A/N: Okay, last chapter didn't get any reviews, but I'mma not giving up yet! I know that I can still make this story into a great one! And so, here's another chapter for you all to enjoy as I continue to write up new chapters while revising the original plot for this story. I hope to get some reviews this time around. Anyway, please read on and enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Maximum Ride or How To Train Your Dragon!

"..." Regular Text/Human Speech

"..." Dragon Speech

'...' Human Thoughts

'...' Dragon Thoughts

{"..."} Character Narration

Weird Portals & Dragon Raid

~Max's POV.~

I woke up with a yawn, feeling surprisingly refreshed for having just slept out in the wild on a bunch of moss instead of an actual bed. I quickly rubbed the sleep out of my eyes and looked around. My fire had gone out sometime during the night, and the sun was just barely beginning to rise up over the horizon. Definitely time for me to get up and continue on my way, living my new nomadic life away from the flock, and away from any of Itex's remnants that may be seeking me out for revenge. They probably already know that I no longer have the safety of the flock and am an easy target compared to the others.

Guess it's time to fly once again.

I stood up and stretched, popping my joints and spine as I did, ready to take flight and find a place to take shelter and possibly make my home indefinitely. I didn't bother with searching for food because I was strangely not hungry this morning. Maybe it's because it's still early and my stomach hasn't woken up, or maybe I'm just still full from that wild hog I ate last night, but whatever. I count it as a small blessing. Better to not be hungry than to be starving and having no source of food. Jumping into the air, I spread my wings and did a quick up-and-away as I took to the early morning sky. The chill from the cool twilight air would definitely wake me up in no time.

Taking a deep breath, I sighed though my nose.

'I still can't get over the flock and what they did to me. Was everything I ever did for them meaningless? And what do mom and Ella think about this?'

I couldn't stop those thoughts from entering my mind. But even if I wanted to answer those questions, I just don't have the answers to them… and I don't think I ever will.

But there's no use dwelling on the past. I'm not gonna be alive for much longer because of my expiration date, so I might as well make the most of my life while I can. I can go back to Disney World and enjoy myself, maybe check out the Grand Canyon, see Utah before I die, and maybe see where this swirling vortex in the sky that I'm flying right towards leads to.

Wait a minute, WHAT?!

"Oh shit! Coming in too hot!" I screamed as I tried to stop.

But I was already moving too quickly through the air when I had noticed that vortex. My own momentum worked against me, and I flew right into the vortex. The last thing I could see before blacking out was the portal closing behind me, and then a mass of flashing colors as I blacked out.

Well, it's not even eight o'clock yet, and this day already totally sucks.

~Third Person POV.~

An island comes into view in the dead of night. It was a calm night in the Barbaric Archipelago, and all seemed eerily quiet in the area where we know that any long amount of peace with Vikings was just a sign that something big was gonna go down.

{"This is Berk. It's twelve days North of hopeless, and a few degrees South of freezing to death. It's located solidly on the meridian of misery."} says a male voice.

As we got closer to the island to view the village, a wave crashed upon the rocky shoreline, sending a foamy spray of sea water disbursing into the air. Each building looks to be made of a combination of stone and wood. Smoke billowed out of some of the chimneys, showing that there were fires lit inside.

{"My village. In a word, sturdy. It's been here for seven generations, but every house is new."}

Next, we see a small part of a field where some domesticated sheep are seen grazing on grass in an almost lazy manner. And I only say it's lazy, due to their eyes being droopy.

{"We have fishing, hunting and a charming view of the sunsets. The only downsides are the pests."}

We now shift our attention to two sheep in particular. They're both grazing side by side, probably hoping to get the best grazing spots with the most grass for them to eat. Gluttonous little wool makers.

{"You see, most people have mice or mosquitoes. We have…"}

Something swooped down and snatched the sheep on the right, making the other sheep look towards the now vacant spot. It then proceeded to 'inconspicuously' scoot over to the spot in order to get more grass in its greedy belly.

Utter pandemonium erupted in the village as houses began to catch fire and reptiles with wings soared through the sky, stealing food and livestock from the village. The Viking men and women of Berk rushed out with weapons in hand to fight back against the flying reptiles. One creature in particular stopped for a moment and shot a fire blast at the screen, but a thick wooden door quickly closed to block the fire, with some of it seeping in from between the cracks in the boards used to make the door.

Leaning against the door was a fourteen year old boy with light skin that has a dusting of freckles, Auburn brown hair that falls down straight around his head, and green eyes. He's a pretty scrawny fellow for his age and seems to be a bit on the short side. He wears a long sleeved green tunic under a bearskin vest, green pants and fur boots. He has a brown belt tied around his waist.

"...Dragons!" breathed the boy.

