A Deraged Arrangement

[Fateful]

He'll kill them if they try to hurt her? "Dagur, I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself. I killed eight of his soldiers already. I'm pretty sure if you let me out of this cell, you're going to need to protect the outcasts from ME."

Ruffnut stared at Mildew with a look of such contempt. Whereas she'd looked angry in the past, none or it compared to what she looked like now. "I knew it..." She growled, coming to the door of the cell, grabbing teh bars. "You fucking bastard, you sold us out to the Outcasts! You betrayed us all and for what? Because Hiccup trained a dragon? Does killing dragons really mean more to you then you're own people?!"

Ruffnut pulled a sharp, completely flat knife from beneath her arm guard and threw it at Mildew. It impaled his shoulder just below his armor and he started to bleed. "I'll kill you." She vowed. "I promise you that, Mildew, I will kill you for the shame you brought to Berk and the disgrace you stained across MY village."

"You idiots!" mildew bellowed in his loud, shrill voice. He pulled out the knife and let it fall to the ground. "Witch..." he mumbled, raisinn his staff and slamming it against the bars in an attempt to break her fingers. She moved her hands, but didn't step away from the door.

"You... you think that this is..." He sighed, resting his head in his hand. "I suppose it's not all bad." He grinned at Alvin. "She's one of the riders, she and her idiot brother share a Hideous Zippleback. But, they're the worst riders on the island, always pulling pranks. She's not completely useless as a hostage, but she is as a trainer."

Ruffnut crossed her arms over her chest. Well, looks like she wasn't going to be betraying her village thanks to Mildew's mouth. Thank you Thor, she thought with a grin.

[nyrax]

Dagur stood back and watched the entire show between Ruffnut and Mildew play out. Apparently the two knew each other, especially based upon Ruffnut’s reaction. She had yet another weapon hidden which she used to throw and stab the man. Dagur gave a hearty laugh. Was it bad that he was almost hoping this girl would escape just so that the outcasts looked even more like idiots?

Dagur didn’t really care about these men at all, they had little or no honor after all. They were called the outcasts for a reason and Dagur honored honor and battle more than almost anything else. Still, Berk had even less honor…so Dagur had to use them as a means to an end. He didn’t like it, it was why he used every opportunity he could to get in a word or laugh at their misfortunes.

The fact that these fools were also torturing the wrong person bothered him. They had grabbed one of the worst riders that Berk had to offer, they couldn’t even get one girl…pathetic.

Dagur looked over towards Alvin. “Your methods haven’t worked yet, so now it’s my turn to speak with her. You can use her as a ransom later, but for now the torturing is done with,” he said and didn’t allow anyone to bring it up for debate. “I know her from my visits to Berk, I might be able to learn something that your men haven’t with their….methods.”

[Fateful]

Alvin glared at Dagur. The impertinence of this boy! Well, that was true. "We could have tortured her, but we thought that since she was to marry Hiccup, she'd be worth more to him intact. Our methods of getting information out of her will be much easier now that we know she's not of any value to her village."

Ruffnut knew better than to react to that. She only had a limited number of weapons left. If they did come in here, she knew she could keep them fended off for a while, but not indefinitely, especially since she still hadn't eaten in days. They'd given her water every day, but food would give her more energy and after everything she'd done today, she was out of it. In front of them, though, she'd remain strong.

Alvin shook his head and turned his back. "Very well. Feel free to talk to her, even go into that cell to coax her in whatever way you wish, but your men will need to protect you from this point on." Alvin said, walking with Savage and Mildew out of the small foyer in front of the two cells.

Dagur only had two guards with him, but the three of them were the best warriors in the Berseker tribes. He couldn't be safer.

Ruffnut glanced toward Dagur, examining him. "This was your idea, wasn't it?" She sounded disappointed.

[nyrax]

“Believe me, I will,” Dagur said as if he didn’t even bother to need Alvin’s permission to talk to Ruffnut. As far as Dagur was concerned, the outcasts needed him far more than Dagur needed them. He would not let these idiots gain an advantage over him. That’s why he wanted to talk to Ruffnut alone, it would allow him to potentially gain information that he could use for himself. He doubted it would be that simple, but there was potential.

