Shipped

Hiccup sat in dejection inside the cave. Astrid sat with him in awkward silence, unsure of what to say. Stormfly charged in and sprawled out next to them, content to simply rest while they figure things out. Toothless hadn't come back, yet.

They just stared at the fire through the gaps in the stone surrounding it. The flames were almost invisible. The fire had a very hot bed of coals and the wood was burning so efficiently there was practically no smoke. Hiccup wanted to say something, but his lips wouldn't move. He wanted to apologize for his outburst, but he couldn't conjure up the guilt.

Finally, Astrid broke the silence. "If Toothless doesn't blame you for Tolerant's death, I don't think you should either. You just wanted to help."

"And yet, my attempt at doing just that got someone killed. Tolerant died protecting me... all because I tried to assert myself into the situation."

"So you don't think things through. I'm not denying it has worked out well in times past. You're the first person to ever ride a dragon. Sane and logical thinking would have stopped anyone else from doing what you did long before the Red Death was killed."

Hiccup lightly chuckled at that.

"However," Astrid continued in a stern voice, "I also can't deny you're calling Toothless a liar."

Hiccup jerked his head over at Astrid and yelped at the pain of the sudden motion.

Astrid tsked him for stressing his healing rib and said, "It's either that or you're saying he was incorrect. Both you and he witnessed what happened. You were in the heat of all the chaos. Toothless was watching from the side and could see the whole picture. You haven't even suggested there were certain details to which Toothless was not privy, so the logical conclusion is that you think he's a liar when he says Tolerant's death is not your fault."

"Astrid! I never even suggested-"

He wasn't upset by the fact that Tolerant died and I can't blame him for how little he knew his father. What really did upset Toothless was that you're trying to blame yourself for everything that goes wrong. Again. Even when dealing with forces beyond your own control. This is just like when you tried to blame yourself for that surprise gust of wind that knocked Toothless into a cliffside and sprained his wing a couple months ago."

"Astrid," Hiccup whined, "It's not that simple. I-"

She placed a hand over his mouth. "You've done a lot of talking and I've done a lot of listening. My turn, alright?"

"But-"

"I. Said. My. Turn."

Hiccup gave a resigned sigh.

"Good! Now, you always preach to everyone about respecting dragons as intelligent creatures and not just simple animals. Do you respect Toothless?"

Hiccup rolled his eyes. "I'm going to assume you're going somewhere with this."

"Yes or no?"

"Astrid-"

"Yes or no?"

"Yes!"

"Good. Now, do you respect his ways, even though you and he are very different creatures who naturally respond differently to a situation?"

"Of course! I actually do listen to him. You know this!"

"And when you know Toothless is more qualified to decide how to handle a situation…"

"Like that time I tried to show goodwill to those pirates, but Toothless knew better?"

Astrid snorted. "Oh, the looks on their faces when we sent them off on their ship, bound in their own bolas and nets."

Hiccup laughed until he was sore. He resigned himself to lie down and Astrid cradled his head in her lap.

Hiccup said, "Yeah, I certainly need Toothless for more than just his brawn."

"Because you have respect for him."

"Absolutely!"

Astrid smiled. "When Tolerant wanted to fight the Skrill, did you show him the same sort of respect?"

Hiccup's face went blank for a moment, then twisted into scrutiny, shock, and realization.

With a surprisingly fast movement for someone in his condition, he rolled over to his hands and knees, leaning on Stormfly's snout to stand up. The dragon ignored his pained groaning and seemed excited for Hiccup as he stood and hurriedly walked out of the cave. Astrid got over her shock at the sudden move and shot up, catching up to him.

"Hiccup, where are you going? You foolish boy!"

"You're right, Astrid. You're absolutely right!"

"That this is foolish? Your ribs are still healing!"

Hiccup grinned. "Among other things."

Astrid tried to duck her head under Hiccup's arm to shoulder his weight, but he took a step to the side.

Wheezing through a pained groan, he said "I'm fine... just... let me-"

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup stopped and spun around to look Astrid straight in the eyes with a pleading expression.

"Please let me do this. You're right and I can't change the past, but I can control my future. This is necessary. Please, Astrid."

