They got up the next morning, and decided to train against one another.

Thyra and Dusty stood opposite each other, weapons raised in anticipation.

"Let's see what you've got this time, yeah?" Thyra smirks challengingly, hitting her staff against the stone ground.

Dusty readied his sword, and lifted his shield, "Hope You don't fall over like last time." he said with a smirk

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Thyra exclaims, acting offended.

"I'm still trying to figure out how you tripped over your own staff, I don't want to hurt the queen of sarcasm." he said with a laugh

"It has a hook! It probably lodged into the ground or something. Not that I fell over or anything."

"Yeah, I've seen better."

Thyra cocks her head in confusion. "Right. Fight me, then!" She jabs her staff at him.

Dusty uses his shield to deflect the staff, and jabs his sword forward.

Thyra ducks out of the way and knocks the sword away with her staff. "You'll have to try better than that!"

Dusty takes the momentary distraction to sweep his left Let under Thyra, knocking her right leg out from under her.

She uses the hook on her staff in a split second decision to drag him down to the ground with her, and uses his surprise to pin him down.

"Hmm. I wonder who wins this time?" She asks teasingly.

Dusty lets out a small laugh, "You win this one, good decision with the hook, I wasn't expecting that." He says pushing himself up.

"I'm smart like that." She jokes, standing up and brushing herself off. "Breakfast?" She suggests.

"We're gonna have to get something, all we have is fish."

Thyra nods in understanding. "There's still no way I'm eating that. Hunting it is!"

Dusty grabbed his bow, and headed out, "I shouldn't be long, there's gotta be something on this island."

"I'll see what I can find as well, meet back here in an hour or so?" Thyra grabs her crossbow-shield.

"Sure, but don't get killed." Dusty jokes.

"That goes for you too!" Thyra replies with a grin, grabbing a bunch of bolts.

Dusty rolled his eyes as he walked out of the cave, and headed into the forest.

Thyra heads in the opposite direction, heading for what could be higher ground.

Dusty managed to nab three rabbits and a boar, and walked back into the cave, Thyra wasn't back yet.

It wasn't until another half hour when Thyra showed up, lugging two birds and a rabbit over her shoulder. "A lot of small animals around here." She notes, setting down her weapons. "How did you go?"

"If it weren't for me we would starve." He said with a laugh.

Thyra rolls her eyes. "They're decently sized, I'll have you know!"

"But did you get a boar?" He asked with a smirk.

"No, I did not." She rolls her eyes again. "Show off."

"Did you notice a large number of ships on the horizen, like a dozen or so?" Dusty asked looking out of the cave.

Thyra runs to the entrance. "I thought they were sea stacks or something. I didn't pay attention!"

"Who would be daring enough to attack here?" Dusty asked out loud.

"...let's find out, shall we?"

"You don't have your armor." Dusty pointed out.

Thyra swears under her breath. "Bloody berserkers. Well, we'll just have to go in and get it then!"

Dusty throws his armor on, "And warn them, but knowing vikings, they have stubbornness issues."

"It's all down to their demeanor, really." Thyra agrees. "No wonder nobody likes them."

Dusty mounted Dark, "Especially after all that from yesterday and the days before."

"If anything, we should be the stubborn ones." Thyra says, mounting Pulse.

"Couldn't agree more." Dusty replies, before they shot into the sky.

"You wanna circle overhead in the sky?" Thyra asks Volt, who had followed them. The dragon gave an affirmative warble.

They flew over the village, which had alarm horns going off, as the dozen ships spread out and headed straight for the beach closest to the village, this was an attack.

"Right. The hall?" Thyra calls over to Dusty, looking down at the village.

"You can check there! I'm going to get D, then check the armory!" Dusty yelled back.

"I'll meet you at the armory, then!" Thyra exclaims, before patting Pulse's side, and they turn around to make a beeline for the hall. They fire through the repaired doors and land with a thud inside.

"Oops." Thyra says with a grin, looking at the people in front of them as Pulse growls lowly. "How're we all doing today? Confused? Guilty? Well maybe you should check the beaches. Your day's about to get a lot worse, so I'd suggest you just tell me where my armour is, and then go cower in your houses or something as you try not to die!" A stunned man shakily points out the door and to what Thyra can only assume is the armoury.

"Good. Tell your so-called leaders we dropped by." Thyra scowls, before she and Pulse take off through a hole in the roof.

Dusty pinned the guard against the wall, "Hand me the keys, or so help me Thor I will make you eat your own heart!" He threatened, putting his dagger over the man's heart.

"Ok! Ok! Here!" The man gives him a ring of keys, white as a ghost.

"Dark, you know what to do." As Dusty starts looking through cells.

