Chapter 299
Hiccups POV:
It's been four weeks since we brought down the dragon hunters and since then we've discovered three more groups which we able to bring down, resulting in many new dragons being given homes in the nests. It was during one of these raids that I learnt that they were all working for the same clients but like the first group we took down, they didn't know who the clients were or why they wanted the dragons. At the very least I was able to discover where they got some of their dragon hunting equipment and methods, which was Drago Bludvists old base which had been abandoned after his death. After finding out about this me and the kids went to the base to raid it of anything I could, from notes on dragons to the weapons and machines used to capture them. When I got there though, I found a group of dragon hunters already looting the place, but a couple of shuriken loaded with knockout gas made short work of them before I pulled them into my shadow. Once that was done, I brought the kids down from the ship and we began looting the entire base of anything of value and walked away with a large number of weapons, fur pelts, dried food, books, maps, dragon traps, siege weapons and more. Once we were sure we got everything, I released four cans of boom beetles and destroyed the entire base so that if we missed anything, nobody would ever get them again.
After dropping the hunters off on Outcast Island, we went home and sorted through things we brought back with the books, maps and scrolls going into the library, the designs for the siege weapons going into my design room so we could learn their weak points, fur pelts in storage while the dried meat that was long passed expired went to the dragons and the weapons went to the smothering smokebreaths since they were too rusted for use. As for the siege weapons, they were given to the village and used to enhance Berks defense and as for the dragon traps, we dismantled them and melted the pieces to be reused. After that I upped both my training and the training of my family since there was no telling how powerful these clients of the dragon hunters were or what forces and weapons, they had at their disposal which is not something I wanted my family unprepared for.
Besides that, things have been pretty calm with me mostly just doing chiefing around the village, mainly helping enhance our defenses since the hunters might try to attack Berk to get revenge. I'd set up automatons in the ocean, lined every cliff with ballistae and catapults, set up multiple new watchtowers and thunder ears while also enhancing Berks current defenses with the help of Dedalus who went over the designs with me and pointed out where improvements could be made. With our combined minds, the island had pretty much been turned into a fortress which nobody would be able to break into easily and if they did than they'd still have an army waiting for them.
Now we've recently we got word that Snotlout and the twins had gone on vacation to an island where Berkians often vacationed, but when they were a day late, I was sent out to find them. I set out to the island, bringing Toothless to watch my back and my main dragon, and Greta to help sniff the trio out and as backup in case there was trouble. As for my family, I'd decided it best that they stay behind to help defend Berk since the hunters might attack Berk the second, they find out I'm gone since chances are the hunters I caught had friends who were eager to get both revenge and their dragons back.
We arrived on the island last night and found the trio with their dragons easily enough but, unfortunately for us they were wrapped up by silkspanner dragons who weren't too eager to get to let me and my dragons take them back. Fortunately, their webs weren't fireproof, and I was able to use my control over fire to free not only me and my dragons but also Snotlout, the twins and their dragons, while also driving off the silkspanners. As they fled though I was able to pull an arrow from one of their bodies, confirming my suspicions that they'd been attacked by humans which is why they were aggressive. This made it all the better that I brought Greta with me since she was able to get the scent off the arrow and lead us to where it came from so we could bring down the hunters and hopefully allow the silkspanners to go home. Before that though, I escorted Snotlout and the twins back to Berk for a checkup since they'd been in those webs for a while and their families were worried about them.
Once that was done, I picked Eret up since there might be some aggressive silkspanners along the way and he could use his trapping skills to help restrain them incase we were over run. This brings us to now, with me on Toothless and Eret on Greta now flying towards an island where the scent was coming from but I was not liking what I was seeing since the entire island looked to be covered in thorny vines that were spreading fast. I steered Toothless a little closer to get a better look at them, but as soon we got close, I steered him away when one actually reached out towards us as Eret said.
"Careful, Hiccup!" I turned to him.
"You have any ideas on what this stuff is?" He nodded.
"It's a plant called 'dragon vine'." He looked down at the island. "I've only heard about it though during my trapper days." He looked back up at me. "Its thorns are poisonous to humans, deadly to dragons." I nodded.
