I Own Everything! At last it is mine! All mine! Mine! Mine! MINE!

EVIL LAUGH!

(Kidding. As usual, I Own Nothing. All Rights Reserved. Sigh...)

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Chapter 8, "The Treejumper Colony," will be posted April 8th 2017. This is no April Fool's Joke.

Chapter 7

Two Rescues

Hiccup was eager to get going the next morning, but Heather told him flatly they needed water refills. "We need more supplies now that the size of the group has tripled," she snapped. "Ruff, Tuff, go find some water and fill the bags." Seeing she was in a bad mood the Twins eagerly rushed into the woods before anyone could tell them otherwise. So Hiccup sent Toothless after them to watch them.

"Now look," Heather growled, sometime after Toothless had left, "I acknowledge there is safety in numbers. I imagine you did not tell me you were bringing more people on this mission because you did not trust me and I understand that, because I would not have told you had our positions been reversed. All I want is to complete our mission and receive my promotion for it, so for all I care, you can bring as many people as you want. That being said, is there anything else you've neglected to tell me about?" She glared at each human and dragon one at a time, looking disturbingly like a Cyclops deciding which human it should eat next.

Hiccup spoke at length. "Nothing,"

"Oh really?"

Astrid spoke up now. "Heather, there is nothing more. I swear, if Hiccup lied to you just now, I will kiss Snotlout on the lips," she eyed Hiccup threatening, ignoring Snotlout's look of delight. "So Hiccup, if there's anything else you've neglected—"

"There isn't," Hiccup quickly assured her.

"Are you sure?" Snotlout hinted.

Hiccup wrinkled his nose. "Positive,"

Heather's bad mood vanished. "All right then. Once the Twins get back let's get going!"

Fishlegs had been hanging his head in shame this whole time, but now he looked at her in astonishment. "Just like that?"

"Why not?" she asked, "What did you expect? You might not have noticed but I'm heavily outnumbered now, so starting a fight would hardly be sensible."

"That's good, because I don't want to fight you," he said sincerely.

"Speaking of the Twins, has anyone else noticed they've been gone for a while?" Meatlug asked.

Now everyone did notice. Hiccup told them to stay calm, as Toothless had gone after them. But on the other hand, he reminded himself, Toothless could make mistakes.

"Think something's happened to them?" Heather asked.

"We kinda take that for granted," Fishlegs replied uneasily.

Astrid mounted Stormfly and was about to bark out orders when Toothless came tumbling into the campsite dragging Ruffnut by her vest. She was so breathless she could not speak at first. Her clothes were covered in mud and there were brambles in her hair.

"What happened?" Hiccup exclaimed, "Where's Tuff?"

"They—they—they've—g—got him!" she panted.

"Who's got him?" Astrid exclaimed, whipping out her axe.

"Is it our Mysterious Assassin?" Snotlout cried. Ruffnut shook her head.

"No, he—we found a village nearby—they caught him, and they've tied him up and now they're shouting something—I don't know what—"

"They were shouting 'burn him'!" Toothless interrupted.

"WHAT?"

Minutes later they were at the edge of this village, observing the people from behind some bushes. The villagers, a motley, disheveled, and mud caked bunch, were shouting and waving their scythes and pitchforks around. Tuff was tied up to a stake, with a bundle of sticks underneath his feet, not looking the least bit concerned. If anything, he looked excited.

"They're shouting 'Witch'," Heather translated.

"Which what?" Snotlout asked.

"Not that kind of witch, stupid!" she snapped, "The magical kind! The kind Christians think worships the Devil! They're going to burn him alive!"

"Oh, what do we do?" Fishlegs wailed, "think, we need a plan, we need a plan, we need a—"

"Fish, calm down," Astrid ordered. "How about we just burst in there right now? Show them Toothless or Hookfang and they'll run away screaming,"

"Or attack with their pitchforks," Hiccup pointed out, "And they can easily kill Tuff before we get near him,"

Heather spoke up, "Hiccup, do you have a dark cloak or something?"

"My blanket's black. What do you have in mind?"

In the village the villagers were still shouting and waving their weapons while they waited for the torches to be brought.

"Burn him!"

"Before he turns us all into newts and frogs!"

"Satan Worshiper!"

"Burn them all!"

