Eleven. [Contains scene-Sexual Abuse]

They sighted the island by the middle of the next day, when Hiccup was still lying swathed in his patched blanket, recovering from his whipping. Roar had cut the boy down a couple of hours after the beating had ended, arguing not unreasonably that the boy had saved their lives and that leaving him exposed to the cold would probably kill him. The Captain-Vorg-had agreed, knowing his duty was to ensure what Dagur needed happened, and Dagur needed the boy alive.

Roar stared at the ashen face, his fresh bruising on his gaunt features pitiful. He was hunched and the Berserker had read a horrific tale of abuse. He tucked the boy tighter in the blanket. Sometimes, he was ashamed of his Tribe. Gently, he shook the boy's huddled shape until his eyes opened. "Shh!" he said quickly as the boy stirred, his eyes widening in fear. "You don't want to anger Dagur, do you?"

The tiny, ashamed shake of the head told everything. Hiccup managed to get to his feet and stared at the island. The shape was familiar because it had only been a few months since they had defeated the Skrill but somehow, it seemed like a whole lifetime.. The dragon was buried very deep in the ice and it would take months to dig it out. He swallowed. The Skrill was as deranged the Berserker Chief and had taken a deep dislike to Hiccup and Toothless. It had taken the efforts of the clever boy, the super quick and brave Night Fury and the help of the fearless twins to trap the dragon last time.

Dagur emerged and giggled. "My Skrill will be glorious!" he announced. Then he turned to Hiccup and closed his hand cruelly around his neck. Hiccup froze: any time Dagur touched him seemed to bring back the final moments of Truth or Forfeit. He blinked hard. "And this time you won't get your frail little hands on my dragon!" Dagur added menacingly. Hiccup went rigid, his eyes dark with fear. He shook his head slightly.

"No, Master," he whispered.

He was a slave. He belonged to the Berserker Tribe. He had been exiled from Berk, disowned by his father, abandoned by his friends, thrown out of his Tribe.

He was probably even a traitor now.

Dagur released him and gestured for the Captain to moor them on the only viable beach, an ice-swathed ledge just above sea level. The Berserker Chief was impatient and was pacing like a caged animal as they moored and the gangplank was lowered. Dagur raced off first, followed by his close guard and Savage. The Outcast gestured and Hiccup was bodily picked up and dragged along as well. The Berserker Chief glared at him and he stared back, almost too scared to speak.

"Well?" Dagur snarled. Hiccup glanced up the sheer ice wall.

"Up there," he said breathlessly. Dagur grabbed his tunic.

"And how am I supposed to get up there?" he hissed. Hiccup stiffened. He swallowed once.

"Climb?" he suggested. Dagur's fist curled and he began to hyperventilate. "L-look, I-I was on T-Toothless when I w-was l-last here..." He mastered himself. He was being truthful: he should have nothing to fear. "We-we flew up to the c-caves and trapped it. We melted ice to freeze it." Then he allowed himself a slight smile because he could see Dagur was completely mad at the 'but' that Hiccup had deliberately omitted from the tale. No matter what he said, he would pay dearly for this disaster. He had delivered the Skill, but it would take Dagur's men half a year to dig it out. "It may take some freeing!" he added and there was the vaguely taunting note in his voice that cut the Berserker to the quick. Dagur was almost shaking with rage now, his mad eyes locked on the boy's white face. Despite his beatings and the awful mistreatment, he was still defiant.

Dagur lifted his head.

"Get up there, search and find my Skrill!" he screamed. Then his hands closed tighter on Hiccups grimy tunic and he began to drag the boy back to ship. "And you...this is a forfeit," he hissed, with hatred in his voice. He continued dragging the struggling boy. "We will locate my Skrill, I will make you pay for your lies and then we are destroying Berk!"

oOo

After Dagur had finished with him, Hiccup was locked in a small cage in the hold. While he wanted to be anywhere but here, at least he was reasonably protected from random Berserker violence, though he was starved and given just enough water to keep him alive. He sat up painfully and scooched into a corner, huddled as small as he could make himself. Dagur had clamped an iron collar around his throat to really emphasise his status as a slave and the boy winced as it dug into his neck as he tried to rest. His clothing was ragged and stained with blood and other things he would rather not consider and he was cold.

The flagship had sailed south, heading not for Berk but back to Outcast Island because Dagur had assigned most of his ships to excavation work and needed a fresh fleet before he sailed against Berk. Hiccup knew that the weather would soon stop the Berserkers digging and it would take them a couple of years of very interrupted digging to free to Skrill. No matter what he had suffered, he had done his best. But it wouldn't spare his home.

I am a slave. I belong to the Berserkers. My actions have doomed my Tribe.

But they threw me out. They sent me here to be tortured and abused and whipped. They threatened to kill me. Why the Hel should I care about them?

Toothless never betrayed me.

But no matter what I didn't do, they won't take me back. My dad will never admit to a mistake. I was innocent. I wasn't a traitor. I think I might be one now but I never wanted to harm anyone.

I'm sorry, bud.

The arrival at Outcast Island wasn't much more fun either. Dragged from the ship, cuffed and taunted by Savage, Hiccup felt the condemning eyes on him and he almost sighed in relief as he was thrown into his little cell. He lay still for a long moment and then slowly crawled to the far corner. He was shaking so hard he couldn't lift the water bowl so he just wrapped his arms around his body and buried his face in his knees again.

