, I understand you're angry, and believe me, you have every right to be so, but this isn't the time for it. Astrid, Snotlout, his father, and the Chief have been—"

"Taken by Drago Bludvist and are now being held in the lockups on Berserker Island, yes I know. I warned you guys that could happen. And just so you know, the Berserker Island harbor is filled with ships; 35 at the last count. And the Outcasts are involved in this too."

Tuffnut looked at him starry-eyed. "Dude, how do you know all this?"

Ruffnut slapped him. "He's got dragons, dummy! Awesome, destructive, fire-breathing dragons!"

Tuffnut bowed his head reverently. "Amazing firepower and an appetite for destruction!"

"I just said that!"

"No you didn't!"

"As much as I would enjoy seeing you two beat the living daylights out of each other, I don't have the time, so if you'll excuse me—" the King turned to leave.

"Wait, Hiccup!" Fishlegs reached for him, only to be snarled at—"Sorry, I mean—what should I call you by, anyway?"

"Oh for crying out loud, just say what you have to say!"

"All right, look—our allies won't be here for another week or two at best, and it's a good 5 day voyage to Berserker. Odin knows what could happen in that time! We need to rescue Astrid and the others and we need to do it now! And there's something else; Dogsbreath is in on this, I saw him with some woman named 'Dancy.'"

"I know you did. Her name's Adoncia. She's the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish nobleman. Before she met Drago, she would pick out rich men to sleep with, and then her father would blackmail them. Nice way to earn a living."

"How do you know this?"

"…We've crossed paths before."

"You didn't…um…didn't…?"

"No, I have not slept with her. As for Dogsbreath, he wasn't the first man and he won't be the last, I daresay." His arms twitched as he spoke.

"Where is Dogsbreath? Do you know? Hognose said he had nothing to do with this and doesn't know where he is."

"I imagine he's hiding in the woods right now. Maybe Mildew's hiding him. You'll probably find him if you sent out a search party. I haven't really looked into his doings much since the kidnapping took place. He played his part, and I doubt he'll be called on again for more."

"She said they would be together soon afterwards."

"She would. She's an expert in seduction. She knew what kind of man Dogsbreath was and played him like a mandolin. By doing so she got him to slip some Nadder venom into their drinks. In very small doses it'll only put you to sleep for a while. My Terror scouts saw and heard the whole thing. Then they took them to a ship anchored on the other side of the island and sailed off."

"So that's how they were captured!" Ruffnut exclaimed. "But why didn't you do anything to stop it?"

"Why should I have? And if you must know, until very recently, I was a bit preoccupied with recovering,"

Fishlegs winced.

"So how do we get everyone back?" Tuffnut asked.

"Yes about that." Fishlegs cut in. "Hiccup—sorry—look, you know where they are, you know what we're up against, and you have the means to get there before it's too late. I am asking you—I am begging you—please help us!"

The King turned very slowly to look at him. "And give me one very good reason for why I should do that."

"Why did you even come here if you weren't going to help us?" Fishlegs countered.

"I enjoy Greek tragedy."

"No, that's not it—"

"Maybe he got bored?" Tuffnut suggested.

"Maybe he's lonely?"

"Maybe he wants to make a wig out of Fishlegs' beard!"

"Fishlegs doesn't have a beard, stupid!"

"He's got some stubble; that counts!"

"Is this your way of convincing me?" The King asked dryly. "You know that I could rescue them myself if I wanted too. I don't need the three of you."

"Then why don't you?" Hiccup cocked his head to one side, "Ok, bad question. But we need your help! What will it take? You want Berk to accept your terms? We'll do it. You want dragons to come and live on Berk? We'll give it a try. You have my word on it."

"No offense, Fish, but I highly doubt you have any authority on these matters."

"Not officially, maybe, but I'm sure I can persuade Astrid, and Astrid will be the next Chief of Berk. Besides, if you rescue them, you'll be proving dragons can be good creatures! Think about it! You save them and you could probably get any reward you want!"

"And you really think Stoick would do that?"

"The Chief is a man of his word, and a man of honor. He would consider it shameful to not reward a man who saved his life."

"A man of his word doesn't send summons intended to lure people into traps."

"Ah…well, what about Astrid? She'd see to it that you're rewarded, and she can influence the Chief! Her father would too, and so would Gobber!"

"And Spitelout and Snotlout would then persuade him to lure me into a clearing and cut my head off. Sorry, I think I'll pass."

"They're being held by Drago Bludvist! The man you've been trying to stop for years! Here's another chance to thwart him!"

"I have no doubt other chances will turn up."

"What's wrong with you?" Fishlegs shouted. "The Hiccup I knew would never let his father and Astrid stay locked up in a madman's prison!"

"The 'Hiccup' you knew was a child! None of you here paid much attention to him after that, except for when you joined in taunting him and beating him up! And no matter what it may seem to you, I am not the Hiccup that lived on Berk! I am—I don't even really know what I am anymore! I don't even have a name for crying out loud and I don't even know why I've never chosen a new one!" He kicked a rock in annoyance.

