The sound of running footsteps, cargo being hauled, oars being set into place and the distinct sound of roars of Monstrous Nightmares, Deadly Nadders, Zipplebacks filled the air on the shores of Outcast Island. It had been two days since Savage had brought news of Hiccup's return to Berk, news that Alvin had been waiting for over one year to hear. Now he saw his chance to exact his revenge on the boy who denied him his victory over Berk so many times.

Hundreds of Terrible Terrors were being loaded into large crates, all of them purposely starved of any food for the past three weeks. The Outcasts learned that there's nothing more dangerous than a hungry dragon, especially hundreds of them that are fast, small and difficult to hit…not that the residents of Berk will kill the beasts at first. Alvin learned of this new method the hard way when he saw ten of his men get ripped in the ring when they unleashed three hungry Nightmares for them to train. Instead of feeling remorse though, all he saw was potential with the new weapon he discovered.

"Are those dragons ready to go yet?" he asked, getting impatient with the progress. "Almost sir, just need to load the last few cages" Savage said as he oversaw the final stages of the loadings. Alvin smiled contently at the sight before him. Ten ships, each had a cage that had over one hundred Terrors in them, hungry and ready to tear anything apart. Some dragons were also on the ships, as well as catapults at the ready and over a hundred Outcast warriors ready to spill blood.

"Berk won't know what hit'em" Alvin said with a toothy grin. "And may I ask what your plan of attack is again?" he heard the old man ask behind him. "For the love Loki Mildew, are you losing your memory…bet it has to do with the age" he chuckled seeing no change of expression on Mildew's face.

"Alright, listen up this time, we launch a ground assault on Berk, our ships will dock and we'll let loose the Terrors upon them and our men will start the attack. Right after we start the ground assault then we'll attack from the air with our new weapons and they'll have their hands full with that and we can kill every single one of them. Understand?" he asked the old man.

"What about the boy and his group of friends?" he questioned. "Oh, we capture them one by one and leave Hiccup the last one so he'll be forced to surrender and we execute him first in front of everyone. Stoick will see his son's head fall off its shoulders and roll down right to him, seeing that his future will have ended with his son's death. And after that boy, we can execute everyone else one by one, and maybe I can take his girlfriend for myself" Alvin finished, and Mildew had a satisfied smile plastered on his face. Finally he could get his revenge on that boy and the whole tribe for putting their trust in such…beasts.

"Sir! The last ships have been loaded, and the dragons and men are ready!" Savage reported in. Alvin smiled and turned towards his dragon, Dagger whom he most proudly called it. He hopped on to the large dragon and with one flap of its wings was in the air and Alvin was looking down on his men.

"Well boys, today is the day we show Berk what their fiercest nightmares are. Today we take Berk and soon the Archipelagos will fall under us!" he screamed and his men cheered with excitement. "Now onward!" he said and he flew in the direction for Berk, followed by many other dragons and his ships below.

Knock...Knock...Knock

Hiccup was outside the Hofferson house now, waiting for someone to open the door. Ripper reminded him that Freiya's Day was only in five days time and that he and Astrid had to get to work on how to involve the dragons in this month's festival. And that was the reason he was here, to ask or more like beg Astrid to help him with the preparations.

He heard the door creak open and was thankful that Astrid wasn't at the door, but her mother was...which could be worse right? Hiccup straightened himself up and cleared his throat, "Afternoon Mrs. Hofferson" he said in a strong voice, though it still had his minor Hiccup features.

What happened next couldn't have prepared Hiccup, he was swooped into a breathless hug by Ingrid. "Oh Hiccup it's nice to see you again! My how you have grown!" she said, squeezing him so ever harder. Astrid heard the commotion downstairs and as she made her way to the bottom of the stairs, the sight before her was...speechless. She covered her mouth with her hand to stifle a laugh.

Hiccup saw her in the back and mouthed "Help me" and only then she realized that her mom had him in one of her fatal death grips. "Mom you're choking him!" she said as she came up to them, concerned for Hiccup. "Oh dear" she said and let go of Hiccup who immediately grasped his chest and took long breaths of Odin's sweet air. "I'm so sorry Hiccup, perhaps I was overly excited to see you" she said checking up on him. "Well you're the first one to be" he said with a laugh and both ladies were glad to see that he was ok. "Please come in" Ingrid offered and Astrid led him into the main living area.

The house was just like every other home of Berk. It had a cosy living area with bear fur on the floor in front of the fireplace and the family heirloom, which was a sword that seemed to glow, adorned the top of the fireplace. Hiccup hardly came to the home so it looked new every time he came in.

