IMPORTANT NEWS:
So number one; this chapter is not beta read. I know I said it would be. But the reason is number two I will be without any internet until the 21st of July, so ya… I didn't want you guys to wait until then. Okay I do have internet access at work, but nor for uploading a chapter I'm afraid. Once I have internet again this chapter will hopefully be checked and I will upload it then.
Still in the middle of moving, things would go faster if I didn't have a 40 hours job, but I am not going to complain about that because I am glad to actually have a job. I will write during the period of not having internet. I don't know how much or how often, but hopefully I can upload a new chapter shortly after getting internet access.

Side note, I am going to look into the formatting of the document. Right now I am at a loss on how to do this. Normally I use tab or spaces when talking starts but they are removed here. Same goes for paragraphs, they get messed up. Suggestions are welcome (though you will not see me announcing waht POV you switch to, perhaps something like **** ?).

Chapter 4: Dragon training

Astrid pushed her way through the crowd of Vikings that somehow were bigger than her. It didn't bother her too much, so had to get to the center. Something important was about to happen and there was no way she was going to miss even one bit of it. She needed a front row seat. At last she saw what she came for. In the middle of the crowd there was a big opening that would be the stage of this event. People were talking with hushed voices, making it impossible for Astrid to understand what they were saying. Then some of the Vikings started to step aside. Astrid followed their example. A nervous Hiccup passed her, giving her a glance causing him to stumble over his own feet. He managed to regain his footing. In his hand he was holding a small dagger.

Astrid watched him. Today was the boy's final test, the one that would make him a real Viking. Remembering how he had been during dragon training, there was no way he would fail this final test. She gave the boy a smirk and decided to focus on what he was doing, so she could learn the tricks he used on dragons.

Vikings were cheering him on as they all turned their eyes to the sky. Astrid did the same and saw the swarm of dragons coming their way. Soon they were upon them and as Vikings backed away when monstrous nightmares set the place aflame, Hiccup remained standing in the middle of it all.

"Hiccup, get out of there!" Astrid shouted at him.

She tried to make her way to him, but dragons stopped her from doing so. With her trusty axe she sliced the heads of, but soon found out she was too late. The flames had engulfed the boy. She stared at it, wondering why no-one seemed to care. Weren't they cheering him on a moment ago? Everyone was too occupied with the dragons to see Hiccup burn.

The distinguished sound of the infamous night fury then echoed around. It fired at some buildings and then landed in the center of the flames where Hiccup once stood. When the dragon flew up, someone was riding it. That someone started roaring the same language as the dragons who seemed to have multiplied by now. As soon as he had spoken, dragons attacked houses and people. The night fury did the same.

Astrid watched it, finding herself unable to move. Knowing who this rider was. Knowing he was to kill her once he saw her. She begged the gods in silence he would not see her, but of course that had been in vain. His eyes suddenly fell upon her and the next moment she saw him jump of his dragon and walk over to her, dagger in hand. The same dagger he had been holding when his younger version was set aflame. A crooked smile appeared on his face, the one she had seen on his face a few times. He had always looked silly that way, but now he looked terrifying. Astrid stepped backwards, as she wanted to call out for help and wondered where her axe had gone to all of a sudden.

"I told you I would come back," he whispered to her when he was only a step away from her.

She felt the knife on her throat this time…

Astrid sat up straight. Disoriented she looked around in the darkness. Some light came through the shutters of the window. She blinked a few times, breathing uneven as it slowly downed on her that she was in her own room. With a sigh she let herself fall back in the her pillow. As she stared at the ceiling, she wondered what that dream was about. Aside from the fact that she was totally terrified by Hiccup, that much she knew. If anyone told her years ago she would be haunted in her dreams by Hiccup Horrendous Haddock trying to kill her, she would have laughed at them. After what seemed hours of staring at the beams of her ceiling, she kicked her sheets away. She wasn't able to figure out the meaning of this dream, but there was someone who might be able to tell her.

