(A/N) Sorry guys, I wanted to get this out much sooner but then exams happened and now I'm working two jobs, plus I rewrote this chapter a few times because I wasn't liking the way it was going. Writing was kind of put on the back-burner for a little bit. On the same note, this is far from the first time something like this has happened and honestly, the whole updating ever week thing has put a lot of stress on me because I feel like I'm letting you down and sometimes I put too much time into this story when I need to do other things. As a result, I'm getting burnt out writing less and less. So, my solution is not to stop writing all together, but to pace myself a little more. As of right now, I am going to update when I have a chance, not on a specified day. It will give me a chance to write when I actually have time and not rush things, which will make for better quality chapters. I hope you guys don't mind.

On another note, I'm no longer at college, which means my regular editors are no longer within reach. So, I'm currently looking for a Beta-reader. If anybody is interested, send me a PM and I'll get back to you.

Guest Reviews:

Brenne: Lol, It will be interesting to see.

Guest 1: It sounds like you and I are mostly on the same page when it comes to Astrid's character, although I would probably add jealousy to the list of emotions that she was experiencing when Hiccup surpassed her in Dragon Training. I'm not quite sure how you think that I'm making Astrid into the villain, because I'm not, far from it. Like you said, Astrid desires to protect her village and will do whatever it takes to do so. And while she isn't as cunning as Hiccup or Viggo, she is smart and tactical, which is one of the reasons why she works well with Hiccup in Canon.

The reason why I included the A/N about Astrid and Eret is because I've seen other fanfics flame authors for no other reason than pairing the two of them together. You could call this fan catering in some ways, but though I do not flame other authors who have done this, this is not a pairing that I personally see working out for some reason. Why, I don't even know to be honest. Maybe it's just that I'm more of a fan of HTTYD 1 than HTTYD 2.

As for Fishlegs, Again, I would also agree with you that he was acting like a blind sheep for most of his life before Dragon Training, though we also don't know much about their lives before the events of HTTYD. We have no idea what Fishlegs went through or why he decided to follow the others or even when. That's not excusing his character or myself even. I did that once and I've been kicking myself ever since. I'd like to think that Fishlegs learned the lesson that I did, to stick up for others.

Surayo: Good, that is what I was hoping for.

tefe203: Not my particular opinion, but you may get your wish, but then again, you may not. Though there hasn't been to much blood shed yet, no character is safe in this story.

Master of Energy: Thank you. Astrid will stay good, you don't have to worry about that, but I can't reveal her fate as of this time. Take that as you will.

Mudsbreath: Thank you.

Guest 2: He killed her father, but I haven't addressed the fate of her mother yet. Though It is not spoiling anything to say that she died during the first winter Astrid was gone.

Guest 3: Me neither.

Guest 4: At this point I'm actually lost as to where the whole Fishlegs thing came into play because it's been so long and I can't remember what I said about him or even if I did say anything about him. I did some looking and can't find anything if I did, so for now I'm going to just say I agree with you until I can find what I said, then I'll go from there. Though arguably, neither Astrid or Fishlegs is going to be a villain in this fanfic.

ChrisToothless: Thank you, but Astrid needs to ride a dragon in this, which is why she does.

Guest 5: Was planning on it, just had to edit this chapter when you sent the review.

Chapter 38

The moon shone bright and lit up the clouds in a sliver glow, giving the two people on the back of a dragon plenty of light by which to see in the crisp night air.

Astrid kept the flight calm, allowing Eret to get a feel of the sky. She flew them past the fort's tower, which was now dark save for a few torches lit by the watchman. Eret stared in awe as he caught a glimpse of his home from an angle he'd never seen before. The fort looked so small from up here.

With another flap of his wings, Quicksand brought the two higher and higher, out of view of the fort and above the clouds. Soon the ground seemed like nothing but a far off dream, yet no matter how high they rose above the world, the stars never seemed to get any closer.

"Wow. I never dreamed of anything like this…" Eret finally broke the silence, "This is amazing."

"I know what you mean. This never gets old."

"Does it just keep on going?" He asked, referencing to the seemingly never-ending void above them.

"As far as I know. Hiccup would probably be able to tell you better."

Eret nodded, "This really is something else."

Astrid was enjoying being able to show someone else this world which few ever had the pleasure of witnessing, but there was another reason why she had brought him up here, "So… what do you know about Hiccup? Who is he to you?"

Eret looked like he was contemplating how he was going to answer Astrid's question. There was so much to explain…

A large mass of scales appeared in front of them, blocking their path and sending a massive gust of wind straight towards them. Quicksand shrieked in surprise and did his best to withstand the hurricane buffeting them while Astrid and Eret were just doing their best to hold on. The rushing air never relented and Astrid peeked over Quicksand's head in order to figure out what exactly was going on.

Another dragon was staring them down, it was a large one too. She wasn't sure what they had done to anger it, but she and Quicksand had faced other dragons many times before and both of them knew what they would do.

"Hold on!" Astrid yelled to Eret.

"What?"

Quicksand folded his wings before the newcomer could try anything and the three of them began plummeting towards the ocean below. Eret screamed and desperately clutched at Astrid's waist in order to not fall off.

