If there was one thing Hiccup loved, it was flying. Whenever he was sitting on Cloudjumper's back at his mother's side as they soared through the fluffy white clouds and the brilliant blue sky, with the wind in their faces and the world spread out around them with nothing else in sight, Hiccup felt free.

Flying was amazing. There was nothing else that could be said about it. The freedom of the world was open to them, and it was nothing he could describe in mere words. The freedom that came from flying was incredible, it was no wonder why his mother loved to fly with Cloudjumper whenever she could. She had often told him that when she had first begun to fly with her companion, Hiccup had still been a young babe but that didn't stop her from making a type of carrier to hold him as she didn't want to leave him alone for so long. Valka had always told him how whenever he had cried, if she just took him and flew with Cloudjumper he would stop immediately. Hiccup was born to fly with dragons, she would say.

As he got older, Valka felt no need to carry him on her back as she had deemed it safe enough when he turned three to sit on Cloudjumper's back in front of her without the fear of him falling off as she would hold onto him, knowing that neither of them would fall when it was Cloudjumper who carried them. Three years later and the six year old loved nothing more than to fly with his mother.

Hiccup glanced upwards as Cloudjumper prepared to fly through the fluffy clouds that littered the sky that morning; he raised a hand and brushed it through the white fog, amazed when he felt moisture. His mother had told him that clouds were made of water, though that didn't stop him from touching every cloud he could. Valka's arms were wrapped securely around her son while Hiccup leaned back into his mother's warm embrace; his head nestled in the crook of her neck.

Cloudjumper, who had noticed Hiccup touching the very bottom of the clouds, guffawed in amusement, why Hiccup didn't know until all of a sudden they were rising through the clouds. For several seconds all Hiccup saw was never ending whiteness, before suddenly the whiteness turned into brilliant blue as the sky was revealed and the three were gliding above an ocean of clouds. Valka chortled in amusement as she saw her son fling his arms in a desperate to get rid of the residue water from their ascension, but to no avail.

"If I catch a cold, it's not my fault," Hiccup sniffed out, rubbing away the water from his face.

"And if you do catch a cold, it will be your fault for not bringing your coat with ye'," Valka replied in turn.

Hiccup huffed at that, stubbornly crossing his arms over his chest to show both his displeasure and to hide the shivers that crawled up his spine from the icy cold wind. He started so quickly when he felt something on him he would have fallen off of Cloudjumper had his mother not held him so tightly. Turning around he realized that his mother had taken off her thick furred coat and had draped it over him.

He smiled up at her, instantly warming up from the thick furs as his mother kissed his temple. "Thank you, mother," he mumbled from within the thick coat, which was greatly hid the small child who resembled more of a ball of fur than a human being at the moment.

They flew for what seemed like hours, Cloudjumper steadily flying through the harsh winds with ease.

"Do you think I'll be able to have my own dragon friend, Mama?" Hiccup asked suddenly, his voice almost lost to the wind.

Valka raised a brow at that, "What do you mean, Hiccup? You have many dragon friends. Pip, Squeak and Tigg are your friends. Cloudjumper is your friend," at this Cloudjumper rumbled in agreement. "And I know for sure that Spitfire loves you for all the help you gave her when she was laying hatchlings, not to mention her little Gronckles are your friends as well."

"No, I mean like you and Cloudjumper."

Valka blinked at the wistfulness in Hiccup's soft voice, realizing what he meant, and it both saddened her and made her happy. Sad because her son didn't have a dragon companion, but happy that he yearned for such a bond.

"One day, Hiccup," she tousled his shaggy, auburn locks. "One day we'll find your dragon companion."

He perked at that, "When will that day come, mama?" He asked eagerly like a child on Snoggletog morning –though Hiccup didn't know the holiday- and his eagerness made her smile bigger.

"I don't know, Hiccup," Valka said truthfully, which made him deflate dejectedly. "But I know that when you do, you will find your greatest friend in him. He will be your other half, the other half of your heart and soul."

Like Cloudjumper is for me.

"I'd like that," Hiccup said softly, looking at her with those wide, innocent eyes that suddenly seemed wiser than his years. "We could play tag and explore the tunnels, we could play with all the other hatchlings, we could fly together-"

"Not until you are older and I'm there," Valka swiftly interjected, not at all comfortable with her Hiccup flying on a dragon without her there to watch.

