Astrid stopped her dragon into a hover with Snotlout beside her. "What is it?" He asks her. "Look." She points to an Island about a mile in front of them. The fog somewhat clears relieving more of the Island.

"Yes! We're there! Finally, It only took us...4 days!"

"3 days-" she automatically corrects, "But look."

"I'm looking, let's go!" He pushes his dragon forward.

"Wait!" Hookfang stops and looks back at her.

"Hey! You listen to me!" He commanded.

She pulls out Hiccup's map and unfolds it carefully. She scans the parchment with her eyes before taking them away and looking up at their surroundings. "We're...here?"

"Yep, told ya! Let's-"

"But it looks...different?"

"Ever heard of redecorating?" He asked sarcastically.

"Okay fine, whatever. Just wanted to make sure."

She lightly pushed Stormfly forward. Snotlout following close behind.

"Sky? Or ground? "

"Ground." She answers.

They descended to the ocean's blue surface. No one was guarding the borders. "Slow down. Easy." The dragons obeyed.

Stormfly reflexingly barrel rolled cooly to the right to avoid a sea stack. It would have been okay if Astrid didn't have a forming body inside her. Astrid grunts and holds her stomach. "Easy." She whispers, morning sickness catching up to her. Stormfly brain clicks when she remembers her riders unborn offspring and purrs apologetically slowing down.

….

"Where is everyone?"

"Would you keep your voice down!" She whispers harshly. "They could be close."

"Astrid I don't think anyone's here."

She ducks behind a bolder and shushes him.

"I mean we've been wondering around for about 30 minutes and we haven't seen 1 Berserker."

"We need to keep looking." She growls.

So they search and search but the corridors were empty. The Hall was empty. Dried blood stained the dragon cages. The village...vacant. Gone.

"Okay. Where the hell is everyone!" Astrid shouts stomping her foot.

They listen for a moment for a, 'Get 'em!' or 'Berkians! Attack!' But nothing.

Astrid growls and kicks a rock in frustration then turns to her dragon. "Stormfly. Search! Anything." The dragon gave her a confused look over her shoulder. "Search! Humans. Dragons. Life. But do not engage, come straight back here. Got it?" The dragon reluctantly trotted off into the woods still worried about her rider. Astrid nearly tripped over...nothing. Her own feet.

"You okay?" Snotlout asked.

"What?"

"Are you okay?"

"Since when do you care?" She spat.

"I was just wondering if-"

"I heard you the first time." She curled her upper lip and kept walking.

She does not want Snotlout to know now. Especially Snotlout. Hiccup, the father, doesn't even know yet.

Snotlout pouts and looks around. "Astrid?"

"What now?" She groaned.

"What is that?" He tugged her shoulder. She turned around and looked at the direction he was pointing.

"Hhh! Get down!" She shoved him to the ground behind a bush. "It's a ship you moron!" She said almost yelling. "Hookfang get your butt over here! Yeah I know it's a boat I'm not stupid, but it didn't look like a Berserker boat." Snotlout hissed back.

"What are you talking about? Of course it is."

"Really, you might want to look again." Astrid grumbled and peered over the bush she was hiding behind. She squinted as hard as she could. The ship was out about 1 mile out and hardly recognizable with a tinted red sail with bluish weird markings.

"You're right."

"Ha! Told ya. And you thought I was-"

"Shut it." She growled followed by a sharp pain in her abdomen. She hisses and tries not to wince.

"What?"

"Nothing." She said as she looked away. "We gotta find out what that ship is doing here."

"Uh, make that ships." He said.

Astrid ignored the pain and cleared her throat, calling Stormfly with a Nadder call.

"Hahaha! This is gonna be good!" Dagur shouts.

Dagur and his men decided it would be better to just throw him in a cage with a dragon. Because...well why haven't they tried that before? It's either life or death. Dagur shackled Hiccup's foot to the wall still giving him plenty of room to do his magic but completely ruining Hiccup's plan to do the obvious.

Dang it there actually getting smart.

Maybe he could get the dragon to burn off the chain? No. That would take to long. What if he somehow...no. That wouldn't work either. There was a sword in the corner. Maybe they wanted to see if he could kill it? What if he-Clank!

Hiccup turned around slowly. His heart matching the clanks of the chains holding the cage closed.

Clank, clank, clank, thump, thump, thump.

He took a deep breath. He can't train the dragon in front of them, but he can't kill it. The second one doesn't even come a crossed his mind as an option. But he can't die...can he? No. He has family, a dragon, a village to look after. He needs to free Hope, find the others and free the dragons. He needs to survive. For them. For freedom.

The cage stays open for a few moments before a scared deep blue yellow Nadder crawls out of the cage.

Why? Dagur did this on purpose. The dragon looked similar to Stormfly, which reminds him of Astrid.

Dagur smiles smugly on his little throne watching down on him. The Nadder squeaks as she spots Hiccup, eyes narrowing and teeth sharpening.

