Gobber, the teens, and the Night Furies valiantly distracted the Outcasts for quite some time after Hiccup and Stoick left. When he supposed they had gotten enough of a head start, Gobber boomed, "ALRIGHT! FALL BACK! AND DESTROY THEIR FLEET, IF YOU CAN!" He knew that most of the dragons were nearly, if not entirely, out of shots by now, but hopefully Flamewing's Night Furies would get the message and help out. They seemed to, for by the time they turned around to head back to Berk, every last one of the Outcast Ships were on fire- except, of course, for the one ahead of them with Stoick, Hiccup, and Toothless. Much to Gobber's surprise (and displeasure) the Night Furies seemed to be following them back to Berk.

"Um, I hate to ask, but... What are they doing?" Fishlegs whimpered, pointing back to the horde of Night Furies.

"Hopefully not following us back to do to Berk what they did here!" Gobber chuckled, seemingly unconcerned. In truth, he was quite terrified- but Vikings laugh in the face of death. So that's what he was doing.

"I don't think that's it," Astrid murmured, "They're not attacking us."

Fishlegs, who was already quite panicked, yelled, "Well that's because they need someone to follow!"

"But Flamewing saved Hiccup!" Astrid protested, "There's got to be something more going on..."

Indeed, she was right. When they landed back on Berk, they found that somehow, Stoick, Toothless, and Hiccup had managed to beat them back, and were waiting for them on the shore, and for some reason, when Gobber and the teens landed, all of the Night Furies did, too. Sky was the first of them to touch the ground, and he raced over to Hiccup and Toothless for protection from Flamewing, who had been shouting insults at him the whole flight there. "He's gonna kill me," Sky whined, pressing himself against Hiccup.

"That's right I am. I'll give you a five second warning to stop touching Hiccup!" Toothless growled, though he had a much more playful air about him than he did when he threatened Sky previously.

"Not you, Flamewing!" Sky corrected.

Toothless seemed confused, "You're being ridiculous. My father adores you."

"Correction- adored." Sky grumbled.

Before the situation could get out of hand, Hiccup assured them both calmly, "Nobody's going to kill anyone. Let's just have a nice, peaceful meeting and everything will be fine." Finally, all of the Night Furies found places to land on the overcrowded beach. Most of them, and the dragons of Berk, had curled up to take naps, which was about what Sky, Toothless, and Hiccup wanted to do after pulling an all-nighter with the Outcasts, but as Flamewing, Moonsilver, and two Night Furies he didn't recognize stepped forward, it became quite clear that that wasn't going to happen. There was an eerie silence as all conscious eyes fell upon the six Night Furies and Hiccup, who cleared his throat awkwardly. He never much liked being the center of attention.

Surprisingly, another, much smaller voice broke the silence, calling out "Hiccup~ Sky~ Toothless!" Hiccup, who was already standing unsteadily on one leg, was suddenly bowled over by a tiny white blur of scales. It was Koda. "I was so worried!" She complained, licking the boy's cheek, "That stupid human you left me with made me sleep by her stinky hind paws! And then she wouldn't even let me come with to save you guys, she COMPLETELY forgot about me!"

"I'm... I'm sorry to hear that?" Hiccup stammered, more of a question than a sentence.

"Pixie, behave," Toothless hissed under his breath. He reverted to using Pixie's former name because he wasn't quite sure how the others would take to it. It was bad enough that she was acting like a literal human lapdog. "We have company."

Koda blinked and raised her head to see Flamewing's chin just inches from her face. With a startled yelp, she retreated and hid between Toothless' legs, "I-I wasn't expecting you, Sir!"

Sitting up and wiping the slobber off of his face, Hiccup said, "Neither was I." He turned to Flamewing curiously, "My father said you reached some sort of agreement?"

Flamewing snorted, "I wouldn't call it that, it's more of an understanding, really."

Hiccup frowned in confusion, "Okay, that makes even less sense. How can you come to an understanding with someone you can't, you know, understand?"

"We have much in common, your father and I," Flamewing mumbled, "But that's not important now. The main thing I've come to say is that Sky is hereby banished from the Isle of Night, and I'm raising my ban on you, Toothless. You're a welcome member of our pack." He moved to lick Toothless' cheek apologetically, but Toothless recoiled.

"What, am I supposed to be grateful?" He snapped, "I don't want to be a part of your stupid pack! I've tasted freedom, and I love it! I'm staying right here with Hiccup." Toothless proclaimed firmly, "So you can take your precious Sky back, if having a false fin doesn't matter to you any more."

