"War..." Ophelia murmured to the wind, "Oh, Odin, it's really begun, hasn't it?" She didn't expect an answer, but there was a warm figure by her shoulder and when she turned, she saw Calder stoically standing beside her.
"It has." He agreed with a solemn nod, "We're all ready to go." He sighed, pressing his fingers to his sockets with a long exhale.
"If I had gotten there sooner..." Ophelia's lips were dry, her hands shaking, "If I'd read those signs better."
"No." Calder said firmly, "It's not your fault. It's not your fault at all." He said, and although he didn't specify, the darkened look that he turned on his brother now sporting a shiner from Gustav said it all.
"He admitted it was his." Ophelia's shoulders slumped weakly.
"Begging all of us to help for his mistake." Calder's lips pulled into a scowl, "Not that we wouldn't. Jor is one of us, but Odin-,"
"It was still partially my fault too." Ophelia insisted. Calder gave her a peculiar look, and then his expression softened.
"If that's what you claim, I'm just as guilty. I asked you to follow without interference." He pointed out. Ophelia gave a dry scoff.
"You're still under the impression I listen to your orders, aren't you." She said, raising an eyebrow, "Let's go. Gustav looks impatient and any moment we take more could be another moment she's tortured."
Calder gave a deep flinch, and looked out to where she was looking. "Yes, it's now a war. And we might have been foolish enough to look for it." He said as he walked back to the main loading area.
"If we all survive," Lyal chuckled, hearing Calder's thoughts, "We'll be the wisest Vikings around. Would give going on a mission to find your enemies before they reach you one star for entertainment. Defiantly advise against."
"All you all do is talk!" Gustav snapped, bringing his dragon up into the air, shouted down, "Do none of you care about Jor at all?"
"I agree," Ull said, pulling his dragon up, "I got her into this mess, I need to get her out, but I can't do alone. We need to go, guys." There was a frantic tone to his voice, a need for a rush that scared Ophelia.
"You're the one that got her into this mess in the first place, you-,"
"Gustav!" Calder said coolly, "Name-calling won't help. But you're both right. We should go." He said, and nodded and everyone brought their dragons into the air with a swift practice they'd all become used to.
The flight there was filled with a deep anxiety that twirled and twisted in Ophelia's stomach, like a ball of yarn that was impossible to untangle, tied around itself so many times that there was no end or beginning to it. The thought of Jor bleeding somewhere, or already dead, wouldn't leave her mind. She tried to console herself that this was the worst-case scenario, but even that was hard to believe.
There were worst things than death.
They touched down on the far side of the island where Ophelia had first landed Achilles. By the time it took back and forth to the island, the day had cooled and the sky had turned a shade of darkness like black ink spilled across a piece of paper. There were only a few flecked stars in the sky, not even a constellation recognizable under the heavy billowing clouds that shaded the moon.
"It's perfect for an ambush." Randolph said with a nod to the sky, "Gloomy, but perfect. They won't see us."
"Or we won't see them." Sigrid pointed out, and beside them, Fulla shivered. It sometimes scared Ophelia to realize internally how young they all truly were, and one of them could die tonight. Just like that, a snap of the fingers.
Her fears must have been clearly shown on her face because Calder gave her a reassuring nod, and cleared his throat. "You're all incredible brave. Tonight will be remembered, and so will all of you."
"It sounds like a goodbye." Lyal said softly, staring up at his friend with questioning eyes.
"It's a precaution." Calder said matter-o-factly, "Anything could happen. Preferably, we all walk out alive with at least one group of our enemies killed, and hopefully a hostage to question more about. Worst case..."
His grim expression made Lyal drop back uncertainty, and Ophelia grasped herself around her shoulders to keep from shivering herself.
There was a soft sound of a stick dragging itself through the gritty dirt, and they turned to see Ull working diligently on a picture of the decks.
"I've been here twice," He said when Gustav shot him a nasty glare, "I know the places, I canvassed it first, right?"
"Can we put aside our animosity for a second, Gustav?" Ophelia felt her anger rise irrationally at his face, because Ull was honestly doing all he could to help, "You, and me, all need to know this."
