The young Vikings all staggered back into the campsite, three of them covered from head to toe in paint. The dragons each baring plastered paint markings of their own, save only for Feather-storm's sleek white hide. Every one of them was worn out.

Strider looked about, holding up parchment and marking down as she looked over everyone. She paused with a frown, "Storm-fly, have you seen your rider? Miss Astrid?"

The dragon shook her head, ruffling as she turned to preen the spikes on her tail gently.

The werewolf sighed and continued, "Well then….everyone gather around. I've got the tally counted out."

"Tally?' Tuff perked up, "What kind of dinner is that?"

Ruff rolled her eyes, "She means she's going to tell us who won the contest. Right?"

The werewolf nodded, walking slowly in a large circle so she passed in front of each of the dragons first, "You were each given the simple task of navigating the island while keeping a look out for your opponents. Dragons were to protect a simulated rider tied to their saddles with the restriction of being unable to use their fire…"

Hookfang gave a small chortle, eyeing Snotlout. Strider sighed, "I'll talk to you about that later. Moving on…you young Vikings were tasked with capturing the riders and attacking the dragons with these color paint pouches. And judging from final appearances I'd say the dragons did better in this exercise."

The twins groaned, "Aw come on! We captured one of those fake riders."

"Yeah do you have any idea how hard that was?"

The werewolf barked once to silence them, hound ears going flat, "I was able to watch each of your attempts fairly easily. And in the case of you two, you were willing to kill each other in order to get close enough to grab the 'rider' in the first place. were we using real weapons instead of paint you wouldn't have fared nearly as….well you wouldn't have survived at all with a fuzz brained idea like that. also you seem to have forgotten that you lose points for attacking each other so with all the hits you two just took how close do you think you are to winning this?"

The two of them hung their heads, going completely silent. For once not daring to say anything for themselves.

"Now, the winners are Storm-fly for the dragons followed closely by Toothless and for the Vikings…"

"Strider!"

All eyes turned to see Astrid come storming up to the group.

"Nice of you to join us Astrid." Strider smiled gently.

The blonde braided girl stormed up to the werewolf standing eye to eye with her. Strider stared back at her coolly.

"Is there something you need to talk about?" she asked calmly.

The others all stood silently, the tension in the air seemed thick enough t out through with an axe. Before anyone could expect it the blond Viking's hand moved, and evenly met with the back of Strider's paw. Golden eyes narrowed in a sly smile as she spotted the paint balloon in Astrid's clenched fist.

"Well, I never did say you couldn't attack me did I? still…"

Before anyone could even blink, Astrid was flipped onto her back with Strider placing one foot on her shoulder, holding the girl's wrist in one hand and the paint pouch in the other.

"…It was a nice try."

"You wretch." Astrid hissed.

Strider pocketed the pouch, letting the girl up as she turned to the others, "Astrid and Fishlegs are the winners for the Vikings. I need the four of you to get some rest. Fishlegs if you'll come with me please."

Fish went slowly, "What exactly for?"

"You wanted to learn to speak dragon didn't you? I'm going to give you a few phrases to practice."

The boy's squeals of excited delight caused the werewolf to flinch as she reverted into her human form again. she didn't go far before she called over her shoulder, "Hiccup, I want you to spend the rest of the day on Lady Mimibrunser, get used to how she feels in flight. Maybe design a saddle for her if you like. Consider it a reward for earlier."

"Reward for what now?" Snotlout sounded. The werewolf didn't answer instead doing her best to put up with the waterfall of questions on dragonese coming from an eager young Viking.

Snotlout turned to Hiccup questioningly, "What did she mean 'reward for earlier'?"

"Yeah, and was it just me or did she always have that yellow spot on the back of her neck?" Ruff asked. Hiccup felt a cold chill run down his spine as he saw Astrid glare at him from the corner of his eye.

***8***

Hiccup sat overlooking the ocean turning a deep gray against the reddening sky. he sketched out a few patterns in the sand of a possible saddle for Feather-storm. Not that he thought she would ever wear it, he knew better to think she would be that agreeable. It was more of an attempt to get his mind off of things. Astrid's behavior after the whole thing with Strider was continuing to get on his mind.

She was behaving so…not…Astrid.

"Hiccup?" he barely reacted to the sudden appearance of silver white hair dangling in front of his eyes, "That saddle looks more like a dress."

He blinked as he realized the young dragoness was right, he quickly rubbed it out with a laugh, "Sorry, sorry just….have a lot on my mind is all."

"Astrid? Or my brother?"

"Well both re…" hiccup blinked looking at her in confusion, "H-how did you know about…?"

"I asked Koro if she knew why you seemed so down lately." The silver haired girl said simply.

Hiccup groaned, remembering the conversation the night before they left Berk, "Of course…So…are you alright?"

Mimi's eyes averted, threatening tears, "I'm worried about him. He's my only brother."

Hiccup nodded, "I…I wish I could say I knew how you feel. I'm an only child…and I wasn't always very close to any of the other kids in the village growing up. I can only imagine what you're going through."

Mimi sat down beside him heavily, "You have Toothless now, a bond like yours is close."

Hiccup jolted as he instantly pictured his best friend in a darkened cell with a hideous maddening collar around his neck, growling and shivering uncontrollably as burly Outcasts came near him with spears at the ready and a twisted saddle in hand.

