"Zyrah!"
"Zyrah!"
Startling awake from her nap to the sound of Einar's voice, Zyrah immediately shot her arm out for her sword and hurriedly attached it to her belt, not prepared for what Einar wanted.
Blueheart warbled in a low tone out of concern, but Zyrah held her hand out, assuring the female Night Fury to remain calm.
"Stay here," she instructed firmly, closing the door of the small room behind her. Upon leaving the room, Einar stood at the end of the short hallway, leaning on the wall.
"You called for me?" The man nodded, gesturing her to follow him as they made their way above deck, passing Ragnhild, also sharing a quick nod with the teenager.
Quickly shielding her eyes from the bright sun overhead, Zyrah observed that the main deck was mostly empty, save for a few barrels and crates of supplies and tools for ship maintenance. The only thing that caught her eye was the sword resting against the main mast, still in its leather sheath.
"I know you're wondering why I've brought you up here," the man started, grabbing his sword.
"I can think of a few reasons…" Zyrah replied curtly. Einar glanced at her, his dark blue eyes glinting in the sun. The corner of his mouth twitched into a half-smile, almost like he wanted to… laugh? Was he amused by her uneasiness?
"Now, what kind of father would I be to lure my one and only child out on an empty deck to just kill her?" This earned an unamused raised eyebrow from Zyrah. What was he getting at?
"I wouldn't use the word 'father'. That said, a pretty shitty one,"
"Agreed. No. I've brought you out because I am very curious about your combat skills versus mine. Perhaps you inherited your skills from me."
"No, I didn't." Came an immediate response, "I learned from the best teachers in my village. Not all great swordsmen get it from their parents." She reached for the handle of her sword, "and… if you wanted to fight me, all you had to do was ask." Pulling her sword with a metallic ZING, she charged at Einar, keeping her blade level to her chest.
Unprepared for the sudden charge, Einar grabbed his sword, barely having enough time to pull it from the leather sheath, angling his blade down to block her initial upward swing. The blades clashed, the metal ringing in their ears. He pushed her off, also swinging up before switching hands, and aiming for her thigh. She swiftly angled the targeted leg back and around, nearly losing her balance.
Taking advantage of her unbalanced stance, bearing a nasty snarl, Einar shot his hand out, grabbing the front of Zyrah's leather tunic, gripping it tightly, and holding her up at a sharp angle. The force of his sudden grip on her led to her sword falling from her hand, and her head recoiling. His face was still stuck in his snarl, bearing his teeth, and the dark circles under his eyes appeared darker with the furrowing of his eyebrows from his deadly glare.
In that moment, Zyrah felt afraid, her steely-blue eyes wide with alarm, her heart in her throat.
Their fight ended as quickly as it started, but Zyrah did not feel proud of herself. The way her birth father's cold, dark blue eyes stared at her… into her own eyes, frightened her.
"…Let me go." She quietly requested. Suddenly expressionless, he did what she asked, and she dropped to the deck with a thud. Though, she wasn't going to yell at him for just dropping her.
He could have easily killed her at that moment, but he didn't.
"Keep your ambitions in check," he said.
Zyrah blinked out of her daydream/memory as she was called to the Clubhouse, she would not be sharing that memory with anyone for now.
"What's going on?" She inquired.
"Some of our trackers received word on Grimmel's location, we're going to stake it out and see if we can get further information on him," Astrid explained.
"Oh, seems a bit risky…?"
"It's our one shot to get the advantage on him before he inevitably shows up here." Not in the mood to argue, the riders suited up and mounted their dragon's saddles; Hiccup on Stormfly with Astrid, and Zyrah on Lightbolt with Konall. Value chose to accompany the group to help keep an eye on them and ensure they did not stray from the plan.
Using the empty dart from the trap on Berk, the riders followed Stormfly as she tracked Grimmel's scent to an old fort surrounded by ships. They arrived under the cover of darkness, aided by a shroud of fog surrounding them. The main tower was covered with sharp spikes of varying sizes, and there was a singular window emanating a prominent light. Someone was home. Yet the silence was eerie as the group landed, warning everyone to remain silent as they snuck in.
Sneaking through the rafters, the riders observed Grimmel sitting at his desk, working intently on the Deathgripper venom he was experimenting with. The sight of the violet liquid dripping into the glass container sent shivers down Zyrah's spine as she observed his working space.