First one, empty.

Second one, an old man with a sheep, odd.

Third one, a man's skeleton.

Dusty opened the fourth one to find Donovan asleep on the bed.

"D! Get up!" He yelled, scaring Donovan awake.

"Dusty?" Donovan asked, still half-asleep.

"No Volt, c'mon we gotta help protect the island." Dusty says, tossing Donovan his daggurs.

"Lets go, Volt's waiting on you, and we have to meet Thyra at the armory." Dusty said, as Donovan took lead out of the jail.

Thyra and Pulse landed by the armoury, and forced open the door. There was two people inside, but a quick growl from Pulse had them put away their weapons.

"I'm here for my armour." Thyra snaps, shoving a man aside. "Oh, and you're gonna wanna sharpen these weapons very quickly. How do you guys hold up in attacks? Guess you're about to find out." She locates her armour hanging from an armour stand in the back of the room. She grabs it quickly and tosses it on, Pulse glaring at the men the whole time.

"Yeah, she really hasn't forgiven any of you for what you did. Neither have I." Is all Thyra says before disappearing, Pulse snorting smoke in their faces before slipping out after Thyra.

Thyra looks up as she slaps her helmet on, seeing familiar approaching figures.

"I see you found your armor!" Dusty observed from Dark.

"Yeah, not a scratch!" Thyra grins under the helmet, examining it.

"Well get up here! We got to figure out where these ships are from!" Dusty reminds her, looking at the ships about to beach.

"No problems with that here!" Thyra replies, hopping onto Pulse's saddle, and not a second later they take to the sky.

Dusty unshouldered his bow as they approached the ships, and they all looked wide-eyed at the crest on the sails.

The Roman Eagle.

"Great." Thyra snarls sarcastically. "This will be fun." She groans.

"The ship in the center is the lead ship! It won't have anyone but high personnel aboard, if we can capture it! We can take some important prisoners!" Dusty yelled to Thyra And Donovan.

"I haven't had a prisoner in ages!" Thyra shouts back, lifting her mask to reveal a grin.

"Well we're about to have plenty! Dark, Pulse, Volt, drop us off and stay in the air, send their ships to the bottom!" Dark gave an affirming warble.

Pulse croons and they dip towards the ship. Thyra jumps off and lands on the deck, waving Pulse away as she pulls her mask down.

Donovan and Dusty drop right behind her as ballista bolts sail past their dragons. "Thyra, watch your flanks! These guys know how to fight, unlike your people!"

"Will do!" Thyra replies, drawing her staff and rushing towards a bunch of them across deck. Her staff meets a sword, and she kicks the person in the stomach harshly, pushing them away before jamming her staff into his throat. Not a second later, she turns and blocks an axe from hitting her torso.

Dusty's arrow buries deep into the man's back, then slams another into a man about to stab Thyra with his spear. He sidesteps to avoid an arrow, and puts another arrow in the bowman near the healm. He shoulders his bow and draws his sword and shield, and stands back-to-back with Thyra.

Thyra stabs her dagger into an approaching man's neck, before ramming her staff into another's sword at such a force it's knocked out of his hands. She smirks under her mask and the man drops dead on the ground from a staff through his stomach.

That left only one soldier on deck, armed with a short sword. Thyra smirks and starts to walk towards him, but stops as an arrow slammed into the man's chest, into his heart. He was dead before he hit the deck.

"Don't think I'm going to let you two have all the fun!" Donovan yelled from behind them.

"I was wondering when you would show up!" Thyra laughs, pumped with adrenaline.

Donovan aims toward the front of the ship, and fires an arrow, which cuts the rope holding the anchor up, causing it to drop into the water, and brings the ship to a stop, a few hundred feet from the shore.

"Your aim's getting way better." Thyra notes.

"You can thank his teacher." Dusty says with a laugh, as they approach the hatch to go below deck.

Thyra nods to them and lifts up the hatch from behind, staff posed into an offensive position.

"Watch your corners." Dusty says to her, knocking an arrow.

She nods in understanding.

They slowly move into the guts of the ship, they have a straight shot to the captain's cabin, but they're plenty of crates and barrels for someone to hide behind.

"Call any movement you see, can't take any risks." Dusty whispers to Thyra

She nods in agreement, scanning the surroundings warily and drawing her crossbow. She sees a strange shadow behind a pile of crates, and she shoots. Her hunch was correct, as a man drops to the ground with an arrow through his throat.

"Good shot." Is all Dusty says, looking for any suspicious shadows.

