CHAPTER 63: Hesitancy

The boat carrying over a dozen Hooligans had finally arrived at Berserker Island, with Dagur & Heather eagerly awaiting its stopping at the shores. Having discussed their idea of potentially getting the dragons out of the hidden world to come back and fight the Ancients, shortening the war, they were eager to share their idea to the imminent group of Hooligans on the boat.

It struggled to navigate the sea stacks around the interior of the island. Nonetheless, it managed to get through them all and continue sailing towards the shores of the island. The incoming group of Hooligans were to be side by side with the Berserkers in preparation for an attack by the Ancients, but also equally to proceed with the Cay Offensive that they'd planned.

The boat finally stopped at the bare shores of the island. The bare rocky nature of the shores meant the boat made a big thud of a landing against the surface - it wasn't punctured or damaged, to the point a hole had been created in the wood, but it was a big thud nonetheless.

The Hooligans, one by one, gently hopped off the boat, all geared up. Their flailing beards constantly clashed with their upper chests, and their olive green coloured chain bodies resembled a very similar appearance to Hiccup's old green tunic he had as a teenager. Their boots gently made contact with the rocky surface of Berserker Island as, one by one, they went up to Dagur and shook him by the hand.

"Alright laddy!" said one of the Hooligans, his long beard coating the upper parts of his gear.

Dagur nodded and shook his hand. He was expecting quite a lot of them to have been sent here. One by one, they all continued hopping off the boat steps and onto the rocky land of the island, whilst the background near the central mountain held nothing but wandering Berserkers carrying weapons, newly smelted equipment, and echoing voices as they readied themselves for a war footing.

"Great to see you fellas!" Dagur replied, as more Hooligans unloaded off the boat.

"Likewise. It took us a LOT longer than it should've to get to this point, but alas. We'll send those despicable Ancients running off our old island and give em what's comin' to em!" said one of the Hooligans.

"You know something, though? just before you guys got here, me and my genius sister here," Dagur briefly looked at Heather, "we came up with a solution that could bring this war to a conclusive, inevitable end."

"Oh, have you?" said another Hooligan, as more of them seemed to be getting off the boat.

All in all, about 20 Hooligans had boarded the boat from New Berk, and when Dagur noticed that that was all Hiccup had sent, he stopped briefly in sharing the solution he came up with Heather, to question the numbers.

"I...wasn't there meant to be more of you guys?"

"We thought the exact same, fella. Hiccup only sent 20 of us here, not including the poor guy who's gotta take the boat all the way back to our island."

This was news to Dagur. He thought Hiccup was going to send about 100 Berkians here, and yet all that turned up was a minuscule 20. Something wasn't right there. The impact of such a realization caused Dagur to automatically walk towards the boat, through all of the Hooligans.

"You sure you guys aren't hiding anymore of yourselves in the lower portions of the boat?" Dagur asked.

"Affirmative, Dagur. Hiccup genuinely only sent 20 of us here."

"Huh. I'm not sure if that'll be enough for us to pull this offensive off. It's...I'm surprised," Dagur said, an ache gripping his heart as the storm of surprise surrounded his insides, "we agreed on 100."

The Hooligans collectively shrugged as more Berserkers descended behind Dagur as they realized the Hooligans were here. But Dagur was taken aback by a firm grip of surprise as the reality of the situation dawned on him in regards to the numbers.

"Well I...you know what? irrespective of that, I ought to tell you all the solution we've come up with. And this time, it's not gonna be Stoick that's done-"

Dagur completely stopped himself from saying what he was about to say. Something he'd said years ago in the past, that he was about to repeat just now. Out of pure respect, he completely cut himself off from finishing the sentence. He was only going to say it to try and pour a bit of funniness into the unexpected situation that'd just emerged in regards to there only being 20 Hooligans. Something to break the tension. Dagur, wanting to be respectful, didn't bother. Instead, he proceeded to just tell them straight up what he'd come up with.

"Anyways, I was thinking you guys," Dagur said, turning his back to the boat, walking away from the shores, "why don't you get Hiccup to simply...get the dragons back from that world they went into?"

"It was one of the first things we'd proposed to him, to be honest with you Dagur."

"And?" said Dagur, "what did he say?"

"He said he was going to try and carry it through."

