Chapter 8

"Well done, son!" Drago cried as he slapped his son's shoulder. "Two fine dragons, they are. Beautiful heads."

Valka hid behind the crowd of people congratulating Eret and tried to blend in. She inched towards the dragons displayed outside of the throng; they were in the corner of the Hall, opposite the celebration party. Their necks were chained with thick metal and coarse ropes tied their bodies down. Valka knew there would be a few scars on their bodies.

Valka continued gliding to the dragons until she was face to face with them. Glancing back at the crowd and seeing no witnesses, Valka gently moved her hand to the Nadder's snout.

The female dragon snorted and growled, a death threat hissed.

"Shush now," Valka whispered. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." Valka's hand slowly rose up to the Nadder. "I'm a friend."

The dragon's eyes softened, showing her trust. She now purred instead of growled.

She must've had another rider, Valka thought. I can tell by the saddle. That's why she trusts me so easily.

Valka smiled hopefully, inching her hand closer…closer…

Drago snatched her hand and forced it down. He pulled her back a few feet and glared at her. "You may have learned the most from the dragon trainer Valka, but don't train them without my permission."

Valka shook her hand from Drago's iron grip, mirroring Drago's stare. "I just wanted to let them know we won't hurt them."

Drago smiled menacingly through his thick beard. "Now how can you do that when you know it's not true?" Drago darkly chuckled and slowly stomped away.

Valka sighed, angry at Drago and his stupid son Eret. She clenched her teeth, cursing some type of threat but she didn't know which one.

Reluctantly, she looked once more at the trained Nightmare and Nadder, and then disappeared. There was someone who needed to know about these new trophies.


Hiccup, still chained, stared at Valka, unwilling to believe her story. "No, no that's not possible. They…they shouldn't be anywhere near here!"

Valka knelt down, becoming eye level with Hiccup. "What's impossible?"

Hiccup shook his head, as if mentally disregarding a theory.

"Hiccup? What is it?" Valka repeated.

The boy sighed, decided he might as well tell the truth, and explained, "Two friends of mine ride dragons. One rides a Nightmare and the other rides a Nadder."

"The girl you told me about last night? She rides the Nadder?"

Hiccup nodded. "Yeah, that one. She rides the Nadder. The boy rides the Monstrous Nightmare. I-If both the dragons had saddles on them then that means that they were being ridden and…did this kid Eret see any riders with them?"

"Not that he said."

Hiccup's face went white. "Oh no. They're in trouble. Astrid and Snotlout are in trouble! They-they wouldn't leave their dragons and the dragons would never leave them willingly…!"

Valka placed her hand on his shoulder. "It'll be alright. We'll find your friends." She glanced at the entrance, checking for eavesdroppers. Then, she looked into Hiccup's eyes. "I just need more time. Wait until tonight. I'll get you, we'll free Toothless, the two dragons, and every dragon in that cove. We'll find your friends and we'll get away from here. I just need you to wait until tonight. Darkness will give us better cover."

Hiccup's gaze locked on Valka. Her voice carried a compassionate, caring tone that made Hiccup believe this plan was possible. The older woman was so eager to help him, but why?

He didn't want to ask the question. Somehow he knew that he'd be awakening an awful past, but he asked anyway.

"Are you a prisoner here, too?"

Valka's eyes drooped, and then she nodded. "Not in chains, but…I can't leave. With your dragon, maybe I can."

"Why don't you train your own dragon? You tamed a Monstrous Nightmare!"

Valka shushed him frantically, fearing guards, and then whispered, "I haven't found the right one yet. Now just wait until tonight. I'll be back." She patted his shoulder and tried to smile, but the happiness was vacant. She left the cave without another word.

Hiccup watched her as she left, and he hoped that what she said was true.


Astrid's eyes opened unwillingly. The cloudy sky tricked her into thinking she was still unconscious, but a voice disproved the illusion.

"Good, you're awake."

Astrid moaned. It felt like a thousand axes were shoved into her brain. She rubbed her temples, groaning. "What happened?"

"You passed out in the water. Good thing I was awake to save your life."

