CHAPTER 71: Peace or destruction
"Vikings and men of the first tribe, I have summoned you all here in the midst of our liberation actions we are undertaking across this archipelago!" cried Yurlin, standing on a large wooden platform where his height was significantly elevated.
He was inside the great hall of Ancient Island, an unusual place for him to be making a speech considering he'd usually only make speeches of this magnitude to the council vikings of the tribe. But in light of the rapid falls of Berserker and Outcast island, and given especially what was to come next, Yurlin felt obliged to summon standard Ancients into the hall to share with them precisely the appeal he had in mind for Hiccup.
The platform he was stood on was utterly surrounded by as many bodies as the hall could physically hold, not a single Ancient around the platform spoke or moved. Yurlin had the whole room to his control, and his presence was entirely unavoidable given his height in thanks to standing on the platform.
"I've done this so I can give you all an insight into the history of the events that're, one by one, going behind us into the past. As we are being viciously and ruthlessly targeted by the warmongers from the outside tribes, I feel it necessary to give you all, in your thousands, or however many are able to fit inside this here hall, an update on events."
The whole hall was congregated with steel helmets from the heads of all the Ancients standing around. The giant flames dancing on top of the torches firmly hooked onto the wooden walls kept the hall lit up like an orange flame. Yurlin's voice dominated the air, to the point the flames were practically dancing to his tune. His vocals were as strong as the bullets of a rifle.
"We have thus far eliminated two of the warmongers that started this war - some of them still stand tall and await their ultimate fate, but we have seen a remarkable display of incompetence from tribes that, I am told, were the backbone of this archipelago. How remarkable that they declare war on us, only to struggle to back their words up with action, and all they've got to show for it is hesitancy, to curl away into their shells like a scared snail."
Yurlin roamed back and forth on the platform as he spoke.
"It has become crystal clear to me that in some shape or form, the tribes in which we have swiftly held and continue to hold them down, have underlying symptoms of the unviking virus. And within that virus rests a desire to continue war, to continue conflict. They first attacked us politically, calling out our morality in the actions we have taken, and then they tried to inflict that very virus upon us, except we, like an antidote, rolled in and zapped the virus out of them."
"This whole archipelago has become a festering hole of unvikingism. Living space is paramount to our objective, but liberation and an everlasting deterrent to war ever breaking out again to the scale that was seen between Drago, Grimmel and the Hooligans, is just as paramount."
Yurlin was wasting no time in getting to the central aspect of the speech he was currently giving.
"The Berserkers' collapse at our hands is no better illustration of the above. The unviking virus prompted them to declare war on us, as if they were on a crusade to rid these islands of the so-called tyranny that we have been constantly claimed to represent, but as far as I'm aware, the only tribes to initiate the first war on these islands since the days of Grimmel were precisely the Berserkers, Outcasts, and, sadly, the Hooligans."
"The latter tribe still stands tall, bewilderingly seeing ourselves as their main enemy. I am quite shocked that Hiccup Haddock would insist on carrying on in this way, on carrying on in a conflict he knows he cannot conceivably win without boosted support. That is why, a short while ago, I had promptly ordered our Operation Hooligan armada to set sail to their island, carrying hundreds of catapults and tons of flight suits of the finest leather."
Yurlin's arms started pointing in conjunction with the words he was using. This was always the pattern with his speeches - he'd start off calmly, and the intensity would build up and up. As a result, as the charisma oozed from him, he hooked the attention of everyone that happened to be within listening distance of his speeches.
"The primary goal as of now, for this armada, is to firmly ensure the Hooligans get the chance to show their might. The second goal is to ensure they do not try to relocate their old friends in the hope that they could swiftly end this war in their favour. The tribe of Stoick the Vast? the tribe that made history? yet it persists on carrying on in a conflict with rusty, overweight, elderly vikings, many of whom only moved when they flew on their reptilian friends all those years ago? I know this to be the case, as the Ancient men bravely fighting for our cause, had captured many of their vikings on Berserker Island, and it was like collecting a heap of greasy meat that had long gone beyond the point of being safely consumed!"
Chuckles could be heard breaking out across the hall as Yurlin insulted and mocked the Hairy Hooligans.
"Hiccup and the other warmongers have no leg to stand on. Not Hiccup's one leg, mind you, but all their own legs."
Another wave of chuckles swiftly broke out like a wave.
"I have consistently said that the issue of the dragons is one that doesn't concern me. I have neither any hatred for them or respect of them. Where they sit in the world now is where they should stay, for the benefit of eliminating the unviking virus. That is precisely why our armada is set to curtail and block any possibility of them sailing their way to that hidden crater to try and bring them back. But what I'm also saying, when I say that Hiccup has no leg to stand on, is a reference to the sheer hypocrisy his tribe has whenever they call us, the first tribe, the Ancient vikings, merciless tyrants."
