Sorry that I've been silent for so long. I was on vacation and had terrible internet access, but I was still able to write. So now I'm posting everything that I wrote. Enjoy!

I do not own How to Train Your Dragon.

Read on!

Astrid stared wide eyed at the weapons laid out before her. There was a sword, an axe, a mace, a hammer and a bludgeon. She stood in the kitchen of the mill, the weapons all laid across the kitchen table. All her new Berkian friends stood around her waiting for her to pick which weapon she wanted. She honestly had no idea. She had never thought that she would ever have to fight in her life.

"Maybe try picking one up?" Fishlegs suggested after she had been silently staring at them for a while. She nodded slowly and moved to pick up the sword. It felt comfortable at least. It was Toothless' sword. It had good grip and wasn't too heavy, but somehow, it just didn't feel right.

She looked at the hammer and the bludgeon but couldn't bring herself to even pick one up. She didn't want to fight with a weapon so clumsy. She looked at the mace but wasn't so sure about that one either. The only one left was the axe. She picked it up and felt it in her hand. Like the sword, it had good grip and wasn't too heavy. Except this time, it felt good. There was something about it that just felt right. She smiled and saw by the looks on their faces that the others understood.

"Stormfly, do you mind if we borrow your axe for some training?" Hiccup asked. Stormfly gestured for them to go ahead and walked out along with everyone else. Astrid just shot Hiccup a questioning look.

"You didn't think we were going to just hand you a weapon without showing you how to use it, right?" Hiccup laughed. She smiled and followed him out of the room. He went to a cupboard in the hallway, reached in and pulled out an axe, then gestured for her to follow him. "We'll be in the clearing if you need us," he called out.

"I'll come get you for dinner," Toothless called back. Hiccup nodded and they left the mill and headed into the forest.

They soon found the clearing that they had been in the day before. Astrid felt her cheeks burn as she thought about it. Soon enough though, all of that was forgotten, as Hiccup began teaching her how to use the axe she had picked. He stood beside her showing her how to hold it. Once she had the grip right, he began correcting her stance.

"If your centre of gravity is off, it makes it easier for your opponent to knock you over or push you back," Hiccup said as he positioned her feet and pulled her shoulders back straightening up her spine. "Now, there are many ways to fight. Most back in our world like to use force. Like Snotlout, that's his favourite tactic. Me, on the other hand, I prefer to outsmart my opponent. What his moves, find his weaknesses, then finish. Right now though, I'm just going to show you some of the basics. Keep you from dying."

For the next few hours he showed her a few different moves that would mostly just help her leave a fight in one piece. He started with defence moves, saying that in the beginning, defence was the most important thing. If you can't defend yourself, you're dead. Once she was successfully able to defend herself agains some of his attacks he began showing her a few offensive moves. Nothing too complicated, just a few things to help her push someone back.

"These are just basic," he told her as he stopped to help her reposition herself for a new move. "These will not let you take on an opponent all by yourself. They're just so that you can stay alive until someone else comes to help you. Don't go around starting fights. Try to avoid them as much as possible and stay on the defensive. Only go offensive when they're pushing you too far back." She nodded, hoping that she would remember everything that he had told and shown her through the day.

Suddenly he stopped what he was doing. He looked up with his eyes narrowed. She noticed his grip on his axe tighten and he suddenly turned around, standing in front of her defensively. She peered over his shoulder to see a man much like the one she had seen only a few days earlier. He stood with a sword in hand glaring at them, his eyes full of hatred. He wore a brown tunic with an armoured breastplate and shoulder pads. He wore black trousers with brown boots. His hair was red and he had a short beard with one braid right in the centre of his chin. On his head sat a helmet with horns on either side. He and Hiccup stared at each other, each one waiting for the other to make the first move.

The man moved first, he charged towards them, his sword raised high. Hiccup pushed Astrid back slightly as he brought his axe up to block the attack. He pushed hard against the man causing his to push down harder on Hiccup before suddenly jumping to the side. He was so quick that the man had no time to reposition his feet and fell forwards. He was was about to land on his knees when Hiccup kicked his feet out from under him causing him to fall flat on his face. Hiccup then used the butt of the axe to knock him out. He grabbed the man's sword and turned to face Astrid who was surprised at how fast Hiccup was able to disarm the man.

"That is why you need to know your centre of gravity," Hiccup said pointing to the man as if the whole thing had just been a demonstration for her. "If he had a better stance, he would never had fallen over." She nodded. She didn't really know how else to reply to that. She was just a little shocked at the fact that there was now an unconscious man lying in the ground.

