Chapter 300
Hiccups POV:
It's been two months since I captured one of the men who was buying dragons from the hunters and since then a lot has happened, starting with me beginning to track down who was buying the dragons since the first client turned out to be buying them for their employer. Turns out he worked for three war lords who used to be the top generals of Drago Bludvists army, but after Drago's defeat they went freelance for a while and began trying to build their own armies. Unfortunately, with Drago gone, his dragon army taken and no way to control the dragons the majority of the army disbanded with most becoming bandits or mercenaries with most of the bandits being ones I hunted down and brought in for the rewards.
Now the generals were back as warlords and the first thing they'd done is reunite the remaining forces of Drago's human army who weren't in prison and put them under their leadership. Following that they'd begun hiring dragon hunters to capture dragons for them alongside their own men so they could build their own dragon army which had been made a lot more difficult with me stealing the dragons and capturing the hunters. That didn't stop them from trying to continue with their plans though, if anything it made them more determined than ever to gather more soldiers and dragons for their army. It was because of this that after some time I was able to identify the warlords and get a better idea of who and what I was dealing with opponent wise.
First there's Ragnar the Rock, a large and muscular man with light auburn hair and beard, as well as dark brown eyes. He often wears his full armor and fur cape over his blue tunic, brown boots, and he sports tattoos on both of his arms. Personality wise he's pretty immature at times and not that bright but despite this, he's still a fierce warrior who's known to have been one of Drago's most powerful warriors. In addition to this, I learnt from Eret that the main reason Ragnar was able to advance through the ranks to general among Drago's men is because of his skills in dragon hunting and he was one of the best dragon trappers among Drago's men.
Second Griselda the Grievous, a tall woman who is also very strong despite her body possessing a slender beneath her armor. She wears a sleeveless dress in chain mail, pants, and boots, around her waist, she wears a kama and a belt with a sword's scabbard attached to it. She also wears two metal bracelets, both of which cover her lower arms and a helmet that's decorated with a pair of small horns or fangs and a pair of antler-like ornaments, which resemble the horns of a dragon I've read about called a Crimson Goregutter, only much smaller, while a front piece on the helmet protects Griselda's nose. The helmet itself mostly covers the upper half of her head with large piece of leather hangs down to the shoulders, offering some protection to Griselda's ears, cheeks and neck and to top it all off, Griselda wears a long, slender cape made out of fur. Personality wise, she has no tolerance for anything that doesn't serve her goals and as for the men and dragons under her command, she sees them only as tools to help her achieve control over the world which makes her more dangerous since she doesn't care what happens to her men or the dragons which is why she has no trouble with physically punishing them.
Finally, there's Chaghatai Khan, a man who I assume is from Asian decent by his appearance and armor and although he was leaner than Ragnar, he was still broader than Griselda. He has black hair and beard, as well as amber eyes, and sports a brass armor over his red tunic and brown boots with two swords sheathed on his back so he was a skilled duel blade wielder. Personality wise he's more serious and competent than Ragnar, but less aggressive and stubborn than Griselda. Like Griselda, he doesn't tolerate insubordination among his men but is far less aggressive when reprimanding them. He's also standoffish towards those he dislikes and will mock them for their failures instead of physically assaulting them like Griselda but what makes him truly dangerous is he's more patient than the other warlords meaning he can see things more clearly than the others.
All in all, none of them were enemies that should be taken lightly which is why I'd increased the training of not only my family members, but most of my island residents including the snake guardians, wolfwalkers and Arachne. The only one whose training I hadn't increased was Hadasa because shortly after finding out about the warlords we learnt that she was with child and is now six months pregnant and showing. I admit, it felt good knowing I was going to be a father again and it was wonderful to hold one of the women I loved, carrying my child who was growing within her. Still though, with the threat of the warlords looming I was hesitant to let her go anywhere unescorted, but fortunately on one of my raids on the hunter bases I rescued a female snaptrapper dragon who took a liking to Hadasa immediately and Hadasa did the same. Hadasa gave her new dragon the names Jasmine, Iris, Lotus and Ylang-Ylang, now these days it was rare to see them apart when Hadasa was outside.
As for the kids, they'd been training harder than ever to be prepared for coming fights and had actually improved in many ways with each of them being able to get some of their gear enhanced again. In Brant's case, his masks power had been increased a little, appearance wise it was the same but now when it's in its ring form it could form a curved dagger out of smoke that was sharp and solid so it would be helpful if his arms were ever tied behind his back. We'd already had him train to use it to cut ropes with his arms bound, without giving too much movement which could alert someone that he was up to something. Along with this, his armor now had an X shaped harness meeting a silver shield in the center of his chest which could let out a flash, temporarily blinding his opponents. From his latest trips to the golden dragon armory, he got a pair of boots made of black leather, but around the shins of the boot were swirly designs that looked like a Chinese Cloud pattern and the boots are pretty much rectangular and diamond shaped on the foot part with a large part of the leather and folded over the shin. These boots completely silenced his steps while also strengthening his kicks to make them stronger and when he needs to, they can cove his lower body in tendril like smoke to spook his enemies. (AN: Boots and mask blade on Pinterest page)
His second trip gave him something which I expected him to get eventually but was still surprising when it came out as it was the knife his father gave him. A while back he asked me to help repair it and when it was done, I used the silver dragon to enhance it with magic and then sent it into the golden dragon armory. Now it had a gleaming silver blade with black leather handle, and it was now back in the hands of its original owner with the new ability for the blade to grow into a blade belonging to a machete. I admit, I was grateful for this knife since Brants spear was made for long and mid-range combat while the dagger would allow him to fight enemies at close range if one's able to grab onto him somehow.
In Chara's case, her belt for example now had two blue crystals the size of her pinkie finger dangling from strings with these gems holding a powerful gas that could knock a person out for six hours. The way it works is she just had to take the gem off the string like picking a grape and toss it, it would then shatter on impact releasing a cloud of the dark blue gas. As for the strings, they could extend to lower the gem down and all she'd have to do is squeeze the string to release the gem from its place and it would drop. This would make it a little easier for her when she's above enemies and wanted to take them out but couldn't get the position right due to obstacles.
As for her armor that was also enhanced, it was given long boots that went up her legs entirely covering them and in the case of powers, they made her steps completely silent and in addition to this, she could perfectly blend into the shadows, unseen when she wanted to. This meant she'd be able to attack enemies out of the shadows, hide from enemies who were chasing her or spy on foes who she needed information from meetings. Along with this, if slammed her arms to her sides and then spread them out, the material of her gear would stick to it and long wings made of leather that went from under her arms to her ankles would spread out, allowing her to glide from high places.
The only downside is this new gear hugged her legs and brought attention to her figure which I did not like in the least since some of the boy her age along with some of the older boys had begun eyeing her as if she were a piece of meat. Now most weren't stupid enough to go after her, but there were those who weren't too bright and try to ask her out, but I am glad to say she turned them down. There were sadly also those who were more persistent and Chara needed to give them a nerve strike to get the message that she was not interested through to them. For the more stubborn ones though, she'd use one of her purple kunai to paralyze them before throwing them headfirst into the nearest barrel which she would then send rolling down a hill.
Boy troubles aside, her latest trip to the golden dragon armory got her a simple flute which held a surprise within it in the form of a sharp cone shaped dagger that can pop out and turn it from a flute into a stake that in her hands is a deadly weapon and all she has to do is twist the top. As for the music that is played from it, the music seems to be like my calming flute but instead of calming those around it, it puts them in a daze, so they just stand there as if they were drunk. This allows Chara and whoever is with her to walk right past her without needing to fight and avoid any unnecessary combat since those who fall under the trance have no memory of her and assume, they were just dazed for some reason. The second item she got was a bronze comb with a small flower in the middle of the top and it fit well in her hair that she'd begun braiding down the middle. Aside from enhancing my daughter beauty though it also act as a lockpick, all she has to do is hold the comb near the lock with the teeth pointing at it and they'd extend, going in to the lock and opening it from the inside.
Then there's Egil who's sword skills grew better every passing day and with every passing battle and his sword had gone through its latest enhancement. The straight cross guard has changed into a curvy flowery shape of design where there are blue ice crystals embedded in the guard in fancy design including where the blade touches the handle of the guard which takes the shape of a teardrop with two metal pieces curved around that side with a diamond overlay in it leaning to the blade. Down the handle which has dirt brown leather wrapped around it, it also has a special embroidery and holding a blue diamond that takes the shape of a chunk of ice. Then there's the blade itself which is now literally blending apart in between forming Jagged edges on the blade as if it was like a flower blooming with another coming out from it until it forms single blade at the very end. Ability wise it can now form a dome that curls around Egil when he stabs the sword into the ground in front of him and when he pulls it out, the ice either shatters or bursts with a huge gust of cold wind. (AN: New form on Pinterest page)
As for the new gear he received, he got was a vest that wrapped around his torso beneath his coat but like his coat, was cold to the touch and looked to be made of frost which would freeze the part that touched it even if it was for a second so nobody would be able to hit him without hurting themselves. The second item he got though was surprisingly a pair of boots. These boots are blue and silver leather with designs no from the heel and to the toes are silverish white and from behind the toe function and the rest of the leg is dark and blue the design on the strings of the boot are in the same color as the heel and toes but spreads out, resembling the patterns of a snowflake but it's more like a cross design from these designs that goes up the shin and to the side of the shin of the boot takes the shape of a diamond within the middle of the diamonds are blue gemstones and at the very top and back of the boot the toes are large diamond shape ends with the same Sapphire design also trailing the rim of the blue leather is silver cutting it off from the whitest silver part of the boot. The biggest difference between these boots and his siblings is theirs were built for stealth; these were made for speed. The reason is they could form skates made of ice beneath them, which could skate on any surface, allowing Egil the ability to speed through any place. (AN: Skates on Pinterest page)
Besides the kids, I'd taken the liberty of making not only my wives but also the other dragon riders of my generation suits designed using their own dragons for reference in design and giving them wings similar to Chara's, but they had to get their arms through leather wraps to open them. I did take some of their requests for their designs since it was their armor for future battles, but I also used the scales of their dragons to cover them and make the suits fireproof. As for why I'd done this for them, the reason is the war lords had expanded their dragon hunting operations and I needed all the help I could get, but just to be safe I had them only attack small ships with my parents watching them from above. Anyway, after a raid they'd bring the dragons to the nests where we'd take the muzzles off and help them settle into the nests and make their homes under the watchful eyes of the alphas.
As for me, I'd attack the bases with my wives and kids not only taking all the dragons but everything the base had, including the men who'd be dropped off on Outcast Island, right before we burn the base to the ground. If it was a ship though, I'd normally just have my kids deal with it while my wives and I watch from above on the sails to see where their techniques can improve. Once that's done, we bring the ship into mine and see what we can get from it but there were times I'd leave it floating in the waters for the war lords or their men to find completely deserted, just to mess with them.