He yelped as his house rocked, having been hit by more dragon fire. He knew if one of these creatures were to get into his house, he might not stand a chance in such a cramped environment. There'd be nowhere for him to run to safety if one got inside! Especially if they decide to set his home on fire. So, against his own better judgment, he did something his father wouldn't want him to do.

The young boy rushed out of his now burning house in order to try and help his fellow villagers. Due to his diminutive stature compared to everyone else, he was able to easily weave through the crowd. Over, under, between, you name it and he can dodge it. And he was surprisingly quick footed, unlike every other heavyset man and woman on this island. That, and the fact that he has no iron armor or weapons weighing him down.

{"Most people would leave. Not us. We're Vikings, we have stubbornness issues."}

This was proven by one Viking leaping up and grabbing on to a yak that one of the Dragons was trying to carry off. But this just resulted in the man being taken for a ride. The boy continued running through the chaos of the village, ignoring all of the warnings and the yells of 'get back inside' from the other Vikings.

{"My name's Hiccup. Great name, I know. But it's not the worst. Parents believe that a horrific name will frighten off Gnomes and Trolls. Like our charming Viking demeanor wouldn't?"}

"AAAARRRRGGGHH!" cried a Viking male as he fell in front of Hiccup, quickly recovering and greeting with a cheery/insane smile "Mornin'!"

Several other Vikings are seen rushing along wooden bridges and paths as they tried to move the livestock to safer locations. But when you're up against flying dragons, it's kind of difficult to avoid getting things like sheep and chickens snatched up from your grasp. But these guys are Vikings. To them, the Dragons are nothing more than an occupational hazard.

Hiccup continued on his way through the mass of fighting Vikings and Dragons as he tried to get to his destination without taking too much damage. Which would likely end up life threatening due to him being slighter and much weaker than the others on this island. Believe me when I say that life here on Berk ain't easy for young Hiccup.

{"Meet the neighbors. Hoark the Haggard…"}

"What are you doing out?!" he shouted.

{"...Burnthair the Broad…"}

"Get inside!" he too shouted.

{"...Phlegma the Fierce…"}

"Get back inside!" she ordered.

But like all the others, Hiccup just ignored her and continued on his way. He was determined to do his duty and help out in any way he could.

{"Ack."}

Hiccup ran past a Viking man who looked kinda like a yak. Amidst all the chaos of the raid, all he was doing was standing there picking his ear with his finger.

{"Yup. Just Ack."}

Eventually, Hiccup was forced to stop as a large fireball exploded right in front of his path. He quickly checked his surroundings to make sure no other dragons were attacking the area. Once he was in the clear, a voice made itself know to him.

"Hiccup?!" gasped a deep male voice.

Hiccup turned around and came upon the sight of a large Viking man with a long beard that was done in many braids and was wearing a bearskin cape; a traditional garment of Viking chiefs. But he clearly wasn't happy that Hiccup was out and about.

"What is he doing out again?" Stoick asked a few nearby Vikings accusingly before turning to Hiccup. "What are you doing out?! Get inside!"

As Hiccup ran off for the Blacksmith stall, a fireball crashed near this man and illuminated his features in a way that seemed both heroic and ominous at the same time. Which is actually quite believable since these are Vikings we're talking about.

{"That's Stoick the Vast, chief of Berk. They say that when he was a baby, he popped a Dragon's head off it's shoulders. Do I believe it?"}

Stoick noticed a Dragon about to attack and quickly grabbed a wooden wheelbarrow, throwing it at the Dragon with all he had. The resulting crash caused the beast to fall right out of the sky.

{"...Yes I do!"}

Figuring that his father had things under control here, our young hero ran off at a much faster pace to help out in the only way he really could. By repairing weapons at the forge. And while Hiccup did that, Stoick calmly brushed some burning debris off his shoulder while asking for a status report from one of the other Viking men.

"What have we got?"

"Gronckles, Nadders, Zipplebacks, Oh! And Hoark saw a Monstrous Nightmare!" reported a random Viking.

"Any Night Furies?" Stoick asked.

"None so far." the same Viking replied.

"Good." Stoick said, sounding relieved.

"HOIST THE TORCHES!" yelled one of the Vikings.

Some of the more burly Vikings grunted as they hoisted huge wooden poles with burning braziers on top of them. These fires illuminated the sky, revealing swirling Dragons of all types raiding the village.

Luckily for Hiccup, he got to his destination, the blacksmithing stall, or forge, without incident and was greeted by a Viking who seemed to be smithing using a hammer for his left hand. He also had a peg-leg and a stone replacement tooth. Most likely, a hook would have been in place of the hammer if he wasn't currently smithing. He also had a unibrow and a long, braided mustache, both of which were dirty blonde.

"Ah! Nice of you to join the party. I thought you'd been carried off." he said to Hiccup.

