Sorry for the long delay, I was experiencing a really bad case of 'writer's block'. Suffice to say its better now and I've got a clear outlook on where the story is headed.

Thank you everyone who favorited and followed the story, and a special thanks to those that reviewed.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter of Dances and Dreams.

Chapter 8: The Skrill

A high pitched shrieking sound broke the quiet and calm of the seaside encampment. The sentries posted around the forest of closely built tents and campfires instinctively jumped for cover and ducked, hand over their faces. They did not bother looking for the source of the sound, it was obvious what made it and in the darkness it would be impossible to see where the beast was. Every viking knows what to do when they hear this sound; you run, hide and hope it does not find you. Vikings would risk their life in battle any day, but to try and take on a nightfury in flight is just clean-cut suicide suicide.

The world around the sentries was illuminated with bright, neon-blue light as a blast of superheated fire hit the encampment. "Odin help us." One of the two sentries prayed, cowering down on the ground. The sound reached them a moment later, the blue explosion sounded like a roar from some beast from Hel, the sound itself being loud and painful to hear. Along with the sound came a wave of heat, washing over them and nullifying the frigid winter air. The sentries considered themselves lucky that they were far enough from the blast to not be burned to a crisp.

As soon as the blast dissipated, one of the sentries took the ram's horn tied on his belt and blew one long blast, alerting the camp of the danger and sounding the untimely alarm that it was. The encampment roared to life, vikings exited their tents and ran for their weapons, some of them ran towards the dragon pens at the far side of the camp attempting to get in the air and launch a counterattack on the aggressors. Teams were set up to fight the fires created by the initial explosion and dozens of warriors started scampering to the sea and back with buckets in order to quench the flames with cold water.

The calm was well and truly broken.

The first blast of fire was not the only that rained down on the vikings below. After the initial explosion dissipated, the camp was attacked with a horde of dragons, each dive-bombing the camp and destroying key targets such as ballistas and catapults. Fires were lighting around the camp faster than those on the ground could put them out, causing the air to be filled with a thick black smoke. Screams of those hit by dragon-blasts echoed through the camp drowning the orders that were shouted by leaders. The night descended into a sort of chaos that even Loki would be proud of

Eventually, they managed to get their own dragons in the air, yet because of the darkness and the thick black smoke the dragons could neither see nor smell the attackers, they were the metaphorical 'sitting ducks'. It didn't take long for the sensory deprived dragons to turn tail and run, their riders just as eager to get away from the mayhem.

The attack seemed to end almost as quickly as it began; one minute blasts of fire were falling from the sky like blazing spears and the next the silence returned. Despite the end of the battle the air was still thick with smoke and countless tents were burning, the flames spreading throughout the undisturbed parts of the encampment. Those that survived the attack attempted to combat the fires but eventually realised it was no use and the fires would overwhelm them. They left the camp, many of those who survived were wounded, burnt and bloody, yet their determination made them continue towards their ships moored on the beach several miles away from the tents, a journey that would take them hours in their condition.

The sun began to rise as the ragged group arrived at the beach, the sea and sand glowing warmly in the dawn light. At their arrival their eyes widened and voices left them as they looked at the scene before them. The beach was covered in the skeletons of ships burned to their core.

Meanwhile flying above a sapphire blue sea was Hiccup mounted on top of a smug looking had his helmet on and his visor down, protecting him from the wind and keeping his unwieldy hair at bay. The two flew seamlessly, they were less like two different beings and more like one creature. As Hiccup no longer had to control Toothless's tail-fin their flying became more instinctive; wherever the viking leaned the dragon followed.

Hiccup leaned forward and Toothless followed suit. They were dropping through the clouds, losing altitude at a breathtaking pace. An island appeared before them and they turned towards it and began coming in for a landing, gliding low above the sea. As they reached the land Toothless angled his wings and almost instantly slowed himself to a stop, landing on the ground in a solid 'thud'.

