Chapter 207

Hiccups POV:

It's been six weeks since I got back from my expedition and that time has been spent just trying to forget what happened to me in that prison by helping the islands new inhabitants settle in fully and learning more about my gifts from the gods. It was from this I learnt of a few abilities my boomerang has that I didn't know about, but I knew was definitely going to be helpful in the future when taking on enemy fortress's. The first ability is how the boomerang could absorb the gas from my arm and then when it's thrown it can release the gas when I will it to, dropping it onto enemy troops and taking them out. What went well with this ability was how when I threw the boomerang into a building, I could see through it meaning I could make it go through every hall and room while releasing my gas taking out all enemies inside quickly and without risk.

Along with that I'd gotten back to my hobby of finding and looting sunken ships adding more things to my vault and a few more sharkskins to my storeroom thanks to how they hung around some of the shipwrecks but they weren't hard to deal with. Sorting and cleaning the treasure out did give me something to do since it took some time to scrape off the barnacles that had grown on some of the treasures. Besides that, I'd also been spending time on my weapon and automaton designs and actually able to build a new type of automaton to be used for harvesting herbs, berries, nuts and fruits that were growing on trees.

This automaton was named the Harvest Mantis since it took the shape of a palm sized prayer mantis with a shell made from gronkle iron, mixed together with diamond steel giving it a hard shell. The ends of their forearms were bladed sickles made of the same material as the shell and could be maneuvered by the arms allowing them to use the blades to cut the fruits, nuts and herbs down. They had peer stones connected to my eye for their own eyes allowing them to see and so I could see what they see, and make sure what they harvest was ripe and a life stone to allow them to function. The bottom of their feet are made from latch stone in order to allow them to easily walk on branches and stems so they could easily cut the fruit and herbs down. The back part had a shell made of the same material as the shell but it could lift up to reveal wings made from Featherstone that were kept covered so they wouldn't be exposed to sunlight but when revealed they'd rapidly flap allowing the automaton to fly. I built was fortunately able to get this one designed and working before making nine more of them, all in time for the fruit harvest which kept me busy for some time since I needed to get all the fruit when it ripened.

I also had my wives to help keep my mind off things by helping me relax, train and of course pull me out of the forge when they felt I was too wrapped up in my work and needed to take a break. Along with this I took a bit of time to look after the younger members of my island's animal population, so it gave me something else to think about. This was mostly because things had been peaceful with no problems, attacks or anything bad really happening so I just had to find ways to pass the time. Most of the time I was just doing these things out of boredom which is something my wives and parents noticed so we all had a sit down and talk about what to do. Originally, I was thinking of taking a vacation outside of the archipelago but they all immediately shut it down, claiming that they didn't want me getting caught up in another adventure when I was still mentally recovering from the last adventure.

In the end it was decided I'd take a vacation with Blanca and Astrid to visit my Aunt Hildegard and Uncle Bjark with their son Will while also getting an old peace agreement signed by chief Mogadon of the Meathead tribe. This leads to now with me sitting in my favorite chair, in the library in front of the fire while going over my mental list to make sure I had everything we needed for the trip tomorrow. It was then I felt two arms wrap around me from behind before the familiar voice of Blanca said.

"So, this is where you were." I nodded.

"Just going over a mental checklist to make sure we have everything we need for our trip tomorrow." I heard her giggle.

"You really do worry too much Hiccup."

"I just like to be prepared."

"Hiccup, this whole trip is to help you relax, stop working and just enjoy a little down time with your family." I sighed and nodded.

"Yeah, I know but I want to be ready if something comes up that I need to deal with." She walked up next to me and gently caressed my cheek while pushing my head to face her, so I was looking her in the eyes.

"Hiccup, nothing will come up for you to deal with other than enjoying a peaceful trip." I sighed and nodded.

"I know but it doesn't stop the worry from creeping in." She smiled and shook her head.

"I believe a good sleep should clear that worry up." She then pulled me out of the chair. "Now come to bed where Astrid is waiting for us."

I nodded and allowed myself to be led out of the library and up to my bedroom where I took all my gear off before washing my face with a bowl of water while the girls talked. When I was done, I took a breath and climbed into bed between the girls with Astrid on my left and Blanca on my right before they both lay their heads down on my upper arms while I wrapped an arm around each of them. Before I could embrace the sweet realm of sleep, Astrid said.

"Blanca told me you were a little worried about this trip."

"Just a little concerned that something might come up during the trip that I'll have to deal with." She rolled her eyes.

"Hiccup, nothing will happen on this trip other than a little peace and quiet while enjoying some time with your relatives." I nodded but I'm guessing it was clear that I was still troubled since Blanca said.

"Hiccup, we can tell there's something bothering you still." I sighed.

"I just have the feeling something is going to happen on our trip that's going to take the relaxation out of it." Astrid rolled her eyes.

"You're just being paranoid Hiccup." She then rolled onto me and gave me a kiss before pulling back. "Now relax and get some sleep since this trip is going to be good for both you and Toothless." I raised an eyebrow.

"Toothless?" Blanca answered.

"We decided he could use some time away from the island and the rejection of the female furies." I nodded.

"Good point." She rolled back to her original place at my side.

"Now go to sleep since it wouldn't be right for us to show up at your aunt and uncles, half asleep." I nodded before allowing the sweet embrace of sleep to take me.

