Stoic and the remaining Vikings from the attack arrive in the only remaining boat from their original four.

"I trust you found the nest at least?" Gobber greets Stoic.

"Not even close. I hope you had more success." Stoic replies, stepping on land.

"I guess you could say so, yes." Gobber replies.

A group of villagers then arrives, complinmenting his son.

"Where is Hiccup?" Stoic asks in a mix of concern and interest.

"Ah who knows. But who can blame him, he can barely walk through the village without being swarmed by his new fans." Gobber informs him.

"We are talking about Hiccup right?" Stoic questions shocked.

"Yeah, who would have thought, he has this sway with the beasts." Gobber says.

Elsewhere on the island Hiccup and toothless are training their flight maneuvers, since the dragon's improced tailpiece is steered by a pedal Hiccup installed.


The next day comes the day of the decision for who is going to slay the Nightmare in front of the village.

The only contestors for this competition are Astrid and Hicccup, the others having performed horribly during the other training segments and Hak isn't considered since he's not part of their village yet.

"Stay out of my way, I'm winning this." Astrid hisses at Hiccup.

"Yeah, fine." He says and Astrid makes her way, trailing the dragon around the arena while hiding behind some low barricades. When the opportunity presents itself she jumps out of her cover screaming, only to see the dragon lying at Hiccup's feet snoring with him standing there sheepishly.

"You son of a mongrel. Rat eating shithead." Astrid yells angrily.

"Uhm, I'm kind of late..." Hiccup says trying to leave.

"What?! What are you late for exactly?" Astrid bellows at him, her axe raised threateningly while Gobber keeps him from leaving the arena.

"Quiet down everyone." Stoic says, shutting the cheering crowd up.

The mute elder then points towards Hiccup with her staff, making the village cheer.

"You've done it. You get to kill the dragon." Gobber praises Hiccup while the other students, except for a fuming Astrid and a confused Hak carry the teen out of the arena on their shoulders.

"What's going on now?" Hak asks the girl who's about to break her axe in anger.

"He got chosen. The guy too weak to carry a shield." Astrid curses.

"Chose for what?" Hak questions.

"To kill the dragon, in front of the whole village." She says pissed.

"Is that something special?" Hak asks curious.

"Yes. It is!" She says disappointed.

"OK then. I guess we'll have to go find you a dragon. It can't be that those five are the only ones on this whole island, right?" Hak suggests while the two head out of the arena thrmselves.

"That! That's actually a good idea." Astrid says after a moment of anger.

"Hey, I wasn't general only for my good looks." Hak teases her.

"Phe, stop bragging and help me find another dragon." She tells him, a grin plastered on her face once more.


The two of them then head into the woods, where they decide to split up to search for a dragon.

In the meantime Hiccup meets up with toothless in the usual spot, intending to leave with his newfound best friend when Astrid suddenly appears in front of him, having followed the teen after spotting him in the forest.

"Ah. What the?" He shouts surprised.

"I want to know what's going on. No one gets that good so suddenly, especially you. Are you training with someone?" Astrid says.

"Training, uhhh... yeah, yeah you're right." Hiccup says, trying to get her to leave before toothless shows himself.

"That's for the lies." Astrid says kicking his legs out from under him.

"That's for everything else." She adds, dropping her axe's handle onto his stomach.

"Get down!" She then yells, tackling Hiccup back to the groubd when toothless approaches them.

"Run." She says, readying her axe for a battle until Hiccup takes it away from her and throws it to the side, yelling "it's OK. It's OK." Raising his hands towards the dragon, calming him down.

"You just scared him." Hiccup tells her.

"I scared him?!" She asks freaking out.

"Uhh, yeah. Astrid, Toothless. Toothless, Astrid." He introduces the two to one another.

Astrid glares at the two, retreating backwards and is running through the forest while screaming Hak's name.

When she is about to jump over a knocked over tree however she gets picked out of the air by the Night Fury.

"Hiccup, get me down from here!" Astrid shouts angrily.

"Just let me explain." Hiccup says, offering her his hand while Astrid is clinging to a branch of a large tree for dear life after the dragon dropped her on it.

