I don't own How to Train Your Dragon, the drill should be familiar to you by now.

Hope you enjoy.

The Dragon Pirate.

It had become pretty obvious to Fishlegs the decision Astrid and Snotlout had made to leave Berk to hunt Hiccup down had been made on the spot without any real planning because none of the other teens knew where they were going to start. Not that it really surprised him since the teens always charged into action without really thinking about what they were going to do.

That was why he had been reluctant because he knew Astrid would have just gone wild, hoping to find Hiccup and to kill him and the dragon, not for everyone in the archipelago who'd suffered under the other Viking's attacks, but mostly for herself. For her precious honour.

Like Astrid thinks of anything else, he thought to himself as he pulled hard on the oar he'd been assigned to (under threat of being decapitated by Astrid's axe), and doing his best to ignore the ache in his shoulders, Fishlegs wondered how long it would be before one of the twins, or even Snotlout who was starting to realise they may have made a big mistake in coming out here without a plan, demanded to know where they were heading from their glorious leader who seemed to know everything.

It was night time, and the only light came from a few protected candles to stop the fires from hitting the deck and setting the whole boat alight and the light from the moon cast a shadowy hue around them all, making their faces ghoulish whenever he stared at one of the other Viking teens, making him avert his eyes quickly away so he could focus on his task.

Fishlegs knew the question was going to be coming at some point, but he knew it was not going to be him. He had been doing his level best to avoid the other teenagers who had turned on him as their favourite punching bag; one of the benefits of having Hiccup around was so then he would be the frequent target of the others while he hung around them so they'd see he was one of them, but deep down Fishlegs knew it was a lost cause.

Like the former heir, he was too different because he was more intellectual than they were, and he hadn't done well in Dragon Training to warrant respect from them, though Thor knew why he bothered.

Fishlegs cursed when he heard the twins gabbling away. He had been pulling for hours while the twins didn't bother to really pull themselves, but he didn't pay any attention to them even when Ruffnut pulled out her oar and, with a bit of effort to balance it, she started swiping it at Tuffnut since she had been arguing with her brother and vice versa more frequently for the last few days - the oar hit him in the head and nearly knocked him unconscious, but he thanked his Viking hardheadedness he wasn't knocked out. But his head was still ringing - he was dimly aware of Astrid storming over to the twins and yelling at them, and her loud and abrasive voice did not help his aching head any more than the twins' stupid fight had.

"….you idiots!" he heard Astrid yell at the twins dimly as though she were yelling from a long distance away, though what else she'd said before that Fishlegs did not know nor did he really care.

Fishlegs watched the twins look at the other before they both turned like a pair of wolves hunting a boar towards Astrid, their expressions serious for once. "Well, what do you expect Astrid?" Ruffnut asked with a sneer. "We left Berk four days ago. We ain't seen a ship, never mind a Night Fury."

Tuffnut nodded along with his sister's argument, but Fishlegs could see the restlessness on both of the Thorston twin's faces. The twins loved action and when they'd come on the voyage it hadn't occurred to them they would be spending a lot of their time pulling the oars while Astrid and Snotlout made plans for what they were going to do to Hiccup, or Astrid went out of her way to avoid Snotlout's company.

Fishlegs guessed he shouldn't blame the twins for that, but he wished they found something better to do with their time rather than hit or punch one another.

"Totally," Tuffnut said, breaking Fishlegs out of his thoughts. "Where is Hiccup anyway?"

Fishlegs rolled his eyes at the rhetorical question while Astrid's expression was stormy. Deep down she knew her decision to leave Berk had been ill-thought out, but what made it worse was she and none of the other teenagers knew how to navigate a boat. Deep down, buried under layers of Viking pride and Viking stubborn arrogance she knew they were lost, but she wasn't going to say a word.

"We'll find him," she said instead, her eyes narrowing with hatred for the disgraced heir of Berk, her mind flashing to the last time she had seen him during the night rushing towards that devil he flew on. It was bad enough he had disgraced himself, and he had been shaming the name of the Hairy Hooligan tribe with his antics and the way he raided the other villages and ships out there, but he had crossed the line with how he had attacked Berk.

She had to stop him.

Astrid spoke her promise with such conviction the twins could not help but mock her. "Right," Ruffnut leered, tilting her head mockingly. "And how do we find him, chant his name four times or something?"

