"Slow down, bud," Hiccup called down. "We only want to get there by nightfall!" He had a point. I would be harder to detect at night. Some would laugh at me for not thinking of this myself, and they'd be right. But I was getting hungry, and I was actually hunting down a school of fish to stun for lunch. Oh well, I thought, lunch can wait.

A few hours later, the sun was setting, and this meant the sun was directly behind us; Berserker Island is east of Berk. It also meant we would be undetectable. After all, who with common sense would stare at the sun?

"Holy Odin…"Hiccup trailed off. With my eyesight, just short of the horizon, I could see the Berserker village, ridiculously fortified, and the fleet was iron-plated on the sides of the hull, a massive conglomeration of longboats at least a league long. All had specifically anti-dragon (or anti-building, whichever you aimed it at) weaponry on board. That fleet would be tough to take down, except maybe in bad weather. I looked far to the east, and watched the multiple Berserker villages on the mainland. Well, I say mainland…Berserker "Island" is really what you would call a peninsula, but it is such a long, low and thin one that from almost any angle, it looks like an island. What worried me about the villages is that they were all billowing out smoke as though they were on fire. I had no idea what they were doing, and I didn't think it was safe to get closer, not with that fleet. Fortunately, Hiccup didn't force me to get closer. He just added an extension to his scope and looked. "They look like giant forges. I think our reports were accurate. We need to get back and prepare. At least, at the peace treaty conference, we can play dumb, instead of being dumb." That was a typically Hiccup thing to say. But he spurred me back towards Berk, and I suddenly was cursing the sun that had kept us safe over Berserker Island (which isn't really an island).

We returned to Berk at around an hour or so into the new day. Astrid…well, let's just say she wasn't very happy…

"HICCUP!"

"Uh oh…" Hiccup mumbled… "Looks like Astrid's on the warpath…" I wonder why…I thought sarcastically. Then I rolled my eyes at him. Then I grabbed the scruff of his neck with my mouth and deposited him in front of Astrid. And jeez, was Astrid furious

"WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU DOING OUT THERE? DIDN'T I TELL YOU TO BE BACK BEFORE NIGHTFALL? HUH?" I covered my ears. I was deaf enough for one night. But Astrid wasn't having any of that. "TOOTHLESS! I TOLD YOU TO GET HICCUP BACK HERE BY-"

"Uh, Astrid?"

"-NIGHTTIME! WHAT?!"

"I think we should talk seriously about what we found out there." I warbled in pain from my ears. Humans, I thought. Completely unable to just talk without deafening absolutely everyone. I grumbled off and went to sleep outside Ruff and Tuff's house. At least it was quieter there…


The next morning, I woke up to find that Hiccup was preparing the island for war. I homed in on the sound of his voice.

"-and make sure that it's unloaded safely!" I came up behind him. I stayed there for a good five minutes or so without him noticing. Then I chortled. Loudly.

"AAGH!" Well, my ears are gone again. "Why did you do that? Can't you see I'm trying to get an island ready for war?" I rubbed my ear and nodded. Then I looked out to the east, and pretended to shoot at something. I've learned to communicate with Hiccup over the years this way, and I'm getting pretty good at it, if I do say so myself. "You want to hurt them first, huh?" I nodded, then gestured with my head to the dragon nest and pretended to fire again, hoping he would understand that I could get all the other dragons to strike. "With all the dragons?" I nodded again. "I know you want to surprise them, but politically, it isn't that simple. If we attack first, that would make a sure war." I nodded. Hiccup didn't want to provoke Dagur, the chief of the Berserkers, at least, not until they were as ready as possible. Then, Astrid just happened to saunter over. Hiccup flinched.

"Don't worry Hiccup, I'm not going to give you another earful about last night." Hiccup started to sigh with relief, but I beat him to it by a long shot. "Well, gee, thanks, Toothless! Ugh, dragons...so rude..." I snorted and rolled my eyes. "So the Berserkers want Berk?"

"Yep."

"And what are we going to do about that?" Hiccup unfolded his – now mostly completed – map of the Archipelago. He drew the Berserker fleet on the map. But before he could draw anything else, I gestured to myself and snatched his pencil, drawing a line to show that I wanted to get behind them.

"Toothless, should war be declared, will come around and outflank the fleet," he said as he tried to interpret my drawing. I added clouds near the Berserker fleet and pointed there, then out to the storm front moving in. "He…wants to hide the dragons in a cloud…?" I nodded again. "Well, he should hide them there anyway, since we don't want them to know that we've got all these dragons. But when war is declared, he will trap the fleet. But he won't have enough dragons to get them all, so Dagur's fleet will – albeit with heavy losses – likely escape. Then, he is likely to come around on a mainland that stretches out there, just beyond the horizon. Then-"

"Wait a minute," Astrid interjected. "Berserker is an island."

"Wrong. It's a peninsula."

"Great."

"Yes. The Berserker tribe is an empire, not an island. They have a lot of resources. So if war happens, we need to cut off production before anything else, so all that is useless to them."

"Sar!" A Viking called. "Dagur's fleet is approchin'! You should gi' ready!"

"Alright, I'll be at the docks in a few minutes. Toothless?" He locked my tail. "Get all the dragons off the island. Now. If war is declared, you'll hear the foghorn." I nodded. "Good luck!" I took off, and climbed high enough so all the dragons could hear me.

"ALL DRAGONS! FOLLOW ME, NOW!" A veritable squadron of dragons took flight, and followed me into a cloud that I had planned to use for concealment. I felt as though a long wait was ahead, and an even longer war looming past the horizon. Earth, Sea and Sky truly were about to clash...


A/N: So, my first chapter of my first story! Please give constructive feedback, and tell me if I got any characters (personalities in particular) wrong. For those who don't know, a league is roughly five and a half kilometres. If Toothless is the one talking, it will be italicized regardless of whether he is yelling or not. Also, the POV will be stated at the beginning of each chapter (Mostly, it will be Toothless' POV). Finally, if I spell something in a special way, like "sar" or "sir", it is to emulate the accent of the speaker.