The next morning Hiccup was getting Toothless ready to leave. The other dragon he was taking with him was his mom's dragon Cloud Jumper. He and Toothless got along and he listened to him as well as he did his mom. Which made her happy. Seeing as she saw the bond between him and Toothless, and knew Cloud Jumper personally.

But he wanted to get up and out of there before Astrid came out to take care of Storm Fly. Normally he would tell his dad to send someone else, but right now. He needed to put some space between himself and Astrid to clear his head.

"Hiccup."

Flinching at the sound of Astrid's voice he didn't even look behind him. "I am going somewhere to help someone dad knows. I don't know how long I will be gone."

Dropping her eyes she sighed as tears fell again. "Be careful."

"Yeah don't worry about me."

Walking out of the house with his wife, Stoic stopped and gave a glare to the girl behind his son before he walked over to his son. "You all ready to go then?"

"Yeah."

"Come on. I will walk with you out of the village."

With a nod Valka turned a rather stern face to Astrid. "I don't understand this contract deal. Your parents wouldn't really go into detail about it. Stoic offered to help them get out of it but they said no. I don't get it."

"It is complicated."

"Still." Valka then turned and looked at where her husband and son walked around a corner of a house. "I think it is best you just stay away from Hiccup for a while. Give him the space he needs to be able to heal and get over what happened last night."

Turning and heading back home she nodded. "Alright." But Astrid didn't know how she could. It was just routine, she spent the mornings, some afternoons and evenings with him. 'This is going to be harder than I thought.'

X

Stopping on the bluff Stoic sighed. "I sent his bird back explaining everything to him. The bird he sent can make the three day flighty on dragon in a day and a half. Even when it sleeps it keeps a straight course for home."

"That's cool."

Seeing the sadness in his eyes, Stoic closed his own. "I know Hiccup. I know the pain of losing someone. Though yours is different. But you will….."

"Get over it."

Turning his son to look into his green eyes he shook his head. "You will heal with time."

With a smile and eyes that reflected it Hiccup nodded. "Thanks dad."

"Hiccup."

Turning to catch his mother as she hugged him, Hiccup sighed. "I will be fine mom. I have an alpha dragon and Cloud Jumper."

Stepping away from her son she smiled as she gave him a nod. "Just make sure that you come back as you are. No extra missing parts."

With a small laugh Hiccup nodded. "Right. Well better get going." He then jumped on Toothless and without another word he was just gone. Once he was up in the air he fell backwards on toothless with a sigh. "I just don't understand guys. How she could tell me she loves me, not even fight for the love I thought we had and just walk away from me like that. After everything that we have been through."

The growl under him made him sigh. "Yeah I know. You got were close friends with Storm Fly." Sitting up and rubbing his head he smiled. "I need to just stay away from Astrid, even after we get back to the village, but you can still play with Storm Fly whenever you and her want to." When Toothless smiled and let his tongue fall out he had to laugh.

Another grumble next to him and he saw the worried eyes of Cloud Jumper. "Don't worry. Everything will be alright. Lets just get to the island we stop at first so I can get a fire going."

X

Jerking on her hands Merida looked around her. She was bound, gagged and locked inside something that was hard as steel. And what's more she was with a dragon! She kept herself plastered on the side of the thing she was in. But there was something in the dragon's eyes that told her that it wasn't the beast that everyone else thought.

Hearing the same crazy laugh outside she jumped and turned when a side of the contraption opened and there was someone laughing at her. With her gag she couldn't say anything to him but she did not hide the hate in her glare as she narrowed her eyes at him. 'What do ya want with me? Why me?'

Crossing his arms he smiled at the girl. "Awwww isn't this sweet. I hope your daddy does what I asked him to do. Giving up his kingdom and serving me. I will build an army of dragon riders. Then take revenge on Hiccup for what he did to my father."

Standing up she stomped her foot and glared at him as she tried harder to pull on the ropes that tied her hands behind her back. Merida was not going to just take his laying down! She had to get out and get back to her father and tell him to fight this guy. As far as she knew this red dragon was the only one that he had! And it seemed to have different moods itself! 'I need ta let him know!'

When the guy didn't say anything just shut the door she fell to her knees and closed her eyes. How did she get in this mess? What did anyone in her kingdom ever do to deserve this!? Until this one swooped in and took her, she had never seen a dragon before. Only heard stories about them from her father when he would go to visit his friend Stoic in the North.

Hearing the whimper behind her she jumped and turned. This dragon was such a deep red she looked almost brown. But whenever the sun would hit it, parts would shine a brilliant red color. Its Gold eyes standing out against its scales. When it moved she gasped and tried to scream from under the gag, but as she started to move it jumped and pinned her on her stomach. But what happened next shocked her.

Stopping her struggle, she felt as gently the dragon bit into the ties that bound her hands and released them then moved off of her and sat down. Standing up she undid the gag that she had and looked at the pleading eyes of the dragon. It was almost like it was saying it was sorry.

Slowly, on shaky legs she inched toward the dragon. "Ya didn't mean ta take me did ya boy." But when the dragon gave her a sideways cross look she smiled as she stood straight up. "Okay, did ya girl." When she smiled she moved closer and held her hand out. "I tell ya what. Ya make friends with me, and I will make sure ya get away from him."

