Okay... thank you all for the 37 favourites and the 45 follows for this story! Yay!

Anzac Day. For all you guys who don't know what Anzac is, it means Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. We commemorate all those who have fallen in war. Moment of silence, please.

(Silence)

Okay.

AnimeandDragonfan54: For your friend, Hiccup's birthday is on 29th of February (like in the books), Matthew is a month older than him - his birthday is on the 15th of January, and Percival is the youngest, three months younger than Hiccup, on the 31st of May.

This Chapter is a few weeks after the day that marked five years since Hiccup's disappearance.

And yes, I am certain there will be Hiccstrid. (Nodding head violently) Yes Yes Yes! Okay?

One of the ideas in the story, I asked to use it from QueenAurora. It was from her story, Return of the Dragon Rider, another inspiration from this story. I won't tell you the idea yet, because it would be SPOILING! Don't worry, I will tell you the end of the chapter.

Chapter 10 - Night Furies Down

Astrid ran towards the green and purple Nadder, who was terrorising the sheep, and it also seemed to be trying to eat them as well. She heard screams and yells and battle cries ("JORGENSON FOREVER!"), and the splashing of water clashing with fire around Berk's Viking village. She swung down her battleaxe, ready to finish the beast... then the Nadder squawked and flew away before Astrid placed a single scratch on it, with a sheep in its legs.

The other dragons, after causing another night of destruction on Berk left, with chickens, fish, sheep, yak, and other things that Berk needed for the freeze. The dragon raid was over, thank the gods. Unfortunately, there were licking flames burning down the houses, food was gone, people were injured, and oh gods... she saw someone behind her that breathed his last breath.

"Gods almighty!" yelled Stoick angrily, turning a wagon the right side up. "Those flaming devils have taken almost all the food! Bucket, Mulch, go and get fishing for... well, fish, NOW!"

"But Chief..." Mulch began, but Stoick cut him off and pushed them towards the docks.

Fishlegs and Snotlout joined Astrid, who was watching for more dragons.

"Hey, babe," Snotlout smirked as he approached the young blonde warrior, flexing his muscles.

Astrid did her best to resist the urge to make any physical contact with Snotlout (which means kicking, punching, flipping, attacking, or provoking him). "Shut up, Snotlout."

"Oh come on, don't want to be with the Hope and Heir of Berk?"

You're not the Hope and Heir, thought Astrid. Hiccup is. The stupid memory of Hiccup whirled her thoughts again. Hiccup was dead! Her investigation was over - she had found nothing. But the self-portrait still was kept in Astrid's pocket. She had resisted the urge to tell Stoick about her dreams and clues and her investigation. There was no point telling now, because she had ended it just a while back.

Then, she looked around and noticed three dragons heading towards Berk: two of them black, one of them white. She saw them separate, and... Astrid knew what it was.

Night Fury!

The Book of Dragons had said: Speed - unknown. Size - unknown. Your only chance is to hide and pray it does not find you.

After five years, three Night Furies were heading towards Berk!

Not on Astrid Hofferson's watch.

She heard the dreaded shout, "NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!" and everyone, except for Astrid and Snotlout, ducked and cowered to the ground. Astrid told Fishlegs, who was holding his shield over his body (a bit ridiculous, because the shield was awfully small for him) to get up.

"Fishlegs! Snotlout! Get some bolas and take those Night Furies down!"

Fishlegs fearfully nodded, then left. After some complaints and a punch in the gut, Snotlout left. Astrid broke into Gobber's workshop and got out Hiccup's old bola shooter catapult thing. She wheeled it past all the ducking villagers and she finally stopped at a grassy hill, aiming for a black shape into the sky. "Come on," she whispered. "Come on..." Then finally, after one huge shot, she heard shrieking that Astrid was sure belonged to a dragon's, and a black shape plummeting towards the ground. Astrid swore she heard other yelling voices in another direction.

I hit it? Astrid asked herself. Then, punching the air, she hollered, "I HIT IT!"

She ran to Stoick, who was busy ordering and allocating people to help clean the village, and Astrid said, "I hit a Night Fury, Stoick! Hurry! You can kill it!"

Stoick and Astrid both ran towards the direction of the shot down Night Fury, but then were stopped by Snotlout and Fishlegs.

"We shot down the other two Night Furies," panted Fishlegs. "One of them's -"

"White, I know," interrupted Astrid. "We'll get to them later."

"Are you sure, Astrid?" Stoick looked at Astrid, who nodded. "I promise, I'm telling the truth... I shot down a Night Fury!"

Then Astrid remembered Hiccup, five years ago. "I shot it down, Dad! I'm telling the truth this time now!" he had pleaded. At that time, Astrid had thought

"Chief, this could be a time where we fill in the blanks for the Night Fury section of the Book of Dragons!" Fishlegs squealed excitedly, like a little toddler. The other three - Stoick, Snotlout and Astrid - stared at him, and he apologised profusely. All of them four ran towards the direction of the Night Fury that had been taken down, weapons ready to kill it.

"There!" yelled Snotlout.

Stoick gripped his axe. "We'll kill it. All of us."

Then they saw it - a black figure trapped in the ropes, a growling figure, but the strangest thing about it that it had... a saddle. Then suddenly, the ropes fell to the ground. The Night Fury stood and growled, ready to fire. Then out of the blue, appeared... a tall, dark figure of a man. At least Astrid thought it was a man. In the silvery ribbons in the moonlight, Astrid saw that the man was wearing a black and brown helmet that completely covered his eyes, except for his eyes. He was clad in leather armour, and he held a... flaming sword. Astrid didn't know if those were even possible to exist. He also had a silver shield that shone in the moonlight - a shield that had a Night Fury in the middle. He pointed it at Stoick and Astrid.

