Chapter 8: Meeting Drago

In the middle of the day, Astrid and the rest of the Dragon Riders stealthily approach a cluster of tabular icebergs, collapsing against each other at the mouth of a maze. Stormfly drops Eret to the snow, but before he can flee, she lands atop him and nests like a hen with her egg.

"Agghh!" Eret cried out as Stormfly landed on top of him "Okay! I got you here, now get this thing off me!" he demanded.

"Never take a toy from a dragon." Astrid informs him. "Don't you know anything?" she said mockingly as Stormfly crushed him in place under her weight.

"Gah! Why does this keep happening to me?" Eret asked while straining under his breath from Stormfly's weight.

Astrid and the others crawl up the rising ridge to reveal a massive flotilla, moored together like a floating camp in the deep water between colliding icebergs. The others looked in shock at how many ships there are and how many people there are.

"Wow, that's a lot of Drago's men down there." Dagur said in surprise.

"Gotta hand it to him, that guy really knows how to make camp in the water." Raeda said he was a little impressed on how well Drago made his base of operation.

"No kidding, way more than what the Dragon Hunters used to operate." Henry added in agreement since he knows his father and the Hunters were never that organized.

Thick chains run deep into the water, where great blasts of bubbles erupt on the surface. The unseen creature rocks the ships. Its effect alone describes it as gargantuan.

"What's down there? Astrid asks curiously.

"Whatever it is, it must be big." Valerie commented on Fishlegs rifles through his note cards contained in his belt pouch.

"Large diameter bubbles, massive lungs, cold water deep dweller, I'm thinking class five leviathan, maybe six." Fishlegs informs us in trying to figure out what dragon that size is.

Suddenly, Stormfly and Sparkfire alerted an encroaching menace and took wing. Blow darts whiz through the air, hitting the other dragons. The effect is immediate - they fall to the ground, unconscious. Drugged.

"Meatlug! What's wrong, girl?" Fishlegs said in worried for his dragon.

"Camo!" Valerie yelled in panic.

Eret quickly got to his feet and drew his blades. Astrid and the Riders find themselves surrounded by soldiers, camouflaged in polar bear furs, and poised to fire darts. They're outnumbered. Fishlegs raises his hands, dropping the cards.

"Aw nuts." Dagur griped.

(Linebreak)

Moments later on deck of the flagship, Drago Bludvist, a large man draped in a dragon skin cloak, crouches over the prow of the fleet's grisly flagship, adorned in massive dragon bones and skulls. His scarred face is masked by thick, grizzled dreadlocks.

"DRAGO!" Eret called out to his boss as Drago turned to see Eret, Astrid and the rest of the Riders being forcibly escorted onto the deck. Eret shakes himself free. "Get off me!" He demanded to Drago's men as they restrained him.

A sledge comes in next to them, two sledges, loaded with Hookfang, Meatlug, Belch and Barf, Camo, Wildstar, Scout, Lockjaw, Sandstorm, Sandtrapper, Sleuther and Camo - all unconscious - is dragged onto the deck by armored dragons.

"Always great to see you, my friend! Keeping warm up here?" Eret asked as a soldier disarmed him, pushing him forward as Drago approached. Eret is now afraid, "Well, as you can see, I'm right on time with a new batch of dragons, just like I promise." he gestured to the dragon rider's dragons next to them.

Hookfang awakens, groggily shaking off the effect of the blow-dart. He rears as soldiers struggle to reign him in. 'Get off of me!' He yelled in dragonesse as he tried to get the ropes off him and his comrades.

"Watch out! He's waking up! Keep him steady!" One of the soldiers yelled out.

"Give me some help here!" Another called out as the two soldiers tried to keep Hookfang down.

Drago walked calmly and smirked at Hookfang. "Drop the ropes." he said to his men as they did so. Hookfang bucks and roars, chasing off the soldiers, then focusing on Drago as he closes in. The armored dragons avert their eyes and cower as Drago passes.

