Chapter 2

They had been walking for about fifteen minutes when a the notable roar of a wild monstrous nightmare filled the air. Hiccup sighed in relief, glad that it wasn't any of Berk's dragons... or more importantly her dragon. She could protect the other dragons.

"It's not the Night Fury, let's keep moving..." Hiccup hissed, watching the angry Nightmare fly by them.

"I know, but I'll take it down just for fun." Dagur snickered, aiming at the dragon with his crossbow. Startled, Hiccup did the first thing she could to stop him. She tackled him to the ground, shoving him and his crossbow into the moist earth.

Hiccup blanched, slightly afraid of what he would do to her. She had to act calm.

"How dare you!" He said quietly, she could tell he was getting ready to hit her or something. His balled fists and threatening look confirmed that he did want to.

"The Night Fury would have smelled it!" She stood her ground, not being able to resist rubbing in the fact that she knew more than Dagur about Night Fury's, and that he had to listen to her judgment. Hiccup didn't know for sure if Toothless would have known there was a threat from where he was, but Dagur didn't know that.

"They can do that?" Dagur looked dumbfounded, but also intrigued by this new piece of information.

Satisfied that he believed her, she continued. "Oh yes, they have very good senses. The Night Fury would have sensed the danger, and fled." Hiccup even flapped her hands in demonstration of how fast 'their hunt' would be over.

Dagur started to chuckle, and then let out his strange laugh, "Look at us! You, this runt of a... well, you know what you are. And me, Dagur the Deranged! Who would have thought we would make such a formidable team!?" He clapped his hands on her shoulders, not seeming to care that he still had some dirt on his armor and face.

"Well certainly not me." Hiccup drawled, voice dripping sarcasm. She waited for them to both keep moving, but Dagur didn't let go of her, and seemed to be looked at something on the ground.

He was looking at... her foot?

Dagur found Hiccup's sarcasm cute, but his eyes were drawn down to her prosthetic. It was odd, and looked painful. Why did black smiths always make the new limbs so strangely. Why not make the new limb like the old one?
He only noticed the time he was spending looking at her feet when she started to shift uncomfortably and started rubbing her real foot over the prosthetic.

"Let's go." He said loudly, walking away from her as though nothing had happened. He hated feeling so uncomfortable around her, and the way he would start losing track of time was starting to worry him. He had at one point been able to just be mean to her and then forget that she existed until he needed a good target, but now it was different. They were hunting partners, and in order to find the Night Fury he would need her knowledge of the beast.

They walked in silence, and he could hear her feet scuffing in the dirt behind him. She didn't seem thrilled to be hunting a dragon with him, and he felt a little sorry for her. He had been pretty cruel to her, but she had been willing hadn't she? She had let him cut her hair, and hadn't held her breath when he pushed her underwater. He had a reason for most things he did... well half of the time. Sometimes he had a good reason he just forgot what the reason was when questioned.

That was why his father needed to be executed, he had been... to thoughtful. His father... no, Oswald, had always spent to much time thinking about treaties, and had never brought glory to the Berserker tribe. Dagur would redeem his family's name.

Hiccup heard the rustling in the bushes seconds before Dagur hushed her and pushed her behind him.

"Quieter this time, might be the Night Fury." He whispered, aiming his crossbow. Hiccup rolled her eyes, retorting that it was probably a wild yak. Still, she prepared to stop him from shooting.

She placed her hand on his shoulder right before he pressed the trigger and shot Snot Lout in the chest. Well there he was. The viking's nose dripped, and he shivered miserably, probably had fallen into a river if she knew Snot Lout.

"Well, close enough." Hiccup referenced her earlier comment about the wild yak, walking towards Snot Lout with Dagur behind her.

"Hiccup! Oh my gosh you wouldn't believe what I've been through! This place is crawling with wild dragons!" The greasy-haired boy stated the obvious, making her roll her eyes.

"It is called Dragon Island, Snot Lout."

