A/N: Sorry for the wait! IDK, the chapter just didn't come easy, and I changed a couple of events I was thinking I wanted to happen but decided to hold off until later.

Calvin: Eret from the past is 20 and Eret from the future is about 26. And you'll just have to wait and see ;)

NightshadeLG: Caught ya! Now to make sure you don't flop out of the boat :D

toothlessgolfer: Yup, his Eret. And yes, exactly. He'd be able to meddle all he wants but it wouldn't change the future he returns to.

The boat shook as something big rammed into it. Eret woke up to wood splintering around him. He reflexively closed his eyes and lifted his hands to protect his face.

"GET THE ROPES!"

"WHAT THE HEL IS IT?!"

"MOVE OUT OF THE WAY!"

Somebody was pulling at him and Eret let himself be dragged away as something in the room roared. The faint moonlight poored in through the hole in the deck of the ship, the hole that the dragon had broken in through like it was made of petals.

Eret was a dragon trapper, in a long line of dragon trappers, but that didn't mean he didn't think of the beasts as amazing creatures, strong and powerful. And this one was no accpetion.

It was green and red, scales reflecting the moonlight. It was bulky, clearly made to take a beating and even more so to give one, with large plates of scales like armor. It roared again, showing off its sharp teeth, and approached him and the crewman who had pulled him away from the beast.

The dragon growled, opening its mouth, filling it with gas and then firing a shot at the crewman. Eret ran to one side while the crewman ran to the other. The dragon stalked up to Eret, who backed up as much as he could against the wooden wall of the boat. It inhaled a great deep breath through its nose. One. Twice. Three times. Why weren't any of his men attacking it? Too scared? Too tired? What if it'd already killed them.

The dragon gave another roar, the scent of dead fish strong on its breath, and then let out a huff of air through its nose as if upset.

And then, just as quickly as the monster had come, it turned around and left.

"... Odin, what was that?!"

oOo

"What if this is a case where what I do doesn't matter? It'll just… split, like Fishlegs' books? I mean, then I could just do whatever. But what if it isn't? What if I mess with something, and then when I get back home Astrid died, or we never killed the Red Death? What if Dragon won?"

Horrendous paced back and forth on the ledge, tugging on his hair and trying to figure out what to make of this new concept.

Serrated barked, not being of any help.

The terrible terrors ran around in the tall grass nearby, stalking each other. Every so often a yelp could be heard as one caught the other.

Horrendous had barely been able to sleep the night before, trying to decide what to make of his situation. Eret hadn't woken up yet, but occasionally he'd mumble something, which Horrendous took to be a good sign. In the morning he'd gone to the forge and half-heartedly sharpened a blade or two before walking away to the dragons.

They weren't the ones he usually leaned on, those who usually were there to comfort him, but in a way that was nice in and of itself. Considering that his Riders were 14/15 year olds that didn't know who he really was, his dad also didn't know who he was and was currently out at sea, his mom was probably still living at the Sanctuary, and his best friend was a dangerous dragon who would probably sooner burn him to a crisp than listen to him.

Also Eret, but he still wasn't awake. And another of him still catching dragons probably.

"I just… I don't know what I should do. I guess I'll keep this up until I can decide." Horrendous sighed and then climbed onto Serrated's back. "Maybe a quick flight will help me clear my mind."

oOo

Eret woke up in a room he didn't recognize.

His head hurt and he was sore, muscles complaining as he sat up, but he did so anyway. He as immediately on edge, looking around him for any threat. There's none that are immediate, but he refuses to relax just yet.

He quickly reviews what was the last thing he could remember.

After meeting with the Riders discussing issues facing Berk, Hiccup had gone out for a ride by himself to clear his mind. They had let him go, he had really looked like he needed it, but then a storm had rolled in and he hadn't returned. The storm had hung around, leaving dragons mostly stuck on the ground, every cold and wet and dreary, and the whole village - particularly Valka and Astrid - had been going out of their mind with worry. Astrid had even flown out a time or two, but had come back without Hiccup.

Eret had convinced the her to stay back, insisting that now of all times the village needed her, and had flown out with Skullcrusher.

The storm had seemed to get worse the farther from Berk he'd gotten. Skullcrusher had lost control and then… water, yes, water. He'd called for his dragon, but he got no response. He'd seen land and had desperately swam towards it.

And how here he was.

Eret was very aware that he was wearing barely any clothes. The pants he was wearing weren't even his.

One of the walls was filled with weapons, and Eret immediately took one. It was clearly well cared for and he felt much safer with the axe in his hand. He looked around the rest of the room. There was a monstrous nightmare skull above the bed as well as a deadly nadder to right of it. The wall opposite of the the weapons was home to a large map, x's in red and black scattered across it. Eret looked at it, trying to figure out where on it he may be right now. Berk was an island pretty far from everything else. It would take awhile to get there from anywhere by boat.

