Ann's POV
I woke up to the sound of silence around me. No Viggo, no Riders to disturb me. Gods, how much I wish the Riders would let Viggo be here with me, but no, they had to question Viggo all night. As tired as I still was, I decided it was time to get out of bed and take some breakfast. I have to admit that Heather's cooking is not that bad.
As I was having my breakfast, Viggo came walking up to me when he got out of his interrogation. "Good morning. Have you been sleeping well?" He kissed my cheek as he stood behind me and stole a little piece of my bread. "Yes, pretty good, but you weren't with me when I woke up..." I sounded a little depressed.
Viggo came sitting next to me and held my chin so that he could face me. "Hiccup had to know everything I know about Ryker's plans. Right now, they are our only hope in stopping him and take back what is rightfully ours." He stood up and walked outside.
Toothless was laying on the floor when Viggo stepped outside. The dragon immediately got up and kept a close eye on my love. Sinking deep into thoughts, I noticed Viggo started pacing around on the floor outside. The Riders had collected around the table in the clubhouse.
They all looked at how Viggo was pacing outside while they spoke with each other. "I don't trust the guy." Astrid spoke up to break the silence. "You know, he'd actually be pretty fun to hang with. I mean, if he weren't trying to kill us all the time." The twin boy reacted to Astrid. The twin girl agreed again with her brother.
"You gotta love the way he talk." She said a bit laughy and imitated my husband in the worst way possible. "Hiccup, I'm afraid our time together must come to an end. I must now kill you, if you have no further objections." "Like he's gonna have objections. And then I'll go: all of your Dragon Riders must also go. With my sincerest apologies."
That was by far the worst imitation I had ever witnessed. I literally face palmed and shook my head in front of everyone as I sat on the chair at the table. The Riders discussed more things, but turned out they didn't trust me and Viggo. Hiccup asked us to follow him and Astrid.
We walked to the stables where Hiccup and Astrid let me walk in, but pushed Viggo in. "Hiccup, you must reconsider." They closed the door with a firm thud. I stood behind Viggo who tried to convince the Riders to let us out of here. "Viggo, I'm sorry, but there is just too much bad blood for us to trust that you'll do anything but try to... well, you know." Hiccup answered to him.
"And the Dragon Eye's return? It did nothing to assuage your concerns?" Viggo held on to the wooden cage bars and stuck his head out to face Hiccup a bit closer. Astrid scoffed at him about it. "Not enough." She simply retorted. "Ryker will attack this island with my Shellfire dragon. I'm afraid he won't stop until all of you are... well, you know." Viggo copied Hiccup. "That's encouraging as always, Viggo." Hiccup put up a non-impressed face. Viggo immediately took a hold of that mood.
"You see that's just it! I could be of considerable assistance in helping you defend your home, if you would allow me." He emphasized on the last part of his sentence. "Viggo knows his brother better than anyone else. He is the only one who can see through Ryker in an instant. Viggo will have great plans to defeat Ryker and have all of us alive." I said before Astrid replied. "We'll take that under advisement."
Then the twins came running in. Tuffnut blabbered something and Hiccup had to as Ruffnut for translation. "Dragon Hunters. Multiple ships, headed this way." "You know, we didn't want to bum you out with all the deadly disease and everything. But we figured, is it really our place to deny you the right to die during battle instead?" Tuffnut loudly whispered to the two lovers. "What in the name of Thor are you two talking about?" Astrid asked them as she and Hiccup made their way to their dragons.
The twins were talking dumb stuff before Hiccup gave them one last thing to do. "Just make sure they don't try to escape." "We got this my pale, weak, ailing friend." Tuffnut said as they took to the air. "Poor little guy. Keeping that stiff upper lip must be such a struggle." Ruffnut said before they turned to us and Tuffnut spoke some more nonsense. "So Viggo, Viggster, can we bounce something off you?"
"You mean you will need my service and advisement?" Viggo kept his composure straight as always. "Yes, we need you to judge some of our ideas for a catchphrase." Tuff got enthusiastic. "Well then, let me hear it." Tuffnut started in a confusing way. "You gotta be an ace with the mace or a talon won't go a gallon! Wait, what? Is that even a rhyme? One rhyme at a time." "Hmm... I don't think that's the one. Do you have more?" "Yes, we do!" Ruffnut walked up with a pointed finger to us. "So what do ya say Viggo, Viggster? We gonna send your bro down the flow." "That is a bit harsh, don't you think?"