A loud shriek suddenly rang out over the mob. It was a shrill cry none of them had ever heard before and made the bravest of them cower. At first they thought it was made by Tuffnut and saw it as further proof that he was a witch, except the sound had come from behind the crowd. Almost in unison the peasants looked behind them and saw a woman clad in armor and a man dressed in a disheveled black cloak, rather like a monk, standing next to her.

"Hold it!" the woman ordered, "don't burn him yet! Don't burn him yet!"

"Why not?" someone demanded and everyone angrily echoed the question.

"I am a member of the Christian Helping the Eradication of Sorcery Society, and this is Father Haydn," she pointed to the man beside her. "We're here to see that the proper rites are performed, or else he might turn your waters to muck and destroy your crops. You wouldn't want that, would you? Here, let me take a closer look at him." She drew nearer to Tuffnut, who smiled at her despite the gag. "Let's see what this witch is—great whales of Scotland! He's got Ruckin-tuckin's disease!"

Everyone gasped and someone asked nervously "what's that?"

"A horrible mental illness that could kill us all within the hour!" she shrieked, "Quick! Everyone put a spoon in your mouth and start doing a hundred pushups! And while you're doing it, pray that God will be merciful"

She spoke so urgently and with such conviction everyone obeyed her at once. After all, what did they know about the powers of witches or Ruckin-tuckin's disease? So they all rushed into their homes and grabbed all the spoons they could find. And when they came back they found the witch untied and the woman and 'Father Haydn' running with him towards the woods.

"Right, let's get out of here!" Hiccup shouted as he pulled off his blanket and leapt onto Toothless. Without another word the dragons leapt into the air and within a minute the village and its bewildered and outraged peasants were far behind and below them. But Tuffnut, they found, was not too happy about being saved.

"I wanted to burn a little!" he pouted once the gag was out of his mouth, "it was gonna be so cool!"

"You're welcome," Snotlout scowled.

"I didn't say 'thank you'!"

"I noticed, you stupid piece of chicken wings!"

"Those are fighting words, pig nose!"

"Say Heather, where'd you learn to speak their language?" Fishlegs asked over the flying insults. "I didn't understand a thing that was being said!"

Heather, who was very pleased at how well her spur of the moment plan had turned out, replied, "I grew up on Dreaded Island. Ever heard of it? No? Well, that's not surprising, because it was one of the most remote Viking Islands ever and one of the closest to England. We'd get visits from English and French traders, so we had to learn to communicate with them."

"'Was'?" Astrid repeated.

"Yeah," Heather said and her face fell. "The Dreaded Tribe was destroyed by Outcasts over a year ago."

Toothless meanwhile flew close to Barf n' Belch while Hookfang drew away from them. "I went after them like you asked, Hiccup. You would not believe how hard it was to follow a trail that meandering! I spotted them sneaking into the village, so I kept watch in the woods and soon saw Ruff running away and those villagers grabbing Tuff. I caught Ruffnut and rushed back to you."

Hiccup asked something that had been puzzling him. "Ruff, what exactly did you guys do to make them think Tuff was a witch?"

Ruff looked very embarrassed. "Err—well, you know, Tuff thought it would be fun to—um—well, fun to blow up a stall or two—but only in a mild fashion!" she added quickly, for Hiccup's expression had gone from concern to pure annoyance.

"Blow it up with what, exactly?"

"Well, you know that awesome exploding powder you gave us for Snoggletog last year?" Ruffnut explained quickly, "Tuff wanted to use the last of his share here,"

"It was gonna be so cool too," Tuff moaned, "the Chicken was gonna be so pleased!"

Hiccup scowled and slammed his fist against his head. "And since those villagers had probably never seen that stuff before, they concluded he was practicing witchcraft. Darn it, Tuffnut!"

They wanted to give him triple sentry duty every night, but realized they could not trust him to remain at his post the entire time or make a good sentry. If anything, the long and potentially boring hours might encourage him to plan some new scheme of destruction. So Hiccup, after giving Heather a reprimand to never send the Twins out unsupervised again, ordered Tuffnut be put on half rations for three days and made Chicken ride with Snotlout. The former, Tuffnut could have laughed at but the latter, in his own words, was an act of pure evil.

