The future riders were now sure that befriending dragons was the thing that knocked some sense into the Berkians.

Apparently after two hours of wondering whether or not a group of teleporting toddlers was normal, they came to the ingenious conclusion that, yes, in fact it's a normal Friday afternoon.

That wasn't even the best of it. Since no one wanted to 'play babysitter' they decided to leave them, a group of little kids, in the Great Hall for the night and left Mildew, Mildew, to watch them. Who the hell thought that was a good idea? The old traitor was asleep before the last vikings even went out the door.

Hiccup tapped his leg in frustration. His intact, flesh and bone leg.

At first, due to the rush of adrenaline, he hadn't noticed that his metal prosthetic was gone. Now however he realised how used he'd gotten to the thing. It took him a while to re-reinvent walking.

At the same time the reality of what was happening hit him full force and he just kind of switched off. Since then he was sitting here, with Astrid acting as his emotional anchor and the rest of his friends sprawled around trying, and failing, to fall asleep.

Of course the twins soon got bored.

"We should stop them," Astrid suggested, leaning against Hiccup's shoulder, who in turn was leaning against a table leg, his head resting on top of hers. Fishlegs, who was now awake and mostly calmed down, was sitting under said table ("Tables always keep you safe, Hiccup.") close to them.

"We should... in a minute"

The subjects of their discussion were busying themselves a few tables over.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut had somehow got their hands on a cauldron full of spoiled yak milk and a ball of rope, and Snotlout contributed a basked of spoiled eggs that someone kept around for whatever reason, and a few mugs filled with soot and ashes from the fireplace.

Using this they were now creating an intricate trap above their unfortunate victim; the sleeping Mildew.

"I wish they'd put this much effort in other things than just pranks," Hiccup noted when Tuffnut stood on his sister's shoulders, tied a perfect knot around the cauldron's handle and threw the rope over one of the supporting pillars.

Meanwhile Snotlout was carefully adding the ingredients to their death potion, a mix of glee and disgust on his face. The amount of concentration he was exhibiting was almost frightening.

The contraption was slowly coming together.

Together they lifted the filled cauldron and suspended it above Mildew (Astrid, Hiccup and Fishlegs helped too... for research purposes of course), and with a few more adjustments the trap was complete.

"Never have I been more proud to be a part of this team." Tuffnut sniffled as he looked over their creation. Ruffnut patted him on the back as he started sobbing.

"There, there. They do make good sidekicks when Barf and Belch aren't around."

That sentence made everyone painfully aware of how empty the room felt without their dragons.

After a minute of awkward silence Snotlout spoke up, "You know... maybe we should go check the arena. Maybe our dragons came back with us. I don't want Hookfang to be locked up down there... in the dark... all alone... It's not like I miss him though! That's stupid! Who told you that, hehe?"

Hiccup shook his head. "I don't think our dragons are in the arena. You saw how Meatlug was acting, she didn't recognize us at all."

Astrid stretched her arms and stood up. "It won't hurt to check. Maybe she was just confused. And besides," she pointed to the door that was cracked open, "Fishlegs already went ahead."

Hiccup looked past the moonlit forest in the direction of the cove. He didn't get a chance to see Toothless today and was wondering if anyone would notice if he snuck away to sleep in the cove. He'd be back before training would start and even if he wasn't, the village had other things to worry about.

He was actually already halfway out the window when he came literally face to face with Astrid.

He startled and fell backwards onto the floor.

"Ah good. You're awake," Astrid said as she jumped over the windowsill and looked around his room.

"Astrid, Hey. Fancy seeing you here... climbing my house... in the middle of the night... Do you, um, do you do this often?"

Astrid raised an eyebrow and pulled him up by his collar.

"Of course not, why would you even think that? Anyways we need to talk."

"Right, sure, talk... About what?" Hiccup stood awkwardly where Astrid dropped him as she paced around the room.

"About our little visitors of course. They're no ordinary kids. Down in the arena they were talking to each other, I'm sure of it. I don't know who or what they are, but they're bad news. Either they did something to the village, or the others have already lost their common sence, but everyone is acting like nothing happened. Except for you," Astrid jabbed a finger in Hiccup's chest, "so as much as I hate to say it, we have to work together."

Hiccup blinked at the sudden influx of information.

"Ooookay. So what exactly do you want us to do?"

"We'll keep an eye on them, catch them when the do... whatever they came here to do and let your dad and the others handle them afterwards. We're training to be warriors, Hiccup, to protect our village. We have to do this."

Hiccup shifted uncomfortably. Of course he knew those kids were hiding something, and he was determined to find out what, but he wasn't sure that stalking that particular group of toddlers would help in that. Not to mention what might happen if they get caught.

Well, all that aside, Hiccup knew that Astrid being Astrid would go with or without him, and he'd rather be there to prevent her from accidentally finding Toothless. Or decapitating someone.

"Yeah, wow, great... great plan. I'm totally in. Do we start tomorrow or...?"

Astrid smirked. "Why wait?"

Before Hiccup could even process what she said, he was shoved out the window.

