Ever since being captured, Eret's life had not been easy. He had scars on his arms and on his face from where Drago or Savage had hit him, and his hands were sore from working on catapults and various cannons for their army.
Drago had been planning a war for a few days now, and they were about to cross the Barbaric Sea to get to Berk. The only problem was that they didn't have any boats and that their dragons weren't suitable for flying, and even if they were, the dragons couldn't carry all of the catapults and cannons.
After standing around the shoreline for a few minutes wondering how they were going to cross the sea, Drago picked up his staff and started swinging it around his head, yelling his signature yell.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAA!” he screamed, and Eret wondered how he hadn't lost his voice yet. “AAAAAAAAAAAA!”
Immediately, the Bewilderbeast, who had been standing behind the army, walked slowly closer to the shoreline, crushing a few cannons and catapults and even a few men. The huge beast had a peculiar yet angry look on his face, as if he knew he was about to face the Night Fury that had beaten and humiliated him.
As the dragon came closer to Drago, the man stopped screaming, and pointed his staff at the raging sea in front of them. The Bewilderbeast understood.
It reared up on its back legs and, after a taking a large breath, spat out countless shards of ice at the water, causing it to freeze instantly. The wave of ice continued as far as the eye could see, giving the army a path to walk on.
“WALK!” Drago yelled at the soldiers, and they immediately picked up ropes that were attached to the weapons and starting making their way across the ice. Occasionally it cracked, and the men froze in fear of it breaking, but nothing happened.
The Bewilderbeast, who knew that his weight would be too much for the ice path, walked back and dived into the ocean where it was still liquid. The size of the beast caused a gigantic splash, swamping the part of the island they were on and washing away some of the weaponry. After a few seconds, the dark silhouette of the dragon could be seen swimming beneath them, its tusk resembling a drill slicing the water. Eret wondered just how deep the water was if a full-grown Bewilderbeast could comfortably swim in it.
“WAAAAAAALK!” Drago yelled again, and Savage cracked a whip from nearby, causing a few men to cry out in pain. Eret hastily started pulling the catapult his rope was attached to as fast as he could, as he didn't want to be on the receiving end of that whip.
It was a very slow walk. About a third of the soldiers, who must have been ones that had been working for Drago for a while, didn't have to drag any weapons along. They walked on either side of the army, several of them holding whips of their own to keep the other men in line.
The dragons, who were each chained and muzzled so that they could walk but not fly away, were assisting in dragging the weaponry across the ice. A few were wearing iron armour and, just like the soldiers with whips, were keeping the others in line. Eret looked around and sadly spotted Skullcrusher not too far away from him. The poor dragon was as scarred as his rider, if not more.
From beneath them, the Bewilderbeast was slowly swimming just ahead of them, as if leading the way. His remaining tusk knocked against the ice as he swam, causing the ground beneath the army's feet to shake, which made the men a little nervous. It was a regular cycle: every few seconds, the tusk would bang against the ice again, and again, and again, until one Hobblegrunt couldn't take it anymore. The constant knocking and shaking of the ice had driven the poor creature insane.
It started screeching and roaring wildly, swinging its head from side to side as if to rid it of the noise. It ripped the muzzle off its snout in its frenzy, sending the now deformed metal plate sliding across the ice and started madly shooting fire in all directions, ignorant of the fact the ice around it was starting to melt because of it. Most of the men stepped back to avoid being hit by the fire, but some were hit and sent to the ground.
“GET THAT DRAGON UNDER CONTROL!” shouted Savage, cracking his whip again. Immediately a couple of men dropped their ropes and tried to hold the Hobblegrunt in place, but it was moving too much for them to get a hold of it.
Drago turned around to see what all the commotion was. A look of frustration formed on his face as he saw the distressed dragon, and he marched angrily from the front row towards it.
At first he was going to scream to try and take control of the Hobblegrunt, but he smiled as he thought of a better solution, that would serve as an example to any other dragon that tried to escape, whether it was voluntary or not.
