Saying Astrid wasn't in the best mood today would be an understatement. Her dad had made her join me on my early morning fishing trip and we had been trekking for hours to reach my fishing spot on the other side of the Island.

I enjoyed my hours alone every morning with the waves and the silence, so much so that when I told Astrid's father, he had told Astrid to give it a try. As of yet I had to whether this was going to be good or bad but I was leaning towards the latter. "It's not going to be so bad," I tried to convince Astrid.

"Which part Driftwood, Spending hours waiting for fish or the smell on the way home?"

"We could see some dragons,"

"There hasn't been a dragon attack in weeks, why would they attack two 13 year-old fishing in the middle of nowhere?"

"First of all, Berk is in the middle of nowhere, and I didn't mean attack, I've seen Thunderdrums Scauldrons eating sharks on the shores,"

"Just like you and Hiccup saw that Monstrous Nightmare last week?"

" Come on you saw the trees-"

"-Or the Gronckle the week before?"

"Those rocks could have been a Gronckle,"

Astrid just smirked derisively and walked ahead, "Unbelievable,"

The forest we walked in was ancient, but half the trees were less than a century old, the victim of many blazes from wild dragons. We reached the top of the cliffs that surrounded the inlet and I started climbing down.

Astrid stayed at the top and pointed at something at the bottom. "This is the boat you always go on about? This?" She pointed at the small rowboat. I had built it 3 years ago with Hiccup's help. It was 3 metres long and a metre wide, Inside was a bucket and a set of oars. It looked like something Grendel had dragged from the lake bed, but it floated, and that's all that mattered.

"It's tiny!"

I didn't bother to respond to Astrid and set my staff and other things down inside the boat and waited for Astrid to do the same. We rowed to the center of the bay.

The Bay was an circular inlet. It was surrounded by 20 foot cliffs on the shores and a wall of Jagged rocks and whirlpools at the far end, its waters were waist deep for 20 feet before suddenly dropping, I had never seen the bottom. The fish that lived in its waters were born from ancestors that swam here before the whirlpools had cut the bay off from the outside world. There was a river flowing out from the rock on the other side from where Astrid and I had entered, it emerged from the cracks of a tunnel that had long ago caved in.

I got out my fishing line and tackle while Astrid looked over the side.

"Wow look at this place, the water's so clear." She reached over and put her hand in. I snatched her hand out of the water and grabbed her while leaned to the other side of the boat.

"What was that for? I just wanted to touch." Next there was a splash as a pair of jaws leapt out of the water and snapped at thin air. The boat rocked for what seemed to be an eternity.

"You're welcome,"

"What in Odin's name was that,"

"That, was a Bay Shark, they can grow 10 feet long. If you look around, you will see a school of them, or is it a pack?" I pondered that question while I watched. Astrid suddenly notice the dozens of fins that were circling our boat several meters away.

"I recommend hand and legs inside the boat at all times.

Astrid watched the shark swim away for a while before getting out her fishing line and tackle. "How can you catch any fish with all the sharks?". She set up the line like a natural. She practiced last night. I smiled to myself. Always the best at everything she does.

"Sharks aren't the only things in these waters." My response was lost to the silence of the scene

It was 2 hours before the first bite. We sat in silence at opposite ends of the boat. Astrid never was a conversationalist, especially for someone who came to Berk on a piece of Driftwood. Astrid had fallen asleep; naturally it was her line that caught first.

"Yes, I got this,"

"Are you sure?"

"I told you it's fine, I'm a Viking I can catch 1 fish. However big it is." Suddenly there was a splash something scaly and green flew out of the water on the end of Astrid's Line.

By Odin one eye, this isn't good. I grabbed Astrid's dagger from her belt and cut the line.

"Why did you cut the line?" She shoved me and I fell over the side of the boat.

I spluttered to the surface, and grabbed the side of the boat "I didn't know that we were catching Terrible Terrors."

"What are you talking about?" It was only then that she saw the small, carnivorous reptile leisurely swimming around, nibbling some bait and making what can only be described as laughing noises. I splashed it with water causing it to hiss and swim away eyeing me as it continued to swim a distance away.

"It's a dragon, if I had caught it do you have any idea what it would have meant?"

"Not really, " I said as I lifted myself out of now shark-free waters, Terrible Terrors seem to have that effect. As soon as they appeared, all the sharks in the bay would dive as deep as they could go.

"Figures, you weren't born here." Astrid said.

I stayed silent at that. Astrid picked up her axe and looked at the Dragon floating around the edges of the bay.

"It'll be easier to fish now, the sharks hate Terrible Terrors."

Astrid didn't reply and continued to watch the Dragon floating around from a distance. I went back to catching fish, slightly soggier than before. Within minutes the basket I had taken was starting to be filled. I hooked a few eels but threw them back; they weren't useful for cooking.

Astrid also started fishing again, and was having similar success. I started to enjoy myself, daydreaming about my days on Berk.

