Hiccup's POV

"All right, everybody set? Gather here!"

With that command, everybody gathered in front of me, including the flock of Terrible Terrors and Nokk himself. I never thought the sight of the gang (which is sadly no longer intact) wearing their old dragon scale outfit would be something I'd see again. But here they are, wearing each of their own. All except for the Arendellians, obviously.

"I do miss wearing this," I gestured to my own dragon scale outfit.

"I think I need to enlarge the area around my crotch, since it's got bigger," Tuffnut gestured to the area he meant. Everybody else simply cringed at the audacity of the Viking. To knock the audacity out of the Viking, Astrid gave him a good knock by the head with the handle of her battle axe.

"Ow!"

"Right, shame that your helmet needs the opposite treatment, even after all these years," I cleared my throat. "All right! I actually had to say this when we briefed out the plan before packing up. It's um… it has something to do with my last scouting with Anna."

"You were spotted, we know," Astrid crossed her arms. "But… hearing Anna's explanation, we get it. We would've reacted the same, or worse," she bobbed her head. I looked to Anna who nodded with a smile, confirming that she indeed told everything.

"Okay. Still, my apology. It will certainly make life harder once we're up there, but it's not something we cannot accomplish. Anyone would like to ask something regarding the plan?" I asked. Nobody raised their hands or anything.

"All right. May the Gods bless us," I gestured my fellow Berkians to follow my lead. "Come."

With that, everybody except Nokk, who returned to the water for later use in the plan, followed my lead. We returned to the island labyrinth to reach the elevator room. Through the narrow gaps, steep ledges, multiple crossed paths, we eventually returned to the elevator chamber. Right away, everybody else was taken aback by the sight of the icy elevator itself and the hole of the previous wooden elevator made on the hole, which would lead to the frozen crater of the volcano.

Seeing that there are seventeen of us, and the elevator only capable of carrying half of the number, I divided my people into two groups. The first to ascend consisted of me, Anna, Elsa, Eret, Astrid, Tuffnut, my mother, and Fishleg, and the second consisted of the rest. My group hopped onto the elevator and started ascending to the top of the island once Astrid gave the lever a pull. Inevitably, the process took longer, considering there were more of us.

"You're saying that this is more rigid than the previous one?" Astrid asked, sounding as if she couldn't believe it.

"Uh huh," Elsa smiled proudly. "Well, to be fair, the old one is… old."

"Won't this eventually melt?" Fishleg asked curiously.

"Not with permafrost," Elsa replied.

"What's that?" Tuffnut asked.

Elsa kept on with her lecture about her magic and permafrost until we neared the top ground. With the manhole in reach, I told the others to be silent and listen close to the surroundings.

"Do you hear anything?" I whispered.

"I don't hear anything, son," my mother replied. "I think it's safe to come out now."

Agreeing that the coast was safe, I slowly lifted the manhole above our heads and took a peek through whatever I could see through the vines and leaves that hid the manhole itself. Seeing no movement, I cleared the vines and climbed up. I helped the others doing so afterwards.

"Oh New Berk…" Astrid whispered as I helped her up, sealing the manhole after it since she was the last to go. "I miss you so terribly."

"Everyone, keep a low profile," I warned them, and they immediately ducked in the tall vines after admiring the woods of New Raven Point. I get it that they miss the place so much, but stealth was the name of the game. Once everyone matched their heights with the vines around them, we proceeded to watch our surroundings for any possibility of incoming patrol on our stations. However, the cloudy sky was not helping us. Soon, the sky gave us a hint of lightnings.

"Hiccup?"

I turned around to Anna who was crouching towards me. "Yes?"

"Can we talk for a moment?" She grabbed her hands together.

"Yeah, sure."

She took my hands and kept them inside hers. "I need you to promise me we do this together."

I raised a brow. "I'm already doing it in that manner."

She firmed her grip on my hands even more. "Please, I can't risk losing you. I need you to understand. Say it!"

Seeing the sternness of the queen, I decided that I was better off to be obedient to her. "I understand."

Despite already saying the set of words she specifically wanted to hear from me, Anna remained staring into my eyes judgmentally. I could tell that she was trying her best to figure out whether or not I genuinely meant what I just said. A moment later, she loosened her grip on my hands.