Drago lashed out with his metal arm, sending the dragon to the ground. It lay there for a few seconds, partly unconscious, but then slowly starting getting up again. But Drago didn't give it the chance to.
With one big blow of his staff, he broke the ice around the Hobblegrunt, sending it plunging into the icy depths below. The chains wrapped around its wings weighed it down, and this made it unable to swim back upwards again. For a while, the poor dragon's screams could be heard bubbling to the surface, but then, silence.
Drago simply smiled and walked back to the front line, yelling out to the others: “AND MAY THAT SERVE AS AN EXAMPLE TO ANYONE WHO TRIES TO ESCAPE!”
Unfortunately, before hearing Drago's warning, Eret had done something which was, from that second, very, very stupid.
During the distraction that the Hobblegrunt had involuntarily given him, Eret had run over to Skullcrusher, and the Rumblehorn was extremely grateful to see his rider.
“Don't worry, I'm gonna get you out of this!” he said reassuringly, pulling at the chains around the dragon's wings at quietly and discretely as possible. But Savage happened to be walking by just at that second.
“YOU!” he yelled angrily, cracking his whip against Eret's back, causing a slight shade of red to seep through his shirt, and sending him to the ground. “DIDN'T YOU HEAR WHAT DRAGO JUST SAID?!”
“What's going on, Savage?” asked Drago, as he made his way towards them.
“He was trying to set the Rumblehorn go!” Savage replied angrily, cracking his whip at both the dragon and the rider, making them both cry out in pain.
“Oh was he?” Drago chuckled. He knelt down and looked Eret in the eyes. “Trying to let your dear Rumblehorn go, were you? Trying to let Hiccup know you're not a traitor, were you? Don't worry, boy, the Rumblehorn shall be released. But it shall be a message from me that your Chief will receive.”
Eret looked up, confused. Drago's mouth twisted into a cruel smile and he grabbed Skullcrusher by the horn, roughly taking him out of his rider's sight, so that the young man didn't know what message he was going to send.

Two hours later, I woke up, the sun blinding me momentarily. I had slept outside the house with Toothless' wing as shelter, and because it had already been the early hours of the morning when I went to sleep, merely two hours later the sun had come up.
I could still hear cries and voices from inside the house. I desperately wanted to see how Astrid was doing; I needed to know if she was okay, but I knew I couldn't disturb them. All I could do was sit and wait, as labour could last for hours.
I leaned back against Toothless' sleeping body and closed my eyes again, hoping to get another few moments of rest. I had barely slept for the past few days, as we had been doing so much night flying, and I needed to run the village as well. Mulch needed to find some sheep that had gone missing, part of Gothi's house had fallen apart...
But just as my eyelids shut, I felt Toothless lift his head and heard a thud just next to me, like something had landed. I opened my eyes and jumped as I found myself face-to-face with a Rumblehorn.
But not just any Rumblehorn: it was Skullcrusher.
“Skullcrusher?!” I exclaimed, standing up and brushing some dirt off my clothes. “What are you doing here? Where's Eret?”
As if in response, the dragon rubbed its nose against me, and to my horror I noticed that he had scars littering his body, dried blood stained his scales, and it looked like a couple of his claws were missing. I immediately wrapped my arms around him.
“It's okay, you're safe now,” I said comfortingly, as Toothless rubbed his face against the Rumblehorn's side as if he was saying the same thing.
So does that mean Eret isn't a traitor? I thought to myself.
As this question spun 'round and 'round in my mind, I noticed a bit of paper tied extremely tight around Skullcrusher's leg, leaving a red mark circling it. I gently removed what seemed like metallic rope and opened up the letter.
“Time to talk face-to-face. No Night Fury. Your ridiculously named island Itchy Armpit. Now. - Drago”
I clenched my fists around the edges of the paper as I read it, partly ripping the corners off. Drago had obviously taken Savage's technique of tying messages to suffering animals.
