RACE TO THE EDGE SPOILER WARNING! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! TURN BACK IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO BE SPOILED!
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OKAY! PHEW! Glad that's over with! :D
Hi.
Soo...
Here we are.
At...
the...
SEEEEEEQQQUUUUEEEEELLLLLLL! :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D Soooo, this is all planned out, so if you guys ave any suggestions, I don't know whether or not I'll use them, but this is also only part 1 of two "Total War" episdoes - there might be a part three, depending on how TWP2 ends, but yeah, anyways, enjoy chapter 1 (am I posting too fast...?)! XD
"The army is almost ready, Viggo!" said Ryker from where he was standing at the crow's nest of the mother ship of their fleet. "Do you plan to head out soon, or are you going to wait another few weeks and hide like a coward?"
It had been weeks since the dragon riders took out half of the dragon hunter's feet, and needless to say, Ryker was a little impatient. Taking out the leader of the riders would mean a lot of things, and victory was one of them. Viggo was loading a single ship for himself and ten others, and the ship would sail to Dragon's Edge to put into action Viggo's brilliant, murderous plan.
"Patience, brother, patience," said Viggo calmly as his soldiers loaded a barrel full of spears like a mockery pencil cup onboard. "All great being must possess patience as well as skill. You cannot have one without the other, for one can only acquire skill at all if one is patient."
Ryker growled low in his throat and barked an order at his soldiers harsher than what was strictly necessary.
"The leader of the dragon riders is a mastermind," said Viggo. "We must be patient. With a mind like his, outsmarting us a second time will be easy. A breeze to him, if you may. The first worthy adversary to face me and win. In order to beat him, we must be patient. We must conceive a plan that is greater than even he, genius as he is."
…
"OW!"
Hiccup stumbled backwards, away from the forge's anvil, sucking on his thumb, which had gotten on the wrong end of his hammer in a moment's distraction. He pulled his thumb out of his mouth and shook out his hand, trying to find feeling in his finger again.
"Ah, geez," he muttered. "Could've been worse, I guess…"
He looked up at the anvil, where the sword he had been hammering into place stood, still glowing red from when Hiccup had set it in the furnace. He pulled the sword off by its hilt and dunked the blade into a nearby barrel of water; when the sizzling stopped, he pulled it back out and examined the blade.
"Alright," he said, swinging the sword to test its weight. "Not bad...it works." He set the sword down in a pile consisting of two spears, an axe, and another sword, all of which Hiccup had forged earlier that morning. He shook out his hand one last time, regretted smashing his thumb with his hammer, and stepped outside.
The morning was cool, in complete contrast to the stuffy, overly-hot forge he'd been working in since he woke up. He took in a deep breath, and then released it pleasurably.
Today was going to be a good day.
Toothless bumped him from behind; the dragon had decided that he would rather wait outside than stay in the stuffy forge, and Hiccup didn't blame him. After all, personally, he didn't like staying in the forge very long, either, but this time, it was necessary. He had to get those weapons made.
"Alright, bud," he said, clapping his hands together. "Let's say you and me take a flight around the Edge."
Toothless bounded in agreement, and as soon as Hiccup leapt onto his back, they took to the sky, into the bursting light of the dawning sky.
The day was promising; no clouds, it wasn't too hot, but it was warm enough so it wasn't uncomfortably cold. When Toothless swooped over the trees, Hiccup shouted "Good morning!" to a few snoozing Night Terrors, who promptly spread their wings and shot to their morning look-out points.
Toothless soared over the ocean, and the waves slapped against each other in his wake. The ocean was tumultuous, but the rest of the Edge was as serene and beautiful as ever. After one final round about the island, Toothless turned and zoomed back to the Clubhouse.
Snotlout, Fishlegs, Astrid, and the twins had already arrived, their dragons waiting outside on the landing platform. As soon as Toothless alighted on said platform, Hiccup leapt off his back, thanked him, and hurried inside the Clubhouse.
Everything was normal - or, normal for them, anyways. Snotlout and Fishlegs were arm-wrestling; Fishlegs appeared to be winning. The twins were playing "Ring-Around-The-Macey" with Tuffnut's chicken, and Astrid was in the corner, studying pieces of paper that had been nailed to the wall.
