Soul of the Sky (HTTYD Runaway Fic)

Dragon Hunters

Fishlegs
I can't believe I volunteered for this.
Here I am, on a dragon over the ocean, about to attack an ENTIRE FREAKING ARMADA! Want to hear how I got myself into this mess? Well, it all started with a single sentence...

Three Days Earlier
"I need to go after them."
Astrid made an inarticulate noise of protest. "But what about..." 'Magnus' cut her off before she could finish her sentence. "I know what you're going to say. Hiccup Haddock has waited six years. If he's still alive, he can wait a few more days. This is now." Snotlout snorted. "Vengeance isn't that important. So you lost a dragon. I mean, that's sad and all, but it's one dragon."

"Getting revenge won't bring Aziren back." I added. 'Magnus' groaned in frustration. "This isn't about revenge! Before he..." He stopped abruptly, as if he couldn't bring himself to say it. Died. "The Hunters attacked Wingmaiden Island, capturing the queen and the hatchlings. Some of those Razorwhips can't even fly yet! It's Toothless' and my duty to save them. We protect all of the dragons." Razorwhips? That's a new one. "Why?" Astrid asked, referring to his earlier statement. "Because we promised to." he said softly, patting the Night Fury's head. "The alpha protects them all."

"Okay. So you have to rescue the baby dragons. Where do we come into this?" Ruffnut asked. "You can either help or stay here. But if you come, you'll be in danger." Tuffnut raised his hand. "Do we get to explode stuff?" 'Magnus' grinned. "Oh yes. There will be plenty of destruction, and you can even play tricks on the Hunters." The twins whooped. "We're in!" they exclaimed in unison, high-fiving each other. "Us too." Astrid responded, speaking for all of us. "We haven't seen action in years." 'Magnus' sighed. "Once again, I forget that Vikings love violence. We'd better get started then."

I didn't realise what I'd gotten myself into. In hindsight, the fact that 'Magnus' put armour on the dragons should have been a clue. And the 'few others' that ended up being fifty-two more dragons.
It took us two days of non-stop flying to catch up. The Dragon Master - sorry, 'Magnus' - used the time to educate us about the Dragon Hunters. "They're a big operation led by a man called Viggo Grimborn. As the name suggests, they hunt dragons and sell them. Sometimes alive, and sometimes not so much. Toothless and I have had quite a few run-ins with them, and we share number one on their hit list."

Yay. Sounds like Dagur, crazy megalomaniacal weirdos. Speaking of Dagur, haven't heard from him in a while.

"Sounds nasty." Astrid noted. Toothless growled. Yes or a death threat, I'll probably never know. "He says yes." Okay, the first one then. "In the hopefully unlikely event that we're captured, do not tell them anything. Your name, where you're from, why you're with me, nothing. If they try to force it out of you, have a fake identity ready." That didn't sound good. I tried to stop my voice from shaking as I spoke. "Think of one now and tell everyone else. That way we don't have conflicting stories."

"Good idea, Fishlegs." 'Magnus' pointed at the twins. "Fake names?"

"Yak 1 and Yak 2." Tuffnut responded. Astrid sighed. "They can be Frey and Freyja." Raised eyebrows from everyone (not sure about the Dragon Master, curse that mask). "I couldn't think of anything!" she said defensively.
Astrid ended up being 'Heather', and everyone else were named after gods. The twins both wanted to be Loki, but Ruff got Freyja and complained for ages. Snotlout is Frey and I'm Thor for some reason.
A/N: For those who haven't read about Norse mythology:
Frey = god of summer and fertility
Freyja = goddess of love
Loki = god of tricks (anyone who's watched RTTE should know that)
Thor = god of lightning and thunder
"Why am I a stupid flower god?" Snotlout complained. 'Magnus' sighed. "It's just a pseudonym. I don't particularly like Magnus either, if that's any consolation."

By now, we should have sighted the Dragon Hunters. I was beginning to worry that we'd lost them. That is, until we passed an island and sighted a fleet of ships. There must have been at least forty, maybe more. I'd expected somewhere between one and six. I did not sign up to attack a FREAKING WAR FLEET!

'Magnus' turned in the saddle, his words almost whipped away by the rushing wind. "Now it begins."