The roar of the engines cut through the silence in of the islands, making birds and small dragons take to the skies to escape from the invading noise. The three sets of propellers of the ship started to turn furiously, so fast that they created the illusion of moving the other way. The last bit of air was pumped into the balloon, inflating the last dented parts of thick leather to let it rise to its full size.
"Cut the ropes!" Hicca yelled as she stood at the helm of the ship. The crew on the ground quickly slid the ropes with swords and axes, releasing the ship from its grounding. "Pull them up!" Hicca shouted. Her crew quickly replying by pulling the remaining parts of rope up and tossing them on the deck.
"Get the dragons in the air, we'll need then on our way out!" Hicca yelled as she steered the airship towards the larger opening. Sithera whistled loudly, causing their winged companions to take to the skies and swarm around the aircraft. "Ray, can you get Blitz to help Gobber?" Hicca asked as she navigated her way towards the large opening that lead outside. Ray walked over to the railing, signalling Blitz to escort the other ship.
Gobber's ship slowly followed them through the crack, Blitz pulling the netting to keep it away from the rocks. They slowly flew out of the crack and into the large open airspace. Relieved that they hadn't had to go through too much near death experiences. Both ships emerged from the rocks fully, the dragons returning to the top of the balloon of Hicca's ship.
Gobber slowly caught up with the ship, his smaller ship flying right next to the bigger one of Hicca. "So what's your plan now?" Gobber yelled over the sound of the engines. "Any plans for the coming months?"
Hicca let the wheel go, letting the ship drift a bit on its own. "I'm planning on finishing some family business." She yelled back. "We'll meet again soon!" She gave the wheel a big swing, making the ship turn hard left. Gobber looked at her as the ship grew distant, a joyful feeling in his stomach. Whatever Hicca was up to, she was going to do something stupid, but it would be genius.
He shook his in disbelief, he had finally found her and even talked with her, now he only had to keep everything a secret from the rest of Berk and from his best friend, Stoick. He slowly turned his aircraft back on his own course. Heading towards Berk.
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His ship sailed slowly into the docks, Gobber tossing ropes to let everyone secure it and tie it to the ground. He looked at Berk, the town quiet and grey, just like it was when he left it. He bode Gooday to the workers of the docks and headed into the town.
He walked across the cobblestone roads, his wooden leg making a loud tick every time he stepped. On his way to his house, which was built to the side of his shop, many of the townsfolk asked how his vacation had been. He would simply reply with saying that he had been to a nice island and had met an old friend. It wasn't exactly a lie, it was just a twist of the truth.
He spotted his shop at the end of the street, the old building standing alone from the others. It used to stand in a row of buildings, each one beautifully decorated and sturdy. But the inevitable dragon raids took their toll, first the house to the left was destroyed, then the one to the right. They had been rebuilt at the start, but after two more times of being burned to the ground they were replaced by AA, hoping to protect the shop. It was quite effective, heavy Flak usually scared them off more than it actually worked against the dragons. It did work for changing the area dragons headed to, preferring to stay away from the big barrels that pointed to the sky, but at the end of the day, they were more effective for man-made flying contraptions than dragons.
He approached his house slowly, hoping to rest after the flight home. Although small, airships are always high in maintenance. And because he stood alone on his, he had quite the work to do. And even though the weather had been calm and kind to him, he was exhausted.
When he reached for his keys to unlock his front door, he quickly found the heavy padlock to be already loose. Alerted, he silently put the keys back in his pockets, drawing his gun from his holster.
He opened the door quickly, pointing his gun at the first person he saw, a big bearded man, who was sitting calmly in his favourite chair. "Now you know how I feel every time you pull this trick." Stoick said as Gobber lowered his gun. "How was your vacation?"
"Oh, it was fine." Gobber said slowly. "Been to a really nice place. Might go live out my retirement there." He added with a chuckle.
"That's good to hear." The islands governor said as he scratched his beard. "I also have some news."
Gobber looked at Stoick with a curiosity, trying to read his expression, but it was stoic as ever. "I got a letter from someone." Stoick explained slowly. "And this will sound crazy, but a Terror dropped it off at my house."
Gobber acted shocked, in his time with Hicca and her crew she had seen them use Terrors to send messages around. "Really, what did it say?" He asked with curiosity. "And who was it from?"
"The ones you've been following." Stoick said sternly. "The fish like ship's captain."
Gobber didn't find any need to fake the surprise this time, it was genuine. "The captain?" He asked in disbelief. "The one that might know where Hicca is?" He tried to add a slight hint of hope in his voice, hoping to convince his friend that he was also still hoping to find her.
"He stated that 'she' has information about Hicca, information that we need to know." Stoick tells his friend. "It's about the search for her, and she asks it to be at neutral grounds."
"When does she want it to take place?" Gobber asked, curious about the strange meeting. Hicca never told her about this, only about fixing family things.
"The letter said that we would meet at Loki's Bluff." Stoick explained. "A perfect place for an ambush."
