Natania growled at the voice but before as she brought the blade down, a shiny object intercepted it with a chain or rope, she couldn't tell, attached. No sooner had it shot forward than it had retracted. When Natania looked up, she found the grappling spear head had locked itself back into its shaft, with her dagger falling off the end split in two. The hooked staff was in the grasp of a very furious looking Halburg.

"Natania, catch" shouted Magnus as he threw her the Falx. "Thanks babe, now let me put this dragon out of his misery" she laughed but then got shouldered back by Halburg who then went into a fighting stance. Frill looked on weakly but Magnus made the mistake of coming over to help his love. Halburg glared as the two circled him, more focused on the boy than any of the dragons. The two charged but the hook locked the hammer while the spear end clashed against the Falx.

Halburg then pushed something which caused the hook to rotate 180 degrees caused Magnus, who was holding his hammer, to fly off but he landed on his feet, hammer still in his grasp. Halburg then kicked back Natania and tripped her with the flat side of the hook with a quick twirl of the weapon. Halburg, as mentioned, was skilled with two-handed weapons and thought shields as clumsy. He may be an only average fighter with a single arm or short weapon but with his staff, he was a master.

Currently, the Thorston was beating back his two opponents with the Gronckle Iron and Oak staff. Meanwhile, the five other Thorston dragons were pushing back their six opponents with ease and even though stats wise the five should be losing, they were motivated by their Hobblegrunt. The Thunderdrum had his eyes set on Frill but Twist growled and snarled at him, forcing him to back off. They then all broke out into a vicious fight.

This fight made the previous attack look tame. Frill looked on but when he tried to stand up, his foot and arm fell beneath him. Aswell, his frill felt sore when he moved his neck or opened his jaw. His tail was only lightly damaged from where it had been struck.

Halburg however had managed to knock out Natania with a hit from the shaft pushed against her skull. Magnus however was furious and soon had Halburg pinned down. The staff shaft and hammer were pushing against each other for ground but Halburg was let down by his scrawny form.

The hammer was then brought up to deliver a surely fatal blow. Halburg flinched up but before the hammer could be brought down, a fire blast sent Magnus flying back towards were Natania was. The blast was only enough to force him back but not enough to give serious damage.

Halburg looked at the blast's origin and saw Frill with weak eyes, smiling slightly but he then passed out, with smoke coming from his nostrils. Halburg growled and charged at Magnus. Magnus growled as he held Natania who was unconscious, bridal style, and noticed they were losing.

At the same time, he saw Toothless, Hookfang, Stormfly, Meatlug, Skullcrusher, Grump and Cloudjumper flying in from the ocean, far enough out for him to make an escape and avoid possible execution. Magnus whistled and his and Natania's dragons gave the Thorston ones a final shove back enough for them to escape. Magnus then hit Halburg , who had finally reached him, a hit with the butt of his hammer, knocking the Thorston down and staff flying into a hay stack and a small cut with blood coming out.

Magnus hopped onto the Snow Wraith with Natania in his hold and the six dragons flew off, as far away from the School, Dragons Edge or Berk as possible.

Halburg wobbled as he watched them fly off but he weakly turned his head to Frill where Spines, Smoke, Spark and Blizzard helping the unconscious dragon into an outside shelter. Belle and Twist were running over to Halburg when he closed his eyes. He fully passed out a second later when he heard some dragons landing, the boy caught by Twist and Belle before he hit the ground.

Three days later

Halburg groaned and woke up in a room that was not part of his house. He sat up in his bed and felt a pain in his head. Speaking of pain, he saw such Terrible Terror along with Sharpshot, Iggy, Sneaky, Butt and Head all in the room perched on a table, standing guard. Butt and Head saw their friend wake up and the yellow male and female Terrors flew over to him. Halburg lightly petted Head while Butt licked his face but then the two sat on either side of him while Sharpshot flew off. 'Wonder where he is off to?' Halburg thought.

About seven minutes later, the door opened and Halburg saw Ruffnut, Tuffnut, Fishlegs, Gobber and Hiccup walk in. Barf and Belch poked their heads through the door and smiled at the green haired boy. Ruffnut however pulled her cousin, still sitting on the bed, into a hug which for once wasn't bone crushing like normal.

Tuffnut also hugged his cousin and ruffled his hair with his left hand. Gobber smiled but Barf and Belch were struggling to get over the Vikings to see Halburg.