How does she look like a monster to them? He doesn't understand. Even with bared teeth and spikes raised and alert he doesn't see a monster. She's scared and confused. He could tell she was a girl by her beautiful spiked crown.

She hisses menacingly. "It's okay." He whispers. Hiccup heard a 'What did he say?' in the crowd. He put his hands down.

What if he just stood there? Would she attack him? If he stood there maybe that wouldn't teach them anything, right? She looks at him confused. Then strikes.

Hiccup ducks out of the way, perfecting a barrel roll. 'Thanks Astrid.' He praised her internally.

At the sudden action she collided with the wall behind him. She shook her head and squaked irritably at him and charged again. He ducks and runs under her. She grabbed the chain instead.

He dodge the spiked tail before getting pulled back by something. He was on his back as the dragon pulled him in, dust swirling around him, scraping his hands and forearms in soot as he tried to pushed back. The shackle was connected tight just above his right boot. He grunted as he tried to pull of the boot. Meters away from the hungry dragon the boot slipped off. He forced his foot out of the shackle. He bit back a scream and the cold metal scraping against his ankle took some skin with it. With his ankle bleeding and pulsing he pushed himself up.

"What?!" He heard Dagur shout.

Hiccup suddenly felt dizzy and he stumbled a bit.

What if he passed out? Would they leave him? Or would they stop the fight? They would drag him out and somehow he would take them down and save everyone.

"I turn into someone...I once was." What did she mean by that? She looked like she was about to tell him before the guards came and took him away.

He stumbled again unwillingly. He held his head and kept his eyes on the dragons movements. She narrowed her eyes and took a step forward flashing her spiked tail to her right.

He glanced a Dagur then he braced himself to fall. Once his head hit the cold gravel he heard gasps and shouts.

"Ugh! Get him out of there!" Hiccup open one eye slightly to see men running into the cage, swords and spears pointed at the 'beast'. He grimaces and shuts his eye as he feels men running over.

They tug him to his feet and he rolls his head to the side. Expression blank. The man in front of him slaps his face twice. "He's out!" The man shouts over his shoulder.

He heard a frustrated groan that sounded like Dagur.

He smiled internally for fooling them as they begun to drag him out. He heard keys close by shaking. He peeked at the man to the man to his left. Change of plan.

It seemed like eternity but he could tell they were close to their cell. He was being dragged with their hands tight on his biceps. He breathed deeply and eyed the keys. For once he praised his delicate and gentle fingers.

….

Hope sat in the cell rocking herself. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry Hiccup." She whispers closing her eyes. She tries to cry but there is none left- "Hiccup?" She gasped.

Two guards stopped in front of the cell with a familiar brown haired man. One opened the door while the other tossed him in. She gasped again upon seeing his pale scraped face.

"Hiccup?" Hope inched forward. Finally rushing and resting his head in her lap as she put her ear to his chest scared what she might find.

Thump, thump. Thump, thump.

"Hey." He croaked. She jolted her head up and blinked at him eyes wide. He cleared his throat, displeased on how his voice sounded. "Hey." He said a bit more clearly.

"You're...You're..."

"Alive? Yep, never been better. And I've got a plan to get out." His left hand was behind his back.

"Wha...what?"

Hiccup smiled smugly sat up. A ring of keys appeared from behind his back.

"How did you..." She was trailing off in disbelief.

"What happened?" Hope asked finally.

He sat up and tossed the ring into his hand cooly. But then stopped and realized the noise might attracted guards, awkwardly fumbling with it until the noise stopped.

"Well do you want the whole thing or how I got the keys?"

"The...everything."

"Okay well...they put me in a arena and chained my leg to the wall about 10 feet, anyways they put me in there with a Nadder."

"Why?"

"It's kind of hard to explain, but they want to see how I train dragons so that they could."

She nodded.

"So the dragon charged. I got out of the way. She charged again and I decided to run underneath her. She grabbed the chain connected to my leg and started pulling me in. So I had to take of my boot and the chain and that's how that happened."

He gestured to his ankle. She inhaled sharply.

"Then I decided that the only way I could get out alive and not hurt the dragon, was to simply pass out. So they dragged me out and the two guards thankfully has two keys. And looky here."

He held up the keys with one finger.

"And it won't be long until he realizes it's gone, so we need to formulate a plan."

Don't worry guys you will soon know what Hope meant by the whole, "I once was." sorta thing :) It's just you know they need to get out so no more time for back stories right now :P Sorry if this isn't that good, I'm really sick right now :( I think it's because of this 'diet' I put myself on...so I basicaly stopped eating lunch and barely ate dinner. Well now I learned my lesson! I threw up 3 times today and fevers and fatigue and blah... and I have these constant cramps in my stomach. AND my womanly friend arrived to join the party! :D Yay! :( But at least I have Fanfictions, YouTube, Httyd and my dog to help me out :) So yeah sorry if I don't post in a while. Or if the chapters aren't as good. But Thank you guys, once again, so so much! 3 and I love hearing your opinions :)