The image caused him to bring his knees up to his chest, shaking, "Y-yeah…it's close. How are you holding up?"

Mimi nodded staring up into the sky, "When we were on the island and I saw him, he didn't recognize me, he wasn't a dragon anymore…he was…a beast…"

Hiccup couldn't help but feel worse, how could anyone put on such a brave face when someone they cared about, a family member they were so close to was reduced to such a low state. How hapless had she felt when she realized nothing she was saying or doing was going to get through? How much pain was she holding at the memory of her own brother that she had tried so hard to save that day had turned and attacked her? how much of her pain was she holding back while he could be steadily getting worse?

"Feather-storm…Mimibrunser…" he began, unsure of what to say next. How he could possibly cheer her up at this point.

"But when you shouted my name he hesitated. It was for a short time but…in that moment he was himself again. and I knew…" Hiccup heard her sniff, he looked up to see her move closer to him. her arms wrapping around him tightly as tears ran down her face. (Thankfully with only the strength of a little girl and not a full sized Guise dragoness.)

"I knew that he was fighting inside, that he could return to his old self again. and after Koro told me what you were thinking I just knew I could trust you to help me get my brother back…to save him like you saved me then. I just know it…" Her speech gave way to shuddering sobs, sapphire blue eyes flowing freely as he whole body shook uncontrollably.

Hiccup just sat there, saying nothing. he knew somehow that she needed this, that she needed to let out everything she had been keeping bottled up since her second experience on Outcast island. That anything he said would fall on deaf
distraught ears.

Instead he wrapped her arms around her and let her cry until she couldn't cry anymore.

***8***

Strider's ear twitched irritably, her paw reaching to touch the back of her neck. Fish looked at her like a puppy about to get a treat.

"Well? How did I do for my first lesson?"

Strider's ears drooped, thinking fast on how to put it gently to such an eager boy, "Err…not bad…you just need to work on your enunciation."

Fish's face fell a little, "Did I say something wrong?"

Strider sighed, "Well, when we had you try to say, 'Greetings I am a friend' you somehow ended up saying, "Yo girlfriend greet me like a boss."

Fish's face turned several shades redder, "it was just the one right?"

Strider's eyes rolled upward, "Well….you said, 'what up' instead of a simple 'Good day', instead of 'can we go that way?' you said, 'Check it over there' and when you attempted to say 'how marvelous you look' you said…"

Strider's face turned redder as she whispered it into Fish's ear. To which the boy gasped, "Oh my gosh, no wonder Meatlug left after that one."

The werewolf nodded, "And what's worse, you're the one who requested these specific phrases. You did much better when I had you say simpler words like, 'take off', 'dodge', 'come here' and surprisingly, 'do you want to see the moon rise?"

Strider cocked her head as if having an afterthought, "come to think of it I wonder what would happen if I taught you that song in dragonese."

Fish however looked anything but enthusiastic at this point after realizing how rude he sounded to his own dragon, "she must think I somehow said all that on purpose. What am I going to do? I have to apologize."

Strider sighed, patting the boy on the back, "Relax, the only trouble you seem to be having is your trying too hard to be polite. Maybe if you tried more casual phrases on top of those other ones, you know 'hatchling talk'. At least then you've got something to start with."

Fish looked at her uncertain, "I don't know, I'm kinda older than that."

Strider patted him harder, "you crawl before you walk and you mumble before you talk. If we simplify it you should be able to eventually catch on more easily."

Fish smiled a little bit, "Ok I guess…so what kind of words should we start with?"

"Most hatchlings start with the same things human babies do. Their parents, colors, certain objects of interest…" she paused glancing a different direction before smiling wider, "We'll go over them later, for now try practicing the ones you were doing so well with."

Fish brightened, "right, 'take off', 'dodge', 'come here' and 'do you want to see the moon rise'. I can do that."

Strider nodded as he went off muttering in what little dragonese he had just learned, or at least what he could remember. The wolf girl's tail and ears reversed to a full human form.

"What is it Astrid? Something on your mind?"

A figure stepped out from behind a tall tree, glaring daggers at Strider's turned back, "What is she?"

Strider didn't so much as flinch, "What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about," Astrid growled, "Feather-storm! What is she?"

Strider turned slightly, looks like it might be time to cross that bridge. "Why do you ask?"

"I saw you with her, that girl with the white hair. I saw her change into Feather- storm."

Strider's eyes widened, maybe that bridge was a little more rickety than at first glance. With a sigh she took a step towards the girl, her hands moving to remove her belt.

"alright then…I'll tell you. But first I think you need to calm down a bit. Let off steam."

Astrid ducked as a fist came for her face, gasping in surprise as a knee to the gut bowled her over backwards. Strider stood there, one leg in the air and a smile on her face, "I promise to stay human the whole time."

Astrid felt her blood boil at how easily she had been knocked back, her anger rose higher as the girl before her gracefully moved into a stance holding up both hands with palms up. Still smiling.

"Well come on, let's see if a little sparring will cool you off."

Astrid clenched her fists, feet pounding the ground as she charged with a roaring yell.

Strider side stepped her and kicked one of her feet higher in the air, causing the blonde Viking to fall over. This is going to be interesting.

Whew, took a little longer than I had hoped but I finally pulled it off. don't forget to review and happy Halloween everybody!