"In other words, stay away from it." He nodded before a scream from below caught our attention. "We're not alone in these weeds." I looked down and using the eye of the dragon, I spotted a group of five people surrounded by the vines. "Down there!" I steered Toothless towards them and cried out. "PLASMA BLAST!" He blasted one at a vine that was getting too close to a person's leg before I tossed a couple of orange Loki balls around the people, creating powerful an fiery blasts that destroyed the vines before we came in to land in front of the people who I could tell were from Africa by their skin color and their clothes but that was something to deal with later. "Sorry about that but you can't argue with the results." I gestured to myself. "My name is Hiccup and I'm from Berk." I dismounted Toothless and offered my hand. "And with me are-" I was cut off when an elderly man with dotted scars circling his eyes and a long wooden fork in his one hand, swatted my hand away while glaring as I noticed a silkspanner web on the fork. "So that's the problem." It was then a voice from the side said.
"Yes, the Anansi were here until we displaced them." I saw a man who looked to be my age with black hair only on top of his head, braided into dreadlocks and he was very muscular, black dots painted on his forehead, chin and around his eyes, while his attire consists of a light tan one-shoulder tunic on the left shoulder with a black sash-like belt, along with a red and white underlayer, black trousers, and black fur boots, making his way towards us with a bow in his hand, a quiver of arrows on his back and a group of men following him while chopping away the vines.
"You speak our language." He nodded.
"One of the things I've picked up along the way."
"Judging by your attire and skin colour you're not from the archipelago." He nodded.
"My name is Bayana and your gift for observation astounds, Hiccup."
"But why did you attack the silkspanners and drive them from their home?"
He then told me the tale of how Drago conquered their village years back but when he learnt they were farmers instead of warriors he could put in his army, he destroyed it and ever since then they've been living from island to island trying to find a home. When I told him how Drago was dead, he went on about how his people were still victims of Drago's diaspora since their home was gone and every new island, they visit more horrors instead of refuge. Eventually they decided to stop running and drove off the silkspanners but once they'd driven them off, their home began sprouting dragon vine which had caused nothing but chaos on their island. I figured there was some sort of connection so I needed to track them down, but I'd leave Eret to help the people find the root of the vines and destroy it since if it spread to other islands it would be chaos. This leads us to now with me mounting Toothless after tossing Eret a bag full of firebombs and a couple of jars filled with monstrous nightmare gel to help fight the vines off. As we took off, I looked at Bayana and said.
"Be careful out there Bayana and remember" I smiled. "Restless feet may lead you into a snakepit." His eyes widened at the old African saying I'd been told about rushing into things. "Don't look so surprised, I've been around the world and learnt a few things." With that said we took off.
Half-an-hour later
It's been half-an-hour since we went after the silkspanners and I am happy to say we'd just stumbled onto a nest with the eggs hatching and the little ones being kinda cute. Unfortunately, their mother wasn't too happy with us playing with her new hatchlings and was making that clear with how she was now roaring at us. This brings us to now with me and my dragons looking up at the mother who was looking down at us as some of the older hatchlings launched their webs at us. My dragons blasted the webs before they could reach us but it was then Toothless let out a roar of surprise making me turn to him to see a dragon vine sprouting from his saddle and wrapping around him. I quickly rushed up to him while mentally saying how I hope Eret was having better luck than us and began trying to rip the vine off Toothless while using my gloves to ensure I didn't touch the thorns.
Back with Eret
Nobodies POV:
Eret had been chopping away at the dragon vine using a blade that had been covered in Monstrous Nightmare gel and lit, coating the blade in flames. Bayana had joined him in his search for the seed of the vines so they could destroy them and with them destroy the vines to stop them from growing. As they made their way through the forest of vines though, Eret had taken notice of the heavy farming equipment and noticed how Bayana avoided the question of what they were growing while also noticing a couple of bodies hung up by the vines. Sadly, the vines spread faster than they could cut them down and they quickly found themselves surrounded by them which brings us to now.
Eret was setting up the bombs Hiccup gave him around a part of the ground that had a hole in it and where he could feel air coming from, hoping it could be an underground tunnel, he knew it was their best chance. With the last bomb in place, he pulled the trigger on one while running back and telling to Bayana to do the same right before the explosions went off creating a large opening in the ground. Not having much of a choice in the matter they both quickly jumped into the pit and into a tunnel before Eret said.
"My eyes need to adjust, you see anything?" Bayana looked up and replied.
"Nothing of interest except I think we've found the root of the vines." Eret looked at what he was looking at and he found himself looking up at the ancient skeleton of a titanwing snaptrapper.