I stuffed the bit of paper inside my armour and climbed up onto Skullcrusher's back. Toothless growled warily, not sure that this was a good idea at all.
“It's okay, bud,” I said reassuringly, resting my hand on his nose. “I'll be fine.”

A few minutes later, we landed on Itchy Armpit. I swung my legs around and slid off Skulcrusher's back, looking around cautiously, in case Drago was going to pull any tricks like Savage had done before. I rested my hand on Inferno, my thumb tracing around the swirling designs on the metalwork, just in case it would be needed.
All of a sudden, Drago emerged from behind a rock, like a dark shadow. He looked taller and larger than before, if that was possible, but his dragonskin cape was still long enough to cover his whole back. He had probably killed another dragon to make it fit. I gripped Inferno even more tightly.
“Hello, Drago,” I said through gritted teeth, trying to keep the anger I felt out of my voice, but failing.
“Hello Hiccup,” the man said smoothly, making his way slowly towards me. “It's been a while, hasn't it?”
“It's a shame it couldn't have been longer.”
Drago simply chuckled. “I just couldn't wait to see you again, O Great Dragon Master.”
I ground my fists up into balls, my nails digging into my palms, my knuckles turning white. “What do you want, Drago? Why are you back? Weren't you satisfied with being defeated the first time?”
“Awfully determined for a runt, aren't you?” The man smiled viciously and pretended to study his metal arm, but then he fixed his look directly at me. “What I want? I want revenge. And so does Savage. So it's only logical that we become allies, isn't it?” His gaze went back to his arm. “You might have beaten us both one by one, but even with that you struggled. So how will you cope with us both at the same time?”
This was a question I wish I knew the answer to. “I don't know,” I said truthfully. “But I swear to Odin that I'll find a way, so why don't you just give up?”
Drago laughed again. “You know that I can't do that, Hiccup. It's not that easy to get rid of me,” he sneered.
“I figured that by now.”
The man snarled at my quick response and grabbed me by the neck with his real hand. “Watch your tongue, boy,” he said threateningly. “You might get it cut off.”
Quick as lightning, I pulled Inferno out of its strap, set it on fire and made a light cut on Drago's hand, making him let me go immediately. “Watch your hand,” I replied, equally as threatening. “You might lose that one as well.” Usually, I wouldn't have spoken up like that, but the fact that he might get close to even touching my future child drove my anger to the surface.
Drago clutched his hand with his metal one in pain. It had only been a light cut, but it was bleeding badly and the edges were burnt because of Inferno's flame. Despite this, his mouth still formed a crooked smile and his eyes still glinted with the same maliciousness as ever. Because his prosthetic arm was made of metal, it was letting most the blood drip on the grass, so he wiped it on his cape instead.
“I've had enough of these little fights,” he growled, inspecting his hand once he had wiped off the blood. “Time for a proper war. What do you think?”
I was slightly taken aback at this, as he had said it so calmly that he could have been saying anything but that.
Part of me wanted to fight, to protect my people, to protect my island. I just wanted all of this to end as quickly as possible. But then again, declaring war could mean Berk's downfall, and soon I would have a son or daughter to keep safe. I didn't want to put Astrid or our child in any more danger than they were already in.
I had to consider the consequences. If I accepted his demand of war, it could end all of this suffering, but it might not be the Hooligans that came out victorious. If I denied, I might be able to avoid more deaths, but Drago and Savage would probably attack anyway, and we'd be less prepared than we could have been.
When I thought about it, I realised that I didn't actually have any choice.
“Fine,” I said determinedly. “Name a time and place.”
Drago smiled maliciously. “Tomorrow, when the sun is at its highest. Skullcrusher will show you where to go.”
“Tomorrow?!” I exclaimed. “That's way too soon! We'll never be ready by then!”
“Then that's your problem, not mine,” Drago replied simply. And with that, he headed into the trees of Itchy Armpit. A few seconds later a dragon could be heard flying away, leaving Skullcrusher and I to realise what just happened.
War was coming.