Chapter 283
Hiccups POV:
It's been a week since Claude and his crew came to Berk and the first two days of that time had not been pleasant for anyone since they'd all been dealing with massive hangovers from the party. It was actually a lot worse for some married men who had taken one of the dancers home while they were drunk and had to explain things to their wives and my dad had to help smooth things out between the husbands and wives while fighting his own hangover. Still though, despite Claude being gone, I still felt as if things weren't over yet since his last words to me before he left on his ship were 'He always gets what he wants' and this made me nervous. I'd experienced his kind enough times to know not to take those words lightly and this is something I made clear to all my islands inhabitants who were ordered to keep their guard up.
Tonight, that was proven to be the right thing to do since an hour ago, seven ships docked on different parts of my island before their crews disembarked and began spreading out which allowed the inhabitants to pick them off one by one. There were of course some who were able to make it into my house, but my snake tapestries and automatons made short work of them before I went to handle them. Now, their ships had been captured and put in my ship shed for now while all the prisoners were in my shadow, being kept prisoner for now until I could interrogate them but that could wait till morning.
This brings us to now, with me walking back into my room and looking at the bed where my wives were still soundly sleeping but it was easy to tell Blanca missed laying on me by how she was hugging my pillow. I smiled and removed my coat which was the only piece of gear I was wearing and got back into bed and as soon as I'd settled in, I felt my wife's familiar hands rest on my body as Hadasa said.
"What was going on that you had to leave us for so long?" I turned to her and stroked her cheek.
"Just some goons sneaking on to the island, but we caught them all." I heard Astrid sigh and knew she was doing an eye roll.
"Probably sent by that idiot Claude to steal some of the animals and dragons." I shrugged.
"We'll know once I use my coats new crystal room on them." It was then Blanca spoke.
"That can wait for after breakfast in the morning, for now we should all be going back to sleep to prepare for whatever trials tomorrow brings." We all nodded and went back to sleep.
Afternoon
The sun shone high above my home as I sat down in my tea gardens gazebo sipping my hot tea and enjoying the silence while I went over all I'd learnt this morning from the men I captured. Astrid's hunch about Claude being the one who sent them was proven right when I used my crystal skull room on the leader of the group and gotten shown Claude telling them their job and paying them half their gold. Along with this he told them why he was so determined to get his hands on my dragons and animals and to say I was angry with him would be an understatement. Apparently he'd hold an auction on his island for various hunters, collectors and other people who had an interest in exotic beasts and this auction was very exclusive so you needed an invitation in the form of an amulet and if you didn't have one and tried to get in, they'd take you for a spy or crook and add you to the auction as a slave. It was disgusting what Claude was doing to make a few pieces of gold and now he'd crossed the line since one the things they were sent to collect was Xiu but why I do not know.
Now however I needed to calm my nerves and relax since acting impulsively would only lead to my downfall and acting out of anger will lead to loss. This is why I was now in my tea gardens gazebo sipping the tea to calm my nerves as the smell of the smoke from the lit incense that flew around in the breeze and mixed with the smell of tea leaves. As I sat there I began thinking of the best way to deal with Claude and his auction, whether I should attack him during the auction to completely ruin it, wait till the end and then ambush him when his guard is down or attack him before the auction and drive his customers away. I sighed as I took another sip of my tea and began planning things out knowing that before I did anything, I'd need to first get onto his island so I could scout out things and see what I was dealing with, which is what I intended to do tonight and drop off the prisoners on Outcast island along the way.
Nightfall
I was on Toothless, flying over the island Claude called home while also being the place where he was holding his auction and I had to say I was impressed with what I was seeing. The place was basically a fortress like my Uncle Fergus's castle except this one was a lot bigger with more buildings and walls surrounding the entire fortress with a huge courtyard where a stage had been set up. Along with this from the outside I saw multiple guards patrolling the walls and courtyard and using the eye of the dragon, I looked inside and saw there were even more people inside. The forests surrounding the fortress weren't anything to joke about either since they were swarming with multiple guards, all patrolling it for intruders. Surrounding the entire island though was a stone walkway that was built fifty feet off the coast of the island and twenty-five feet high above the water, cutting off all access to the island. The only way through is through a large metal gate that has controls under strict guards who would lower a gangplank to the visiting ships and check if the amulet they brought was the real deal or a fake and if it was a fake they'd take the ship and its crew.
