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

7. Rescue mission

Suddenly, all eyes were on Aria. "He only went to get herbs," Snotlout reminded.

"Unless you know something we don't," Hiccup suggested urgently.

Aria sighed in stress. "I told him about what happened to Midnight, and he said he wanted to prove himself," she admitted, starting to pace slowly in fret.

"But Midnight.." Fishlegs began awkwardly, "isn't he..?"

For a moment, Aria found herself questioning the same thing. "..I don't know anymore," she breathed out in helplessness, "when he was taken, I just assumed...but if that's where Eret is, if he gets hurt, it's all my fault."

"None of this your fault, Aria," Astrid assure her friend, placing a hand of comfort of her shoulder, "if he thinks Midnight is still alive, he did this on his own will."

"If Midnight is still alive, then I abandoned him," Aria stated, eyes heavy with guilt.

There was silence for a moment, thick and toxic. Then Hiccup spoke strongly, "then let's go find out." He turned to his love and stated, "Astrid, I'm gonna need you to stay here to keep our construction under control. Tell my mother what's going on." He gave her a quick kiss.

"What? When are we leaving?" Snotlout asked in shock.

"We leave now," Hiccup told him, then turned to his sister, "you can ride Toothless with me." Withing minutes, the riders, minus Astrid and the twins, were off.

When they reached Healer's Island, just as Aria had suspected, Eret wasn't there. The team quickly circled back and made there way to Drago's old base. After another long flight, they landed among the abandoned docks and ships. No Eret.

"I don't understand; where did he go?" Aria wondered aloud, kicking pieces of rubble into the ocean.

"Well, this was pointless," Snotlout complained, earning an elbow to the ribs by Aria.

"Maybe you shouldn't have come then, because your complaining is pretty pointless," Aria snarled.

Hiccup stepped between the two and tried to difuse them, "hey, knock it off. This wasn't pointless; look." He pointed to a big scorch mark on the shore. "Does that look familiar?"

The four walked over to the burn spot to get a better look. "A dragon made it's bed here," Aria observed.

Fishlegs knelt down and swiped two fingers across the ash. They came back up black. "The ash hasn't blown away yet; this is fresh," he confirmed with wide eyes.

"Skullcrusher.." Aria breathed, a small grin on her lips.

"It looks like they made camp here before going to their next destination," Hiccup observed. Looking back at the three tired dragons, he sighed, "and we might have to do the same."

So the Vikings set up their camp for the night. Snotlout gathered wood, and Hookfang set it ablaze. Fishlegs was collecting berries for everyone to eat.

"You know, this island is actually pretty nice," Fishlegs admitted, setting the basket of berries down for everyone to share.

"Yeah, if you take away that the man who lived here used it to keep enslaved dragons," Snotlout added sarcastically.

As the two began to bicker, Hiccup looked to his sister. "What's on your mind?"

"Skullcrusher is an amazing tracker," Aria began, "if they didn't come home after coming here, that means he picked up a scent." Hiccup knew she was right, and that meant two things; Eret was in a lot of danger, and Midnight was alive.

• • •

"Look at that!" Eret shouted excitedly as an island came into view, "good boy, Skullcrusher." He patted his dragon's neck in praise. "Now, let's go meet this titan wing nadder..." He trailed off as they got closer to the island. Smoke was rising from it in a few different areas, trees were broken like toothpicks, and there wasn't a single sign of life. It looked like an abandoned warzone.

It wasn't until they rounded the island that Eret spotted a half dozen dragon trapper ships. Quickly, he landed Skullcrusher in a secluded spot on the side of the mountain in the center of the island. "Stay here," he ordered the dragon, "they won't come up this high."

The rumblehorn laid down behind a thick patch of bushes. Eret then turned and began his journey down the mountain. He stopped at the tree line and spied on the ships for a moment. Whipping out a spyglass, he peered through it. On the ships, he saw trappers offloading harpoons and even explosives. "What's going on here?" He thought outloud.

As if to answer his question, something whooshed right by him. Almost dropping the spyglass in shock, Eret's eyes went wide. Right below him, a titan wing monstrous nightmare had landed. It was huge, with colors of black and crimson. Needless to say, it was quite monstrous.

When he realized that the titan wing hadn't noticed him, Eret slowly lifted the spyglass again. He saw a few people he used to know, as well as another dragon moving through the smouldering forests. It was another gigantic one, a thunderdrum like he'd never seen before...another titan wing. And soon Eret realized the severity of the situation he'd gotten himself into. These trappers were part of an operation to hunt titan wings.