About three weeks after Bloom finally woke up, she's fully recovered and makes it a daily habit of going flying with Brightfire…whenever she feels like it. So, she basically spends more time than ever away from the village. And the other dragons go with, usually. Hiccup and the others started hanging out, bonding over their dragons - unfortunately, dragons have always been Bloom's thing, her secret, and she doesn't really want to share with the others. Especially with Snotlout.

Bloom sees Hiccup and the others doing tricks on their dragons, and leans over to Brightfire, saying "Want to show them how it's done, Brightfire?"

"With pleasure!"

Bloom grins, flattening herself to Brightfire's back as she suddenly goes much faster as Hiccup lands once again. They weave effortlessly between the rock formations, even as fast as they're going, and then go straight up in the air before falling straight downwards in a twirling drop. They pull up, righting at the last possible second before hitting the water, then Brightfire shoots a blast in the air and they disappear from sight.

Everybody's looking around for Bloom and Brightfire after their sudden appearance and even more sudden disappearance - and everyone jumps when they hear Brightfire shoot another shot in the air and reappear behind them just in time to land. The first thing Bloom says is "Snotlout, you scream like a five-year-old. We could hear you all the way from where we were."

"I, uh, I wasn't that loud!"

Astrid says "We all heard you."

Hiccup says "Plus you said 'I'm alive!' like you weren't sure you'd stay that way."

When they all get back to the village, they find Mildew - the town's resident grouchy, ugly old man - stirring up trouble. Apparently, some dragons decided to be near him last night, had a midnight snack of his cabbage fields, and one used his house as a bed.

When he takes a breath, Bloom lets out a shrill whistle and says "The dragons aren't killing anybody anymore, people. I'd say that alone is a big improvement. The dragons are wild animals, yes, but so were sheep before they were domesticated."

"What, your saying we can just turn huge, wild beasts into house pets? The girl's out of her mind!"

Bloom's temper snaps suddenly, and she lift's Mildew up by the front of his shirt, saying "I'm not crazy, but I am short-tempered, Mildew. You're going to shut up and let me finish talking, or I'm going to plant you face-first in the dirt and see if you grow. What I was saying is that humans and dragons aren't at war now, but we still need to learn to coexist. Learning its possible and doing it are two different things, people. And both sides, humans and dragons have to learn how."

Mildew says "Alright, you've had your say, Girlie. Now, drop me."

Bloom smiles, not at all nicely, at Mildew and says "Alright." She drops him alright, and he wasn't ready for her to simply let go of his shirt - he lands on the ground in a pile of limbs and clothes. He glares up at her, which she matches while saying "You want Brightfire in a cage, you've to go through me to do it. And trust me, you don't want to try that."

Mildew gets up, dusts himself off, and warns that there'd better be some kind of change around Berk - he'd prefer that the dragons all be sent away from Berk.

That night, Hiccup volunteers to control the dragons - and Stoick agrees because he and Bloom are the best people for the job. Upstairs, Bloom quietly says "Hiccup, you can't 'control' the dragons. They're wild animals, yes, but they have minds and wills of their own. I seriously doubt 'controlling' the dragons will work out so well."

As she expected, it turns out terrible - there's just so many dragons, and only two of them. Though, she has a lot more success than Hiccup - he's running around, trying to deal with every dragon at once, she just whistles and gets their attentions - so, half the village gets spared, more or less.

That night, Astrid comes into Hiccup and Bloom's room and finds Hiccup near-collapsed from exhaustion and Bloom at her desk drawing a curled-up Brightfire. "Well, today went…differently. Bloom, how do all the dragons just…listen to you?"

Bloom shrugs, and says "Always have, or at least understood me. Were willing to try and communicate. It's become a lot easier ever since Toothless and Brightifre took us to the nest that one time."

Hiccup says "The time that ended with you nearly-collapsed on Brightfire's back and yelling for everyone to fly while holding your head."

"Yeah, that's right."

"So, what are you two going to do?"

Before either can respond, Stoick comes upstairs asking what happened - the Plaza looks like a battleground, despite Bloom's intervention, and Hiccup is covered in bruises and is incredibly sore. He says he's got a plan, and it's only phase one - Stoick actually buys it, much to Bloom's shock. Because Hiccup was telling her five minutes ago that he doesn't have any idea of what he's going to do as she was helping him up the stairs.

The next morning, Hiccup calls everyone to the ex-arena where they used to kill dragons, saying they need to learn to train the dragons - the out-of-control dragons.

After Snotlout demonstrates his technique for getting eaten by Hookfang, getting him to let go of a loaf of bread in the process, Bloom says "Ok, and I think that right there demonstrates why training is needed. Human training as well as dragon training. If anybody needs Brightfire and I, we'll be guarding the storehouse."

Hiccup asks "Bloom, you're not going to help?"

"I'd say keeping the village from rioting is helping. You train Snotlout to not get Hookfang angry and insulted enough that he eats his rider, I'll keep the village full of food."