"Please sit. I would love to hear about your travels and training" Ingrid said as Hiccup sat down on what was a couch with Astrid sitting next to him. "Well...I would love to tell you about it, but...I came here to work with Astrid for Frieya's Day" he explained, hoping she wouldn't mind it.

"Actually Hiccup, I would love to hear about your travels, we can get to work later" Astrid said as she leaned back and crossed her arms. Hiccup looked back her mother who was looking at Astrid then turned her attention back to Hiccup. "Oh yes! Where were my manners? Hiccup dear, would you like something to drink?" she asked getting up and making her way towards the kitchen. "Uh no thank you Mrs. Hofferson, I'm fine" Hiccup said and nodded his head again when Ingrid asked him if he was sure.

She anyway went into the kitchen saying she'll get something for them to eat while he was telling his story, and leaving the two of them in awkward silence. "So you need my help with Frieya's Day huh?" Astrid asked, breaking the silence. "Uh yeah, since my dad said that he assigned both us to work on it...I figured we should get started" he said. Astrid looked in the direction her mom left and since she heard noises of pots clanging and seeing a fire starting, she figured her mom would be a while.

"Well until mom gets back, I guess we can discuss about what we should do about the dragons. Any ideas?" she asked. Hiccup scratched his head trying to come up with something fast. Frieya's Day was in only five days so they should get started. "Well...we could get the dragons to possibly perform a show, like them flying over the village and doing certain maneuvers that could wow them" Hiccup said. Astrid let the idea settle in and started to see that the village, especially the children would be thrilled to see the dragons do an 'airshow' if you would call it. "That sounds like a good idea Hiccup, we should totally do that. Maybe we could involve some games as well with the dragon" Astrid suggested. Hiccup nodded in response, "Yeah, games sound like an excellent idea" he said. Pretty soon the ideas started to flow in. They had to cancel the ones that could result in some damages, even though they could be more fun.

"Well I guess we're settling with the airshow, as we're calling it, the games and rides for kids on our dragons" Hiccup said. "Yep I guess we have to start training the dragons for the airshow" Astrid said and that moment, her mom walked in with some baked buns she just made and set them on the table. "In case we get hungry while our guest is saying his story" she said and sat back across from Astrid and Hiccup. "So Hiccup, please tell us one of your stories" she said and he looked over to Astrid to see her smiling and encouraging him to tell one.

"Well I guess I can start with the survival story. Gods was that tough" he said wiping his forehead with the back of his palm. "Well it all started...

The city doors opened and beyond laid a forest with bears, wild dragons, and tough terrain that Hiccup would have to navigate to survive five days...while being hunted. Hiccup looked to make sure he had everything. It was just the first month into his training and it was all based on survival and today was his big test. He had his sword that he had forged himself, a bow slinged on his back with ten arrows and a hunting knife.

"Ready?" he heard Ripper say and turned around to see his now best friend standing behind him with some of his mentors behind him as well. "Do I have a choice?" Hiccup just weakly asked and turned back front. "I barely survived with Toothless in those practice situations, how do you think I'll do on my own?" he asked. There was a lot of negativity in his voice since he was supposed to accomplish something he would never stand a chance of.

"Look Hiccup, this is for your own good. What if you're without Toothless behind enemy lines and..." "...I know this Ripper, you told me a thousand times already" Hiccup said, interrupting his friend. "Look, you've improved a lot over the past month and this is just to test that. And you're going up against the best Hiccup...me" Ripper said with a smile. "That makes me feel so much more comfortable" Hiccup said with the usual sarcasm in his voice. "I'll give you a four hour head start, now go" Ripper said and stepped back a few paces. Hiccup started running...running like mad. He had to survive for five days in the wilderness which meant not getting caught by Ripper. "This is going to be good" he said as he disappeared out of sight of Ripper.

Night Time - Day One

Hiccup saw something that reminded him of home. The night sky filled with stars that shone brightly and looked the same from the place he looked at them back on Berk. But he didn't have the luxury from enjoying the sight from the ground. He was about twenty five feet up in the air, more of perched on a tree branch and resting against the trunk of the tree.

Being on the ground made him more of a vulnerable target since he didn't know if Ripper would continue searching for him in the night or take a rest like he was at the moment. He already had his dinner, caught a few trout from a nearby river and ate it by the shore so he wouldn't have had to build a fire that would definitely help Ripper track him faster.

Climbing up the tree was no easy task, took about an hour or so for him to come up with an easier way. In the end he got two sharp rocks, fixed them to two pieces of branches and started scaling the tree to a suitable lookout and safe point. Nothing eventful had happened that day, just continuous running from a person that was hunting him, everyday stuff for a chief in training.

