Tesla, the Triple Stryke and I were flying back to the Edge. I had convinced the Stryke to come with us a few minutes ago, after explaining how we ended up on his island. Once we came within clear sight of the Edge, I heard the blow horn on top of the island go off. I leaned forward so I didn't have to shout over the obnoxious sound.

"Well, there goes our silent entrance." I said. Tesla grumbled in annoyance. He had wanted to blast that thing sky high ever since he heard it the first time. I turned back to the Stryke, who was trying to locate the cause of the noise.

"Hey, we're going in for a landing. Stay close and stay behind us." He nodded, ignoring the horn to the best of his ability. We came in for a landing in the back field, only to see Hiccup, Astrid, and Fishlegs standing there. They were all waving in greeting, until they saw there was a second dragon. We came in on a tight turn, and I jumped off of Tesla, noticing the Stryke had landed behind us, like I asked. The others came running up, Hiccup and Fishlegs spewing question after question. Astrid came up from behind them, pushing her way past them. I raised my hand in a small wave.

"Hey Astrid how's i-!" I landed flat on my back after she punched me in the face. "OW-Astrid?! What was that for?!" She reached down and grabbed my arm, pulling me up.

"That was for missing training and scaring us half to death." She then pulled me into a hug. "That's for coming back safe." I weakly chuckled while rubbing my cheek. Hiccup walked up and folded his arms.

"To be honest, I knew she was going to do that. You really gave us a scare Rai. One that if you EVER pull again, I will personally, lock you in one of the stalls." I laughed, leave it to Hiccup to make non-violent threats.

"Fair enough. I'm sorry I scared you guys, but I needed some time to cool off. And then as luck would have it, I met a new fri-!"

*Squawk clackclackclackclackclack hiiisssss* I spun and saw Fishlegs stagger away from the Triple Stryke, who was holding its tails as far away from him as possible. I ran forward and held my hands out.

"Whoa whoa whoa! It's okay bud, it's okay. Calm down…" I held my hands up as I walked closer, then gently rubbed his horn. He relaxed for the most part, but still looked at Fishlegs with distrust. I turned to look at him. "You tried to touch his tails, didn't you?" He was stuttering when he answered.

"We-well you see, um…I-I didn't know it'd re-react like…*gulp* that…" I held up a calming hand when the Stryke hissed quietly, now holding his tails with his pincers. I took a calming breath.

"The Triple Strykes are very possessive of their tails. It's a sign of trust and care if they let you touch them. I'm surprised I've gotten to touch them to be honest."

"You got to touch them? What'd they feel like?! Where they smooth or rough? Where they hard? Or maybe squishy like a bag of berries. Or maybe they're something in between…" Fishlegs had gone into "Nerd mode" as Snotlout fondly refers to it. I held up my hand to stop him.

"Fishlegs, and I don't say this to offend you, but maybe I should be the one to fill out the Triple Stryke page in the Book of Dragons…?" He stopped and thought for a second, then nodded, crestfallen.

"Yeah…yeah maybe you're right…If I can't get close to it, how am I going to get the details…But I can still help, right?" I smiled, understanding his need for knowledge. One of my best friends back home was that way, constantly looking for new things to learn.

"Yes, Fishlegs, just get me a list of everything you need, and I'll get it. Then, when I'm filling out the actual Book, you can help. I'm still not very good with your guys' written language yet." He bounced where he stood for a second, then took off to make a list. The rest of us laughed at his enthusiasm. I looked at the other two and motioned them over.

"Come on, I'll introduce you to him." When the Triple Stryke saw the other two unknown humans walking towards him, he started backing up. I turned and took a knee, bringing myself to his lowered level.

"Whoa, it's okay big guy, they won't hurt you, and they won't do anything you don't want them to." I turned to Hiccup and Astrid, who were standing about 15 feet away. "It's alright, he's just nervous. His name is Sting by the way." Astrid had a smile on her face when she knelt down.

"Hey there, my names Astrid. Just as Rai said, I won't do anything if you don't want me to. But I want to get to know you, I've never met a Triple Stryke before, and you seem friendly." The newly dubbed Sting listened to her words, and cocked his head, thinking about what she said. Hiccup knelt next to her.