Astrid's face narrowed even more tightly and she ground her teeth, and in the dim lighting around them, how the moonlight illuminated only a small amount of the Hofferson girls' face while the candles did nothing more than to highlight the girl's face, but the cast created by the shadows made her face appear more ghoulish than usual.

Fishlegs did his best not to cringe, but he couldn't help himself - Astrid was frightening at the best of times, but he didn't want to know what she would do if pushed too far on a boat in the middle of nowhere with her axe and that temper of hers, but the twins didn't seem to give a thought about pushing her, and he cursed their stupidity but he also cursed Astrid's arrogance which stopped her seeing beyond the blade of her axe and just answer the damn question.

Astrid's grip around her ever-present axe handle became even tighter as the mocking grew worse, which only served to make her angrier by the minute.

Tuffnut either didn't see the warning signs or he had but he didn't pay attention to them like always, grinned at his sister like the idiot he sometimes was, though Fishlegs knew the twins were much sharper than people thought. "Oh, yeah, let's do that shall we?" The male Thorston twin said jovially as he mocked the angry Astrid, but what he did next took them all - except perhaps Ruffnut - by surprise.

Tuffnut knelt down on the ground, and he held his hands up as if beseeching the gods themselves. "OH, HICCUP!" he boomed. "COME TO US, THOU HICCUP. HICCUP. HICCUP HICCU-Arrgh! Astrid, get off!" he ended up yelling desperately.

Astrid had leapt on Tuffnut, quite literally, and was proceeding to beat him up. Her leap on Tuffnut had taken Ruffnut by surprise, forcing the second girl back a few paces while Astrid punched and kicked her twin brother, yelling like a lunatic but Ruffnut recovered quickly.

"Like, what the hell, Astrid?!" Ruffnut shouted while she and Snotlout, who had been standing by the foc'sle and had been more focused on whatever it was on his mind to really care about what was happening behind him, that or his seasickness, tried to pry her off Tuffnut who was screaming he was very much hurt, only this time Fishlegs guessed the pathetic excuse was more real this time than it had been when the Terrible Terror had been let free during their Dragon Training course.

But Astrid would not let go. Fishlegs, despite not wanting to get involved, sighed and stood up, abandoning his oar at the same time - it wasn't like they knew where they were anyway, so what difference did it make? - and grabbed Astrid and, with Snotlout and Ruffnut's help, managed to pry Astrid off of Tuffnut.

The male Thorston twin was holding onto his face, but in the dim light it was impossible for them to see if there was any real injury, but Astrid was yelling like a lunatic. Fishlegs growled in annoyance when her elbow made contact with his chin while she struggled.

"Astrid, calm down!" Snotlout shouted.

Fishlegs wasn't surprised when he caught a tinge of worry in Snotlout's voice about Astrid's behaviour; everyone on Berk knew Astrid had a terrible temper at the best of times, but she usually kept it bubbling beneath an ice-cold facade, but when it ignited like Nightmare saliva with the full heat of Nadder flames, you had best duck.

But Astrid's temper had been getting her into trouble for a while now. Ever since she had nearly caught Hiccup at Nadder's Point where he managed to escape, she had been angrier, more surly and even more unreasonable than ever and she could often be heard muttering about her plans for murdering Hiccup. Stoick had banned her originally from leaving since that mess at the hub because she had gone off on her own like she always did, but Astrid had become more uncontrollable.

Fishlegs was snapped out of his thoughts when Astrid hit him again in the face, this time with the flat side of her axe, but then he felt the blade's icy razor edge scrape his face. At that moment Fishlegs snapped. He had had enough!

Without caring about the consequences, he ripped her axe out of her grip - Astrid tried to stop him, tugging on the wooden handle. He pulled back. There was simply no contest against his brute strength - Astrid may have finesse, but Fishlegs didn't care, and he threw it away to another part of the deck out of her reach, but he didn't give her the chance to do anything. With a growl, Fishlegs grabbed the scruff of Astrid's tunic and threw her over the side!

Astrid flew screaming into the sea where she crashed into the salty water with a massive splash which threw up water and foam with the force of the throw and the impact.

Ignoring the others, Fishlegs waddled over to the rail and scanned the horizon. He could just see Astrid thrashing to the surface. She was a fair distance away from the ship, but Fishlegs wasn't worried; Astrid had been taught how to swim when they were kids, and she had taken to it just like the rest of her Thor damned regimen.