"Whilst, prior to my coming to power, the Ancients remained out of world events and kept to our own island through all the prior years, the Hooligans were spending time slaughtering and destroying dragons for simply serving their leader - their queen, one should say. They had been killing and attacking dragons, because deep down the Hooligans have always held a violent streak in themselves. The dragons were serving their queen, quite evidently to their own accord, and they were being slaughtered for it. Much like when innocent Ancient vikings were being killed on that very same island, Dragon Island, when that brutal settlement was still in place prior to our liberation of it!"
Yurlin was deliberately bringing the past back, specifically, the past when the Hooligans and dragons were at war. By framing the Hooligans as the killers of the dragons with no supposed mercy, Yurlin wanted to achieve two things - guilt in the minds of the Hooligans, and subsequently, playing with their heads mentally. He knew their past war with the dragons was a sensitive topic, and by framing it in this manner, he knew it'd cut through even better. He wanted to mess with their heads.
"What absolute hypocrisy. And now we're facing the same sort of dilemma as those dragons did. In fact, it's even more so better for them that they stay put down there, because should they for whatever reason come back, they would continue enslaving themselves to vikings who, no less than 20 years ago, were happy to kill and slaughter their babies and fellow dragons! we are facing the same sort of situation as the dragons did in the past!"
"But let me be crystal clear, let me be absolutely clear. I am not saying any of these things as the vanquished begging for favours, but rather the victor. And you know what? I am also saying these things for one simple explanation - in reason."
"In reason because I know, if this war continues on, this self-initiated war at the hands of the warmongers, of which only the Hooligans remain standing, it can only end with the destruction and extinction of one of two tribes. Hiccup may very well think that it'll be the Ancient Tribe. I, however, know that it'll be his tribe."
"Our armada have various written copies of the speech I am giving, and these leaflets with my words will be promptly shot up to their island with the help of our catapults, and they'll be wise to read them, for I feel it necessary, against my own conscience, to make one final appeal to the common sense of the Hooligans. I feel in a position to make such an appeal as, I have already said, the victor, not the vanquished."
"I cannot see any possible reason why this war must go on between us. In spite of the hopeless situation Hiccup finds himself in militarily and competently, in spite of the isolated environment he finds himself in given we have swiftly dealt with the warmongering thirsts of the Berserkers and Outcasts, leaving him and his feeble tribe standing alone against the first tribe, there is no sign thus far that he is willing to accept such a proposal. This is my last chance for him."
"Men and women of the Ancient Tribe, our pact with the Warlords may indeed be unorthodox and it may be hard to stomach. But truth be told, such a pact means that neither of our doctrines will cross into the other, and in moments like these, the benefits of the pact are crystal clear. Prior to this war, all the outside tribes thought that the opposing doctrine of the Warlords and our own would make us squabble and tear ourselves apart. Hiccup most likely thinks that this pact is a ticking time bomb, that somehow one day the man who killed his father will be the one to rescue his tribe from the dire situation it finds itself in by attacking us. He couldn't be more wrong."
"Because if Hiccup rejects my reason to appeal, the full might of The Coalition will be thrown to his island, the full weight will be thrust into the inevitable battle that'd await - we would not only be giving the Hooligans a rewind of the past, a battle much bigger than they faced against Drago years ago, but in the forthcoming triumph of ourselves over them, their whole tribe would be thrown into the past with eradication."
Yurlin took a deep gulp of air as he looked around the hall. He laid down the gauntlet for Hiccup quite clearly - accept peace, or face destruction. Yurlin's proposal for peace had included him being allowed to keep the territory he'd already conquered, and in the unlikely event Hiccup accepted this proposal, it'd give Yurlin the chance to finally fight the war his whole ideology had been built around for all these years - war against the Warlords.
The pact was merely a temporary measure so, for the time being, Yurlin avoided fighting a two front war. Take out the outside tribes, then firmly concentrate his attention to his main adversaries - the Warlords.
For the time being, Yurlin's attention was now firmly on the Hooligans. By either forcing the Hooligans to sue for peace or defeating them altogether, it meant that Yurlin wouldn't have to fight the war on two fronts, which'd be a disaster as it meant that his troops would have to be diverted on both sides, weakening the numbers altogether. He put the offer down, and now, as far as he was concerned, if Hiccup rejected it, Operation Hooligan would go full steam ahead.
"My fellow vikings, we will win this struggle for freedom! we will achieve our living space, we will put an end to the unviking conspiracy that got us into this mess in the first place, and we will ensure today's world is THAT OF A WORLD VIKINGS ALL OVER CAN BE PROUD OF!" Yurlin yelled, his vocals pouring out of his lungs like a lion's roar.
"HAIL! HAIL! HAIL!" yelled the entire hall, as they saluted in line with their arm movements, at the conclusion of Yurlin's speech, "OUR YURLIN! OUR YURLIN! OUR YURLIN!"