CHAPTER 19: Northern Markets
The Northern Markets, only a couple of hours away on boat from Old Berk, was still a thriving trading market where vikings of all walks gathered to do trades. At one point it was visited by a couple of Dragon Hunters years ago to do shipments of dragons prior to Grimmel's battles against Hiccup. Although it was more or less an open island where vikings could freely sail to, it was still housing a sovereign group of vikings with their own Chieftan of the island.
And he had been Chieftan for over a decade at this point. During the days of Hiccup's battles with Drago and Grimmel, the Chieftan of the Northern Market vikings, he had seen it all.
His formal title was Erick the Everlasting, a suitable title given how long he was Chieftan for. He was a slim, tall viking with a beard that nearly stretched to his belly it was that long. He was in his 40s at this point and showed no signs of slowing down in his age.
The situation across the seas was beginning to show its effects. Alfa Yurlin's militarization of Old Berk sent shockwaves even across to the Northern Market vikings and all their visitors from other tribes. It was unheard of for any tribe to do that to the Hooligans, with their proud and recognised reputation. But the Ancients just did it ruthlessly and carelessly, and the aggressive manner in which they did was troublesome to many.
It was troublesome for Erick because he was starting to notice something of an uprising of support for Yurlin and the Ancients across his island. It was like an orchestrated propaganda game was being played by the Ancients.
The truth was, many vikings across the archipelago simply agreed with Yurlin's message of standing up to the Warlords. After so many years of peace on the archipelago, those same vikings considered the rise of Yurlin, regardless of his dictatorial and ruthless cult of personality, to be somewhat of a buffer zone against the Warlords. The idea of joining up with the Ancients was an attractive proposition.
After ten years of smooth peace following the period the Hooligans evacuated Old Berk, defeating Grimmel afterwards, many vikings across the central archipelago had no qualms about doing anything to stop the Warlords destroying that peace as Yurlin claimed they were. And although many of them were surprised and unsure at how aggressively the Ancients had militarized Old Berk for what felt like an indefinite amount of time, they were nonetheless convinced he could be the one to maintain the peace.
But whilst there was genuine, shy support for Yurlin's ideology of anti-Warlodism, there was indeed some orchestrated support being implemented across the Northern Markets. Alfa Yurlin had already turned his attention to the island shortly after he militarized Old Berk, and he had a cunning plan upon sensing gradual support for arguably an even bolder action of his.
Annexing the Northern Markets into the Ancient Tribe. When he spoke about living space in the past, he truly meant it.
Alfa Yurlin was pondering with both Krimm Hiss, basically the head viking of propaganda within the Ancient Tribe, and Herrick Herald, the de-facto Deputy Chieftan just below Yurlin himself. He was over the moon with how minuscule the response from the Hooligans was over his militarization of Berk. And with his popularity in the tribe at an all time high, he felt bolder and more free to carry on with his agenda overseas.
His attention was now turned towards an island that he considered very much to have been infested in the past with unvikings. The Northern Markets. In the privacy of the hall, Yurlin and his two senior vikings discussed the plan of action that they were to undertake.
"Mark my words, if the Hooligans had shown up and shot arrows at us when I ordered our men to sail to Berk, we would've had to turn back and my entire life would've been over, as would my political leadership...I'd have been destroyed, even!" Yurlin boasted, "but alas, it's sensible on Hiccup's part that he truly does understand what I am doing here, for all of our own good, in the face of Drago Bludvist!"
"Indeed, Chieftan. The Ancient vikings will thank you for your bravery as we seek to reward them for their loyalty...with more space to live on after winning the fight against unvikingness," Herald said.
"Very much so. But we must not stop, not least with the inevitable confrontation between ourselves and the Warlords. We must carry on the liberation! the Northern Market island houses many vikings on it, for example?" Yurlin questioned.
Herrick Herald and Krim Hiss nodded.
"But it has been the fertilizer in the past for so-called dragon hunters...trappers...groups which were associated with the likes of Drago Bludvist. It is therefore imperative that I seek to deal with the Northern Market problem!"
Alfa Yurlin knew a lot about this island - the fact it was a trading market for all vikings across the archipelago, that it housed its own tribe, but he had been briefed and told that there was ample support on that island for some sort of unification between his tribe and theirs.
"As far as I'm concerned, these people...some of them have been infected with the virus of the unvikings, but there's other patriotic vikings who share the same values as us...the same goal in crushing the Warlords like Hiccup and the Hooligans do. As you said earlier to me, Herald, this island has previously been the host of riots in favour of our intervention in solving their chaos?"
