Chapter 3

(Three years later)

I was staring at my reflection in the water. I could barely even recognize myself, my hair had a grown a bit longer and I started developing a slight build I thought I never would be able to. Toothless was starting to look different too. His muscles were getting bigger and he was getting a few extra frills along his chin. I couldn't believe that it had already been three years since we left Berk and found Mom. So much had happened since then.

Mom was training me to be a dragon rescuer like she had been for the past eighteen years. She said she was starting to become impressed by how fast I was picking it up. I was starting to feel that she was right about the gift she had mentioned that first night we flew together and that maybe I would be able to do more to really bring peace to people and dragons somewhere down the road.

I was pulled from my thoughts when I heard Mom and Cloudjumper land behind us. Mom looked panicked.

"Mom, what's wrong?"

"Eret and his son are on their way to Drago with another shipment of dragons. If we're going to stop them we need to go now." She said handing me my helmet and running back to Cloudjumper.

I quickly jumped onto Toothless' back and we followed close behind Mom and Cloudjumper out of the nest and toward the ships carrying the dragons. The plan was the same as it had been since Mom started letting me help her on her rescues. Simple, yet risky. Mom kept the trappers busy and I free the dragons onboard.

This time it looked like Eret and Eret son of Eret were ready for us, but thankfully, Mom was able to keep their focus off of me and Toothless long enough for us to sneak aboard and free the dragons from the ships one by one. Everything was going fine until I got to the last ship. This one was different from the others and almost seemed familiar. As I was working with the locks on the cages, I noticed a flag with a crest that I knew all too well.

It was flag with the Berk crest on it. I tore the flag down and made short work of the locks. As the dragons were flying off, we were spotted by a guard on the ship. Toothless and I took off, but a net catapult went off and was heading right for us. Toothless and I dove to avoid it, but the net wrapped around me and pulled me out of the saddle and down to the freezing water below. I was drowning, but I kept fighting to get loose, but nothing was going to give. My vision started to go dark, the last thing I saw was Toothless swimming desperately to get to me and then everything went dark.

I woke up slowly. When I could finally open my eyes, I saw Toothless looking at me with relief in his eyes.

"Hey Toothless." He started to nose at me. "I'm happy to see you to Bud."

Toothless quickly ran and called out into the main cavern. Mom came running in a short time later.

"Oh, son. I was worried sick, I thought you were never going to wake up." Mom said hugging me tightly squeezing the air out of me.

"I'm fine Mom." I gasped trying to breath.

When Mom, finally let go, she told me that she had somewhere to go and that she would be back soon, and asked me to stay in bed and get some rest. I was suspicious about why she wouldn't want me out of bed. Once she was gone, I pulled the covers back and saw why.

Half of my left leg was missing. I could guess what had happened and from the look in Toothless' eyes, he felt so sorry for it.

"Hey, it's okay Bud." I reassured him rubbing his head. "You did what you had to do. Besides, in a way you kind of got me back for shooting you down and grounding you, right Bud." I laughed scratching him just under the chin.

He began to croon and grin. He helped me up and onto his back. We took a walk around the nest, but when the Alpha caught us out, he gave Toothless a look that even I could tell was him telling Toothless to take me back to bed. Rather grudgingly, we made our way back to the cave that served as our living quarters and he helped me back into bed.

A short time later Mom came back, and showed us why she had gone out, she had gone to gather material to make me a new leg. I offered to help but she told me no, that she could handle it. Toothless sat close to me while Mom spent a good few hours getting the leg built. After what seemed like forever she had managed to put together a leg that was a little rough, but otherwise functional. I could make a few tweaks. Once I was fit into my new leg, I got to work modifying Toothless' saddle. I had to replace the left stir-up and reattach the connecting cables.

