The rhythmic beat of Toothless' wings filled the air as they hovered above the fleet of metal ships. Hiccup's gaze scanned each deck as the Vikings searched the innards of the boats for any dragons Drago might have captured. So far, his first week as chief had been stressful. Between rebuilding the village, searching through Drago's fleet, tending to injured dragons, and dealing with Drago's men, Hiccup barely had time to sleep. As a yawn escaped the male, he raised a hand to hide it. He knew his schedule wasn't healthy or desirable, but it was what he had to do. Slowly Hiccup began to let his mind wander, staring at the constantly moving waves in the ocean. But it didn't last long. Soon he heard his name called, pulling him back to the present. A blonde on the back of a blue Deadly Nadder appeared in front of him.

"Hiccup. Didn't you hear me calling you?" The corner of his fiancée's mouth turned down in a small frown. One hand moved to rest on her hip while the other held onto her dragon's saddle.

"Oh, hey Astrid." He rubbed the back of his neck, finding it hard to meet her gaze, a phenomenon he had discovered recently when she got frustrated with him. Now he was having trouble coming up with a good excuse. "No, actually I was…"

"Zoning out again." She finished his sentence for him. With a quick role of her blue eyes, she turned on Stormfly. "Come on. There's something you really need to see."

"That didn't sound good." It was Hiccup's turn to frown. He bent down and patted the Nightfury's neck. "Come on buddy. Lets go check it out." Toothless let out a cry before flying after the Nadder. They landed on the deck and Hiccup frowned again when he saw the twins, Fishlegs, Snotlout, and Eret looking down into a metal trap built into the ship. "Fishlegs, what's the breakdown for this one?" He dismounted, reaching down and pressing a button on the side of his peg leg. The metal clicked as it turned, switching to his walking foot. The pudgy Viking turned, making Hiccup stop. The boy looked confused, verging on fear. He slowly shook his head. At this, the chief quickly walked forward to the metal pit. But he could not have prepared himself for what he saw. "What is Odin's beard…"

The walls of the pit were scratched, like all the others. Evidence that whatever had been inside tired multiple times to escape, but this pit contained more scratches than the others. Usually Drago "trained" the dragons after a day or two, so the fighting stopped. When Hiccup looked into the pit, his gaze landed on a figure in the corner, much to small to be a dragon. Piercing aquamarine eyes stared defiantly at Hiccup. The boy leaned back slightly. Those eyes. They were hauntingly familiar. He felt like he had seen them before, but could not place them. However, he had never seen this specific set of eyes before. He would definitely remember if he had seen them before. Bright orange locks, the color of flames, cascaded over the shoulders of the girl standing in the pit. The strands stuck out in every direction. It was full of dirt and knots from not being taken care of properly. Scales, a blending of white and grey, covered patches of her skin. On her shoulders, the backs of her hands, her jaw line, and along the sides of her face along her hairline. There could have been more but her torso and legs were covered in tight fitting, tattered clothes.

"Has anyone tried talking to her yet?" Hiccup's eyes returned to the sharp gaze of the strange girl.

"No. As soon as we opened the trap she began growling at us." Eret said. His hand hadn't left the hilt of his sword since Hiccup had arrived.

"Alright then I'm-" He stopped once more as he was interrupted by hi name being called. He turned, listening to the messenger before sighing. Some of the new dragons were having trouble living in the same stable as the other dragons. "I'll be right there." A hand moved up and rubbed his forehead. "Okay one of you needs to stay here. Make sure she doesn't hurt herself. Take turns if you need to. Get her some food and just lower it into the pit. I'll be back later." As he spoke, he ran to Toothless, quickly mounting the Nightfury before taking of toward the stable.

The remainder of the day consisted of running from one end of the village to the other, trying to assist as many people as possible. Finally Hiccup shuffled into hi hut, immediately collapsing onto the bed. Almost as soon as his head hit the pillow, he was sound asleep. Not ten minutes later, he felt himself being shaken awake. Someone was whispering his name too. A groan escaped him and he rolled over. After he rubbed his eyes, a picture of Astrid focused in front of him. "What's wrong? What happened now?" He asked, yawning at the end of his sentence.

"Nothing happened. But you forgot something."

"I did? What did I forget?" He slowly moved to sit on the edge of the bed. His hands raised above his head, stretching out his back.

Astrid rolled her eyes with a small smile. She leaned down, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. "You forgot about the job that you assigned our group. With the dragon girl."

Hiccup's eyes flew open and he jumped to his feet. "Oh gods… I'm sorry Astrid. Who's there now?" He walked over to the dragon on the floor. "Toothless wake up. We need to go bud." The dragon voiced his complaints, but climbed to his feet.

