26 If Ships Could Fly

The sky behind the Dragon Riders was still the blackest black, but in front of them the eastern horizon had just turned to the darkest grey. The pre-dawn light was less than fifteen minutes away and the time Hiccup was waiting for, had finally arrived.

"All set Kara?" Hiccup asked.

"Ready" she replied.

"You ready too Snotlout?"

"Let's just go already" the impatient young man huffed.

"Alright then... hold on tight Victor" Hiccup advised the boy sitting behind him "and here... we... go."

The main force of dragons held their positions as Toothless and Ghost dropped down slowly and silently till they reached the sea. The dragons levelled out and came in behind the ships purposely wide of their marks. Hiccup and Snotlout could see three lamps on each ship held by the lookouts; one on each bow, one on each stern and one each atop the main masts. As the dragons flew in wide, the riders waited until the stern light they followed, diagonally lined up with the bow lamps on the opposite ship and when this odd alignment had been achieved, they both turned in. By the time the watchmen on the ships sterns heard the faint sound of a gliding dragon, it was far too late. Toothless lowered his head and lifted the port stern watchman off his feet, sending him flying into the sea between the ships while Ghost used his claws to similar effect on the starboard vessel.

"That's the signal" Kara noted as the stern lamps went out "let's go."

The main force of dragons began their attack while Hiccup and Snotlout held their diagonal course and crossed by each other only inches apart and within a split second, Toothless had taken care of the watchman on the starboard bow before banking up. Ghost soon had the man on the port bow swimming for his life as both dragons now swept up towards the main masts and the final watchmen thereon. Hiccup had a very strong feeling that his plan had been going far too well at this point, and he was right; the lookouts in both crow's nest had heard the cries from the other men, and the splashes they made when hitting the water, so just before the dragons plucked them from their posts and dropped them unceremoniously into the water, the alarm bells rang and warned of the attack. In less than a minute, Imperial soldiers were pouring out from under the forecastle and onto the main deck.

Vikings and soldiers soon began to battle on the decks of both ships; Starkard led the attack on the Mighty Ivar while the Dragon Riders with Kara swarmed all over the Generals Warship. Many of the dragons carried with them King Jorics men, so the first dragon flypast deposited five Elydonian sailors on the wheel deck of each ship. Even with only two ships under his command, General Karoc's forces still out numbered Hiccups by three to one, but the odds where still heavily stacked in the favour of the Dragon Master.

"Kill the prisoners" the senior officer on the Mighty Ivar ordered, and one of his men hurried off to carry out the gruesome task.

Down below, Fotherington was making his way from the stern of the ship with a smile on his face and a key in his hand that he playfully tossed in the air. He had been waiting for this moment for quite a while and was enjoying it immensely.

"Hey, you there; is that the key to the prisoners cage?"

"Err... yes sir; why?" Fotherington asked the soldier with the knife in his right hand.

"Give it to me; I've been ordered to slit their throats."

"Umm... don't worry... I'll do it."

A look of mistrust came over the soldiers face as Fotherington turned away.

"Wait a minute... what ship were you from?"

"One of the ships that sank of course" Fotherington mused.

"Which ship was it; what was its name?"

As a former New Loren spy, Fotherington knew the names of many ships in his empires navy.

"Err... the Storm Runner" he informed the soldier as he grasped the hilt of a short sword hidden beneath his vest.

"The Storm Runner?" the soldier took a step forward.

"Yes" Fotherington insisted as he drew the sword silently.

"The Storm Runner... that sailed south on a spice run two months ago."

"Ahh... well then."

Fotherington spun around as soon as he sensed the soldier's movement behind him, but it was too late; the soldier leapt forward and buried his knife blade deep into Fotherington's neck. As he fell back and exhaled his final breath, the last thing Fotherington saw was the look of shock on the soldiers face as he contemplated the sword that had been thrust into his body by the man he had just killed.

Karoc was the only one on board who did not sleep fully clothed, preferring instead a clean silk nightgown. So when the General himself finally arrived on the main deck of his ship, the battle was well and truly in full swing. The Elydonians on the wheel deck of the Mighty Ivar had control of the ship, but those on the New Loren battleship were having much more trouble keeping the soldiers at bay; meaning there was no one at the helm of the great ship, which was now dangerously off course.

Many of the Dragon Riders were fighting hand to hand on the decks, while most of the dragons remained in the air due to the restricted amount of space on the ships, but there were still several Gronckles and a few Nadders butting heads and slashing tails at the defending soldiers. On board the Mighty Ivar, Hiccup made the most of shield, sword and metal leg in his battles while Toothless showed many soldiers exactly what it was like to be on the wrong end of a Night Fury's muscular tail. Victor meanwhile was slipping through the wild crowd as fast as he could manage, making his way towards the dragon sized centre hatch; when he finally reach it, he found it being used as high ground by five of the enemy who were trying to fight off two Vikings. He knew he needed help, and he needed it now.

"TOOTHLESS" Victor called out.

Hiccups dragon turned and quickly assessed the situation before sending a plasma blast at the lip of the hatch which blew off sending three soldiers sprawling onto the deck and two flying over the rail and into the sea.

"THANK YOU" Victor smiled as he swung over the smouldering wood and down into the darkness.

A corridor that ran the entire length of the ship stretched out both in front, and behind him with dragon pens lined up on each side. The starboard pen closest to the hatch was the only one that didn't hold a dragon, but held three prisoners instead.

