|2 weeks later|

"So, how'd it go?" Hak asks Astrid who approaches his newly constructed hut at the edge of town while the changeling baby is sitting on his shoulder.

"About as good as you'd expect, I beat everyone other than Hiccup." Astrid replies, sitting down on a tree trunk in front of his hut.

"You should probably come under here." Hak says, standing under a roofed porch.

"Why? This is comfy and you still have no furniture." She replies, only for Hak to throw her over his shoulder and carry the blonde under the roof.

"You've got to stop doing that. I'm your girlfriend, not a sack of wool." She tells him with a pout while he sets her down on his windowsill, next to the changeling, whom Hak set down beforehand.

"I know. But you're just so gorgeous that I want to hold you close, but usually you fight me whenever I try to hold you." Hak tells her.

"Of course I do. I'm a Viking, not some helpless girl." Astrid complains.

Just then dragon dropping fall down on the whole road next to Hak's new home.

"Ah, it's 3 o'clock." Astrid says.

"That it is and I don't want my lovely Astrid to get angry at being dirtied again." Hak tells her.

"Hey, it was normal to get angry. I was covered head to toe in dragon droppings." She growls.

"I know, which is why I carried you out of the way." He says, giving her a quick peck on her cheek.

"Anyways, how are your parents? Am I still going to get an axe to the face when I come over?" Hak asks.

"They didn't say anything, but I wouldn't risk it." She explains.

"OK. Looks like you might want to spend some time here then. I even made a room just for you." Hak says with a wink.

"Thanks, but for now I should stay with my parents. It's really unfortunate that they had to see me kiss you while cleaning your naked chest." She sighs.

"Hey, I'll take getting kicked out of your house over getting boiled alive by Spitwings acid." Hak tells her, hugging the girl while petting his dragons head, which purrs at the attention.

"Yeah, him hitting your shirt with a load of acid wasn't very reassuring I imagine." She laughs.

"So, what are we going to do now? Cause my hut is now finished and I won't get around to furniture until Gobber has some nails ready." Hak asks.

"How about you race me and Stormtail again." Astrid suggests.

"Sure, just no cheating this time. Last time you almost impaled me with your dragon's spikes." Hak says.

"She got scared. Accidents can happen." Astrid defends her dragon.

"She got scared by you shouting in her ear." Hak says quietly.

"What?! I think I heard you wrong." Astrid says angered.

"I didn't say anything." Hak quickly says, hoping to avoid a fight.

"Good. You know you could learn to be nicer to me." Astrid tells him.

"I'm sorry. I just like to tease." Hak tells her, giving her a kiss on her forehead.

"Stop distracting me and let's go." Astrid says, pushing him away gently before whistling, singaling for Stromtail to come.

"Alright, I'll see you at the top." Hak says, taking off into the woods at incredible speeds.

"Good girl Stormtail, now let's show our dear general who's boss." Astrid says, hopping onto her dragon's back, while scratching its head along the spikes sticking out of it.


10 minutes later Hak climbs onto the peak of a mountain overlooking the village.

"Oh, I'm sorry did you want some help?" Astrid asks cockily.

"Haha. If I hadn't fallen into that crevice you know I'd have beat you." Hak tells her, lying down and looking into the clouds.

"Yeah but you did so I won by a landslide." She replies, joining him on his spot on the floor.

"This place really is great. You got really lucky discovering it." Astrid compliments Hak.

"Yeah, although its Spitwings accomplishment really." Hak says.

"How'd he get up here anyways? He can't even fly yet?" Astrid asks.

"He's good at climbing, even better than this here monkey drunk on met." Hak chuckles, recalling what she called him only a few weeks ago.

"Shut up." She laughs.

"So, what's your decision anyways? Last I checked you wanted to tell me today." Astrid asks.

"Do you even need to ask? I mean I didn't build a hut for the hell of it." He chuckles.

"Probably not, but I want to hear you say it, while you look me in the eyes." She says, leaning up on her elbows and looks towards him.

"Fine. Astrid Hofferson I am going to join your ranks of dragon riders." Hak says, looking back in her eyes.

"Good. Now we only need to find you a dragon of your own." Astrid says, with a smirk, after pecking him on his lips.

"I already got Spitwing..." Hak says unconvincingly.

"Hahaha, good luck flying the runt." Astrid laughs loudly, getting a small ball of acid shot in her direction from the now unfazing Spitwing.

"You were saying?" Hak chuckles while scratching the dragon behind its antenna.

"Shut up." She says with a pout while she's getting on her dragon's back.

"Hey. Don't be mad, I was only joking. Anyways you want to come keep me company while I try my luck at forging again?" Hak asks, getting on behind her and turns the young rider around so she's facing him.

"N... sure." She says, changing her mind.

"Great, then do your thing love." Hak says, turning her back around, so she's facing the front again while Spitwing flies onto Hak's lap, struggling to stay true on his path due to his tiny wings.

"Let's go Stormfly." Astrid tells her dragon, who then starts to flap her wings and flies where Astrid tells her to.


