Credits to this chapter, KrazyKat! Thank you for your help and thank your my readers for the 1,000+ views! Sorry for the late chapthanks again!

Headmaster Douglas paces behind his desk, mumbling irritably to himself. I'm sitting in a chair in front of the desk with SilverWing in my lap. I figured if they already know about him, then I might as well bring him with me for company and support.

I had walked through the pouring rain to the school grounds with SilverWing. Ur wanted to come with me, but I forcibly told him to stay. i didn't want him to get in trouble. Besides, this is my mess, I should clean it up.

i met with the Headmaster and Gobber at the base of the stairs leading to the great hall. They lead me to Headmaster Douglas's office where the headmaster asked Gobber to leave so he could talk to me alone.

I am currently studying the wood grains of the floor. It reminds me of the ocean the way they lazily drift with the occasional whirlpool.

Headmaster Douglas clears his throat. I look up and find he is no longer pacing , but still standing. He's looking at me with hard eyes. I slouch slightly in fear and shame. Shame, because I know I've done wrong, and fear because I don't know what will happen to me or Silver when our talk is over.

"Explain." He says with a hard voice.

I take a long, deep breath to calm my nerve and to stall just a bit longer. I look down at Silver. He's looking at me with his large sapphire eyes. I instantly want to protect him from everything that may harm him.

"I don't have all day." Headmaster Douglas says impatiently, reminding me of where I am.

I breath again. It's time to spill.

I open my mouth to reply, but the words get caught in my throat. Was I really doing this? After all these weeks of keeping Silver a secret out of fear, am I really going to tell this guy everything?

I have to. They know about Silver and I'm risking expulsion for this if I don't.

I harden my resolve and force the first words out.

"i was afraid." It comes out in barely a whisper, I'm not sure if he heard me. I gather up more courage and repeat, a bit louder, "I was afraid."

"Of what?" Headmaster Douglas demands.

I look back to Silver. It would be easier talking to him than to the headmaster.

I tell him about how I found Silver and the fears of him being taken away from me because of the spectacle of his tail feathers and resemblance to Toothless, the only known night fury.

Once I finish, I remain silent with my head down. Silver croons at me and rubs his head to mine. He's such a sweet thing.

"Is that all?" His tone surprises me. It's as if he was expecting more and my reasons were petty at best.

My head snaps up and I look at the headmaster with my mouth agape.

"We wouldn't do that. We're not Berserkers or dragon trappers mind you." Headmaster Douglas continues.

Wait. did I hear right? They won't take Silver? I was worrying over nothing?

"That doesn't get you off the hook yet." he interrupts my thoughts.

Uh? Off the hook for what?

"You still lied to Gobber and the staff in extent, and you ventured into the forest alone and at night, breaking some of our most basic rules." He lists.

Alone? I was with Uruman. They must not know. Good, I'd have had a much harder time getting him out of trouble if they knew.

"For everything you've done, you could be expelled." Headmaster Douglas continues.

I feel the blood drain from my face and mud slosh in my stomach.

"However, since this is only your first offence, I'll let you off with what I believe is a suitable punishment?"

The amount of mud in my belly lessons.

"For the next two weeks you will spend your free time cleaning the stables of all the student's dragons here starting tomorrow.."

The mud came back. I had to clean all the student dragon pens? Gross. I'd almost take expulsion over that.

Almost.

I Sigh and nod in understanding.

"You are dismissed." Headmaster Douglas says as he finally sits in his chair.

i get up and walk out the door with SilverWing in my arms. Behind me, the headmaster calls out to Gobber for a talk.

I trudge through the rain in the Direction of my room. I notice that SilverWing is getting harder to hold. He's been getting larger and heavier.

I make it my room and walk in. Everyone's there. Airness and Ginger are talking about something or other, Jögumar is pacing in front of the beds, Woodleaf is carving something from a block of wood while occasionally glaring at the rain outside with Honey watching her progress on the wood from her place on the floor, and Ur is sitting on my bed with an extremely worried face.

When I walk in, they all stop and look at me questioningly. I choose to ignore the stares and lazily walk to my bed. Ur stands up as I get closer.