She would be fine. Angry, wet, but fine.

Fishlegs winced when he realised Astrid was going to give him hell for what he'd just done, but he was unrepentant. Seriously, why did the blonde girl have to lose it over every little thing that happened around her? She was in the current mess she was in now because of that annoying part of her personality where she just had to do everything on her own. Fishlegs had always hated that side of Astrid, the side which said "I'm better than all of you because I'm me!" only it hadn't gotten her anywhere in these new times where the war was over and Hiccup was out there…

But overall he didn't feel guilty for what he'd done even if it wasn't really in his nature to throw people overboard, but Astrid was asking for it, and seriously what did she expect? Did she really expect everyone to just let her strangle or hit them? Sure, it was the Viking attitude, but something told Fishlegs there was more to it than that, but he just didn't like the way Astrid seemed to think she could endanger everyone around her and not expect something happening to her in return….

"Ouch!" Fishlegs yelped in shock when he felt a paw-like hand smack his head, knocking his small helmet off of his head, but he managed to catch it before it went into the sea; the helmet had been a gift from his parents, so it had some sentimental value after all.

"What the hell, 'legs?" Ruffnut shouted in shock, though Fishlegs caught something he was sure was respect in the female twin's voice rather than condemnation for what he'd just done.

"Oh, I was just fed up with it all!" Fishlegs replied with a wave of his hand which was almost dismissive. "I'm just so sick and tired of Astrid going off into one of her temper tantrums whenever someone questions her, or if things don't go her way."

"It didn't have anything to do with the way she had her axe pressed against your face right?" Tuffnut asked with a twisted grin, but Fishlegs had been hanging around the 'nut twins long enough to catch the glints in their eyes, and in this light, it was easy to see the glint in Tuffnut's grinning if sharp visage. He'd clearly seen what Astrid had done in her anger.

"You threw Astrid overboard," Snotlout pointed out, turning his gaze to look out to the sea. Fishlegs turned as well. He couldn't see Astrid from where they were, the moonlight was bright but it didn't light up the whole ocean.

"Yeah, I did."

Snotlout smirked at him, though Fishlegs could see, even in this light, the admiring look which didn't mix with the malicious look on his face which made him look even more ridiculously piggish in this dim light. When Astrid finally arrived, pulling herself into the longship, coughing and panting with the effort she'd expended just swimming back to her fellow teens and with the water she'd probably gulped into her mouth while she struggled to hold her head above the surface of the sea.

Astrid was dripping wet and water spilt all over the deck of the longship which created a puddle, water trickling off of her clothes and her pauldrons sitting on her shoulders, her usually immaculately braided blonde hair slick with water, dripping, looking it the braid was about to come unravelled at any moment, shaking from the cold.

Astrid looked up, still shaking, but when her eyes fixed on Fishlegs, the large Ingerman boy began to reflexively shake from the glare she was giving him.

She started to stalk towards him, ignoring the water dripping from every part of her body, her face mask like with rage. But Fishlegs pushed aside his nerves although he knew out of the two of them Astrid was the better fighter.

"Don't Astrid," Fishlegs snapped.

"Why shouldn't I, you great boar!" Astrid shrieked, the sound of her teeth chattering with the cold only making the sound even higher somehow. "I'll kill you for this-."

Fishlegs shrugged his shoulders indifferently. "Go ahead, see what it will get you."

After a moment of staring at him while dripping and shaking from the cold, Astrid snorted. "What, so you're not going to fight back?"

"No. Killing me won't help you, Astrid. It won't change your standing with the chief, or anyone else back home, even if it is the Viking way. It won't change the fact we're still lost, will it?"

The logical argument grated on Astrid's nerves, and the girl clapped her hands to her ears for a moment. "STOP TALKING! You're just like Hiccup, Fishlegs; you're both talkative and you don't do anything but talk!"

Fishlegs didn't bother to respond to that little observation since it was mostly true; he and Hiccup did have a number of things in common, which was one of the reasons why they had hung out together before Fishlegs had started gaining the typical Viking physique and had begun hanging out with the other teens for protection so they wouldn't beat him up.

"So what are you going to do, Astrid?" Fishlegs asked quietly; he was tired, they were all tired, but Astrid's obsession was the only thing driving them on. "Kill me, kill us, and you'll be on your own."

