Author's Note:

Greetings and salutations good readers and welcome to Chapter 7. I did a serious bit of alteration to the central part of this story and I hope it works. Thank you everyone who has continued to support this story and please let me know what you think of it.

I own nothing.

Dragons and Riders

Snotlout didn't watch the ships leave.

He returned home, if it even was his home anymore, and went straight upstairs and curled up on his bed. He stared at the blank wall his mind continually replaying the last words Stoick had said to him feeling the hurt all over again. He was suddenly aware that he'd begun crying but didn't bother trying to stop and just lay there as his tears silently fell.

Snotlout didn't know how long he'd been there when he suddenly heard a noise from the top of the stairs. He quickly looked to see Astrid standing there looking at him. She was about the last person he wanted to see right now and he turned away again, "What do you want?"

She answered tentatively, "I'm sorry Snotlout."

He didn't respond and he heard her slowly come into the room and sit on the edge of Hiccup's bed, they remained silent until she finally spoke again, "So what happens now?"

"Why do you care?"

She seemed to falter at his reply before she tried to answer, "Because…I…"

He turned over to face her his tears still coming, "Because what? You've never cared before and you're now back on top where you like to be, so why do you care now?"

She fumbled with her words, "Because…I…I…Because I now know Hiccup is right!" her voice gained more confidence, "Because I know why the dragons raid us and I know what everyone is going to be up against at the nest, it's a fight they can't win against a dragon big enough to decimate Berk on its own. Hiccup is probably the only one who knows what to do to stop it and prevent everyone from meeting their own deaths." She stood decisively, "I'm going to talk to him."

"No!"

She stared at him in shock, "Why not Snotlout? Are you just giving up?"

He stood his eyes dry and determined, "That's not what I meant Astrid. You're not going to talk to him because I am." He walked straight past her and paused at the top of the steps to send back one last remark, "I know him and you don't."

He continued on leaving Astrid behind.

He found Hiccup at the top of the cliffs over the docks staring out over the ocean and Snotlout was certain he'd been there since the ships had left. He silently stood beside his cousin and looked out over the waves as well.

"He disowned me as well."

Though it was a simple statement Snotlout's words meant so much more and Hiccup gave a mournful sigh and lowered his head, "I'm sorry." He looked back up, "Why didn't I kill him when I found him in the woods? It would've been better…for everyone."

Snotlout shrugged, "I would've done it. A chance to finally be recognised by the village, it was exactly what we've both wanted for years." He looked at his cousin, "So why didn't you do it?"

Hiccup waved his hand awkwardly, "I don't know…I couldn't."

"That's not an answer."

"Why are you so desperate to know!?"

Snotlout could hear the frustration in Hiccup's voice but he kept pushing, "Because you had a chance to get everything we've both wanted for years so I need to know what happened to make you give up on that, to go against everything we've been taught and risk all that you have to keep going with it." He grasped Hiccup's shoulder, "Because whatever happened must have been pretty amazing and powerful and I think I could use something like that right now."

Hiccup looked down, "When I stood over him, ready to plunge my knife into his side, I saw that he was as frightened as I was." He looked back over the sea, "When I looked at him I saw myself." Hiccup closed his eyes sadly, "Not that it matters now."

"It does matter Hiccup."

He looked up at Snotlout and the younger cousin continued, "Yesterday you said that you almost ran away on Toothless but Astrid caught you, right?"

Hiccup nodded slowly, "Yeah but…"

"Why didn't you just run away anyway? She wouldn't have been able to stop Toothless on her own and even if she told the village you'd have both been long gone before they could catch you." Snotlout looked his cousin directly in the eye, "So why did you stay, why try and convince Astrid at all?"

Hiccup remained silent but Snotlout could see that his point was getting through and he answered for him, "Because Berk is your home and truthfully you could never abandon it, it's not who you are."

Hiccup gave a smile and put his arm around Snotlout's shoulders, "Thanks Snotlout."

"Any time." He folded his arms, "So what do we do now?"

Hiccup shrugged, "Probably something stupid."

"You've already tried that and it didn't work so what's plan 'b'?"

Hiccup's eyes lit up and he snapped his fingers, "Something crazy."

As he ran off Snotlout grinned before following after him.

"That sounds like my kind of plan!"

They entered the arena and Hiccup made his way straight over to the Monstrous Nightmare's pen and stood in front of it. Snotlout soon joined him and was about to ask if Hiccup was planning what he thought he was when Fishlegs' voice came from behind them.

"If you're planning on getting eaten, I'd definitely go with the Gronckle."