The voice pounded in her eardrums, but at least she recognized it.

"Snotlout?"

"Yeah, it's me. Don't forget to thank me for saving your life."

Astrid forced herself onto her side, wanting to see Snotlout instead of just hearing him. He was squatting on the beach, leaning over a crackling fire, half-dried from his plunge.

Astrid rubbed her eyes. "Where are we?" she weakly asked.

Snotlout threw up his arms. "We're deserted, abandoned, lost! I thought you'd get that by the isolated beach we're on."

Astrid grimaced at Snotlout's loud exaggeration. It made her head hurt more. She sat up and, with a jolt, panicked. "Where are the dragons?!"

"You expect me to know? They disappeared, were shot down, knocked out from under us!"

Astrid crawled to the fire and remembered the horrific drop. "We have to find them!" She hid a moan of pain, but rubbed her head anyway.

Snotlout looked to Astrid with sympathetic look in his eye. "You should eat first. I found some berries in the forest." He reached into his bag and pulled some out. As he held out his hand, dark purple berries slipped between his fingers and plopped onto the sand. But he clamped his fingers tightly shut, squishing some berries, but saving a small majority of them.

Astrid's eyes widened. "Did you eat any of those?"

"Not yet." His face twisted in frustration. "I can be polite Astrid. I was going to wait until you woke up."

"Well good. Those are poisonous."

Snotlout shuddered, threw the berries into the ocean, and wiped his juicy palm against the sand. "Okay, never mind. We have no food."

Astrid shakily stood up. "Let's go and find the dragons. Did you get a look at the island?"

Snotlout looked up at her, almost annoyed. "I'm not stupid enough to leave you here!"

Astrid accepted this in her head. Snotlout didn't have as much brains as Hiccup, but he wasn't that stupid. He never did endanger people's lives unless curiosity overcame him; he wouldn't leave her on that beach.

She lumbered forward shakily. "You're right. Let's try and figure out a way home."

Snotlout unexpectedly elated. He started chuckling. "I'm sorry; did I just hear you say that I'm right? This is an historic moment. Let me bathe in admiration a minute."

Astrid glared at him. "We don't have a minute. Savor five seconds and then come."

"Just give me a second," Snotlout said. "This is an amazing moment."

"Snotlout!" Astrid snapped. "Now!"

"Okay, okay," Snotlout whined, following the determined Astrid. "I'm coming, I'm coming!"

Astrid led the way off the beach and tore through very thick brush, creating a path for herself. She ignored the haziness surrounding her vision. All details in her peripheral vision were gone. Still, she trudged forward with her heart blazing an inextinguishable flame. She didn't care if Snotlout had trouble keeping up. She'd get Hiccup back, but she had to figure out where she was first.

She could ignore the hazy vision, she told herself. It would go away eventually. But when she toppled down into weeds, sick from dizziness, she realized the stupid lies. Her eyes closed.


Valka fished through the duffel which contained her most cherished belongings. She was alone in her small one-room house, attached to a large family's abode, whose children liked to enter without knocking, so she prayed for privacy.

From the bag, she pulled out her dagger which her father gave her, her wedding ring, and a seashell. Valka clutched the ring and the seashell close to her heart. Could she go home again? Finally?

"Valka!" a recognizable voice ordered as the door swung open.

Valka stuffed everything in her duffel as quick as she could. She stood up and stared, face to face, with Eret.

"Hello," she politely greeted. "Eret, is there something I can help you with?"

Eret grinned mischievously. "I was told that we have a prisoner. My father captured the dragon trainer?"

Valka smiled, acting victorious, like Hiccup's capture was pleasurable to her. "Yes. We fired bolas at the Night Fury and…"

"Yeah, yeah, he told me. I don't need to hear it from you. But he did tell me that you've become quite friendly with the prisoner."

"Friendly?" Valka scorned. She made sure she looked insulted. "If you weren't the chief's son, I'd slap you in the face."

Eret almost burst out into uncontrollable laughter, but let it subside. "Why then did you take a liking to his dragon and volunteer to bring the trainer food?"

"I don't volunteer!" Valka scowled, her tone sounding aghast at the subject. "It's my job! I'm in charge of the prisoners!"