"How are you?" Ur asks.

I ignore him and flop on my bed.

A silence commands the room for a while.

"Wha' 'appen'd?" Ginger eventually asks.

I sigh and tell them how my meeting with the headmaster went and about the punishment.

"Oh." Jörgumar eventually blurts. Airness lightly elbowed Jorgumar's side.

I nod, sigh and turn my back on everyone to face the wall, SilverWing still in my arms.

I hate cleaning the dragon's stables. It's smelly, hard, and takes forever. I never noticed how many dragons the school had till now.

I sigh and lean against my shovel to take a quick break. I am on stable number seventeen and I still have what appears like a ba-gillion to go.

"Yer not done yet miss. Ya don't stop till you've don' all th' stables," Gobber called from his chair.

I groan and set back to work.

Not only do I have shovel dragon manure into a wheelbarrow, I also have to do under Gobber's supervision. Gobber found me right as the school day ended and escorted me to this lovely dump, gave me a shovel and told to start working.

SilverWing came with me to help, but he likes the smell of the stables as much as I do, which is, not at all. He is now curled up in a small ball by the door of the stables I'm working in.

I heave another shovel full into the wheelbarrow and set the shovel aside. I lift the wheelbarrow up and make my way to the back door. SilverWing follows me loyally and Gobber isn't far behind. Apparently he thinks I'll make a break for it if unsupervised, and I have considered it.

I dump the manure in the pile out back. And go back inside. Normally each trainer would clean their own stable and dump their own filth in the pile for anyone with a farm to pick up and use as fertilizer. But since this is my punishment, I get to do it all by myself.

Yippee.

I grab the shovel once again and continue cleaning the pen.

I hear someone run in panting.

"Gobber." A familiar voice puffs out.

I look over and sure enough, it's Jörgumar he grabs his knee with one and signals Gobber to hold on for a minute as he catches his breath. Jörgumar pants for a few seconds before saying, "Headmaster Douglas...wants to see you...at the docks."

Gobber makes a move to go, but pauses and looks at me warily.

"I can watch her." Jörgumar offers.

Gobber looks at Jörgumar up and down and states, "Make sure she doesn't run off."

Jörgumar gives Gobber a salute. "Will do sir."

Gobber gives me one last look before running out to get to the docks.

I look at Jörgumar curiously. "What are you doing here?" Someone else answers. "To help you out of course."

I look to were the voice came from and saw Ur with everyone else walk in. They all have shovels, Airness has two, and Ginger brought an extra wheelbarrow. Their dragons come pouring in after them. Silver notices and happily jumps up to play. They all move to the far side of the room and get into a big tackle fight.

"Why are you all here?" I ask, now even more confused.

Airness speaks up, "Technically, we all broke the rules and it would be wrong not help a friend out." He walks over to Jörgumar and hands him the extra shovel.

"Guys, don't. I can do it myself. I'm the one who got punished and not you." I protest.

Ur walks up to me and gets a big shovel-full of manure. "Do you really think we care?" He looks me hard in the eye with determination and continues, "You're my sister and like it or not, I'm helping." Ur then proceeds to dump his shovel-full in my wheelbarrow.

Ginger and Woodleaf walk to the stable next to me with Honey close behind and begin shovelling. "Same. We're helping." Woodleaf simply states.

Airness and Jörgumar head the next stable in line and begin shovelling there as well.

I stubbornly shake my head. "Guy's, you really don't need to-"

"Amity, we're your friends. We want to help." Airness insisted. Gosh, even when he's interrupting he has a polite and calm tone.

Everyone nods in agreement and continues shovelling.

"But-", I try again.

I'm cut short by Ur's exasperated sigh. "Amity, stop being so stubborn. We care about you and want to help. It doesn't matter if you take it or leave it, we'll stay either way. Now quit arguing and get to shovelling. I'm not doing this stable all by myself."

I blink dumbfounded. These people where really here for me. Not only did they break the rules to help me look for SilverWing, but they are also helping out now.

I smile in defeat. guess there's no getting rid of them. "Thanks guys."