"Astrid?! What are you doi... Oh nice, you've found a dragon." Hak asks from below them, having come over when he heard the girls screams.

"Oh great." Hiccup groans when the large teen jumps up to a tree branch and uses a couple more as steps until he's only a few feet away from the pair.

"Can you just wait here for us and not tell anyone about this?" Hiccup asks the former general while helping Astrid on the back of the dragon, sitting behind him.

"Give him an hour, after that go tell Stoic about this, so he can form a rescue party." Astrid tells Hak, looking at Hiccup distrustful.

"See there's nothing to be afraid of." Hiccup tells the girl just before toothless takes flight at incredible speeds, with Astrid holding onto Hiccup's shirt for dear life while screaming to the heavens.

"toothless, bad dragon. Uhm, he's not usually like this. Oh no." Hiccup tells her and toothless drops down into the ocean soaking his riders before flying up at a steep angle again.

"toothless, what are you doing? We need her to like us." Hiccup says.

"Thank you for nothing you useless reptile." Hiccup groans when toothless starts to do a constant barrel roll.

"OK, I'm sorry. Just get me off of this thing." Astrid almost begs, fearing for her life and closes her eyes.

Toothless then stops his antics and gently glides along the coastline of Berk.

When the girl feels the world around her stop spinning she carefully opens her eyes and finds herself flying through the clouds with a spectacular view all around her.

Toothless then takes them over the island of Berk, while the sun is going down and they can see the whole town light up with torches.

"OK, I admit it, this is amazing, he's amazing. But you know that your final exam is tomorrow, you have to kill him." Astrid says reluctantly.

Hearing a growl from beside them toothless quickly changes course and carries them towards the dragons nest, alongside a flock of dragons, where the flying reptiles drop their looted food into a pit in the mountain where they house.

Just when the human stowaways are wondering what they're doing a humongour dragon, easily 200 times the size of toothless appears out of the pit, devouring the offerings as well as three unfortunate dragons which didn't fly away fast enough.

Toothless then flies them outside, narrowly making it past the enormous dragon.

"So that's why they are attacking us. They don't have a chance. It's kill or be killed for them." Hiccup says when the three of them are back out of the mountain.


When the three of them arrive back over the Island of Berk they fly over the city and Astrid spots Hak talking with Stoic, hoping it's not too late she drops down one of the small skulls decorating her skirt like a belt.

"Let's hope he waited longer than I told him to. For both of your sakes." Astrid says, the two of them hovering over the area.

Meanwhile in the village Hak was looking for Stoic, not knowing where he could find the Viking chieftain and got send across the town for what feels like 50 times, always having missed the large man.

When he finally finds him he runs up to Stoic, shouting "Wait up, a second please. I've been looking for you for an hour already."

"What is it young one? You're the one who arrived by ship a week ago right?" Stoic asks.

"Yeah. I have something to tell you…" Hak says before feeling something drop on his head. Reaching up he sees that it's a small animal skull, which he immediately recognizes from his best friends skirt.

"Uhmmm… Let's walk while we talk, it's getting late and you probably want to get home soon." Hak says, glancing up to the skies while pushing the Viking ahead of himself, spotting Astrid's blond hair in the sky.

"Uhm, it's nothing important really. I just wanted to thank you for accepting me in your lovely town and offering me training to fight against dragons." Hak says, now walking beside the Viking who is even larger than him.

"Yes. I've heard you are quite skilled from Gobber. Is there a particular reason for that? If I may ask." Stoic asks, remembering that Hak killed a Nightmare in his weakened state with only one blow.

"Uhh, yeah. Back in my country, I was a soldier. A general to be precise." Hak informs him.

"General? You lead men into battle? At your age?" Stoic asks surprised.

"Yes. And successfully, most of the time at least. Well anyways, I've been trained by the former General since I was 5 and somewhere along the line I became the strongest warrior of Kouka, well arguably the third strongest." Hak explains.

"Kouka. Never heard of it. But I have to say, that's quite the story. And if I didn't hear about your accomplishment from Gobber I would have thought you are trying to play me for a fool." Stoic says.

