A/N: Sorry about the computer gibberish; it didn't show up for me at first. I've tried to fix it now!
"But I mean, wouldn't it suck if that happened? Can you imagine?"
"Giving up our dragons? Yeah, Hiccup, that would really suck."
Hiccup shuddered. "God, that dream didn't feel like a nightmare at the time, but I'm pretty sure it was one."
Astrid, at his back, parried an arrow with a swing from her double-sided battle-axe. "I'm just surprised you didn't wake up when you fell! Usually when I fall in dreams my body wakes me up."
Nearby, a caged dragon roared at all the fighting, and Snotlout sprang the lock, ducking as the dragon rushed to escape.
"Ohoho, trust me, the falling wasn't even close to the most distressing part of the dream."
"What's got you so worked up? It was just a dream," Astrid said, pulling him back to duck behind a crate. She adjusted her grip on her axe and prepared to jump out. "You know Toothless would never leave you."
"I dunno," Hiccup shrugged helplessly, trying to regain his sense of humor. "It just got me thinking What If, you know?"
"Hiccup, nothing in that dream works." Astrid started listing things off on her fingers, putting off the attack as Stormfly jumped over them to fend off the attackers. "Just because we haven't found another Night Fury doesn't mean they're all dead. We knew they were rare in the first place. Second, why would we ever leave Berk, even if there was some crazy dragon-hunter night-fury-killer attacking us? We've survived worse. Drago? He had a dragon a size larger than the gods and he didn't even run us off. Third, why would a dragon Toothless is in love with not like you? You saved his life! Plus, all dragons like you."
Toothless, crawling down from the top of the captain's cabin to join them, spat fire at someone over their heads. "Hey, bud," Hiccup said affectionately, as the dragon's pupils expanded looking at him. Then, to Astrid. "You're right. You're right. It just freaked me out, is all."
She let out a battle cry and the two of them jumped over the crates.
"I'm not done!" she exclaimed, bludgeoning the flat side of her axe into a man's face and laying him out cold. "Fourth, I know we never trained as much to fight people as we did for dragons, but we're not that incompetent! And fifth, did you say Snotlout was in love with your mother?! That's so weird and gross I'm almost wondering whether you have something to tell me."
"Oh, ew, Astrid," Hiccup complained, springing another cage's lock. "Gods, I can't even—you—you're pushing it. You are talking to your Chief! I can't believe the disrespect! I shouldn't even have told you about the dream!" He paused. "I just got worried. It felt really real."
"Well, stop worrying," she teased gently. "You're already going gray prematurely."
"Hey!" Fishlegs toppled over a barrel, barely fending off an attacker until Meatlug came to his rescue. "Snotlout's in love with who?!"
"Forget it!" Astrid and Hiccup chorused together.
"WILL YOU ALL PLEASE FOCUS!" Valka shouted at the lot of them from Cloud-jumper's back, swooping over the currently-on-fire ship. "Save the dragons!"
Hiccup sprang the lock on another cage, shouting, "WE'RE WORKING ON IT!" He pushed the door open before realizing there was nothing in there. Toothless appeared at his side, peering in and then shaking himself with disappointment when he saw nothing. He cuffed Hiccup with his wing and sprang away to help Ruffnut and Tuffnut escape from a trapper with dual chains.
"Wha-hat?" Hiccup groaned, and went to the next cage.
Behind him, something with just-barely-visible blue eyes sprang out of the cage and tried to take off into the night, disturbing the smoke, only to be cut short by a chain that her rescuers hadn't known—or seen—to cut. She slammed to the ground and knocked over several crates, but the Berkians had already moved on, pushing the Warlord's trappers closer and closer to the back of the flaming ship and releasing more and more dragons to join Valka and Cloud-jumper in the sky.
The invisible dragon got to her feet and tugged at the chain to no avail. Her mouth clamped shut by a muzzle, she had no way of undoing the metal or calling for help again. She scraped at her face with all her strength, trying to push the leather-and-metal muzzle off and away. Finally, with one final jerk, it came off. She stretched her jaw with triumph and shot a blast of focused fire at her shackles, weakening a link enough that she could pull it from the rest of the chain.
The blast drew Valka's attention, but by the time she and Cloud-jumper arrived to investigate, the invisible dragon was gone, taken off into the night trailing smoke after her. Valka's eyes narrowed as they followed the smoke's unusual drifting.
"Watch for explosive barrels!" she bellowed to her son and his friends, and she and her dragon wheeled around mid-air to rejoin them.