"It feels so good to be free." Dagur sighed as his ship sailed away from Outcast island. He lifted up his arm where he had written down his revenge list. "And now that I am, I can begin my preparations to rebuild my armada and take my revenge on Berk!"
Hiccup Haddock, Night Fury, Oswald, Ash Snow, Jon Snow...the list was slightly longer but these were the few that truly mattered.
Dagur grinned maliciously at the list of names he had read and the rest and gently touched Ash's name. For the last three years her face was the one he yearned to see again when he planned to break free. Her soft violet eyes, her pale and smooth skin that never seemed to darken from hours in the sun, her long silver-gold hair that she prefer to leave loose and only have the front braided out of her face, that gentle smile he wished she would give him. As soon as he got the gold for his new armada, he will wreck havoc on Berk, take out those stupid dragon riders and their allies, and take Ash Snow for his wife.
"Of course to get her, I'm going to have to kill her father." He laughed to himself. "I've grown much stronger and I'm pretty sure he's been slacking off since there's been nothing interesting happening since I've been in jail."
"What about her siblings?" Savage asked. "Last time I was on Berk I remember seeing about five or six of them and fighting us. And one of them almost cut my hand off!"
"You're scared of a six year old?" Dagur laughed. "Robert is so small he can barely wield a short sword!"
"He had a knife sir...and he was very creepy to look at!" Savage protested meekly. "Silver hair and pale grey eyes with very pale skin made him look like a ghost!"
"Well then we'll get rid of him, as well as Rickion, Eddard, Lyanna, Rhaella and if they are planning to be trouble." Dagur replied with a shrug.
"But...the girl? The one you want to make your bride?"
"What about her?"
"When I was working for Alvin and we had invaded Berk, all the times we went- even before they had the dragons- she was fighting and beating several of our best men!"
Dagur turned to Savage with a scowl. "Ash may have been able to have beaten you Outcasts, but she was always beaten by me at sword fighting. I always knocked her to the ground and had my sword at her neck."
"Then we'll leave her to you then!" Savage said and gave a nervous laugh.
Dagur looked out to the ocean and smiled sinisterly to himself.
'Soon Ash Snow, soon you will be mine, just as you promised three years ago if you wanted Berk to have peace.'
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"YEAH!!!!!" Ash whooped as she held on tightly to Storm's saddle horn as the Skrill took a dive towards the ocean. "Alright, now pull up Storm!" At her command, Storm opened his wings and let the wind catch them and flew upwards. Ash gave another whoop and brushed back some of her tangled silver-gold hair from her face. "We'll have to work on your timing, otherwise we'll be a Skrill and rider sized splat on the ocean!" Storm grumbled but continued to fly forward before Ash turned him to head back to Berk.
Berk and it's people had changed over the years. New structures for the dragons had been or were being built, and Ash's friends had been getting themselves jobs and they'd been too busy to hang out the way they used to three years ago. Snotlout was building and testing new weapons, Fishlegs was teaching the children the history of Berk, the twins were pranking the others (as usual), Hiccup was racing off in hopes to find new dragons instead of chief training, Astrid was planning on being part of the Berk Guard with Stormfly, and Ash had been given the newest job by the chief: taking care of the infant dragons in their new hatchery.
The hatchery was located close to the new hangar where the hatchlings of Berk, both eggs and the ones who were already running around were born and taken care of by Ash, Storm and Elin. When Ash entered the hatchery she found some of the eggs already hatched and with the babies cooing and squawking for their parents.
"Ah nothing like the miracle of birth, aye Storm?" Ash asked as she picked up one of the Nadders into her arms. Storm snorted in reply and shooed away several young Nightmares and Terrors that were trying to play with his tail and spikes.
Elin was no longer allowed into the hatchery due to her...size problems. During the last three years the little dragon had grown rapidly till she was four times the size of Hookfang. She spent most of her days away from home hunting to satisfy her growing hunger since she was not allowed to take any of the livestock on Berk. There were even some times where she'd be gone for a week but it never really worried Ash, for who would even attempt to harm a growing and hungry dragon like Elin?
"Ash! Ash are you in here?" Ash looked up to find Fishlegs and Snotlout running into the hatchery and looking quite exhausted.
"What's wrong?" She asked as she put the baby dragon down.
"It's Johan, he's here on Berk and told us some really bad news!" Snotlout replied. "Dagur has escaped and both you, Hiccup and your father are on his revenge list!"
"No....no no no no!" Ash could barely believe it. Outcast prison was supposed to be impossible to escape from, he must have had some inside help to have been able to escape.
“Johan wants to talk to us in the academy right now because he knows where Dagur might head!” Fishlegs said and looked at her nervously. “That is...if you want to come, we know how much you dislike him and feel around Dagur-”
“I'll go, someone needs to knock a few teeth out from that guy.” Ash said making a fist and called for Storm. “Let's go, the sooner we know where Dagur is heading, the sooner we can put him back in jail where he belongs.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“So you're saying that he could be heading to the shipyard where you keep most of your valuables?” Astrid asked the trader after he explained where Dagur would be heading.