Of course, with all these raids Berks defenses were better off than ever since we'd been able to loot a large number of catapults and ballistae from the bases which now lined Berks cliffs. We couldn't fit all of them on berk though, so we give most of the latest weapons we loot to the Outcasts and Berserkers who were happy to enhance their islands defenses. Speaking of defenses, I now made sure Berks defenses were taken to a new level since besides the new catapults and ballistae, I had Daedalus and Icarus help design improvements for the catapults and ballistae's aiming capabilities and reloading time. Along with that, we'd also been working on some defenses for the docks and hillsides in case anyone was ever able to make it past our defenses somehow and attack the docks or begin climbing the cliffs.
For the docks I turned every post that was carved to look like a dragon into a trap that would launch a speed stinger filled dart from the mouth at anyone who tripped the wire. If the darts didn't get them then the traps on the sloped would since all someone tried to make their way up to attack Berk, all someone had to do was pull a lever and a boulder that was covered in lit monstrous nightmare gel would go rolling down the slope, forcing them to jump out of the way. As for the cliffs, they were easy to defend from but if they threw grappling hooks up and began to climb, gaps would open in the cliffside and rotating blades would be pushed out, cutting the ropes.
It was three months after they were installed that the new defenses were actually put to use when a small armada of ships belonging to the hunters came to attack Berk, intent on getting their men, dragons and weapons back while also looting Berk for all it was worth as payback. Within an hour the coast of Berk looked like a ship graveyard, the docks were littered with bodies and the entire Berk guard had to go out fishing for every member of the fleet. While they did that, my tidal classes were working overtime to collect the sunken ships and bringing them to the shipyard so they could be repaired and turned into fishing and travelling boats, with those too damaged being stripped for parts while their cargo was looted. Shortly after that I dropped all our captives off on Outcast Island before going to Rome in order to discuss selling them to some slave traders, I knew who were always looking for strong men to send to the mines. Made some pretty good money when I sold the hunters to them and although I don't agree with slavery, it was the best thing I could think of to keep them from attacking again while ensuring they were punished for their crimes.
Presently though, I was standing on my ship that was floating above a hunter's fortress with my wives at my sides each of them wearing their dragon armor except for Hadasa who was instead wearing a leaf green Chinese robe while rubbing the bump on her belly that was our unborn child. To be honest, I can't remember a time when she looked more beautiful, but I felt that way with all my wives when they were each with child and their beauty was only enhanced with the knowledge that the child was mine.
Blanca's dragon scale armor was made of mostly leather to allow flexibility for her fighting style and was covered in scales shed from Liánhuā stuck to the leather with Toothless' sticky saliva mixed with deathsong goo, so the armor was light violet in color. Because of the scales it was completely fireproof with the design being similar to that of the outfit of a kunoichi, but I made the skirt go down just past her knees, so she'd still be able to release her tail when needed to. I decided against a helmet and instead gave her a mask that covered her eyes and upper part of her face with light blue crystal being used for the lenses. I'd given it two wing structures kept folded into the sides of the suit for flight and solo gliding when she needed to glide or escape and with her magic, she could fly using them.
Astrids Dragon Scale Armor was made of several different pieces tailored to fit her body with there being a helmet, pauldrons, chest plate, torso guards, a skirt-like part over the hips, gloves, gauntlets, leggings and boots. There are also two wing structures kept folded into the arm pieces for flight and solo gliding when she needed to make a quick escape from a high point and Stormfly couldn't reach her. The suit is also covered in Stormfly's shed scales, so it has a predominantly blue color, with occasional golden-yellow scale highlights. I attached the scales to the leather base, using Toothless' sticky saliva mixed with deathsong goo that I'd melted down and drizzled onto it. The whole suit is further embellished with small metal skulls around the skirt piece, and various spikes mimicking those of Stormfly. The helmet is shaped as that of a Nadder, obscuring Astrid's whole face bar the eye slits. A crown of spines adorns the back of the headpiece, alongside one small spine in place of a Nadder's nasal horn.
We were all watching as Brant lead Chara and Egil on a rescue mission to save some dragons while my mom and dad had taken the other riders on a ship raid. I nodded in approval when Brant took out a patrolling guard from above by jumping down from the wall and onto him while her brothers before grabbing the two who were at his sides and slamming their heads together, taking both out. Once that was done, he did a quick hand signal before Chara and Egil jumped down from the wall to join him on the ground and then dragged the three now unconscious hunters against the wall, tying them up and gagging them with Chara jabbing them with a purple kunai for good measure. I couldn't help but feel a knot form in my stomach as their mission continued with them taking out the guards and hiding them to avoid alerting the other guards of their presence. The knot fortunately loosened when they reached the dragon holding pens without being spotted and began releasing and unmuzzling them, one by one.
Soon enough the dragons were all free and I signaled Toothless to get ready for us to head down to lead the dragons back to the ship so we could begin transporting them while I got ready to transport the prisoners. For now, though, I was content to just watch and see how my kids would continue to handle what they were doing without any intervention from us. It was then I was brought out of my examination of their skills by the sound of a bell being rung below and saw one of the guards who they hadn't dealt with had found one of his friends unconscious and had sounded the alarm. Now all the remaining men who had been either sleeping or eating had stopped what they were doing and were rushing to see what was going on with half going to check out the dragons. I mounted Toothless and said.
"Let's go see how the kids handle a full attack up close, bud."
Toothless growled before the glided down and landed on one of the watchtowers, enjoying the show as the kids took down hunter after hunter, showing their combat skills which made me nod in approval since it showed how far they'd come. Fortunately, there weren't a lot of men left since the majority of them were already dealt with when the kids infiltrated the fortress and needed to deal with those on patrol. I smiled when they dealt with the last of the men, Brant launching the end of his spear at one, Chara slashing one with a purple kunai and Egil grabbing one's fist with his hand covered in ice and freezing him in ice. Once they were done, I clapped gaining their attention before Toothless and I flew down to greet them and after landing I dismounted and began extending my shadow beneath the hunters as I said.
"Great job kids, you each did very well on this rescue." They all smiled as I pulled the hunter into my shadow. "Don't get cocky though, that will only lead to trouble." They nodded. "Now let's round up the hunters and get back to the ship." I turned to Toothless. "Can you escort the rescues back to the ship for us bud?" He growled and nodded before giving his alpha roar to get the attention of the dragons before taking off with them following behind him. "Now let's get to work."
Morning
It's been a few hours since we began looting the hunter base for all it was worth and, in that time, not much happened after we burned the base to the ground. Before we burned the base down though, we spent an hour gathering up the hunters and looting the base for all it was worth which wasn't much since besides some weapons, traps, some siege weapons, a few bags of gold, medical supplies food and some furniture, we didn't find much outside of things we found in all the other bases we attacked. We dropped off most of the food, medical supplies, weapons and other things on Outcast Island with Alvin and the Outcasts alongside the hunters. Once that was done, we took off for home and helped the new dragons settle into the nests that they chose to settle down in under the watch of the alphas they chose to serve.
Once that was done, we took off to Berk to see how things went with the other rider's raid on the hunters' ship under the watch of my parents who went to make sure everything went alright. At first, I thought things went well with them rescuing the dragons including a crimson goregutter and a hobgobbler which were dragons that weren't in the nests. Unfortunately, these two dragons caused some trouble with the crimson goregutter accidentally knocking over one of the dragon perches which caused a domino effect, causing a lot of damage while the hobgobbler freaked Gobber out who claimed it was a bad omen.
Now, we were all in the Great Hall, except my parents who went off to handle some village problems while we were eating lunch, but we were skipping the soup after we found the hobgobbler that was rescued, bathing in it until Toothless ordered it out. From what I've been told the guys are relying too much on their dragons and not enough on each other, so their combat skills and teamwork needed some work and Snotlouts dragon scale armor needed to be fireproofed on the backside since Snotlout didn't fireproof the butt when he was helping me make it. Along with this, Fishleggs needed to stop bringing Meatlug's hatchling with them on raids since a battle was no place for a baby dragon, especially one as energetic and playful as Fishmeat who had befriended the Crimson goregutter. Now I was enjoying some meat while the others of my generation were having a food fight as Gobber wrapped an arm around my head and pulled me into his head as he said.
"Time to stop worrying about the problems out there and begin sorting out the ones, right here."
"Alright Gobber, I'll think about it." My reply was muffled by his body.
"Time to hang up the saddles and settle down to take up the full mantle as chief." Everyone stopped to stare at him for a few seconds than got back to what they were doing as Gobber pulled my face back into his body and turned to my wives. "Talk some sense into him, with you girls wearing the pants, there's still hope." I pushed my face out of his body and took a breath as Astrid stood up.
"Wow Gobber, not awkward at all." Her and my other wives began leaving as Gobber followed saying.
"Don't be like that." Tuffnut then walked up claiming if I needed comfort, I could cry into his full thick beard which was really his braids tied together beneath his chin which is when Eret walked up, coughing to get my attention before I pulled away from the claimed facial hair and turned to Eret.
"Eret son of Eret, what's the report."
"Two more trapper barges spotted in the stray." I stood up.
"I'll take my ship out and go capture them." It was then Gobber walked up to me giving me a look. "What?"
"One day, you're going to pick a fight you can't win." I just smirked.
"Gobber, if I had a terrible terror for every time, I felt I'd done that then there'd be no more room in the nests." I then walked away to do some thinking.
Elsewhere
Nobodies POV:
On a small island surrounded by ships lay a small pit that had been turned into an arena, similar to Berks dragon training academy with spiked bars roofing it. Surrounding this ring were wooden stakes pointed outwards, watchtowers with archers ready and various armed men, ready for a fight with any dragon that tried to escape. Within the ring itself were multiple cages holding dragons, all muzzled and struggling with men trying to get control over the dragons and force them back into their cages. At the back was a meeting room where the three war lords had been briefed on the latest raid on their ships and their hunter base while in the center of the arena stood a man in black leather armor, walking away from a downed rumblehorn he just knocked out with a single dart fired from his small crossbow. This man was Grimmel the Grisly who had command over six death gripper dragons, nearly wiped out the night fury species and had just been speaking with the war lords who were hoping to hire him to bring them Toothless, going so far as to offer him his favorite bait. The bait they offered was a female nightfury but instead of black scales, hers were white as snow with ice blue eyes and this was the only dragon left on the ship after the riders looted it. It was then as Grimmel pulled his foot from under the Rumblehorn that he claimed.
"This young chief will bring me the nightfury." He turned around and began walking away. "They do not have a leader, just a boy." He was brought out of his thoughts when a voice from his side replied.
"I would not recommend you underestimate him as that would be a mistake." Both his head and those of the war lords turned to see the owner of the voice and found a figure whose body was wrapped in a black cloak and face covered by a grey mask that was designed to look like a skull. "Stronger foes than you have underestimated him and that lead to their defeat and demise." Grimmel stared at the figure.
"Who are you?"
"Just a ghost from the past of this world and friend to you." Grimmel raised an eyebrow. "The nightfury and its rider live on an island that can be hidden with a magic shield that the rider can activate at will so none may enter it or see it should he desire." There was a mutter from the warlords with them claiming they thought it to just be a myth but Grimmel kept his eyes on the figure.