Gustav snapped his head away from both of them, stepping the farthest away so he could only just barley see the sketching.
"I don't know how many are in there. Not a ton, I think. They were all gone first time around, and today, how many would you say, Ophelia?" He asked, looking to her. Ophelia tugged on a curly strand of hair.
"Twelve." She murmured, "That's how many I saw in the room. Might be more, but the ship wasn't that big and I only heard noise from there."
"Twelve isn't that bad." Sigrid tried to sound brave, "What? Between all of us, a couple men to kill each, minus our hostage? Totally doable." Her quivering tone betrayed her true feelings.
"I say that Lyal, Gustav, Sigrid, and Fulla take the top decks, where we draw out the men first. There will undoubtedly be bigger people protecting underneath which is why me, Calder, Ophelia, and Randolph should all be the extraction team down there. Then, Ophelia will take Jor away from the fight if she's hurt, if not, we fight until they're all dead." Ull said, making lines and dots in the dirt with his stick.
"I should be the one to take her out, rescue her." Gustav growled, "I'm her fiancée."
"And your anger can be used as a better weapon." Ull said, brushing the mud from his fingers.
"You're not our leader. Calder?" Gustav looked at him. Calder seemed momentarily surprised, but took a moment before nodding to Ull's model.
"I think this is reasonable, actually. They're less likely to notice two small girls slipping away than you and Jor." He said, shrugging, "And Ull's messed up big-time, but he does know the ship. And the captains will most likely be down there which is why our best fighters should be on the lower-decks."
Gustav muttered sourly under his breath, but did not argue the subject more. Everyone had suited up before flying, so now that was left was for everyone to take their weapons from their pouches and the ones attacking from the top to make sure their dragons were ready. The silence could be cut with an axe.
It was as if the whole world was holding its breath with them at the moment, the stillness of even the water waiting with them, and no one wanted to break it. Ophelia felt a hand slip into her own.
"If this goes south, I just want you to know I love you, Ophie." Sigrid sniffled, wiping her eyes with her other hand, "You're basically my sister."
"It won't go south." Ophelia said, "We'll have great fun and all give Jor crap at her wedding about marrying Gustav when this is done and over with." She said.
"You sound so confident." Sigrid whimpered, and even with the scar running down her face, she seemed utterly small and child-like.
"I've survived a lot," Ophelia chuckled with a small secretive smile, thinking of the fact she fell through a cave into a different time, "If this were to be the way I'd go, I'd be pretty surprised."
They doubled on the dragons and fly high over the ship. Ophelia looked down, seeing no one on deck, and gave a silent cry of relief. She closed her eyes until the dragon touched down, sliding off of the back, her knife held in front of her as Calder motioned for them to silently pat across the ship. It was dark, and there was one man on duty that was snoring, but the footsteps awakened him. He opened his mouth to say something, the man's eyes flashing with recognition, and with a savagery that Ophelia knew some possessed, and would be needed, but was still unexpected Ull slicked his knife across the man's throat, ending his life in a few simple moments.
Even Calder was staring at him with a mixture of shock and confusion. Ull gave him a shrug back, "Did you want him to alert everyone?" He hissed.
"Well, aren't they going to know we're here in a moment? Draw them out?" Calder said, confused.
"Well, we want to be down there, don't we?" Ull snapped back, climbing down before Calder. There was a brief moment when he looked at Ophelia and faltered.
"Maybe you should stay up here. Two leaders in the same place?" He began weakly.
"No. Jor's my friend. I will get her out of here alive." Ophelia said firmly, going down second before they could argue.
The lower part of the ship was dank and dark, just as she recalled. She saw Ull motioning for her to come with him, and the four pressed themselves into a small utility closet that held nothing of much importance, and Ophelia was pressed up against the door, her eye just at the level of a hole to see outside.
For a couple harsh moments when she only could hear the breath of the boys behind her, she wondered what they were waiting for. Granted, her friends were likely scared out of their minds just like she was.
