38. Terror mail

When Storm got back to the academy Hiccup was still out, she didn't wait form him as she had no idea when he was going to be back. Toothless hadn't come to find her so she knew that Hiccup was alive, and she hoped that everything went well for him and Astrid. Storm checked if the rest of the gang's dragons were inside the cages, let Skullcrusher chose where he wanted to sleep, and went to sleep herself.

When she woke up, Hiccup was asleep next to Toothless. He had a smile on his face, so Storm assumed the talk with Astrid went well. She didn't wake him just yet, she had no reason to, the patrolling had surely tired out the gang as they were not used to long nights, so Storm had a feeling that they were going to be late to training.

Hiccup woke up a few hours later still in high spirits.

"Good morning, bud," she heard him say to Toothless while scratching the dragon's chin. Hiccup stood up and stretched his eyes unconsciously scanning the area. "What time is it?" he asked her when he saw that she was awake and studying some of their notes.

"Almost noon," she answered without raising her eyes from the page. She raised an eyebrow and glanced at his smiling face. "You were out late."

"Yeah," he crossed his arms and stood in front of her. "You didn't come looking for me." He stated accusingly.

"Oh?" a mischievous smirk found its way onto her face.

"You were in on it," Hiccup put his palm on the notebook, blocking her view and making her raise her eyes to him. "Did you tell Astrid to snatch me?"

"I'm sorry, what?" Storm laughed. "No, no. I told her you were ready to talk, but she did what?"

"Snatched me while I was jogging to the beach to cause some chaos for you to notice. Flew me to the cove in Stormfly's claws," He saw Storm nod, and indication that he could talk about what happened and she wouldn't interrupt. "We talked, then yelled, then talked again. It was like a weight was lifted from my shoulders… how did you know I was ready?"

"Gobber," She saw his slightly confused look and continued. "You took the fact that he knew very well, and you didn't know that he knew. You knew Astrid recognized you, so I thought that not giving you time to overthink was best."

"I guess you're right," he sighed and hugged her. "I don't know what I'd do without you." He murmured into her hair.

"Neither do I," Storm agreed. She pulled away from the hug and stood up, giving Hiccup her hand. "C'mon, let's go eat, we need to sneak the boys out before the gang come."

Astrid was the first to remember they had training. She entered the arena with a skip in her step, even though she was still a little tired. Storm and Hiccup were milling around the arena, their helmets hung on one of the cage doors. Astrid looked at Hiccup for a moment, she didn't understand how she didn't see that this man was Hiccup the first time she saw him.

"Hi," she greeted them both. "Sorry I'm late."

"You're the first one here," Hiccup pointed out, the smile on his face hadn't left his face since he woke up.

"I noticed, where is everyone?" she questioned.

"Patrol threw them off," Storm said, coming to stand next to them. "I thought you would come the latest, considering how late Chief came back." She said in a teasing tone.

"I had a lot to think about," Astrid chuckled, "Sleep really wasn't on my mind."

"Good news then, today is going to be a slow day, we don't have anything planned, just going over the patrol," Hiccup said while giving Storm a knowing look. Storm raised her hands in surrender.

"Everything worked out."

"He knows?" Astrid whispered in Storm's direction.

"Yes I do," Hiccup answered for her. "The stunt you pulled would not have ended the same if Storm didn't know."

"He's right you know," Storm easily agreed with a sweet smile on her lips.

"Noted," Astrid said, an appreciative look in her eyes. The viking had no problem believing that Storm would do anything for Hiccup, especially after some of the stories Hiccup told her yesterday.

Their attention was drawn to the entrance of the arena as a groaning Snotlout entered, and annoyed Eret and a tired Fishlegs trailing behind him. Snotlout groaned all the way to the middle of the arena and fell back on the ground, he stopped groaning only when he closed his eyes. Fishlegs shot him an annoyed look and sat down on the ground next to a wall. Eret exhaled in anger as he visibly stopped himself from kicking the laying man.

"Want to tell us what happened?" Storm asked him. Eret looked at her then at the two standing next to her, he ran a hand down his face.

"I wake up," He started. "Go to the Meade hall to eat, everything's great, it's the morning, I go to head here when I see Spitelout angrily pacing outside his house, I ask him what was bothering him, he says he can't get this one," He angrily pointed at Snotlout, "to wake up, I asked him if I could help."

