AN: Hello and welcome again to How To Become a Dragon Master. Nothing much to say, except that I hope that you all enjoy this chapter!

Review response:

V01dsw0rd: Well, the whole story is an AU, but I wouldn't say that. Last chapter was more of a bridging between the events at the end of HTBADC (which are similar to the events of the end of the first HTTYD movie), and the beginning of Riders of Berk episode 1's take of this story.

Noctus Fury: Sounds like you're a big sucker for love triangles. You're enjoying this Heather-Hiccup-Astrid game as much as you are enjoying the Astrid-Hiccup-Elsa game on HTLIG. Maybe one day you could write a story of your own, with your own take at one of these love triangles. As for Heather, well she is just as overprotective of Hiccup as Toothless and Stoick are. Things can get heated if they don't agree :P

thearizona: Well you know our little Hiccup, he feels like he disappointed his father, and his peers as well. And thanks, I hope you enjoy this chapter as well.

Spartan10007: Another one on the Heathercup ship. It still takes me by surprise at seeing how many of you there are. Though, considering the work they've been doing on her on the RTTE series I guess I shouldn't be too surprised. I hope you enjoy this chapter

Without further ado:

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It worked, on the beginning at least. Soon, however, people started to feel bored during the classes, not being only when Hiccup would speak.

The issues dragon-related had climbed down for a while, but were currently climbing up again. Hiccup gave up on the demonstrations briefly after he noticed such thing, and returned to the exhaustive routine he had had before that day he, Heather and his father talked.

Heather, of course, was not happy at all. Even Gothi wasn't. The fact that her former apprentice was now mostly busy tendering Hiccup meant that she had to tender the rest more often. She would never blame the child, for she knew Heather's heart was in the right place.

Still… she knew it was only a matter of time before someone reaches its last straw…

Mildew. A relic of an old time, when bitterness about dragons was applauded. Some would say he was so old that he already had gray beard and hair when Stoick killed his first Terror.

The only other thing that everyone could agree about Mildew is that he was as old as he was grumpy. Even before the migration he already was a big complainer. Stoick would occasionally joke with Gobber that the old man was his personal pain on his ass, to which Gobber would heartfully agree.

But now that the war was over the old man seemed to turn into an even bigger pain. "These demons are not fit to live amongst civilized men!" he proclaimed to Stoick, being loud enough to attract the attention of the people nearby.

"They don't let an old man rest because they're busy eating my crops, our crops! They don't let our tribesmen rest because they're busy breaking down our roofs. They don't let us eat because they eat our food." If possible his yells got even louder, attracting the attention of even more Vikings.

As if to make his claim truer a Terror passed by with a loath of bread on his mouth, being followed by two other Terrors who seemed to be very hungry, if the way their tongues were dangling out of their mouths was any indication.

"And on top of all of that we have to clear their mess!" He pointed, with his staff, to the piles and piles of dragon dung spread around the central plaza. Fortunately it wasn't extremely smelly, but surely it was hard to wash out. More than just a Viking agreed with Mildew, likely because they had to clean themselves after the popularly dubbed 'poop time'.

"I think it's safe to say I speak for everyone when I say you better deal with them by caging them!" Shouts of angry Vikings could be heard, all of them agreeing with the old man. Stoick sighed, and looked worriedly at Gobber.

Hiccup was not going to take this well, especially after all the effort he put to help.

Hiccup heard the exchange. He backed away from the door slowly, until he ended up sitting on the chair. He looked at Toothless, worry leaking from his eyes like a waterfall. "I don't want you to go bud."

Toothless nudged him, sharing the same concern. He knew the boy's father was trying, but it didn't mean he liked the situation.

As soon as the sun set Stoick came home. Hiccup could see the concern hidden behind his frown. "It's okay dad… I know…"

Stoick opened his mouth, then shut it, before eventually letting out a sigh. It pained Hiccup to see his father so aged. "I don't like it anymore that you do, but I don't see any other way…"

"But dad, I understand then-"

"It doesn't matter-" he yelled, before pinching the bridge between his eyes and taking in a deep breath. "I mean… I know Hiccup, but this did not change the fact that the village can't sustain the current situation. I'm sorry son, but we'll have to cage them."

"Dad…" he didn't mind how his voice subtly broke. "Just let me try again. Just one chance, please?"

Stoick looked his boy in the eyes, ones so similar to his mother… He sighed. "Alright. One more try. But if you don't control them enough tomorrow you will cage them and keep it like that until I decide what to do."

"Thanks dad…" he wanted to seem relieved but his voice actually came out sounding nervous. "I won't let you down."

Stoick sighed one last time. "I hope you won't. For your and my sake." He retreated to his chambers, and soon his snores filled the quiet house.

