Toothless's plasma blast fired out and made contact. It was not until Hiccup heard a dragon cry, that was not of his own reptile's, that he stopped panicking. A Monstrous Nightmare was climbing down from the rocky wall and Dagur had been so focused on proving himself, that he had not noticed it. The wild dragon shot a blast back at Toothless, who rolled out of the line of fire. The Night Fury tried to go back to his rider, so that he could fly in the battle, but was blocked by a large blast.
Altering tactics, Toothless went for the dragon's neck and flipped it onto the grass, causing them to grapple on the ground. As they moved around, they went further into the forest and away from the wall. Hiccup chased after the Night Fury and Dagur followed. Spotting a large branch, Hiccup used his shield's launcher to snag the tree. He gave a hard tug and the branch fell onto the Monstrous Nightmare's head. The wild dragon glared at the boy and swatted his long tail, which knocked the shield out of Hiccup's hands. Then, the dragon opened his mouth as a large stream of flames exited the reptile's mouth, but Toothless was too far from his friend to help.
Hiccup knew that he was not fast enough to avoid the entire path of the fire and tried to brace himself. He felt heat, but no burn and could feel his body being kept in a ball. Dagur had grabbed the shield and ran over to Hiccup, holding him behind the protection so that none of him would be exposed to the flames. The blast ended when Toothless dug his fangs into the other dragon's leg. No longer needing to worry about third degree burns, Dagur released Hiccup and handed him back his shield. "I like it." he commented, lightly, "Reminds me of.." he trailed off and pulled out his crossbow again.
The Berserker aimed the bow at the Monstrous Nightmare. "Don't kill it." Hiccup protested. Dagur rolled his eyes, "I wasn't going to, since you said that you guys are all buddy, buddy with them now. Just a nice sting should do." The arrow whizzed through the air and punctured the thick flesh on the dragon's shoulder. It cried out and fled. "They seem to be sensitive up there. A little something I picked up while-" Dagur eyed Toothless, "you know." "We'll have to remember that." Hiccup told him, petting the Night Fury's head. The older viking put away his weapon, "Well, the only one who left was that dragon. Are you going to trust that your dragon didn't and doesn't think I'm a threat to you? He could still attack me, if I were."
Hiccup smiled at the Berserker, "I think, that he's good at judging people. If he really trusts you, I do too. And," he rubbed the back of his neck, "I'm sorry for lying." Dagur gave him a pat on the shoulder, which could have sent the boy flying, "As long as you don't make a habit out of it, we can be cool." he grinned. Dagur looked at the Night Fury, "Did you call him 'Toothless'? He has teeth, though." he stated, confused and bending down to see if he had been wrong. Toothless gave an ornery, toothy smile. Hiccup laughed, good-naturedly, "Yes to both. They're retractable, so after I saw that, I decided that I wanted it name be his name."
The dragon drew his teeth in and out as Dagur observed, intrigued. "So he's how you were able to take down the Red Death?" "Yep. He was right there with me the whole time." Hiccup said, smiling at the dragon. "Was it hard to train him? Seems like it would be difficult." the older viking noted, "How did you avoid getting eaten?" "Interestingly." Hiccup divulged, "I shot him down with a catapult, trying to prove that I could. That's why his tail is split." Dagur's eyes went to the Night Fury's tail, noticing the manufactured half, "He needs you for him to fly now, huh?"
Sadly, Hiccup nodded, "I tried to make it right by building him the new tail, but it didn't work without a rider to take care of the controls. We started to bond and now we're best friends." An odd expression went over Dagur's face, "You've made a lot of friends recently." The Berkian smiled as he thought of how the other vikings had changed, "Yeah, I have." Dagur brought his attention back to Toothless, "He's cool. And Dangerous-that's what makes him so cool in the first place."
Toothless was, clearly, enjoying the attention and made a disappointed grunt when Hiccup said that they had to head back to Berk. "The others will get worried otherwise." the boy explained. "Okay. I should probably go check on the Berserkers too." Dagur stated, somewhat solemnly. "We can make sure that you get back to your ship all right. Toothless is an even better fighter when he can fly." Hiccup offered. His friends lit up, "Sure. It's this way." Toothless gave a happy roar and followed after the Berserker. Dagur got into his ship and raised the sails, waving goodbye to Hiccup. The Berkian waved back and flew off with the Night Fury.