"I made the same mistake too," Fishlegs added.

"He slept like dead!" Eret exclaimed throwing his arms up in the air. "We tried so much until he finally woke up and he has the audacity to complain because we woke him up! It took hours to get him out of bed!"

The trio could help but laugh at Eret's and Fishlegs' misfortune. The annoyed looks the two sent them was worth it.

"Hey, hey," Storm called and gestured to Hookfang. "Next time take a dragon."

Eret face palmed at his own stupidity. Getting Hookfang to get Snot out of bed would have been so fast.

"Where are the twins?" Astrid asked after looking around, no one answered, because no one knew. They didn't need to wonder long as not a minute later they ran into the arena.

"Look! Look at what we caught!" the yelled at the same time while pointing at a Terrible Terror in Ruffnut's hands. "He was flying around the village!"

The small dragons was desperately trying to get out of Ruffnut's hands. He was clearly distressed. Storm quickly ran to the twins and quickly took the Terror from Ruffnut, Storm stepped back before the viking could react.

"Why would you catch him?" she asked, her frown betrayed her anger. Storm gently stroked the dragon while he calmed down, the glare she was giving the twins was ice cold.

"This is the first Terror we saw in months!" Tuffnut declared. "We wanted to keep him!" The male tried to take the dragon out of Storm's hold, but his hands were batted away by Hiccup who had come to stand next to Storm.

"Never, and I mean never, try to take a wild dragon and force him to him to stay with you," Hiccup growled, the twins shrank back in fear.

"At least give us the thingy that is on his leg," Ruffnut said while pointing to the now calm Terror. Storm quickly lifted the Terror and saw what Ruffnut meant, there was a letter tied to his hind leg, she gave the dragon another look.

"Sharpshot," she concluded while taking the parchment off of his leg. Storm put Sharpshot onto Hiccup's shoulders and looked over rolled up letter, she paused at the seal that held the latter closed. "This is Mala's seal," she said, confusion and worry clouding her eyes. "I'll read this, you start the lesson."

Storm took the letter and stepped away from everyone after giving the twins one last glare. Hiccup looked at the group and gestured for them to get into one place so he didn't have a hard time making sure they left Storm alone while she read, Fishlegs came to stand with everyone and Snotlout had finally stood up, the commotion had peaked his interest.

"So we're not getting the letter or the Terror?" Tuffnut whined.

"This is Sharpshot, he's mine," Hiccup responded. "He's actually a messenger dragon that I trained myself, and that letter is for me and Storm, not you."

The twins took his answer with great distain, yet with another glare from Hiccup they kept quiet. Sharpshot rubbed himself on Hiccup's hair while he started the lesson.

"First of all, never take a wild dragon and try to hold them against their will, you're lucky Sharpshot was used to humans," he said while pointing to the upset twins, "If he had been completely wild, you would have been hurt. Terrors are small, but they are fierce."

"Is there a way we could train one like you did?" Fishlegs asked.

"If you find one in the wild and it doesn't immediately run away you can try to train it. Give them some fish and they'll be your friend forever," Hiccup explained and scratched the Terror's chin, the small dragon let out a purr. "We can talk about that later, now we have to –"

"Read this," Storm interrupted him by shoving the letter into his chest, her face was hard with worry. "Yesterday's patrol happened like it was supposed to, and I hope you liked it because you're going to be doing that early every morning and late every night."

"Hey, wait a minute –" Snotlout tried to interrupt her.

"I'm not waiting a second," Storm retorted. "There are six of you and three main routes, you'll have to figure out who gets what route yourselves."

"You can't boss us around!" Snotlout exclaimed, Storm bit her tongue and let him say his piece. "I'm the heir, only Chief can order me to do things!" The worry in Storm's eyes clouded with anger as he continued. "In any case I should be ordering you around!"

"This is not some power play!" Storm shouted. "You pull the heir card every time you don't want to do something, and the patrols aren't for my enjoyment, they are for the safety of Berk!" The others looked on at their exchange not knowing what to do.

"Yeah, right," Snotlout spat. "You might have the rest of these idiots fooled, but I am smarter than they are and I see through your plan of getting in power!"

