Sorry for the wait. It was due to how busy things are at the beginning of a new year. I have no intent on giving this story up. I have been working on this chapter for a while so please forgive me for my tardiness.

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Tuffnut and his sister were up to their usual antics; or, unusual antics, since all they had to work with was the unpopulated stretch of Berk, past the farmlands and on the other side of the mountain from the village.

"I can't believe the chief banished us for the day!" moaned Tuffnut. "And we didn't even deserve it!"

"I get what you mean," continued Ruffnut. "All we did was light fire to a hut. The dragons do that all the time without us and they don't get in trouble!"

"Yeah, I mean, how were we supposed to know it was a guest hut? Or, should I say how was I to know…"

"What are you trying to say dragon-breath?" She snapped.

"Well how was I supposed to know it was a guest hut? You are the one who goes for walks around the village. You should know these things Barf-but!"

"What are you insulting?! Barf, or my but? Either way it isn't going to be pretty!"

Before his twin could bash his head in, starting a fight which would inevitably would end in the two (or four, if you include the dragon) falling off the cliff and into the sea below, which during the tumble would result in Tuffnut being very much hurt and Ruffnut laughing hysterically (if you could call her maniacal laugh hysterical), Tuffnut saw something in the distance. He lifted up his hand as a grin spread over his face, causing his sister to stop her current trajectory to see what had distracted Tuffnut from the soon-to-be-kerscuffle.

A small boat had landed on the beach, and strangely dressed men were on the shore looking about. Silently and in unison, the duo and their dragon slunk behind some plant life a bit closer to where the strangers were.

"Sir, if I may, this island seems to be inhabited."

"Yet this is where the map we were sent leads. They probably wish to meet in a secluded location anyways for the exchange. Signal the ship to circle the island. We will continue to scour the shore here to see what we find," said an older man who was obviously a commander of some sorts over the others.

"Yes sir."

"Bryant?"

"Sir?" called a young man as he climbed out of the boat; the twins hadn't been able to see him before he did so. He had fair hair and wore brown pants and a brown leather vest, with a pack strapped over his shoulder and a journal in his hand as he approached the older man.

"You may continue your research. Go with Lewis," he said, as another man dressed like the older one, presumably Lewis, came over to accompany the young man. "If you see another one of those filthy dragon beasts you may need protection." The two of them headed off into the woods, in the opposite direction of the twins.

Ruffnut turned to her brother, groaning quietly as he did so. "Does this mean we have to tell Hiccup?"

"O contraire, my scheming compadre, would he not take more joy in seeing us more self-sufficient?"

"I was aware he knew us to be all too self-sufficient in causing trouble…"

"Yet we are self-sufficient sufficiently enough to solve our own predicaments." Tuffnut replied.

"I suppose you are right in that our self-sufficiency may give us sufficient time to cause predicaments, but what is the point of solving predicaments when we don't get any predicaments to cause!"

The last sentence came out a little too loudly, and the men on the beach instantly turned to the source of the noise. The commander motioned for several of his men to check it out. They crept closer and closer to the bushes the twins and their dragon were hiding behind. Finally, seeing nothing, they turned to head back. "What do you think he will do when he finds them?" one of the men asked.

"If I know the commander," replied another, "He will not leave a single one of them alive."

The twins did not have to look at each other to know their next move. No one insulted their dragon and threatened them in the same day. They swooped up into the air and with a single motion, cut most of the men off from the woods with a line of dragon fire. Tuffnut started cheering. "Yeah! Look at the cowards!"

"Woohoo!" cheered his sister as the fleeing men bounded into the boat and left the shore towards one of the ships in the distance. They didn't notice that there were more than one earlier.

The twins decided that they had had enough scheming for the day and promptly flew home.

Eret son of Eret was a patient man, at least when it came to things he could put off. Until Drago had come along, the trapping business had been good to him as it had been to his father before him. The jist of the trade was catch yay many dragons by a certain date, sell your catch and repeat until either the off-season or the holidays, whenever you had enough saved up to stop for a few months to spend time with family. Except, Eret had no family to call his own, so for the better part of his teenage years his days were full of adventure seeking and improving his trade enough to stay ahead and make a living for himself best he could.

Then Drago came along. Drago was not a patient man. Eret had the branding to prove it, which stood out from all the regular scars that came with the job. Drago had turned trapping into not just a living, but a necessity as failure did not just limit your pay but put your life at risk. And quitting wasn't exactly an option. It wasn't smart to put yourself on the Tyrant's bad side.

And now he was with the Dragon riders, spending the greater part of the hunting season on the back of the very thing he had trained to hunt in his down time, feeling more in control of his destiny now than all those years of training had left him.

Not that making an honest living was a bad thing, of course.

But now that he was in control, he found himself for an odd reason wanting to stay. They surely didn't need the help of his dragon-trapping advice. He wondered if it had something to do with the chief's kindness as accepting him as a fellow rider; it was an honor to be sure. A part of him wondered if it had something to do with Ruffnut. They still spent a lot of time together, resulting in a thriving friendship, though he had been glad when she stopped pestering him about his muscles and started to pay more attention to the other two available men in her age range. Eret wasn't even in her age range, being at the almost 26 while she was twenty. He just supposed that he felt a sort of soft spot for the girl.

He was interrupted from his thoughts as he rode his rumblehorn when the sound of cannons ran out in the air. At first he thought it must be a test in the defense system or something like that, but when they rang out a second round he became concerned. He quickly flew to the coast, which took a minute since he was a good distance away, to see an invading army. First he thought how foolish they must be to attack Berk of all places with only four ships and no dragons on their side. However, his mind was filled with fear as he saw Toothless avoid getting hit with a cannon blast to run right into a mast at full speed, knocking him and his rider onto the deck. He was not worried for Hiccup's safety, but as he drew close, he saw something in Hiccup's stance as he rushed the captain that he had hardly ever seen before: hate. He was preparing to kill that man where he stood.

When Hiccup and the others reached the source of the cannon fire, four ships could be seen approaching the docks. Part of the docks had been destroyed. It didn't make sense; why would they fire upon the docks when they had to, you know, dock there?

It quickly made sense when they aimed at their dragons, missing at every shot as the riders were too experienced, several hitting the docks and most landing in the water. The chief considered landing on the lead ship to confront the leader of the attack and negotiate peace, but when he approached the lead ship a round of strange shots rang out that sounded like cannon shots only less intense. Yet he didn't see anything fired. He heard something whizz past, and even if he couldn't see the projectiles, he heard a shout from Fishlegs who had been hit in some way. "Fishlegs!" He cried out as he flew to where he was. Meatlug was already rushing to shore. When he got there, he noticed a bleeding cut on the side of his arm, where something had grazed his skin.

"I'm fine Hiccup!" The wound was bleeding a lot, and when Hiccup heard another round of what was fired at them the first time, he saw two dragons go down.

Now he was angry. How could four ships, even large ones, down his dragons with projectiles they couldn't even see? With the other riders occupying the other three ships, he flew to the lead ship, where he could see the captain giving orders. He started his decent for another round of cannons to go off, and this time some were aimed for the village. Toothless dodged a cannonball to hit the mast at full speed, knocking him down onto the deck as Hiccup rolled and landed with inferno already in his grasp. The men on the ship jumped back to see the flaming sword, and before they could react Hiccup was already headed for their captain.