"Do you want me to go with the teens?" Gobber asked, hoping to slap some sense into Hicca for giving a location to her father. "We'll be less likely to provoke them if we come with one ship."
"I'll be coming with you." Stoick cut off any further reasoning. "I want to meet the person who might have information about my daughter."
"Great, we'll leave in a few days." Gobber said as he put his gun on the table. "I'll inform the gang and pack supplies."
"Not needed." Stoick said quickly as he stood up, grabbing his coat of the chair. "The ship is packed, the crew informed. We leave tomorrow." He swung his coat over his shoulder and walked to the door. "Goodnight Gobber." He said as he opened the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."
Gobber stood frozen in his room, a headache rising in his head. It wasn't the first time that Hicca had caused him a headache. And he had a feeling that it wouldn't be the last.
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The lenses of the spyglass deformed her view a bit, but she could clearly identify the ship. It was a galleon type airship, the heaviest class airship known in the archipelago, and Berks flagship. With two heavy guns on each side it was a force to be reckoned with.
She laid on her stomach, hidden in the grassy tops of the sea stacks of Loki's bluff. To her side lay Ray, who was already ranging the ship. "They're about two kilometres out." He said as he tuned the dials to adjust the sensitive lenses in the rangefinder. "They got rocket pods, on each side two of them." He said as he inspected the ship.
"Inform the others." Hicca said as stood up. "Tell them to man battle stations but remain calm, calm but vigilant." With an 'Aye' Ray ran back to his dragon, taking the short flight towards their airship. Once there he quickly grabbed the headset of the radio. He tuned the dials to get the right frequency, quickly finding it.
"This is Ray Roamer of the Skywhale. Everyone copy?"
"This is Thuggory, we copy."
"Marcus, copy, we'll inform our wings."
Ray smiled at the working machine, this made things a lot easier, too bad that the primitive technology of radio was too heavy to board on the airplane. "Alright, we got the Berkians at 2000 meters and closing. They brought the gallion, so they'll be slow but sturdy." Ray began, his voice being mixed with the static of the radio. "Everyone on the ready, if anything happens it's important to stay clear of the broadside. Rodger?"
"Rodger."
"Rodger that."
Ray hung the headset back on the hook, just in time to see Hicca coming back with Toothless. "We're taking the dragons." She said. "It's time he discovers who I really am."
The engines came to life again as they received news of the galleon approaching. Hot air was pumped into the balloon and they slowly ascended coming up just above the sea stacks. In full view of the Galleons crew.
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"They're here!" Tuffnut yelled as he ran from the stern to the helm, tossing his spyglass to Gobber. He took it and carefully inspected the ship, finding Hicca standing at the helm. "Aye, it's her already." He said as he handed the spyglass to Stoick, who also took a look at the enemy.
"Turn us." He said, earning a curious look from his friend. "I want our guns at them at all time." Gobber looked at his with disbelief. "That might scare them off," "I said turn!" Stoick cut him off. And Gobber obliged.
The ship slowed down and levelled with the galleon, the engines dying down until they were just running to keep them warm. Stoick inspected the ship, they were a crew of four, and they had seven. If this would go south they would win. Since both ships were sideways the only thing they had was a small rotary machinegun, whist they had two heavy sets of rocket pods.
"So you are the famed pirate I heard about!" Stoick yelled over the wind and silent noice of the engines. "I'd expected something more!"
"We card a lot sir!" The captain yelled back. "Sometimes that means we have to bluff!"
"As expected!" Stoick yelled as he ordered Fishlegs and Snotloud to aim the guns at them, strangely enough Aster had refused to operate one today. "But that also means you might lose!"
The captain of the other ship nonchalantly grabbed a headset of a hook, before hanging it back down. A loud mist horn was heard, alerting the Berkians of a small destroyer that was now coming around the corner, all anti-aircraft guns pointed at them. On their other side a Submarine rose from the water, the small AA on the back also aimed at the Galleon. A sea-plane rose from the waterline and took to the skies, slowly climbing before it started to circle around them. Stoick looked around him, shocked by the small fleet and how they had missed it. He turned to the other airship, of which the captain had now walked to the deck and took a position between her crew.
"It also means counting your cards and keeping them from your opponent!" Hicca yelled back mockingly. "That's how you win."
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Hicca felt relieve when she saw the big guns of the Galleon lower, the crew dismounting them and heading towards the top deck. "Are you sure you want to do this?" Sithera asked. "We can still go back."
"I have to do this Sith'." Hicca said calmly. "After this we'll be free, well freer." She took the piece of paper out of armour. Inspecting it for the last time. It looked official, it was. For this piece of paper was the last thing that tied her to Berk, that tied her to her family.
And she couldn't even imagine how angry her father would be when she would burn her own birth certificate in front of him.
AN:
So, another chapter done. Did this one in a bit of a hurry so my apologies if it seems rushed. I'll update my other story tomorrow. Sorry for not uploading last week, schools pushing me and next week is a new week full of tests. So I'll try to update but I can't promise anything.
R4y