Hookfang hisses a warning, but Drago approaches, undaunted. Hookfang blasts. In a blur, Drago wraps himself in his black dragon skin cloak. The sticky, napalm-like fire splatters against the fireproof scales, enveloping Drago in dripping flames as he persists forward without missing a step.

Henry then saw something in the cloak as he widened his eyes in shock as he turned to the others. "Guys, look at his cloak." He said as the other Riders saw Drago's cloak.

"Yeah, we know. It's blocking Hookfang's flames." Snotlout retorted while looking in shock.

"No not that!" Henry countered. "The cloak, it's black and scaled. It almost looks like…" He trailed off.

"Dragon skin." Astrid finished in shock, hating to think how Drago acquired that cloak.

"Not just any dragon skin, Astrid. That looks like…" Henry added before his eyes went wide. "Night Fury skin." He finished in horror.

The rest of the Dragon Riders were shocked and horrified by that, meaning that Drago killed a Night Fury and wore its skin like a trophy. And they were silently praying that it wasn't Toothless or Midnight's skin he was wearing.

As the blast ends, Drago drops the cloak, closing in and holding a cold stare while the Riders and even Eret look on in worry.

Hookfang then let out a ferocious roar. 'KEEP AWAY!' He bellowed.

Drago yells back with a fierce, savage scream, interrupting Hookfang and causing him to recoil in surprise. Drago whirls his bull-hook overhead and stabs it into the deck planks. Hookfang stirs, his aggression fading in the face of Drago's unflinching show of dominance.

After a moment, Hookfang averts his eyes and lowers his head in submission. 'I, I bow to you.' He chuffed in obedience as Drago places his boot on the Nightmare's snout, pressing it into the deck planks.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout cried out in worry for his dragon.

"Hey!" Ruffnut yelled in anger.

"What are you doing?" Astrid asked in shock and anger.

"You can't do that to our dragons!" Raeda shouted out in anger.

"He's not your foot rest!" Henry added in range for Drago's actions.

Drago didn't hear them as he pressed his foot harder on Hookfang. "You belong to me now." he said quietly to Hookfang who looked truly afraid, and Hookfang never was afraid of anything, except eels like all dragons.

Drago notices the saddle on Hookfang's back. His eyes wander to the saddles on the other dragons as Alarm flashes in his eyes.

Eret came in between them. "And as an added bonus, I also caught you their riders. No extra charge." Eret said, hoping Drago would be more impressed by his work.

"What?! Are you kidding me?!" Astrid asked in shock.

"Why you!" Dagur growled.

"But you were so perfect!" Ruffnut said in sadness as Raeda rolled her eyes.

"Can you just let it go already, Ruffnut!" Raeda yelled in annoyance. "It's getting on my nerves."

Eret continues. "Turns out, there's a whole bunch of them out there. They -" he was cut off when Dragon stops toward Eret and seizes him by the throat.

"How many?" Drago demanded as Eret chokes, stammering, Astrid whispers to the gang.

"Drago doesn't have them after all." Astrid whispers to them.

"Then that means they are still out there somewhere in the glaciers." Raeda pointed out in a whispering tone.

"And thankfully, that Drago's cloak isn't from Midnight or Toothless either." Henry said in relief, now knowing that his cloak isn't one of the Haddock twins' dragons, but still hates it.

"HOW MANY?!" Drago yelled at Eret in a frightened voice that brought fear in Eret's eyes.

Astrid steps in. "Hundreds! A whole island full of them!" She called out to Drago.

"Not just that, but four other islands that know how to train and fight alongside dragons." Henry added, referring to Berserker, Outcast, Defenders of the Wing and Wing Maiden Islands.

Drago responds by tightening his grip around Eret's neck as he turns to him.

Eret spoke up, "I wouldn't worry about it. My men are hunting them down as we speak. They won't know where you're hiding. I promise you that." he explains to Drago.

Astrid and Henry nod a covert signal to the Riders- They have a plan. "Oh, yes they will! They know we're missing and they have tracking dragons." Astrid calls out as Drago drops Eret, Astrid advances, staring Drago down. Eret tries to signal her to stop, but it's no use.

