For ImagMaster - I never planned on making her whole 'not being from here' a big thing in this story. My bad if that's what got you interested because this chapter is all that's going to be addressing that for quite a while if not forever.


Raegan and Mowgli landed in the clearing with Hiccup and Astrid, which made the four vikings on the ground look up at them. Fishlegs came running over to meet them while Snotlout followed at a more leisurely pace. The twins stayed put.

"Guys, you're back!" The largest of the vikings said eagerly, holding what looked like a shield in front of himself as though it were a plate. His face dropped ever so slightly when he spotted Raegan with them, but he still had a hesitant smile on his face.

"Astrid and I talked to Raegan and she agreed to let us stay on the island," Hiccup broke the news to the two in front of them as he stepped down from his dragon's saddle.

Fishlegs looked like Christmas came early, "Really? That's amazing! I've already been putting together my ideas for the base." The example was built carefully on the back of the shield he was holding.

Raegan got off of Mowgli's back slowly and looked over the model in front of her with interest. She was amazed at the detail he put into making a rock model of their home. It actually looked really nice. She did stay several paces behind Hiccup and Astrid, her hands behind her back and rocking back and forth on her toes; but it was still better than spending the morning in the woods as she usually did.

"Hiccup," Snotlout brought up loudly. "Tell Fishface that we're not going to put make a base without my 'S.'"

"Guys," Hiccup looked significantly less happy about this. "I already told you; we're each going to make a design and then we'll vote on it."

Fishlegs looked down on his little model, "I know, I just thought I'd show you now." Then he looked over Hiccup's shoulder at Raegan and her Woolly Howl, "Hey, Raegan, what do you think about having a - - garden with a hot mud bath? You know like a place for rest and relaxation after a long day's work?"

Honestly, that sounded nice and Raegan was about to tell him as much when Mowgli stuffed his face closer to get a better look at the model himself.

He knocked the shield and dislodged a few of the pieces in his curiosity, making Raegan turn on him in her embarrassment.

"Mowgli," She huffed at him, putting her hands on her hips like a disappointed mother. "Come on, be easy!"

Mowgli looked at her unimpressed, smacking his lips a bit as he moaned back. He didn't seem deterred by the reaction. Punk.

Fishlegs was a little busy putting the pieces back together like they were his lifeline, but he did manage to find the time to ask, "What language is that?"

Raegan had never been asked this before. The vikings she had been sailing with years ago just corrected her words and told her what she was saying was wrong. Fishlegs seemed interested.

"English," Raegan answered, and Mowgli pressed the side of his head against her torso as he eyed up the unfamiliar human in front of him.

Hiccup walked on over from where he was and tried his best to mimic the word she said, failing spectacularly. Raegan giggled a bit and then repeated it for him, "English."

"You're not from the Archipelago are you?" Fishlegs asked her.

Raegan shook her head, "No, I arrived here on accident six years ago."

"Really? Where are you from?" Astrid asked, joining them with Snotlout.

"The United States of America?" Raegan replied hesitantly, resting her hand on Mowgli's head as he sniffed Fishlegs experimentally. She doubted they'd heard of it.

"I've never heard of it," Hiccup told her, hand on his chin.

Shocker.

"Are there many Woolly Howls there?" Fishlegs asked, thirty for more information. "Is that where you found. . ." He cut off when he realized he didn't know the dragon's name.

"No," Raegan shook her head. "I found Mowgli a little while later and we've been living here ever since. I wouldn't know which way to begin looking."

This was really the first time she thought about going home in a while. She didn't think it was very possible anyway. She wouldn't even know where to begin, and she enjoyed not having to go to school or worry about college. She didn't think her mother would be too happy of suddenly having a three or four thousand pound dragon moving in.

She couldn't remember a lot of her mother, really.

"What? Don't you miss your family?" Snotlout asked her, arms crossed and skeptical.

Raegan rested her hand on one of the pockets of her fur coat, and answered with one word, "Yeah."

There was something of a pause.

"We've never been able to train a Woolly Howl before," Fishlegs repeated something Hiccup had said earlier. Then he ran over to his Gronckle quickly to pull something out of the saddlebag, "Do you think you could help us fill in some of the extra pages on them in our Book of Dragons?" He returned to the group with a large bound book with something like the outline of a dragon on the cover.

He flipped through the many pages quickly until he got to a section near the middle, then he turned it around to show Raegan.

The drawings looked accurate enough to her dragon, but she wasn't really able to accurately access the book because of the foreign letters filling up the page. She blinked at the information in front of her and then back at her new friend.

"Uhh, what would you like to know?" She asked him.

"What's his top speed? What's his shot limit? Is he afraid of eels? What's his wing span?" The questions were shot out fairly quickly for her to reply quite right, so she just stared at him for a few seconds. A deer in the headlights look on her face.

She kinda wanted to see what all the book had to say on her dragon's species, but it was fairly embarrassing to say she didn't know how to read. . .

"Slow down, Fishlegs," Hiccup told the blond. "I'm sure we'll have all the time in the world to answer those questions; but for now, I'd love to see how fast he can go."