"Tuffnut is there now." Astrid managed to say before the chief took off toward the shipyard. He landed on the ship, dismounting quickly and walking toward the boy slumped against the side of the boat.

"Tuffnut." Hiccup sighed and crossed his arms. "Tuffnut!" The Viking scrambled to his feet, but relaxed when he saw only Hiccup.

"Oh it's you. I thought it was someone important." Tuffnut wiped his nose on his sleeve.

A small frown crossed Hiccup's lips. "Yeah thanks. So what's the report on the girl? Did anything happen?"

"I've been here for a few hours now and it's been really boring. We got her some fish and she ate them then went to sleep. That was about it."

Hiccup let out a sigh. "Just go back to camp." The other gave him a half-effort salute before climbing down to the beach and walking toward the village. Another sigh escaped the chief before he walked to the pit. The girl was curled up in the far corner, sleeping quietly. At least she was calm now. He turned his head to find Toothless already on the ground. "Good idea, bud." Hiccup sat in front of the dragon before leaning back against him. "Goodnight…" He mumbled, eyes closing as Toothless wrapped a wing around him to keep him warm. Just like before, Hiccup fell asleep almost instantly.

Unlike other nights, Hiccup's sleep was not dreamless. Usually the exhaustion took hold, preventing dreams from entering his mind. This is the only reason he could think of as to why he hadn't had nightmares about his father's death yet. But this didn't seem like a nightmare. Hiccup stood in the middle of the darkness. There were no walls and no floors or ceilings, but he wasn't floating. He began to walk forward, head turning from side to side. There was nothing but blackness surrounding him. "Well this is a strange dream…" He muttered. Slowly a shape began to form in front of him. A bright red door, covered in carvings of dragons flying across is. Hiccup's brow furrowed and he rubbed his eyes before looking at the door again. The dragon carvings were actually flying across the door, disappearing off one side and reappearing on the other. Of course they could fly. It was a dream. Anything could happen. As Hiccup approached, the door opened, revealing a blinding light. He quickly raised his arm to cover his eyes. By the time his vision adjusted, the scene around him had changed. Now he was standing on one of the ice shards outside of the dragon sanctuary where he had met his mother.

"What am I doing here?" A frown pulled down his mouth. His gaze ran over the shore below, stopping on the far corner. "No…" The small figure of his father was running toward Toothless stalking toward himself. "Dad!" He tried to run toward the scene, but was unable to move. His gaze snapped down to his feet. They were covered in the same ice that the Bewilderbeast used to make the sanctuary. At first, Hiccup struggled to get out of the prison, wanting to go save his father. But each time that he moved, another layer of ice grew on top of that. "No… No!" His eyes moved back to the scene. His father was pushing him out of the way. A bright ball of blue fire burst from Toothless's mouth. "NO!" Hiccup sat up, wide-awake. His breathing had quickened and he looked around, relaxing. "Just a dream. It was just a dream…"

A soft golden light was illuminating the beach, shining off of the hull of the ships causing a certain peacefulness in the air. Hiccup stood, gently moving the wing off of his body. The dragon shifted into a more comfortable position before settling into sleep again. He let out a chuckle before walking to the ladder. When his feet touched the sand, he walking toward a cave with some large bushes covering the entrance. It wasn't the most desirable area to relieve himself, but there wasn't time to walk to the village. Hopefully there weren't any stray animals living in the rocks. Hiccup shook his head to rid himself of those thoughts. He slipped behind the bushes and quickly pulled down his pants, letting his body do its business. His mind wandered back to the dragon girl. He was so curious about her. Who was she? Where did she come from? What was her story?

When he finished, Hiccup walked back to the ship. But when he climbed onto the deck, he found that Toothless was gone. "Toothless?" Hiccup walked toward, head turning to look at the other boats. Had he gotten onto the wrong one? He approached the pit, glancing inside. There in the far corner was the Nightfury curled around the dragon girl. Her posture was much more relaxed, face filled with a calm expression. Hiccup leaned against the walls of the metal pit, watching them sleep. Suddenly her aquamarine eyes flew open, meeting his gaze. His eyes went wide. That color… He finally figured out where he had seen it before.

"Good morning." He turned to see Astrid approaching.

"Good morning." A smile spread across his face and he leaned over, kissing her cheek.

"How is he?" Astrid glanced into the pit. The girl's eyes were closed again. "I see Toothless likes her."

Hiccup nodded. "I'm going to try and talk to her today."