Of course, she was a dragon rider. It meant that his distaste for her had grown. He hated all of those that would ever love, care, or use a dragon.

Dagur moved over to her and crossed his arms. He made sure to stay out of arm’s reach in case she tried to withdraw another weapon. “You two, go guard the door. I want to make sure that we’re alone,” Dagur said without even looking to his men who obeyed without question. They went towards the door and stood guard, making sure that no Outcast spy was trying to listen on to the conversation.

As Ruffnut stated her question he gave a nod. “Believe me I wasn’t entirely happy with the way they went about it, but getting Astrid was my plan,” he admitted as he looked towards Ruffnut. “I know what’s going on in Berk right now, you’re talking about me behind my back again,” he said as if he was scolding someone. “You all know how sensitive I am, so I naturally had to react…and believe me I want this war to end before it starts. I assumed using Astrid against Hiccup would at least hold your dragons back.”

[Fateful]

Ruffnut rolled her eyes and walked to the door. She leaned on it because she was tired and didn't want to sit in front of him, but she needed something to support her, since she knew Dagur wasn't going to just let this go. "There's no excuse to do what you did, Dagur. You started this war, everyone knows that. The second you got off that boat five years ago, you declared that you would attack our tribe if we had dragons, without prompting and for no reason. You're the one that started this conflict. We were trying to keep peace and you went out of your way to wage war."

Sensitive? Really? She sighed, rubbing her hands in her face. Some of the color in her face had left and she looked a little bit tired, her breathing a little uneven, but nothing to be worrying. "I'd rather be killed by the Outcasts than betray my tribe, and I'd rather that my tribe kill me to destroy the Outcasts for good then wait around for them to find a way to rescue with some bullshit notions of this ending without violence. But, I'm glad they took me instead of Astrid. I'm much better suited to be held as a prisoner." It didn't make her less scared, but she did well to hide it.

"Dagur, what're you talking about? We're talking about your 'behind your back' because you're trying to kill us. We're not going to welcome you to the table as we figure out how to stop you from killing us."

[nyrax]

Dagur released his laugh as Ruffnut talked about how he started the war. Perhaps that was true, but only on a technical level. “Please, don’t bother lecturing me,” he began as he shook his head. “Just because I’m one of the only chiefs with the stones to confront you doesn’t mean that I started this war. You’ve been gathering dragons and raising an army with them. Everyone knows that the only thing a dragon is good for is killing, that’s all they will EVER be,” Dagur said as he stared right at his old friend. “The only good dragon, is a dead one. Believe me, you should see my rugs and drapes back home…some of the nicest scales you’ll ever see,” Dagur said before giving another chuckle as he remembered the hunt he went on to capture that dragon.

“My father had remained passive for too long, he let everyone walk all over him and nearly took my tribe to the brink of ruin. I am the only one that saved it…and that was when I heard the rumors in Berk: trained dragons,” Dagur said as his fist clenched. “I couldn’t let that slide though, knowing now that I was going to rule my tribe in place of my father. To let a tribe be friends or allies with dragons, it goes beyond heresy,” Dagur said as if every word that he said was filled with venom.

“You may have bullied or tricked the other tribes in to following you, but that is why I must remain consistently vigilant, it won’t be long till you come upon us with raining fire as you take what you want,” Dagur continued as he stared at Ruffnut. “Hiccup will come for you…and that is when I shall end this conflict once and for all.”

[Fateful]

"If you don't want me to lecture you, then stop lecturing me," She shot back, pointing at him. "Dagur, do you hear yourself? Our tribes have had peace for 50 years before this conflict started. I mean, I'm not siding with your dad or anything since he was a push over from what little I remember of him, but that doesn't mean you have to be the total opposite of what he was. Just... listen to yourself. Dragons aren't all you say they are, they can be much more than that. I would agree that some dragons are dangerous, but that's only an untrained dragon and I can prove to you that not all dragons are evil if you get me out of this cell."