Astrid hadn't always been like this. Well not as much, when I had first washed up here she had kept an eye for me. I didn't speak Norse then, and was the frequent target of Ruffnut and Tuffnut's pranks, or Snotlout's snide remarks. She had protected me from the worst of it, the exploding helmets and cliff-shoves, but she never looked as anything more than an outsider. Her parents had taken me in, let me sleep in their house, eat their food. But I was still just a guest. It didn't help when I started learning Norse from, and joining Hiccup on his 'blasted trips' as they were infamously known.

She had started giving me fighting lessons around that time. The first weeks always ended with dozens of painful bruises and cuts, whenever I started getting good at the move she taught and I started fighting back, she would up her game and I would have more scars then before. The scrapes and the pain wasn't what hurt the most though.

I could handle the looks the other villagers gave me, that I wasn't one of them, that I didn't belong. But something about Astrid made me hate myself when she looked past me like nothing more than an annoyance

"Stupid reptile,"

I snapped out of my daydream and saw Astrid raise her axe above her head; the Terrible Terror was sitting on the side of the boat, staring at the basket full of fish behind me.

"Don't do it, Astrid" I said slowly. Getting up from my seat.

"It's a Dragon Drift; this is what we do,"

"Trust me, attacking it is not worth what comes next," I reached for my staff.

"Worth what? Honor and recognition? I think I'll take my chances,"

Bah, vikings and their honor can burn in Hel, I cursed inwardly as I acted.

Astrid's axe came down on the feeding dragon. I struck Astrid's hands with my staff, deflecting it to the right. While Astrid was reeling I drew my staff behind my shoulders. she kicked in that instant, and I deflected it again. Again and again she tried to kill the small dragon and kept blocking her Axe. At the last second, instead of recovering, Astrid dropped her axe and tackled, jumping over the fish, the dragon still feeding happily.

"We are Vikings, whose side are you on?"

"Yours Astrid. Killing that dragon will be more trouble than it's worth,"

She punched me and pinned me down with her forearms at my throat. Her eyes locked with mine and I almost stopped. Me and Astrid had fought before, when I practiced this would be the point I gave up. Today was different. I hooked me staff under Astrid's leg and twisted, causing her to lose balance and fall to my right.

I pushed her off me, my hand reached for the fish's in the Dragon's mouth. Her foot lashed out and the basket fell with the dragon. Next she picked me up and threw me off the boat, again. The axe was back in her hands when I surfaced and it was aimed at the Terrible Terror. It finally noticed the danger it was in and was about to fly off. It was too late though, the axe came down. I kicked the boat, Astrid stumbled and the axe shifted.

The tail of the Terrible Terror lay in the boat. I watched the injured dragon fly away feebly crying and shrieking. Astrid was rowing towards shore again; she didn't stop to let me back on the boat. I swam a few feet behind; I did not want to be there when the Sharks started surfacing. Astrid was already climbing out by the time I reached shore. By the time I grabbed my staff and strapped it to my back she was already at the top. I climbed these cliffs daily though, it took me half her time to climb. The breaking undergrowth told me that Astrid was running I sprinted to catch up with her, I knew what happened when you attacked a lone Terror, and we only had one chance at getting out of this alive.

It took me an hour to catch up with Astrid. She stopped and turned to face me.

"Don't come near me,"

"Astrid we don't have time for th-" I took a step forward and she hit me the broad side of her axe.

"Shut-up Drift, do you have any idea how much I have protected you since you arrived? The number of times I stopped Snotlout and the twins from messing with you?"

"Astrid listen to me,", I massaged my jaw, trying to stop the spinning and scanned the tree around me, and knew I was too late.

"No, you listen, I am done helping an outsider th –". I threw my staff like a javelin at Astrid. She jumped to the side and the staff whizzed past her and hit the Terrible Terror, causing it to tear back. I picked up the staff and scanned the trees for more Terrors.

Astrid knelt and looked at the unconscious dragon from afar. "What in Thor's name? Why did it attack me?"

"That's what I've been trying to tell you,"

"What that its friend? Was it coming for me?" she said incredulously.

Hisses erupted in the trees like a nest of snakes and the forest were set alight by dozens of fires. I swatted another Terror away. "Astrid, friends, plural, Terrors can travel in packs of up to two-hundred and you just kicked the hornet's nest when you sliced the tail off of their friend," I grabbed her arm and sprinted in the direction of the village.

"There are too many to fight and the village is at least an hour away Drift," There wasn't fear in her voice, at least none I could detect. Her anger was gone, there wasn't time for any.

"We don't need to reach the village,"

The woods they ran through started to get thinner, as more and more stumps littered there path. They were the only evidence of woodcutting in this part of the forest. Further along there would be fewer and fewer trees and finding a group of Viking more likely. If we get that far.

I glanced back and felt my heart jump into my throat, at least small 15 Terrors were hunting us, breathing fire and tearing up the undergrowth. That was the moment I tripped.

"Drift, " Astrid skidded to a halt and hit the first terror into a tree.

"I'm okay, you sho-"

"If you even think about saying go on without me, I will kill you myself," She settled into a defensive stance hitting aside Terrors as they tried to dart around and get to me.

They settled into a circle, giving me just enough time to pull myself up. We settled back to back, the basket fish on the floor behind us.

