Chapter Six:

"Anything?" Hiccup asked as the rest of the group as the dragon riders and their dragons came into view. Solemnly all shook their head. Hiccup rolled his eyes, "Great. Well now what?"

"Why don' you lot land yer dragons so we can all properly chat?" Gobber shouted up to the group. Hiccup nodded and landed. This time, Snotlout's landing was far more graceful, although it wasn't terribly difficult to be more graceful than the first landing attempt. He muttered his half-thanks towards Hookfang. "Now what?"

"We keep searching until we find the twins."

"Are y' outta yer mind? They're probably burnt to a crisp by now."

Valka rolled her eyes. "Please don't treat me like I'm a helpless, Gobber. I've been working around predators since I was twenty years old. Lions, hyenas, jackals, Stoick. They're obsessively territorial and those territories are all in the interior of the island. The only other place they'll hunt is on the game trails. If we stay away from both we should be fine."

"Somehow, I don't think Ruff and Tuff will be staying away from either. Danger kinda follows them."

"And I'm sure that BioSyn isn't going to stay off the game trails either," Astrid said from her perch on top of her Nadder.

"Well then we'll just have to be sure to stay downwind," Valka replied.

Hiccup said, "Having a Night Fury on our side can't hurt either. Right, bud?" Toothless glanced up at Hiccup, retracted his teeth and smiled. "You're getting better at that smile every time, bud."

In the distance they could hear the rumble of engines. The dragons were unsettled by the noise. "Hiccup, do you hear that?" Hiccup nodded and climbed onto Toothless. They took off towards the sound and Astrid and Fishlegs followed closely behind. Snotlout complained but joined the group in the sky as well.

Valka and Gobber climbed into the camper and set off towards the sound as well. While Gobber drove he noted, "Hiccup is very mobile on his new leg, Val. He's a stronger Viking than Stoick gives him credit for. Took me ages to get back onto my feet after losing my leg in Antarctica."

Valka replied, "He's young and spry. Children bounce back faster than adults, Gobber."

"He's hardly a…"

Before he could finish, Valka shushed him, pointing out the window. "They taken cover in the trees. They must have spotted something. Kill the engines, we'll continue on foot."

Meanwhile…

Ludlow, Dagur and his men were in Jeeps traveling down the game trail. The drove through herds of Hobblegrunts, Stormcutters and Gronckles. All of the dragons flew down the path of the game trail, most alongside the Jeeps. Over the radio, Ludlow said, "Alright let's set up camp here. I want it up and running in thirty minutes."

"Cancel that order!" Dagur shouted and Ludlow immediately questioned him as to why. Dagur rolled his eyes and explained through gritted teeth, "This is a game-trail, carnivores hunt on game trails. Do you want to set up camp or an all-you-can-eat people buffet?"

Above them a white dragon flew, spewing ice rather than fire. It was a juvenile and Dagur smiled wickedly, knowing the old legends of the size and ferocity of the baby dragon's grown form. It would grow to be a Class 10 Leviathan. Dagur turned to Ludlow and said, "Listen, Ludlow, if you want me to run your little camping trip there are two condition. First, I'm in charge. Your job is to sign the checks, tell us we're doing a good job and open your case of scotch when we have a good day. Second condition, my fee…you can keep it. I want to hunt that Night Fury and THAT instead."

"Why would you want that dragon?" Ludlow asked.

"Because it's a Bewilderbeast. It's an alpha," Dagur replied. "And I'm not going to hunt that particular dragon but its parents." Ludlow still didn't entirely understand but he agreed to the new bargain anyway. Not having to pay Dagur's paycheck in exchange for him hunting just two dragons seemed like a fair trade to Ludlow. Dagur barked orders into the walkies for his men to tranquilize several of the dragons as they ran and flew down the game trail. The dragons were startled by the sound of the engines, but none of them wanted to scatter as they knew there was safety in numbers.

The team shot down several dragons as the Vikings watched from their perches in the trees with horrified faces. "I told you that BioSyn wasn't going to stay off the game trails," Astrid muttered as she crossed her arms.

"Could this possibly get any worse?" Fishlegs asked.

"Uh, unfortunately it can," Hiccup commented, dryly. He pointed on the game trail to two scraggly blondes running alongside of the Hobblegrunts and Gronckles. "All righty, who wants to rescue the twins before they get themselves killed?"

"Don't look at me. I did my time rescuing the twins on the last island. Somebody else takes this one," Fishlegs said, folding his arms across his chest.

"Sounds like somebody is scared," Snotlout jeered.

As Snotlout and Fishlegs argued, Astrid took it upon herself to rescue the twins. She hopped onto Stormfly's back and flew around the back to the pack of dragons. She crossed her legs around Stormfly's neck and swung herself upside down. She reached out and grabbed Ruff by her shirt collar and hoisted her onto Stormfly's back. Stormfly made a second pass around the herd of dragons and the Jeeps and Astrid reached for Tuff. Tuff decided to be more daring and attempted to jump onto the dragon's back on his own. He tripped and smashed his face into Stormfly's wing. The dragon squawked and Astrid rolled her eyes. She reached out and grabbed Tuff, "Couldn't you make this a lil' easier for me?"

"Where's the fun in that?" Tuff replied.

His sister naturally backed him up, "Yeah, and if he made it easy for you then there wouldn't be any blood coming out of his nose. No blood, no glory."

"That's the Viking way," Tuff agreed.

Astrid growled and made a motion to strangle the twins but restrained herself. "Just stay on the damned dragon until we get back to the camper."

Snotlout watched the entire scene with awe. "Hey Hiccup, Astrid is pretty, uh, pretty tenacious."

"You have no idea," Hiccup replied.

The Vikings were preoccupied with rescuing the twins that they hadn't noticed the Jeep with Dagur and Ludlow veer off of the game trail in pursuit of the juvenile Bewilderbeast. They stopped the Jeep at the edge of the brush, and continued on foot. They cornered the white dragon, covered in burr-like spikes. There were two small bumps its face. Of course the tusks would grow larger and more deadly as the baby matured, but for now they were merely decorative. Dagur fired a single shot into the dragon's wing, and the poor animal collapsed onto the ground. The Bewilderbeast whined in pain and fear as Dagur the Deranged approached it.

Dagur laughed maniacally. As his laughter subdued, he jabbed the butt of his gun into the baby's back leg, breaking it. Dagur pulled his walkie out of his pocket and said, "I need some chains and one of the choppers to fly this creature out. And make it snappy! I don't like waiting."

"I don't understand," Ludlow said as he glanced at the injured dragon. "I thought you wanted to kill the Bewilderbeast and the Night Fury. I thought that was your fee."

Dagur clasped his hand on Ludlow's shoulder. "Oh my fine fellow. The baby is not what I'm after. It's the adult that I want. And what better way to lure it to me than have its injured baby call for it?"

"Why don't you just wait for it here? It looks like it's a nest. Shouldn't the mother return shortly to feed it?"

"The nest is upwind. I'd be a sitting duck. You don't want me to be a sitting duck now do you?" Dagur replied and Ludlow shook his head. "That's what I thought. No, I will have the adult come to me. And when it does…BANG! It will be dead before dessert."

[a/n] Thank you for all the kind reviews. I hope you're still enjoying it!