It was the truth. The only way to convince Dagur to stop the war was to show him that not all dragons were evil. The likelihood that that would happen was low, but so was her chance of survival at this point, so she didn't see the point in not trying this. They'd been friends as children, so maybe that would mean something now, despite the fact she had a dragon.

"Dagur, you're the one whose tribe is bullying everyone else's! Listen to yourself. We wanted to keep peace with you and Berk isn't war hungry. We train our dragons to make our lives easier and protect our village. We don't go looking for battle."

Suddenly, at the mention of Hiccup, she grew angry. "You better hope Hiccup gets here before Tuffnut does, because if my brother finds out any of these men hurt me, it'll be their lives. I don't care how big your army is, Dagur, my brother will not stop until he finds me."

[nyrax]

Dagur pulled out a knife from his pack and began to throw it in the air before catching it without looking at it. This was a trick that she had taught them when they were young actually, when Dagur visited Berk he had wanted to fight in some fasion. Training with weapons was the only thing that his father seemed to approve of. Ruffnut had been willing to teach him how to use the weapon, and it was a weapon they both used to this day.

“You are correct though when you say I’m being a rude host though. Neither of us are going to change each other’s minds, so what’s the point of talking?” Dagur questioned before looking towards the door where his guards were. He had to admit that he was partially curious though…she was willing to show him how to tame a dragon which was what Alvin wanted. Perhaps by learning his enemy he could better defeat my enemy.

Still, Dagur may be deranged but he was no idiot.

“If I let you near a dragon, what’s my guarantee that you’re not going to just have it bite my head off the moment you gain control of it? Dragons are such…nasty creatures after all,” Dagur said as he absently touched near his eye without even realizing it.

[Fateful]

Ruffnut pointed at the dagger in his hand. "I taught you how to use that, didn't I? When no one else would and you couldn't find an adult in Berk to teach you." Ruffnut had taught knife throwing to a lot of people. She'd tried to teach Tuffnut, but he didn't like it and didn't have the focus for it. He'd learned it, but he didn't still use it as a weapon. He probably could if he tried, but she doubted his aim would be as good as hers now.

"I taught you how to throw knives without throwing them at you. You're the one who started using Hiccup as a target after I showed you, and believe me, my mother never--" She stopped, realizing what she'd just said. A sad look came to her face and she moved away from the door, holding her arms. "A dragon doesn't obey every command you give it the second it meets you. It'd take me at least a day to teach it to bite people's heads off. Besides, dragons hate the taste of human blood."

[nyrax]

Dagur caught the weapon in his hand and looked at it for several moments. “That you did,” he finally said as he looked at it. He hadn’t really thought back to his younger days in Berk for some time. She had taught him to throw it at targets, but it was him that used it against men and dragons alike. Apparently sharp metal could pierce any skin. He put the weapon away before listening to the rest of what Ruffnut had to say.

Dagur seemed to be considering this, but when Ruffnut mentioned that dragons didn’t like the taste of human blood, she heard Dagur release a powerful yell before turning and punching the nearby wall. Parts of the rock shattered and fell to the floor. It was a powerful hit, and indicated a bit more of the side of Dagur that Ruffnut was familiar with. “I KNOW that’s a lie,” he said without even looking at Ruffnut as he said it.

[Fateful]

Ruffnut jumped when he hit the wall and moved back in her cell. For what would probably be the only time in her life, she was glad to be inside this cell. It protected her from Dagur the deranged. She remembered him before he had been bestowed that title, but that boy was dead, the rage he showed made that all too clear. Her breathing was erractic now, from the sheer show of what he'd done. She knew Viking men to be powerful, she'd seen Stoick flip over catapults and even move ships on his own. But this... this sort of strength she'd never witnessed in a man before. It was pure, unwanted power. She couldn't believe he'd gained so much muscle and control with his body in all these years.