"Hey, Astrid!" Hiccup called to and approached her first, because out of all the riders, she seemed the most ready to listen at the moment. "What's up?"
"Morning," Astrid said, nodding, and then, she looked back at the maps. "I've been copying everything you wrote out in your notebook, about the map to Viggo's base," she said, "but I don't see how mapping this out is going to help us."
"It'll give us the basic idea of where to go," said Hiccup. "See, look here." He pointed to one of the many sheets of paper. "There're sea stacks positioned to the east of his base. If we had to, we could use them for cover."
"Yeah...hey, we could," said Astrid, and then, "What did you do to your hand?"
Hiccup looked down; his thumb was a hideous shade of black and blue. "Oh, that," he said. "Hammered it. But on the bright side, I did finish the weapons."
"YOU DID!?" said Ruffnut and Tuffnut excitedly, and they practically tripped over the chicken in their haste to reach Hiccup. Hiccup took an involuntary step backwards, hands out in front of him.
"Can we have them now!?" said Tuffnut excitedly.
"As in right now!?" said Ruffnut, equally excitedly.
"Um, yeah, sure," said Hiccup, "but I think it's better if you were supervised-"
"YES!" shouted Ruffnut and Tuffnut, and before Hiccup could object, they had raced out of the Clubhouse, mounted their dragons, and headed towards the forge.
"I hope they don't hurt themselves," Hiccup muttered, wincing.
"Nah, they'll be fine!" said Snotlout, his voice a grunt. "Why - haven't - I - won!?"
He was still arm-wrestling Fishlegs, who seemed to be having the very time of his life, flipping through the pages of a notebook distractedly as if he wasn't arm-wrestling at all. Poor Snotlout looked ready to break, and his arm was wavering. Finally, Fishlegs must have decided that a cheering Snotlout was better than a pouting Snotlout, because he made his arm limp and let Snotlout smash it against the table.
"YES!" cheered Snotlout, leaping from his feet and punching the air. "Go Snotlout! Snotlout, Snotlout-"
"Oy, oy, oy," groaned Astrid. "Yes, we know the chant, Snotlout. We've actually had meetings about the chant, and how badly it needs to stop."
"Ah, you may be smug now," said Snotlout, "but wait until I arm-wrestle you!"
Astrid rolled up imaginary sleeves and balled her fists. Snotlout must have thought better of what he had taunted, because he averted his gaze and went right back to gloating about his victory over Fishlegs.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut raced back into the Clubhouse, this time each carrying a spear. They looked mildly disappointed.
"They're too dull, too boring," said Tuffnut, examining the spear's head skeptically. "Is this some kind of a joke?"
"They aren't sharp enough," said Ruffnut, thrusting her spear out towards Hiccup. "You can keep it."
"Of course they aren't," said Hiccup, "I haven't sharpened them yet."
Ruffnut and Tuffnut's heads lifted in unison, and they looked at their spears with more admiration. Fishlegs caught sight of them and, beaming brightly, stood and approached.
"Hey, you used Gronckle Iron!" said Fishlegs excitedly.
"Yep," said Hiccup. "Stronger and lighter than ever. Thanks for giving me the formula, by the way."
"No problem!" said Fishlegs. "As you're the only one here with any blacksmith training at all, it only made sense!"
"What's the point of Gronckle Iron weapons?" said Snotlout, putting his feet against the table he sat at. "We already have enough swords as it is. Remember all the ones the Outcasts gave us last time Viggo attacked?"
"Yeah, those are good," said Hiccup, "but Gronckle Iron's stronger, less likely to snap during a fight. If we want a chance at getting the Dragon Eye back from Viggo, we need to be one step ahead of him. The weaponry seemed a good place to start, and I made something for each of us. Except you, Fishlegs, and that's only because you already have a Gronckle Iron sword."
"It's such a great idea, using Gronckle Iron!" said Fishlegs excitedly. "Viggo and those hunters aren't going to know what hit them!"
"Hey!" shouted Snotlout angrily. "Are you two going to obsess over your weapons all day, or are you going to give me another worthy opponent for arm-wrestling? What about you, Hiccup?"
