The morning after Wingless had saved Astrid the dark titian quickly put some distance between themselves and the British armada. No one saw him for the next few days and Astrid filled in and took care of his duties on the ship never once complaining about the tasks she had difficulty with. Felicia watched over her and was pleased with how well she could take control of a situation. While she didn't have his ability to demand respect her anger was well feared.

On the dawn of the third day Astrid woke and unconsciously made her way to pedal who gave her a lift to the top deck where she would report to the captain and receive any news and assignments for the day. She stopped when she found Toothless laying in front of the door sunning himself. Frowing at him she asked him in draconic. "Toothless get out of the way. You know I have to get my assignments for the day." The dragon just smiled at her and shook his head going back to sleep. She was about to try and make him move when the door opened and Wingless tripped over the Toothless's tail almost crashing in to Astrid. Blushing furiously she managed to catch his hand and keep him from landing on the deck.

Righting himself Wingless smiled at her. "Thank you for doing such a good job while I was out. Come I have some things I'd like to talk to you about." Motioning for her to follow him.

Walking along the railing to the prow of the ship she could see he was favoring his false foot. "Wingless would you like for me to get you something to sit on?"

He saw her looking like she was honestly concerned. "I'll be fine." Pulling himself up onto the rail. "Now before you answer what I have to say I want you to think about it and give me an honest answer and know that if you say no I will still take you back to Berk or where ever you wish for that matter."

Staying silent Astrid saw the mix of uncertainty and anxiousness in his eyes as he looked out over the see that rolled by. Putting a hand on his leg she gave him a reassuring smile. "What is it?"

Not looking down at her he calmly asked. "Would you like to join my crew?"

The question was so direct and yet held so many hidden meanings and possibilities. That one phrase is told her that he had forgiven her and wanted her around. She knew he wanted her to say yes to take his side and stay with him but could she. It would meen finaly admitting she was happier here than on Berk and that she was starting to wonder if he would be the man she had never been able to find before.

Stepping into his line of sight she smiled at him with a kind and almost affectionate expression. "I will, but only if you promise not to attack Berk for no reason."

The look of joy that spread across his face reminded her of his younger days when he finally got a contraption to work. Then hey grabbed Astrid up in a tight hug making her blush. "Thank you." He whispered making her go even redder before letting go and making his way over to Toothless. Still somewhat shocked by his reaction she was surprised by Pedal who nudged her in the back gently. Jumping a bit the dragon quietly laughed at her still blushing expression. "What?"

Pedal just shook her head and smiled. "You really are bad at hiding your feelings you know that right."

Astrid gave her a scowl as the realization dawned on her. "Don't you dare say a word to him or else."

It was a false threat but all the same the point was made. Even if she knew Wingless wanted her around she was still uncertain of herself and if she could be all he wanted.

The morning after the attack Snootlout didn't wake and upon learning that the fleet was going to have to dock for repairs Fishlegs took charge. Deciding it was a bad idea for Vikings to go to Britain he took their ships and began the voyage home stopping here and there for supplies and news. During the week it took to return Ruffnut never left him as he slipped in and out of consciousness. After a week of sailing they arrived at Berk just as winter began to creep up on them. They were greeted by at first irritated then worried families.

Spitelout was the first to jump onto the boat and help Ruff with the still week Snotlout. As the group made it into the Village amongst a barrage of questions Stoic appeared making the crowd fall silent. Looking to Fishlegs the chief silently motioned for him to follow as the others took Snotlout to Gothi.

"So what happened Fishlegs?" he said in a misleadingly calm voice.

Fully aware of his actual anger Fish stammered. "W-well we caught Astrid, who by the way didn't want to come back yet. Then Snotlout thought he could use her as bate to draw in Hiccup. Which it did but he tricked us into leaving Snotlout and Astrid then attacked them taking Astrid and Snotlout's arm."

Stoic looked at him surprised. "Hiccup did that?"

Nodding cautiously. "Yes, I'm not sure how he made such a clean cut but he splintered a heavy door then did that to Snotlout before disappearing."

Stoic blinked, even with the evidence of the drawing he was having a hard time believing that it was Hiccup. 'Could his Hiccup have really become this strong? His clumsy, skinny boy couldn't been this monster that now plagued the waters of the world. He just couldn't.'

Trying not to dwell on what he was led to believe he dismissed Fishlegs and made his way to Goti's shak atop the cliffs.

