Preparing / a last chance for Reconciliation:

The Vikings put on some pieces of armour and armed themselves. They tightened the straps on the saddles, they put the catapults in more hidden positions and put up metal shields around them. Once again, the women and kids and all the dragons who still couldn't fight because of severe injury. It had been nearly a whole day since Rafashfear was forced to retreat; he would appear any moment now.

The Viking teens were on lookout for trouble on their dragons, Astrid leading them on Stormfly.

Near the Haddock house, Hester was giving instructions to a number of people. They followed the orders immediately and went off to prepare. Once they went off Hester gave her best human friends some requests, "Sigmund, can you check to make sure all the kids and the mothers are safe and that there's plentily of supplies for them?"

"Of course, Hester," Sigmund answered. "I'll make sure that the Tifespinner pack are ready too. Tifespike is ready to fight. Right girl?"

"Right?" Tifespike obliged. She lowered her head to his level, and he hugged her neck.

"I'm glad you're here with me girl. I'm glad we're facing this together, along with everyone else,"

"Me too. I'm glad we found each other," Tifespike crooned affectionately.

"Garsir…" Hester requested next. "Make sure that the dragons are ready in their positions? Everything must be perfect,"

"You got it Hester," Garsir promised.

"Let's get going," Skullbones knelt down to let his rider mount up. Garsir mounted him and flew off to check the plan was in motion.

Sigmund mounted Tifespike and she flew off west whilst the other pair stirred right.

As they watched their close friends fly away, Toothless saw that the moment they were away, Hester turned as colourless as a ghost. "Hester…"

"Toothless, I really hope that this plan works bud," Hester lamented. "Because if this fails…"

"It won't fail," Toothless interrupted her negativity. "We are going to win this. I promise. I know that we can do it. If we do together, we can stop Rafashfear. We can ensure that peace between Vikings and Dragons which we brought together will last together,"

"I'm glad I have you bud. I'm glad I have Sigmund and Garsir and Skullbones and Tifespike. I'm even glad that we have Berk fighting alongside us," Hester cupped his face. "I told know what I would without you Toothless," she kissed his snout and hugged him.

"Hester?" a voice approached.

Hester didn't turn. Nor did she yell out a rant to tell the upcoming Stoick to leave her alone. Toothless growled again but she stroked him to calm him down. He kept glaring at the chief still.

Stoick was only a metre behind Hester. He wouldn't move. "Will you let me talk to you?" Stoick inquired softly.

Hester twisted her head slowly to face him. Inside his watery eyes, he saw regret in them. A regret that seemed reflect back into her own. A part of her felt guilty feeling as though she played a major part in their strained relationship because of endless desire to prove herself. She couldn't turn away from him, not again. If this was their last chance, she had to take it. She couldn't spend the rest of her life holding a grudge against him; not after everything she had learnt of what reasons he had for being so tense. She nodded.

Toothless didn't growl at Stoick. If Hester wanted to talk to him, then Stoick would be in his good graces, for now. If he did anything he didn't like, he might roast him.

"I just wanted to talk to you. I know what you're goanna say Hester. But I'm not walking away. I don't care what you say to me. I don't care how angry you at me. I need to you to hear this,"

"Why now?"

"I may never get this chance again," the solemn father replied back. "I need to take that chance,"

Hester made no rant. What could would it do anywhere? He said it himself that he would not walk away no matter what she would say.

"I'm truly sorry. For everything. I'm sorry that I am not the father you've always wanted, the father I should have been to you. I'm sorry that I put you down all the time as if you weren't my daughter. I'm sorry that I hit you and acted like you had betrayed Berk when all you were doing was trying to make a difference to our way of life and make it better. I'm sorry I locked you and your friends up like animals. You lost your leg because of me and my selfishness. You nearly died because of my arrogance,"

For the first time in her life, Hester felt her father's words were true to the heart. Behind that heart that was as cold as stone for many years, Hester finally saw warmth in the core of it.

"Me too," Hester confessed. Stoick seemed surprised by her words. "I'm sorry that I was overzealous. I just wanted to prove myself to everyone. That I could be so much more than how I appeared. I guess I just wanted to be seen in a different light. But I let that obsession drive me too far. If I had only listened to you, maybe things would have been so much different.

"No. I was holding you back too much. I should have told you the truth," Stoick admitted. "We're both to blame for all of this,"

Stoick raised up his hand.

Hester allowed her father to cup her cheek with his hand. She held it tight against it with her own.