Morning

It's been two hours since I woke up and, in that time, we'd had breakfast, gotten our dragons, finished packing all that was needed, said our goodbyes and now we were making our way through the portal door that leads to the Meatheads Island or to be more precise, the forest on the island. We were all wearing our usual attire with me wearing my regular gear with my grootslang coat in its open trench coat form, Blanca in her usual kimono and Astrid in her usual attire with her leopard bands around her wrists. When we were all through, I took a deep breath and smiled as I looked around and smiled before walking out to the edge of the forest and looked down at the village. I had to say it was nice to be back here and I was definitely looking forward to seeing my aunt and uncle again since I hadn't seen them since my wedding to Astrid and little Will was left behind for that occasion since his parents thought he'd be bored. Because of this I was looking forward to seeing how much the little guy had grown since the last time I saw him; he was just a little baby in his mother's arms. It was then I noticed a large crowd in the middle of the village, all surrounding something meaning something was up, so I signaled the girls and the dragons to come to my sides and take a look before Astrid asked.

"What's going on down there?" I shook my head.

"I don't know." I then reached into my coat and pulled out a Scouter automaton after my spiderpack placed in my hand. "But I'm going to find out."

I let my scouter fly down towards the crowd to see what was going on within the village and I had to say I was shocked by the sight of people performing acrobatics in the middle of the crowd, men on stilts while juggling knives to each other, a man breathing fire off a torch and other performances. It wasn't that hard to figure out that the crowd had formed in order to watch the performance these people were doing since it did look interesting and reminded me of some of the street performances I'd seen in the past. Not seeing any problems, I turned to the girls and said.

"Looks like it's just a group of visitors, performing for the people but it best we leave the dragons behind since the last thing we want is to scare the ones who are performing." They both nodded before Toothless walked up and crooned but I rubbed his head. "Don't worry bud, it's only for a little while and when we've settled in, we'll come and get you and the girls." He growled and nodded making me smile before rubbing his head one last time and looking to the girls who'd just finished saying goodbye to their own dragons. "Alright, let's go." With that said we began making our way towards the village.

10 minutes later

We'd made it into the village five minutes ago and after we arrived, we each took a seat on the roof of one of the huts at the back of the crowd so we could all get a good view of the show without alerting the crowd of our presence making everyone swarm us. It was then the performance ended and everyone began applauding, including me and my wives since I had to admit it was a pretty good show to watch. It was then Mogadon walked into the middle of the crowd where the performers were and yelled out.

"THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS, GIVE IT UP FOR THESE FINE PERFORMERS WHO HAVE CHOSEN TO VISIT US THIS FINE DAY!" It was then a man I didn't recognize walked up next to him and yelled.

"PLEASE, IF ANYONE SHOULD BE THANKED IT'S YOU CHIEF MOGADON, FOR ALLOWING ME AND MY MEN TO PERFORM FOR YOUR PEOPLE AND ALLOWING US TO STAY IN THIS FINE VILLAGE FOR A FEW DAYS WHILE WE RESUPPLY AND ENJOY SOME TIME ON LAND!" This showed me that he was most likely the leader of the performers.

"IT'S ALRIGHT BUT THAT PERFORMANCE MUST HAVE GIVEN EVERYONE AN APPETITE SO EVERYONE TO THE GREAT HALL FOR LUNCH!"

Everyone cheered and began heading up to the great hall while we watched since I figured it best to wait till the crowd was split up so we wouldn't be overrun by people. Once the village was emptied with people, all of whom were now up at the great hall enjoying their lunch we got off the roof and begun making our way towards the great hall. When we got there, we walked through the doors and found everyone sitting down at tables, enjoying their lunch before my eyes landed on Mogadon sitting down with Thuggory, Faye and the man who I believe is the leader of the performers. I also took notice of my aunt and uncle who were eating with Will who like most young kids had a face covered in food from his messy eating. I was tempted to go greet them but I knew that it would be disrespectful to greet my family before announcing my presence to the chief, so we made our way towards him. When we reached him, I heard him talking to the man about how great he thought the performance was before the man simply replied.

"Please chief Mogadon, our show wasn't that great." Before Mogadon could reply I cut him off by saying.

"I thought it was pretty great even though I only came near the end of the performance." They all turned to look at me before Mogadon asked.

"Hiccup?" I smiled.

"Hello chief Mogadon." He smiled and stood up and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"It's good to see you lad but what are you doing here?" Before I could answer he continued. "Do your aunt and uncle know you're here?" I opened my mouth to reply but a voice from behind me answered.

"They know as they saw him walking up to you." I smiled and turned to see my Uncle Bjark standing there with Aunt Hildegard holding Will in her arms. "And a little hurt that you didn't let us know you were coming for a visit with your two beauties." I smiled before Blanca said.

"We felt he was in need some time away from the island to forget about what happened on his latest adventure and time away from his forge." Astrid then continued.

"We often had to drag him away from his work so we could get him to come and have dinner, go to bed or simply take a bath before he begins to stink due to the sweat, he works up." They chuckled before Mogadon said.

"Well either way it's good to see you again lad." He then turned to the man who I believed to be the leader of the performers. "Now time for introductions." He put a hand on the man's shoulder. "This here is Bard, leader of the performers who have stopped by our fine island to restock on supplies for a few days." He then looked to the man, now known as Bard while gesturing to me. "And Bard, this fine young man is Hiccup Haddock, heir to Berk and one of the most incredible young men I've ever met while at his sides are his wives Astrid and Blanca."

While he introduced us, I took a moment to examine bard and saw he was wearing a white shirt with a black bear fur vest, brown pants, brown boots made with wolf fur, around his neck was a set of animal teeth on a rope, forming a necklace. The thing that caught my attention though was his belt and sword since his belt was made of what I recognised as red roman silk while his sword was clearly Greek in origin. His hair was black in colour and pulled back in a ponytail with a beard that looked similar to my uncle Spitelouts beard in appearance but as I looked at him, I couldn't help but think that he looked familiar, like I'd seen him somewhere before. The problem was I couldn't tell where I'd seen him, but I figured it might've just be my imagination messing with me again and it was then Bard held his hand out and said.

