Hello fans (squeals) I am so sorry that this has taken this long, but it is a long chapter and I just couldn't finish it. I always have a hard time with these sorts of "introductory chapters" but I hope that you like it well enough. Thank you for all of the lovely reviews and a special shoutout to Rain of The Forests who has been absolutely uplifting. Again, sorry that it is tardy, but I hope that you can forgive me. I'm always up for questions and criticism. Now, on with the show!

Introductions Are Never Easy

Hiccup was amazed at how fast that they got to the island. The cats that had carried the three people flew faster than originally thought. Of course, they would never hold up in a race of pure arial speed against the dragons. But still, they were fairly fast.

Hiccup had caught up to them easily, watching as the first two men bickered with each other, the young girl who had introduced herself as Wendy trying to calm them down, only to be ignored.

She and her cat (Charle, if he remembered correctly) were the first to notice his presence and flew over.

"Hello," Hiccup tried.

"Hello." Wendy said quietly and politely, eyeing the dragon nervously.

"So," Hiccup prodded at conversation, "Your dragons, what happened to them?"

"Oh," Wendy said, her face drooping slightly, "They disappeared. About fourteen years ago. We've been trying to find them ever since... Natsu, Lucy and Happy all heard about this island and told us about it. They had heard rumours of dragons so we came here, wondering if maybe you might know them..." Wendy trailed off, staring at the island into the distance, her expression sad.

Hiccup understood her pain. He remembered what it was like when the dragons had all left for egg season in their first year among them. They had been gone for about a week before he had found them. He still remembered looking at everyone, smiling and having fun with their dragon when his was nowhere to be found. Toothless had showed up soon after with Hiccup's lost helmet, but the sadness at the time had been heavy. He knew what it was like when your dragon just up and left, no idea of whether they would return to you or not.

"Hey," he said softly, smiling at the young girl, "It's alright. I'm sure that we can find them. We know a lot of places where there are dragons. They might be on one of the dragon islands, even."

Immediately, her face lit up. "Really?" She asked with such enthusiasm and hope that Hiccup immediately felt bad. "You think that you can really find our dragons?"

Before Hiccup could answer, the white cat scoffed. "He really shouldn't be making such promises. The dragons have been missing for fourteen years. I highly doubt that they could find them after all this time!"

"Well," Wendy countered politely, "You highly doubted that there really was an island of dragons and their riders."

Charle huffed and Hiccup laughed. He still wasn't one hundred percent comfortable with the whole talking cat thing, but he was starting to get used to it. He wondered how the others would react...

And before he had been able to say anything more, Berk loomed before them.

It was always an amazing sight, one that always made Hiccup smile, no matter how many times he saw it.

The flames still burned bright in the statues of their past chiefs. They were carving one of Hiccup's father, Stoic. It should be ready in a few weeks. One of the statues was toppled though, just a mound of rubble. They were trying to find a way to fix it, but it didn't seem to be working.

The island that was approaching fast seemed to glow. About four years ago, the townspeople had realized that they didn't need to worry as much about their homes being destroyed on a monthly basis. So, they decided to paint their homes to give them a special look unlike any of their neighbouring tribes. It showed how special and unique Berk was, and the island seemed to glow at night, the bright colours of their houses reflecting the flames of the torches around the island. Giant pieces of ice still glistened here and there, but for the most part, they had been taken to a mountain where it was always colder than the rest of Berk for storage, if they ever had a shortage of water, they could just melt the ice and use that.

The two boys flying in front of them stopped bickering to ogle at the island. Hiccup felt a fierce spark of pride. He, alongside his father, had practically rebuilt Berk and their traditions from the ground up, changing it for the better. At first, the townspeople hadn't been completely on board with their plans. But now, five years after the dragons joined them on Berk, everyone was living peacefully together, their lives a complete 180 from what they were. In a good way of course.

The pink-haired boy, Natsu, looked back with a childish grin. "Is that the island?"

"Yup," Hiccup called back, "That's Berk."

"It's awesome!" He said happily.

"Aye sir!" Happy chimed in.

Gajeel grunted. "Looks crazy." Before a Hiccup could protest, Gajeel turned to him with a smirk, "We'll fit right in."

"Hey, Hiccup's coming!"

"Who's that with him?"

"Dragons?"

"No, it's flying people!"

