I'm sorry! I'm alive and well! I'm so sorry for the wait! It's the end of school and things are getting kinda busy with that and at home because I'm (hopefully) moving at the end of the month. But once summer starts I should be able to get things out faster, maybe update once a week if I can. And if no that, then once or twice a month. But updates should definitely be faster!

Anyway, on to this story. Thanks to those of you who have already favorited, followed, and reviewed

Hicca had been looking for hours now with no sign of the dragon.

"Well this proves I'm a total screw-up. How do you even lose a dragon for Odin's sake!?" She was tempted to hit her head off a tree, but stopped when she saw an uprooted tree and a lot of broken branches. Hicca's curiosity got the best of her and she started following the wreckage.

Once she pushed past one fairly large branch, she saw it. The Night Fury she had shot down the previous night. She could only stare at it, she was still in shock she had really shot down the dragon vikings have never even seen! She hadn't realized it, but she was slowly moving towards the dragon as well; once she did notice, all she had to do was put out a hand and she would be able to touch its scales.

But as she was about to, its eyes snapped open and she stumbled backwards with wide eyes. She stared at it and calmed down as she saw it was just as scared as she was at that moment. It didn't want to die. It didn't want to be trapped here. No, it wanted to be flying high in the sky as free as it could be. It made her feel bad for grounding it, like she was the bad guy. So when she walked up to it a second time, she took the knife she had and started to cut the ropes of the bola around it. Every so often she would look the dragon in the eye to show she could be trusted and she would free it.

Once it was free, the Night Fury didn't pounce on her, but it stared at her as if questioning why she let it go. So she answered the unspoken question with a small and gentle smile.

"It wasn't fair that I could be free and safe while you were trapped and scared." With that the dragon bounded off away from the girl who had just freed it.

Once she thought it wouldn't be able to see her anymore, she collapsed against a rock, mentally exhausted. Hicca shook her head, she really wasn't viking material after all if she couldn't even kill a downed dragon.

~XXX~

Stoik was on the other side of the island in a tavern was trying to get the other vikings to go on another hunt for the dragon's den.

"Come on! We're close, I know it! Let's give it another shot and find that nest before they end us all!" Many shook their heads no or seemed unsure of what to do or say. "Whoever stays will have to keep a very close eye on Hicca." Everyone immediately shouted their approval that they would go with Stoik.

"Just let me pack my undies." Gobber spoke.

"Oh no, you are going to stay here and train the young ones." Stoik stopped him.

"What?"

"You heard me."

"Alright, but only if Hicca is allowed to."

"Are you crazy!? Of course she can't!"

"She showed ye last night the lass can! The girl took on a Nightmare, if that doesn't get your approval I don't know what will. Hicca can't stayed sheltered her whole life Stoik, ye know that."

Stoik sighed and nodded, giving his approval that Hicca could train. Gobber nodded and left for the forge in hopes of finding the young heir there.

~XXX~

Gobber was right to look in the forge, Hicca was in the room he had set aside for her to work on her own projects in privacy. "Hicca! Lass, ye can go home for the day. Yer father wants to talk to ye."

Hicca looked up with slightly widened, "Why? Is it about last night?"

"Somewhat but he also has something else he want to talk about. I'll leave that to him so get going lassy." Gobber tapped her lightly with his hands to get Hicca going to which she giggled and left with a wave and a promise to come back later. "Aye, what a lass she is. Just like her mother."

~XXX~

Hicca opened the door to her house at the top of the hill in the middle of the village and walked in. "Dad? What did you want to talk about?"

Her father turned around with a smile that slightly scared her. "You are starting dragon training tomorrow with all the other kids."

"WHAT!"

"I'm also going on another hunt with the others for the dragons' nest. You'll need this." Stoik dropped a hammer as big as Hicca into her arms, almost falling to the ground as she caught it.

"B-but Dad..."

"And this too, it was made from your mother's left breastplate. I have a matching one."

"This is way too one-sided." she murmured as he shoved a helmet onto her head. "But Dad, why all of the sudden? I thought you never wanted me anywhere out of the house or forge?"

"You proved yourself last night when you took on that Nightmare. You're in it whether you like it or not."

Hicca wanted to protest so badly, say she no longer wanted to kill dragons, but she knew it was no use. Once Stoik had his mind set on something he got it, it's why he was chief instead of his brother. So she sighed and hung her head, "Fine."

Stoik smiled and patted her back before sending her off to bed since it was getting late. But once in her room, she snuck out the window and ran to Astrid's house, throwing a rock with a note tied to it through her open window before running to Ruffnut's and doing the same thing. Then she ran to the place on the note where she wanted to meet them at. It was a small cave they had discovered playing tag one day that was too secluded to find on purpose unless you knew it was there. They started meeting there when they wanted to talk. And not even ten minutes after she got there, the other two entered the cave.

"What did you need to talk about? Your note sounded urgent." Astrid asked, Ruffnut nodding in agreement. She wasn't always a knucklehead who loved chaos.

"My Dad want me to start dragon training with you guys tomorrow." Hicca replied.

The girls stared before frowning, almost unsure of what to think. They knew something had changed in Hicca since last night if her sudden trip to the forest was anything to judge by. So Ruffnut spoke next, "So, what are you going to do? Is there something else you're not telling us?"

Hicca shifted her feet and pressed her lips in a thin line, "Yeah, but I don't know if I should tell or not."

Astrid giggled a bit, "Hicca, you have always been different. I wouldn't be surprised if you befriended a dragon for Thor's sake!"

"Yeah, wouldn't be too surprised if you were riding one too." Ruffnut agreed with her own giggle.

"Well, you know how I was saying I shot down a Night Fury, I did. When I went to the forest I found it tied up in the Bola I launched and injured. When I tried to kill it, I couldn't, I just couldn't. I looked at its eyes and saw so much fear and wanting to be free. I saw me. I couldn't kill it so I freed it. But when it was free the fury didn't attack me at all, it just looked at me and ran away."

Astrid and Ruffnut stared at Hicca like she was crazy, they couldn't believe it. She had the chance to kill the Night Fury and freed it instead!

"So, the night fury is still somewhere on the island?" Ruffnut asked. To reply Hicca merely nodded and bit her lip.

"We have to kill it! Hicca you could have just killed the entire village!" Astrid shouted.

"B-but, it didn't attack me. It looked like it didn't want to kill or hurt me. Please, just let me show you! Please!" Hicca begged Astrid, unwilling to let the life she spared die.

Astrid and Ruffnut looked at their friend's desperate face before looking at each other and back at Hicca. Ruffnut walked over to Hicca. "I say we give it a go. It might end the fighting between us. Otherwise I would say kill it. I don't want to take the chance of Tuffnut dying before I kill him."

The girls laughed and Astrid nodded in agreement. She was reluctant, but willing to give Hicca the chance she's been denied since birth. "Fine, but if you don't want to hurt dragons then how are you going to get through dragon training?"

"Well, through the night fury I could learn the dislikes of dragons and their weak points and use it to my advantage."

"That should work. Are we going today or tomorrow?"

"We should go right now before the sun goes down too far." Ruffnut interrupted. Hicca and Astrid looked at the female twin before nodding and walking to the exit of the cave, on their way to find where the night fury ran off to.

Ok, I should have the next chapter out faster than this time but no promises. I know exactly what I'm gonna do next chapter so that will speed things up considerably. But please bear with me! Sorry for any waits loneed than a month!