CHAPTER 50: Wingmaidens
"Please don't do this," pleaded a helpless Atali.
It'd been a full week following the singing of the Ancient Tribe's anthem from all of its vikings. Over the past week Yurlin had staged numerous ships of his troops around Wingmaiden Island as a show of force. The Wingmaidens quickly noticed these ships, and it'd dawned on them who they were.
But it was only tonight, around midnight, as the pitch black skies surrounded the skies of the archipelago, that Yurlin had forcefully summoned the very Chieftess of the Wingmaidens to his island - Atali. He'd made countless open threats in numerous speeches over the past week about his intentions with Wingmaiden Island, which were completely in violation of his conference promises with Hiccup and the others.
Yurlin fully understood this perception, but he no longer cared. Feeling emboldened and knowing the other tribes wouldn't dare stop him given they were so eager to avoid conflict, especially Hiccup, he wanted to proceed forwards. His plan of 'liberating' the archipelago of the unvikings, turning it into a tribe-wide collection of islands all under his dictatorship were coming to fruition. The closer it was getting, the bolder and hungrier Yurlin became.
In this particular scenario, Atali hadn't even been given a choice in coming to Ancient Island. After hearing the rumours and reported words of Yurlin's speeches from overseas during the past week being fed back to her by fellow vikings, meaning the words of the speeches had definitely gotten out to the other tribes INCLUDING Hiccup at this point, she was thrown into a dilemma. She'd received a letter, hand delivered by an Ancient Tribe ship, saying she had to come here or face destruction. She wasn't given a choice.
For as much as Yurlin despised her existence as a woman Chieftan given he viewed viking women in leadership positions as fertile grounds for the unvikings, he'd summoned her to come here by force, he'd bullied her around in all the letters he sent, which left her with sleepless nights back at home. He DEMANDED she came here just by herself so he could eventually force her to sign off her island to him, despite her being her own Chieftess. But that was the situation all at Yurlin's advantage.
"I'll disband our tribe, we won't class ourselves as a tribe anymore," pleaded Atali as she felt like she was being held hostage, the situation was that tense, "please don't take over my island."
Herrick Herald was sat directly next to Alfa Yurlin as the two men stared across at a tearful Atali on the other side of the table. Surrounding Atali's every corner were other Ancient vikings who were guarding the room as the late night meeting took place. Atali felt closed off from the outside world. She was trying to give Yurlin any and all concessions she could think of to get him to back off from taking over Wingmaiden Island.
"This is the reason you didn't come to our conference. Your kind aren't worthy of these levels of negotiations, that's why I got you to come here, not the other way around," said Yurlin, "I'll repeat again that I intend on finishing what I set out to achieve when I became Chieftan."
"At the expense of our own tribe? we had a deal at that conference that you and the others signed on, you said no more territorial demands?! we gave you our loved settlement on Dragon Island that we used to recall our memories with Razorwhips and dragons, and you still want more?!"
"This is my destiny," replied Yurlin, "no piece of paper will halt me in my liberation of this archipelago. I have Hiccup Haddock and these other tribes at the palm of my hands, do you really think they'll help you?"
Atali gulped. Having cut ties with the Hooligans and all the others, the situation she was in now made her wish she'd never did it.
"Let me tell you what I see in you when you cry like that. An individual who has no regrets for what your fake tribe did to my vikings when you had your weak little 'settlement'. Far from a settlement, your tribe BUTCHERED my people within those huts, that's why you burnt those huts to the ground before my men could arrive, you think crying will make me forget ANY of that? let me tell you, darling, you were never meant to be a leader, your kind never were. My patience is seriously thin regarding this situation!"
Yurlin was working himself up into a self-induced state of rage, repeating false allegations of the Wingmaidens killing Ancient vikings on Dragon Island when they owned it and such. Atali was slowly cowering lower and lower into her chair.
"So much so that I have ordered my men to be ready to liberate your island, within the next HOUR. You can either sign this treaty pledging that we march peacefully with no resistance to my men from your fraud tribe, or you can not sign it, go back, and be crushed to dust. Your tribe simply CANNOT exist, it's just not possible, and we'll be sure to make that reality exist!"
"Please..." Atali begged.
"Begging for mercy only grows my contempt for your existence. Women vikings, LEADERS?! YOU'RE NOT MEANT TO BE LEADERS!" yelled Yurlin, standing up from his chair, "YOU ARE MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE UNVIKINGS TO INFEST THESE ISLANDS BY BEING IN A CONTRADICTORY POSITION, A PLACE YOU SHOULDN'T BE AT!"
Atali simply shut herself up. She felt like any moment she was going to be brutally attacked to the ground. Yurlin returned to his seat.
"Which is why I repeat my offer..." said Yurlin once again, this time sliding the treaty across the table, "you can either sign this and tell your women to do the right thing and not resist us, or they can expect to be viciously crushed with all of our force."
Trembling with her arm as it shook, realizing the fate of her tribe was basically sealed, she grabbed the nearest pen on the table, with Yurlin watching over from the other side like a predator waiting to pounce, and she put down her initials on the treaty.
