It was too much to bear, the thought that all of Haggard's cruel plans would fall on Berk. Derek knew that he had to do something, or Hope and all of his friends would be killed. He wished he knew what to do, but he was back in his childhood nightmares instead. All of the beating, hollering, and insulting he had feared as a boy had returned. This caused him to question what exactly his motivation for coming to DragonIsland was in the first place. Derek spent his first few days hiding away in his old bedroom while Haggard simply sat back and watched his men plan the invasion of Berk.

The cruellest thing about Haggard the Cruel was that he never had much reasoning behind his rampages; usually it was a simple grudge. Hiccup had tried to kill him, and now he was going to return the favour, simple as that. Maybe he'd take a few women, but Derek doubted it. Thinking about Berk simply caused him to begin forming an escape plan. It took days to piece together, and involved a lot of sneaking around behind Haggard's back. Luckily, Haggard never really paid Derek much attention.

At last, Derek seized the opportunity to sneak off into the foliage while the other men were sleeping. He kept a keen eye out for Jack, who would have stayed nearby despite the length of time that Derek had neglected him. All Derek had to do was find him, and he could fly off and Haggard would be none the wiser until the next morning.

After about an hour of stumbling in the dark and avoiding Haggard's patrollers, Derek found Jack, hanging upside down in a large bunch of trees. Anyone else wouldn't have seen him, but Derek had trained for situations like these, and so had Jack. Derek broke out into a grin. He was one step closer to going home. One step closer to his friends. One step closer to Hope.

"Jack, do you know what I'm going to do when I get to Berk?" asked Derek quietly. Jack looked to Derek in response. Derek chuckled and climbed onto the saddle. "I'm gonna get everyone off the island. Haggard's gonna look there for me first. No one will be there, though. And then, I'm gonna defend those people with my life. After all, I'll be the one who put them in danger in the first place. It's only right."

With that, Derek took to the skies as quickly as possible. He wanted to give Haggard's men the smallest chance of spotting him. After all, if they shot him down, it was game over. Thankfully, he wasn't sighted, and he made a clean get away. As the wind ruffled his hair, he greeted the sensation as though it were an old friend. The crashing waves and salty sea air brought back countless memories of the beach house, of Hope, of home. That was all closer now. He was almost home…

That same moment, Hope was in her bed, tossing and turning. The oak slats were never all that comfortable to begin with, but this particular night, they were especially unpleasant. With a sigh, Hope threw off the grey wool blanket and sat upright. If this night was to be a sleepless one, she wasn't going to waste it under a stuffy blanket. She still had to do some work on the dagger and sheath she was preparing for Magnus' name day. She had only two things left to do, sew a strap onto the sheath and set rubies on either side of the dagger. As much as Magnus irritated her, Hope didn't want to disappoint him.

Hope reached for the candlestick on her workbench and struck one of the matches from the box next to it. A small glow illuminated the room, making the mess of papers on the bench come into focus. Hope lit the candle and then blew out the match. She opened the door to her room, trying to be as silent as possible. Still, the door creaked anyways. Hiccup was always saying he'd fix the hinges, but he never did. Something else always took up his time instead.

With the floorboards creaking and groaning with every step, Hope made her way down the stairs and out the front door. After shutting the heavy door behind her, Hope travelled up the hill and towards the center of the town. Once she reached the cobblestone paths, her little candle was rendered pathetic by the torches lining the streets. Still, she'd need the candle to light the torches back at the forge. As she crossed the bright, lonesome paths she caught sight of a shape, lithe and unmistakeably reptilian. She heard a familiar warble and a smile pulled at the corners of her mouth. From the darkness came Toothless, and almost accusatory look on his face.

"What, you've never seen me go to the forge at ungodly hours before?" asked Hope, a teasing tone in her voice and her free hand on her hip. Toothless warbled again, looking in the direction of the house. "No, Toothless, I'm not going back home just yet. I couldn't sleep, so I'm just going to finish Magnus' dagger. If you want, you could come with me. I could use your help getting the forge hot."

Toothless made a sound almost like a sigh and followed her to the stone building. Toothless had always been a caretaker to Hope and Magnus. He could ground either of them just as easily as Hiccup or Astrid could, and he never failed to be the first to know where the two children were and what they were up to. When she and Magnus were much younger, they had gotten lost in the woods. They'd set off to find some knot blossoms, at Astrid's request. She needed some to season the fish she was preparing for dinner. Unfortunately, neither of the siblings knew the woods well enough. They'd found the knot blossom, but what they couldn't find was their way back to the house. It was Toothless that found them, in the end. They'd been so glad to see him. He'd let the two ride on his back and he carried them home, where Hiccup and Astrid were beside themselves with worry. As a result, Hope never thought of Toothless as an animal or pet ever again. She saw her knight in shining armour when she looked at him, and he saw a little girl that needed his protection. Toothless was no longer Hiccup's dragon, he was a part of the family.