Just when she was about to turn and ask Calder if there was something they were waiting for, on the up decks, Kottir howled. And not just a meek dragon's roar, but one with all the ferocity of a dragon and a beast rolled into one.
The result was instantaneous. There was commotion on the lower decks within a second, men running around and calling, screaming as they pounded up to the decks where the carnage had just started. Ophelia couldn't count the men running up and down, nor could she think about the shrieks and the sounds of cannons, she just had to move and she pushed out of the closet into a one-on-one combat with one of the men she'd seen in the room.
No, she'd been wrong moments before.
This, this moment here, was when war had begun.
"Ophelia!" She heard Ull calling from the other side of the room where the ladder ended, "Over in here!" He said, and she felt another body next to her.
"Go get Jor," Calder was already bloodied, "I'll hold the rest down here off, hopefully find their leader." He snarled, his own knife replacing her own. She nodded swiftly, ducking out and catching up.
"She's through here." The absolute confidence in his voice surprised her.
"How do you know?" She frowned.
"I canvassed the ship. There's only one reasonable place to keep prisoners." He said, "We don't' have time for questions. These guys are really fighting hard." He said, flicking some blood off his hand. Ophelia nodded in agreement, and was happy to find the barrel room empty. Through there, there was a locked steel door.
"Jor!" Ophelia cried, pressing herself to the metal, "Are you there?"
She listened, trying to stop her heart from overriding what she could hear, until there was a faint moan from inside.
"She's there, Ull!" Ophelia clapped her hands in relief.
"What did I tell you?" Ull had a pleased smirk on his face; "I think I can get it open. I found a key." He said, fishing it out of his pocket.
"That's convenient." Ophelia's eyebrows raised in surprise.
"Well, I killed the guy protecting the key." Ull shrugged, "Potato, tomato, right?"
He worked the key into the door, and Ophelia listened for the little 'click' of the lock opening. As soon as the door swung open, Ophelia skid inside, seeing a small lump on the floor.
"Jor! Hjordis." She hissed, grabbing her friend onto her lap. She was bleeding in multiple places, and when she saw Ophelia's face, her lips opened to a bloody smile.
"I didn't tell them anything," She said proudly, "Nothing at all..." she whispered weakly.
"Can you stand? We're here to kill them all and get you out of here." Ophelia said, and Jor got up, but her legs were uneasy.
"Ophelia..." Her words were slurred, "I need...to tell you something...it's important. It's..."
"Shh...." Ophelia shushed her, "Save your strength. It can wait until we get back."
"No, no." Jor was almost in a drunken-state, her head swinging loosely, and Ophelia uneasily maneuvered her outside, "It's about," She looked seeing Ull, and her face twisted, "Ull."
"Hey, are you okay?" Ull moved forward but for some reason Jor startled back.
"She's really out of it." Ophelia said, feeling her forehead, "I think she's confused."
"I'm not confused!" Jor said, "You need to..." She trailed off, weakened, "Need to..."
"Just rest." Ull said softly, frowning deeply, pained. Ophelia looked up at him.
"It's not all your fault. This wasn't you." She insisted, and Ull gave her a look, but he did not seem convinced. Jor was almost deadweight in her arms, passed out from the exertion to try to tell Ophelia whatever it was she so desperately needed to say. She half-lugged her friend into the other room, and they were almost to the door when Ull grabbed her and Jor behind the barrels where they'd sat before.
Ophelia watched as three men dragged in Randolph and Calder, two she recognized, and one she did not. One she knew she hadn't seen the time previous, and he was holding Calder to the ground, punching him with such force that Ophelia winced violently at each one.
"Shit, Gannard has Calder." Ull said almost to himself, and Ophelia felt something was wrong in her mind. It took her a moment.
"How do you know his name?" She asked, frowning.
"What?" Ull seemed to almost have forgotten Ophelia was sitting next to him, "Oh, I heard it yesterday. In the room, someone must have said it," He said, dismissing it.
No! Ophelia's brain screamed, as it scrambled to connect dots that seemed totally unrelated, 'Gannard' wasn't there yesterday, you didn't see him or hear his name!
