She pulled strongly on the rudder, sending the ship in a turn to the left, wincing as she felt the pain in her shoulder. The dragons were flying around the ship, pulling on the ropes and netting to keep it from hitting the sharp rock walls.

Her crew sat idly on the deck, not daring to intervene with their irritated captain. They had offered to help her on the way back, asking if they should take the wheel, or if they could somehow relieve her of some tasks, but she had refused. At one point she had gotten mad, which lead to her ignoring all of them for the rest of the trip. They had accepted the fact that she wouldn't be helped for now.

The rockiness cleared, and the large opening could be seen again. What had been a mess of tents and vehicles was now changed to a small hamlet. A few houses were cut into the rocky wall, others stood just in front of it. The foundations of others already stood tall. One small diesel powered, tractor drove around, pulling a large bundle of logs after itself. On one of the thinner rock walls a hole was cut straight through towards the outside, small enough that no airships could fit through but large enough for two small fighters, which diesel powered motors were currently being tweaked by some mechanics.

Everyone stopped with their work when they saw the Skywhale emerge from the crevasse. The shot should couldn't be heard from where the other crews stood, but they all had a feeling that something went wrong during the 'negotiations'. Their worst fears were quickly relieved of them, since someone spotted that the craft counted all four crew, alive and safe.

It slowly moved towards the hangars, which were cut out of the rock wall. Supported by several strong steel beams the hangar could house a few planes, or one big airship. So the Skywhale could fit in there with relative ease.

The engines roared one last time, before the sound was cut quiet and the propellers slowly came to a halt, losing their last momentum. The crew dropped a rope ladder, and each of them slowly climbed down. The first two to reach solid ground again were Sithera and Ray, who quickly urged some people who came to not ask questions. Brynn followed, careful of her captain. Once at the bottom of the ladder she kept her place, being able to catch, or at least slow down, Hicca if she fell.

Hicca slowly climbed down the ladder, trying to keep a stern face for the rest of the crew and the people who had come to see their fearsome leader return. Halfway down the ladder her hand slipped, but she managed to recover herself quickly, her feet landed on the ground with a soft thud.

"I want Marcus, Thuggory, and Ellia here." Hicca said sternly, the people around her looking at her confused. "Now." She hissed, causing the calm bystanders to quickly disperse and search for them.

"You can go off now." Hicca said to the rest of her crew. "Go and help with the building or take your time off. I'll go and revaluate the meeting."

Her crew looked at her with understanding, and left silently, each one of them looking for something to do.

Hicca met the two captains and the pilot in front of the destroyer. They turned to her with confused looks, knowing something didn't go as planned during the meeting. Hicca sat down on the beach, the lack of a proper place to meet meant that they would often just find a quiet place. The rest joined her.

"Alright, for starters the stats." Hicca said calmly. "We have no dead and no one was fatally wounded."

"Fatally wounded?" Allia asked confused. "Someone got wounded?"

"Did Ray bruise his leg again?" Marcus jokes, earning laughter from the group, except for Hicca. They quickly silenced when they saw that she wasn't amused. Marcus muttered a soft apology and allowed her to continue.

"It doesn't matter, we'll come to that part." Hicca said. "Let's first evaluate the day."

"Everyone was in position on time." Marcus said. "The intimidation worked."

"Aye, and we should be thankful for that." Allia added. "They took the galleon, as expected."

"Yes, but luckily enough everything went fine." Hicca explained. "Until Stoick pulled out a gun."

There were no remarks from the group this time, since all of them were deep in thought about what went down on that ship. Hicca took the silence as an indicator that she could continue.

"He grabbed it from someone's holster." Hicca explained. "He thought that killing someone would resolve the situation."

"Who did he try to kill?" Allia asked. "Brynn?"

"No, he shot for Toothless." Hicca said with her head down. "He would have hit him too."

"If not for?" Thuggory asked carefully.

"If not for me." Hicca stated calmly. "I dived in front of it, catching the bullet with my shoulder."

The group was silent, and only now noticed the small in Hicca's shoulder pad. They carefully looked at it, then at Hicca. Allia, who was sitting beside Hicca, looked at the back of it, looking for the exit, and finding the tip of the bullet.

"Holy shit, the tips over here." She said with shock, before quickly adding. "Oh, pardon me."

It did come as a shock to everyone, although the wound wasn't bleeding, and as Hicca had already hinted, not fatal, it was something they had never experienced before. Sure, they got shot at, and they often had their fair share of burns and bruises after a fight, but no one ever got shot. Some had said that it was skill, and that they were just too good to be hit by anything. Others had said that it was luck, and that one day it would run out.

That day had arrived apparently, the hole in Hicca's armour showing it clearly.

"Did it hit anything?" Marcus asked, slowly.

"It grazed it, never dipped below the skin." Hicca explained. "Still hurts like hell though." She added as she gently moved her shoulder.

"Alright." Thuggory said, still distracted by the idea of one of their own getting shot. "And afterwards you just left."

"Aye, burned the paper and left." Hicca said calmly. "And I hope I never have to set foot near anything that has to do with Berk ever again."

AN:

So, here it is. A new chapter after three full weeks.

Please put the torches and pitchforks away for the moment and allow me to explain. I have been having exams and they have been kicking my ass. So I have been too tired and busy to write. Last weekend I finally had time to write again, but apparently my laptop wasn't feeling like it, and decided to crash. I had to reinstall windows completely and thus lost office and other necessities. Thus I had to spend the weekend reinstalling most of those.

Then my laptop crashed again.

I honestly hated my life so much at that point.

Anyway, I'm planning to treat you guys with something though, but only if you want it. As some may recall I made a Tumblr, you know, that thing that I never use, only for false promises of chapters. I can also use that for something else. Like for instance showing you guys a super duper self-drawn map of the island that they reside in. Things like that, please tell, I'm interested in what you guys think of that idea.

As for the blog link, it's still R4yR4ywriting . Tumblr . com, without the spaces. Fanfiction . net likes to ruin links.

Take care!