Hiccup opened his pocket book, something he always kept close to him. It was the last gift his mother gave him before she died and it meant the world to him. He opened it and started flipping through the pages of personal phrases and images he drew. He stopped at one that warmed his heart...Astrid. It's been a month since he left and wondered everyday of how she was doing. Soon he thought. Soon I'll be back home he said to himself and closed his eyes to get a night's sleep.

Day Four - Evening

"How did I end up here?" Hiccup asked himself. How had this task gone so wrong? For the past six hours he was at the bottom of a ravine, with a sprained elbow, partially broken wrist and he had a nasty cut on his right arm, which was bandaged up with a part of his shirt to slow the bleeding. Ten feet from him was the body of Monstrous Nightmare, with stab marks in its chest and Hiccup was holding his sword which was covered in the dragons blood.

"I can't believe I killed a dragon" he said for the tenth time. His hands were still shaking with the sword in hold, and as soon as he realized it, he threw the sword as far from as he could. He looked back at the dragon, its eyes were still open and the life drained out of it...a life he took...a dragon's more or less.

He had run into this dragon by accident. He tried to calm it down but it just had the intent of killing him. It didn't heed to any of his calm gestures and just attacked. "It was in self-defence...it was" he repeated, still shaken by the fact he killed a dragon. But he had to focus on more important matters...one which is how to get out of this ravine.

He tried to get up but with his sprained elbow and badly cut arm, he wouldn't be going anywhere. He had to do something, he couldn't just be there helpless, heck, he had been helpless for most of his life. This whole trip was a chance to change that, and sometimes, a person always needed help. "He-Help" he moaned out hoping there was someone close by to hear him. He waited, he didn't know how long, but he moaned again..."Help" he said again. But he was blacking out and within a few minutes he slipped into a state of unconsciousness.

Day Five - Atlaka

"Wakey wakey princess" a voice said. Hiccup groaned in response and shifted in his bed, but soon a pain shot through his arm and he opened his eyes and slowly got up. Whenhe rubbed the tiredness from his eyes he saw that he was in the infirmary of the city and saw Ripper sitting on a chair beside his bed. "How you doing?" he asked seeing his friend awake.

"I think Thor hit me on the head cause I have a major headache" Hiccup said rubbing his head. Ripper let out a chuckle, "Yeah, doc said that was a side effect of the herbs he gave you to prevent any disease from the scratch from that Nightmare" he said. Hiccup froze when Ripper mentioned the Nightmare and he looked at him. Ripper leaned forward, "What in Thor's beard happened?" he asked.

"The dragon attacked me...I tried to calm it down but nothing worked and we fell into the ravine...and...I had no choice" Hiccup was almost at tears when he repeated the story. "Hey man don't worry, you had no choice, it was in self-defence and you know it. But you were lucky I found you, I had been on your trail for sometime and it was only a matter of time until caught you, and then I came upon the fight scene and followed the path to find you unconscious and I brought you back" Ripper explained.

"Well I failed didn't I?" Hiccup asked, referring back to the task of survival. "On the contrary, you passed, you survived and no chief ever before you has been in a position like you have been and as a result you have passed" Ripper said with a small smile, knowing it was not the way Hiccup was expecting to pass.

Hiccup lied back down on the bed, and with a sigh asked, "What's next?". "Well we're travelling to a village near the mountains for more training. We'll be leaving in five days time, so you'll have plenty of rest, which reminds me, I'll be leaving you now so you can get your rest. See yah soon buddy" Ripper said and got up and walked towards the door leaving Hiccup to get a good rest.

"I can't believe you had to do that" Astrid said as Hiccup finished his story. "Well I still blame myself for not doing more but Ripper keeps telling me I had no choice" he said as he looked down to his feet. Astrid felt sorry for him. A person like Hiccup would never be able to kill something he loved and for him to do that must have hurt. Astrid placed her hand on his lap and lifted his face with other and gave an encouraging smile.

"You have been through a lot Hiccup" Ingrid said seeing her friend's son in distress. "You really are ready to be chief" she continued. "And perfect age for marriage as well" she said with a smirk to which Astrid and Hiccup both blushed profoundly. "I guess..." Hiccup was interrupted when they heard a horn blow outside, the battle horn. Soon Aaron barged in and he was gasping for breath. "What's wrong?" Ingrid asked quickly getting up as well as Astrid and Hiccup.

"The Outcasts are attacking" her husband said.