Her brain than threw her back to a memory that happened so long ago and seemed so insignificant, something that had happened just a day after they'd left. Jor had told her Ull had a new connection line, but to whom she did know and what kind of line was even stranger to her then. It was an enigma, that Ull had a line that was totally unexpected, but now...
"No..." She repeated out-lout, causing Ull to glance over at her casually.
Ophelia felt her blood run cold.
"You brought us here." She whispered in absolute horror.
"Of course I did, to save Jor." Ull was staring at her with a mixture of worry and confusion, "Ophelia are you okay?"
She felt sickened; absolutely ready to vomit. The way there'd always been something funny about how he called Unn 'dad', as if he was worthy of being a father still. The connection. Jor's resoluteness on getting closer to him, she must have figured it out, or had ideas. How he'd brought the strongest and the leaders down here, a place with no escape. How he knew the boat so well and the names of people that were not there yesterday. And now Ophelia saw that it wasn't recognition of enemies in that watchman's eyes up there, but of Ull.
They'd all walked right into the trap.
"Get away from me." Ophelia shuffled back, pressing herself to the wall, "You monster."
Ull stared at her calmly, "Ophelia, I think all this fighting has made you confused too. I'm your friend."
"No, no you're not." She whispered, feeling her hands sweat, for she didn't know how this was going to end up, "You're-," She felt herself hit the back of something else. She looked up to see a strong figure that she recognized from her father's drawings.
Unn.
"Good work son," Unn had a low, gravely voice as he grabbed Ophelia, hoisting her up, "Hiccup's daughter, how delightful."
In that moment, up until that point, Ophelia's mind had wanted to believe desperately her connection was just shit and she had jumped to conclusions and they'd all laugh about it when they were old and gray but now, great Odin, now? It was all confirmed, all of it was true.
Ull had been working against them from the very start. That's what Jor had been trying to tell her. That's why she'd been afraid of him. Even now, her eyes fluttered weakly as she sagged back against the floor when Ophelia was hoisted into the open. Randolph was sitting on his knees with his head lowered, but he looked up when Ophelia was brought into the dim lighting. When Calder saw her, he began to fight frantically, but to no avail.
"Ull!" Calder spoke up when he saw his younger brother dragging Jor out from behind the barrels, "You need to run now! You can save yourself and Jor. Tell Berk and the island, go!" He said, and strained, "Why aren't you running? Please-," He broke off, his voice choking. Beneath it all, Ophelia knew he loved his brother and to some extent, wanted or needed to trust him like siblings should.
"Calder..." Ophelia felt tears run down her cheeks, too upset to fight them, "Ull betrayed us." She knew that if he hadn't trusted anyone ever, that this would break any chance of him thinking anyone truly ever again, even Ophelia herself. But he had to know. In that moment, Calder frowned, confused, but he was quicker than Ophelia, because it was only moments before his face shifted back into the saddest look of treachery.
"How could you?" He spat in his brother's direction, sadness replaced with rage, "How dare you!"
"I..." Ull began to falter, as if he hadn't expected Calder to be upset, "I found dad." He said, nodding to the man holding Ophelia. Calder jerked back.
"I explained everything to him, he knows we're his true sons." Ull continued, totally oblivious to what he'd done, what this meant, the deep-rooted need to please his father too far planted to uproot now, "He would have never left us if he'd known."
"What?" There was a strangled sound from one of the men, the younger one, holding one of Randolph's arms, and he stepped away warily, "Dad?" He asked, too looking to Unn.
Ophelia knew that Unn had a 'son' that he believed to be his own, but wasn't actually, and he'd take him with, and this must be it. IT seemed he was just as shell-shocked about it as Calder.
"Sorry to break it to you, dude, but your mom had you with another guy." Ull shrugged, looking actually a bit sorry, "You're a bastard kid. We're actually his sons, right Calder." Ull said hopefully, looking at his older brother.
"No." Calder bit out, "I'm not your son. We might share blood, but I am nothing like you!" Unn frowned.
"You get your stubbornness from me, you know." Calder thrashed against Gannard. The fake son was still standing motionless, as if trying to process everything.
