Silence. Not a single soul could say anything about the bombshell that was just dropped on them. Hiccup and Astrid are apparently alive, accordingly to this Grimmel. If Hiccup and Astrid were alive all this time, why did they never come back? Where have they been all this time? There are now even more unanswered questions than before. "You're lying, Grimmel. My son and Astrid are dead," replies Stoick with disbelief. He then realizes that he never told the man about Astrid or anyone else from his village. "How do you even know about Astrid?" demands the chief of Berk impatiently.

Grimmel chuckles lightly at the response from the villagers of Berk. "Well, they are alive. How I know all about Astrid? I have my ways of knowing these things. So, you all do this the easy way and tell me where they are hiding at or the hard way. Your choice, Berk. Choose carefully," offers Grimmel calmly.

Once again, the people of Berk are left confused. Grimmel acting like they know where Hiccup and Astrid are at. It made the Vikings of Berk wonder what Hiccup and Astrid did to get the attention of this man and his so-called comrades. The chief of Berk knows that Grimmel tells the truth with deceit and deception. He knows that this is one of many ways that the Night Fury killer plays with his prey like they were a game to him. Stoick, Gunner, and Hilda all wonder if their children were really alive. "If Hiccup and Astrid are truly alive, we haven't seen or heard from them in six years, Grimmel," Stoick answers truthfully, hoping that this is the end of this conversation.

"Have you heard of the Dragon Master and Dragon Mistress?" Grimmel asked calmly. Again, what Grimmel said left them confused. Of course they have heard of the legend of the Dragon Master and Mistress. All the adults of the village believe that the legend was started to keep misbehaving children to behave. What did the legend have to do with their situation?

"What does that have to do with our situation," questions Stoick, trying to figure out the angle the Night Fury killer is taking.

"Hiccup and Astrid are the Dragon Master and Mistress," answers the Night Fury killer. Shocked fills everyone from Berk from the allegations made.

"You're lying! My daughter isn't some dragon loving rider!" yells Hilda while glaring at Grimmel. How dare he accuse Astrid of such a heinous crime? Did he know that her family had been dishonored as cowards because of the Finn vs the Flightmare situation? How that day her daughter became more determined to become the best dragon killer on Berk? Now he is saying that she somehow became a dragon rider. It did not make any sense to her or her husband.

"My son isn't some dragon sympathizing rider either!" yells Stoick, trying not to lose his temper. His son and Astrid would never side with the dragons over their own people. The two lost teenagers lost a love one to the dragons. Hiccup lost his own mother, Valka, to that four-winged dragon. Astrid lost her uncle to the Flightmare. It just did not make any sense to anyone from Berk.

"Believe whatever you want. Now Berk, have you decided if you are going to tell me what I want to know? Or do we have to do thing the hard way?" Grimmel offers impatiently.

"You and what army? We're Vikings and we fight for our homes," Spitelout proclaimed proudly. Spitelout may not know who Grimmel is, but if Grimmel thinks he could just show up here and demand them to do things, he has another thing coming to him.

"You tell him dad," Snotlout agreed with his father while rising a fist in the air, just as proud as his dad. Most of the tribe also agreed with Spitelout. Stoick looks at both his brother and nephew and shakes his head in disbelief at their confidence. He knows that they should not underestimate Grimmel. He knows that he has to find a way to outplay the Night Fury killer in his own game. Which was not going to be an easy task to do.

Just then, the door to the Great Hall opens and Johann walks into the room. "Grimmel, everything is all set and ready to go," Johann says he enters the room. The villagers are once again left baffled. They had not seen or heard from the trader in just over six months. Now he shows up with this strange man all of a sudden.

"Johann, are you working for Grimmel?" Stoick questions the trader. All of these events just keep getting bizarre. How long has Johann been working for the Night Fury killer? Has he always been working with Grimmel all along? These are the questions that are running through the mind of Stoick at the moment.

