A Song of Scouring Eyes - Hiccup x Male Reader

Chapter 1

Warnings: burn injuries, fighting (canon typical)
Word count: 4241

There wasn't much north of the edge, not unless what you were searching for was ice and misery. They must've tried flying up that way a hundred times and still came up empty-handed, but this time, they were following vikings.

The hunters boats had finally come to view of the dragon riders, warship upon warship in a small fleet all heading northbound. There were too many for the riders to take them all out, but if they could separate a few from the group, they could focus that and figure out what they were looking for. It had been Johann who'd tipped Hiccup off first, the trader making his usual stop to berk when the group had been visiting their families, speaking of how Viggo had begun moving troops north of dragons edge.

At first, he thought it was for a rear strike of the edge, come from a direction they wouldn't expect as there was nothing there to camp out on or places to gather. He'd had snotlout and Fishlegs work on fortifying the northern side just in case, upping patrols of night terrors along the side before realizing the strike he was preparing for wasn't going to happen. He and Astrid had gone out to survey the seas to figure out what they were planning when they found the fleet the first time, still heading northbound even though they were directly to the back of the edge with a clear shot to the island. It made no sense, and they needed to figure out what was going on before they could be blindsided by whatever the hunters were planning.

Returning with the entire team, the dragon riders approached the now growing fleet a second time, and as they got closer, Hiccup could just see signs of dragon attacks along the sides of the boat. The mystery grew ever larger, seeing the variety of battle scars each ship carried meant none of it could be from a single dragon. From amber to burn marks, even solidified sand from a sand wraith adorned every ship. Spines from nadders and holes from blunt force, none of these were visible the last time they'd been there.

"Alright, Astrid and Fishlegs, you take the west. Heather and I will take the east, Snotlout and the twins, you two stay here." The plan had been gone over before, but it was best to be thorough. In strange circumstances, being coordinated was their best bet, "Stay far enough away from the boats that they'll have to get closer to you to attack, and keep moving the other way. Draw them out as far as you can before turning back to go after whatever team drew away the least amount of ships. We'll want to take out all but one when we get to that point and question the remaining hunter crew. See if we can figure out what it is Viggo has planned."

With nods of agreement, the teams flew off in their own directions, as Hiccup and Heather being the fastest darted off with the light hissing of splitting air. The two would want to draw as much attention to themselves as possible, and what better than the signature hiss of a night fury to draw any hunter's attention?

"You've known Viggo the longest, Any idea what he could be up to?" Hiccup turned to Heather, now sitting back as Toothless carried him to their destination.

"I don't think I know him better than any of you do at this point. All my information is long outdated."

"Was worth a shot to ask." A shadow flitted over their heads for a fraction of a second, and that high up only one thing could make a shadow. Another dragon. Both heads turned upwards with lightning speed, only to find nothing there, "I'm not going crazy, right?"

"No, I saw the shadow, too." Heather's eyes scoured the sky suspiciously, while Hiccup's scanned the seas to find their friends. None of the others had ignored his plan and followed them, so this had to be something else, "Let's just proceed with caution. We're too far in to get spooked now, and some of those ships definitely heard Toothless' whistle."