"But you raised me. That makes you my father still, doesn't it?" He whispered meekly.
Unn shrugged, "A bastard boy that doesn't even have my blood can't very well take over my tribe. Ull can." He said, waving to Ull, "Or Calder, if he wants."
"The only thing I want to do is personally kill you." Calder said. Unn looked momentarily upset, but then it passed.
"Suit yourself, your brother has chosen." He said, nodding to Ull, and turned, "Execute them all." He said breezily, advancing a step closer and bringing out his blade, pressing it to Ophelia's neck "Him too." He said, nodding to his 'son'.
That's when it happened. A sounding of a sonic boom exploded outside, and Randolph moved. He juts his elbow up into the throat of his captor, and grabbed Calder away and Ophelia too, from Unn's surprised grip. Ophelia felt something greater coming and grabbed Jor trying to tug her away from Ull. She only had moment to take in everything around her when the sonic boom sounded closer to them, this time in the room with a bright flash of light and there was a large presence, it was gone.
And yet, so was Ophelia.
OMPHALOS
Upon the top decks, Sigrid fought against the man holding her hands behind her back, biting her lip to keep from crying out as her wrists were twisted in a way they shouldn't twist.
"Let go of me you thugs! You're disgusting!" Fulla was shouting, kicking backwards and moving like a fish out of water, and even though she was a smaller girl, her thrashing needed two men to keep her still. Gustav was demanding to see Jor, but met with a stony silence. And Lyal...he wasn't doing much of anything.
Sigrid turned to see him breathing unevenly, nose almost touching the deck with a slow, steady dripping of blood from his split lip. The dragons had gone already; their owners told them to flee before they were killed. All of a sudden more men than just twelve had rushed out, and very soon they all realized they were horribly outnumber, but they still fought.
Until Unn came upstairs.
Lyal jerked his head to give Sigrid a hard look; if he was up here, their friends were likely dead. He swallowed thickly and Sigrid couldn't help but start to shake at the sight of him. She'd severely underestimated how seeing the man that had commanded those that had scarred her would affect her; but seeing him now...she swallowed hard, and was sure that everyone could smell her fear.
She flipped her bangs over her scar so that he couldn't see.
"Where's Jor! Where's the girl you took yesterday?" Gustav lunged forward, "Where are my friends?"
"The ones who tried to save her down below?" Unn asked, re-sheathing a sword, "Dead."
Sigrid felt her stomach drop to the bottom of her body, and it pulled her down to her knees.
"No!" Lyal shook his head, eyes widening, "Impossible!"
Unn seemed to hardly notice. "Kill them all too." He said with a small wave of his hand.
"Wait!" Fulla cried out, using the side of her arm to wipe a tear away, "I'm the eldest child of Thuggury. I'm sure I'm...useful, aren't I?" She whispered, and now Unn really looked at her.
"Thuggury you say?" He said, grabbing her chin and jerking it up, "Yes, he did have a daughter. I bet you thank Odin you look more like your mother, don't you?" He asked with a dry laugh and Fulla's eyes flared.
"My father is amazing, you cretin!" She defended hotly.
"And you..." Unn abandoned Fulla and went to Lyal, "You look like Asgar. Spitting image." He said, smiling devilishly. There was a tense moment when Sigrid watched him, saw him deciding if it was worth lying about his heritage, but eventually he gave a long nod.
"These two are useful. Unless the others have something to save them?" He asked, eyeing Sigrid and Gustav. Sigrid's eyes widened, oh lord, this was the end, wasn't it? She was no one special, no royalty in her blood, and no notoriety to her family name. But maybe, since she knew Hiccup and his family so closely-
"Hiccup was my mentor. We're still very close." Gustav piped up swiftly, and Unn regarded him.
"Hiccup, you say?" He said, and Gustav nodded, "Oh, well, that name won't get you far here, son." In one fluid motion, before anyone could react or think about what was happening, Unn's sword came out and stuck itself far into his stomach. The captors let Gustav go as his eyes flickered dimly and he fell to the floor with a solid thud. Sigrid could not help it; she let out a squeak of despair.