She quickly got dressed and made her way downstairs. In the kitchen she looked around to get something to eat and found some leftover bread. With the food in her hand and a piece of it in her mouth, she made her way to the house of Gothi. The elder possessed knowledge of more than just herbs. Dreams were also her forte, as well as predictions. It was always quite hilarious to see Gobber try to read her rune words. Many actually believed she could not talk, but the opposite was true. She simply preferred not to talk, unless when it was absolutely necessary. That way, when she spoke, you knew she said something really important and you better remember it.

Gothi hadn't talked much during the time Astrid and Ruffnut got taught by her. She would only give looks and occasionally pointed out paragraphs in her books. Though Astrid had heard her speak once, when Stoick was there. He had been talking in a hushed voice Astrid never believed the man possessed. She had been unable to hear his words as she was working on potions in the other room. Gothi had replied with a normal tone. Astrid could still remember the words; Berk will be crowded by dragons. She had known it was a prediction and one she didn't like at all since the moment she heard it. Sure enough more dragons came and more frequent as well.

The elder woman lived in the higher parts of the village, so Astrid made her way through the damp grass up the hill. Not bothering to follow the stone path, cause that would take longer. All the others were still sleeping, not surprising since the sun wasn't up yet. Astrid hoped Gothi wouldn't be too angry with her by waking her up so early. However, when she knocked on the door, Gothi quickly opened the door as if she had been waiting for her.

With her staff she signed to Astrid to come in, closing the door after the girl had entered. Astrid walked to the nearest stool and said down, knowing she would be told to go sit down anyway. She waited for the elder to sit down as well and give her a sign to start talking. Astrid took a deep breath and told Gothi her entire dream to the closest detail she could remember. At the end she sighed and saw the thoughtful face of the woman.

"What does it mean?"

"What do you think it means?" Gothi said, shocking Astrid by suddenly speaking.

"I-I tried thinking of what it could mean," the young woman eventually muttered whilst shaking her head, "I don't know..."

"Why would Hiccup of all people attack you?"

Astrid, still stunned by hearing the elder talk and even more than one sentence, stared at the floor. Was her dream really that important? Not thinking that over too long she switched to the question the elder had asked and was having a debate with herself, but eventually opened her mouth to speak again. Knowing this could very well bring Hiccup into trouble, something she didn't want to happen.

"Hiccup is alive. He… he's the one who leads the raids. I shot him and his night fury down. He's the rider… you heard the story of the dragon rider, right?"

Gothi nodded once and motioned her hand to move on. It reminded Astrid how Hiccup always used to talk, moving his hands around all the time.

"He… attacked me, tried to kill me earlier today… well during the night," she continued softly, not liking what she was about to admit, "I thought I was going to die."

"The fear is written all over your face and your dream, but there is more in that dream. What about the part before? Go over it event by event and make connections with the real world. What does it tell you then?"

Astrid must have stared really weirdly at Gothi, for the woman chuckled.

"I'm sorry… I'm not used to hear you talk. Not this much," Astrid muttered blushing a bit embarrassed.

Again Gothi chuckled and gave the girl a nod before looking at her patiently. At first Astrid didn't understand what the elder wanted, but then remembered the question asked. Something about going through the events over her dream and making connections. In order to focus better she closed her eyes and started to recall the dream, seeing flashes of it burning in her mind. Once again she saw that teenage boy hesitantly walk to the center. Vikings cheering… Which she found odd. They never cheered for Hiccup, he wasn't exactly loved. She had heard whispers of people, saying they wanted him shipped off. Other hadn't been secret about their opinion and had voiced them loudly to Stoick. Only when he got so good in the kill ring did they cheer. The event that was happening was Hiccup going through initiation, but it was completely different from what really happened or would happen. You don't wait for a raid.
The monstrous nightmares then came and Astrid was reminded by the monstrous nightmare that had followed him through town the day he had said he shot down a night fury. And why had she been so psyched about the event anyway? She was jealous at him at that time. He was far better with dragons than she was… he still was. He could even communicate with them in their own language. What was up with this dream?

Frustrated she sighed and shook her head looking at Gothi with a helpless look written on her face. The elder smiled at her and offered a cup of hot tea which she probably made while Astrid had been thinking about her dream.