Hiccup turned and continued on his way. Astrid shook the doubtful look off her face and caught up again, which wasn't too hard with the pace Hiccup set in his condition. Stoick had rigged some bindings around Hiccup's torso to support his healing ribs and they helped him keep a slow shuffle, but they were a little on the loose side since he had been laying down for a while. She grabbed the collar of his coat and pulled it off to twist the stick securing the bindings, tightening them a little more. Hiccup protested and grunted, but allowed her to do it; not that he had any choice. As she put the coat back on him, he started to walk forward again, out of the cave.

"Your father is going to kill me for not knocking you unconscious and hauling you back by your ankles!"

Hiccup grinned at her. "Just tell him I hit you or something."

Astrid rolled her eyes. Outside the cave, the sun was just ducking below the horizon, painting the sky pink and red. Stormfly's alarmed chirp and Toothless' joyful bark could be heard behind them. The Night Fury almost knocked Hiccup down, frantically rubbing his jawline against his rider's cheek. He had a desperately hopeful look in his eyes. Hiccup gave the dragon's forehead a quick stroke with his knuckles and continued on his way.

As he cast glances at his dragon, he said, "Sorry about that earlier, Bud. Had a meltdown, didn't mean to scare ya."

"Hiccup. Really, you're going to explain yourself right now or not even Toothless will stop me from dragging you back kicking and screaming."

"You're right," Hiccup exclaimed over the biting wind that rose up outside the shelter of the cave. He stumbled on the uneven ground and caught himself on his dragon's head with a grunt of thanks.

Astrid grabbed a handful of the front of Hiccup's coat and gave a tug. "Damn straight I'm right!"

The boy didn't resist, but instead wrapped his arms around her in a hug. "Not about dragging me back, Astrid. Respect. That's what it was all about. It's the missing piece. It's the cornerstone that kept everything from crumbling around me. It's what I lost that caused everything to collapse."

Astrid sighed and pushed him away to lean on his dragon again. She knew she wouldn't be able to live with herself if she really did drag Hiccup back to the cave. They continued walking along. "But respect for who? Tolerant? Toothless?"

"Yes! It explains so many things!" Hiccup spoke with a raised voice to be heard in the wind. Toothless had taken up a position between the two riders as they walked along, offering his head as a support for Hiccup as he leaned over toward Astrid.

Hiccup continued, "Respect for dragons is just one example. You're right, they are very different creatures than us. You think Vikings are violent? Ha! What a joke! Toothless was just fighting Firebrand a while ago to blow off some steam – claws, fangs, nothing held back. See the marks on his shoulder? See the spacing of the missing scales? See the claw punctures under his chin and the bruise on the side of his head? Firebrand must have tried to get revenge from when Toothless knocked him senseless against a rock a few days ago. Also, the bite marks on his hind leg explain the limp he's trying to hide.

"They weren't really fighting, like that day the Skrill attacked. Nah, they were just playing. Toothless needed an outlet for his frustration with how glum I've been, lately, and Firebrand was his playmate."

Turning to Toothless, he said, "Sorry again about that, Bud."

Toothless grumbled and nudged his rider, looking up at him with wide eyes. Hiccup couldn't pick up any distinct thought projections, but could sense his dragon felt guilty for doing something that might cause his rider to worry. There was also that feeling of euphoria all dragons feel when they fight or engage in some intense physical activity.

Hiccup waved off his dragon's concern. "No, Bud, you're fine. I know you'll be good as new in a couple days. You're a dragon and I've been repressing your… uhhh… dragonyness. I've been a real party pooper who steps on your toes all the time and you let me because you love me so much, but I shouldn't take that for granted. I hope you had a lot of fun and I trust you kicked Firebrand's scaly butt, right?"

The dragon gave a non-committal grumble, drawing out a chuckle from his rider.

"So, that's it?" Astrid asked. "That's all this was about? I swear you're just playing with me."

Hiccup winked. "It explains so many things. You remember that stunt I pulled two years ago at the end of our dragon training, when I was supposed to fight Hookfang? I was trying to show everyone that dragons can be our friends instead of our enemies. The night before, Dad told me how proud he was of me. He smiled at me. At me! Gods! Astrid, you can't imagine! Really! There is no expressing how much that meant to me!

"And how do I thank him for that? I trundle over to the kill ring to practically spit in his face by defacing everything that defines a Viking. I knew it was the wrong way to approach this. I almost got Toothless and myself killed by my own father. It wasn't because words don't work with Vikings. No, I just didn't respect their ways. I didn't respect the… Vikingness of a Viking."

