Chapter 11

"Oh no," Astrid said, "Oh no oh no oh no. This is so bad! Do they have any dragons with them? Can you see?" Astrid asked Ruffnut who was still looking out the window.

"They just landed their ships," she said and gasped, "And yeah, they're riding dragons. But it doesn't look like they have that many so maybe we still have some coming?"

"Come on," Astrid said, "We'd better get down there." Astrid and Ruffnut ran down to the main hut where the other Vikings were gathering. Astrid pushed her way through the crowd toward Hiccup and Gobber, who were whispering to each other in the center of the room. "What's going to happen? What're we going to do?" she asked and Hiccup looked worried.

"I don't know," he said, "I mean we could stall until the dragons get back but they might attack anyway."

"We should just fight like we always would have in the past," Gobber said.

"But they have dragons and we don't," Astrid said, "How can we ever fight against that?"

"We might have to," Hiccup said, "I think I'm going to go down and try to talk to her first."

"That's too dangerous," Astrid said.

"No its not," Hiccup said, "I'll be fine."

"What if they attack you?" Astrid said, "Let me go with you and have the whole village close behind us just in case. And that is not a question, that is what we're going to do if you insist on going to her."

"Fine," Hiccup said, "Lets do it."

A few minutes later, Hiccup and Astrid were making their way down to the docks where Dalla and her tribe were waiting. Dalla and only a few of the others were riding dragons. She approached the two of them riding a terrible nightmare that she had strapped a harness to and was holding a whip.

"Chief Hiccup," she said as they approached her, "I am surprised to see you here without an army prepared. Who is this?" she asked gesturing to Astrid.

"This is Astrid," Hiccup said.

"I'm his fiancé," Astrid sneered at her.

"Ah I see," Dalla said, "So this is the girl you wouldn't marry me for? She seems worth it," she said sarcastically. Astrid started to move towards her, but Hiccup grabbed her arm.

"Why do you care so much about my tribe?" Hiccup asked.

"My tribe is dying out," Dalla said, "I need more people to keep us alive and so that we are able to defend ourselves."

'That doesn't mean you can just take my people," Hiccup shouted.

"I tried to work this out with you in a peaceful way Hiccup," Dalla said, starting to sound angry.

"No you didn't," Hiccup said back, "You tried to force me to marry you!"

"That would have been far easier than going to war," Dalla said, "You chose this option because of her," Dalla said and pointed at Astrid.

"I'm not going to let you take my village just because I wouldn't marry you and already have a fiancé," Hiccup yelled. Dalla snapped with rage and threw her spear towards Hiccup. Astrid pushed him down onto the ground and charged toward Dalla herself. The rest of the village took this as a signal to attack. They charged down toward Dalla's villagers before Hiccup could even get off the ground.

Astrid had attempted to tackle Dalla off her dragon, but Dalla whipped her dragon who screamed in pain and began to trample Astrid.

"ASTRID," Hiccup yelled and picked up the hammer next to him and threw it at the dragon who then backed off. Dalla whipped her dragon again who screamed in pain as it charged Hiccup, but stopped just before it hit him.

"Come on you worthless animal," Dalla yelled and whipped him again. Before the dragon could respond, Hiccup ran under it, through the fitting villagers and toward Astrid who was struggling to get up.

"Astrid, are you okay?" Hiccup asked as he pulled her up.

"I'm fine," she said, "look out," she said and pushed him down again before another dragon attacked. "What are we going to do?" Astrid yelled as she pulled Hiccup through the crowd, taking out incoming attackers with her hammer.

"I don't know," Hiccup said, "I don't know how much longer we can hold them off to wait for Toothless to get back!"

Dalla's villagers began firing their catapults and a large boulder landed directly in front of Hiccup and Astrid, throwing them backwards. Before Hiccup got up, he noticed Dalla whipping her dragon again who was looking angrier by the minute.

"Astrid, wait," he said and pulled her back down next to him, "Look at her dragon. They're not controlling them like we do, they're torturing them. We only have to hold off until the dragons retaliate."

"But how much longer would that be?" Astrid asked, "It might never happen."

"I'm thinking it'll happen any minute now," Hiccup said, "Look at its face." Astrid looked over toward Dalla and her dragon as she whipped him again.

"It does look pretty mad," Astrid said as the dragon started trying to shake Dalla off. "I think its actually happening already!" Astrid pointed to Dalla and her dragon. The dragon began trying to throw Dalla off its back and eventually, Dalla was thrown from its back and onto the ground. The dragon turned to face her, ready to attack. Hiccup jumped up and onto the dragons back.

"Hey hey hey," he said and rubbed it under its ears, "Its okay, its okay." The dragon backed off as Hiccup calmed him down. Dalla stared up at them with wide-eyes. All around them the others dragons began bucking Dalla's villagers off and were then taken over by the Berk villagers.

"What is happening?" Dalla yelled as she looked around and her villagers were cornered by the dragons.

"I taught you better than that," Hiccup said, "If you want the dragons to work for you, you have to respect them. Now leave here and never try an invasion again. We'll always have the dragons." Dalla got up slowly and she and her villagers climbed onto their ships quickly.

"Well," Astrid said as Hiccup slid off the dragon's back, "That was lucky."

"I don't know what we're going to tell the other dragons when they get here," Hiccup said and Astrid smiled.

"Don't worry about that," Astrid said, "I think they'll be fine. The dragons like you." Hiccup smiled and couldn't help but agree.

"Good job Hiccup," Gobber said as he approached the two of them, "You're first official war as chief is over and was mostly successful. There aren't many deaths and hardly any damages."

"I told you it'd be fine," Astrid said and took his hand. A few hours later, Toothless returned with the other dragons, who stayed despite the fact that the war had already been fought.

"I just hope she doesn't come back," Hiccup said later that night after he and Astrid had gone to bed.

"I doubt she will," Astrid sleepily, "She said herself that her tribe isn't strong enough to defend themselves and now we have even more dragons on our side." Hiccup smiled and was quiet for a moment.

"Astrid," he said, "This time in a week we'll be married. We didn't have to push back our wedding." Astrid smiled and moved closer to him.

"I love you," she whispered.

"I love you too," he whispered. Astrid smiled and closed her eyes and began drifting off to sleep. "Astrid?" he asked.

"Yeah?" she said groggily. Hiccup wanted to ask her about their conversation earlier about having children and ask her why she freaked out, but he decided not to ruin the moment. "Never mind," he said, "Go to sleep." Astrid smiled and leaned her head on his chest and drifted off to sleep.