Author's Note:

Hello all and welcome to the story. This one is set during RTTE and for those who don't know my 'Differently Similar' verse, its basically an AU where Snotlout was orphaned at a young age and was reared by Stoick. As such, he and Hiccup are far closer and he's far more agreeable. I reference many of my other stories throughout this one but I'll try and write so that its not vital to read those first to understand what's going on.

As a minor note, I've taken liberties with the Riders' relative ages, they're all around the age they should be in terms of canon but which of them is older and younger than the others will be different. Also, I've just put up a fic titled 'Back to Back', it's a tester for another HTTYD AU (yes, another one) and I was hoping people would give me feedback on it. Now the shameless plug is done, I hope you enjoy the chapter.

I own nothing.

Focused Fleet

The day started off unusually quiet upon Dragon's Edge.

Normally, people were rudely awakened by the twins destroying something or a sudden flock of migrating dragons or even Hookfang roaring his head off to wake up Snotlout. Today however, things started quietly and Hiccup enjoyed the rare peace and quiet he was getting that morning. In a way, he wasn't that surprised it was so quiet, after their failed vacation (due to Grimora parasites driving the dragons crazy) everyone needed a good break.

Hiccup was making the most of his time to create a series of slightly different tail fins for Toothless, though the Night Fury's favoured red one was great for most things, Hiccup believed that having specific fins for specific purposes could help them in their continued missions against Viggo. Satisfied with his latest creation he turned around and showed it to Toothless, who was laying down behind him, "Well bud, what do you think?"

The Night Fury lifted his head and eyed the new fin, he ambled over and sniffed it curiously before finally sitting down and rumbling in approval. Hiccup grinned, "Well, I'm glad it meets your standards, what do you say to giving it a test flight?"

Toothless roared happily and bounced around in excitement, Hiccup laughed and was about to start switching tail fins when Astrid landed just outside and hurried into his hut, "Hiccup, I was out on an early patrol with Stormfly and we spotted something you should see."

Hiccup shared a quick look of concern with Toothless before mounting up ready to fly.

It wasn't far out to sea that they saw what it was Astrid wanted to show them.

A whole group of Scauldrons swimming past Dragon's Edge.

Hiccup frowned as they swam by, the normally hostile dragons weren't that interested in the two riders but that wasn't what concerned him, "What are Scauldrons doing here? They normally don't come this close to the Edge, not without a reason."

Astrid agreed with him, "Exactly, they prefer much deeper water and don't come this close to shore unless there's food to be had. There's also a lot of them together, I've not seen anything like this before."

Hiccup's frown deepened, "At least they're not heading for the Edge, the last thing we need is a load of Scauldrons in our waters. Let's head back and tell the others, maybe Fishlegs has an idea on what's going on."

Before long, all the Riders were present in the Clubhouse and Fishlegs was stroking his chin thoughtfully.

"So, there was a group of Scauldrons all travelling together?"

Hiccup nodded, "Loads of them, far more than I've ever seen before."

The oldest of the Riders began pacing, "Scauldrons usually travel alone or in groups of two or three, most only pair up briefly to mate and that's it. Loads of them travelling together is unheard of."

Hiccup folded his arms, "Is it possible they're running from something? That's usually the cause for sudden dragon migrations."

"But what are they running from." Astrid asked, "It would surely be something really huge to chase away that many Scauldrons, what if it's coming our way?"

Snotlout spoke up from his seat at the central table, "But how would it scare that many Scauldrons at once, I thought they never would've gathered in a big enough group for that many to be spooked at once."

Fishlegs answered thoughtfully, "Not necessarily." He turned to Hiccup, "Which direction were they heading?"

Placing a map of the area on the table, Hiccup drew a faint arrow in charcoal to indicate the direction, "That way."

Fishlegs took the charcoal and drew a straight line backwards in the opposite direction to the arrow, "So assuming the Scauldrons have continued to swim in a straight line, the first island this line hits should be the place they came from." The line crossed directly over a horseshoe shaped island and the teen bounced excitedly, "I knew it, that's where they came from!"

