Asher winces at Stoick's speech - Stoick sounds lighthearted and good-natured, but he's putting Bloom down into the dirt. And he's figured out it affects her much more than she ever let on.

"Well, I can finally show my face in public again!" The crowd laughs, but Asher sneaks a peek at Bloom behind the gate - stone-faced, expressionless, just like when they'd pick on her. "If someone had told me that in a few short weeks, Bloom would go from being, well, Bloom, who hadn't shown even a spark of potential before, to placing first in Warrior Training, I'd have tied 'em to a mast and shipped 'em off for fear they'd gone mad!"

Again, the crowd roars with laughter and approval - but Asher flinches, nonetheless. That kind of blow would hurt anyone, yet Bloom acts like she didn't even hear it.

"And you know it! But, here we are. And no one's more surprised, or more proud, than I am. Bloom may be adopted, but today she becomes a Viking. Today, she becomes one of us!"

Ashur sees her flinch at that, can almost hear the thought 'I knew it…' go through her mind. Because she was already supposed to be a Viking. Supposed to be one of them. And there's the proof she wasn't, Stoick's words and the crowd's reactions slapping her straight in the face. She straightens her shoulders, and the gate opens up.

Bloom walks in, the only tell that she's upset being her lack of emotions - most would come in with some display of confidence, milking the moment as much as they can. Weapons waving, getting cheers from the crowd - not Bloom. She's got a somber mood for this - either because of Stoick's speech…or something she's decided.

Maybe her answer for which side she's on. Asher so hopes that isn't it, that its just that Stoick's speech killed her mood. Unfortunately, he isn't trusting to hope at the moment. Not when she has that same dead look in her eyes that apparently only Gobber is immune to.

She goes over to the rack and gets a shield out - she takes out a knife from her belt, then says "I'm ready."

The Nightmare bursts out of its cell, climbing around the area and spewing fire everywhere - especially at the chained cage over the arena. Bloom, however, seems entirely unfazed by the dragon that's twice as big as herself.

When it lands, spreading its wings and roaring towards the skies before crouching down at her level, she reaches up and tosses her helmet and shield away, saying "Told you. I'm not one of them." The crowd gasps as she bitterly adds "I never was."

The crowd starts yelling, but Stoick somehow manages to be heard over everyone when he yells "Kill the beast!"

Bloom glares up at him, her expression suddenly furious, and yells back "No! It doesn't have to be this way!"

"STOP THE TEST!"

Bloom shrugs, then says "Well, I tried. Let's get out of here." In a lightning-fast move, she throws her knife towards the gate, landing it perfectly in the mechanism to open the door just before anyone can reach it. Trapping herself in with the Monstrous Nightmare, and then cupping her hands to her face and letting out a roar that sounds quite a lot like a dragon's. To everyone's utter shock, a Light Fury and the other dragons from Training fly up and all shoot at the central ring for the chain cage over the arena. Melting it, and freeing Bloom and the Nightmare.

To everyone's horror, the Monstrous Nightmare lets Bloom get onto its neck, right behind its horns, and flies up - at which point, she jumps over to the Light Fury. Landing right on the saddle- wait, saddle?! Asher gets the sick feeling in his stomach that says Bloom's chosen her side and its not with the Vikings.

Stoick, red-faced and furious, yells "You've thrown your lot in the with dragons! You're no daughter of mine!"

Bloom just shrugs, and says "I know. Nobody nearly gives up on their kid, or even thinks about it. Forget telling them as much. And your little speech? Wonderful, really. You to, huh? You've thrown your lot in with that group, then?"

The crowd goes silent at that, even as she says "You never listened when I needed you to, Stoick the Vast. You were never there for me, either. Not then, not now. So, you'll never have to deal with me ever again. Goodbye, Berk. Goodbye, Gobber, you were better to me than the rest of them combined. Other than Gothi, that is. Your the only person here I'm sorry to leave." She nods her head at the other dragons, and they all disappear into the clouds.

Leaving all of Berk's population stunned and dumbfounded behind them.


Bloom and her new friends - no, new family - land on an island a good two hours away from Berk by flying. Bloom slides off Brightfire's back, feeling strangely passive about her exile from Berk - a moment later, she feels a near-hysterical laugh bubble up inside her.

