The Big Four Part I: Chapter 9

The horn was blown, audible from all corners of the kingdom. Fergus's attention shifted to the main door. He pushed his way through the crowd of Dingwalls, leaving the Great Hall.

Hiccup peeked out of the castle, but he couldn't see what the problem was, or why the horn was blown. Most likely, guards have spotted Dagur's ship approaching the island. Dagur still didn't know the Berkians were in the kingdom. The wild dragons were kept on the ground while Alvin's ship was well hidden in a place where one would have to look twice to find it.

He left with Fergus, telling all of the Berkians to keep them and the wild dragons hidden for the time being. Everyone else was forced to stay put, Queen Elinor watching closely. She observed every move made by everyone, even the Berkians.

Hiccup saw Dagur's ship and immediately retreated behind the castle walls. If Dagur or anyone of his armada knew he was here, then he wouldn't hesitate for one second to fire at the kingdom with everything he had.

"Stay here," Hiccup tells the Berkians as he reentered the Great Hall. "It's Dagur."

Fergus also reentered the Great Hall, signaling for everyone to come out. Obviously, the order did not include the Berkians, but they decided to take the risk and get a closer look. The wild dragons were kept hidden in the Great Hall under Toothless's watch.

They continued down to the docks, where Dagur was waiting. His whole armada was behind him, ready to fire upon the kingdom should anything happen. Elinor's eyes widened, shocked by the size of his armada. It made their previous wars with each other and against the invaders from the north look like child's play.

"King Fergus of DunBroch!" exclaims Dagur in a fake cheerful manner.

"Dagur the Deranged, chief of the Berserker Tribe! Now, why would I ever be expecting you any time soon?" says Fergus, trying not to spill any information about any Berkians lurking about on the island.

"I've been thinking. What exactly could your daughter be doing on the Isle of Berk, hanging out with Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III?"

Fergus knew Dagur had Merida, but Dagur didn't know he knew. "Uh… I'd say she was trying to find a way back to DunBroch."

"Then why, tell me, was she with him on Outcast Island conspiring with Alvin the Treacherous along with the chief of Berk? Tell me why she was on Changewing Island not more than a week later with him? Tell me why she's working with him, working with Princess Rapunzel of the fallen kingdom Corona, working with not one, but two Guardians!"

Man, did he know a lot about what's happened in the past two weeks. How could he possibly know of Rapunzel's kingdom, or about the Guardians? No one ever spilled a word to him, and although Jack was with them the first two encounters, no one ever told Dagur what Jack was. And then there was Bunnymund, whom Dagur has never seen.

Bunnymund reappeared on the armada's lead ship, below deck where he was out of sight. No one bothered to check down there—no one could possibly get there unseen, right?

"I'm sorry, but I wasn't aware of that. I thought she just got lost, probably took the wrong ship and ended up where she was."

Dagur just grumbled slightly. "Cut it, Fergus." Two Berserkers came forward and tied his hands behind him. Fergus glanced back toward the castle. Hiccup had his back on the other side of the wall closest to them, listening carefully. Jack was waiting uphill, peeking out just enough so he could see Hiccup.

Astrid was forced to literally restrain Snotlout by wrapping her arms around him as he struggled to break free of her grip. She even took them back to the Great Hall. Snotlout mistook it for Astrid trying to embrace him as if she suddenly liked him, which just made him struggle even more.

Bunnymund, still sneaking around below deck of the lead ship, finally found Merida when he decided to take a peek above deck. She was tied to the mast of the ship, trying to get a good look at what was going on with Dagur and Fergus.

The conversation was cut off by a shout, followed by two splashes. Dagur didn't see it, but he could definitely hear the two Berserkers hit the water. He left Fergus right where he was to check on his ship, only to find Merida still tied up and unattended. He double–checked every nook and cranny of the place but ended up empty–handed. No one else on the ship.

Dagur returned to face Fergus again after the confusing search. He was grumbling slightly as his feet flopped over the wood.

Again, sounds, but this time on a different ship. More shouts. More splashes. Dagur squeezed his eyes shut, completely pissed off. He didn't even think twice about it before yelling, "Fire!"

Suddenly, Merida was seen jumping off the ship and colliding with Dagur. But the Berserker catapults had fired upon the kingdom, headed straight for the castle. Most people just watched as each projectile reached the kingdom, some coming up short. Some tried to make their way back up to the castle, others tried to engage them while they were still at sea, while they still had the upper hand.

