The trader and the rider

Chapter 19

The sun met the sea on the horizon, colouring the calm waters with warm, red tones, as well as the clouds in the sky that now seemed orange. It was a beautiful sight that I would have enjoyed if it wasn't for Viggo Grimborn. He was pacing back and forth in the clubhouse before us. Boreas was close to him, making sure he didn't do anything funny, and the rest of us were trying to decide what to do next. Right in my hands, I had the dragon eye. It felt surreal to hold it myself finally, and it brought back many more memories than I had expected. All of them were good and warmed my heart, but I didn't have time to enjoy them right now. War wasn't kind and there would be no time to enjoy memories of the past until all of this ended.

-I don't trust the guy -declared Astrid, finally breaking the silence.

-You know, he'd actually be pretty fun to hang with. -said Snotlout- I mean, if he weren't trying to kill us all the time.

-You gotta love the way he talks. "Hiccup, I'm afraid our time together has come to an end. I must now kill you if you have no objections" -Ruffnut made a pretty good impression of him.

-Like he's not gonna have objections. And then he'll go: "All of your dragon riders must also go. With my sincerest apologies" -added Tuff.

-I'm with Astrid. This is all just one big game to him, Hiccup.

Fishlegs did have a point. Viggo loved games. He liked manipulating his adversary, getting into their head, being always five moves ahead of them... You wouldn't know if he was setting up the perfect trap for you until you had fallen right into it. But if he was playing with us now... Why was he being so sloppy about it?

-Ryker is coming to try to wipe us all out along with his brother. -followed Astrid- Are we really gonna take any chances with Viggo here?

-You guys are right. -Hiccup stayed quiet for a bit, and then he looked at me- What do you think, Alex?

-Me?

-You know him better than we do. And, don't take this in the wrong way, you two think alike, for better or for worse. What do you think about this?

Everyone's eyes were on me. Even Viggo's. I had to think with a clear mind. So I got up, grabbed a bottle of mead I had been saving for a long time from my bag, and took a big sip out of it. I locked eyes with Viggo, and finally, I left every single feeling I had aside for a moment.

-I'd throw him in a cell and make shifts to make sure he doesn't get away -I said, looking at Hiccup.

-What? -Hiccup ignored Viggo's reaction and nodded, agreeing with me.

I whistled and Boreas jumped to Viggo. The man tried to dodge him, but he was too tired and surprised to move in time and Boreas got him. My dragon knocked him out using his horn and got away from the now unconscious man on the floor.

-Cool move -said Tuff, and we bumped our fists.

-I agreed to throw him in a cell, -started Hiccup- not-

-I know, I know. But think about this, we finally are on the lead. We are the ones in control now. We can't share our information with him listening.

-...That's fair -agreed Astrid.

-So, what do you think about him?

-If he's playing with us, he's being really sloppy about it. We can't trust anything he has said or has happened around him, so let's analyse the facts. He had lost control of his men even before Ryker turned against him. The hunters referred to Ryker as their boss and talked good about him when they were drunk, and a drunk man doesn't lie.

-When were you-

-Right before infiltrating Project Shellfire, I spent a night in a tavern full of his men. No one dared mention Viggo, therefore, no one was thinking about him or his punishment when they got back drunk and late. Because they knew they wouldn't have to deal with him for much longer. Then, when I got to the island, that pattern continued. Ryker had to repeat Viggo's orders of finding the twins for the men to do so. -I took another sip of the bottle. It was good- Besides that, they are also running low on funding. I found and took out a party of men who were looking for old dragon-proof metal they might have left behind in one of our battles, and at least another four groups did the same on other islands. It's good to save and cut corners, but no one goes that far when they are trying to finish a project that big in the least amount of time possible. So, if the hunters are broke like I suspect, it makes no sense to lose so many men and ships as quickly as they did when they were fighting against us if Viggo was meaning to come back to the leader role at some point.