"Ruprecht" Astrid grinned through the tiny hole in the door.

"Hello Rose" Victor replied.

"About time someone came to let us out" Ruffnut huffed "I thought Fotherington would have opened the door as soon as the attack began."

"Don't worry, I'll have you out soon" Victor reassured them as he got to work on the lock "maybe he's still trying to find the key."

"I'm just glad it's you" Fishlegs noted "when your attack started, I heard one of the officers give an order for us to be executed, but no one got around to it before the fighting got too heavy."

"That's odd" Victor noted "killing prisoners at the first sign of trouble is normal practice, so I would have expected that one of the soldiers would have come straight here before you could escape... but luckily for us..."

"What's wrong" Astrid asked as they were still no closer to getting out; the sound of battle was calling to her.

"It's too dark down here to see what I'm doing with the lock" Victor informed her "I need a torch."

Victor looked down the unlit corridor and smiled as he noticed that a few dark shadows protruded from the wall nearby and he knew they were unlit torches.

"Hang on for a bit" he said as he hurried off and tripped over some kind of lump on the floor.

Over on the Imperial battleship, General Karoc and his men were struggling to get the upper hand over the Viking rescue party, but he was rapidly losing his slight advantage as the battle raged on. As he stood near the bow of his ship, all he could see in front of him was the occasional soldier being flung over the railing and into the sea. He desperately looked around for anything that would help him in his current situation and was surprised to find a few. The first was that in all the confusion of the morning attack, no one had noticed that the ships had almost reached their destination in New Loran, but now the Imperial Port and shipyards loomed up in front of him in the morning light.

"Ten minutes" he said to himself "fifteen tops and I'll have all the reinforcements I'll need."

The second thing that Karoc noticed as he looked around was the starboard side of the Mighty Ivar that his out of control ship was about to ram.

"BRACE" he ordered his men just before the two ships came together with an unearthly crash.

Not knowing what the order had meant, Vikings and dragons went sprawling over the deck while most of the soldiers stayed upright; Kara was even surprised to see a Gronckle roll by when the bow of the warship lifted as is slammed into the Mighty Ivar.

"I don't believe this" Victor declared as he fell down a second time.

After tripping and picking himself up again, he managed to grab one of the torches off the wall and had just used his flint to light it, when the ships collided and the floor lurched to port; and down he went once more. The flame of the torch hissed as it came into contact with the slightly moist floorboard, but it also lit up what Victor had fallen over.

"At last" Fishlegs declared when the lock finally dropped to the ground and the door swung open.

"Ah, you found the key" Astrid smiled as she stepped out of the dragon pen, but she soon saw that Victor was not pleased with his good luck.

"What's wrong with him?" Ruffnut asked as the young boy stared at the floor five yards from Astrid's feet and breathed heavily.

The Dragon Riders looked to where Victor was pointing and in the low light of the still burning torch, they saw Fotherington's body lying in a pool of blood, a dagger protruding from the side of his neck. A little way back was another body; an Imperial Soldier with a short sword stuck under his ribcage.

"That guy must have been the one sent to kill you" Victor surmised in a very frail voice.

"And Fothers fought him off" Fishlegs said "he saved us."

Victor's face scrunched up before he exploded "HIS NAME WAS MASTER FOTHERINGTON... not... Fothers."

"I'm sorry" Fishlegs declared sincerely "I meant no disrespect."

"Go and open the dragon pens" Astrid ordered her friends before she knelt down to hold the distraught boy as he sobbed.

"Right" Ruffnut agreed.

She headed toward the stern and began throwing back every bolt she passed while Fishlegs did the same forward.

"I'll get my dragon" Astrid informed Victor "and get you out of here."

"NO" he insisted "I leave only when we're done here."

"LORD BORGES" one of the Emperors Guards roused the sleeping man as bells rang in the distance "the ships have been sighted; the ships with the dragons on board... and... they're being attacked sir."

"Huh... wha..." Borges stirred "attacked? Quickly man; sound the alarm bells."

"Err... yes sir" the guard agreed; not wanting to show up Borges by drawing his attention to the bells.

On the docks, every sailor prepared ships for departure and in every barrack, soldiers hurried out and made for the dock, ready for battle.

When Karoc had taken down the Dragon Riders the first time, he had outnumbered them ten to one and the only dragons he had to deal with were the three not shut up in their pens; Stormfly and two Gronckles from the Sharktooth. Currently Hiccup and his people had the upper hand, thanks to their abundant number of dragons with more being released at this very moment.

Unfortunately though, the Dragon Master was unaware of the fact that the odds against him were soon to surpass one hundred to one as more than thirty ships loaded to the brim with warriors, cast their lines and set sail towards the two ships approaching New Loran.

Dear Stripesicles 222, I am happy to chat with you and answer your questions, but you have blocked Private Messages in your account settings so I am unable to do so. I must admit that I too was worried about what would happen when I first signed up on this site but so far, I have only been contacted by other writers and readers with no malice in mind.

It is true, there is the odd crazy one (yes I'm looking at you Sarnakh) but most I consider to be my friends (like Midoriko, FF71, SharKohen, P. Underhill and many others – even Sarnakh) although we will never meet in person, (and I think this is a good thing as I am a middle aged dude and have no wish to be creepy; only to have my writing praised to unrealistic levels) :-D I will try again to answer your questions a few more times if you want to allow PM's.

Thanks for reading my stuff, Marty.