章 20: Life on the Edge
Two weeks had rushed by and the team were eager to get some rest after all the work that had been going on renovating the buildings on the Edge to livable standards. For starters, the walls around the Clubhouse had to be torn down and built from scratch, holes in the roof were patched and some floor panels were changed.
The gears in the training arena had to be oiled and two of them were changed. The wooden planks covering the crack on the arena floor were completely changed as were the coverings of the dome. The stables had their doors changed and rotten wood replaced, but the real work came in the homes.
Rune rebuilt what was left of Toothless' head on the home and proceeded to paint it brown with black markings around the head knobs and two on the head showing the spikes a Sandwraith had on it's head. He also got the stone bed Toothless used to sleep on out of the home and built a wooden frame to house the sand he was going to pour down for Sandstorm's bed. He had his hands his hands full repairing any worn out parts in the forge and fixing up the house until it was up to standard.
Thyra took the twins hut and she had a lot to do, thankfully, Forde was there to help her out. Their first order of business was to replace the fallen half of the hut as the balloons had long deflated causing half of the hut to fall off. They built a wooden platform from the rock surface out to support the other half of the hut and they made sure it was sturdy enough to support the additional weight of Rampage whenever he might enter. The next thing she did was fill up the boar pit as she had no interest in wrestling boars, after that, she took on carving out an image of Rampage's head out of wood and coloring it before placing it on the entrance to her hut.
She knocked down the wall separating the hut into two so she had more space to fit her weapons and private training room. She also changed the color of the walls to dark brown then got some tree branches and tied them up together, she dipped them in two shades of green paint to give her hut some camouflage to blend in with her surroundings in case of intruders.
Forde made little to no changes to Fishleg's hut as that was the one he laid claim too, other than sprucing up it's decaying wood with new ones, he overall enjoyed it's design. The only major adjustment was the creation of a wine cellar as he did love his wine. He also changed the Hut's colour to red and fixed up the Nadder head from Astrid's hut to place on his own as he had it also coloured in red just like Spikethorn.
Vyra had a different thing on her mind when she was to lay claim to her cousin's hut, the first thing she wanted to do was remove everything Astrid from it, starting with the mass of weapons. She did keep some for herself cuz why not, but she donated most of the lot to the others with Thyra packing most of it home. She also wanted to remove the ballista but Rune convinced her that it was better to leave it be, she had the entire hut painted a beige colour and she was the only one not to place a dragon head over her hut. She deemed recreating all the frills on her dragon too exhausting to do.
Last but not the least was Sten, the first thing he did was get the hut lowered from the Snotlout statue which he later restored to it's former glory in homage to the ones before them. He was able to clean up the place in no time and began storing Nightmare gel just like his mentor had taught him too.
They also got the watch towers in shape and created a roaster for who took watch, and when. All seemed to be going according to plan for them. Now it was time for them to address the main reason why they were here, to face Dane and his growing forces. A meeting had been scheduled to take place in the clubhouse and all were present except for Rune and Sandstorm.
"Can you believe it. He was the one reminding everyone about the meeting tomorrow and he isn't even here" Sten said annoyed.
"I swear, when I see him I'm going to make him regret keeping me waiting for two hours" Thyra said angrily.
"Rune better hurry up and show up cuz Thyra is not messing around" Forde said cautiously to Vyra.
"I know and she could really hurt him if he isn't back soon" she replied.
Away from the Edge, Rune and Sandstorm were at full speed high in the sky pushing it to their limits. Sandstorm used his powerful wings to propel himself and his rider higher as they began navigating through the clouds. He moved left and right, up and down, avoiding each mass of vaporized water with precision before shooting out higher than the cloud cover as they came to cruising speed. Rune leaned to the edge of his saddle as he put his hands into a cloud feeling the tiny water droplets within it.
Then he looked behind to see how Sandstorm dispersed bits of the clouds because of his speed. He faced forward and rubbed his hand on the head of his dragon as he purred.
"Alright bud, time to head back to Dragon's Edge. Don't want to be late for the meeting don't we?" he said as Sandstorm replied with a coo.
"Okay then, let's head home"
The two prepared themselves for what was about to happen, with a powerful flap, the dragon lifted himself and his rider into a spin as they began to dive through the clouds. They descended faster and faster until they came out of the clouds shielding their eyes from what awaited them on the sea. They shot out of the clouds not knowing that hunters carrying their cages full of dragons laid wait until it was too late.
"Sandstorm!!" Rune said worryingly as they got closer.
The Sand Wraith grunted and opened his wings ending the dive. In less then no time, they were spotted by the hunters with some of them firing arrows at them but they were out of reach.
"Whew, that was close. Thank goodness we saw them on time. We have to report this to the others" Rune said as he and his dragon went back to base.
The rest of the group were still gathered at the Clubhouse waiting for Rune's return and were finally alerted of his coming by a familiar howl from Sandstorm. The dragon landed at the clubhouse entrance and the first to get up was Thyra.
"Look who finally decided to show up" she said gritting her teeth with a sword in her hand.
"Sorry I'm late guys, I lost track of time" he apologized unaware of the danger approaching as he unmounted his dragon.
Thyra continued to walk towards him grinding her teeth as she raised her sword.
"What's going on with her?" he said before realizing what was going on. "OH Thor"
Rune quickly jumped out of the way as the sword came hurling at his head, Sandstorm ducked as well recognizing the danger. He knew Rune had to figure this one out himself and scurried away to safety.
"Should we help him or...."
"Let him pay for coming late" Vyra answered Forde.
"I'm down with that" Sten added.