"And If you so much as touch us, Hiccup and Hicca are gonna KICK...!" Henry was cut off when Drago spoke to them.

"Hiccup and Hicca?" Drago asked.

"Those two are not a problem. Really. Trust me." Eret tries to reason with his boss but Astrid continues.

"They're only the children of Stoick the Vast…" Astrid stated as Drago's eyes narrowed upon hearing Stoick's name. "... Hiccup's the heir to the throne of Berk and a Tamer of Dragons and one of the two greatest dragon masters." She added.

"And Hicca's the other greatest dragon master and the greatest healer this world has ever seen!" Henry announced.

"Dragon masters?" Drago asked in anger. "I ALONE control the dragons!" Drago yelled out as the dragon riders shook their heads no.

"Nope." Tuffnut stated.

"Sorry!" Fishlegs said jokily at the war lord.

"Not even close, dude." Valerie joked as well.

"Not even close compared to Hiccup and Hicca." Raeda added with a smirk.

"Not even a teensy bit." Dagur commented as well.

Astrid continues. "And unless you let us go, right now, they will blast through here on their two Night Furies and blow your entire fleet of ships to splinters, just like they did to Krogan before!" She warns with a determined face as Eret slips away, trying to distance himself from the tension.

"And reduce your entire army to a pile of flaming corpses just like the Red Death they alone managed to slay." Henry finished with a smirk as Drago's eye widened slightly at the mention of Krogan and the Red Death.

"Then they'll be crying like babies!" Ruffnut added as Fishlegs came close to her.

"Good one, babe!" Fishlegs laughs, but Ruffnut groans, exasperated by his advances.

"Hate to say it Draggy, but when Old H and his sis come flying in, the only place you're going is down." Dagur told Drago while giving his signature laugh.

"Yeah. Like babies." Tuffnut agrees, "They always cry. Real tiny ones…" he was cut off when Drago grabs Eret by the face and bears down on him.

"First there was one rider. And now all of Berk and four other islands." Drago growled in anger and then looked at Eret. "And YOU led them and their allies to me." He said to him as he threw Eret across the deck.

"Drago." Eret pleaded as Drago stepped onto some crates.

"CEASE ALL PREPARATIONS!" Drago called out to his men."WE MUST ATTACK THE DRAGONS RIDER'S NEST AT ONCE!" he savored his words for a sec with a smirk. "WE WILL TAKE DOWN THEIR ALPHA… AND THEN WE WILL TAKE BERK!" He announced as all his soldiers cheered in thousands of them. The Riders look in shock at their plan, realizing their mistake in taunting Drago as it seemed Astrid and Henry's plan backfired.

Eret steps in to try and talk him out of it. "You're overreacting!" He yelled at his boss.

Drago pointed at Eret with a narrow eye. "And get rid of him." He ordered his men as they came close to 'take care' of Eret.

"Drago, please…" Eret pleaded with his boss for a second chance, the soldiers hurling throwing knives at Eret. But Stormfly lands in a blur of wings, shielding Eret from the flurry of blades. She whips her tail, throwing spikes in all directions.

"Stormfly!" Astrid cries out for her dragon, Stormfly roars protectively, hiding Eret behind her wings, until a well-aimed blowdart sinks into her neck, bringing her down. "No!" She called out in fear for her dragon.

Raeda looked up and saw Sparkfire on the ceiling, secretly spying on Drago's camp while Stormfly sacrificed her hiding place to save Eret. Raeda made hand signals behind her back to tell her dragon to stay hidden until she gave the signal, Sparkfire was hesitant for a bit, not wanting to leave her rider or her friends, but complied to her orders in knowing she'd end up like Stormfly, and remained hidden among the icicles.

Eret stands up out of Stormfly's wing, gawking in shock at what the dragon did for him. Having second thoughts about it.

Henry then turned to Astrid. "Here's hoping those Haddocks are still out there." He whispered.

"And that Heather and Ragnar managed to find them." Astrid replied, hoping that her boyfriend and his sister knew what they were doing.