"And my names Hiccup. I too, wish to have you as a friend." They both held out their hands, Hiccup's left and Astrid's right, opposite to each other. They turned their heads towards each other and looked behind them, eyes closed. Sting looked at both of them, then at me. I motioned at him, and he walked up to them slowly. He hesitated, then pushed his horn into their hands. Hiccup moved first, turning to look, then he nudged Astrid, who did the same. They both made eye contact with him.

He stepped back and pulled the Downward Doggy, the classic, 'I want to play' sign. I laughed and tackled him in a hug, ignoring the flash of pain when I moved my hand wrong. He rolled with it and I found myself pinned. I coughed as he dropped his head on my chest, and he immediately lifted it when he remembered I was injured. He got off and offered me a claw to help me stand up. I took it and rubbed the sore spot. Hiccup looked at me in concern, seeing my grimace.

"Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?" Astrid took notice and frowned.

"That better be a bruise, at most. We've still got training to do you know." I smiled.

"Yeah, I didn't forget, but I might be a bit slower than normal."

"How, exactly, did you get hurt?" I simply jerked my finger over to Sting.

"We first met tail to gut." The two flinched at the thought. They knew that it had to of hurt for me to be showing pain.

"What exactly happened when you left? We tried stopping you, but you jumped into a bolt before we could even get into the air." I sighed, this was going to take ALL day.

««{{¤}}»»

I had explained our little two day adventure, and then start over when Fishlegs had arrived on Meatlug, who looked excited to see Tesla and I. The twins and Snotlout arrived at some but kept their distance from Tesla and Sting. They obviously still believed Tesla was at fault for that fight in the hall, and they didn't trust our new friend. I simply ignored them, they weren't worth my time if they were going to be stubborn. When I finally finished explaining the last two days, Hiccup looked concerned.

"There's one problem Rai…We checked that island. Astrid and I, checked that island. How could we have missed you? We didn't see Sting either." My eyebrows furrowed.

"Maybe that was when we were in the trees…?"

"I don't know, we landed and looked around for a while. But, all that matters is that you're back. And you brought a Triple Stryke too." I looked over at the two dragons, who had curled up near each other to nap for a while.

"Yeah, I am definitely glad he decided to come. It gives us a chance for some change." I gave a forced smile. "Not that I need any more change."

««{{¤}}»»

"So, what's on your mind?" My head jerked up from my hands. I was sitting cross-legged on the makeshift bed on Hiccup's first floor. He was leaning against the staircase leading upstairs. The sun was setting, so it was shining right through the door.

"Huh? Oh uh, nothing important."

'Cause that was convincing…'

"You sure you don't want to talk about it…?" We sat/stood there for a second, having a small staring contest. I finally threw my hands up a little.

"Fine. You win." He smiled gently and pushed off the stairs to come sit on the bed. "I…I've been thinking about home…my home." His smile switched to a concerned frown.

"Oh…Well, what exactly were you thinking about? If you don't mind me asking, of course!" He added quickly. I gave him a small smile.

"I was just remembering my family and friends. I didn't have much, but it was good enough for me."

"Well, I hope we find you a way home soon. NOT! That, I'm trying to get rid of you! I just…want you to go home-That came out wro-." He stopped when I started chuckling. He just shut his mouth in embarrassment.

"It's fine Hiccup, I know you mean well. And I do want to go home. But at the same time…" I stopped and looked over at Tesla and Sting.

"You don't want to leave your new friends…" I stood up and walked over to the two dragons. They both raised their heads and gently nuzzled me from either side. I scratched their heads while in thought.

"I've only known Tesla and you guys for less than a year, and Sting and I just met."

"Well, when you do find your way home, all we can hope is that you can come back to visit."

"Yeah…"

"Hey, you will find a way home, and you will be able to visit. Call it a gut feeling." I snorted.

"Yeah, something you don't got a lot of, especially for a viking." I said gesturing to his twig like legs.

"I like being smaller! A lot less to pack around." We shared a laugh. A fire blast exploded in the sky, signaling food. I walked out of the house and shouted back.

"Last one there is dragon food!" I laughed as I took off running while Tesla, Sting, Hiccup, and Toothless following.

««{{¤}}»»

*Clang clang slash*

*Swish-clang*

"HAH!"

*Thud whackwhack* I jumped back to avoid the sharp tail moving to impale me. I jumped sideways to avoid another one and threw a right hook, only to pull back at the last second to dodge a pincer. I had to balance on my toes while leaning back, and that gave an opening. I grunted in pain as a tail came around and knocked my feet out from under me. I coughed as I landed on my back and brought my right hand up to grasp my chest in pain.