All the commotion sent the dragons in the Great Hall into a state of panic, breaking Toothless's control over them. It also caused Astrid to lose her grip on Snotlout, who fled the Great Hall and tried to find Hookfang. Fishlegs saw them pouring out, and since there was no turning back from here, he found Meatlug, mounted her, and took off with the dragon root in hand.

Dagur, though still towered over by Merida, managed to catch a glimpse of what was going on. "Oh, I see," he says to himself. "They had this here all along."

"Hello Dagur," grumbles Merida. "I don't think you'll be able to strike any deals with DunBroch. Or Berk. Or even the Guardians."

"I wasn't planning to," says Dagur, grabbing his sword and swiping it at Merida. She managed to jump back in time, back toward the kingdom. Seeing the opportunity to run, she turned her back and made a beeline for the kingdom.

Dagur was about to follow her, but he wasn't aware that Bunnymund had snuck back onto the lead ship. An egg bomb came flying straight toward him, blowing up right in front of him. A wall of pink smoke formed around him, rendering him unable to see anything more than two meters in front of him. He decided to turn away and head back to the others, who were just reaching land. He didn't know the island nearly as well as Fergus did, so he decided not to take the risk of navigating through a smokescreen. "Trappers!" he yells.

The wild dragons above went completely mad with Fishlegs holding the dragon root. He tried to take it lower, hoping that the wild dragons would take out maybe a ship or two. Maybe even attack them directly. But there wasn't even five seconds between Dagur's voice and the first net that came their way.

Panicking, Fishlegs dropped the dragon root, and it somehow managed to end up on a ship, rolling around. Those onboard were made aware of its presence by a loud thud, along with finding the root rolling around the ship.

All of the wild dragons instantly stopped following Fishlegs and converged onto the one ship, taking it out in less than ten seconds. "Must suck for whoever was manning that one," mutters Fishlegs. The root sunk into the water with an inaudible and nearly invisible splash as it went with the ship, causing chaos to ensue with the wild dragons. With nothing to control them and people attacking from different directions, they all seemed to split off and fire straight at whatever they desired.

Hiccup assumed Dagur knew he was on the island. That meant there was no harm in revealing himself to the armada. He was now headed downhill, although Toothless was still up in the castle. Fergus and the lords were watching the wild dragons working everything out.

Astrid came rushing down along with Toothless. The twins flew straight over them, creating a wall of explosive gas in front of the armada. Many of the wild dragons were already downed by the Berserker nets, leaving the clans as DunBroch's only line of defense.

Hiccup quickly jumped onto Toothless as they passed by. He didn't even stop to say anything to Astrid as they took off toward Fishlegs.

Merida ran in the direction opposite of all the action. She was still headed up toward the castle, dust thrown up by the countless rock that had rained down on the kingdom. Her view and pathway was obstructed, but not so much that she couldn't navigate up to the castle.

All clan members were present this time. Or at least those who haven't fled yet. While they were badly outnumbered by Dagur's armada, they still somehow managed to hold them off. Was it because of the assistance from the dragon riders? Maybe, but they had their own matter to attend to in this fight. Those trappers were a big issue.

With Hiccup and the other riders now in the air, only about half of their squadron of wild dragons was still up. The rest were trapped under nets or ensnared by bola slings. But whenever a wild dragon crashed into a ship, that ship would usually go down with it, as the impact drew holes on the sides. Water continued to flood onto the ship until the thing was finally submerged as far as it could possibly go.

"Probably want to take out those catapults first," Hiccup calls out as he barely dodged a net. He was a priority target, not only because Dagur thought of him too much, but because Toothless was an alpha, because he was the chief. The commander. Yet again, they didn't know that Toothless was an alpha.

By now, Merida was back up at the castle. She couldn't just jump in there, not without a bow and some arrows. No, they were still on the ship, and with the amount of Berserkers already on the island, any attempt to grab it would be suicide.

She fled back into the castle along with a few others, hoping the battle would just die out already. She felt she had enough of this war, enough of Dagur, enough of these invaders. Three attacks in what, two weeks? It feels like they won't ever stop coming until DunBroch falls.

Berserkers continued to set foot on the island, pushing the clans back uphill toward the castle. At some point, Alvin decided to join them, knowing it would be useless to keep hiding. On land, they were losing this fight, but back out at sea, they were told otherwise.

A good chunk of the catapults have already been taken out by the riders. Most of the ships that still had proper dragon trapping equipment were too far out, meaning they couldn't target the riders.

