The Night Rider: Book Two

Chapter 1: Late Night Raid

HICCUP/NIGHT RIDERS POV.

Hiccups hands were idly placed on Toothless's saddle, his breathing slow and steady. Hiccups eyes were glued on his target which he could barely make out through the inky darkness of the night sky. A light breeze blew through the air ruffling through his disheveled hair. The two of them were on a tall moss ridden sea stack close to an entrance into Hellhimens Gate, watching and observing their target closely. Hiccup rubbed his eyes and yawned slightly, he hadn't had a lot of sleep recently. Six months ago Hiccup and his friends had fought against the Queen of the dragons within the Archipelago, the battle had been rough and he had barely survived it. Hiccups left hand found it's way down to the prosthetic leg and rubbed the flesh above it gingerly. He hated the feeling of the wood of his peg leg against his skin.

Hiccups hand then went up to his dragon scale chest place pressing against it. There was nothing wrong with the chest plate, there was something wrong with his skin. Or had been something wrong with his skin. Along with the loss of his leg he had also received severe burns all over his torso. Most of them had completely disappeared or faded significantly thanks to his healing concoction made of Night Fury saliva and Fire Furn but the scars would never fully leave him. But they weren't his first, and they wouldn't be his last. Hiccups mind began to wander back to the battle with the Queen as it did frequently.

He panned through all of it up to the point of his and Toothless's collision with her tail, when his memories reached that point he physically flinched at the thought of what the loss of his leg could have felt like. From the fight his mind wandered to Berk. After the Queen had been defeated all of the dragons that had been in the mountain had fled to Berk. He smiled thinking about Berks new view on dragons. Then his mind went to her, to their kiss. Astrid. Hiccups cheeks flared with the memory of their kiss, it had been so amazing despite how brief it had been. But then the blush quickly faded as he remembered the news she had given him about her parents death. And how he had left her to deal with that loss alone. Hiccup cringed at the thoughts and shook his head trying to rid his mind of them.

Below him his dragon, Toothless purred menacingly. But not at him, at their target. It had begun to move through the icy waters the wind pulling it along slowly. The Hunter Ship was nothing special, there were no ballistas or catapults on board it's only defenses were the hunters themselves. But that didn't mean it was easy. The leader of the Dragon Hunters, Vigo Grimborn had recently began to double to hunter populations aboard his vessels due to the ongoing war with Hiccup. The second war Hiccup had fought against Vigo and his hunters. The first one had been two and a half years ago and it's were Hiccup had received most of his scars.

In the first war Hiccup and Toothless had been victorious, barely. But this new war was different. His opponents seemed smarter and more well prepared than they had been previously. Hiccup reached down into a saddle bag and pulled out a handful of small clay capsules handling them carefully. With his free hand Hiccup grabbed his helmet from his lap and slid it over his head. Hiccup adjusted Toothless's prosthetic tail fin with his own prosthetic leg.

"You ready bud?" Hiccup asked and Toothless growled back stepping forward to the edge of the sea stack. And they were off soaring through the air but not down towards their target but up into the starry sky high above the hunter vessel. The air at this altitude was numbingly cold making him shiver. Toothless stopped flying steadying high up in the air above their slow moving target. Hiccups hand with the small clay capsules extended out over the side of his dragon and dropped them into the night. The two of them then waited patiently. One, two, three, and, four... Toothless angled himself downward and let out his familiar Night Fury whistle.

Hiccup couldn't see the capsules but him and his friend had done this dozen of times before and he knew Toothless could do it.

"Whenever your ready bud." Hiccup told his friend and as he said it Toothless fired a powerful plasma blast illuminating the night sky as it soared towards the capsules below hitting them exploding the Zippleback Gas filled capsules coating the entire deck of the hunter ship in a temporary fireball that momentarily disabled the hunters on the deck. Hiccup adjusted Toothless's tail and pulled up on the saddle the two leveling out just in time for Toothless to fire another plasma blast into the side of the ship. On the deck hunters scrambled around in every direction unsure of what was happening, multiple were barking orders around and some were still dazed from the explosion. "Three blasts on all the sails!" Hiccup ordered and Toothless followed shooting down all the sails on the hunter ship immobilizing it.