"I did not expect you to understand at your first try," the elder started, "Dreams do not make sense Astrid, they never do unless you understand yourself. Most people do not understand themselves even when they claim they do."

Astrid nodded and sipped her tea, "I understand I am terrified of Hiccup coming after me to kill me. What I do not understand is why I was cheering him on in my dream. I was jealous at him. I was top o of the class and he suddenly got really good."

Astrid frowned as she stared at the damping liquid in her cup.

"What are you recent thoughts, say three days ago, about the boy?"

For a moment the younger woman remained quiet, her frown only growing.

"I wished he was here… because he knew how to deal with dragons…"

Suddenly Astrid made the connection and stared wide eyed at the woman. Slowly it started to make sense to her what this dream meant and Gothi saw she did and gave her yet another smile.

"There is more into this then you can understand now though."

"What do you mean?"

"That you put yourself in a mission."

Astrid, confused by the woman's words, watched how Gothi stood up and gathered her runes from the shelves.

"With these I can predict the future. For a long time they all said the same. Berk would be crowded by dragons and not in the way we see now with a dragon raid. I mean with constant dragons around."

Not understanding what Gothi meant she shook her head.

"You mean I have to stop that from happening?"

"Oh, it will happen one way or another, my child. The question will be; what way? That is for you to decide in this matter."

Now Astrid was dumbfounded. How did she play a role in Berk being crowded by dragons? Why did she have to make the decision? Deciding between what? What did it have to do with her dream about Hiccup? Suddenly she felt more confused than she was before going to Gothi. Astrid opened her mouth to ask the woman what she meant, but the elder was pointing at the exit with her walking stick. Confused she stood up and walked to the door, followed by Gothi, who opened it for her.

"The future of Berk lies with you and Hiccup, my child, choose wisely."

Knowing it was no use asking any more questions, Astrid nodded and sauntered her way to the mead hall to get something proper to ear. Just a bit of bread wasn't going to be enough. Only one of the cooks and two barmaids where present in the mead hall when she arrived. They had almost finished the food, so when Astrid got her bowl of stew it was almost too hot to touch. Normally she would be one of the last to eat so her food was mostly cold.
She sat down on one of the closest tables, not in the mood to walk to her usual spot. As she absentmindedly stirred her food to cool it down, her mind was focused on the words of Gothi. Mostly the part where she had said that Berk would be crowded with dragons one way or the other and that the fate of Berk was in her and Hiccups hands. She shuddered as she thought of the boy and then scowled because she had shuddered. Being afraid really wasn't something she liked and she wasn't going to make it a habit either.

"Morning."

Astrid shook up from her thoughts by the sudden greeting and saw Ruffnut sit down across her.

"Morning," she sighed and went back to staring at her stew.

"Got any sleep last night?" Ruffnut asked.

Again Astrid looked up, but this time more annoyed.

"Well you looked rather spooked," Ruffnut stared with a shrug and got cut off by a growl from Astrid.

"Can we please stop talking about this?" she snarled at her friend.

"Calm down, I'm not making fun of you. Everyone would be scared if you find a dragon and a human tagging together and trying to kill you. They wouldn't be able to sleep for days."

Astrid let out another sigh and started eating her food which had cooled off so much it was just as cold as always. She hated this. There was just no way she was going to sit here and do nothing about her fear. She rather charge at Hiccup in a fair fight and die than waiting for him in fear. But how was something fair if he had a dragon on his side? Then the words of Gothi resurfaced and grunting she dropped her head on the table. She closed her eyes and tried to think, feeling Ruffnut staring at her, but she didn't care. It was important she figured out what Gothi had meant, the elder only talks when something is important after all.
Dragons crowding Berk one way or the other. It echoed through her mind. She only ever thought of one way, that everything on Berk was destroyed. The other way would be…

Suddenly Astrid said up straight, shocking Ruffnut so much she fell off the bench. It was a good thing her brother wasn't around to laugh at her.
The other way was befriending dragons. Like Hiccup had done, probably even before he left. How else could he have suddenly gotten so good in dragon training back then. So befriending a dragon it was. But… what after that? Gothi said Hiccup was involved in this too, but he was controlled by a dragon queen and doesn't even know who he is. Perhaps she could get him back to his senses? That seemed like a good plan. With that decision made she stood up, now noticing Ruffnut crawling back to her feet.