"Indeed, Chieftan - we have plenty of Northern Market Ancients stuffed on the island. Until we had firm and physical confirmation of our success in militarizing the island of Berk, they've been informed to keep quiet. Now, we've got a clean slate. The men are ready to pile pressure onto their Chieftan, who goes by the name Erick the Everlasting."
Yurlin could only chuckle at hearing such a title - the irony instantly made him laugh.
"As everlasting as he calls himself, nothing of the sort will happen when we initiate our antics on their island. There needs to be riots, they need to inflict chaos, so we can come on by and portray ourselves to the wider archipelago as taking control of a chaotic, dying tribe. We will DEMAND that this Chieftan of theirs installs top Ancient men into high council positions to speak for the will of the vikings."
Yurlin, with his two closest vikings, started concluding the meeting. The aggression that the Ancients were starting to show overseas was entering a new phase. Aggression that was akin to the likes of Drago in his prime, and aggression that any pacifist would want to brush to the side and ignore for the sake of peace. An emboldened Yurlin had no hesitations about his expansionist plans anymore, after his success in taking Berk.
Erick the Everlasting was closed off in his hut with his wife and child. Erick was a very public type of Chieftan, he was never isolated from his tribe and he'd usually take strolls through the village, but particularly the trading markets with wooden stalls of fish, supplies, all to be sold to vikings sailing their way to the island from all tribes.
But he was locked away in his house with his family for one specific reason - a cohort of pro-Ancient vikings were starting to cause havoc all across the island. Erick knew of these vikings and it had only been no less than five days since they started creating chaos. But upon hearing the news of Berk, the old home island of the Hooligans, Erick was able to put the pieces together.
These pro-Ancient Northern Market vikings, Erick suspected, were actually undercover vikings sent by the Yurlin regime to create such chaos. But there was a tangible support among some of the regulars he knew in his tribe, for some sort of unification with the Ancients, especially in light of the Ancients' remarkable lifestyle and food supplies. Most importantly, though, was the way they were acting as a great big barrier against the Warlords.
The latter part had particular appeal with the Northern Market vikings, the native ones. Not all of them, but a substantial few, felt like a unification with the Ancients only made sense. Drago Bludvist was alive, the Warlords were back in action, and the peace over the last decade since the death of Grimmel had prompted a desire to maintain that peace.
Being unified with a tribe like the Ancients only made sense to the supporters of such a notion - the unvikings, Yurlin's notion of them, resonated very well with the supporters too.
Erick felt powerless, he had no idea what to do. He had his council of vikings whom he relied on to make decisions on the island, and part of him had secretly regretted allowing vikings to continue sailing to and from his island for the market stall trades. With the rise of the Yurlin regime, he honestly wished he had closed off his island from being sailed to.
"I'm...I'm stuck here, what do I do?" Erick frantically asked, "I'm scared if I go out there I'm gonna be pelted with an axe in my face!"
"Don't say that, Erick - you need to go out there, and sort out that chaos. This is an orchestrated event being imposed on us by the Ancients. Our only hope is to either deal with the rioters in the tribe, or wait for outside help...maybe the Hooligans will come back and help us?"
Erick felt that was unlikely. His Northern Market tribe had barely any communication with the Hooligans, even well before Stoick's death. He wasn't even sure if anyone on the archipelago was aware of the fact that his tribe was now being given the attention of the Ancient dictator himself.
"These people want to portray our island as being in chaos...and for the Ancients to march onto our island to 'restore order'...in other words, to annex us and absorb our identities so we become just another province of the Ancient Tribe...I will stand up to Yurlin and I will not allow this to happen. I don't care anymore if I get pelted by an axe, I'm the Chieftan of this island, this tribe, I've safeguarded ourselves for so many years, I won't let a dictatorial tyrant viking stop me from doing that!"
"That's the spirit, babe - go out there, settle the score, and let it be known that we're aware of the orchestrated 'chaos' and 'disorder' in our tribe."
When dealing with a dictatorial Chieftan like Yurlin, hungry for territory, it was going to be an uphill battle to save the island and the tribe's sovereignty. This was going to be closely watched by the likes of the Hooligans, possibly even the Warlords themselves.
For Yurlin himself, his ultimatum was already in his mind, and he was set to deliver it. An ultimatum that was going to prove to be too much to accept as it was.