"Night Rider!" Yelled a hunter pointing up into the sky in his general direction. "The Night Rider is here!" He yelled again. Some of his crew mates at the mention of his name jumped overboard much rather facing the deadly cold of the ocean than him and Toothless. Other hunters on the other hand weren't as scared and they began to shoot their crossbows in every direction none of their bolts every reaching within ten feet of them. Toothless fired again, again, and again disabling hunters all over the deck.

"You ready bud?" Hiccup asked giving Toothless a pat of the neck. Toothless slowed angling himself so that the hunters wouldn't know what direction they were coming from and then finally Toothless landed on the deck of the ship letting Hiccup dismount. Hiccup pulled his Groncel Iron sword from its sheath on his hip and he slashed out in front of him cutting a hunters crossbow in two separate pieces. Beside him Toothless flung his tail to the side catching three hunters with it flinging them overboard. "You stay here bud I'm going to get the dragons." He told his friend heading for the trapdoor that led below deck. He knew Toothless would be fine on deck by himself most of the hunters were already unconscious, besides no arrow could pierce his scales.

Hiccup pulled back the trapdoor on the deck and dropped down into the dimly lit hallway moving his sword upwards almost immediately to block an oncoming attack from another hunter. With his right foot Hiccup swept out the mans legs and punched him in the face knocking him out. More hunters charged him one firing an arrow which Hiccup blocked with his sword deflecting it into the wall. Hiccup disarmed and knocked unconscious those hunters as well continuing down the hall towards the cages. Up on the deck Hiccup heard Toothless galavanting around still fighting against hunters but from the sound of the footsteps he was winning.

Hiccup got to the first cage and looked inside, there was a young Nadder with a muzzle wrapped tightly around its mouth. He opened the cage and took off its muzzle moving to the next cage that had a three younger Monstrous Nightmares. This is why he wanted to hit this ship. Recently the Dragon Hunters had begun breeding and raising dragons in captivity to slaughter them later for their hides. It was one of the worst things Vigo and his hunters had ever done, and it only made him want to stop them more. Hiccup unlatched that cage as well letting each of those dragons go free, un-muzzling them at the same time. He went from cage to cage from deck to deck unmuzzling and freeing the dragons until he was done a started to make his way back up to the top deck.

He could barely hear the whistle, he had no time to react. An arrow struck Hiccup in the chest plate lodging itself in about half an inch deep. Another arrow hit a few inches lower and then another about an inch higher. Hiccup stumbled backwards from the impact catching himself on a wall just in time to be hit again with an arrow in the torso. Hiccup pulled a small dagger from a sheath of his right calf and threw it through the air breaking the mans bow in two. Hiccup charged the man and swung the flat side of his sword into his skull knocking him to the ground in an intense daze. Hiccup climbed the ladder to the top deck just in time to see the last of the baby dragons take to the air. Toothless was roaring up at the babies trying to keep them all in one area in the sky but they were hardly listening.

Hiccup pulled the arrows out from his chest plate one by one, none of them stained with any blood. Hiccup exhaled thankful as always for his Night Fury scaled chest plate. Hiccup ran over to Toothless's side and mounted up clipping in his foot and his prosthetic. Hiccup pulled up on the saddle and Toothless took to the air. From his saddle bag he pulled out a jar and opened the lid allowing an overwhelming smell of fish to emanate from it. All the babies flocked towards him and Toothless at the smell of a potential meal. Hiccup smiled at the sight. Since the babies would never follow him on their own he had to use some bait to get them to come along.

"Okay guys let's get you to your new home." He said adjusting Toothless's tail beginning to move towards the direction of Hiccups island.

(Authors Note)
Oh boy it's finally here! The Night Rider: Book Two! I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter and if you have any suggestions for what you want to see the Book Two go to the conversations page on my profile and you'll see a post asking about that. But now to something important, I found this really amazing story @kburn147 and I would like all of you to go show that amazing story some love! It is called 'How to Train your Dragon 4.' Hope you enjoyed the first chapter, till next time! -Samuel Scutter