"Good…"

The stern look she had suddenly dropped into a frown. "It is all I ask. Please."

"I promise, Anna," I added to assure her.

"… It's just, last time, you—" she suddenly turned to her sister, whom I assumed was crouching to her station.

"Elsa, come here!" Elsa turned to the call and slowly crouched to my side.

"What is it now, Hiccup?" She asked.

"What, me?"

I specifically made some illustrations for this very scene :D check them out on Wattpad!

"Hiccup, last time, when we were chased by the Therondian horsemen, you told me to abandon you. I don't want to hear anything like that coming out of you," Anna demanded. "Elsa, you too. I don't want you to… I don't know what trick you have under your sleeve, but if it involves separating us, it's a big no. Understand?"

Elsa and I shared a glance before she added something for herself. "Anna, I will be alright. I have my power, you don't—"

"You do know that specific argument will never work for me, seeing that it is completely irrelevant because of the things I've done without any magical power, don't you?" Anna immediately countered back, crossing her arms.

Elsa seemed offended for a brief moment, but then she realized her sister's strong point. "Alright, alright…"

I turned to Anna. "We promise, Anna."

Elsa nodded in agreement. "We do."

Fortunately, Anna seemed content with our response. She smiled and pulled the two of us into a hug, a really tight hug.

"I love you two," Anna spoke softly.

"We love you too, Anna," Elsa and I replied in unison. We shared a glance and a giggle afterwards. To add more jinx, we kissed Anna in the same time by the hair before letting her go.

Creak…

I turned to the source of the creaking noise and found out that the second group had already reached the ground as well. Some of us proceeded to help them as the rest kept on watching the coast to make sure we were safe. Once everybody had climbed up the manhole, it was time to move.

Mother and I led the group in the darkness. I could sense that a massive rain was coming, judging from the harsh wind and that particular scent on the air of an incoming rain. Even though it made the trip less comfortable, it sure did give us more protection because no stars were there to illuminate the night.

My prediction was correct; the Therondians had upped their patrolling duty. We encountered several packs of men scouting the ground of the woods with torches. Each pack always consisted of a horseman, a swordsman, and a rifleman. We didn't want to surprise the horse nor the rifleman, since they could get so loud if alerted. Hence, we circled each pack from a safe distance to avoid them. It was the safest maneuver, but it was also time-consuming. And in our way, there were a lot of these.

Eventually, after what we thought was eternity, we finally arrived to the village hall. Or, what used to be it.

"Whoa, it's huge!" Mother commented in a low voice while staring at the dome.

"Yes it is…" I replied. I scanned the clearing just outside of the dome and saw no activity other than the two guards by the entrance.

"All right," I turned to the group behind me. "I see two guards by the entrance."

"I will take care of it, son," mother replied.

"And so will I," Eret added. There really couldn't be a better duo to do the job, so I nodded to the two and let them go.

In utmost silence, the duo moved their way to the entrance. Eret approached the one on the right side of the entrance, and mother on the left. Almost like they telepathically communicated to each other, the two pulled the guards with their weapons and ended their lives quickly with a stab of a dagger on the back of their necks. Once done, they signaled us to move in as they dragged the bodies into the building. Seeing the signal, we moved quickly.

Once entering the building, I watched the coast behind us to make sure no one spotted our movement. With Astrid coming in last, I shut the double door and turned to Elsa.

"Elsa, could you freeze the door? Just to be safe," I requested.

"Sure thing."

She grabbed the handles of the door and froze them altogether. After that, she shot a beam of ice along the seam to really lock the doors.

"Well, they didn't change much to this part of the hall," Fishleg commented.

"Well, that's what we also said to ourselves when we first entered this place," Anna replied, shrugging.

I led the others deeper into the dome through the rooms. I stopped at a double door that would lead to the previous office we once came in. Giving a gesture to the gang that we were going to barge in, I counted to three before giving the door a kick.

Right away, we spotted three Therondian men inside the room.

"Wha—"

Before he could even finish, I jumped into the man and locked him by the neck with my hatchet. The others jumped into the other two while knocking some decorations on their way. The man tried to fight back while managing with his breath, but I kept my lock nice and tight.

Once I felt my blade planted on the skin of his neck, I pulled my hatchet with all my muscles. Right away, my hatchet was coated in blood for the first time, to which I was sure more blood would be mixed on it later on.

