It was late in the afternoon and the other Dragon Riders were waiting for Stoick's team on a small iceberg. Most of the Dragon Riders were eating some chicken legs, but Astrid was feeling uneasy with all this waiting.
"I don't like it, they should've been back with Hiccup, Ragnar and Heather by now," said Astrid impatiently.
"I don't like it either, Eret son of Eret was the man of my dreams, my everything!" Ruffnut complained.
"But baby, I grew facial hair for you," said Snotlout rubbing his face.
"Me too," said Fishlegs also rubbing his face.
"What if Drago shot them down? What if they need our help?" said Astrid worriedly. "We have to find them."
"Wait, wait, what?" said Fishlegs. "But Stoick said—"
"It doesn't matter what he said if they've all been captured," said Astrid. Then she turned to face them. "Besides, Ragnar's visons have been getting worse over the past few years and I have a feeling Drago's is in the centre of it. Come on!"
She then took off and reluctantly the other Dragon Riders followed.
Not far away, Eret and his men were sailing adrift. Eret himself had a chuck of ice over the bump he got from Gobber.
"Do we turn back?" One of his men asked.
"We've nowhere to go, nothing to sell and no heads to call our own," said Eret angrily. "If we don't turn up with dragons and fast—"
He never finished his sentence, because a very familiar Deadly Nadder grabbed and flew up until they were about forty feet in the air. He looked at the rider and as he thought it was that Viking Shield Maid from before.
"Careful what you wish for," she smirked.
His men then began to fire nets at them. He wasn't sure if that was a good thing, considering he was about forty feet in the air and the Dragon Rider's dragon was the only thing staying airborne. Soon the other Dragon Riders appeared, including the other Viking girl, who seemed to have the hots.
"What is this?" He demanded.
"A kidnapping," Astrid said plainly.
"Yay! Can he ride with me, can he, can he?" Ruffnut asked grabbing hold of one of his arms.
Eret was able to pull his arm free from her grip. He wasn't sure which was worse, being kidnapped or have that Viking girl cling on to him like dragon protecting its young.
"You're going to show us the way to Drago," Astrid explained plainly.
"And help dragon riders sneak into Drago's camp," Eret said sounding as if she was crazy. "Just kill me now…"
"That can be arranged…" said Astrid. He didn't like the sound of that and he knew what she was going to do before she even said it. "Stormfly, drop it."
Stormfly dropped him and he plummeted towards the freezing cold sea below.
"Good girl," said Astrid petting her and Stormfly squawked happily. "Stormfly, fetch."
Stormfly then flew downwards towards Eret, who was screaming as he got closer and closer to the freezing cold sea below.
"Okay! Okay! I'll take you to Drago!" Eret yelled.
Stormfly then caught him and flew back up to the other Dragon Riders.
"Ha, works every time," said Astrid stretching fingers.
Meanwhile in the Dragon Sanctuary, Ragnar was sitting at a table in a cave. The cave was filled with stuff you would often see in a kitchen, he should have been surprised Valka may have been living with dragons for twenty years, but she was still human.
Heather was preparing some smoked fish.
"Must be a bit of a shock for Hiccup," said Heather.
"Let's just be thankful that his family reunion was a lot more enjoyable than ours," said Ragnar as he prepared the table.
"You know it must be nice knowing that your long lost relative isn't the murderer," said Heather placing the smoked fish down on the table.
"Let's just hope we don't have a repeat performance like we did with Mala."
Heather looked at him. "You think she would attack us?"
"If we attacked her dragons, yes."
Heather then looked around to make sure they were and overheard. "Don't you think she's a bit and odd?"
"This is Hiccup's Mum we're talking about and she's lived with dragons for twenty years freeing them from a madman, who believes he's some sort of dragon god," Ragnar pointed out.
"I suppose anybody would be a little eccentric after that," Heather admitted. She then looked at him curiously. "Do you really think that Hiccup can change his mind?"
Ragnar shook his head. "He might have changed Alvin and Dagur, but they had us in order to change. This Drago Bludvist doesn't have anyone and Hiccup never changed Viggo or Ryker's mind, did he? The problem is once his mind is set on something nothing will stop him until he completes it."
Meanwhile outside, Hiccup was following Valka to the centre of the ocean. He noticed that the other dragons from the Dragon Sanctuary were following right behind them.
"Hey, I-I thought we were going to eat," said Hiccup.
"Oh we are," said Valka gesturing them to stop.
They stopped and Valka looked down towards the sea. Hiccup looked down as well and saw several Seashocker below swimming around in a circle. Then he saw the Bewilderbeast jumping out of the water with a mouth full of fish.
Next moment, he shot the fish into the air and all the dragons began to snatch all the fish they could get hold of.
Valka laughed at Hiccup shocked expression.
Toothless looked as though he wanted to join in, so Hiccup gestured him to do so. Next second he had to hold onto his saddle tightly, because Toothless zoomed down towards the fallen fish and ended up with a mouthful of them.
Later that day, Hiccup has his map spread out in the snow, explaining the various lands he's discovered during his explorations.
"And from Dragon Island, I found this archipelago…"
He stopped when he saw his mother was no longer next to him, but sketching out the rest of the northern land masses in the snow, wowing Hiccup with just how far and wide she has explored.
However, it was ruined by Toothless, who had an icicle in his mouth and drew his own drawing over the map. Valka laughed at the sight and looked at Hiccup, who just shrugged. Cloudjumper was keeping an eye on him, by turning his head just like an owl. When he finally finished he discovered that the icicle was stuck to his tongue.