He was remarkably smart for a dragon hunter, but she knew, as did everyone else, that made him exceptionally dangerous.
Suddenly, a creak set off the Deathgrippers below, and began the assault as Grimmel calmly stood from his seat, gazing up at the group stalking him. Zyrah managed to maintain her balance even as the others fell, becoming entangled in the metal net below, and Hiccup began debating Grimmel on his morals, to which Zyrah became exasperated.
"Why are you doing this?" Came Hiccup's demand. Grimmel just rolled his eyes.
"Only now you ask?"
"We wouldn't be here if we didn't want to know why." Konall snapped. Grimmel then revealed his encounters with Night Furies from his youth.
"I killed that Night Fury where it slept, and was praised as a hero in my village!" He boasted, continuing to rave about his hatred for dragons and the neverending destruction they caused, "They are vicious beasts that we need to control and destroy! If we don't, it will be the undoing of us all."
"And yet you have your own," Hiccup pointed out.
"Tch, they are my slaves. I control them with their own venom, and they do my bidding." Hiccup recalled his mother's words following the initial defeat by Drago's Bewilderbeast: "Good dragons, under the control of bad people… do bad things." And while Hiccup knew little about the Deathgrippers, he still knew that they were trapped by a madman driven by his personal delusions.
"Yet, we can see exactly what kind of harm that brings upon the innocent," Zyrah finally stepped in, swinging down the rafters, coming to the floor, and standing in front of the metal net that still kept the others trapped, "we're not here to debate our morals. We're here to finish this." She held her sword up, pointing it at Grimmel, who appeared unphased. He knew exactly who this was.
Bearing no emotion, he leaned closer to her.
"The second Night Fury dragon rider, I see." Zyrah remained composed, not caring how he knew about her. He didn't know her name.
"And? Upset that there's two of us?" She cocked an eyebrow, the tip of her sword touching Grimmel's throat, "frustrated you couldn't kill off an entire species because you felt vindicated by your ego? That's what got my father killed. And that's what will bring your end, eventually."
"Why not just kill me now then?"
"You're not worth killing. Not by me." Annoyed with the teenager's antics, Grimmel whistled, and the Deathgrippers attacked once more, this time with true intent to kill. The riders frantically scattered, searching for their escape, calling for their dragons as they fled the tower. As Zyrah, Hiccup, Astrid, and Konall made their way to the top, a distant roar sounded as the Crimson Goregutter flew at them, and destroyed the tower by flying through it. Luckily, the four of them managed to avoid being crushed to death, aided by Valka stepping in.
The flight back to the Edge was silent as the group recollected themselves, adrenaline still surging from the genuine panic that the Deathgrippers almost killed them.
But upon reconvening at the Edge, the group was sent into a panic when they realized that Ruffnut was missing. To which Tuffnut had somehow missed.
"Where is she?!"
"Where is your sister?!" Collectively dumbfounded that Tuffnut somehow missed the fact that his twin sister was missing, with everything else going on, Hiccup was overwhelmed.
Toothless, Blueheart, and Nightfire were at the Hidden World (hopefully), and now Ruffnut was MISSING. How was everything going wrong?
"Hiccup? What's going on?" Camicazi asked, observing the chaos Hiccup was struggling to manage.
"We have to get her back!" Fishlegs exclaimed, clutching Fishmeat close.
"If Grimmel's got her, he'll know we'll be searching for her," Rurik commented, "she must've been accidentally left behind when we were trying to escape!"
"It was a trap! And we fell right into it!"
"So then what?"
Off to the side, Astrid contemplated on what was to be done. She knew the stress Hiccup was going through with Toothless gone, and she could imagine Zyrah feeling the same without Blueheart, even if the teenager hid it. She glanced at Konall, who was conversing with Rurik quietly.
She came to Konall's side, whispering something in his ear. He thought about it and then agreed.
Hiccup and Zyrah's attention was then brought to the sight of their partner's on their dragons.
"C'mon," Astrid gestured, she and Konall pulling the two up behind them on their respective dragons.
"What's going on?"
"We're gonna get Toothless and Blueheart, and then we're gonna rescue Ruffnut." She announced assertively. Equally impressed and stunned, Hiccup agreed.
"Don't stress, Tuff, we'll get her back," Konall assured, to which Tuffnut scoffed.
"Pfft! I'm more worried for her captors!" And so, the Nadder and Skrill took off.