Hiccup ran as fast as he could to Silent Sven's sheep pen, his metal leg digging holes in the soft ground. Running past a Monstrous Nightmare who was chewing contentedly on a cart full of apples, Hiccup ducked under a Deadly Nadder who flew past shooting fire at him, he could feel the heat coming from the flame as it missed him by mere inches. Not slowing down he looked around frantically trying to make sense of the dragon attack, one of many in the past few weeks, but definitely the most aggressive.
Since Drago left, a rouge dragon raid was happening every few days, and they was getting worse every time. The dragons becoming more vicious and desperate as the winter months drew closer. Running through the ashes of a fallen house, Hiccup stopped short when he heard a furious scream, turning towards the Great Hall he saw a man raise an axe over dazed Gronckle. "Stop!! Do not hurt that dragon, killing it won't make the other dragons stop, it will only make them angrier. Go help secure Silent Sven's sheep in the Great Hall while I check on the Gronckle." Hiccup said running out of the smoldering house to check on the dragon, kneeling down beside it. The man, angered with the loss of his kill, glared at Hiccup before looking around for other Vikings. With his back turned, Hiccup failed to see the man slowly start towards Hiccup, raising his axe high in the air. The Gronckle shook its head, coming out of its daze before turning to snarl at the attacking Viking, showing its teeth and crouching down.
The Viking let out a yell as he held up his shield just in time as the dragon shot a lava blast straight towards him, Hiccup ducked to the ground covering his head with his hands. The blast threw bits of lava and rock everywhere, the bulk of the mass slammed into his wooden shield reducing it to a smoldering heap of wood and bent metal, the man was propelled backwards off his feet and thrown to the dusty ground as the Gronckle flew off. Hiccup stood up and ran over to the man, oblivious to what just really happened. He held out his hand but the man just slapped it aside shakily standing to his feet himself, he snarled looking around seeing his broken axe lying on the ground. Leaning against the broken wall of a hut he pointed to the sky at the dragons.
"These dragons are not holding back on trying to kill us, and if we hope to have any chance against them, we need to fight back with the same aggressiveness as they shpw." He stopped and gripped his side groaning in pain lurching to the right nearly falling over before regaining his composure, "A-And you and your dragons will be the spark for the fire, and I'm just going to watch you burn." The man stalked off limping with every step, a look of hatred on his scarred face before disappearing into a cloud of smoke. Hiccup stood there in shock, his face as blank as stone, he put him hand to his neck almost feeling a tingling sensation. He turned stepping over a fallen beam lying on the ground in fiery embers, he slowly continued to Sven's hut. He had to stop Vikings multiple times from killing or injuring dragons and he put all the injured ones in the Dragon Hangar to help later, but by the time he got to Sven's, the attack was over and Berk had already begun to clean the mess. Astrid and Eret had already started moving the sheep back from the Great Hall to the pen by the time he came in sight. Astrid saw him coming over the crest of the hill and stormed up to meet him, coming to stand in front of him glaring angrily at him, "Where have you been?" She asked putting her hands on her hips, Hiccup sighed and leaned against a fence post.
"Everywhere, mainly stopping Vikings from killing dragons. Most seemed to listen and wanted to prevent the attack peacefully, but one didn't take it too well. A man was going to kill a downed Gronckle, he didn't even try to listen to me, then the dragon attacked him and he wouldn't even let me help him off the ground." Eret walked over with two sheep resting in his hands, both of which were chewing lazily on bits of grass. "What Viking? I'll be glad to show him how we hunters deal with treason, point the way Chief." Astrid grabbed a sheep from him and threw it into the pen, "Eret, you're not a hunter anymore, your a Rider. And we do things a little differently on Berk, besides, I'm sure it was nothing. Right Hiccup?" She looked around to see him looking worriedly at the ground, she looked from Eret back to Hiccup. "R-Right?"