"Hester…if we make it through all this, can…" Stoick's request was interrupted by a sudden call.

"Hester!" Sigmund called from down the hill, not realising he was interrupting something. Once he dashed up the hill and saw Stoick cupping Hester's left cheek, he seemed to stiffen a bit. He had never seen such love between one of his best human friends and her father before.

"Am I interrupting something?" he asked. "I can always come back a bit later if you want,"

"No," Stoick responded. "No. Nothing at all,"

Hester looked at him surprised. Why would he refuse to finish what he was about to beg her for? Did he feel unworthy of it? He lifted his hand away from Hester and gave her a solemn look filled with a plead for forgiveness. He walked away to prepare.

Hester would have called for him but there was no time. She looked at Sigmund. "News Sigmund?"

"Yep. All the children and mothers and unfightable dragons are safe and they have all the food and water supplies down with them,"

"Good," Hester approved. She and Toothless started stalking down the hill as they accompanied Sigmund and his dragon down to the village.

The Ingerman boy noticed a change in Hester's mood.

Even Toothless could see it.

"Hester, what is wrong? What was happening up there between you and your father? Was he actually touching your face and Toothless wasn't growling at him?"

Hester bobbed her head up and down, not looking at him but concentrating her sight on the village.

"Please tell me how you're feeling? How can I help you if I can't?" Sigmund begged. "As one of your best friends, it's my job as well as Toothless's, Garsir and also our dragons to help you whenever you need it,"

Hester stopped walking, so did the other three. "Sigmund …for the first time in my life, I feel…" She couldn't finish it.

Sigmund figured it out for her. "You feel like you love him,"

Hester could look up at him. Nor did she answer something different. The answer was plastered clear on her face. A few tears twinkled in her eyes, and a few rained down her cheeks.

"Hey Hes. It's okay," Sigmund pulled her into a hug. "I know how you feel. You feel like things are finally patching up between you two for the first time in years,"

"Yes," Hester croaked out. "I never thought in my life that I would have a good relationship with my father. Not ever since my mother died. And I feel like all those months away I feel like I've broken his heart. I feel like I made everything worse by not forgiving him and thinking too darkly of him. I know that he hit me, that he put me down, he didn't listen to me, but I feel like want to fix things between us. I feel like since I left, I've been no different than him. In fact, maybe he's sick or something. Now…I feel that I may not get the chance. If this plan disrupts, if I have to..."

"Hester…" Sigmund interrupted grabbing her shoulders gently. "You are not going to die. Not on my watch. Not on Garsir's. Not on Toothless. Not on your father's. Not on anyone's. We will stop Rafashfear. Together,"

"Together," Hester repeated.

"Together," Toothless nuzzled them both.

"Together," Tifespike joined in the nuzzling.

The four walked down to the plaza where Garsir waited with his dragon.

"Is everyone prepared?" Hester asked as they approached them.

"Yes," Garsir nodded. He frowned his eyes when he noticed Hester had wept a little. "Are you okay?" The tear-trails were still stained on Hester's cheeks. "Has something happened?"

"Everything's okay," Hester wiped them away. "I just feel for the first time in my life, my father and I…we're finally making amends,"

Garsir's lips parted a bit. He had never thought that the day would come when for the first time in forever, something loving would be felt between Hester and her father.

"I know that he hit me, he disowned me, he locked us all up, but…"

"It's okay Hester," Garsir considered. "We've always wanted this for you and Stoick. We gave up on him a long time ago. For years we believed that he was unworthy of your love, but now…this is your chance for things to be right between you two for once,"

"I'm not really sure if that may come to pass,"

"Nonsense Hester!" Gobber approached them with an axe in his hook's stump. When this is over Hester, you can finally be happy with your father and be a family at last," Gobber smiled.

Hester smiled back. "All of us are a family. And we will all stick together, till the end,"

Their moment of calmness was interrupted by a wailing roar across the distance. Their hearts felt like they had stopped. They looked across the sea. There was nothing; that didn't mean that Rafashfear was near. They would not become scarred though. The roar seemed to make them determined.

On the sea stacks, the teens heard the roar and felt scarred. Fishlegs shuddered on Meatlug, Snotlout gulped, Tuffnut and Ruffnut hugged each other. Astrid didn't stir but she felt a tang of tense tightening her throat and her chest making it difficult to breathe. The dragons remained on their spots snarling outwards at sea.

It was time. They would end it. Once and for all. The peace between Vikings and dragons would not be broken. It would last forever, for as long as there was no threat to disrupt it.