"Hello Halburg, you alright?" asked Hiccup. Halburg wasn't very close to Hiccup at all compared to most of the other students but did have some classes with him aswell helped him once with a mission, along with a few other students, of his when he went to Melody Island. "Ya, I'm fine, nothing fatal I think. Just a pain in my head" groaned Halburg. Halburg then noticed the multiple cuts, bruises and occasional scar that weren't from the forge.

"Cool and did I get some mauling on my shoulder?" asked Halburg, which made Ruffnut pout. Then something hit Halburg like a Rumblehorn at a realisation. He jumped up onto his knees in bed and grabbed Hiccup by the shoulder with worried eyes and said "Hiccup, where are my dragons, how are they, Frill is he ok?"

"Frill and the others are all in stables. Beaten up but alive. Frill though took the worst of them" replied Gobber. "I want to see them" Halburg said. "Not now, you need to rest" said Ruffnut. "But they are my dragons" spoke Halburg. "Fine, here, rest on this, I'll take him down you can all go back" spoke Ruffnut. She then passed him his ruby topped cane which had been lying on a table.

Tuffnut though had insisted on coming as did Barf and Belch. Butt, Head and the other Terrors were resting in Halburg's room after not having much sleep otherwise, Ruffnut had been the one to force the others to make their Terrors stand guard over Halburg, much To Snotlout's joy of having Pain out of the house. Halburg had walked outside to find he was in the village recovery centre, a recent development. Barf and Belch flew with Halburg behind Ruffnut to the Dragon Hangar.

They went to a far section of the Whispering Death tunnel -turned-stable where there were a few other sick dragons. Aswell, Halburg spotted Valka's disabled dragons, Gruff the blind Hobblegrunt, Thump the Raincutter with a sliced left wing and Lump the Snafflefang missing his left leg, were helping out the various Vikings looking after some sick dragons. Halburg had been the one to suggest to Valka to let these dragons do the job given they couldn't do much else.

At the back right wing of the stable was a sort of semi-circle of six stables. From right to left was Smoke and Spark, Blizzard, Belle, Spines, Frill then Twist, ironically the order Halburg got them all in. Five of six dragons shot six pairs of eyes. Halburg gasped at them all. Though they were smiling, safe for the currently sleeping Frill, he couldn't help but gasp. Most people would worry for themselves but Halburg couldn't care less about his body, only his dragon. All of them had scars, cuts and bruises but each had one or more must notable injury.

Smoke and Spark had a sharp cut, probably from a Deadly Nadder, in the front section where their necks met aswell as Spark had a very deep scar on the front of his horn. Blizzard had one of her sharp spines halved aswell as her tail flap sliced in sections. Belle got off best with only a single tendril on her wing snapped. Spines' sail was broken but would heal. Twist though, out of these five, had the worst off. He had a very deadly scar on the top of his head, about three spines missing on his back but those would grow back and his tail's 'arrow' was sliced in the back section. The dragons all had other cuts, wounds, grazes and gashes on their bodies but were less serious aswell as some minor scars.

Apart from these somewhat detail injuries, three of these five had other more serious ones. Twist had a broken back, but would heal, and was most likely from when he was coiling around something. Blizzard was the other with a broken right leg. So, with these injuries and Spine's sail, Halburg only had Belle, Smoke and Spark who could fly.

The pink eyed boy then spotted his noble Hobblegrunt who had looked like he hadn't just been pulled out of a battle, rather more like a war. He unfortunately couldn't leave his stable so was still filthy with mud and dirt. Though his numerous scars and cuts and bruises littered his body, his numerous puncture wounds were serious. He had his frill, left arm, right leg, tail end and some incident on his neck were in bandages. He had a broken wing aswell from a Thunderdrum blast. His once orange scales, blue lining and black dots, which would once shine in the sunlight, were dull. It was not like he had lost his flame but because he was weak he suffered his pale colouring.

"Ruffnut, Tuffnut, can you get me a sponge, soap and three buckets of water. Also a broom, cloth and scale polish" asked Halburg. His cousins nodded and soon came back with the asked appliances.

"Hay boy, how ya been?" asked Halburg as he gentle started to scrub away the dirt from the Hobblegrunt's snout. Frill opened his eyes lightly with slight joy in them but closed them again. Halburg continued to give his dragon a scrub down but was not in the best of moods. He was now down four dragons and as fierce as Belle, Smoke and Spark are, he knew that even they couldn't hold off against Magnus and Natania and their dragons if they came back.