"Sorry," she muttered at her friend and helped her up.

"What's going on with you today?" Ruffnut growled at her and put her helmet straight again.

"Come on, I'll explain on the way."

Ruffnut raised an eyebrow at that, but followed Astrid nonetheless. Quickly and with a hushed voice Astrid told her friend what had happened at Gothi's. The more Ruffnut heard, the more bewildered and yet excited she got.

"So what are you going to do?" she asked when Astrid finished her story.

Just when Astrid wanted to open her mouth a very cheerful, yet quite annoying voice shouted out her name.

"Morning Astrid!" said Snotlout who gave the girl he called out a grin as he walked to her. He gave Ruffnut a look and added a less cheerfull, "Ruffnut."

"Urgh, what do you want, Snotlout," Astrid asked, folding her arms.

Ruffnut glared at him as well, she wanted to know what Astrid was up to and just when she was going to tell, this idiot appeared.

"I was wondering if you would like to join me for break-"

"Already ate," Astrid cut him off with a snarl and turned her back to him to walk away.

"How about we hang out then?" Snotlout tried desperately.

"In case you haven't noticed, I am busy. I went to Gothi this morning and we are really short on some of the herbs which are very important. So if you don't mind, Ruffnut and I are going to look for them."

Snotlout only let out a simple 'oh', no longer bothering the two girls, who quickly marched away.

"The moment he gets chief I am getting myself a ship and leave this place," Ruffnut muttered.

"I couldn't agree more," Astrid added.

"So back to what we were talking about," Ruffnut said as she looked around to see where they were headed, "what is your plan?"

"You will see in a moment."

Ruffnut tried to talk Astrid into telling her, but got no word out of her until at some point the girl stopped walking and said they had arrived. Now focusing on her surroundings Ruffnut found herself in front of the kill ring and she turned to look at her friend with a questioning face.

"I'm not letting myself be eaten by fear, but to stand a fair chance against Hiccup I need a dragon," Astrid said as if it was the most normal thing around.

As Ruffnut stared at with open mouth, Astrid got a small smile on her face which quickly made place for a sad expression. She felt rather nostalgic being here again after so many years, but it also made her remember about Hiccup's disappearance. Perhaps if she had apologized earlier he wouldn't have left. With a sigh she shook the thought off, this was no time to dwell on what had happened. She couldn't change it. The future however she could change and apparently the future of Berk was laying on her shoulders.

Astrid dropped every weapon she had on her. The only thing she ever saw Hiccup carry during dragon training was a shield. Besides, she didn't want to scare the dragon so best to keep weapons away.

"You are crazy," Ruffnut stated as Astrid walked into the kill ring, "you'll kill yourself."

Astrid shrugged, "close the gate already so the dragon cannot escape."

Shaking her head Ruffnut closed the gate and walked around to get a better view of what was going on in the arena.

"So what dragon are you going to choose?" she asked her friend below.

Astrid was now standing in the middle of the kill ring looking at the doors. She needed a dragon that eventually she could fly and could keep up with a night fury. Of course that last part was a tricky one, for she knew no dragon could keep up with a night fury, but perhaps one that was almost as fast as a night fury could work. The first one to drop from the list was the terrible terror for the obvious reason she could not ride it. The second to be crossed from the list as well was the gronckle. While it was probably easier to train, it was slow. So Astrid was left with a zippleback, nightmare and nadder. Burning her butt wasn't something she was willing to risk and dealing with two heads didn't seem like a good idea either, so she was left with the deadly nadder.

As soon as she decided, she walked to the door that held the nadder behind it and opened it in one quick movement. The nadder charged out ready to attack and looked around expecting kids coming after it, so it got slightly confused when that didn't happen.
Astrid watched it as it walked around searching for people and finally landing its eyes on her. Astrid gulped as she stepped forward, keeping her hands in front of her as she vaguely recalled what Hiccup did with his hands when the zippleback came after him and tried to imitate that.