Said boy quickly put on a leather apron, and began to quickly and efficiently put away the larger man's many artificial appendages that were scattered about the work area. As he spoke, his voice sounded a little strained as he had to lift several objects that were much, much heavier than he's used to.

"Who, me? Nah, come on! I'm way too muscular for their taste. They wouldn't know what to do with all this." Hiccup retorted, striking a bodybuilder pose.

"Well, they need toothpicks, don't they?" the older Viking asked with a grin.

{"The meathead with attitude and interchangeable hands is Gobber. I've been his apprentice ever since I was little. ...Well, little-er."}

Back in the village, Stoick is busy giving the other warriors instructions about what to do to defend the village. More importantly, they need to defend their food supplies.

"We move to the lower defenses. We'll counter-attack with the catapults."

Several Viking men started moving across a bridge with Stoick close behind, trying to get the sheep to safety. As they did this, a Dragon strafed overhead and shot at a building with napalm fire, lighting it ablaze.

{"See? Old village, lots and lots of new houses."}

"FIRE!" yelled another Viking.

"Come on, let's go!" exclaimed a female voice.

It was at this point that the fire brigade, a group of teenagers in Hiccup's age group ran in and began filling buckets with water to try and extinguish the flames. The group is composed of three boys and two girls. One of which, Hiccup is looking out for since he has a little bit of a crush on her, but that's all it is right now, and Hiccup knows that. A simple crush. Not full blown love for her.

He and his father may not have a lot of positive social interaction with one another, but Stoick did at least give Hiccup this advice when it comes to relationships, and finding the right woman. The yin to his yang, as some from other countries would say. And that advice was when he meets the right woman, when he's absolutely certain that no other woman in the world is right for him, that's how Hiccup will know he's in love. Stoick had also said that those feelings were exactly how he knew that Hiccup's mother, Valka, was the right woman for him.

But I'm getting off track.

{"Oh, and that's Fishlegs Ingerman…}

Fishlegs is a rather large, husky boy with pale skin, messy blonde hair, and blue eyes. He has a set of large, beefy arms, but rather short legs compared to the rest of his wears a brown furry outfit, with a tiny Viking helmet with a pair of tiny horns on it.

{"...Snotlout Jorgenson…"}

Snotlout is a young man with brown hair, pale skin, and blue eyes. And he wears a helmet with spiral sheep horns, his tunic tucked in his pants with open-stitching and a black vest over it, dark gray bracers on his arms, and matching fur boots.

{"...The twins Tuffnut Thorston and Ruffnut Thorston…"}

Tuffnut is a young man who wears a dark brown, long, furry animal vest with a very light pale green tunic that goes all the way past his hip. Around his waist, there's a brown sash-like belt that is tied around. He also wears light gray-blue pants and dark brown furry boots. On his arms, he wears a long brown arm cloth armband that starts at his elbows and ends at his wrists. His helmet is studded with four horns: the top two are bull-like, and the bottom two resemble ox horns. Without his helmet, his long blond hair, that ends with a brownish tint, is unevenly divided in the middle and appears to look like dreadlocks, and his teeth are somewhat uneven. His necklace's pendant is a large claw or tooth that may have come from a dragon. He's relatively skinny with tan skin and dark-blue eyes.

Ruffnut is the girl twin. She wears a light brown, animal skin-like mini vest and a dark blue tunic that reaches just past her hips and ends in tatters. She wears a grayish-brown mini-skirt that also ends in tatters. Around her waist, she wears a metal-leather belt with an unidentified metal crest in the middle of it. Ruffnut wears dark brown leggings and dark blue furry boots. On her arms, she wears a long dark-gray cloth brace that starts at her elbows and stops at the wrist. A bit of the cloth also goes through between her first and second finger. Ruffnut's helmet is studded with four horns, just like her brother's, albeit being longer and more slender: The top two are thinner bull-like horns while the two bottom horns are longer and curved. Without her helmet, her hair is evenly divided in slightly to the side and short bangs across the left side of her face. She has two small braids near the top of her hair and three long braids that reach to her waist. Around her neck, Ruffnut wears a necklace with the pendant of a tooth or claw that may have come from a Dragon. She's skinny for her age and has tan skin, just like her brother, along with a pair of pale-blue eyes.

{"...And Astrid Hofferson."}

Astrid is a beautiful and quite petite girl for a Viking, but this also gives her the advantage of agility. She has mid-back length blonde hair that is styled in a braid down her back with fringes that cover the left side of her face. She has a metal-studded kransen that goes across her forehead and light-blue eyes. In the first movie, she wears a sleeveless shirt in varying shades of steel-blue, tan cloth bracers on her arms (each bit of cloth goes between her first and second finger) with bicep wrappings above them, a brownish red skirt with spikes surrounding it, another dark brown skirt underneath the spiked one, and dark blue leggings. She wears a belt decorated with silver skulls with a pouch tied to it. She also wears metal shoulder guards which are attached to two silver skulls.

