"Wait, what do you mean 'gone'?" said Fishlegs, completely baffled. Astrid wasn't surprised he wasn't accepting the assumption. Fishlegs was a boy of facts and logic. They had little to draw that conclusion. But Astrid knew in her gut that Hiccup was far away by now. "He couldn't still be on the island?"
"Unless they're keeping him somewhere secluded here, but that's unlikely," she explained, arms folded over her chest. It wasn't easy for her either, but the words leaving her mouth were still true. They'd regrouped where they'd landed, reporting what she and Heather had found. "It's not an outpost built to keep dragons. The dragons we were supposed to free would've been kept in these cages, not built-in cells. They wouldn't keep a prisoner as valuable as Hiccup here for this long. They took him somewhere else. My gut tells me they shipped him off as soon as they captured him. He could be as far as Viggo's base by now."
Astrid hated the weight her words bared and how heavy it was to accept the reality of their situation. She noticed the expressions of her friends. Was being optimistic useful after all? Hope was not a strategy, Astrid knew that. But without hope, she knew she'd be the first to fall from the sky and charge Viggo Grimborn's forces. Without hope, she was reckless. She lost all sense of battle tactics and became living chaos. She wouldn't let herself be led to that. Not this soon. She was afraid, yes. She didn't know what she would do if this went south - if the worst happened. She shook her head, taking hold of reality before the plummeted back down into the spiral of dread. She refused to give in to the pessimist thoughts her demons fabricated of her fear.
"Okay..." said Ruffnut, hesitantly. "How do we find him now?" They kept pushing. They weren't halfway to giving up just yet.
"Yeah," agreed Snotlout, taking a step forward, arms wide. "He could be anywhere. Do you know how many outposts Viggo has?"
"A lot?" said Ruffnut.
"Correct," said Snotlout, returning his attention to Astrid. "Are we really gonna spread out and search every single one of them?"
"If we have to, yes," answered Astrid, a claw of anger closing on her heart despite understanding that Snotlout's reasoning was based. It wasn't laziness, Astrid knew that. It was a matter of time.
"We won't have time to," said Heather, settling the slowly rising tension. "Astrid, Viggo's base is too far away. They wouldn't bring him there directly. Despite the possibility, it's a very tight time frame. They'd still be out at sea and we all know Viggo. He wouldn't give us such an easy mission. The Hunters will have deployed a decoy as bait, easy to bite. My best guess is he's berthed by now."
"How can you be so sure?" asked Astrid, trying to understand how Heather could be so certain.
"I was a spy for a while, remember?" said Heather, grinning. "They're hoping we scour the seas and intercept ships. That would be the logical thing to do, right? However, that's exactly what we won't do."
"You're suggesting they took him to an island nearby?" said Astrid, trying to keep up with her logic.
"Possibly the closest one," said Heather.
"Which means he might be approximately just a few hour's flight from here." Astrid's face lit up. Hope.
A fearsome mask slid over her face.
"But... There are more than a few islands around..." said Fishlegs, uncertain about this. "How do we know which one's the right one?"
Their theory was based on Heather's studies of Viggo's algorithm. His pattern of past strategies was the only thing they could base themselves on. But in Astrid's opinion, it was a better shot than flying around aggressively intercepting Hunter shipments.
Astrid didn't answer and neither did Heather. They did have multiple islands on the table. How to know which one Hiccup was on? Without a word, she started in the direction of the cliff where the bit of forest ended. She stood at the edge of the woods, overlooking the lower levels of the craggy isle. The sea stretched up ahead. Even better, she had an overview of the docks where, strangely, Hunter ships were departing.
"They're leaving," noted Fishlegs perplexedly.
"Fishlegs, do you have your notebook?" asked Astrid, her voice soft.
Fishlegs pulled his journal from his belt. Astrid had never seen him go anywhere without it. She always saw him scribbling away, whether it be noting observations, sketches, ideas... She took it from his hand and flipped the pages over, searching for a map of this section of the Archipelago. If there was one person she could trust to map everything other than Hiccup, it was Fishlegs. She landed on scribbles of islets with their names indicated. She planted her fingertip on the one they stood, analyzing the others islands surrounding them. Most of them all served as Hunter outposts. Heather could be more than right about this. She lifted her gaze to the horizon, watching the ships sailing away in different directions. She traced her finger over the paper, calculating which island each vessel seemed headed for. Her finger traced back and forth. Astrid raised her eyes from the pages, finger planted on a lonely islet. The only one no ship was sailing in the direction of...
Because it had already set sail long before they arrived.
"So what's our next move?" asked Tuffnut, his concern genuine.
Astrid turned around, Viggo's scheming coming clear to mind.
"We follow the Hunter back to its den."
...
The bright light of day was a method of torture Hiccup hadn't known existed until now. It was the first time he saw daylight since the sun had set before he and the Dragon Rider had departed on the mission that had gone so wrong. When he came around again, he'd found himself inside a prison cell below the deck of a sailing ship. He hadn't known how long it had been since the events that had led him to this moment. He hated to admit that he also didn't remember the entirety of it... The wounds that covered him from head to toe had been tended to and bandaged up. He'd been scratched up badly, but he hadn't realized how bad until a medic had tended to his injuries. He had a bad gash to his abdomen and a stab wound to his left tight. It seemed that while he wasn't aware of them, he couldn't feel them. But now he felt like he was being torn apart with every movement.
Hiccup looked up ahead, forcing defiance to his gaze despite the pain shaping his expression into a grimace. Viggo walked ahead of him while two guards escorted him, holding him unnecessarily tightly by his upper arms. His wrists were bound with steel cuffs. He'd lost his armour and shirt at some point and had been thrown a black tunic across the bars of his cell when the medic had been told he'd done enough.
"We don't want him back to full health too soon," had said Viggo, gazing down at him with a sneer. "Prisoners are easier to handle when they're past trying to kill their captors and more concerned with their own survival."
Hiccup was a captive. He was prey, caught in a net. Viggo had experience hunting dragons, caging them, and killing them. Hiccup wondered if Viggo saw him as human or as nothing more than a creature he'd shot down and captured. He'd wondered what sick delusions had played in his mind when he stood in the corner while his medic was patching him up.
Now he was out of that cell, but Hiccup had no doubt another awaited him. They walked across the deck and down the gangway, meeting the rock-steady ground of an island Hiccup wasn't entirely familiar with. He immediately recognized Ryker's imposing form as Viggo walked up to him. There was no mistaking the displeased look on the commander's face as he addressed his brother.
"Where are the rest of them?" he asked in a half-growl.
Viggo smiled, turning halfway around to glance at his catch. Hiccup's scowl spoke a thousand words.
"They'll be here," assured Viggo, all too confident. He glanced past the Rider and at the open sea. He knew how Hiccup's friends would think, how they'd juggle with the what-ifs and the records of their past battles. He knew they would think they'd outsmarted him. They were part of the play while he stood by, a spectator to the show. He smiled. "We'll intercept them as soon as they engage."
"And when will that be?" asked Ryker, aware of his brother's plan without entirely understanding it.
"Soon enough," replied Viggo, joining his hands to his back. "They're already headed our way."