Stoick took a deep breath and glanced back at the house where his son was wounded.
"Okay ... Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and Ruffnut and Tuffnut, I want two dragons patrolling the island at all times. If you see anything suspicious like raiding parties, pirates, or dragons, you will not engage them but you head back here to warn us. Gobber get all the other blind villagers to the Great Hall and have everyone not manning a catapult tending to them. Freya ... I want you to come up with a strategy we can use against this thing. Any method for defense or attack will do." Stoick commanded.
"Chief we should be hunting those two down." Astrid complained.
"I can't leave Berk undefended to any raiding party or pirate that realizes that half our village is blind." Stoick justified.
"Hiccup, your son, is laying wounded in your house and you want to just let the person who put him there escape?" Astrid contested.
I jumped in to the argument "Astrid what are you going to do when you find it? We don't even know what happened when Toothless shot at it. Even that wasn't enough to break through it's armor. Also who is going to defend Berk if it finds a way around you and comes here? Who is going to defend Hiccup while he's wounded?" I reasoned. Astrid immediately withdrew from her argumentative attitude as she thought about Hiccup.
"We will take the first patrol Astrid." said Ruff signaling her brother to come with her. Then the white void flashed oddly and I instinctively pushed my hands out in front of me as a defense.
I hit something then heard the voice of Tuff "Hey! What gives.".
"Wait, do that again." I requested.
"Do what? Walking? Okay I'm good at walking." Tuff said.
"Ya walk in front of me." I said seconds later the void flashed again and I awkwardly shot out my hands and hit Tuffnut.
"Oh yeah. Nothing like a good shoving into the dirt!" Tuff exclaimed.
"I could see that!" I said excitedly as I moved forward to lend a hand to Tuffnut. Unfortunately my vision wasn't restored to the point where I could see details of were Tuff was laying on the ground so I tripped over his foot and landed on top of him.
"That hurt though." wheezed Tuff from underneath me.
"Alright, don't go running until you can walk." exclaimed Gobber helping me up off of Tuffnut. "Maybe it's best if you stay in my shop while you are getting your sight back." Gobber suggested and I nodded in agreement.
"Wait, Stoick do you have the arrow Hiccup was shot with. It may help understanding where this person is from." I asked in the direction I thought he was in.
Stoick's voice came from my left and said "Here be careful with it, Gothi said it had some kind of poison on it and there may be some left.". The shaft of the arrow was placed in my hand.
"Fishlegs if your not on patrol I could use your eyes analyzing this arrow." I stated grabbing a hold of Starfire's saddle.
"Well who is going to join us on the first patrol." Ruffnut asked. Snotlout looked like he was going to complain and volunteer Astrid for it but one look at her, and he volunteered himself and they took off. Starfire guided me back to the forge were I palmed around to find my seat. Gobber and Stoick had left to corral all the blinded villagers to the Great Hall and inform them, thanks to Tuffnut's willingness to be a human target, that the blindness would soon wear off.
"So ... describe the arrow Fishlegs." I commanded to the boy moving the arrow slightly towards him as I didn't know his exact position and I didn't want to skewer him with the arrow.
Seconds later I felt the arrow leave my hand and Fishlegs spoke up "Well there is nothing really usual about this arrow. The shaft has been painted black so that it's less likely to be seen at night. The feather is an eagle's. That rider obviously put some time into fletching this arrow and so I would assume that he would have specifically chosen this type of arrow to ... use.".
"What do you mean this type? It's definitely high quality but that's not surprising. After all he rides an Alpha and has full plate armor. I wouldn't expect his quiver to be full of uncocked wooden arrows." I retorted.
"No but the head is what sets it apart. It has three snake fangs attached to a small bladder of some kind. When the arrow hit ... um ... it's target the shaft presses against the bladder and forces the liquid out through the fangs. It was made specifically for injecting a large amount of poison." Fishlegs added.