"Nice to meet you lad." I smiled and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you to and great performance."

"Glad to hear you enjoyed it lad." Aunt Hildegard then cut in saying.

"We can go over the performance later, right now lunch is waiting for the three of you." I chuckled and allowed her to lead me back to the table where her and uncle Bjark sat with little Will staring at me for some reason.

4 days later

It's been four days since we arrived in the Meatheads village and those days can be described as pretty relaxing for me since the girls wouldn't allow me to get near the forge for work. I didn't mind though since the days were spent enjoying the performance of Bard and his crew who I had to say their performances were entertaining. Sadly, thanks to them our dragons had to be kept out in the forest since as it turns out, Bard and his friends mostly did business out of the archipelago, so they hadn't heard of me or my dragons and we didn't want to scare them. I did have another reason for this though and that is I didn't want to have to deal with people pestering me for my dragon training secrets and Bard did claim after one show that they were always looking to add something new for their performance.

Then there's little Will who for the first day did nothing but stare at me for some reason and it was that night, once he'd been tucked in, that his parents had told him all about my adventures and it was because of this he idolized me and wanted to see dragons up close. Sadly, dragons didn't show up near their island that often after I took down the Redd death years ago and when dragons did show up, they'd always keep their distance from the island. It was because of this the next day, with his parent's permission I took him out to the forest to introduce him to meet the Toothless, Stormfly and Liánhuā, followed by a small flight on Toothless. He absolutely loved it and wouldn't stop begging me to take him up again which I did but it had to wait till after we had lunch since his mother would kill me if I didn't bring Will back in time.

Sadly, while I was having an enjoyable time the girls weren't having that great a time and instead finding things a little frustrating in the village, but I couldn't blame them. After word got out that Astrid was my second wife they realised that I was willing to take more than one wife and I am sad to say that before any of them could bother me someone came up with the idea to get the approval of my wives first. From what I can understand they knew I trusted my wife's judgement so they figured if they could get their approval then I'd be willing to consider a relationship with them. Sadly because of this they wouldn't stop pestering Blanca and Astrid, trying to befriend them to get to me but they saw right through those girls attempts and tried to ignore them. Then there were the younger girls who knew I was too old for them so instead of trying to get to me, they were trying to get advice on how to get the attention of guys they like.

Then there's Bard and his crew who spent their days performing for the people when they weren't taking care of their own ship and walking around the village, talking to people. They all seemed like alright people, but I couldn't shake the feeling that something was up with them since when anyone offered to help load their ship, they'd turn them down. Normally this wasn't something I'd pay attention to but with everything I've experienced, I'd become pretty good at reading people so I could see they were afraid of letting people on their ship for some reason.

This sparked my curiosity since it brought up the question of what they were hiding on their ship that would make them want to prevent people from coming on board. When one of the people asked about it, Bard explained that they liked their privacy on their ship, so they preferred to handle these things themselves. Still this didn't feel right to me and I made my suspicions clear to Mogadon, but he just brushed my concerns off saying I was just being paranoid, and I had to admit, he might be right. This didn't help me shake off my worries though nor did it help me shake the feeling that I'd seen Bard somewhere before but no matter how hard I tried; I couldn't remember where I had seen him. Astrid and Blanca just kept telling me to relax and enjoy my time since it was most likely just worrying too much and all I needed to do is relax so I let it go and continued with my vacation.

Now me and my wives were in the forest, at the cliff overlooking the village with our dragons at our sides and while we did this everyone else remained in the village. They were all standing in the town centre, enjoying a performance Bard's acrobats were putting on for the people around a large bonfire that had been set up while I watched through the eyes of my scouter. What caught my attention concerning the performers though was how they were all wearing masks which is not something they'd done before in any of their performances. I shrugged it off thinking they just wanted to add a little more to the show, but it was then I noticed Bard and those of his crew who weren't performing were also wearing masks around their mouths and noses.

When the eyes of my scouter landed on Bard my mind flashed back to one of my trips to Rome when I was making my way through a slave market wearing the same mask and he only took it off when doing business with a slave trader. From what I saw he was selling some slaves to the trader since the trader gave him a large leather bag which he pulled a few gold coins out of while smiling as people who were behind him were put in cages by the traders men. I saw the same trader at a party being thrown, discussing his latest slaves with some of the nobles claiming he bought them from his oldest business partner who always brings in a large number of prisoners to be sold as slaves, but he never told him the secret to his success.

It was then I was brought out of my thoughts when I noticed the acrobats each throw a bag into the fire before they exploded in a large plume of smoke that quickly spread out into the crowd making everyone begin coughing. This made me worry before I quickly stood up getting the attention of my wives before as I saw everyone begin to collapse on the ground and this didn't help ease my nerves. It was then Astrid asked.

"What is it Hiccup." I turned to her.

"Trouble!" She raised an eyebrow. "It looks like Bard and his men have shown their true colours."

"What's happening down there?"

"The acrobats just threw something into the fire making smoke that's knocked everyone out." I turned to see Astrid release her claws from her leopard arm bands while Blanca began making her magic form from her hands.

"Let's go see what those performers think of our own show and introduce them to our dragons while we're at it." She got ready to mount Stormfly while Blanca prepared to mount Liánhuā but I held up my hand signalling them to stop.

"No, if we attack with our dragons now then we'll be putting the villagers in danger and we might also run the risk of doing damage to the village." They nodded before Blanca asked.

"What should we do then?"

"For now, we wait and study the movements of Bard and his men's and come up with a plan to evacuate the villagers before dealing with Bard and his men." They nodded as I turned back to the village and muttered. "Bard, you and your men have no idea who you're messing with."

