CHAPTER 69: Armistice
Berserker Island was a lost cause. Ancient troops had poured onto the island and by this point they had viciously outnumbered the hopeless vikings, including the Hooligans that remained on there, all with the sole intent of sacrificing themselves to halt the Ancient advance.
For they knew that in order to see victory through to the end, to secure the archipelago of its freedom and ultimately the whole world, sacrifices had to be made. The Hooligans had families back home on New Berk to whom they'd feel dreadfully guilty for if they'd allowed the Ancients to eventually stage an invasion of their island because they hadn't made sacrifices.
For all the Hooligans, their families, their fellow vikings, their children, and the eventual hope of the dragons one day returning home were all reasons why they were more than willing to sacrifice their lives to the tyrant advance of Yurlin's forces. Anything it took to prevent the enemy from cascading their loved ones into a dark cloud of tyranny and oppression, they'd go through.
Berserker Island was totally unrecognizable. Numerous dead bodies after a fierce battle, Berserker vikings being forcibly stripped of their weapons and gear as thousands of Ancient vikings occupied the territory, and now, with their Chieftan having fled the island in that evacuation alongside the other 50 Hooligans and some Berserkers, the Ancients saw fit to force upon Berserker Island an armistice.
The Berserkers who were still alive, inside their huts, the ones who weren't involved in the battle just now, that involved screams of pain and numerous arrows flying among the air like birds, had all remained put. The Ancients completely put the island under curfew measures. The head Ancient viking of the two fleets had escorted a group of Berserkers into what was the hall of Berserker Island, precisely for the signing of the armistice.
"Right this way," demanded the head Ancient viking, escorting a group of Berserkers who were close to Dagur, through their overran village.
The sight of gigantic wooden ships and their shadows practically overhanging the shores of Berserker Island, as more Ancients departed from them like ants from an anthill, was truly intimidating. The Berserkers, now fully under the mercy of the Ancients after the 'Battle of Berserker Island' was lost, had no choice but to embrace this dire scenario.
Children on the island were in their huts, wives of those who'd fought the Ancients just now, to stop them from successfully invading, were now all under the full mercy of the Ancients. They were subjugated, cut off from the outside world, as the Ancients looked to impose an armistice which'd, rather than disband the Berserker Tribe altogether, actually turn it into an additional pocket of weapons and bodies to use on the front line for the remainder of the war, no matter how long it went on.
"We want an honourable armistice," said the Berserker, as the Ancients escorted them inside the hall of Berserker Island.
"You'll get one," replied the Ancient.
As they stepped inside the hall, a huge delegation of Ancient vikings, cornering the front vicinity of the hall in front of a large wooden table, which appeared to have a treaty of sorts on it, sent intimidation waves through the bodies of the few Berserkers who were chosen to sign the surrender document.
"Carry on forwards, no stopping please."
At that, the Berserkers, gulping as their foreheads became sweaty waterfalls, realizing that, through no choice of their own, they were about to sign their whole tribe away to the Ancients. Knowing that they'd suffered numerous casualties, knowing the Ancients now had in their grasps the wives and fellow Berserkers, free to do with them whatever they wanted, made them feel like utterly disgusted with themselves.
Nonetheless, in this threatening environment, they had no choice but to sue for an armistice with the Ancients as the invasion of the island was irreversible. It was already complete. The Ancients had no scruple about carrying on the fight if needed - to them, the Berserkers signing an armistice was the most sensible thing they could've done.
The two Berserkers, gulping, sweating on their foreheads as their whole environment felt like crossbows were being aimed at their bodies due to the intimidating presence of hundreds of Ancients, studied the paper on the desk below. The head Ancient viking planted his palms onto the table.
"You have lost this battle. This armistice is your best chance of securing your sovereignty. Read it, and then we can conclude it and carry on forwards."
The Berserker vikings leaned forwards and read the armistice, its paper was fresh looking, like white, and a few bits of wet ink with the writing were still present. It was clearly written very recently. Below were the contents of the armistice.
Termination of hostilities between the Ancient people and the Berserkers.