Looking up at the girl with the red hair, the dragon blinked a moment. Then she reached out and touched her hand with her nose. She just wanted to be free. And she saw this as her only chance to be able to do that.

With a smile as she sat down next to the dragon, Merida laughed as she put her head in her lap. "Well I guess ya aint evil. But I know ya a girl. What can I call ya?" Stroking the top of her head she sighed as she thought about names. She didn't really know her personality. And from what she has seen the last week she has two different personalities.

Then she gasped as she looked down at her. "Embers." When she looked up at her she smiled. "How do ya like the name? Embers. Yer the colors of a smoldering fire." When she nodded and curled her head into her lap she smiled as she leaned her head back and closed her eyes. "Now we just need ta find a way outta here."

X

Sitting in the cave with Toothless behind him and Cloud Jumper on the other side of the fire Hiccup couldn't do anything but stare into the flames. Seeing Astrid in them every time he the flickered. Finally he sighed as he let his head fall back and he took a deep breath. "Damnit. I need to get her out of my head!"

"Hard to do huh."

Jerking up, Hiccup sighed as he waved his hand at Cloud Jumper when he saw Eret. "Hey Eret. So you heard huh?"

"Yeah. They made an announcement to the village his afternoon when he got there." Sitting down he dropped his head and crossed his arms. "I wanted to see how you are doing. It is a little awkward for me. Seeing as I owe you, Astrid and your dragons my life."

With a half-smile as he crossed his arms Hiccup sighed. "Well that won't change. That was why I asked my dad to send me on this mission for him. He is good friends with Fergus and his daughter is only a year younger than me. I figured that I would let Mom and Dad know when I got her home that I was going to stay for a while. If it is alright with Fergus."

"I see. So you weren't going to come straight back."

"No. I need some time. For six years Eret I spent at least a little of each day with Astrid. Even when we weren't with each other, we were. It is hard to explain." Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath he dropped his head. "I just can't see her with him right now. I don't think I could handle it."

"If it is any consolation for you, she looked miserable as she stood there with him." Eret crossed his arms. "I tried to talk to her, so did Snotlout, Ruff, Tuff and Fishlegs. But she just won't talk to anyone about it."

"All she told me was that it was some damn contract that she had to honor. Even though Dad told her parents he would get them out of it and dare anyone to do anything to someone of his village. They refused to let him since she said she would do it."

Though before Eret could say anything, all three dragons stood and growled looking out of the cave. Hiccup stood up and started to slowly walk toward the cave. "Toothless. Cloud Jumper you two stay here."

Eret gave a wave to his Deadly Nadder and nodded. "You too Trapper."

Giving him an odd look as they headed for the mouth of the cave Hiccup sighed. "Trapper really?"

"I don't think he likes it but yeah."

"You picked a girl. She probably don't like it because that is a horrible name and she is a girl after all."

Blinking as he glanced back at her he sighed then dropped his head. "No wonder. I was wondering where the mood swing would come from when I would say Trappyer."

Waving is hand as they reached the mouth of the cave he looked out and then went wide eyed. It was the ice dragon alpha that Drago had! But there was someone else on him! "Who is that?"

"Shouldn't we be more worried about our dragons?"

"No." Looking at him he narrowed his eyes. "Remember? Toothless is the alpha of all the dragons that live on Berk. Your dragon included. They won't leave his side." But then he turned to look at the guy sitting on the face of the dragon. "But I do want to know who that is."

Pulling out a looking glass, Eret looked again. Then he gasped as he dropped it making Hiccup jump to catch it. "It can't be him. It just can't be."

"Who? Do you know who that is? Tell me."

Nodding Eret turned wide terrified eyes to him. "That is Drago's son. Alpha. He was so obsessed with the alpha dragon there, that when his son was born, he named him Alpha. He has his father's way of controlling that beast too."

Looking out as he stood up and the dragon passed on by. "Well at least he is headed away from Berk." Then he glared as he gasped. "But he is headed right toward where I am going."

Turning and going back to his dragons, Hiccup pulled out a piece of paper and write a note to his mother on it. "Cloud Jumper I know that I promised mom I would take you with me. But I need to be able to move unseen for a while. I need you to make sure that she gets this. Her and Dad will know what to do."

"What do you want me to do Hiccup?"

Looking at Eret as he tied the note to Cloud Jumper's leg he narrowed his eyes. "Just do anything you can to make sure that my mom and dad get done what they need to get done."

"What are you going to do?"

"Toothless is much faster than that dragon, and Toothless is the reason why it only has one tusk. It shouldn't even let him know that Toothless is in the air." He then walked out of the cave and then looked at Eret's dragon. "How about Charcoal."

"Charcoal?" When he felt a nudge on him and saw the happy look on the dragon's face he laughed. "I think she likes it." He mounted his dragon and then gave Hiccup a stern look as he got on Toothless. "Just be careful. He is as ruthless as his father, and twice as mean."

"Right. You too." Then with that they both shot off two different directions. Hiccup the castle, Eret Berk. With a glare as he gave Toothless the gear he needed to really fly he gripped his saddle. "We can't have this again bud. I nearly lost you last time. I don't want to chance losing you or anyone else like that again."