Astrid paused as she considered the question. There was no doubt in her mind she was going to make Fishlegs pay the price for what he'd done to her, but, as much as she hated to admit it, she needed him. Fishlegs was the only one who bothered to row, the twins and Snotlout were all useless.

Just like Hiccup.

The second part of the statement went unnoticed since she didn't want to row. That was for underlings.

Hiccup smirked as he ran towards his dragon before he turned and fired his crossbow at the pursuing Vikings charging after him. On his back in a sling were the things he'd just stolen from the island's stores, just a few pieces of food that he wasn't able to make on his own island. It's almost too bad I couldn't get through this without being seen, he reflected with slight regret, but then again I'm used to this.

He saw the bolt hit one of the Vikings in the chest, but he paid him no heed though he didn't really have that much time since Toothless fired a couple of plasma bolts at the pursuing Vikings. Hiccup didn't need to turn around to see what the effect of the Night Fury's attack was having on the men - he had seen it all before on past raids. He knew the dragon had aimed the bolts at the ground to blast a couple of them off of their feet and he trusted Toothless to do the job of keeping the Vikings as far away from him as possible.

With smooth and practiced moves, Hiccup jumped onto his dragon's back and Toothless leapt into the air just as he'd clipped the straps into place.

As Toothless levelled off, Hiccup patted the Night Fury on the neck. "Thanks, bud," he said.

Toothless crooned at him.

"Not long to go now," Hiccup went on.

Toothless huffed and Hiccup had to restrain the urge to giggle at his dragon's reaction. Toothless clearly didn't believe him though Hiccup didn't think the reaction was too surprising given how he had been promising they would be leaving soon for months now, but between the time they'd left Berk Hiccup had been so…overwhelmed both with the prospect of helping so many innocent dragons who were locked up in Kill Rings waiting to be killed or tortured by their Viking tormentors, and with being free to explore the archipelago he'd decided to put it off for a bit longer. After all, he had plenty of time and he was still young (Hiccup still wished he knew how old Toothless was, but it was just another show of how ignorant Vikings were to dragons; as long there were a few basic facts and hints on how to kill them, then the Vikings would be happy).

Hiccup patted Toothless on the neck again and shifted himself a little to get more comfortable. "Let's go home to the island, bud," he said, deciding not to tell the dragon about his immediate plans to leave soon; it was a surprise, but he had no idea if the dragon hadn't already worked it out secretly. Toothless was a sneaky one.

Only a few more days and they would be gone from this part of the world for a bit, he wanted to check to see if there was anything else he could take….

Astrid was trying hard to keep the smug smirk off of her face as she and her fellow teens stretched their legs on another hub - a quick look around had confirmed it was not Nadder's Point, but another hub - after spending days on that damn ship. A part of her wondered how they were going to get back home, but Astrid did not want to leave just yet because she knew if they went back with nothing then the punishment for their disobedience would be severe, and Astrid had no idea just how bad it would be for all of them if they didn't produce either Hiccup or the head of that Night Fury.

Anyway, she was trying hard to project her usual aura of confidence on this island hub, instead of appearing to be openly relieved and out of her depth, like some of her peers were - Astrid was not sure if she should be embarrassed or annoyed by how open her fellow teens were, but like always she decided to just leave them to it.

Astrid had already had to endure their disrespect for the entirety of this 'voyage,' being thrown into the sea - she still could not believe Fishlegs had the courage to do something like that, and personally, if she lost her fellow teens Astrid would not regret it in the least. She was better off on her own in the first place.

In the meantime they would stop off for some rest, provisions for their ship, and a map so they could get back to Berk when the time came (Astrid wasn't looking forward to that, especially if one of the others made the mistake telling someone they came from Berk, or they knew nothing about navigation - if they found Hiccup and killed that precious Night Fury of his, then it might make the Chief forgive them, and make him forget his earlier punishments), and they would also get to hear if Hiccup had done anything recently.

Now there Astrid was confident they would hear something. Hiccup had been making the news for so long there was little of anything else to hear.

She was looking forward to that, and once she had a map or something, she would be able to narrow down the places where they could find Hiccup. The trouble was it was a good plan in Astrid's mind, but the biggest problem would be putting it into practice.