Walking up the stairs he could clearly hear the agonized screams of Snotlout. Blocking it out as best he could he walked in. The scene before him was almost sickening the bloody stump of what had been Snotlout's arm was exposed as Gothi forced him to drink a strong liquor she had gotten from Yohan the season before. Walking up to the now quiet young man he saw that the limb had been cut cleanly as if a butcher had made the cut. The disbelief from before was strengthened as he shook his head then looked to Spitelout how was shaking the grief and anger was evident as was the worry Ruffnut showed as she sat beside Snotlout holding his hand. Deciding it best to wait until things had calmed down he left. Stepping into a cool breeze he decided to visit his friend Gobber and get his opinion on all of this.

Stopping just inside the Forge Stoic watched Gobber working as he finished a sword before looking up at the chief. "Ah Stoic what can I do for ya?"

Smiling at his ever present good mood Stoic shook his head. "I'm going to need you to make a cap for Snotlout's arm when it heals and I'd like to ask you what you think about this who situation."

Gobber's smile faultered. "Well as far as pirates go this Wingless lad seems to be pretty decent giving us the option to fight or settle thought why he did I don't know. Taking Astrid was odd but I can see why he would want a pretty lass like that. I mean what man wouldn't right. What I'm curious about is why he only took half our stores and even then he only took the things that we wouldn't need for the winter, and from what I've heard Astrid refused to come back to Berk when the youngins caught her with a dragon."

Stoic nodded. "That has puzzed me too. Snotlout told me the wanted picture of Wingless shows him to be hiccup. I don't see how it could be though you saw him as well as I did. Hiccup wasn't that strong."

"Aye he wasn't but that was years ago he could have grown into quite the man by now."

Smiling at the idea Hiccup was alive and grown somewhere Stoic left with more questions than answers.

The Dark Titan pulled into port not even a day after Astrid agreed to join Wingless's crew. It was a loud wild and rough place full of dirty figures and busty whores. Wingless called to her as he climbed onto Toothless the other dragons besides him. Running over to them she quickly got onto Pedal and followed him into the sky. They flew up and over the small island which appeared to be on big port with an odd looking dock on the side they were heading to. As they landed several men ran from the docks into various huge buildings built out over the water. Astrid was about to dismount when Wingless held out a hand to stop her. Just then a man as large as Stoic came out of a smaller building on the land side of the docks. "Wingless my lad what business do you have for me? Dose your dad need me to rebuild that ship of his again?"

"No this time I need you to build me a ship of my own if you think you can old man Gref"

This made Gref laugh deeply. "Why of course come on in."

Wingless slid off of Toothless and pulled a large set of rolled papers form a saddle bag before looking at Astrid. "I need you to stay with the and keep and eye out there are a lot of people around here that would love to even the score with me given the chance."

Nodding and smiling at him she motioned began to tell Toothless and Shock where to hide in draconic as Wingless disappeared into Gref's home.

Looking to the young man Gref cleared away some of the clutter on the large table in the center of the room. "So what have you got for me?"

Smiling at him Wingless spread the first paper out using various things to weight the corners. "A ship unlike any other before her."

Gref looked over the designs shaking his head. Wingless was right this was unlike anything he had seen before it had no sails cannon ports and only a few cabins. There was a boiler system that would heat most of the ship and what appeared to be four anchor chains but only two of them had anchors. "So how is this ship going to move."

"I'm going to train a pair of scauldrins or something of the like to tow her. They should be able to out run even my father's ship."

Gref's eyes widened. "So this is just a floating lair for you and your dragons then."

"If that's how you'd like to think of it. Can you do it?"

"I can do it but it will take some time considering some of what you want me to do."

"That's fine. Will it be ready by the end of spring?"

Gref gave the young man a calculating look. "I think I can do that."

"Good then I will see you then." With that out of the way Wingless returned to where Astrid waited in the shadows across the street. Tootless glided down from the roof of the house landing next to him. Climbing on stretched. "We've got till the end of next spring to try and find enough dragons to crew a galleon. I know the winter months are coming but I think if we start down south and work our way north we can chase the warmer weather and disappear for a while at the same time."

Smiling at him Astrid happily said. "I think we can do that though why do we need to disappear?"

"I'd rather not have to deal with Snot for brains if I can help it. Just think about him makes my head hurt."

She giggled at this. "Well if that's the only reason she." Teasingly punching him in the arm.