Questions and proclamations chorused through the square as Hiccup circled and landed in the centre of town.

Immediately, people swarmed Hiccup. Some worried, some excited, some curious. They immediately started asking all sorts of questions and it took a full minute for him to calm them down enough so that he could talk.

"Listen, we have some visitors who will be staying with us for a while. This is Natsu, Wendy, and Gajeel," the three grinned, waved, and smirked respectively, "and their Exceeds, Happy, Charle, and Pantherlily." The villagers weren't quiet sure what to make of the cats. Was "Exceed" an outsider word for cat? That's when they realized that the Exceeds had wings. A strange breed of dragon, perhaps...?

And then they talked. "Aye!" Happy had said when his name was called, Charle huffed something about a tom-cat, and the Pantherlily raised a paw and hello said in a deep voice.

They were surprised to say the least.

"Oi, Hiccup," Gobber made his way to the front of the crowd, eyeing the newcomers, "What exactly are they doin' here?" He didn't seem mad, just curious.

"They've lost their dragons," Hiccup said loudly, speaking to the crowd as a whole, "And they've come to us to help find them." The crowd burst into murmurs. Almost everyone had a dragon of their own. They all knew what it was like to live with and love a dragon. They couldn't imagine life without them. A few couldn't even remember what it was like five years ago.

After a moment, Hiccup raised his arms to silence the crowd before him again, "They have friends, and they're on their way with Astrid right now. Their ship should be docking by mor-"

"Ship approaching!" Came a yell. Everyone looked up to see two people with long blonde hair riding a two-headed dragon. The crowd parted so that they could land, and the twins dismounted.

"Ruff, Tuff," Hiccup confronted the two, "What are you talking about? The only ship relatively close is theirs. No other ships are anywhere in sight and the others won't be here until morning at least. And there's no wind," he added as an afterthought. The twins were always playing jokes on everyone and he wouldn't put this past them.

"Well explain the giant ship at the docks," Ruffnut said, "That has the same symbol on their sail as those guys do on their shoulders," She gestured impatiently at the newcomers and they all looked at their shoulders. The murmurs started up again. Most didn't believe the twins, but a few wondered that maybe they could be right.

"Well," Tuffnut said in a false 'cool' voice, "They're coming right now, so wait and see. Then we'll see who was right, and who was not lying, and who was so cool-"

"Alright," Hiccup snapped, "We get it. Can you please go get Astrid down at the docks and tell them to meet us at the Great Hall? And if you see anyone else, tell them to be come too. I want everyone to help these people to find their dragons."

"Okay, Mr. Bossypants." Said Ruffnut sarcastically, mounting Barf, while Tuffnut mounted Belch. They flew off towards the docks.

Hiccup sighed then turned back to the crowd. "To the Great Hall, then!" The crowd moved uphill, towards the biggest and grandest building in the village that could hold the entire population doubled with their dragons. As they made their way up, Toothless walking beside Hiccup, the Fairies caught up with him.

"What's the Great Hall?" Natsu asked with a grin.

"It's a giant hall where we have all of our important meetings, celebrations, meal times, we can fit the population of the island in there if need be. It's basically the main building of the island."

"Neat!" Hiccup smiled at Natsu, who was still grinning childishly. The majority of the newcomers had looked about his age, except for Wendy and Levy, who looked younger than the rest, and Gajeel, who seemed to be just a little bit older.

"So," Hiccup said, wanting to get a few things straight before the meeting began, "We're going to have the whole village with us and we want them to agree to us helping you. I may be chief, but that won't do much good if nobody goes along with the idea."

The six nodded in understanding. They walked on in silence, the newcomers staring at the buildings. Again, Hiccup felt proud that outsiders were so awed by the island. His island.

Once they reached the Great Hall, the three Mages and their Exceeds looked up at the giant structure that loomed before them. People were still filing in through the doors that could fit a god. Hiccup beckoned them inside and they followed, people making room for them as they followed Hiccup and Toothless to the front of the great hearth in the centre of the hall.

They stood there, Natsu eyeing the dying flames, as they waited for everyone else to come. The last people to arrive were the rest of Fairy Tail, followed by Ruff, Tuff, Astrid and their dragons. They waved them over to where they stood and they picked their way through the crowd until they stood with Hiccup. He cleared his throat and nodded at Toothless. Toothless spit a ball of purple fire, much like the one that he had used when he had first encountered the Fairies, setting the hearth aflame again and effectively getting everyone's attention.

