The day seemed to pass so much more slowly, Hiccup, Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout, Ruffnut and Tuffnut seemed to be in deep shock at having to watch what Brock did to his grandchildren, in fact the only person who was fine was Stoick, and he had spent the past half an hour explaining why the children were killed in the first place. Something about it preventing the man who attacks the village from ruining anymore lives. However, now everyone was sitting outside of Caverna's home, listening to the sobbing that came from her sister. It felt like forever until the door opened and everyone stood up and Caverna walked out, sliding her jacket back on and fastening it, though she stopped just before she stood on Snotlout.
"How is she?" Astrid asked.
"Eleanor's going to be okay, she cried herself to sleep on my lap." Caverna told her, and she looked emotionless but in a scary way.
"And how are you doing?" Fishlegs asked her.
"I'll be fine." She told him. "But thank you for thinking of me, no one else in this village does." She told him.
"Why?"
"Because I'm not my brother, I'm his twin but I'm a girl, barren at the least and unable to marry at the most." She shrugged.
"Why is that?" Astrid asked.
"Well duh Astrid, producing an heir to the family is the whole thing about marriage." Snotlout told her with a roll of his eyes.
"Unfortunately, he's right, but marriage isn't exactly on my list of priorities." Caverna told her. "Now come on, we have a village council meeting to go to."
The group of teens all walked down into the village, as Caverna strapped her swords to her belt and them son met up with a man.
"Garforth, I need you to make notes of the number of supplies that we have left, we need to know what situation we are going to be in for this winter." Caverna told him.
"Yes Caverna, I'll get right on it." The man nodded, walking away to what only could be known as the food store house.
When they eventually came to the Great Hall, Caverna pushed the doors open to reveal a hall that looked almost like the one back on Berk, but with a lot less people inside. That was when they noticed that the dragons had also joined the meeting. With Toothless sat beside Stoick and Snowcap and Stormfly sitting with them. Stoick was trying to calm everyone down since they were all talking at once, while Eridor simply sat in a high backed chair watching the commotion. Caverna raised an eyebrow as she watched everyone, before she simply moved to stand on top of the long table that everyone was gathered around, and she walked towards the head of it, her hands behind her back and her head held high, and she walked with purpose, but also so the only sound was her tap of her footsteps against the hard wood of the table. As she walked along the table, everyone stopped talking and looked at her, in silence.
"Is this how you treat a chief?" Caverna asked them. "The people of Crendor do not act like impatient animals in front of a guest." She warned them as she got onto the head f the table and she got back onto the stone flooring of the Great Hall.
"He isn't our chief." One man shouted.
"In fact, our chief is too busy living in his own world to help his people." A woman seconded.
"That's enough; we don't need my father to run this village whilst my brother and I can do it." Caverna told them, just as the door opened and the man that she had spoken to earlier walked in. "Ah, Garforth, what is the situation regarding our food stores?" She asked.
"We have a small problem; we only have enough meat to be rationed for the next few weeks." Garforth told her.
"That is no way enough to survive the winter." A man spoke up.
"We are going to starve!" A woman shrieked.
"Now everyone, calm down!" Caverna shouted, before she looked over at Snowcap and gave her a nod, covering her ears as Snowcap gave off a loud roar which stopped everyone in their tracks. "Thank you, now everyone, please stop panicking, that just means that we will live off of yak milk and eggs for the winter and use the meat sparingly." Caverna told them.
"Then that means you also have to cut back Caverna." Another man shouted.
"Hey, we all know what happens if she doesn't get the right amount of meat that she needs, is that what you all want, for our best warrior and shield maiden to succumb to a dangerous illness and be unable to defend us?" The man known as Garforth spoke up. This caused the people gathered to murmur amongst them, before they all agreed that they should speak no more on the matter.
When the townspeople went back outside, Caverna was grabbed by her brother, who pulled her aside.
"When were you going to tell them that you have stopped eating, in order to save this town?"
"When it is relevant, as of now, it isn't." She told him, shaking her arm free. "I'm fine Eridor, not like anyone in this village would care if I suddenly didn't get back up."