"Toothless..." Hiccup was completely in awe of his dragon's reaction. Here was Hiccup, struggling every day for just a little bit of acceptance from his tribe, and Toothless, who was being offered that acceptance that Hiccup had similarly so longed for was giving it all up without hesitation for him? "You can go if you want, buddy, I'll still come visit you," He tried, but Toothless wasn't listening to him. His expression was proud and solid as a stone- he wasn't going anywhere.

"That's all well and good," Sky mumbled glumly, "But it's not about our tails."

Hiccup looked over to Sky, then back to Flamewing, "Then perhaps someone could tell me what it is about?"

"That traitor," Flamewing spat, "Is responsible for the loss of my young!"

"You told them?!" Hiccup gasped, his eyes meeting Sky's sad blue ones.

"Your father didn't give me much choice," He mumbled, averting his gaze.

Hiccup furrowed his brow, "My father? What's he got to do with any of this?"

"He made me tell them," Sky grumbled, thinking that was obvious enough, "He told them what Toothless found in the eggs and made me tell them my side of it. I didn't have any choice- he was blocking my path for one, and two, I'd never be able to get you two out on my own."

Hiccup wasn't sure whether to be angry with his father or flattered that Sky had done something so self-sacrificial for their sake. Toothless, on the other hand, was quick to start blurting insults, "Stupid whale of a man! Why, why, WHY does NO ONE respect my privacy in these matters?!"

"Easy, Toothless," Hiccup chuckled, resting a hand on the dragon's shoulder. Deciding that Toothless was angry enough for the both of them, he turned to Flamewing and said, "It doesn't matter, anyway, about Sky's banishment. That's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about, 'Pixies' and dragons with disabilities."

"How did this happen?" Sky's mother, another impressively massive (though still not quite as large as Flamewing,) ebony Night Fury stepped forth to examine her son's tail.

"Ah, okay, so... Things got a little bit out-of-hand."

"On more than one occasion," Koda provided, trying to be helpful.

Hiccup winced and amended his statement, "Right, okay, a couple times..."

"And more than a little. Both times Sky would've been done for if others hadn't intervened." The young dragoness chirped.

Glancing down at Koda, Hiccup snapped, "Who's side are you on, anyway?" Of course, he found it nearly impossible to stay angry with the youngling for long, and when he turned back to the grown Night Furies he had calmed some. "The first time, Toothless... I dunno, he just completely lost it and took off Sky's tailfin... But my father and Thornado, the Thunderdrum, managed to snap him back to his senses."

For a moment, Hiccup thought he saw a proud glint in Flamewing's eye, that was confirmed when he said, "That's his royal blood, that is. We alphas can go into a state of tunnel vision. All we see and hear is our opponents unless something physically intervenes. Show no mercy, show no emotions aside from your hatred."

"That sounds terrifying." Hiccup admitted dryly.

"That's why you humans should mind your manners around us." Flamewing scoffed.

Toothless snorted and looked away, "It's not something I'm proud of."

"Right..." Hiccup gently rubbed the side of Toothless' head, "Anyway, the rest of the wounds were from the other dragons. Apparently they all ganged up on Sky in the middle of the night with the intentions of killing him, but the noise woke Toothless and we went down there to straighten things out... So that's what happened to Sky."

"So can we tell them now?" Koda whined, "Tell them your idea!"

Hiccup, who had been waiting for the right moment to bring the subject to the table, began, "So, I had this though... I mean, I know to you, Flamewing, Pixies and disabled dragons like Toothless and Sky are of no use to you, just another mouth to feed, right?"

Flamewing eyed him suspiciously, "I'm listening...?"

"But to us, any Night Fury would be most helpful. As you saw with the Outcasts, we have... some problems, with other Viking tribes, and if they're going to start learning how to train dragons, we're going to need a leg up in the competition, which Night Furies would be perfect for- I mean, I don't have to tell you how superior Night Furies are to other dragons." He flattered, which seemed to have a bit of an effect on Flamewing, who puffed up with pride. "So I thought that since they're of no use to you and will probably be banished and/or killed anyway, why don't you send those Night Furies to Berk? I mean, look at Sky and Toothless- I got them flying again. And maybe if they become strong enough here, they can prove their worth to you somehow to ask for acceptance back into the pack. We could even make a celebration out of it- I mean, if you wanted to..." Hiccup let it trail off there. He'd said his piece and sown the seed, now all that was left was to see if Flamewing would accept it.

