Chapter Text
Hiccup leaned against the tree as he gazed at the outpost that was across the river front of them. It was only made up of dozens of tents and several wooden towers. There were several wooden walls connecting them, but they were being taken down.
"They're dismantling that outpost pretty quickly." He said, impressed.
"Yeah the Byzantine Empire is still decently powerful and efficient." Thorfinn said, standing next to him.
"Still?"
"They've been declining for decades. Ever since the fall of the Romans they've slowly been pushed back by various tribes and other empires like the Carolingians." Thorfinn admitted.
"That is too many names for me to remember. So what is the plan?" Hiccup asked.
"We walk up to the outpost and ask them to take us to the capital." Thorfinn said.
"Really?" Hiccup asked, surprised.
"No. To be honest I haven't really thought this far ahead." Thorfinn replied.
Hiccup hadn't thought much about this part either. They had spent the last two years slowly making their way south across Europe until the reached the Byzantine empire. It took forever as they attempted to avoid any Carolingian soldiers, and they also had to stop frequently for Thorfinn's injury. They had many close run-ins, and almost as many fights, but they finally made it.
"Do they ever come out of the outpost?" Hiccup asked.
"They probably make patrols of the area."
"What if we wait for them to come out, and then we confront them?" Hiccup said.
"And have them attack us because neither of us speak Greek? Yeah right." Thorfinn scoffed.
"We have Toothless to stop them." Hiccup said, looking over at the dragon. Toothless clearly recognized the praise and looked very proud with himself. "Are you sure we can't just fly into the capital and meet with your viking friend?"
"You don't understand. There are people in every inch of the capital, at every second of the day. It would be impossible for us not be spotted, and for them to shoot at Toothless before we can even meet with the Varangian Guard."
"The who?" Hiccup asked, confused.
"The group my friend works for. The Varangian Guard is a group of vikings who serve as the emperor's personal guard."
"Your friend is the personal guard of the emperor?!"
"Which is why we need to get with him in order to be protected." Thorfinn said. "If he agrees to help us."
Hiccup sighed. "So we can't screw this up." Thorfinn shook his head. "What if we were to help the soldiers in that outpost, so that they would then want to take us to the capital."
Thorfinn clearly looked confused. "What do you mean?"
"If we use Toothless to impress the guards in the outpost, then they will want to take us to the capital. I bet they won't want to miss the opportunity to have a dragon in the Varangian Guard."
"Ok." Thorfinn said slowly, the idea forming in his head. "So how do we introduce them to Toothless without them attacking on sight?"
Hiccup said nothing for a second.
"You look like you're scheming something. What is it?"
"This outpost is right on the border between the Byzantines Empire and the Bulgarian Empire right?" Hiccup asked.
"Yeah? So what?"
"So, the Bulgars and the Byzantines hate each other. If we get them to fight each other, we can then swoop in and help the Byzantines, and we become the heroes."
Thorfinn thought about it for a second. "It sounds like a terrible plan but I have no idea what else to do so let's do it."
"Great. We are really going to have to sell this though. Once we find a Bulgar patrol near the border, we are going to attack them for a bit before running. We let them chase us towards the outpost before disappearing. They'll think we ran into the outpost, and then they'll attack it."
"I doubt they're going to give chase to two lone guys."
"Which is why we won't let them see that it's just the two of us. We will attack from afar and make it seem like theres at least a dozen."
Thorfinn still looked doubtful. "How are we going to do that?"
"With arrows."
"I can't shoot a bow." Thorfinn admitted.
"You don't need to be accurate. All we need is for the Bulgars to see a bunch of arrows flying their way, and then they panic."
"Well let's hope this works."
Hiccup smiled. "Let's go find us some Bulgars."
"Get ready." Hiccup whispered. He and Thorfinn both nocked several arrows onto their recently stolen bows, and raised them. Aiming through the trees at the sizable group of soldiers infront of them, they both drew back, waiting for them to get in range. With three arrows on each bow, it was impossible to be accurate, but they needed it to seem like there were more people than there actually were.
Hiccup took a deep breath. "Loose."
All six arrows flew, scattering around the patrol of soldiers. One even glanced off one of the soldier's shield.
"Again." He whispered. The each knocked three more arrows released them. "Again."
By the time they had each shot nine arrows. they had hit a grand total of one soldier out of nearly two dozen. But it was enough. Once the soldiers had gotten over their surprise, they immediately began running towards where Hiccup and Thorfinn hid.
"Here we go." Thorfinn said.
The two took off running into the woods. They ran just fast enough so that they wouldn't be seen, but slow enough that the Bulgar soldiers could easily keep up. Running through the forest they both reached the spot where Toothless waited and they scrambled on. As they shot into the air, Thorfinn nearly threw up.
"Gods I'm never going to get used to this." He muttered.
"Yeah well, we need to do this for this to work. Wait. There!" Hiccup pointed down at the tree line they had just flown out of. It was hard to see through the clouds, but they both saw the Bulgars emerge from the tree line, just across the river from the outpost. The group of soldiers hesitated for a second, before charging across the bridge.
"Told you." Hiccup said, looking back at Thorfinn,
They waited for a couple minutes and watched as the Bulgars assaulted the outpost, catching the Byzantine soldiers off guard.
"I think we've waited long enough." Hiccup said.
"Yeah we should intervene before the Bulgars kill them all."
Hiccup immediately dived straight towards the cluster of Bulgar soldiers. Toothless screeched as they plummeted towards the ground, causing Thorfinn to immediately hold on with all his might. They pulled up as Toothless' plasma bolt exploded among the Bulgar soldiers. As they leveled out, feet above the ground, Thorfinn slid off of Toothless' back and hit the ground hard, rolling to absorbed the impact.
Thorfinn charged at the few surviving Bulgar soldiers. As he drew his weapons and began to kill man after man, the Byzantine soldiers finally gained their bearings, and joined back into the attack.
Their numbers severely reduced by Toothless' attack, the remaining Bulgars were utterly decimated by the combined forces. As they killed the few remaining soldiers, Hiccup flew down and landed softly next to Thorfinn.
The Byzantine soldiers immediately raised their weapons again and looked on edge as the spotted Toothless. They said nothing as Hiccup dismounted his saddle and took his place next to Thorfinn. They merely stared at each other until finally one of the Byzantine soldiers stepped forward.
He was covered in chain mail, which was then adorned in red leather. He carried a large blue shield is his left hand, and a spear in his right. What really stood him out compared to the other's however, was the crest of feathers that stood on top of his helmet. It seemed this main was their leader.
"Σας ευχαριστούμε που μας βοηθήσατε." The man said.
"Uhh did you catch that?" Hiccup said to Thorfinn. This was going to be more difficult than you thought.
"I think he said somethings about thanks?" Thorfinn responded. He stepped forward to face the man. "Πάμε στην Κωνσταντινούπολη. Βαρανγκάινς."
The man turned to the other men and muttered something.
"I think I just said we need to go to Miklagard to meet the Varangians. Hopefully." Thorfinn said. He didn't look too confident though.
The man turned back to the two of them. Eyeing Toothless he spoke. "Σου χρωστάμε τη ζωή μας. Θα σε πάω στην πρωτεύουσα."
"I think he agreed to take us." Thorfinn muttered.
"Good." Hiccup said, as they followed the men into the camp.