"You silly girl," laughed Yurlin, after Atali had fearfully signed the treaty, "you think a piece of paper was going to determine whether or not I would destroy your tribe with all my force? much like the paper signed at that conference, it's completely worthless. I was planning on doing that anyway."
Atali gulped. She felt trapped, she was panicking internally, so much that she was as flustered looking at the doors as she was looking back at Yurlin. Openly proclaiming he was going to violate the conference agreement he signed with Hiccup made her realize something - Yurlin was after MUCH more than just destroying the Warlords. And she was in an utterly powerless situation.
Everything she feared about Yurlin was correct. He was a dictatorial, territory hungry, subjugating, archaic viking who had made it abundantly clear he was interested in more than dealing with the Warlords and unvikings. He was interested in creating an archipelago-wide Ancient Tribe where everyone would fall to his leadership.
A couple of guards from either side of the room pounced upon Atali's shoulders and gripped her harshly by the back of her neck, lifting her up out of the chair as Yurlin looked on with Herrick Herald besides him.
"I was never going to let your tribe exist, the girl they call 'Atali'. And by virtue I was never going to let YOU exist," said Yurlin, standing up again, "nobody on this archipelago has the guts to stop me from what I seek. Taking over your island and bringing it into the First Tribe is just the first of many steps to a unified world free of unvikingism. Not Hiccup, not ANYONE, can stop that from happening."
Atali felt the back of her neck be tightly gripped. As Yurlin nodded at the two guards, she felt herself be dragged against her will towards the doors. Having been told by Yurlin he'd fully intended to embark on some sort of world domination under his ideology where all vikings were to bow down to him as their 'savior' and 'liberator', it was all crystal clear.
Yurlin had been lying at the conference all that time, he was truly embarked upon imperial aims, and with Drago Bludvist out there within the archipelago, his intentions to achieve such aims were to be sped up drastically, knowing full well that he'd once again be appeased and be bowed down to by the other tribes for their fear of conflict breaking out.
Wingmaiden Island was surrounded by huge wooden boats on all sides, containing Ancient soldiers who were to embark off the boats and march their way onto the island. A complete violation of the conference agreement a month ago, this annexation was to be ruthlessly conducted to show to the archipelago and the outside world that the Ancients were not to be messed with.
"WHERE'S ATALI?!" yelled one of the Wingmaidens as they watched out from one of the mountain edges.
"SHE NEVER CAME BACK!" replied another, as they noticed the boats unloading with Ancients.
It was most ironic that the Wingmaidens were set to be annexed by men, given their tribe was fully women. The Ancients however were to be very different sorts of men that they'd have ever encountered. They were under orders on behalf of Yurlin himself to show no mercy to these women. Any of them who fired a crossbow at them, the Wingmaiden firing the arrows was to receive ten times the arrows her way.
They were to be all detained, swiftly transported back to Ancient Island to face political punishment and most likely death, for them existing in the first place as potential unviking enablers (according to the ideology of Yurlin).
The boats had all opened up and the men started marching onto the island. The tall and rocky island was one that had a strange geographical appearance to the Ancients, they'd never really seen an island like it before. There were heaps of dome-like structures situated above the many trees, clearly the village, and there were sturdy-looking tent structures across the island.
The Ancients nonetheless marched in their 2,000 group, one of the bigger amounts to be sent to an annexation than the recent ones, something Yurlin had ordered deliberately.
"WHY ARE WE JUST LETTING THEM COME ONTO OUR ISLAND?!" yelled one Wingmaiden, up in her tree-house like structure as she watched with horror below as the island became ever more engulfed.
Suddenly, the soldiers all charged with massive force towards the interior of the island, and a lot of the Wingmaidens caught up within the interior, the middle of the island near the ample rocks, had started running away. The soldiers all charged in their massive group like a tsunami, so much so that barely any of the Wingmaidens escaped.
As soon as the soldiers caught a grip of the Wingmaidens, they pinned them down to the ground and deliberately held their faces against the cold stone surface of their island as they became detained. The Ancients had no moral guards nor were they like any other viking seen before following Yurlin coming to power - they were devoid of empathy, morals, they were pure war machines with personal loyalty pledges to Alfa Yurlin in his aim to achieve what was seemingly obvious in light of the annexation - an archipelago-wide tribe.
"WHY CAN'T THE RAZORWHIPS DETECT THIS HAPPENING TO US FROM THE HIDDEN WORLD?!" yelled one Wingmaiden who was pinned to the ground by a group of Ancients.
The leading Ancient viking of this group of soldiers stood near the ships as the massive group of soldiers continued rampaging the island, seeking any hiding Wingmaidens as the annexation went from just an ordinary annexation to an outright siege, out of ideological reasons. The Yurlin regime was firmly making its bid on islands beyond just those infested by the 'unvikings'.
"Every lady here needs to be taken back onto the boats. When our vikings populate these islands, we'll need to make sure that these ladies are fully readied up for the business of slavery, as we colonize these islands with our own. DOWN WITH THE UNVIKINGS!" yelled the leading Ancient viking, as did the soldiers near him.
Yurlin's 'master plan' for the archipelago was starting to come to fruition. The threat he posed to stability was now clear. The question now was how Hiccup and the others would react to the news that Yurlin had breached the conference agreement.