Unexpected

Sore Ankles

Chapter Twelve: Sore Ankles

Dagur the Deranged was frustrated.

It had been eleven weeks since he had threatened the future chief of Berk and he had been certain he would come up with the perfect plan of attack by then. But despite the weeks of preparation he should have had, he was just as stumped as before. He wanted a brilliant but subtle move. Something simultaneously daring and dangerous as well as simple and easy to carry out. But nothing was coming to mind. And he wasn't about to give up on his determination to have that Night Fury's head hanging above his fireplace.

The rest of the Berserkers had no idea what was taking so long. Not a day had gone by without one of them casually mentioning his delay in coming up with a strategy. He wanted to throttle the first few who did this but now he merely ignored them. There were more important things to do with his time.

"You're needed in the Great Hall." said one of his soldiers, opening Dagur's door and peering through.

Dagur turned to face him. "Yes. I'll be there shortly."

He didn't know why he had called this meeting. He had no new ideas. Perhaps one of the soldiers would give him one. He hated it when he wasn't the one to come up with their plans of attack but there seemed little choice in this matter. If they didn't strike soon, the Hooligans would believe that their threats were empty. Dagur scowled. His threats were never empty. He would strike back.

Well if he was going to strike back, he might as well get out of his chair and go to the meeting. He had always hated meetings. They were necessary evils, of course, but they were so boring. As he sat down at the head of the table, he ignored the opening remarks from his soldiers.

"I'm tapped out." he said at last, probably interrupting someone. "We need to strike Berk soon."

There was dead silence. And then another man spoke up.

"We've been waiting for you to tell us what to do."

Dagur slammed his fist into the table, making several men jump. "And I will!" he sat back and leaned against the back of the chair. "We need a plan that's simple yet effective. Berk is expecting a full out attack."

"Well they might be distracted, what with that new chief on the way." said another soldier. "We could just slip in while..."

"Shut up! Wait a minute! I... I've got it." Dagur's face cracked into a wide smile. "The perfect plan! Subtle but sends a strong message." He let out a loud laugh that echoed off the walls. "I'll have that Night Fury and Berk won't know what hit it. Now we just need a few minutes to work out the details."

"What details?" asked yet another soldier.

"Well we need a few people doing a patrol of the island. This has to be timed perfectly. Keep yourselves to the shadows and don't let yourself be seen." Dagur's smile widened. "The answer has been right under our noses this whole time. Now listen up. Here's what I'm thinking..."

The days were steadily getting longer and warmer. Several children could be seen splashing around in the sea and the dragons often went out to lie in the sunlight. Astrid was too uncomfortable to move. She wasn't sure if she had a fair complexion or if the pregnancy was making her more sensitive the sunlight. All she knew was that she didn't want to do anything physical anymore. Her body was heavy and her ankles ached even when her weight wasn't on them. And no amount of rubbing from Hiccup could dull the pain.

It had been a week since Hiccup had tried to make their anniversary special. One week and she still felt exactly the same then as she did before. Heather came by one day while she was relaxing with her feet propped up, taking deep breaths and feeling as though she wanted to spend some time away from her body.