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━━ chapter sixteen
'stealth' mission

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   IT WAS a dreary evening.

Thick, heavy fog wrapped around the ship from stem to stern, drifting across the deck and around the cages as if it was alive; stretching as far as it could and making it almost impossible to see. Even with a lantern in his hand, Ivar the Witless could barely make out a thing past his rabbit-fur boots. He heard many sounds━the creaking of the barge surging through the open waters, the thud of his own feet, but most of those were muffled by the growls of dragons either side of him. As he passed by each cage, the beasts inside stirred; muzzled and chained, all they could do was set a glowering eye on him, rumbling empty threats in the back of their scaly throats. His lantern crossed their faces in an eerie, golden glow and their scales were sparked with colour only for a moment before they were shrouded in the dark, ghostly fog yet again, and Ivar moved on.

The night shift was always the worst shift. Especially in weather such as this. One wrong step, and Ivar might just tumble onto a spear, smack his head onto a cage━or even worse, fall close enough for a dragon to get its revenge. Even shackled, chained and muzzled, those beasts could do damage. And they sure had the means to do so.

He passed a slender one in a large cage; long neck, back arched━Ivar didn't know their species. He just knew this one would get them good money. He smacked the tip of his spear against the bars, rattling the cage to snarl, "Quiet!"

The dragon cowered back into the darkness, and he nodded, satisfied with himself. Ivar was fixing the grip around his spear shaft when he heard something━something he wasn't used to. It might be nothing; the soft click, like the sound of a trapdoor unhatching. In fact, it could be anything. But he looked over, and frowned.

Through the thick fog, Ivar could see a patch darker than the rest; lines rounding down to the deck in the silhouette of a strange man. He jumped slightly. How long had this man been standing there, shrouded in the mist? Perhaps he was imagining things━one did so in such weather.

Until the strange shadow's left hand sparked aflame. All up along a slender, ornate sword crawled bright flames, and with it, the stranger was illuminated. Ivar the Witless's eyes widened. He stumbled back slightly. The stranger showed himself; a tall, thin body adorned head to toe in black armour. The man's identity was masked by a fearsome helmet; spiked all along the back with dashes of bright red towards endless pits where Ivar supposed the eyes were supposed to be. As the light grew, he saw flickers in the armour's material━like they were the scales of a very large, black snake.

Ivar was beathless for a moment before he mustered up enough courage to ask the stranger, "What are you?"

Maybe it was a god ... a very skinny god, to be sure ... but no one wears that sort of garb, or carries such a strange weapon.

The stranger raised a finger to his lips and he heard a muffled, "Shhhh..."

There was a growl behind him. It made the hairs on the back of Ivar the Witless's neck stand on end. It vibrated, low, rumbling and made him gasp━he spun on his feet. there, in the dark, a line of bright, luminescent blue appeared in the form of dragon dorsal plates━and from the side of the cage, dropped down with soft pads of its feet, was a dragon he has never seen before and only heard of in tales. A dragon as black as the night━

He freaked.

With a yell, he charged the stranger. Spinning his spear, he swung it in a deadly arc. The man in the odd armour ducked and side-stepped his swing easily. With a swift jab, Ivar's spear was interlocked in the centre of the man's sword. His eyes widened as his weapon burnt away at the handle by the very second and with a grunt, this strange━and terrifying━man disarmed him with a flick of his wrist.

Desperate, Ivar shuffled back and threw his lantern. It struck the man in his arm guards and hit the floor; out of it sparked the flame. As it hit the wood, it erupted up into a wall of fire, blocking Ivar from this horrifying stranger.

But he was undaunted. The flames did not matter to this stranger. With his Night Fury at his side, he stepped through the walls of flames. They parted as if he commanded them; and they bowed to his power.

And Ivar the Witless knew. This wasn't a man. This wasn't a god. This was a demon from the dephts of Niflheim. A place of endless darkness, endless fear, pits of dread and punishment just like the black scales of this demon's armour━

"Aahhhhhhhhhh!" let out Ivar, scrambling back as far as he could. The demon jolted, not expecting him to scream. He threw out a shaky finger, "You're a demon!"