"And I'm guessing you have a way to surpass this shield." The figure tossed something at him which Grimmel caught in midair.
"That shall grant you access to his home once so use it wisely." It was then Chaghatai marched up to the figure while saying.
"Why should any of us trust you when you won't even show us your face."
He then ripped the mask off and dropped it while staring in shock as there was no face behind the mask, just an empty void right before the cloak pooled to the ground as if there was never anyone wearing it. Chaghatai drop the mask and stumble back in surprise while the others stared in shock as the cloak turned to smoke that floated away on the wind. They all watched this happen before Ragnar broke the silence by saying.
"Alright, that was spooky."
The others just nodded while Grimmel looked down at the item in his hand and saw a pendant that looked to be made of bone wrapped around an emerald that looked to have a burning black flame within it. He didn't know who or what that man who gave him this pendant was but knew if what he'd been told was true than he'd need this pendant to accomplish his goals. He then turned to the female lightfury with a small smile on his lips and got to work.
Sunset
Back on Berk
Hiccups POV:
It's been a few hours since Gobber told me about those warlords' ships getting closer and closer each day which lead to me going for a walk through the village while doing some thinking about what Gobber said. It was during this time that I remembered some old stories my dad used to tell me about the ancestral home where all dragons come from, claiming it was a deep pit in the middle of the ocean which lead to the world of dragons. When I was a child, he used to tell me how he intended to one day find the pit and close it up so people and dragons would never have to do battle again. To be honest, I was beginning to wonder if I should find it since the nests may be huge and still had plenty of room, but the war lords were coming and that would put the dragons and my people in danger.
Now I was sitting on top of a mountain overlooking the village while staring down at a paper map I'd drawn since my crystal map was on my ship and I couldn't help but notice that there was a part of it that was blank since I'd never travelled there before. I was always too busy travelling to places that I had maps to and then too busy with my other projects which made me wonder was the hidden world out there, waiting to be found. I was honestly beginning to wonder if it'd be better for us to begin taking the dragons and dropping them off there instead of in the nests while transferring others from the nest to it. I chuckled as Toothless chased after a chunk of gronkle iron I brought with me before bringing it over to me so I could toss it off the cliff again. It was then a familiar voice from behind me said.
"Someone's in deep thought about something." Another voice than asked.
"What is troubling you Hiccup." Those voices could only belong to Astrid and Blanca.
"Just doing some thinking." I tossed the metal chunk off the cliff again as both sat next to me. "I take it you both sent Hadasa home to rest." They nodded.
"She should not be out for too long in her condition or exposed to too much stress." I nodded.
"Her mood swings acted up, again didn't they?" Astrid answered.
"They're currently cutting the vines that are holding Gobber upside down from the Great Hall rafters." I sighed and nodded. "So, what's this about?"
"I was just thinking that maybe Gobber's right about how those war lords getting closer each day and how we're becoming a bigger target with every ship we raid and every dragon we bring back here." I leaned back and looked at the sky. "The last thing I want is to put the dragons or anyone in danger because of my dream of dragons and Vikings living together, side by side." Blanca sat on my left as she asked.
"So, do you have any solutions?" I nodded.
"Back when I was a boy, my dad would tell me stories about a hole at the end of the world that sailors used to fall down into." Astrid sat on my right. "He told me that this hole leads to the Hidden World, the ancestral home of all dragons." Astrid then asked.
"So, you're thinking we should try and find this place and move all the dragons there?"
"Not just the dragons, all of us." They both looked at me shocked.
"Leave Berk, our home of seven generations which your father intends to leave to you to protect as chief." Blanca then said.
"And what of the island where our daughters were born, where my people now thrive and it's where we built our home as a family?"
"Hiccup, I think we need a real plan that doesn't involve old stories told by crazy old sailors who are known for telling stories of things they saw when they were suffering from the heat and too much sea air." Before I could reply I noticed Toothless had dropped the iron he was chewing on and was now flying into the woods making me sigh while rolling my eyes.
"Sure, don't bother sticking around and helping me out bud." I stood up. "Better go see what's gotten him so interested."
We quickly took after him, dodging trees in the woods while we tried to keep sight of the runaway nightfury and when we caught up to him, we all stopped and stared in shock. He was in a clearing, but he wasn't alone, he was with a white night fury with blue eyes which is something I didn't even know or considered existing. As I stared at her I couldn't help but be amazed at how beautiful she was since she looked like a Valkyrie's form of a nightfury. It was then the lightfury took notice of us behind the trees and quickly let out a plasma blast that broke the base of the tree between us and sent it falling back while we all stepped out from behind the trees we were hiding behind. When she saw us the lightfury let out a blast at me since I'd come out fully but quickly released my eagle shield, blocking the blast and stopping it from throwing me back. She then took into the air, letting out a plasma blast creating an explosion which she flew into and then vanished into thin air but with the eye of the dragon, I could still see her take off. When she was gone out of sight, all I could say was.
"Toothless and his flock aren't the only ones." I heard my wives slowly approach from behind. "No, she's not a nightfury, a bright, no-." I shook my head thinking that didn't sound right before Astrid said.
"She's a lightfury." I nodded.
"Yeah, I like that name better." With that done we took off into the sky to try and find her.
Morning
We searched half the night for the lightfury and came up with nothing and this morning had been spent telling everyone about our encounter with her. It was clear she had an effect on Toothless since he'd been mimicking the mating rituals of some of the dragons and nuzzling his shadow while also testing it out on the other furies who simply looked at him as if he were crazy. Now I was making my way towards that same clearing with Toothless, Brant, Chara and Egil who just wanted to check out what this new breed of fury was like . I was just trying to block him out as we walked into the clearing where I dawned my kitsune mask to see if I could get her scent or something. I sniffed around a bit and noticed a scent in the bushes and found a metal dart with purple liquid inside it before I saw the entire middle of the clearing was filled with the same scent and noticed something within the leaves which made my eyes widen. I quickly stood up and looked at Toothless who was approaching and yelled.
"STOP!" This gained the attention of everyone in the clearing. "Toothless back up bud." I then signaled Chara forward and I'm guessing she saw the same thing since she took out one of her grey kunai into the middle of the clearing, setting off a nasty looking trap that looked like a large snapper mixed with a netter since there were metal links between the jaws to capture what fell into it. "Everyone, back to the village! Now!" They all nodded, and we took off.
10 minutes later
I walked into the forge where my dad was chatting with Gobber about having his saddle fixed when I cut in by walking up and saying.
"The saddle can wait dad; we've got bigger problems." I held up the dart for them both to see. "Someone's made it passed our defenses, scouts and lay a trap in the woods." Brant then took the dart while saying.
"A really nasty looking trap at that." Gobber then tried to leave while waving his fist around saying.
"Let me at em'" My dad stopped him though.
"Calm down Gobber, we don't know if he's still on the island." I replied.
"I'll get a search team on the ground, scouts in the air and I'll send out my ninja and Bastet warriors into the forest to search it while Toothless and I flying the coastline." I then saw Eret take the dart from Brant's hand and look it over. "What do you have for us Eret?"
"Enough to advise you from taking Toothless anywhere." I raised an eyebrow. "I know this handywork." He examined the dart. "Grimmel the Grizzley, famous back where I'm from and the smartest dragon hunter I ever met." He shrugged. "Except for me of course." Egil then said.
"If he left his trap unmanned then he can't be that smart." Eret chuckled and made his way out.
"Nothing's accidental when it comes to old Grimmel." He looked at Toothless. "He lives for the hunt, to get inside the mind of his prey, to control its every choice." I raised an eyebrow. "It's all a game to him."
"Well clearly he has no idea who he's playing with this time."
"Don't underestimate him Hiccup, mark my words he'll be back." I smiled.
"Then I better prepare a proper welcome for him." My dad placed a hand on my shoulder making me turn to him.
"Don't take this lightly Hiccup, I've heard of Grimmel, and he is known as the nightfury hunter." My eyes widened and I swiped the dart from Eret as realization hit me.
"Now I know where I've seen this kind of dart before, it was in the den that I found Twilights egg in." I looked at my dad and Eret. "I'm going to need you both to tell me all you know about this man."
Nightfall
I'd spent my entire day using my automatons and plant prosthetic to check all over Berk for this Grimmel character and came up with nothing, but it gave me plenty of time to plan how to deal with him. Earlier today around sunset, I sensed a disturbance in my island's barrier and thanks to my Automatons I knew exactly what it was and was able to prepare for it. This brings us to now with me silently meditating in the middle of my tea gazebo with lit incense in each corner and my tea pot next to me on a tray with two cups and Toothless laying on the far right since I didn't want him out of sight until we'd dealt with Grimmel. It was then I felt another presence and sighed before pouring the tea into the two cups and saying.
"Grimmel, I presume?" A tall man walked out of the shadows and onto the gazebo.
"You presume correctly." I sighed.
"Care for some tea?" He nodded and I slid the extra cup to him which he picked up.
"Thankyou." I sipped my tea with him doing the same. "This is very good; I hope we can discuss things once I am finished my drink." I glanced at Toothless before Grimmel quickly brought out his crossbow and shot him with a dart before he jumped a moment and then went limp.
"TOOTHLESS!" I rushed up to him before turning to Grimmel who just finished his tea. "What did you do to him."
"Nothing he won't sleep off." He pulled out another dart and loaded it, keeping the bow pointed at me before he sat down on the railing.
"So, do I call you Hiccup or is it Hiccup, what do you prefer?" He pulled his hood off to reveal white hair. "You have no idea who I am, do you?"
"Actually, after we found your trap in the woods my friend Eret was kind enough to let me know who you were before both he and my dad told me all they knew about you, but I am impressed that you were able to make it onto my island." He shrugged.
"A stranger was kind enough to inform me of your islands magic wall and give me a way in but who he is I do not know as when we tried to see his face, the cloak he wore collapsed to the ground as if nobody was wearing it." I shrugged.
"Stranger things have happened to me." He raised an eyebrow. "Don't ask or we'll be here all night and I have chief training with my dad in the morning."
"Yes, Stoick the Vast, one of the greatest dragon killers ever to live." He then pointed at me. "Your father was right to make it his mission to wipe out the beasts so you could grow up in a better world."
"He changed his mind after he saw what I was able to accomplish thanks to my nightfury, the one you didn't hunt down." He chuckled.
"So, you know of what I've done through your father." I nodded and pulled out the old dart I found at the den where I found Twilights egg.
"And through some of the scraps you left behind at the scenes of your murders." I tossed it at him and caught it. "Found that in an abandoned nest that you destroyed."
"Well then let's get down to business, as you know I have hunted down every nightfury but yours and you're going to give me that dragon or I will-"
"I will never give him up." Grimmel chuckled and pushed himself off the railing before circling me.
"You wish for dragons to live among us as equals." He waved his hand. "A toxic notion my boy, history has shown that we are the superior species and what if word of your misguided ideas were to spread?" He had made it over to Toothless and shook his head. "It would be the undoing of civilization as we know it." He gestured to Toothless. "That is why this beast must be killed." I smirked making him raise an eyebrow.