From England to Ireland the newly enlarged group went. It turned out Hiccup had overestimated how long the crossing would take turned out to be, though the fault belonged mostly to the inaccurate maps he had based his estimates on ("amateurs" he had grumbled). He had expected a four day crossing but found they could easily have crossed England in two days, and maybe even one. When he revealed this to the others, they decided to make the crossing longer anyway and take numerous detours to make tracking more difficult. Their unknown attacker, whoever they were, had not been seen since the attack, although why this was nobody could say.

They also took longer because there was a lot to see at times. One memorable moment came when they spotted a castle during a short break. For most of the Riders it was incredible, because they had never actually seen a proper castle before.

"Whoa!" Tuffnut exclaimed, "that thing's like the size of my—"

"No, it's a lot bigger," Ruffnut said in awe, "Imagine if we could blow that up—"

"It would top even the Great Czernobog explosion!" the Twins cried together.

"The Chicken will be most amused!" Tuffnut added.

"You muttonheads!" Snotlout shouted excitedly, "why would you wanna blow that up? I wanna live there! With a place like that, I could beat off any army in existence!" he looked thrilled at the prospect. "And everyone will see it from a distance and cower! I'll have a big sign that says 'Here Lives Snotlout the Super—Attack and Lose'!"

"Those outer walls must be forty meters high and three meters thick—why it would probably take a Gronkle with a fire of 8 seventeen tries to put a hole through them, if that stone work is—" Fishlegs rambled as he scribbled figures and calculations in his journal.

Astrid and Heather were discussing where the castle's defenses should go.

"Put a catapult on that side there—"

"And place archers along the wall and covering the gate—"

"And as long as they had enough supplies, Snotlout's boast might actually be accurate,"

"Assuming the attackers have inferior weapons and don't lay siege to it,"

Hiccup tuned them all out as he sketched the castle and the surrounding landscape. It was situated on a low and gently sloping green hill. No trees were around for at least 20 meters in any direction.

The Dragons were not impressed with the castle. After looking it over, Toothless snorted and said the Sanctuary had been more formidable, and the others nodded and turned away. The humans moved back into the trees as well when they spotted a large group of horsemen approach the castle. Pulling out his spyglass, Hiccup noted the riders wore heavy armor. There were numerous banners, but the most prominent one was red with images of stretched out golden lions.

"Interesting," Hiccup remarked to nobody in particular, "But lions can't beat a Night Fury,"

Most of the days were spent simply waking up, eating, and flying until the early evening, with only a few stops in between. Then they set up camp and gathered supplies, ate dinner, and went to bed after sunset. For the most part they avoided human settlements. The Witch Incident had given them the sense the English would not approve of dragons, and after the ambush they greatly desired to avoid attracting attention. Still, they did go to some of the larger villages on occasion, mostly to buy supplies and get information. Heather always had to do this as nobody else spoke the language, and someone, usually Fishlegs, would accompany her. They often came back with fruit, not just to add variety to their meals but as a means to ward off mouth infections.

During the brief leisure hours before bed each person indulged in their own interests. Hiccup usually sketched; usually a new design to work on once they returned Berk or a new object of interest. Since they saw few animals and avoided other humans as much as they could, most of these objects were rocks or plants. Fishlegs would meditate for a while and then look over his notes. Like Hiccup he kept a journal, though he wrote down his observations instead of drawing them.

Snotlout and the Twins had no interest in these things, so they played games with rocks and sticks. Most games were invented on the spot by one of them, which was perhaps why the person who invented it always seemed to win. If they were not playing or fighting with each other, Snotlout took to lifting rocks and logs for exercise (after all, he had to keep his "lady luring muscles" in good shape), Ruffnut would chat with whoever was handy, and Tuffnut would interact with Chicken, who seemed to find this very amusing. After the Witch Incident, the Twins were not allowed to leave the group without a chaperone. The others had to draw lots to decide whose turn it was.