"Hiccup, could you stop talking about Vikings as if-"

"Nope! Not a Viking. Sorry, Astrid."

"Hiccup, you are ridiculous!"

Hiccup grinned, "And you are extra beautiful when you're upset. Now that we got some stupidly obvious statements out, back to Vikings. How do they bring about change? You put someone's shoulders against the ground and your blade against their neck. Then you can talk about change. It's brutally simple."

"That's a bit of an oversimplification."

"Good. I'll take simple."

Astrid sighed. "So what has this to do with anything?"

"I'll be training Vikings to befriend and ride dragons, right? I've been stewing over how to do that for weeks and all I could think of was to make them be like me. Turn them all into Hiccups. I tried to turn Tolerant into a Hiccup and it-"

Toothless licked his rider's face to ward off any self-deprecation.

"Well," Hiccup said as he wiped his face off, "Lesson learned. Turning others into me is a bad idea."

Astrid mock-grimaced "Gods have mercy on us if the world gets another one of you!"

Hiccup chortled. "But what you said makes so much sense. I certainly didn't help the situation when I tried to stop Tolerant from fighting. I tried to make him more like me and that was a terrible thing to do. I didn't respect his way of doing things.

"Likewise, I didn't change Dad's mind in the kill ring because I didn't respect the Viking way. I didn't do it in a way anyone could appreciate. I changed Dad's mind about dragons when he saw us riding dragons and saving his ass. I convinced him to let me do things my way when he knew he was about to be burned to ashes by the Red Death. That is the Viking way. Speaking of ashes..."

Astrid suddenly stopped as she realized where they were. She had seen Tolerant's pyre from the air on Stormfly's back when she arrived yesterday. Hiccup had explained that dragons normally burn their dead. However, a lone Night Fury wouldn't have enough fire to fully consume the body, so Firebrand allowed Stoick to help collect enough wood to build a pyre for Tolerant. Stoick never did anything halfway. Aside from bits of half-burned logs around the perimeter, there was nothing left of the pyre and the body except for fine ash on top of a bed of still-burning coals, dotted with black scales and bones that stubbornly refused to burn.

Hiccup took the last few steps and rolled forward to his knees at the edge of the pyre. He pawed at the ashes and burned his mitt, but was able to scoop some scales to the perimeter where they would cool off. He grabbed the tip of his mitt in his teeth and pulled it off so he could press his bare hand into the cooled ashes and opened up his coat, but groaned.

Looking back at Astrid – well, twisting a little bit, as his bindings restricted his movement – he said, "Can you help me with this?"

"Hiccup, are you really-"

"Please?"

Astrid gave an exasperated sigh and loosened the stick that was twisting the bindings tight behind Hiccup's back so he could slide the layer of cloth down to his waist, exposing his bare chest. Astrid gasped at her first sight of the puckered holes in the flesh where the Skrill's teeth had sunken in. She bit her tongue, but vowed that Hiccup would receive an earful for putting himself in such a situation.

Placing his fingertips near his neck, Hiccup dragged his hand down toward his heart, leaving a gray-black smear of ash behind. Astrid had stepped back and stood by her dragon. They never knew Tolerant and it would be an insult to take part in any funeral rights for a stranger.

Staring at the pile of ash, Hiccup said, "I hardly got to know you, Tolerant. I don't know if you would still be alive today if I hadn't tried to stop you from fighting the Skrill or whether it was all a wash. Either way, I'm sorry I hadn't learned my lesson earlier. I didn't respect you as a dragon and tried to make you handle a situation like a Hiccup. I vow to retain the wisdom you've imparted to me in the short time I was graced by your presence and to keep you in my heart for as long as I remain in Midgard."

Toothless simply crouched there by his rider's side. He did not want to project his confusion and curiosity to his rider as he could tell this was an emotional and important event. These were not idle actions. Hiccup looked over at his dragon and smiled as he put a pinch of the ashes in his mouth.

After swallowing and wetting his lips again, he said, "It's a Viking thing, Bud. Take some of his ashes to keep him close to me. Close to my heart. Ask him to guide me in life. I count it a terrible loss that I couldn't get to know your father better."

Hiccup lowered his voice. "Between you and me, Bud, I think it's all just silly superstition, anyway. If the gods exist, then they must be crazy. If they don't, then the world makes a lot more sense. Funerals are for the benefit of the living, after all, not the dead."