Turns out, when Sting had first hit me with his tails back on the island, it had fractured a few ribs. They hadn't been completely broken, but the next day I woke up feeling like both of my dragons were sitting on my chest. Even after these two and a half months, they were still slightly sore when put under stress.

When I looked up, a pincer was hovering above me. I grabbed it and Sting helped me stand slowly. I pushed a breath out once I was standing. He warbled worriedly.

"I'm fine, I'm just grateful you didn't aim for the ribs again." Turned out, Sting and I made pretty good sparring partners. He had more weapons at his disposable, but I had true skill and technique. I spun my staff in my hand and we start walking back to the village. We were on Berk at the moment, and it had started getting colder. Luckily, my new long coat was designed for moderate to chilly weather, so it wasn't bothering me yet. I woken up here after the Summer Solstice, so any weather had been docile compared to the rest of the year. Sting grumbled in annoyance.

"Hey, at least they didn't have to tie me to the bed like they thought. After the first week I thought I was going to go insane." We shared a small laugh as we started to head to the great hall. We were about to enter, noticed Hiccup, Astrid and the Chief in the forge.

"What's going on?" Hiccup and Astrid explained how he had found a new island and saw smoke in the distance. When they went to check it out, a ship had been blasted apart, huge ice spikes sticking up every which way. I stared at them as they explained about these dragon trappers were working for a man named "Dargo Bloody-fist". (…Seriously?) Stoick's face gained a look I'd never thought I'd see on him. Once again, Ruff and Tuff tried to add their own thoughts, but, as usual, they were ignored. Stoick grabbed Hiccup by the shoulders and said a name that sent strange shivers down my spine.

"Bludvist. Drago, Bludvist…"

"Uh, yeah. Wait, you know him…?" Stoick said nothing as he stormed off. Next thing we know, we're all running down to the dragon pens, the Chief shouting orders and Hiccup trying, and failing, to get a word in. When he finally did, he said the dumbest thing on the planet.

"Then let's ride back out there. We'll follow those trappers to Drago and talk some sense into him." I almost face-palmed and interjected.

"Wait wait wait! So you found a Dragon Trapper's ship, blasted apart by ice. You found out that there is someone named Drago Bludvist who is creating an army of dragons. And you want to go talk to him?" Hiccup nodded his head.

"Obviously he doesn't realize dragons aren't all bad. I can talk to him, change his mind!" I dropped my head into my hand.

"Hiccup, you can't just expect everyone to change their minds just because Berk did." Stoick gestured at me.

"Thank you, Rai, for pointing that out. Hiccup, if Drago is really coming, then we need to prepare for war.

"War?!" I could tell Hiccup was getting frustrated. But obviously, he didn't understand the gravity of this situation. As long as I knew Stoick, to be fair, not that long, he had never once looked scared. And right now, he looked more scared than I thought was possible. As these thoughts were running through my head, the conversation carried on.

"…A Chief protects his own." Stoick turned to give more orders, when Astrid walked up to Hiccup, grabbing his shoulder.

"Hiccup don't!"

"I have to."

'Crap…' I spun around and saw Tesla flying into the building. I whistled at him and he landed near me. As I was mounting up, I nodded to Astrid, who was doing the same.

"Hiccup!" I saw Toothless dive under a bay door and Stormfly and Tesla immediately kicked it into full throttle. I saw Toothless dive through the last door and tucked closer to Tesla.

'Faster, come on, come on…' Astrid and I barrel rolled on either side of the closing doors. By the time we leveled out, Hiccup and Toothless had already gained a substantial amount of ground on us.

"Alright, let's go. We can't let Hiccup get himself killed." I shouted to Astrid.

"Right, because I'm going to kill him first."

"I'll hold him down, you gut him." I offered.

"Deal." Eventually we were able to catch up to Toothless, Hiccup was quite shocked to see us.

"Astrid?! Rai?! What are you doing here?!" I simply gave him a deadpanned look.

"I should kick your teeth in, but then Astrid wouldn't get to hear you properly plead for your life." He sighed.

"I'm going to talk to Drago, and you can't stop me."

"Of course not, why do you think we're here? Having Snoggletog early?"