The great dragon was silent for a long time before he finally said, "I'll consider it... In the meantime, Toothless, I'd like you to consider my offer, as well."

"I don-" Toothless began, but Hiccup quickly cut him off.

"Toothless, just consider it." The boy murmured.

Though he clearly wasn't going to put much thought or effort into the decision, Toothless eventually agreed, "I will consider it. Don't expect much."

And one more small thing, Flamewing," Hiccup called out when he saw the dragon turning to leave, "I know you're still not particularly fond of us humans, but... Do you think there's any chance we can call a truce?"

"And can I stay here with Hiccup and Sky and Toothless?" Koda chirped, clawing her way up onto Hiccup's shoulder.

Flamewing snorted in what was either disgust or annoyance and grunted, "The Pixie can stay for now. As for a truce... As long as I don't find any other humans on my island."

Sky, who was rather used to Flamewing's subtleties and way of speaking after spending so many years as his adviser, asked for clarification, "Other humans?"

"The human Pixie is one of our own, now." With this, Flamewing took off, and the other Night Furies followed suit.

Hiccup smiled to himself. Of course "the human pixie" might be confusing to most, but he knew what it meant. Flamewing had accepted him as a member of the pack. Turning to address his father, Hiccup found himself nose-to-nose with Snotlout. "Oh, uh, hey... Snotlout..." He took a few steps back, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

Pointing after the disappearing shapes of the Night Furies, Snotlout demanded, "What did you just do? It was like you were talking to them!"

Rather frustrated, Hiccup glanced over at Toothless and grumbled, "You know, I think I know what you mean. It's impossible to keep a secret around here, between the dragons and the humans! I don't know how I managed to keep you from them for so long." Then, completely ignoring Snotlout, he continued, "Flamewing and I have called a truce. From now on, nobody but me is to go to the Isle of Night, and we probably shouldn't even talk about it any more. He said he'd consider my idea for allowing runts and disabled Night Furies to stay here on Berk, and..." Glancing over at Sky apologetically, he added, "Sky has been banished from their pack."

"What?! Why?" Astrid wondered, having only heard one side of the conversation.

"Apparently my father got Sky to confess as to what really happened to the alpha's clutch." Hiccup replied honestly, "So he's been officially banished, but the good news is, they've agreed to consider allowing the runts to stay here on Berk. In the meantime, they seem to have forgotten Koda." He gestured to the youngling as he went on, "To give you an idea of how little they care about the runts. I know I recognized her mother's face in that crowd."

"Sometimes she pretends not to notice me," Koda confessed quietly, pawing at the ground.

"Yeah, well... You don't have to explain that feeling to me." The boy assured her, lightly patting the young dragon on the head.

Snotlout, enraged that nobody was explaining anything to him finally demanded, "WHAT is going on?! It's a DRAGON, Hiccup! Dragons can't talk! Why is no one else reacting to this?!"

Short chapter again, but I wanted to get this in because it's been so long- with good reason. I had a bit of everything block (from writing to sleeping to eating) because I was stressed. You see, I was recently diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and I had to go for two weeks on a low iodine diet. For those of you who don't know, iodine is (at least in America) in nearly everything we eat. Nearly all salt in America is infused with iodine to prevent goiters, and because nearly everything is made with sodium, well, nearly everything has iodine. So I could have homemade things with salt as long as it was un-iodized, but couldn't trust anything else. Also, dairy products (because they wash milking machines and udders with iodine,) red dye, and eggs were on the do-not-eat list. Because I'm a picky eater to begin with, that was hell for me.

Anyway, on Wednesday I was admitted to the hospital and given radioactive iodine, then put into radioactive isolation where I had no computer, because I was told that anything I brought in with me would have to be thrown away (turned out that wasn't true, but I had no way of knowing that.) So until yesterday I was stuck in the hospital where the doctors and nurses wore paper gowns and booties when they came in to visit me and treated me as if I had the plague, there was absolutely NOTHING good on TV, and my view out the window was of the rusting air conditioning unit. So I was doing a lot of writing for a different story, this one an original work of fiction, not a fanfic, and I've been rather obsessing over it because it's my baby. This means I probably won't be writing fanfics as much which means updates on this story may be few and far between because I've actually got a plot going on and I'm really excited about this story and the world in which it takes place.