Author's Note: Bwahahaha. I know you all hate my cliffhangers but I think they are fun. Anywhose… Not much to say here. Just that what I know of Scottish myth is scattered at best. I do know that at least one story mentions dragons so yeah. It works. Also this explains where Astrid's, or in this case Aster's, little speech to Drago in HTTYD 2 comes from so expect some violence. I own nothing. Review please!

4. The Battle Begins

Merad arrived home practically in a panic. He ran around his mother who was trying to chastise him for leaving his brothers alone in the market to go looking for some visitor to the town, something about them destroying a stand. He didn't have time to make it up to her right now, he had to find his father. When he did he found him in the armory regaling one of the newer guards with his tales of heroism. The young man had been having a bit of a hard time fitting in so Fergus and the others had made it their secret mission to make him feel at home in the castle. But Merad couldn't think about that right now.

"Da' I need to talk to you!" He was out of breath and clearly freaking out so Fergus dismissed the guard and sat Merad down.

"What's wrong lad?" Merad took a deep breath and explained what he had seen.

"There was a dragon in the woods today. I saw the beast with my own eyes. Black as night with a…" Fergus interrupted his son, eyes serious.

"Are you sure son?" Merad nodded.

"Yes I am, but Da' there was something else." Fergus held up a hand.

"Come with me." Fergus took his son into the library and searched for a few moments until he found what he was looking for. He pulled a dusty old tome off of the shelf and flipped it open ignoring the dust that made Merad sneeze. He began to read off the page in front of him.

"Great wars… Blah blah blah… Ah here we are. 'In the times before the great kings and chiefs made peace the land was not ruled solely by man. Beasts of fire roamed freely devouring sheep and cattle at their own whim. They laid waste to the land, forcing the clans to join together to defeat the beasts, the beasts they called dragons. The battle raged for years before one bold man stepped forward and nearly singlehandedly drove the dragons out of their homeland with nothing but steel and sinew. Though this brave warrior, Scald the Slayer, did not survive, the dragons left and have never been seen in this land to this day.' Merad, if you saw what you say you saw then we could all be in for the fight of our lives." There was a pounding on the library door.

"Enter!" Fergus called out and the door opened to reveal another of the castle guards.

"My king, there is a fleet of eight or so battle ships approaching the bay. They will reach us within the day. They fly no flag, but have the image of a dragon emblazoned on their sails." Fergus swore loudly.

"Understood, call the lards to the great hall for a war meeting." The guard nodded and left. Merad grabbed his father's arm before he could leave.

"Da' that's what I was trying to tell you. The dragon I saw, there was a person riding it as if it were a horse!" Fergus paled.

"That can mean nothing but trouble fer us. Come we have much to do and no time to do it." Merad followed Fergus out of the library and to the great hall for his first war meeting.

Hiccup and the other riders had spent the night planning out what to do. It had been decided that they could not leave the town to the mercy of the berserkers. Especially since Hiccup had a hunch that they had been following her to begin with, because if they hadn't this was the biggest coincidence in all of history.

They mounted up a little after midday knowing the fleet would be approaching the bay near the town by now. Aster, whose dragon was closest to the color of the clear blue sky, had done some recon near the town and found that they were also preparing for battle but they had clearly never faced a berserker before, they were not evacuating the town, simply boarding closed windows and doors. That would not hold a berserker back.

"Ok so everyone clear on the plan?" Hiccup asked slightly concerned that Ruff and Tuff had not been listening. Fishlegs raised his hand.

"Yes Fishlegs?" He twiddled his fingers together.

"Have you considered that they might not be, ummm nice when they see our dragons. I mean most villages panic and try to kill them." Hiccup nodded, scratching Toothless behind the ear.

"I have considered that but I've also considered what would happen if we don't help, a lot of people are gonna get hurt if we don't do something. Because of me and Toothless and I'm not gonna stand for that. If you don't want to get involved that's fine, this has been my fight from the beginning and I really think it's about time to give Dagur a taste of his own medicine." Snotlout laughed.

"You think we're gonna let you hog all the glory? No way!" Ruff and Tuff shook their heads, and Aster grinned. Fishlegs nodded and mounted Meatlug.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but Snotlout is right. We're with you Hiccup." Tuffnut laughed and then got a confused look on his face.

"So wait what was the plan again?" Hiccup sighed and began to explain again.

The clan Dunbroch was preparing for war on two fronts. They had no idea if the dragon and its rider were a threat but they had to assume that they had something to do with the ships that were rapidly closing in. A scout had spotted eight ships but in truth the number was closer to ten, each ship carrying ten men at least armed to the teeth. As the ships entered the bay a screeching whistle came from nowhere. The inhabitants of the town and castle had no idea what was going on but the men on the ship seemed to fear the noise as they all ducked low and several screamed in another language that Merad knew only a little of.

"Nightfury!" A much louder, more insane voice simply shouted,

"YOU!" as one of the ships towards the front blew in a blaze of purple and a black blur tore through the sky. At the same moment several of the men from the other ships jumped out and made to swim for shore but a whooshing noise was the only warning as a line of spikes flew from the sky embedding in the sand at the edge of the beach preventing the men's escape onto dry land, negating their threat to the town for the moment. Several of the other ships began loading catapults as four dragons flew out of the cloud layer each ridden by a different person, there was even a dragon with two heads ridden by two riders. The black blur blazed across the sky again and another of the closer ships blew. The blur slowed enough for Merad, who stood with the other archers on top of the tallest tower, to see the figure from the night before. She almost looked like a dragon herself, her helmet similar to the head of a dragon, even with spikes along the seam at the back.

"Yes me Dagur! Why not come up here and fight like a man? Oh that's right you can't cause Toothless and I freed the skrill." The man in the helmet on the only lead ship that was not on fire growled and screamed in rage at the top of his lungs and yelled to his men to fire the catapults and take down the nightfury.

"You take down the dragons! You fire at the town!" Dagur was in a rage which was part of Hiccups plan. The riders scattered as large rocks flew their way, away from the town. Hiccup and Toothless took off like a shot, once again melting into a black blur of motion as they took down two of the catapults aiming at the town. The other two got off their shots and Hiccup swore as the large rocks sailed towards the town and the castle. She made a split second decision and they raced after the large boulder headed for the practically defenseless town. One shot from Toothless and it shattered into pebbles that rained down harmlessly.

The other boulder slammed into the wall of the castle and shook it violently. Everyone on the roof grabbed for handholds and tried to steady themselves but Merad slipped and plummeted off the edge of the roof towards the ground below.