The Dragon Master Part III: End of an era (A Httyd Fanfiction)

Chapter 24: Assassination attempt

(Normal pov)

Hiccup would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous. He and Berks riders along with Eret and his mother were heading back to the Cabals base of operations to assassinate Grimmel, they had been training and preparing for this mission for three days, and finally the day arrived. The moon was at its full peak as the Hooligan dragon riders entered Cabal controlled territory, Hiccup sat behind Astrid and Stormfly as the massive fleet of ships were still anchored and patrolling the icy cold water beneath them, and completely unaware of the Viking dragon riders above.

Turning back to her husband, Astrid spoke quietly. "You alright babe?" She asked, Hiccup looked into his wife's eyes and nodded before letting out a nervous sigh and answering. "Y-Yeah, I just... I just hope this ends in our favor." Completely understanding her husbands nervous mood, Astrid took Hiccup's left hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. "Hey, we've been training three days for this mission. We've got this." She reassured him and squared down his doubts, causing Hiccup to nod in thanks at his wife. "What would I do without you Milady?" He asked with a smile, Astrid smirked at him and shrugged before replying. "You'd be all over the place, like a chicken with its head cut off." The two shared a quiet laugh, that was until they noticed the highest room of Grimmel's tower being lit and the light illuminated through the darkness.

Valka steered Cloudjumper to Stormfly and asked in a hushed whisper. "I'm assuming Grimmel is in the highest room of that tower?" She asked Hiccup, the Hooligan chieftain nodded in acknowledgment to his wife and added. "While I was imprisoned here, he was almost always up inside that tower. The only occasions he'd come down were to teach the Cabal soldiers how to properly immobilize dragons or to have a word with me." Hiccup remembered watching Grimmel blind a Rumblehorn with his arrows and how he watched his pet dragon killers finish the Rumblehorn off.

Another interesting thing Hiccup noticed about the Deathgrippers in his time of captivity was that the dragon killers had... collars of some kind strapped around their skulls and he also noticed small tubes of purple liquid inside them. Could... could Grimmel be drugging his Deathgrippers into complete obedience? That just made Hiccup even more sick to his stomach, just how Grimmel cared little about the lives of such amazing creatures, he even had to fall back on drugging dragons! Yes, seeing the Deathgrippers eating that Rumblehorn shocked Hiccup, because he also knew the Red Death was the only other dragon to eat other dragons. But then again, not all dragons are friendly and trainable, but it still made Hiccup sick to know that Grimmel did that to the Deathgrippers.

Once the rocky ground was close enough, everyone steered their dragons to land as quietly as they could and ordered their dragons to take to the sky. Once their dragons were safely in the air, Hiccup and the group of riders moved as shadow walkers; staying away from Cabal patrols and ensuring that they wouldn't be discovered. When Hiccup spotted Grimmel's tower dead ahead, he turned to his fellow riders and whispered. "Alright, everyone split up. We'll be harder to catch." Everyone nodded in confirmation as they all entered the tower and saw the moonlight shining down from the exposed roof above.

The riders then heard the hissing and growling of Deathgrippers as they climbed down the walls and began sniffing the air. Astrid hid behind a nearby wall as a Deathgripper was prowling right to her hiding spot, holding in her breath, she was thankful when she saw Heater chuck a rock away from her hiding spot, causing the Deathgripper to investigate and giving Astrid time to relocate. One Deathgripper was above a series of wooden planks that splintered off above the third floor and dust fell down between the cracks as the ferocious dragon pounced off the planks and landed on the wall and began crawling down while sniffing the air for the intruders.

Eret and Asnjorn both leaped over a pile of stones and hid just in time as a Deathgripper turned their way and snarled out before moving on to another location. Ruffnut and Tuffnut too were being just as sneaky as their companions, sure they were well known to screw around, but right now? The Thorsten twins knew how imperative it was to see their mission completed, so they stuck together and worked together to ensure the nearby Deathgrippers wouldn't detect them and alert the Cabal of their presence.