"Don't suppose you can explain to me how a stone statue can be killed, can you?" I snapped my fingers as I walked up to Toothless and pulled off the blanket to show a stone statue of Toothless beneath it before I chuckled at the shocked look on Grimmels face. "Did you honestly think I'd leave my dragon out in the open like that or" I snapped my fingers again and my ninjas including the masters, came out of the shadows. "think I'd be greeting you without a backup." I released my starsword and pointed it at Grimmel. "This is my Island; Berk is the home of my people and we have protected it and our way of life from far worse than you." He chuckled.
"A fighting spirit, I love it only I'm afraid you're mistaken." He glared. "You've never seen anything like me."
He brought his fingers to his lips and let out a loud whistle before I six monstrous dragons flew down and began spraying flaming acid at my ninja who were quick to draw their weapons and dodge the acid blasts. The then began fighting back with the dragons taking to the sky to avoid the ninja while I turned to Grimmel in the smoke from the flames as he glared at me and said.
"Have my dragon ready when I return, or I will destroy everything you love."
He then disappeared into the smoke and when it was cleared, he was gone as I looked around and saw my ninja had been able to bring one of his dragons down, but it was putting up a struggle with its scorpion like tail swinging around as it used its mantis like claws to try and kill them. I frowned and launched six of my sand discs at it before looking through the eyes of my automatons to see where the others were and saw both them and their master were flying off the coast of the island. I growled knowing it best to let my people know what's happened and make preparations for what we were going to do before turning to Grimmels dragon that was now trapped in glass. I also needed to figure out what kind of dragons he had and what they were capable of since it might help me figure out what I was dealing with and how to handle them when I see Grimmel again.
10 minutes later
I was in the great hall at the back behind the long table with my parents, Eret, Snotlout, Gobber, Blanca, Astrid and Hadasa and Toothless behind us. I looked at the hall after informing them all about what happened between me and Grimmel along with the dragons he had, fortunately though my gazebo was undamaged since it was given to me by the gods. Despite this, nobody was happy about him threatening both me and my dragon but also our very way of life so as anyone could guess, they were all readying their weapons for a fight. I decided it was time for me to shut them up and brought out my Noe Mask before letting out a shriek that silenced everyone making me smile beneath it until I said.
"Did you all miss the part where he was able to break through the barrier that surround my island and how my ninja who are some of the most skilled warriors, had a difficult time restraining just one of his dragons." I placed my hands against the table. "This is a new kind of enemy who I've underestimated, but I won't do it again and if what I've been told is true, he will be back." Eret then stood up as he said.
"Hiccups right, we haven't seen the last of Grimmel." He walked up next to me. "He's a predator, single minded and patient, he won't stop until he gets what he wants." My dad then said.
"Eret is right, I've heard stories of Grimmel and if even just half of them are true than we need to take him seriously." I decided it was time to make my true thoughts known.
"To be honest with you all, Grimmel is a sign that our enemies are getting smarter, more determined and despite all we've done to enhance our defenses we are still exposed and vulnerable." I gestured to the crowd. "Short of full-blown war and risking everyone we love, and I think there's only one solution." My dad turned to me.
"What are you saying son?"
"I think it's time we left Berk!" As expected, everyone began yelling their heads off in disagreement before Blanca turned into her half snake form and slam the end of her tail to the ground, silencing them all making me turn and smile at her in thanks before I turned back to them. "It's extreme but if we want to live in peace with our dragons then we have to disappear off the map and take the dragons to a place where no one will find them." As expected, people began asking where this was, but all went silent when my father asked.
"Are you talking about what I think you are son." I nodded.
"When I was a boy my father, your chief went on many quests to find the hidden world, the ancestral home of all dragons and since we're dragon people, it's where we belong." There were words of disagreement. "Listen, I know that this island has been our home for generations but what truly made it Berk wasn't the land is all of us." I gestured to the people again. "We are Berk, the people the dragons and I say Berk is wherever we go." Tuffnut stood up and yelled.
"I'M WITH HIM! WHO ELSE?" After that, cries of agreement echoed through the hall until a flaming ball appeared above us shocking everyone until it took the form of my phoenix Aelius who landed in front of the table.
"Aelius, what's going on?" He simply lowered his head and opened his mouth allowing a golden apple to roll out of his beak. "Did this come from the tree in my volcano?" He nodded. "You want me to eat it now?" He nodded again. "Aelius, now does not exactly seem like a good time." He just pushed the apple towards me and knowing how stubborn my phoenix was I sighed while picking up the fruit and turning to the people. "Sorry everyone, looks like my phoenix wants me to have a snack before we get to work."
I bit into the apple and then all of a sudden there was a bright flash and I found myself standing in the middle of a large field with a single tree in the middle of it. What caught my attention though was the indent in the tree where a woman with long golden hair wearing pure white Greek attire was sitting with a gentle smile on her face. I knew Aelius wouldn't have given me a fruit that would be any sort of danger to me so I knew this woman couldn't mean me any harm and with that in mind, I made my way over to her as she smiled and said.
"Hello master, it's nice to finally meet you." I raised an eyebrow and asked.
"Who are you?" She bowed her head.
"I am the spirit of the island which you call your home, and it is thanks to the tree that you planted and the phoenix who watches over it that we are now able to communicate, even if it is only for a limited time." She then bowed her upper body. "You may call me Elleonor."
"So, my tree in the volcano grows fruit that lets us talk like this?" She nodded.
"That is one of its abilities and once it matures it shall grant you more but that shall take many more years before both you and the tree are ready for it." I nodded.
"So why do you wish to communicate with me now?"
"Because I have learnt that your people intend to leave the island and move to a new home, and you intend to go with them."
"They're my people, I must stay with them even if it means my home behind."
"The gods believed this day may come and that is why they came prepared and why lord Pan gave you the seeds to the tree." I chuckled.
"That sneaky satyr." I then looked back at Elleonor.
"Now I understand that you have decided to go on a quest to the hidden world, the ancestral home of the dragons." I nodded. "There are few entrances to this world you seek but I have been given the location of an island that possesses a sealed entrance which merely needs to be unsealed which is something you shall need to do yourself." I raised an eyebrow not being completely sure about this since my people came first. "I know you are concerned about your people but there is no need for that as not only does this island is also an ideal place for your people to build a new village as it has everything your people can want." My curiosity was perked by this. "The island rests upon the top of immense towering cliff sides that have yet to be seen or touched by any human being." I gestured for her to go on and she smiled. "It's basically huge pristine valley which is hidden above the clouds which possesses lush green pastures, deep forests filled with life, a network of freshwater lakes teeming with fish and plenty of room for both your people and the dragons to grow." I smiled liking the sounds of this island.
"But what does my island have to do with this and how will I get there?"
She smiled at me before raising her hand and then images flooded my mind, and I knew where the island was and what she had truly called me here to see and what it had shocked me to my very soul. When the images stopped, I saw Elleanor smiling at me, and I couldn't help but smile back at her since what she had just done would make not only moving my people easier but ensure my home was safe and all those I had gathered onto my island. It was then the place began to darken, and Elleanor frowned as I looked at her with a raised eyebrow before she said.
"Our time together has come to an end I'm afraid but remember what I showed you and your people shall be safe." I smiled and nodded.
"Until we meet again Elleanor." Then there was darkness for a few seconds and when it cleared, I was back in the Great Hall with everyone staring at me before I felt an intense pain in my cheeks and grabbed them and felt it was wet. "Why does my face hurt and why am I wet?" My mom walked up.
"Hiccup, you took a bite out of that fruit and seemed to have gone into some sort of trance which we couldn't free you from." She then looked a little embarrassed. "We tried slapping you to bring you out of it with Toothless licking you." I nodded.
"Well that explains it." I shook my head. "Don't worry though as that fruit just showed me the way to a perfect island for us to call home." I then turned to the people. "START PACKING UP EVERYTHING, LIVESTOCK, FOOD, GOLD, HEIRLOOMS, VILLAGE ARTIFACTS, EVERYTHING YOU CAN AND GET IT TO THE SHIPS!" There were a few who asked what I was planning or if we were moving to my island. "I WILL EXPLAIN EVERYTHING LATER BUT FOR NOW GET TO WORK AND PREPARE TO LEAVE AND DON'T WORRY, I'LL BRING THE SNAKE GUARDIANS, MY NINJA AND EVERY DRAGON I CAN GET TO COME AND HELP YOU ALL ANYWAY THEY CAN!"
Sunrise
Everything was completely loaded onto various ships, packed into crates or packed in bags with everyone ready to go after triple checking their huts to make sure not a single item was left behind. Now all that was left on Berk were empty huts that had nothing within them since all possessions within had been removed and leaving empty huts which didn't mean much to the people since we never got too attached to our homes after years of needing to rebuild them due to dragon attacks. Still though, I knew Grimmel, and the warlords would no doubt come to scout out the place to make sure we were really gone which is why I'd left a few parting gifts for them in the waters and ninja in the village to give them the other gift I left them.
Now everyone was either on a dragon or on a ship that was being carried by a few dragons, I'd also brought out my spiderpack and had a ton of stuff put into storage on my own island since we didn't have enough ships to carry everything. It was mostly the siege weapons and the armory weapons that were kept on my ship along with the dragons who weren't as fast as the others due to injuries or other such reasons. Contained in the middle of my coat though was Grimmel's dragons, locked in a cage made of diamond steel, mixed with gronkle iron and dragon proof metal with chains holding it in place and a muzzle keeping its mouth closed.
As for me, I was in the middle of my volcano, ready to begin the islands big move and I took a breath before I placed my hand against the tree, and it opened up to a seat within. I took a breath and sat down, leaning back against the tree and allowed the roots to close around my body, leaving me in complete darkness that lasted a second before orange pods above me glowed to light up the inside of the tree. I took one last breath before multiple roots grew from the walls and latched onto my body and then everything went black.
Nobodies POV:
All the Berkians and the dragons were up in the air waiting for Hiccups Island to what Hiccup said would be taking form to lead them all to their new home. Hiccup didn't tell any of them what it was that the island would be doing though, only said that they'd know it when they saw it and with them being Vikings, they were quickly running out of patience. It was then the sound of stone moving echoed throughout the area and they all turned to Hiccups Island where the sound was coming from where they saw the large statue of a male on the side begin to move, pulling long metal chains out from the cliffside where its hands were placed. A few seconds later the other end of the chains were revealed to have circled around in the cliff and connect to the top of land beneath the waters in front of it while the land at the right and left sides if Hiccups Island rose from the ocean as the rest of the land seemed to rise up. After the island rose fully with the chains held firmly in the giants' hands, the people of Berk were given a show as the island took the form of a giant dragon, bigger than any alpha they'd ever seen and it had all of the various environments that made up Hiccups island on its back. A few seconds after it took its full form it raised its giant wings and took off into the sky with each flap having the strength of ten tornadoes and with knowing it was Hiccup who was controlling it the people took off after it.
