Meatlug flew for hours.

Mid-air, given the Gronckle gave no indication of ever stopping, Hiccup managed to change from its face to its back, which was bare, for the record. No saddle, no ropes, just Hiccup holding to Meatlug's large ears and hoping they'd get wherever they were going rather soon.

Though the girl did know how to swim, she hadn't tried to do so ever since her new leg and wasn't planning to do it today. Ignoring the cold numbing her foot and hands, Hiccup tried to focus on her surroundings than on how different, and even… Wrong it felt to be on another dragon's back other than Toothless.

Meatlug took them to a fog-covered area. Soon pieces of rotting ships were seen amongst rocks to pointy and narrow to allow anyone to sail amongst them. Truthfully, it was a perfect hiding spot for dragons. The fog reminded her of when Red Death was still alive, when Toothless took her and Artichoke, nearly out of control and seemingly much out of herself, to the island where the most enormous, cruelest dragon they've ever seen laid, controlling all other fire-breathing creatures as puppets to bring it food. Wherever the Gronckle was heading seemed like a place Vikings had sailed trying to find that island before, though it did seem unreachable by both land and sea, a secluded place you'd need wings to fly to.

Had Toothless came here? Was it a place they were being forced to go or a place dragons wanted to go? Meatlug went up, scaring Hiccup on the process. They went for the clouds, rising above them, until she saw up ahead. An island. Sort of. Not exactly land, just a very large piece of stones, the surface seemingly smooth with. The place was shaped like a U letter, which didn't exist on the Viking alphabet, so was almost like a nearly closed waning moon, a range of sand between the stones and the lighter shade of sea surrounding it.

She could see dragons both on it and arriving to it, maybe everyone else was there, though no fully dark-scale dot indicated any Night Fury around.

The Gronckle landed awkwardly, and Hiccup was able to hop off pretty easily. Once on the ground, they parted ways and the girl could finally take a proper look on the dragons and what they were doing.

The place was full, quite full actually, of really, really small dragons. Not like Terrible Terrors, but tiny, still-in-development versions of regular dragons. They made soft growls calling up attention and she saw a blue Deadly Nadder approach a group of tiny Nadders and regurgitate fish remains from its throat to give it to them, much like birds did with their offspring.

"You guys come here to have babies", Hiccup said, concluding.

She caught a glimpse of where Meatlug had gone off to and saw the Gronckle push a few oval light blue rocks into the water. Approaching the shore, just a few seconds later, she saw the cubs come out. Awwww, she thought, looking at how much smaller they were. Gronckles were known for their compact weight and their tough skin, yet the ones swimming up and crawling back to Meatlug had the softest scales, almost like a human child's skin, barely any bump that would surely develop into pointy, impenetrable, rock-like protections. They had much smaller teeth and undersized wings, not to count she had seen many, many dogs quite bigger than it. Maybe even a Terrible Terror could be bigger than it.

While Meatlug busied herself with her newly hatched babies, Hiccup noticed a stray blue egg, stuck on the floor when the Gronckle pushed them over the water. "Oh, hey, over here you forgot one-" but before she could push it herself or hand it to its mother, a sudden explosion took her back violently.

The egg's blue outside layer had hit all over her, leaving a small cut here and there, luckily, Hiccup was more than used with falling. And with explosions. Since long before friendly dragons had entered her life.

"Man, it's a good thing these don't hatch on Berk", she muttered, getting up. She saw an innocent, equally cute and small baby Gronckle yawn and be attended by its mother. She knew some animals would go to specific, safe places to give birth and it made pure sense, actually. Though Hiccup still saw herself as too childish to even think of kids, she was old enough to be sure she'd want a peaceful, safe place when having her own, too. Nobody would bother them here and… No trees around to get on fire with these explosions. That's why they couldn't have laid their eggs on the village… Guess Snoggletog with dragons isn't so possible after all. But thankfully, they were all here, away with their explosive eggs.

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"The eggs… Explode?" Artichoke said slowly, just trying to make sense of what happened, but a few more explosions were both heard and seen across Berk, destroying the huts, initiating some fires. "THE EGGS EXPLODE".

They agreed on keeping a secret, make the eggs with new dragons a surprise for the saddened people upon the holidays, scattering all across huts and near fireplaces. Not long after all of Meatlug's eggs had been taken care of, the group met at the village's plaza, near the tall, green cone of wood they've just ended the decoration before dragons had left.

Finally, he could feel the pride blooming inside, finally he managed to do something to lift people's spirits, to ease the tension and sadness stuck around their people.

"Everyone's gonna be so surprised", said Fishlegs, whispering. They were still mad at him, but before anyone could answer, a lost piece of something strongly thrown in the air took the taller boy down.

"Surprise!", exclaimed Snotlout to the fallen kid. It could almost have been comical, except the teens saw what had hit their friend. It was a green, round, cutsy, soft baby Gronckle, one that grant 'aww' from the group by doing nothing but existing. Artichoke would have said the same if the logic hadn't clicked in his brain.

Orange balls of fire started to pop up on all huts around them. People started screaming, running, confused. Constructions got on fire. Baby Gronckles flew, well, not on purpose, more as being thrown up in the air, towards every side. It was a shit show, fireworks from each egg burning people and places. Given how unexpected it was, one could be said this was even worse than their previous raids.

The twins let out an 'whoa' as their group was the only one rather calm in the middle of this chaos. "This is your best idea yet", commented Snotlout again. Another thing that could give the raven-haired boy a punch in the face, case Artichoke wasn't so shocked and terrified himself, nearly tearing out his own hair. Oh, gods, what have I done?