I get some "no prob's", nods, and smile in reply. I set my shovel to the ground and continue in cleaning out the filth.

A few loads later, a concern comes to mind.

"What are you gonna do when Gobber comes back" I ask.

Jörgumar opened his mouth to answer, but Ur beat him to it. " We have it all figured out. The headmaster takes walks around the island to better supervise. He always makes it random so no one can predict when or where he's gonna be at any particular place. Me and Jörgumar followed him to the docks. I told Jörgumar to come here right when the headmaster was leaving the docks while I went to get everyone ready. By the time Gobber gets to the docks, Headmaster Douglas will have left and gobber would be on a wild Goose chase. Plus, since the headmaster thinks Gobber is here, he doesn't have a reason to come here."

I nod in understanding. Leave it to mischievous minds to come up with a plan like that.

"Come to think of it," Ur continues, "It's been a while since we sent Gobber away. Honey, would you please?"

Honey nods and sets her shovel aside. She runs to the door Gobber went out and slightly poked her head out.

"What about the other door?" I ask and point to the door where Airness is coming in from another trip to the manure pile.

Jörgumar answers this time. "We've got that covered." He winks at me. "Ginger?"

"Isis!" Ginger called out. Her Terrible Terror left the group of rough housing dragons and flew her outstretched arm with ease. They've definitely been practicing. Ginger pointed to the back door as she gave Isis her command. "Watch fer Gobber. Warn us wh'n 'e gits close." Isis puffed out its little chest and flew to the door.

"Let's get back to work", Woodleaf suggested. We all nodded and went back to shoveling.

We continue shovelling some more and finish a few stables before Honey runs towards us. "Gobber's coming." She squeaks

Everyone moves quickly. They call back their dragons and make their way to the door, except for Jörgumar, who walked to Gobber's chair after handing Woodleaf his shovel. Ginger takes the extra wheelbarrow with her and Airness grabs Honey's shovel that was still in the stall she left it at.

Ur gives me a quick hug before leaving through the back door.

I call over SilverWing and place him outside the stable I was working in. He seems to know what's going on and curls up into a ball like nothing had happened. I glance quizzically at Jörgumar. He is lounging in Gobber's chair like he's been there for a while with his Zippleback in his lap.

I hear uneven footsteps outside and quickly get back to work. Gobber comes in grumbling something under his breath.

"Oi!" He yells, "Git out o' my chair."

I look over to see Jörgumar scrambling out of the chair as if he's been caught by surprise.

"Oh, um, Gobber." he acts out, "how was it? Took longer than I thought."

"That's none of your business. I just had to search the island for the headmaster since he left the docks."

"What did he want?" Jörgumar asks, curiosity dripping in his voice.

"For me ta help fix a ship all th' way back at the docks!" Gobber yells in exasperation.

Gobber looks to Jörgumar and makes a shooing motion with his hand. "Go on boy. Ya smell like ya need a bath."

Jörgumar made face and replied with, "I don't think you should be talking. You haven't had a bath in close to a month."

"Oh, git out of 'ere boy, or I'll make you join her", Gobber pointed at me.

Jörgumar soon left with his dragon close behind.

"You're not done yet!" Gobber yells to me. "Get back to work!"

I realize I stopped shovelling while listening to Gobber and Jörgumar's conversation. I speedily get back to scooping up manure.

The sun is approaching the horizon when I finally finish the stables. I put the shovel and wheelbarrow away in the supply closet. I'm about to leave the accursed place to get some food at the great hall when Gobber calls out to me one last time.

"See ya tomorrow Amity! Oh! and if the chief ever gets any free time, he might just come around to check out that dragon of yours. " Then he leaves.

And I become a bundle of nerves.

The Chief, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third, here in the flesh.

What would happen?

Silver bumps my leg and prances around impatiently, reminding me there's food we need to eat. I smiled and follow him to the Great Hall.

There's still a few people there, but my friends and Ur saved me a seat with a plate of food waiting and some fish for Silver.

I sit and start my meal. I only become partly invested in the conversation and kept on thinking back on what Gobber said earlier.