"You're next." Unn said, spinning, but Lyal threw himself in front of her.
"She's my wife." He said quickly, shocking Sigrid, "And she's pregnant. They say it's a boy. The heir." Lyal was desperate pulling straws, "You may be savage, but are you going to kill an innocent baby, Unn?" Lyal said.
"Why is she out fighting then?" He eyed her suspiciously. Sigrid found her voice again, although it was raw and strained.
"We all must fight for what we believe in." She whispered hoarsely. Unn still almost looked ready to kill her, until she heard the whisperings from the crew. He sneered, turning sourly.
"Put the three of them in the brig. We sail to Berk." He said, and Sigrid couldn't help but thank all the gods she knew. She looked at Gustav's motionless body as she passed, and maybe she was imagining it, but she thought she saw still the slight rise and fall of his chest.
"And him?" A man asked, nudging Gustav.
"In the ocean." Unn shrugged, but before anyone could move, Fanghook landed on the deck, making soft whimpering noises as it carefully but swiftly took it's owner in it's mouth and flew off. An archer readied his bow, but Unn waved a hand.
"Let it take him back to Hiccup. He'll be dead before they make it halfway there. A little gift for him." He said. Sigrid watched the dragon vanish into the fog.
Please live, she thought silently, I know I never liked him much, but Odin, not like this. Not like this...
On the lower decks the blood spilled was massive. There was the sniggering thought that maybe it was true, maybe her friends were dead. It was an awful thought.
They were thrown all together in a metal box, and when the door shut, the room was pitch black. It was silent for a couple moments, until Fulla's soft cries could be heard on one side.
"Don't cry, you kept us alive." Lyal said, and Sigrid heard shifting to comfort her.
"And my dad's going to have to do something awful to get me back." She sniffled, "Maybe I would have been more useful dead!"
"Nonsense." Sigrid said sharply, breathing through her nose, "We're alive. That's freaking incredible." She paused, "And I have to thank you, Lyal." She was glad the darkness hid her blush.
"Anyone would have done that." Lyal said easily, "Especially after what happened to Gustav..." He trailed off, and it was if all three shuddered at the same time. Sigrid could feel the darkened energy swarming around them, "I didn't even know if it would work. After I said it, I had the awful thought that he'd want to kill the bloodlines and I just made your death a little worse."
"If you'd never spoken, I would have died anyway." Sigrid said, "I owe you something. Anything." She laughed, but it was emotionless.
"Do you think Gustav will really die?" Fulla whispered to the darkness in a pause.
"He looked bad. Unn's the type of guy to know where to shove a knife too, if you know what I mean." Lyal sounded depressed.
"Yeah, he looked awful. Even so, his mom will like having his body back send off properly, instead of the sea taking it with no witnesses." Sigrid felt something resolute gathering in her body, "We have to make sure he is known as a hero. He died a hero, alright, everyone?" She said firmly.
"Of course." Fulla said, and she felt the smaller hand slip into her own, "Everyone else too- Calder, Ull, Jor, Randolph, Ophelia..." By the last name she had broken into tears again. Sigrid felt her own tears on her cheeks, but what she didn't expect was to hear the soft intakes from Lyal.
"Calder was like a brother, man." Lyal's voice was low, full of sorrow, "Randolph too. We were gunna be rulers one day, all of us. We were going to help him get the Lava Lout land back in order. Now I'm all that's left..."
"Do you think this was a mistake?" Sigrid whispered, "It was all al mistake?" The rocking of the boat creaked the floorboards.
"It was always a mistake, but sometimes mistakes can turn beautiful." Lyal said.
"But this..." Sigrid began to say, but could not force herself to finish what he meant, but whispered it over and over in her head until it was screaming.
But this was not one of those times...
OMPHALOS
Gustav returned home first, before anything else happened. Are had successfully shown that a determination mixed with the annoying relentlessness of a twelve-year-old boy even tore down mothers if you tried hard enough. Well, nearly. He still wasn't allowed to fight in the upcoming war, which was like an invisible storm, creeping closer each day but never on the horizon, but he was assigned to be on the lookout at a very safe point on the island.