I looked up to the others and discovered that they were done with the other two.

"Good job."

I stood back on my feet and led the pack through more rooms, which oddly had no one inside. But I took my chances and led them to the interior of the dome itself. I was about to go to a door that would lead to a set of staircases that connected the room we were in and the room where the dragons were, but to be safe, I looked through a window that gave a view to it. Everybody else joined in.

"Oh my god! Look at those Nadders!" Astrid said while jumping in excitement.

"Is that Barf and Belch?" Tuffnut planted his face on the window to look better.

I understood why they were so preoccupied with the dragons. But nobody questioned the most obvious question there was. I looked here and there, but I saw not even one Therondian inside the dome.

"Is anybody going to question why there's no Therondian inside?" I asked.

They merely shook their heads.

"Perhaps they're on their way to fetch the shipment from the ships?" Fishleg guessed.

"Well, the shipments they will need to move are these ones, don't you think?" I asked. "Why move the dragons here if they are going to ship them overseas?"

"Well that can only mean one thing. They are on their way to here to move these guys to their ships," Eret said.

I processed his statement. It was the most logical suggestion there was. But it meant that we wouldn't have much time to work.

"Okay. Let's free our dragons."

I rushed my way through the door and descended down the staircases to the cages of the dragons. Once on the ground level, everybody spread out to each of their own station, including the Terrible Terrors.

"All right! Work fast people!" I grabbed my torcher out and approached one random cage filled with four Monstrous Nightmares. The tight space provided inside the cage was not a pleasant sight to see, as they were cramped to one another. Right away, my presence startled the dragons. They began grumbling lowly in a vigilant manner.

"Easy… we're going to get you out…" I said reassuringly while climbing my way up the cage to reach the joint of the door of the cage. Once on top, I gave the view ahead of me a brief look. Everybody was on their selected cages, doing the same thing. The dragons inevitable began to growl, either in excitement or fear.

I turned on my torcher and aimed the fire on the joint. Once contacting, the steel immediately melted due to the immense heat of the fire. With a kick, I opened the door down.

CLANG!

The Nightmares slowly walked out of the cage, looking around curiously before dashing off to the other cages in excitement. One Nightmare extended its long neck to reach my position. The dragon looked into my eyes in curiosity. With the same old technique, I extended my arm and looked away. Within a second, I sensed the dragon's scales right away. I turned to the Nightmare again who had its eyes closed, a sign that I earned his trust. After that, the dragon joined the others.

CLANG!

CLANG!

I looked up to see more doors being opened. Because of the action, my fellow Vikings gained the dragons' trusts right away. It was a sight of success, so I smiled at it.

"Whoa! Easy there lads!" Eret said as pack of Rumblehorns came out of the cages and started sniffing at him. One of them might very well be Skullcrusher, a dragon dad used to own.

"Dude! They are Barf and Belch! I recognize the breath!" Tuffnut exclaimed as he gave his dragon a hug, which the dragon welcomed. Ah, what are the odds?

"Ahahaha!" Mother laughed in excitement as her Stormcutter, Cloudjumper, pinned her down after recognizing her scent. But then I realized something.

"Wait, if Cloudjumper is out… that means…" I spoke to myself.

"Whoa! Hiccup!"

I turned around and all I knew was that I was pinned onto a ground by a black object. I couldn't open my eyes to see what it was because I was licked and licked. But soon, I sensed a familiarity on the drool. Its stickiness matched Anna's, and it could only mean one thing.

Once the licking stopped, I opened my eyes to Toothless.

"Hey bud!" I hugged the dragon by the head and gave him scratches. In the process, I noticed Anna, who was already on his back.

"Well, hello there," I smirked. "I see that you're a natural."

She chuckled. "He put me up here by himself, before he spotted you and just went wild."

I stood back on my feet while still giving my dragon scratches. "All right, let me just put the saddle on him. You continue with the others, kay?"

She stepped off Toothless with a smile. "Aye chief."

With that, I put on the flying saddle I had brought along just for Toothless. It took some time, but luckily Toothless had not grown so much since we last had our very last flight, meaning the saddle and harnesses I had brought along still could fit just well.

I did one last touch by clipping a rope to the tail and looked at the final result. It's been too long since I last saw my dragon equipped with flying harnesses. Looking at the harnesses around him, Toothless gave me that excited gum smile.

