CHAPTER 32: Dragon Island
Dragon Island, the famous territory where the battle between the Hooligans and the Red Death took place, was of great significance. The battle that took place there would go on to cement a history making relationship between vikings and dragons in their unity against the Red Death, culminating in dragons and humans cooperating and bonding.
The collapsed, damaged and scorched shores of the island from the Red Death's wrath remained there, about the only trace of the dragons left behind, if you could even call it a trace. Following the dragons leaving for The Hidden World ten years ago, it'd become a deserted island with heaps of fog surrounding the vicinity of the island
That was the initial thought at first anyways. After the dragons had left for The Hidden World, it subsequently became anything but deserted. And it was all thanks to the Wingmaiden tribe.
As a tribe that specialized in looking after hatchling Razorwhips in the place of the dragon mothers, in order to save them from the male dragons killing them, they were deeply scarred emotionally when they all took off and left for The Hidden World at the same time Toothless and the rest did. Knowing the history behind Dragon Island, the significance of it, as the island that'd contribute to everlasting peace between vikings and dragons as a result of the Red Death's defeat, the Wingmaidens decided to take it into their own hands.
After all the dragons left for The Hidden World, including all those on Dragon Island, the Wingmaidens sent a small group of their vikings onto the island to set up camp on it. This was directly after the dragons of the world had all left for The Hidden World. They were extremely keen on making it their own special little land to refuge on, to build huts on, and to use as their own special haven.
It was a great bit of land to work with - although it lacked trees, any type of forestry, and wildlife, the island was perfect for building and for escaping to as a way to commemorate and live in the aura of the dragons. All the supplies needed to build the huts they've built on there could easily be transferred from their own island of Wingmaiden Island. All the food, all the vegetables, everything. It was easily done.
Dragon Island being the former nest of the Red Death and all the dragons before they turned against her, it was an island the Wingmaidens considered perfect to utilize in the context of them being a tribe that specialized greatly in looking after baby dragons in the place of the females, to protect from the males. It was their comfort zone to remind themselves of the work they did with dragons, and they felt a sense of magic whenever they came to visit the small little village they'd built on it.
A few of the Wingmaiden women vikings did live on there permanently. Not all of the tribe moved there, but they wanted to preserve the territory for themselves. They didn't take it by force, they didn't go through any aggressive measures, they just thought that since it'd been fully deserted after the dragons left for The Hidden World, and given it was the battleground between the Red Death and the Hairy Hooligans at the time, they didn't think anybody else would want it.
They wanted it for the reasons listed above. It made them feel 'at home', with it being the island that'd cement peace between the dragons and vikings. And again, as a tribe that specifically dealt with protecting baby dragons, particularly Razorwhips, it was the perfect island for them to have extended their tribe to. It was a lifeless patch of stone in the middle of fog with nobody else on it, so they came onto it fair and square and decided on their own accord to build a village on it.
The problem was, Atali hadn't told anybody that her tribe did this. Not Dagur nor Heather, not Alvin, not even the Hooligans. As a result, their presence on Dragon Island was completely unknown. Even when Atali had attended the meetings between other Chieftans to discuss the situation with Alfa Yurlin and his actions, she hadn't even told the others about it then.
She thought it was a matter for their tribe and she felt like it'd have been pointless to have told them. They liked that it was isolated and thus their own magical haven to bask in the aura of a peace making vicinity between dragons and humans. Atali ultimately thought it wouldn't have been a problem, and plus, nobody else on the archipelago knew they'd built a small little village on there, and she felt they had no reason to know. What they didn't know didn't hurt.
Except the Ancients and Alfa Yurlin did know about their presence on the island. He knew, and he was incredibly incensed about it. Far from being an isolated haven surrounded by fog as Dragon Island had always been, it was in fact the next target of Yurlin. The whole island, its territory, it was all in his eyes and his next target following his successful annexation of the Northern Markets.
How did they know about it? the Ancients had long known about it when they sent a hidden patrol boat some months ago through the fog to investigate the weird atmosphere across the seas, and when they got through the fog, the Ancient vikings onboard quickly turned back when they noticed a collection of huts to their surprise, and they quickly realized that there were moving vikings on it even from the distance, and they were entirely women. This was quite a while ago and way before Yurlin initiated his program of territorial expansion.
Even during the time that he was bullying his way to the annexation of the Northern Markets, Yurlin had privately spoken about the need to deal with the Dragon Island 'problem' as he described it, particularly to Herrick Herald and Krimm Hiss, his top two most trusted vikings in the Ancient council. It was his next target and he'd already put his mind to that during the militarization of Old Berk and the annexation of the Northern Markets.
He'd spoken of his perception that the Wingmaidens weren't a real tribe because they were women, and that was also a factor in their little settlement on Dragon Island becoming his next target. He wanted to not only have the Dragon Island ceded to him from the Wingmaidens, he wanted to 'crush the living daylights out of them' as he put it, in regards to the Wingmaidens themselves.