"You know, Dude, I know some cool ones you could try, like—"

"If you think this is going to persuade me to—"

"Listen," Fishlegs grabbed him by the shoulders. "I know I have no right to ask you to help us now, but I don't know who else to turn to. I know we treated you badly—I've had eight years to think back on those days. Eight years that I spent remembering what I did and didn't do, wishing I could somehow go back and do things differently. Can you please let me make amends if I can't do anything more? Can you let us make amends? You're the only hope we've got now. When I think of what Dagur might be doing to Astrid or the Chief at this moment..."

The King suddenly began shaking.

Ruffnut looked concerned. "Is something wrong?"

"No I'm…I'm fine," he replied shakily, "But Fish, it's Drago you want to worry about, not Dagur. Dagur's a kid compared to Drago."

"You know so much about this already, share your knowledge with us, please! If things don't work out, you can always go back to your island and forget about it. But we need you…Odin knows, if you say 'no' I don't know how we can get them back without war and a huge loss of life. Please, Hic—Dragon King, please help us!" Fishlegs pleaded.

The King cocked his head to one side again.

"Supposing I say 'yes', what exactly do you expect me to do for a rescue?"

Fishlegs smiled. "We'll have to use dragons, because nothing else can get there so quickly. So I expect to ride a dragon there, follow a plan we've come up with, break them out, and let the dragons carry us all back here."

"You realize that if I do—and I'm not saying I'm committing myself—but if I do agree, you guys put yourselves and your families at risk, right? You guys have been on the sidelines observing so far, but if we go through with this, you're taking sides. You'll become flat out enemies of Drago and the Outcasts and Berserkers, and there's a good chance you could be exiled from Berk for riding dragons, given past events. Other tribes in the region might condemn you as well. And it won't just be you who will be at risk, but your friends, family, and anybody else with a connection to you. If we do succeed, we risk putting Berk at war. Are you willing to accept the consequences of that?"

"Dagur and Drago and Alvin have already provoked war," Fishlegs said firmly, "they kidnapped our Chief and his family. We've already asked for other tribes to come to our aid. I think the question of war has already been settled."

"Ah, but now you're going to be a key player in it. That carries more risk to you and those close to you. Look at me. I was nearly killed by my ex-father, and now he's been captured because of his relation to me. Even after he disowned me he still suffers because I took a side in a conflict."

"I think we've got no real choice in the matter. If Drago is anything like the man I've heard about, he's going to come after us one day whether we oppose him or not."

"Very true…"

"So what do you say?" Tuffnut asked eagerly, "will we get to ride those awesome fire breathing dragons?"

"And will you help us rescue the Chief and Astrid?" Ruffnut quickly added.

"Don't forget about Snotlout and his father." Fishlegs reminded her.

"I'd prefer to," The King mumbled. He looked at the ground for a moment. Fishlegs put a hand on his shoulder but the King threw it off. "Look, just give me a minute to think, all right?" He began to walk away.

"Hey, how can you see where you're going?" Ruffnut called after him.

"It's not too dark when dragons have fire in their mouths." Right on cue two dragons opened their mouths and let flames gather in them, as though their mouths were giant lanterns. They had not done this before so they would not give away their positions. The King reckoned that if this was indeed a trap someone would have sprung it by now, and only a few dragons were actually revealed in the firelight.

"That is unbelievably awesome!" Tuffnut said fervently.

"That guy is so cool! Why couldn't he have been like this on Berk? We'd have been the best of friends! And he's kinda cute, you know that?"

"Eww, Ruff, just…eww."

The King stood facing Toothless.

"Sounds like you're already changing some minds,"

"Two nutjobs and a plump Dragon nerd. They'll be giving me welcome home parties next. So Bud, what do you think?"

"I thought the reason we came here was to rescue them."

"We are. I've already made up my mind to save Astrid, help or no. All that reluctance you just saw was bluff. I wanted to see where those three stand and how determined they are."

"Just Astrid?" Toothless grinned.

"I'd never forgive myself if something happened to her that I could prevent, you know that."

"And what about the other three? I know you and the Chief have had a rough relationship…maybe this is what will make him accept you."

"Sure, whatever. But I suppose it would be wrong to leave the other three. It would just prove them right about us." The King thought for a minute and sighed. "Funny isn't it? I ran away from Berk 8 years ago, and yet I'm still getting involved with it. We'll need more dragons, though. Send someone back to the Sanctuary for volunteers. They will wait for us there, and have them collect every barrel of powder we've got. We'll use half of it. And I'll need two dragons…ask Meatlug and Zippet to come here."

"You've got it." Toothless grinned. The King returned to his former friends.

"All right, guys, here's the thing. First of all, I'm in charge of this, and we're going to do things my way. Understood? Right, now riding dragons is one matter, but breaking into a Berserker stronghold is something else, and I don't know if you're capable of doing that kind of thing."

"So what do we do?" Ruff asked,

"Are you saying you agree?" Fishlegs asked at the same time.