Hiccup then showed her Inferno and almost burnt her eyebrows off when she tried to us the flamethrower herself. He explained that he used it not only in battle, but to train wild dragon.
Later that afternoon Hiccup and Valka, now being joined with Ragnar and Heather, rise on their dragons, carried skyward by a strong coastal wind that thrusts vertical up shoreline cliff.
One by one, dragons leap from the cliff and catch the strong updraft, popping their wings open like kites. They ride the wind and orbit around each other in a colourful, mesmeric dance. It's clearly a form of dragon play.
Hiccup, lifted off of his saddle by the force of the wind, laughs giddily as he watches Valka walk across Cloudjumper's wing and onto several others, dragon-hopping from one to another, until she gracefully crosses Toothless from wing tip to wing tip, ruffling his hair as she walked past. She then drops out of sight, reappearing a moment later standing atop Cloudjumper. Hiccup is in utter awe of her.
Valka was spreading her arms out feeling so relaxed and said, "Ah, when I'm up here I don't even feel a cold, I just feel…"
"Free?" Hiccup finished.
"Boy, those two are differently alike," said Ragnar to Heather.
"I'll say," said Heather. "It's kinda scary."
"This is what it is to be a dragon!" said Valka.
"It's all well and good to call yourself a dragon but can you fly?" Hiccup asked before jumping off Toothless.
Valka gasped.
"Don't worry, he just does that," said Ragnar in an unconcerned tone.
"All the time," Heather added.
Valka looked down and realised he was right; Hiccup had opened the wings of his flight suit and was gliding through the air. Valka was stunned, but Clouderjumper looked at Toothless and gave him a look that said are you going to fly after him?
Toothless did fly after Hiccup, but his locked up tail was making it difficult. Hiccup didn't seem to care and turned upside down to look at the three of them, only to discover they were gone. He looked to his side and found the three of them were flying side by side and smiling at him.
Hiccup spun around and looked forwards only to discover he was about to collided into a small mountain. Toothless tried to catch up to him, but his locked tail was slowing him down.
Realising that they're in trouble, Ragnar, Valka and Heathet pour on the speed. All of them collide just as they reach the mountain top, sending them crash-landing in an explosion of snow.
They all toppled head over tail to a messy landing on the windswept ridge and pop up laughing. When Toothless lifted his wings he saw Hiccup was missing and looked franticly. Hiccup then popped out of the snow sound triumphant.
"Ha! Woohoo, man almost. We just about had it that time," said Hiccup getting up.
Toothless didn't seemed to like his tone, because he tripped Hiccup up with his tail and he land backwards into the snow. Ragnar and the others soon landed and helped Hiccup up. Valka seemed quite interested in his flight suit.
"Oh, incredible," she said with utter fascination.
"Not bad yourself," said Hiccup.
"Yeah, I thought Hiccup was the best Dragon Rider this side of the Archipelago," said Ragnar in amazement.
"Don't sell him short," said Heather. "No one's ever glided like a dragon."
"If you're impressed about that wait until you see the other stuff he cooked up," said Ragnar looing at Valka.
Valka wasn't paying attention to them, she was busy looking at Hiccup and smiling.
"All this time you took after me, and where was I?" she said looking guiltily at him. "I'm so sorry Hiccup, can we start over? Will you give me another chance?"
Hiccup didn't say anything, but smiled at her with a look that said yes.
"I can teach you all that I've learned these past twenty years, like…" she said walking over to Toothless.
She then pressed down on his spine just were the neck started. Next second his dorsal blades slowly crack, split and extend, forming a pronounced, aerodynamic 'V' down the length of his back and tail.
"Now, he can make those tight turns," she said.
Toothless looked at his V-shaped dorsal blades and happily skipped over to a bewildered Hiccup and Ragnar.
"Did you know about this?" Hiccup asked and Toothless slapped his dorsal blades together giving him his answer.
"Apparently not," said Ragnar stunned.
"Every dragon has its secrets, and I'll show them all to you," said Valka walking over to her son as Toothless danced around Skull, Clouderjumper and Fade. "We'll unlock every mystery, find every last species together, as mother and son."
Toothless then dived into the snow and popped out covering Coluderjumper's head with snow. Clouderjumper wasn't amused and tipped his head so the snow would fall over Toothless.
"This gift we share, it bonds us," said Valka and placed a hand on his shoulder. "This is who you are son, who we are. We will change the world for all dragons, we will make it a better, safer place."
Ragnar would tell for an instant that Hiccup and Valka were thinking on different lines of thought. He wanted to remind Hiccup that he had a girlfriend on Berk and that his father was going to make him chief, but Hiccup spoke before he could.
"Yeah! That sound's amazing," said Hiccup and next second Valka was hugging him and he hugged her back.
Ragnar looked at Heather and notice she looked concerned about this.
"Ah, this is so great," said Hiccup excitedly after they broke apart. "Now the four of us can go talk to Drago together."
"What? There's no talking to Drago," said Valka.
"But we have—"
"No, we must protect our own," said Valka petting Cloudjumper. Hiccup looked crestfallen. "Come on, we should be getting back."
As they left Heather looked at Ragnar and said, "I see what you mean."
"Yeah, and even though I don't have a vison about their meeting I've got this feeling that if Hiccup does meet Drago then he'll suffer great pain like nothing he ever felt before," said Ragnar.
Heather wasn't sure what Ragnar meant by that, but she didn't need a vison to know that something bad was about to happen.