They slowly moved towards the captain's cabin, and make it halfway, when Thyra's instincts causes her to move her staff, to block a swinging sword from cutting her in two. Dusty doesn't hesitate to fire his arrow, which passes clean through the man's right wrist, causing him to drop his sword, fall to the floor of the ship, and let out a scream no man should ever scream.

"You good?" Dusty asks.

"Yep." She glares at the man who is cradling his wrist and whimpering. She readies her staff to decapitate him, but stops short. "I want to keep this one. You good with that?"

"Alright then." Dusty says, knocking the man out with his daggur. "Lets keep moving."

They hear the familiar whistle of a Night Fury, and an explosion as a ship near them is blown apart.

"They're enjoying it as much as we are," Thyra grins proudly as another blast follows.

They reach the captains cabin, Dusty drew his sword, Thyra got her staff, and they rammed the door open, to find the captain with his first mate and steward.

"I'm going to give you one chance to surrender, and maybe we'll kill you with mercy." Dusty ordered.

"If you're lucky." Thyra adds, spinning her staff around her.

The steward, for some reason, screamed, and ran full speed into the port side of the ship, effectively knocking himself out.

"That's one way to do it I guess." Dusty said to Thyra

"Anyone else care to follow his lead?" Thyra asks, pointing her staff vaguely in his direction.

The first mate grabs his dagger, and tosses it to the side, putting his hands up in surrender. The captain on the other hand, does something else.

"They're making this easy..." Thyra trails off as she watches the captain.

The captain looks at his first mate, first shock, then anger. He pulls out his short sword, and stabs the first mate in the stomach.

"They're even doing it for us." Thyra mutters, scowling. "But that wasn't a smart move."

Dusty rushed forward, and cut the captain's hand off with his sword, and knocked him out with the flat end of his blade.

Thyra walks over to the first mate and leans over,checking him. "He's not dead. Yet. But the Furies can save him." She tells Dusty.

Dusty puts a rag on the captain's stump, stopping him from bleeding out, "Then get him to them, I'll take care of these two."

Thyra nods, and heaves the mate up, placing an arm around her shoulder she half runs for upper deck. As soon as she emerges, she lets out a Night Fury call. Pulse looks over from tearing a man to pieces from an opposite ship, and flies over, landing in front of Thyra.

"Hey girl. I know it sounds weird, but we need to save this man. His captain turned on him after he surrendered to us. Think you could lend a...tongue? Ew..."

Pulse looks down at the man suspiciously. "Well it's either that, or let one of the only people who are smart enough to surrender to us die. It would kind of destroy the point of surrender." Thyra adds, laying the man down. Pulse let's out a small coo, before licking at the man's wound (after the sword is removed).

The man writhes around in his unconscious state, but doesn't wake up. Thyra pulls a cloth from Pulse's saddlebag and ties it around the wound. "Take him to the village? Please? You don't have to stay, just drop him off so they can deal with him."

Pulse nods, gathers the first mate in her claws, and takes off towards the village, dropping him carefully in front of a bunch of people before taking back off towards the battle going on.

Dusty comes above deck as Pulse leaves, "How's the rest of the fleet doing?" He asks, looking for the other ships.

They look around. "Most of them are non existent." Thyra observes, seeing ships either sinking, sunk, or on fire. One is even sailing away as fast as possible.

"Well, they're gonna have a story to tell, unless..." He turned toward Thyra, and she knew there was a smirk under his mask.

"What are you planning?" She laughs, crossing her arms.

"Wanna go after them?" He asked.

"I like that idea. Don't need them talking about us to their friends." Thyra replies, waving Pulse over.

Dusty called to Dark, and he was at his side in seconds, blood dripping from his mouth.

"Looks like you're having fun." Dusty said, mounting Dark.

Thyra mounts Pulse. "You're about to have more." She grins, patting her head. "That ship over there has 'target' painted all over it." She points to the retreating vessel.

Pulse and Dark warbled and shot into the air, and within seconds were diving on the vessel. Dark and Pulse's blast both went straight through the ship, effectively splitting her in two, and setting most of her aflame.

"Yes!" Thyra cheers, pumping her fist as they fly around the ship, and Pulse adds another blast just for fun. Several people can be seen jumping overboard into the water below to escape the flames. Some of which were on fire.

"Well their goose is cooked!" Dusty laughs.

"I was thinking charred!" Thyra replies with a smirk and a shrug. "By the way, where did Donovan go? We keep losing him."

"I saw him in the crows nest as we took off after that ship." Dusty responds.

"What in the world was he doing there?!" Thyra laughs. "High advantage? He has a dragon!"

"You can ask him when we get back." Dusty says, spinning Dark around.

To see all the riders on their dragons right behind them.