"We have some visitors who have come to us today, who are looking for their dragons." Again, murmurs burst out among the hall, wondering who these strangely dressed people were...

Hiccup quieted them again, "They are from a land far from here. They came, seeking aid in their search. They will be staying with us for the time being-"

Hiccup was cut off by a voice yelling towards the back, "Did they all lose their dragons? How?" Once again the murmurs arose, people asking similar questions and eyeing the newcomers nervously. Hiccup sighed. He had thought that this might happen. Berk didn't get many visitors, which was fine by them. The islanders liked their privacy, since many other Vikings didn't like dragons. They didn't have squabbles with other tribes. No one was dumb enough to challenge them. Dragons and Vikings were frightening and ferocious enough on their own, but together, it was an enemy's worst nightmare.

This time, it was Erza who spoke up, "No, only three of us ever had any relations to dragons and those three dragons left fourteen years ago. We heard rumours of this island and it's dragons and we hoped that maybe you could help us."

"Who are you, anyway?"called a different voice.

Erza glared in the direction of the voice and the area shuffled nervously. "We are Fairy Tail." She said proudly.

Before the whispers could get too loud, Hiccup stepped in again, yelling to get everyone's attention. "The people of Fairy Tail will introduce themselves!" Hiccup sighed mentally. At least if they introduced themselves, the other islanders might warm up to them.

"Alrighty!" Cried Natsu, who was closest to Hiccup. "I'm Natsu Dragneel!" He grinned, and thankfully restrained himself from lighting anything on fire.

"And I'm Happy!" Cried the blue Exceed who sat on his shoulder. The villagers who had not been in the square when they were first introduced did a double take, wondering if that cat really did just talk. No one at the front of the hearth seemed to be bothered by it, so maybe they had imagined it...

"My name's Lucy." Lucy said cheerfully with a small wave. Many of the male islanders found their eyes wandering to her abnormally large chest. Natsu noticed and slipped an arm around her shoulder, showing off his abnormally sharp canines. Lucy smiled and laughed nervously, knowing it was better to let Natsu be Natsu than say anything.

"Levy McGarden," said Levy shyly. She fiddled with her hair as people stared at her. Thankfully, Gajeel seemed to catch on to her slight anxiety and spoke up.

"Name's Gajeel Redfox." He grumbled, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a screw. As Lily introduced himself (the people were pretty sure that the black cat had spoken. They saw his mouth moving and heard sound coming out, but it was odd), Levy grabbed Gajeel's hand which held the screw. He raised an eyebrow at her, causing her to blush slightly and look down, letting go of his hand.

"Better not," she whispered, so that only his Dragon Slayer ears could hear her, "They might not react well to a stranger calmly devouring solid iron."

Gajeel tched and nodded, "Yeah you're probably right." As he slipped his hands back into his pockets, fiddling with the loose parts of metal and trying his hardest not to slip them into his mouth.

Next spoke up Wendy, "My name is Wendy Marvel," she said with a quick bow, making the islanders smile. She was so cute and seemed so polite.

"I'm Charle," the white cat in her arms huffed. By now the entire population was completely and 100% sure that the cats were talking.

"I am Erza Scarlet." Said the red head calmly. The crowd didn't know what to make of her. She seemed so serious, but not particularly scary. But still, something about her seemed to raise a red flag...

Next was a shirtless boy and he raised his hand lazily, the other in the front pocket of his pants, "Gray Fullbuster." The Berkians eyed him up and down (especially the female population), wondering who in Odin's name would be shirtless on Berk? Even though it wasn't winter, it was still chilly. All of the other newcomers seemed to be dressed warmly. Well, aside from the pink-jaired one who wore a black vest with one long sleeve, weird baggy pants, and a white scaly scarf. But at least he had a scarf...

Gray wasn't sure why everyone was looking at him weird. "Gray," Erza suddenly hissed, leaning in so she could whisper to him, "your clothes."

"Ah, crap!" Gray cried when he looked down and realized that his shirt was missing. The islanders exchanged odd looks. Did he not have control over his stripping? And what about the cold, wouldn't he notice if he was wearing one less layer?