Back with Hiccup and his dragons
Hiccup held the head of his nightfury with tears streaming down both their eyes as the dragonvine continued to wrap around Toothless' body despite Hiccups attempts to get the vines off his beloved dragon. He did his best to comfort Toothless by telling him how he'd be fine and how he'd make it out of this but at the time he wasn't sure if he was trying to convince Toothless or himself. It was then one of the silkspanner hatchlings hopped onto Toothless but before Hiccup could do anything, he noticed the hatchling was eating the vines and a few seconds later, three more joined in eating them. A few seconds later Toothless stood up while roaring happily and then licking Hiccup who laughed in joy as he said.
"Toothless, you're alright!" He then turned to the silkspanners and saw they were all eating the dragonvines. "That's the connection between these guys and the dragonvine." Hiccup quickly mounted Toothless. "We need to gather as many silkspanners as we can to get those dragonvines under control." Both Toothless and Greta growled in agreement and got to work.
Back with Eret
Eret made his way up through a tunnel alone shortly after Bayana had gone off to find a way out of the cavern and discovered a hidden cavern where he found planters with dragonvine pods planted in them. This led Eret to realize that Bayana and his people were the ones who grew the vines on the island and were still cultivating the pods, preparing them for something. This was confirmed when Bayana arrived bow ready and arrow pointing at Eret as he claimed that their days of running were over and that they intended to sow the seeds on the fields of all warring nations, including Berk. After that Bayana's men showed up and took Eret to a pit they called 'the briar' which had multiple dragon roots growing in it, lining the walls which brings us to now, with Eret completely surrounded by dragon root and about to die by it.
It was then a familiar whistling sound echoed through the pit before the dragon root was burned away by a plasma blast which turned into a flaming tornado that circled Eret for a few seconds while burning away the dragon root. A few seconds later, the flames died leaving Eret simply standing in a pit before two webs shot down onto his back and pulled him into the sky allowing him to see Hiccup and Toothless with the dragon now having two silkspanner hatchlings on either wing, with them being the ones who shot the webs now carrying Eret. He smiled up at Hiccup who smiled back as Eret pulled out his daggers and said.
"Thanks for the airlift." He cut the webs and fell onto Greta's back.
"Looks like the dragon vines gave you a few scratches on your way out." Hiccup picked up two of the hatchlings. "These little guys will take care of it." The two hatchlings glided down onto Eret's arms and began sucking out the poison while Hiccup turned to the flock of silkspanner hatchlings that had followed him alongside their mother. "As for the rest of you, it's chow time." The silkspanners began chomping down on the dragon vines while Hiccup turned to the fleeing people and glared at them before releasing his Chakram and throwing them down at the fleeing people who found themselves trapped by an invisible wall, created by the chakram that now surrounded them as Toothless landed by them. "Don't try to break out, nothing can break the walls of my chakram." They stared at me in shock. "Now listen, I understand you've lost everything due to war mongers like Drago but that doesn't mean you have to fight aggression with aggression since that's only going to lead to more suffering for your victims and your people, but you have another." They all stared at Hiccup. "Make this island your new home and live among nature like you once did instead of fighting against it." Hiccup gestured to the silkspanner hatchlings that were surrounding them. "I'll be happy to teach you how to train them." It was then Bayana's voice came from the side saying.
"Thanks, but I've got it." Hiccup turned and saw a smiling Bayana riding on two silkspanner hatchlings with one foot on each making Hiccup smile.
"Well bud, I think the problem's solved meaning it's time to begin the cleanup." He growled in annoyance while looking down and shaking his head. "Toothless, don't you give me that growl, if we don't cleanup than there's going to be trouble for us in the future." He growled and nodded before we got to work on cleaning up the mess that was the island, starting with me reclaiming my Chakram.
2 weeks later
It's been two weeks since I met Bayana and his tribe and to describe that time, I could only say it had been busy since there was a lot of work to do, starting with burning the dragonvine pods before they had the chance to take root and getting all the silkspanners back to the island to deal with the dragonvine that had already grown there. That last part would have been very difficult if I didn't have my calming flute to sooth them and my own silkspanner dragon, Webster, to help lead them back to the island. Once the entire island had been cleared of all the dragonvines, we held funerals for those who were killed by it and then got to work on fixing up the island. This was not an easy task since the place was pretty much nothing more than a big rock in the ocean due to the dragonvines draining practically all the life out of it.
