Life on the Edge

2.03 Night of the Hunters, Part 2

When morning comes, the Riders not captured by the enemy find themselves waking up on the beach they'd landed on the night before.

Ragnar is not the first one awake. He blinks in the steadily rising sunlight, shifting against a warm body and causing the familiar arm wrapped around him to tighten slightly.

"Did you sleep at all?" he asks, still groggy as his body registers that he can wake up naturally without any sort of emergency to rush off to.

Hiccup looks away from the marked-up map in his free hand and smiles down at him. "A bit," he says softly. His smile grows when Ragnar gives a quiet hum and presses his face into his chest.

"Okay," he mutters after a few seconds, straightening up and rubbing the last of the sleep from his eyes. "What've we got, Hic?"

"Right now?" Hiccup asks, looking back at the map with a frown pulling at his lips. "Nothing. I mean, if we're gonna confront the Hunters and get the others back-"

"Which we are," Ragnar says with a nod.

"-then we need to know where they are," Hiccup finishes.

Ragnar clicks his tongue as he looks over the various exes drawn on the map. "We need to know where they're going- who they're meeting with."

Hiccup sighs. "Because it would be too easy if Ryker really was the head of this whole operation," he says wryly.

"Exactly," Ragnar agrees with an amused smirk before he looks at him seriously. "I Saw someone, Hiccup. Not Ryker, but someone else."

"So, does that mean Ryker's not actually important enough for your Sight or does that mean this other guy is just..."

"More important?" Ragnar fills in. He shakes his head with his own sigh. "For once, I don't know. Could be either. Could be both."

Hiccup starts to say something else when the two dragons sleeping behind them draw their attention. Toothless stretches with a low growl, his tail hitting Nightshade and causing her to grumble as she wakes up too.

"Morning, bud," Hiccup tells him.

Ragnar scratches Nightshade's jaw. "Good morning, beautiful."

Both dragons take a moment to greet their Vikings, getting equal attention from each of them before they go bounding off across the beach.

Hiccup stands up, rolling the map in his hand and offering Ragnar his free one. Ragnar takes it with a smile before he walks over to Snotlout and Hookfang.

He reaches out with one foot and gently kicks him in the leg. "Lout, you up?"

"Yes." Snotlout readjusts his helmet where it was covering his eyes and points subtly at his dragon. "Somebody snores."

Hookfang stands up with an irritated snort that blows a stream of fire over Snotlout's head.

"Ah! Hookfang!" he complains, glaring at the unaffected Nightmare.

Toothless and Nightshade come back from the water. Toothless drops a few fish on the sand while Nightshade carefully places hers down.

Snotlout cheers up when he sees them. "Great. I am starving." He walks over to grab the fish. "We'll cook these up and-"

Hookfang quickly snatches up the fish he was going for before he can get it.

"Okay. Okay. Alright," Snotlout says, clearly trying to keep his temper in check.

Hiccup and Ragnar share an amused look, entirely unsurprised when Hookfang does it again.

"Okay. No," Snotlout tells him. "Stop it."