Black Dragon Rider... could that be the legendary Black Dragon Rider?

Stoick stopped staring and stepped forward, axe in hand. He lunged... and the rider parried it. Then they began to fight. He kept on lunging and parrying, blocking the axe with his unbreakable shield, using sword skills and ways that Astrid had never seen. He first fought like a Viking, then went on to different sword moves that looked exotic and different. How would he know all this?

"Odin's beard!" yelled Fishlegs.

"Get the other Night Furies, Snotlout, Fishlegs!" Astrid ordered firmly. They nodded, but as they turned, they saw that the two Night Furies, the black and white ones, were out of their ropes - and they had riders.

The dragon rider with the growling black Night Fury had a black coat, black finger gloves, black shirt, black boots black trousers... well, almost everything he wore was black. His face was covered by a hood that Astrid couldn't see under or through. He had two swords, one each in his hands - one that was a long, black sword, the other a crystal blue sword that gleamed and twinkled in the light.

The other rider, the one who rode the white Night Fury, wore a tan coloured cap that hid his upper face. He wore a short brown vest over his white shirt. He didn't look dangerous, except for the growling white Night Fury and the sword strapped to his belt, and the bow he held, arrow at the ready.

Then all Helheim broke loose.

Stoick continued to fight the mysterious rider clad in leather, yelling, "Who are you?" and at the same time, trying to grab him, but failing; while Fishlegs and Snotlout went for the man with the tan cap - he shot two arrows at once that flew simultaneously right at them (they had to duck), then they tried to pounce on him, but stopped when they saw his iron sword. They began battling him as well.

That left Astrid with the man who wore all black. Maybe he was the Black Dragon Rider?

She slashed and swiped her battleaxe, but every time she did, the strange man with the two swords seemed faster. He seemed to know her every move, fighting in a style Astrid didn't know, parrying all her lunges and holding her back with his two swords.

"Who are you?" Astrid asked in bewilderment. He could've been the Black Dragon Rider, because all his appearance, his dragon and his sword skills and all that matched the criteria. This was night time, and according to Gobber, the Black Dragon Rider travelled at night. Although, Astrid was suspicious of the other rider, that had the helmet.

The three Night Furies together made a large fireball directed at the Vikings, and Astrid had to duck.

She noticed Snotlout and Fishlegs trying to get the strange cap archer man, but he slipped under them while they were trying to take hold of him, and Snotlout and Fishlegs collided. Perhaps it was right to say that being small had its advantages. Astrid noticed the guy had something circular and strange strapped to his belt. What was it? Don't think about it... think about it later...

Then the man Astrid was fighting stopped. "Erik!" he yelled. "Abort! Abort!"

The man with the helmet - Erik, Astrid supposed, turned. He nodded. What the Helheim are they planning? thought Astrid. To her surprise, Erik went back onto his dragon, and he deactivated his flaming blade and began to ascend. The man in black sheathed his swords, which seemed to be strapped to his back, and he turned, hopped onto his dragon, and they both flew away. Then they disappeared into darkness.

Stoick looked at Astrid, confused as she was, and so were a puzzled Snotlout and Fishlegs.

Reactions didn't last long. Snotlout glanced at the tan cap man, who was pointing his bow and arrow at the Vikings, while backing away and moving backwards, obviously trying to get onto his white Night Fury. Snotlout ran at him, and grabbed him by the waist, throwing his bow to the side and gesturing for help. He tied up Tan Cap Man's hands together with a rope tightly, and Fishlegs picked up the bow, with Astrid just watching.

What were they doing?

Snotlout brought him to Stoick, who nodded, and said, "Place him in the Great Hall. Tie his hands and feet to his chair. Gag him. And don't even think of escaping," he glared at Tan Cap Man (Astrid couldn't see him properly), "or else your dragon is doomed. Go."

She watched as Fishlegs and Snotlout took Tan Cap Man towards the direction of the Great Hall. Then suddenly, the white Night Fury roared, and flew away. Coward, she thought. Her - or his - owner's arrested, and he/she flies off? But she seemed to fly in the same direction as the other riders left, so Astrid now assumed the Night Fury was going to tell the others.

The Chief of Berk turned to Astrid. "There were three, correct?"

Astrid nodded.

"I want you to find them. Find them, mind, no hurting, attacking, arresting, or even approaching them. Just find them, observe them while at the same time stay hidden. Do you hear me? But first, we are going to the Great Hall. There is one more business we must attend to."

Nodding, Astrid followed her Chief, who was shouting orders to clean up the village. Now, tonight was a weird night, she thought. However, she still had questions: Who were those people? Why were they here? What plan were they talking about? And why would they fly Night Furies, the offsprings of lightning and death itself, like a common donkey or a horse? Who's the Black Dragon Rider? Does he have anything to do with anything with those three?

She shook off her thoughts, deciding to think about them later, and headed towards the Great Hall.

The idea of Astrid shooting down Hiccup was part of QueenAurora's story. She gave me permission to use it. Thank you!

I remember a guest saying if Astrid shot Hiccup down, he/she would cry. So... *goes over to crying guest and hands over a large box of tissues*

Please review! Gah, school is in TWO DAYS. Sigh.

:P See you guys later :P