I had to call Hadasa in to take a look at the land and she was horrified by what she saw claiming that the land had suffered a great deal because of the dragonvine, but it could be saved with time. We spent a week on the island, spending everyday using my panpipes and Hadasa's magic to help restore life to the earth with grass soon sprouting everywhere. Once that was done, I brought a couple of shovelhelms to begin building a village for the people, designing them to be based on the huts they had in their homeland and a couple of other buildings which took another week. While I worked on building the huts and other houses such as storage houses, docks, a smithy, places to raise livestock and a stable for the silkspanners, Hadasa helped the people sow seeds from their homeland to help them feel more at home. The seeds they brought though were mostly vegetables, fruits and herbs which they originally grew in their original village, so they knew how to handle these plants and with Hadasa's power and my pan flutes, they were grown and ready to harvest by our third week on the island.
Once it was all done and sorted, I wrote up a peace treaty between their people and Berk which brought an end to this trip but just to make sure everything was okay and to iron out any flaws in the treaty, we stuck around an extra two weeks. Wasn't all bad since I got to spend time with Hadasa, gain a new ally tribe for Berk while also being able to make some new friends for myself. Along with this, I got a clue to a few of the dragon hunters' bases since apparently, they'd been the ones who driven Bayana and his people from islands a few times. I know these were the hunter because according to Bayan they claimed that they were there to set up bases where they'd be able bring the dragons that they capture on the island for their employers who pay them good gold for each dragon they bring and what's worse is they'd taken some of the people as slaves.
This brings us to now, with me sitting on top of a cliffside, looking down at one of the bases that was being run by the same hunters who drove Bayana and his people off the island. This base would be the last of fifteen bases I'd been attacking and according to Bayana, where a lot of his people were captured and are being kept as slaves. We'd already raided the other fourteen, freeing Bayana's people and the dragons while capturing the hunters who were now kept on Outcast Island and looted the bases for all they were worth before burning them to the ground.
Now for this base, I could tell from my place on the cliff using my eagle eye that they'd just come back from a successful hunt since they were all drinking and eating around a bonfire while dancing around like idiots as people who looked to be from Bayana's tribe were forced to serve them. For this mission, Blanca and Astrid were joining me since it would make up for the time, I was away with just Hadasa who stayed at home to look after the kids plus it's been a while since either of them went into an actual battle and since this base was bigger than the others, I'd need help dealing with it unlike the others which I attacked with just Toothless. We'd already gone over the plan multiple times after my jewelwigs had been dropped in by my scouters and I was able to get an idea of what was where in their base. I gave the base one last look before nodding and saying.
"It's time!" The girls mounted their dragons while I mounted Toothless, and we took off.
5 minutes later
Toothless had his armor on, Blanca had her magic ready and Astrid had her claws out and ready while I was ready to bring out any weapon, I needed to bring down any enemy that came near me or in this case, to deal with the guard on the towers. We'd just spent the last five minutes attacking the towers with me and Toothless flying by them before I swung my whip down at the men on them, with the snake head paralyzing them. Once that was done, I'd yank them over the railing and down to the ground where my wives were waiting, and they would catch them before tying them up and then we'd move onto the next tower. Now the hunters on the watchtowers were trapped inside my shadow with none of their allies being the wiser as to what's been going on since they were too wrapped up in their celebration to notice.
Now our dragons had dropped me on the wall's catwalk and my wives on top of the watch towers, so they'd get the drop on the hunters once I'd drawn their attention to me. I took a breath and made my way up to the table where the man who was clearly the leader was ordering another drink with his goblet held up high. I quickly swiped the goblet from his hand drawing his attention to me but before he could react, I smashed the goblet in his face, throwing him back while grasping his broken and bleeding nose. As soon as his body hit the ground though, all seemed to go quiet as everyone turned to look at the head table with wide eyes before their leader yelled out.
"GET HIM!"
As soon as the words left his mouth all those around me charged while I smiled and hopped onto the table before I got into my battle stance and ready for the fight.
Nobodies POV:
The men charged at Hiccup with some drawing their weapons while others went in bare handed figuring Hiccup wasn't much to worry about and they could handle him bare handed. A few seconds later a man jumped onto the table and charged at Hiccup, swinging his fist forward but Hiccup turned to the sides avoiding the blow before grabbing the man by the arm and throwing him down onto another man who was climbing onto the table. He then quickly ducked to dodge a sword swing from a hunter who came at him from behind and then dropped to the ground and did a leg sweep tripping the hunter while delivering a kick to the face of a man who was getting ready to climb onto the table.