Toothless ducked his head down and sniffed experimentally. Leaning forward, he stuck his paw into the ashes. The thin layer of snow they walked through had melted on his paws, causing the ash to stick. As he balanced on three legs, he looked over at his rider and saw a big grin.

Feeling encouraged, he tried to mimic the same motion, but his legs just were not meant to bend that way. A soft, defeated groan escaped him, but Hiccup pressed his hand into the ashes and did the deed for his dragon. Toothless lifted his head and his foreleg so his rider could smear the ashes across the base of his neck and down to his heart. Hiccup couldn't hold back a chuckle when his dragon flicked his tongue into the ashes and swallowed some down, snorting at the dust.

Hiccup pocketed a few of the scales and tried to stand, but groaned from the pain as he doubled over on his dragon's head. Astrid quickly moved in and secured the bindings tight around his chest and helped him put his coat back on.

Off In the distance, two pale-green eyes popped out of the black of night, illuminated by the moon. Hiccup stomped out his temptation to ask his dragon if Firebrand was saying anything. For how freely dragons could communicate, they were usually solitary creatures of few words. If he needed to know something, it would be made known.

"Feel any better?" Astrid asked.

Hiccup flashed a quick smile as he hobbled back toward the cave. All this exertion had really taken a lot out of him. It was a struggle to walk and his chest burned with pain, but he soldiered on.

"More than words could ever describe."

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"How many Vikings, ya think? 12?"

Stoick heard his dragon give a casual huff from below. He was learning that counting wasn't their strongest skill. Maybe, at least, the way they rationalize the details of the world around them was different and whatever he projects when speaking comes across in a strange way to his dragon.

Craning his neck around, Stoick stole a glance at the three dragons behind him. Firebrand was flying with them, a little separated from the pack, but still nearby. Stoick still hasn't forgiven that dragon for losing himself in a rage and almost killing his son. However, Firebrand knew the boy killed the Skrill and most likely saved his life in the process. That alone generated respect for the boy.

The day before taking off, the dragon had approached Stoick when he was alone with Skullcrusher. Between Firebrand flicking his head and Skullcrusher suggestively nudging, Stoick decided to follow along. It took only a few steps to figure out where he was being led. Firebrand approached Tolerant's pyre, pressed his paw into the ashes, and pointedly tried to rub it against his chest, but Night Fury legs just weren't meant to bend that way.

Stoick was shocked and simply stood there, mouth agape. He could tell this had Skullcrusher's stamp of approval and he trusted his dragon. So, he helped the Night Fury smear the ashes along the base of his neck. The dragon even flicked his tongue into the ashes and then, in a very awkward and hesitant way, gave Stoick's arm a quick rub with the side of his head before running off.

Hiccup had said that the dragon was curious about the Vikings on Berk. Spending a little time on Berk must be Firebrand's way of coming to terms with the Red Death that prevented him from flying anywhere near this area for so long. With no family left aside from Toothless, there was no reason to stay at his former home.

Well, supposedly, there were two female Night Furies from their clutch somewhere out there. With their sensor lobes, they must have recognized the threat of the Red Death and marked the Barbaric Archipelago as a no-fly zone, which effectively cut off their small chain of islands from the rest of the world. However, as soon as the Red Death was killed, the females bolted and were never seen again.

"Toothless, that wasn't me! You made us tilt to the side!"

Stoick flicked his eyes over to a shouting Astrid and growling Toothless. She was starting to get a bit more comfortable with working the mechanical tailfin. After the thunderstorm that had lasted the past several days, this calm, still night helped her a lot in flying Toothless. Aside from the infrequent bickering about who caused the dragon to smack into Firebrand or fly upside-down, it seemed she was doing a good job. At least, Toothless' grumblings had ceased... mostly. The poor beast felt a Hiccup-sized void on his back that Astrid could never fill.

Speaking of the heir...

Hiccup definitely was not happy. He had groaned and grumbled at Stoick before they took off, but not because of his healing ribs that were still very sore. There was no way Stoick would allow his son to ride his dragon. Even Toothless backed the chief on that. To avoid jostling the healing rib, Stoick rigged a sling underneath Stormfly's belly and cinched Hiccup in tight.

"Doin' good, Hiccup?" Stoick called out.

Toothless grumbled and thrashed in annoyance. Hiccup said, "Stole the words right out of my mouth, Bud."