As he walked through the town, wearing nothing but an eyepatch and a new outfit he'd gotten made for himself a while back by a seamstress on Nadder's Point which went with the helmet he was wearing covering the eye patch slightly. Hiccup had never worn a helmet before, but it was no wonder so many Vikings were cranky - the damn thing made him feel like he was balancing an ill-sized metal bowl on his head that kept slipping from side to side, shifting its weight from one point of his head to the next. Helmet problems aside, Hiccup more or less felt comfortable with his disguise, complete with a dragon fang necklace around his neck to make himself look more like a Viking who, despite being smaller than average, had done his own fair share of the fighting during the war and wasn't really happy about how it had ended, Hiccup was beginning to wish he had arrived on this island late at night. Toothless had flown him here at dawn because he had wanted to get here since many of the crowd on this particular hub would be suffering from hangovers. He'd lived on Nadder's Point long enough to know the pattern, and he had guessed it would be the same here.

It's just… hard to walk around with people noticing you, he reflected grimly to himself as he walked through the streets, his hand close to where his weapons were stored.

He hoped it was his imagination, but Hiccup really hoped the illusion he was making for himself was working and didn't make him look ridiculous. He sighed mentally, and just carried on his way, deciding to get this done, return to Toothless, wait until nightfall and then leave.

One second thought, Hiccup thought to himself with a grimace, why am I bothering? Am I just trying to hold onto something here that I never really had?

Resigned Hiccup decided to just cut his losses and leave the archipelago now. He would take Toothless back to their island, gather up what he would take and leave the rest, and then begin their travels. Hopefully Toothless would reach the frontier of the archipelago by dawn, but Hiccup wasn't worried about that.

Deciding to go back, Hiccup turned around on his heels and walked back through the crowd. He was almost at the edge of the town but then he winced. The stupid helmet! It had shifted again, and it fell off of his head and fell to the ground with a clang. Hiccup sighed and bent down and picked it up.

I swear, he thought angrily to himself as he picked the stupid thing up, as soon as I'm in the air, I'm throwing you into the sea.

Hiccup picked himself up and resumed walking, but then he heard a voice that made him feel like an icicle had slipped down his neck, chilling his spine all the way.

"HICCUP!"

Hiccup swung round in reflexive shock and gaped in horror when he spotted someone he had not expected to see.

It was Ruffnut and behind her, looking surprised if gormless as usual, was her brother, Tuffnut. The Thorston twins had been looking around the market on their own for a while. Sometimes they had gotten into one of their periodic fights, but nothing had come out of them beyond a few punches to the face while the Vikings around them just ignored them as they went about their business. It was Viking tradition for kids to throw punches at one another to solve their problems.

The twins were both more than happy to leave the longship behind as well as the others. Contrary to what some might think the twins did occasionally like time to themselves, but the journey to this hub had really taxed their nerves. Snotlout had been his usual boasting self like always, mouthing off about how they'd catch Hiccup and the Night Fury and bring both back to Berk, but Astrid had been cold like always, sharpening her precious axe to the point where the twins placed bets on how long it would be before Astrid had worn down the sharp edge of the blade to the handle. Tuffnut guessed about a hundred years (earning him a punch and a kick), Ruffnut guessed it would only be a few days, but it hadn't happened, making Tuffnut smugly demand cash (which earned him a beating from his twin sister).

The only tolerable teenager on the ship had been Fishlegs, but he was always doing geek stuff so he barely registered on the twins' radar anyway except that time where he threw Astrid into the sea.

While the twins both knew they could have stayed with the others, they didn't want to spend any more time with Snotlout or Astrid, who was the worse. Fishlegs was the same way, but the oversized teen had gone off on his own, doing Thor alone knew what.

Tuffnut had been telling his sister a particularly dirty joke when they saw someone's helmet fall off of their head near the edge of the hub town. The helmet fell off of the head of another Viking teen. It wasn't truly funny, but to the twins' who both shared the same twisted sense of humour, it was enough to evoke a full belly laugh. Then they stopped when they caught sight of the features of the other Viking, who had a full head of auburn hair, and they both caught sight of the other Viking's face to tell who he was while he picked up the helmet and put it back on his head before resuming his journey out of the hub.

It was then the twins made their first of two mistakes; Ruffnut opened her mouth and yelled, "HICCUP!"

The renegade Viking swung around so fast Ruffnut and Tuffnut didn't get to see him move. Since when had Hiccup moved so fast? Ruffnut asked herself quickly, but she didn't have time to do anything before Hiccup began to run out of the town.