Dagur nodded, as did Heather. It was such an obvious and clear solution to the whole war that it'd have been stupid for it to have not already been spoken about on New Berk - especially since Hiccup, barely that long ago, had reunited with Toothless and Stormfly with his kids after the latest Snoggletog where they had that pageant.

"Huh. He hadn't mentioned it to any of us, I don't even think he mentioned it to Alvin."

"He's been saying for a while now, even before we stupidly trusted Yurlin not to take more territory, that he missed the dragons and he wished they were here again - just like the rest of us, to be honest."

This had the potential to shift the balance of power in this war. If it was truly the case that Hiccup was exploring the idea of sailing to the entrance of the hidden world to try and somehow get the dragons back out and help them end the war inevitably and oversee the collapse of the Yurlin regime and its crimes, the war could be considered over even before it began. With the dragons onside, the Ancients would lose their unique danger that they posed. They'd fall as quickly as the dragon hunters did if the dragons were back to burn them to ashes.

All those times as a teenager when Hiccup and Toothless, in many situations involving Dragon's Edge, fought off enemies like the dragon hunters, the dragons had made them much easier adversaries. The Ancients were a completely different ballgame, in their authoritarian, archaic, dictatorial and merciless methods of committing their crimes, they weren't the sort of vikings you could just stop fighting in the middle of the sea on boats and start talking. They weren't comparable to

They'd have to be fought to the very bitter end. But with the dragons back, the sudden unique threat they posed would be decreased drastically to pretty much the same sort of threat that Hiccup's old enemies, from the battles prior to the return of his mother and Stoick's unfortunate death, had posed. They were no Johann or Krogan, or even Viggo.

They were certainly nothing like Mildew. Compared to the Ancients, those four guys would look like saints. So the prospect of fighting the Ancients without dragons was going to be a much more serious, more battle hardened group of enemies to fight. But with the dragons back, the threat they posed would be extremely diminished, to the point they'd essentially be a collective equivalent to Krogan or anyone of that kind.

"We'll let our fella on the boat know to take this back to Hiccup. He's definitely said that he's going to try and carry it through, but that was all we got. No matter what though, we've got his back, especially for when we go onto our old island and take back OUR territory of seven generations."

Dagur nodded at the Hooligans' comment. Once again, he and Heather had a brief buzz of excitement circle their bodies due to the prospect of the dragons actually coming back and instantly destroying the Ancients, and in turn, ending the brutal regime of Alfa Yurlin.

New Berk felt like it was on lockdown. Not a single viking was walking around the village, they were all inside their huts, families congregated together whilst their children were in the evacuation huts across the other side of the tall island. The only vikings in the open were those who were patrolling the corners of the island, the deserted village, the dense forests, everywhere - even somewhere as absurd as behind the numerous heavenly waterfalls on the mountainous islands.

They were patrolling the island because, as they were now in a state of war, they felt the need to be on the strictest of lookouts for the enemy, just in case they may have been hiding on the island. Obviously at this point that wasn't something that was the case, but as Hiccup had alluded to at the start of the war, he wasn't taking any chances.

Hiccup himself was congregated inside his hut with Valka, Astrid, the two kids and Gobber. Eret had also joined them inside the hut. He'd been such a competent help and voice, that Hiccup had wanted him to be by his side for the duration of the war to give him advice or any valuable suggestions. Eret's background as a former mercenary to Drago Bludvist, and the fact he was right all along about Alfa Yurlin, meant he was a valuable voice for Hiccup.

"How many of them are at Berserker Island, Hiccup?" Eret asked, as he, Hiccup, Valka and Astrid studied a big map of the archipelago, the same one that Hiccup and Toothless used on their various journeys across the archipelago when he was younger.

"I ended up sending about 20 of them, just because...yeah, just 20."

"Didn't we originally discuss having more than that? more than double that number?" Eret asked, confused.

"We did, yeah. I guess in the heat of the moment I must've buckled or something. We were talking about this small offensive."

Astrid was watching Hiccup's body language from across the table. Valka was stood up next to her. Hiccup, as he looked down at the map, occasionally rolled his eyes, and he'd often subtly move backwards into the chair, as if he wanted to withdraw from having to even look at the map. Something wasn't right with him. She fully empathized with Hiccup.