Snot Lout seemed to notice Dagur at last, and looked back to her confused, "Dagur!" He exclaimed, eyeing him suspiciously.

Dagur seemed to be in utter misery, and rolled his eyes at every word Snot Lout uttered. When the viking addressed the Berserker chief, he seemed to want to throw up. Hiccup wondered what had gotten him so disgusted.

"Snot Hat, is it?" He drawled, not seeming to be very amused by Snot Lout's presence.

"Snot Lout." The smaller viking replied, Hiccup shifted uncomfortably, not liking her position in between the two larger vikings.

"I thought you said you were alone...?" Dagur whispered in Hiccup's ear, stalking around the clearing with crossbow raised.

Hiccup struggled to find an explanation. She had hoped she wouldn't run into the other's after some time thinking it over. They would only make her situation more awkward. "I thought I was." She replied hastily, "Why didn't you wait for me at base camp while I was out hunting dragons in the forest?!" She demanded of Snot Lout, hoping that her cousin wouldn't be thick as he usually was.

"Huh?"

"We're out hunting dragons, why didn't you wait for me at base camp?" Hiccup gestured at Dagur with her eyes, giving him small hand gestures. As predicted, he still didn't understand.

"Hiccup, I have no idea what you are talking about."

Dagur snorted, and began walking away from them, calling over his shoulder, "Not the sharpest arrow in the quiver is he?"

"Not even close." Hiccup waited for him to get out of earshot before she silently informed Snot Lout of the situation. She was at the point of wringing her hands, and she hoped Dagur didn't notice how nervous she was.

Snot Lout walked after Hiccup and the Berserker chief, thinking about what they were going to do. Hopefully Tuffnut wouldn't have fallen asleep and lost track of the dragons. The last thing he and Hiccup needed was their dragons running wild all over the place, where Dagur could get them...

As a viking, and son of Spine Lout of the Hairy Hooligan tribe, Snot Lout struggled to never show his internal feelings, but at times he would... MAYBE, lose track of his emotions. Like the time HookFang's fire had started to go out and had almost died. He cared, he could care for some people... or dragons.

If Dagur tried to hurt HookFang, or any of the dragons, he wouldn't get away with it.

Hiccup wasn't surprised when she heard the yells of Fish Legs and Snot Lout. The two hadn't heard each other ,and had scared the living daylights out each other when they walked into each other in the darkness.

"Ah, Fish Legs! You decided to come out here and hunt dragons too." Hiccup nodded for Snot Lout to fill him in on the details, as quietly as he could. As soon as Snot Lout had finished saying that Dagur would 'kill their dragons' the person of topic strode over to them, stopping in front of Hiccup.

"Hiccup, your definition of alone, and mine... are very different." Dagur seemed very confused, but then seemed to brighten up. "But perhaps," He patted Fish Legs on the back, "can be of use to us."

Fish Legs seemed to take the situation in easily, and didn't seem perturbed by Dagur's presence. Which was amazing considering that Dagur had tortured Fish Legs a lot before he had become the Berserker chief.

Hiccup followed Dagur, starting to actually feel confident that they would get out of this. Tuffnut wasn't that irresponsible, and could watch the dragons, and if they were all lucky, Dagur would get bored, and Hiccup and her friends could slip away.

"You know Hiccup, you and I are a lot alike." Dagur said to her, starting his method of making 'friendly' conversation.

"Oh, and how exactly is that?"

"You and I are both natural born leaders." He pointed out, stilling holding his crossbow at the ready.

Fish Legs nodded vigorously, "Oh he's right about that." Hiccup supposed she had to agree with Dagur, they were... similar.

"We're both the heirs to chiefs..."

"Yes, that is true." She nodded, somehow managing to keep in step with the much larger viking.

"Who had to be eliminated so we could gain control." Hiccup had started to agree with him, but at the last comment she felt horror. Dagur had hinted that he may have murdered his father, but now he confirmed her suspicions. How could he do that?