All in all, the place did not look like it'd be easy to break into for a normal person, but I on the other hand had Toothless, my training, my ninja and my gifts from the gods so breaking in would be a piece of cake. Still though, I needed to get a better idea of the building's interior so I dropped a couple of my jewelwigs down towards the fortress and let them scurry into the cracks so I could begin getting a better idea of the place. With these automatons in place I gave Toothless a pat on the neck making him croon before steering him upwards above the clouds towards my ship where we landed and began heading home. As we did, I leaned against the railing and looked out at the night sky with a smile on my face as Toothless walked up next to me and I smiled while rubbing his head as I said.
"In a few days bud, we'll be making sure Claude understands not to mess with our family again." He growled and nodded.
5 days later
It's been five days since the scouting mission on Claude's island and since then I've been able to get a rough idea of how things are in Claude's fortress from the rooms there are to the how many guards. I had to say the place was clearly made to be shown off with all the expensive decorations everywhere, polished weapons on the upper walls, exotic and clearly foreign carpets covering the floors, various paintings on the walls, guards at every corner wearing armor from head to toe and many women wearing near nothing were wondering around, probably just so Claude could show off more or enjoy their exposed bodies. What shocked me though was how Claude himself entered a secret passageway that lead to a dungeon and what was even more shocking was it was filled with people, including kids who were no older than Chara. What truly disgusted me though was how he'd just throw two loafs of bread into the cells full of kids and let them fight over the food and it was clear that it wasn't enough to feed all of them. I had to use all my patience and training not to fly over there on Toothless and pummel his face in for what he was doing to those people but I knew that it wouldn't end well for anyone and I needed to plan more. Besides that, I'd learnt he was also selling dragons he'd captured which meant the nests were going to be getting some new dragons and my mom was going to be getting some new patients to care for since some of them looked pretty banged up.
I ended up coming up with the plan being to strike his fortress during the auction since that would be when most of his guards would be outside, handling guard duty with the guests to ensure none of them tried anything. While the fortress' defenses were weakened, I'd sneak in and free the captives before helping them escape onto my ship and then commence the real attack on the fortress with me and Toothless attacking from above and scaring off his customers. When I informed my wives of the plan, they were all for it and wanted to join in with Astrid and Stormfly helping cause havoc from above, Blanca attacking the ships in her full snake form to make sure the buyers didn't come back and Hadasa attacking those in the forest with her powers and helping the prisoners evacuate to where my ship would be waiting for them. I agreed to it since I wanted this done as fast as I could before any of the prisoners could be sold into slavery or worse and it's been a while since me and my wives worked together on a mission.
All of this brings us to now with me and my wives above Claude's island on my ship, in the crystal map room, examining the model of Claude's island while my automatons were down below on the island scouting it all out. It was then my eyes widened as some of the customers disembarked their ships since I recognized every one of them from wanted posters in the pubs I visited when I was going to hunt down bounties and what's more there were also bandit leaders from Rome, Greece, Egypt and Arabia. I knew who these guys were because I was often warned to keep a lookout for them and if found, either capture or kill them since their crimes were too numerous to mention, they already had the death sentence waiting for them. I turned to my wives who looked up at me as when they heard me growl at the memory of what I'd been told some of these crooks had done to people. I looked at them and said.
"Change of plans girls, we don't let any of the guests escape." Hadasa asked.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean we capture every last one of those guests and lock them up." Hadasa then asked.
"Why?"
"I recognize every one of them, they're all bandits, wanted for multiple crimes including murder, theft, kidnapping, rape and more." Astrid then said.
"So, in other words, it's better to capture them here and take them in then to let them go and cause more trouble wherever they came from." I nodded.
"Exactly, which means your role changes to you attacking the guards on the wall and making sure the gate stays closed when me and Toothless begin the attack." She nodded. "Got it!" I turned back to the map.
"Other than that, the plan will stay the same so let's get to work." They nodded and we took off to begin doing our parts.
10 minutes later
It's been ten minutes since we began our silent attack on Claude's island and so far, things have been going well with all the guards in the forest now being wrapped up in branches in the trees thanks to Hadasa, Blanca was waiting in the water by the docks and Astrid was with Stormfly in the air waiting for the signal to begin the attack. As for me, I had freed all the prisoners three minutes ago while fifteen of my ninja including the masters were running around the fortress and dealing with the guards since all of the servants had been moved outside to serve and entertain the guests. As for the prisoners, I was shocked to find that most of them were from ally tribes including the Meatheads, Bog Burgles and Berserkers, all tribes that Claude does business with and they revealed his men captured them when they were out fishing or hunting so they had no way of calling for help. What was most surprising though was that one of the people who had been captured was Minden who I hadn't seen in ages and I had to admit, she had changed since the last time with her curves filling out in all the right places.
