Disclaimer: I do not own How To Train Your Dragon. I have a stuffed dragon and a dragon calender, but the rest belongs to Cressida Cowell.

Summary: See previous chapters.


CHAPTER EIGHT

It was good to have Thora back with the Bog Burglar Tribe, but now they had a different problem to worry about.

The Hairy Hooligans didn't like it when dragons attacked their home, and liked it even less when the dragons were apparently tame and made off with an important prisoner, or, at least, a prisoner who had very interesting information. As a natural progression, the Hooligan Tribe had grabbed their weapons and launched their ships, heading not to look for Dragon Island, but to find the Bog Burglars.

As an even more natural progression, the Bog Burglars had no intention of taking this sort of thing lying down, especially after the Hairy Hooligans had (unknowingly) joined an enemy and captured one of their own, and were forming their own battle plans.

Unlike the Hooligans, Bog Burglar battle plans consisted of more than "Everyone ready? Got your weapons? Follow me!", and that was what had Hiccup so worried.

It had been almost four years since Hiccup had left Berk, and he had carefully avoided mentioning exactly who his father was, but that didn't stop him from feeling slightly reluctant to attack his former tribe. Luckily, Creidhe pointed out that they shouldn't have all their eggs in one basket, especially when the Hooligans had so much practice with fighting dragons. The final strategy was that Hiccup and Nessa would go after the Meatheads, while Camicazi and Nessa faced off against the Hooligans. While the Hooligans and the Meatheads were distracted, the rest of the Bog-Burglars would launch their own ships.


Snotlout and the new recruits, eager to distinguish themselves in battle were in for a nasty surprise when a young Razor Wing took the top off of their mast, and that of the two ships behind them. Over near the Murderous Meathead fleet, there came the distinctive roar of a Night Fury, actually a combination of roar and the wind rushing past at high speeds, rang out, seconds before a Meathead longship practically exploded.

Luckily for the Vikings on board, most of them were blasted far enough to land on other ships, and the ones that weren't managed to land within swimming distance. Snotlout's ship had recovered enough to aim a catapult at an incoming dragon that they could only assume was a Night Fury, while the Razor Wing, now joined by a blonde girl on a Mood Dragon, continued causing havoc among the rest of the fleet.

Firesong executed a barrel-roll, causing the boulder to miss her, but smash a hole in the side of a Bog-Burglar ship, which had been sneaking up while everyone's attention was on the dragons.

From a ship or two over, there came the sounds of fighting, and the kind of outraged, spluttering half-retorts that only happened when Camicazi was running commentary on whoever she was fighting with. Then, there was the familiar sound of either Toothless or Firesong, (The screams of 'Night Fury!' were a strong indication) moving swiftly in the direction of the younger Vikings' current position.

Astrid had recovered faster than the rest, and had climbed up what was left of the mast, where she could jump on top of Thora when Firesong took off. Thora had the benefit of a saddle and years of experience, but Astrid had excellent balance, and the proximity of both Ocean surface and the tightly spaced ships severely limited Firesong's manuverability. Also, Astrid had the benefit of actually holding her weapon, and saddles were not made for fully turning around in, especially when one is trying to steer at the same time.

Letting Firesong have her head, Thora managed to pull out her knives and turn so that she also stood upright in the saddle, halting Astrid's axe just as the other girl became stable enough to swing it.

Night Furies were incurable show-offs, and tended to bring out the inner-performer in their riders, so it was not the first time Thora had flown standing bareback. The crossed blades of Thora's daggers stopped the downward swing of Astrid's axe, knocking it to the side as one dagger disengaged, slashing at the blonde.

Astrid wobbled, and Thora lunged, but the combined shift of weight threw Firesong off, and both girls wound up clinging to the dragon as she swerved, barely missing several ships. Astrid flipped herself up and managed to grab the reigns. Thora kicked Astrid's feet out from under her and tried to grab them back. Firesong was flying this way and that, and chose to head away from the battle until the maniac stopped picking a fight with her rider. Failing that, she could always leave the blonde one in a tree somewhere.