"My father hasn't been eliminated from anything." She corrected him slowly, thinking of how kind Oswald had been to her and her father. He had been a great chief, and he had been murdered... By his own son.

"Not yet, but he could Hiccup. Give me the word and-" He swung around, releasing a bolt that shot Fish Legs lantern straight out of his hands. His sincereness disturbed her. If he would do that to her own father...

"Okay..." She mumbled, ignoring the awkwardness in her head.

More rustling in the bushes didn't surprise her, and she slowly lowered herself to the ground, following Dagur's hand signals. She heard a gasp from Snot Lout, and smiled. It was probably Astrid. Only she could sneak up on them like that. Stealth skills! You don't need to hone them in any more!

Dagur let out a loud sigh, looking back at her from the corner of his eye. "Which one of your friends is it this time?"

Hiccup smirked, "It's hard to say." She had a sinking feeling that it was Astrid, but something inside of her had started to itch, and she felt that something bad was about to happen. Almost as soon as that thought crossed her mind a plasma blast sent Dagur leaping backward.

"No..." She whispered, "Toothless?" She mumbled. Dagur let out a growl, and muttered her dragons classification under his breath. Toothless snarled at Dagur from his position in the bushes, not backing down as he faced down the Berserker. She had a choice, risk her tribe's safety by protecting Toothless, or let it play out. She chose the latter of the two things, but as usual her quick thinking helped her out.

"You led me right to it Hiccup!" Dagur chuckled. "Arrow meet dragon... Dragon meet arrow."

Dagur advanced on Toothless, but she shoved her way in front of him. "Dagur, I want to do it!" She shouted, holding out her hands as she waited for him to hand her the crossbow. Toothless snarled again, watching them both, but she ignored him.

"But I saw it first!" He exclaimed, his youth showing in the way he obsessively controlled the situation.

Hiccup grabbed the crossbow, sticking her face in his, "I led you to it!" She could play the part of wanting to do the one thing she knew she never could.

Face contorting into a scowl, he grabbed the crossbow back from her, pushing her away from him with it. "I brought the crossbow! All you brought was that stupid ornate shield. Now! Stand aside!" He advanced on Toothless yet again when out of the blue a group of Terrible Terrors few toward him, confusing the Berserker chief.

Taking advantage of the chance she had she gave Toothless the hand signal that meant for him to leave. She wished so desperately that his tail fin hadn't been shredded. If it hadn't been... she- she wouldn't have him to begin with.

"What is wrong with you?" Astrid's voice filled the air, sounding unforgiving as it usually did, but with an underlying tone of tension. She must have guessed what was going on. "I almost had those Terrible Terrors!"

"Terrors-smerrors. We're hunting a nIght Fury! Did you leave anyone on Berk!?" Dagur ignored Astrid completely and turned on Hiccup before walking away to reclaim his cross bolts.

"Did he say... A night Fury?" Astrid looked horrified as she watched Dagur reset his crossbow. "But Toothless is supposed to be..."

"Yes I know," Hiccup interrupted, "And if he's loose so are the others. I can't continue on with you guys anymore. Go find your dragons, and get out of here-" She felt herself being lifted up off her feet before she was set back down facing away from them. Dagur's arm remained cast around her shoulders as he practically pulled her along.

"Hiccup..." Astrid weakly protested. The two girls had grown into strong friends since the incident with the Red Death, and had become closer until they were like sisters.

Hiccup gave the to-be-Shield Maiden a sad look, mouthing for them to go. "I can't travel with an entourage," She whispered to Dagur before calling to her friends, "Go back to Berk, me and Dagur will continue the hunt."

The words felt strange, but oddly familiar. Once upon a time, this would have been what she would have wanted. To be accepted by a neighboring heir, forming a strong bond that... could end in a marriage arrangement. Shaking herself of the dreadful sensation that always accompanied the thought of marriage, she found a way to detach herself from Dagur by pointing out some tracks.