Anyway, it turns out her new baby razorwhip is on the dragon auction and she refuses to go anywhere without it so I agreed to let her stay with me and help rescue the dragons. Now I was helping a child climb down my mystic rope from the second floor. I placed her on the ground while smiling knowing that she was the last of the prisoners in the building and my ninja were dealing with the remaining guards inside. I took my rope back and had it return to its bracelet form before turning to the large group of now free people with Hadasa standing by them and said.
"Follow my wife Hadasa, she'll get you all to safety while we deal with Claude and his men." They all nodded before Hadasa lead them all away and I turned to Minden. "Now let's go get you your dragon back." She smiled.
"Do you know where my razorwhip is being held?" I nodded.
"Your razorwhip and all the other dragons he's going to try and auction off so we better hurry since from what I can tell he'll be beginning the auction soon."
She nodded before we reentered the house and rushed to where the dragons were being held with me picking up the downed guards we passed into my coat. We eventually arrived at a metal door where two of my ninja were standing over two unconscious men and after pulling the men into my shadow I walked up to the door and pulled out my red bell and gently rang it near the doors lock disabling the locking mechanism. I walked into the room and found multiple breeds of dragons, muzzled and in cages with a large ramp at the back leading to a trap door that I knew lead to the courtyard where I knew the auction was being held. I was brought out of my thoughts by Minden saying.
"Hiccup, I've found her!" I turned to her and saw her kneeling by a cage that held her razorwhip and smiled.
"Let's get her out of there." I walked over and rang my bell, unlocking her cage before the door opened and the razorwhip immediately ran up to Minden who embraced it and then letting it take its place on her back as she looked around.
"How are we going to handle these other dragons as they don't seem to be trusting of us?" I smiled at her.
"That's why I brought someone who speaks their language." I extended my shadow and released Toothless. "Time to get your glow on bud." He growled and nodded before his scales glowed blue, catching the attention of all of the dragons as he let out a roar and they all bowed to him making me smile. "Come on, let's get these guys out of their cages." We quickly got to work unlocking the cages and taking the muzzles off but halfway through taking the muzzle off a gronkle that the sound of stone scraping against the ground caught my attention followed by a voice saying.
"Time to get the beasts out for the big auction." I turned and saw six men walking out of a hidden passageway before they noticed me and the one at the front cried.
"HEY, WHO ARE YOU TWO AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH OUR DRAGONS?"
I quickly pulled out a crystal shuriken, filled it with my knockout gas and threw it at their feet before they were covered in a cloud of my gas and began coughing while stumbling out and collapsing unconscious. I signaled Toothless to my side and walked up to the now unconscious men and pulled them into my shadow while looking down the passageway they came out of and saw a long staircase. I turned to Minden and Toothless as I said.
"There might be more men down there, they come up it could be trouble, so we better check it out." Minden nodded while Toothless growled. "Toothless, stay up here and look get the dragons ready to fly bud, me and Minden will handle whatever's down there."
He growled and nodded before me and Minden headed down the stairs but to be on the safe side, I gave her a gronkle iron sword from my spiderpack. When we reached the bottom, we found two guards standing in front of a metal door talking but I quickly pulled them into my shadow before they realized we were there and that their legs had been bound. I used my red bell to disable the locking mechanism and pushed the door open but what I saw tore me up inside since it was so depressing to see. The entire room was very large and full of people who were shackled to the walls and floor, dressed in rags and looked as if they'd been here for a long time, even children were among them. It was then I saw through the eyes of my automatons that the auction was about to start and the ramp leading to where they stored the dragons was about to be opened so I turned to Minden and asked.
"Do you think you can free all these people on your own." She smiled and held up a ring of keys.
"Found these on the wall, should help me out a bit." I smiled and rushed up the stairs and ran to Toothless.