"Okay, how about this one?" Tuffnut happily jumped around in front of him. "Ugh..." I scuffed out in annoyance. Viggo heard me and rolled his eyes to me for a small moment. Tuffnut continued as Viggo changed attention for the moment. "There is no crying in Maces and Talons." Viggo stroke through his beard as he 'thought' about it for a moment.
After a few seconds, he gave the twins his judgement. "You know what? I actually like it." "YES!" "Yay, woohoo!" The twins shouted out in cheers as they ran out of the stables with arms raised and their hands were folded into fists. I stood up and walked up to Viggo's back. "You didn't like any of them, did you?" I asked him. He turned to me. "It was awful." I laughed a bit and closed the distance between us.
I held my arms around his shoulders and he held his hands on my waist again. "What do you think they will do to us?" "They will most surely come back for more answers, which I can't give them anymore. But as the Riders might be preparing themselves, we might as well do the same." Viggo stared in my eyes. "What do you mean?" "What I mean is, Ryker will arrive here tomorrow. There is not much we can do, but mentally prepare for him to get here." Viggo held me in his arms and we sat down against the walls. We talked through the night and fell asleep as the moon shone through the cell bars.
The morning started quite abrupt. Me and Viggo were still sleeping when I heard Snotlout yell out a warning. "Incoming!" An explosion was heard that got both me and Viggo startled awake. We got up in the cell and listened how the fire balls exploded inside the base barriers.
Soon, one fire ball landed not far from the stables. Viggo grabbed to the doors and watched the event going on outside. "Fools." "Viggo!" I got behind him and held on to him in fear. "I know. This is just the initial attack. We have to wait this out and then Ryker will return. This is a warning to deliver me to him or else he will unleash all wrath upon us all." He held me close again as we watched fire ball after fire ball fall down on the base.
After all was done, Snotlout was arriving in the stables to see if we were okay. "Hey! You two love birdies are okay?" "Will you stop calling us like that? And yes, we're fine." Viggo answered to him pretty much annoyed. "But, can we go to use the facilities? I really have to go, the baby is not helping with that either." "But you already went twice in an hour this morning!" Snotlout shouted to me. "That's because I'm carrying a baby! It is pushing on my bladder. Ow Gods, just let me go!" My bladder was about to explode, luckily Snotlout let us out to go anyway.
As we had done our business, we joined the Riders discussing about the approach to Ryker. We stepped in and Viggo spoke up as he stood behind Snotlout. The boy probably crapped his pants once he found out my dear husband was behind him, his body stiffing up was hilarious to see.
"I hate to be the one to say 'I told you so', but..." "How did you get out?!" Hiccup was so confused to see us out of the cell, but I felt good to stretch the legs. Viggo gladly held on to Snotlout with an arm around the shoulders. The boy stiffened up even more. "My friend Snotlout was good enough to allow us to use the facilities." Viggo said proudly and Hiccup was so not amused by it. "Ow, he did, did he?" Snotlout walked up to Hiccup as he made up an excuse.
"What? He scares me. And besides, when you gotta go, you gotta go and who knows that better than me?" "Hiccup, you must allow me to assist you for the sake of us all. The Shellfire range is over a mile. Ryker is using ships, my ships to be exact, to protect it." Viggo warned Hiccup again, but he didn't want to know a single thing about it again.
Astrid decided it had been time for them to take action once more, so Hiccup, the twins, Astrid and Fishlegs mounted their dragons and went to fight Ryker once more. "What about me?" Snotlout asked pretty baffled. "Just look after your new best friends there." Hiccup gestured to Viggo and me. "Where's the fun in that?!" "It's not supposed to be fun." Hiccup was walking away, but he got back to us. "And I don't care how scary he is, do not let them out of your sight." He ran off and Snotlout probably had enough of us as more fire balls hit the clubhouse.