Dagur would occasionally let out odd chuckles, and then he would run after Toothless before stopping to let her catch up. And then out of the blue, he started randomly shooting cross bolts in the vague direction Toothless was going in every time he stopped.

"I don't understand," He finally said, "Why doesn't it just fly away?"

"Maybe it wants us to follow it." Hiccup seriously doubted that Dagur would even fear the thought of death. Knowing him he would think himself immortal or something.

Huffing in amazement Dagur let his crossbow fall to his side. "Like a trap?" He sounded very interested now, and his eyes lit like green fire at the thought of getting to be trapped by a dragon.

"Yes. A trap. Maybe we shouldn't follow it. That's what it wants us to do." Out of the duo Hiccup was the only one Toothless could possibly want to follow him, and it made her sick to keep on pretending to hunt him with Dagur.

"Oh Hiccup..." He looked down at her with what seemed like fondness, but Hiccup blamed it on the lingering darkness of night before dawn. "Don't you know that the trapper's traps can trap the trapper?"

She shot him an odd look, wondering where he came up with the things he did. "What does that even mean?"

Shrugging he looked towards where Toothless was going, "I have no idea!" He laughed maniacally as he jumped down to continue after Toothless.

This had to stop. She would manage it somehow... Hopefully without starting a war. At least Dagur was the only one there...

Dagur stopped again to reload his crossbow before shooting at Toothless vainly once again.

"You know you aren't going to hit anything right?"

"I know, I just want to keep him going in that direction. To tell you the truth Hiccup, I didn't come here alone either..." With that out in the open he lit a signal bolt and shot it into the air. Five more came out a the darkness towards them.

"Dagur," Hiccup started, "The Night Fury is a very lethal dragon, a few more men won't make a difference."

Dagur stretched to his full height in front of her, apparently happy about what he was going to say next. "Well lucky for us I brought the armada along and like a bazillion armed Berserker soldiers!" He laughed when he said this, and a larger group of signal arrows fell around them. Dagur never seemed to go anywhere without an armada. He had taken it to Berk when he had come to sign the peace treaty because he had suspected that they were massing an army of dragons.

Shielding herself from the flaming arrows, she nodded to herself slowly. "Yeah, that will probably make a difference." She muttered to herself. Shaking her head in an attempt to get an idea as she ran after Dagur.

The Berserker chief held up his crossbow and took his aim when he saw Toothless hiding behind a large boulder. Her dragon had run himself into a cliff that overlooked Dagur's armada. Unable to fly, he would be completely helpless. He didn't have enough room to blast anything without shoving himself off the cliff in the process.

Hiccup squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath before she walked up behind Dagur. She wasn't going to let him kill Toothless.. Even if it meant war.

"I'm not going to let you kill that dragon." She said fiercely, getting prepared to call Toothless to her in a heartbeat. Dagur wouldn't lay a hand on her dragon.

Dagur sighed, falling out of the hunting position as he seemed to partly relent, "This again? Fine, I'll let you take home a wing or something." only he didn't understand what she meant. She wanted all of the dragon... And she wanted it alive.

"No... I' pretty much gonna take all of it." She didn't hesitate before she let out her dragon call, the one she had been practicing for so long and hadn't been able to use until now. Toothless took advantage of the time it took Dagur to look at her in a confused way, leaping down to his rider with a snarl.

Green eyes widened into shock, before they turned on her. "Is that...?"

"A saddle Dagur? Yes, yes it is. And by the way, we don't hunt dragons on Berk, we train them." Hiccup gracefully got onto Toothless's back, staying strong even when the hurt look flooded Dagur's face. It was quickly replaced by humiliation and then anger.

"You're father lied to me!" He roared, seeming as dangerous as an angry Nightmare in that moment.

Hiccup held eye contact, not looking away as she attempted to explain. "My father was trying to keep the peace between the tribes."

"By making a fool out of me!" It wasn't a question, it was a statement, and one that made her feel a little sorry for Dagur. He couldn't exactly help the madness that flowed in his veins, it was in his blood, untamable.