The demon hunched up. He rushed through the fire, holding out his hands and shaking his head. "Shhhh!" he urged. His voice was muffled, but nazally━as if he spoke constantly through a blocked nose. "No! No! I'm not a demon. I'm not a demon!"

With a gloved hand, the demon opened up his visor to show a youthful, freckled face with bright forest green eyes and tuffs of dark aruburn hair over his thick eyebrows. "See?" he smiled, waving at Ivar the Witless. "Just a guy! Just a guy here to rescue these dragons, so━"

Ivar didn't believe him. "But you walked through fire!"

"Dragon scales!" the demon rapped his knuckles against the shoulder blades of his armour. "Dragons shed a lot━"

"Oooh!" said Ivar the Witless. He knows he's right. He knows what he had seen! He may be witless but he was not completely stupid! "I know a demon when I see one! No human legs are that skinny━" he spun on his feet, ready to alert the rest of the ship when a second wave of flames blinded his vision with a flash of pure white.

Landing on the deck was a beast made purely of flame━a Monstrous Nightmare as red as the fire on its wings and body. It snarled at Ivar, crawling along the wood with its tongue flickering between sets of razor sharp teeth. And on top of it, sat a second demon!

Through his helmet's visor was what was to trick the eye into believing was a man (and a very short one at that) with a mean face and jaw. He threw his arms out and declared, "You think that's a good entrance? Get a load of me!"

He stood up on his beast. Until ... he sniffed something rather sour from behind.

The demon realised with a yelp that his backside was on fire!

"AHHH!" he yelled. "Aah━AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"I knew it!" Ivar's hands flew to his helm, terrified out of his mind. His knees quivered. This was his worst nighmare━what had he done in his life? He was just a witless dragon trapper! Did he not pray to Odin this morning? Oh, Odin, forgive him━ "More demons!"

The first demon just sighed and shook his head. He pinched the bridge of his nose. "That's really just a nitwit who forgot to fireproof his butt."

Descending from above was a spiked horror of yellow. On the horror's back jumped an equally spiked helm, armour and tail━another demon! With a gesture, his dragon flicked its tail with spikes and shot them towards the firery beast, lining along the deck with more flame. He turned to the first demon, hands on his hips. "How did we do, Hiccup?"

"Wrong signal, Hott," said this demon named Hiccup, looking very tired. "Wrong signal. You're meant to come in after Astrid."

"But you said after Snotlout lights Hookfang up? He sounded very proud of his entrance."

"Snotlout messed up."

The demon Hott pushed up his helmet where a handsome face of about twenty shined. "But ... Spikey and mine's entrance was still cool, right?"

Meanwhile, the second demon was still rolling around in pain, trying to stop the fire at his butt. He managed to dampen amongst a noxious cloud of green, and he screamed, "Guys! GUYS━NO! No━not yet━" KABOOM!

The green gas exploded into a firestorm, and the second demon was thrown off his feet with a strangled yell. In through the flames, a voice called out, "Behold━!" dragon-head muffs of gauntlets wafted away the smoke, and the most ridiculous demon Ivar's seen yet appeared, "━your worst nightmare!"

A second voice━was it a girl demon? A boy demon? Ivar didn't know━piped in, "Behold━"

The one in the ridiculous armour glared at his companion beside him, "━Along with his sister who insisted on coming." He showed his lean face, squaring his shoulders. Hanging under his chin was what at first glance could be a beard, until one realised it was just two sides of his blonde hair braided together to form one.

His demon sister frowned and pulled up her helmet. "That's my intro?"

Two dragon heads leered in behind them and Ivar scurried to the bars of the nearest cage, desperate to keep away from the Night Fury that sneered in his face. The Offspring of Lightning and Death itself━they were all demons!

"Guys!" the first demon rushed over to the siblings. "Too soon. You always come in too soon!"

"Hott came in too soon."

"It was technically Snotlout's fault."

"Hey! You're just upset you don't have a dragon that can light itself on fire!"

