"Why the long face?" Ruffnut asked crudely, the second she was sat down in front of Grimmel. "I mean mine is long, too. But yours is like. Really long. Super long. Like a Zippleback's neck long. Did you get stretched at birth? Mine's because I have a twin and he took up all the space in Mom's belly—if I'd been an only child, I would have had a bigger brain and a rounder face. That's science. Do you have a twin? I bet you do. Twin brother maybe? That's why you're like all—" She pulled her face down, trying to elongate it more, and made a sad face with her mouth. "Like, cuz you had to deal with him?"

"I don't know if you have an excuse for the hair, though. Are those frosted tips? Why is it so spiky? You know, you could really try dragon saliva if you wanted to smooth it down better. I bet you'd get so many more ladies if you put a little more effort in, like you look a little like me, and I am hot, but what I have that you don't, oh great dragon-hunting menace, is style. Like me and my dragon? Barf? The name's Barf—and she looks like my braid."

Ruffnut held up her two braids to show him "See? These mold spots would be her eyes, although I know you would know that—you're a dragon hunter, you've seen Zipplebacks before. Obviously you know where the eyes go. Anyway, me and Barf? We match."

Dropping her braids, she stretched out her hands and cracked her interlocked fingers into Grimmel's face, not stopping.

"Yep! Ah, we won the best dressed Dragon-Rider and dragon team duo three years in a row, you know? Well, it should have been four years in a row, but old round-face-chubby-cheek Astrid got nominated this last time and she won even though she didn't care and didn't bother putting in any extra effort like me and Barf did. If you ask me Hiccup put in a word for her and Toothless had all the dragons vote for her instead of me, so really she cheated, and I won four years in a row. Although, I guess Snotlout and Fishlegs are pretty good, too, but they don't have what I have."

She gestured to her body.

"I mean, you must never have had a prisoner this hot. Oh, who are Snotlout and Fishlegs? Oh, they're basically, like, my harem. They—"

"ENOUGH!" Grimmel slammed his fist onto the table between them. "Will you just—"

"O-kay, jeez, someone's grumpy. Is it because of the long face comment? Listen, keep your chin up—oh, but not too much, I don't want it to hit me in the face from over there—I promise there are ways to pretty yourself up. I'll share some of 'em with ya. We long-faced people have to stick together. Yep! We're a dying breed."

"Will you shut up?" Grimmel demanded.

"Wow," Ruffnut replied. "Sure, of course. You know, that's what Tuffnut says our mom said our dad always used to say. He left before I was born, though. Not Tuffnut, my dad. Although I wish Tuffnut would leave. I'm definitely sure our mom never said that, but he swears on his beautiful beard. Which isn't even a beard, by the way, and if you see him, can you tell him that?"

Grimmel slammed his hands down again and stood, leaning over her as intimidatingly as he could.

"Where is Berk?" he growled in a low, dangerous voice.

"Uh, literally like right over there?" Ruffnut pointed. "I saw it while they were walking me over here. Did you get, like, lost, or—?"

"The PEOPLE!" Grimmel exclaimed in frustration. "Where have the people gone?!"

"Oh," Ruffnut said. "You mean New Berk. You're looking for New Berk, the outpost. You know, Hiccup and Astrid really took your criticisms to heart last time when you said it was too crowded. I mean they both knew it was too crowded. We all said it was too crowded, but that's okay. We like people, and we like dragons, but they figured finally after you showed up, that—pfft—we can't have outsiders think we're overcrowded. Not that you're, like, for sure an outsider, cuz we were talking to Doc earlier and she says there's a rumor you're from Berk. Is that true? You don't really sound like it, but you've been gone for a while, so maybe you pick some stuff up when you're away. I've never tried it, but it sounds nice. Are you from Berk? I'm just kidding, I don't care."

She laughed an ugly laugh and then got back on track. "Anyway, the New Berk, which is what you're looking for—it's not actually called that, no one likes my nickname for it, but it's this super dreary island behind a wall of impenetrable fog. Not that Berk's weather is always perfect, either, but this place, WOW, you should see it. The island is like, where we used to go try and attack, because the dragons all lived there, but we could never find our way through the fog with ships, because we're not dragons obviously, and the fog is I guess something made to keep people out."