He scowled at her, but it was a snarky scowl that Valka knew was he silently agreeing with her but being to stubborn to admit it. "And I'll be his best friend, and he'll be my best friend," he stated with a grin, which made his mother smile and hold him closer.

He's such a sweet boy, Valka thought to herself. He's kind and caring, Stoick would never have approved. The thought of her husband made her thoughts sour slightly, though she loved him so dearly. Stoick would only see the smallness of his son, his unViking nature; he wouldn't see him as I see him. The son is nothing like the father, and for that I am glad. Oh Stoick… why must you be so stubbornly set in your ways?

"Mama, what's that?" Hiccup suddenly asked, pointing at something in the distance. Valka leaned closer and followed her son's view, her eyes narrowing when she saw smoke rising from the sea. "Cloudjumper," she said to her companion who huffed in agreement and quickly beat his multiple wings and ascended from the ocean and headed towards the smoke.

Valka saw something in the horizon where the smoke was coming from, something that most definitely wasn't an iceberg.

"Odin's beard…" Valka whispered in horror, she instantly covered Hiccup's eyes with her hand, trying to conceal the sight from her young and impressionable child. "Hiccup don't look." Cloudjumper gave a warbled cry, his amber eyes widening to epic proportions, his pupils thin slits that showed his alarm, as he took in the scene before him.

Ships, dozens of ships, or at least what was left of them. It was as though some monstrous behemoth had erupted from the ocean floor and crushed the once sturdy oaken ships that were now burnt husks. Broken wood drifted underneath them, claw marks and teeth marks of various sizes littered the ships, which were blackened by flame that had reduced once strong oaken planks into charred logs that looked ready to crumble under its own weight. Some of them had crashed into icebergs, their broken forms reminiscent of broken toys thrown about by a giant.

But it was the smell that sickened them. A sickly burnt smell tickled at Valka's nostrils, the smell so pungent she had to resist the urge to dry heave, for the smell was morbidly familiar to her. Having been born and raised in Berk, where they were occasionally raided by fire breathing reptiles made the former Viking know instantly what that smell was: charred bodies burnt to a crisp.

"What happened here?" She whispered to herself as Cloudjumper slowed his flight until they hovered in the center of the destroyed fleet. She saw charred bodies on the decks, burnt so badly she couldn't even tell what species it was, though she knew they had most likely been humans. "Who could have done this?"

"What's wrong?" Hiccup asked nervously, his eyes still covered by Valka's hand. He tried to pry it off but Valka's strength was like trying to bend forged steel, there was no chance in Hel that she was going to let her six year old son see such horrors that made even her, a former Viking, sick at the sight of such gristly, gruesome deaths. "Mama? What's happening?"

"Hush, Hiccup." Valka urged him, her eyes darting around them, looking for whatever creature was responsible for the destruction of the fleet. "Cloudjumper?" She asked her companion who huffed several times, signifying that whatever had created such destruction was long gone.

We should search for survivors, she thought, even though that could put them at risk Valka refused to abandon those who needed help. Her gentle heart wouldn't allow it. "Set us down," she said to the Stormcutter who, not looking entirely pleased, gently landed on the only ship that hadn't been torn in half or reduced to splinters.

"Hiccup… I'm going to move my hand, do not wander off, do not leave our sight, do you understand?" Valka said somberly, having already looked around the deck of the ship to see no bodies that would terrify her son.

Hiccup nodded nervously, terrified of whatever his mother had been trying to hide. His Mama was scared, Mama was never scared, but she was now. Valka hesitantly removed her hand from Hiccup's eyes. Hiccup looked around nervously, gasping at the sight of the destroyed ship that looked ready to cave in on itself. He instantly latched onto his mother's leg, his head burrowed into her timidly. Valka kneeled down until she was eye level with her only child, "Hiccup look at me."

He looked at her, wide terrified green eyes locking into grim, somber eyes that were like his own. "I'm going to go below deck alone, Cloudjumper is going to keep an eye on you," she looked at him pleadingly, "Please Hiccup, don't move… there are things here that a boy should never see."

"Okay, Mama," he whispered timidly.