"Quick!" Tuffnut yelled and ran after Hiccup with his sister, which was when the twins made their second mistake which actually benefited Hiccup.

The twins chased Hiccup through the town, but they didn't bother to shout that Hiccup was the Dragon Pirate which would have had everyone up in arms, and he wouldn't have managed to escape from so many Vikings around him.

As he ran through the crowd and the huts, his legs stumbling a bit thanks to the unexpected exercise, Hiccup couldn't believe it as he dodged the crowd while trying to keep the distance between himself and the 'Nut twins; one of the benefits of being small and thin, you were able to get into places others wouldn't manage to reach or dodge, he couldn't believe the twins were here. And it was likely they weren't here on their own; Ruffmut and Tuffnut didn't have the brains to come out this far from Berk, so that meant the others were here as well.

Hiccup was relieved he hadn't been too far from the edge of the town. If he'd been in the centre of the hub, which he'd planned to do in order to collect the last bits he'd need to finally leave the archipelago before he decided to just leave and stop stalling, then he wouldn't be almost out. Once he was past the boundary, he risked a look back, and he saw that Ruffnut was now on her own chasing him, Tuffnut was gone, probably to get the others.

Knowing neither he nor Toothless would get much mercy from the teens if he stayed, Hiccup resumed his pace. This forest was a little different from the one on Berk, and because he'd just arrived on this island he hadn't had time to find hiding places which would be good enough, but then he hadn't expected to be chased from the town, especially by Ruffnut of all people.

Still, Hiccup mused to himself as he felt his lungs heave in air, reminding him of blacksmith bellows, maybe I can find something…

No. It was too difficult. In any case, he just didn't have the time, but he remembered how he'd managed to elude Astrid; he had only hidden behind that large rock because he knew it had been there the whole time, and Astrid had been too stupid to not think to look down. And the other times she had tried to find out what he'd been doing had been easy enough for him to avoid; Astrid might claim to be the best of everything, but she was unbelievably stupid if she forgot the first rule of hunting; don't let your prey HEAR or NOTICE you.

No, he had to think of another plan while he ran - straight through a low hanging tree branch which bent all the way back and thwacked him back in the chest, almost mirroring what happened before he had found Toothless.

"Oww!" Hiccup gasped breathlessly, rubbing his chest briefly and screwing his eyes up in pain before he opened them again… and then he spotted a small pile of rocks. Hardly surprising, these islands and forests had rocks dotted around everywhere. But hearing the sound of Ruffnut running behind him, snapping twigs, kicking through bushes, an idea entered his mind…

Ruffnut was panting slightly as she jogged through the forest, something she and her brother were both used to since the pair of them had been encouraged to train and to practice in the forest on Berk. Their mother had regaled them with stories of just how fit you could get running up fallen tree trunks at an angle, swim in small ponds, lift rocks (and bash your brainless brother in the head with them), and you could find trees or rock faces to climb up.

But despite all of that, Hiccup had managed to get ahead of her though it didn't surprise her that much. Ruffnut had never cared about Snotlout's dismissal of Hiccup, and how he was useless, even if she and her brother had gone along with it, and besides, could anyone blame them since Hiccup had never really done anything worthwhile though riding a dragon was cool.

She wasn't like Astrid and her short-sighted ideas about dragons. The war was over, and besides Hiccup had impressed her with doing the so-called impossible and improbable.

Anyway, back to the forest, the twins had often come across Hiccup, but they hadn't really bothered him that much except once or twice since they were kids, and besides humiliating Hiccup was fun. The point was Hiccup and Ruffnut were both used to running around in forests, and besides after being confined to a ship for days, she needed the exercise.

Ruffnut saw something as she was running. It looked like a figure, but before she could process it she was hit in the chest by something heavy… something hard that knocked out the breath in her chest, and she felt her legs collapse under her weight. The incredible pain in her chest seemed to stop time, but she could hear someone running off. But then a few minutes later, she could hear the sound of boots running towards her…

Hiccup was relieved when he reached the lagoon he and Toothless had discovered when they'd flown over the island at around dawn. The lagoon was essentially a massive rocky pit in the ground, as though one of the gods had taken a giant hammer and chisel and shaped the outline before using their power to tear all the rock out before filling it with water to create this beautiful lagoon, though he doubted they'd originally intended for the lagoon to be used as the shelter for a Dragon Pirate.