Another few thuds made the ground vibrate as the rest of Hiccup's squadron landed behind him. Jumping off of Toothless Hiccup took off his helmet letting it drop to the ground. His hair fell loosely as its restraint was taken away and the young man stood there for a moment, grim faced. Toothless turned to face him, sensing his rider's distress and gave him a questioning look. "Good job out there tonight." Hiccup said quietly, "Maybe too much of a good job, I wish we didn't have to do that."

Hiccup sighed, If there was one thing he hated was being responsible for loss of life but as chief he had more than just his feelings and morals to think about, the tribe must be defended; also, you'd think that after two weeks of this war any sentiments would be dropped. The thing about vikings though is that most did not share in Hiccup's sentiments, to a viking you only truly live while you have a sword in your hand on the field of battle and the only acceptable death is in combat. One such viking walked up behind him and greeted him with a hearty slap on his back.

"Hah! That was some great flying out there." Snotlout exclaimed as the brawny viking nearly knocked Hiccup over with his slap, "Not as good as me but impressive anyway."

And there was the mountain sized ego that Hiccup was used to from his cousin.

"I wouldn't say you were flying as much as 'not falling' out there." Astrid countered Snotlout as she got off of Stormfly, the blue dragon looking on in amusement as her rider mocked the brawny viking. You could always rely on Astrid keeping Snotlout's ego in check.

The third and final rider of Hiccup's squadron finally landed on the gravel beach with a heavy thump, his dragon larger than the rest, including Snotlout's monstrous nightmare. He jumped off of his timberjack, a large and light-brown, sharp-winged dragon, looking pleased with himself. His ink-black hair was tied up in a rouge knot and a machete-like dagger hung on his belt. A brown furskin cloak was hanging down his shoulders limply concealing the fact that he was almost shaking with the adrenalin coursing through his veins. Eret walked up to the already gathered group. "Well, chalk one up for the Berk boys." He said, and as Astrid cleared her throat he hastily added, "and Berk's girls too."

"I wouldn't be so quick to celebrate," Astrid began with a slight frown, "Did you see the sails on their ships?"

"No, I was too high and it was too dark for me to notice." Hiccup returned in answer, "What about them?"

"The sigils." Astrid simply said.

"Yeah, what about them." Snotlout then said inquisitively.

"They weren't all the purple whispering death of the Outcasts, two of the four ships we destroyed had the spiked black skrill of the Berserker tribe."

"That's... That's not good," Hiccup said after a moment of silence, "Are you sure that's what you saw? Maybe their sails were dirty?"

"Very funny." Astrid retorted, "It was a skrill on their sails, I'm sure of it."

"Great, just what we needed right now." Hiccup said darkly, "Why not add an armada of Berserkers against us, it's not like the Outcasts were enough of a problem!"

Anger should have been his first reaction or maybe even outrage or fear, but the only thing Hiccup felt was a sharp sense of annoyance at the Outcasts; they just had to go and make the war harder on the both of them. It was the previous Outcast war all over again, exactly the same as four years ago. Well, close enough, this time the Outcasts are allied to the Berserkers, not conquered by them, and with dragons added to the mix... it's not going to end as peacefully as the last one did.

As all this went through his mind, Hiccup noticed that he was pacing nervously. He attempted to calm down, taking a few deep breaths and regaining his composure. "We need to get back to Berk." Hiccup said finally, "The safety of the village is our top priority, we need to see to it." The others just nodded as they remounted their dragons.

They took to the skies, wind rushing past their faces at incredible speeds. Upon the backs of their dragons they soon left the small island they regrouped on behind, slowly disappearing behind the horizon. Setting a course towards home they rose above the clouds and flew quickly in silence. Well, the loud rushing air was not what one would call 'silent'.

After a half-hour of flying the squadron of riders saw Odin's Spear, the huge pike-like mountain that struck out from berk, coming over the horizon. They lowered until they were far beneath the clouds, flying in a 'V' formation. Suddenly, Hiccup heard a zipping sound as a crossbow bolt flew near him and Toothless.