"I'm not going to get in the way of your calls on this, Chief," Eret said, "I guess 20 is the number we went with in the end. But listen, this offensive that you've spoken about, there can't be any hesitancy about it. We either do it or we let the Ancients steamroll across the rest of the archipelago."

"I think...aren't we not forgettin' one aspect of this here equation, fellas?" Gobber said, walking on over next to Eret, "what're we gonna do about this Drago fella, he's out and about is he not?"

It was a good question. Ever since war broke out, nobody on the 'grand alliance' side had addressed the fact that the Ancients were in a pact with the Warlords. The fact a pact like that was even occurring still maintained shockwaves, as Yurlin and Drago were ideologically opposed tyrants, and that was part of the reason why. The other reason why nobody on the alliance side, the alliance being the Hooligans, Berserkers and Outcasts and what was remaining of the Defenders of the Wing, didn't want to address Drago or the Warlords was fear.

Hiccup declared war without thinking how he'd approach the dangerous problem of the Warlords and a resurgent Drago, boosted by his pact with Yurlin. The Ancients were the aggressors in the invasion of Caldera Cay and that was primarily why he'd declared war. But the Warlords hadn't even crossed Hiccup's mind. Because he didn't want to cross that bridge - the idea of fighting both the Ancients AND the Warlords was even more daunting.

"Yeah, I think we've slightly been missing the elephant in the room," Eret realized, "what ARE we going to do about Drago and the Warlords?"

Hiccup shrugged. His honest answer was he didn't know.

"I don't know, I just have no idea how we're going to cross that bridge. The main threat right now is Yurlin and the Ancients."

"But I suppose we mustn't tire of the fact that Drago Bludvist was responsible for horrific acts in the past," Valka said, jumping into the discussion, "not least...you know."

It was clear what Valka was referring to - Drago's murder of Stoick at the hands of his Bewilderbeast. Even still, Hiccup didn't want to have to consider that fighting the Warlords alongside the Ancients was a very real prospect.

"Then how about..." Astrid said, "we go to the entrance of the hidden world and we find our dragons?"

Every face in the hut turned to Astrid like a magnet. This wasn't a unique idea by any stretch of the imagination, but the scale of the situation and the dangerous uncertainties about how this war would play out meant the idea had new legs.

"I know quite a lot of the guys have spoken about that already," Hiccup said, "they asked me about it earlier, especially before the 20 vikings sailed off to Berserker Island."

"So what do you think, do you think it's something you'd be up for doing?"

Once again, Hiccup sighed and his body language gave off the aura of somebody not wanting to step outside his comfort zone. He was incredibly withdrawn as he leaned back directly on his wooden chair.

"Think about it - it's only been a couple of months since Snoggletog, you know, the same Snoggletog that, shortly after it, we reunited with Toothless and the Light Fury, AND Stormfly. We know where the entrance to the hidden world is."

Astrid was dead serious about the idea. Hiccup however looked extremely hesitant. Nonetheless, he wanted to give an answer that'd make it sound like he'd be up for it.

"Yeah, we'll explore doing that, we might even go sailing down there again to try and look for them," he said.

The tone of voice gave Astrid the impression that Hiccup was in some sort of prison in his head, a prison of hesitancy.

Eret was behind the idea too, of getting the dragons back to their world to attack the Ancients and end the war. Of course, even with the dragons, the Ancients were going to fight to the very bitter end so their defeat wasn't going to come at an easy cost, but the dragons being back would mean that the Hooligans overall would have a big overhanging coat of security and advantage.

Hiccup's hesitancy, though, on clear display in his decreased tone of voice and body language, linked up nicely with the start of this war - never before had a war had such a quiet, underwhelming start. Not a single shot had been fired between themselves and the enemy yet. It was a war you could only describe so far as false.

Except, personified by Hiccup himself, only one side was being hesitant to actually go all in and fight - the alliance itself. The Ancients had no such scruples. Their whole regime was built upon warfare and their vikings were energized and willing, albeit by propaganda, for war, for the final reckoning of the 'unvikings'.

Astrid felt like she had to address this hesitancy which was rife in the room - the 'old' Hiccup would've responded excitingly and energetically to an idea like that, involving the dragons. Yet here he was as flat as a crushed boot.

She was going to get to the bottom of it. After Hiccup's triumphant declaration of war, rallying up the tribe to fight and defend the free viking order, he was suddenly down a big notch, and she wasn't going to let that pass.