"I know you're excited and all, but you won't be in that for too long," I patted him by the head. "If, all goes accordingly to plan, of course. Now help me out, come on."

I went over to the other cages. With the boost provided by Toothless, I no longer needed to do the climbing in order to reach the joint of the door of the cage. We freed more and more dragons, and inevitably, creating more noise from inside the dome.

Once Toothless and I were about to reach to another cage, Elsa halted me on my track.

"Hiccup, I need your help with Lyrie!"

The name didn't ring a bell at all in my head. "Lyrie?"

"Oh, um, the um… Light Fury. You told me to name it, right?" She smiled cheekily.

"Ooohhhh!" I placed my hands on my hips. "Lyrie, huh? Break the background later, what's wrong?"

"She seems…" she turned to the direction of where the cage was. Soon, I found what seemed to be troubling. "Weak."

The three of us rushed our way towards the cage. There she was, Lyrie, merely laying down. Elsa knelt down to give the Light Fury her affection and the dragon responded with a weak purr. Right away, I spotted the answer to why the dragon seemed weak.

"Well, I don't think anything's wrong. Maybe it's nearing time for her to lay her eggs," I crossed my arms.

Elsa turned to the bulge Lyrie had on her belly. "Oh yeah. I forgot that she was pregnant."

As gently as possible, the Light Fury's partner nudged the dragon by the head, gesturing her to stand. It almost seemed impossible initially, but Lyrie managed to stand on her own eventually.

"I give it… two days until she is to lay her eggs," I guessed as we watched the dragon couple wandering off to a random direction.

"Well, if all goes accordingly to plan, they are flying back to the Hidden World tonight, right?" Elsa asked.

"If all goes accordingly to plan," I repeated while nodding. "But why Lyrie?"

"A combination between 'Light' and 'Fury'. Thought you'd figure it out by yourself," she grabbed her hips.

My mouth rounded at the explanation. "Ohh—"

Thud thud thud!

The disntant dull banging noise emitted from the entrance. It was small, but it was loud enough for all of us to notice and turn to it. It could only mean that the Therondian had already learned our whereabouts and were trying to break in.

"Hasten up, people!" I exclaimed and rushed to a random cage. "We don't have much time!"

With my command, everybody else proceeded to work faster while the thudding noise kept sounding. I swear as time passed, the noise became louder and louder, exhilarating our adrenaline more and more.

Suddenly, at one point, the thudding noise stopped.

"Did they just give up?" Tuffnut asked.

BOOM!

An explosion occurred from the entrance, and soon we heard men crying. Hearing so, the dragons cornered themselves to the farthest corner in fear.

"Astrid! Mrs. Hoffman! Ms. Vrataski! Hold those men up while we free the rest!" I commanded. The three names nodded to the command and hopped onto their Nadders, marching to the incoming Therondian men.

It didn't take long before we spotted a horde of men running their way into the room, drawing their weapons out in the process. To counter the attack, Astrid and others commanded their dragons to spew hot flame into the horde. The men lifted their shield to block the flame, but the Nadders' flame was too hot for them to bear. They cried in pain and agony.

"Remember to be generous with the shots, Astrid!" I exclaimed from afar.

"I know!" She replied, turning her attention back to her opponents.

I turned my attention to the last three cages that contained some Gronckles, Timberjacks, and a Crimson Goregutter. Mr. Hoffman and Fishleg were soon done with the ones that contained the Timberjacks and Gronckles, but the one that contained the large Crimson Goregutter took the longest because of its sheer size.

"You're handling well up there, mom?" I asked her, who was burning the joint slowly with the torcher.

I turned around again to the horde of Therondian Astrid were facing. Judging from the gap, I could tell that she was struggling to hold back the horde despite her bigger firepower. Their number was overwhelming for my fellow Vikings.

"This joint is so thick! I'm gonna need more hands on this!" Mother scratched her hair in frustration.

"Let me!"

With a boost from the Light Fury, Elsa jumped onto the top of the cage where mother was. Mother and her dragon gave her space to work. First, she cooled down the joint with a beam of ice before she took a good grip on them. Soon, spiky icicles formed on the joint of the cage as Elsa flowed her power to it.