Staring at him, her crystal blue eyes filled with a strange fear she'd never felt before. The eyes, still locked on him as the door on her cell started rattling. Slowly, after what he'd said, he'd turned to look at her. And she didn't look away, a shocked, uncomfortable, and scared look on her features stayed for several moments before she gained control of her emotions and looked at the floor. There was nothing she could say now. Nothing that he would believe or be open to hearing what she had to say. She moved to the poorly made cot in the cell and sat on it, staring at the floor, resting her arms on her legs.

She'd been a fool to even consider that he'd listen to her, that honor and the past meant anything at all. He proved that those things meant nothing to him when he threatened Berk with war.

[nyrax]

With Ruffnot not speaking, the heavy breathing of Dagur would be clear to her. It was quick and volatile, and it was clear that he wasn’t just mad: he was seething with anger. For some reason, her comment about dragons and human blood had caused something within him to stir. He was known as Dagur the Deranged for a reason, but that side didn’t always come out, only when he was triggered in some way. This was another one of those moments where he tried to recall his calmness. He squeezed his hand the smashed the rock and held it up until his breathing slowed and became normal.

It was only when that control had come back that he opened his eyes, though they were still filled with purpose.

“Do…do not speak to me about dragons not enjoying it when they kill people. That is a reality that I know ALL too well,” the Berserker Chief said as he stared at the girl. “You may have found a way to make them listen to you, but you can’t change what they are, you just can’t,” he said as his voice seemed to grow distant. He was now staring down. At first it seemed like he was looking at the ground, but Ruffnut would notice that he was looking at the tattoo on his arm and the armguard that he had higher up. He stared at them for a long while in silence.

[Fateful]

Ruffnut looked at him again as he broke the rock. What... was he doing? Slowly, his breathing evened out and he calmed back down. He... he'd learn some control. Standing up, she moved toward the door again, still weary of him striking her or making a move to hurt her. Well, she supposed he wasn't completely wrong. it was possible to train dragons, and they were wild beasts that it took a great deal to change.

"Of course you can't." She said, shaking her head. Her braids, different from before, swayed in front of her. "They're dragons. There's nothing you can do to change what they are completely. They're wild and have instincts they will follow. So, you have to learn to incorporate their habits. They can kill, anyone has the potential to kill, even Hiccup. But they won't unless they're ordered to. There are only a few dragons to kill for fun, and we don't ride those dragons. And if those dragons show up in Berk, we drive them away with our smaller dragons. We use them for protection, Dagur. Dragons are our protectors. If properly trained and treated, a dragon is like a sword, a crossbow, an axe. You need to take care of them, maintain them, and respect them. If you can do that, they'll do anything you ask of them."

She paused for a second, watching hsi gaze. "D-Dagur?" She asked. "The tattoo? What does it mean?" She asked, suddenly realizing that it had meaning, since he had the same thing twice on his body, on his face over his left eye and on his right arm.

[nyrax]

Ruffnut’s entire exposition on Dagu was mostly lost. He had too much else going on in his mind right now, it was making his head run wild like a herd of buffalo: wild and uncontrolled. He was barely getting over his anger, but he couldn’t change what he was thinking at the drop of a hat. He heard what she was saying, but he didn’t care. Maybe they had found some way to manipulate dragons, but that didn’t change what was happening her. They were weapons, soulless killing machines. They didn’t just kill for food, they did it for sport. Dagur killed them all to protect that which he held most dear.

At Ruffnut’s question, Dagur’s face fell considerably. He turned away from her, though the tattoo on his arm was still visible to her. “My sister always told me that I’d like getting tattoos,” he said softly. This would probably cause at a great surprise to Ruffnut, as it was only a very select few that knew of her existence. No one talked about her anymore. “Her name was Talon, and she was taken from me,” Dagur said before turning and having only half of his face fall upon Ruffnut’s image.

“My father, being the generous and glorious man of honor that he was,” Dagur said though he was being very sarcastic, “decided to throw a party for a tribe that we were recently allied with. He opened up his ports and allowed for a feast like none other…he didn’t even ask for them to leave their weapons somewhere. They were all fully armed, my father did it as a sign of trust.”