"Think Thor's watching?" Astrid asked.

"I don't plan on entering Valhalla" I struck the first terror to jump at me with my staff and kicked the second, I could hear Astrid dealing with her own problems. Something green darted to my right.

"Duck!" Astrid shouted and I fell to one knee. Astrid rolled over my back and I heard the sound of metal against scales and saw three tails fly back. A set of jaws launched at my ankles, I grabbed the body and before it could breathe a spark it was tossed away. But six more mouths came from other directions.

"Astrid Jump!" My staff swept under her feet and knocked back 4 terrors. One jumped on my back. Astrid stepped onto my back, punted it then spun and brought the broadside of her axe on the other.

The seconds became minutes as Astrid and I were consumed in a haze of scales and fire. In the blaze Astrid and I fought as more than just two children, we fought together. Whenever a Terror tried to breathe fire at us, its head was clamped or another was kicked into its path. Burns were inevitable though. I was the first, a black mark on my ankle then another on my back. Astrid got a collection of cuts and bruises all over her as she used her fists just as much as her axe. Somewhere along the fight I lost the feeling in my feet. It just meant I could kick them harder.

Somewhere along the way I Astrid started limping but the dragons were slowing down. I was ready to collapse when they finally stopped. Astrid clutched her shoulder and sat beside me. I tried to sit but ended up collapsing when my ankle gave way.

"Are you alright," We said at the same time and laughed.

"I was wrong about you, Drift, I thought you were like Hiccup,"

I grimaced inwardly at her casual dismissal of my closest friend, but smiled at her comment.

"Astrid I'm not a Viking, not like you anyway,"

"We just took down a pack of Terrors, we must be the youngest Vikings ever to do that – what are you looking at?"

I stared at Astrid, noticing the trickle of blood down her forehead and another from her shoulder. "You're bleeding,"

"You don't exactly look like Freyja either"

I let out a laugh at that. That was when it struck, a lone tailless Terror leapt at Astrid. I tossed my hand out to punch it, but my fingers refused to curl, burnt and scarred as they were. Instead they stabbed the jaws of the creature as they snapped shut and a pain worse than the fires of Hel seared through my fingers.

I managed to crack a grin, as I struggled to remove the reptile from my bleeding hand "Terrible Terror, venom twelve,"

Astrid pulled the toothless dragon off my hand "Driftwood, Drift stay with me,"

The strength left my limbs and the sun was swallowed by darkness.

The starry sky in Berk was like no other. Sometimes I would sneak out with Hiccup, sometimes I went to the bay by myself, As long as there wasn't a raid. Watching the night sky was like a dream, dragon silhouettes racing through the black. I never felt more at peace.

It was those long nights that told me that I wasn't on Berk. The sky was as foreign as the air and waves that crashed next to me. In front of me was a beach that had no end and behind me was a forest. The forest was filled with…something. The air tasted burnt and the trees were made of shale, their leaves the skulls of strange creatures. A compulsion filled me to find what was at the center of it all, at the center of this forest of the dead.

As I walked the trees turned to dust and skulls turned to dirt. At the center of the forest stood a tree. It wasn't made of shale and its leaves weren't of bone. But looking at it filled me with fear. It stood its branches piercing the sky, stars and ice caught in its leaves. The roots were as mountains dwarfing the peaks of Berk, hard and scaly.

This isn't bark. The root shifted and the earth quaked as it did so.

It was a dragon.

It stared at me through an amber eye as large as a house. Turned towards and its jaws opened revealing the abyss

The howling darkness contained me as I fell once again into nothingness.

I bolted upright screaming. And then stopped. Astrid and Hiccup stared at me with concerned expressions. I appeared to be in bed, in Elder Gothi's house. The rain howled against the boarded up window and crashes of lightning lit up the small room.

I laughed nervously " Bad dream" Astrid grabbed me in a bear hug.

Astrid whispered to me "Drift you've been asleep for 3 days," She let go of me and looked at me for the first time. Her expression was hard to read, but her eyes weren't. There was sadness, and something else, guilt maybe, but what I noticed most of all was when she looked at me, she wasn't looking at an outsider, her eyes saw her brother.

"Why were you screaming?" Astrid asked,

Before I could answer Hiccup interjected, his voice sounded distraught "Drift there's something you need to know. When the Dragon's attacked you, Gothi did her best to heal you but… "

"It's my leg isn't it?" I pulled off my bed cover, expecting to see some kind of wooden stump. Instead I was met with a bandaged but otherwise perfectly normal leg.

Hiccup continued "It's your hand."

I pulled out my right hand, Only the small nubs of my fingers were left, like the stumps of cut down trees. And they weren't coming back. "I need some time to be alone,"

Drift I designed the prosthetic's, you can use the rudimentary functions of you-"

"Stop, Hiccup." I looked at my hand.

Astrid clasped my fingers with her hands.

I tried to grip her hands trying to feel them, their warmth, and their touch. "Thanks Astrid, but I need to be alone for a while," Astrid closed the door behind her and I was once again in darkness. Pondering my dream and waiting for the rain to stop.