"Yes, yes, I know about the fog," Grimmel snarled, massaging his temples.

"Uh, well did you know we found our way through it?" Ruffnut asked judgmentally. "No, I didn't think so. Although I'm surprised you and that sharp nose didn't cut your way right through it. But it's like the bane of ships' existence, so I'd love to see you guys try and get through there. That's why they moved there, you know, because you guys are all so smelly and annoying, and you all, like, talk a lot? I mean the last time the Warlords showed up to talk to Astrid it felt like it went on FOREVER. Don't you hate when people just won't stop talking? My brother does it all the time. You should hear him. Like, I mean, the sound of his own voice is not as good as he thinks it is, and people like that are so irritating. That's why me and Barf hate him and Belch so much, I mean seriously, they just blah, blah, blah non-stop. If you met him you'd hate him too. His face is not even as long as yours and mine so he doesn't even have any redeemable qualities."

Grimmel's eyes had narrowed, and he even waited patiently for Ruffnut to finish this monologue. "You found your way through the fog?"

"Yeah, uh, weren't you listening?"

"I was, actually," Grimmel said. "So you could show me the way through the fog, to the new island?"

"Sure, hypothetically," Ruffnut said.

"Hypothetically?"

"Yeah, like for instance if I were hypothetically a dragon. I know these scales throw you off—they were made that way—but I'm not, actually. But if, hypothetically, theoretically, I were to turn into a dragon, sure. I could show you the way through. But good luck with that."

Grimmel had stood up, all ready to sweep out of the room dramatically with his long black trench coat billowing behind him, but he paused. He turned disdainfully. "You are impossible. It's hard to believe anyone tolerates you."

"If you stuck around on Berk for long enough, maybe hung out with Hiccup for a little, you'd know that actually anything's possible. But no, you had to spend your years killing Night Furies for ugh, glory, or whatever. If you were as hot as I am, you could have gotten fame and glory without that, but. To each his own, I guess." She shrugged.

"Oh, just throw her back in a cell," Grimmel tossed his hand up and stalked out. "Move her and the other one to the other brig, and let them stay there."

Two guards picked Ruffnut up by the arms and looked at him. "Uhh, what are you gonna do, boss?"

Grimmel didn't even look back, but smirked, instead checking the sedative darts stored in his coat for his crossbow. "I'm going to visit New Berk, and, who knows. Maybe I'll reintroduce them to dragon hunting."

—

Not long after, Moon-guider looked into the sky to see the airship take off. And under it, she spotted Toothless.

Eyes widening, she let out a cry of alarm that got a nearby guard to slam his spear into the side of her above-deck cage.

She ignored him and jumped up onto its side, climbing up the side by the footholds in the bars and roaring again to Toothless, but the leather muzzle around her mouth muffled her. She dropped back to the ground and set to clawing at her face, trying to push it off.

"Hey," the guard yelled to someone. "HEY! This one's trying to get her muzzle off!" He moved away before she could free herself to spit fire.

She had done it before, and she did it again. The muzzle slid off, and her head recoiled as it left her. She stretched her face and launched herself at the side of the cage again, getting as close to Toothless as she could, and let out the loudest roar she could as the airship carried him further away. Was he alive? Could he hear her?

Toothless, from where he hung, came alive as he heard it. He twisted himself to look for her and his eyes widened to see the Light Fury in the cage. His ear frills tried to prick up eagerly, but were restrained by the trap. His mouth mostly shut, he screamed back as best he could.

Moon-guider heard him and shot a blast of fire through the bars of the cage triumphantly. He was alive! He was alive, the Alpha, the Night Fury, he had not been killed!

Toothless could not open his mouth enough to spit fire, and could do nothing but watch as she grew smaller and smaller. Guards the size of ants closed in around her and threw buckets of water to douse her fire, kicking and hitting her with blunt weapons to knock her off the side of the cage. As she disappeared behind other ships' sails, Toothless crooned sadly through the muzzle.

But if she was here, maybe she had brought Hiccup. Maybe they had made it in time, and his best friend was alive.