He coughed a few times and the rider picked him up and sat him on a stump near the cliff.
"Well I've got to say ... I'm not a fan of those venom arrows you use but I'm glad you didn't use normal arrows. Do you have any water?" Hiccup said as he was sat on the stump.
"Why should I give you water?" the rider asked with the anger I gave him still in his voice.
"Well we are alive because you either want us to do something or want us to talk. Either one isn't going to go down as smoothly as it could if I'm parched." Hiccup reasoned.
The rider nodded and then got up and retrieved a water-skin from the bace of his dragons neck. He held it to Hiccups lips and let him have some water to drink.
After he was done with the water Hiccup said "Thank you. I'm sorry we couldn't do this earlier today you know ... before the catapults and you blinding everyone and setting Berk on fire.".
The rider seethed through his teeth "Apology accepted.".
Hiccup looked confused for a second and started to look around. He saw that I was awake and watching their conversation.
"Ah, so that's why you are upset. You met Freya. I'm not surprised, she can get under my skin on a normal day and I didn't bash her dragon around with my boot on her throat." Hiccup commented.
I tried to respond to his comment but I forgot I was gagged and what came out was a muffled version of "Why haven't you ever told me I get under your skin?".
Hiccup then informed me "Don't worry I saw Starfire before I lost consciousness. She is alright.".
"Freya was fine until I started questioning her." the rider admitted.
Hiccup gave out a laugh and said "Why would you question her? She didn't tell you about her 'condition' did she?".
"No" the rider said plainly, all his previous anger gone.
"She only came to Berk a few weeks ago. She was lost at sea and when she woke up she couldn't remember anything about her life. She doesn't know anything about Berk apart from what has happened in the last few weeks and what she has picked up in stories." Hiccup stated freely.
I made a grunt of disapproval at how open Hiccup was being with this rider. What was he doing? That was the only thing that allowed me to make him angry before and now I am powerless.
There was the somewhat disturbing sound of the rider laughing now. "I thought I was going insane. I was convinced that no one could possibly be telling the truth when I asked 'Who are you?' and they answer 'I don't know'!" he chuckled. Hiccup smiled along with him. Had Hiccup gone insane?
When his laughter subsided Hiccup asked "So should we get started with ... why you brought us here?".
"Right, I'm going to ask you some questions and when you answer I want you to look me right in the eyes. If you are lying I will know so don't ..." the rider started the same speech he gave me before when Hiccup interrupted him.
"Wait we haven't met right?" Hiccup asked.
"No" the rider stated confused.
"So why don't we start with introductions. My name is Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III. That's The fearless Astrid Hofferson ... who is ... still unconscious in a tree ... great ... and you already met Freya the Forgetful." Hiccup said implying for the rider to give his name.
"This is an interrogation. Where you give me an answer and I listen not a ... a ..." the rider said and Hiccup finished his sentence.
"A peace talk or a treaty signing. I see no reason why it can't be. I'd bet 'this' would even run smoother if we all thought of this as a peace talk." Hiccup said. Now I felt stupid. Hiccup was trying to make him an ally and all I had done was make him angry.
"I'm not ..." the rider started stunned by Hiccups brashness.
"If you just gave your name like it is customary to we could already be onto the next question. Now you don't have to start with your name, you could give us your dragons instead." encouraged Hiccup.
The rider sighed in annoyance and stared at Hiccup. A noise interrupted his stare as Astrid was regaining consciousness. She looked around and noticed the gag in her mouth. She began mumbling into the cloth loudly. It must have been annoying the rider because he walked over to her an took it out of her mouth.
"... TROLL. I'M GONNA RIP YOU AND YOUR HELL-SPAWNED DRAGON IN HALF. YOU ..." Astrid yelled but then the rider put the cloth up to her mouth again.
Hiccup started talking to calm her down "Astrid do you mind? We are in the middle of a negotiation here.".
"This is not a negotiation." the rider countered and turned back to Astrid. She was glaring at him but was not screaming anymore. He pulled the cloth off of her mouth and asked "Can you be quite on your own or do I need to put the gag back in?". Her glare intensified but she did not speak. "Good" he said and he walked back over to Hiccup and sat on the stump opposite him. "Do you people not understand what it means to be captured?" the rider asked with frustration evident in his voice.