Demobilization and disarming of Berserker vikings. All weapons, all armour, and gear are to be handed over, the strength of the Berserker viking shall be determined by Ancients at all costs, and will be sharply cut down. Berserkers, under our watch, shall ensure domestic order is maintained and no resistance to our liberation of their island is allowed to fester.
Berserker Island shall no longer exist as a single entity. A line is to be established in the direct middle of the island, to cut it off. Two separate forms of governing councils will dictate these two sides. The second, southern side shall be home to those domesticated Berserkers, involving children, wives, none of whom will leave their huts at a certain point beyond the night. The main, northern side will house 'New Berserkers'.
The New Berserkers are to be governed by their own Chieftan, who shares our leader's proud and patriotic perspective of this gradually liberated world. His men, the New Berserkers, will be called up to the front lines in our efforts to see this war to the end. For this, military occupation of the northern side must be sustained. Our vikings will maintain this occupation. The southern side will be given as much independence as can be realistically provided, but they too shall live under the leadership of the truly legitimate Chieftan following the conclusion of hostilities.
The splitting of Berserker Island ensures that the tribe shall never rise up again to declare war on ourselves, and to also bring it into line with our perspective that the Barbaric Archipelago needs freeing of the unviking virus. This armistice ensures the demobilization and the eradication of any strength that the once whole-island Berserkers may have held, so they come under our will and become one with us.
To be signed by the head of the Ancient fleet and Dagur the Deranged, the null and non-binding Chieftan of what was once the Berserkers.
Reading the armistice horrified the two Berserkers.
"You...you're going to split our island down the middle?" he stuttered, looking up to the young Ancient soldiers surrounding the table as they awaited the signing of the armistice.
"I'm waiting for you to put pencil to paper."
"I...I'm not sure why...why are you doing this?" the Berserker asked, finding the gall to actually question the armistice in front of the Ancients.
"I am not going to ask you a second time. Sign it."
The Berserker didn't get an answer. In light of that, he struggled with leaning his arm over the desk to grab the frail and dusty pencil provided by the Ancients. Ever so slowly, the pencil was put to paper and the Berserker closed his eyes as he signed it.
With that, the surrender of Berserker Island was now in effect. The Ancients were going to split the island into two zones - one occupied by Ancient forces, and the one where the Berserkers who'd initially fought against the Ancients would be stationed, and the other zone was to be left as 'free as possible' where the wives and children of all the Berserkers were to live. Berserker Island no longer existed, it was an island that'd been cut into two halves, to be governed by a puppet Chieftan installed by the Ancients themselves.
"Odin please help us..." whispered the Berserker, as he felt his arms be gripped side by side by the Ancients escorting him.
"THERE'S NEW BERK! THERE'S NEW BERK!" yelled one of the Hooligans as their boat had carefully and calmly roamed the seas.
"Oh my god, oh my god..." Mala said, fully within the embrace of her husband, Dagur the Deranged.
Mala couldn't fully collapse to the floor because the whole boat was filled up - bodies were bumping into each other, 50+ of them, because of the Hooligans on board, as well as other Berserkers. But they'd managed to find their way back to New Berk, and the penny had dropped on Dagur, Heather and Mala as to the fate of Alvin.
"How could we have allowed this to happen?" Heather questioned.
New Berk's gigantic tall structure emerged closer and closer, as the sea winds gently bounced off the helmets of everyone. The boat was gently turning side by side as the waves ever so gently increased in their depth and height.
"I don't know, Heather. Look at us...we're utter cowards for running away, and now I get the feeling...Alvin and his island have already been engulfed from the sounds of it."
Back on New Berk, a gigantic gathering of Hooligans utterly imploded the heavenly forests of the island's edge, where they got a vast bird eye's view out to sea.
"HICCUP, WHAT IS IT?!" Eret yelled, as he shoved past dozens of Berkians.
Hiccup was looking through the telescope, he hadn't pulled it out from his hut for years. But given that, about ten minutes ago, one of the scouts had spotted a ship filled with vikings coming up to the shores of New Berk, Hiccup finally had an excuse to use it for the first time in years.
"Uh...wait a minute?" Hiccup questioned, "that's...is that Dagur?"
"What?" Valka asked, walking up to Hiccup.