As for the dragons, Toothless liked to watch Hiccup and occasionally tried to draw himself, with a tree limb in his mouth. Meatlug usually hunted for rocks to eat, sometimes also turning up edible roots and once she accidently broke into a badger's burrow, which the badger was none too pleased about. Hookfang preferred to go to sleep early, as he had no interest in exercise and could not set himself on fire, least he burn the forest down. Shamrock would climb trees and stay up there for long periods of time. Sharpshot the Terror's favorite pastime was sleeping in somebody's lap while they petted him, something everyone vastly preferred over his second favorite pastime: hyperactively chasing after whatever caught his attention. As for Barf n' Belch, they would either mess with their riders, or hang themselves from a tree and bonk their heads into each other. Nobody asked why; it just happened.

Astrid, the most militant of the group, constantly patrolled the area, checked supplies, and saw that weapons were sharpened and polished. Stormfly would always join her on patrol and would often go out alone if Astrid was doing something else. Heather assisted Astrid as well, sometimes. If she was not helping her or not looking after her own gear, she usually leaned against a tree and did some thinking.

She honestly did not mind the fact that the others had joined this excursion without informing her first. Her earlier statements of being outnumbered and a lack of initial mutual trust still held, although truth be told she had had to force herself to act pleasantly at first. However, she found she was enjoying their company, for the most part. She liked talking about tactics and weapons with Astrid, the Twins were interesting and amusing if nothing else, Snotlout was…well, good for a laugh, and she hoped that in a fight he would prove a strong ally. And then there was Fishlegs. For some reason, a reason she could not explain to anyone, least of all herself, she found him sweet. When he examined something he would pay attention to nothing else, and when he made some new observation, regardless of what it was, he would react as though it was the most important discovery ever made. She found this rather charming. On top of that, if she was being honest, she could not help but smile at how nervous she could make him. Once, he came over to ask if she wanted to look over his notes, but he turned bright red and mostly stammered before hurrying back to Meatlug. Later she asked him to show her his notes and they spent nearly an hour looking over them and discussing various points. He had very good penmanship, she noticed.

As for the Dragon King (she sometimes had to remind herself to call him 'Hiccup'), he both interested her and worried her, because he probably had the most mood changes of any of them. Sometimes he seemed brooding as a thundercloud and sometimes he seemed carefree as a butterfly. While he was usually polite and reasonable, if also sarcastic, she was never quite sure where she stood with him. At any rate, she was wary of him at times, and she sometimes wondered if he was just as wary of her. Sometime the way he looked at her made her uneasy. It was as if he was a watchdog, always watching and waiting, though what he was waiting for she could not imagine.

So that was how the days usually went, but things could and did change in the blink of an eye. The castle had provided a nice distraction, and Meatlug's encounter with the badger had been a startling way to end a long day. Another incident with animals came up before they left England. Heather and Tuffnut had gone to a town named Bristol for some information. Chicken had gone with them, and some thief had decided it was time for lunch. It was quite a fight, with Chicken winning. A knight had attempted to break it up but Chicken had hissed at him so viciously the knight ran for it. This, however, angered some of the knight's companions and they had had to run for it and fly away in a hurry once again.

After these mishaps in England it was almost a relief to arrive in Ireland. But the relief was also mixed with a bit of sadness and uncertainty. If they stuck with the plan, Shamrock would be leaving them soon and they would have to find Heather a new dragon, even though they had not seen any so far. She and Shamrock had gotten along well enough, and perhaps with more time they might have bonded fully, but Shamrock was really more anxious to see his old home.

King William sat on a throne in one of his castles and listened to reports from his various Barons and Clergymen. There was an invasion threat here, a failed crop there, an adulterous monk here, an unfair tax and rebellion threat there; just another typical day in the life of a King. He was also entertaining several dignitaries at his court today, including Cardinals from Rome and the beautiful daughter of a Spanish Nobleman, who had shown up alone the night before, explaining she had been unhorsed and separated from her escort during a bandit attack. Even this in itself was not unusual for, sad to say, bandits and rebels seemed to be all over England, which the King was working hard to put an end to. His knights had been unable to locate her escort so she had remained in the castle as a guest. She turned out to be a very charming and attractive woman (certainly most of his Barons thought so).

"Repeat the message," he ordered a page.

"Sire, several dragons were spotted flying over England, and they had humans on their backs! They were last seen heading westwards."

"I can add to that, Sire," Another man came forward, "Peasants who till some of my lands came to me saying they nearly burned a witch who escaped on a dragon." He then gave the King the date and location where this had taken place.

