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“Are you kidding?” Astrid hisses, and Hiccup sighs. “No, I genuinely think this might work, Astrid. If we time it right–”
“You want,” she says, very slowly, “to break into a Hunter camp in broad daylight, to free a pack of Nightmares.”
“Yes.”
“To be clear, the main port.”
Hiccup nods, and Astrid sighs, running a hand down her face. “Okay, explain the plan to me again. We go in through where?”
“The back– we have an in with Gunther from the Northern Markets, remember?”
“How do we know we can trust Gunther?” Astrid’s eyes narrow, and Hiccup bites his lip. “I really want to trust him.”
“For fuck’s sake.”
“Look, I saved his life– he owes us, he already said we could do this–”
“I’m sorry, you consulted him already?” Astrid says incredulously. Hiccup feels shame wash over him, and he says sheepishly, “He’s really nice. I don’t think he would betray us, Astrid.”
“Well, he’s already betrayed the Hunters, hasn’t he?”
Hiccup looks down. Astrid sighs, patting his shoulder and making to leave his hut. Before she does, she says quietly, “Let’s do it on a Laugardagr. You know the guards are always hungover then.”
Hiccup grins at his lap.
They do it on a Laugardagr. Snotlout, of course, complains about how it’s messed up his skincare schedule– Laugardagr is apparently for masks, whatever that means.
Hiccup commands the group, sends Snotlout and the twins to wait at the east exit to lead the Nightmares back to the Edge, while Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs beat the guards up and free the dragons.
It’s all going well until Gunther seems to reconsider their deal.
“I think that’s the last of them,” Astrid says breathlessly, and Hiccup nods, bending down to retrieve a key from a guard’s belt. “What are the chances this works for all of them?”
“Oh, it does,” a voice says from the doorway, and Hiccup whips around to see their ally standing there. “Gunther!” he says, throwing his arms up. “It’s good to see you again.”
“Mm, yes, good,” Gunther dismisses. “How much am I getting paid for this again?”
Hiccup blinks. “Um, you’re– you’re not. This was– you owe us.”
Gunther seems to consider for a moment, watching as Astrid and Fishlegs unlock various cages. “Yeah, I think I need a paycheck now– you’ve kind of cut my income for the month.”
“We have no money,” Hiccup says calmly. “Is there anything else you’d take?”
Gunther’s eyes linger on Hiccup’s face, and then he bellows, “Guards!”
And just like that, there are suddenly fifty more guards, and still only three of them.
They fight well, ressourcefully– using whatever they can see around them. Unfortunately, the guards have crossbows, and even more unfortunately, Hiccup gets shot in the side by one.
As he crashes to the ground, as Astrid rushes over to him, as blood trickles out of his mouth, he whispers, “I’m so sorry.”
They were outnumbered.
There was nothing they could do.