Disclaimer: Not mine, if it were mine I'd be working on a screenplay for a sequel, rather than this bit of self-indulgent fun.

Chapter 21

Astrid arrived back at the village to see Hiccup checking over Toothless' harness, obviously getting ready to fly again. The dragon himself was finishing off a pile of fish someone had brought over. He lifted his head, his tongue licking a few scales from around his mouth as he crooned to her. Astrid reached out and began to scratch the dragon's chin. She was one of three people Toothless would allow to touch him without Hiccup asking him to allow the other human near first. The other two being Hiccup himself (of course) and Stoick, though with the Chief it was more of him being able to shove the dragon out of his way in the house without losing limbs rather than giving pets. While the dragon wouldn't allow her to fly on him without Hiccup, she still felt honored he allowed her to touch.

"So, where do you think you're going?" Astrid asked as she looked past Toothless' head at the boy, who was crouched down to check over some mechanical part on the stirrup. She made sure the dragon got a good hard scratch along his jaw, a favorite place of his.

Hiccup's head jerked up, startled as he looked at her, wide eyed. "Astrid! Hi Astrid, uh… Hi. What are you doing here?" His hands, which had been resting on the stirrup, began to fiddle with it.

Astrid narrowed her eyes, and removed her axe from her back, hefting it slightly towards the boy. Hiccup was babbling, which meant he was trying to hide something. "I'm seeing what you are about to get up to." She swung her axe carefully, away from both Hiccup and Toothless as the dragon wouldn't take it well if she made direct threats on Hiccup's life, yet was able to get it to sing as it flew easily through the air. "See, I'm pretty sure the battle is over, so I'm rather curious why you see the need to suddenly be in the air again so soon. Start talking."

Hiccup looked around, not meeting her gaze. Toothless lifted his head from her hand to regard the boy. He snorted before shaking himself all over and laying down, curling his tail around. Hiccup scowled at the dragon who was obviously not planning on moving until Astrid was happy. The boy ran both of his hands through his hair before sighing and looking at the girl.

"Um… You remember that big dragon the Dornarans had?" He ventured.

"Of course, how could you miss it?" Astrid said, rolling her eyes. "I also saw how the two of you took it on, led it away, and got it to leave the village alone."

"Well, Toothless and I, we led it away. Avric, the, um, Chief of Dornar, was on it and I wanted to get him away from the fight so he couldn't lead the others." Hiccup began as Astrid nodded. Not having a Chief to over rule the others could lead to chaos on the battlefield. Getting rid of him made surprisingly good sense for Hiccup. "And we led them to the pillar maze, remember it? You and Prettyscale got mad at us when we lost you playing tag there? Uh, anyway, we led the Doomfang, the big dragon, in there and we trapped it. Well, Toothless did, and then I wanted to come back here to see how things were going, and now I want to see how the Doomfang is, y'know see if I can get it to calm down again." He finished looking at her.

"You didn't kill it." Astrid said flatly.

"Uh… Well no." Hiccup started.

"You didn't kill it. " Astrid asked again softly, but scarily.

"It's not evil, it wasn't controlling the other dragons or anything…" he trailed off again at Astrid's expression

"Hiccup, that thing was HUGE, it could destroy our village without trying, what were you thinking?" Astrid started to rant.

Hiccup flinched at the tone she used, before looking up at her. "I couldn't." he said solemnly. "It wasn't the dragon's fault it was attacking us any more than it was the fault of the smaller ones. They were just following the orders of the people I encouraged them to trust. It was my fault they were fighting, more than anything. The Doomfang seemed as intelligent as Toothless, and as affectionate." He patted Toothless' side and leaned against the dragon, who turned to look at him. "It's my fault it trusted Avric. I need to fix that." He looked at Astrid squarely, his shoulders straight the same way he'd looked the night he'd told her he would keep the secret of the nest from the village to protect Toothless.

Astrid wanted to bang her head against a rock. The stubbornness Hiccup inherited from Stoick always chose just the wrong time to rear its head. "You still don't look that good, you know. I'm not letting you get near a probably furious dragon without backup."

"But I need to do this!" Hiccup burst out. "I need to try-"

"I'm not saying you're not going, just that Prettyscale and I are going too." Astrid stated, crossing her arms and settling her feet. "Personally I'd rather the whole gang went, possibly a good chunk of the village as well, but I doubt you're willing to wait that long."

Hiccup relaxed at her statement. "Okay." He grinned at her. "Ready yet?" He asked as he stood up, his checking of the gear done. The dragon stood up, his ear flaps lifted in happiness. Those weeks spend locked away meant he was happy to fly as much as possible.

Astrid scowled at the pair, both obviously ready to fly. She walked over to Toothless' side and socked Hiccup in the arm.

"Ow. What was that for?" Hiccup glared at her. "And I thought you were going to wait for me to heal a bit before pounding on me." He added rubbing his arm.

"That was for stopping me from killing that little waste of space from Dornar." She replied. She then kissed him gently on the lips. "That's for coming back safe from battle. And please, that was a baby tap, quit whining." She walked towards where Prettyscale lay relaxing. "Well? Are we going? I thought you were in a hurry!" She called over her shoulder.

Hiccup smiled at her statement and shook his head. He turned to Toothless who was watching with interest. His smile turned into a grin as he looked at the dragon. "Well buddy? Ready to fly?" Toothless immediately went into a half crouch to make it easier for Hiccup to get into the harness. The boy swung his leg over and the two were air born seconds after his foot clicked into the pedal.