Just then they heard a rustle in the bushes. Hiccup took a step in front of Astrid, and she took a step closer to him. They watched with wide eyes as a man, similar to the one that lay on the floor, stepped out of the bushes. In his arms he held Toothless, a knife to his throat. The man glanced down at the man that lay in the floor and his face hardened.

"Olvir?" When Olvir didn't answer he looked at Hiccup with an angry expression. Hiccup went to take a step forwards but the man immediately reacted. He pulled Toothless back a step and his grip on the knife turned white. "Make another move and he dies."

Astrid then watched as Toothless looked directly at Hiccup and winked, blinked twice, then winked again. It was so fast the man clearly didn't notice, but Hiccup did. He gave a slight nod and Astrid realised that they must have some sort of code between them.

Suddenly, Toothless bit the hand that held the knife and the man yelled in pain, his focus and grip on Toothless lost. Toothless rushed out of his grip and ran to Hiccup's side. The man now looked infuriated. He rushed them, Hiccup meeting him half way with a clash of metal. The man fought with a sword and his knife, Hiccup with his axe and Olvir's sword.

"Nobody hurts my little brother," Hiccup said through his teeth at the man. They fought for a while, Astrid watching in amazement at Hiccup's skills. Soon enough though, the man was knocked down and just like his friend, Hiccup knocked him unconscious.

"Are you okay?" Hiccup asked turning towards Toothless.

"I'm fine," Toothless replied, waving him off. "He just caught me off guard is all. I was on my way to fetch you for dinner when he jumped me. He must have heard me coming and hid in the bushes. I had no idea he was there." Hiccup nodded and ruffled his brother's hair, earning him a scowl in return.

"What was that thing you did with the blinking?" Astrid asked curiously.

"You saw that?" Toothless replied. She nodded.

"We came up with out own code when we were kids," Hiccup said. "It's mostly just code for plans that we came up with. We used it when we were trying to escape our parents. They still don't know how we always knew what each other was going to do without speaking. I think they think that Night Furies are able to read each other's minds." Toothless laughed and they began walking in the opposite direction to the mill.

"Where are you going?" Astrid asked as she watched them walk off.

"We need to leave a trail going in the wrong direction for when they wake up so they don't follow us," Toothless replied. Astrid nodded. She followed them as they walked lightly but left a footprint or a broken twig every now and then for the men to find.

The doors to the great hall were thrown open. Stoic walked though, a trickle of blood on his forehead, his hand massaging a sore spot on his shoulder. He was followed by the other men on the council. The all took their seats and turned to Stoic to see what he would say.

"We haven't suffered from a raid that badly in years," he said slowly. The men nodded in agreement. "Birger, have the humans strengthened their defences?" All attention was on the large strategist at the end of the table. He fidgeted knowing what he had to say would not go down well.

"Well, sir, the humans seemed to be the same as the last time," he answered cautiously.

"But we had more casualties! How can that be?!" Spitelout out exclaimed. Stoic gestured for Spitelout to calm down before nodding towards Birger to carry on. He nodded and cleared is throat nervously.

"I believe our problem is the young ones," he said simply.

"But they were all sent away," a man named Mulch, who was on the council as the fisherman's representative, said confused.

"Exactly," Birger replied. "I think we underestimated how much we used them. Fishlegs tried to warn me before they left. He was right. Hiccup is one of our best flyers and Snotlout and Stormfly are a great help to their individual classes. The twins destructive capabilities alone probably could have cut down our amount of losses substantially. And I didn't realise how much I had come to depend on my son. Fishlegs is a great help to me in keeping track of how the battle is going. Stoic, I know you don't want to hear this, but sending them away was a mistake."

Stoic remained silent. Those around him sat quietly waiting for his response, glancing at each other. Finally he sat up straight and turned to Gobber, who sat beside him.

"Gobber. Go find our kids. Bring them home."

Gobber nodded and was up immediately. He rushed straight out of the door and through the forest. Soon enough he reached the crack in the cliff, but also found something else. A camp. A human camp. And it was empty. His eyes widened in realisation as he saw the footprints of about thirty men heading towards the crack.

He broke into a run as he raced for the village. He dodged and weaved surprised villagers as they began work on fixing houses. He rushed straight up the stairs to the great hall and slammed the doors open, panting as he did.

"Gobber. Where are the kids?" Stoic asked.

"Camp… Footprints… Crack…" he panted out, bending over as he tried to catch his breath. He then looked up into Stoic's eyes as he said the last word. "Humans." Stoic's eyes filled with panic.

"No…"