"So they are heading westwards," the King said, "to Ireland? Maybe to Cornwall? But why?"

Nobody could answer him. Dragons had grown uncommon in England due to hunting and few people ever interacted with them. All that could be done for now was to send out horsemen westwards and try to track down these dragon riders.

The following morning the beautiful Spanish woman could not be found anywhere in the castle or the surrounding area.

On their first night in Ireland, just as the Riders and Dragons had settled in, a loud howling sound rang through the air, making everyone jump off their sleeping pads.

"Wolves!" Snotlout screamed. "They've caught us!"

The sound continued. "That's not a wolf cry," Fishlegs said, "that's a human! No—a lot of humans. They're shouting something—it sounds like they're celebrating,"

"Probably had too much to drink," Hookfang groaned dismissively, "Just tell them to shut up and let me sleep!"

But the others were curious and wary, so they decided to go take a look. They followed the noise and came to a very small and run down village, where all the villagers were gathered en masse. They were clapping, dancing around, cheering and shouting. 10 men were carrying something tied up in a very heavy net.

"That's a dragon!" Tuffnut exclaimed over the noise.

"That's not just a dragon," Stormfly growled. "That's a Razorwhip!" Her claws clenched the dirt below her.

"The poor thing," Heather said, "I'll bet they're going to kill it! C'mon, guys, let's rescue it!" she made to stand up but saw nobody else was moving. The humans were looking at their dragons uncertainly. "What? What's the matter? Dragon King, you said I need another dragon to ride! Well, there's another dragon!"

Toothless looked at the others warily. It had been a Razorwhip that had helped kill their friend Grimm, had taken over their nest, and forced them to destroy it and any flightless dragons in it—including Stormfly's hatchlings. Toothless had killed that particular Razorwhip himself, but the memories still lingered and still hurt all of them. And their Riders knew this.

"Guys," Hiccup said, "we can't blame an entire species just because one member did something really horrible,"

The villagers shouted happily as the butcher came forward with a giant axe. This dragon had been causing them problems all year, frequently eating their livestock and damaging homes, stables, and crops in the process. So they had set a trap for it, caught it, and knocked it unconscious before carrying it back. Now they would cut off its head, rip the metal scales off the body, and roast the rest over a fire! There would be feasting, drinking, singing, and dancing tonight.

And then a masked man dressed in black dropped right in front of the butcher. Several more humans landed next to him. The butcher, a large beefy man, uttered a war cry, raised his axe, and lunged for the first human in front of him. The villagers cheered and some grabbed tools to aid him. But then a loud roar went up from behind them and a flock of dragons charged into the mob, waving their tails, beating their wings, and screaming at the top of their lungs. To see in the dark of night so many dragons, with burning fires glowing in their mouths and one of them completely lit on fire, was downright terrifying. Meanwhile, the masked man in front of the butcher pulled out a sword that burst into flames. The butcher ran for it, but only after receiving a strong kick in the stomach from one of the other humans who, to the ruin of the butcher's reputation, was plainly a woman.

While this was going on the other humans had pulled out swords and were cutting at the ropes of the Razorwhip, which was regaining its senses. One villager threw a rock and by lucky chance got one of the dragon-loving rapscallions in the head. He swayed a moment and then fell to the ground.

Once the ropes were broken some of the dragons swooped over, grabbed the dragon and the unconscious man, and carried them away. The villagers screamed in rage and their anger made them braver. They grabbed whatever dangerous objects they could find and charged at their attackers. Their attackers ran for it, as did the remaining dragon, which was so black it was almost impossible to see. The villagers pursued but froze at the sight of a green fog appearing in front of them. They heard a slight clicking sound and the fog exploded in a flash of fire.

By the time the villagers had recovered from the shock and horror enough to inspect the area, their attacks were long gone.

"Darn it Tuff!" Ruffnut shouted at her unconscious brother as they laid him on the ground. "First you nearly get burned at stake and now you take a rock to the head! You have all the fun! Don't you agree, Chicken?"

"Bi-gowk!"

It was clear that Tuff would have a massive headache when he woke up, which could be at any time, but otherwise he looked just fine. They all visibly relaxed at this and decided they liked him better this way. He looked so peaceful and benign for once.