The other dragon screeched, announcing to the trio that it too had taken the plunge and was hot on their tale.

"What type of dragon is it? Can you tell?" Astrid asked her passenger.

Eret took a glance back at their pursuer and found that he did know the species, even with just a quick glance. Only one type of dragon had four wings.

"Stormcutter." Eret answered, "Nearly impossible to knock it out of the air and more maneuverable than any other dragon, but we should be able to outrun it once we level off."

Astrid nodded and pulled Quicksand out of the dive just over the water's surface, leaving a small wake behind them. Sure enough, the Stormcutter pulled out of the dive and quickly lost all of it's momentum. Soon, it was almost out of sight.

Astrid breathed as sigh of relief, the Stormcutter would soon realize it would be unable to attack its' quarry and give up. With the distraction out of the way, maybe she could get some answers out of Eret. "Now, as you were going to say before we were interpted-"

A Thunderdrum jumped out of the water right in front of them and Astrid was forced to barrel role out of the way. She would have passed it off as a fluke, but then a second made a jump at them. Fortunately, the dragons were slow and cumbersome, making it easy for the trio to dodge the Thunderdrums, but more and more began to follow suit, slowing their progress and forcing them to rise high above the waves.

The Stormcutter gained some ground in the process, but this time, it was not alone. Raincutters, Hobblegrunts, Thunderclaws, Deadly Nadders and more were on their tail. A Sand Wraith was fast, almost as fast as a Night Fury even. The book of dragons gave them a speed rating of 17. In a one verse one race, they'd be able to beat anyone of those dragons easily, but this had turned into a race of endurance now, and they had no hope of outlasting all of them. They needed to do something fast if they were going to get out of this.

A whistling sound caught their attention and all three turned their heads up towards the source. It was too late to do anything however as a Windstriker slammed into them from above, plucking Eret from the saddle and throwing Astrid and Quicksand off balance. By the time they recovered, Eret was gone and they were surrounded on all sides by dragons of varying species. Hovering in front of them was the Stormcutter.

She didn't know what was going on, but one thing she did know was she wasn't going down without a fight and so, she drew her axe.

A Monstrous Nightmare was the first to approach and it was driven off with a blast to the chest from Quicksand. At the same time, a Hobblegrunt approached from below when the pair was distracted and rammed them as Astrid swung her axe at a passing Raincutter, missing only by a few inches despite the Hobblegrunt's attack.

A gust of wind from the Stormcutter's wings sent the two further off balance, allowing a Deadly Nadder to swoop in and grab Astrid off the Sand Wraith's back. Quicksand shrieked at the loss of his rider and quickly took off after the Nadder, ignoring the attempts of the other dragons to herd him away from the young girl.

"Quicksand!" Astrid yelled in terror of being separated from the Sand Wraith. She attempted to swing the flat of her axe at the Nadder's underside to force it to let her go, but a sharp jolt from the dragon forced her to drop it. She watched in horror as her mother's axe was lost to the depths of the sea. "NO!"

The Stormcutter flew by her, examining the girl suspended in the Nadder's claws. It was only then that Astrid caught sight of the masked figure dressed in intimidating leather armour and grasping a strange staff on the dragon's back. She gasped at the sight. She thought Hiccup and herself were the only two dragon riders, but here was a third. Exactly how many were there?

Quicksand was still struggling to get to his rider, catching the attention of the masked dragon rider, who looked on in curiosity. There had been many people in the past who had tried to subjugate dragons to their will. There was the Grimborn brothers for instance. They'd trained a few Catastrophic Quakens to respond to the vibrations in a hammer, even after the two of them had been set free. A solution to that particular problem hadn't been figured out as of yet. Then there was the one who they called Krogan who had managed to bend an entire flock of Singetails to his will and rode them in a similar manner to this young woman. Fortunately, both the Grimborn brothers and Krogan had seemingly vanished into thin air for some strange reason.

This woman could be his replacement. She had come from the dragon trapper fort and carried with her the son of their leader after all. It would be a good place to start building the fliers 2.0, but then why would her dragon be acting the way it was. It was almost like it pained the Sand Wraith to be away from his rider. The situation was troubling and would have to be handled carefully, but for now, the Sand Wraith would have to be dealt with before it hurt itself or another.

So, with practised grace, the rider hopped of the Stormcutter's back and onto the Sand Wraith's. The dragon immediately rejected the idea of an added weight on his back that wasn't his rider and attempted to throw it off, but the rider hadn't lived with dragons for 19 years without learning a thing or two, including how to pacify a furious Sand Wraith. The rider shook her staff, which emitted a strange humming sensation, next to the dragon's head and rested her hand, which had been dipped in crushed sagefruit, near the dragon's nose. The effect was almost immediate and the Sand Wraith entered an almost trance like state, flying straight as an arrow unless prompted to turn by the rider.

With the rider's attention focused on her dragon, Astrid took the opportunity to try and pacify the Nadder carrying her. She cooed softly at it while attempting to free one of her arms. It took a while as the Nadder was still warry from when the young Viking had taken a swing at her with the axe that had fallen to the sea, but eventually Astrid managed to win the Nadder over after apologising profusely for her actions (which she ensured the dragon was purely only in self-defence) and giving her a good scratch on the back. Only then was she permitted to climb on.