Eret smiled; amused that he was causing the older woman anger. "Will you bring me to the prisoner?"

Valka kept her face straight. "What do you want with him?"

Eret snorted. "I just wanna talk to him! That's allowed, isn't it? Isn't it?" The last question was almost a dare.

Valka sighed, staring at Eret. "Very well, Eret. Follow me."


Hiccup sat, chained to the wall, worrying over his friends.

It's my fault, Hiccup thought. If I hadn't run away then they wouldn't have to come and look for me and…nothing like this would've happened!

He kicked is foot against the ground, chiding himself. He was stupid. His dad was right. He was still a kid; he was still a stupid, stupid kid. Every self-centered choice he made, someone else suffered for it. Toothless often suffered for him, his dad paid a few prices, and his friends…the ones he wanted the most to stay out of this, who had no responsibility for him, they were always the ones who paid some price for his follies. Shouldn't he have learned by now not to make mistakes? Chiefs couldn't make mistakes!

Hiccup gasped, realizing his thoughts. He closed his eyes and almost whimpered. He was seriously thinking about becoming a chief. The life he didn't want, he was thinking about. The path he told his dad he couldn't follow, he was peering down to see if he was ready to tread it. Why did getting captured make him think about his future?

Footsteps interrupted his inner-monologue. Hiccup lit up when he recognized Valka's footsteps, but he soured when another set accompanied them.

Valka turned the corner, followed by a seemingly over-confident, snotty kid about his own age.

Valka gestured between the two of them with lack of interest. "Hiccup, Eret. Eret, Hiccup."

Eret stood stalk still for a moment and then snorted. He crumbled on the floor and laughed hysterically.

"H-H-H-Hiccup! Hiccup!" Eret laughed. "S-Serious-ly! Aha! Ha Ha! Hiccup!"

Hiccup stared at the cackling boy, then to Valka. She shrugged.

"Yes," Hiccup dryly spoke to Eret. "My name's an embarrassing noise that you make with your mouth. It's hysterical. "

After ignoring Hiccup's comment and laughing for five more minutes, Eret calmed himself. "Oh, I'm sorry about that."

Hiccup half-smirked, knowing full well that Eret's words were empty. "What do you want?"

Eret stood up, wiped tears from his eyes, and let out one more laugh. "I wanted to meet you."

"I'm honored."

"You should be." Eret flicked his long hair out of his face and stared down at Hiccup. "You think you're so important, training the dragons?"

"Nah. Just more important than you."

Eret cringed, oblivious to Valka's hidden sniggering. "Since I'm the one who decides whether or not you get out of those chains, I'd be a little more nicer if I were you."

"Well, you're not me. So you're out of luck. And you can give up on keeping me here because I'm not training any of your dragons or showing you how to train them. Last time we tried that, Olaf angered them all. If you guys can't submit yourselves to trusting them, throwing away your weapons, and actually caring about a dragon, I can't help you. That's what you need to train a dragon. You have none of that! It's gonna be impossible for you to train them."

Eret chuckled, liking this mean side of Hiccup. "If you say so. Keep your confidence about getting out of here, but you forget that we have your dragon chained up. I think that's pretty impossible. Now I've met you. Goodbye."

Eret strode arrogantly out of the cave. Valka stood where she had been standing for the whole time. "You told him off," she said, not bothering to hide her amusement.

Hiccup held back a smirk, knowing that he just made it harder for him to leave these people. Ticking off the chief's son never really worked well the last few times. Dagur was an eccentric example.

Valka tiptoed towards Hiccup when he didn't say anything. She leaned down to him and whispered, "Hang tight. I'll get you tonight. I'll keep a lookout for your friends too."

Hiccup looked to Valka, his eyes alone speaking his gratitude. "Thanks."

She grinned and again deserted him.

Hiccup laid his head against the side of the wall. "This had better work," he whispered. "This better be a good plan, whatever plan it is. Oh, Dad will skin me when he finds me."


"I'm going to skin him when we find him!" Stoick announced when yet another frozen island was empty of Hiccup's presence.

