I Am Dragonblood: Secret Uncovered {Book Three} (HTTYD Fanfic)

Chapter Two - The Dragon Hunters

The Dragon Riders met back up in the arena at midday, the dragons trailing behind reluctantly after being dragged away from their feast of fish. Toothless still had a fishes tail sticking out of his mouth, which he was chewing smugly as the other dragons looked at him enviously. Hiccup shook his head in amusement. His best bud always made him smile no matter what situation they were in. But then, like almost always, his expression turned grim again and he addressed his fellow Riders. 
    'If we head out now, we should be able to reach the sinkhole by this evening, and with it, the Hunters.' He glanced around at the group and proceeded to list the things they needed. 'Provisions?'
    'Check.'
    'Weapons?'
    'Check.'
    'Uh- Dragons?' Tuffnut butted in and pointing to Hookfang. The red-orange Monstrous Nightmare was chasing a couple of Terrible Terrors above the arena and completely ignoring his Rider's yells to 'come back right now, you stupid lizard!'
    The twins zippleback, Barf and Belch, head butted each other and went out to join the chase. Ruffnut and Tuffnut yelled in delight and ran out to chase Zippleback, Nightmare and Terrors all at once. 
    'Oh, Gods,' Hiccup muttered, shaking his brown, shaggy haired head in despair. 
    'This may take a while,' Astrid observed from beside him. 
    'Yeah,' Hiccup took a deep breath, ready to yell at them to all calm down, but Toothless beat him to it. The Night Fury's ear splittingingly loud roar grabbed everyone's attention, making them focus on him alone. Hookfang, Barf and Belch and the twins came scurrying back in with their heads lowered, while the Terrors scarpered. 
    'Thanks, bud,' Hiccup gave the Alpha an appreciative nod. 'Right, now are we ready?' Everyone nodded. 'Good. Let's move out, gang.'
    Riders mounted on dragons, they took off and headed west, the midday, summer sun beating down on them. The wind whipped at the Vikings hair and clothes, chilling them but at the same time exhilarating them. The dragons dipped and dived, squawked and growled in high spirits. The overall mood was content, with an underlying current of worry. But as they flew, both dragons and riders began to enjoy the flight. 

***

That was, until hours later. The dragons wings were sore and aching, and their riders were stiff from sitting in the same place for so long. 
    At long last an outcropping of rock came into view, a very, very small island. They set down gratefully and immediately sprawled out on the rock, dragons and riders alike. Astrid's Deadly Nadder, Stormfly, soon found a small melt water pool and they took long drinks and filled their water skins up. After half an hour though, Hiccup, as always, got restless and said they should continue on their way. With much groaning and growling they did, flying for another hour without seeing anything but sea and wispy white cloud. 
    But then they saw something through the cloud that made them all gasp. 
    A sinkhole was an understatement, a massive one. The chasm that filled their vision was the size of Berk at least. Waterfalls raged down its sides, throwing up spray so dense that it was impossible to see inside. Rainbows danced everywhere, small and large, sparkling, shimmering ones. The sound, even from such a distance, was incredible. It roared like a hundred, no, a thousand dragons shrieking in unison. 
    'There!' Snotlout yelled, pointing to their left. About a mile away was a single ship, with dragon killing scenes upon its sails and spikes jutting from its sides. It was sailing directly towards the chasm, waves smashing themselves into white froth on its hull. But the thing that most angered and frightened the Dragon Riders was that there were dragons chained to it all the way round. And they appeared to be pulling the ship onwards. 
    Hiccup immediately went into tactics mode. 'Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff, we need some explosions. Fishlegs, free the dragons. Me and Astrid will take out the crossbows. Everyone good?'
    'Got it,' they all chorused. 
    'Great.'
    The twins and Snotlout charged first, shouting out their respective battle cries and causing mayhem aboard the ship. Then Astrid and Stormfly dove down and took out two crossbows in one swoop. Fishlegs was already away, Meatlug melted the metal with her hot blast. Now for the Night Fury. 
    'Lets go, bud.' Dragon and Rider dove as one, Toothless's famous shriek growing louder as they closed in on their target. As they sped past almost to quick to see a bright blue blast struck the ship and set it swaying. Up they went, flipping over and plummeting back down for another strike, but a high pitched scream stopped them. Fishlegs and Meatlug were being chased by a now unchained Deathgripper, barely avoiding its poison green blasts. 
    Toothless soared up and sent a plasma blast whizzing between Meatlug and the Deathgripper. The spider like dragon whirled around with a blast of fire, it's small yellow eyes focusing on the Night Fury. On its head, there was a strange contraption with little bottles of green liquid stuck in it. 
    Suddenly there was another dragon, a Woolly Howl with a similar contraption on its head, behind them. Then there was a Grim Gnasher and a Scuttleclaw, one above and one to the side. They had surrounded the Fury and his rider. 
    Toothless roared his Alpha roar but, when that made no difference, he folded his wings and dropped, gronckle style. The pack of dragons followed, eyes intent on their pray, wings tight to their bodies. As they neared the water Toothless snapped his wings open with a thwump and looped up so he was above the dragons. The Deathgripper smashed into the ocean first, followed by the Woolly and Gnasher. The Scuttleclaw saw and managed to only brush the sea with its claws before it was circling back up. With wild flapping and growls, the three dragons burst up from the water, wings dripping and fire licking from their jaws. Hiccup sensed his fellow riders gather silently around him, ready to fight with tooth, claw and axe. 
    A strange sound echoed over the sea, a mix between a horn and a Bewilderbeasts rattling control. The four dragons turned sharply in midair and soared towards the location of the sound and, following their flight path, the Vikings saw a fleet of ships silhouetted against the evening sky. It was quite a distance away, but still they could see the that the sails were down, so the ships must have been at anchor. 
    'Oh. My. Thor,' Fishlegs breathed, voicing what they were all thinking. 
    'What was that stuff in the bottles?' Astrid wondered out loud. 
    'Whatever it was, I want some,' Tuffnut said excitedly. 
    Ruffnut caught her brother's eagerness. 'Oh yeah, imagine what we could do with a whole army of them dragons.'
    'Ultimate destruction.' 
    'And you two muttonheads would probably be the first ones caught in the firing line of an army of crazed dragons,' Snotlout shouted down from Hookfang's back. 
    Hiccup ignored their banter, instead focusing on the ship below them. Toothless's blast had ripped a hole in starboard side, and now the wooden vessel was slowly sinking into the dark blue waves. The strange thing was, there was no people, it looked as if the fleet of ships in the distance had sent out a test boat to see if there were dragons around and see what the crazed dragons would do if they met any. It was all very strange and needed time to put thought to, and some peace from five yelling Vikings.  
    'Ok guys,' the Chief broke into the shouting contest. 'We're heading into the chasm. Please do not shout, we don't know what lies in there. Stick together and no blasting anything without my consent,' here he looked meaningfully at the twins, who sniggered, and Snotlout, who suddenly became interested in his nails. 'Is that clear?'
    Affirmative noises followed. 'Let's go.' 
    With a last look at the ships, they dove into the chasm, the sound of the waterfalls deafening, and disappeared into the rainbowed mist.

1350 words :D