"Windwalker?" he called out. The white one slowly climbed down the stairs. "I know you overheard us. Think you can help me tomorrow?"

As much as he liked to see chaos, his will to not see his boy sad surpassed all others. He may not be getting away-no one would dare to chain him, even Hiccup-but the same could not be said of Toothless. His cousin was too honor bound to create a mess to stay with Hiccup. 'I will.'

He smiled weakly. Heather did not come this night to visit him and for that he was thankful. He wasn't sure if he wanted to see her. He always liked her company, but he was too exhausted, too put down. He didn't want her to see him like that.

All the teens gathered on the old Dragon Training arena as he had requested. "So we're here. Why did you call us?" Astrid inquired. Even Heather was there, although she did not have a dragon. Beside from her and the healer the others didn't seem to be paying much attention to Hiccup. He held back a sigh, and hoped that, at least, they would hear what he had to say.

"We need to take a different approach. I'm sure all of you heard Mildew yesterday…" He earned a round of nods in return. He was thankful that the Twins and Snotlout were paying attention. "Dad says I only have one shot at changing the situation or he'll have to do as Mildew asked: cage our dragons."

"I'm not sure about you but I am not okay with that." They nodded, their faces showing fierceness. "Mildew want our dragons out of the island, but I want to show him that he's wrong. That we can coexist in harmony."

"Yeah!" They all shouted.

He nodded. "Good, so as you all are with me I think we can begin it. We're going to train dragons."

There was a moment of silence as each teen looked at one another, before all of them looked at Hiccup. "I'm not sure if you remember but our dragons are already trained." They glanced at Hookfang and Snotlout, who were arguing again. "Most of them anyway," Astrid added.

Heather held back the urge of adding in that the Twins didn't really train their dragon as well.

"I know, I know," he spoke, waving his hands up and down as if telling them to calm down. "But the rest of the dragons on Berk are not. And I know there is only six of us but I think this can help." Before Astrid could speak he then added, "And I know you already trained dragons before, but it was under different circumstances. Just… go with me okay?"

She was about to speak when she noticed how tired he seemed. It was very subtle. He must have learned how to hide it over the years. But he couldn't hide from her, now that he had her attention on him-she had a keen eye after all. The way he slightly leaned on his good leg. The way he held himself from sighing. These were some of the signs telling her of how tired he was.

"So what you want us to do?" she asked. The others, not wishing to go against Astrid and Hiccup, turned their attention to the boy. Even Snotlout was quiet.

He gave her a subtle, yet very appreciative smile. "As you know there are many issues caused by the dragons. One of them is stealing food." He took a loath of bread out of the basket and gave to Toothless. "The best and quickest way to have a dragon give up on the food is to lightly scratch them under their chins, after earning their attention."

He scratched Toothless under the chain, who rolled his eyes up in pleasure. His mouth opened up a bit, enough so the food was loosely inside it. Hiccup had no issue taking back the bread. 'He should be thankful he didn't pick me, otherwise that would have been awkward for him.'

Toothless shot his cousin an annoyed glare, though he could not deny the truth. Windwalker had the same weak spot of Toothless, but merely scratching his chin did not yield the same effect it did on the black dragon. Punching it though, yielded a very different result.

"Heh, you might do that with your dragons. Hookfang and I do things in a different way," he said while throwing the loath of bread to Hookfang. "If I want him to drop something I go to his face and say DROP THAT RIGHT NOW YOU HEAR ME!"

He did drop the bread, only to engulf the bulky boy with his mouth. Snotlout. Grunted in pain, as his dragon's teeth were a little too close for comfort. "Would someone help me?"

The Twins snickered and laughed, talking of how they should teach this to Barf and Belch. Hiccup glanced at Astrid, who shrugged. "In a minute," she said amused. Despite the exasperation coming off from him, Hiccup allowed himself to smile.

They went on like this for a while before Hiccup decided they should take a break. "Okay guys, I think we had good progress today. We can rest up a bit." The dragons took off, with the exception of Windwalker for obvious reasons.

They started talking while Hiccup looked at them from afar. 'I must say, I was skeptical of your idea but seems like you have it under control.'

He sighed. "To be honest I was skeptical too. I know they react to me in a friendly way, but I was not sure if they would behave the same way with others, especially with Snotlout." They both glanced at the bulky boy who was trying to proudly show the bite mark on his arm while Heather was trying to bandage it.

'I'm with you on this flight.' Hiccup raised an eyebrow at the expression but didn't comment on it. 'But if they are friendly even to Snotlout, who is the closest thing to the average Viking of your village then there is hope.'

Hiccup nodded. Now it was time to see if their training was in vain or not. "Okay guys," he said while approaching them. "What do you say we put in practice what we trained this far?"