Mildew took a couple of hours to amble up to see him and he was predictably snide.

"Ooh, I didn't think yer could look any worse, but 'ere yer are!" he commented calmly after entering the cell and staring at the battered boy for a few moments. "'Eard yer couldn't keep yer mouth shut. Pity. But at least I won me bet!" Hiccup raised his face and glared at the old man. Mildew was technically the closest he had to friend here and he really loathed the old man's cruel comments.

"Glad it worked out well for you," he said gruffly. His throat was suddenly thick with misery.

"I warned yer, 'Iccup, that Dagur was going to 'ave yer," Mildew said in an offended voice. "I can't do any more!"

"Nor can I," Hiccup said tonelessly. "I called him Master. I obeyed him. I...I couldn't betray Berk...b-but I told him how to find his Skrill..." He swallowed hard, tears edging his words now. "He promised if I did what he commanded, he-he would spare Berk."

"And 'e ain't going to," Mildew sighed. "Yer believed 'im?" The tiny nod. "WHY? Because Dagur the Deranged promised to spare yer precious Berk just before he 'ad yer? Yer think whoring yerself to 'im will stop Dagur doin' exactly what he wants?"

An even smaller nod. The boy was shaking hard now, tears sliding down his battered cheeks. His nostrils flared as he struggled to contain his sobs.

"They-they threw me out but-but I don't want-want them to d-die!" he gasped. He swallowed and cuffed his face. For a moment, he looked utterly crushed.

"Dagur'll take yer back," Mildew told him bluntly. "'E's a gloater. E'll want to show yer off to Stoick and make sure 'e can see what fun 'e's been 'aving with yer. 'E may even want ter demonstrate..." Hiccup raised his shaking hands to cover his face.

"Thor, please help m-me," he breathed.

"I really doubt Thor will 'ave anything to do with a slave who once rode the unholy offspring of lightning and death itself! Thor protects the strong and yer all weak spot, 'Iccup!"

They left him in the cell for a few more hours before the guards fetched him and he was taken out to work. He was forced to chop wood, clear yet more yak dung (where were all these yaks anyway?) and scrub the floors. He was kicked and sneered at as he toiled. If he finished a task, another was given him. He was never given anything he could use to escape. At nights, he was dumped back in his cell and fed dried meat or fish and bread. They fed him watered ale and left him alone until he was dragged out at dawn for the next day's work. And if he slowed, he was stripped to the waist and whipped.

After ten days, he felt as if he couldn't do any more. They were feeding him just enough to stay alive, not work as hard as he was. He knew he had lost weight, his prosthetic was rubbing ferociously and he was feeling dizzy from exhaustion. The guards took him to Savage to inspect and the big Outcast had circled him like a cat looking at its prey.

"You are a big disappointment," he growled to the kneeling boy. "You are weak and pathetic. Your father should be embarrassed."

"I'm sure he would be-if he still had a son," Hiccup said smartly, his emerald eyes flicking up to view the man walking so menacingly around him. "But he doesn't. He disowned me, threw me out of my tribe and exiled me. If you want to send me elsewhere, I would be..." Savage backhanded him brutally, knocking the boy to the floor, blood dribbling for his split lip and head spinning from the blow. His vision had actually greyed at the impact and he felt disorientated.

"You know, I just start to believe that Dagur is starting to train that defiance and sass mouth out of you and then you disappoint me once more," Savage snarled. "He may have made you his slave, but you're working for me now and I won't take your defiance another moment. He's been far too kind to you so now I think you need to learn some manners.

"Wasn't aware Outcasts had manners," Hiccup mumbled through his split lip. Half his face felt swollen from the blow and his arms were shaking as he levered himself to his knees. Savage grabbed him by the throat and lifted the boy fiercely.

"That's what I mean," he growled, throwing the choking boy onto the table. Hiccup clawed at the hands, tight around his neck, and he whimpered pitifully.

"This is your plan?" he rasped as Savage released the pressure slightly. He wanted Hiccup conscious and compliant, not choked half to death. "You're still second to Dagur," he added roughly, hoping the man would recall that Dagur had instructed no one but him was to hurt Hiccup. And while punches and cut of the whip didn't even seem to count, raping him most certainly would.

Savage flipped him, pressing him down on to the table, his hand still tight around the boy's smooth throat. Hiccups skin was still soft, except where it had been whipped or branded, but the crops of bruises he bore were covering much of his skin. He could feel the boy's throat bobbing under his grasp and felt shudders running through the boy.

"Oh, you want this, don't you-slut?" he hissed in the boy's ear. Eagerly, he tore the boy's leggings down, roughly squeezing his buttocks and pulling his legs apart. "You're so small and weak, I bet you took this all the time back on Berk. Did your precious Daddy pass you around the Warriors? Were you taken along on voyages for a bit of relief for the men? Why else would he keep such a runt? And why would any woman want a pathetic little runt like you?" Hiccup squeezed his eyes closed, hoping and praying that this was just a horrible nightmare, that somehow Savage would see he really didn't want him anywhere near him. But the Outcast was already dragging his breeches down and resting against the boy.

"And I want to hear you telling me how much you want it, boy!" he snarled. Hiccup stiffened, bracing himself against the imminent pain.

"Never!" he gasped against the tight grip on his throat. Then he screamed as Savage lunged at him.

"I'm continuing until I hear what I want, slut," Savage grunted as he tightened his grasp on the boy's neck and hip. "I've got all night."