Spitelout leaned against his Timberjack, Valor. He sipped more alcohol before it froze. "So, if we can't find Hiccup…"

"Yes, Spitelout! Yes! Snotlout will be chief." Stoick leapt on top of Thornado. "But I'm going to search every island until I admit that Hiccup's gone."

Gobber waved to his dragon, ignoring the bickering. "Come here, Belt Buckle!" The Boneknapper whose missing bone was Gobber's belt buckle obeyed his rider, whom he reunited with about a year ago. He leapt from behind an iceberg and ran like a puppy to his master.

Gobber scratched Belt Buckle's chin for a reward and then turned his attention to Spitelout and Stoick. "Alright. Let's check a couple more islands. He couldn't have gone far."

"I wasn't going to say that Snotlout could be chief," Spitelout argued. "I was going to say that we should get the armada."

"Mounting the dragons, guys," Gobber reminded. "Let's go."

"You don't have to lie," Stoick threatened Spitelout.

Gobber frowned. "Two arguing lassies are right in front of me, Belt Buckle. Don't you sympathize?"

Belt Buckle moaned and dropped his head.

Gobber patted Belt Buckle's chin, laughing. But Belt Buckle raised his head, noticing something. Thornado and Valor did exactly the same, yet the chief and vice chief didn't notice.

"Boys?" Gobber asked the dragons. "What is it?"

Valor, knowing his rider wasn't on him, flew up to the top of the ice mountain. Spitelout tripped and fell to the ice with a thud, cracking the frozen water. His alcohol spilled, but he was too distracted to notice.

Stoick followed Valor's trail with his eyes and ordered, "Follow him."

Gobber mounted Belt Buckle while Spitelout climbed up behind Stoick. They leapt up into the air, following the Timberjack.

"Track Valor boys," Stoick commanded. The dragons flew harder, but worried their riders when the trail went into a thick cloud of fog.

Gobber peered into the blinding mist. "Do you hear that?"

Stoick nodded. "Yes, I do. They're dragons roaring."

They flew until the fog dispersed, revealing a giant entrance into a glacier.

Stoick sensed the danger. A group of dragons roaring in a cave reminded him of an incident five years ago; the one where he almost lost his son. "Stop boys," Stoick ordered. "Stop."

Thorando and Belt Buckle ignored this command, acting like they didn't hear Stoick. Their first order was to track Valor and that's what they did. They flew straight into the cave.

"Stupid dragons," Spitelout muttered. Both dragons growled and hissed.

"Figure of speech!" Spitelout griped. "I wanna find Valor. I really do."

For a moment, Stoick debated whether or not Spitelout's claim was true, but he shook it off. He scanned his surroundings. "It's an ice cave."

Gobber leaned forward, angling himself so his ear was closest to the inner part of the cave. "And I hear dragons."

"What's in here?" Stoick asked himself.

After a moment, they found Valor perched on a small platform ahead of them. He looked back to them worriedly, appearing afraid to fly any further.

Thornado and Belt Buckle perched beside him, letting Spitelout jump onto Valor. The riders peeked into the enlarging cave.

Gobber couldn't rip his eyes off the sight. "I don't believe it."

Countless dragons surrounded the cave's interior. They were chained. They ends of the chains were frozen into the walls and about twenty guards were scattered throughout the cave, disciplining the dragons with spears.

"Who are these people?" Spitelout asked aloud, not meaning to.

"I don't know. Back up a bit so they can't see us. Do you see a Berserker crest?" Stoick whispered.

"No, I can't see anything. They're too far away." Gobber shushed Belt Buckle as he noticed Boneknappers chained up with the others. "Stay still, boy."

Spitelout leaned towards Stoick and hissed, "We can't do anything. If we free these dragons against these Vikings' will, we start a war."

"I know." Stoick rubbed his chin. "We need to keep looking for Hiccup anyhow. Let's go."

"Stoick, wait!" Gobber said. "Look further into the cave."

Stoick followed Gobber's directions and, when his vision focused, there was a giant dragon trapped behind a thick sheet of ice about five times the height of an upright Nightmare. The dragon itself was the same size. Five Nightmares high and maybe three houses wide.