"Time to get ready for a fight bud." He growled and nodded. "Better get your armor on to, it looked like there were a couple of archers on those walls." Toothless growled and nodded before equipping his armor and then allowing me to mount him. "The other dragons know what to do?" He growled and nodded as the ramp began to lower. "Let's do this bud." He let out a strong growl as the ramp finished lowering and we took off out the opening with the other dragons following us and the second we were out I yelled. "THIS ENDS NOW!" Claude looked up at us as did his customers as I released my crystal spear. "NONE OF YOU ARE GOING TO ESCAPE!" I threw my spear towards the gate and as soon as the crystal end imbedded itself in the ground a wall of crystal burst from the ground, blocking the only exit. "Let's show them what we got bud." Toothless growled and nodded before he fired a plasma blast at the stage where Claude was standing before he dived off just as the stage was destroyed in a fiery explosion as he yelled out.
"TAKE THEM OUT OF THE SKY!" It was then the real battle was beginning so I called for the ninja I'd already summoned from the fortress and the true fight started but Claude and his men didn't stand a chance.
5 minutes later
Claude, his men and servants were now kneeled in front of me with their arms bound behind their backs while his buyers were now in my shadow while Astrid sat on Stormfly behind me, Blanca in her half snake form stood next to her, Hadasa was still in the forest and my ninja surrounded us. The ships and crews of the buyers on the other hand were now on my ship with the ships now in bottles, their cargo now in the storage hold and the crew members in the cells. I walked up to Claude and kneeled down in front of him as I chuckled and asked.
"Not the way you expected the auction to go Claude?" He glared at me. "Now I admit that my original goal was just to spook your customers off as payback for sending dragon hunters to my island to steal my dragons, animals but worst of all, you had them try to kidnap my baby girl." He looked away in annoyance, but I forced him to look back at me. "Now I could just hand you over to the other tribes for kidnapping their people but before that, I want to know why you wanted Xiu." He smirked.
"You've made a lot of enemies Hiccup, a lot of them would do anything to gain an upper hand on you and I figured your daughter would be the perfect weapon whether they hold her hostage or raise her to hate you and then have her fight you knowing you wouldn't hurt your own child." I glared at him.
"You're lucky they failed, or I'd be dragging you to Egypt and have you left in the hottest part of the desert to slowly die under the heat of the sun." He gulped. "Now one thing bothers me is a hidden passage I found in the dragon holding area, it was filled with people who looked like they'd been down there for a long time so I'm guessing they weren't going to be sold which makes me wonder why you kept them." It was then for the first time, Crackskull spoke, asking.
"Those people, was one of them a little girl with green eyes and messy brown hair?" I turned to him but before I could ask why he wanted to know a voice from behind me cried out.
"DADDY!" I turned and saw a little girl that matched his description rush up from the ramp and run towards him as Crackskull began to tear up.
"HILDA!" The girl ran up and hugged him. "My precious little Valkyrie." I walked up to them and Crackskull looked up at me. "Please, do whatever you want with me but don't harm my daughter."
"Since she was one of the people who was locked up, I take it Claude kept her to make sure you didn't betray him." He growled.
"More than that, it's the reason I worked for him in the first place, it's how he's gotten most of us to work for him, leaving our villages and happy lives behind for a life of constant fear for our loved ones." I turned to Claude.
"Your heart is a lot colder than I originally thought." He glared.
"No, I'm just a good businessman." I took him by the throat and strangled him a bit.
"There's a difference between a businessman and a villain." I let him go before I walked up to Crackskull.
"I won't hold what you've done against you since you were only trying to protect your daughter but I need you to tell me, were there any people who worked for Claude of their own free will." He nodded with a scowl.
"There are and they'd often gloat about their payments of gold while people like me would only be paid with a few minutes with our loved ones." I nodded and freed his hands. "Show them to me!" He nodded and we got to work.
1 hour later
It's been an hour since we began separating those who were forced to work for Claude from those who worked for him willing with those who did it willingly remaining tied up while the others were free which surprisingly included most of the servant girls who were barely wearing anything. They claimed that Claude wanted them for their beauty and only allowed them to wear what they were wearing so he could enjoy looking at their bodies whenever he saw them and they were grateful that they'd be able to wear normal clothes again. This entire thing took half an hour with many more of the hostages being brought up to reunite with their loved ones and then having them all escorted by Astrid back to my ship so we could take them all back to their homes. Once they were all off, Crackskull was kind enough to take me to where Claude his all his gold, jewels and other such things which I placed in my spiderpack to give to his victims later so they'd have an easier time rebuilding their lives. I also used the opportunity to pick up the remaining guards all of which worked for Claude willingly and brought them outside using my shadow coat.