He then quickly jumped off the table and swung his foot down on it, breaking the table in two and bringing both ends up before he kicked both ends, sending them flying at four oncoming hunters. He then charged at another group but while he was busy with them, a group of hunters were running up onto the wall's catwalk armed with crossbows and got ready to fill Hiccup with arrows. Before they could launch any though, Blanca turned into the half snake form and slammed her tail into their backs sending them all flying down to the ground but drawing attention to Blanca. The men stared in shock at her, but they quickly recovered when Hiccup used the opportunity to take down six more of them and four men began charging up the stairs towards her which is when Astrid made her move. She somersaulted off the roof of the watchtower and landed a solid flying kick into the one at the front and throwing him back into the others, sending all of them falling back. Astrid on the other hand backflipped off the body of the hunter and landed on top of the stairs while Blanca returned to her human form with her magic covering her hands and ready to blast any foe, she could get close to. They both jumped down from the catwalk and joined their husband in what could only be described as a brutal beating for the hunters while the Bayana's people watched in shock and a little pity for the hunters.
1 hour later
Hiccups POV:
It's been an hour since we began the attack and since then both the hunters and their base had been dealt with along with their captives, both human and dragon, all of whom had their wounds healed using my mystic Ganji waters. Now the hunters were now trapped in the cells of my ship, the dragons were in the dragon storage hold, Bayana's people were on the top deck and waiting to go home. Their fortress had been completely looted of everything of value from weapons and traps to gold and food supplies, all of which were now resting in the ship's storage hold.
Now though I was on one of the hunters' ships with multiple statues of the hunters posing as them and a couple of dragons in cages including Toothless since this needed to look good. The reason is I learnt from the leader that they were meant to meet with their buyer this evening on the ocean since it meant it was harder for either group to go back on the deal and betray the other. I was planning on capturing the clients for interrogation and hopefully find the answers as to who was the one who was hiring these hunters and what they wanted the dragons for. As for why I was using the ship, the hunters were told to come to a place and wait for the clients to come and I figured if they saw my ship or didn't see any ship, the clients would walk away, and I'd lose the chance to get the information I was after.
This brings us to now with, me sitting on top of the sails with Astrid while we were looking down at my statues working away with dragons in cages covering the top deck to keep the enemies from being suspicious, with Blanca up on my ship, keeping an eye on Bayana's people. Circling the ship were three stinging stingrays who would be latching onto the enemy ship when it docked, and they would sink it if they tried to flee so there would be no chance of escape. Along with this I'd set up a few hidden crystal skulls around the deck of the ship we were on so we could capture the clients who come onto the ship easily. There were some of Bayana's people recommended that I just follow the clients ship after giving them some dragons but there was no way I was going to put any dragons in danger like that.
It was then a ship appeared in the distance and it wasn't long before it came to dock next to the ship we were on and lower a gangplank between the two ships. I made the leaders statue speak to them and lead the clients around to examine the dragons while my stinging stingrays latched onto the side of their ship. It was then the client gave the order to start moving the cargo which were the dragons onto their ship which is when I decided it was time to make our move. I brought out three crystal shuriken, loaded with my knockout gas and nodded to Astrid, signaling her to get ready to which she nodded before I threw the shuriken down at the enemy ship, covering their entire deck in gas. Before the ones on the hunters' ship could do anything though, I had my statues crumble to shock them and throw them off their guard and once that was done, I had the crystal skulls grab all the men on the ship and capture them. Once they were all caught, Astrid and I jumped from our place on the rafters and land on the deck before turning to Astrid and saying.
"Let's go check the lower decks of their ship for any threats." She nodded.
"We should let the dragons out of their cages first." I nodded and we got to work.
5 hours later
It's been five hours since we captured the clients who were there to buy the dragons and since then we've dropped off Bayana's people before setting sail for home and planned to interrogate the clients in the morning. I'd already locked them all up in the Berk dungeon for tomorrow and sent dragons we rescued to the nests for the evening while the cargo we gained from the ships was still on mine so it could be unloaded tomorrow. As for me, I'd dropped Toothless off at the stables and bid him along with my other dragons goodnight, kissed each of my children and now lay in bed with my wives and going to sleep so I could work on the clients in the morning with my mind being focused on what I could learn as I drifted off into the realm of slumber.
AN: And this is the last chapter before HTTYD 3, and I feel it only right to warn you all it's going to take a while since things at work have become pretty hectic with me and my coworkers receiving new responsibilities. Along with this, I've still got a lot to think about to merge my story with the film, along with me not writing on the weekend and focusing on my book at this time, so please be patient. Anyway, review kindly and have a nice day.