Hiccup and Valka were so close to the edge of the island, a couple of miniature pebbles had broken off the small subtle hints of stony surface that bordered the edge. They took a few steps back, but the panic in the air gripped them like a curse.
"Yeah, it's them...and...it's some of OUR vikings, and the Berserkers?" Hiccup said outloud.
Gobber joined them all, hopping his way over to the edge to stand directly besides Hiccup and Valka, as dozens of Berkians congregated them from behind.
"Aight, what's goin' on here?"
"No time to explain Gobber, we need to get them up here - SOMEBODY GO TO THE LIFT AND ROLL THEM UP HERE, NOW!" Hiccup yelled.
"Oh Hiccup, it's a bloody disaster...it's...a DISASTER!" Dagur limped, his voice struggling as it cracked numerous times.
Mala dropped to her knees on the grass, as Heather remained frozen like a trauma had taken grip of her. The 50+ Berkians who were back here, the ones Hiccup thought for sure he sent to the Berserkers, also looked like they had the energy sucked out of their bodies. It was like they'd seen a sight that had utterly took out the oxygen from them.
"What is it? tell me what happened?!" Hiccup demanded to know.
"It's the Ancients - they've invaded..."
An audible gasp, like a monstrous wave in the seas, overthrew the whole congregating group.
"You what?!" Eret replied.
"They've...invaded my island," Dagur said, breathing like he was struggling for air, "they've invaded Outcast Island, we haven't heard from Alvin or ANYONE. We had no choice but to evacuate-"
"Wait a minute, wait," Hiccup, utterly bewildered, said, "what are you talking about?"
"What do you mean what I'm talking about? we lost the battle, Hiccup, we LOST THE BATTLE! they're occupying our islands, they've taken my island, we had to evacuate just now because the numbers were far greater than our own, we've had to leave brave fellow vikings behind, involving...some of your men-"
"YOU COWARD, YOU FED EM TO THE WOLVES!" yelled a rogue Hooligan in the background of the congregating group.
"STOICK WOULD'VE HAD YOU DEPORTED, YOU COWARD!" yelled a second one.
Hiccup had no words. Valka disciplined the dozens of Hooligans congregated behind them all just now for what they'd yelled out to Dagur. Hiccup, remaining open mouthed, stumbled over a branch-free tree trunk, gently resting his palm on it as his solemn expression became in line with an ache emerging in his chest, painfully beating at the same pace as his heart.
"We tried our best, Hiccup, we really did, but they...they overwhelmed us," a panicking Dagur said, his voice cracking as if it was strained to the maximum.
Dagur and the Berserkers that joined the evacuation, who were now on New Berk, were intending on portraying their evacuation as a victory, something to be celebrated - but Hiccup saw it as anything but. The fact the Ancients had managed to overrun BOTH Outcast and Berserker Island, in such a quick span of time, made the war even more daunting - except this time, it had truly gotten started. It was right at their doorstep.
Silence overwhelmed the environment as all eyes turned to Hiccup - the Hooligan Chieftan's mannerisms were withdrawn. His back arched at an angle as he stared at the ground in solemn apprehension, his palm gently planted on the branch-free trunk as his brain struggled to comprehend the dire situation. Losing 50 Hooligans, suffering two embarrassing defeats at the hands of the Ancients.
"Mum?" Hiccup asked, the silence of everyone around so prominent that his whisper had been heard.
"What is it, Hiccup?"
"I can't do this without Toothless. I can't. Keep the kids and Astrid in the house...ensure the evacuation huts are still fully filled up and ensure my measures are followed."
"What's the plan son?"
"We're going to find our wingsuits, fly to the entrance of the hidden world, and get the dragons back."
Hiccup finally threw in the towel - this war, in light of receiving the news that the Ancients had swiftly knocked out both the Berserkers and Outcasts from the war, was too dangerous to be fought without the dragons. In the old days the Hooligans would fight easily without the dragons, and prior to Hiccup's actions, AGAINST the dragons.
But the dragons were a unique guard of security during the time period they were with the vikings, and without his father around, Hiccup couldn't comprehend fighting a conflict for the first time in years without the dragons.
"We're going to find my best bud..." Hiccup said, angrily gritted teeth and all as he sought to give Yurlin and his band of mercenaries a form of pushback they'd never recover from.