Thyra nods in agreement, Pulse turning around too. "..." she tried to think of something to say, but nothing came to mind, so she just shrugged and pointed behind them to the ship in the awkward silence.

"You two, have a lot of explaining to do!" Shouted Heather.

Thyra scoffs. "No we don't. Use your eyes. Look around."

"Yeah, you know what I see? I see you three show up three days ago, then the day after you break out, our island Is attacked, explain!"

"We never even left the island, princess!" Thyra mocks.

"You two disappeared yesterday, you could have left the island." Yelled Dagur.

"Without my armour and D? Yeah, no thanks." Thyra replied.

"One way or another, you're coming back to the island, we want answers!" Heather yelled

"So you can lock us up? I don't think you realise what's going on." Thyra turns to Dusty. "I'm clearly getting nowhere with these barbarians. Wanna try?"

"You don't know barbarians till you go farther south, and yes I'll try." Dusty replies.

Thyra rolls her eyes at the first thing. "Alright, King of maps, take it away."

"It's simple, we show them." Dusty replies.

"What?" Thyra questions.

Dusty uses his left hand, and slaps his upper right arm, "We show them why we really came."

"No. They could use it against us." Thyra nearly shouts. "They don't seem to be as friendly as we thought."

"That's all I got, less you got a better idea, and they're gonna find out sooner or later." Dusty points out.

Thyra sighs. "Fine. But I'm shoving you off your dragon if this doesn't work out."

"Alright, you want to know why we really came?" Dusty yelled to the riders.

"Uh, yeah!" Dagur yells back in frustration.

"This is why." Dusty pulled his right arm's armor off, and pulled his sleeve up, revealing his slave brand.

Thyra did the same, glaring at them all the entire time.

Hiccup squinted. "Is that..."

"A slave brand!" Dusty answers.

"We heard people this side of the archipelago don't accept slavery." Thyra adds. "So we came, and the rumours of Berk training dragons added to it. We were just trying to find somewhere safe, but when we got here, at least to Berserker Island, we weren't exactly welcomed, were we."

"Thought you would give us a chance to explain, but apparently, like I thought, y'all are as stubborn as you can be." Dusty says, putting his armor back on.

"So now you know. Happy?" Thyra mutters, pulling her armour back on as well.

The riders all stare at them speechlessly. It's now just a half circle of speechless people, and growling or bored dragons.

"Well, we're off cya." Dusty taps Darks head, and they shoot into the clouds.

Pulse shoots up after them immediately, leaving the silent rider's behind as they follow Dark.

"Are they seriously trying to follow us?" Dusty asked Thyra, when her and Pulse pulled beside them.

"Apparently so," Thyra mutters with a groan. "Let's lose them."

"How about that cloud." he asked, pointing to a cloud over Berserker island, that looked pretty thick.

"Looks good enough." Thyra nodded, urging Pulse towards it.

Dark banked towards it, and followed Pulse in. The rest of the riders followed them in.

Thyra looked back and rolled her eyes. "Faster, girl." She muttered to Pulse, who sped up in hopes to lose the riders.

Dark flew higher into the cloud, and dove down past the Gronkle and Zippleback following them, causing them to collide in midair, and they swore they heard cheering as they went down. They silently flew past Astrid on her Deadly Nadder, and flew into the cave unnoticed.

Pulse flew right under Heather on her Razorwhip, and shot off before they could be noticed at all, and silently watched as a husky guy on a Nightmare, collided with Astrid on her Nadder.

They made it into the cave flying as deep in as possible to avoid being spotted.

"Those riders are just an embarrassment." Dusty laughs as Thyra dismounted Pulse.

"I have to agree with you there. And were the two on the Zippleback celebrating as they fell? Or was that just me?" Thyra asks.

"I heard them as well, they collided with the big guy on the Groncle." Dusty responded.

"He was whimpering." Thyra laughed.

They looked up as Donovan flew in on Volt.

"Don't worry, they never knew I flew past them, they're horrible."

"Good." Thyra nods. "But this is their island, they're bound to know it's landscapes, right? Or are they that bad?"

"Who knows, but I'm ready for some sleep." Dusty says, getting the last of his armor off.

"You and D take first sleep, I'll keep an eye out for any intruders." Thyra replies, taking off her helmet.

"Then I'll take second watch." Donovan says, leaning his daggurs against his bed.

"I've been meaning to ask, Dusty, how hard was it to get the beds here without being noticed?" Thyra asks as she starts removing the rest of her armour.

"That's the benefit of having dragons and starless and moonless nights." Dusty replies, laying in their bed.

Thyra laughs, nodding. "I suppose so." she takes a seat near the entrance of the cave, holding her staff in her lap.