"I Do.... NOT!!"

Chapter 23: Two Enemies

               ---- Hiccup's POV------

      "Toothless!!!! We have a problem!!" Fishlegs yelled, his eyes wide in fear. I had just issued a challenge to the queen and blasted a crater in the side of her volcanoe. So far it had been eerily still. A few dragons had tried to escape the queen without success, falling from the sky and returning to the numerous caves in the side of the volcanoe. I snorted in frustration and considered flying into the volcanoe... But I suspected that was what the queen was trying to make me do.

     I transformed mid air, keeping my winged human form and met him beyond the shore, where the queens influence was weaker. My friends stood faithfully by their riders and frequently shook their heads, fighting the queen dragon's whispering commands. "Terror mail from Gothi! It's bad!" Fishlegs squeaked, shoving a parchment into my hands. "Terror mail? Who came up with that?" I asked. "You can thank Boreal later! Now read!" Fishlegs replied.

  I recognized Gobber's hand writting- some trader has convinced the village Astrid and her friend are mind controlled by you. They come in ships and dragons. The trader is not normal. He uses dragons like a horse or yak. They be pulling the Berk warriors to the nest. Get out while you can. Your boar headed father won't listen to me or the girls

      " Da da da. We're dead!" I sang, stomping away from the group. We had to take out a mega evil controlling queen dragon, some trader with dragons at his disposal had my friends and village under his thumb... This couldn't get any worse. I was going to die at the hands of my own tribe, or the queen. "Hey hey hey! Where you going?" Fish said, running behind me. "Ending the raids." I said shortly, sizing up the volcanoe.

     If I had to go inside the volcanoe to draw out the queen, so be it. "Hiccup. Wait. Let's wait till Berk gets here. Then they will see you only want to help! Besides, if someones got our friends and thinks they are unwell, who knows what they might do to "cure" them. What if we go rescue our friends first? Um on a side not I'm really worried about Heather," Fishlegs said, shifting nervously from foot to foot. I sighed and thought carefully. Fishlegs had a point... This trader seemed dangerous. He had dragons under his control and was telling lies to my village. Perhaps it was wisest to knock out that issue first.

"Ok fish. We'll rescue them first." I said, and took to the skies again, this time heading for Berk. Hookfang, Stormfly, Spiketail,  and Meatlug followed with Fishlegs. Soon we saw the Vikings ships entering Helheim's gate, pulled by massive armoured dragons. As I looked closer I realized they were rumblehorns, one of the strongest yet fastest dragons known in the entire archipelago. I whined in fear and circled around as the ships entered thick fog.

     Finally a plan formed, and I changed to winged human form so I could tell Fishlegs the plan. Just then wing flaps sounded behind me. I turned to see Windshear, Zev, and Mya, the twins. "Berserkers are fully supplied!" They declared proudly.  " Ok. Great job guys. I'm going to find the ship where Astrid and Heather are. Keep everyone close and when I send a shriek signal  try to get as close to me as you can. I'll help Astrid and Heather jump to Hookfang's claws, you guys get them on your backs and  far away from the Vikings and the nest as you can while I distract everyone," I told Fishlegs. "Aye aye captain!" He replied. I waited and carefully scanned with my ears and echolocation until I recognized a faint mast outline in the mist. I let myself morph just a little more to expose the slits of my retractable claws, then followed and dropped as close as I could to the mast, hoping to grab onto it.

      I snagged thick wooden material with my clawed hands and froze, clinging to the creaking ship. After some careful surveillance, I determined no viking had detected me. I inched my way down, keeping tabs on murmured conversations and the myriad of smells my sharp sense of smell picked up. Thanks to the mist, I was able to fully morph to my human form near the bottom of the mast and step soundlessly onto the wooden planks. This ship seemed to be one of the last in the fleet, Vikings were watching the water, muttering fearfully.