"I'm not. And I wanted to thank you in person, as well as offer my strength to you and your clan for the time I'm staying here. Feel free to task me however you like. Chieftain." Hak says, kowtowing towards the Viking.

"I am glad to hear that Hak. There's no need to be so formal around here. And I'm sure there will be a day I will need to ask for your assistance. It's reassuring to know I have your support." Stoic tells him, patting the teens shoulder while they reach the leader's home.

"Good night Chieftain Stoic. I will see you tomorrow." Hak says and retreats, walking towards the city until the Viking is inside his house and Hak then sprints at full speed to the area where he last saw Astrid and Hiccup.


"It totally makes sense. It's like a giant bee hive. They are the workers and that huge thing is the queen. Let's find your dad." Astrid says, hopping off toothless when the two land.

"No, not yet. He will kill toothless. We have to think this through, carefully." Hiccup tells her.

"Hiccup, we just discovered the dragon's nest. The thing we've been after ever since we first came here and you want to keep it a secret?" Astrid asks accusingly.

"Yes." Hiccup says with finality in his voice.

"OK, then what do we do?" Astrid asks.

"Just, give me until tomorrow, I'll figure something out." Hiccup says.

"OK. That's for kidnapping me." Astrid agrees, punching his arm, before giving him a quick peck, saying and that's for everything else.

When she's about to walk away however the two hear loud noises head right for them and toothless is getting ready to fight while the two teens stare at the woods with worry.
"Hiccup!" Hak's angered voice can be heard through the trees, accompanied by a loud whistling caused by his glaive which imbeds itself just in front of the teens feet.

"You had an hour to bring Astrid back. That time is long past. I respect your father enough to let you live, but don't think I won't beat you to a bloody pulp." Hak almost growls as he's walking towards the three, stepping out of the treeline.

"Hak. It's all OK. And I think you should calm down before toothless…" Astrid says, looking over to the dragon, assuming it's about to attack her friend, only to see the black scaled dragon whimper in fear, covering its eyes with its tail.

"What the?" Hiccup asks, seeing the same thing before Hak packs him by the scruff of his shirt, hefting him into the air with one arm, grabbing onto his glaive with the other.

"Stop. It's not his fault. There were extenuating circumstances. We found the dragon's nest and had to wait out a large dragon before we could escape." Astrid says, grabbing onto his outstretched arm, holding Hiccup in the air with both her hands and basically dangles from the outstretched limb which doesn't even budge an inch.

"How strong are you?" Astrid asks with a groan, trying her best to pry Hak's hand off of Hiccup.

"Plenty." Hak replies, dropping the teen down to his feet.

"You just be glad Astrid isn't angry at you. Don't ever think of endangering her again." Hak warns Hiccup, his glaive raised under the teen's throat.

"Hak! Stop, what's gotten into you?" Astrid yells, never having seen the usually calm and laid-back jokester with so much anger and violence in his eyes.

"I was worried. I already lost all my friends once, I don't want to lose the most important person to me again." Hak says calming down a bit, already heading back into the forest with a scoff.

"If you still want a dragon I've tied one up a couple hundred meters that way. I suggest you cut him lose if you don't want to kill him tomorrow." Hak tells her, pointing to their left before disappearing into the woods.

"Is he crazy? Why did he capture a dragon?" Hiccup asks quietly.

"For me. He captured one so I could prove myself to the village as well." Astrid explains.

"Can you cut it lose? With toothless at your side I'm sure the dragon won't try anything. I need to look for Hak." Astrid asks Hiccup, lost in thought about the former general who seems to be treasuring her like his life depended on it.

"Sure. Just remember, give me until tomorrow to figure something out." Hiccup reminds her.

"Yeah." She replies, taking off after Hak.


"Hak! Hak! Where are you?" Astrid yells while wandering through the forest, trying to track him but Hak rarely leaves any real treks.

"What?" Hak asks, sitting on a cut down tree, which by he sight of it he must have just cut down himself.

"I think we should talk. That wasn't you just now." She says concerned, sitting down next to him.

"No, it was. I guess you haven't met the real me yet." Hak replies, clenching his free fist, while he holds his glaive against his shoulder with his other hand.

"What do you mean the real you?" She asks worried.

