The Gray Area (2/2) - A Viggo Love Story

2

• • •

After an hour or so of flying, the three dragons arrived at Dragon's Edge. Landing on the shore, Nightshade and Lilith exchanged a look of recognition, recalling the time they'd spent on this island before. Grimtalon, however hissed, not liking the looks of all of the man-made structures around. After Sessa and Viggo hopped off of the Devilish Dervish, Nightshade gave her brother a low grumbling growl as if to tell him not to worry.

Sessa frowned at the large dragon and reached out to hold his head gently. "Humans haven't been kind to you in the past, have they," she observed. Grimtalon closed his eyes and nuzzled the woman. Hugging his large head, Sessa looked up at the abandoned outpost. No one had been here for four months.

"I can't say I haven't missed this place," Viggo sighed. He walked over to Sessa and put a loving arm around her waist as he, too, took in the view. There was a smile of memory on his lips as his gaze lingered on the shore where he and Sessa shared their first kiss.

Sessa looked to her side and leaned up, planting a soft kiss on Viggo's cheek. "Let's sleep," she suggested. And so the two made their way up to the Clubhouse. In the back corner, two yak fur mats were still laid out on the wooded floor. A few empty plates had been left on the table in the center. Discarded papers and maps were scattered from occasional gusts of wind.

Lilith joined the riders in the Clubhouse, but Nightshade remained with her nervous sibling on the beach. As the sun moved across the sky, everyone slept. And when it began to set, it was time to fly to Berk.

The journey began peacefully: just a quiet ride through the night while Sessa and Viggo conversed about random topics. But when Grimtalon began to hiss out of nowhere, the riders were alerted. Following the angry gaze of the male Devilish Dervish, they spotted yet another dragon trapper base. It was smaller, with only one ship at the dock.

"Easy, Grimtalon," Sessa hushed. But this did nothing to sooth the dragon. In fact, Nightshade and Lilith were both suddenly riled up as well. "Woah-!" Sessa gasped as Nightshade shook her head in the air, nearly causing her rider to fall.

Lilith roared and stared down at the base, ignoring Viggo's attempts to calm her. And then, out of the deep ocean below, massive spikes of ice shot high into the sky. Viggo tightened his grip on the her saddle as Lilith jerked to the left to avoid one of the spikes. A blood-freezing roar erupted from below the water.

Sessa and Viggo exchanged a bewildered look. But before anything could be said, more ice shot out of the water. This time, the dragons trapper base was obliterated by the blast. "Up there! Dragon riders!" Voices began to shout from the wreckage. Within seconds, arrows were flying past Viggo and Sessa once again.

"Sessa, we must go," Viggo yelled as an arrow skimmed his shoulder, slicing his skin.

"They're dragon trappers," Sessa growled, "we should stay and send them to the bottom of the ocean."

Another deafening roar came from below, along with more ice. Viggo stared with wide eyes. "Something tells me they're fates are already sealed without our help."

Sessa hesitated as she watched the base continue to crumble. Any dragons that had been trapped inside were flying free now. Finally, she turned Nightshade away from the chaos and began to fly away with Lilith, Viggo, and Grimtalon.

When the ruined base was out of sight, Viggo spoke. "I recognize that ice." Sessa gave him a curious look that urged him to continue. "Back when I was working with Krogan and Johann, they would occasionally mention a mosterously large dragon that could spit ice. They never told me any more detail," he explained, pausing in thought. "Although I've never seen it before, the ice or the dragon...what we just witnessed fits the description."

Sessa was silent for a moment. "..Do you think it's the same dragon from Berserker Island?" She wondered.

But Viggo shook his head. "I doubt it," he disagreed, "that dragon had remained beneath her island for decades. Why would she suddenly be out, ambushing dragon trappers?"

"And the baby from the egg couldn't possibly have grown so quickly," Sessa added.

"Right, you are, Sessa," Viggo confirmed with a nod of his head. "It would seem that yet another of these 'King of Dragons' exists."

"Well," Sessa sighed, "now Hiccup will definitely want to hear about this. I'm just glad this one seems to have a vendetta against dragon trappers."

• • •

"Pass me the yellow," Tuffnut yelled across Berk's dragon training area to his sister.

"No way, you already used the yellow; leave some for the rest of us," Ruffnut shouted back before continuing to paint careful lines of yellow on her face. The shiny, metal center of her shield acted as a small mirror. Quite contrary to her brother, who had black and yellow paint smeered all over his face in a slightly horrifying display.

He walked over to his sister and dipped his four fingers into her bowl of paint. "But I missed a spot," he complained, peering over her shoulder to see his own reflection as he slapped more yellow onto, his forehead.

"Get outta my space!" Ruff growled, elbowing Tuffnut in the gut.

While the twins were distracted in their bickering, they failed to notice the two massive Devilish Dervish dragons flying straight for the arena. And their shouting at each other drowned out the concerned whispering of the Vikings who did see the dragons. They both landed on either side of the arena's caged roof, their large wings shading the twins completely.

Finally, the siblings stopped fighting. "Hey, who turned the sun off?" Tuff asked. He and his sister looked up in unison as Nightshade's head slithered down through the bars of the roof to sniff them. "AAH, A DRAGON!"

Ruffnut rolled her eyes dramatically, then punched her brother in the shoulder hard enough to cause him to fall over and stop screaming. "It's just Nightshade, you mutton-head," she scoffed.

"Oh..oh I knew that," Tuff insisted casually, making no effore to stand back up. He stared up at the dragons and furrowed his eyebrows. "Uh sis? How hard did you hit me? 'Cause I'm definitely seeing two Nightshades."

"Well, you're not entirely wrong," Viggo's voice came from the entrance of the arena. Finally, Tuff stood, still dizzy from the fall. He watched as their old enemy entered with Sessa, Lilith following closely. "You wouldn't happen to know where Hiccup is? I'm afraid it's urgent."