"Did you see how scared they were when I lit up?" Hookfang excitedly said Stormfly, "You could have knocked them all over with a duck feather! I do so love watching people's reactions!"

"Hey, Astrid, nice kick!" Heather laughed, "Did you see the man's face?"

Astrid did not look quite so pleased. "I mistimed it. I should have done it before Hiccup pulled Inferno out. It would have had a better effect that way."

"Oh come on, Astrid, it worked just fine!" Hiccup laughed, "Now, shall we have a look at our new friend?"

The adrenaline they were all feeling from the fight abruptly wore off.

The Razorwhip was awake but did not seem to be aware of its surroundings. It looked like it was in some kind of stupor, one that it was quickly snapping out of. At Astrid's command everybody backed away from it. At Hiccup's suggestion Heather stood in front of the dragon, her arms raised and her axe put aside. Toothless stood next to her.

Once it realized there were humans and dragons in front of it, the Razorwhip's first instinct was to blast everyone to pieces and flee, but it unintentionally made eye contact with Toothless.

"I'm your Beta now," Toothless said gently.

"As you wish," the Razorwhip said in a monotone voice. But Toothless had only done this to ensure the Razorwhip would not attack anyone. Otherwise, he had no intention of forcing his will upon it, so he backed away and relaxed his mind powers, giving the other dragon its mind back.

The Razorwhip shook itself and shuddered. It was then that it noticed Heather slowly approaching, with one hand outstretched. She showed no trace of fear. That was odd. In the Razorwhip's limited experience around humans they always looked terrified.

"Hey there, big guy," Heather said gently.

"She's a female, Heather," Hiccup corrected.

"Oh. Sorry. Hey there, girl," Heather said, mimicking how Astrid talked to Stormfly. She drew closer but the Razorwhip recalled it had just been in a trap. Was this another trick? Granted, if they wanted to kill her they could have already, but maybe they had some other scheme going. So she growled.

Heather abruptly stopped. "What do I say now?"

"Try being sympathetic," Fishlegs suggested.

"Sympathetic about what? I don't know anything about her!"

"You know she was just tied up and nearly killed." Hiccup suggested, "Look, what you really want to do is get her to lower her guard,"

"And just how do I do that?"

"By lowering your own first,"

Heather nodded very slowly and sensed what she ought to say, though she did not want to say it. She worked very hard to ignore everyone but the Razorwhip. "They caught you and tried to kill you, didn't they?" she asked as she drew closer, "I know what that's like. I was living happily at home with my parents and then one day we were attacked by men called Outcasts. They killed a lot of us, dragged the rest of us onto their ships, and burned my village to the ground. Then they took us back to their own island and locked us up."

Her focus was entirely on the Razorwhip now; no one else registered in her mind. "I don't know how long I was in there. But everyday everybody wondered who would die next, they would come down and beat up someone, and every time someone passed my cell I thought it was my turn. But you know what? I swore I'd get out of there, and one day I did. Just like you." She was almost a meter away now. The Razorwhip was looking at her as if it understood everything she was talking about; as if it wanted to share her pain. "And later I learned my home was gone forever, my parents and friends were all dead or missing, and I was alone in the world. Are you alone and homeless too?"

Hiccup had turned away during her story and slipped into the shadows, while the others listened in horror. As for the Razorwhip, she looked into the human's eyes. In those eyes she saw a person who was lonely, who wanted a home, and who wanted to protect what she cared for. She looked into Heather's eyes and saw herself reflected in them.

So she moved forward and let Heather's hand touch her horn. It just felt like the natural thing to do.

"She says her name's Windshear," Fishlegs announced, "congratulations, Heather. You've just bonded with a dragon."

Heather may have bonded with Windshear, but that was not the end of the night's events. Her brief story had left everybody curious to hear more, namely how she escaped. A bit reluctantly she explained.

"We noticed that for the past few days there were only ever two guards around. We deduced the rest must have gone off on some raid—"

"Was this about a year ago?" Hiccup suddenly interrupted. He was standing by a tree with his back to them.

"Yeah, I think so. Why?"

Astrid made the connection too. "Because then they did go off on some raid—a raid against Berk! Alvin brought the Outcasts to join up with Drago Bludvist, and the end result was the battle on Berk that killed both of them and destroyed the Outcast tribe—"

"Along with dad," Snotlout mumbled.