"Astrid. I like this life, don't get me wrong. I enjoy this relaxed, laid back village life, but I belong on the battlefield. That's what I've been trained for all my life. Do you know what I was called back in my country?" He asks, being met with a headshake 'no'.

"The thunderbeast. A monster created just to kill the Kingdom's enemies, attacking with the speed and force of a lightning strike." Hak informs her.

"As much as I would like to continue this live of peace and unity I don't think I fit in. I think today has shown me that it's best if I just leave this island and save you from the danger I pose." Hak says saddened.

"Hak… That's not true. You've saved my life like three times already. As much as I don't like to admit it, even if the other villagers would say they don't need you… I do need you." She tells him, putting her hand over his clenched fist.

"Not for long. You have Hiccup now… I'm just baggage slowing you down." He says.

"Hiccup? Sure I understand now what's been going on with him but there is no one other than my parents I trust more than I trust you. So, whatever you're thinking right now… Please, please stay. If not for your own sake, do it for mine." She tells him.

"OK." Hak agrees after a full minute of pensive silence.

"Thank Thor." Astrid says happily, giving her best friend a strong hug.

"By the way, what did you mean earlier when you said you don't want to lose your most important person?" Astrid asks, slightly embarrassed to ask him directly.

"Isn't it obvious by now?" Hak asks, looking at her surprised.

"It is… I just want to hear you say it." She replies with flushed cheeks.

"Fine, you are one stubborn girl Astrid, but I do have feelings for you. Anger issues and all." Hak tells her, staring into her eyes, shooting her a smirk at the last sentence.

"Hmpf. See if I care where you sleep tonight. You brute." She says with a pout but a wide smile is still evidently hiding behind it.

"Brute huh?" Hak asks, getting up from the tree and following her while she starts to head back to the village.

"Yeah, brute. I ask you to tell me your feelings and you ruin everything." She says.

"Yeah, well I am a former general… I'm not used to getting orders, normally I give them." Hak tells Astrid, picking up Astrid and throwing her over his shoulder.

"What are you doing?!" She shouts angrily, flailing around.

"Stop struggling." Hak groans, holding her down and puts the animal skull she threw at him earlier back in its place on her belt.

"There, done." Hak says, dropping her to her feet.

"You couldn't have just given it to me?" she asks facepalming herself.

"I could have, but then I wouldn't have had the chance to mess with this gorgeous blonde Viking girl I know…" Hak teases her.

"You…" She says annoyedly.

"I, what?" Hak asks confidently.

"You better learn some manners before trying to ask me on a date." She teases him back, stopping him in his tracks with her sticking her tongue out at him while picking up the speed and jogging back towards her house.

"Didn't expect that one." Hak tells her with a grin.

"It's good to see you back to normal." She says smiling to herself.

"normal?" He asks.

"Yeah, smiling and joking around without a care in the world." She tells him.

"There is one thing I care about." Hak replies teasingly, already caught up to her and pokes her to signal he meant her.

"Shut up." She yells embarrassedly.

"Come on Astrid, you know it's meant to be." Hak says grinning.

"Keep it up and I'll go out with Snoulout, he's been hitting on me for years now afterall." Astrid jokes.

"Fine. I admit defeat. You've won the teasing war." Hak says with a shudder at imagining the girl he's crushing on in the arms of Snotlout.

"Good night Astrid." Hak tells her, stopping under her family's shed's roof while she's standing at her door.

She grabs the handle but turns around, heading straight towards him while he is putting away his glaive.

"Hak." She says, catching his attention.

"Ye…" He manages to say before Astrids soft, warm lips cover his own and one of her hands brushes along his arm with Hak running one hand over the girls braided hair, leaning in to the kiss as well. After half a minute or so the two break their connection.

"To show you that you mean more to me than Hiccup ever has." She says embarrassed, her cheeks flaring up red.

"Thank you. I think… I needed that." Hak thanks her, showing his genuine emotions for her, unmasked by his teasing nature.

"Good night Astrid." Hak says gently while the girl slips into her house.


AN: hope you like it so far, Review and PM me.

Also stay safe during Corona times and I hope one of my many fics will give you something to relax with. :)