Hiccup eyed the island doubtfully, "But I've flown over that place with Toothless loads of times. It's just a bunch of barren, jagged rocks, there's nothing there."

Fishlegs grinned, "Maybe on the surface." He produced some of his Dragon Eye notes and placed them on top of the map, "I found a load of information on Scauldrons in the Dragon Eye and wrote it down to be looked into later, apparently, there's a special island where many of them gather to lay their eggs. Its riddled with caves and caverns that are only accessible from under the sea so it helps keep their eggs safe from predators. There weren't any navigational points for the island but there was a sketch of its shape."

He singled out one of the notes and showed it to the others, Hiccup grinned, "It's a perfect match to the island on the map!"

Snotlout had been leaning over Hiccup's shoulder and he spoke up, "So something has probably moved onto the island and driven the Scauldrons away?"

Ruffnut put in her opinion, "Or someone."

Tuffnut briefly left off playing with Chicken to add his own thoughts, "Maybe Viggo got there first, he usually does."

Hiccup spoke decisively, "Either way we have to look into this, something is causing the Scauldrons to flee their nesting ground and we need to find out what. Let's mount up!"

The flight to the island was long and uneventful and it eventually appeared on the horizon.

As they approached, Tuffnut spoke up, "Hey, I was just wondering something. If the island's caves are only accessible from underwater how are we going to get in? I mean, while drowning could be fun it's not exactly Valhalla worthy."

Snotlout flew Hookfang alongside Toothless and addressed his cousin, "He has a point Hiccup, I'd rather not go swimming if I can help it and none of our dragons are really built for being in the sea long."

"Don't worry Snotlout." The older teen answered reassuringly, "I'm not making us swim into the caves. Scauldrons need to breathe air the same as any other dragon, as such the caverns where they nest need to have entry points above sea level to let fresh air in. If all the exits were underwater then that couldn't happen, we're going to search the island for a land based entrance."

"And if all of them are too small or inaccessible for us?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup shrugged, "Then we improvise the way we always do."

Fishlegs spoke nervously, "And when we find whatever it was that scared all the Scauldrons away?"

"Don't worry Fishlegs. I'm sure we can handle whatever it is no problem."

Tuffnut spoke up once more, "Er…Hiccup? I don't want to ruin your whole, attitude of positivity but I'm not sure we can handle it very well at all…look!"

He pointed towards the island and all the Riders focused their eyes upon it to see a whole fleet of, unfortunately, very familiar ships.

Dragon Hunters.

Astrid looked to Hiccup, "There's way too many of them for us, we need to retreat now before they spot us!"

Hiccup's eyes darkened, "They must be trapping Scauldrons and taking their eggs. That's why all of those Scauldrons were fleeing this island."

Snotlout called across to him, "Then let's follow their example and get the heck out of here!"

Meatlug buzzed overhead as Fishlegs agreed, "They're right Hiccup, we don't stand a chance against them right now."

Hiccup glared at the distant ships and Astrid flew a little closer to him, "Hiccup, I know you want to protect the dragons, believe me, we all want the same, but this is a battle we can't win. Sometimes you have to retreat even if you don't want to, we'll find another way to drive the Hunters off and get the Scauldrons their island back."

His glare intensified then softened as he sighed, "Let's get back to the Edge, before they spot us."

As one, the Riders and their dragons turned and flew homeward in silence but it wasn't long before Ruffnut called out nervously, "Er…guys! I think they spotted us!"

Astrid growled in annoyance and faced them angrily, "And why do you think that?"

Tuffnut gestured casually behind him, "Because the whole fleet is following us."

True to his words, the fleet was indeed following them, apparently abandoning their task on the island. Fishlegs fidgeted fearfully, "Why are all of them following us?"

"It doesn't matter." Hiccup faced the fleet, "We can't let a force that size follow us back to the Edge. We need to stop them here."

"I thought we just decided to not take on the death fleet!" Snotlout gestured wildly, "How are we going to stop them without dying!?"