“That's right miss Astrid, he may be after my gold!”
“And if he gets his hand on that gold, he could use it to rebuild his armada and get revenge on Berk.” Ash added. “And possibly kill us in revenge. No wonder we're on his kill list.”
“Oh he wouldn't dare with your magnificent dragon at your side!” Johann said pointing to Elin, who was tearing into some boars she had recently hunted and bright back earlier that day.
"How long until she stops growing?" Fishlegs asked Ash as the group watched Elin chew the burned carcass of one of the boars.
"Hard to say. My godfather and mother say that as long as these dragons are given freedom to fly around and hunt, they'll grow bigger than a Red Death." Ash replied as Elin dropped the bones of her dinner in front of them and started off on another boar.
"Please tell me those aren't from someone's livestock!" Snotlout groaned.
"Relax, she caught them from that one island that's overflowing with boars." Ash promised him. "And I promise that she won't eat any of us either. She'll dine on Berserker flesh instead."
"Mind setting her on Dagur then?" Astrid asked jokingly and Elin looked up from her meal to growl at them in annoyance.
"As much as I'd like to, he'll kill her." Ash replied and patted her dragon's head. “But it's kind of hard to kill her now, her scales are much thicker and her weak spot is not where you would suspect.”
“That's rather interesting since most stories say that you had to stab at the belly to kill a dragon.” Hiccup said as Elin kicked the charred bones towards them.
“And no one but us know about it, so do keep quiet about it.”
“Are you taking her to help us hunt Dagur?” Ruffnut asked.
“She's too preoccupied to even help.” Ash answered and gave her dragon a scolding look. “Storm shall come with me instead, he's too bored with staying close to Berk.”
“Alright then, so are we going?” Hiccup asked and he was greeted with exclamations of agreement from the gang.
Soon they were all out on the open sea, just the way they were three years ago when they were barely forming the team. After a few hours they managed to find the shipyard but saw no signs of Dagur. Ruffnut suggested that they should take all the gold before Dagur came and Hiccup thought that was an excellent idea, since without the gold Dagur would be armada-less.
They had all split up to find whatever valuables they could find on the ships. All the dragons except for Storm and Toothless had fled due to a couple of giant eels. Ash had to leave Storm above deck since he didn't like going down into the ship.
Ash found what must have been some sort of office or commander's quarters in the ship with hardly anything except for a barrel of rolled up papers and a desk with several little wooden dragons and some pieces of a game Stoick introduced her to called Maces and Talons pieces.
“Must be maps.” Ash said to herself as she pulled out one of the papers and saw she was right. “Huh, unfinished.” She pulled out another map and began to skim through it.
"Dorne, Kingslanding...wait a minute, is this.....a map of Westeros?" Ash murmured as she spread the map out on the table and placed the little wooden dragon statues on the edges of the paper.
With the lantern she brought she saw the Wall, Highgarden, Dragonstone, the Iron Islands, the Stormlands, the Vale, Winterfell. Ash's fingers brushed against the paper and over the ten letters of her home. The most well known place in the North, the house where the Starks had dwelled for generations, the place where she was born.
'But what's this map doing here?' Ash wondered to herself. Suddenly, she felt someone grab her around the waist and yank her away from the table and held a knife to her throat.
"Scream and I'll cut your throat." Her captor hissed.
"So you tossed your lot with the Berserkers, you really are a boot kisser." Ash retorted, turning her head to look at the ex second-in-command of Alvin in the eye.
"Be gentle with her Savage, Dagur wants her unharmed." A Berserker solider warned as he came into view. "Huh, he was right. A rather exotic beauty, no wonder he's mad for her."
Ash was walked up to the deck to where her friends were being shoved into one of the cages made of green metal. Storm was also inside of one and kept gnawing at the bars of his cage. He caught sight of Ash and gave a wild shriek.
"Storm!" Ash cried, trying to go for her dragon but Savage and the other Berserker held her back.
"Well, well. If it isn't the most annoying group of Vikings in the Midgard." A familiar voice laughed as a man emerged from the shadows and dressed in rags.
"Dang he's changed, a lot." Ash heard Tuffnut mutter loudly.
"And I don't like the way he's looking at her." Snotlout added in disgust.
“Look at you! You've grown more beautiful since the last time I laid eyes on you!” Dagur exclaimed, walking to Ash and examining her.
Ash didn't like how he was looking at her, but she held her head high and didn't say anything. If her mother could put up with and ignore the crude and lustful remarks some Dothraki had given her once, then she could stand there fully clothed and attempt to ignore the lustful looks Dagur was giving her.
‘I am the blood of the dragon,’ she told herself, ‘I will not let him see me as a frightened lamb under his glare.’
Moments later Hiccup and Toothless burst out from a trapdoor to find them all in Dagur’s clutches. He held something in his hands as he slammed the trapdoor down. What was it?