Hiccup and Toothless caught up with the other riders, quickly. "What took so long?" Snotlout asked, impatiently. "Are you okay? How'd you make it out of there?" Astrid inquired, giving the dark haired boy a glare. "I'm fine. I told Dagur about our dragons." Hiccup explained. "What?" the twins asked in sync, as the other riders gazed at the boy, wide eyed. "I'll tell you more on the way." the heir promised. They made their way to Berk and Hiccup went to his hut to find his father.
Stoick was putting two ice blocks on his head when Hiccup entered the hut. "Son, how did your training go?" he inquired. "It was..different. I need to tell you something." his son stated. The chief sat upright in his throne, "Are you all right?" "Yeah. I wanted to tell you that while we were on Dragon Island, Dagur was there too." Hiccup saw his father's brow raise and continued, "I told him about how we train dragons." he could see that Stoick was about to become upset, "He was fine with it. A little hurt that I had lied, but overrall fine."
Surprise went over the Berkian chief's face, "Really?" He took the ice blocks off and leaned against the back of his chair. "I suppose, I thought his 'deranged' side would overpower any sense of morality that he had. I'm glad I was wrong...in this scenario." Hiccup eyed his father, suspiciously, "What do you mean?" "His father, Hiccup. Everyone knows why Dagur is the Berserker chief instead of him and it's not because Oswald retired." Stoick stated, matter-of-factly.
The Berkian frowned, "I know what others think, but I can't bring myself to agree. I can't remember their relationship, although I just couldn't imagine Dagur doing that. It doesn't seem like him to do something so evil." Stoick shrugged, "No one was there to confirm what happened, so it could have been a number of reasons. I did see their relationship, however barely. It wasn't a good one and Oswald's been missing for a while. I hope that Dagur didn't, but I can't be sure." Toothless nuzzled up to Hiccup and the two shared a similar thought.
The Berserker chief's ship pulled into his island's harbor, being greeted by vikings. "Chief, how did the dragon hunting go? Did you gain any trophies?" Captain Vorg inquired. Dagur smiled, broadly, "Very well and I did, but I left them in the island." Confusion was plastered on Vorg's face, "Why?" "Because, I'm no longer interested in killing dragons." The captain's jaw, nearly, unhinged as it dropped to the floor, "Since when?" "Since I discovered that the Berkians train their dragons. That's a lot cooler than just disposing of them."
Dagur's face lit up like a fire, "And there's one dragon, in particular, that I'd love to train." Herald came into the conversation, "I hope that we use it to attack those lying Berkians." he sneered. "No, I settled that with Hiccup. We're still at peace with Berk and I don't intend on changing that." Dagur told him. "It would be too much like right for ya to actually behave like a Berserker, wouldn't it." A new voice added. The chief groaned as he turned to face Ansson. "A Berserker would fill you with wood." Dagur said, raising his crossbow, "Still want me to act, traditionally?"
Ansson was reluctant to back off of the topic, "We're a vengeful bunch and that's a fact. It's a coward's move to stand for being made to look like a fool. What's with the feigned sense of sanity, anyway?" Dagur lowered his weapon, "Think of it this way- if that's even possible-if we learn how to train dragons, we'll be unstoppable. There wouldn't be a tribe even past the archipelago that could rival us." A lethal twinkle shone in the young chief's eyes. This satisfied the older viking for the time being, "As long as it's nothin' sentimental." he stated the word as though it were the embodiment of weakness.
"It's none of your business why I make my desicions or orders, just that you know how to follow them." Dagur said, firmly. Ansson left, in a huff, pushing past Vorg and Herald. They scowled aftef the man as the chief went to his hut. He closed the door and sat in his favorite chair, pondering. It was difficult to concentrate and the viking knew why. The house felt empty, as it always did. Not wanting to think about that and deciding to use his time, wisely, Dagur grabbed a large book and refreshed his memory on a certain lightning directing, dragon.