"What! hand it back to me." I said in disbelief. When Stoick said that there was some poison on it I thought he just meant a normal arrow was tipped in poison. However, as I ran my fingers down the shaft of the arrow I eventually got to the bladder and the three fangs Fishlegs was talking about.
"This doesn't make any sense. This feels well crafted and to get enough poison to fill this arrow would be much harder than just forging a metal arrow head. It looks like it was specially designed to not cause much physical harm to the target but why would someone care about that if they are just going to inject them with poison anyways?" I asked to get no response from Fishlegs. Me and Fishlegs spent a while pondering on this when I proposed "Maybe he wasn't trying to kill Hiccup.".
Fishlegs pondered on that thought for a while before he said "That would explain why the rider wanted to take Hiccup's body after he shot him. Maybe what Hiccup got shot with was some kind of sleeping serum. It would make sense that would be his fall back 'Kidnap and interrogate the enemy' plan after we attacked them.". Suddenly Astrid's voice came out of the white void and I realized why Fishlegs had been choosey with his earlier words.
"Hold on that thing attacked us when it made all of our torches explode. It roared at us for no reason and caused that ... somehow." Astrid said.
I thought back to the roar and contemplated it before saying "I don't think it was roaring. If your remember back to Dragon Island we heard those sound when we were well away from it. The other dragons couldn't have agitated it because it's an Alpha. It would have just commanded them to leave it alone. I think that's not a roar but just a part of it's breathing.". At this point I could tell Gobber walked in because there was some noises as someone clambered though the front door of the shop.
"Bloody vikings turn into big ugly babies when they are temporarily blinded. Half of them needed to be carried to the Great Hall." Gobber said in frustration. He then started working on a few weapons to calm himself down and we continued our conversation.
"I don't think a dragons breath could do that. Even if it was breathing explosive gas it should have had a completely different effect than what happened." Astrid commented.
As Gobber pumped the bellows of the forge Fishlegs spoke up "Wait Gobber keep doing that.". Gobber wasn't about to give in to the commands of Fishlegs but he was planning to continue on the bellows for some time so he continued anyways.
"Maybe it's doing the same thing to all the torches as Gobber's doing with the forge. Whatever part of pumping air into a fire that makes it hotter must be what the Alpha has in it's breath.".
Astrid contemplated that for a while and said "I guess ... that could explain it.".
"That also gives us one of it's weaknesses to exploit. If we shoot at it just after it breathes, our shots will be so much more effective." I added.
"How do we protect ourself from the blinding flash though?" Fishlegs asked.
"Easy just don't look at it." Astrid stated.
"That's going to do us no better than being blinded anyways. Before it flashed it wasn't shining at all. We could use that as our warning to look away." I informed. Several hours passed and my sight gradually began to return. I could now see outlines of things and I could move around by myself if I moved very slowly. Stoick had returned to his house to check on Hiccup and the three of us not on patrol and Gobber were now sitting on the steps leading to his house.
Stoick came out and Astrid asked "How is he?".
Stoick took a long breath and said "Better. His breathing is calm now and the wound is sealed. He is still asleep and Gothi's burning some herbs to wake him up.". He then looked down at Astrid and softly said "He will get through this. It's not best for anyone else to breathe in that smoke.". Astrid lowered her head and sat back down on the steps. The twins and Snotlout soon landed on their dragons.
"Chief we have a problem" Snotlout stated.
"There are around 30 raider ships coming towards Berk from the North." Ruffnut stated.
"Ya and their all armed up to the ... um ... eyebrows. I mean they ... uh ... got many arms, and not arms like the two arms we each have, well most of us, sorry Gobber, although they have plenty of those types of arms too..." Tuffnut stammered until his sister shoved him away.
Ruffnut concluded "They are headed this way!".
Stoick was quick to spring into action and he commanded "Get saddled with those rock nets and thin them out before they get here.".
"Uh there is a problem with that plan chief." Fishlegs said as he pointed to the sky. It was overcast with a layer of clouds and we couldn't aim without our shadows.
