Woohoo! Chapter 3 is here! I don't have anything to say before the chapter, so please enjoy!

Chapter 3

The following month passed quickly. While Valka was preoccupied with chiefing, Hiccup spent most of the day at the Ingermans. Majken always caught her up on the day's activities when Valka came to pick up her son before dinner.

A few days after the funeral Ebba had given birth to a pair of twins. The young mother had decidedly ignored Valka's advice of not naming the twins too similar names, so at the naming ceremony she had announced their names as Ruffnut – the baby girl seemed to have a rather violent nature and enjoyed hitting her brother – and Tuffnut – Ebba had reasoned that that's what he had to be with such a sister.

The raid came unusually early. Normally they didn't start before midnight but this evening it wasn't even 9 o'clock. Valka had put her son to bed as soon as he had fallen asleep after dinner and had then left the house to quickly check in with Gobber before turning in for the night herself.

She was still at the smithy when the dragons swooped in without warning, starting to grab sheep and yaks, raid the storehouses, and attack anyone who tried to chase them off.

Valka didn't like that she had to deal with the raid. She had noticed in an earlier raid that the dragons usually only attacked people after they had been provoked, which added to her refusal to fight.

From her position she saw a Viking taking down a Monstrous Nightmare. Following a sudden urge, Valka ran to the man and tried to pry the weapon from his hands.

"Stop! You'll only make it worse!" she shouted at him.

He only looked at her for a second and continued to tie up the dragon, probably to put it into the arena for the next round of dragon training. Valka looked around to see if she was needed elsewhere, and her eyes fell onto her own home where just at that moment a dragon was breaking into the house.

Valka heard herself screaming her son's name as she ran to save him. Tearing open the door she was surprised to find the dragon gently playing with the baby. At the noise of her opening the door it turned to look at her in surprise, inadvertently blocking her view to her son who had started to cry.

Still cautious, due to being so near to a dragon for the first time since dragon training, she made her way around it. She immediately saw the reason for Hiccup's crying. When it had turned around the dragon had accidentally cut his chin.

Valka took Hiccup into her arms, consoling the crying child, while also taking a closer look at the dragon still standing in the middle of her house. She didn't remember ever seeing this species before. It had an owllike face and apparently four wings, if her eyes weren't playing tricks on her in the dim light.

"Valka!" Someone calling her name outside the house startled both her and the dragon.

"You have to go!" she urged. It tilted its head at her, probably a goodbye, turned around and flew off through the hole in the roof, right as Gobber hobbled in through the open door.

"Are you alright? I saw a dragon enter here and feared the worst!" he said, gasping for air after running through half the village.

Valka turned around. "I'm fine. It didn't do anything. Well, actually …" she thought for a moment and decided to drop it. "No. We're both fine."

Gobber looked at her incredulous.

Valka and Hiccup spent the rest of the night at the Meade Hall with all the others whose houses were damaged or destroyed during the raid. Hiccup had quickly fallen asleep again in the makeshift cot next to her own mattress. Unable to sleep she grabbed the Dragon Manual from the fireplace, flicking through it to find any information on the dragon in her house, but came up emptyhanded. Apparently, nobody had ever seen the species before and thought it important enough to mention it. At last, she fell asleep from exhaustion, the book still open beside her.

The early-morning commotion woke Valka up. Thankfully the cots for raid victims were placed behind a row of curtains, so nobody would see them while they slept. Groggily, Valka sat up and glanced around. Around her were only about half a dozen other families, making it clear that a lot less homes than usual had sustained any damage. After the raid before the space behind the curtains had been packed with around 50 to 60 people.

Hiccup was still sleeping next to her, but she picked him up anyway, as well as the book, and walked into the main part of the hall. From their usual table Majken was waving at her to sit with them.

"Wasn't the raid last night weird? So much earlier and shorter." Solveig and Edvard were sitting next to Majken, deep in conversation with Gerik and Ebba across the table.

Valka sat down next to Majken, who was bouncing Fishlegs on her knees. The boy was obviously enjoying this, judging by the audible shrieking and the giant grin on his face. "Gisli is just getting some breakfast for us. He probably saw you heading here, so it's likely he's bringing something for you as well."

Majken handed Hiccup a piece of carrot, who began munching on it. Valka happily watched her son and hid a yawn behind her hand.

"Short night?" Gisli asked, as he approached with three plates and handed one to Valka.

"Thank you. Yeah, something strange happened during the raid, and I couldn't sleep for a long time after that."

The conversation at the other end of the table ended and all eyes turned to her. Valka lowered her voice as she continued.

"Please don't tell anybody yet, as long as I haven't made up my mind about what to do." Her friends nodded and Valka continued. "So, early during the raid …"

She told them everything that had happened but decided against sharing any of her earlier observations about dragons and their apparently docile nature.

"You didn't really think that dragon was playing with Hiccup, right?" Edvard asked after a short silence."

Valka took a moment to answer. "I don't know." she said honestly. "But how else would you call it if you saw a dragon rocking a cradle?"

Edvard gave her a disbelieving look but let the topic drop.

"You should go and have that scratch checked by a healer." Majken advised her. "If you couldn't recognize that dragon, who knows if it maybe had poison. Also, dirty claws could infect the wound."

There were nods from everyone.

"I already thought about that myself and will do so after breakfast." Valka assured them, put Hiccup on the blanket that again lay on the floor and stood up.

"I have to check in with Gobber for a moment. Planning the repairs."

For this story I decided to have the parents of Astrid, Fishlegs and the twins be only a little older than Valka, with Majken being the same age as her. Meanwhile Spitelout is about the same age as Stoick and his wife is a little younger.

I also noticed that I really don't know how to write babies. By the time I've figured that out they will probably be toddlers. Astrid, Ruffnut and Tuffnut were definitely there during the breakfast scene, even if I didn't mention them.

Dragon4ever: Thank you so much for your review! As you can see you don't have to imagine Hiccup growing up orphaned. If I had planned Valka to be taken, this story would have an entirely different title and premise.

Night Star Dragon: Thank you, I delighted to hear that you like my story!

Lucasdiaz9000: Yeah, I'm kind of leaning in that direction. Let's see, how I'll make it work.