Viggo's POV
"Viggo." Ann got to me pretty scared as the balls kept on coming in on us and exploded on the clubhouse. I held her close to comfort her as much as I could, but she was too terrified to think of anything else. And I won't blame her. I was probably as scared as she was that Ryker would find me here and kill me, but I was hiding my emotions again to make sure she would feel better.
Snotlout, however, didn't give us much time to get over the fears as he forced us to go back to the stables. He pushed Ann pretty hard sometimes, causing her to scream out of pain from her back. I growled more than once to Snotlout, causing him to freeze in his actions. His face was priceless more than once as well.
When we got to the stables again, we were put into the same cell as we had spent the night in. It was not so bad, but it became worse when he left us. He was supposed to guard us. "He was supposed to keep an eye on us, not leave us in this cell again." Ann grunted at me. "I know, he is not very mercurial."
When we were alone once again, it was probably when Ryker decided to fire once more. The fire balls came in more ferocious and many more than the first attack on us. The balls landed at the entrance of the stables as well as on the roof. Flames and smoke were spreading through the room.
Right now, fear and desperation crawled up to me and so to Ann. She got up to me and coughed badly due to the smoke as it was spreading fast through the whole room. I, too, now struggled to breathe and the flames were just getting too close. I held on to the cell door and tried to break it open, but it was locked tight. My only hope was that Snotlout would hear me scream for help. "Snotlout, release us immediately." I looked around the room as the roof was about to fall down, but no one came to rescue us. "Snotlout? Snotlout!"
I kept on pulling on the door, but it made no move to get it loose. Ann was coughing and on her knees as the smoke began to take the toll on her. I came next to her, holding my hand on her back. "Ann, stay with me now. Stay with me." I kept on saying to her, but I could see in her eyes she could not hold on anymore. She collapsed in my arms and remained unconscious for the rest of our time here. I was not sure we would get out and live another day.
I laid Ann on her back so she wouldn't crush our little one and got back to the doors to check if someone would come back for us, but with every second, and as the fires kept on spreading, my hopes began to sink into my boots. Ann was out now and I was on the verge of collapsing myself as well. I coughed as the smoke entered my lungs and the burning feeling inside them is something that is just indescribable. Luckily, I saw a shadow approaching from the outside world. It was Hiccup and his dragon, coming to save us.
They ran in and Hiccup unlocked the chain that kept the door sealed tightly. He lend me his shoulder to get out and his dragon grabbed Ann by the shirt and pulled her out to safety as well. "Hiccup, you came all the way back to rescue us. I'm honored." "Yeah, don't be. If I left you here to die, it would make no better than you." Well, thank you for that.
"You'll be glad you returned. I can help, if you will allow me." I tried to catch my breath as I was still worried about Ann as well. Toothless had her dragged out and laid her on the floor for her to regain consciousness. I cared over her immediately as I got the chance but Hiccup kept on talking to me, seeming that he didn't want my help still. Still he got on his dragon.
"How? How are you gonna help?" "I can advise you in defeating my brother and stopping the Shellfire." "You got that all figured out, do ya?" "As luck would have it, I do." He had to think about what I said as he reached his hand out for me. "But, what about..." "Toothless will carry her with us, don't worry." The dragon flew up and lifted Ann of the ground in its claws. Hopefully she will be fine.
We arrived at the arena where some of the Riders had taken care of my beautiful blossom, while I discussed plans with Hiccup. As we spoke, Ann had woken up, but felt miserable due to the smoke she breathed in.
The annoying boy that kept us in the cell tried to talk his way out of the situation and lied to Hiccup about what had happened. I just stood there with my arms crossed and didn't believe anything the boy had to say. I would explain that to Hiccup sooner or later. Astrid joined that boy's side, as usual, and was very sceptical about my intentions to defeat my brother and save all our lives.
After a quick discussion, Hiccup wanted me to join him to fly and find a way to stop the Shellfire. We jumped on his dragon and as Toothless was ready to fly off, I quickly turned around to face Astrid once again. Even though, I wasn't very pleased with her now, I had to ask her something important. "Astrid, please make sure Ann will be fine." She nodded to me and Toothless flew off to the sky.
"You know? There's word of a tournament. To be hosted by the Tribe of the Whispering Trees." I began to break the silence. We had been flying for like ten minutes now and no word had been said in the meantime.