He slowly made his way out of the room, edging the door open and looking around. There was nobody in the main room, thankfully, and he crept out cautiously. Sure this people had taken him in and given him a bed, but what if they recognized as someone who was now a part of the dragon riders? If the skulls were any indication, they didn't have a high view of dragons.

Eret was relieved to find all of his clothes hanging by the fire and set down the axe to quickly get dressed. He ran his hand along the golden scales of his rest, closing his eyes and thinking about Skullcrusher. He had to believe that his dragon was still out there somewhere, probably tracking him down right now. Well, then it'd be his mission to be ready for when the dragon arrived, to defend him and then leave, finding their way back to Berk.

The look on Astrid and Valka's face when he returned without Hiccup wouldn't be nice but… well, perhaps Hiccup just had the tact to stay somewhere safe during the storm. Yes, he couldn't give in to doubt now.

With his own weapons back in his possession, Eret put the axe back and braced himself for whatever would greet him on the other side of the door.

It was afternoon, bright and as cloudless as it got this far north. He took in the village around him. It looked rather small, a few vikings bustling around. One of them looked at him, smile and waved good naturedly, and he waved back. Okay, they didn't seem so bad so far. He reminded himself that it wasn't too long ago we was the best dragon tracker there was.

There was something… very familiar, however, about the landscape that bothered him. In looked a lot… like Berk. Which was crazy. There weren't any dragons, or half of the buildings that held them, and the giant carving of Stoick was nowhere to be seen. You can't cover up something like that.

And yet… and yet. It was so similar. Maybe he was dreaming? But no, he felt too sore to be asleep.

He kept a hand on his knife while he walked through the town, eying the familiar people he passed. They all gave him odds looks in return, but he made sure to walk with purpose and nobody tried to talk to him. He gave another look around, grimacing at how wrong this place looked. He could see the Great Hall, at the top of the town where it had always been, and looking out at the sea he could see the stone carvings of vikings. This certainly seemed to be Berk.

Eret hadn't even realized where he was going until he found himself standing outside of the forge. Hiccup could usually be found in here, so he tended to go here after missions or when he needed to report things. It was where he always regrouped - and apparently the habit persisted even in this not-quite Berk.

It was so much smaller than the one that he knew should be here. Like everything else here, it was painfully obvious that it wasn't made for dragons - which was just so wrong! How could this be Berk if there were no dragons?

Eret edged his way inside. There was somebody inside, young and very short - especially compared to the vikings. He was looking at something on the table that Eret recognized with a start. Hiccup's armor, the one made out of Toothless's scales, was sitting on the table. It had clearly seen better days, but it was here, which meant that surely, surely Hiccup was here somewhere too.

The kid in front of the armor was holding a scale in his hand, looking from it to the armor and back again.

"Excuse me?" Eret said, making his presence known and stepping farther into the forge. The kid jumped and spun around, putting the scale behind him and having the most guilty and nervous look on his face that Eret had ever seen.

"O-oh! Hi!" The kid said, and now it was Eret's turn to be surprised, recoiling away at the voice that didn't match the face. He rubbed his head, a headache he'd had since he'd stepped outside getting worse. "You're awake. Well, obviously you're awake, I mean you're here, unless you're sleepwalking right now-"

"I'm not sleeping walking." Eret cut him off. "That armor there belongs to a good friend of mine. Do you know where he is?"

"So you do know Horrendous." The kid muttered more to himself than to Eret. "So your name is Eret then, right?"

"Yes." Eret responded hesitantly. Horrendous. He knew that Hiccup's full name was Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, but it was weird for him to be going by his middle name. And the kid's voice… Some things were coming together, as illogically as it seemed, in Eret's mind, and none of it was looking good. "Where is… Horrendous?"

"Usually he's here or in the woods. I don't know what he could be doing out there though, or when he'll be back." The kid looked a bit frustrated at the information, and Eret noted that.

"But you must be hungry, right? You were out for a day." A solid day. That was more time than Eret would've liked, but better than several more.

"Yes, I am. Do you know where I can get some food?" Eret asked even though he knew exactly where he could get some food.

"Yeah, c'mon, I'll show you to the Great Hall." The kid kept the scale in the palm on his hand, where he clearly thought it was out of sight, and went back out of the forge.

"What did you say your name was?" Eret looked the kid over, the scrawny thing he was, with that voice, thinking about what all the other Riders said Hiccup used to be like when they were younger, and dreaded the answer he knew was coming that would confirm just how far from Berk - the Berk he knew and called home - he was.

"Oh, right. I'm Hiccup."