Isolated, surrounded by trees and with plenty of rocks near the lake, and a mile or so near the town, it was the perfect place to hide. Hiccup always tried to use places like this whenever he dropped his Pirate facade mostly for the nostalgia he felt as he remembered the fond memories he and Toothless shared of that cove on Berk, but this was neither the time or the place.

There was no doubt in his mind, by now, Tuffnut will have found the others and were even now on his trail. He knew the 'Nut twins. They, next to Astrid, were great at tracking in forests. It wouldn't take long for them to catch up to him.

As he raced into the cove, he blew a harsh whistle.

Instantly, from behind a large pile of boulders, safely hidden from any observer, a black dragon appeared. Hiccup breathed a sigh of relief when he saw his friend. Toothless instantly bounced over to greet him, but the Night Fury guessed something was wrong. He crooned worriedly.

Hiccup didn't slow down, he just kept running, confusing the dragon slightly, and making him croon in a manner the boy recognised immediately. Toothless was getting worried.

"We have to go, bud," Hiccup gasped as he reached his dragon and frantically mounted the Night Fury's back before he explained what was wrong, "they're here, Toothless. The teens from Berk. They're here."

Hiccup was just about to urge Toothless to fly when the Night Fury suddenly screeched in alarm, and Hiccup turned his head to the left though he already had a good guess about what he would find, and he was right. The teens had arrived, though it looked like Ruffnut was still hurting from the rock he'd catapulted into her stomach (he wondered for a moment if he had done some truly permanent damage, but he pushed it out of his mind; with any luck he wouldn't be here long enough to find out, though truthfully he had stopped caring about hurting Vikings, especially after what Alvin and his bastard Outcasts had done to him), since she was holding her stomach, and cradling herself and moving slowly, but he paid them little attention because the moment they realised he knew they were there, they took out their weapons - Astrid, Snotlout and Tuffnut, were instant, but Fishlegs was, as usual, reluctant but Hiccup didn't pay his former friend any notice. Whatever friendship had existed between him and Fishlegs was long gone, and besides what did they have in common anymore?

Without any instruction from his rider, Toothless decided to take the initiative to protect them while he gave them the time they needed to get in the air just as the blonde girl he'd seen before, the one with the axe, the one who wanted to kill his rider came charging towards him and Hiccup, the dragon prepared to fire.

"No!" Astrid yelled, brandishing her axe and running towards them like a madwoman. She looked it, too; her eyes were wide, flashing with a malevolent eagerness to spill blood. "YOU'RE NOT GETTING AWAY FROM ME THIS TIME!"

Hiccup was momentarily taken by surprise by Astrid's anger, but before he could Toothless was ready. He fired two plasma bolts, one for Astrid, the other to the twins. The bolts were aimed close to where the teens were running, so the blasts knocked them off of their feet. The sound of the explosions shocked Hiccup back into the real world, and he encouraged the dragon to leap into the air.

Toothless was only too happy to comply.

When the dragon was in the air and gaining height, Hiccup closed his eyes in relief, but then he heard an angry yell from below. It sounded like Astrid, and he rolled his eyes. That girl simply did not know when to quit. But then he heard something like a whishing sound like something was being thrown, and then the sound of metal striking metal, and then….

Toothless cried out suddenly as he began to lose height for a moment before the dragon managed to compensate. What in Thor's name was going on? Hiccup wondered to himself, and he glanced frantically at Toothless' wings, but there was nothing wrong with them, and the Night Fury wasn't screaming in pain. That left….

"The tail fin!" Hiccup shouted, and he glanced behind him. The sight that met his eyes filled him with horror. There was an axe wedged into the tail fin mechanism, the blade had also slashed away some of the leather which mimicked the natural tail fin of the Night Fury.

"She threw that stupid axe of hers into your fin! It's damaged the control mechanism!" Hiccup wailed in growing anger as they flew out of the lagoon and across the sea. Hiccup growled under his breath worriedly as he tried to control the tail fin. Ooh, this is not going to be good, he thought to himself.

Hiccup turned his head back to the island he and Toothless were rapidly fleeing. From below there were a number of Viking boats and longships on the water, though whether or not they had spotted the Night Fury above Hiccup did not know and he did not care one bit. The ships and the boats could just have been floating planks of wood or flowers floating on the surface for all he cared.

I couldn't resist the Candyman thing. Just like I couldn't resist the urge to write Fishlegs throw Astrid overboard.