Writer's block broken through! ... sorta... I'm proud of myself for getting this chapter done, really. I'm leaving on vacation to Florida later on today, so I wanted to update this story before I left. But... writer's block didn't let me until I started Dagur's perspective and everything else just flowed from there. I'm sorry but next week I won't be able to update at all because of my vacation. But I'm doing my best to break through the rest of this writer's block so I can update once a week, like I'd like to. I'll get it eventually, I swear!

Two days. Just two more days until we can go home. Dagur thought as he paced the areas of his cabin I just have to make sure we hand her over and then we'll be good to go.

He had to admit that it would be a bit of a shame to feign knowledge of what would come to his host island in the very near future. But bringing his tribe back to their former glory demanded these kinds of steps. Hiccup is the only person in the entire Archipelago who could control dragons to such an extent. With weapons like the dragons, there's no telling how much more fun battle would be; burning things from the air and screaming out of the clouds to split a few heads. Oh, the possibilities! Dagur could really get creative with his kills if he had dragons at his command. Everything he'd always wanted to try out would suddenly be within his grasp; endless experiments were so close he could just taste them.

He also had to see if this stupid peace treaty was worth keeping or not. If Stoick is none the wiser about what was to occur, he shouldn't hesitate to plead for Berserk's help in retrieving his precious daughter from their contact. With that blind spot of trust, Dagur could easily move in and take every Hooligan's life and claim all of their land for himself with no opposition. That is, if they prove to be incompetent warriors. Dagur would accept only the best coming from any ally of his; and if it meant taking down tribe after tribe and showing them how real Vikings battle, so be it.

All he had to do now was wait. It shouldn't be that hard to do, after all. Just entertain himself until the theft took place and then he could get back to the treetops of Berserk and maybe torture a prisoner or two in celebration. With a stunt like this, the Uglithugs will be more than happy to join his cause of creating the best and bloodiest era in all of history.

Forty-eight hours… and then everything will fall into place.

Those two days crept by slower than an injured snail. Dagur wanted to move forward with the plan more than anything. He had her trust, or hoped he did, and the ninety-pound girl was extremely easy to overpower and throw into submission. So, this would be as simple as pillaging the Peaceables' villages no matter how this went.

But he had to wait… he had to lie in the shadows of deception and delay his pounce until the time was right. Dagur the Deranged was not the kind of predator that had the patience to time his kills. He only had the attention span for spur of the moment actions, fights that started on his terms and not by the terms of strategy. Alas, being chief meant that he had to adapt to strategy. He couldn't just attack whenever like he could his village's chicken coops when he was a boy with a growing bloodlust. Now he had more at stake than a snuck meal or his father's lackluster idea of a punishment. He was responsible for every member of his tribe and what was best for all of them. He couldn't take such risky moves for his own desires to get this done and getting it done quickly. He had to stay crouched in the tall grasses made up of peace long enough to strike his unsuspecting prey in their blind spot… and take the most valuable member of the pack.

Berk had been rather peaceful for the past two days. Hiccup placed the reasoning onto the fact that the Berserkers were starting to stick to their boats and only venture out into the village when an order of supplies for their trip back home was finally processed and ready to be taken to the ships. Hiccup didn't even see Dagur around for very long those past few days. But after two incidents already involving him spying on her, she kept her guard up with every step she took. If there was one thing that guy could do, it was sneak up on her and make her day ten times worse than she planned on it to be.

The heir to Berk spent another day in the forge improving Toothless' tail some more. After that test flight earlier in the week, she detected some issues with the balance and steering. Turned out that it was because one of the rods keeping the tail fanned out was heavier than the other two and it was throwing herself and her dragon off-balance. She removed the prosthetic tail fin from her flying beast once again and spent up until the sun started to set making sure that all of the rods were perfectly balanced and ready for flight tomorrow morning. With her luck being as well as it's been going lately, she's be able to squeeze in another secret flight without anyone seeing… excluding Dagur from that list…

When she finally bid Gobber goodnight, she started her walk back home, tail and saddle under arm and a grin planted on her face. For the first time since almost all of Berserk showed up for the annual peace treaty signing, she had finally felt relaxed. A day like that one couldn't have been better for the young Viking. It was just what she needed; some time to herself in the forge, no dragon stresses, no domestic problems to solve, just she and her thoughts.

Her quiet walk was soon disturbed by the faint sound of her name being called out. She turned around to see a figure that looked like a shadow in the fading sunlight running towards her at almost the same speed as a dragon. But this was no dragon… it was a person.

"Hiccup!" Astrid finally came sprinting up to her full view, pale as a ghost. She stopped in front of her friend and panted heavily, resting her hands on her knees.

"What's wrong, Astrid?" Hiccup asked.

"The… the dragons…" She gasped "Get to the cave… the others are there now… hurry!" She turned back from where she came and darted off again, this time with Hiccup in close pursuit. As fast as her prosthetic would take her, Hiccup followed Astrid to the dragons' cave and found it only occupied by Ruffnut and Tuffnut. All of the present teens now shared a similar look of depressed shock.

"Wh-what…?" Hiccup stuttered "What happened? Where are the dragons?"

"Gone." Tuffnut huffed "Isn't that obvious?"

"We came to feed them and this is what we found." Ruffnut continued "They all just… disappeared."

"We found something!" Snotlout's voice bellowed from deeper inside the cave. He and Fishlegs soon walked back into the light. Fishlegs was visibly shaken and Snotlout had a rolled up sheet of paper in his hand. "It's for you, Hiccup." He tossed it to her.

She read aloud, her voice growing more sullen by the word "'Dragon Conqueror, we have taken your precious dragon army. Come to the beach on the backside of the island of Berk before the moon is at its peak… or else every last one will pay the price.'" She flipped it over and skimmed the page again "No signature."

"What are you going to do?" Astrid gasped "You're not going to go, are you?"

"I have no choice." Hiccup stated "Whoever this is, they have your dragons. And that might mean that they found Toothless too. I have to go and try to stop whatever is going on."

"Just be careful." Fishlegs added "We have no idea what they want with you."

"They want the Dragon Conqueror, duh." Snotlout scoffed "Why else would they write that on the note?"

"I think we should go with you." Astrid suggested "We'll just hide in the bushes and, if anything goes wrong, we'll help you."

"No, you don't have to do that." Hiccup protested "I can take care of myself."

"Sure you can." Ruffnut sniggered "That's why you almost die on a monthly basis."

"Alright, fine." Hiccup threw her hands up in defeat "If it makes you guys feel better, you can follow me. But we'd better start moving now; it's a bit of a walk to the other side of the island."

The group of teens dashed up the hill they came from and into the woods, Hiccup leading and the rest trailing closely behind. Hiccup took her party past the cove, to see whether or not the dragons' captors had found Toothless too. Fortunately, they hadn't and he was still safe and sound where he was left.

Thank Thor… Hiccup mused, wiping sweat from her brow before carrying on with their hike to the back end of the island.

The moon was at half its peak in the sky by the time the teens had managed to see their destination in the distance. They looked at one another, gave a few reassuring nods and let Hiccup press on as normal while the other five settled to creeping in the shadows from hiding spot to hiding spot until they were within earshot of their friend. Astrid climbed a tree that was close to the beach's start and tried to get a decent view of what was going on.

Hiccup stepped into the light of torches being held by numerous Viking men that were triple her size, at the least. She could hear the cries of the dragons as they desperately tried to claw their way out of the cage they were all crammed into. And, right in front of the dragons' prison, stood the person she was hoping and dreading to see: Alvin the Treacherous.