Stoick ignored his son's snarky comment and returned his attention to the ship below. It was a cargo vessel from the Outcast tribe. The sky was pitch black, but torches on the ship revealed only a few crewmen. No doubt more were asleep below deck. Hiccup had already filled him in on how many Vikings and caged dragons were on the ship. The very notion that Toothless could sense all that from so far away, just by hearing some sort of passive mental hum, and communicate it to his rider remotely through Stormfly still made Stoick's head spin.

This was an Outcast ship, so Stoick wanted to take this opportunity to make life miserable for them. There was already a blood feud so deeply rooted that Stoick didn't care at all what happened to them. Establishing good relations with Firebrand and these other dragons would be a good bonus.

"Alright, Skullcrusher, here's the plan," Stoick said. "We will go in. You tell the other dragons to just fly around above and stay out of sight in the darkness. You follow my lead and tell them to attack only when I say so and only hit what I tell them to hit."

Stoick knew Hiccup would translate and clarify if needed. As much as the chief wanted to just sink the damn ship and kill everyone onboard, his honor and pride compelled him to at least give them a chance to whimper back to home. A Viking kills without hesitation, when necessary, but there is no honor in senseless slaughter like this. With fire, tooth, and claw to back him up, though, he will make them very unhappy.

Looking over at the Nadder, he said, "Stormfly, don't get involved. You just keep Hiccup safe. Can you promise me that?"

It was a rhetorical question, but the dragon jerked her head up and down and gave a subtle squawk. It was one of the gestures any dragon with a rider quickly picked up to communicate, right along with what Hiccup dubbed the "Flying dance" and the "I'm hungry shuffle".

Satisfied that all was set, Stoick angled his dragon in to drop down on the bow of the ship. In a well-practiced move, he released his flight harness as Skullcrusher flared his wings to swoop in with a gentle thud. He dropped down to the deck, sword in hand. The crew, which had no warning of his approach in the dead of night, suddenly noticed him and drew axes, polearms, and swords.

Stoick held his sword pointed at the deck in front of him in a show of minimal aggression while the crew gathered in a semicircle around him. He didn't see any bows, but he had his large, round Gronckle iron shield with him, which was newly repaired with some impromptu rivets securing the handle until Gobber could work his magic. Stoick was no blacksmith, but he figured out how to work the forge well enough to hack things together.

The crew seemed uncertain how to deal with this situation, which was completely understandable for those who don't see a Viking jump off a dragon's back on a boat on a daily basis.

"Ahoy, sailors," Stoick greeted in a neutral voice. "I hope you don't mind my intrusion. With your cooperation, I promise I won't be here for long."

One of the crew took a half-step forward. "Who... Who are you… How are you... That's a-a-"

"A dragon, yes," the chief said in a bored tone. He stretched his arms out, showing himself off, and said, "But what do you mean 'Who are you'? I'm Stoick the Vast, chief of the Hairy Hooligan tribe! Surely, you've heard of me."

Grumbling could be heard from the crewmen. They were mainly voicing their confusion and shock at seeing a dragon standing behind a Viking instead of, say, mauling said Viking. Their mumbling shifted into taunts for putting himself in such a situation.

"Yer' a fool, then, Stoick. You've a dragon, but we're dragon trappers, ya daft idiot! Alvin's gonna set us up for life once we give him your head, eh boys?"

The crew jeered and took a confident step forward. Stoick smiled as he took another half-step, fingers gently wrapped around his dragon's horn, guiding him to the desired position. There was still a good five paces between the two parties.

Under his breath, Stoick said, "Skullcrusher, tell Firebrand to shoot fire at the bow of the ship. That's the end just behind us. Be ready to swing around and hit them with your tail. Do you understand?"

The dragon huffed in a manner Stoick had learned signaled acknowledgment. He took another step forward and smiled casually at them.

"Gentlemen, I am making an offer. You have a Timberjack, a Nadder, and three Gronckles caged below the deck. I will let you all live if you give them up. Simple as that. What is your response?"

Stoick suddenly noticed a couple additional crewmen joined the group. Some bolas and spears appeared at the ready. One of the larger crewmen took a step forward. He appeared to be in his thirties and had a large, scraggly, black beard atop a strong frame. He looked like any other Viking from the Outcast tribe with his gray clothing, iron pauldrons, leather arm wraps, and scalemail shirt.