2 hours later

It's been two hours since Bard and his men took down the people of the Meathead tribe and in that time, I've released four more scouters allowing me to watch more of Bards men who had been gathering up anyone who wasn't at the show. Among these men were the stilt walkers who were walking around, keeping an eye out for anyone who was hiding or trying to make a run for it. When people did try to make a run for it the stilt walkers would throw knives into their paths stopping them by scaring them into stopping, allowing Bards men to cut them off. As for the men who weren't rounding up the people, they were looting the houses of valuables and piling them out in the town center where Bard was examining them.

As for the Meathead tribe, most of the people were taken down to the docks and loaded onto the two ships that arrived shortly after the people were knocked out. The only ones who weren't loaded onto it were Mogadon, Thuggory and Faye, all of whom were tied up, gagged and kneeled in front of Bard who had his back to them while he examined the stuff from the looted huts behind him while they glared at him. This made things a whole lot more difficult for us since it meant that they'd be harder to rescue since the town center was being heavily guarded and I didn't want to put the captives in danger.

Rescuing the villagers wasn't going to be any easier since we can't deal with the people on the upper decks of the ships due to them being watched by the guards on the docks who checked in, every few seconds. It was from my observations that I knew stealth would be our best option if we were going to get through this with no casualties on either side. It was from this I'd come up with a plan to first get the people out of the ship and away from the village while also making sure Bard and his men couldn't escape using their ships.

This brings us to now with me slowly gliding towards one of Bards ships that was facing away from the docks, so it was less guarded than the one facing the dock. I landed against the side of it and quickly used my spiderpack to get hold of the hull and hang myself off the side so I wouldn't be noticed by any of the men on the top deck. I then used the eye of the dragon to see what was going on inside the ship and found multiple cells with people sitting around in them with mothers comforting their children and husbands comforting their wives while all of them had their legs tied and their arms tied behind their backs. This was a heartbreaking scene so without hesitation I activated my prosthetics phasing ability and slowly seeped in through the wall and into one of the cells holding two families, each with a child. When they saw me, I could tell they were surprised but I held a finger to my lips telling them to keep quiet to which they all nodded as I made my way to the cell door where a guard was standing.

I walked up behind him and quickly grabbed him from behind with my prosthetic covering his mouth and nose while letting out a blast of my knockout gas. He was unconscious before he even had time to react before I held him up using my real arm while using my prosthetic to make the bars of the cell door intangible and pulled him in. I brought him to the back of the cell and laid him down against the wall before looking back at the people in the cells and whispered.

"I'll be back as soon as I can but for now just let me deal with the other guards down here."

They nodded as I released my golden arrow and slowly phased out of the cell while willing my arrow to begin to float and be ready to go. As soon as I was out of the cell, I looked down the rows and saw ten other guards and smiled before I let my arrow fly at top speeds through each of them and back into my hand. The moment it returned to my hand the men dropped to the ground unconscious as the people looked at them in shock while I walked into the middle of the hall where everyone could see me before I said in a voice that was just above a whisper.

"Keep your voices down, I'm going to get you all out of here but be patient."

I then pulled my arrow back into my arm as I turned towards the end of the hall where a door leading to the commander's quarters were and knew it was time to deal with the leader of this ship and anyone who was with him. I used the eye of the dragon to see who was in the room and saw he was at a desk with one man on either side of it while I smiled and took out a single clear ball from my bag of Loki balls and filled it up with knockout gas. I walked up to the door and gently opened it by a crack before slowly rolling the ball into it and then closing the door silently and let the ball did the rest. After a few seconds there was a voice yelling out.

"WHAT THE?"

Followed by a large series of coughs as gas seeped out of the crack from beneath the door while I smiled as I heard two large thumps and opened the door to let the remaining gas seep out and evaporate. I looked inside and saw the two guards on the ground unconscious while the commander was at his desk with his head, laying down on the desks top with all three being unconscious. I smiled and walked in before looking down at the desk and saw there was a book on it with a list of people on the table and shook my head since they were treating these people like cattle. I walked to the back of the ship and smiled while channeling light green crystal in my prosthetic arm and placing my hand against the wall and slowly melted that part of the wooden wall and when I broke through, I dragged it to the side making the hole larger. I kept this up slowly cutting a hole in the wall that was big enough for people to get out and then pulled the large chunk of wood that I'd cut out and put it on the ground before looking through the hole and out into the ocean.

I smiled before leaning my head out and looked towards the dock and saw a single guard standing on the edge of it and knew from my observations, he was isolated from the other guards since he was keeping an eye out for any ships or boats and watch the ships. Knowing this I took out my blow pipe and loaded a white dart before leaning back out with it held up against my mouth and fired the dart, hitting him right in the neck while I smiled and watched as he froze up when the poison took effect. I then turned to the cliff overlooking both the ocean and the village before I held out my prosthetic out and channeled a red crystal, igniting it as I began waving it to signal Astrid and Blanca to get ready to evacuate the villagers. Using the eye of the dragon I could see they were getting ready to go making me smile as I took out an ice arrow and dropped it into the water, freezing the water around the ship before heading back to the cells to free the people.

Freeing them didn't take that long since I found the keys to the cells and shackles on the commanders' desk and after releasing the first prisoners, I gave them some keys and had them help me free the others and gather the unconscious guards. Now I was waiting in the commander's quarters by the hole and looking towards the small rowboats approaching that were being pulled by Liánhuā in the water with Blanca on top of her. I smiled and walked out of the room to see the people all waiting to hear what to do, making me smile as I said.