Once they'd arrived at the forge, Hope lit the torches that lined the walls with her candle. The crackle of the straw was the only sound besides the distant lapping of the waves for a moment. With one small blast, Toothless had the black coals of the forge glowing bright orange and sending off wafts of heat. He stayed out of Hope's way as she began shaping the two rubies into small, smooth ovals. For once, the soft thudding of her hammer soothed Hope. Try as she might to stay completely focused on the rubies, her thoughts wandered to Derek. She'd tried the whole not worrying thing, but she couldn't ignore the length of time he'd been away anymore. It had been several days now. Where was he? Was he alright, wherever he was?

Unbeknownst to Hope, she wouldn't have to wonder for much longer. Derek was swooping inland at that exact moment. He saw the glow seeping from the forge and knew that that was where he had to go. It was only ever Hope or Hiccup in the forge at an hour like this, and Derek wanted to speak with either one of them. Whoever was in that forge, be it Hope or Hiccup, he was glad.

Hope had just finished setting the rubies on either side of the dagger when a knock at the wooden archway caught her attention. She was expecting Hiccup or Astrid, possibly eve Gobber or Valka, but when she set down the dagger and turned she saw that it was neither her friends nor her family come to tell her she should be sleeping. Instead, it was the boy she'd been silently cursing just moments before. He smiled and Hope rushed to him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her head in his shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her waist and rested his head on top of hers. He'd been waiting for this moment. For days now, he'd been looking forward to this exact moment, when the two would see each other again. After a moment, Hope finally spoke.

"Where were you?" asked Hope, head still on his shoulder. "We were all so worried."

"I know. I'm so sorry, I would've come home if I could've," said Derek. He pulled back and placed a kiss on Hope's lips. He set his hands on her shoulders and smiled reassuringly, brushing a strand of hair from her eyes. "Hope, I need you to trust me when I say that Berk isn't safe anymore. Haggard's coming, we need to evacuate as soon as we can. Not in the morning, I was thinking more close to now. Right this minute, in fact."

"Derek, what?" asked Hope. Derek turned to Toothless, giving him a quick scratch on the top of his head. Hope sighed and placed her hands on her hips. "Derek, forget Toothless for a minute. You can't just show up and say that we need to evacuate the island. How do you even know Haggard's coming?"

"Because I was Haggard's prisoner. That's why I didn't come back. I barely got away. Trust me, he's going to come looking for me and it's much better if no one's here when he does," said Derek. Hope pursed her lips and grabbed the dagger along with its sheath from the work table. She followed Derek out of the forge. "We should go tell Hiccup. He'll know where we should evacuate to."

Hope nodded in agreement and took Derek's hand. With that, she ran for the house, Derek in tow and the dragons bounding to keep up. She made sure she held tight to Magnus' dagger. If they were leaving Berk, she didn't want to go without it. Hope tore through the front door, up the stairs, and knocked loudly on her parent's bedroom door. Hiccup answered, wearing no shirt, displaying the crest of Berk tattooed over his chest. His eyes were bleary and he let out a yawn.

"Hope, it's the middle of the night," said Hiccup groggily. When he noticed Derek, he perked up, some of the exhaustion leaving his features. "Derek? When did you get back?"

"A few minutes ago. Chief, we need you to order an evacuation," said Derek. Hiccup's brows furrowed, but before he could ask why, Derek continued. "I was only gone so long because Haggard was holding me prisoner. I barely made it away, but Haggard will try to take me back. You know Haggard, Chief. You know that he's not going to give up until Berk is levelled. It would be best to evacuate immediately."

Hiccup nodded after a moment. He went back into his room to wake Astrid and pull on a shirt. He told Astrid the same things Derek had told him, and she began packing a bag.

"I'm going to go wake up Magnus. You two go out to town and sound the alarm. Knock on every door, gather everyone at the docks," ordered Hiccup, slipping easily into his authoritarian persona. "Gather supplies and livestock and make sure to round up the dragons as well. Tell Gran that we're going to NewDragonIsland, and that she should lead the way."

Hope placed a quick kiss on Hiccup's cheek, and then ran back out of the house. After only about an hour, every man, woman, child, and dragon on the island had converged at the docks. Together, they'd mustered up about three weeks provisions for everyone, and were saddling up their dragons or getting into boats. Hope was surrounded by her family. They'd be the first to set off, to ensure that everyone found their way to NewDragonIsland safely. As soon as Hiccup gave Valka the signal, she took to the skies. The other villagers followed suit, with the boats just behind them. Hope could tell, this was going to be a long night.