Snotlout didn't have the time to react as Storm was in front of him, gripping the front of his tunic and lifting him of the ground.

"Listen closely," she growled, "you may think that you're more important than the rest, because of your status of heir, but you're not. Men like you are the bottom of the barrel and you will treat others with respect. The only thing standing between you, and me giving the command to Shadow to fry your brain out, is the fragile alliance we agreed upon with Stoick."

"Storm," Hiccup put a hand on her shoulder, the command in his voice obvious. She let go of Snotlout and stepped back. "That's enough, we need to tell Stoick to come here so we could explain what's happening."

"I'm going to find Gobber, he can relay our message," Storm said. She was tense with anger, she didn't even look at the others once as she went to her helmet, put it on and left the arena. Hiccup glanced at the letter one more time, he had to read it a few times to fully understand that what he was reading was not some sick joke.

"Fishlegs, go and make a schedule for the patrols – one in the morning, one at night. Ruff, Tuff, go and start looking for replacements for all of your morning and late night chores," Hiccup ordered, the mentioned people nodded and went without complain sensing Hiccup's bad mood. "Snotlout? Go and fix your attitude, we're here to help you, not try to steal the little power you have."

"If Stoick is going to come here, shouldn't I be here as well? I am his heir after all," Snotlout rudely asked, still trying to prove something only he cared about.

"If Stoick decides you need to know, he will tell you," Hiccup said in a no-nonsense tone. "Astrid, Eret, stay. I need to tell you what your responsibilities are, and Stoick needs to approve of them."

Snotlout left while grumbling to himself. Eret and Astrid shared a worried look, Hiccup and Storm were acting strange, both wanted to find out what caused this bad mood for the pair. Astrid approached Hiccup and with a hand on his shoulder gained his attention.

"What's happening?" she asked.

"I'll tell you when Stoick comes," he said and started reading the letter once more, like reading it will answer all of the questions he had.

The Chief was taking stock of the village's supplies when Gustav found him. The teen was out of breath and Stoick had a hard time understanding what he was saying, but the rush the teen was in worried Stoick.

"Slow down," the Chief ordered. "Tell me what is wrong, slowly."

"You are needed," Gustav huffed, he was hunched over, his hands on his knees trying to breath, "At the forge. Gobber asked for you." He finally got out with a smile.

"Thank you," Stoick said, a worried frown taking over his face.

Gustav usually despised physical activity, with Snotlout being his idol, the boy tried to be like Snotlout to the best of his abilities. So the fact that he had ran to find Stoick promised serious trouble and the Chief feared the worst as he reached the forge and saw the female 'demon' standing around.

"What's the problem?" He asked as soon as he was in hearing range not bothering with the pleasantries. Gobber, who had been saying something to the 'demon', turned to him with his signature smile.

"No problem here Chief, you're just needed for some urgent business," the smith gestured to Storm, who had taken a step away from them as the Chief approached. Stoick hummed and looked at her expectantly.

"We need to go to the academy, we'll tell you all of the information there," Storm said not giving him a chance to argue and turned to leave, not giving him any clarification on what was happening.

Stoick followed her with a huff, he kept shooting her suspicious glares, but the girl didn't react. This was not the first time Stoick noticed the apparent lack of respect the woman held for him, taking him away from his duties and not giving him any indication what this was about only adding to his dislike of her. If they thought he was going to drop his responsibilities every time they called, they were sorely mistaken.

With their fast strides, the academy was reached fast. The girl didn't miss a beat as she went straight to the male 'demon' and stood next to him. Stoick paused at the entrance as he caught Astrid and Eret standing with them. The Chief didn't have to ask before the male 'demon' was speaking.

"Stoick, I'm sorry to take you away from your duties, but this is urgent," he apologized then held up a letter and started explaining what this was all about. "We got this letter today, in it our allies told us that they were attacked and requested our assistance. Two islands in the span of three days were attacked, both islands our allies, both had helped in our battles against dragon trappers."

"And? You are not part of the tribe, you don't need my permission to leave," Stoick stated. The attacks were bad news, but they had nothing to do with Berk.

"And there is suspicious activity leading them to believe that the attacks were ordered by Drago," Hiccup continued. "If that is true, that means that the attack on Berk is coming faster than expected, if not, then we still have time. I and Storm will be going to check it out, we'll be gone for five days."