"Alright folks, my wife Blanca is bringing some row boats to begin evacuating you all to a safe section of the island but remember we'll get you all out of her but women and children first." They all nodded. "Now let's get you all out of here." I ushered the women and children in to the commander's quarters and turned to the men. "Keep an eye on the prisoners and take care of anyone who comes down." They all nodded before I made my way into the commanders' quarters where the women were waiting with the children. "Alright ladies, my wife Blanca is bringing the boats around and will take you all to the bottom of a cliff where she'll be lifting some of you to the top with Astrid while some of you will be climbing up the wall using the spines, Astrid's dragon Stormfly has thrown into the wall so we can get you all to safety faster." They all nodded and with that said the evacuation began.

10 minutes later

The lower decks of the first ship was now completely deprived of all life with me being the only one still on the lower decks, standing at the hole in the wall while watching the last of the people be taken towards the cliff by small row boats. I smiled before I turned to the other ship where the remaining villagers were being held and knew that I needed to deal with that ship next. Knowing what I had to do I took a breath while turning my grootslang coat into a vest form and slowly lowered myself out of the hole in the wall and into the water. I then began silently swimming towards the back of the other ship while mentally wishing I brought Wavechomper with me before I reached the back of the ship. I slowly climbed up the hull using my spider pack and looked through the wall and saw a man who I believed was the commander sitting at a desk laughing with two other men on either side of the deck and one in front of the desk, laughing with him.

I channeled the green crystal in my prosthetic and pressed a finger against the wall, quickly burning a hole through the wall that wasn't big enough to notice. When it broke right through, I took one of my clear Loki balls and filled it up with knockout gas before gently pushing it in through the hole to deal with the men. I watched what was happening in the room through the eye of the dragon and smiled as it released the gas, filling the room with it in seconds before the men could react as I phased into the room while the gas cleared. Once inside I began making my way towards the door but I was stopped by a coughing sound and looked to see one of the men on the ground was still conscious, even though it was just barely. I kneeled down in front of him as he looked up at me while I smiled and said.

"Sweet dreams!"

I then held out my prosthetic and let out a puff of my knockout gas and just like that, he was out cold allowing me to walk over his unconscious body towards the door as I released my golden arrow. When I reached the door, I opened it by just a crack and looked to see that it was exactly like the other ship, a long hallway lined with cells that were holding the Meathead tribe members while guards stood in front of the cell doors. I smiled and let my arrow fly, going right through all the guards in three seconds before they even had a chance to react, before they all fell to the ground unconscious. When they hit the ground, I walked out of the door, catching my arrow in my prosthetic and walked down the hall while signaling the people to keep quiet and said.

"Don't worry, I'm here to get you all out of here but you all need to keep quiet." I saw multiple nods before I got to work.

One hour later

It's been an hour since I began the evacuation of the second ship and ten minutes since the evacuation was complete and the ship was trapped in ice without the crew even knowing. The first twenty minutes after that had been spent having all the people checked out for injuries, calming the children down, tying the enemy troops up and convincing the men not to attack the village head on. This last thing took half the time considering the men are Vikings and as such they do not like being played for fools by anyone, especially when those people also put their families at risk. I was able to convince them to stay and help guard their people while I dealt with those in the village after explaining that the more people there were, the higher the risk of them threatening to kill Mogadon, Thuggory and Faye. With this I was able to convince them that it better that I handle things as quietly and stealthily, dealing with these crooks one by one from the shadows. Unfortunately, my aunt and uncle weren't as easily persuaded and took a little extra convincing before they agreed to let me handle things.

While I did this, I also kept an eye on a small group of men who had come into the forest to check for anyone who'd escaped but also to find me and my wives at Bard's orders. Dealing with them wasn't that hard using my plant prosthetic to take command of the trees and deal with them in the forest by using them to attack the men and pick them off one by one. I did this by having the branches grab the men and pull them up to me before I hit them with a face full of my knockout gas and then having Toothless fly down to grab them and take them back to Astrid and Blanca to guard. This took half-an-hour since they'd spread out to cover more ground and it took Toothless some time to pick up the captives after dropping off the first ones.

This brings us to now with me hiding on a branch up in a tree that had grown on the edge of the village forest with my usual gear but this time my grootslang coat took the form of skintight ninja like outfit and I'd switched my prosthetic into its plant form. I was looking at the village through the eyes of my scouters, getting a better idea of the routes the guards were patrolling, their numbers, their weapons and other such things. From all I'd learnt I'd begun coming up with a plan on how to deal with all of them in a way that they wouldn't have the chance to warn the others or alert the others. Looking out at the village I took a breath and knew it was time to get to work and looked down at the one man who was guarding the forest and waiting for the men who went into the forest. I hopped down from the branch and landed straight on top of him, knocking him out cold as I smiled and extended the legs of my spiderpack and used them to wrap him up in the threads while keeping an eye on things through my scouters before laying him down against the tree and took a breath before turning to the village and said.

"Alright Bard, I believe it's time I taught you and your men learn what happens when you mess with my family and don't think I'm doing it alone." I summoned my ninja behind me and sensed them appear. "The village has multiple men patrolling it but also many empty huts so you have a place to store the fallen opponents." I turned back to them. "They also have hostages being held in the village center, Wind, Earth you two are to keep an eye on them and make sure no harm comes to them and also deal with any nearby guards." They both nodded. "As for the rest of you, you will be helping me deal with the enemies patrolling the village but I do not want any groups to be alerted to our presence so no direct confrontations." They nodded. "Also be careful of the men on stilts since they're keeping a watch out for anything odd using their elevated height." They all nodded once more. "You all know what to do so let's do this." They all bowed making me smile before I turned around and made my way into the village.