Through more annoying convincing, he got Rika, Vidkum, and the twins up there was well to keep them company, and also because they'd been laughed at or given a stern talking to when they asked their parents if they could fight to. Well, actually, Rika had to be snuck up there as it was because Elsa was unusually protective over his elder sister, more so than Are could ever recall. It was odd, especially because (and he'd never admit it to any of his friends!) but she seemed more prepared to fight off someone than Are did.
"Look!" Brinja punched Vidkum awake, for it was the early hours of the morning, and Are shot up, hoping no one noticed he'd fallen asleep, "What's that?"
"A dragon, I think." Rika was up at once, pressing herself nearly over the railing, "But no dragons are out tonight, not around here at least. We're all on the island?" She turned, confused.
"It might be my sister!" Vidkum jumped up, and then his whole body deflated, "There's only...one..."
The tone to his voice shook Are to the core, and he saw the dragon coming in to the coast fast, and turned to run down the stairs, taking it two steps at a time. When he reached the bottom, he watched the dragon fly uneasily to the ground, something dangling uselessly in the jaws.
"Gustav!" Are recognized as his dragon softly placed him on the ground, "Vidkum, get my dad and mom. Rika, you'd better get back up there before they see you, and take one of the twins. This might just be a distraction for later." He said, and naturally, people fell into place around him.
It wasn't long before he looked over the hills to see his dad running as fast as he could with his bad leg, and his mother following. She made it there faster, gasping as she tore away his shirt to see the sword sticking from his abdomen, leaving a nasty wound around it.
"Oh, Odin..." She whispered, and Hiccup knelt beside her.
"It just...the dragon came flying in! He's alone, I think." Elsa let out a small intake of breath, biting her lip hard.
"It could be nothing, Elsa." Hiccup said to her softly, his eyebrows kitting, "Maybe they sent him back to us so he can be okay. Maybe he knows something."
"But send him back without Hjordis?" Elsa pointed out, rubbing her arms, "Hiccup..." Her voice was strained, broken.
"Is he alive?" Tyrah poked her head around, "He looks dead."
"He's not quite dead, but almost. I think Fanghook flew as fast as he could, couldn't you boy?" Hiccup took a moment to rub the dragon's nuzzle softly, "We don't have a lot of time though." He agreed, grunting as he lifted up Gustav's body, "Good job, Are. You're doing a great job on look-out." He added, and Are's chest inflated with pride.
"Can we help?" Vidkum shifted around Elsa as she stood.
"You can go back up. I don't want anyone getting in the way. It's very delicate, dear." Elsa said, and Vidkum nodded, seemingly okay with the instruction.
Back up in the lookout, Rika turned, gnawing her hair nervously.
"He's going to be okay, right?" She asked. Are shrugged.
"He looked pretty gone to me, but hey, if mom and dad want to take time to save him, then that's their-," He broke off as he realize that everyone's attention had swiveled back to the sea. At first he was miffed, thinking they were just being rude, but then a gust of wind blew his way, and the smell of the land burning invaded his nostrils.
"Look..." Tyrah was weakly pointing out to the sea.
"It can't be morning yet," Rika said frowning, checking her astrology books, "No...can't be the sun..." She muttered to herself.
"It's not." Are felt his throat tighten with an awful revelation, "It's a fire. They're burning down Barbaric Archipelago as they come for us. It's finally here, guys, war is finally here."
OMPHALOS
Ophelia felt herself come back into being with a burst of brightness like that she left in. She opened her eyes with a snap of realization, and everything was white in her sight of vision. Slowly, ever so slowly, she felt her limbs come back to her with a clicking of relief at each one as the feeling of pins and needles scurried over her body parts.
She was lying painfully, facing upward, and the coldness that gushed over her was not just the moment of waking after almost dying it. It was the temperature of the place she was in. She tried to move a leg, but felt the sting of an open wound, and when Ophelia's fingers went to touch the underside of her leg, it came back red.
Cautiously, Ophelia sat up and her breath caught in her throat.
"No way..."