“Hiccup! Did you miss me? Because I missed you! Every day for three years, I thought about you.” Dagur sneered and gestured to the other caged riders.
“Sorry Hiccup, he got the drop on us while we weren't looking.” Astrid apologized.
“Uh, quiet! Can't you see that my brother and I are having a moment?” Dagur yelled at Astrid before turning back to Hiccup.
“I am not your brother, and we are definitely not having a moment!” Hiccup corrected him.
“Yeah he's my ‘brother’!” Ash added and for a second she thought she saw Hiccup smile.
“Oh, well I thought we were. And look at you! Quite the ladies man now, huh?” Dagur said with a grin. “Both you and Ash have changed quite a bit.”
Ash snorted. “Yeah but the one thing that hasn't changed is-”
“Your dislike for me, I know. But soon you will learn to love me. And that may be quite soon.”
“Excuse me?” Snotlout and the twins exclaimed.
“So I'll be taking all the gold and whatever it is you're hiding behind your back.” Dagur continued and held his hand out. “Come on now, brothers share you know.”
Hiccup hesitantly handed him a large object the side of a loaf of bread and Dagur snatched it up before grabbing Ash by the arm. “You know you won't get every far with that.” Hiccup said with a frown.
“Maybe we'll get farther than you have.” Dagur replied with a shrug. “Farewell brother, until we meet again on the field of battle.”
“I'm not going with you!” Ash snapped as he dragged her away from her friends and hoisted her onto his ship, along with Storm.
“You made a promise and you will stick to it.” Dagur retorted, gripping her arm tightly. “Otherwise you can say goodbye to your father, mother, those annoying siblings of yours, and Berk!”
“Don't you even dare lay a finger on them!” Ash snapped. “If you even get within one mile of Berk, you're going to be greeted with something far worst than Berk’s dragons!”
“And what would that be?”
“Elin, the last dragon of Westeros, born in the ashes of my home and raised to be just as fearless of anything including men like you.”
“Sir, they're following us!” Savage called. Ash looked back to see Toothless and Hiccup flying towards them at full speed and heard Dagur chuckle.
“Oh Hiccup, so predictable.”
“Hiccup look out!” She yelled when she saw one of the men launch a boulder at them. It sailed right past them, much to her relief.
“You missed!” Hiccup yelled.
“Did I?” Dagur retorted. Ash watched in horror as the boulder his the Reaper and it began to sink. Her friends started to scream and call out for help and she tried yanking away from Dagur again.
“You are a monster!” Ash screamed as she attempted to claw at his face but Dagur grabbed both her hands to prevent it and pulled her close to him. “Let me go!”
“It's already too late for anyone to save you. If Hiccup comes after you, your dragon and the weird object, your friends will drown; if he goes off to save them he loses all three of you!”
“Not unless I can get away first!” Ash snapped and looked to the sinking ship. Hiccup was already flying towards it to save the others. ‘Please let him get to them on time!’
“Put her with the dragon.” Dagur ordered, shoving Ash to a Berserker and picking up the strange cylinder. “Now I wonder what this does?”
“Some sort of spyglass?” Ash suggested in a sarcastic tone as she was shoved into the cage.
“Doesn't seem like it.” Dagur replied and looked into it. “Oh well, all that matters is that I've got the gold, you and a Skrill!”
“That Skrill belongs to me!” Ash retorted and Storm growled. “I raised and trained him, you just can't take another person's dragon and expect them to obey you! Even horses and dogs won't do that!”
“Are you sassing me?” Dagur asked turning to her with a frown.
“Maybe I am.” Ash replied and placed a hand on Storm and he ceased his growling. “When will you ever learn that Hiccup is always going to foil your crazy plans?”
Instead of answering her question, knowing she was going to make a fool out of his answer with another question, Dagur decided to ignore her and turn his attention to the cylinder object he took from Hiccup.
‘I gotta get out of here, but the metal of this cage doesn't look like it's going to break. Even Storm couldn't make a dent in it!’ Ash thought as she felt around the front for a key hole. Once she found it, she stuck her hand in her hair in search of a pin and managed to find one before getting to work on attempting to unlock the cage. ‘Just hope the twins and Gobber’s lock picking lessons were helpful enough.’
Ash knew she had to be quick if she wanted to help save her friends. She kept wiggling the hairpin around the lock and repeatedly shaking the door a bit to see if she had unlocked it. Several times she had to stop because Savage or a random Berserker would come past her and she had to try to cover her work.
“I'll take that!” Ash looked up just in time to see Hiccup swoop in and snatch the cylinder from Dagur.
“Go little brother!” She cheered.
“And we'll take this!” She heard the twins and Snotlout yell and felt the cage get yanked up.
“What took them so long?” Ash asked, giving the two dragons a glare.
“Dunno but it took forever for them to hear our dragon calls!” Ruffnut responded. “ But hey, at least we got you out of here!”
“And we'll need one of Hiccup’s peg legs to break you free!” Tuffnut added cheerfully.
"Wait his legs?"
"We'll explain later."