"No, I'm really not," Hott crossed his arms at Snotlout, and the trembling guard was starting to become invisible. "I think Gustav could have done better."

"Ooohh," Snotlout pointed an angry finger. "That insult was a low blow━even for you."

"You're just unable to admit the truth━" thud! A second Deadly Nadder landed; and it growled right at Ivar. He whimpered a small scream of 'demons!'

The girl demon jumping from the back of the Nadder then spun onto the demon Hott. She lifted her blue helm and a beautiful round face shaped with luxurious blonde hair fell over her azure eyes showed. "Great, now my entrance is ruined. Didn't we agree you were going after me?"

Hott gaped at the girl, "Astrid, what do you mean, Hiccup said I was supposed to come after Snotlout━?"

"Yes, after Snotlout, then after me━"

"━That's confusing━!"

"━It's not confusing, you just never listen━"

"━What? Since when?━Actually━!" Hott held out his hands, back-tracking, "━Don't answer that."

The two continue to argue like some old married couple━do demons marry?━until the very first demon, Hiccup shut them up with a snap of, "Guys, seriously?" he gestured around them at the mist-shrouded deck. "Do we have to do this now?"

"Whooooaaaaaa━" a large boulder of a demon rolled in front of the first, and he skidded to a stop, frowing down at the fgure in annoyance. "Sorry," whispered the meaty demon, trying to get onto his feet. "Still━trying━to━get━a━hang of my wings..."

Ivar the Witless took his chance. While the Night Fury, all the demons and their dragons were distracted, he shuffled along the boards towards the alarm bell.

Hiccup sighed at the small little baby dragon that poked its head out of the big demon's armour pouch. A bright-coloured, orange, Gronckle hatchling. "Fishlegs, again with the baby?! This is a raid."

"Asrifth refused to babysit!"

Getting to his feet, Ivar screamed at the top of his lungs. "DEMONS EVERYWHERE!" he ran for his life towards the alarm. "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD━OOF━!"

Just before he could sound the bell, a pair of armoured feet swung down from above and kicked him in the back of the head. His nose hit the bars of the cage and he slumped to the ground, unconscious.

Behind him appeared the final 'demon', a dragon rider in armour of blue, white and yellow. Her helmet mask was spiked with a single, sharp horn at the tip of her snout, situated against the collar of thick scales. If someone focused in on the bright colours, they'd see little flowers designed in perculiar spots. This matched the mighty Windstriker that landed behind her, growling at the unconscious trapper. She reached back and cracked her shoulders and knuckles, stretching out her neck.

"Valkyrie," chuckled Hiccup, walking up to her. He spun Inferno around, contracting the blade and snuffing out the flames. "I had him right where I wanted him."

Valkyrie slipped up the visor of her helmet, revealing a stunning beauty. Her light green eyes shone in the lamplight beside her that hid a fierce viciousness behind pretty features and aurburn hair. "And now━" she pulled her mallet from her the sheath on her back, giving it a spin in her hand. She gestured the tip at the trapper by her feet, flashing Hiccup a cheeky grin, "━he's right where I wanted him."

Passing her husband, she sent a playful smack to his behind that jolted him right up. He glared over his shoulder after her, "Val," he scolded.

She ignored him and continued on, "Come on," she chided. "Let's get these dragons out and go."

He watched her go, but knew she was right. So, in a hushed whisper, Hiccup gestured the others to split up, "Okay, we screwed that up. But at least nobody else knows we're here."

They all divided up to find find the dragons and get them out. Valkyrie made a beeline to a couple of baby Windstrikers and she immediately cooed. Sliding open the cage, she held out her hand to calm them down. "Oh! Babies! Hello, there━oh, you guys are all so cute!" Realising she wasn't a threat, the bravest out of the pack wagged his tail and bounded towards her. Zephyr poked his head under Val's arm in interest and she chuckled, letting him squawk in greeting at the hatchlings who all were much more comfortable to see another one of their own.

"Okay, okay," she started to work at unhinging the iron muzzles around their small snouts. "Time to let you cuties free."