Dagur’s fist clenched again. “Talon, that was her name, she went to go see me that night,” he began. “She wanted to thank me for being such a good and kind host, even dueling the other chief’s heir and letting him win. I was out hunting that night though, something I wanted to do to just get away from it all…but she found another when she got to my room: An assassin, who spilled her blood the moment that she was in the room,” he said as his voice began to rise and he started to pace. “But it wasn’t enough for him to kill her. He took her corpse before it was even cold and cut her up further, he tore chunks of meat from her flesh and made what little blood she had left drain on to the floor…when we found her the next morning three dragons were tearing her body apart outside the castle in the woods. I killed all three of them myself.”

His gaze lifted up as his resolution seemed to be higher than ever before. “You see Ruffnut, there were three parties responsible for my sister’s death. Her killer, the dragons…and my father. When I showed him the evidence that the tribe he invited in to OUR OWN home had killed his father do you know what he did? NOTHING!” Dagur shouted. “How could Oswald the Agreeable go to war after all!? He assured me that it was some kind of a mistake and that I was acting rashly, he REFUSED to act…that was when I knew that I could no longer love him as a father.”

He closed his eyes for a moment. The half of his face that he turned away from Ruffnut, she’d see a single tear come down his face. “What parent would let their child die in such a way and not seek our justice? I couldn’t take it, having her death be unavenged was something that I refused to bear,” he said before regaining his composure and slowly leaning against the wall that he had smashed only a minute ago.

“My tattoos come in groups of three. I have killed my father, and I destroyed the tribe that killed my sister and wanted me dead…..the dragons are all that’s left,” Dagur spoke in a near whisper now. “When they are destroyed, I will get one final tattoo…it will be my way to make sure that her soul rests in peace.”

[Fateful]

HIs sister? Talon? Ruffnut didn't remember her all that much, bt she knew her. She'd come with Dagur and Oswald to Berk from time to time. Not every time, but here and there. Astrid and Riffnut looked up to her because she was beautiful, Dagur's older sister. Talon had made a name for herself because she was just as dangerous as an eagle's talon, but one of the most beautiful Viking women that had been seen in at least fifty years. She had long, scarlet hair that cascaded in waves down her slender back. That's what Ruffnut remembered of her. Well, that, and Talon used to braid her hair. Talon was the first person other than her mother and brother that Ruffnut ever let braid her hair. And... she liked her, despite barely remembering her.

When she was young, Talon had let Ruffnut braid her red locks to return the favor. It was Talon that taught Ruffnut to braid her hair in a ball, the way she usually wore it. Whereas it was a trick that Ruffnut perfected, the idea came from Dagur's sister.

"I-I remember her." She said, quietly, not sure if Dagur heard her. "She... used to braid my hair." The girl said softly. The tale of what happened made her eyes widened and she brought a hand to her mouth. That... that was disgusting, and it sounded so eerily familiar. When the tale finished, she was at the door, holding the bars. "D-Dagur..." She couldn't imagine that. His father did nothing?

F-Father... Oh.. Oh no! All this time, Ruffnut had only thought of Tuffnut, but her father would wage a war to get her back. He would burn all the villages and kill the chiefs to find her. He's smoke his pipe at night and lots of it to dull his senses and help him sleep. He'd growl and bark orders at others to keep them away. He'd lock himself inside the house and probably yell at Tuffnut and BarfBelch.

"Dagur..." She whispered. "I can't imagine that. But... what Talon went through... is almost the same as what you've done to me. My brother has to live with the guilt of getting drunk last night and not being there with me when this happened. If Astrid finds out, she'll have to live with the guilt with knowing this was meant for her. And, my father will never have the closure of knowing where I am or what happened to me. I can't... The dragons didn't kill her. I don't know what kind of dragon hurt her, but you killed the dragons that did it. Not all dragons are evil. Dragons can be trained, and they do what they're trained, based on how they're treated..." She realized it was stupid to talk about dragons.

"I'm sorry, I know it doesn't lessen your pain. Nothing will... But you're not the only person who loved her. Your father was a disgrace is that's how he felt, but are you willing to put Tuffnut through the same thing by letting the Outcasts kill me? Are you willing to go to war with my father because he's not the man your father was?"