The only way I could get him to pay attention to me…was by defying everything he thinks he knows. What did I do in a past life to get Stoick the Vast for an adoptive parent? Or Berk for a village?

Brightfire nudges her, and responds "It matters not, Bloom. We're free of them, all of us. What do we do about the Queen?"

Hookfang growls, and says "The Queen will never stop, her hunger and cruelty know no bounds. The only way to stop her is to kill her."

Stormfly nods, and says "It's supposed to be impossible. But, then, so is a human that is on our side. And can understand us on her own."

Bloom shrugs, then says "Well, they wanted me to kill a dragon. I say, go big or go home. And, since I don't have a home anymore…we go big as possible. Let's get the tyrant. We'll figure out what to do after that."

The dragons all roar in approval, then get practicing for the attack.


Gobber finally gets the control for the gate to the arena working again - Bloom's knife was up to the hilt in the gears, keeping the gate shut firmly - and tries to take inventory of what damage was caused. And try to figure out how dragons that were supposed to be in their pens were out and flying with a Light Fury. A Light Fury with a saddle, no less.

When he tries to open the nearest pen, though, the switch is jammed. Upon closer inspection, the gears are melted together.

As well as the metal reinforcements on the doors and the logs keeping them shut, firmly disabling them from ever being opened again. There's also a small line of Gronckle-lava along the edge of the door sealing it shut - they're never getting this door open or replaced. Ever. The other doors except for the Nightmare's are in the exact same state - skillful sabotage, instead of brute force or obvious disabling of the doors. It's only because he's so close that he can even see it - far away, the doors look the same as they did during Training.

Well, looks like Training is over for the time being. Either we'll need to build a new arena or train our recruits in actual Raids. This can only be Bloom's work, she's always had a mind for thinking three steps ahead. She'd be deadly in Maces and Talons…

Gobber chuckles - he knows he's supposed to feel all betrayed by Bloom, but…he feels more proud of her than anything else. That Saddle is what the leather was for, he can bet - and it's some excellent workmanship, he could tell. That speech of Stoick's was sure to hit a nerve with the poor girl, since all she ever wanted was to be 'one of them' - they denied her that too long, it seems. He can only hope she's better off wherever she goes.

And what she said about Stoick's speech…ouch. He joined the group of people that kept saying she wasn't one of them, didn't belong. Whether or not she was in earshot. Some of them - like Mildew - even said straight to her face that she should be shipped off the island and never come back.

Wish granted, it seems. In a way, at least.


Stoick's gone from absolutely furious to sullen and in an eternally foul mood.

The rest of the village, minus Asher and a few others, seems honestly confused to Hel and back as to why she'd throw away everything she was about to get - fame, glory, a place in the raids, status as a warrior. It never occurred to any of them that maybe she only ever wanted to be accepted, apparently.

Those others that weren't confused quickly get over their shock and practically throw a party, drinking gigantic amounts of ale in the great hall and toasting 'nothing in particular' - its never been more clear to everyone else that they truly didn't want Bloom on the island when it became clear she wasn't like them at all.

Asher, finally, seems utterly shocked - and even hurt - that Bloom came down on the side of the dragons instead of the Vikings. It's when he said he didn't understand why that Gobber finally lost his cool with the blonde boy and yelled at him so much and so angrily that he ran out of the Forge. Yelling that of course she sided with the dragons when the Vikings never wanted her to begin with, yelling that the entire village except for him was always against her, yelling that they never wanted her to begin with so why shouldn't she leave them.


AN: Hey, everyone! Yeah, next chapter is up! So, as I was formatting this, I realized I completely forgot about the Terrible Terror last chapter - to be clear, he just ran off into the forest.

Anyway, yeah, more of Stoick's A+ parenting - and its canon, to! He might've meant for it to be encouraging, but...c'mon, really?! He seriously needs a smack upside the head from Valka at some point, really. Especially since, from what I know, Hiccup was never actually prepared to take over as Chief during his childhood. Yeah, great job there, big guy!

PS. Bloom has some issues, unsurprisingly, and they'll be coming into play in later chapters. You have been warned now, before they come into play.

At any rate, enjoy! More chapters coming soon! Please review!