"Ha! How stup'd-"

"Fire!" Stoick hissed under his breath at his dragon. "Fire now!"

"-can ya be?! D'ya know how big o- price yer head'l fetch... when..."

He stopped talking when they all heard the signature sound of a Night Fury making a fire run. Eyes were thrown everywhere, scanning the black sky for the black dragon. Stoick grinned.

"Ready, Skull?"

Stoick gave his opposition a wide grin as he took another step forward, still guiding his dragon. When he figured the fireball was about to be released, he lunged forward with his sword raised, forcing his enemies to focus on him in anticipation of an attack. However, it was a ruse and he quickly dropped to a low crouch just before the fireball hit.

Those fools didn't have the sense to do anything except stand there and glare at the chief. As a result, they were temporarily blinded by the flash of light assaulting their dilated pupils. Stoick had positioned his dragon to the side and, by crouching himself down, none of his enemies were shielded from the intense glare. He could feel the heat and the concussive force of the impact at his back and used it to lunge forward as Skullcrusher swung his massive tail around in a wide arc, knocking down several crewmen.

In their blinded stupor, Stoick had no trouble grabbing the arm of one enemy to spin him around and head-butt the soft spot in the back of his head, sending him to the deck in a limp heap. With a swing of his massive left arm, Stoick drove his shield into another Viking, knocking him down. At the same time, he struck the sword arm of another with his own blade and quickly shuffled to the side to avoid any wild swings from his downed opponents. In the same motion, he was able to catch someone's temple with the side of his shield in a hard blow.

"YIELD!" the chief bellowed as he separated himself from the group that was still trying to pick themselves back up and regain their senses.

Skullcrusher, having finished his swing, stood at the chief's side. Seven Outcasts were prone on the deck. Three of them were not moving.

"Get down!" Stoick shouted. "Chin on the deck and I will let you go home alive! Continue to fight and you will die! You see only two dragons on the ship, but how many more are in the sky, ready to pounce you? I'll declare my intentions once more. I am here for the dragons you have below deck."

The crewmen huddled around, not making any aggressive moves, but not complying either. Out of the corner of his eye, Stoick noticed Firebrand had landed a few paces away, roaring at them. He looked over at the Night Fury and grinned.

This was another benefit to attacking these Outcast bastards. This dragon, like so many Vikings he knew, had a drive to show his dominance over others. Every day spent not doing that was like bending a stick, building up tension, until he finally snaps. These Outcasts were a nice target for the dragon to take out his pent-up aggression so he'd be more calm and docile when they arrive on Berk.

"Nice shot, Firebrand," the chief crowed. "Nothing else quite like it!"

One of the crewmen took a step forward, raising his sword. "Stand your ground! Nobody is going-"

Stoick noticed Firebrand was kneading his claws into the wooden deck and took a couple steps in anticipation of what he was likely to do.

"-anywhere without our catch!"

Stoick cast an unreadable stare at him. "I presume you must be the captain? I shall call you captain death wish."

Shifting his gaze to the others, still gathered uncertainly behind the captain, he said "Will you follow your captain to a watery grave? Get in the damn dinghy now or-"

Firebrand snarled and lunged at the Vikings, but Stoick was prepared and intercepted, bracing his shield against the side of his body and slamming it into the dragon's outstretched claws. The chief was massive and strong enough to almost stop the dragon dead in his tracks as he crumpled against the shield and quickly raised himself to all fours as he hit the deck.

Stoick couldn't allow the impulsive dragon to interfere in an uncontrolled manner. If the crew considered themselves to be defeated, then the most efficient thing would be to send them off in the dinghy. After all, a man who loses a fight, but not his life, is not much of a threat. Threaten his life, though, and he will fight back as if he has nothing to lose. Winning a battle isn't about killing all your enemies; Just defeating them is usually more efficient.

Turning back to the captain, Stoick shouted, "Calm yourself, Firebrand. We do not kill those who are already defeated. This is-"

He was cut off as rows of teeth wrapped around his left forearm, causing him to wince and drop the shield to the deck. Firebrand wasn't biting hard enough to draw blood, yet, but was certainly throwing some sort of tantrum about being denied a chance to revel in senseless slaughter. In his own way, the dragon was saying, "Let me at them or I will attack you instead."