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you," she said calmly.

The nadder was anything but calm and fired at her, luckily Astrid was quite good in evading blasts and jumped away just in time.

"Calm down boy… or girl, what are you?"

Carefully she approached the dragon, but almost got shot again.

"How in the world did Hiccup do this?" she growled frustrated as she and the nadder circled around the arena.

Her eyes fell on an empty basket that was meant for fish. The dragons in the kill ring were fed on a weekly basis, just to keep them alive. Meaning the nadder must be hungry.

"Ruff, go fetch me some fish!"

"Fish? Why would you want fish?"

"Just go already and hurry!" Astrid shouted at her friend who shook her head in confusion and left.

Astrid's eyes never left the nadder and neither did the nadder's eyes leave Astrid. They simply circled around the kill ring, both on guard and waiting for the other to start the attack. Astrid kept a close watch on the tail of the dragon in front of her, who suddenly decided to stand still as a fish seemed to have fallen from the sky.

"Here you go," Ruff called out to Astrid and threw two other fish at her.

Astrid caught the fish and watched the nadder staring at the fish as if it was something dangerous or perhaps a trap.

"It's alright, it's yours," Astrid said calmly.

The nadder, still on guard, approached the fish in a quick manner, ate it in one gulp and was then back at the opposite of where Astrid was. It eyed the fish in the female's hands.

Astrid smiled, seeing that this seemed to be working. She threw one of the fish she was holding towards the nadder. It looked skeptical, yet seemed to be too hungry to not go after the food and once again it quickly devoured it and rushed away from Astrid again.

Astrid held up the fish she still had and slowly approached the nadder. It seemed curious about the food that was being offered, but cautiously remained its distance. With a frustrated sigh Astrid lowered the fish after twenty minutes of trying to get the dragon to approach her. It was strange, during her dragon training years dragons always came closer. That and with every intent to attack, which was not happening now at all. It seemed more like a stand down, waiting for the other to attack first. It was getting Astrid nowhere. She had to get it to her, but clearly the food wasn't enough trigger to get it closer. The question was, how to get that dragon closer? She already made clear she wasn't attack and offered it food. What else did it want? For a while she just watched the dragon, trying to come up with an idea, but got nothing. She turned her attention to Ruffnut, who was still watching everything that was going on in the kill ring.

"Do you remember anything of what Hiccup did during dragon training?"

Ruffnut looked thoughtful, but only for a short moment as her attention was caught by the dragon that suddenly approached Astrid.

"Astrid, watch out!" she quickly shouted.

Astrid spun around and found the dragon quickly hurrying towards the furthest end. Bewildered she stared at it, then to the fish and then back to the deadly nadder, getting a mad idea in her mind that might work. She held out the fish again, grabbing the dragon's attention, then closed her eyes and turned her head away from the dragon.

"What are you doing?" Ruffnut hissed, with a tone that she thought Astrid was doing something crazy and above all stupid.

Astrid remained silent and heard the steps of the nadder come closer. She resisted the urge to look around, which was hard since she was trained to kill dragons, taught that dragons would kill her.

Then the fish was taken from hand so carefully that Astrid's eyes snapped open in surprise, but she managed to keep herself from looking away. A short moment later she felt the nose of the nadder pressed against her hand, surprising her even more. With an open mouth she looked around to see the dragon close to her. It then started sniffing at her, probably looking for more fish.

"I don't have any more… Ruff do you still have some fish?"

"Ya, why?"

"Come on down with them," Astrid grinned as she pushed the snout of the dragon away from her.

The nadder jumped away a little when Ruffnut came inside the arena, holding two more fish. Astrid tried to calm the dragon by petting it a little. It was a weird sensation, both terrifying and thrilling.

"It's alright, she's a friend. Ruff, do the same as I just did."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Ruffnut shouted at her, startling the dragon.

"Just do it," Astrid replied with a stern look on her face.

Ruffnut looked from Astrid to the dragon, then sighed and followed Astrid's example. Just like with Astrid, the nadder carefully took the two fish, but instead of pressing its snout against Ruffnut's hand, it licked her.