5 hours later
Berks waters were now filled with ships belonging to the warlords who were now listening to Grimmel who was now kneeling in front of the Great Hall, explaining to them which way the Berkians had to have gone with their dragons, believing Toothless was leading them. He also pointed out how he wanted a few more days to enjoy the thrill of the hunt and that he had dearly missed it while also explaining that he needed to get his deathgripper back from Hiccup anyway. It was then one of the men who was exploring Berk ran up the stairs with a scroll in hand and stopped when he reached them while panting as all those present looked at him. He held up the scroll as he said.
"We just found this in the village square, and it's addressed to Grimmel." Grimmel took it and read.
Dear Grimmel
I was not going to give you my dragon so you could either kill him or hand him over to those mad warlords who hired you but please do not be disappointed as before I left Berk, I left you all a few gifts to enjoy.
Love Hiccup
P.S.
Thanks for the dragon
They all raised eyebrows until the ninja hidden in the shadows all around the village sowed the contents of the bags, they had in their hands releasing multiple teeth once belonging to Damen. The teeth sunk into the ground and from them grew armed skeleton warriors who let out an unearthly scream that gained the attention of both Grimmel and the warlords along with the men who were scouting the island, all of which looked at the skeletons in shock and horror. A few people got ready to retreat to the docks to board the ships but were stopped when a couple of Hiccups Stinging Stingrays that he left behind made short work of the docked ships so when the men got to the docks, all they saw were their ships sinking with a few the silhouettes of the automatons beneath the water fleeing. After that, things just spiraled out of control with men jumping off the docks to flee in fear of the skeletons before swimming to the ships that weren't docked while others including Grimmel, and the warlords tried to fight them. Eventually they realized it was a lost cause and fled to the docks with Grimmels death grippers clearing a pathway for them through the skeletons with each of the people wondering, 'WHAT THE HECK IS GOING ON WITH THIS PLACE?' while running down to the docks where ships were docking to pick up the remaining people.
Late afternoon
The people of Berk had been flying for the entire day, following the dragon that was their future chiefs island with no end in sight and as expected, they were all wondering where they were being led. It was then their answer appeared in the form of a giant pillar of stone rising from the ocean and up into the clouds that had a giant valley with lush green pastures, forests filled with animals, freshwater rivers that were leading into large lakes filled with fish and that was just what the people could see from above. Before anyone could come to land on the island though, the dragon that was Hiccups Island let out a roar, making the land begin to shake as a wall of stone rose out of the water around the island, forming a ring around it that wasn't as tall as the pillar the valley rested on. Fortunately, this ring was eighty feet away from the island in the middle, so they'd still be able to send ships down into the water somehow but for now their attention was focused on the giant dragon that was above it all.
Hiccups island then came to land on the ring and curl up, while the head turned to face the new island before the giant statue took its original pose while the head of the dragon sunk into the ground with the wings latching onto the ring's walls, covering its legs so it looked like just the top of the mountain. A few minutes after the island was settled in, Hiccup was spotted flying towards the dragons that were carrying the Berkians with a tired smile on his face before Toothless let out a roar and turned around to fly to the new island with the dragons following. They all landed in a clearing where Hiccup dismounted Toothless and looked around at the people and dragons who came to land after them and smiled while waiting for everyone to dismount. Once they all did, everyone gathered around him as he said.
"ALRIGHT EVERYONE, SAY HELLO TO OUR NEW HOME WHERE OUR TRIBE'S FUTURE GENERATIONS WILL BE BORN!" Everyone cheered at this. "NOW I KNOW WE'VE ALL HAD A LONG DAY OF TRAVELLING SO FOR NOW LET'S SET UP CAMP AND WE CAN BEGIN MAKING PLANS FOR THE NEW VILLAGE IN THE MORNING." Most of the people murmured in agreement before getting to work while Hiccup took a few deep breaths and leaned against Toothless who crooned in concern making his rider smile. "I'm alright bud, controlling the islands movements like that though takes a lot out of me." Hiccup stood back up straight. "Now let's start helping everyone set up camp for the night." He growled and nodded before they noticed Stoick and decided to get his opinion on the place since he was the chief so they walked up to him and the moment he noticed them he chuckled while placing a hand on Hiccups shoulder.
"I have to admit son, I had my doubts, but this place is perfect and with that island of yours surrounding it, those war lords won't have an easy time attacking us." Hiccup smiled.
"Glad you like it dad, but we've still got a lot of work to do to make this place a home like our ancestors did to Berk." He smiled.
"We're Vikings Hiccup, we're no strangers to hard work but for now let's just set up camp and dream of what we can do to make this island a home for our people in the morning." Hiccup nodded as Valka walked up to them.
"I'm going to circle back and make sure we weren't followed." Stoick frowned at this.
"Are you sure Valka?" She nodded.
"If we were followed than all this would have been for nothing."
"Then I'm coming with you, I already lost you once and I'm not going to risk losing you again." Hiccup rolled his eyes and stepped between the two of them.
"How's about neither of you go and I just use the jewelwigs I have on Grimmel check out where he is." They both turned to him as Valka asked.
"When did you plant one of those on Grimmel?" Hiccup grinned.
"I didn't, I had one of the ninjas I left on Berk do it while he was distracted by all the chaos the parting gift caused." Neither liked the grin before Stoick asked.
"Hiccup, what did you do?" He chuckled.
"I left a couple of my ninja on Berk with large bags full of Damen's teeth to sow when the warlords were there."
"Aren't those the teeth that sink into the ground and turn into armed skeleton warriors?" Hiccup nodded. "And I also left a couple of my stinging stingrays to take out some of their ships and make things a little more difficult for them." They nodded before one of Hiccups ninja came out of the shadows making the two parents jump back in shock as it bowed to Hiccup and offered him a scroll which he took and nodded to the ninja in thanks before it sunk back into the shadows while Hiccup turned to his parents. "And this right here is the report on all they heard between the warlords and Grimmel."
"What did they say?"
"Let's head back to my place and we'll go over all we have on them and find out what they're up to." They nodded.
"I'll gather the council." Valka then said.
"And I'll gather the riders." They all separated and got to work.
Nightfall
Hiccups POV:
It's been hours since I met with the council, my parents and my wives who were all here to learn what's happened to our old village. Using the jewelwigs I left behind I was not happy to learn that although the warlords were driven out by my they were still able to set fire to the village and burn it all to the ground. None of us were happy and I had to have my ninja use a nerve strike on some of them including my father to stop them from going to attack the warlords in pure fury. After that, I read the report I was given to me by ninja and learnt that Grimmel knew which way we'd taken from his years of hunting nightfury's so they were hot on our trail. What surprised me though was how he introduced Toothless to the lightfury to distract him and slow him down which clearly meant that he had no idea that my island had moved. This also meant we might need to keep an eye out for the lightfury since fury's mate for life so chances are, she might have followed us meaning we should keep an eye out for her.
After a while discussing what we should do about the war lords coming to New Berk and taking our dragons we decided it best I set up a couple of my aquatic automatons to deal with their ships and keep an eye out for the war lords and Grimmel while coming up with some plans for defenses. Now the camp had been set up and I was in my eye room with Toothless where we were using the dragon eye to go through the various lenses for any information on Grimmels dragons, including the one I still had trapped in my shadow. Now, we'd finally found the lens showing information on the dragons that I now knew to be deathgrippers and I had to say they were not dragons I wanted to mess with.
From the information on the lens, the deathgrippers are a monstrous species with their protruding tusks, foreclaw pincers, and poisonous clubbed tails and travel in packs like wolves and they enjoy hunting for prey and should be avoided at all costs and with their abilities, I could understand why. can launch green acidic blasts that are able to melt through nearly anything imaginable and if that wasn't bad enough, they have a venom that they inject using their tails and neither should be taken lightly. One strike from a deathgripper's tail paralyses the prey, a second strike puts it out of its misery and a third strike makes the body of the prey poisonous to the touch. If that wasn't bad enough, the venom doesn't numb the victim's pain receptors, allowing the victim to feel the agony of being dismembered piece by piece before being put out of its misery. To top it all off, in smaller doses like if they were scratched the venom has a strong hypnotic effect, that can warp the minds of the infected into helpless obedience if they are stung or scratched by the stinger. They then use their prey to guard their territory for short time or nest until to be fed for themselves without hesitations since they will blindly follow the orders of the deathgrippers and forgot who they are, as they are treated for a short period of time as their kin, until eventually become their meal.
Now most hunters did their best to avoid the deathgrippers but there were those who hunted them down and captured them alive so they could harvest the venom which they then use to control the other dragons they capture. Along with this the venom could also be used to control the deathgrippers themselves since they didn't have an immunity to their own venom. I let out a sigh and turned to Toothless as I said.
"Well bud, looks like Grimmel knows what he's doing when it comes to choosing his dragons." Toothless growled and nodded as a memory flashed before Hiccups mind. "Let's go take a look at our caged friend one more time."
We both sunk back into my shadow where the cells were and where I kept the caged deathgripper in case it got loose so it wouldn't be able to harm anyone. When we reached the floor with all the cells, we found it still thrashing around in its cage with the shadow wolves all surrounding it in case it broke free. I walked up to it and just as I remembered, there was a large metal plate strapped to its head with metal covered glass vials that had purple liquid in them. It wasn't that hard to figure out that the liquid was its venom, and the vials were injecting it into the death grippers head, drugging it into obedience to Grimmel which in my opinion was disgusting. I knew that I'd be able to use this guy against Grimmel if I was able to turn him to my side by showing him, I'm a friend and give him an immunity to his venoms hypnotic effect but first, I needed to get that thing off its head. Just to be on the safe side though, I summoned a few of my ninja to restrain it again in case it got loose and tried to kill me and Toothless along with the shadow wolves.
I walked up to the deathgripper and couldn't help but be relieved that the chains and muzzle had been able to hold him still despite all the thrashing it was doing. I opened the cage door and the deathgripper lunged forward, but the chains held, preventing it from getting out of the cage while I reached out and pulled out the vials and found needles at the bottom of each container which showed me how they injected the venom into the dragon. Once they were all out, I took the harness off, but I knew that wasn't going to free the deathgripper since there was still some of the venom in its system. I pulled out my mystic vase and filled it with water from my bottomless waterskin before I loosened the harness on the deathgripper, allowing its mouth to open a little and drizzled the water into it and then closing the muzzle up tight again, forcing it to swallow the water.
For a few seconds it was still, and I could tell it had calmed down a bit so I signaled my ninja to loosen the chains holding it so it could come out of the cage a little. When the chains were being loosened though it didn't give my ninja the chance to lock them again the death gripper pounced onto me and my ninjas immediately drew their weapons, but I held up a hand signaling to stand down since it wasn't attacking me, it was nuzzling me. I'm guessing it was grateful to finally be free from that drug induced obedience and I couldn't help but chuckle a little since this was meant to be one of the most dangerous dragons out there, which was acting like a big puppy. I pushed the deathgripper off as I said.
