CHAPTER 46: Hiss of the unwilling
It'd been four days since the 'peace conference' between the numerous Chieftans. What was agreed between the Chieftans was beginning to take shape today. The specific group of Wingmaidens, hesitantly and angrily, had started packing up their gear and they were readying to sail from Dragon Island, leaving behind their village of a settlement they'd built.
The Ancients had provided them with a verbal notice that their troops would be arriving at the island today. Therefore, the group of Wingmaidens on the island had no choice but to prepare their gear, get on their boats, and get off the island in time. But many of them weren't going to leave gracefully, nor would they leave without a 'message' of sorts left from them for the Ancients to find.
In the small collection of huts on the grey, lifeless island, with fog surrounding the perimeter of the island, many Wingmaidens were putting their weapons and general gear away into sacks to be taken onto the boat. The Ancients were due to arrive in the next hour, so that meant they had to be off the island pretty much imminently.
"Those snakes sold us out," said one of the Wingmaidens as many of them were divided across their collection of huts.
"Which is why we're going to leave these guys a message, a message they'll hear loud and clear for when they arrive, it'll be a message they'll struggle to avoid," said another Wingmaiden, as she too carried a sack full of gear.
"But you look at the way the Hooligans treated Atali at that conference, brushing her aside, and based on what we've heard, the Ancients didn't even let her enter the hall, and still, the other tribes went through with this fraud of a deal?"
"Hiccup's completely turned his back on the values of decent vikings. His dad would be ashamed of him, no doubt. I can't believe out of all the Chieftans to do this to us, it had to be Hiccup."
"He reckons it'll be for the greater good, for peace. I don't trust Alfa Yurlin as far as I could throw him, to be honest, but I can't really say anything different about Hiccup, completely selling a tribe he's had good history with down the bridge."
The group of Wingmaidens around the huts continued discussing angrily the reality of being forced to capitulate. In another part of the island, where the environment was very much unchanged from its grey, lifeless, stony environment, and also where there was lots more debris from the Red Death battle between the Hooligans and her years ago, some more Wingmaidens were scattered.
This part of the island, the flat part where the volcano structure was in clear sight, and also where the big collapsed hole was from when the Red Death burst through during her final battle, was where the Wingmaidens had prayed. They'd usually get on their knees here and pray to Odin, as a way to take themselves back in time to when they were helping all of those Razorwhips. Many of them were praying precisely because they knew it'd be their last time doing so on the island before they had to abandon it.
As the final praying session was ongoing, the main head of the Wingmaiden group situated on the island came up to them to give them the heads up.
"Ladies, we have to make a move."
The five Wingmaidens on their knees opened their eyes and looked across to the head Wingmaiden, not amused in the slightest. They knew this was something that couldn't be avoided, but just not being able to do this anymore was incredibly apprehensive for them.
"We've put our stock into this island...we've been reliving our memories by staying on the same island that the queen herself used to live on, the Red Death...and now we all have to go back to our home island and be depressed and isolated knowing we've lost this settlement that WE built?"
The head Wingmaiden simply shrugged her shoulders. She agreed with every single word that was said just now, but it was beyond her power.
The Ancients were due to make their arrival within the hour, and none of the Wingmaidens wanted to be on the island for when they did. Even though in the 'peace conference', it was agreed that it'd be a smooth transition, it was still an unpredictable situation - the Ancients themselves, with their archaic form of leadership that ruled over their tribe, made them an unpredictable group of vikings that the Wingmaidens had no interest in testing.
"Before we go back, ladies...we're not going to leave them a fully clean area. Come up over here to where our huts are."
Curious, the praying Wingmaidens stood up and followed their head back to the scattered huts near the front of the island. A couple of them looked behind themselves to look at the giant towering volcano as they walked away, and even seeing that made them gulp in their throats. They felt like their hearts were being stolen from them right now.
They all ended up back in front of the huts. Before they all began boarding their wooden boats to permanently leave the island, they had an idea, and because they weren't involved in the negotiations between the various Chieftans at the conference on Ancient Island, they felt like they had every right in the world to do what they were about to do.
"So Hiccup Haddock has clearly indicated that out of the Warlords and the Ancients...the Ancients are the lesser evil. We're having our heart being taken away from the Ancients, the Warlords are like a dormant volcano whilst the Ancients are an actively erupting one. We're not going to buy that for one second - we'll never believe that tribes that we THOUGHT shared our values should partner up with one tyrant in fear of another, they're both equally as dangerous. So it's on that basis that when these men arrive, they won't be coming to fully built huts."