Hiccup slipped into the cage of a teenage Scuttleclaw. He held out his palm as she started to snarl. "Easy, girl━it's okay. Shh! We're gonna get you out of here..." she met his outstretched hand and Hiccup managed a small smile.

Valkyrie glanced over her shoulder at him, feeling her heart warm up in the cold night.

"Ooo," Hott peered around and into the next row of cages. "Hey, look━" he whispered, gesturing Valkyrie over to his side. After setting free the Windstrikers, she shuffled over and heard him jump out of the way of the snap of jaws. "Oh, aggressive Grim Gnasher."

Val squeezed in beside him, trying to help. But she also had to jump away from the jaws. "It's okay, it's okay ... she's just scared ..." she held out her hands gently and took a cautious step forward. "Hey, girl ... it's okay━" the Grim Gnasher hunched back and growled at them. Valkyrie hurried back, hands close to her chest. She didn't want to be hit by a projectile of razor-sharp teeth. "O━okay. That's ... that's a little scary ..."

Spikemoth huffed in the dragon's face, startling her. She stopped growling and tilted her head, inquisitive. Hott smiled and reached back to scratch his Nadder under the chin, "Thanks, Spikey. Now do you see you can trust us?" The Grim Gnasher answered with a purr, and they could start unclasping her chains.

Fishlegs's squeal made the siblings glance over their shoulders. He quickly cupped his mouth, muffling his noise, but he was bouncing on his toes at the dragon he had just opened the cage for. "A Crimson Goregutter!"

Hiccup poked his head out of the Scuttleclaw cage, eyes lightening up, "Wait━really?"

They all gazed up at the large Boulder Class dragon━a legendary class (as Fishlegs deemed) with large elk-like bone horns and the meaty body of a yak. Purple and pink scales shimmered crimson in the dim lanters as he blinked down at Fishmeat squirming, excited, in his pouch. It leaned down, sniffing curiously. Fishlegs looked like he might just faint out of excitement.

Back at the Windstriker cage, Ruffnut hopped up onto the bars of the one beside it. She kept her snickers low under her breath as she stuck her head inside. "Ha! Look at this weirdo," she said. She pointed at the dragon inside. It was tiny━frog in size and cowering in the nook of the square bars of the floor. Its eyes and jaw were half the size of its bloated body. "I bet it's super dumb!"

She tried to open the cage. It didn't budge. She tried again. No luck. Ruffnut pulled and pushed, yanked and tugged━she let out a cry of frustration, "Gah! Why can't I━get this━cage open?!"

Astrid appeared at her side to help. She reached up for the hook and pushed it to the side, "It slides," she told her simply.

The cage door slowly swung open with Ruffnut still clinging on. She scoffed at Astrid, "Obviously." The blonde in her Nadder armour nodded, not at all believing what she said.

In the distance, a voice suddenly cried out into the fog, "ATTACK!"

Valkyrie jumped. "Ooh, times up━" she flicked down her visor and grabbed her mallet.

Hiccup lit up Inferno. Around them, trappers were running in at all sides; ranks with axes, swords, hammers, maces and shields. "Get the rescues out of here!"

Val already met a sword with her hammer. Behind her helm, she gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes, pushing against the trapper's strength with her own. With a yell, she clashed his sword right over his head and to the ground, keeping it locked against the block of her mallet. His eyes widened, realising he was screwed before Valkyrie swiped off his helmet and elbowed him in the nose.

Toothless darted past her towards one trapper that raced up to her. He pushed the Viking to the ground in his momentum before continuing. Valkyrie ducked a slash from a spear and dodged a sword's blade. Spinning her mallet around, she held it up and swung. The first trapper pulled back out of the way. In beside her, Hiccup skidded along the deck and caught the spear shaft in the blades of Inferno before it could scewer her lower back. With a twist, he let it go and it fell to the ground. Toothless returned, hammering his head into his rider's opponent. He slid along the deck and Valkyrie heard Tuffnut shout━

"No running on the deck!" as he tugged open a cage. "It's slippery, you could fall."