Nobodies POV:

Hiccup made his way through the village using his ninja skills to merge with the shadows of the alley ways between houses in order to avoid being spotted by the men on stilts and passing patrols trying to get a good idea on what the best actions would be. When he ducked into alleyways he'd sneak to the edge when he knew a lone guard would be passing and so he could deal with them and take them out of the battle. He'd deal with these men by quickly grabbing them from behind, pulling them into the ally and covering their mouths with his prosthetic while letting loose his knockout gas. This would leave them unconscious and their comrades, none the wiser before Hiccup would use his spiderpack to wrap them up and then toss them into the huts so they couldn't be seen. Hiccup repeated this process with eleven of the men and took them out of the coming fight and lessening the chances of him being spotted. His ninja also took care of multiple enemy troops in similar fashions, using their skills to pull enemies into dark allies or tackling them in before dealing a strike or blow, rendering them unconscious.

It was then he noticed a few guards going into some of the houses with a man holding a torch and wearing a red horned mask supervising them. Hiccup recognized the one holding the torch as the one who breathed fire off the torch for his performance and realized they planned to burn the huts down after doing one more sweep for valuables. Hiccup wasn't going to let that happen and quickly jumped through the windows of one of the huts two of the men were walking towards and quickly hid among the rafters after tossing a small bag of gold coins beneath a chair to distract one of the men. It was then both men walked in with one of them muttering about what a pain clearing out the houses were as Hiccup watched them from above, waiting for the right moment to strike. It was then one of the men noticed the bag under the chair and went to check it out while his comrade walked upstairs making Hiccup smile since this made things easier for him. While the one went upstairs to check things out, Hiccup silently lowered himself to the floor just as the man stood back up, smiling as he held the leather bag while Hiccup slowly walked up behind him without making a sound.

The man turned away from the chair to face Hiccup and the second his eyes landed on Hiccup he got a smile and a face full of knockout gas. Hiccup took the bag from his hand before it could hit the ground and make a noise and caught the man's unconscious form before gently sitting him down in the chair making it look like he was sleeping. Once putting his foe down Hiccup put the bag of coins into his coat allowing his spiderpack to take it and put it away before the sound of footsteps from upstairs caught his attention and he knew the other man was coming down the stairs. Hearing this Hiccup quickly returned to the rafters and looked down on the room as the other man walked down the steps as he said.

"Well, there was nothing upstairs other than that junk they call furniture, you find anything?" He then noticed his comrade on the chair and growled in annoyance. "Oh, come on, I get that it's late but we've got work to do." He walked up to the figures unconscious form. "Get up, you lazy yak." When he didn't even move the man got concerned and asked. "Are you alright?"

He shook his friends' shoulder not noticing Hiccup silently lowering himself to the ground behind him as his friends' unconscious form fell forward making him gasp. He immediately turned around to cry out a warning to those outside but before a single word could leave his mouth, Hiccup slammed his prosthetic into his gut, knocking him out cold. Hiccup gently lowered the body to the ground before releasing the legs of his spiderpack and quickly cocooning the men, one by one to ensure they didn't cause any trouble if they woke up. When they were fully tied up Hiccup hung them from the rafters to keep them out of sight of others before he left out of the back door to avoid being spotted.

Hiccup quickly made his way into the alleyway and rushed back to the front of the hut while remaining in the shadows to see what was happening at the front. When he got there, he saw the men from the other huts had returned while the fire breather was glaring at the house Hiccup had just come out of. It was obvious he was not happy with waiting for the men inside since he assumed they were still busy as he didn't know what Hiccup had done to them. Eventually got tired of waiting and turned to the six men who'd raided the other house and said.

"You lot, go in and see what's taking those two idiots so long."

They all nodded and walked into the hut leaving him and his two bodyguards making Hiccup smile as he pulled out a clear Loki ball and loaded it up with knockout gas. When the door to the hut closed, he tossed the ball through the window before he heard a series of shocked yelps followed by multiple coughs as gas leaked out of the window. While this happened, Hiccup took out his blow pipe and loaded it up with two white darts before aiming at the two men on either side of the flame breather who was looking at the hut in confusion. He launched a single dart at each of his two guards before pulling his blow pipe back into his arm while smiling at the fire breather who hadn't realized what's happened. He turned to the man on his right and ordered.

"Go and check out what's happening in there!" When he didn't move the fire breather growled. "Didn't you hear me?" He put a hand on his shoulder. "Get in there and do your job." He gave the man a small shove but gasped when the man fell to the ground, stiff as a board. "What the?" Hiccup then walked out from the shadows smiling as he asked.

"Impressive, isn't it?" The fire breather turned to Hiccup. "A single prick from one of my darts and they go stiff as a board." The fire breather stared at him before shaking out of his shock.

"Aren't you that man visiting the village with the two beauties?" Hiccup nodded.

"I'm also the guy who's not too happy with you lot messing with this village." The fire breather glared at him.

"I think I'll call you the guy who I'm going to roast."

He quickly brought the torch up to his mouth and let the flames blast off and at Hiccup who just began walking into the flames and towards the man who couldn't see past the flames. When the fire breather stopped Hiccup was only three feet away from him and smiling as the fire breather stared at him in shock while Hiccup raised his prosthetic and said.

"Yeah, next time you try to roast someone you should make sure they don't have an immunity to fire." He then channeled a red crystal igniting his arm. "Take this as a learning experience, you play with fire" He grabbed the man's torch and threw it aside as the man fell back and began crawling away in fear. "you get burned."

He then thrust his flaming prosthetic forward as if he were about to hit him making the man close his eyes and braced himself for the pain but when it was half a foot away from his face Hiccup stopped and extinguished his fist before opening up his palm. The fire breather opened his eyes wondering if Hiccup had second thoughts only to get a face full of knockout gas right before he collapsed unconscious. Hiccup smiled down at the unconscious man and looked at the two other men before looking around to make sure nobody was around and smiled when nobody had seen him before he began dragging the bodies, out of the street and into the hut with the other unconscious men.