The head Wingmaiden pulled out a battleaxe. She was disgusted with her tribe having to cede this island to the Ancients, so much so that she hatched an idea to completely destroy the huts that they'd built, so the Ancients had a surprise for when they got here. Whatever they could to ensure nothing got left behind for their benefit, they were going to do it - this was one of them.
She lifted up her battleaxe and quickly pelted it into the side of one of the huts, the steel axe penetrating through the wood like a hot knife going through butter. The sound of collapsing wood in the wall was prominent and echoed through their ears.
"WHAT?! what are you doing?! we built these huts, you're damaging our huts on the island we've been using to recall our memories with the dragons and Razorwhips, are we just going to destroy what we created?!" one Wingmaiden said, horrified at the sight of their group leader slamming her battleaxe into one of the huts.
"If we're honest with ourselves, we would be doing our Razorwhips that we protected, as well as dragons in general, a complete disservice if we allowed what we created on here to be left in place for the Ancients."
Those words struck a chord with many of the other Wingmaiden vikings. The thought of destroying and demolishing the huts on Dragon Island was heartbreaking to them because they felt like they were literally putting an axe through the heart of those Razorwhips, and in turn the dragons. After all, they precisely made Dragon Island their own settlement because it was one of the main nests of dragons at one point, and given the Wingmaidens' relationship with Razorwhips, it made them want to utilize the island, formerly housing the nest, as a memorial site of sorts for not just dragons in general but those Razorwhips they put so much effort into protecting.
But then at the same time, as the leading Wingmaiden said, did they really want to give the Ancients an easy free run by handing them over the island and small settlement, with everything left on it? by demolishing the huts and breaking them down with axes, they'd be making the Ancients have to occupy an island with no shelter, with no protection from the cold, nothing like that.
On that basis, they'd all come to a conclusion - smashing down and breaking the huts was the only way for them to feel like this was fair game. They didn't want to let criminal vikings like the Ancients get an easy start. And what made them want to do it even more was the fact that news of the state of the settlement would reach Alfa Yurlin himself, hopefully causing him utter outrage. They were even thinking of leaving notes all over the place for the Ancients to read when they got here.
For now, smashing down the huts and completely breaking them down, and destroying any trace of a settlement they had, was to be the priority. But they only had a short while to do it, because the Ancients were on their way. Once they set foot on this island, there'll be no returning of it.
"Give me my axe," said another Wingmaiden.
It'd been about 40 minutes, and the Wingmaidens had only just fully left Dragon Island. The whole island was a state of nothingness, no living thing on there at the moment, just a pure lifeless island of rock and fog. But the small settlement of huts were reduced to rubble, like they were chopped as if they were trees, and even some of them had flames burning up within them.
The Wingmaidens had did all they could think of in order to destroy the settlement as a way to send a message all the way up to Alfa Yurlin himself. They'd even gone as far as to burn some of the huts down, as well as using their weapons and gear to collapse the huts physically through force by steel maces, battleaxes, all pelted against the wooden structures. What was left as a result was a settlement that looked like a dragon attack had come down on them.
It really did hurt the Wingmaidens to do that, but they felt like it was the right move. And they weren't going to allow themselves to be lectured by the other tribes, belittled, for doing what they did. It was like a scorched earth policy, and knowing that was what they were aiming for, it gave them more comfort than it did discomfort. Atali herself didn't even think of it, it was an initiative entirely from the group of Wingmaidens who were left on Dragon Island before leaving it for good.
Amid the foggy waters around the island, a central boat had cut through the clouds and it was surrounded by dozens of medium sized wooden boats, with prominent sails. They sailed across the seas slowly, but nonetheless they were headed straight for Dragon Island. The Ancients were now here.
On the central middle boat, dwarfing the other boats around it, was a rather prominent Ancient from Yurlin's council, and one of his closest vikings. The propaganda viking of the tribe, Krimm Hiss. As the Ancients initiated the process of annexing Dragon Island, Hiss was to accompany the incoming viking troops from the tribe as a symbolic gesture of the significance of the move.
He was stood directly at the front of his boat, where he had the luxury of a heavily guarded boat. Ancient vikings with crossbows in their hands all surrounded the sides on board, which included the corners and the bottom compartments of the boat, and even the basement. As a viking within Yurlin's close circle, he was to be protected like he was sacred. In the cult of personality Yurlin's regime had, Hiss was pretty much akin to a god status - nowhere near as much as Yurlin nor Herrick Herald, the latter being the second most powerful viking within the Ancients just beneath Yurlin, but he was still considered a big deal and to be worshiped by the normal Ancients with the cult of personality.
