Hiccup snuck out of the house.

Behind him, was Toothless, keeping close.

It was hours before day break, but Hiccup couldn't sleep. His mind kept racing. For the first time since he had come home, and could do something about it, no one was on patrol because of the storm. The thought plagued him, and finally he just couldn't take it any longer.

He had woken up Toothless and slipped out of the house. He was the chief, and the thought crossed his mind as to why in the world he felt like he had to slip out of his own house. The chief, needing to sneak about people!? But, he did to spare his mother and Astrid asking questions. Astrid was sound asleep, but he knew his mother would not be. He didn't want to wake or worry either one of them. Especially Astrid tonight. They slipped out of the skylight, hopped over to the nearest home, slipped down the side of it, and hurried to the very peak of the island. It was Hiccup's absolute favorite spot. There, he could see at least a mile east of the island.

He eyed the darkness that surrounded the island. Shaking in the cold breeze, he took his scope out of his pocket, and looked around out to sea.

"Nothing, bud," he said quietly. "That's good at least."

Toothless looked at him with his green eyes. Hiccup was relieved he didn't seem on edge. Toothless usually knew when something bad was coming, giving them plenty of warning. He seemed easy going, and a little annoyed they were out of bed. He simply rolled his eyes at Hiccup and sighed.

"Oh, come on," Hiccup said. "What's wrong?"

Toothless plopped himself on the ground and curled his tail over his face.

"You aren't mad I got you out of bed, are you?" Hiccup asked him.

Toothless curled his tail tighter around himself.

"You ARE upset!" Hiccup said to him, chuckling a little bit. He sat down next to Toothless and rubbed his head. "You used to love to get out and fly at night. You are a NIGHT Fury after all. What happened?"

The black dragon just blew raspberries.

Hiccup shook his head at the dragon. "You are turning into a grump."

His dragon lifted his head up in discuss, giving him a narrowing eye.

"No, I am not crazy, Toothless," said Hiccup. "Tonight-you are a grump."

Toothless then placed his tail over Hiccup and let the weight of it fall on top of his rider. When Hiccup collapsed to the ground from the weight, he chuckled to himself. His rider pushed the tail off of him, took his spy glass and threw it into the back of Toothless's head.

"You are lucky that didn't just knock my shoulder back out," Hiccup said.

Toothless gave him another glare, then snorted.

Hiccup dropped the subject after that, and stared off into the ocean. He sat there, looking out, lost in thought.

He had overheard his mother send Cecil with Eret. Knowing what Eret had told him earlier that day, he wondered if that was wise to send them together. Only Hiccup knew Eret's secret he had been hiding. He had intended to keep it that way as well. It wasn't his secret to tell. Astrid wouldn't even know. She seemed to sense (just like Hiccup) that Eret wanted to keep his past to himself. Which was fine. Heather did that for a while before they were able to get it out of her. Only reason they had was because they were worried she would get herself killed. With Eret, that was not the case.

After a moment, Hiccup turned to to his buddy. Toothless was actually asleep. Hiccup shook his head again, and leaned against Toothless for some warmth.

He looked up at the sky, watching some of the clouds more along from the wind. He watched the stars disappear, and reappear when the cloud continued on it's way. The night was peaceful. Suddenly, he realized it was the first peace he had had in months. Between his chief duties, taking care of the people on the island, fixing roofs with Toothless, repairing The Great Hall, and anything else that happened along their little island...This was what he missed about not being chief.

For a small period of time, he was feeling carefree. He didn't allow the possibility of an ambush overtake his mind. Or the thoughts of upset villagers weigh on his shoulders. He was Hiccup, the inventor, the dragon trainer, best friend to Toothless. In fact, he was all those things, and much more...

Son of Stoick the Vast, Son of Valka, Friend to all dragons, Chief of Berk, Husband to Astrid, the Peacekeeper, Mr. Small but Mighty...He chuckled at that last little bit.

Just as he was dozing off to sleep, suddenly he felt Toothless jump to his feet.

"Bud-"

Toothless let a low growl escape his lips, and then the growl deepened.

"Toothless-"

Hiccup jumped onto his buddy, locked his leg in place, and Toothless went to the sky. He rushed off of Berk and towards the ocean.

"Toothless-what is it?"

Hiccup realized they were going beyond the sea stacks. Not much farther would be their two mile marker that Hiccup had enforced into the patrol to keep watch over. Toothless was over that.

"How can you hear this far out?" Hiccup said quietly.

Toothless turned his head and slapped Hiccup in the face.

"Oh, fine!"

Suddenly, Hiccup realized the lights in boats farther ahead, Instead of allowing Toothless to move in closer, he pulled him back to stop. Hiccup was speechless.

Easily 20 boats were just past the views of Berk, past that he had asked his friends to keep a watch over. How long had they actually been there lurking and waiting?

Hiccup pulled out his spyglass, and rested it on the sail of one of the boats.

"Berzerkers."

Hiccup moved his spyglass over each sail, and all of them had the Berzerker symbol of the Skrill. All but one...Which had the Outcast symbol on it. It was the largest boat there. It had to be Dagur's.

Hiccup felt sick suddenly.

"Heather," he whispered to himself. He pulled Toothless away from the ships. "C'mon, bud, we have to get home."

...

Heather pounded her fist on the table in The Great Hall. She was furious at the news Hiccup had just given her.

"I thought they trusted you, Heather," Fishlegs said to her.

"They did," said Heather. "I-I..." Her face fell. "At least they did before."