After another few hours, we were able to go out and test the new saddle and my new leg. At first Toothless and I were a little nervous about whether or not this would work, but it held up when we took off and it seemed to hold pretty easy, like nothing had changed. Mom seemed pretty happy about it too. We flew on for a few more hours and it started to get dark. We flew back to the nest and settled down for the night. Toothless seemed pretty upset about what had happened, but I rubbed his head and told him it was alright.

"Look at it this way bud, now we're even." I laughed scratching him under the chin. Toothless crooned and wrapped himself around me and we both fell asleep.

The next morning, Toothless and I went out for some exercise, we had to get used to our new appendages. At first it was going great, we knew better than to stray too far from the nest, especially since we were not yet used to the new saddle and stir-up and I had yet to become used to my new leg. We were only out a few hours until I heard Mom calling to us from the cliffs surrounding the nest. Toothless and I landed and went back to the cave. Mom had gotten breakfast ready and was waiting for us.

While Toothless and Cloudjumper ate, Mom and I ate by the fire and just talked about how we could stop Eret from getting his hands on any more dragons. Suddenly it dawned on me what I had found the day before at our last rescue. I set down my plate and reached under my armor.

"Mom, there's something I need to show you." I said nervously.

"What is it son?" she asked showing the same nervousness I was feeling.

I pulled the flag out from out of my armor and showed the crest on it. Mom stared at it in disbelief. I knew how she felt, I couldn't believe it either. We both knew Dad hated dragons but we didn't know he hated them that much. Seeing the Berk crest on a transport to Drago to us was like being hit by a catapult. We weren't sure what to do now, but we did know what needed to be done. We had to go back to Berk and stop them.

For the next week Mom and I planned and trained, preparing for our less than ideal return to the island we had both called home for so long until now. I wasn't sure how to feel about this anymore. All I had ever wanted was to stop the fighting and to bring us together. But now that I saw that my father was working with Drago, I wasn't sure what I wanted anymore. The day of our escapade finally came and I felt this horrible knot in my stomach. Mom put her hand on my shoulder and told me that it would be alright.

I wanted to believe her, that after all this, everything would fine. But I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to real wrong real fast. I finished strapping myself into my armor and then helped Toothless with the saddle. All the while, I couldn't stop my hands from shaking. Toothless looked at me with worry in his eyes.

"I know Bud, I'm worried too. But we have to do this." I said rubbing his head. "After this you and I will stay here with Mom, the Alpha and all the other dragons forever." I promised him.

Mom finally came and told me it was time to go. I said we would be there soon. Toothless and I looked at each other again and then we went out to meet her and Cloudjumper just off the cliffs overlooking the ocean. I nodded to Mom and we took off towards Berk. I flipped down my visor and Toothless and I followed her. All the time we had spent planning and training for this and I still couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong.

The hours we flew over the ocean slowly ticked by. The evening orange glow slowly turned to the dark violet then black night sky. All the stars across the sky helped me to relax a bit, and I could see why Toothless loved flying at night. It was beautiful, and no matter how many times I have seen it, it never gets old.

My relief was short lived when I heard Mom tell me that we were almost there. I looked straight ahead and saw the outline of the island I had once known so well. As we got closer however, we had to fly higher up in the sky to make sure we couldn't be seen, I saw that there had been some drastic differences made since I left. Where all the homes used to be, there was now only barracks. The watch towers were now guard towers. I looked over to the Great Hall and could no longer see the statues of the guardians that had been there for as long as this had been our home. The only house that was left standing was my Dad's. It almost made my heart sink to see how so much had changed since Toothless and I left, but I had to remind myself that we were here on a mission and there would time to think about my feelings later.

Mom gave me the signal to head for the docks. I nodded and she began to get everyone's attention. Toothless and I flew silently toward the docks and landed on the first ship we saw. The cages were filled to the brim with dragons. I slowly began to undo the locks, but then I heard a familiar voice from behind me.

"What do you think you're doing?" I turned around and saw Astrid.