"Juvia has Gray-sama's clothes!" Said the last girl cheerfully, holding out a neatly folded bundle. Gray muttered his thanks and took them from her, putting on a blue shirt, a brown belt-thing that the islanders had never seen the likes of before, and a white jacket.

Juvia turned back to the crowd and smiled. "Juvia. Juvia Locksar is my name."*

"Great," Hiccup said, clapping his hands together. "Now you know their names. Next order of- HEY!"

Hiccup was interrupted as Natsu, who could no longer help himself, lunged at the flames and stuck his head in them, sniffing at the coals.

Astrid stifled a scream, as did many others. Gasping and worried shouts carried throughout the hall. Then they heard a weird slurping noise and saw that the boy who had introduced himself as Natsu had pulled back and straightened up, sucking the flames into his mouth.

No one knew what to do. Natsu slurped one last time, making sure to leave some fire in the hearth for everyone else, then he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. "Wow, that was tasty! 'Course, not charcoal good, but good." He grinned childishly, then was promptly smacked by Lucy. "Ow," he said in an annoyed tone, "What was that for?"

"You scared them half to death Natsu!" She cried angrily.

"Well I eat fire all the time and public and it never bothers them too much..."

Lucy palmed her forehead, "Natsu," she said irritably, "That's because they know about magic, and Mages, and they see the mark on your shoulder and know that you're a part of Fairy Tail. These people don't know about our magic!"

"Oh," he said, rubbing his neck, "Sorry."

"Gajeel!" A high voice hissed and everyone turned to look at Levy, Gajeel and Pantherlily.

"What?" He grunted, shoving another screw in his mouth and munching on it. "Damage's done, if Salamander can eat his flames, then I can eat my iron."

Levy huffed and Pantherlily pinched the bridge of his nose.

"What are you?" came a small voice towards the from of the crowd. Everyone in the hall turned to face a little girl with twin braids, clutching a red Terrible Terror in her arms.

Erza smiled at the young girl, trying not to scare her, "We're Mages. That means that we can do magic."

"Pfft," Snotlout said, rolling his eyes. He stood closer to the Mages, near the front. "Okay," he said sarcastically, "Yeah, so two guys have weird diets. Big deal. Doesn't mean that they're 'Mages'." He did finger quotes around the word, emphasizing his disbelief.

Erza turned and looked him up and down. "Would you like us to prove it?" She asked dangerously.

"Uh," Lucy said quietly, half hoping that Erza wouldn't hear, "Is that really such a good idea..."

"Nonsense," Erza said, a hint of anger beneath her easy tone, "If he wants proof, then here it is. Re-quip!" As she shouted the last word, her body began to glow with a brilliant light making it impossible to see anything but her silhouette, her clothes disappearing. In a heartbeat, her warm winter outfit had been been replaced by a set of armour that was a mash of blue, green, and a spotted animal fur that the islanders had never seen. "This is my magic; I can change my armour to increase my abilities. This is my Flight Armour and it increases my speed." In a flash, she ran, causing a breeze and stood by the doors, a good ten, twenty feet away. She raced back to her spot by the fire, too quick for anyone to see more than a flash of colour flying by, and re-quipped back, looking as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

"Geez Erza, if you're trying to show off, you're not doing it well," Gray said cockily. He smirked, brought his hands together and shouted, "Ice-Make Cold Excalibur!" In a flash of blinding white light and an icy-blue circle with strange symbols, Gray held a giant sword that seemed to be made of ice. "I'm an Ice-Make Mage," he said cooly, "I use Ice Maker Magic, which is the magic of freedom." He slashed his sword through the air, smiling proudly. He flicked his wrist and the sword shattered.

"Juvia is a Water-Mage," Juvia said simply, "That is how we got here so fast. I used my magic power to control the currents to get us here quicker." The others seemed unconvinced. Juvia frowned and felt Gray lean in closer. She flushed and almost melted.

"Show them your Water Form. It'll freak 'em out," he said with a sly smile. Flushing, Juvia nodded and Gray leaned back, looking as if nothing happened. She took a deep breath and willed herself to let go of some of her restraint, becoming 100% water.

The islanders gasped in shock at the blue figurine of water that was standing where the girl introduced as Juvia had stood a moment before. Before anything else could be said, she calmly reverted back to herself.

