1 year later

Ása held her baby, whom she'd named Kaity. She could here some Hunters outside talking.

"Do you mean to say that The Dragon Egg hatched 3 months ago and Viggo told no one?" Someone said.

"Yeah, it's a female Night Fury." replied a second voice.

"That'll be good for the dragon fights. Too bad it's female though, girls can't do anything." said the first voice.

Dragon fights? Ása didn't like that at all. She'd run into quite a few dragons when she was out hunting and they'd never attacked her. She had wondered about that, remembering the ferocity of the raids, before deciding that Valka must've been right about the self defense thing. That poor Night Fury, she must be lonely and mistreated. Ása resolved to some day rescue her.

She looked at her new daughter and thought about Spitelout, her husband and Snotlout her son. He would be 2 years old now. Her boat had been destroyed so there was no way of getting home. Drake's note had said something about befriending a dragon, but really, how would you do that? It didn't make sense. Flying though, would make getting home faster and easier. She put her daughter on the bed and walked out of one of the tunnels in the back of the 'room'. It led to an underground stream as she'd discovered several months ago. The other tunnel led to a sharp drop onto a beach. The beach was inaccessible from land and there were many sharp rocks on the water so you couldn't get to it by ship. Unfortunately you also couldn't get down to it from the cave unless you also wanted to snap every bone in your body. The underground stream was useful though. Ása filled a bucket with water and came back, putting the water on the embers of the fire. She would have to make soup later. It was a lonely life in the cave.


Nine years later

"Kaity, I'll be back soon, stay here and don't break anything". Ása said.

"Yes, mom. Have fun hunting." Kaity replied.

Ása went out of the cave, not noticing that Kaity had crossed her fingers when she'd agreed, nor saw the small smirk on Kaity's face which suggested she would leave as soon as her mom was out of earshot, and out of sight. Kaity waited a few minutes and then removed the rocks and climbed out, and then replaced them. Kaity was wearing a Changewing scale cloak, allowing her to be invisible. They'd found some Changewing scales in the woods and found that they could still camouflage. They still didn't know exactly why. She'd promised herself that she'd rescue that young Night Fury and today that's what she would do. Kaity ran towards the Hunters' base and rushed into the dragon holding area. The cloak adjusted, and Kaity was gone. A dragon roared in its cell farther away. A Hunter walked by, whistling. He carried a bucket full of fish heads and fish guts, and another bucket full of choice cod.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming you stupid lizard. You Nightmares- so ornery. The Night Fury is much better." He growled, his voice sounding like boulders tumbling and scraping together.

Kaity smiled. This guy was going to feed the dragons. He'd lead her right to the Night Fury. She quietly followed the Hunter, watching him throw fish bits into the cages of Nadders, Speed Stingers, Razorwhips, Monstrous Nightmares, Changewings, and even a Sword Stealer. Finally he lead her to a cage that was slightly nicer than the others. He tossed in the cod and dodged a blue firebolt, as he turned his attention away from the other cages, Kaity loosened the locks so that the dragons in them be able to escape in a while.

"Ah no, that's not how you treat your masters." he said laughing. "The wittle baby girl dwagon is in a bad mood today? Well, get over it. Now that you're fully grown you'll be moved to the dragon fights and you won't get these cushy conditions anymore." he continued, in baby talk for part of it.

A growling sound came from the cage. Suddenly, a clang rang out. The Hunter was now unconscious on the floor. Kaity took off her hood, and threw back her cloak.

"Don't worry, girl. I'm going to get you out of there." she whispered.

The medium sized, pitch black dragon snarled at her. Kaity put a finger to her lips, and turned toward the Hunter. Ah, yes, there was the key. She snatched it and fitted it into the lock. The door swung open, and the catlike dragon lept out. She snarled, and spat a blue firebolt at Kaity.

"Shush. You're going to get me caught. I'm trying to help you." Kaity hissed. Thankfully the Night Fury calmed down some, but then they heard some Hunters yelling and running towards them. The dragon spat another firebolt in their direction, and knocked over several of them. She seemed to make a decision, and gestured for Kaity to get on her back. The poor dragon had learned to fly by being trapped in a harness so she could still fly, but not escape. She jumped into the air and they sailed away into the night. Behind them, they heard the other dragons burst out of their cages and fly off the island. Or at least most of them did, some stayed to flame some buildings and stuff. Neither Kaity or the dragons noticed the Sword Stealer, slipping through shadows, head to a small secluded beach on the other side of the island to wash his very wounded leg as best as he could.

"What do you want your name to be?" Kaity whispered. The dragon crooned at her, probably saying something like "I don't know."

"Umm...Fierce...ness? No, ew. Umm… Starry Sky?" The dragon snorted at whacked Kaity with an ear flap.

"No? Twilight? Midnight? Firetooth?" The Night Fury purred.

"Firetooth?" The dragon slapped Kaity with her ear again.

"Midnight? Ow! Stop that. I'm guessing you wanted Twilight then."

The newly named Twilight purred in agreement.

"Here, we've got to get back to my home. Can I guide you there?"