She looked so different, three years had definitely been kind to her. But I had to stay focused, I pulled out my sword and gave Toothless the signal to start freeing the other dragons. I opened the blade and it burst into flames. Astrid looked bewildered for a second but then she quickly got a grip. She pulled out her axe and came right at me, but I was able to dodge. Just as it looked like she was going to try again, a Deadly Nadder swooped from out of nowhere and carried her off.

"Okay, that's going to be an issue." I muttered under my mask.

But there would be time to think about that later. Right now I still had cages to unlock. I helped Toothless get the locks undone and he signaled the other dragons to follow the ones that were flying back toward the nest. One ship after another we worked our way back toward the village and we were able to make it to the arena, or what was left of it, and free the dragons there. Finally, we went to help Mom. But just as we were flying over the village, Toothless was caught by a net and we landed just outside of the Great Hall. I stood and pulled the net off of Toothless as we were surrounded by Vikings. Toothless curled around me and I pulled out my sword. Suddenly I was struck from behind and I fell to the ground losing consciousness. The last thing I saw was Toothless standing over me and the both of us being surrounded by flames.

When I opened my eyes again, I was staring at the night sky and flying through the air. I sat up and saw that I was on Toothless' back and were flying back toward the nest.

"Hiccup, oh thank Thor." I heard Mom breathe through her mask as she and Cloudjumper flew closer.

"Oh, what hit me?" I said rubbing my head and winced when I felt the bump on the back of my head.

"You were struck from behind," Mom hesitated. "By your father." She finally finished with heavy pain in her voice.

"I guess I could kind of expect that." I said looking ahead. "But were we able to get all the dragons free?"

"Yes, they're all safe and on their way to the nest, we're not far behind."

I sighed with relief. At least for now, the dragons were safe. But Mom and both knew that it was only a matter of time before we would have to do this again. But like she said, we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

The rest of the flight home passed without any incident, until we got back and we heard someone in one of the other chambers. It was then that I remembered that we had another problem. Mom and I flew into the chamber that the sound was coming from and saw Astrid surrounded by all the dragons and she still holding her axe looking like she was ready to fight. Mom had one of the Terrible Terrors swoop in and swipe out of her hands. She then told me to get her out of here. I groaned but told her I would take care of it. Toothless and I flew in low and grabbed her, carrying her out of the nest.

The whole time we were flying, she just kept screaming and yelling at us to put her down. Finally we dropped her into a cavern not far from the nest and we landed a short distance away. We couldn't take her back, otherwise she would lead the others here to the nest. Not to mention we would have to deal with her screaming longer than either me or Toothless had patience to put up with.

I got off of Toothless and told him to stay back. I slowly began to walk toward Astrid but she pulled a knife out of me. Toothless began to growl but I signaled him telling him it was fine. I got closer but she backed further away.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." She warned.

Finally seeing that I was going to get nowhere like this, I knew there was no other option.

"I wouldn't either." I answered pulling off my helmet and looking up at her.

She stared at me in shock. "Hiccup?" she said dropping her knife and stepping a little closer.

"Yeah, it's me."

She just continued to stare at me like I was an illusion. Finally she swung and punched me in the arm.

"Ow! What was that for?"

"That's for kidnapping me."

"Okay, look I'm sorry but we did not plan on that Nadder bringing you here. In fact we didn't even plan on bringing anyone here for that matter." I tried to explain.

"Then why did it bring me here?"

"Please don't ask me because I really have no idea."

"Then can't you bring me home?"

"We would if we could, but you know where our nest is now and we can't let you tell the others. We need to protect the dragons."

"Hiccup has all this time away, following that rider made you lose your mind?" she ranted at me. "They've killed hundreds of us."

"And we've killed thousands of them, they defend themselves that's all."

"Then why do they keep attacking us? You've been letting these dragons attack our home."

"No Astrid, it's not them." I said defending the dragons. "I don't know why, but I do know that the dragons that live here wouldn't hurt anyone, not without cause."

"How do you know?"

"Because the Alpha won't allow it."

"The what?"