"We have ordered the dragon riders to patrol every morning and night, this will insure that if something tries to sneak up on Berk you will know." Storm finally spoke, she crossed her arms and stood straight. "We'll also be bringing back more dragons, for integration and added security as we spoke about."

Stoick thought about their words for a moment. The pair's actions seemed to be innocent and for Berk's advantage, yet he was suspicious of their abrupt leave. If he told the gang to change up the patrol schedule after the pair left, Berk would be safer from any deceit the two could come up with.

"That's okay with me," Stoick agreed looking as Storm, he saw Astrid take a step towards the male 'demon' out of the corner of his eye, the movement reminding him that she and Eret were still there. "I'm guessing you've already told the team what they need to do, so why are they still here?" He asked motioning to the two.

"We need you to approve their duties in all of this," the man explained. "If you are okay with it, Eret needs to go to Gobber and help him make weapons that are used by the trappers most of the time, he's best for the job and we need them for further practice, and I want Astrid to be the leader of the Berk dragon riders. She is the best at it, but I need to know you agree with my decision before I give her any tasks."

"Why her?" Stoick inquired. By the recollection of the night guards Astrid was the last to come home yesterday night and Stoick hadn't talked to her about it yet, she had promised to keep him updated on this situation with the 'demons' and she hasn't come to talk to him for a while.

"We aren't part of the tribe so we can't take the position, and as I mentioned, she is the best for the job," Dragon boy rolled his eyes, he never thought he would have to explain such a simple concept to his father.

"What will she be doing?" the Chief asked after giving the smiling Astrid a questioning look.

"She'll have to remind the others of their patrol routes and make sure they don't slack off, among other things. She'll also be responsible for taking the team to Dragon Island in five days." The male quickly explained.

"Why?" Astrid cut in. She seemed at ease next to the pair and that raised Stoick's suspicion, she had always taken Stoick's lead while dealing with most of the tribe business he had let her in on and the fact she didn't share his distrust unnerved him.

"The dragons we'll be taking back here will respond better to their own species," Storm told her. "It will be easier for all of us, you can come with us when we leave and we'll show you where you need to go."

"Wait," Stoick interrupted, "I'm not comfortable with her going alone with you." He saw the 'demons' share a look, then Eret spoke up.

"I could go with them, if you let me," He hesitantly offered. Stoick thought for a moment, the ex-trapper wasn't the first person he would choose, but he volunteered and he had experience with fighting the 'demons' if the need arose, Eret also never gave him reason to doubt his integrity. As far as Stoick saw the man was trustworthy. In the end the Chief agreed.

"Do not let anything happen to her," he seriously warned. Astrid was one of the people who never forgotten about his son and still held feeling for him, she often reminded the Chief of the older days without even trying.

"I can take care of myself," Astrid interjected, her slight annoyance bleeding into her voice.

"I don't doubt that," Stoick agreed not wanting her to get mad at him. "Now, I have duties to get back to, we'll talk when you get back. I'll want to know what happened."

With that he took his leave. He hoped he didn't make a mistake in trusting the 'demons'.

Astrid and Eret left soon after Stoick after receiving orders to be at the cove in the evening. Hiccup and Storm were still on edge, yet not as badly as before. As far as they knew there had been no casualties in the attacks, but the thought that the people they had lived with and considered close friends could've been hurt, or worse, had put them on edge.

The pair had gathered their belongings and snuck into the woods without being seen by anyone. They went to the cove where Toothless and Shadow liked to hang out. They had gotten everything ready and only had to wait for Astrid and Eret to show up. Hiccup had taken out some old blueprints and was looking over them while Storm once again busied herself with the same notebook form the morning.

When the evening had set, Stormfly and Skullcrusher entered the cove. Hiccup and Storm quickly put away their things and got onto their own dragons, they were antsy to leave. Hiccup took the lead, the others were in line a little behind him. They reached Dragon Island after about an hour of flying and landed on the nearest shore.

"Well, this is where we'll meet," Hiccup spoke as he looked at Astrid. The viking nodded and they stared at each other. Storm saw the growing tension between them, got down from Shadow's saddle and gestured for Eret to follow her.

