You guys are so amazing! :D Thank you all so much for your continued support! :D I can't do shout-outs this chapter around because of some technical difficulties (darn it fanfiction XD), so I'll do them next chapter! :D

THIS IS THE SECOND TO LAST CHAPTER, GUYS! :D :D :D I HOPE YOU ALL ENJOY IT! :D


Snotlout, Fishlegs, Ruffnut, and Tuffnut landed their dragons on the sandy beach of Healer's island, and once the riders dismounted, they looked around, searching for any sign of nearby dragons.

"I think the coast is clear," said Fishlegs, motioning with the others to follow him, and he began forward, into the forest.

Snotlout followed, arms crossed angrily over his chest, while the twins were a bit more enthusiastic. "So, do you think there are any snakes in the forest?" asked Tuffnut to Ruffnut.

"I'm not sure, brother," said Ruffnut lowly, "but if there are, I volunteer you to discover which of them are poisonous, and which of them are deadly."

"Ah, yes," said Tuffnut, nodding seriously. "That does sound like a worthy plan, dear sister. And if we execute it, I will volunteer you to discover which of them are poisonous, and which of them are deadly."

"Um, nu-uh," said Ruffnut. "I volunteered you first."

"But I was the first to volunteer you second," said Tuffnut.

"UGH!" snapped Snotlout, pushing past the twins to walk alongside Fishlegs, arms still crossed. "Why did we have to bring those two with us again? You know, this would be a great opportunity to, you know, Loki them…"

"I'm not Loki'ing the twins your way again, Snotlout," said Fishlegs. "If ever I Loki anyone, I'm going to do it my way, and I'm going to do it harmlessly."

Snotlout rolled his eyes. "Let me know if you ever change your mind," he said. "These forests would be the perfect place for a Loki ambush, you know."

"Snotlout, we're not here for the Loki'ing," said Fishlegs angrily. "We're here to find the Denum Nightmares."

"I know that," said Snotlout furiously, "but that doesn't mean we can't make a few Loki stops along the way, right?"

"No, Snotlout," said Fishlegs. "Our goal is to get the Denum Nightmares and leave here as soon as possible, before any of the dragon inhabitants figure out we're here."

Snotlout groaned heavily. "Fine," he said, "but you're going to regret this decision, Fishlegs. Missing your chance to Loki the king and queen of Loki'ing...you will regret this decision."

Fishlegs rolled his eyes and ignored him. "Okay," he said, "so, we're looking for weed-like plants in caves or tunnels with small blue flowers. Have your dragons search them out."

Snotlout grumbled angrily under his breath, but didn't argue. Instead, he headed off with Hookfang in the direction of the caves, and the rest of the riders followed in his wake.

"I told you, this is stupid," said Snotlout. "We're never going to find a-" He was cut off by falling straight into a deep hole in the ground. Fishlegs and the twins raced over, looking down.

"Snotlout!" called Fishlegs.

"Ooooh!" said Tuffnut. "You are dead, Snotlout!"

"Shut up!" snapped Snotlout, getting to his feet and brushing himself off. "Thanks for the save, Hookfang!" he called up to his Monstrous Nightmare sarcastically, and Hookfang, in response, tossed his head and sauntered in the opposite direction.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut jumped down into the hole, and after them followed Fishlegs. Ruffnut and Tuffnut looked around, awed.

"Whoa," said Ruffnut and Tuffnut in unison.

"Well," said Fishlegs, "I think we found what we're looking for."

Branching in all different directions of the hole were large tunnels.

And growing on the earthen floor of the tunnels were weed-like plants with deep blue flowers.

"Jackpot," said Snotlout, grinning. "And I found it."

He made to grab the flowers, but the instant he did, a loud roar issued from further down the tunnel, and Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins stopped dead in their tracks.

"Yeah," said Tuffnut to Snotlout, "and you know what else you found?"