However, the Night Fury's wing was pinched between Skullcrusher's rows of sharp teeth. Both dragons were as still as the ship. They locked eyes. Stoick could imagine that Skullcrusher was saying in his wordless way, "If you hurt my rider, I will hurt you even worse."

Softly, Stoick said, "Firebrand, let's all take a step back and calm down. Hiccup told me that dragons aren't just dumb beasts that are driven only by emotion and instinct. Perhaps you can still convince me of this."

Stoick felt the teeth come down ever-so-slightly, but the Night Fury gave a yelp as another set of teeth dug into the arm of his wing. A shout drew everyone's attention to the enemy captain, charging in with his sword in both hands.

Without a second thought, Stoick swung his sword at Firebrand's head. The dragon instantly pulled back, releasing the arm in a frantic response. Stoick anticipated this reaction and stopped the swing of his sword, giving him barely enough time to bring it up to block the enemy's blow.

Blade struck blade. Crossguard ground against crossguard as his enemy growled at him. The fool had worked himself into a blind rage. This locking of swords was completely pointless and Stoick knew it. However, he cast a grin at Firebrand.

"This one, Firebrand, is all yours. Have fun!"

Suddenly, there was no longer a Viking in front of the chief. There was only a sword that spun around the cross-guard of his own before clattering to the deck. Off to the side, the Night Fury painted the boards red with blood. The screams of pain did not last long before they gave way to wet gurgling and then, silence. The beast seemed to have a lot of aggression to get rid of and continued to shred the limp corpse to ribbons. Stoick had no desire to interfere as it served the dual purpose of helping to control Firebrand's aggression and also shocking the rest of the crew into a obedience.

Stoick shifted his attention to the huddled mass of the crew. "Such loyalty you outcasts have for your captain. Ready the dinghy and get off my ship, maggots! Take your injured with you. I don't want them."

The crew actually started to move to comply. Firebrand, off to the side, angled his crimson maw up. His entire underside was streaked with red. Stoick followed his gaze and just barely made out a splotch of color that marked the white underside of Stormfly with the underslung Hiccup. He could only imagine the lovey-dovey thrashing of a preaching the boy was giving Firebrand.

Stoick cast a glance over at his dragon. "You handled yourself very well, Skullcrusher. I'm very proud of you! If it wasn't for your composure and quick response, I'd be missing more limbs than Gobber."

Skullcrusher nuzzled the chief's arm with his snout and received an equally affectionate slap on the carapace plates on his thick neck.

As the crew started to launch the dinghy, dragging their injured aboard, Stoick walked up to Firebrand, but stopped several paces short. Skullcrusher shadowed his rider, but heeded his gestures, hanging back just behind the arm he held out.

"Hey!"

Firebrand looked up at the chief. Stoick dismissively brushed some of the blood off of his arm. The Night Fury actually had the decency to look a little bashful. In those large, green eyes, Stoick could almost see Spitelout, who has been known to lose his cool in the heat of battle and afterward say, "I'm sorry, brother, I don't know what came over me. I was just so damn angry!" As much as he didn't want to, Stoick already felt himself forgiving the dragon.

He said, "I'm willing to forget about what just happened and I'll still allow you on my island. But know this, Firebrand. If you attack any of my people without provocation, you will be hunted and killed! You have wings and I ain't stopping you from flying off if you can't stand being around us. But if you harm anyone on Berk, your hide will serve as a rug to wipe my boots! Do we have an understanding?"

Firebrand gave a snort and snarled at the departing forms of the Outcast crewmen as their dinghy pushed off from the ship.

"Skullcrusher, is that a yes? Does he understand?"

The dragon huffed and bobbed his head. Stoick waved in Toothless and Stormfly, who were circling above, to come and land.

"Good enough."


A/N:

Thanks for reading!

Nitroexpress - Thanks for the feedback. In renovating stories in general, I have caught myself going a little too happy-go-lucky with the hoe and whacking the tomato plants along with the weeds - if ya know what I mean - to help the story flow better. I think if I try writing like this again, I won't stretch things out so far in bringing about closure to open-ended details since my chapters roll out with days or weeks in between… and even after the story is complete, I shouldn't expect anyone to chain-read too much in one go to connect the dots. Anyway, thanks for the food for thought. Also, yeah, Tofa will definitely have a strong presence in this story. We'll see some more of Firebrand and let's just say there will be some unlikely pairings while class is in session.