"Let's give them a minute," Storm whispered to the ex-trapper as he fell into step with her.

Hiccup noticed as Storm led Eret away, the thumbs up she gave him was impossible to miss. He blushed, but got off of Toothless all the same and went over to Astrid, who took his lead and also stepped down from the saddle. Hiccup took off his helmet, letting it fall to the ground, and took Astrid's hands.

"I'm sorry I'm leaving this soon," he said, his eyes lowered to their connected hands. "I wanted to get to know you again."

"I did too," Astrid gave his hands a reassuring squeeze. "Promise me we'll hang out more when you come back."

"I promise," Hiccup whispered as his eyes met hers. "Promise you'll wait for me?" He jokingly asked.

"I will," Astrid answered, she was completely serious and Hiccup couldn't help but smile.

He held her gaze for what seemed like an eternity, all of the things he wanted to say, but didn't have the time to, were held in his gaze. He glanced at her lips as she did the same, the tension was thick with desire. Hiccup felt himself start to lean in. He felt nervous and was about to pull away, but he didn't get the chance to chicken out as Toothless gently pushed him into Astrid.

Their lips met and it was everything like Hiccup remembered. Suddenly, he was fifteen again, and his crush was kissing him for the first time, her soft lips making him melt. All too soon he had to pull away, Astrid's arms had found their way into his hair as she leaned her forehead against his. Her care free giggle reached his ears as he once again held her gaze.

'I love you.' He thought to himself, yet he couldn't find the strength to say it out loud.

"So, your brother and Astrid?" Eret questioned when he glanced back and saw Hiccup take Astrid's hands into his. Soon Storm had led them behind some boulders to give the two on the beach complete privacy.

"Yes, but they're keeping it to themselves right now," Storm answered as she leaned on the nearest rock.

"They make a cute couple, I'm not going to tell anyone," Eret assured her, she gave him a grateful nod. "Friends keep promises, right?"

"Yeah," Storm answered, yet she didn't understand where the question came from.

"Then promise me you'll stay safe," he answered her unasked question. He stood closer to her and put a hand on her cheek. "I know what Drago is capable of."

"I know too," she put her hand on his. "I'm not that easy to get rid of." She said with a smug smile.

He look into her eyes and started leaning in, Eret was sure they both wanted this as Storm started leaning towards him. Suddenly, Storm was gone from his field of view, in her place was the snout of a pissed off Skrill. Eret jumped back with a startled yelp, letting go of Storm in the process, as Shadow let out a growl.

"Shadow!" Storm chastised the dragon and pushed away his snout from in front of her face. She smiled at Eret and bit her bottom lip. "We'll talk when I come back, alright?" She asked and held out her hand for a handshake.

Eret weighed his options. He looked at Storm's outstretched hand, then at the angry dragon standing near her, and finally he looked Storm's flushed, smiling face. He made his decision and took her hand in a handshake, as Shadow let out a satisfied huff, Eret took the chance that the Skrill was relaxed and pulled Storm closer to kiss her cheek.

He didn't get the time to take in her pleased expression as he had to run away from a furious Shadow. He ran back to Skullcrusher as fast as he could.

"Time to go!" He shouted in Astrid's direction as he jumped on his dragon and took off without looking back.

Astrid shared a wide-eyed look with Hiccup, who was as shocked as she was. They were still in each other's arms, holding one another close as Storm came from behind some boulders at the edge of the beach. Storm was laughing at Shadow as the Skrill furiously paced the place Eret took off from, she looked at the embracing pair and giggled.

"We should probably get going," She said with a regretful smile and went to calm her dragon down.

Hiccup slowly nodded, and turned to Astrid once again. He gave her a quick peck on the lips and let her go.

"We'll be back before you know it," he promised.

Astrid watched as he mounted Toothless, and with a final wave, took off, Storm just behind him. Astrid sat down into Stormfly's saddle and with a wishful sigh she took off in the direction of Berk. She noticed Eret fast enough, as he had slowed down after getting out of Shadow's sight. Astrid maneuvered Stormfly to fly next to the Rumblehorn.

"So you and Dragon boy?" Eret asked with a knowing look. Astrid's eyes narrowed as she gave the same look back to him.

"So you and Storm?"

The questions went unanswered and the rest of the way back to Berk was spent in silence.