35 I Must Go Down To The Sea Again
(To the lonely sea and sky.
I left my dragon saddle there;
I wonder if it's dry?)
Toothless dropped quickly down from the sky as Hiccup answered his father's call.
"Hi Hiccup, hi Astrid" Kylan smiled and waved as the Night Fury landed "Great to see you succeeded with the rescue."
"We really didn't expect to see you here today" Hiccup noted "What happened?"
"Never mind the pleasantries now son" Stoick interrupted "Kylan has just informed us that a big chunk of the Elydonian navy is currently sailing south searching for us. I've got to get everyone here safely back across the border so I want you and your friends to go find those ships and turn them around at once; and Astrid, you'd better take Stormfly back while I stay with the troops.
"You got it Chief" Astrid saluted as she vaulted from the back of the Toothless.
"Do you think it's wise to be grounded in enemy territory Dad?"
"Don't worry son; this time we're fully alert and dragon heavy" Stoick declared "plus we've got spies. So go tell Starkard and Ack to bring Darius and Victor down; then you go find those ships."
Toothless and Stormfly shot skyward and headed for the circling dragons overhead. After sending the spies down to his father, Hiccup called on his friends to follow him before heading due west towards the sea.
"So where are we going now? Snotlout sounded so bored with the detour.
"There's a fleet of Elydonian ships headed south to search for everyone who was taken prisoner by the empire" Hiccup informed them.
"Well that's nothing but complete waste of time" Tuffnut declared "since we've already been rescued."
"But they don't know that Tuffnut" Hiccup tried not to sound condescending, but he didn't do a very good job of it.
"Well they should try to keep up with current events" Tuffnut was adamant.
"Yes... that's right Tuffnut; they should" Hiccup sighed after giving up all pretence of tact.
Back on the ground, Kylan sent General Thurston to the far end of the column with orders to lead the Elydonians on the long march back to the border
"How are you with horses Mr. Gershwin?" she then asked the senior spy.
"I'm no cavalryman" he replied "but I do alright."
On hearing this, Kylan dismounted and gave her horse to Darius so he could search the surrounding forest for any sign of trouble. She and Stoick walked along at what was now the rear of the column, while Starkard and Victor flew a few miles ahead to act as forward scouts. Kara was ordered to lead the Dragon Riders straight to the Elydonian border with all speed, drop off their passengers and return immediately to the ground force. If an attack came, Stoick did not want all his dragons weighed down with two riders each; he wanted them fast and agile.
"We shouldn't have any trouble" Kylan informed Stoick "We left all the New Loran border troops tied up and under heavy guard, so I doubt that anyone else in the empire even knows we're here."
"I just hope you're right Lass" Stoick declared while glancing around at the road behind him.
"Which way do we go now?" Ruffnut wondered when the Dragon Riders finally sighted the ocean.
"We head out till the land is just visible, and then turn south" Hiccup informed them all "If we haven't found the fleet by the time we get back to the New Loran naval port, then we sweep out west for another ten miles and turn north again."
"I've got a better idea" Fishlegs declared.
"What's that Legs?" Hiccup enquired.
"We go straight for that column of smoke on the western horizon."
"That might work too" the Dragon Master agreed as the five dragons began to pick up speed.
At first Hiccup thought he was looking at a small fire in the near distance but as the dragons flew on, the smoke grew thicker while staying firmly on the horizon.
"Oh this does not look good at all Hiccup" Fishlegs shivered a little.
"Yeah, it's further away than I thought."
The sight that greeted them when they finally drew near enough to see, was a major battle being fought by over twenty ships; there were small fires on many of them but three were fully ablaze.
"How do we tell which ones are Elydonian?" Fishlegs asked confused.
"You can be pretty sure the ones that shoot at you, aren't very friendly" Snotlout declared before he dove on the raging battle.
"SNOTLOUT; WAIT!" Hiccup tried to stop the impetuous rider but soon gave up.
"Oh well" he sighed "Who wants to live forever... DIVE!"
The four remaining dragons followed Snotlout as he swept down out of the sky and into battle.
"I'm not missing out this time" Tuffnut declared as he and his sister tired to catch the Nightmare.
Hiccup noticed from the uniforms of the crews and the flags they flew, that the three burning ships all belonged to his allies, who appeared to be outnumbered two to one. The enemy's faster ships were all in close combat, while the bigger battleships were rapidly moving in behind with troops ready to board.
"Hey Snotlout, it's time to even up the odds a bit" Hiccup called out "Take the twins and stop those battleships. Burn their sails like we did yesterday so they can't get close, and then help drive off the troops who have already boarded."
