Finding you

Chapter 10: Attack On Berk

Hiccup's POV

It had been one week, one beautiful week of finally having my family whole again. It had been ages since I had last felt as good as I had that past week and I was ready to spend the rest of my days feeling the exact same way.

I pressed a kiss to Astrid's forehead as I closed my eyes to the sound of her steady breathing, in and out from her slightly parted lips as she was rested her head on my chest, her arms wrapped around my torso and mine wrapped around hers.

I was about to drift off to sleep when a thunderous crash sounded from outside the house and the ground beneath us shook so hard that Toothless shot up from the slab of rock he called his bed and hissed angrily at the bedroom door.

"What's happening?" Astrid yawned as we both sat up in bed and attempted to figure out what was going on.

I was already halfway to the dresser when I replied to her, my concern growing as screams were heard from outside. "I have no idea, but I'm about to find out."

"Correction: we're about to find out." Astrid stated as she too began to get dressed and opened the door so that Toothless could go growl at the front door instead, like the oversized guard dog that he sometimes was.

I shook my head as I tightened the first few leather straps of my armor. "No way, I can't have you getting hurt."

Astrid huffed. "Too bad that I don't give a damn and that you have absolutely no say in what I do, Hiccup."

"Astrid, please —"

"Mom, dad, what's going on?" Zephyr peeked in the door to our bedroom, already fully dressed as she nervously tapped her foot against the wood floor.

"We don't know yet, but we're about to find out," Astrid began as she snatched her axe right off the wall. "No matter what you think, leatherboy."

"Leatherboy!?" I exclaimed as I struggled to keep up with the pace in which my wife and daughter had gotten dressed. When I had finally finished getting dressed and stopped asking myself how in the hell I was so bad at putting on my armor after nearly twenty years of practice, I finally made it outside, where the village had been turned into a war zone.

Smoke rose in tendrils from the large boulders that had shattered through many of the homes on the island. Battle cries echoed through the town square, where a group of heavily armed Berkian Vikings were rushing over to the docks, narrowly avoiding trampling down the wounded that had been gathered outside their wrecked homes.

I felt my blood boil in my veins as I wrapped my fingers around the hilt of my sword. No one messed with my people. A familiar roar tore through the cries for help and the heartbreaking wails of the ones that had been left behind. I whipped my head towards the source of the sound and found Toothless bounding towards me, a look of determination etched into his reptilian features.

I climbed atop the dragon and activated his tail fin. "Let's show these invaders what we do to people who attack our island, bud."

With that, we shot up into the skies and quickly found ourselves hovering over the scene of the action, where many of the other dragon riders had already engaged in combat and were blowing up and sinking ships left and right. It didn't take me long before my gaze landed upon the sails of these ships and I found myself gritting my teeth as I imagined all the ways I would sink that damned armada.

"Who are these people?" Zephyr asked as she and Firestorm came flying up beside me and Toothless. I turned to my daughter and visually scanned her for any injuries as I ignored her lack of knowledge of the other tribal crests of the archipelago. I made a mental note to give her much more thorough chiefing-lessons in the future.

"Please don't tell me you or your friends have been down there, Zeph." I turned to my daughter with a deep crease in my forehead as I prayed to every god that she had been far out of the Berserkers' reach.

"They haven't," Astrid answered my question for me as she and Stormfly came up on my other side, both covered in soot and what looked to be dried flecks of blood. "I made sure the younger riders made themselves useful elsewhere."

I let out a sigh of relief. "That's great to hear! Now, Zeph, if you could please go back to what you were originally meant to be doing so that I can get these bastards out of our waters, that would be much appreciated."

"But, dad!" Zephyr whined as she turned to me with puppy eyes. "I want to help sink ships too!"

"This isn't your fight, Zephyr." Astrid said in the coldest voice I had heard from her in a long time. Her usually ocean blue eyes had grown dark as they were glued to the burning Berserker fleet and it wasn't hard to tell that she blamed herself for all of this. "What you can do to help us out is to gather up all of your friends and help Gothi with the injured. If anything should happen to any of us, you have our permission to be the last line of defense. Now, go."

Strangely enough, Zephyr immediately did as she was told and quickly left us to go help out with the injured. "Astrid—"

"I told you this would happen, Hiccup. I told you they would come back." Astrid voice was so deep and full of sorrow that I barely recognized it. "This is all my fault."

"None of this is your fault, alright? All of this is Dagur's fault. It's his armada, his soldiers and his orders. You didn't do any of this, Astrid. When the battle is over and we have gotten rid of Dagur for good, you'll see that you are not to blame in this situation, it's all him. Now, what do you say we go and show them what we Berkians are good for?" I steeled myself as I turned to Astrid with a look of determination, awaiting at least that mischievous smirk of hers to make an appearance, but it didn't. All she gave me was a sharp nod before she and her Nadder dove down in the direction of the nearest ships.

I took a deep breath before I turned to my own dragon. "What do you say, bud? Do you want to go blast these Berserkers straight to Helheim?"

The dragon roared enthusiastically in response as we dove straight down after Astrid and Stormfly, only catching ourselves and straightening up right before crashing into the sea. We soared across the surface of the water under the cloak of night and the loud cries and blasts coming from all around us. We were practically invisible to our invaders, which was perfect for sneak attacks and night-fury sized surprises that made many Berserkers throw themselves overboard so that they could escape the wrath of the legendary dragon and his rider. We peppered their ships with plasma blast after plasma blast, making them all look like Swiss cheese in the moments before they sank beneath the dark waves.

As we continued to sink ship after ship, I couldn't help but glance over at my all of my friends and reminisce about our times as teens, when sinking enemy ships had been our afternoon hobby. It all seemed like such a long time ago — which it was — but the rush was still as incredible as it had been that first time.

Unfortunately, some Berserkers had managed to make it all the way to the beach, where they were met by blood-thirsty Berkians who had longed for a good battle for ages. After sinking as many ships as we possibly could, we began to turn our focus back on our village and its safety.

I commanded the twins and Fishlegs to finish off the last ships, whilst Snotlout and Gobber were on beach-duty and Astrid and I were patrolling the island for any other ships or hidden troops.

After a round around the island, Toothless and I finally made our way back to the village. As we flew over it, I couldn't help but search for my daughter amongst the crowds, hoping that she was safe and was doing excellent work with helping out Gothi.

But as I neared the town square, a chill shot down my spine as my blood froze to ice in my veins. Beneath us, a lone archer had hid behind a pillar and from behind it, he had shot a single arrow, aimed straight at my daughter.

"Zephyr!" I cried out as Toothless fired a plasma blast straight at the archer, but it was too late. The archer fell to the ground in a puff of smoke as Toothless and I landed right beside my wounded daughter, who had an arrow sticking out from beneath her collarbone and was writhing on the ground like a worm in the rain. A pool of blood began gathering beneath her as I could feel my heart shatter in my chest. They shot my daughter, something which I would make damn sure that those bloody Berserkers would never forget.