"Iew, dragon drool," Ruffnut complained under the soft giggling of Astrid.

Ruffnut threw her a glare, but Astrid had her attention turned back to the dragon.

"Let's see what gender you are."

Astrid walked around the dragon, carefully rubbing her, trying to find a spot it liked to scratched as well.

"Female," she eventually stated and walked back to the head to give the female nadder a scratch under her chin. For the next three hours Astrid and Ruffnut played with the dragon. They figured out how to calm it and let them stroke down the tail spikes. Where to scratch it to let it drop down with a content purr. They even found out it liked to play fetch with one of the shields.

"So what are you going to do now?" Ruffnut asked as she absentmindedly stroke the snout of the deadly nadder who was enjoy the attention, "If anyone finds out about this…"

Astrid frowned a bit as she was scratching the nadder on her side.

"Maybe it is one of the reasons Hiccup left. Because he knew about dragons being friendly, but he would be branded a traitor if he defended one."

"How about you ask him? Wasn't it your plan to go after him?"

"The guy doesn't even know who he is!" Astrid snapped at her friend, stopping with petting the dragon, "He thinks he's a dragon and he is serving a dragon queen. It's controlling him!"

Both girls jumped a little when they saw the deadly nadder shiver a bit. Astrid watched the nadder with a gaping mouth as she concluded that it must have been controlled by this queen as well.

"You were controlled too, weren't you?" she said as she placed her hand on the surprisingly soft scales.

The dragon let out a soft squeak to confirm Astrid's words.

"So you know where the nest is?" Ruffnut asked.

Astrid turned to look at her friend with a scowl, already knowing what the girl was thinking and not liking it very much.

"I'm not asking her to fly me there," she snapped at Ruffnut, "what if she gets controlled again? I don't want Hiccup to be controlled but not at the cost of her."

Ruffnut raised an eyebrow. Astrid again knew what Ruffnut was thinking and she had to admit she was surprised herself as well. She was taking on the dragon's side, taking pity in a dragon who had probably been through much suffering when it was controlled by the queen. Then even more suffering as it was used during dragon training, having young Vikings attack it. Still, it seemed wrong to ask the dragon now that she knew and slightly understood dragons. She was staring distantly at the dragon whilst petting it as she thought how Hiccup would know more about dragons. How he easily disregarded three hundred years of Viking tradition. How he must have approached one without fear, without any real knowledge of dragons at all. Suddenly she realized her newly developed respect for the boy… man, and became more determined to snap him out of the control of the queen.

Her thoughts were interrupted when the deadly nadder walked away a little. She watched as it kneeled down next to her and gave a soft but gentle roar as if it was saying climb on. When Astrid made no movement, it squawked again.

"Are you sure?" Astrid asked.

The nadder answered with another squeak. Astrid nodded at the dragon and climbed clumsily on her back. She got hold on two of the spines on the head so not to fall off.

"Well then… Ruff, if anyone asks where I am, tell them some vague story about herbs somewhere in the more dangerous places of the islands or something," Astrid said as she gave the girl below an unsure smile.

"Come back alive," Ruffnut said she opened the gate of the kill ring.

Astrid nodded and the nadder spread her wings, leaving the arena far behind them in a matter of minutes.

The human skinned enjoyed the wind that was blowing in his face. It calmed him as his mind still tried to occupy him with thought of the human girl during their previous raid. This time it would not be the same, this time he will kill any human that he came across. If he did not, the queen had no use to him and just that thought made him feel miserable. He didn't want to be useless. If he was, then he rather be food for her.

He opened his eyes and looked at the four winged flying in front of him. They had flown for about an hour now and he was wondering how much longer it was going to take, but then spotted a fleet below. The human skinned looked at the crest on the sails and flags and frowned. The crest was the same as that one on his belt. The one that girl had said was proof he was from there.

"No, not this one," the four winged said, seeing him looking down, "these are just a few boats compared to the fleet I have found. Don't worry we're not far away anymore."

"You better not lying," the shadow of night warned the four winged.