"I'm on it" the young man agreed and peeled off to retrieve the Thorstons.
"Fishlegs; let's try and separate the enemy vessels so no more men can get on board the Elydonian ships."
"Okay Hiccup" Fishlegs nodded and began looking for his best opportunity.
"What about me Babe?" Astrid asked as Hiccup just smiled at her.
"Go nuts Honey" was all he said.
"Yeah!" she grinned as she sent her dragon into a sharp dive.
She picked out an allied ship with two enemy vessels flanking it. Imperial soldiers had just begun to swarm onto the deck from each side when a line of Nadder spines came flying in, embedding themselves on the railing of the starboard ship. The soldiers jumped back in surprise a split second before a fire ball struck the deck and threw them all backwards. Stormfly was nothing more than a greenish blue blur as she shot through between the ships before turning back to run through the port vessel. In a change of tactic, Astrid used Stormfly's sharp teeth and claws to slice through rope after rope in the rigging of the enemy ship as the dragon twisted and spun though the air. Four large sails dropped down onto the soldiers, exceedingly hampering their movements and making it virtually impossible for them to continue their attack. Astrid smiled and waved to the Elydonians as they cheered at the change in their fortune; although the cheer really sounded more like a roar.
The best opportunity that presented itself to Fishlegs, was in the form of an enemy clipper that had moved in behind one of the Elydonian ships. Its mid deck was packed with soldiers waiting for their chance to board while up on the bow, archers rained sharp pointy death down from above. The Elydonians shot back just as rapidly but their ship could not match the speed of the enemy and soon, several grappling hooks were attached to the starboard rail as the two ships were drawn together. Meatlug went into a sharp dive before levelling off between the two vessels; she moved so fast that the enemy archers could not get a bead on her as she buzzed by. The mighty rock munching mouth opened wide and hooked up all the ropes from the grappling hooks, pulling them out of the Elydonian ship. Fishlegs then turned Meatlug sharply to starboard, steering the enemy vessel away. A few archers attempted to fire on the dragon, but the lurching bow prevented them from taking proper aim. One did manage to pull off a lucky shot that arced in the air and came down on a sharp angle. Fortunately for Fishlegs and Meatlug it hit the leather seat of the rider's saddle, but Fishlegs posterior still came into contact with the sharp barb; this caused the young man to yelp in pain and swear a fiery revenge.
Snotlout and the twins were doing a marvellous job of hassling the bigger vessels; rigging and superstructure now blazed on most of the battleships as their crews concentrated less on attacking, and more on fighting fires. While the other young riders got on with the job of taking care of the enemy ships, Hiccup was more concerned with helping those of his allies who were in the biggest trouble. He took Toothless high up to the clouds before they both went into a sharp dive towards the sea.
"Come Bud; faster" he urged the dragon as it fell.
As the speeding pair neared the water, Hiccup changed the angle of the red leather tail and brought the dragon in, on a long sweeping arc back into horizontal flight barely two feet above the sea. The whining sound of a Night Fury at attack speed always demanded the attention of anyone nearby, but this time Toothless flew so fast that many of the sailors on the ship ahead of him had to protect their ears from the piercing noise. The dragon was displacing so much air as it flew, that a plume of salty water lifted up behind them in a massive spray. Hiccup held his breath as Toothless approached the first of the burning Elydonian ships at a shallow angle; he had to wait until the very last second if this gamble was going to pay off.
"Almost there Toothless... almost there... ... ... NOW!"
The dragon banked ever so slightly as it flashed passed the ship; departing from the stern at a similar but reversed angle from which they had approached the bow. The velocity of the great mass of sea spray, kept it moving dead forward and it hit the burning ship with an almighty crash causing the vessel to lurch back; great clouds of steam billowed out in every direction, as almost every part of the wild blaze was immediately doused.
"Oh YES!" declared the ship's Captain declared through gritted teeth as his crew continued to fight the few small spot fires that were left.
"Okay Toothless" Hiccup began breathing again "Let's see if we can pull that off a couple more times."
Hi all. The title of this chapter came from the John Masefield poem 'Sea Fever' as altered (butchered) by the late, great Spike Milligan. I went onto YouTube to see if any episodes of the programme 'Muses with Milligan' were there, and found something called 'Spike Milligan deals with a gatecrasher on live TV'. It was so funny, I wet myself; check it out (along with 'Spike Milligan – Grovelling Bastard where he bags Prince Charles; only Spike could get away with that).