"Are you saying that we unwittingly aided Heather's escape?" Fishlegs asked, looking delighted.

"If that's the case than, thank you…sort of. Yes, we broke out. Morton, our blacksmith, grabbed one guard, killed him and took his keys, and unlocked all the cells. There were several ships left in the harbor so we stole them and sailed off," she smiled. "I'll never forget how happy I felt at that moment." Her smile vanished. "But we jumped from one disaster into another. A storm hit and our ships were scattered. A lot of people went…overboard, and then we lost our mast and most of our oars, so after the storm we could only drift. Bit by bit we—" A few tears came to her eyes, which she quickly brushed away, "We—well, anyway, I was the last person left on my ship—about all I could do by then was lie down and pray for death. And then one day, out of nowhere, the Defenders of the Wing found me." She sat down next to Windshear. At this memory she leaned against the Razorwhip and the dragon gently wrapped her tail around her and made crooning sounds.

Nobody spoke for a little while. At last Ruffnut said "did you ever find the rest of your tribe?"

She shook her head. "The Defenders first took me back to Dreaded Island. There was nothing left of it. I can only assume the other ships were lost. Queen Mala then let me join them. I had nowhere else to go." Her eyes closed and she was breathing heavily. Astrid gently put a hand on her shoulder.

Another long silence prevailed. This time it was broken by Hiccup. "Heather, I've been wondering something for a while. You said your horn was given to you by your father. Speaking as a blacksmith and a craftsman, that's a really fine and likely expensive piece of work. So was your father a man of high status?"

"I don't know, actually. Oh, I've never clarified this, have I? I wasn't born on Dreaded Island. I don't remember where I was born or who my real family was. All I do know is I was on a ship that was wrecked in a storm—I seem to have a tendency for those, don't I? I was just a child then, and I only survived thanks to the efforts of some man whose name I never learned—he died not long after we were rescued. My adopted parents told me that all he said before he died was my name was Heather. Nobody knew where I was from and one couple had always wanted a child, so they took me in. And I stayed there until the Outcasts came. So anyway, I'm pretty sure this horn was given to me by my real father, as in the man married to the woman who gave birth to me. I know nothing else about him."

Hiccup nodded and spoke little the rest night.

The other Riders decided going into further details would be too painful for Heather, so they left it at that and started turning in, finally. Tuffnut was still unconscious.

Astrid had the first watch, but Heather could not sleep so she joined her.

"Astrid, I don't mean to pry, but I thought you looked really upset when I was talking about my father—"

"I was remembering mine," Astrid said shortly.

"Is he—?"

"Drago Bludvist killed him in battle. I never even got the chance to say goodbye."

"Oh. I'm really sorry, Astrid."

Astrid stared up at the sky. "Yeah."

"All the time my parents were alive, I never thought the Gods would take them so suddenly. I just never thought about it."

"Me neither, really," Astrid answered, "I thought my father would live forever. I never imagined anyone could beat him in battle,"

"My dad was never in battles much to begin with; he was a carpenter," her smile was fleeting. "I last saw him during the storm. He was screaming for me and I was screaming for him, but I couldn't do anything and then he went overboard." She screwed her eyes shut as if that would blot out the memory.

As they watched they swapped stories about their fathers. Astrid recalled her father teaching her how to use an axe, while Heather told her about the time her father tried to use an axe to chop a tree down only to imbed the axe in the tree so deeply that he could not pull it out. They both had some good laughs over this talk, but eventually things became too painful again and Astrid told Heather she should go get some sleep.

The dragons were not sleeping yet. They had gathered a ways away from the humans, because they wanted to have a talk with Windshear, who wanted to know exactly what she had bonded herself into.

"So what exactly do you do?" she asked after they had introduced themselves and explained who their riders were.

"We help our human friends travel and keep them safe," Toothless said at length. It seemed an apt description.

"And we do not take kindly to those who try to harm them," Stormfly added dangerously.

"Yeah, we bail them out when they get into trouble," Hookfang bragged.

"That's rich, coming from you," Shamrock retorted, "how many times have you set Snotlout's pants on fire now?"

"I have to keep reminding him who's in charge! It's not my fault he keeps forgetting and assuming it's him!"