Rune held up a chair like a shield to block an axe thrown at him as he slid behind the table with Thyra chasing after him.
"I said I'm sorry!" he yelled. "Just lost track of time, you know how it can be when you're on a joy ride!!!!" he added as he ducked, then feinted to the left avoiding a mace and a sword.
"If I die now, you wouldn't know where the hunters I spotted are!" he said catching their attention.
"It's okay Thyra. I think he get's the message now" Vyra said.
"Next time you're late, I wouldn't take it so easy" she grunted.
"Noted" he said with fear.
"So, where did you say you saw those hunters?" Forde asked.
"About forty miles Northwest of here" he answered.
"Did you see if it they any dragons? How armed were they?" Sten asked.
"We didn't exactly stick around that long to get all those details down"
"We work with the info we have and try to make the best out of it. Let's get our wings in the sky and stop those guys from harming anymore dragons" Vyra said.
"Agreed!" they chorused.
It only took them a matter of minutes before they were in the sky and en-route to take on the hunters. All their training came down to this moment, the very essence of why they left Berk, to prove themselves that they were worthy of doing it on their own. They flew Northwest and it didn't take too long for them to catch up with the hunters.
"I've spotted them" Rune said looking through his spyglass.
"How many ships?" Thyra asked.
"Five, I can see five. Might be more nearby. So keep your eyes peeled" he advised as they came up on the hunters
"Alright guys, it all comes down to this. The very reason why we left Berk. To prove that we can do it on our own" Rune said as his friends understood the gravity of things.
"Don't worry, as long as we have each other, we got this" Forde said.
"Well said my man, those hunters have no idea of what's coming for them" Sten said
"Alright team, let's do this!" he charged as they followed with cries of their own.
"Dragon RIDERS!!" a man cried, alerting the fleet of the team's presence.
"Don't let them escape" yelled one.
"Attack!" cried another as they began firing arrows and hooks at them.
"Take out the heavy artilleries first, then we can start looking at freeing the dragons if there are any" Rune said.
"Copy that" Vyra said as they began to break up, each with a target in mind.
Sandstorm maneuvered through a field of arrows before before blasting down a ballista. He then circled back to fire at a catapult, hitting the deck below it so that it could cave in. Eruptor unleashed a stream of fire on the ship below, setting the sail and mast on fire in the process. A hunter took aim at the duo, getting ready to fire an arrow at the dragon but was soon blasted away by a shot from Thyra. Forde hit the bottom of a mast causing it to fall over and hit down a catapult while as Vyra flew Stormbreaker down to grab a couple of hunters and throw them into the ocean.
Rune raised his hand up in a fist before raising a finger and moving it to create a circle signaling them to start moving out the dragons. He and Thyra landed on one ship with Vyra and Forde landing on another as Sten stayed in the air alongside Eruptor to give them cover from above.
Rampage ran through the two of them hitting two hunters into the sea as Rune clashed his axe with the sword of a hunter. He then jumped over the hunter's blade as he swung at his legs, he then swung his axe at his shoulder but he blocked it. Thyra hit a mace out of a hunter's hand and then swung her hammer at his head sending him flying into the ocean, she then side stepped to the right avoiding a spear swing before hitting him in the gut and stomping on his head knocking him out.
Vyra ran on the deck of the ship before going down on her knees and sliding as she avoided a sword aiming for her head. She turned around quickly to see the hunter get launched off the boat by a tail swing from Stormbreaker. Forde blocked an attack then kicked his enemy in the knee forcing him to loose balance as he slammed his head against a cage knocking him out. The two got to freeing the dragons with the team ultimately making wrapping things up in a victory.
There were smiles all around Dragon's Edge with the riders happy with their accomplishment. They five of them gathered in the clubhouse alongside their dragons as they had a victory dinner together.
"Finally, our first unsupervised raid. It felt so good not having someone constantly watching you and correcting you on every little thing" Sten said.
"I do admit it did feel good but I do miss the little tips they did give us while we worked" Forde commented.
"Yeah, yeah, but now we get to learn some tricks of our own as well" Thyra said.
"I know we did well today, but there is still room for improvement. There is still so much we can be" Rune said.
"Way to ruin all the fun" Sten said with a grumpy tone.
"He's right, we shouldn't get carried away with one victory. We're still going to go on many more raids and some will go smoothly, and the others not so much. All we have to do is be ready for anything" Vyra said supporting Rune's reality check.
"Exactly, like for starters, I might need some more one on one sparring sessions. I can recall one trapper in particular giving me a tough time" Rune said.
"I do recall some of Spikethorn's shots being a bit off as well. Why don't we have a practice session tomorrow?" he asked his dragon who chirped happily at that.
"Can I join in?" Thyra asked.
"Sure, why not" said Forde.
With everyone talking about their plans to get better, the only one who didn't speak was Sten and it was a matter of time before someone jumped on his case.
"What about you Sten, what are you going to do tomorrow?" Vyra asked.
"Nothing, Eruptor and I are the perfect team, aren't we?" He said but his dragon huffed and looked away.
"I don't think Eruptor thinks so" Thyra giggled.
He then looked at Vyra who stared at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Well I guess some of our turns today weren't as sharp" he mumbled.
"Good, you could work on that tomorrow" she said.
"Alright gang, I'm glad we all see places we can improve. I'm going to hit the hay" Rune said as he departed alongside Sandstorm leaving the others to talk into the night.
His real intentions were far from that as he had begun a new project. He had stumbled upon plans for Hiccup's old shield and wanted to create one with the ability to shoot Z.E.Ps alongside it's regular armament.
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