"Congratulations on figuring it out, Stoick. People of Berk, why don't you look outside to see the surprise we've brought to you," Johann answers sarcastically. With that being said, the citizens walked out of the room to see what the trader was taking about. The site that greeted them fills them all with pure horror. Not only were dragons destroying their houses with their fire, but a massive army was waiting for them with their weapons drew out.

"How did they get passed the watch towers," Stoick demands, furious. The watch towers were designed for guards to watch for raiding dragons or invading forces. Why did they not warn them of this, wonders the chief.

"Oh, it's nothing your guards won't sleep off," answers Grimmel while pulling out a tranquilizer dart from his pocket. With that, the pieces of this confusing puzzle came together for Stoick. Grimmel used one of those darts to put asleep his guards before entering the Great Hall. Once there, he would distract them so this invading enemy could enter Berk freely. But what he could not figure out is what was with the dragons.

"You can blame Hiccup and Astrid for this. What are you going to do now, Stoick? Are you going to finally tell me where they're hiding at? Or are you going to try to fight your way through this?" reasons Grimmel.

"If my son and Astrid are truly alive, again, we haven't seen or heard from them in six years," replies Stoick, trying not to lose his cool from being taken off guard. Which he plans on to never happen again. He also needed to use his head to get them out of this safely.

"Well, I say you surrender Berk to us. You see I do believe, sooner or later, Hiccup and Astrid will return. Once they do, I promise we'll give you back Berk. Or do you really think you can take on all of us? Your choice Stoick. Choose carefully," suggest Grimmel.

Stoick is looking back at his villagers, and is wondering if fighting this army is the best move. It sickens him to his stomach that they were in this mess. Knowing full well that Grimmel's forces are much larger than theirs. If they counter attacked, how many lives would Berk lose as a consequence of that action? Was it really worth it if most of his villagers died? He knows that this is not going to be a popular choice, but he just cannot put the lives of others over this. "Alright, Berk is all yours," answers Stoick in a defeated tone. Groans and murmurs of disagreement came from his proud villagers. But they cannot get out of this mess if they were dead. A chief has to protect his own after all, even if they do not agree with his decision.

Meanwhile with Hilda Hofferson, she is beside herself with guilt. The warnings from Zephyr running in her mind once again. 'Yeah, they're going to burn everything to ashes. Once they're done with that, they will make the survivors into slaves.' Was this all her fault for not warning her village sooner?

The next day, far away from Berk, two dragons are flying towards New Berserker Island. One of the dragons is a Deadly Nadder carrying a woman in armor. The armor the woman is wearing is made out of the Nadder's discarded scales. The young woman is Astrid Hofferson and the Deadly Nadder's name is Stormfly. The other dragon is the Night Fury, Toothless, carrying Hiccup Haddock.

The young couple had left their island early in the morning to make it to New Berserker Island, so they could get ready for their marriage. The both of them did not know the hell that is going on at their former home. After flying for hours, the four of them were coming towards their destination. Waiting for them are a trio of dragon riders alongside their dragons. The dragons are a Razorwhip named Windshear, a Gronckle called Shattermaster, and a Rumblehorn named Skullcrusher. The riders are Heather, Dagur, and Eret. Toothless and Stormfly land in front of the dragon riders. Once their dragons are landed, the young couple hop off their dragons. Heather and Dagur went to go greet the arriving couple, while Toothless and Stormfly headed towards the other dragons to go play with them. "Welcome back, Hiccup and Astrid," greeted Heather as she hugged the both of them.

"Yeah, welcome back, brother and Astrid," greeted Dagur as he joined in the hug. Who would have thought that Dagur once wanted to kill Hiccup and Astrid? That was before the Dragon Hunters had been exposed of using Dagur and then betraying him. Now, he is reformed to the Dragon Riders.

"It's good to see you guys again," replied Hiccup then chuckling before returning the hug.