"Yes, I will help you." He picked up a stick and drew in the dirt. "Here's the fort. The dungeons are probably somewhere in the lowest part of it, probably underground. Most dungeons usually are but I can't say for certain. The problem is if we go in for a full scale attack, they'll have enough time to get down to the dungeons, grab a hostage, point a knife at them, and order us to surrender. If we refuse they'll kill them and move on to the next one until we give up or they run out, so either way we lose. A frontal attack never works where hostages are involved."

"Couldn't we tunnel in with a Whispering Death?" Fishlegs suggested.

"We could only if we knew exactly where they were. If we come out in the wrong spot, we'd just give ourselves away, and the Berserkers would do the same thing as they would during a frontal attack. And if we come out in the right place, there's a good chance we might accidently injure the hostages. If it was just one person, I'd take the gamble, but not with four. Any one of them might be standing in the wrong spot. To say nothing about the sheer compassion of it, getting anyone hurt would cause unneeded difficulties."

"So what do we do then?" Tuff asked impatiently.

"Yeah, how do we get in?"

"Oh getting in is easy. It's getting out that you've got to worry about. Don't you see already? Drago captured them to lure me into a trap. He wants me to come for them. So if we're going to have any chance, we've gotta do something he won't be counting on. We've gotta use his expectations to our advantage. And that's where you guys come in. See, I've got this idea…"

Gobber walked to his house exhausted. It had been yet another day of nothing but waiting, which could tire a man more than hard exercise. They had sent their ships out as planned, but that been the only real good news. Most had gone off in different directions searching, while a handful had sailed to ask their nearest allies for help, whether that was help with the search, military aid, or both. Even so, that would take a long time. Sailing to Owl Gut Island and back was at least two weeks. And it would take time for their allies to get prepared, assuming they decided to even come. In the meantime, all he could do was hope one of their ships would stumble upon the correct vessel and could launch a rescue on the spot. Given what he knew of Drago, that seemed unlikely. About the only other thing he could do was sharpen weapons and ensure they were ready to leave at once when the rescue attempt was finally launched.

Only a handful of people on Berk knew that Fishlegs had sent a letter to Hiccup. Gobber suspected most would not be happy about having to call upon the Dragon King for aid, nor did he want to give anyone false hope. So far the lad's efforts had been unrewarded and Gobber himself was running out of hope that Hiccup would come. He could not entirely blame him, after all that had happened. In fact, Gobber felt the only reasons Hiccup would come would be either to get concessions out of them, which seemed out of character to him, but then again Gobber did not known how much the lad had changed in the past 8 years, or to save Astrid. He knew that Hiccup, like most of the boys his age, had had a huge crush on Astrid when he was on Berk, and he prayed some part of that crush was still strong enough to bring Hiccup to help.

But these were all just hopes for things he could no longer control. Berk was ready for a rescue, but did not know where to go to rescue anyone, assuming anyone was even still alive to rescue. Now that the preparations were as done as they could be, all he had done all day was pace around the docks, watching for any sign of a ship approaching. Some had come and all with no good news. He felt in one day he had aged another 10 years. He just wanted to get some sleep and forget about this waking nightmare. But there was no escaping the reminder that his oldest and closest friend was a prisoner somewhere and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Well it's about time."

Gobber nearly jumped a foot in the air. He seized a candle, lit it, and pointed it at a dark figure sitting in a chair.

"'Iccup!"

"Wrong name, but I get the feeling I'll be saying that a lot." The Dragon King grinned. Gobber put the candle down and gave him a fierce bear hug.

"I'm so glad to see ya alive, lad!"

"I can feel that."

"Still as sarcastic as eva! Where 'ave ya been all these years?" Gobber laughed,

"Oh, here and there and partially everywhere. Saw a bit of the world,"

"From the back of a dragon. Who'd have thought it? Can't say ah ever saw that one comin', but then again, ye were always doin' stuff differently. And look at ya! All grown up and tough. By golly, I reckon ya could whip yer father in a fight now!" He suddenly realized what he had said. "Oh, 'Iccup, I'm so sorry 'bout all that. If I'd 'ave known wat 'e was plannin'…"

"It wouldn't have made a difference and you know it. You know how he gets when his mind is set on something."

"Still…and then there's this mess wid the kidnappin'…speaking o' which, ya got the message from Fishlegs?"

"Yes, and we haven't got much time. We're leaving tomorrow morning."

"Tomarra mornin'? And oo's 'we'?"

"I'll tell you as we work. We need to get the forge going and make these," He held up a piece of parchment with a design on it.

"A pipe and a jar?"

"Not exactly, but you just need to make the metal parts. I'll take care of the rest."

"'Ow many d'ya need?"

"As many as you can make between now and sunrise. We'll also need about dozen ropes and blankets. Best to have some back ups. Oh yes, and a lot of spear shafts."

"All right. Wot's the plan?"

"I'll tell you as we work." He repeated. "Don't worry, Gobber, my tribe members are veterans when it comes to rescues."

Gobber's exhaustion had vanished. A few minutes ago he had felt 10 years older, but now as he led his old apprentice to the Forge he felt 20 years younger.

"An' jest look at those arms o' yers. Man, I could do wid some o' this in the forge now."

"You just gestured to all of me, didn't you?"