The Night Rider: Book Two

Chapter 7: The Armored Fleet

NIGHT RIDERS POV.

"There it is." Heather said, extending her arm out in front of her jutting out her finger, pointing at their objective. "Dagur's fleet."

The Night Rider smiled mischievously beneath his helmet although no one else could tell. He had finally found it, well technically Heather had found it but he didn't care, Dagur's fleet was in his sight. The apple of his eye for the second war with the hunters was within his grasp. He and Heather where camped out on top of a sea stack. A very small sea stack. So small that their dragons were basically on top of them when trying to not slip off the rocky stack.

It was becoming day, the sun was breaking over the watery horizon, and as the sky continued to brighten the two humans and the two dragons constantly found themselves inching closer to one another as visibility increased so they couldn't be spotted. Which wasn't very hard for three members of their group save one. Windshear, Heathers Razor Whip. It's reflective metallic looking skin bounced light off in every direction if the suns rays caught it at the correct angle. And if it did, it would practically be establishing a signal fire for their location.

"You weren't kidding about the defenses huh." The Night Rider mumbled more to himself than to Heather, pulling out his spy glass so he could catch a closer look.

The fleet was comprised of about a dozen ships each one armored to high Valhalla. There were catapults on the port and starboard sides and ballistas on the stern and the bow. And that wasn't even all, around each mast there were barrels upon barrels of arrows and bolas some of which were fitted to work in the ballista's and some which were meant to be thrown by hand from the hunters.

He wasn't sure but he thought that he might have been able to see fireable nets as well but he couldn't be sure.

"Yep. Dagur really wasn't taking the re-entrance of the Dragon Hunters into the Archipelago lightly." Heather commented.

"You know you say that but he still parked his fleet a few miles south of his home." The Night Rider joked and he and Heather shared a quick laugh.

He peered back into his spy glass and moved it to get a look at the ship in the middle. The fleet was parked in a diamond formation with eleven ships making up the diamond. But in the middle of the diamond was the largest ship of them all. The fleets flagship, Dagur's flagship. All the other ships were highly armed but this one... it by far put the others to shame. It had the same type of defenses, ballista's and catapults. Scores of arrows and bolas, but the quantity was what differed. For every one ballista or catapult that one of the surrounding ships had, the flagship had three. It was a fortress floating upon the ocean waves.

"Where lucky the fleet hasn't moved." The Night Rider said.

"It can't, not without Dagur. And no ones seen him in weeks." Heather said and the Night Rider beside her let out an awkward cough accidentally. He hadn't told Heather about his incarceration of Dagur. Although how could he have? Before this he hadn't laid eyes of Heather in years. Well they had exchanged a few Terror Mails about the war, and about the loss of his leg but other than that, they hadn't had face to face contact. Well, face to mask. But that wasn't the main reason he didn't tell her of his housing of Dagur. The main reason was because years ago before he had even met Toothless and he was still seen as a fishbone on Berk. Dagur who was only starting to earn his title as 'Dagur the Deranged' raided and destroyed Heathers village, slaughtering everyone she knew and loved, sending her adrift... alone. From what he knew based on what Heather had told him she had been sent adrift alone for days without food or water until she washed up on and island where she met a lonely Razor Whip.