Levy, now feeling slightly more confident, got everyone's attention by saying "And I'm a Solid Script Mage, which means that I can make words become what they are. Watch!" She took a small breath, and cried "Solid-Scrpit, Iron!" In a poof! an iron block, spelling out the word Iron with aheart in hole of the O, appeared. It was smaller than her usual words and could fit in the palm of one's hand, but everyone in the hall could see it properly. Gajeel smirked and plucked it out of the air, munching on it as he ruffled Levy's hair.

"Your magic sure does come in handy," he said. She flushed and stuttered out a "thank you" which made his smirk deepen.

Beside Natsu, Lucy grinned. "I am a Celestial Mage, which means that I can call forth the spirits of the stars to my side!"

"Weirdo spirits," Natsu mumbled, earning an elbow to the side from Lucy.

"They're not weird!" She snarled, grabbing a silver key from the loop at her hip. She thrust it in front of her, stepping away from the flames and cried out "Open! Gate of the Little Dog; Nikola!" There was a bright flash and the sound of a bell, when suddenly, clutched in Lucy's arms, was a strange white creature with four legs and what seemed to be a carrot for a nose. Lucy turned to Snotlout with a smug smile in her face. "Magic isn't real, huh?"

The man in question, along with his neighbours, were in utter shock and disbelief. These people were getting to seem more and more dangerous. Even Hiccup was surprised. He had had no idea of just what they were capable of, and he got the feeling that they were hardly trying.

Natsu snorted. "You guys haven't seen the half of it!" He promptly burst into flames, fire engulfing his entire body. The Berkians had always been nervous around fire, even now they were fairly cautious with the flames that could spew from a dragon's mouth. They had learned to fear fire, and the destruction that it brought. They had seen people succumb to a hot and burning death. Their funeral rights included setting someone adrift on a small boat and showering it with flaming arrows. And now, here before them, stood a man with all sorts of strangeness succumbing to the flames but being completely unaffected. Even the dragons looked somewhat alarmed.

Natsu, proud of scaring the daylights out of the locals, raised his fist and shouted with a grin; "I am a fire Dragon Slayer!"

That was not the right thing to say.

The islanders gasped and cried out.

"Dragon slayer?" Yelled a big man in the back, his hand on his Deadly Natter's head. "He's a dragon slayer?"

"He's been lying!" Cried out a woman clutching her Monstrous Nightmare's head, "They all have! They're here for our dragons! Why else would they have come here?"

"I agree!" Shouted a terrified boy, clinging onto a Groncle's leg, "We should run them out! Leave our dragons alone!"

This continued and Hiccup tried to get them to calm down to no avail, but was completely and utterly confused. They definitely didn't seem like the type to slay dragons, especially Wendy or Levy. They had all looked fairly surprised when he and Astrid had shown up on their dragons, as if they'd never seen the likes of them before. A Night Fury was understandable, no one, not even Hiccup's mother, Valka the dragon-lady, had seen a Night Fury up close.

He cursed under his breath. He really could've used his mother right now, she was good with crowds and controlling wild, raging beasts. Dragons and Vikings alike. Unfortunately, she had left about a week ago take down any of Drago's roque trappers.

"Astrid," She started at her name and turned to him, her eyes asking a million questions. "Try and get everyone to calm down! I'm going to speak with these guys!" Astrid nodded, and signalled to the rest of the Dragon Riders, who nodded in return and started to try and get everything calm. After a moment, Hiccup turned to them. "What is going on here?" He demanded.

Lucy was repeatedly hitting Natsu over the head with her boot, the weird spirit gone. Gray was mumbling about the "Flame-Brain", with Juvia whole-heartedly agreeing with him. Gajeel was rolling his eyes, with Levy looking annoyed and flustered, and Pantherlily punching the bridge of his nose. Wendy was trying to be optimistic, while Charle huffed and muttered "Well they were going to find out sooner or later, and should we really be all that surprised that he's the one that blurted it out?" And Erza was positively seething. She was the one to answer him.

"Excuse our friend," she said through gritted teeth, shooting Natsu a death glare, "We were trying to figure out how to approach his, Wendy's and Gajeel's magic when he jumped in."