"Okay, I get it and don't worry." I stood back up. "Now let's get that muzzle off you." I unclasped it and took it off the deathgripper while examining it and saw it was blind in the one eye and it was also a male. "Alright big guy, let's get you out of this shadow and into a stable for the night but please don't harm any of my dragons." He growled and nodded while Toothless growled and glared at him. "Easy there bud, he's been under Grimmel's control for a while and needs some time to get used to being free again." Toothless growled and nodded before I took the chains off the deathgripper and left the shadow.
1 hour later
The deathgripper was now in one of the stables I kept for ill-behaved dragons which consisted of a large room with a straw bed and a trough of water and nothing else besides the door that could be locked which I did just to be safe side. Now everyone in the house and the camp was asleep except for me and Toothless since I had been trying to figure out how to deal with Grimmel and I figured a moonlit flight around my island on Toothless would help me think and as luck would have it, my realm furies decided to join us. During the flight though, Toothless caught wind of something and followed the scent to my Hawaiian beach with the furies following him, which brings us to now. Me hiding in the shadows on the edge where the greenery met the beaches sand while watching Toothless try to perform some sort of mating ritual for the lightfury with my realm furies surrounding them, only for the light fury to become confused, annoyed or scared. So far, she'd hit him in the head a few times when he got too close, tried to ignore him and brushed him off.
Now she was hanging by her tail on a branch with her wings wrapped around her while Toothless was drawing in the sand with a branch like he did when we first met only now, he was drawing the head and face of the female, and he actually did an alright job. I rolled my o them to see why I wasn't he areyes while muttering about how now he could draw until the female stepped on the lines making him growl until she growled back making him drop the branch in shock and I think I saw him drool a bit as she approached him. She then took off into the skies which is when she noticed me and began to fly off while Toothless turned back to me before I gave him a nod and gestured for him to go after her which he did with my realm furies as I watched but I wasn't afraid. The reason is Toothless' family was here as were the only nightfury flock we'd ever found, and I just knew none of them would ever leave me for good without saying goodbye. With this in mind, I turned around and begun making my way back home to get goodnights sleep while thinking about how to handle Grimmel.
Nightfall the next day
The entire day had been spent unloading the ships and drawing up plans for new houses, food stores, animal pens, a new Great Hall and more with no sign of Toothless coming back with the lightfury and I admit, I was a little worried. Fortunately, I had a lot to do in order to keep my mind off my concerns for now as everyone had officially come to terms with leaving our old home and agreed that we'd traded up for New Berk. They had made their pleasure and gratitude for bringing them here known to me with cheers and friendly pats on the back while thanking me for bringing them here.
It wasn't all good though as I was still concerned Grimmel and the war lords who were following us with over a hundred ships and enough cages for all our dragons. For this reason, I sent my Bewilederbeasts into the waters of the ocean outside of the ring that my island rested on and had begun waiting for the chance to take Grimmel out of the picture since he's the one who was leading them here. This meant that without him then the war lords would have a harder time finding new Berk so we'd have a lot more time to set up defenses, prepare plans to handle the hunters and find the way to the hidden world where we could evacuate the dragons if needed.
Now the war lords had made their camp at an old, abandoned hunters' fortress with Grimmel taking the fortress as his base where he could prepare for our next encounter which gave us the opportunity to capture him. I told my parents this and although they weren't happy about it, they agreed that Grimmel needed to be dealt with which is why I had taken off on my ship with Astrid, my mom, Snotlout, the twins, Fishleggs and Eret planning ways to bring Grimmel down. My mom was here because she'd be able to help calm any captive dragons we find, Astrid was here to help fight, Eret was here because he knew the most about Grimmel out of all of us and the others were here for backup even though I would have preferred my ninja. My dad claimed he'd be more comfortable if it were those who could ride dragons and could actually tell him what happened since he wasn't able to come being needed on Berk to help supervise and direct the construction.
Now we had infiltrated the fortress and while the others kept the deathgrippers distracted, I was up at the top looking for Grimmel but all I could find was a hanging table with vials of deathgripper venom on top of it. It was then there was a loud crashing sound and the rattling of chains coming from downstairs and I rushed only to find a chain curtain surrounding the middle of the fortress with all of us in it. It was then Grimmel walked up with a lamp as he laughed and asked.
"Where's your dragon when you need him, huh Hiccup." He shrugged must've forgotten all about you." He put the lantern down. "First rule of the hunt, separate the prey from the pack. "He pointed at me. "You just removed yourselves from the equation." I glared at him.
"Why are you doing all of this Grimmel."
He chuckled before he told me about how when he was a boy, he found a sleeping nightfury and killed it, becoming a hero in his village and how he made it his life's mission to kill every dragon in the world, starting with the nightfury species and bring true peace to the people of this world. Then he found out about me and my ideas about dragons and humans being able to live together in peace which went against his beliefs and how it was nothing but nonsense and how it dies with me. For a few moments there was silence as he raised an eyebrow as he held the tusks of one of his deathgrippers and asked.
"Aren't you going to try and make one last plea for your life or claim that I'm like you since I have my deathgrippers?"
"No, I've dealt with your kind enough to know I would just be wasting my breath and besides, I train dragons while you drug them into obedience." He raised an eyebrow.
"You know how I control them?"
"One of them was captured when you first attacked my home remember?" I smirked. "I studied him a bit and learnt what kind of dragon he was and after finding out what his venom does and how it was in those injectors on his head, it wasn't hard to figure out what you had done." He smiled and gave a slow clap.
"Impressive Hiccup, now please allow me to demonstrate what they can do while under my control." He let out a whistle and the deathgrippers began attacking as I yelled out.
"TAKE COVER!" Everyone jumped out of the way and began dodging their attacks as Grimmel chuckled.
"Did you really think I wouldn't prepare for you." I smirked at him as I grabbed onto the chains.
"And did you really think I'd be stupid enough to actually bring my friends into danger like this." I snapped my fingers and the figures the deathgrippers were chasing turned to stone that quickly shattered while Grimmel stared in shock, allowing me the chance to phase through the chains and land outside with him. "Or that I wouldn't be able to escape that chain cage." Grimmel stared at me shocked.
"How did you-" I held up hand to cut him off.
"Go through what I have, and you learn a few things." He took a few steps back and smiled.
"Very impressive Hiccup, but I always come prepared." He pulled a dangling chain and the chains separating me from the deathgrippers fell kicking up dust as the deathgrippers came towards me. "I am always prepared for the unexpected Hiccup." I glared before backflipping to avoid and acid blast by one of the deathgrippers.
"Grimmel, you've clearly never gone up against someone like me." I quickly raised my prosthetic and launched a bola at him but he was quick to dive out of the way.
"Nice try but my reflexes have grown better than a normal person from years of dodging the blasts of the nightfury's I've hunted." Before I could reply, the riders burst in as my mom said.
"We're saw the battle and came to help." Before anyone else could reply the twins burst in from above with Tuffnut saying.
"Time to bring down some hunters." Ruffnut then said.
"And the building to." They jumped off with their swords in hand, but I didn't focus too much on that since the deathgrippers began attacking again and I knew if this kept up the building would collapse, killing us all so I knew we needed to let Grimmel go for now so I turned to the riders.
"THIS PLACE WILL COME DOWN WITH ANYMORE DAMAGE, WE NEED TO RETREAT FOR NOW!"
I could tell nobody was happy to hear me say that but when a piece of the ceiling fell down, they knew fleeing for now was right and we took off with the deathgrippers following. Before they could get out though, I reached into my bag of Loki Balls and pulled out three yellow ones tossing them in front of the deathgrippers, filling the place with light and blinding them while we took off towards my ship and into the night.
Morning
I was not happy, and I had every right to not be happy since in addition to not capturing Grimmel, as soon as we got back to New Berk, I realized I wasn't hearing the usual argument between the twins where they blame each other for what went wrong on the mission. When I turned to see why they weren't doing their normal twin fighting and my eyes widened when I only saw Tuffnut there and asked.
"Tuffnut, where's Ruffnut?" Fishleggs rushed forward.
"Wait!" He looked around. "We left her behind?" Astrid stepped forward.
"How could you not notice she was missing?" She gestured to Barf and Belch. "You ride a two headed dragon."
"Oh yeah, I feel like Ruffnut feels every day." He looked down. "Dumb!" I raised my arms.
"Alright, everyone calm down." A crowd began to form. "Toothless and I will-" One man stepped out from the crowd.
"Toothless has the lightfury now, he's probably not coming back." I glared at him.
"I know my dragon and I know he would not leave me for good without saying goodbye and furthermore his family is here on New Berk including his adopted daughter." I took a breath to calm myself down a bit. "I just need time to think!" With that said I walked away so I could head back to my house and try to come up with a plan to rescue Ruffnut.
Morning
It's been hours since I was told Toothless wasn't coming back and since then I had spent my entire evening trying to come up with a plan to rescue Ruffnut while also trying to convince myself that Toothless was coming back. It was during this time that I sent out a large flock of my scouter automatons to map out New Berk and try to find the entrance to the hidden world that this island was supposed to possess only to come up with nothing. It was because of this I decided to head out on my ship in the direction that the hidden world was meant to be with my crystal map to help me find the way. I left my wives, kids and their dragons back on New Berk to help out and because I didn't want New Berk to go unprotected and we didn't know how the dragons would take to seeing humans in their world. This is why I'd brought the leader of the nightfury flock, 'Odin' with me since as a dragon and the leader of a flock, he might be able command enough respect from the dragons to make sure they knew not to harm me.
Now after an hour of flying in my ship we'd finally found what I believed to be the entrance to the Hidden world which took the form of a giant pit that I assume was once a volcano that sunk, in the middle of the ocean with waterfalls lining the edges with rocks jutting out with some having old shipwrecks on them. I was standing on the top deck looking over the railings with Odin as I asked him.
"You think this is the entrance to the Hidden World?" He growled. "I'll take that as a maybe." I shrugged and mounted him. "Well only one way to find out."
We hovered for a few seconds as I pulled my ship into my prosthetic before we dived down into the volcano, finding multiple stalagmites at the bottom with some impaling shipwrecks. I noticed a couple of tunnels and steered Odin into them hoping it could lead us to where Toothless was, but I had the feeling it was going to be a long search. After we entered one of the caves, we found multiple tunnels and I sighed knowing I was in for a long hard flight in this naturally made labyrinth.
1 hour later
It's been an hour since we entered and that time had been spent trying to find our way around the tunnels before we finally found what I call the Mushroom Forest, which was lit up with bioluminescence mushrooms and also where Odin began to glow and where we found some dragon eggs. The Mushroom Forest was mainly made up of many stalactites and stalagmites that were completely overgrown with various sorts of mushrooms. After flying through this forest, we finally found what I considered the 'Throne Room' of the hidden world with how countless dragons had gathered into this giant cavern. At the center point of it lay what I called the 'King Island', which was a gigantic glowing crystal on the island, looking over a large part of the Hidden World. Above it was another crystal with reef like foliage growing around the top of it, making it give the appearance of an island suspended from the roof of the cavern. That is where I first spotted Toothless with the other furies including the light fury before they all flew down and circled the crystal with other dragons in the air following them.