"Yeah, it's great to see you guys again," replied Astrid as she returned the hug. Her boyfriend and her are happy to see their friends as they don't get to see them as much. After a few moments of hugging, the four of them broke it up. Then, Hiccup and Astrid started to head towards the other rider, Eret. Once there, Eret offers his hand towards Hiccup to shake and while he does, he greets them, "Welcome back, Hiccup and Astrid. How was the flight?"

Eret was once a dragon trapper that worked for Drago. But after all the years working for the twisted man, Eret helped Hiccup and Astrid defeat Drago. After that Dagur and Heather had offered Eret a new home with the Berserker tribe because Drago had destroyed his former tribe. Ever since then, he has been a great friend to the young couple.

"It's great to see you too. The flight was great," replies Hiccup as he takes Eret's hand and shakes it with a warm smile. After the heartfelt reunion of friends, the dragon riders are walking though the village with their dragons beside them. Everywhere you see had decorations for the upcoming wedding. The villagers greeted the soon-to-be married couple. The children came to play with their dragons, but mostly a certain Night Fury.

"What do you guys think?" asked Dagur while he and the others stop walking though the town. Hiccup and Astrid know that Dagur and the rest of Berserker tribe are trying to make their marriage as wonderful as possible. They are very grateful for all of this.

"We can't thank you all enough for this," answers Hiccup truthfully. Just then, Hiccup has a horrible feeling like something terrible was happening.

"Hiccup, are you alright?" asks Astrid with a worried expression and tone. The question had the others looking at Hiccup, also concerned for the young man's well-being.

"It's just that do you guys ever wonder about whatever happened to Johann? I know that I should be focusing on the wedding, but I can't help worrying for the worst," replies Hiccup. Astrid grabs his hand to bring comfort to her stressed out boyfriend. Toothless coos at his rider worriedly. The others looked at the couple and wished that they knew where their once friend was hiding at. "Do you guys wonder if he went to Berk? Or do you guys wonder if he told one of our enemies Astrid and I are from Berk," wonders Hiccup while thinking of all of the possibilities of what happened to Johann.

Astrid never wanted to get her hands on someone more than right now. Hiccup to her is the nicest person she knows and then Johann had to stab him in his back. Now, her boyfriend has been through enough and now he has to deal with this turmoil of this betrayal. Hiccup let goes of Astrid's hand. "Don't worry about that snake? We'll gut him up for what he did to all of us. But why do you worry about Berk? Didn't the Berkians treat you like you're useless and worthless," responds Dagur truthfully.

Grabbing and looking at his helmet, Hiccup says, "There is a reason Astrid and I wear our helmets to hide our identities. It's to protect our families even if my own family didn't care about me. We've made a lot of enemies over these past six years. Enemies that would hurt the ones we care about if they know who we are. If word got out that me and Astrid are the Dragon Master and Dragon Mistress, Berk would be put in so much danger for my actions. The Berkians would be innocent and they don't need to pay for the consequences of our actions. If that ever happened, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself. It wouldn't matter if they're terrible to me or not."

That was what Astrid loved the most about Hiccup. He always looked for the good in everyone no matter how evil they are. He would always save others before saving himself. He's willing to always help others even when they wronged him. Hiccup did what he believed to be right. There was just so much that she loved about him.

"Alright, we can send Forde and Harold to Berk to check on them," requests Heather, hoping to reassure Hiccup everything was alright. Forde and Harold are two dragon riders that ride Changewings. Because they know that Berk does not take too kindly to dragons still, it was best to send two dragon riders with dragons that could camouflage.

"Thanks, Heather," replies Hiccup with a smile. With that being said, they went on with the rest of their day catching up with each other, not knowing about the struggle Berk is facing right now.


I want to once again thank everyone that favorite, followed, and or review this story so far. I also wanted to thank Hannah Mohamed and Alaba for their suggestion for Astrid's father name that I used for the two characters that I used. I hope some of you've noticed that I've been posting a chapter every week. Next week I'm taking a break to get some personal stuff done. I do apologize for that. I do hope you guys enjoyed this chapter. I wish you guys the best and stay safe out there. :)