"You don't need much help with that Dagur." He had acted ridiculous since she had known him, or more like cruel and... well... Deranged.

"You and I... we could have been allies." 'Closer than allies' hung in the air unspoken, but for some reason Hiccup could tell that it was intended. "But now, you are my enemy." The words hurt, after all the... Gentleness, this is how it ended. Two tribes pinned against each other. Why did you have to die Oswald? That thought brought back the shocking realization that he hadn't died, he'd been murdered.

"Have it your way Dagur... Let's go Bud." Hiccup patted his black scales, clicking his tail into the right position as they rose in the air. It was a large jolt that knocked her out of the saddle, and she saw to her horror that Toothless's tail had been brought down by Dagur. She fell to the ground shortly after her dragon, noting that Dagur was running towards Toothless with his sword at the ready.

Ignoring the pain in her side she used her shield to protect her dragon, blocking Dagur's blows easily. She wanted to free Toothless. She wanted to leave, but she couldn't unless she got him under control.

She finally couldn't rely on her shield alone and had to hid behind an old oak tree. A knife bit into the wood behind her, and she could hear him laughing at her expense. She was used to this treatment from him. When she was young she had been the best moving target for the Berserker. But now, now it was different. He wasn't 'playing'. He was aiming to kill... or hurt badly.

She heard his gasp as he was whacked by Toothless's tail, and she took her chance to run over to her dragon.

Cutting as fast as she could she tried to cut the ropes. The sound of gears locking into place and then releasing preceded the burning pain in her arm. She let out a scream of pain, dropping the knife as her hands wound around her bleeding arm. She managed to open her eyes enough to see the cross bolt now firmly lodged into her arm before letting out a breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

She glanced to Dagur before her eyes were flooded with water. She could barely see through the tears. It hurt, it hurt, it hurt. Her mind went to Toothless and she wiped the blood off her right hand before wiping her eyes. She would finish helping her dragon. Maybe he could help her knock Dagur out. If she could get the muzzle off...

A boot to her side sent her rolling away from Toothless.

"No..." She managed through her tears. Her side hurt, and she struggled to take a breath after Dagur had kicked her.

The Berserker advanced on Toothless, no longer laughing. He advanced on her dragon with a look so intense and furious that it scared Hiccup. He held up his crossbow, setting the bolt into it.

"Wait!" She cried, managing to prop herself up against a nearby tree. Dagur's eyes flicked toward her, but she saw him shrug as a way of dismissing her. "I can help you." The words tasted bitter as she spoke them, but if she didn't he would kill Toothless.

"I've had enough of your help." Dagur said silently, the hidden rage in his words clear enough for dragon and girl to hear. He seemed to be casting her off, but Hiccup could tell he was listening. His finger didn't remove itself from the trigger, but he didn't pull it either.

"I'll help- I'll help you train dragons..." She paused, letting out another sob as her good hand wound around her arm once more. "Just- just don't hurt Toothless."

Dagur fell out of his hunting position, and he turned on her, anger filling his face. "The dragon! That's all you care about?" He turned his back on her, trembling with rage he usually never hid.

Hiccup waited without saying anymore. If he killed Toothless she hoped that he would kill her too. It was a selfish thought. Her father and almost everyone on Berk would miss her, but her and Toothless had become one. Girl and dragon had formed a bond that only death could break. And even then, the bond would still be there, ever-present within her. If she could save Toothless by helping Dagur, she would do it.

Without a word the other viking turned around and strode over to her, wrenching the bolt out of her arm. She let out another scream, face turning away from him as the hot tears fell from her face. She had never felt pain like she was feeling then. Her mind fogged and her vision grew blurry before her head collided with the forest floor.

She could vaguely hear growls and she felt someone swing her over their shoulder. Her head swam, and she could smell blood on her. Slowly, her vision was clouded by black spots, and the pain overwhelmed her.