The Hairy Hooligan/Bog Burglar fight ended in something of a draw, and the two tribes were in the middle of a face-off, with Stoik and Bertha standing nose-to-nose, glaring and hurling insults and accusations.

Stoik drew himself up to his full three-meter height, puffing his chest out indignantly. "Of course we were provoked! You took my son Hiccup and stopped him from returning home. Did you really expect us to just leave him here?"

Bertha was about to say something rude, probably along the lines of a pointed remark about how Hiccup had been treated while living on Berk, when Nessa landed beside them, catching the chiefteness's attention. "Where are the others?"

Nessa wobbled slightly as she dismounted. "That crazy blonde Hooligan managed to get one of Firesong's reins, and the fight with Thora took them over the Hills somewhere. Camicazi sent me back to tell you, and the others went after them. I think the Hooligan coming back in one piece depends on who gets their hands on her first."

The two tribes agreed on a temporary cease-fire until the dragon riders returned, and settled for glaring at each other while they waited. It was a little under an hour before they heard anything, but everyone seemed accounted for.

From the loud voices, it looked like everyone was returning in one piece, but not necessarily pleased with that fact. As soon at the words became distinguishable, it was clear that at least three people had very decided opinions concerning events.

"Stop glaring at our dragons, or I'm punting your axe straight into the harbour!"

"Tell those overgrown lizards to stop glaring at me! And I won't apologize, dragons are nothing more than brainless, unfeeling killers!"

"Just because YOU'RE terrified that Toothless left you on top of a pine tree…"

"I'm not scared of anything, you moving blonde haystack! Especially not of your multi-coloured, emotionless oversized newt!"

"Stormfly, sit! You realize that Mood Dragons change colour based on their emotions, right? Camicazi, put your sword away! If I'm not allowed to kill her, then neither are you."

"You couldn't kill me if you tried, either of you! I'm the best sword fighter in my age group on Berk!"

"You can't be a very good fighters, then, because your timing is worse than a broken sundial, your footwork is sloppier than pig-food…"

"Camicazi, we're nearly home; now is not the time to antagonize, even if she is a brainless twit."

"Shut up, Thora. You're really quite terrible at everything else, too. Hiccup is better than you, and he's a BOY!"

The Hooligans did a double-take at Camicazi's accidental confirmation, and Stoik the Vast nearly fell over as an achingly familiar voice that he hadn't heard in four years tried to cut in. "Ladies, please, don't drag me into this…"

Finally, the group came into view. Gundred had a firm grip on Astrid, but was having a hard time struggling to keep her away from Camicazi, who was being held firmly away from her by Hiccup. They had run out of people to restrain Thora, who was thankfully content to glare at Astrid and busy herself in keeping the dragons out of it.

They came to a sudden halt when they realized that most of all three tribes were waiting for them. Hiccup let go of Camicazi (who lunged at Astrid but was intercepted by Thora) and placed a hand on Toothless's shoulder, looking very much like he wanted to bolt, but managed to stop himself just in time.

Thora took one look at the situation, and grabbed Stormfly's reins, gesturing for Camicazi to take her rightful place at Big-Boobied Bertha's side as she, Gundred and Alaric took the other dragons away. Camicazi did so, kissing Hiccup on the cheek as she passed, the action drawing a strangled gurgle from the other tribes.

Hiccup sent the other riders a slightly betrayed look, then turned to face his father.

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A/N: That seemed like a good place to leave it. Sorry for the long break between chapters, but I just got back from a trip overseas, and my computer has been acting up and displaying 'error' messages every second page, which makes it very difficult to post.

Anyway, you know the drill. Comments and Constructive Criticism are welcome, flames are not, and if you have any questions, then please login or leave an e-mail address so I can actually reply.

Thanks, Nat.