A/N- The first few chapter of this story were superfluous, so I moved them to their own story. Chapter numbers have been changed.

Loki was well named. Well, depending on if you were the brunt of the joke or not. When a 52 foot red and orange Monstrous Nightmare was playing a prank, you generally wanted to be as far away as possible. Preferably on another island. But for the inhabitants of Berk, that wasn't possible. During the day, sometimes one could escape on a willing dragon. However, people had to sleep. And it was during the night that the danger was greatest. Loki was rapidly replacing Hiccup as the most destructive thing in the village. In an attempt to scare the Nadders, he had set their roosting house on fire—with them in it. Another time he had tried to scare one of the older Viking women and caused her to faint and hit her head. She hadn't woken up for three days.

As time went on, things got worse. Loki took to staying farther and farther away from the village, avoiding the angry people that filled it. To Loki, Hiccup was the worst. While Astrid would shout and wave her axe at him, Hiccup would give him a pitying look, sigh, and walk away. Loki knew why. In Loki, Hiccup was reminded of his old, useless self, and it was not a happy reminder. The boy treated the dragon with the same respect he showed everyone else, but it was a respect tinged with sadness.

After an unfortunate accident that almost cost the Vikings a ship, Loki took the initiative and moved into the mountains. From the grumblings in the village, he would have been banished anyway. Due to the problems that came with the dragon, no Viking had bothered to earn its trust or ride it. Loki was fed, said hello to, and promptly forgotten. Never big on the forced dragon raids in the first place, Loki felt hurt that the people he wanted to be friends with despised him. So he turned his back on them. If they would not have him, he would find somewhere he did belong.

*Two years after leaving*

Loki swished his tail majestically as the dragons around him ate their dinners. He growled at two Nadders who were fighting over a fish, warning them to break it up. They squawked in anger, but stopped fighting. Loki smiled to himself. Good. They knew who their leader was.

When Loki had left the Vikings, he had lived a miserable two months foraging for food in the woods and watching the village, hoping he would be invited back in. Seeing that the village almost immediately forgot about him, Loki decided to leave. He flew, all day, pushing himself to the limit to put the cursed island behind him. As night fell, wings shaking, he landed on a tiny island in the middle of the empty ocean. He had curled up under a tree that night, tired, hungry, and cold. He had woken up surrounded by dragons. Immediately on the defense, he let his anger take over and lit himself on fire, hissing at the surrounding dragons. They chattered in fear until it was finally communicated that they meant no harm. They had merely never seen a Monstrous Nightmare before.

They were an odd grouping of dragons. A flock of Terrors, two Gronckles, one Zippleback, and four Nadders. Also, another flock of dragon. They were curious things, something Loki had never seen before. They were all varying shades of blue. They were about the size of a small pony, (bigger than Terrors yet smaller than Gronckles), long whippy tails, and huge overgrown wings. They called themselves Aquers. Loki had snorted at the weird name, and had been informed it stood for Aqua Flyers. Aquers normally lived in water, explaining their coloring, and their attack was not fire, but superheated water. Rather than flaming something to death, they scalded it.

Loki quickly took over the rag tag group of dragons, appointing himself head. The others did not resist, being too disorganized to properly run themselves. As Loki learned more about the dragons he lived with, he taught them some about Berk. They were fascinated with the stories. In turn, he was fascinated with what had brought them here. The Gronckles had been part of the Nest ruled by the Green Death, but had not wanted to join the village's way of life. They were the only ones who knew what a Nightmare was. The Zippleback had been chased north from where it had lived in the South, narrowly escaping being killed by another clan of dragon-hating Vikings. The Nadders had been cast out from their flock to the west, although Loki could never figure out why. The story changed from day to day, depending on which Nadder you were talking too.

Loki found the Aquers most interesting of all, though, with their odd bodies. They had large, expressive eyes, rimmed with dark lashes. Rather than looking odd on the dragons, the lashes added a sense of softness, strengthened by their stubby claws and tiny teeth. These dragons were meant to live in sea caves, sleeping on rocks by night and hunting underwater at dawn. They seemed to be able to breathe underwater just as well as in the air, a trait much lost on the other dragons. The Aquers were quite smart and had an odd sense of humor. One moment they would be having a heartfelt discussion about the origin of Vikings (a controversial issue) and mid-sentence they would suddenly turn, scoop up a tiny paw full of mud, fling it at one of their brethren, and then steal someone's fish and dive underwater, chased by the rest of the group. But, the quirky dragons appealed to Loki. Maybe because in a way, their strangeness helped him to forget his own.

And so this was Loki's life now. He led his small flock fishing, flying, and settled the disputes that constantly cropped up. They often visited another island, about half a day's flight away, that the Nadders had found. It was larger than their island, and had abundant game and fish. They would often spend days there, romping through the woods and grass, till all the game had been scared away. Then they would return to their island, and continue life there.

Loki found out that the dragons hadn't done any exploring on this island, but none of them had lived there long. He took it upon himself to explore every nook, cranny, and hole. The island was about three miles long and two miles wide, with a large long hill on the west side. The east side was covered in a small forest that crowded right up to the base of the hill. A shallow wide beach ran along one side of the island, where the dragons slept. One day, exploring, Loki went swimming around the west corner of the island, examining the hill. A strange smell had caught his attention. There! He swam up to a tiny beach and pulled himself out of the water, raising his nose in the air. It was a damp, wet, earthy smell. Not what he was used to. Nosing through the small trees that grew where the beach met the hill, he found where the scent was coming from. It was a small hole, probably only big enough for a Terror. But it was big enough for him to peak through. After some awkward wiggling to look through, Loki finally saw what it was. The hill was actually a huge open cavern. Excited, Loki backed away and blasted the hole with fire. A few moments later, a large smooth hole had been bored into the hill. The rocks hissed in protest to the extreme heat, causing steam to fill the air. Ignoring it, Loki pushed through into the cavern. It had to be at least a half a mile long and wide. It was warm inside, too. The source of the heat was a hot spring that bubbled up in a depression in one corner. The perfect size for a dragon, even one of Loki's size. This would do. This would be their new home.

Loki had flown back and called his flock together, eager to show them what he had found. They were impressed, and were soon right at home. The trees blocked the opening, protecting them from unwanted view. There they lived in peace. So two years past. No Viking ships were ever seen, and the people were soon forgotten. It was this that was the dragon's greatest folly.