"Yeah, is that right?" Hiccup sounded really bored towards me. "Maces and Talons?" I continued anyway. "The winner, apparently, receives a life-size game set, made of solid gold." "Ow, lucky him." "Poor, dear Hiccup. Relationships can be complicated, am I right?" He didn't give me an answer, but I knew he felt something for the girl. "I know what it feels like to be in your situation." "You do, huh?" He got more annoyed with me with everything I said. Good for him.
"Absolutely. To be in love with the girl who is your partner in battle? I know how hard it can be. You have to balance everything to protect those you love most. It can certainly cloud the mind, impair judgement. Makes even the simplest decisions vexing." That surely had the boy onto the wrong foot.
"You know what's 'vexing', Viggo? It's why you're rambling on trying to get inside my head. I would think, by now, you'd have given up. You see, I'm focused, I'm clear, decisive. What I am not, is your friend, your ally, your Maces and Talons buddy, okay? So let's leave our personal lives out of this and get down to business." Hiccup scolded out to me, but I told him that I just wanted to help. "If you wanna help, then why don't you tell me where we're going and what we're doing?" He looked down to the ocean beneath us.
I scanned it too to see if we had arrived on the right place. "Stop dragon!" The Night Fury growled at me, but then Hiccup stopped his dragon mid-flight and left us hovering above the ocean surface. "What's going on? There's nothing out here but empty ocean." He asked me unsettled. I drew a dagger and held it high above my head, ready to strike when I have to. "Yes. So it would appear."
"I wouldn't do that if I were you." "Astrid." She came flying behind me and busted me in my plans. I now have to adjust to that.
While I was in a conversation with Astrid, Hiccup flipped about the dagger I still held in my hand and turned it over so it would seem that I meant no harm. "I'm afraid you may have misinterpreted the situation." "No, I think I've interpreted it pretty well. Now, drop it." The Nadder was ready to shoot me off and let me plummet into the ocean, but it tried to explain to her nonetheless.
"Exactly what I planned all along." She didn't believe me however, like she never did. "Give us a moment, Astrid, and all will be revealed. I assure you." I dropped the dagger into the water and not so long after, the water began to get wild. A hard battle would await us.
The Submarriper got engaged in a fight with the Shellfire and it was a ferocious one. Hiccup was amazed by the effect of the dagger and why they fought. I quickly explained to him and he told Astrid to take their chances now they had them to get past the ships.
As the battle was ongoing, Hiccup had to drop me off on the beach. We landed and I hopped off, but before he left, I spoke to Hiccup once last time. "We may be adversaries, Hiccup, but my respect for you is beyond I could possibly put into words." He left and I had only one more thing to do.
Ann's POV
I slowly woke up with a bad feeling in my lungs. They burned and the feeling had spread all over my body. The Riders had me lifted up and got me into a chair to sit down and rest for as much as possible. "Ann, we know you are not feeling well, but Hiccup needs help." Astrid came to me, but I saw she didn't trust me nor Viggo for one bit. "Is this because of your distrust to us?" "No, it is because Hiccup and Viggo are out there alone and they are probably against Ryker now. We have to go. You are staying here." With that, all the Riders went to their dragons, mounted up and flew off.
At that moment, I heard a familiar squawk not far from here. I got up and looked outside so I could see what it was that was lurking out there. "Luna!" She had been looking for me from the moment we had been separated. "I was so worried about you, girl. Are you alright?" I asked her and she happily answered to me with another loud squawk. "Okay, let's go find Viggo and help him." I jumped on her back and we flew off.
The moment we found Viggo was one in which I let out a big sigh of relieve. He was on the back of Toothless and in battle against Ryker. The giant beast Ryker had in control fired a blast towards one of the ships and completely destroyed it. But was that another dragon fighting it?
I took a closer look at it and it was a dragon I have seen before. The Submarriper! It was fighting the Shellfire. This was the best moment for me to strike as well. "Let's go for the element of surprise, shall we girl?"
Luna dived down and blasted close to where Ryker stood. He was surely angry with me now, but I couldn't care less. "That's for your betrayal on us!" I yelled at him as we made our way out of there. Unfortunately, I had to retreat shortly after that attack as my back started to ache again.
