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DreamWorks Dragons: Defenders of Berk

Double Trouble

Chapter 8

A Night Fury call echoed across the afternoon sky as Toothless and the other dragons, minus Barf and Belch, soared over the trees. Their riders searched carefully through the leaves and fields for any signs of the Berserker invaders, leading their dragons down in the trees for better cover.

Hiccup peered around, his eyes narrow from concentration as he both listened and watched. Toothless' ear perked up as he heard something, given his hearing was much better than the average dragon, and he shuffled his head and growled to notify his rider. Hiccup led the other four down to a nearby tree where each dragon perched on a solid branch.

"What is it?" Fishlegs asked, leaning a little towards Hiccup so to keep quiet.

"Toothless hears something." Hiccup replied, glancing down at his black friend who was sniffing the air and growling.

"I don't hear anything." Snotlout said rather loudly. All of the riders turned towards him and shushed, Snotlout leaned back a little from the show as Hookfang squawked.

Stormfly squawked as well, but for a different reason; turning her head to the right as she picked up on voices. Fortunately, the voices were loud enough for the teens and Astrid was the first to notice.

"Over there!" she exclaimed with a hushed tone, as she pointed down and off to the right.

Hiccup hunched closer to Toothless as he gripped the hidden saddle reigns. "Let's get a closer look." He announced with a whisper.

All four of them hovered down towards the ground toward the voices they heard, landing on another tree, this time lower in altitude than the last. Hiccup looked over the leaves far in front of him before glaring.

"It's Dagur." He informed the others.

"And he brought company." Astrid added as she too glared down at the group of intruders.

"What's the plan, Hiccup?" Fishlegs asked.

"We flank them. Snotlout, you and Fishlegs move around behind them. Astrid and I will pursue from this end. Remain behind cover until I give the signal." He ordered while glancing at each individual. Both nuisance and heavy set nodded in understanding and flew off with their dragons to get in position.

"But Hiccup," Astrid started with concern, "you told your father we weren't going to engage them." She reminded him.

"We're not… hopefully. But knowing Dagur, it may be our only option." He answered with dissatisfaction of the circumstances.

The twins rushed down the slanted, cement walkway of the Dragon Academy and hurried over to the pens. Barf and Belch lifted their heads and blinked their eyes free of sleep as they heard their riders coming. They both gurgled with joy at the sight of their twins and casually walked out as the gate was opened by Ruff and Tuff.

"Come on, we gotta hurry!" Ruff ushered as she lifted her hands up so that Barf would come down.

"Yeah, Hiccup really, really, really needs our help!" Tuff added as he too quickly hopped on to his saddle. Not two seconds later they were out of the academy and high in the sky…

Hiccup and Astrid peered over the leaves at Dagur and his men. Both sat on their dragons that were perched on the same tree branch. All four were quiet as they watched and listened.

"How do we even know they're coming?" the voice of a soldier sounded distant, but the two teens could hear it either way. Everything seemed eerily quiet.

"They would have been here by now. For all we know they're probably formulating a plan to capture us." The soldier continued. Dagur glared at him with gritted teeth.

"Did I say you could just air your opinion?!" Dagur yelled, raising his axe from its holster and gripping it firmly in his hand. The man backed off as well as any others who were about to speak up. "My plan is flawless, nothing could go wrong!" Dagur stated rather loudly.

"Uh, sir, shouldn't we be a little more… quiet?" Savage questioned innocently. Dagur looked down at him in a creepy way.

"Why of course, Savage." He replied with a calm voice before shouting as loud as he could, "Of course we're supposed to be quiet!" Dagur yelled as he glanced around the trees with a smile.

"He wants us to hear him." Hiccup whispered.

"This feels more and more like a trap." Astrid stated quietly.

Dagur continues to glance around the forest, his smile keeping its pose until it dropped. Dagur gritted his teeth in frustration and growled lowly.

"Sir…?" Savage asked out of seer confusion.

"Come on already." Dagur growled through underneath his breath, "Hiccup! I know you're out there!" he shouted as he pointed at the trees around him. "What're ya hiding for?! Coward!"

"Come on, let's go." Hiccup said, gesturing to Astrid.

"What's the plan?" Astrid asked.

"We're going to lead them towards the village, my father and his army can finish these goons off." Hiccup informed her. Astrid nodded and followed his lead as they flew off from their perch on the tree branch.

A Night Fury roar alerted Dagur and his men to another's presence and Dagur's frown transformed into a smile once again. Hiccup and Toothless flew out from the cover of the trees and hovered in front of the twenty sum group of Berserkers.