Half-an-hour later

Hiccup smiled from his place in an alleyway, as he looked into the center of the village where Bard was glaring at the fifteen men who were standing in front of him since when he called, they were a small part of the group who'd come. The other half he sent out to find the others ten minutes ago but they hadn't come back yet and Hiccup knew it was because he and his ninja had already dealt with them the second, they were out of sight. A few minutes ago, after Hiccup was sure he could handle the rest of the men who were on the dock and manning the ships and knew they'd make short work of them. All that remained of those crooks were the five men on the ground, the two men at Bard's sides on the stilts and Bard himself who was angrily tapping his foot with his arms crossed while the men on stilts juggled knives between each other to pass the time. It was then Bard growled and looked at his men before he asked.

"Where in the name of the gods is everyone?" It was then Hiccup decided to make his presence known but remain in the shadows as he said.

"They're not coming." Bard and his men looked around.

"Who said that?"

"Someone who's not too happy with what you've done to this village and its people."

"Hey, it's good money I make doing this and it's the chiefs' fault for being a big enough idiot to fall for our trap." Anyone who looked at Mogadon could tell he did not appreciate that comment if how he was struggling was anything to go by. "Now why don't you come out and surrender now and I won't have my men kill you when they find you." Hiccup chuckled as he took out his kappa shell helmet.

"That's funny if you honestly think your men could handle me." It was then one of the men on stilts said.

"If you think you can beat us than you're not the first and every one of those who came before you were easily taken down by us." Hiccup readied his kappa shell.

"I think you guys need to come back down to earth."

Hiccup then threw his kappa shell towards them and watched as it flew towards the stilts, slicing right through them a foot down from the men's feet before flying back to Hiccup. Not wanting to be found by the men who could follow the kappa shell, Hiccup rushed to the back of the alley and switch to another one and reached the end just in time to see what was happening to the men on the stilts. He smiled as he watched the men fight to keep their balance to try and balance themselves before the one on the right fell down and, in an attempt, to regain his balance grabbed onto the man on the left, bringing him down with him. They both blacked out when they hit the ground due to the impact leaving just Bard and the men who were on the ground who Hiccup knew would be easy to deal with. It was then Bard growled as he looked at his downed men before yelling out.

"BRING OUT THE BEASTS!"

As soon as he said that a few of the men ran behind the loot pile and brough out three cages that clearly had something vicious in them if the growls and shaking was anything to go by. Each cage had a man with a staff that had a noose on the end of it that they readied before the cages were opened to reveal a single wolf in each one. The moment the cages opened the wolves ran out only for the men to quickly bring the nooses around their necks keeping them in place while allowing people to get a better look at them. The wolf on the right had dark brown fur with a scar going down its back while the one on the left was grey with a lighter shaded underbelly and an X shaped scar on its chest and the one in the middle had pure light brown fur with a nasty scar going down its muzzle that ran up past its right eye leaving it blind. The two things these wolves had in common were they all so thin that you could see their ribs and they all looked ready to kill so it was plain to see they were abused. Bard smiled and looked into the village as he yelled out.

"THESE WOLVES HAVEN'T EATEN IN DAYS AND WILL HAVE NO TROUBLE HUNTING YOU DOWN FOR A SNACK!" Hiccup smirked and decided it was time for him to show himself before he walked out of the alleyway and into the light of the moon catching the attention of Bard and his men. "So, you're the one who's been causing all the trouble?" Hiccup nodded. "Aren't you the man who has the two beauties at his sides most of the time?" Hiccup nodded again as Bard smirked. "If you've come out hoping for mercy than you're going to be disappointed and once I'm done with you, I'll take care of those two beauties since I'll enjoy them before selling them to the highest bidder." Hiccup clenched his fists at this.

"You will never lay a hand on my wives." Bard chuckled.

"I think my wolves have another opinion on that." The men got ready to release the wolves while Hiccup smirked.

"You call those pups wolves?" Bard growled as they released the wolves and Hiccup yelled out.

"ADAL!"

The wolves were halfway to Hiccup when a howl echoed through the village as a giant portal behind Hiccup, right before his wolves stormed out of the portal taking their places at his sides while Maelstrom took his place in front of Hiccup and Adal stood behind him in his ice armor. Bard and his men stood there staring in shock while the wolves they'd just released stopped and looked at the larger wolves in shock until Adal let a dominant growl that seemed to echo throughout the area. The effect was near instant as the wolves Bard had released dropped to the ground with their ears folded back and their heads pressed against the ground. Bard stared at this before Hiccup said.

"They recognize the true alpha wolf." Adal leaned his head down next to Hiccup who used his real arm to rub the wolf's muzzle. "Not surprising since he is the son of Fenrir." The men gasped right before Bard growled and pulled out his sword, pointed it at Hiccup and yelled out.

"THIS DOESN'T CHANGE ANYTHING, ME AND MY MEN WON'T STOP UNTIL YOU'RE ON YOUR KNEES BEGGING FOR MERCY!" Hiccup looked behind Bard and smiled.

"What men?"

Bard looked behind him hoping to see his men but the only sight he saw, was his men running as fast as they could towards the dock. While Bard stared at his fleeing men Hiccup turned his ox flame boots into their speed mode and when Bard turned back to face Hiccup, Hiccup charged towards him full speed before slamming his prosthetic fist into his gut, knocking the air right out of him. For a few seconds Bard just hung there on Hiccups prosthetic, completely still with the only sound being his dry gasp as he blacked out before Hiccup lowered his prosthetic to his side, dropping Bard's unconscious body to the ground. Hiccup then looked at the fleeing men and smirked before releasing his mystic boomerang and infusing it with his knockout gas until it held a large cloud of the gas. When it was loaded, he threw it towards the men but when it closed in on the men it flew above their heads and went ten feet ahead of them. It then released the gas and flew to the side creating a wall of gas that the men ran right into since they were too close to stop in time while the boomerang returned to Hiccups arm.