We flew back to the island that was close by and saw Viggo standing there. "Viggo!" He turned to me and Luna landed next to him. "What are you doing here?" He asked me. "I helped as much as I could. What are you doing here?" "We have to get into the air and take one of the Riders for my last plan." "And that is?" "You'll see." He said to me as he mounted Luna and sat behind me. We flew up and, soon enough, we found Astrid flying through the air. Viggo jumped off Luna once we were close enough and took her hostage.
"You are going to cooperate with me now, or I shall run that axe of yours through your own throat." Viggo threated her. "Ugh..." "Let's go, Ann." Astrid's dragon made her way to the volcano and Luna followed. I wasn't sure whether this was going to work, but I stayed as close to Viggo as I could.
As we flew, we could see the Shellfire being attacked from under the belly and was pushed out of the water. The ship got loose from the dragon's back and Ryker, who still standing on the ship, was finding his end in the water.
As the giant ship sank towards the bottom of the ocean and the Submarriper created another vortex, I knew that the man I once called my brother found his death in a seaman's grave. It was shocking to see and heart-breaking to realize that my support in tough times was gone. Memories quickly flashed through my mind as we made our way to the volcano. "Rest in peace, Ryker." I whispered.
We flew up to the volcano and saw how Hiccup quickly talked to Fishlegs and sent him on his way. "This nightmare looks like is finally over." "Are you sure about that, Hiccup?" Astrid's Nadder landed close by Hiccup and Toothless and I in between all of them while Viggo had the axe against Astrid's throat. I could see the fury grow in Hiccup as well as Toothless.
"Viggo. Well, let me guess. You want the Dragon Eye in exchange for Astrid." "Ow, it sounds so much colder when you say it like that. But yes." Hiccup's face turned even more harsh with every word Viggo spoke.
"While I do appreciate your assistance in putting my brother back in his rightful place, I must insist that you return it to where it belongs. With me." He held the axe even tighter on her throat while Hiccup grabbed the Dragon Eye. Hiccup thought about it and I could see the hostility grow in Viggo's eyes. This was not good.
Astrid tried to sacrifice her own life to have Hiccup save the Dragon Eye instead of giving it to my love. "Hiccup, don't even think about it." "Come now." Viggo forced Hiccup to make the final decision. "Are you really going to sacrifice your future? All the wonderful years you have ahead of you for that?" With other words, Hiccup had to give the Dragon Eye to Viggo or else Astrid wouldn't stand a chance.
She shook her head to Hiccup who gave one last glare to the object before he spoke up again. I could feel something bad was coming. "Wow, Viggo. Well, if you put it that way. No, I'm not!" He threw the Dragon Eye to the edge of the volcano and Viggo tried to grab it, but it was too late. At the edge of the volcano, the Eye went out of sight and Viggo just stared down to see his ancient tribe's object fall to its final home. The scolding lava.
Viggo turned around in the angriest mood I have ever seen him. He was ready to kill Hiccup on the spot. Ready to march to the boy, my dear husband realized the ground beneath his feet was crumbling away. I know that feeling all too well and for that I screamed my heart out. "Viggo, get out of there! The ground is unstable!"
I jumped off of Luna and ran as fast as I could to save him. His last look broke my heart in more pieces than it already was. Fear was so visible in his eyes that it tore me apart to see him plummet to his death as well. "AH! Hiccup!" He screamed.
I dived down to grab Viggo's hand. He looked up to see me struggle to hold on to him. "Ann..." He didn't believe I tried this with an unborn child carrying around. Hiccup got next to me and reached out for his hand too. "Viggo, grab my hand!" Viggo stretched out, but couldn't reach for Hiccup's hand.
Then I realized our hands had started to sweat, causing to lose grip. "You're slipping away!" Viggo looked me in the eyes and told me one last thing before I lost him. "Take care of our little one. I love you." I couldn't bear seeing him fall down and couldn't stop myself from screaming and crying out for him. "VIGGO! NO, VIGGO!!!"
I lost sight of him when I realized our love was over. Anger now took over as I stood up and faced Hiccup. "You killed him! This is not the last you have seen of me, Hiccup Haddock. Mark my words!" I ran off to look for Luna and see if she was nearby. This was my only chance to get out and go back to my dad.