"Aghhhh!" Elsa grunted as she kept on. All of us could only watch impatiently and worriedly since the job seemed to be wearing Elsa out by the second. The icicles grew longer, and Cloudjumper inevitably saw this as a threat as he covered his master with one of his wings.

"Anytime now, guys!" Astrid called from the other side of the dome.

"GAH!" Elsa pulled her hands away from the joint and smashed it with her bare fists. The joint was turned into small pieces of ice, allowing the majestic Crimson Goregutter to come out. The dragon roared majestically as it expanded its wings.

"All right, that's all!" I exclaimed, climbing onto Toothless. "Where's Anna?" I looked around.

"On your six," Anna said as she joined me.

"Ah, good," I turned to Elsa. "Elsa, you good?"

She wept off her sweat on her forehead and later gave me a thumbs up. "All good…"

She was about to collapse on her knees, but Lyrie the Light Fury caught her before she could. "Ah… good girl…" Elsa complimented, patting her apparent new dragon.

"Astrid! We're done!" I exclaimed.

"Ah! About time!" She replied.

Astrid gestured her Nadder to the ceiling of the dome. Seconds later, the Nadder sent a fireball into the ceiling, which caused a hole on it. I signaled my own dragon to do the same, and he did. Afterwards, more and more fireballs followed, erasing the ceiling of the dome from existence. Once the night sky was in sight, I took Anna's hands and had them wrapped around me.

"All right, hang on…"

Toothless expanded his wings and leaped to the sky with one push.

"WHOAAAAA—"

"Hang on Anna!" I told her. She immediately tightened her grip on me as we kept climbing altitudes.

Once we were high enough, several hundred meters from the ground, I signaled Toothless to hover to wait for the others. I turned around and saw the others on their dragons, and of course, the dragons themselves, slowly reaching towards us. But one view that struck me the most was the view of New Berk itself. Viewing it from Vantage Point was nice, but viewing it from up here with my people was something else.

"Well… I have said this before, but welcome to New Berk," I said to Anna, who turned out to be hiding her face on my back. Ever so slowly, she looked down to the view below.

"W-woah…" she breathed.

I squeezed her entangled hands. "Pretty cool, right?"

"This is amazing…" she captured my hand and entangled it in hers. While waiting for the others by enjoying the view, Elsa suddenly came out of nowhere with Lyrie.

"I didn't know she could still fly!" Elsa said while holding onto the dragon, chuckling.

"Well, she still can!" I turned to the flock of dragons behind me. "Has everyone got out of the dome?"

"GROARRR!"

All of us looked down to the large growling, who turned out to be the previous Goregutter. I saw no more dragons behind the large beast.

"I think that's all, Hiccup," Eret replied, who was on his Rumblehorn. "Shall we go now?"

"We shall. Everybody! To the ships! Follow my lead!"

"YEAH!"

I gave my dragon a gentle pat, a sign for him to go. I steered him to the outer skirt of the island before we lowered our altitude to meet the fleet of Therondian ships that carried cages of dragons. Our presences were recognized right away as I saw men and women pointing up to our direction, but not that they could send a counter attack.

There were several options to choose, but I chose the loneliest one; a ship on the east side of the island. I steered Toothless to the ship and landed on the deck hard. As more and more dragons landed on the ship, the ship wobbled from left to right. Once we stepped onboard, we were welcomed with drawn weapons.

"ATTACK!"

"All right. Same plan. Some hold the enemies, some free the dragons!" I exclaimed. I drew my weapons out with Anna, wanting to take care of the enemies this time, as the others went to the cages. I counted at least twenty men ahead of me, so I blindly charged my way to them. but before I could even reach them, Toothless jumped in front of me and swept his tail to the men in front of me. And then, a Timberjack dashed across the deck, hitting some men on its track and sending them off the ship. The help from the dragons was the biggest support that I never saw coming. However, more soldiers emerged from the lower deck, and it didn't take long before we clashed swords.

Because of the busy deck, I could hardly keep up with what's going on. There were sword battles, arrows flying, rifles being shot, Elsa's ice blasts, the dragons spewing flame, battle cries, cries of pain. They were all happening on one deck. Sure, it was a large ship with a wide deck, but that made it harder for me to really keep track of what's going on.

CRASH!

BOOM!

