Another title for this chapter would be "how not to raid your village". Enjoy what can best be described as a... well, I'm not gonna spoil anything.

My heart was beating so fast that I would've been afraid of it jumping out of my chest. That was, if I didn't have much bigger things to worry about.

The guards shouted the alarm five seconds after Scarnose's roar woke up the village, and after another five seconds Hiccup was on my back. I jumped into the sky trough the building's open top, while my brain went on to work overdrive. Roaring before a raid wasn't normal procedure, so this wasn't just a normal food heist. Twenty or so dragons were landning on a plain next to the village, fully visible to countless human eyes. Scarnose had listened to me and managed to convince them to try a peaceful alternative to the raid. An alternative that could very well lead them to their doom.

The newest version of the tail fin was controlled by a pedal instead of the old lever. This, together with the practice I had gotten flying with Hiccup and the fact I was a night fury made made me land in front of the pack before everyone else. I had to convince them to go back to the nest before the human warriors got here, or their blood would be shed. Meatlug landed shortly besides me seconds later with her rider on her back. Scarnose smiled at me for a split second, but quickly put a buisnesslike expression. After all, the pack of dragons was here for a reason.

- Where is the food?

- The deal is off. Go back now.

His eyes narrowed. It was incredible that he had managed to convince the raiders not to attack, and now I was telling him his efforts were for nothing. But what could I do? I couldn't decide what a viking village wanted.

- They've already started befriending other dragons...

He nodded at Meatlug, and at Stormfly that was coming running towards the scene. Closely behind them were loads of warriors. They had never fought side by side with dragons before, which was showed by the fear in their eyes. But they were warriors, so they kept running towards the nest witouht even slowing down. They would be here soon.

- ...so why won't they befriend us?

I didn't know what to answer to make them leave. I had been in the nest myself, so I knew that witouth enough food or enough casualties none of the dragons would go back. Even when there warriors charging at them.

- Meatlug, show them your wing.

The gronkle showed the cut in the wing, and finally, the pack started to look worried. Which was good, because Stormfly had already caught up which meant that the warriors were very close. The girl on Stormfly's back looked a bit dizzy from the run, but otherwise focused and battle ready. Those damned vikings, wanting nothing more than to spill a dragon's blood, even when they were sitting on one!

- Stormfly, show then your wing too.

By now the dragons were really worried, probably also because of the warriors. Hiccup was trying his best to make me stay calm, but this was really not the time to chill. The warriors were basically besides me. This was time to tell them off. And I didn't have the time for formalities.

- GO AWAY NOW OR...

A spear planted itself in the side of a scuttleclaw in the edge of the pack. For a short moment, the creature's pain-filled roar overshadowed every other sound. The next second the air was filled with various roars and war cries, as well as more spears and arrows. The metal of an axe flashed on my side as a viking kept charging forwards. With no better idea, I joined him and leapt forwards.

The dragons hadn't expected a fight. As a result, they got completely disorganised when spears started raining on them. Now they were trying to decide between fleeing or charging themselves, and this was costing them precious seconds that they didn't have. In a split second decision, I fired. As the plasma exploded a few meters in front of the pack, the surprise made everyone stop for a while, including Hiccup. I fired again, once again in the path between the warriors and the pack. This created almost a 'wall' of fire between the two groups. If nothing else, this was buying time. By now the pack had decided to fly away, and the first dragons were already in the air.

I was about to fire a third time, when shouting came from my left. One of the warriors was panting, shouting and pointing at me with his sword. He was covered in dust, maybe from the explosions I had made. I quickly understood what was going on. He was mad at me for firing so close to them. And then I met his eyes. Fear, anger, focus, and absolutely not a thought about the dragons' lives, or about mine. And as I looked back to the sword, a wave of fear swept me. I wanted to fire more, to make sure as many dragons as possible escaped. Heck, part of me wanted to fire on the vikings, just to buy the nest a little more time. But if I wanted to still be alive by sunrise I had to make these humans happy. Night furies weren't supposed to have fear. But they weren't supposed to be flightless in a battle with dozens of vikings either.