Hiss was a few years older than Yurlin and had worked with him prior to his crowning as Chieftan of the Ancients five years ago. He'd greatly supported Yurlin's ideas and beliefs in his 'The Solution' book he'd written on the day after the Hooligans sent Grimmel to his death. It had been Hiss' job to demonize the unvikings, create divisive posters to splatter across Ancient Island for the council to distribute, and to create a narrative and justification in the minds of normal Ancients that to harm an unviking, whether they're missing an arm, disabled physically or anything, was completely justified and required for the safety of the Ancient vikings.
As the viking responsible for producing the propaganda and enhancing the cult of personality, he of course played a big part in the demonizing of anyone considered to be an unviking. He was a big deal. Hiss was one of the 'big three' next to Herald and Yurlin himself, so his presence was a significantly big deal.
"LOWER YOUR ANCHORS!" yelled the commanding Ancient viking on the same boat as Hiss.
At that command, all of the smaller boats had come to a halt. There, the respective vikings threw out their anchors and tossed them into the water, creating miniature waves as the cold metal thumped the surface of the water. They were near enough the shores of Dragon Island to the point they could all anchor their boats into position and briefly dip knee-level into the shallow waters to reach dry land.
"I must pray that we resolve this unviking crisis at once, I've no idea how much longer we can be pragmatic and lenient with these outside tribes," said Hiss, talking to the top commanding Ancient who'd just ordered the boats, with his strong yelling voice, to lower their anchors.
"We'll be scouting this heap of rock making sure they're not hiding. If we can have Drago Bludvist's head on a spear if he happens to be here and we find him, we'll be more than happy to oblige, sir."
"They'll soon get what's coming to them, all of them," proclaimed Hiss, remaining vague about who he meant by 'all of them'. Was it the unvikings? Bludvist? was it all the other tribes INCLUDING the Hooligans?
One by one, numbers of Ancient troops, geared up with tall spiky helmets, all jumped off their respective boats and quickly ran through the shallow shores onto Dragon Island. The troops that were here numbered at just over 1,000. With mandatory conscription, and the Ancients generally being the biggest tribe on the archipelago, Yurlin had a wide number of troops at his disposal.
The troops lobbed themselves into the shallow waters and they all sped up through them, splashing their knees and getting their gear covered in seawater, not a lot of it, but still. Eventually, the troops had all gotten into a formation, as they awaited the arrival of Krimm Hiss. The big central boat was the only one that had been sailed as close to the island as possible. Because of Hiss' status, the Ancients went to great measures to ensure that, unlike the troops just now, he didn't have to get himself soaked by going through the shallow waters.
Therefore, his big boat was sailed directly up to the island so he could just gently walk off it without getting his boots soaked in the water. As Hiss was escorted off the boat, from a wooden platform that'd opened up at the bottom of it, Hiss walked past the 1,000+ strong group of Ancient troops and studied the environment ahead of him.
"So this is where the so-called history happened between the Hooligans...and that queen," he said.
He studied the fogginess around the perimeter of the island. They'd heard stories about this island being one that the Hooligans back in the day had been searching for, for many years, in order to try and find the nest of dragons. On a personal level Hiss was genuinely intrigued at the unorthodox nature of the island - it was nothing but pure rock and stone, with a giant volcano heap of rock in the middle, where a big gaping black hole was open, and tons of broken rocks were scattered near it.
Even the catapult that Stoick used all that time ago to send the flaming rock into the hole to get a bit of light into the opened up cave was there. Hiss was genuinely intrigued. Then, Hiss proceeded to look a bit further ahead and noticed what appeared to be destroyed huts.
"We have just noticed those, sir," said the commanding Ancient, walking up to Hiss, "we're going to patrol and look inside of those, as best as we can, we'll be scouting the whole island too."
"I'd have thought you would've done. Some settlement, it seems?" Hiss chuckled, laughing at what he thought was a terrible settlement given the state of the huts.
"They must have demolished the huts before our arrival."
"I shall be reporting this back to the leader when I sail back in a little while. They think they can hinder our liberation of this archipelago by playing games? nobody plays a game with us and wins, they always lose."
As Hiss continued studying the bare environment ahead and the settlement nearby, where they'd noticed damaged huts, the head of this batch of troops, the commanding Ancient, turned to face his men as they all stood straight together in a big square, awaiting orders.
"We have a duty here. Before we can successfully claim to have liberated this island, we must look out and search for any enemies hiding around. Starting with that demolished settlement over there, I want this land thoroughly cleansed and confirmed to be free of anyone or anything that may be lurking. OUR YURLIN!"
"OUR YURLIN!" yelled the Ancient troops, all together.
Hiss started walking up towards the damaged settlement, the propaganda chief of the Ancient Tribe taking a firm curiosity of the tactics used by the Wingmaidens. When he got back home he was going to report this to Yurlin. Meanwhile, the troops gripped their respective battleaxes, weapons, maces, and proceeded to walk up in even groups towards the settlement, and some up to the gaping black hole in the distance where the mountain was.