-xXx—

Hiccup was smiling at the wind in his face. Yes they were flying towards a huge, angry, ferocious dragon, but at the moment there was only the joy of flight. Toothless was obviously feeling happy as well, the short rest after the battle refreshing him, spinning and diving the way he did when playing. Astrid and Prettyscale followed more sedately. Nadders weren't meant for the complicated and fast maneuvers a Night Fury was capable of doing easily.

Without the crazy zigzagging across the island the two had done in order to distract the Doomfang, it didn't take long to reach the pillar maze. Hiccup and Toothless circled the misty area. He heard the Doomfang's roar of anger, so at least it was safe to assume it was still trapped. Toothless dove down, back-winging sharply to land on top of one of the pillars close to where they had trapped the other dragon, rather than threading the maze again. The Doomfang had obviously been busy during their absence, as most of the blockage had been cleared. Floating chunks of ice swirling around its feet showed that it had vented its rage for a bit before beginning to heft the rubble out of the way. Hiccup looked at the dragon as it tossed its head. Astrid and her Nadder settled on the pillar next to his. The Nadder hissed at the sight of the larger dragon, shifting restlessly as it obviously wanted to be gone. Toothless flicked his tail, growling at the Doomfang. The Doomfang suddenly looked up at the four of them. Toothless took off, just narrowly missing being hit by the freezing flames the Doomfang shot at them. Pretty scale took off as well, squawking at the larger dragon even thought the flames hadn't been aimed at her.

Apparently the sight of Hiccup and Toothless again infuriated the already agitated dragon as it shoved brutally at the remaining rubble that imprisoned it. The last of the blockage fell away, allowing it to bolt from its temporary prison. Hiccup tried to guide Toothless towards the cliffs. There was a thin bit of beach there where Hiccup thought they could land. The cliffs ringing it were so steep and treacherous that there were very few, if any, easy ways to get up them so no one had bothered to block this beach.

The Doomfang pursued Hiccup and Toothless, not bothering to take to the air as it navigated the pillars. Astrid and her Nadder kept above the fray, occasionally darting forward to distract the larger dragon when it seemed to get too close to the Night Fury. When the chase reached the beach the Doomfang reared up, fanning its wings. Then Hiccup ran into a bit of a problem, Toothless wasn't about to land near the dragon on the sand. As the boy tried to get him to listen the Night Fury simply smacked him with an ear flap. Finally after swooping about in arcs above the Doomfang, causing it to snap at them several times, the pair settled at the cliff edge. Toothless wasn't happy about the compromise, but all he did was grumble about it.

The Doomfang's head rose above the edge of the cliff. Its eyes narrowed at Hiccup and it cracked open its jaw and hissed. Hiccup could feel Toothless practically vibrating in tension beside him. The Doomfang suddenly jerked its head to the side, snapping at Astrid and Prettyscale who had gotten too close for its comfort.

"Astrid! Back off! You're only upsetting it!" Hiccup called loudly to her.

"I'm upsetting it?" Astrid screamed down at him. "Hiccup that thing could swallow you. WITHOUT CHEWING!"

"I got through to it once. I want to try again." Hiccup replied back as the Doomfang turned towards him. Hiccup walked towards the cliff edge, his hands held out to show he had no weapon. The Doomfang snarled at him, placing one claw on the edge as if it was preparing to climb up. Hiccup gestured at Toothless to stay where he was behind him, away from the dragon. He heard a loud hiss from behind him from his now seriously pissed dragon. The Doomfang in front of him was growling loudly, its eyes narrowed with intensity on the human in front of it, yet Hiccup didn't hear the tell tale signs of a dragon readying it's deadly breath. Though he didn't know if that was because it was out of fire or simply waiting until it was sure it wouldn't miss. He hoped it was because the dragon recognized him and didn't want to hurt him.

"Easy there, easy." He crooned to the seriously angry dragon. "I'm sorry, really I am. I didn't want to anger or hurt you at all. I'm sorry I encouraged you to trust Avric." He knew he was well within the distance the dragon needed in order to snap him up in its jaws. The fact that it hadn't was the best sign yet. He had been the first to touch this dragon with a kind hand, the first to give comforting scratched to it, the first to face it without attacking at all. The Doomfang shook its head, the movement rippling down its serpentine body. Its eyes had widened slightly and its claws were no longer deeply gouging the earth beneath them. Its snarl had quieted to a low growl.

Hiccup smiled at it, relaxing a little as he saw the dragon do the same. He crept up to the edge, waiting to see if the dragon would lower its head to the range of his hands.

"Now, now, I just want to apologize. See? Nothing in my hands." He continued in the same low crooning voice. "It was wrong of me to give your trust to Avric." The Doomfang cocked its enormous head as it regarded him. Hiccup waited patiently, even as Toothless was clawing the ground, wanting to grab the boy and get air-born, behind him. The Doomfang continued to study him for a long moment. Hiccup held his breath. The dragon could choose to attack or it could choose to leave. Nothing held it now, there were no barred doors, no chains. Its harness had even fallen off during its thrashing while it was trapped. It could go into the ocean and be far away from here without any difficulty.

It finally lowered its head, coming close to Hiccup. He placed his hands on the dragon's chin as it came within distance. The Doomfang seemed to give a sad sort of whine, deep and reverberating in its huge chest.

Hiccup patted it, murmuring to it. "You didn't deserve him. You deserve someone far better, someone who sees you as a friend not a weapon." The Doomfang relaxed under his pats and scratches, its head resting comfortably on the cliff edge, its body making itself comfortable on the sand below. Hiccup walked around its head to get to the other side and give it more attention.

As he passed a cluster of boulders resting near the edge, he was suddenly overcome by a sharp pain shooting through his side. He gasped and turned to see Avric pulling a blade free from his body. He heard Toothless and the Doomfang both scream as he began to fall.

A/N: Have a great day!