After seeing that I had stopped being a hazard, the viking nodded and joined the charge. Meatlug and Stormfly were in the charge too, firing at the pack. Finally, the dragons were in the air and outside the range of spears. I looked back on the battleground. The fast dragons could quickly escape from the line of fire, and the well armoured ones could withstand loads of spears and other weapons, even if it took them longer to escape. A hideous zippleback and a hotburple didn't belong in any of these groups and had paid the price, joining the scuttleclaw from earlier on the ground.

I looked at the bodies, recognizing all but the scuttleclaw. He had to have joined the nest after I got shot down. I cracked a small smile, remembering how the zippleback' s head were always fighting about if she should be called Clyde n' Bonnie or Bonnie n' Clyde. At the end we just called her "Zip". Still, three casualties in this kind of battle wasn't horrible. It was a tragedy, sure, but it could have gone that much worse. But it wasn't over yet.

The dragons knew that not bringing enough food back at the nest meant with all odds death. And after circling above the nest for half a minute, they had made a decision. I crooed to Hiccup to takeoff, and jumped into the air. It took a few seconds, but soon we were flying back towards the village, the pantry to be exact. It was important to get there before the rest of the dragon horde.

After countless raids, the nest had become quite good at that. We had learned many hard lessons, from what happens if you split your forces to why you don't go back empty handed. And in the end, we had found three things that were important for a good raid: speed, speed and lastly, speed. Speed was needed to use the element of surprise. Speed was needed to reduce the amount of arrows going our way. Lastly, speed was what kept the warriors shocked and stopped them from forming a good defense. By roaring at the beginning of the raid and making a detour on that plain, a lot of time had passed. The pack of dragons could no longer rely on speed.

Even though many warriors had charged towards the plain, many had staid back to protect the village. In my haste, I made a not-so-graceful landning next to a group of spear warriors that were guarding the pantry walls. They gave me and Hiccup worried looks, but quickly focused back at the sky. And at the large amount of dragons diving at full speed. I managed to get eye contact with Scarnose up there, and I got afraid. His eyes seemed to say "You're here. I need to mind about you." and nothing else. No anger, no confusion, just acknowledgment. The funny, gentle, innocent Scarnose had been turned into an emotionless war machine.

Normally, the pantry was almost deserted when we raided. Witouth the element of the surprise the village had managed to make layers of defense. Archers in the back fired, soon followed by the spears. More roars of pain filled the sky. The spearmen jumped out of the way as the rest of the pack burned down the wooden door and everything in it's surroundings. A purple young nightmare got worryingly close, then fired. At me. I jumped up to protect Hiccup and evaded most of the beam, but my stomach still burned. In a moment of anger, I fired towards the dragons torso, who roared in pain before rushing in the pantry.

Rushing all your dragons into a building was suicide, as it left a small gap from where all dragons would come out. The one time this had been tried the vikings had used this to down the dragons one by one, causing huge casualties. Therefore, six dragons stayed outside, trying to delay the warriors as much as possible. About twenty seconds were needed to get enough food, then the pack would leave together with those six dragons. Scarnose, was one of those, and where did he put himself? He stood in front of me and kept his attention on me and Hiccup, because of course he had to. Maybe he thought I wouldn't fire at a friend, so it was relatively safe. And he was damn right. I hadn't lost all my pride yet.

Which seemed to be the case for Meatlug. She flew above the dragons, and fired on them a lot more than I knew was possible for a gronkle. The viking on her seemed ecstatic. Scarnose sprung sideways to narrowly miss the flaming hot boulder.

- Crazy gronkle!! Watch out!

Most dragons heard my warning and evaded the shots. But a gronkle was just too slow, and got the rock straight on a wing. That got Scarnose' attention immetpdiately.

- SNARE!! How are you?!

The only answer he received was a terrified stare. Snare was in shock. On the plus side, Meatlug was out of shots.