However, most of the dragons were beginning to reach their shot limits. Toothless, for one, was already out, all six shots exhausted. Snotlout and Hookfang have used eight of their ten, and Fishlegs and Meatlug have used five of six. Eventually, they simply just resorted to landing on a ship, destroying whatever was on it with whatever weapon they had, and then leaving. There were a few close calls, like when a blade missed Astrid's ankles by inches when she jumped off the port, trusting Stormfly to pick her up.

It was easier for Hiccup because he had the Monstrous–Nightmare–and–Zippleback–powered sword on him. He could choose between cutting and burning the supports or just simply blowing it up with the gas.

Dagur looked back to the ships and grumbled in frustration. I'm not losing another fight here! I am not going to just end up giving DunBroch both their daughter and dragons!

"Sir! We're surrounded from all sides!" yells a Berserker.

Dagur just became even more frustrated with every word he heard. He scanned his surroundings as arrows flew overhead. They were losing this fight, and he knew it. Suddenly, he spotted an opening that would lead him straight to the forest. It was a straight pathway, too simple that simply trying to walk down it would cause all eyes of the kingdom to shift to him.

So he used what was left of Bunnymund's egg bombs. The smoke provided enough cover for him to successfully navigate the open battlefield to the forest. He didn't care that he was leaving his entire tribe there. He only cared about getting himself out of this situation.

So he managed to use the smokescreen for cover. Along the way, he did trip several times—he couldn't see his feet. But scraped knees was the least of his worries. He can tend to that later, in a safer place.

He decided to hide in the forest. Watching the rest of his tribe get trampled by the kingdom, its clans, and the alliance with Berk, he determined it was best to just run. Run into the forest, where it would take countless search parties to find him.

But is this now a survival game? Is he to just survive on this island for as long as possible? If they find him, they're just going to execute him. If he remains missing, he won't be able to do anything without a ship or his armada.

I take it everywhere I go, he thinks, navigating through the trees. The sun hung low, and he could barely see a thing.

He even ended up bumping into a tree trunk or two. Soon, he reached the sea again, on the other side of the island. Looking around, he found nothing but an anchored ship. He smirked when he spotted the Berk crest on the sail waving in the wind.

Back in the kingdom, Rapunzel was tending to Pascal and Maximus while Hiccup was having a conversation with Fergus and the lords. It wasn't the prettiest, as MacGuffin still felt nervous about having both Vikings and dragons in the kingdom. He argued that Vikings were once their enemies, but Fergus would always say that it was all behind them. Eventually, though, he did submit to allowing them to roam around DunBroch.

Everyone found their old rooms from when they were in DunBroch the week before and settled there. It didn't look like they'd be leaving any time soon, and the clans were still rounding up stray Berserkers.

Rapunzel met with Jack near Max's stall. She was finally able to be with him and Pascal after nearly a week.

"I doubt that's anything close to what Dagur has to offer," says Jack.

A member of clan Macintosh rushed by, straight into the castle. A loud voice arose from inside a few seconds later, and the door burst open. Fergus and Alvin stood in the doorway, the Macintosh member fleeing the castle.

"No sign of Dagur, he says," mutters Alvin. "Talk about not finding Dagur in that forest, I'm going to find Dagur in that forest whether it kills me or not. Whether it takes me five minutes or a million years. I'm going to find him." Alvin paused. "And then when I do, I'm going to rip his teeth out with my bare hands, and then I'm—,"

"Whoa," says Rapunzel, cutting him off. "Holding a grudge there, are you? What's with this attitude around Dagur?"

"Justified if you ask me," says Alvin. Rapunzel gave him a questioning look, as this was clearly not the answer Rapunzel was looking for. "You wouldn't know what it's like to be ripped away from your homeland twice."

"Do I?" challenges Rapunzel. "Maybe you're the one who doesn't know what it's like to have your kingdom destroyed! Outcast Island may have been taken over by Dagur, but everything that was there before was still there when he took the place. For my kingdom? They ripped the whole place apart from the inside, using everything they can find for nothing that would do either of us any good!"

Jack and Fergus exchanged glances. Did Jack remember clearly what happened back in Corona? That wasn't how Jack remembered the fate of the kingdom. He didn't see it ripped apart from the inside. Rather, he saw the invaders raiding the island, and that was it. But after all, she was the last person to see it. But how could she see what was happening from the forest? "You're making up the 'kingdom destroyed from inside' part, are you?" he asks.

"Actually, in fact, I'm assuming that's what they did when I had my last look at home." Rapunzel ran off the sentence as if she had something else to say, but she kept silent.

"Anyway, I'll see you guys after sundown. I'm going out there." Alvin trailed off and left, disappearing into the woods. No one even made an attempt to stop him from reaching the forest.