Stoick focused on this giant beast as it banged its head against the ice wall. Viking guards panicked and aimed spears at the dragon, ready for anything. Unhindered, the dragon still banged his head. The ice wall was thick enough that it didn't break immediately on impact, but weak enough that a few cracks formed. In fact, there were cracks along the whole wall. This beast had been banging this wall for a long time.

"It's only a few more bangs before that wall falls down," Stoick noted.

"What do you think the dragon's trying to do?" Gobber whispered.

Stoick shrugged. "Getting to her bee-like workers, maybe."

Spitelout gaped, flabbergasted. "There's another Green Death?" he shouted.

Stoick cringed and Gobber rolled his eyes. "Now you've done it!"

Spitelout nervously looked to the chained dragons. Frightened by the shout, the dragons shrieked. Some blew fire. The closest enemy Viking noticed them, and charged towards them, adding a battle cry to the noise.

Stoick looked at the commotion. "This is why Snotlout won't be chief. He's just like you."

A Nadder shot spurts at them.

"Get out! Get out!" Spitelout cried.

All three fled the fire just in time and raced out of the cave.

Once safely in the fog, Spitelout breathed hard. "Sorry. But…There's another Green Death!"

"We don't know that," Stoick yelled. "It could be another Queen, just not like the Green Death."

Gobber shook his head. "Well, how come those Vikings were keeping the dragons hostage? And why was the Queen behind that ice? How did they fight her off?"

"I don't know." Stoick clenched his fist. "But we don't have time to find out. Hiccup's still out there, and I won't lose him again. Not after the Green Death."


Hiccup whimpered, getting nervous. The moon had risen but Valka still wasn't here. Had something happened? Did they discover her friendship with him?

He constantly checked the corner that lead to the entrance. Where was she?

"Come on Valka. Please. Please come!"

The next moments were spent in worrisome silence. Then, quicker than a flash, a figure leapt in front of him and licked his face.

Hiccup shuddered in disgust, but then saw the face.

"Toothless!" he cried.

Valka entered, carrying a stuffed duffel bag. "Shhh! Be quiet. It was hard enough to keep Toothless quiet."

Hiccup smiled, overjoyed, as Toothless pressed his forehead against Hiccup's. "I missed ya, bud."

I know. I missed you too, Toothless purred.

Valka knelt down and unlocked Hiccup's chains. "Alright, I'm here like I promised, but we have got to be quiet."

"How did you get Toothless here?"

"Oh, after you slip a sleeping drug in the guard's drinks, you order a Night Fury quiet and drag him across the village avoiding all types of firelight, you can eventually bring him to the prison cave."

Hiccup stood and hugged Toothless's neck. He scratched the black scales, happy to see his best friend again. Why did all separations seem like an eternity? "Thanks Valka. So, what's the plan?"

"You're going to fly me to the dragons' cove. I'll decide the next step there."

"Oh. Fantastic. This plan is so clear."

"As it should be with only one step."

Hiccup smiled. "Alright, let's go." He mounted Toothless, leaving room for Valka to climb on. Toothless walked out of the cave and, once clear, flew into the sky, soaring where Hiccup directed him.

Hiccup relaxed as he felt the luxurious feeling. Wind hissed past his face, danced through his hair, and charged his energy. Yes! Yes, he was home! He was where he belonged! Yes!

Sadly, the flight soon ended. The cove came before Hiccup could even think about doing one of his favorite tricks. He motioned for Toothless to land. Hiccup leapt off of him after disconnecting the foot and walked around, surveying the dragons.

"They've been beaten," he noted with surprise.

"During the day," Valka confirmed. "The men tried training without you and they were stupid enough to expect different results. When the dragons fought back, they beat them."

Hiccup saw Valka's distressed eyes. They started filling with tears. She really did care about these dragons.

"So," Hiccup asked, "what do we do now? How do we start freeing the dragons?"

Before Valka could answer, a shrill cry echoed through the cove.

"Hiccup!"

Hiccup spun around in response to his name. He laughed joyfully.

"Astrid!"