A couple minutes later the group arrives at Gobbers smithy.

"Still no success with building a new glaive?" Astrid asks, while scratching her dragon along her jaw.

"No, but I never tried my hand in being a blacksmith before, so I'm not too disappointed." Hak replies.

"You know you could just ask Gobber or Hiccup to build it for you, right?" She suggests.

"Hiccup couldn't lift the thing and Gobber, well he could do it, but I don't know how balanced Gobber would make it." Hak tells her.

"So, do you want some help this time?" Astrid asks, leaning against the doorframe of the forge.

"Nah thanks, this is something I have to do on my own, the bond between a weapon and its wielder is something special, don't you think?" He asks her, giving her a chaste kiss.

"I guess, though I never considered forging my axe on my own." Astrid chuckles.

"So, is there any news on the dragon rider front?" Hak asks, starting to fire up the forge.

"Not yet. Looks like everyone is still getting used to living with dragons and are struggling to accept their wild behavior. I guess we'll see how that turns out." Astrid tells him with a sigh.

"Don't worry too much. If you need help just say the word and I'm there for you. Because in case you haven't realized yet, you are the reason I'm staying here." Hak reassures her, shooting her a teasing smirk, making her blush and fix her hair over her left eye embarrassed.

"Ah kids, how is it going?" Gobber asks, arriving at his forge.

"Trying my luck again." Hak replies, picking up some metal from a waste pile, which he uses to get an idea of how to forge his glaive before using better materials.

"That reminds me. Stoic said I should give this to you." Gobber says, rummaging through a chest, pulling out a couple of dragon scales, the size of a human torso.

"Is that from the red death?" Hak asks surprised.

"Yeah. Those are the plates you managed to break through, apparently the twins were supposed to give them to you, but they tried to sell them, to Stoic of all people." Gobber laughs.

"Sounds like the nuts." Astrid chimes in.

"What am I supposed to do with those?" Hak asks, picking up a scale.

"They're though as hell, why not use them for like armor or a weapon." Gobber suggests.

"But how would I get it in shape?" Hak says, trying to bend or break the scale, but doesn't succeed.

"Stormfly has some strong flames." Astrid suggests.

"Can't hurt I suppose." Hak agrees, throwing a scale in front of the dragon.

"Give it your best girl." Astrid says and the dragon fires a stream of flames at the scale, keeping it up for about 2 seconds, but it has no effect whatsoever.

"Thanks for trying." Hak thanks the dragon, patting her head with Spitwing jumping onto the dragon's head, licking one of her horns after seeing his masters affectionate gesture.

"Well, I'm sure it's going to be useful for something." Gobber says, walking away.

"Hmm. Back to business." Hak says to himself and starts his attempt at forging a glaive.


|The next day|

Hiccup, having taken on the job to control the dragons making the life hard for the villagers is chasing a burning sheep while toothless is scaring away two quarrelling dragons.

"What is he doing?" Tuffnut asks, looking at the running form of Hiccup who's trying to catch the sheep and put out its fire.

"I think he's trying to help the dragons spread chaos." Her twin answers.

"Whoa, I think he could use our help." Astrid says when they watch the burning sheep run Hiccup over.

"Someday, yes." Snotlout agrees amused.

The spectacle of Hiccup trying to control the dragons continues on for most of the day with the dragon riders watching it unfold for a lot of time before losing interest.


"Hiccup?" Astrid asks, entering the chieftains hut hours later.

"Oh, hi Astrid. What brings you by?" Hiccup replies, when the girl already walked up the stairs leading to his room.

"So, how was your day?" Astrid asks mirthfully.

"Oh, just a normal day, going about business in the village." Hiccup says unconvincingly.

"Yeah? Well from what we saw it was more than just normal business, unbelievable the sheep wasn't already edible by the time you put out the fire." Astrid remarks.

"Hiccup! What is going on out there? The village looks like a battlefield." Stoic complains, entering his son's room as well.

"Uhh, I know it looks bad. But that's only the first phase of my plan." Hiccup lies.

"Ohh, so you have a plan?" Stoic asks.

"Of course, a very detailed one." Hiccup replies.

"Well, you better execute it then, Miledew riled up all of the villagers and if you can't get the dragons under control they'll be outraged." Stoic warns his son, leaving the room.

"Are you even aware that there are about a thousand dragons out there and you're running around alone?" Astrid asks Hiccup.

"Uhh, about that. Meet me at the arena tomorrow morning and tell the others to come too." Hiccup says.

"Fine, what about Hak?" Astrid asks.

"What about him?" Hiccup questions in return.

"Oh right, I haven't told you. He's going to join our group of dragon riders. Should he come too?" Astrid informs him.

"He's joining the dragon riders? Who decided that?" Hiccup asks surprised.

"I did." Astrid replies in a tone, warning him from voicing his disapproval.

"Ah, fine. Yeah I guess another helping hand can't hurt." Hiccup says defeated.

"Good, see you tomorrow." Astrid says, leaving the Hut and goes around the village to inform her friends that they'll meet at the arena.