Raegan wasn't sure exactly how she could measure her dragon's speed like they were talking; but the next thing out of Hiccup's mouth, she was all for participating in.

"What do you say, Raegan," Hiccup said. "Are you and Mowgli up for a race?"

She almost laughed over his pronunciation of Mowgli's name, but she nodded her head happily anyway. She would love to race Toothless and Hiccup.

"We'd be happy to," She answered him, and Mowgli gave his own sort of huff of agreement.

Toothless barked back at the Woolly Howl eagerly and then looked back at his rider.

"Are you sure we should be racing at a time like this?" Astrid asked Hiccup, "I think we should be focusing on planning our base."

"We've been planning all day," Hiccup reasoned back. "I think a little break would be good for us."

Astrid shook her head at his argument, and then put her arm out to pet her Nadder, "Well, you're not leaving me and Stormfly out."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. So, where to?" Hiccup asked, turning around to look around the clearing in his thought.

Raegan thought as well; she knew the island better than he did, "There's a sea stack on the other side of the island, where I left Snotlout yesterday," She gave the boy in question an apologetic look as she pointed to the general direction. "We could race there and back."

"Perfect," Hiccup smiled at it, then he glanced over to the side of the clearing where Ruffnut and Tuffnut were scheming. "Should we invite the twins?"

"I don't think we should leave them alone," Astrid told him, arms crossed and eyes narrowed at the two.

Raegan couldn't see exactly why they couldn't be left alone, but she didn't speak up about it. She was a little excited about trying out in a race with them.

While Hiccup left to go invite the twins over, Astrid leaned down to talk to Raegan.

"No cheating this time, alright?"

The only thing Raegan could see her referring to was the time she and Mowgli froze Toothless' tail fin so she could ground them.

In return, Raegan just gave her a smile, "No promises."


In reality, Raegan was a fair player. She hopped on Mowgli's back and lined up with the Dragon Riders facing north. They had Fishlegs count them off because he was on the naturally slowest dragon and needed any advantage he could get.

Everyone got ready on their dragons, even Snotlout who was a little grumpy about being semi-friendly with Raegan after she got the better of him yesterday.

"On your marks," Fishlegs called out.

Raegan leaned down so her belly was against Mowgli's back.

"Get set. . ."

Raegan looked over at her primary rivals: Hiccup and Toothless, and they looked back at her with grins.

She was giddy.

"Go!"

Mowgli's strong wings swept up and launched them into the air, just a hair's breadth behind the Night Fury. She was actually just ahead of Stormfly and Snotlout's Nightmare.

In the distance, she could hear the bee-like flapping wings of the Gronckle while she urged Mowgli to fly faster.

When going at top speeds like this, the island seems to shrink a bit and it was only twenty seconds before they reached the end of the island and soared over the final stretch of the water in front of the sea-stack she had directed them to.

Raegan knew this was the biggest problem they had. Mowgli could outrun nearly any dragon they faced in one straight stretch, but his larger body made it more difficult to make the sharp turns of smaller, more agile dragons.

Where they were about tied with Toothless on the final stretch, they got a few paced behind as they made the sharp turn on their way back.

Raegan honestly did not expect to win first place in this little race, but she is happy to say that she was just on Toothless' tail when they crossed the line in second.

Spending the day with other humans whom she could talk and communicate with on a more personal level was exhilarating, made her more hyper and happy and excited. Acting her age. She and Fishlegs ended up talking about the different dragons they'd seen. He told her stories of the Death Song they'd run into just a few days ago and the Typhoomerang: the first new dragon they'd discovered since their war with the creatures had stopped.

From the snide remarks that Snotlout sent their way, Raegan was able to piece together the history of how Hiccup stopped a cruel dragon queen named the Red Death and released all of the dragons under her to come live on Berk.

She liked the portrait they painted in her head of Berk. A village of humans and dragons living together and working together.

She felt the pang in her chest ease at a new taste of hope on the horizon.

Fishlegs was extraordinarily excited when Hiccup mentioned the setting sun to them a few hours later.

"Do you think you can show us that nocturnal species you mentioned?"

"There's a nocturnal species here?" Fishlegs gasped, flipping through the Book of Dragons to show off the very few other species that behaved this way.

"You gotta be kidding me," Ruffnut's gravely voice shot up from the distance as she listened in. "You're telling me he was telling the truth?"

At Raegan's confirmation, Tuffnut rubbed it in his sister's face.

"You got that right, sis," He boasted, chin in the air. "Looks like I am declared the winner."

"Not until I see some concrete evidence," Ruff shook her head and marched towards her Zippleback. Once she was on the right head she looked back over to where Raegan was lounging. "You! Shorty! What are you waiting for? We gotta dragon to go see!"

Raegan raised an eyebrow at the command but complied anyway, getting on Mow's back to lead them to the caves that the small dragons were usually found in.


How many ears does Captain Kirk have?

Three!

A left ear, and a right ear!

And a Final Frontier!