Valka nodded her head and kissed his forehead tenderly, she locked eyes with Cloudjumper who nodded his massive head, signaling that he would watch over Valka's hatchling. "Thank you, my friend," she whispered to him, rubbing her palm against his snout lovingly, before heading towards the stair that lead underneath, she paused for a second glancing back at her family, still unnerved by the silence that reminded her of a graveyard.

Hiccup was sitting on the deck; looking so lost it made Valka's heart nearly break. Cloudjumper sat by him, one of his smaller wings wrapped around him like a warm leather blanket.

Reassured that Cloudjumper would keep an eye on Hiccup, Valka hurried down into the ship.

What greeted her was nothing but ash and soot. The fleet must have been carrying cargo, but it had been burnt away leaving charred husks where barrels, chests and crates had been.

She huddled down and scooped up a handful of ash and smelled it, her nostrils flared when she caught the pungent sulfuric smell that was very familiar. "Dragon fire," she whispered to herself. Perhaps from a Monstrous Nightmare. Had the ships been attacked by dragons? Certainly none of the dragons' at the Sanctuary were to blame, none of them would kill humans unless in self-defense.

She had to wonder, were these ships in league with the trappers who had been trapping dragons? She saw no traps, though it seemed most of the possessions of the ship had either been destroyed and maybe plundered, but she doubted the later as this attack must have surely happened only a few days prior.

Valka doubted they had been trappers; perhaps just Viking merchants who had been at the wrong place at the wrong time and one of them had idiotically initiated a dragon raid. If they were trappers, she did not mourn for them. Not when they were a danger to Cloudjumper, Hiccup and the other dragons she cared for and loved, nobody, be they a Viking or a trapper, would ever harm her family while she was still breathing.

She searched through the ash and soot, looking for anything useful that they could use back home. Valka had realized in the first couple of months that there were some things she depended on from humans, such as pots to cook food for herself and Hiccup and any type of clothing that would help with her growing son. This hadn't been the first ship she had searched for supplies she couldn't find in the wild, there were many a sunken ship stranded on drifting icebergs with precious cargo, such as when she had found an old, musty wool blanket she had given to Hiccup when he had been a toddler and the cold affected him badly even with Cloudjumper and his mother curled at his side.

Because of this she knew where to look for things most humans wouldn't consider important, but to her it was well needed even though she hated such dependency from humans. If not for Hiccup she probably wouldn't have needed any of it, but she would do anything for her son.

She saw a crate, halfway burnt and the iron rusting away from sprayed acid –most likely from the maw of an angry Changewing- and cautiously opened it. She was disappointed to see that most of the contents had been burned to ash, though she noticed a medium sized box made of iron. It had a lock, but thanks to the acid it was rather easy to break when she banged it on a post. She opened it curiously.

What she saw wasn't something that other humans would see as precious cargo, but to Valka it was treasure.

She trailed a hand over the worn leather cover of what appeared to be a book. When she picked it up carefully she saw that there were two others, each the same size and with thick pages. She skimmed through it, noticing how some of the pages were had things written in it, but she was more interested in the blank pages. The first book was mostly written in, but the other two weren't. Valka silently thanked whoever was watching out for her, she had been searching for these for months.

The books weren't for her; they were for Hiccup.

She had been looking everywhere she could to find empty books after she had seen Hiccup drawing in the dirt with a stick. He loved to draw, but it was hard to do with only a stick and dirt, and Valka wanted her boy to have something to draw in, with actual pages and maybe even some charcoal – which honestly wouldn't be too hard to find when they lived with dragons- to draw with.

Perhaps Hiccup would be able to create a Book of Dragons, like Bork the Bold's from Berk, though instead of it being a guide on how to kill a dragon, it would be everything they knew of them.

Maybe they could be a Snoggletog present, that is of course only if Valka wanted to continue the holiday with her family.

Sighing to herself at that thought Valka returned to the deck where Hiccup and Cloudjumper waited patiently for her. Hiccup was still clutched to Cloudjumper's leg, small green eyes darting around at the ship before focusing on his mother. She quickly put the books in the knapsack she had left with Cloudjumper before gathering Hiccup in her arms and placing him on the Stormcutter's back. If she held him the entire time as though afraid he would be suddenly lost to her, Valka never noticed, she just wanted to be away from this graveyard.