"I'm not," it replied in a mumble and continued the flight in silence.

It was indeed not much further, just about thirty minutes later new ships appeared on the horizon. The human skinned eyes widened and his mouth curled up in a grin as he looked at the sheer amount of boats he saw.

The four winged slowed down and was now flying next to the shadow of the night. He had his attention on the human skinned on top of the black dragon.

"Are you sure you want to go kill your own kind?" he asked concerned.

"I'm not a human," the human skinned barked as he pulled the sword from its sheath.

"Yes you are! It's my fault you don't remember, but how was is supposed to know you were her son?! You two looked threatening, like you were going to kill or hurt her."

"I don't know what you are talking about, but if you are not going to help take down this humans and offer them to the queen, then leave," the human skinned growled on a low tone and then turned his attention to the fleet.

The four winged watched how the boy gave out order on what to do and how to kill these humans. The dragon shook his head in disappointment, he had failed correcting his mistake once again. He was not going to fight them, it was the very reason they were in this predicament. Also the four winged one knew his victory of last time was because of sheer luck. These two had even grown much stronger over the last two years. He would lose any battle with them now.

When he saw all the dragons creating a fog, trapping the human ships he turned his back on it and flew him, worried about the safety if the human female he had brought to the nest. If only he could bring her back…

Dagur was enjoying himself a lot with the wine and the two females with him, when he was suddenly called to the deck for there was something going on. Grunting in dismay he angrily threw the goblet at the door and told his two female friends he would be back soon.

Getting on the deck he found his men panicking over fog that apparently had appeared out of no-where. He was about to call them idiots and cowards for being afraid of a bit of fog when something quickly flew over the boat and grabbed one of the men. He heard the man scream, but it was short lived. Quickly he drew his sword as he tried finding what was attacking his armada. Something came again and he lashed out with his sword, downing a dragon. It landed with a cry of pain on the deck, with a bleeding leg. Now seeing it properly Dagur saw it was a deadly nadder, who angrily swung its tail at him. He was just in time to avoid the poisoned spines. He then saw it cry to the sky. Dagur looked up with widened eyes when heard the massive cries of other dragons.

"Dragon attack!" someone called out the obvious.

All of a sudden every men was in a battle with the beast that appeared out of nowhere and vanished back into the fog when they killed or wounded one of the men. Dagur made his way to the grounded deadly nadder that was attacking nearby man. Some of them had managed to wound it more, but the nadder its groud firmly. Just when Dagur want to bury his sword into the dragon a distinguish sound distracted him. He had heard it many times and never something good happened. It was the never seen dragon of the night, the night fury. Fast and never missed. Dagur changed his attention to the sound and tried tracking where it came from and where it would go. All he got to see was a flash of black which fired several of his ships, including the one he was one. It was set aflame and his men panicked and quickly tried to make their way to one of the other boats. Dagur didn't care about the flames that were engulfing him, he wanted that night fury's head pinned to his wall. However, he could not find it, or even hear it. What he did see was a group of dragons picking up the wounded dragon and carrying it away. That was not normal dragon behavior as far as he knew, but he had to admit he knew little about dragon behavior, just how to kill them.

When the ship he was doomed to sink in a few minutes, he jumped over to the next ship, fighting off every dragon that came his way. He tried to keep his men fired up for the fight, but they only panicked more and more as they saw the dragons taking away every dead or fatally wounded Viking there was. Even the body pieces were taken by the small terrible terrors. Again he heard the night fury and the blasts, but it was further away this time. A few seconds later he heard the sound of swords hitting each other. This confused the young chief only more, as dragons don't have metal and his men wouldn't fight each other.

The fight continued for about thirty minutes, then the fog started to clear and the last dragons flew away. Dagur put away his sword and assessed the damage. He jumped from boat to boat, only to find many of his ships half burned, still burning and completely empty.

Realizing he had lost half of his armada to this dragon attack he let out an angry roar and kicked something nearby to get rid of his frustrations.

"I will get them, no matter the costs!" he then shouted and kicked a barrel.