Now it was done which brings us to now with me on the back of Toothless and looking down at Claude who was glaring back up at me as he said.
"This is only a setback Hiccup, I still have my connections and when I've recovered, I'll get you for this."
"And how do you think the other tribes are going to feel when they find out you've been kidnapping their people and selling them to wanted crooks?" He glared but I could see the fear in his eyes as I smirked. "I'll tell you what though, this should help you think more clearly." I had something come out of my prosthetic and tossed it to him which he quickly caught.
"What is this?" I smiled.
"A little luck of the Irish."
With that said, Toothless and I took off into the air as I smiled since the item I tossed Claude was my Irish coin that causes bad luck to follow anyone I gave it to which means Claude's going to be having a bit of a hard time for the next few days. I shook my head knowing I also had a bit of work to do now since he'd enslaved a lot of people who also needed some healing and food along with finding where they came from and dropping off the crooks I caught all across the world. Knowing all this I sighed and muttered to myself how it was going to be a long night and chances are I wasn't going to be getting any sleep during it since I'd be so busy. I sighed and steered Toothless to where my ship was flying as I rubbed the side of his neck and said.
"We've got a long night ahead of us bud." He growled and nodded.
Morning
Morning had arrived and with it came my chance to rest since I had spent the entire night returning people to their homes and tribes while also explaining to their chiefs who was responsible for the disappearance of their people. It was easy to tell none of them were going to be doing any sort of business with Claude again except giving him the business end of their weapons if he ever came near their tribes again. After they'd all been dropped off, we went on a tour across the world to drop off the crooks and collect their bounties which filled a few sections of my cargo hold since the people also paid us with livestock and supplies which I wasn't going to complain about more animals and supplies. What I was going to complain about though was how some of the richer people, offering me slaves as payment and was glad my wives were sleeping since I knew their kind would give them a headache. Now though, I was finally home and at the insistence of my wives, making my way to the bed, collapsing on it and just like that I was out like a light, catching up on the sleep I missed as my family went about their day.
The desert gazebo
Nobodies POV:
Hiccups wives who had been allowed to sleep at night while Hiccup had controlled the ship and tend to the people had come together to discuss last night. They all agreed Hiccup had been overworking himself again and needed time to rest but the question was how they were going to do it since Hiccup was never one to go down easily until all his work was complete. They'd gone over all Hiccup felt he needed to do when he woke up including explaining to his father why Claude would not be doing anymore business with Berk. The girls all agreed that they'd take care of that job since if there's one thing Stoick the Vast hates above all else, it's traitors who play him for a fool and he was still angry after Claude sent those dragon hunters to the island. Now knowing what Claude's been doing on the side, they all knew Stoick was going to just as angry as he was that time that he was told who Trader Johan was really working for. Along with this he and the other tribes would have to find a new trader to replace Claude since he may have been a crook, but he was still a decent supplier of goods for the various tribes. They decided they'd also take care of this and discuss it with Stoick since Hiccup needed a day to sleep after spending his night dealing with angry chiefs, snobby nobles, odd foreigners and more. Now their meeting was coming to an end with Astrid saying.
"So, we're all in agreement on having Hiccup take some time off to rest?" Both Blanca and Hadasa nodded. "Alright then, Hadasa you make some flowers grow in the bedroom so their smell can help him sleep." She smiled at Astrid.
"Gladly!" Astrid turned to Blanca.
"Blanca, you keep an eye on him for the day and if he starts to wake up, sing him something to keep him asleep." She nodded making Astrid smile. "Alright, now while you two do that," She frowned. "I'll be handling our father-in-law." They each looked uneasy before Blanca placed a hand on her shoulder.
"You don't have to do it alone." Astrid shook her head.
"No, I've grown up surrounded by angry Vikings, I know how to handle them and besides, you two need to look after Hiccup or else he'll wake up and we all know he won't go back to bed until everything's handled." Everyone nodded before they all set out to do their assigned jobs.
AN: I know it's not much of a chapter but it's something I wanted to do since I rarely get the chance for Hiccup to use his bad luck coin and Claude was the perfect victim for it. Anyway, I have a plan for the next chapter and I can assure you it's a real twist from most of the other chapters and I hope you will all enjoy it. Until then, please review kindly and have a nice day.