Cloudjumper spread his four wings and quickly flew away from the destroyed fleet of ships, the smell still lingered though. "What happened to those ships?" Hiccup asked his mother.

"Dragons attacked them, Hiccup."

Hiccup swiveled his head around to openly gape at her, showing off his missing tooth that had fallen out several days ago, it would have been cute had the situation not been so dire. "Nah uh," he shook his head stubbornly, "Dragons don't attack randomly, you said so."

Valka tightened her grip around Hiccup as she spoke, "Not the dragons in the sanctuary, Hiccup. Those weren't the Alpha's dragons, they were another's."

Hiccup's eyes widened at that, "Another Alpha?" He asked fearful, the thought of dragons attacking with the intent to destroy was so foreign to him, had he not seen the ships he wouldn't have believed it. "A bad Alpha?"

"Maybe, my son. Maybe…"

How could this possibly get worse? Valka wondered to herself. Dragons don't attack so viciously unless they are provoked, but there weren't any weapons or traps, which meant they might not have been Vikings or trappers. Merchants, perhaps? Why would they have attacked so violently? Dragons don't truly live to destroy and burn things to the ground, as Stoick and the other Vikings think, but are peaceful creatures if left alone. What did those sailors do to receive such fury? Was it another King's command that made them burn those ships to charred husks, burning those men alive? A Queen's? The more important thing is, how will this affect my family? Valka didn't enjoy the idea of the Dragon Sanctuary being attacked by either man or dragon, especially dragons. She loved the creatures, but she knew that there were bad dragons out there, just as there were bad men, like the Vikings of Berk.

Cloudjumper crooned lowly, as though sensing his rider's dark thoughts. She rubbed a palm against the side of his head, scratching the peach scales with an experienced hand as he purred at her touch. Only Cloudjumper or Hiccup could pull her from such thoughts. They were the most important things in her life.

They flew for several minutes in silence, each left to their own thoughts.

"We should go back home, Cloudjumper it's getting la-" Valka broke off suddenly as she leaned forward, her brow furrowed as she looked at something in the ocean. Hiccup leaned forward as well, trying to see what his mother was looking at. He saw something floating below them, maybe some of the wood from those burned, scary ships?

"Cloudjumper, take us down," Valka's voice left no room for argument, she had seen something that unnerved her and she needed to know if she was right.

The makeshift raft was barely holding together, a measly thing it was, nothing more than driftwood strapped together by frayed rope. But it was what was on the raft that caught her attention. Valka saw the body move ever so slightly; if she looked closely she could see the small rise and fall of the body as it breathed. It looked like a human, a human child.

As they got closer Valka realized that there was indeed a child curled on his makeshift raft, obviously unconscious. Cloudjumper hovered above the child, allowing Valka to get a better and closer look.

He was barely older than Hiccup, maybe a few years older or so. Dark hair clung to his head in drenched sops, while beefy arms spread out across the raft. Drenched furs showed that despite the fact the boy was a child, he was much more muscular than her Hiccup, a son Stoick would have been proud to have.

"Mama… Is that a human, like us?"" Hiccup whispered, his eyes locked on the child with barely concealed wonder. This was the first ever human he had ever seen before in his entire life, aside from his mother of course.

"Aye, son. He must have been onboard those ships, the poor thing," Valka answered her young son. She felt the internal conflict within her, two sides battling it out for dominance over the other. Should she bring the boy back to the Sanctuary, where she could help him get better? If she left the boy out here to face the elements and the wrathful ocean she was condemning him to death, something that Valka didn't want to wish on anyone, even a human. But if she did bring him back, what if he was a danger to her son?

Valka didn't trust humans, she knew all too well how violent they could get, not to mention ignorant and stubborn with their faults. But this was a child, how could she call herself a mother, the title she took the greatest pride in, if she allowed an innocent boy to die by either hypothermia or drowning?

Maybe if I bring him back and heal him, he'll go away when he's better, Valka thought ponderously.

"Cloudjumper?" She glanced down at her dragon companion, silently asking his opinion. The Stormcutter glanced backwards at his rider, owlish amber eyes blinking slowly as he warbled something which Valka immediately understood in her own way.