All that arrows could really do against dragons with thick scales was sting, unless if they hit where it hurted, like an eye or throat. Then one hit me in the leg. These archers couldn't even aim! What if they hit Hiccup? I turned towards them and growled angrily. I immediately regretted this when their bows turned towards me and Hiccup started frantically trying to explain. This was my place now. A slave that was expected to fight dragons. And if I didn't bring enough help to this raid, they could just get rid of me. I had to fight and show them I was useful. Or die. A few seconds later a flow of dragons began in the hole in the wall in the pantry. This was followed by a flow of ranged weapons towards them. And I got an idea of how to show off.

Trusting my instincts, I jumped into the air and fired. The shot was aimed for the line of dragons, but a very specific part of it. Somewhere with as few dragons as possible. I fired and fired until I felt myself falling towards the ground. Controlling the tail fin during basically a zoom climb must've been hard for Hiccup, especially since he wasn't ready. I flattened and gracefully landed, watching the column of dragons flying away. The plasma explosion wasn't very dangerous for a dragon, especially if it only stayed in there for a short while. However it did cause a lot of shock and a lot of light. For many dragons this was enough to make them drop their food, More importantly, it got harder for archers and spesrmen to hit. There was nothing like a good old plasma blast to brighten up some vikings day. And blind them for a few seconds. Lastly, the food dropped by the raiders would hopefully make the humans happy. I was simply proud.

However, the blasts had only made the dragons harder to hit. A nadder had got hit by a spear and fallen out of the sky. Not Scarnose, but still not good. I looked back to the plane. It was also the end for a nightmare, who had got beheaded just like Armpit must've been. I hadn't even heard it in the chaos of battle. A small terror had gotten hit with a spear during the rush to the pantry. Lastly, there was a dragon to which the end hadn't arrived yet, But it would soon.

- Snare...

The gronkle had tried to takeoff with the others. But Meatlug's shot had basically burned a wing off her. Still shocked, the poor dragon kept flapping her one remaining wing ever more desperaly, making the whole creature tilt to one side. I rushed over to her, but I had no idea of how to help.

- Snare, look at me! You'll be fine!

Finally, the dragon stopped panicking to look at me. I could swear she gave a tiny smile among all that fear.

Snare was

well known in the nest. She had been raiding with the nest since before I went there, and though she wasn't great at battle, there was something she could do better than everyone else: be a guide for newcomers. Finding out they had lost their freedom and would be forced to fight presumably until death made many dragons go close to giving it all up. And somehow, Snare always managed to make them stay afloat, by guiding and supporting them trough their darkest days. She was the one that had made me understand that crazy volcano, and had turned me into the best raider that the nest had ever seen. She had made the nest into something that reminded of a big family

And now, she was grounded and surrounded dozens of vikings and two dragons. I was the only one standing between her and a horde of sharp weapons and claws, but what could I do? My only hope was that the vikings spared her to use her as a soldier. She'd hate fighting for the vermin, but she'd at least be alive.

- Toothless... you're alive...

I felt a tear flow down to my jaw.

- Yes, grounded but alive! They didn't kill me so they won't kill you! Don't worry!

Sadly one of the human vermin disagreed with me. It trusted it's sword and scratched at her wound, where the wing would be. Snare yelled in pain.

- Snare! Stay with me! You'll make it trough this!

- It hurts! Make it stop!

I roared at said viking. Bad idea. Half of the weapons that were aimed at Snare turned towards me. How many times would I have died in this battle if it weren't for Hiccup? Then a sword cut trough Snare's side. Followed by another one. And then another. Trough the roars of pain i only managed to make up one word: "stop".

- Snare... I'm sorry.

I leapt onto her and bit down at the back of her neck, as deep as I could. All movement from the gronkle stopped. Then I fired into the open wound, transforming her neck bones into coal. At least she hadn't suffered.

- Toothless.

I turned towards Meatlug.

- Couldn't you have called me anything else than "Crazy gronkle"?

I thought about the matter for a bit. Then I decided that, considering that she had asked while I still had a bleeding bit of gronkle in my mouth, it was quite fitting.

I really should raise this fic's rating. Sorry for all these really undeveloped characters that are really important to the protagonists, but hey! Cheap and easy way to character motivation. Until next time: bye bye