"We all live together on Berk Island," Meatlug went on, "that's where our hatchling friends live. We're really just their roommates,"

"Who happen to breathe fire, fly, and have four legs," Shamrock added.

"Speak for yourself," Stormfly muttered.

Windshear found this all fascinating. "You mean you live where humans and dragons co-exist? That's crazy! How soon can we go there?"

Toothless spoke up now, "Here's the thing. We're on a mission to find another Dragon Rider and we're probably not returning to Berk anytime soon." There was also some unvoiced doubt as to whether Windshear would be going to Berk at all. After all, she had bonded with Heather and Heather did not live on Berk. In fact, the more Toothless thought about it, the more uncertain the Razorwhip's future looked. But he kept this to himself and instead asked Windshear if she had seen any Stormcutter's recently or knew anything about them. She answered in the negative.

After Windshear decided to get some sleep, Toothless turned to the others. "So, what do you think?"

"I don't trust her," Stormfly growled.

"Is that because she's a stranger or because she's a Razorwhip?"

"I think we'll get along with her just fine," Meatlug said.

"You would," Hookfang said, "She certainly seems nice but can we be sure of her? After all, Adoncia was nice to the Hatchling until he refused to mate with her,"

"Windshear is not asking any of us to mate with her, Hookfang," Meatlug said sharply.

"And don't bring up that woman and what she did to my human," Toothless growled, "he's been through enough without you reminding him about that!"

"I'm just saying, appearances and first impressions can be deceiving. And don't forget, it was a Razorwhip that nearly made us lose the war last year,"

"I believe we haven't forgotten that, Hookfang. Nor have we forgotten that I was the one who defeated it," Toothless said coldly, "After being dragged through the ocean by an eel, and without the ability to fly, I fought with it and I won."

"And do you expect me to just sit still while a Razorwhip—the creature that killed my hatchlings—shares food with us, flies with us, and even interacts with Astrid?" Stormfly demanded.

Toothless got down on his hunches, a clear sign of aggression. "Yes, Stormfly, I do. You heard what Hiccup told us. Windshear did not kill them, and blaming her for their deaths won't bring them back or help anybody, nor is it fair—"

"Fair! What was fair about that monster killing Grimm? What was fair about those Vikings killing my mate? What was fair about that madman killing Astrid's sire?"

"What was fair about me losing my tailfin?" Toothless snapped, "Do you see me hating Hiccup for it?"

"That's a tailfin, not a life!"

"It would have been my life if it hadn't been for Hiccup! Good grief, you talk about unfairness, look at all the unfairness he's been through! His own sire tried to kill him and they share the same house now! So when he advises us to not blame all Razorwhip's for what one did, that's exactly what we are going to do!" He glared at Stormfly, "Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes," Stormfly spat.

"I'm not asking you to become her best friend—I only want you to treat her as you would any other dragon. I'm asking that of all of you."

"Don't worry about me. I won't be around her for much longer anyway," said Shamrock.

"I already am treating her that way," Meatlug replied.

"I can do that," Hookfang shrugged.

Stormfly only gave a curt nod. Barf n' Belch both nodded a bit more enthusiastically. Sharpshot had slept through the whole meeting. With that the council broke up. Stormfly went to make another patrol while Hookfang and the Zippleback went to find their humans and go to sleep.

Meatlug wanted to share a few words with Toothless. "Stormfly's still really hurt about her hatchings and mate, you know that. And Astrid's all she has left now. She'd do anything to keep her safe."

"I know." Toothless said bitterly. "But Windshear had nothing to do with any of that. And since she's bonded with Heather, we're kind of stuck with her now. It'll be easier if we all try to get along."

"That poor girl. Heather, I mean. But maybe having a dragon for a friend will help her."

"It's strange," Toothless remarked, "I get the impression she may have suffered worse than Hiccup when we were in Spain, yet she behaves a lot differently than he did after I got him out of there. She seems able to handle her losses better."

"Everyone reacts differently," Meatlug said, "and Heather has probably been taught to hold her emotions in check."

"Very likely, given what that Mala woman is like." Toothless shuddered.

"You know, when the Hatchling told Heather to lower her own guard to get Windshear to lower hers, I wondered if he was speaking from experience,"

"He was," Toothless replied.