Stoick scowled at the clouds and proposed "Dam! Okay you will have to just do your best without ...". Stoick became silent as he heard noise from inside his house. He went back to the door to enter but Hiccup opened it in front of him.
"HICCUP!" Astrid exclaimed in joy as she got up and ran past Stoick to embrace him. With Astrid squeezing his chest and Toothless coming up behind him and nuzzling every part of Hiccup that Astrid wasn't blocking, Hiccup asked "Hey guys ... what happened ... while I was out?".
Stoick quickly updated him on the recent events, mainly my blinding and the raiders, before he condescended "Hiccup you should still be in bed".
"There is no way I'm headed back to bed after you just told be we could be attacked by raiders today. I need to get to Outcast Island." Hiccup informed us and Stoick put on a look that indicated that he thought his son was crazy.
"Hiccup your not alright ..." Stoick begun but Hiccup cut him off.
"I'm not delusional dad we need the get there fast for three reasons. One, to warn them about the Alpha. Two, if the Outcast's see that it's got a rider and we haven't explained that he is not one of ours, they are going to think Berk is attacking them and our alliance will be over. Three, we are going to need reinforcements if we are going to take on those 30 raiding ships." Hiccup explained.
"I can't leave Berk without dragon riders if that Alpha comes back." Stoick said.
"That's why I'm going to go alone. Toothless is a Nightfury so we should make it there and back faster if we are alone." Hiccup exclaimed and everyone else gave simultaneous noises of disapproval.
Astrid dictated "You are not going anywhere without me.".
Hiccup started to refute "But Ast ..." before Astrid cut him off.
"HICCUP! You are lucky I'm agreeing to let you out of your house after you were shot in the chest. The one thing you are not doing is flying to Outcast Island alone. Nadder's are the second fastest next to Nightfury's so we will still be flying plenty fast enough." Astrid commanded.
"I'll go too" I stated getting onto the back of Starfire "Three dragons here to defend and three to leave.".
"Freya you can't fly blind." Hiccup stated.
"No Starfire can't fly blind and she has already recovered. I can't believe I'm arguing with a boy who has been unconscious for hours over who is more fit to fly." I argued.
"Freya if we get into a confrontation you will need to be able to see." Hiccup reasoned.
"My vision has been coming back steadily for hours. By the time we get there it will be back completely. Not to mention I am the only one with experience in avoiding that Alpha." I lied getting very frustrated. I knew it would take several more hours to get my full sight back but how much of it did I really need to escort Hiccup?
"No Fre ..." Hiccup started before I cut him off.
"For the love of the Gods Hiccup, I am going with you wether you like it or not. I didn't want to play this card but seeing as I am the only one to ever receive a promotion and you haven't specified ranks I say that I outrank you. Now shut up and make a heading towards Outcast Island before I ground you for insubordinate behavior and fly there myself!" I yelled and everyone was silent.
Snotlout tried to whisper to Tuffnut but I heard him say "Wow. If she is going to be running the classes from now on, are you in for a coup?". I shot him a glare and I could hear him whimpering under my gaze.
"Alright ... lets go to Outcast Island." Astrid said very uneasily and Hiccup just nodded in shock. With that settled we took off and kept a fast pace towards Outcast Island.
Author's Note: Hi guys i've got bad news. No don't worry I'm NOT canceling the story but the reason it took me so long to update this chapter is because i've had a bad cold and couldn't write. I doubt you guys would would find my feverish writing good anyways. Anyways, I finished up this chapter to tell you readers that I don't know how long I will be sick for, so expect a long wait for future chapters. However frustrating that is to hear imagine me having the next three chapters all planned out and not having the strength to write them. It's infuriating.
PS: I have labeled all the previous chapters with single words but out of this feverish stupor I think I came up with the best chapter name ever for a few chapters down the road. Only one problem. It's two words. Do you guys care or would that trigger some OCD and tick you off?