"Okay," says Jack, "back to what I was saying before.

"I doubt that's close to anything that Dagur had to offer. Do you think he'd even try to take the kingdom if that was the kind of performance his armada would put up?"

"Probably not," replies Rapunzel.

"Exactly. Him back there? That was pathetic. I'm telling you. Pa-the-tic. So bad that it's even dawned on me that he may have planned for this to happen."

Hiccup walked into the stables, the unmistakable clanking of his prosthetic leg resounding through the stables every time it touched DunBroch's soil. "You are aware that we're right back where we started, right?"

Rapunzel and Jack thought for a moment, realizing that they were. The only difference was that Eugene's spot was filled by Bunnymund, whose current location was unknown at the moment (he's so fast).

"Am I the only one who realized that Dagur's armada performed like they were improvising from the start?" asks Jack after he found that they were going in circles.

"Yes you are," says Rapunzel. "So what are you going to do if you're right? What can we do if you think Dagur planned to lose?"

Jack inhaled deeply, held up a finger, and kept silent. Somewhere the words were lost in the transmission between his thoughts and his mouth, resulting in only a slight crack in his voice. He exhaled saying, "Yeah, I have no idea."

Hours passed since Alvin left. No sign of him, Dagur, or any member of the Berserker tribe. Everyone from the Berserkers was already accounted for and locked up, filling up over half of DunBroch's prison system. Some were even locked up in the cellar, and with that many people confined to one space, it's hard to not sweat even if it was winter.

Suddenly, Alvin reappeared in the kingdom. No one noticed him enter—people only became aware of his presence once he was inside the castle. "He got away!" he mutters to himself in the Great Hall, rage swelling inside him. "He took my ship and left!" he shouts one hundred times louder.

Most of the gang was able to hear him. Rapunzel chuckled lightly and slowly crept in the opposite direction from which the voice came as it resonated through the various hallways in the complex. Jack was already in the Great Hall and ignored Alvin and letting him take his rage out on one of the life–sized bears lined on the walls of the hall. He grabbed an axe and tossed it, the blade clipping the head. And in all the chaos between Alvin and the life–sized bear, Merida just had to be out for target practice in the kingdom's fields while Hiccup and the other riders decided that in the meantime they should go hunting for Dagur.

With Alvin's arms still flailing around, a deep ringing could be heard throughout the kingdom. For those outside, their eyes fluttered toward the sky, seeing dark figures zoom across their vision from far away. Looking out toward the sea, a small white cloud could be seen progressing toward the kingdom with every passing second.

At first, most passed it off as just fog, but taking a closer look, they realized it wasn't; it doesn't just travel like that. A smokescreen, perhaps?

In the Great Hall, Fergus had already pulled Alvin away from the kingdom's life–sized bear and was rebuking him for his behavior.

"And what do you suppose you want us to do? Hide and wait until Dagur destroys the entire kingdom, perhaps every kingdom out there? Hide and wait for him to hunt you down?

"You're just like how Stoick was back then. A coward who would only remain at home and wait for his enemies to pay him a visit.

"And what did that get him? It let my tribe take over his village, albeit only for a short time, and it also got him captured by Dagur, even with me fighting on his side the entire time!"

"Maybe, but—,"

He was cut off by the blowing of a horn in the fields. How is that even possible? Dagur's attack was only a few hours ago, and more than half of his tribe was locked up in the murky prison system.

"Oh, for the— what is it this time?" exclaims Fergus, completely riled. He stormed out of the castle, where clan members were pointing down toward the sea. He did see the 'cloud' but he had no idea what exactly it was. But whatever it seemed to be, it was closing in on DunBroch. It rapidly approached the kingdom, covering ground at a steady pace.

No one knew what it was. Hiccup and the other riders were a long ways out—too far away to hear or see any activity in the kingdom.

So they just waited. They waited for the smoke cloud to reach them, so they could find out what it was. As a precaution, they all held their weapons in hand. Spears, swords, and bola slings were all in the hands of clan members.

But once the smoke cloud reached their kingdom, it was just chaos from then on. People were being sucked in by the cloud and spot out a few seconds, later, stripped of their weapon.

It went on for a couple of minutes. By then, nearly everyone had lost their weapons except for bows. The sword–holders seemed to be a huge target—they were the first to lose their weapons, followed by those armed with bolas and spears. Everyone's shields were also snatched. The ones holding bows seemed to be targeted the least. A single arrow would be snatched here and there, and that was pretty much it. Other than that, they were left untouched, even as they sent several arrows flying into the cloud or slapping something in there with their bows.