The whole ship just tilted to the portside because of a certain impact from the starboard side, causing most of us to lose balance in the process. After regaining our composures, that's when we learned that the other Therondian ships were firing their cannons to the ship we were onboard. I saw Elsa jumping into action right away as she summoned a giant ice wall on the ship's starboard side, protecting us from cannonballs.

"Agh!—"

I was knocked off by a Nadder who was chasing a Therondian. To add more onto the pile, an arrow flew past my face. I turned to the direction of where it came from to avoid more but merely saw a Therondian reloading her crossbow while facing Astrid from a distance. While getting myself up, a sword landed right next to me. I faced up to see a large man, very much hungry for blood from the way he looked at me. He swung his sword up again to give me a blow when something sent him flying.

I looked around for the source and found Toothless on the ship's mast, steam emitting from his mouth. "Toothless! No! Too dangerous!"

I could see that he disagreed with the warning, but he obeyed my command as he continued fighting without his plasma blast.

"Hiccup!" Anna called from behind.

I turned to her. "What?"

"All dragons are freed!" She pointed upwards where the dragons were flying away. "We can go now!"

"Oh, okay! Guys! The floor is lava!" I signaled. Hearing upon this, my fellow Vikings hopped onto their dragons, abandoning their fights with the Therondians. I hopped onto Toothless with Anna after clearing our path.

"Toothless! Plasma blast! To the floor!" I pointed to the deck. Obeying my command, the dragon spat a plasma blast to the deck, hollowing it right away. Soon, the other dragons did the same, they spew blazing flame to the deck and ascended onto the air slowly.

"GROARRRRRR!"

The loud growling from afar halted us on our tracks. It was a growl that I've heard only once in my life, but my mind was struggling to remember. Soon, it didn't take long for us to recognize the dragon behind the cry.

"It can't be… WATCH OUT!" I warned the others.

Two Red Deaths were charging blindly towards our direction. We anticipated the incoming attack too late, so most of us collided against the titan dragons' thick skulls.

CRASH!

Toothless, Anna, and I were knocked off into the water along with the others. Underwater, I saw debris of the ship, pieces of the ice wall, the dragons, and the most horrifying; my people. Right underneath me, I saw Anna and Toothless slowly drowning. I was about to swim after them, but then I saw something dash inside the water. Its distinctive shape was too obvious. Nokk!

The water horse sent individual torrents of water to the direction of my drowning people dragons, carrying them slowly to the surface, including me. Once breaching the surface, I saw Elsa standing up on the water while watching us resurfacing one by one. After counting, she 'stomped' the water, summoning a thick piece of ice underneath us, acting as a temporary spot to stand on.

"Is everybody okay?" Elsa asked as she started checking one by one.

I pushed myself up and crawled to Anna, "Anna… you okay?"

"Ngh… I'm okay…" she slowly rose on her feet, but only to fail because of the slippery ice. Toothless tried doing the same but failed as well.

"Don't bother standing up," I looked to the others. I sighed in relief as they slowly rose on their feet, an obvious sign that they were still alive, though only to end up like Anna who failed doing so. Even the dragons still looked fine.

BOOM!

The explosion startled me. I turned around to see the ship, now broken in half due to the collision made by the duo of Red Deaths, taking water while being consumed in fire in the same time. There, on the night cloudy sky, their silhouettes were visibly flying, most likely about to make another turn to hit us again.

"I will take care of this," I crawled over to Toothless and hopped onto him. While saddling up, I heard the water splash from a distance. We all turned to the source. I could swear that more and more dangers were giving us warnings of their arrival.

I saw towering dorsal fins cutting the water and diving down again.

"Hiccup, please tell me that's not what I think it is?" Astrid asked, using her axe to stand up.

"I really don't want to mention the name, too, Astrid," I gritted my teeth. "Help the others! Continue with other ships right away! I'm gonna face these three."

"You can't possibly face them alone!" Anna cut in, using Toothless to balance herself.

"You're right. I can't. That's why I'm only going to try to distract them to give you guys space and room," I excused.

"Hiccup, you promised me that we do this together!" Her tone began to sound desperate. I really hated seeing her like this, but I couldn't risk her life.

"I'm sorry Anna," I looked away. "Toothless, go."

With a nod, Toothless expanded his wings and leaped to the sky within a blink of an eye.

"HICCUP!"