"What would have changed?" asked Hiccup.

Heather didn't make eye contact with them, but she was staring intently at the table she stood at. She sighed. "The only thing I can think of is that I have been gone from there too long. They allowed me to run the island since I was Oswald's daughter, but since-"

"Since you took off to help me, they didn't have their leader," said Hiccup. He bit the inside of his lip. He felt guilty. "I am sorry, Heather."

"Do not blame yourself for my mistake, Hiccup," Heather said to him, pointing at him intently. "I am the one that chose to leave. I told them I would be back. They had everything running smoothly without me. I'm surprised."

Hiccup glared at her. "If I hadn't distracted you from your home, this may not have happened."

"How do we even know Big Brother Dagur even took over the Berzerkers?" Ruffnutt asked. She was sitting on a beam in the roof of The Great Hall. "Why would they believe him over you anyways?"

"Yeah, like, he's been in prison for years," said Tuffnutt. He was hanging upside down on the same beam she was on. "How can he just swoop right in and take over like that?"

Heather sighed. "Because they want a descendant of Oswald. I failed to return to them. I never thought that he would ever go there and gain their trust." Everyone could see she was half in tears. She was torn up, and kicking herself mentally.

"Hiccup, I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat if I could," she said. "I would have left to help you get out of Outcast Island."

Hiccup gave her a slight smile. "Believe me, I am glad you came."

"So-what do we do now?" asked Fishlegs.

Hiccup sighed. "They are just past our patrols. I think Dagur knew how far I asked for protection. But, how?"

"All he would have to do is send one boat out and see how far out we were flying," said Snotlout. "Dagur isn't as dumb as we think he is."

"Well, joke's on us," said Ruffnutt. "We messed up."

"No-Hiccup messed up," said Tuffnutt.

"Would you knuckle heads just shut it!" Snotlout yelled. "It's almost day break and I am already out of bed! I still need my beauty sleep for crying out loud!"

Hiccup rubbed his temples in frustration as Ruffnutt and Tuffnutt continued to argue with Snotlout. He was trying his hardest not to yell and lose patience with his friends. "Why-do-I-put up with this?"

"Where's Astrid?" Heather asked.

"I didn't wake her," Hiccup said. "If I did she would be out there right away on Stormfly. I don't want her out on patrol right away."

"Hiccup, do we have a plan or not?" asked Fishlegs.

"I'm working on it, Fishlegs," said Hiccup. Finally, the twins and Snotlout had gone far enough with their bickering. Hiccup picked up a stray dish that was lying on the table in front of him and threw it directly at the post Snotlout was standing near. It shattered. The arguing stopped, and he had their attention.

"Thank you very much," he said to them. He rubbed his stiff shoulder. Doing that pained it just enough. He turned to look at the map. He had an idea.

"I wonder if they are looking for gaps in our patrol," he said. "They had the opportunity to attack last night with the storm, but didn't. I wonder why."

"That storm wasn't too terribly bad," said Heather. "Maybe they considered it not so bad they didn't feel safe attacking just in case our patrol was still up."

Hiccup nodded. "How many lightning strikes do you guys think there were?"

Snotlout started counting on one hand, but Fishlegs beat him to the amount.

"Four," said Fishlegs.

"Definitely not near enough to really send us back off of patrol," Heather said gently.

Hiccup pounded his fist on map. Heather realized it was directly over the cove. He was angry. "If Astrid hadn't gotten hurt, we all probably would have been on patrol all evening."

"She did get hurt, Hiccup, and they still didn't attack," Fishlegs said. "They missed their opportunity, and it was in our favor."

Hiccup nodded. "Okay, so-with it not being our stormy season, we may have enough time to figure this out. After we break here, we all go back on patrol, before the sun completely is up. This way, if they do venture towards us, they cannot see that we were not on patrol. Tonight, Toothless and I will go to the closest sea stack to them, and see if we can figure out what they are plotting. I am sure they are trying to find gaps and attack."

"So we are just going to sit back and let them come to us?" asked Snotlout. "Are you insane?"

"No," said Hiccup. "I want to know more about their fleet so when they do attack, we can be prepared. I don't think they will attack until they find a hole. Everyone needs to be on patrol. A team included."

"Won't they notice the increase in riders?" asked Fishlegs.

"Not if we keep the usual patrol out towards them. And in the mean time I'll send Snotlout out the opposite direction a little farther to make sure they didn't circle around us. The rest of us are going to start the process of securing the island from the attacks. Once darkness comes, Toothless and I are going to slip to the sea stack and see what we can find out."

"I'm coming with you," said Heather.

Hiccup nodded to her.

"Okay, guys, let's move."

...

Astrid woke up well after the sun had risen. She was procrastinating on getting out of bed, simply because her aching body was fighting her over the simple task. She slowly pushed herself up so that every muscle that was tender and stiff didn't scream.

"This is going to get old," she said to herself, sitting on the edge of her bed. As her thoughts came together, she realized Hiccup wasn't asleep in bed next to her. She turned and looked at his desk chair. It remained empty, and Toothless was not on his stone bed.

Turning back to head towards the door, she saw a single purple wild flower with a note wrapped around it, tied with a piece of maroon ribbon. She sighed, knowing fully it was from Hiccup. She hesitated slightly, but unfolded it, holding the ribbon and flower tightly in her hand. She read:

I love you, mi'lady. I will be back by dark.

Please take it easy today.

Astrid sighed. "What has he gotten himself into?"