They caught up to Fishlegs just in time to see him reaching for the lever on Meatlug's door. Hiccup opened his mouth to yell at him to stop but it was too late.

Fishlegs, despite having to jump to reach it, switched the lever and the door swung open.

Out burst a massive dragon spewing fire and lava, roaring angrily, and went straight for them!

Or that's what the riders expected to happen.

In the chaos of the entire situation they forgot that dragons do one crucial thing during the night; They sleep.

Meatlug was laying on her side with her tongue lolling out, looking content with herself.

"See, Hiccup? She's always been sleeping like that. I told you she came back with us," Fishlegs said happily and ran to Meatlug's side.

"Wait, Fishlegs, that's not-"

"Hey, does that mean we can get our dragon out too?" came Tuffnut's voice from the other side of the arena. The twins were once again forming a human pyramid, and, to his horror, Hiccup saw them already opening the cage.

"Ruff, Tuff, no! That's not-"

"Come on out, Hooky! Don't let some stupid door keep you down!" Snotlout yelled into the darkness of Hookfang's cave, which he just opened.

"Snotlout! I swear to-"

Hiccup's voice was drowned out by an agitated roar.

Snotlout's yell of course woke up not just Hookfang but also all the other dragons.

Hookfang himself burst out out of his cave in a ball of flames, crashing into the chains above and falling back down, still screeching. Meatlug hovered out of her own cave, not noticing the tiny Fishlegs attached to her back. Barf and Belch, who had been freed by the twins, peeked out the door and gas started leaking inside the arena, dangerously close to Hookfang's flaming inferno.

"We have to stop them before they wake up the whole village!" Astrid yelled through the chaos.

"Hiccup, you're the dragon whisperer! Do something!" Snotlout yelled back as he ducked under Hookfang's flaming tail.

"For the last time, I am not a dragon whisperer!" Hiccup shouted, breathless from chasing Matlug.

"It's ok, she's fine! Just a little cranky from being woken up by Snotlout. Right girl? Everything's fine," Fishlegs coaxed Meatlug and tried to pet her as they circled the arena.

That was a mistake.

Meatlug, despite Fishlegs being on the chubbier side, couldn't see or feel him on her back. The hand between her eyes was a different story.

She started growling and spinning wildly to shake the boy off and, in less than three seconds, Fishlegs came crashing into Hiccup. The two then slid across the stone floor, taking Astrid with them, and finally landed on Snotlout, right next to the twins.

The siblings innocently edged away from the last, now also open, cave.

Stormfly, who had somehow gotten out during the chaos, was looking over the group of tiny humans that woke her up.

They were undeniably human but also smelled a bit too much like a buch of fresh hatchlings that wandered too close to a human den. She brought her head closer to smell them and they didn't seem afraid at all. The blond girl even tried to reach out to her.

That was when Meatlug ended her little ballet by crashing into her. The Nadder whipped around to snap at the smaller dragon and accidentally whacked Barf with her tail. The double-headed dragon charged out of its cave, bringing a cloud of Zippleback gas with it.

Almost instantly the green cloud came in contact with the ball of fire.

A huge mushroom cloud, colored in hues of orange, red, and yellow, rose to the sky, lighting up the surrounding cliffs and instantly melting the chains it came in contact with. The riders watched mesmerised from their safe spot behind Stormfly's fireproof scales.

Once the inferno receeded the arena went quiet. The dragons and riders looked hypnotized on the leftover sparkles

"That. Was. Awesome!" Ruffnut exclaimed as Tuffnut promptly fainted of excitement.

"So much for staying inconspicous," Hiccup grumbled as he patted his smoking vest.

"I... think they might have noticed that," Fishlegs said quietly, looking close to fainting again himself.

"Oh, you think?" Astrid pointed at the lights approaching from the village.

As the shouting of angry, just woken up vikings came closer Hiccup came up with a plan.

"Quick! Act normal!"

Astrid quickly pulled Hiccup into the shadows as the crowd of vikings came into view. She didn't want anyone to know that they were there.

Once most of the vikings entered the arena, the two slowly made their way back to town.

They walked in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.

Back at the arena they couldn't quite hear what the kids were saying, but they saw more than enough to confirm their suspicions.

Hiccup glanced at Astrid.

He was worried but also a little intrigued. The way those kids acted around the dragons made him curious. Either it confirmed the tales about dragons that disguise themselves as humans, or these kids had a similar relationship with dragons as he had with Toothless.

However the fact remained that they almost released a flock of angry dragons on the sleeping village. First they had to find out what their goal was, dragon talk could come after that.

"So, what now?" Hiccup asked once they reached his house.

Astrid gripped her axe.

"Now we make a plan. If this doesn't show the chief how dangerous these kids are, we'll need one heck of a proof to convince him. Now get to bed, you'll need your strenght. We've got babies to take down."

And for the first time ever I actually released a new chapter in time!
The story is finally starting to take shape as a whole, now I just have to connect it all together.
Hope you enjoyed the chapter.
Yami_nee out!