Hiccup shook his head. "Nah, I'm good," he said. "Feel free to wallow in your victory over Fishlegs forever."
"Aw, come on!" said Snotlout. "I see! You're just afraid to be beaten by me!"
"No, I think he doesn't want to crush your hopes by beating you," said Fishlegs.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked at each other suddenly, and then, both at once, they raced over to the table, set their spears against the wall, and motioned for Hiccup to come over.
"Come on, take him down!" said Ruffnut. "Show him Thor's mighty hammer!"
"Thor's mighty what?" said Astrid.
"Well," said Tuffnut, "you may not have noticed, but Hiccup and Snotlout got into a fi-"
"Details don't matter," said Hiccup, and he approached the table and sat down opposite of Snotlout. He set the elbow of his left hand on the table and waited.
"What details don't matter?" said Astrid.
Ruffnut and Tuffnut didn't answer. They simply giggled and grinned widely. Snotlout clasped his hand around Hiccup's, elbow on the table. Everyone had gathered around at this point; even the dragons stuck their heads in the door of the Clubhouse to see what the commotion was about.
"Alright," said Fishlegs. "Rules of arm-wrestling, just in case Snotlout over there wants to avoid them again. Elbows on table, no punching, biting, kicking, or calling to your dragons for help."
"Hear that, Hiccup?" said Snotlout. His teeth were already gritted in preparation for the wrestle that was about to commence. "No calling your Night Fury for help."
"And let the best man win," said Hiccup.
Normally, arm-wrestles were not a big deal, but at the moment, for these two Vikings in particular, it was. Snotlout was always boasting about his strength, and the twins knew Hiccup could beat Snotlout the same way he had beat Snotlout when they last fought, and Astrid and Fishlegs themselves were a bit excited.
"Three...two...one!" called Fishlegs, the twins, and Astrid in unison, and the arm-wrestle began.
Snotlout had been expecting to win within the first instant of the game, but when he pushed all his strength against Hiccup, he found he couldn't even so much as move Hiccup's arm, much less knock it to the table. Snotlout pushed harder; watching him struggle was almost comical, and the chicken, who was sitting atop Tuffnut's helmet to watch the show, clucked in disapproval at Snotlout's failure.
"What in the…" said Snotlout in disbelief, and he pushed harder. "How are you winning?"
Hiccup, in honesty, wasn't even trying. He hadn't even began trying.
"People always forget," said Hiccup, "that I grew up in a forge, as a blacksmith's apprentice."
"That shouldn't make you able to beat me!" said Snotlout, trying harder still, but no matter how hard he tried, or for how long he tried it, Hiccup's arm remained immovable. It was pathetic on Snotlout's part, really.
In the end, Hiccup, in one instant, slammed Snotlout's arm against the table so suddenly that Snotlout actually yelped. Fishlegs, the twins, and Astrid laughed while Snotlout jerked back his hand.
"That hurt!" moaned Snotlout.
The others only laughed harder. Outside, even the rumbles of the laughter of their dragons could be heard.
"Come on, Hookfang, not you too! You're above that!"
The laughter was cut off abruptly when the dragons began to growl lowly and glare onto the horizon. The dragon riders were on their feet instantly, and they raced outside to try and figure out what was wrong.
"Toothless!" Hiccup called when Toothless looked ready to jump off the platform and run off; Toothless turned his head, and Hiccup ran his hand over the dragon's scales. "Easy, bud...what's wrong?"
Toothless didn't respond in any other way than glaring even darker at the horizon. Hiccup lifted his head and looked; Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins followed his gaze.
"I can't see anything," said Astrid.
"We should go check it out," said Hiccup, and he mounted Toothless without another word and took off. Fishlegs, the twins, and Astrid soon followed him.
"Aw, come on!" groaned Snotlout, leaping onto Hookfang's back. "Of course! Let's all go see what the dragons are spooked about! Because anything that can spook a dragon can't be dangerous to us at all, can it!?"
"Come on, Snotlout!" Hiccup hollered.
"Urrrrgh, FINE!" moaned Snotlout. "And if we die for this, Hiccup, I'll kill you!"