Fishlegs then came in with himself and Tuffnut holding a very large box, large enough to hold five adult Smothering Smokebreaths. "Hay Halburg, whatcha up to?" asked Fishlegs. "Cleaning the noblest dragon I know of that should already be clean" growled Halburg. "Right, well, I and the twins know you are down four dragons" spoke Fishlegs as he and Tuff set down the box, with Ruffnut behind them.

"Ya, your point?" quizzed Halburg. "Well, we were thinking that we would give you an early birthday gift" smiled Tuffnut. "My birthday was last month" quizzed Halburg. "Yes well, we wanted them to be fully grown. Unfortunately, they are not so we are giving you them early" Ruffnut said.

Halburg set down the sponge, given only it was Frill's left wing that needed to be scrubbed now. He opened the lid of the box and gasped at the content. Inside were four babies. 'Probably ready to go onto the short wing stage next' thought Halburg.

The dragons were a Tide Glider, Snaptrapper and Deadly Nadder and Woolly Howl. The Tide Glider was mostly purple except for a blue underbelly and blue details. The Snaptrapper was red with green details and a cream under belly. The Nadder was orange with neon green spikes and a light blue under belly. The Woolly Howl was brown with green 'fur' and a light pinkish cream underbelly and wing skin.

"What are their names, if they have any?" asked Halburg. "Well, we had found your list of dragon names so we used for these species the top option" said Tuffnut. "The Woolly Howl is Frostbite and he is male, the Snaptrapper is from right to left, Rose, Bloom, Petal and Stem, and they are female" said Ruffnut. "The Deadly Nadder is also female and is Arrow" spoke Fishlegs. "The Tide Glider is also female and is Coral" said Tuffnut.

Halburg was awe-struck. He had never planned to expand beyond his six dragons for his own keep. His mother's Changewing, Whip, and father's Scauldron, Steam, aswell as their blue Speed Stinger, Sprint, were already planned to be passed on to Halburg if his parents should die. Halburg though had never thought of the three dragons much if he was honest.

"I don't know what to say, uh, umm, thank you" smiled Halburg who hugged Ruffnut. He then extended both his hands and looked away from the four new dragons but felt seven snouts all trying to push against his hands. Halburg smiled as Arrow jumped onto his shoulder, Rose, Bloom, Petal and Stem clung to his back with all four of their heads poking up to see over, Frostbite onto his other shoulder and Coral into his arms. Tuffnut then started laughing.

"What's so funny?" asked Halburg. "Nothing, just you and Frostbite could be twins" laughed the male twin. Halburg then looked at said dragon and had to admit, the details were very similar. Frostbite's green 'fur' and purple eyes made him look like Halburg in a sense. Halburg merely narrowed his eyes at Tuff which was followed by Frostbite licking his face. "Ugh, yes boy, I like you to" mumbled Halburg over the licking while he pushed his head down with his free hand, difficult since the hand he was using was connected to the shoulder Frostbite was on.

Tuffnut and Ruffnut both left with Fishlegs, Barf, Belch and Meatlug. Halburg finished Frill's scrub down and got Belle and his Zippleback's saddle. "I will be gone for the rest of the day, get well soon guys" spoke Halburg to his four dragons that would be staying for a while. Halburg petted and hugged all four before getting onto Belle's saddle. He slung his cane in a slot and the four baby dragons all took their places behind him, though Frostbite sat in front of him, eager to see the world.

Halburg collected his belongings from the recovery centre and flew home. However, Smoke and Spark had their own stables, which they stayed in. Belle meanwhile slept on a rock slab in Halburg's room. The new dream style stable for his new dragons wouldn't be ready until the day after the day after tomorrow. So until then, the four slept with Halburg and Belle up in his room.

Halburg put on his green night tunic and his brown night pants and got into his mystery class bed. Arrow slept curled up under Belle's wing, Coral slept in a hand held bath of water while Frostbite insisted on sleeping with Halburg. Frostbite reminded of Belle's first night in a thunderstorm, when she curled up with Halburg instead of in her bed. Rose, Bloom, Petal and Stem however were struggling to decide on a spot to sleep in but eventually decide that the best idea would be to spill over a pot of earth which was planned for some kind of plant in the future. They didn't spill the earth much but slept in the mud.

'These four should make my life more interesting than it was' smiled Halburg who hugged Frostbite and fell asleep, looking forward to the next few days to come.

However, three times that night, Belle would have to wake up and leave Arrow to go bring back Rose, Bloom, Petal and Stem from the kitchen after the quadruplets had tried to steal some food. Belle, on the third time, after cleaning them, forced the Snaptrapper to sleep under her wing with Arrow. Belle went to sleep, thinking how much Halburg would owe her over the next few days.