Hiccup glanced up and saw her looking, he quickly forced a grin and smiled warmly at her. "Oh, yeah. Sure, it's just one unhappy Berkian, not everyone feels like that." Eret raised an eyebrow and threw the last sheep in the pen. "Well, you're the Chieftain. I just gather sheep when the sheep need gathering, by the way, where's Sven?" At that exact moment Sven crawled out from under his hut holding a baby sheep which was covered in dirt. Astrid walked over and helped him up, the dirty sheep jumping into her arms. "Uh, Sven. What were you doing under your hut?" She said holding the squirming sheep away trying to not get dirty. "Well, when the dragons attacked I tried putting them all into the my hut and put them in bed, but this one ran away! I followed it under my hut and only just now caught up to it. It wasn't because I was scared and didn't want to get eaten..."
Hiccup raised an eyebrow and took the sheep from Astrid throwing it into the pen with the others. "Okay... well, we're going to go and check on the rest of the village, are you and your sheep okay now?" Sven looked into the pen and counted them all, he turned back smiling, "All my sheepies are okay, they just get so scared after these dragon raids." He picked one up and rubbed noses with it, talking to it in a baby voice. "Don't you? Yes you do! Yes you do!" Eret backed away as Sven started to dance with it. "Is he always like this?" He looking strangely at Hiccup who laughed, "No, he's usually worse. Come on, let's go check on the rest of the village."
They found the other Riders helping repair the Great Hall with a few other Vikings. Tuffnut saw them walking over and called out to Hiccup, "Hey! Get over here and look at our genius new defenses!" Hiccup looked warily as Astrid who simply shrugged. Walking over he could see Ruffnut placing a huge statue that looked like a hunched over troll on the base of the steps. Astrid put her hand to her face and Eret raised an eyebrow, Tuffnut pulled Hiccup over and spread his hands proudly, "I'm calling them, 'Scare Troll'! They will scare the dragons away so we don't have to worry about attacks anymore!"
Hiccup watched unamused as Ruffnut finally pushed it up when it wobbled back and forth before falling off and shattering into hundreds of pieces. Tuffnut looked appalled before shrugging slapping Hiccup on the back, "That's okay, we have hundreds more. All in different shapes, sizes and faces." Hiccup sighed and walked over to Ruffnut, the grass being charred where he stood. "Ruff, Tuff. I need you to go and get some salt water from the oven and take it to the Hangar to check for any Grimoras from the rouge dragons we captured, maybe that's why they are attacking." Tuffnut jumped between them and tapped his head. "Hey H, did we ever figure out if Grimoras would work on humans? I'd love to be able to go on a mindless killing spree and be able to blame it on something!" Hiccup stared at him shocked as they started to argue while Ruffnut started walking over to Eret, who grew a strange face when she started swinging her hips and hair making kissing faces at him.
Astrid watched from the side trying not to laugh as Valka came to stand beside her, "What's going on lass? And what is that poor girl doing." Astrid laughed as Ruffnut jumped on Eret grabbing onto his shoulders as he walked away, he feet dragging behind her. "I'm not sure, but Hiccup is arguing whether or not Grimoras work on humans." She said smiling warmly at him, Valka looked between the two and smiled herself. Hiccup turned towards Ruffnut, who was happily letting Eret drag her in circles as she squeezed him tighter around the waist, a look of exasperation on his face. "Ruff, come on. You have to go with Tuff so he doesn't do anything stupid." Ruffnut slowly slid to the ground landing on her face as Eret shoved her away.
She stood up and stormed off towards Barf and Belch where Tuffnut was already sitting. "Thanks a lot Hiccup, you got in the way of true love, again! Just don't expect me to bring you gifts at your wedding!" She and Tuffnut flew away heading for the Hangar as Fishlegs and Snotlout continued to repair the stones that were broken. Hiccup waved them over leaning on the Scare Troll, "Fishlegs I need you and Gobber to keep working on repairs around the village from the ground while Astrid, Eret, and I fly above and help." Fishlegs nodded and went to find Gobber, Meatlug following close behind him. Hiccup looked over to Astrid and Valka talking near by and pulled Snotlout away from them. "Snotlout I need you to go and find Trader Johann and ask him for a map of some place where me and Astrid can go and not be disturbed by anything or anyone. Ok?" Snotlout snorted and wrenched his shoulder from Hiccups hand.