A small figure shot out of the cloud. It was too dark to see very well, but once could easily spot the pair of wings along with a huge mouth. Both must have been at least the size of its body, maybe even a bit larger. It instantly took off toward the forest, away from the kingdom.

Then, one by one, figures shot out of the cloud, which was shrinking with every passing second. Each one looked the same. Soon enough, the cloud of white smoke had ceased to exist, and every weapon and shield possessed by the clans except for the bows were gone as well.

Then it was over. They were gone in a flash. In the end, they left no marking that showed that they have even visited the place. The only thing that proved they were there was the thing that wasn't there. It had not even lasted five minutes.

Merida came dashing into the scene to find that everyone was weaponless. She had ignored the horn earlier, knowing how there was no chance that Dagur could be back already.

But to find everyone weaponless? That's not what she was expecting when she dashed into the kingdom. Finding it out seemed almost impossible to the point where it was almost comical in a way, but knowing that it was a serious matter, she tried her hardest not to show any sign of amusement.

"Uh…" starts Merida, still wondering what had happened. "What just happened now?"

Fergus grunted as he helped himself back onto his feet. "Something, I don't know. But it took all of our weapons. Swords, bolas, spears, everything but the bows."

All of a sudden, Hiccup and Toothless were seen landing behind Fergus. They looked like they had just finished that last stretch in a race, but that didn't stop Hiccup from hurrying over to Fergus.

"We saw everything," says Hiccup. "From the smoke to the kingdom off to somewhere else.

"We were too far out to try and head back. They beat us here by a longshot, and now it has cost you your weapons."

"What were they?" says Fergus quizzically.

"Smothering Smokebreaths," answers Hiccup. "A mystery class dragon, it hoards metal objects to build its nest in order to protect itself from larger dragons."

"And how would you know so much about that?" says Dingwall, challenging his knowledge.

"Because I come from an island where you can find a dragon every ten feet you walk. Believe me, Berk's been in this situation before, without their weapons. Back when Dagur was on the loose for the first time.

"But first thing's first. What you want to do is locate the nest. Seems simple enough, right?"

"Aye," mutters Fergus.

"Unfortunately not. You're pressed on time. Its fire can melt steel, which it then reforms to make its nest. So once that sword of yours is gone, it won't be easy to reform it. And it will only get worse from this point on. They're going to keep coming back for more metal until they've stripped you of all metal available, from your weapons all the way down to something like my leg."

The level of panic only rose once they found out they had a time limit. How are they supposed to find a Smothering Smokebreath nest—which is often well hidden—in a period of less than a day? Maybe Berk was robbed of their weapons too, but they knew more about dragons than those on DunBroch. And DunBroch residents may only learn a mere fraction of what Berkians know about dragons.

The rest of the gang flew into the kingdom, landing right in front of the clans. Tuffnut was talking very loudly, his voice able to reach the other side of the forest. He was talking about blowing something up (what a surprise!), and somewhere he mentioned Dagur.

Astrid shut him up him a few seconds after they touched ground. Tuffnut shut his trap and looked forward to find the entire kingdom staring at the five of them. "What?" he asks.

Astrid observed the crowd to find everyone weaponless except for bows. If they were running around with bows and arrows, why didn't they have anything else to carry around? They didn't see the cloud, so they were all confused as to what exactly was going on.

"Alright. What happened here?" asks Astrid.

"Uh, funny you should mention that, but uh…" starts Hiccup, but he trailed off after finding that Astrid wasn't joking around.

"A swarm of Smothering Smokebreaths came to DunBroch while we were gone. They stripped all of the kingdom of its weapons and shields. They're only going to come back night after night until the entire kingdom falls to its knees and is taken over by Dagur," says Hiccup, speeding through his sentences. His speech was barely intelligible, and it took Astrid several moments to piece it together.

"Wait. You what with Smothering Smokebreaths?" she says. "Oh. Wait. What? You're saying that they're just starting to go through something that nearly destroyed Berk?"

"Exactly what I'm saying," replies Hiccup. "Except this time we know what it is that's doing this. This time, we just need to find it and find a way to get the weapons back."

Lord MacGuffin was standing in front of the entire crowd, even in front of Fergus and the other lords, but he hasn't uttered a single word. His jaw had never dropped, and it seemed as if he were dealing with thoughts swimming around in his head. He just stared at Hiccup and the other riders, then at where he thought was the direction in which the Smothering Smokebreaths took off.

"It's all on him!" he yells suddenly.