"Sure we do. It's just happened to us so many times we make the most of it." Hiccup answered. "Listen I have already told you how to smooth this along so proceed as you want." Hiccup said.
"You really want to know my name?" the rider asked defeatedly. Hiccup nodded excitedly. "Fine I am The Arbiter. Right hand of the Emperor and the ultimate authority in all conflicts or threats towards the empire. My dragon is Helios." the rider explained. Hiccup was silent for a moment taking in what he just heard.
"We ... are honored ... to meet a representative of the empire and ..." Hiccup started but was quickly cut off by Arbiter.
"I told you not to lie. I know that this part of the world doesn't favor the empire." Arbiter scolded.
"And I wanted your name. Correct me if I am wrong but Arbiter would be your title would it not." Hiccup said, worry evident in his voice.
"I am not some mercenary who dose his job for money so I can live in comfort. I am a servant of the empire. I complete the task trusted to me and when it is done I find another. There is no other identity for me other than The Arbiter." Arbiter spoke with a chilling conviction.
It was silent in the clearing until Arbiter sat on his stump and asked Hiccup "Now how did your kind start to ride dragons?".
The Arbiter roughly grabbed Hiccups chin and turned Hiccups head to face him before he answered "Well it is a long story the short version is after we killed the alpha dragon, what we called the Red Death, the dragons were released from it's control. They were raiding us to feed it so when they didn't need to raid us anymore we didn't have a conflict and we became allies.".
"Hiccup what are you doing?" Astrid asked, bewildered by his openness.
Hiccup ignored her and asked "So I know you were holding back and using special arrows but why did you come into town like you did? I mean your dragon has a large wingspan and his breath makes fires grow larger but I don't see how you could overlook these things and think that we wouldn't take it as an attack when you hovered over town and caused several fires.".
The Arbiter quickly and plainly responded "My job is to assess how much of a threat you pose to the empire. I needed to see your response to different situations and exactly how powerful your militant forces are. Now what is Berks stance towards the empire?".
Astrid cut into their conversation again "That is the dumbest question i've heard anyone ask. Even if we loved the empire before this, after this is over your going to be losing allot more ships.". The Arbiter ignored her but Hiccup turned to give a disappointed look at Astrid.
"Astrid it is not nice to give threats at a peace talk." Hiccup elaborated, hoping she would get his meaning. By the look on her face she didn't and then Hiccup turned back towards the Arbiter.
"We are not ... huge fans and to be honest we really don't take too kindly to your ships in our waters. However we are happy to keep our distance if only your ships would keep theirs." Hiccup answered.
"Now we have never seen a dragon without a mouth before. How dose he eat?" Hiccup asked.
"Strange question" the Arbiter commented but then he shrugged his shoulders and answered "Helios has never needed more than air, water, and sunlight. That's one of the reasons he was accepted by the empire, because he couldn't eat anyone.". I smiled, or what passes as a smile with a gag in your mouth, at his answer. He was openly sharing more information than was necessary with Hiccup. His plan was working.
"What do you mean accepted by the empire?" Hiccup asked.
"First you owe me an answer." the Arbiter said as he pulled out Astrid's dagger and asked "How were the smiths of Berk able to produce metal of this quality?".
Hiccup paused for a moment and then answered unconvincingly "Well we ... actually didn't make those ... um ... we kind of found them ... from pirates. We don't know were they got them from though.".
"And that custom made metal shield I found on you with the Berk crest built in it was found and not smithed?" The Arbiter pointed out and Hiccup looked disappointed in himself before the Arbiter continued "I told you not to lie to me Hiccup.". Without another word the Arbiter snapped his fingers and pointed at Astrid.
The Arbiter looked at Astrid and said "You might want to close your eyes.". Helios's crest started glowing and Astrid did as she was bid. The beam enveloped Astrid and I saw the horror on Hiccups face. Astrid started making small screams of pain and I assumed her clothing was starting to smolder.
"Stop, please! I'm sorry I lied." Hiccup pleaded but when the Arbiter made no gesture to stop Hiccup continued "We call it Gronkle Iron.". The Arbiter made the signal to stop and I saw Astrid with her singed clothing still screaming in pain as small flames grew on her clothes. The Arbiter ripped the spout off of the water-skin that Hiccup had drunk from earlier and stood up.
"Go on." he said ignoring Astrid's cries of pain.