Astrid looks up at Hookfang, who's still got Snotlout's limbs sticking out of his mouth, and says "That may be necessary. Is he even alive up there?"

"Hey, anybody still there? Could you do that chin-scratch thing? Anybody?"

Bloom calls up "That's what you get for getting in a dragon's face and yelling at it, Snotlout!" She then gest on Brightfire and leaves, heading towards the stockroom.

About three hours later, Hiccup and the others head into the village only to find there aren't any dragons anywhere - until there's an explosion near the stockroom. When they get there though, they're just in time to see Barf and Belch flying away and Stormfly and Hookfang taking off - and the stockroom surrounded by an orange bubble, with Bloom on the other side and holding one arm out. She gives Hiccup a sarcastic look, and says "And this would be why I went to guard the stockroom. Because training people to know how to train dragons takes a little longer than anybody thought."

Stoick walks out, and Mildew says "I warned ya, Stoick! Dragons and Humans can't live together! They need to be caged! More than that, they need to be sent off the island!"

The village agrees, but Bloom angrily says "People, your forgetting one thing - nothing's changed from yesterday! We still have plenty of food for the winter, and nothing got destroyed. Barf and Belch just got a little excited. Now, everybody's going to calm down and think a little."

Mildew angrily says "I think I was right all along! The dragons are wild animals that aren't fit to live amongst civilized humans!"

Bloom rolls her eyes, and says "Right, because Vikings are honestly all that civil all the time. Half the time, Vikings settle their differences by going to war. Why do you think peace treaties were invented?"

Mildew glares at her, and Stoick reluctantly says "As much as I don't want to say it, Mildew was right on this one. Tonight, the dragons will be caged."

Before Bloom can protest, Mildew says "That's not enough, Stoick! They need to be sent off the island and away from Berk!"

Bloom immediately says "If Brightfire goes, I go."

"You'd chose a dragon over your own race?!"

Bloom furiously snaps "Mildew, think it like this. A dragon isn't getting in my face and demanding my friend be sent off the island for just being herself."

It's a glaring match between Mildew and Bloom for a minute, right up until Stoick says "We'll decide what to do with the dragons tomorrow. As for the rest of today, we'll gather more food for the freeze."

Astrid, Snotlout, Fishlegs, and the twins take their dragons to the arena and put them in the cage, Snotlout asking what the feeling that claws are tearing at his chest is and Astrid responding that it's what it feels like when your heart is breaking.

When they're all gone, Bloom changes into her winged form and flies down silently, making a fireball in each hand to light the area up. "Alright, guys. We tried it Hiccup's way, turns out Hiccup's way needs more time than he thought. So, we're going to try my way tomorrow."

Stormfly cries "I don't want to leave!"

Meatlug says "Me neither!"

"I know, you guys and girls like it here on Berk. So, we're going to try something tomorrow. Instead of doing what you want everywhere, we're going to do it in a way that'll help the village. Here's the plan…"

Stoick goes into the arena with Hiccup, who's still trying to convince him not to send the dragons away - and they open up the cage only to find all the dragons gone. Stoick and Hiccup have identical looks of shock on their faces, and Stoick asks "You haven't seen Bloom today, have you?"

"Nope."

Bloom's riding Brightfire, leading the dragons all around the village - she has Hookfang dive under the water and get the fishing nets filled with fish in about three seconds, then has Stormfly and Barf and Belch gouge Mildew's cabbage fields for planting, then has Meatlug and Toothless drop seeds in the grooves. And then it's three, the daily dragon-relieving time - this time, though, it becomes fertilizer for Mildew's cabbages. A pair of Gronckles clears the way for a road through the forest, knocking trees out of the way.

By the time it's nearly sunset, the entire village is talking about how the dragons have helped out nearly everywhere - that's got to factor into whether or not they stay.

Stoick walks into the arena, with the entire village watching as he and Gobber walk over to Bloom. Hiccup and the others are also there, as they took over the arena without Stoick actually knowing about it, but while they've all got their heads down Bloom's looking up in defiance.

Mildew eagerly watches, waiting for Stoick to start yelling about how they all disobeyed him one way or another. Most of them took over the arena behind his back and Bloom went and directly disobeyed him by letting the dragons out, after all.

To Mildew's utter disappointment, Stoick instead gives the teens the arena to use as a dragon training academy. And Hiccup and Bloom are the leaders.

AN: Hey, everyone - Happy Father's Day! For everyone that's been waiting to see if I'd do Riders/Defenders of Berk, here's the first episode! Fair warning, I'll be skipping or completely redoing some episodes to fit Bloom's knowledge of dragons. As for Bloom's preference for dragons over humans...honestly, they all treated Hiccup terribly for nearly all their lives, so i can't really see Bloom forgiving that right away. Plus, someone has to keep the dragons from tearing Mildew to pieces. Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming soon!