"The Alpha, the king of all dragons, he protects us and we live under his care and command. He wouldn't have us attack anyone without a reason."

"Then why were you and that other rider in the village? Why did you free all those dragons?" she asked unconvinced.

"Because we had to. We couldn't let you guys bring those innocent dragons to a tyrant like Drago Bludvist."

"How do you know about Drago Bludvist?" she asked as if she had expected me to not know that name.

"Who do you think we've been fighting these past few years? How could you guys work for him, do you have any idea what he's like?" I said catching myself in my own question.

I had never met he guy, but after seeing what he was capable of with his trapper henchmen, I couldn't say I would ever want to.

"It wasn't by choice Hiccup." Astrid confessed.

"What do you mean?" I asked in shock.

Astrid and I sat down on a block of ice not far from where we stood. Toothless sat down behind us.

"After you left, we all thought that you had been taken. After I ran back to tell the village about what you had been up to, I ran into the village just as the dragons attacked. By the time everything settled down, everyone was wondering where you were. I wanted to tell them, but I couldn't. Stoick had the whole village searching for you, but we couldn't find you and they all believed that you had been carried off.

"I guess I kind of knew what you had done after I ran off, but I just couldn't bring myself to tell Stoick what really happened. It hurt him enough to think that you had been killed by them, and if I were tell him the truth, it would have only hurt him even more.

"Not long after that, Berk was attacked by Drago's forces, and Drago himself. He showed no mercy to anyone who tried to face him. Drago offered your father a deal, one he could not refuse. We could work for him, or Berk and everyone on it would be destroyed. Your father took the deal only for the sake of the people. We had already lost so many of our own against him and his army, not to mention his secret weapon."

"What secret weapon?" I asked almost too afraid to know.

"I can't say, I never saw it. All I know is that whatever it was, Stoick knew we wouldn't stand a chance if Drago chose to use it."

"So, all this time, you've been working for him out of fear." I said looking at the ground.

"Yes. Given the choice I guess I would rather be here than there. He is not a good man to work for."

"No, no he's not." I said brushing my hair to the side. "Wait here, there's someone you need to tell this to."

"Where are you going?" She asked as I got on the saddle.

"I'll be back, just wait." I answered as Toothless and I flew back to the nest. "I must be out of my mind." I said to myself as we flew back to the nest.

Toothless and I flew back and found Mom, who wasn't too happy to hear that Astrid was still on the island, but we convinced her to come with us saying there was something that she needed to hear from her. Mom still wasn't happy about it, but she came and that was all we could ask for from her at this point.

She was still in her armor when we landed, not really trusting Astrid right now. Astrid it seemed had the same trust issues since as soon as she saw my Mom, she rushed and picked up her dagger again.

"Astrid, it's okay." I said turning to Mom and nodding telling her it was safe. Mom took off her helmet and slowly walked closer to us.

"Who is she?" Astrid asked lowering her weapon.

"Astrid, Mom. Mom, Astrid." I said introducing everyone.

Astrid just looked completely and utterly surprised. "That's you mother?"

"Well, now you know where I get my dramatic flair." I joked.

"Hiccup said you had something to tell me." Mom said sounding like she was getting impatient.

Astrid told Mom everything she had told me and Mom, it looked like, was having a tough time swallowing all this. I couldn't blame her, I could hardly believe it myself. But at least now everyone knew the truth. Although, Astrid was still having a hard time accepting the fact that dragons were not what everyone on Berk thought they were. Mom and I talked things over with her and we all came to the solution that she was going to have to learn and train to ride is she was to return home and if we were going to have any success at putting an end to this war.

Astrid wasn't too excited about our proposal, but we convinced her that if anything was going to get better, then one way or another, the people on Berk were going to have to know the truth. And on that note if she was going to get home, she was going to have to learn to ride. After getting to come to terms with that fact, she accepted our offer. Of course at this point the hard part was convincing Mom to let us take her back to the nest, but like Astrid, Mom eventually gave and gave me the responsibility to teach her. I didn't think I was going to be as good at it was she would be but, I could understand why I would be the better choice.