Eridor didn't say anything to disprove his sister's words, and they joined the other teens that were stood at the table. Fishlegs looked at Caverna as he leant against the table, she looked ill and no one had noticed.
"Caverna, are you alright?" He asked.
"I'm fine Fishlegs." She told him, straightening up her posture as everyone else began to notice, and she walked over to her dragon who was watching her intently.
Snowcap watched Caverna, and she noticed how Fishlegs looked at her rider, so she gave off a growl, which got him to back off.
"Easy, girl." Caverna told her, stroking her scales, before she looked back at the others, though as she was about to speak, the room suddenly jolted and everyone fell to the floor, though they were all helped to their feet by their dragons.
"Uh, what was that?" Ruffnut asked.
"He's here." Caverna told them, and she moved to pull her hood up and fasten her mask over her mouth and nose. "You don't have to help, but if you want to and can, it would be very much appreciated." She got onto her dragon's back, just as her brother got onto Lightning's back.
As they were about to leave, Hiccup and Astrid joined their side on their dragon, and Fishlegs done the same, as did Stoick, in fact the only person left behind was Snotlout who seemed determined not to help. Snowcap looked at Toothless and she gave him a small toothless smile, just as Caverna looked back at her friends who had joined them and she smiled behind her mask, before the doors were blown open the dragons flew out and Caverna and Eridor joined the fight, just as Hiccup and his friends did.
The fight was horrendous, and Hiccup and his friends were all finding it hard to keep up the fight, and a few times, Eridor and Caverna helped them in order to stop them from getting killed by the intruders of the village. However, things became harder, when Hiccup and Caverna noticed who Astrid was fighting, and it was the man who had first started the whole attack on the village in the first place. This seriously worried Hiccup, and when he saw Astrid hit the floor, he grew worried.
"Astrid!"
Caverna turned around to see what had happened and she ran towards her friend, finding them near the edge of the cliff which held nothing below it but the ocean and rocks, and she suddenly tackled the man to the floor, and the two got into a punch up, as Astrid got up. At seeing the fight between Caverna and the man, the other fights stopped and they watched what was happening, Astrid managed to get up and she ran over to Hiccup as he joined them, sliding her arms around him, before they both watched the fight. Caverna was getting the upper hand, before the man suddenly delivered a swift punch to her jaw, and this caused her to hit the floor, spitting out blood, before Snowcap suddenly pounced on the man, before he threw her off and almost over the edge of the cliff, yet she managed to hold on, and she dodged his attacks with his axe as Caverna got herself up, and she picked up her own swords, just as the man delivered a blow to Snowcap's shoulder, causing her to cry out in pain and as he was about to strike her again, Toothless tried to intervene, a monstrous nightmare, suddenly tackled him and they started to fight as the nightmare stopped Toothless from getting closer. However, despite Toothless not being able to help, Caverna could, and before he could strike her dragon again, she lunged at him, and grabbed the axe straight out of his hand and she slid along the floor into her dragon, holding the axe close to herself.
"Come no Caverna, give me back my axe and I will make this painless for you." The man told her.
"I don't think so." She told him, standing up, holding his axe tightly. "I refuse to let you hurt anyone else."
The man laughed. "You think that you have the ability to stop me?" He asked through his laughter. "Caverna, you can't do anything to me, you're just a girl."
"I'm not just a girl, I'm a shield maiden." She told him. "I challenge you to a final battle, here, tomorrow night. The winner gets to rule the village, the loser is dead."
"I accept your challenge, upon one condition, no weapons, no armour, which means you little leather ensemble, can't be worn." He gestures to what she was wearing.
"I accept your condition, now leave this village." She told him.
The man gave her a mocking bow, before he called hi dragon and it left Toothless alone, to run to Snowcap and nuzzle her, and he flew off, taking his axe with him. Caverna watched him go, her eyes like steel, and her body stiff and bleeding, yet she didn't notice nor did she notice the look the villagers gave her. It was one to show that she was going to be in trouble after this, but at that moment she didn't care.