Only a few of the troops had crossbows. One of the troops who didn't have a crossbow was a father of two sons forcefully conscripted into the Ancient army, Krugg Kalvicious.
Krugg was apart of a secretive cohort of Ancients who were horrified at Yurlin becoming Chieftan when he did. His two sons, 11 and 12 years old respectively, hadn't been seen for weeks. His wife, Olvich Kalvicious, had sleepless nights ever since they went missing, and as a result, not only did Krugg have to contend with forcefully joining the Ancient army due to the mandatory conscription, but his missing two sons and his wife who had sleepless nights. They feared the council had arrested them on political grounds.
The two sons had been put through the mandatory training program that the Ancient council had made a requirement for the younger boys of the tribe, and Krugg's wife, Olvich, had been stuck inside the hut doing nothing but preparing food and being unable to do anything but that due to the ideology of the Ancients being that women vikings were best in the hut, men best on the battlefield protecting the tribe.
But Krugg was depressed, and emotionally beaten up. His two sons were missing, he'd at one point begged the council to tell him where they were, but they didn't, which made him and his wife fear even more they'd been sent to some sort of political punishment camp hidden on Ancient Island. His wife was depressed and still as horrified as ever at how vikings she'd originally considered to be friends, could have ever allowed someone like Yurlin to take over five years ago and STILL like him, of which many of them did.
Some genuinely brought into the cult of personality and saw Yurlin as their savior for bringing routine and true 'vikingness' back into their lives after years of pacifism. Some simply were content with food on the table and being given jobs to do, and stayed out of the way of doing anything that'd risk the council arresting them and sending them off to a camp. Others were terrified of speaking about anything for that precise reason, and Krugg and Olvich with their two sons were among that latter group.
Krugg and Olvich were both old enough to remember their tribe before Alfa Yurlin. A tribe just like any other on the archipelago, but with a strictly pacifist policy, which was why the Ancients went undetected and unfounded for so many years, especially at the height of the Berkians' battle with the Warlords prior to Stoick's death. They remembered how happy they were, how vikings were all treated the same, not fearful of their lives for merely saying the wrong thing, and just generally the freedom that made the post-dragon world especially a happy and secure environment.
"Come on over here fella, we need to search these broken huts," said a fellow Ancient soldier to Krugg, as he did nothing but stare blankly at Hiss.
"Affirmed, do you mind if I take that crossbow a moment?" Krugg asked, as he and his fellow soldier walked together up towards the huts.
"Aye, go ahead."
Krugg swiftly took the crossbow. He had about enough now. The Yurlin regime had most likely harmed his two sons, his wife was utterly sick with fear for what their tribe was doing not just to their own vikings, but overseas i.e the annexation of the Northern Markets, threatening conflict over this very island, and just generally going back in time to a sort of regime that no tribe on the archipelago would have ever expected to see again in this day and age.
As he took the crossbow, the soldier besides him studied his movements, noticed his palms were shaking with the crossbow, like he was anxious.
"Are you okay?" he asked Krugg, but the response he got wasn't one he expected.
Krugg, quickly looking to see if any of the other soldiers were watching their general vicinity, threw the crossbow up and sent it slamming off the forehead of the soldier, sending him into the ground fully knocked out. As the soldier's body landed harshly onto the cold stone, he then turned to Krimm Hiss' direction. This was to be for his two sons, his wife, and to the overall archipelago that not every Ancient supported the criminal, ruthless, brutal, tyrannical dictatorship Yurlin was running.
Hiss aimed the crossbow from where he was stood, too far away from Hiss to notice him - his back was turned anyways, but his quivering finger on the trigger of the crossbow shook like a balance act. His teeth gritted as tears ran across his cheeks like waterfalls. This was for his two sons, and his wife, who he loved dearly.
"Wanting to be a free viking is not a crime," Krugg whispered to his teary self as the crossbow was right up to his face as he aimed it, "I must destroy one block of this regime, this regime which is forcing me to join an army I had no desire to join, forcing me to be away from my fearful wife and my two sons who I don't even know if they're alive. I'm sorry, Krimm Hiss, please forgive me...but I promised I'd play Alfa, who is NOT my leader or Chieftan, or deserves to be called by his surname... at his own game, and I'll do it this way. If this grabs the attention of Hiccup Haddock and Drago Bludvist to show the plight us innocent vikings are in...then this needs to be done. Forgive me Odin, and forgive me...Krimm."
Krugg's finger pushed backwards on the trigger, his crossbow aimed directly at Krimm Hiss from the distance on Dragon Island.