"Thanks, babe," breathed Val as she stood back to back with her husband, getting ready to fight the next wave of trappers.

"No problem," he muttered back, his voice muddled behind his Night Fury visor.

"Astrid━here━" Hott had disarmed a trapper and he chucked the sword to her who took it and spun it around, now with two weapons instead of one.

She frowned at it, "Really? This one?"

He stared at her, annoyed. He backhanded a trapper in passing, who didn't expect the arm to suddenly come flying in front of his face. He hit the ground. Hott gaped, "Seriously? Wow, I'm sorry, do you want a sword with a gold plated hilt, do you? Strange, I don't see one around here."

Astrid rolled her eyes and jammed the hilt of her axe in between the eyes of her attacker. She blocked a second hit with the sword Hott had thrown her seconds before. "It's too light!"

As they argued, they fought well━casually, knowing how the other moved after practicing many together many times. Hott took out the legs beneath the trapper pressing his mace down upon the sword Astrid held up with a clenched jaw. His nose hit her boot that she kicked up. He crumpled at their feet, dazed and groaning.

"Look around, Astrid, this isn't a shop!"

Astrid grinned to herself under her visor. She understood, now, why Hott always liked to rile her up beforehand. He still riled her up, constantly, but now, she knew how to get him back. And she secretly loved bantering with him, especially because he was never afraid to have a go at her while every other Viking under the sun cowered at a single glare she sent. Hott just met it with one of his own━he liked it.

Reaching down, she grabbed another sword and tested the weight. Hott shook his head after her as she swapped the swords around and continued to fight, running along the deck to her next opponent.

She passed Ruffnut, who swung her axe down in front of a trapper's feet. Hott decided to help, sprinting over and hitting him in the back with the butt of his mace━he tripped over, landing flat on his face.

"Step aside!"

"Whoa━!" Hott skidded out of the way of Snotlout, who leapt up onto the fallen trapper's back and into battle with a cry of:

"Let me handle the tough guy stuff!"

"Serioulsy?!"

He swung his mace blindly, missing the two trappers by miles. His helmet went askew over his face. "Whoa..." he spun around, trying to fix it. From above, Hookfang let loose a dribble of flame that sent the two dragon trappers screaming. Snotlout unhinged his visor amongst the fire and grinned. "Heh! Yeah!" he puffed out his chest and shook his mace after them. "That's two for me!"

Up above, their dragons fought from the air. Volleys of spines made archers shout in alarm and retreat from their aims on Astrid and Hott. Hookfang smacked one off the roof of a cage with his tail. Zephyr dived down and snatched up any trapper he could before they'd even blink, throwing them out into the grey ocean.

"Look out━!" Fishlegs scrambled to get a hold of Fishmeat. He fell to the ground after him just in time. The trapper behind swung his mallet over his head and socked the unlucky Viking on the other side. His friend fell, unconscious and the trapper gasped: sorry!

He joined his friend not long after. A Crimson Goregutter's tail usually had the strength of a pile of boulders, and a hit from that would easily knock the wind out of a person, if not completely crush them. Fishlegs raced after Fishmeat under the shadow of the large dragon, paying no mind to the battle around him.

Valkyrie and Hiccup were still fighting━perhaps one of the only ones who had a handle of themselves aside from Astrid and Hott. Back to back, they worked together in taking out the opposition; Hiccup with his sword and Val with her hammer. She whacked one in the chest, sending him back. A second spun on his feet, taken astray by Hiccup's manouver with Inferno. With his back turned, the cheif reached up and took his helmet from his head, allowing the chieftess to drop the butt of her weapon against his forhead, knocking him out cold. He threw the helmet at a third with strength not many would think at first glimpse.

Engaging into battle with a fourth, Hiccup slammed his foot down onto their toes. He yelped in pain, hopping away and tripping over the unconscious trapper Valkyrie had smacked with the wood of her hammer before. She took the time to pick up the flower that had fallen from the wire around her hilt while Hiccup yanked open a cage, letting the dragon free while Toothless nudged he trapper inside━Hiccup locked the door on him.

