Marked - An Eret [Son of Eret] Love Story (HTTYD)

18. Stealth Mission

Everyone expressed their excitement as Hiccup and Aria exchanged a look of satisfaction. The twins headbutted each other hard, causing Tuff to fall to the ground. "Ha ha, my skull's thicker than yours," Ruff teased, tossing her braids over one shoulder.

"You're giving the twins wings?" Astrid asked with an amused smile, "don't you think that might turn out to be counter productive?"

"Well, there's only one way to find out," Hiccup shrugged with a crooked grin. "In the mean time, we've got more trapper ships tonight."

Everyone knew what that meant. More excitement, and more dragons. Berk was already bursting at the seams, how much more could the island take? But in the moment, it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they freed the dragons. So that's what they did.

• • •

"Stay low," Hiccup whispered as loudly as he could to the others as they flew just above the ocean's surface.

"What?" Snotlout asked loudly. He was immediately shushed by everyone.

The seven dragons approached a fleet of four ships, Midnight in the lead. The plan was that they'd split up into four groups; Astrid with Hiccup, Fishlegs with Snotlout, Aria with Eret, and the twins together, of course. Aria and Eret peeled off and soared to their ship. Looking over to her love, she was shocked to find how well he blended in with Skullcrusher. As they neared the ship, she whispered to Midnight, "circle above until I signal; you're too big for this stealth mission."

Midnight purred in response. Aria stood on his back and carefully hopped onto Skullcrusher with Eret. The titan wing flew straight up, disappearing into the night sky. "Ready to test out these scales?" Aria asked, pulling her mask down over her face.

Eret chuckled in response and landed Skullcrusher silently. The ship held three caged dragons; a razorwhip and two hobblegrunts. Aria hopped off of Skullcrusher with Eret and the two began to walk delicatly across the deck, weaving through empty cages and large barrels of equipment.

Aria came up behind one guard and pinched a pressure point in his neck, causing him to fall to the ground, unconscious. Since his falling made a loud thump, she quickly jumped into the shadows with Eret as two other guards approached. Upon seeing their fallen friend, they both whipped out their swords, looking around in alertness. Aria and Eret exchanged a grin before jumping out and took down the other two guards just as quietly.

With no other guards in to area, Aria whispered to Eret, "get those hobblegrunts out, I'll get the razorwhip."

Eret nodded and muttered back, "be careful."

"You, too." Aria gave him a light punch, then they seperated.

However, by the time Aria reached the razorwhip's cage, one of the other ships was on fire. So much for being stealthy; again. Guards began to pour out of every opening in the ship. Aria immediately gave up on trying to be quiet. She unlatched the locked door and let it squeak open. As two men approached her from the side, she slammed the open metal door into them.

The wild razorwhip leapt out of it's cage and began to fight back, as well. When Aria spotted the two hobblegrunts flying away from the ship, she knew Eret had succeeded as well. She whistled for Midnight, seeing that there was no way she could take on the amount of guards coming for her. Within seconds, she was being lifted off the deck by her shoulders.

Midnight tossed Aria up into the air and caught her on his back. "Good boy," she praised, out of breath. She circled the nadder around the ship in search of Eret, hoping he would make it off. She finally spotted him mounting Skullcrusher and flying straight up. He met up with her and the freed dragons in the sky.

Eyebrows raised, Eret huffed, "that was a close one."

"Yeah," Aria agreed, "I wonder who blew our cover this time."

• • •

"It's not my fault! That torch was in a stupid place!" Snotlout argued. It turned out, he set that ship ablaze accidentally by carelessly knocking over a lit torch.

"Well, let's look out for rogue torches next time, okay?" Hiccup suggested, irritation heavy in his voice. "You almost got Fishlegs and yourself killed," he went on, "not to mention all of the dragons that were on that ship."

"Yeah, but I didn't," Snotlout boasted.

"This time," Aria clarified with crossed arms.

Snotlout scoffed and rolled his eyes, mumbling under his breath, "whatever.."

Eret frowned at him and challenged, "what was that?"

"Nothing!" Snotlout replied quickly, holding his hands up in defence.

With a smirk on his face, Eret gave the short Viking a satisfied grin. "That's what I thought." There was ni way he'd let Snotlout get away with disrespecting Aria.

"Alright, alright," Astrid stepped in before Snotlout could provoke anyone else, "what's important is that we got the dragons back here safely."

"Exactly," Hiccup agreed. He then turned to the group of wild dragons and called back, "Fishlegs, could you help me get them settled in?"

Fishlegs made his way over to the chief, and the rest of the group began to split off for the night. It had been a long day.