A group of four warships were sailing far beneath them, their sails extended by the wind. The crew of the ship was on deck, weapons in hand. Two of the ships were armed with ballistas which were now being drawn. The massive spear-like arrows were pulled back and the sights were aimed at the dragons above; at Hiccup and his squadron.

"Everyone move! Now!" Hiccup yelled as he saw the ships targeting them. All the riders immediately split their formation, flying in patternless paths in order to make themselves less of a target. A ballista spear flew past them, harmlessly missing all of the dragons. It was quickly followed by another one that was closer to its mark yet missed nonetheless. Hiccup saw the opportunity, the ballistas were being reloaded. "Eret, take care of those ships!" He ordered, Eret nodded in confirmation from the back of Pikeglider.

The brown timberjack soared down to where his underbelly was almost skimming on the crystal-blue water, his spiked wings spread wide, eyes narrowed in wrathful determination. Eret was leaning forward in his saddle, looking at the fleet of ships ahead. On the sails of the ships was a curled, black skrill; Astrid was right.

Eret leaned as close as he could to Pikeglider as he readied for what he was going to go. Angling his sharp, spiked wings, the brown dragon flew through the cluster of ships, a loud cracking and splintering sound heralding this action. He looped around for another pass. The ships before the dragon and rider were crippled; their masts were no longer standing but instead have fallen on the hull of the longboats, cracking the deck. As the two made their second pass, Pikeglider blew a flurry of red and orange flames at the ship, igniting the and causing the crew to jump off or be consumed by the flames.

Eret returned to formation.

"Hah! Nice one!" Snotlout yelled from ontop of Hookfang.

"Thanks, I think." Returned Eret in reply.

He flew up beside Hiccup and Astrid at the front of the squadron, gliding just higher the two. Hiccup turned his helmeted head towards him as he flew up close.

"You alright Eret?" Hiccup asked

"Yeah, a lot better than those guys on the ships." Eret replied with a hint of comedy, then switching his voice to a darker tone he added, "By the way, Astrid was right, the Berzerkers are allied with Alvin."

Hiccup cringed. It's not like he didn't believe Astrid when she said she saw the black skrill on the sails of the moored ships, but a small part of him hoped she was wrong, that it was the consequence of the dim moonlight or the flickering shadows of the wildfire raging in the outcast encampment. There was no doubt of the fact now, no chance it was a miso-sight, in the broad daylight it was apparent they were up against a much larger force than what they first thought, and this chilled him to the core.

Knowing what an alliance between the Outcasts and the Berzerkers is capable of made Hiccup mutter a silent prayer to Tyr. It wasn't the first time the vikings of Berk went up against this alliance, just five years ago they defeated their combined force in a hellish battle that damn near destroyed the Outcast's home island. The only difference was that back then they had a few advantages in their corner. First of all, they were then the only tribe that rode dragons; unlike now when the Outcasts have the same ability. The second advantage, and the one that most likely won them the war was that the Berzerker leader, Dagur the Deranged, betrayed Alvin the Treacherous causing the latter to fight alongside the Berkian tribe in the liberation of his own.

'And how does he repay us?' Hiccup thought to himself.

The problem this time around is that Dagur is no longer the chief of the Berserkers and the current chief is not foolish enough to make the same mistake again.

Hiccup knew what he had to do.

"We are going straight to Berk," He began, "I am recalling all raiding parties, bringing all the scouts back, rallying the riders on Berk and calling off all planned attacks."

This announcement was met with a flurry of questions from Snotlout, Astrid and Eret, who were now gliding near him. He held up his hand for silence, then said stern faced, "It's the only way, we have to create an ironclad defense around the island or these might be the final days of Berk."

I hope you enjoyed. The story is reaching a climax, but worry not! There are still a few more chapters to go before I take a break from "Dances and Dreams".

In the meantime, I am working on another story and will give you more information on that later on (unless I see that people want to know more about it earlier, then I might put an excerpt from it into the A/N of the next chapter.)

Anyway, remember to review, follow or favorite!

~Shonstantin.