Twilight nodded, and Kaity guided her new dragon friend back to her cave. Then they had a problem. Twilight couldn't fit through the entrance.

"Well, there is another entrance, but you can only access it if you fly. Here, I'll show you." Kaity flew Twilight around to the other side, by the beach. Down below them, the ebony black Sword Stealer with white rings around his neck drank some water from the small waterfall thing, that flowed out of their cave-spring. He looked up and watched the Night Fury and her rider fly overhead.

"Damn Dragon Hunters." he sighed, closing his yellow eyes, and shifting weight off his scarred and bleeding leg. "Their inhumanity has ruined me. I will likely die here, without my freedom. Ah, to have what was lost..."


When Ása returned later that evening, she froze. A medium sized, catlike, black dragon was attacking her daughter! She lifted her mace- she'd stolen it from a Hunter- and ran towards it, deciding that her theory must have been wrong, and dragons had been the killers her village had believed they were. As she brought her mace up to land a killing blow, Kaity held up her hand.

"Mom, no! This is Twilight, the Night Fury the Hunters had. I might have kind of rescued her, and she's my dragon. We were just playing." Kaity yelled, and then blushed, realizing that she'd just told her mother that she had disobeyed orders.

"We'll talk about that later, young lady. Now, how in the world did you tame a Night Fury?" Ása warily asked.

"Well, I wouldn't say tame exactly. More like, befriend. I used my Changewing cloak to sneak into the Hunter's fort, followed the man who was feeding the dragons. I loosened the locks on the other dragon cages, and then I knock the man out, released the Night Fury, assured her I meant no harm, and, so we could escape, Twilight let me ride on her back. I named her on the way home." Kaity explained sheepishly. Behind her, Twilight sat giving Ása a cute look with her pine green eyes.

"Oh, fine. I won't punish you, mostly because Twilight is adorable, and I can't resist that look, but only if you help me get a dragon as well. They will be our way to Berk!" Ása sighed.

Kaity nodded, though a sort of strained smile crossed her face, which she shrugged off. "Let's look on our beach first. There's sure to be something there. Do you want to tame a Sand Wraith?"

Ása shook her head. "No...I like them, but they just don't seem right. I want something more impressive. A Nightmare maybe?"

Kaity pressed her lips together thoughtfully and then said "Let's see what we can find."

She brought Ása over to Twilight and had her mount the dragon. Ása looked around nervously and then sighed and closed her eyes.

"Whenever you're ready."

"Ok, I'm ready."

Ása felt a slight jolt and then nothing. She opened her eyes and looked down at the rock formations that she'd seen everyday for the past 10 years. Somehow they looked different from the air. Almost magical. Ása smiled and then saw a light approaching. Twilight gently flew out over the beach and down onto the sand. Ása slid off the dragon's back and slowly walked forward.

"I'm not sure that the dragons will be out right now. It's pretty dark." she said, turning around to face Kaity.

"Uh...mom?" Kaity hesitantly said, pointing.

Ása turned around and saw yellow eyes and with stripes advancing in the darkness. She felt like she was being pulled forward, and her weapons shot away from her and into the darkness. The beast opened its mouth and a faint orange glow out lined its face. Behind her, Twilight spat a fireball at a rock and lit up the area around them. The dragon in front of her had a severe underbite, and its chin skin was tinted orange. It had battered armour made up of metal, and it had a sword stuck to its left leg on the outside. Its wings had arrow shaped points, and its long spiny tail that had white rings all the way down, ended in an arrow shape as well. It had a long neck, a curved horn on its muzzle, but no horns anywhere else on its head, and a round body. Ása's weapons were in a pile in front of it. She recognized this dragon.

"A Sword Stealer." she whispered. "It's even more awesome in real life than in the stories. I can't keep calling it IT. Are you a boy dragon?" this was directed at the Sword Stealer, who nodded. Ása smiled and reached a hand out to pet the dragon's curved horn. He swung his head away a bit and shifted off his bad leg.

"Oh no, look at you! You're injured! Here, can you fly up to that cave opening? I have something I can use to help that."

The Sword Stealer crooned at her, and then made a limping jump up into the air. He beat his wings and angled himself through the opening. He then landed, favouring his wounded right leg, and limped into the cave a bit. Kaity jumped onto Twilight's back, Ása right behind her, and they flew up to the opening to join the Sword Stealer.

"Alright, follow me." Ása said, leaping off Twilight's back. She walked through the rock spikes, and towards their home cave. The Sword Stealer lumbered after her, and Kaity looked at Twilight.

"Well…" she said shrugging. "That escalated quickly."


A/N: Chalumeau is the French word for welding torch, and since Sword Stealers have a metal coat, I thought that would be perfect. Also, more apologies for all the time skips in this story. I have a lot, but i don't want to bore people too much with all the minuscule details. I also should add that this story will be updated at least once, probably twice a week until it ends. Furture stories will not have that update pattern since this is my only current completed story besides a few one shots.

Also, thank you to Star, my first reviewer. Glad to hear you like it so far! :)