Astrid sat down in the saddle behind me and Toothless and I brought her back to the nest right behind Mom. Once we made it back to our hollow, we all settled down after a long night. Astrid slept by the fire pit while Toothless and I slept closer to Mom and Cloudjumper.

I had a hard time falling asleep that night, after the rescue, being shot down, having to convince Astrid about the dragons and Mom about what we were going to have to do to end this war. It had been a very long day and an even longer night. But I was able to close my eyes and relax just enough to doze for a while before I woke up to the sound of the early morning dragons flying out.

Mom and I stayed with Astrid and made breakfast, fish skewers. Astrid didn't seem too thrilled about it.

"It's not as bad as it looks." I said eating mine slowly. She took a bite and gagged. "It's still pretty bad though."

Mom laughed. "I'm a little out of practice."

"It's okay ma'am." Astrid answered suppressing another gag.

What we didn't eat we gave to Toothless and Cloudjumper whom seemed to enjoy it more than we did, which was a given. But afterwards, Astrid and I headed out to start her lessons.

"This should be fun." I muttered to myself as we approached the cove.

The dragon we had chosen to help her was the Nadder that had grabbed her. Astrid wasn't too crazy about working with her, but she could see no way out it.

"Stay calm, be gentle." I instructed her. "And you will know you have formed a bond when she bows her head to let you climb on her back."

At first she seemed kind of hesitant to approach her, but with some encouragement and a lot me telling her it was all about trust, she finally started to slowly make her way back toward her tail, speaking softly as she did.

Eventually the Nadder calmed down and allowed Astrid to work her way around back toward her tail and smooth her tail spikes down. The Nadder relaxed and Astrid moved forward slowly reaching out to touch her muzzle. As her hand made contact, the Nadder began to purr. Astrid began to relax as well, and I could see that her eyes were starting to open for the first time.

"She's beautiful." Astrid finally said glancing at me.

"Yes, yes she is." I said feeling a sense of hope that maybe everyone else on Berk could change as well. But first we had to complete Astrid's lessons. "Just remember, dragon training begin and ends with trust, both of yours."

"Yeah, I got that." Astrid smirked as the Nadder slowly bowed her head.

"Now, climb on." I told her.

Astrid again looked at me like I was crazy, but she climbed up onto the Nadder's back and rather awkwardly sat down.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Well, this is where the flight training comes in." I said climbing onto Toothless' saddle.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, flying?" she said stopping me.

"Yeah, the first flight seals the bond between you two." I said hooking in my harness.

"But,"

"It's going to be okay Astrid, trust me." I said looking at her. Astrid sighed and placed her hands on the crown spikes of the Nadder's head. "We'll start out nice and slowly, just give her a little nudge when you're ready to…"

I never got the chance to finish, because at that instant, the Nadder took off flying rather fast into the wind.

"Okay, that's going to be an issue." I said as I gave Toothless the signal to go and we took off after them.

Astrid was screaming rather loud given the fact the wind was working against her. But I was happier that she hadn't been blown off and fallen.

"I said nudge." I called after her.

"That was my nudge!" she screamed at me. "Just get me off of this thing!" she screamed again.

"Just tell her to slow down. You're doing okay, you just have to communicate with her." I called to her as they got farther and farther ahead.

All at once, they began to lose speed. Toothless and I pulled in close and I saw that Astrid was still there, holding on rather tight, but she looked like she was getting the hang of it now.

"See, that wasn't so hard was it?" I said wiping my head.

"Yeah, I guess." Astrid said relaxing her grip. "Wow, she's a fast flier, like a storm chaser." She said looking at the dragon she was riding. "That's it, that's what I'm going to call her, Stormfly."

"That sounds like a pretty cool name." I said getting the feeling that Astrid was warming up to dragons now. Maybe there was hope for the people of Berk after all.