They all agreed enthusiastically. Hiccup started to walk toward the door until the white one took him by the collar of his tunic and flopped the poor boy to behind his back. 'You're walking on my back, no arguments.'

Hiccup trued twice to escape it, but having four wings gave him a lot of advantages. Pinning Hiccup behind his back was one of them. Snotlout didn't miss a chance to make a snarky comment but quickly shut up when Windwalker bored his eyes on Snotlout's skull. Said teen quickly looked away, as he was still traumatized by the last time he looked deeply into such eyes.

Heather and Astrid exchanged glances. They knew why Windwalker did this; Hiccup's leg was trembling, albeit it was hardly noticeable. Still they both quietly laughed at seeing the boy being fathered by a White Fury.

"Strange. Earlier today I couldn't walk five feet without seeing a dragon and someone shouting at it. Where is everyone?" Astrid inquired, voicing out the question that was in everyone's mind.

Windwalker felt a weird sensation, then immediately jolted toward the storage house. "What the-" Heather's question was interrupted as an explosion broke the silence, its cloud of smoke visible to everyone. Curiously, it happened on the same direction in which Windwalker took off. They all glanced at one another before breaking into a run.

They arrived at the place in less than a minute, and all of them were surprised to see their dragons eating what was left of the food. Even Toothless was there. Windwalker stopped, shocked for a moment, before he let out his blood-curdling roar.

The teens covered their ears while trying not to pale too much. Some of the Vikings who had been watching the scene with indignation actually ran off because of the roar. 'ENOUGH!'

All dragons immediately stopped eating, and slowly backed away from the leftovers. Stoick came out of the half-blown, charred house. Despite the ashes stuck on his skin Hiccup could see even his father was pale.

The man looked at him and the dragon right beside him. He did not say anything about the roar. "You see Stoick, I warned you!" The old man approached the Chief, a half grin half frown plastered on his face. "I warned you when they ate my field of cabbages. And did you do? You put a bunch of teenagers in charge. And now we don't have food for the winter!"

Some Vikings shouted in agreement but they were all apprehensive of getting near the White Fury. Stoick grunted, unhappy that the man had a point. "Dad I can explain…" Hiccup started but never finished.

"There is nothing to explain. I want these dragons caged by night." His tone was firm and full of disappointment, a tone Hiccup knew very well. "I'm sorry. We tried your way and it did not work."

"Caging them won't be enough Stoick! They need to be sent off the island!" There were a few murmurs, some agreeing with him, some thinking than banishing them was a little too extreme. The old man's grin widened when he noticed Stoick seemed to consider his idea.

"Dad you can't-" he stopped midsentence as Stoick rose his hand.

"After they are caged I will think on what will happen. For now just do that."

"Everyone must be caged," the old man sneered, "including that one!" He pointed his staff to Windwalker.

The white one rose on his two hind paws and stretched his wings open. 'I'd like to see you try that old worm. Maybe your bones are good for picking off fish leftovers between my teeth.' He bared a toothy smile, which wouldn't have been so scary if it wasn't the fact that he didn't even try to hide the maniac glint on his eyes.

Mildew looked around and noticed how everyone took a step back. He looked at the chief, who seemed not amused with the display, but also seemed as if he would have no part in it. He glanced back at the white dragon, almost as tall as two of him together, and, with trembling hands, lowered his staff.

Windwalker huffed. 'That's why I thought.' He didn't lower down though.

Stoick cleared his throat to gather the people's attention. "What are you looking at?! We have food to gather. Munch and Belch prepare the fishing boats. The rest find any sort of food."

"B-but sir, we hauled these fishes for six months. We can't possibly recover everything in one week-"

"Just. Ready. The. Boats." His deep serious tone was enough to set everyone in motion. "Hiccup," he called, earning the boy's attention. "Cage your dragons." He looked at Windwalker. "Let him be, we'll talk about him later." And with that he headed to Gobber so they could hunt some boars.

At last Windwalker lowered down, although his wings were still half opened. Hiccup, meanwhile, glanced at Toothless with worry and sadness clearly visible on his eyes. "I told you boy, a dragon's gonna do what a dragon's gotta do, and we gonna do what we gotta do: cage them."

He didn't linger much. As soon as his eyes crossed Windwalker's he tightened his hold on Fergus and took off toward his house. 'Had I known this walking skeleton lived far from this village I'd have blown him out a long time ago. I'm sure your people would have been thankful of my services.

"Just leave him be…" he said dejectedly. "Come on bud, let's regroup with the others." Before they headed toward the Arena, however, he turned to Windwalker. "Go to Leafnecks and Stokehead. Have them fly the Cove. I don't want to cage anymore dragons than I already have to."

Windwalker nodded and took off. "Let's find the gang. I'm sure they'll want to spend these last hours with their dragons." The Night Fury crooned sadly. "I know boy… I know."