Author's Note: Here it is, be merry! Be kind, Review!

Disclaimer: In actuality, the Queen owns the dragons.

For Now. ;)

It was all about respect. Respect and control. The girl, from what I can tell, thought that she could walk all over Hiccup without needing to worry. She was probably right. Hiccup wasn't very assertive.

Me? I'm something else entirely.

I felt Hiccup's surprise at my sudden acceleration (apparently he doesn't know me too well), but is quickly replaced by agitation and fear. Not over my reckless flying, I would never kill us, but that this wasn't the best way to get Astrid on our side.

For once, I tuned him out (some part of my pride returning over the fact that I could…..though it wasn't exactly a comfortable thing to do), knowing that I was in the right. Acting soft would not garner this girl's favor.

Plus, as I've said before, I quite enjoyed hearing her scream. It has been a while since I've inspired fear.

I shift, bringing us closer to the water below, before collapsing my wings. I absorbed the majority of the impact on the side, the cool sea refreshing, before flapping into the air again.

Both humans had a very different opinion of getting wet. "Toothless what are you doing? We need her to like us!" complained Hiccup. (no, we need her to respect us)

I start climbing, passing through the clouds before…."And now he's spinning. Thank you for nothing, you useless reptile."

"You're welcome, you scrawny boy," I start into a fall similar to the one me and Hiccup had been in a few days ago. Spinning around at random, all the while keeping an eye on both passengers.

Astrid had stopped her screaming, and was instead clinging to Hiccup for dear life (despite his annoyance, I felt a slight happiness from him because of the contact). "Okay! Okay I'm sorry! I'm sorry! Just get me off this thing!"

Whether she was addressing me, Hiccup, or both of us, I wasn't sure, but I decided it was enough. I angle my body to stop our fall. Then start taking us up again at a much gentler pace. Sailing in and through the sunset red clouds. Dipping out of them into the night time sky. Giving us a perfect view of the Viking village. The full moon behind, the stars shining in all their glory, even I admitted that the village didn't look half bad, in this instance. Now that we got her attention, we could start wooing her.

.…Maybe that's the wrong term for it.

Or maybe it wasn't, as I felt Hiccup's thankfulness as Astrid started to cling to him due to something more than self preservation. Despite myself, I felt myself warming to the girl. Both because of Hiccup's feelings and my gratitude for making him happy. I give her a small smile.

"Alright, I admit it, this is pretty cool," she confessed. "It's amazing," she gave me a slight pat, "He's amazing." (I am, aren't I)

I continued to drift, not really caring where we go. Tuning in to the two's conversation that had turned slightly subdued. "Hiccup, what are you going to do? Your final exam is tomorrow. You know what you have to do. You have to…." she trailed off.

Okay, apparently I was out of the loop. What did Hiccup have to do? What did it have to do with me? Before I could come up with a theory (really, maybe I should try and teach the boy Dragonese. It would make things a lot easier) a sound caught my complete and total attention.

Actually, several sounds coming from all around us. Only now noticing the familiar thick mist we were in.

'Crap!'

I veer right, knowing that I didn't have much choice in the matter.

"Toothless?" questioned Hiccup, perhaps noticing my sudden fear. "Toothless what…" Please be quite, I begged silently.

On instinct, I had flown all of us back to the Nest. That, alone, might not have been such a problem, but there was something else.

I had come back during a return feeding trip.

I could not turn around now, not without being noticed. Dragons never turned around. The Queen's pull was too strong to.

I could feel it, faintly, but it wasn't directed at me. Didn't really notice me. Too consumed by it's own hunger to notice one dragon out of thousands.

I could resist it (it was a broken bond now), but doing so would draw attention to me.

So I flew again in the midst of my own kind, and couldn't have been more scared if they were Vikings.

Luckily, my passengers soon realized the danger we were in, both keeping as still and as quite as they possibly could.

And there it was, in all its obscene glory.

My home.

We flew in with the others, through a small tunnel entrance, which soon deposited us in the large central cavern. Dragons started dropping their kills into the red mist, to the Queen. I kept my eyes down, searching, expecting the Queen to rise up at any moment and snatch us for having no food.

To my surprise, this did not happen. I flapped onto a ledge, ducking out of sight as I waited for the stream of dragons entering the cavern to end. That way was the safest escape route.

"Well, it's reassuring that all our food's been dumped down a hole," commented Hiccup sarcastically.

I felt a slight prick of irritation cut through my fear,

"They're not even eating it…" commented Astrid, "So why…" her sentence trailed of as the last of the dragons came in. A puny Gronckle that seemed less concern than was healthy in the Nest. She hacked up a single small fish that would not be enough. Seeming satisfied, she started scratched herself in midair, still over the hole.

This was not a particularly smart thing to do.

"YOU'VE KEPT FOOD FROM ME!"

I flinch, the voice as much mental as physical.

And then she's there. Rising from the mist faster than what should be possible considering her size. Mouth opened, wide enough to swallow even a Zippleback whole, to engulf the small Gronckle.

And the humans see what dragon life is really like. "Toothless, get us out of here." There was pure fear echoing in Hiccup.

Still, I wait, hoping that the Queen would be sated, that she would not notice us, that she would duck her head back down into the mist so I could make our escape.

The gods might hate Astrid as well.

"What is this? I smell…..smell…" she lunges at the ledge we was standing on, just as I launch back into the air. Thousands of dragons scared into the air as well. "NAMELESS!"

Great, she remembered me.

As I flew up, I felt her. Felt her again in my mind. Trying to slink he claws in there even as she tried to eat me, trying to make sure I couldn't escape. That I couldn't leave the Nest.

Fortunately for us, that space was already being occupied. She couldn't find purchase around the connection I had with Hiccup, and failed to hold me in her thrall. (I truly loved the boy in that instant)

I flew up and out, and didn't slow down until we were back at Berk.