"So you want me to go and search the entire archipelago so you and Astrid can have a date?" Hiccup shushed him with his hand telling him to quiet down. "Yes, I was going to do something with her before while we have the chance, I'd do it myself, but-" Snotlout raised his hand interrupting him, "Yeah yeah, the Chieftian must always stay with his village. Don't expect me any time soon, half the time will probably be filled with his boring stories, but remember. You owe me for this." He said stalking away over to Hookfang. Hiccup rolled his eyes and turned back to find Toothless with Astrid and Eret following closely behind him.
They found their dragons and flew around Berk helping everyone who was in need of it, most of the village was still intact with only a few burnt houses and stalls. Astrid flew over to Hiccup on his right side, the wind blowing her blonde hair behind her. "Hiccup, have you thought about why these attacks are happening? It's not like dragons just decide to attack just because they want to." Hiccup looked over to her admiring her, his eyes staring dreamily at her not paying attention. 'Wow, she really is beautiful' He really was a lucky guy to have her as his betrothed, and he didn't even have to act any different around her, she loved him for who he was. Although since all this has been going on, they haven't had much time to spend with each other. 'It's been too long since we had a flight together, maybe I should-'
"Hiccup! Did you hear me?" Astrid yelled to him jarring him from his thoughts. "Huh? Oh yeah, uhh. That's all I've been thinking about... I think it has something to do with Toothless being the new Alpha. These dragons are coming from all around to see him and they don't know any better." Eret flew beside him to his left still struggling to control Skullcrusher. "Then why do they keep attacking even though they see Vikings riding dragons. Wouldn't that make them stop?" Hiccup pondered this for a moment before running the back of his neck, "Maybe they think we are hurting our dragons or forcing them to help us." Astrid looked down to Stormfly petting the side of her head before shrugging, "Maybe, but we have to get Berk back together before the next attack." Hiccup nodded and started towards the dragon wash, "Ok, we need to get the dragons calmed down and back to their homes before they-" Astrid flew in front of him stopping him midair putting her hand out. Toothless quickly tuned to the side to avoid hitting them, nearly throwing Hiccup off in the process.
Astrid snorted and smiled at him, "Or, we could go to the Forge and gather lumber and metal to rebuild the island huts back so the Vikings have somewhere to go." Hiccup climbed back to the saddle frowning, "But what about the-" Astrid rolled her eyes and interrupted him, "No, I think we are going to do my idea first. I am second in command after all." Hiccup tapped his head starting to get anxious. "Uh, but I'm the Chief..." Toothless made a choking noise and Stormfly squawked eyes going wide. Eret's looked between the two and slowly started to back away, Skullcrusher even looked terrified as Astrid raised her eyebrows and grabbed her axe flying closer to Hiccup, who was beginning to fear for his life.
"Yes, and if the Chief wants to have a happy second in command who also happens to be his betrothed, then you will do what she says. Happy wife, happy life. Hm?" She said pointing the tip of the axe in his face. Hiccup gulped and nervously laughed, "Haha, yeah. Let's- uh, let's go to the forge, whatever you say." Astrid smiled putting her axe back, "Good, glad you agree. See you there." She flew off leaving Hiccup to exhale loudly leaning on Toothless. Eret flew closer to him, a smug look on his face. Hiccup raised an eyebrow looking angrily at him. "What are you looking at?" Eret laughed, "I'm looking at a Chief who I've seen single handedly take on the biggest dragon known to exist, be reminded who the real Cheiftian is by a 5 foot 6 blonde Viking who would make even the Bewilderbeast run in terror with the axe you made her. I love this island!" He said flying off in front of him.
Toothless laughed and Hiccup frowned down at him, "Really, you too? Just be glad you don't have to worry about another NightFury pointing an axe at your face anytime soon." Toothless's smile melted away, he rolled sharply throwing Hiccup off into open air, the wind whipping his hair in his face as he flailed his arms. He screamed as he fell shouting his apologies while Toothless rolled his eyes and dove down to catch him. He flew underneath Hiccup, letting Hiccup fall on his back. Hiccup fell hard on the saddle lopsided. Hiccup quickly shot up and grabbed the handles. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!!" Toothless smiled smugly and they both flew off to the Forge.