Yurlin was sat inside the grand hall on Ancient Island, flanked by his two most trusted vikings in Krimm Hiss to his left, and Herrick Herald, his deputy Chieftan in effect, to his right. A couple of the top army Ancients were sat on the same long table as he sought to declare his desire to take care of the Wingmaiden settlement on Dragon Island, and to make it a declared target to his council.
"The plebiscite proves I was right in doing what I did to those Northern Market puppets!" declared Yurlin, "a completely unanimous result in our favour, there was not a single no vote!"
The Ancients had held their plebiscite on Northern Market island, and the result was a resounding victory for the 'yes' vote. The ballot box, which was an old wooden box with a hole cut in the top of it, with many of them spread across the island to accommodate the number of votes, was anything but free and fair. Ancient vikings swiftly guarded the ballots and those vikings who put a vote in did so without privacy.
The Ancients had threatened and intimidated those vikings with putting a tick in the yes box, and every now and then the Ancients would go into the boxes and open them up to ensure every ballot was in favour. Their plebiscite was anything but fair, and Yurlin had feared if Kurt the Kourageous had gone ahead with his own plebiscite before he sent his vikings to the island for the annexation, it'd have been a public rejection of the 'reunion' with the Ancients.
The question on the medium sized yellow paper which was handed out to the Northern Markets during the plebiscite was wrinkly and yellow. Below was how the question was framed.
Do you agree with the reunification of the Northern Markets with the First Tribe? YES ( ) or no ()
The actual boxes on the ballot which were intended to be ticked had a clear bias. The yes box was not only larger than the no box, but the actual word 'yes' was highlighted and much larger. This way, the vikings would've easily noticed it first and thus put their tick in it. If any viking dared tick no, it would've been easy for the Ancients to track them down and deal with them accordingly. Threats and intimidation were rife during that plebiscite only a few days ago, and it wasn't pretty.
But it got the result the Ancients wanted, and now with it known publicly across the archipelago of the result, Yurlin was ready to turn his attention to the Wingmaiden settlement on Dragon Island.
"Correct, leader, they have shown a desire on their part to be with us. We are not only an expanded tribe, we are the biggest tribe on this archipelago. The world will thank us in many years to come!" replied Herrick Herald.
"Gentlemen, long before we sought to liberate the Northern Markets, it'd come to my attention that on the old island where a dragon known as the Red Death resided, a fraudulent settlement was in existence on there. The Wingmaidens had oppressed that land without consulting anybody, and who are they to try and make their mark in that manner? they are NOT a real tribe, women tribes should NOT exist. I'd long spoken about this before we liberated the Northern Markets but now, we are fully available to deal with the settlement problem."
All of the vikings in the hall nodded with their leader. Yurlin was genuinely furious that the Wingmaidens had even existed, especially furious that they'd built a settlement on Dragon Island.
"As we have successfully demonstrated, women vikings are best suited in the hut to bring up families and kids for the longevity of our people. They should cook, bring up kids, and grow vegetables and stay in the hut whilst the men fight for their tribe determination. We cannot let such a settlement exist on an island they've STOLEN. Many of our own vikings who've visited that island have been killed and oppressed by those Wingmaidens, and the Ancient Tribe cannot stand by and let that happen any longer!"
Yurlin's claims about Ancient vikings who visited Dragon Island, only to be killed and oppressed by the Wingmaidens, was not only untrue and unproven, but it was a deliberate propaganda lie to start buttering up the public justification he'd share with the rest of the archipelago.
"Not least, women vikings are most susceptible to the disease of the unvikings because of how weak they are. With that settlement in our proximity, they are a breeding ground for the very vikings who contributed to Drago Bludvist's rise in the first place. Action MUST be taken!" Yurlin declared.
"Agreed, Chieftan, very much agreed," said Krimm Hiss, "the Wingmaiden tribe's whole existence is a contradiction to the viking world."
"If they do not cede this land to us, we'll have to take matters into our own hands. I am going to make a speech that I want the whole archipelago to take very seriously later today, in regards to this fraud of a settlement on that island. We will DEMAND that they cede it to us, or face imminent war. I'm fully confident to say at this point, having dealt with the liberation of the Northern Markets, that if we're stopped in our tracks in doing what's right, we'll have no choice but to go to war. The Warlords need to know we are serious about liberating these lands from their filth, I will do it if needed and I will make that crystal clear today in my speech!"
Although Yurlin had long rendered these council meetings insignificant because his word was the tribe's command as its sole leader and he could make a decision without ever needing these meetings, as arguably the most powerful Chieftan on the Barbaric Archipelago at this point, he felt it was a good thing to consult his closest vikings on the upcoming plans.
The speech he was planning to do today was one that he wanted to be shared across all of the archipelago, he wanted the message to get out loud and clear, that his attention was now turned to the settlement of Wingmaidens on Dragon Island, and he wanted that island ceded to him or else. Having successfully annexed the Northern Markets without any response from the other tribes, Yurlin was bolder than ever, and thus he felt able to make these threats.