The chief was still up when his son snuck back in sometime after midnight, he and his "war council," as the teens called them, gathered around the dining room table. Seats had been pulled out as if they'd once been used, but had since been abandoned to the edges of the room, the large councilmen and women all yelling, all slamming fist on the old oak table trying to reach some sort of agreement. Every light in the house was on, his dad's computer still humming in the background, clearly this entire meeting had been thrown together within minutes.

Hiccup carefully crawled up onto the stairs, resting his arm on a pile of his father's books. The stairs creaked under him, any shifting of his scrawny form might alert the adults. He leaned in just close enough to see everything, but still hiding in the shadows enough that no one would notice him unless they were specifically looking.

"The attacks have gone up in numbers just within the last year Stoick, and the Sanctuary isn't going to be able to hold any more dragons!"

"We're out of space on the island as it, we can't just capture and contain any more!"

"With the constant additions to the lab, Berk isn't going to be able to sustain itself much longer, we'll have to leave, go live on the mainland!"

"We are NOT going to the mainland, without us on Berk the dragons will take over the eastern seaboard. They'll travel farther south, and the last thing we need is any TV cameras catching as much as a Terror!"

"Then we'll have te kill them!"

All eyes went to the man that suggested this, Anund Svenson. He was a hulking man, and while not larger or stronger, could certainly give Stoick a good fight while he could still stand. He never shaved his unruly beard, rarely washed himself or his well-worn clothes, and always partook in the defending from dragon attacks, whether he was wanted or not. While as uncivil as they come, he insisted as an adult of the village to be in on these council meetings.

"We aren't killing them Anund, we're the last line of defense, but we're not savages," Gerda Hofferson interrupted, "We've been keeping the populations under control, we've got enough space on the smaller islands to build, we've got enough young vikings to help sustain the fight until we can—"

Anund smirked, leaning over to look down on the feisty woman. "'til we can what, Gerda? Yer little girlie's a fighter, I'll giver that, but ye think her and them other little runts are gonna be able ta keep this up f'rever? They're good, they ain't that good."

"That's enough!" Stoick's voice boomed throughout the house, shaking the walls and echoing through the rooms. "We are not killing—"

"Why not!" the stupid man egged on, "yer wife ain't here ta stop ya! Just 'cuz Val wanted ta save them stupid things don't mean we should be stuck w'fum now that's sheez gone!"

The books under Hiccup had gave way, flying down into the crowd of council members.

"Hiccup, what are you still doing up?"

Clearly he hadn't noticed that he son was just getting back.

Ilsa Ingerman interrupted, "Hiccup, Sweetie I'm goin' ta go call my little Fishlegs, you can go stay there for the night," she said sweetly, offering the fallen books to the boy, "can't have our future chief strugglin' in school b'cause he can't get any sleep with us yappin' out here."

He hadn't much choice in the matter, she'd practically took him by the hand and forced him to go pack. It hadn't been the first school night he'd been sent off to the Ingerman's, it wouldn't be the last. Beat going to the Jorgenson's, where Snotlout would either taunt him or interrogate him, the Thorstons, where the twins constantly put his life in danger, when not trying to put the other and even the Hofferson's, where Astrid would lock herself in the basement and train until long after he fell asleep.

At least Fishlegs would acknowledge him. When Hiccup's old jeep pulled into the yard, he was still up on his computer cataloging the catches of the day for the council, should they ever actually look at it, getting bit by bit information from the scientist who were stuck quickly testing the feral dragons before training them for life in captivity.

There's no one on Berk more eager to sit and learn than Fishlegs. He's seen every record on ever dragon we've ever found, he's read every book three times over, he's memorized every breeds stats and shot limit, he's a walking wikipedia page. Now only if you could get him out with the dragons.

"What were they saying?" the larger boy asked inquisitively, briefly looking away from his computer. They should have been asleep hours ago, but Ilsa and her husband still hadn't come home from the meeting, and it wasn't like they wouldn't just sleep in school anyway.

"Well the village nutcase wants to start killing the dragons, all of them."

"But he's already killed dozens on his own, why does he care?"

"Who knows. Mildew's been feeding him reasons to kill the dragons for years. Wouldn't think he'd be that upset to the lab going up in his cabbage patches."

He could have told Fishlegs about everything, from the fights he'd overheard to the Night Fury. In fact, he'd debated it on the way over, but alas, the boy couldn't keep a secret if his life depended on it. This was Fishlegs Ingerman, the boy who's inability to keep a secret had singlehandedly ruined the senior prank of 2012.

He instead chose to keep the boy distracted on other things, video games, school work, the new Nightmare they'd brought in, his lazy old pug that waddled like a fat pig, whatever it took to keep him away from any secret subject.

"Did you hear what happened to Astrid and Ruffnut last weekend?" Fishlegs asked, looking away from his computer. "Mr. Hofferson sent them out into the woods to load the truck up with firewood and apparently there was a dragon making a nest out of them!"

"On it's own? But there weren't any attacks last week."

Dragons never came to Berk alone, they never came during the day, and they never stayed more than a few minutes after they hauled in their catch. There's no way it would be there on it's own in broad daylight.

"That's what Ruffnut said."

"Ruffnut lies all the time."

"But Astrid doesn't."

That she didn't. Astrid was honest and brutal to a fault, lying when she had to, but he'd never seen her in any case just make up stories.

The claw marks he'd seen on the side of her dad's pickup at school the next morning just proved the theory. The gashes weren't aggressive in any manner, it didn't appear that the dragons as trying to attack the car. Instead, they were thin, barely scratching the paint, almost like the claw marks Fishlegs's pug would leave on his bedroom door when she was locked out.

They were definitely that of a dragon, there hadn't been bears on Berk in decades, they'd been a staple food for dragons to the point of extinction. The biggest animals were domesticated, they never hid in the woods or the lumber yards. The dragons were most definitely coming into Berk all on their own, for whatever reason. First the one the girls found…

And then the night fury.

I'm sorry this update took so long, I've been in the middle of a move and starting back to work and haven't had the time to sit and write like I'd like to be able to do. I want to go back and improve the previous chapters, but for now, I hope you enjoy the update! I'm going to try and update by Saturday at the latest~