It rolled away, but it was the thing that was behind it that caught Dagur's eyes. He picked it up and studied the item. A small badge with a crest he knew all too well.

Astrid held onto the dragon for dear life. She made a mental note not to ever fly into a storm again… if she were to fly a dragon again that was. This was crazy. They were blown in all sorts of directions and soaked to the bone. The dragon however easily maneuvered through the winds, using it to her advantage instead of being blown away and crash into one of the sea stacks that had appeared by now.

Lightning soon joined in as well, almost hitting them twice. Astrid wondered if Thor was angry at her for flying on the back of a dragon, but had to focus on other things instead. Like making sure she wouldn't fall off. With the rain the deadly nadder had become quite slippery.

Another lightning bolt startled the dragon, making a quick maneuver to not get struck, too quick for Astrid to keep up. He hands slipped of the spikes she had been holding on to and she slipped off before she managed to grab hold on anything.

She didn't dare breath as at slowly downed on her that she was falling to her death. This was her punishment for riding a dragon. For betraying her people. Closing her eyes she tried to accept death, concluding she didn't want to die yet.

Then something grabbed her by her legs. Suddenly she was going up instead of down and the next thing she knew was she was sitting on the back of the nadder again. Baffled she got hold on to the dragon that started flying lower and zigzagged around the sea stacks to eventually land on some part that would keep them dry and out of the wind. Astrid jumped off the dragon and looked at it, still in disbelieve at what just happened.

"You… you saved me," she managed to say.

The nadder purred and lay down, watching the storm. Astrid walked over to her, stroking her side.

"Thank you," she whispered to the dragon and sat down next to it.

They would wait until the storm had passed. Astrid watched at how lightning struck the water or sea stacks, still grasping the fact she was alive because the dragon had helped her. No-one would believe that… except for maybe Ruffnut. It also made her realize how wrong they were about dragons. Everything they knew was wrong… well almost everything.

She kept petting the nadder as her mind wandered around the idea of why the dragons were attack. She remembered Hiccup serving a queen and doing things she thought he would never do if he wasn't. So perhaps that was why the dragons were raiding them.

Letting out a sigh Astrid let herself fall backwards. She could ponder about those things for hours, but it wouldn't bring her anywhere. Guessing wasn't a good thing either, she had to be sure of something. Hopefully once she got Hiccup snapped back to his human self, things would clarify. She turned to look at the dragon and grinned. One thing was sure, she was going to make sure nothing would happen to that dragon, it saved her life after all.

When Astrid quickly sat up again, it startled the dragon a bit. The nadder looked at her for a moment before looking outside again.

"You need a name," Astrid stated and followed the nadder's example to look at the storm that was raging outside. The storm this dragon easily flew through.

A grin appeared on the young Viking's face.

"How about Stormfly?"

The nadder turned to look at her.

"Do you like it?" Astrid asked, hoping the nadder understood.

Her reply came with a blink, a nod and a lick in the face. Astrid grinned, petting the dragon. Then all of a sudden it perked its head to look outside again. Stormfly stood up, walked to the edge and made a soft sound.

"What is it girl?" Astrid said and joined her new friend at the edge.

Then she saw it. Dragons. Thousands of them of all sorts of sizes. They were carrying something, probably food, meaning they were hauling in their kill.

Stormfly shuddered, shook her body and squawked softly. Seeing Stormfly disturbed Astrid looked better at the scene. It was her luck some dragons flew closer to their position. What she saw made her slightly nauseous, take her breath away and wish she hadn't seen it. These dragons were carrying people. Then she remembered her own parents, her people were out at sea and she feared they were the ones that were caught. Trembling she climbed on Stormfly.

"Fly closer but make sure they don't spot us," she whispered as if a dragon of the fleet could her hear.

Stormfly opend her wings and carefully made her way closer. Astrid, doing her best not to fall off again, focused on finding out who the people were. She let out a long but silent sigh of relieve when she saw the Beserker's crest. To make sure she tried looking for the crest on other people, but never found the crest of Berk or a face she recognized… except…

There, in the very front of the fleet of dragons was a night fury with a rider. Hiccup.