"Thank you!" he smiled at his dragon, giving him a scratch under the chin. "Now, go get the rest, bud!" he gestured to the cages and Toothless was off, bounding through the fog.

Valkyrie picked up another flower, ducking a strike overhead. Annoyed, she scowled up at the trapper and kicked him right in the groin. He cried out, on his knees and curled up, rolling away.

Meeting back up with Hiccup, she flipped up her helmet for better air. She fixed the fallen flowers back around her hilt. Her husband switched out a cannister, stopping by her side.

"I thought this was supposed to be a stealth mission," she told him as he did and Hiccup pulled up his helmet, too, meeting her annoyance with his own━

"Yeah, they always start that way."

Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a charging trapper and gasped. "Look out!" she shoved Hiccup to the left and went to attack, but Zephyr had her back. Swooping down, he snatched the Viking up and threw him into the ocean with a happy squawk. Valkyrie grinned up at him, "Yes! Good boy, Zeph! Thank you!"

Up on the mast, a figure crouched down like a small dragon in the fog, her saff propped up and her eyes narrowed down at the young Vikings below. Beside her, a wise Stormcutter growled in the back of his throat━a whine that made her roll her eyes. "Oh, stop worrying, Cloudjumper. They'll get it."

"RAAAAAAWWWW━!" Snotlout leapt up, his mace held up high━only for the wings of his flight-suit to get caught by the tip of the cage. His weapon dropped, hitting the ground.

Valka sighed, "Eventually."

Hiccup dodged a flying trapper Valkyrie had kicked into a cage door. "Move out!" he shouted to his team. "We got them all!"

"Spikemoth, up━!" Hott latched onto his dragon's leg, climbing up into the saddle and disappearing into the fog with Astrid behind him, jumping up onto Stormfly's saddle with a flick of her tail.

Barf and Belch grabbed their separate riders as they laughed and jeered at the men below. Tuffnut threw punches in the air as he was lifted up, declaring, "I'm gonna headlock every last one of you! I might even leglock you!"

"Amatures!" shouted Snotlout as Hookfang snatched him up from his fabric wings and into the air. "I was just getting started!"

"Clear out, guys!" Valkryie rushed Fishlegs along who finally got a grip onto Fishmeat towards the edge of the boat. "Go! Go! Zephyr━!" she jumped from the edge towards the water. Just as she expected, her dragon was there to grab her by the arms with his claws. Fishlegs fell off he ship and Meatlug was there, catching is weight and buzzing them out.

The only Dragon Rider left was Hiccup. He searched the fog for his dragon. "Toothless!" He called. "Time to go!" with a spin, he closed Inferno and turned around.

He froze, seeing about twenty trappers all shuffling towards him, their weapons raised. Well ... oops? "Uh ..." the chief let out a nervous grin. "Hey, guys!"

Toothless bounded through them towards his rider, knocking them aside like wooden pins. Hiccup breathed a laugh. "Yes! Good boy━" he latched his hands onto his saddle and swung his leg over, hooking Toothless's tail with a click and off they went. His cheers echoed into the distance. "Ha━ha! You always have my back, bud!"

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     a/n: there needs to be more negative synonyms for cages. istg.

     also, so many trappers.    so.     many.      trAPPERS.

     I think I'm seeing the word trappers in my sleep—

     ANYWAY FIRST CHAPTER OF HTTYD 3 AND I ALREADY WANT TO CRY.

     Let's get ready for this sob roller coaster. Hope you guys liked the chapter 😆😆 I'll see you very soon in the next.

     (also, not val making time to pick up her flowers during a battle and astrid liking being sorta told off—)

     I have some designs and concept art for Val and Hott's dragon armour. Pls excuse the terrible colouring, my head and my hands didn't exactly match well in deciding what colours are for what, but you'll get a basic idea until I do another drawing (if, because we all know I'm a little lazy).

    I really based Hott's around some og concept design art for hiccup's dragon armour so yeah, little cool references like that... also we all know he's extra, he wanted a fricken tail like who wouldn't—