"Alright," She sighed as Cloudjumper slowly descended until he hovered over the makeshift raft and gently plucked the unconscious boy from the floating timber, making sure to not poke him with his sharp claws. Crooning lowly, the proud Stormcutter began to ascend to the skies once again, now holding onto three humans.

"Mama, what's going to happen?" Hiccup asked softly to his mother, glancing over his shoulder to look at his mother with big, wide eyes. "Is he one of those scary Vikings you warn me about?" He asked fearfully, remembering all the stories his mother had told him about the other humans, specifically those who held the title of Viking, and how they fought and killed –killed!- dragons and how Hiccup should always stay away from any other humans that weren't his mother.

Valka knew she should feel guilty for twisting the Vikings' image –though true- to make her son fear them, when in another life he would have been one, but Valka couldn't bear the idea of Hiccup flying to Berk, or any other island with humans, and being discovered by his father, who wouldn't take too kindly to his supposedly dead son that was everything a Viking wasn't. She knew that making Hiccup absolutely terrified of Vikings might not be the wisest of choices, but Thor damn it, she didn't want her son, who had too much curiosity for his own good, to make contact with them.

Hiccup knew that his mother had been born on an island that hosted Vikings, though she had never so much as uttered the name Berk, and had seen the error of their ways, but she had been the only one.

She might have added in the fact that Vikings would gladly eat any outsider, especially a mischievous child, if they even stepped foot on their rocky shores, which she hoped would stop Hiccup from trying to make contact with those of her former tribe when he got older. She knew that maybe using fear wasn't the healthiest of choices, but it was effective and that's what mattered to her. The only things in the world she loved and cared about was Cloudjumper, the dragons she lived with, and Hiccup. She was his mother; it was her job to protect her son, even from his own father.

If Stoick ever found out his wife and son were alive… Odin's eye, that would bring them nothing but trouble. She loved her husband dearly, so much that she continued to remain dead with their son than give him grief of knowing that his Viking wife had chosen the side of his lifelong enemies, the dragons. Not to mention the fact that Hiccup was technically the heir to Berk, and if Stoick and the other Berkians discovered his survival they would stop at nothing to rip her child from her arms. They would attack the Sanctuary, slay every dragon that peacefully dwelled there, because slaying dragons was all that they knew.

If she could, Valka would make sure that both she and Hiccup would remain dead in the minds of her former tribe, it was the only way both sides would find their own peace. She could never return to life on Berk, not when she had realized her bond with Cloudjumper, not when she had a lifelong goal to fulfill of discovering all dragon secrets, something that she knew Hiccup would gladly aid when he grew older. She would never let her son become like his father, the thought of such a thing happening was too great a pain to think of.

"He's going to be staying with us for a little while, Hiccup. Just until he can get back on his feet," she told her son, who nodded his head shyly, scared eyes continuously darting down to Cloudjumper's feet where the unconscious boy was. "I don't think he's a Viking, Hiccup."

"So he won't eat me?" Hiccup asked immediately, speaking what was currently going on in his mind.

Valka heard Cloudjumper guffaw at that, which made the former Viking glare at her dragon companion in indignation, "No, he won't eat you. And if he does try to, well," she rubbed the Cloudjumper's side lovingly, "We have a very protective Stormcutter to protect you, and me as well." She added as an afterthought, knowing that even if she had to fight a Bewilderbeast with nothing but her fists, she would gladly do so if it meant saving her son.

Hiccup nodded his head, comforted by the thought of his mother and Cloudjumper by his side. "Does he have a name?" He asked, "Humans have names, right? I have a name and you do too, or are we the only ones?"

Maybe isolation from humankind hasn't helped him in regards to human culture, but what can you expect? Valka thought to herself wryly, "I'm sure he does, son. But he's asleep right now, but when he wakes up I'm sure we'll learn it."

Cloudjumper swiftly began to climb into the sky, his massive forming literally jumping through the clouds, as his name so stated, as the Stormcutter, his rider and her hatchling, and the other odd smelling hatchling headed towards their home.

"Is he going to stay with us forever?" Hiccup had to ask as they glided above the clouds, glancing down at the unconscious boy with eyes full of wonder.

That made Valka freeze, because she honestly didn't know the answer. "Maybe, maybe not. We'll see when he wakes up."