As Hiccup answered, Arbiter walked over to Astrid and poured the water on her, extinguishing her smoldering clothing and soothing her pain. "It was made from the lava of a Gronkle after having that Gronkle eat a fluke combination of ores. We created my shield and several other weapons for the town but we never figured out what the combination of ores were again." Hiccup explained desperately.
"Good" said the Arbiter walking back over to Hiccup "And to answer your question in turn, Dragons have long been culled or driven out of the empire. I wasn't born into the position of Arbiter or even as a citizen of the empire. We were inducted into the army after we were captured together about six years ago. Even though the Dragons were long gone from the empire people were still afraid of them and thats why Helios having no teeth or mouth helped us to be accepted.". Hiccup just stared at the Arbiter with a mix of anger, fear, and helplessness. I found it hard to believe how quickly the Arbiter's mood changed from a vengeful and malicious torturer to an almost friendly and forthright ally.
"So do you want to tell me which building is the armory on Berk?" the Arbiter asked as if nothing had happened. Hiccup was still in shock over what happened. "Hiccup look at me. I did that because you lied. If you don't lie again no more harm will come to you and your friends." the Arbiter stated. That was hard for me, and it look like Hiccup as well, to believe. We both thought he was making good progress. Now it seemed like whatever we did he could turn on us without a seconds notice. "Don't look so disappointed in yourself either, you changed my mind. I was thinking I would have to cull all the trained dragons and kill or capture all of Berk's trainers. Now that I've seen how ineffective your other forces are and that you want nothing more than to keep your distance from the empire I don't think I have to act. However, I can't take the chance that you will be distributing steel weapons to other tribes that might attack our forces. So I will ask you again, which building on Berk is the armory." the Arbiter asked again.
"I've seen just how quickly you can change your mind and resort to violence." Hiccup stated, venom in his voice "I will never tell you how to make us defenseless, especially not with raiders coming our way.".
"You don't have a choice Hiccup." Arbiter said and then pointed to Astrid "All I need to do is hurt her and you will cave. Spare her the pain and yourself the guilt and just tell me.".
Astrid yelled from the tree "Hiccup if you tell him anything else because of me, if we get out of this alive, I'll kill you.".
"Stubborn this one. Tell you what, I will make this fun. We already know you will do anything for her but let's see if she will do the same." Arbiter said deviously and then gagged Hiccup with Astrid's previous gag. After securing it he walked behind Hiccup and lifted him to his feet.
"What are you doing? Stop! He cooperated with you." Astrid screamed from the tree.
"It's your turn now. You already know the question." Arbiter said from the edge of the cliff he had marched Hiccup to. Astrid was silent in shock and fear as she watched the Arbiter pull out her dagger. Suddenly he pushed Hiccup and grabbed his binds. Now Arbiter was the only thing that was stoping Hiccup from falling over the edge. He then moved the dagger to the binds and switched his hands so that Hiccup was only supported by the flat of Astrid's dagger.
"Please don't do this." Astrid pleaded.
"You should know how sharp your dagger is so you know just how much time you have to answer." Arbiter said flipping the dagger so that the edge of it rested on Hiccups binds.
Astrid was in shock for a few seconds but then answered "The armory is the large building on the road just below the town center.". I knew that was a lie as that was the fish storehouse but I didn't show it on my face incase Arbiter looked to me for confirmation.
"Astrid, why do I have the feeling that you are lying to me." Arbiter said when a sizable cut was made into Hiccups binds.
Astrid retorted, her voice cracking with emotion "I wasn't ... I didn't ... please just let him go.". The Arbiter was silent as he waited for the real answer from Astrid. While he waited another sizable cut was made into Hiccups binds and it wouldn't be long before they broke. "Ok the armory is on the same level as the town center. It is the large building closest to the Blacksmith. Now stop this, please!" Astrid informed almost in tears.
"You lied to me before. How can I trust that you are telling the truth now?" Arbiter said skeptically.
"PLEASE! Please. I ... I'm telling you the truth." Astrid begged. "Ask Freya, she has been with us long enough that she knows where the armory is. Ask Hiccup." Astrid pleaded, trying desperately to get the Arbiter to know she was telling the truth.
"I can't ask Hiccup anything anymore." Arbiter said chillingly. Without another word Hiccup's binds broke.
All I could hear was Astrid screaming Hiccup's name as he disappeared over the cliffs edge.