He came to land on top of the crystal and let out a loud roar that echoed through the chamber with the other dragons roaring back before bowing to him. We then watched what I assume to be a mating ritual which they roared, flapped their wings, pranced in a circle and then nuzzled with Toothless doing this same thing with each of the furies. When he was done, he sat down on the crystal that I now knew was their version of throne meant to be used by none other than the king of dragons. I had to admit, Toothless did look the part of the king of all dragons now and to be honest, I was thinking of having Odin take me back up, leaving Toothless behind here to be with his mates and rule as a king. I was unfortunately brought out of my examination by an angry rumblehorn which attacked me, but I dodged and got back on Odin while also gaining the attention of the other dragons who were not happy to see a human in their world. Fortunately for us Toothless and the other furies took notice of us and they made it clear both me and Odin were not to be harmed making the dragons back down.
All of this leads to now with me sitting on top of Odin, on top of the crystal with the furies surrounding us protectively except the lightfury who was next to Toothless who was standing before his subjects as he roared at them in his full armor and glow to make his point. I sat there on Odin and watched as Toothless continued to roar and at that moment, I'd have loved to know what he was saying to the various dragons.
Dragons POV:
All the dragons were staring up at their king who was now wearing strange armor while letting off his alpha glow, showing them all how serious he was about not letting any harm come to his human friend. Once he knew everyone had been silenced, he yelled out.
"NO HARM IS TO COME TO THIS HUMAN WHATSOEVER!" There were growls and roars of disagreement until he roared, silencing them. "I YOU ALL DO NOT TRUST HUMANS DUE TO THEIR ATTACKS ON OUR KIND, BUT THIS HUMAN IS DIFFERENT AS WHEN HE HAD THE CHANCE TO KILL ME WHEN I WAS WRAPPED UP IN HIS ROPES, HE FREED ME AND WHEN HE SAW MY TAIL WAS DAMAGED, HE DID HIS BEST TO HELP ME RETURN TO THE SKIES!" There were roars of disbelief until Toothless silenced them all once more. "I KNOW IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE BUT IT IS THE TRUTH AND TOGETHER WE FREED OTHER DRAGONS FROM THE CONTROL OF A MAD QUEEN WHO FORCED THEM TO RAID HUMANS OR BE EATEN THEMSELVES, TAKEN ON MANY ENEMIES TO PROTECT OTHERS, FREED DRAGONS FROM HUNTERS, FORMED NESTS TO PROTECT OUR OWN, RESCUED ALPHAS FROM THOSE WHO SOUGHT TO ABUSE THEM AND MORE!" Toothless then looked down as if he were remembering something he didn't like before looking back up at the dragons. "ON OUR TRAVELS WE FACED MANY FOES SOME OF WHICH WERE ABLE TO EITHER IMPRISON OR ENSLAVE ME AND ALTHOUGH THERE WERE TIMES, HE SHOULD HAVE EITHER KILLED OR ABANDONED ME, HE NEVER GAVE UP AND RESCUED ME!" He shook his head. "I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR HIM AND I KNOW HE WOULD DO THE SAME FOR ME!" There were roars of disbelief until Toothless roared again to silence them. "IT MAY SEEM HARD TO BELIEVE BUT IT IS THE TRUTH AND IT IS ALSO THANKS TO HIM THAT NOT ONLY WAS I ABLE TO REUNITE WITH MY ORIGINAL FLOCK BUT ALSO BECOME THE ALPHA YOU ALL SEE BEFORE YOU AND FIND MY QUEENS THE MAJORITY OF WHICH CAN VOUCH FOR ME!" The realm furies all roared in confirmation, telling the dragons that all their alpha was telling them was true which earned Hiccup a lot of respect from most of the dragons hearing how he what he was willing to do for their alpha. "NOW WHY HE IS HERE IS NOT SOMETHING I KNOW BUT I AM SURE HE SHALL INFORM ME SO PLEASE BE PATIENT WHILE I DISCUSS THINGS WITH HIM!" Toothless then turned to his rider who was still on Odin who smiled at Toothless as he said.
"Thanks for the save bud." He looked around. "This place is incredible and the way you looked on your throne was truly breathtaking which makes what I'm about to say even harder." Toothless tilted his head. "You belong here bud, but you have subjects above including your flock that's lead by Odin here and there's also Twilight." Toothless crooned. "I didn't come looking for you to rob this world of you, I wanted to remind you of what you have up above as well, and I know it may be difficult, but I know we can find a way to make it work somehow." Toothless growled and nodded. "Before we can do anything though, we need to stop the warlords or else the dragons that live above are always going to be in constant danger of them and Grimmel will not stop until every nightfury is dead and that includes your family above." Toothless growled.
"I will never allow him to take my family from me after I've gotten them back after so long." Hiccup smiled at him.
"I know bud, you want to protect your family, but right now Grimmel has Ruffnut who might be forced to give him the location of new Berk so they will be in danger." He growled as Hiccup reached out and patted him. "You better let your subjects know you need to go and handle a problem up above and rescue a few dragons." Toothless nodded and walked back to the front where the light fury was sitting and let out a roar, gaining the attention of all the present dragons.
"I HAVE SPOKEN WITH MY HUMAN AND HAVE DISCOVERED THAT ONE OF HIS OWN HAS BEEN CAPTURED BY A GROUP OF POWER-HUNGRY HUMANS WHO INTEND TO CAPTURE AND USE OUR KIND AS WEAPONS AS A MAD MAN THAT THEY ONCE SERVED WHO ME AND MY HUMAN ONCE DEFEATED ONCE DID!" There were numerous roars at this until her roared again to silence them. "IN ADDITION TO THIS, THEY HAVE RECRUITED A MAD HUMAN INTENT ON WIPING OUT MY SPECIES AND THEN THE REST OF OUR KIND SO HE MAY DISCOVER THE NEW HOME OF MY FLOCK AND WHICH IS ALSO WHERE MULTIPLE OTHER ALPHAS HAVE CREATED THEIR NESTS SO SHOULD THEY FALL, ALL OF OUR KIND SHALL BE IN DANGER!" There were roars of horror and some claiming that they'd take on whatever threat that came at them until Toothless roared, silencing them. "IT IS BECAUSE OF THIS THAT I SHALL RETURN WITH MY HUMAN TO FACE THIS THREAT AND BRING AN END TO IT WHILE RESCUING ANY DRAGON WE CAN BUT I SHALL RETURN AND UNTIL THEN, I SHALL LEAVE MY BELOVED QUEENS TO WATCHOVER YOU ALL!"
The realm furies roared at this in disagreementwanting to come with and help but a look from both Toothless and Hiccup silenced them while the light fury just looked uneasy before Toothless gave each of them a nuzzle including the light fury. Hiccup gave each of the realm furies a pat but when he tried to do the same to the light fury, she backed away in fear which Hiccup understood so he pulled his arm back. He then took off into the air with Odin following and they took off towards the exit but as they did, the light fury watched with sadness and turned to her fellow queens as she asked.
"How could any of you trust that human so easily?" The realm furies turned to her before Pele answered.
"We didn't trust him at first." Lucia then said.
"He had to show us he could be trusted and form a bond with us to form the trust we have in him now." Electra then said.
"Still though, our bond is nothing compared to the bond Hiccup and Toothless share after all they've been through." The other females all nodded but the light fury still looked uneasy, so Gaia walked up to her.
"Listen, if you are truly that worried then follow them and see how well they work together, and you will know the bond they share." The light fury was hesitant but took off after them.
Late afternoon
Hiccups POV:
We'd just landed in my Celtic planes shortly after separating from Odin who returned to his nest with the flock while Astrid had been practicing in the planes, so she was there to greet us. As I dismounted Toothless though, I could easily tell he was sad about leaving the females behind. I sighed and rubbed his head as I said.
"Don't worry bud, you'll see them again soon and once we deal with Grimmel and the war lords, I promise you that we will find a way to make things work between our home and the hidden world." He crooned until I noticed something landing on the mountain. "Then again, maybe you'll at least see one of your queens a lot sooner." I pointed behind him and he turned to see the light fury in the tall grass making growl in joy before licking me and running towards her as Astrid walked up next to me.
"Seems he's happy to see her again."
"It's always wonderful to see the one you love when you don't know how long it'll be before you'll see them again."
Toothless then began making his way towards us, stopping to signal the female to do the same and although she was slow, she did begin to approach making me smile until the sound of Ruffnut cheering caught my attention. We turned to see Ruffnut coming to land on a blue scuttleclaw before she hopped off, tossing her helmet aside and asking.
"Miss me?" Astrid then asked.
"How did you escape?"
"I annoyed them till they let me go." My eyes widened before I stepped forward.
"Grimmel let you go?" She spun her braids around.
"So dumb, they couldn't handle me."
"Were you followed?" She looked back at me.
"I never looked back Hiccup."
My eyes widened as it all made sense before I turned to Toothless just as the lightfury took off only to be shot with a dart and taken down out of the sky. Toothless, as expected ran to try and help her but got darted himself making me growl in anger while both me and Astrid didn't waste time and rushed towards them to try and stop Grimmel. Grimmel then let out a whistle and one of his deathgrippers swooped down, spraying its acid in front of us cutting us off, while Grimmel began wrapping both Toothless and the lightfury in harnesses. I growled and looked up at the deathgripper that had cut us off and brought out the legs of my spiderpack before using the four legs to create a large web and launched it up at the deathgripper, wrapping it up and bringing it down. The moment it hit the ground I saw it began to struggle and launched six sand discs at it and a few seconds later, it was covered in sand and trapped in glass, but I ignored it and rushed towards Grimmel.
I saw Grimmel had just connected chains to the harnesses and had muzzled Toothless before he whistled and his airship rose up from the cliff, being carried by the four remaining deathgrippers. I rushed up but he'd already climbed up to the top and claimed our game has come to an end before some of the dragons near the island flew out of the forest which is when Grimmel pointed his ballistae towards the lightfury, while ordering Toothless to call them off or he'd kill her. Toothless ordered them to back off as Ruffnut rushed up and asked.
"What are you waiting for?" She gestured to Grimmel. "Shoot him out of the sky."
"Not with her life on the line." Grimmel then looked at me.
"Don't feel to bad, you tried your best, but you are nothing without your dragon." He then whistled and began carrying him away. "I'll be back for the other dragons later." They then took off as I rushed to the cliff and saw Grimmel carrying Toothless and the lightfury down to an armada of ships that seemed to go on for miles with the dragons following them as Astrid ran up next to me as I sensed Blanca and Hadasa rushing up probably coming to see what was happening as Hadasa asked.
"What's going on?"
"Grimmel and the war lords have found us, and they took Toothless with a few of our dragons, but they'll be back for the others." Blanca then asked.
"What do we do?" I didn't turn away from the view of the armada.
"Gather every last snake guardian you can, have them suit up and arm themselves and then get them in the water to attack the ships." Blanca nodded and took off. "Astrid, you go to Berk and let everyone know what's happened and to get ready for the battle." She nodded and took off as Hadasa asked.
