11. Shall we?

The riders spent the time until noon by flying, goofing around and napping, for the most part. Sure, they sat down and talked about what their base rules for training the Hooligans will be, but they didn't bother themselves by unnecessary anxiety because of things that hadn't happened yet. Well they tried not to worry, but their thoughts betrayed them from time to time.

Berk's chief and his council spent the time quite differently. Staying up all night going over their simple plan trying to find any wrinkles that would make the 'Dragon demons' refuse to help. Stoick was desperate for the pair's help and if they refused he knew that his tribe would have to leave the island, and he didn't want that. He didn't want to leave the place so many people had fought for, had died for, but with a threat as big as Drago he had little choice.

Noon came and with it people came out of their homes wanting to see the, to an extent, legendary pair. No one knew exactly where they were going to show up, but it was apparent that the tribe will know. Berk's chief was hoping that they would show up in the Meade hall, away from most of the tribe, but he knew, no matter what, everyone in the village would know the deal they would, hopefully, had made.

Stoick's wishes went unheard and he heard someone yelling in the plaza, he went out and saw the pair of 'demons' slowly walking towards the plaza. They were walking from the academy, and for a minute Stoick thought that they were staying there, but the dragon scouts gathered there almost every night to go over everything and they would have noticed if anyone was there, right?

He thought they would make their way to the hall, but they stopped at the plaza and waited. Stoick sighed and went to the plaza himself, they had a deal to make. His council and the dragon scout were already there, waiting for him. The pair in the middle of the plaza were casually standing there ignoring every question and threat that was thrown their way, like they belonged there.

"Hello," Stoick said as he reached them. "Am I right to assume that we should go straight to the deal?"

The 'demons' nodded simultaneously, and Berk's chief found that unbelievably creepy, especially that now, in the day light, their armor looked even more disturbing and dangerous than last night in the dark. He would have to get used to it if they worked together, but it didn't mean he was used to it now.

"You know we want your help. We had dragons long ago, and we know they are good defenders, we want to be prepared to either fight or if it's necessary… flee."

"Okay, training dragons, how do you want to go about that? You said you had dragons living among you once, so you should know how to train them - " the woman said.

"Or do you want us to bring you dragons for you to train?" the man asked.

Stoick blanched, they spent all night going over everything and simple wording might cost them their only hope. They wanted the 'demons' help, for getting dragons and keeping them on the island. If they wanted to simply get dragons, they could have had the dragon hunters bring them some and bought them. But no, the other wanted to live with dragons and have them like they had seen with their eyes only once before.

"We want you to help us with whatever you can." He said, defeated.

"Okay, but we'll do it by our rules, not yours." The woman said, then looked around the crowd. She smirked under her helmet and continued with an almost condescending voice. "If that's okay with you of course."

"What are your rules?" Astrid butted in.

"They're easy," the man said. "First, you listen to us and don't question our teaching methods. Second, if we don't want to answer a question, we won't, – "

"Third, you do not threaten us or try to fight us. Fourth, you do not follow us, anywhere, - "

"And lastly, you do not try to take off our helmets. Are we clear?" Stoick nodded, and so do did everyone who heard what they said.

"What do you want in return?" the 'demons' looked each other in the eyes and Hiccup knew that the tiredness he saw in Storm's eyes was reflected in his own. They hadn't talked about that yet, but they knew without having to talk about that. The wish was ingrained deep into their very souls.

"Peace." They firmly said. "Peace between vikings and dragons."

They only asked for peace and nothing more, and that didn't bother anyone as they could've already asked for anything they wanted. The tribe would've agreed to anything short of selling their children. They were desperate and they knew that. The pair were satisfied it seemed as they looked at each other for a moment. When the man spoke up again, his tone was cocky.

"Oh, and if you don't abide by our rules, we will retaliate."

"So," the woman cheerily said clapping her hand together, "who would like to volunteer to be our trainees?"

The people were silent, scared to do something new or just scared of the pair in general. Hiccup rolled his eyes, of course, vikings were always brave in the face of danger, but they were always scared of change and new things, he could attest to that. He huffed and half turned to the academy.

"Find volunteers and send them our way, we'll be in the academy."

He turned fully and started walking to the academy, Storm falling into step with him. They talked last night and decided that the irony of teaching vikings how to befriend dragons in the place they used to kill them was too good to miss out. They were almost at the academy when he heard Storm chuckle, he faced her, tilting his head in question.

"Talking together and finishing each other's sentences," she snickered. "Works every time."

He snickered too. Everyone acted brave until they creeped them out, and they enjoyed that immensely.

Hiccup already knew who would show up as their volunteers - the gang. Astrid, Fishlegs, Snotlout and the twins all had some experience with riding dragons, so it made sense, he told Storm as such. His thoughts were proven correct when, about ten minutes after the pair reached the academy, the gang could be seen making their way to them. They were not alone of course, a group of villagers were trailing behind them, no doubt wanting to see what the 'Dragon demons' had in store.

As soon as the gang were close enough the pair turned to the academy gate, Hiccup pulled the lever to open it with one hand. The pair walked into the academy with the gang following. As the pair reached the middle Hiccup stopped and turned around on his prosthetic, clapping his hand together. From the creeped out expressions on their trainees' faces he knew that Storm managed to copy his movements exactly.

'Good, it's still working,' he thought.

"Welcome to dragon training!" he cheerfully mimicked the same words that Gobber uttered all those years ago. He saw both Astrid and Fishlegs flinch.

'So they remember… interesting.'

"This will be the place where you go from 'dragon scouts' to 'dragon riders'" Storm said with flourish. "Let's begin with the basics, shall we?"

[I wanted to thank you for the reviews I have gotten and answer godspeed83 question. Yes, Storm does look something like that, I do mention that she's very similar to Hiccup in overall appearance, enough for people to think they could be twins. I never truly mention how she looks and leave it mostly to your imagination, but I do have her appearance clear in my mind.]