An hour had passed by that time and they were far from the Eret's fort. Instead of the familiar forests they had left behind, snow pelted the land and a mountain of spiked ice rose from ground. The dragons, including the masked rider and Quicksand, all made for an opening in the mountain's face. Astrid, still riding the Nadder, followed without hesitation. Whoever this masked rider was, they had her dragon and she wasn't leaving without him.

She was surprised at how open the area immediately inside the cave was. In hindsight, she may have been a bit hasty because about 30 dragons, along with the masked rider, watched her enter. Gods, she didn't have Quicksand as back-up and she didn't even have her axe anymore. She had no clue as to where Eret had gotten off too.

Regardless of the clear disadvantage she was at, she was already here and there was no backing out now. So, she landed, dismounted and turned to face the masked rider.

They both stared at one another for what seemed like hours but was actually probably only a few minutes. The masked rider stared on in curiosity, studying the young woman who was defiant in the face of insurmountable odds. The fact that she'd rode the Nadder in after only being with it for a bit over an hour spoke volumes of her knowledge of dragons, yet she had come from the fort of Eret, who worked for Drago. It was a troubling concept. If Drago had actually learned how to create bonds with dragons, the whole world would be in even greater peril than it already was. Nothing would stand against him.

Meanwhile, Astrid was studying her opponent, looking for strengths and weaknesses, taking into account the location and species of each and every dragon, calculating the quickest path to Quicksand and establishing the location of the nearest escape route. When she finally did make her move, she would need to be fast and accurate, land a few choice blows to the masked rider and get out. Even then, she wasn't sure she and Quicksand would be able to escape.

The rider finally had enough and sent a quick gesture to a few nearby dragons who began to stalk towards the young woman with low growls. It was time to see what this young woman was capable of. The effect was immediate as the Nadder that the girl had flown in on curled protectively her and bristled her tail spikes, a clear warning to the other dragons to not harm her. The advancing dragons backed off, not wanting to hurt one of their fellow flock.

Astrid, emboldened by the Nadder's protectiveness, decided to end this. She began walking towards the masked rider, intent on getting her dragon back. She cared for little else in this point.

THWACK!

She paused as the rider's staff hit the stone floor hard. A dragon flew into the cavern and threw something right next to her. It was only when she spotted Eret roll to his feet that she recognized the dragon as the Windstalker from earlier.

The man glanced around the room, saw all the dragons, Astrid and the masked rider, and drew two short swords. "Don't worry Astrid, I'm the greatest dragon trapper alive. I'll get us out of this." He boasted, even as warning growls arose from all sides.

Astrid shook her head angerly and punched him straight in the jaw, knocking him out cold.

"You amateur!" Astrid yelled as she caught the man's swords before they hit the ground. She knew it would do no good to yell at the unconscious man, but she continued anyways, "That's no way to approach a dragon. I figured you would have realized that by the way Hiccup and I handle them!"

"Hiccup?!" The masked rider interrupted, finally speaking for the first time.

Astrid whirled around, "Yes! Hiccup the Horrendous! You know him! The man whose best friend is a Night Fury. I ride with him. Thank you very much for kidnapping me and my dragon."

The rider removed the mask, revealing the face of an older woman with dark hair and green eyes, "Hiccup…" She gasped, "How is he? What's he like? What has he been up to?" she asked, ignoring Astrid's annoyed tone.

"THAT'S WHAT I'D LIKE TO KNOW!" She yelled, "I swear, that man has so many secrets and myths about him that I don't even know what to believe anymore." She would have continued her tirade, but at that moment, Quicksand woke up from his trance and saw his rider. Next thing she knew, she was being smothered by over 1000 pounds of dragon. She felt her anger fade away as the Sand Wraith nuzzled her and covered her in saliva, forcing a laugh from her lips.

The older rider couldn't help but chuckle at the show before. This young woman was obviously not forcing the Sand Wraith to do anything he didn't want to, yet she was still a bit of a conundrum. Why would a woman who was obviously so good with dragons see fit to hang around with the likes of Drago's and his men and what relationship did she have with Hiccup?

"Oh, you got to be kiddin' me." A groggy voice spoke up. Both woman turned to see Eret rubbing his jaw, "Your working together!" he accused.

Astrid stopped to think how she would approach this. She needed answers from Eret, but she doubted the man would be willing to give any to her now. She would have to force him to talk, and this gave her the perfect opportunity. The older woman seemed to be warming up to her now that she knew she was working with Hiccup and didn't seem to be willing to keep her and Quicksand apart anymore. Plus, Eret was in a room full of dragons and two dragon riders and he was completely defenceless without his short swords.

Astrid extracted herself from underneath the Sand Wraith and turned to confront the young dragon trapper. She felt emboldened by the fact that she had both Quicksand and the Nadder backing her up. "You better believe it. If you want to leave this place alive, your going to tell me everything."

(A/N) Oh boy, Astrid is fed up and on the warpath… This should be interesting.