From the tunnel to their left, the slithering, angry shape of a dragon stepped into view, tail curling, multiple spines sticking up in all directions.

"A Whispering Death," said Tuffnut.

Snotlout swallowed hard. The Whispering Death roared at them. "This...is not good," said Snotlout.

"Hiccup, arrows!" Astird shouted in warning, and Hiccup and Toothless swerved out of the way just in time; Dagur's arrows cut through the sky they had recently occupied and soared out of sight.

"Thanks, Astrid!" said Hiccup. "How's it looking back there?"

Astrid glanced over her shoulder. "The smoke's clearing!" she said. "Hiccup, we really need a new plan if we're going to make it out of this alive!"

"And I couldn't agree more," said Hiccup, "but we need to get back to base before we plan anything else! Here, take this!" He tossed the crossbow over to her, and she took it. The next time arrows shot at them from below, she fired a few crossbow arrows back down in response. Then, Toothless and Stormfly shot back towards their base, out of range of the arrows.

Toothless and Stormfly landed on the platform of the Clubhouse, and Hiccup and Astrid dismounted.

"Okay," said Hiccup, "how far am I from the edge of the platform…?"

Astrid raced towards him, grabbed his wrist, and dragged him in the right direction, towards the open door of the Clubhouse.

"You have to stop doing that!" Hiccup protested, as Toothless and Stormfly raced after their riders.

"Yeah, sorry, Hiccup," said Astrid, releasing his wrist and leaning over the table, pulling pieces of paper from her notebook and a charcoal from a nearby pencil cup. "Okay. So, we're here," she made an X on the paper, "and we're surrounded by these defensive walls." She drew a large circle around the X and frowned. "Dagur's approaching us from here…" she dotted the paper, inches away from the circle, "and we have maybe...ten minutes before he gets here."

"And when they get here," said Hiccup, "it's game over."

Astrid nodded. "Right," she said.

Hiccup paused. "Or," he said, "if they get here…"

Astrid looked at him, and although he couldn't see it, her brows were furrowed. "Hiccup," she said, "you can't possibly be thinking what I think you're thinking."

"Well, it depends," said Hiccup, shrugging. "What do you think I'm thinking?"

Astrid swallowed.

"Okay, I can't see you," said Hiccup, "but I am ninety percent sure you're frowning. Which probably means you are thinking what I'm thinking."

"We're not doing it, Hiccup," said Astrid.

"Why not?" said Hiccup, throwing his hands above his head. "It's two dragon riders, one of which is blind, and two dragons, one of which can't fly without the blind dragon rider, against an entire fleet of Berserkers. What do we have to lose?"

Astrid bit her lip. "As long as you're sure this will work," she said.

"I'm not sure," said Hiccup, "but we don't exactly have a choice."

Astrid led Hiccup by the hand into their dragon stables. The Golden Flash lifted its giant head and growled at them lowly, eyes narrowed, curled tail raised threateningly. Astrid looked at Hiccup, but Hiccup didn't look back at her.

"Hiccup, this is insane," said Astrid, shaking her head. "You can't even see the dragon. How are you going to befriend something you can't see?"

"Um...smile and wave…?" said Hiccup, and then, helplessly, "I don't know, Astrid! Give me a minute to think."

He paused a moment, looking straight ahead, following the sounds of the dragon's ominous growls. Finally, he sucked in a deep breath.

"Alright," he said, and he took the first step forward, towards the dragon.

"Alright?" said Astrid, surging forward and catching Hiccup by the hand before he could take a second step. "Alright what?"

"I'm going to try," said Hiccup, "befriending the dragon, without actually befriending the dragon. We've done it before, Astrid, with the Vorpent Viper for one, and that Whispering Death a while back, too."

"You mean, respect?" said Astrid, releasing Hiccup's hand again. "Hiccup, this dragon blinded you. He's not in the mood for respect."

"Who knows," said Hiccup. "Maybe when it sees the Berserkers attacking its home, it'll change its mind."