"Hey Dagur, short time, a little too many see's." Hiccup stated loudly, looking down at the Berserkers with one arm rested on the saddle reigns.

"Hahahahahaha, there you are!" Dagur laughed cheerfully. He glimpsed over his men and scowled, "What are you waiting for? Get him!" Dagur ordered. The group and their leader rushed forward toward the hovering duo.

Hiccup looked at the feat as a strange occurrences and a pitiful decision before he and Toothless turned around and flew off, toward the village.

As the front line of the Berserkers came into view, Astrid smiled and she and Stormfly dashed out of their cover behind the brush. Astrid laughed as Stormfly fired a blaze at their formation.

"You really didn't think he'd be alone, did you?" she questioned.

Behind the cover of the trees, Meatlug and Hookfang sat cozily on a tree branch waiting to join the other two in the plan. Their riders sat on their backs, half awake, or at least Snotlout was.

Fishlegs glanced over in the direction where he heard Astrid's voice and perked his head up at what she said.

"Oooh, ooh, that must be the signal!" He stated, before hitting Snotlout in the arm to wake him up from his doze.

"That's not the signal." Snotlout stated irritated as he glared at Fishlegs. "Hiccup is supposed to give it, not Astrid."

Toothless slowed down as to allow the Berserkers to catch up with him. He then proceeded to hover in one spot and turn around. Hiccup watched as Astrid was having fun toying around with the Berserker men, but didn't smile as something was bothering him.

"This is too sloppy, what are you planning Dagur?" he whispered.

Dagur himself was giggling uncontrollably as he watched the scene unfold. Hiccup was right where he needed him, now all he had to do to fire the signal and his Night Fury would be all his. He had to jump back a little, though, as to not get impaled from a blue and yellow spike that planted itself into the ground very near to his feet. He glared up at the female responsible.

Astrid flew around with Stormfly, shooting more spines and fire balls down at the unprepared group of Berserkers. Her smile soon faded as the task became tedious and she glanced out at the forest.

"Where are those other two?" she questioned to herself. "There were supposed to be here by now."

Right after saying this, a dragon roar caught her attention and she glanced up into the sky with widened eyes. Barf and Belch were only a dot, but were coming closer at a descent pace.

Astrid forced herself not to smack her hand against her forehead before she hollered over to Hiccup.

"Hiccup!" she shouted. Hiccup looked up from the crowd almost below him now.

"We've got trouble!" Astrid informed him. Hiccup furrowed his eyebrows at the news.

"What kind of trouble?" he questioned.

"Double trouble!" she answered back. It took a while before the information set and he clenched his teeth together in frustration and growled. He and Toothless started flying towards Astrid and Stormfly before something stopped them. Hiccup gasped as a single fire arrow flew up right past Toothless face, a little too close for comfort for both of them. Hiccup watched it as it continued its path upward, his eyes furrowed with recognition. But when he figured it out, it was too late.

A bola shot out from behind the leaves of the forest and connected itself with Toothless' tail. Said dragon screeched in response and began to falter in his ability to keep altitude.

"Toothless!" Hiccup shouted right before another bola flew out and wrapped itself around Hiccup's small frame. This one was a bit different though, as a rope was attached and strung from Hiccup's bound form to the forest where the bola came from.

Without warning, Hiccup was ripped off of the saddle, a cry escaping from his mouth as he fell down to the earth far below him. Toothless roared angrily as more bolas attached themselves to him. Soon enough, he could no longer keep flight and plummeted to the ground as well.

Hiccup landed hard on his back, the momentum of his pull causing him to bounce up a little and flip onto his side before rolling to a stop near the trees. From the branches above came Berserker men, archers to be exact. They jumped down from both sides of where Hiccup and Toothless were and surrounded the two.

Hiccup's eyes were closed and his body limp as a large Berserker picked him up from the ground and began carrying him back to Dagur. The man in question was smiling broadly as he approached the struggling Toothless amongst many Berserkers. He paused before his prize, arms crossed over his chest as he took in the wonderful sight he found mainly in his dreams.

With a chuckle, he glanced over at his archer who had an unconscious Hiccup slung over his shoulder.

"I win." Dagur giggled cheerfully as his smile broke into a laugh.

To be continued…

Writer's Note:

Okay, this obviously took way longer than I wanted. But, and I don't know if this is good news or bad, it's not over, not yet. I had like THE worst writer's block for this chapter. WHYYYYYYYYYY?!

Alright, do as you guys wish, all I can say is sorry. Which I truly am, I did NOT intend to have to wait so long just to finish this chapter. So my sincere apologies guys, thank you so much for waiting so long. It's really not fair for you readers…