Hiccup then watched as the men stumbled out of the cloud coughing and hacking before falling to the ground, unconscious while Hiccup smiled at the sight of the last of his foes fall to the ground. When Hiccup was sure they were all down for the count Hiccup looked at the three wolves Bard released and saw they were surrounded by his own and knew they weren't going to try anything so he didn't need to worry about them. Knowing this he turned to Mogadon, Thuggory and Faye who were still tied up and kneeled in front of the stolen items from the looted huts. Hiccup made his way over to Mogadon and pulled out the gag to reveal the man's smiling face before Mogadon said.

"Lad, you have no idea how happy I am to see you." Hiccup smiled and walked behind him while releasing his punch dagger.

"I'm just sorry I took so long but I needed time to figure a plan out so I could deal with Bard and his men without putting you three or your people in danger." Hiccup began cutting the ropes binding his wrists.

"My people, they're still trapped on the ships with Bards men." As soon as he said this Hiccup finished cutting the ropes around his arms and moved onto the ones binding his legs. "Hurry lad, we've got to get them off those ships before the ones on the ships realize that somethings wrong and take off with my people." Hiccup finished freeing Mogadins legs as he said.

"Relax chief, before I began the attack on the men in the village, I was able to evacuate the people on the ships while also taking the men, manning the ships cells prisoner and as for the remaining men, my ninja have probably already dealt with them." Hiccup then reached into his coat and pulled out a gronkle iron dagger that he then handed to Mogadon. "Now could you help me free Thuggory and Faye since we've got a lot of work ahead of us with the need to gather up Bard's men and return all this stuff to their rightful owners." Mogadon nodded and went to free his son while Hiccup did Faye.

Dawn

Hiccups POV:

It's been hours since I took down Bard and his remaining men and those hours had been spent, escorting the people back into the village, helping gather the downed men from huts and the docks before putting them in cells, helping people get their stuff back from the pile and take the furniture back to their homes but the main thing I'd been doing is holding people back. These people made up the majority of the village and the reason I had to hold them back was they were all eager to get their hands on Bard and his men but Mogadon insisted on giving them a fair trial once things have settled down. As for the wolves that Bard released, I gave them a few chunks of meat before having Adal take them back to the island with orders to keep an eye on them until I get back since I had enough to deal with here in the Meatheads village for now.

Now I was at the docks and watching as the sun rose over the ocean while my ninja followed behind me, with Toothless at the head of the dock making sure nobody comes down, while we investigate Bards ship. I knew there wouldn't be any serious problems since my ninja already dealt with any crew members who might have been on the ship but it didn't hurt to be careful. I made my way onto the deck and looked around seeing nothing but the typical things you would expect to see on a deck so just some empty barrels. I walked up to the trap door leading down into the lower decks and opened it before turning back to the ninja and saying.

"Stay out here, if anyone tries to come up without me, knock them out."

They nodded and bowed before I hopped down into the lower decks so I could begin checking it out for any crewmates who may have been able to hide from my ninja below deck. When I landed on the lower deck, I didn't see much other than a couple of crates that were stacked up, barrels and a few hammocks but I wanted to do a full check up on the ship before I check out the crates and what they hold. I made my way past these items to the back where there was a single door in the wall and it wasn't that hard to figure out that these were Bards quarters and as such, it probably held some documents about his buyers or possible bases for me to attack. I pushed the door open and found myself in a large room that clearly had a few things that were not from the archipelago showing me he'd been to places.

At the back there was an indent in the wall that had a bed built into it at the back of it with red velvet covers and silk cushions that looked very soft. Against the left wall was a desk that looked expensive since there were intricate carvings in its sides that looked like trees while the top had leather imbedded in the top with a black leather book on top of it. The chair pushed into the desk was just as impressive as the desk, made of the same polished wood with legs that had patterns carved into them and the back had a tree carved into it. Pressed up against the right wall and taking up the walls entire lower half was a bookshelf with all sorts of books and scrolls filling it up. Above the bookcase, decorating the wall were multiple bejeweled weapons from Rome, Greece, Egypt and even Arabia showing me Bard had been to some places out of the archipelago besides the ones he told us about.

I figured I needed to loot it since the Meatheads could use the weapons, bedding materials for trade, Mogadon could use the desk and chair while I could add the books to my library. There were still the crates that I needed to deal with since I didn't know what they held and took a breath while mentally telling myself that I have a lot of work to do. I walked out of the room but before I could make my way through the store room, I heard the sound of something that seemed familiar but I knew it wasn't a rat and it was too quiet for me to properly hear. I looked around and saw nothing so I shrugged figuring it was just me being paranoid but as I was about to begin walking, I heard that sound again and began looking around again. Figuring that it'd be better to spread out and see what was happening, I pulled out six jewel wig automatons and let them loose into the storeroom to see what that sound was. When they were loose, I made my way back into the room and sat down on the bed while watching what was happening through their eyes. When I sat down, I felt the material of the sheets and nodded as I said.

"Egyptian cotton, not bad."

It was then one of my jewel wigs found something that made my blood run cold right before I stood up and ran out the door to the place the jewel wig was so I could make sure what it found was not a trick my mind was playing on me.

AN: And that brings an end to this chapter and if it's not up to your standards but I recently lost my dog who had a weakened heart and I needed something to take my mind off it. Along with this I'm on holiday with my family so I won't be able to write too much but I can guarantee the next chapter will bring in something big. Until then, be patient, be safe, review kindly and have a wonderful December everyone.