Her gaze returned to him. "Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but when has that ever stopped me." He turned back to the pit. "Toothless." The dragon looked up when he heard his name. He climbed out of the hole, but made it very clear that he was not happy with being woken. The chief rolled his eyes, but jumped inside on the opposite end of the girl who was slowly waking up. She pushed herself to her feet, turning to look at Hiccup as he walked toward her, hand extended like he had done with Toothless the first time they met. A growl sounded from her deer in her throat. She raised her hands quickly toward the opening of the pit. Green ice, just like the Bewilderbeast produced, burst from her palms covering the opening with a thick layer. The pit was thrown into darkness. Hiccup's head whipped around as he tried to find the dragon girl. "Don't worry." He said, pulling out his sword and pressing the button on the side to unsheathed it. Fire jumped along the metal, sending a faint glow around him, but it didn't light up the entire pit. "I'm not going to hurt you."

An airy laugh echoed off the walls. "Hurt me? You really think you could hurt me?" The girl stepped into the edge of the glowing circle. The flames made shadows dance across her features.

"Wait…you can talk?" Hiccup's eyes went wide with amazement.

"Of course I can talk. I'm human aren't I?" She began to circle him, never getting closer than the edge of the light. "So. Why did Drago send you? What makes you think that you will be able to convince me to join his dragon army? Though I must warn you. Many have tried and I have only let a few leave alive, though they will never forget their encounter with me." Her eyes moved to his peg leg before meeting his gaze again.

"Drago?" Hiccup frowned, turning his head to follow her. "I'm not with Drago. Actually he's dead."

Another laugh escaped her, though this time it was sharper. "Don't try and fool me. I saw your dragons."

"Yes, we have dragons, but they live with us. Peacefully." He insisted. The muffled sound of Astrid screaming his name made its way through the ice.

"Peacefully?" She scoffed, stopping in front of him. "You are a Viking. Dragons do not live with Vikings peacefully."

Before Hiccup could answer, the ice burst open and Toothless dove through the hole, landing in front of Hiccup with a protective growl. The girl had shifted into a crouched position, returning the growl with narrowed eyes. "No, bud. It's okay. I'm not hurt." Hiccup walked up beside Toothless, putting a hand on his neck. The Nightfury relaxed, a purring-like sound coming from his throat. The girl blinked, slowly standing again.

"You were not lying…" She said. "You truly so like peacefully with the dragons."

"Yes, I—" Astrid and Snotlout dropped into the hole with their weapons raised. The twins jumped in behind her and Tuffnut grabbed the dragon girl from behind. "No!' Hiccup grabbed Astrid's arm. "Stop!"

The girl growled and flipped the male twin over her head, pinning him to the floor with a hand on his neck. She snarled at the others, who hesitated when they saw their friend in danger. "Stop!" Hiccup yelled again, pushing them away from her. "She didn't hurt me. Put your weapons away." The group glanced at him but slowly sheathed their swords and axes. Hiccup turned to the dragon girl who still had a tight grip on Tuffnut's throat. "They don't mean you any harm. They were just trying to protect me. Now let him go…please."

"I can't breathe." Tuffnut wheezed, making the girl look down at him.

She growled at him once more. "Do not touch me again." She released him, standing and taking a step away from them.

"It can talk?" Snotlout frowned.

"She, Snotlout. She can talk." Hiccup frowned at him. "And yes." He turned back to the dragon girl. "Would you like to come to out village? We can give you a nice place to sleep and allow you to bathe and get you new clothes…" He trailed off, waiting for her answer.

Slowly she nodded. "Yes. Yes I would like that."

"Wonderful!" The chief turned to his fiancée. "Would you be willing to help her? Please?" He took her hands, eyes pleading.

"Of course I'll help." She was still wary of the girl, but she trusted Hiccup. She looked up at the girl with a gentle smile. "Come on. Lets get you settled." After she mounted the Nadder, she patted the space behind her. The dragon girl walked hesitantly toward the dragon, placing a gentle hand on its back before jumping up behind her.

Hiccup watched them go after he climbed out of the pit with the others. "Have all the other ships been checked?" He turned his gaze back to the others. They were all staring at Tuffnut who was rubbing his neck.

"That really hurt. I did not expect her to be that strong." He turned to Snotlout. "Am I bleeding?" The brunet shook his head. "Really? It feels like her nails cut into my neck."

The chief sighed. "Snotlout, did all the other ships get checked?"

"Huh? Oh yeah. No more dragons." He smirked and leaned against his Nightmare. "The ships are all empty."

"Good. Then lets get back to the village." After mounting Toothless, Hiccup took off toward Berk.