"You're about to do something crazy and dangerous aren't you?" I nodded before she took my hand and placed it on her pregnant stomach. "Just be careful, I don't want your child to only know you through the stories I tell them about you." I turned to her and smiled.
"Don't worry my flower, I've done crazier things in the past than what I'm about to do." She smiled at me.
"You always do jump into the craziest things when in danger and don't get me wrong since it's one of the many things I love about you, but I hope it's something our child does not inherit from you." I chuckled.
"I'm a Viking, it's what we do, and it'll be in their blood." She rolled her eyes before pulling me into a kiss and when we pulled away, I gently caressed her cheek. "I'll be back, but for now you better go let the kids know what's going on and make sure they don't try to come and join the battle." She rolled her eyes.
"I'll try but as you said they're Viking blood makes them jump into crazy things headfirst." I nodded as she walked away before I summoned my Horus warriors and ran off the cliff while spreading my wings with them following me with their own wings spread, gliding towards Grimmel and the armada.
Nobodies POV:
Hiccup cried out to Toothless that he was coming, gaining Grimmels attention right after he revealed to the warlords his betrayal wanting to kill Toothless who believed to be the last of the nightfury's and leave the war lords to deal with the chaos of the dragons attacking. Grimmel turned his ballistae towards Hiccup to try and shoot him out of the sky, but Hiccup was faster and slammed into him, knocking him off the ballistae and over the railing of his airship, forcing him to grab onto one of the supports. Hiccup pulled his wings in and grabbed onto the rope of the sails while crying out to Toothless who now saw his mate was no longer in danger and signaled the dragons who had followed him and been caged to fight back. A monstrous nightmare broke out of its cage and began to breath fire everywhere, forcing the men to flee, allowing a few others to break out of their cages that hadn't been locked and take off back to the island as Hiccup landed on the deck. He quickly got into his battle stance as men began running up the deck while he summoned his ninja master's and said.
"TAKE THEM DOWN!"
They each then charged into battle with Hiccup starting things off with a palm strike to the stomach of the first man who came at him with a sword, sending him flying back into another. The ninja rushed past him to take on their own opponents while Hiccup turned back to Grimmels airship just in time to see Toothless break open his muzzle as Grimmel made it back to the ballistae. They weren't the only ones attacking the ships as the Horus warriors were above the sky, raining arrows down on the ships with some coming to land on the ships to free caged dragons and take on a few of the men. Hiccup didn't take notice any of this though as he was focused on Toothless until he quickly turned around and delivered a kick to the chest of another man charging at him, causing a flaming bull to burst from his back and drag him over the ships railing after forcing a few men to jump out of the way.
It was then two of Grimmels deathgrippers joined in the attack on the ship and knowing that his ninja and his Horus warriors had things handled he switched his prosthetic to his hook and launched it towards the airship, hooking it before pulling him up to the airship. He then quickly switched it back to his arm and looked down at Toothless yelling out.
"I'M COMING TOOTHLESS!" Grimmel then slid down the chain and onto the lightfury while asking.
"You still think he cares about you?" He stabbed a capsule filled with death gripper venom into the muzzle wrapped around her head. "Let's just see who he follows." The lightfury's eyes turned to slit's and he freed her before taking off on the now drugged lightfury as Hiccup jumped towards Toothless and grabbed onto his restraints.
"I'm sorry bud, for everything."
He pulled the muzzle off Toothless and got to work on the harness holding him as the two deathgrippers who were still holding onto the airship began struggling and swinging it around, making it hard for Hiccup to hold on until they dropped it into the ocean. From the large splash, Toothless flew out fully armored with Hiccup on his back and taking off, after Grimmel and the lightfury intent on getting her back. As they took off the riders of Berk came on their own dragons and began their own attack on the ships and freeing any remaining dragons and were joined by the snake guardians with most taking the form of giant snakes, scaring the life out of the warlords' men before they were attacked.
While they did battle, Hiccup and Toothless flew over the island trying to catch up to the lighfury since they couldn't get Grimmel off her without running the risk of hurting the lightfury. Now they were over Hiccups Island flying over the Mayan jungle, chasing Grimmel while also dealing with his four remaining death grippers that were doing all they could to catch them. Hiccup growled as one latched onto Toothless' back while another grabbed onto his side before the remaining two grabbed onto his other side and the bottom. Hiccup growled while avoiding the snapping jaws of one before he said.
"I really wish we had some help right now."
As soon as the words left his mouth, the death gripper on top of them was slammed off from the side while the two on his sides were slammed down on from above and knocked off followed by the one on the bottom. Hiccup looked at what had attacked them and smiled at the sight of Odin and Toothless' family dragging the deathgrippers down to his islands Arabian desert where Mirage was waiting for them. Grimmel looked down with wide eyes in shock at seeing his deathgrippers being dragged down by multiple nightfury's when he thought he'd hunted them all except for Toothless. While he looked on in shock, Hiccup and Toothless circled around before he saw them and just as he noticed them, Hiccup jumped forward off Toothless while spreading his wings and charging right at Grimmel. Seeing this quickly pulled out his crossbow and shot it at Hiccup who steered out of the way, avoiding the dart which struck Toothless instead, but it just bounced off his armor. Hiccup then reached Grimmel and tackled him back, but he held on as the lightfury was steered down wards towards the island in a nosedive while Grimmel crawled back on to her back yelling.
"YOU'LL KILL BOTH OF US!" Hiccup made her pull up throwing Grimmel off but he grabbed Hiccups leg, pulling his body off as Hiccup held onto her neck. "FIGHTING OVER A DRAGON?" He grabbed the harness. "THAT'S YOUR PLAN?" Hiccup looked back and smirked.
"NO, THIS IS!" He pulled the harness off the lightfury, tossing it off with it hitting Grimmel in the face. "If I don't make it out of this, watch out for him for me."
Hiccup then let go and began to plummet with a smile on his face since they were right where he needed to be which was in his Indian desert near the side of a mountain. Hiccup spread his wings again and glided near the edge while Grimmel climbed up his body and began trying to mess with the wings, only to cut his hands on the feathers. It didn't matter though as Hiccup had gotten close enough to the mountain to do as he planned and released the legs of his spiderpack and slammed them into the side of the mountain slowing his descent for a few seconds until he completely stopped, kicking Grimmel off his leg as he did so. Fortunately for Grimmel it wasn't that high a drop, but it was still high enough to hurt when he landed while Hiccup was able to use the legs to lower him to the ground safely. Once Hiccup was fully on the ground Grimmel sat up while gritting his teeth in pain and looking up at Hiccup who glared down at him as he said.
"It's over Grimmel." He glared at Hiccup.
"No, it's not over until I've hunted down every last one of the night fury's and destroy both you and your people and I will force you to watch as I destroy all you care about." Hiccup smirked before he chuckled surprising Grimmel.
"Grimmel, look around you and tell me where we are." He looked around before turning back to Hiccup.
"We're on some part of your island." Hiccup nodded.
"And every part of my island has inhabitants who protect that part." It was then my dust coyotes made their appearance, surrounding us.
"Wha-what are these creatures?"
"They're the ones who call this place home and they are very powerful when defending their home." He then smirked. "Allow me to demonstrate."
Hiccup let out a whistle which Cheveyo took as a signal and lead his pack in their attack, quickly running past Hiccup and surrounding Grimmel while running around him to form a giant sand twister with him in the middle. Slowly Grimmel was lifted into the air and covered in light before there was a bright flash and the coyotes separated to reveal a human shaped cloud of dust falling to the ground and when it landed it took the form of another dust coyote, but I could tell it wasn't Grimmel. I turned to Chevevo who sat next to me and said.
"Great job pal but if it's all the same to you, I'd rather not know what you did to Grimmel." He just nodded and took off with his pack to patrol the desert as Toothless and the lightfury came to land in front of me before Toothless rushed up and pounced on me and began nuzzling me while licking me making me chuckle. "Yeah, I'm happy to see you to bud." It was then the lightfury approached and gave me a small smile. "I knew you'd warm up to me eventually."
She slowly walked up to me, and I smiled, holding out my hand with the fingers facing up and turning away and a few seconds later I heard Toothless give a growl of encouragement and felt the lightfury place her muzzle against my palm and smiled. I turned and opened my eyes, smiling at the sight of her before we pulled away and turned to Toothless as I said.
"There are still the war lords and their ships to deal." I mounted Toothless. "Let's go open up a couple of hulls bud." Toothless growled and nodded before we took off to finish off the war lords and their forces, stopping at the nests to gather more dragons, the forest to get Adal and his pack and the griffins roost to pick up the griffins since there were a lot of ships and we'd need all the help we could get to take out the fleet.
Afternoon the next day
It's been a day since the battle against the war lords and to say that time had been busy would be an understatement since I literally spent the whole night up, helping wherever I could when it comes to handling not only the wreckages but also the prisoners. After the battle, I had to loot the ships for cages to help hold all the prisoners since my coat, ship and various intruder capturing automatons weren't going to be big enough to hold them all, summon all my forces to help guard them and then spend the rest of my night looting the ships for their supplies. I at least didn't have to worry about the deathgrippers since when they landed, the kids came and dealt with them using long range attacks to daze them before Chara hit each with a purple kunai, paralyzing them. I knew that dealing with a lot of their men was going to be easy since most of their commanders were criminals who were wanted all over the archipelago for various crimes alongside some of the men who served under them so I could just turn them all in for the bounty. As for the others, I'd do what I did with most war prisoners and sell them to some friends in Rome and Greece for some good money since they were always looking for new slaves to send to the mines or work the fields. The price their men would pay for their crimes against Berk, its allies and the dragons so they would spend the rest of their lives suffering like they had done to so many others. As for the war lords themselves, they'd be spending a good long time in three separate cells on Outcast Island till we could decide what to do with them.
Then there's the multiple dragons we had rescued, they were settling into the nests and had been helping recover the shipwrecks that we intended to scrap for parts to build the new village along with the supplies. This was good because we needed all the supplies, we could get to help rebuild the lives of our people and now we had more than enough to build a whole new village. Now though I was standing on the cliff of my Celtic Planes, looking at the dragons that were bringing in the remaining shipwrecks and knew we had a lot of work ahead of us but with our dragons and our people, I knew we'd be able to take on whatever challenges life threw at us. I sighed and turned around and began walking since I had to get back to New Berk so I could begin transporting the prisoners so the cages could be melted down into tools and nails.
AN: And that brings an end to this chapter and I feel it only right to warn you all that for the next chapter you should prepare for a big time skip since building a village and stuff will still take time even with magic and dragons as will helping people settle into their new homes. With that said, I know I've skipped a few scenes from the film but I did it to save both time and to be honest, scripting it is incredibly boring and time consuming, plus I'm not allowed to watch films at work so I couldn't watch and script at work. Now I hope you all enjoyed the chapter and will review kindly since I do enjoy reading them and they help encourage me to continue writing this story when I'm thinking of giving up. With that said, have a nice day and please review.
