Reunion

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Chapter 13: Reunion

The dragon riders finally arrived at Drago's camp. Eret tried to run as soon as Stormfly dropped him in the grass, but Stormfly landed atop him. "Agghh!" Eret groaned. "Okay! I got you here, now get this thing off me!"

"Never take a toy from a dragon," Astrid said, sliding off Stormfly's back. "Don't you know anything?" Stormfly brooded over Eret like a mother hen on an egg while Eret grumbled.

Ingrid and the others walked to the edge of a cliff and peered down into the bubbling water surrounded by many ships. "What's down there?" Ingrid said.

Fishlegs pulled out his dragon cards and started flipping through them. "Large diameter bubbles, massive lungs, cold water deep dweller, I'm thinking class five leviathan, maybe six."

Ingrid turned around just in time to see an army of men advancing on them. Before the riders could do anything, the dragons were tranquilized. They immediately rushed to their defense.

"Meatlug!" Fishlegs cried.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout exclaimed.

"What's wrong, girl?"

"Don't move!" said one of the men as they all surrounded the riders, who had no choice but to hold up their hands in surrender.

The riders were tied up and brought onto a large ship where a man stood surrounded by guards. "Drago!" Eret shouted. "Get off me!" He pushed back one of the soldiers who grabbed his arm and strode towards the large, intimidating man. "Always great to see you, my friend! Keeping warm up here? Well, as you can see, I'm right on time with a new batch of dragons, just like I promised."

"Eret!" Ingrid said in dismay. But from his nervousness and Drago's glower, she bet he did not think he had much of a choice.

"He's waking up!" one of the men exclaimed. Hookfang groggily lifted his head and then hit the Viking. "Give me some backup here!"

"Watch out!" said another man as Hookfang swung his head around.

"Drop the ropes," Drago ordered before approaching the Monstrous Nightmare. Hookfang breathed fire on him, but he shielded himself with his cloak of dragon scales. Then Drago started to scream, swinging his bull hook. Hookfang lowered his head to the ground, and Drago stepped on his snout.

"Hookfang!" Snotlout cried.

"Hey!" Ruffnut shouted.

"What are you doing?" Astrid said indignantly.

Drago stared at Hookfang. "You belong to me now." Then his eyes traveled up his back to the saddle.

"And as an added bonus, I also caught you their riders," Eret said with a weak smile. "No extra charge."

"What?!" Astrid exclaimed. "Are you kidding me?!"

"But you were so perfect!" Ruffnutt said with a sigh.

"Turns out, there's a whole bunch of them out there," Eret went on. "They-"

Drago grabbed him by the throat, choking him. "How many?"

"Drago doesn't have them after all," Astrid said quietly.

"HOW MANY?!"

"Let him go!" Ingrid demanded.

Drago dropped Eret and turned to her. "And just who do you think you are?"

"She's no one important!" Eret said quickly. "Just ignore her." He stared at Ingrid, his eyes wide with fear.

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