They both turned to see Astrid, Fishlegs and the twins standing there and Tuffnut marched right up to Hiccup, "You were wise to seek help from the world's most deadly weapon." At Hiccup's confused look the male twin pointed at himself, "It's me."

As his cousin tried to work out how to answer Ruffnut shoved her brother out of the way.

"You're crazy." She then leaned closer to Hiccup, "I like that."

Astrid then used one of the other girl's braids to pull her away and stood in front of Hiccup herself, "So? What is the plan?"

Hiccup smiled at her thankfully as it obviously her who'd gathered the others and started to explain his idea.

Crazy was a good way to describe Hiccup's plan.

It was basically use the arena dragons to fly to the nest, get Hiccup to Toothless, kill the biggest dragon their tribe had ever encountered, save all the adults and hopefully end the three century old war. It was insane, dangerous, reckless and had a million different ways it could go horribly wrong.

In other words, it was a plan any Viking would be proud of.

Hiccup unlocked the door of the Nightmare's pen and gave Snotlout an encouraging look before opening it. It had been decided he'd be introduced to a dragon first since he'd already met Toothless and didn't need to be talked through what to do. The Nightmare came out looking very different from the snarling beast it had been earlier. As Hiccup backed out of the pen holding his hand up near its snout it slowly followed him not seeming perturbed by the group of Viking teens watching in awe. Hiccup drew the dragon in front of Snotlout and gave him another encouraging smile before moving his hand away from the Nightmare. Snotlout took a deep breath and then held up his hand, turned his head away and, ignoring the gasp from Fishlegs, waited.

What happened next was what Hiccup would later call 'the Moment of Connection'.

The Nightmare placed his snout on Snotlout's palm and in that moment he was certain that no matter what happened this dragon would stick with him and he would do the same in return. He started to scratch the Nightmare's chin and the dragon closed his eyes and growled with pleasure causing him to grin in delight, he turned to the others seeing Hiccup beaming at him, Astrid smiling and Fishlegs, Ruffnut and Tuffnut staring at him in awe. He noticed Hiccup holding some rope and he pointed at it.

"What's that for?"

His cousin held up the rope and smirked, "You're going to need something to help you hold on."

He gestured to the other pens and they all looked to see that the other dragons were already out and looking at them curiously. The Nadder moved first and walked slowly towards Astrid. She stood still, her body language open and unthreatening as the dragon approached and did exactly as Snotlout had done himself when it stopped in front of her. He saw that when the dragon touched her hand she felt exactly the same way he had and she instantly began stroking the Nadder's scales.

Fishlegs was next and Hiccup had to practically drag him over to the Gronkle, Snotlout watched as his cousin placed the other teen's hand on the dragon's nose and gave a short laugh as the Gronkle gave Fishlegs a huge lick and then began nuzzling him. Fishlegs quickly relaxed and was soon scratching the dragon causing it to roll over in pleasure like a large, scaly dog.

Ruffnut and Tuffnut were last and they inevitably began fighting over which one of them would approach the Zippleback first. The dragon watched them for a short while as they continued to tussle before the two heads looked at each other and then gently grabbed a twin each and held them apart. The two heads then grinned in amusement as the twins continued to fight despite being held by a dragon.

Snotlout was pulled from his observations by the Nightmare nudging him in the side. He turned back to his dragon, "Sorry bug guy, I guess I was kind of ignoring you." He was then struck by a thought, "I should really give you a name." The dragon gave a grunt of agreement and he tried to think of a suitable name. His eyes were drawn to the Nightmare's teeth and he noticed that many of them were curved, his face lit up in delight as a name sprung into his mind. He grinned at his dragon.

"How about Hookfang?"

The Nightmare contemplated the name for a minute before grinning himself and nuzzling his new rider. Laughing, Snotlout began scratching the dragon as he continued to nuzzle him, "Okay, Hookfang it is."

"Right guys." Hiccup's voice rang out and Snotlout turned his eyes to his cousin to see that he was already on Astrid's Nadder with Astrid sitting behind him, "Let's mount up."

Hookfang lowered his head allowing Snotlout to sit on his neck just behind it. He grabbed a hold of the Nightmare's horns instead of using Hiccup's rope and as soon as he was seated securely Hookfang took to the air. He let out a whoop of delight as he flew for the first time and he could hear similar sounds from the other teens behind him. They naturally fell into formation behind Hiccup and Astrid and his cousin called back to Berk's brand new Dragon Riders.

"Let's go kick some butt!"

PS-For those who are waiting for the battle between Hiccup and the Red Death, I promise it is coming next chapter so I'll do my best to update soon.