"Their magic?" Hiccup questioned. He hated the idea of any sort of "Dragon Slayer" being on the island, Viking or otherwise. He did not like the idea of the fact that he had bright them here either. And something else was bugging him... When he had talked with Wendy, she had seemed genuinely sad that her dragon had left. Did she hold a certain soft spot for her dragon and her dragon only? And what about the other two, claiming to have lost their dragons? And they said that it happened fourteen years ago. Wendy barely looked that age, and Natsu and Gajeel looked to be in their early twenties, at most. How could they remember their dragons?

Erza opened her mouth to explain, when Levy piped up. "Hey, why don't you tell everyone as a whole? The damage is already done, may as well try to explain it to everyone."

Erza nodded, and Hiccup sighed. "Gimme a minute, he grumbled, turning back to Toothless. The other Dragon Riders had done their best to calm everyone down. But it didn't seem to be working. Angry Vikings were bad, an angry mob of Vikings worried about their dragons' safety was even worse.

Hiccup cupped his hands to his mouth and let out his imitation of a Night Fury's roar. It took a couple tries, and a blast from Toothless, but he finally managed to get everyone somewhat calm again. He gestured to Erza, who stepped forward.

"The term 'Dragon Slayer'," the locals shifted uncomfortably, "Simply means that one uses a rare magic said to be powerful enough to take down a dragon. None of our Dragon Slayers have ever killed a dragon. They are quite attached to them in fact. Wendy, Natsu, and Gajeel are all Dragon Slayers. They use Dragon Slaying Magic and were raised by dragons. We have come here today in the hopes of finding their adoptive dragon parents that disappeared. We mean no harm to your dragons. And if you so wish to turn us away, we will go peacefully." Natsu started to say something, but Erza shot him a glare and he shut his mouth, sticking out his lower lip in a childish pout.

The Vikings looked at each other nervously, mumbling to their neighbours. Wendy then stepped forward, doing another small bow and straightening back up. "Please!" She cried in such sweet a voice that the Vikings couldn't help but soften at, "We don't want to hurt anyone. We just want to find our dragons. My dragon, Grandeeney, left me without any explanation. The same goes for Natsu and Gajeel. None of us know about our birth families and even though Fairy Tail took us in and acts as our family, we still want to find our parents. So please, we need your help." The islanders shifted. She was adorable and they could hear and see the emotion in her voice and expression. It really did seem like they wanted to find their parents. But could they really be trusted?

Suddenly, people quieted and parted, among way for a short, hunched over, ancient woman who had Terrible Terrors flying around her and leaned on a staff. She approached the hearth and the newcomers calmly and seemed unaffected by their strange appearances. A large blonde man with a peg leg and a wooden hand followed behind her.

"Gothi," Hiccup said, bowing his head respectively.

"Thought that it would be a good idea to get her here," the blonde man said, standing beside Hiccup comfortably, "They'll listen to what Gothi says, as the village elder and all. Who knows, she might even know of them."

Hiccup nodded and thanked Gobber, turning to the Fairies. They looked somewhat confused, but seemed to be able to sense that she was highly respected and treated her as so. Erza, who was standing in front of her, dropped down to one knee. Gothi seemed slightly surprised, as this was not how Berkians greeted their elder. She looked up at Hiccup and smiled, her eyes asking for him to explain.

"These people are from somewhere called Fairy Tail and they are capable of doing magic, claiming to be Mages. Three of them are Dragon Slayers," Gothi didn't react, but everyone else from the island shifted nervously at the term, "Called this because they were raised by dragons, learning magic from them called 'Dragon Slaying Magic'. Many years ago, those dragons left. They've been looking for them and their search has led them here. They are asking for our help." He explained.

After a moment, Gothi nodded, turning to Erza, who was still down on one knee, her head facing the ground. Smiling kindly, she tapped her stick against Erza's head softly, drawing her attention. She made a "stand up" gesture and Erza complied. Gothi stared into her eyes, then moved on to Natsu, Lucy and Happy, who were beside her. She went down the line, making eye contact with each of them, even Gajeel, who growled slightly (and was smacked lightly on the arm by Levy) and seemed unfazed. She turned back to Hiccup, and the entirety of the Hall waited with bated breath. She smiled and nodded.

Hiccup turned to the Fairies and grinned. "You can stay!"

*I have no idea how someone introduces themselves in third person. If I did it wrong please correct me