"This won't be a pitched battle Snotlout." The older cousin answered determinedly, "We'll fly hard and fast, deal enough damage to slow them up and then escape. We'll hit hard enough to force them into retreat."

The youngest rider groaned as they all prepared to attack, Hiccup lead the charge and gave some last commands, "Pick your targets and make your shots count, remember that they'll be launching missiles. Aim for the mast or the waterline of the hulls, give them something to worry about."

The Hunters saw them coming and it wasn't long before the missiles started flying, Toothless dodged them with practised ease as he countered with his plasma blasts. The other dragons were doing the same and their destruction wreaked havoc in the fleet, just as Hiccup wanted.

It seemed to be going perfectly until a loud yell caught his attention.

"HICCUP, HELP!"

The teen looked upwards to see Hookfang diving and dodging all over the place to avoid the veritable storm of arrows, chains and nets whirling around him, Snotlout was clinging to his dragon's neck like a limpet and barely managing to not be thrown off. Hiccup and Toothless immediately shot up to aid the pair, the Night Fury firing off several more shots to try and clear the skies. Even with their help, they were hard pressed and before long the other dragons swooped in to defend their comrades.

Hiccup knew they would not last long like this and he gave the command, "Everyone, into the clouds! Get out of range!"

The dragons shot upwards as fast as possible and soon they were out of range of the Hunters weapons. Relatively safe, Hiccup flew Toothless alongside his cousin in concern, "Snotlout, are you alright?"

The teen carefully released his death grip on Hookfang's saddle, "Yeah, I think so."

Astrid joined them, "What the heck happened down there?"

Snotlout shrugged, "I have no idea. One moment, me and Hookfang were all set to burn some ships and the next, the whole fleet was throwing everything they had at us!"

Fishlegs entered the discussion as well, "Hiccup, I saw some of it from Meatlug. It looked like the fleet was mostly focused on Hookfang, not the rest of us. They only sent a few arrows and things our way to keep us occupied, they seemed really desperate to capture Hookfang and Snotlout."

The youngest teen glanced at Hiccup, "But why us?"

"Duh!" Ruffnut answered, "Isn't it obvious?"

Astrid glowered, "No."

The other girl smiled knowingly, "Then allow us to enlighten you. Tuffnut."

The male twin gestured dramatically with his arm, "The reason, dear Dragon Riders, that our ever-tenacious foe, the Dragon Hunters, want to capture one Snotlout, is because, over the years that we have known him, said Rider has proven scientifically to be the most kidnappable person among us. If any nefarious plot of our enemies involves a kidnapping, then they will most likely kidnap Snotlout, if not they'll kidnap Hiccup."

Ruffnut continued, "We theorise that this is because Snotlout is currently the youngest member of our group. Our enemies know this and thus target him because they believe it'll stimulate a stronger emotional response within us, due to our instinctual need to protect the younger members."

Tuffnut became more dramatic, "Alas, it is a grave burden to bear a desire to defend the younger, more defenceless members of our merry band. Though it is one we bear proudly and without regret."

Snotlout rolled his eyes, "That doesn't make any sense, and you're only two months older than me anyway!"

Tuffnut held up a hand, "Do not fear young Snotlout, we understand that the realities of the world may currently be beyond your young, innocent mind."

As Snotlout slapped his forehead, Hiccup pinched the bridge of his nose, "Oh Thor…look, it doesn't matter! Right now, we need to get back to the Edge and try and figure out the real reason why the Hunters were so dead set on capturing Snotlout and Hookfang, as well as a way to get them away from the Scauldron's nesting site."

Astrid nodded, "Agreed, let's head back."

As they began flying towards the Edge, Snotlout and Hookfang hung back a moment and looked back at the Hunter ships that were returning to the island.

The teen couldn't shake the feeling that something bigger was going on.

PS-So I hope you all enjoyed that and that I got the twins right. This is probably the most lines I've ever given them before and while I love their whole thing of dramatic/scientific craziness, I'm not sure I have quite the right imagination to pull it off. Please let me know what you thought and I'll hopefully update soon.