Astrid swallowed. "Hiccup, I don't know," she said.

Hiccup sighed. "Astrid, I think I figured out why the dragon attacked us in the first place," he said, "and that was because, he saw us as invaders, just like we see the Berserkers. He saw us as people trying to take over his home, maybe eventually trying to run him from it, like dragon hunters and Berserkers would do…"

Astrid looked at him, but said nothing.

"Maybe," said Hiccup, "maybe, if I can show him that we're not the enemies, and that we can share the island without it worrying about being hunted or run off, we can be friends. Or at least, acquaintances."

"It's a crazy theory, Hiccup," said Astrid.

"I know," said Hiccup.

"It could end either way," said Astrid.

"I know that, too," said Hiccup.

"In which case," said Astrid, crossing her arms, "you can try your best, as long as you let us back you up and pull you out if we need to."

"Alright," said Hiccup, "I can work with that." And he stepped forward, Astrid flanking him, Toothless and Stormfly behind them.

The Golden Flash growled at them threateningly, raising its tail, but Hiccup didn't stop. "Look," Hiccup said, "I know what you think of us. I know you don't like us. I know you think we're the enemies, and you think we're trying to hunt you, to hurt you…"

The Golden Flash growled again.

"But we're not," said Hiccup. "We only caged you because we were scared. We didn't know what else to do. Just like you attacked us because you were scared. You wanted to defend yourself, to protect yourself. That's why you stung me, isn't it? You thought we were trying to hurt you."

The Golden Flash growled once more. Although Hiccup couldn't see it, the dragon was slowly calming down to listen to Hiccup's words.

"And it's okay if we can't be friends, too," said Hiccup, "but we can share the Edge, and I can promise you that no one of us will ever hurt you. You will be respected by me, Astrid, the other riders, and our dragons."

"We've made peace with the other dragons living here," said Astrid, stepping up, just in front of the cage, where Hiccup was standing. "The Night Terrors. We made friends with them, and together, we're stronger than ever."

"Exactly," said Hiccup. "Like I said, you don't have to work with us, as long as you don't work against us. As long as we're around, no one will bother you."

The Golden Flash looked at Hiccup, somewhat confused, and somewhat considerate. Now that he thought about it, maybe this could work...after all, the humans had never attacked it before it attacked them, and the Alpha human was right, the other dragon inhabitants of the Edge didn't have a problem with the dragon riders…

"Right now," said Hiccup, "we're under attack. There are crazy, dragon-killing people outside who will do anything and everything to bring us to the ground. We need your help, or we'll both lose the Edge for good."

The Golden Flash looked at Hiccup, and although Hiccup couldn't exactly look back, Hiccup could tell the dragon was looking at him, and Hiccup, slowly but surely, held out his hand, through the bars of the cell, and waited.

If this didn't work, the Edge and everyone on it were done for.

It took a few moments of considering on the Golden Flash's part, but then, finally, thankfully, the dragon pressed its muzzle just slightly into Hiccup's hand, and Hiccup smiled.

"There!" said Hiccup. "There we go!"

Astrid shook her head, smiling herself. "I'll never understand how you do that, Hiccup," she said.

"What? Negotiate?" said Hiccup, grinning. "It's easy! Toothless, hit the lever!"

Toothless nodded and flicked his tail at the lever protruding from the wall, and the instant he did, the door to Rusty's cage flew open, and the Golden Flash roared in glee. It turned and narrowed its eyes at the door; even from here, it could hear the shouts of approaching Berserkers.

The dragon growled lowly and shot from the door. Astrid watched it go, as did Toothless and Stormfly, while Hiccup stared in the direction of the door, beaming.

"Alright," he said. "Come on, Astrid! Let's back him up!"

"I couldn't agree with you more, Dragon Boy," said Astrid, and, hand-in-hand, Hiccup and Astrid raced outside.