As the teens walk away from the burning house after dumping water on it, a huge fireball erupts behind them in slow motion. This causes their exit to look cool and heroic in comparison to most of the other Vikings who simply look more like wild, rampaging bulldozers gone on a warpath.

{"Their job is so much cooler."}

Hiccup was about to try to go out and help them, but he was easily stopped by Gobber, who grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt with his hook hand. Quite an easy feat when the man has a lot more meat on his bones than Hiccup does.

"Ah, come on! Let me out, please! I've gotta make my mark out there!" Hiccup pleaded.

"Oh, you've made plenty of marks, alright! In all the wrong places!" Gobber retorted.

"Please, two minutes, that's all I'm asking! I'll go out there, kill a Dragon, and my life will be infinitely better. I might even get a date." Hiccup pleaded again.

But Gobber wasn't budging. He actually began to go on a small rant about some of Hiccup's less than Viking-like qualities, ticking them off on his fingers as he did. All with a rather amused grin, if I might add.

"You can't lift a hammer, you can't swing an axe…"

Gobber picks up a Bola from a nearby desk and holds it in front of hiccup as he finishes his rant.

"You can't even throw one of these!"

A passing Viking grabs the Bola and throws it at a Dragon that was about to make off with a Yak, effectively tying it up and keeping it from flying off.

"Okay fine, but…"

Hiccup removed a drape from some sort of contraption he's made. In terms of overall design, it looks almost like a miniature catapult combined with a crossbow. If Gobber was being honest with himself, he's both wary and amazed by the machine. Wary that it might mess things up somehow, and amazed at the ingenious design. Say what you will about Hiccup, but what he lacks in overall muscle, he makes up for with a very large and obviously sharply honed brain. Something many Vikings in today's society are severely lacking.

"This will throw it for me." Hiccup stated.

However, the moment was short lived as some sort of glitch causes the machine to throw the Bola too early. This made him hit a Viking that had come to the stall to get his Axe sharpened.

"ARGH!" he yelled as he went down.

Hiccup winced and said, "Sorry!"

"See? Now this right here is what I'm talking about!" Gobber exclaimed.

"Mild calibration issue! All I have to do is…"

Hiccup began to turn his Bola Launcher, causing Gobber to panic a little before he started scolding Hiccup again.

"Don't shoot! No! Hiccup! If you ever want to get out there to fight Dragons, you need to stop all…" Gobber gestured to all of the scrawny teen. "...This."

"But… you just pointed to all of me!" Hiccup said, feeling a little miffed.

"Yes! That's it! Stop being all of you." Gobber said.

"Ohhhh…" growled Hiccup.

"Ohhhhh… yes." Gobber playfully growled back, like how one's father would.

"You, sir, are playing a dangerous game. Keeping this much raw… vikingness contained. There WILL be consequences!" Hiccup declared dramatically.

Gobber didn't seem all that bothered by this threat as he tossed Hiccup a sword, which he caught with relative ease even though he needed to hold it with both hands. Hey, having a small and thin stature will do that to someone. Then again, he has worked in the forge for his whole childhood.

"I'll take my chances. Sword. Sharpen. Now."

Hiccup quickly moved over to a grinder and began to sharpen the edges of the blade he was working with. But his mind was not entirely on his work.

{"One day I'll get out there. Because killing a Dragon is everything around here."}

You see, unlike everyone else in Berk, Hiccup wasn't trained much to become a dragon killer. But if there's one thing he is, it's determined. Determined to prove himself to the village and to his father. But as he continued narrating, Hiccup started going over several of the Dragons that invade Berk. One of them is a bipedal dragon with wings for arms that scared off a flock of seagulls as it landed near a storehouse.

{"A Nadder head is enough to get me at least noticed."}

The Nadder climbed up to the roof of the house and began ripping it apart and sending sheep scattering to find cover. Elsewhere, a few hippo-like Dragons called Gronckles are seen plucking fish from drying racks before flying off with their catch like some sort of reptilian pelicans.

{"Gronckles are tough. Killing one of them would definitely get me a girlfriend."}

A snake-like Dragon head slithered its way to a storehouse and begins to fill it with green colored gas that it exhales from its mouth.

{"A Zippleback? Exotic. Two heads, twice the status."}

A second head pokes through the door and ignites the gas with a spark from its mouth, causing the whole thing to go up in an explosion of fire. The two heads fly through the fire and smoke to reveal that the two heads are attached to one body. Kind of like siamese twins. It flew past Stoick as he got to the top of the catapult tower.

"They found the sheep!" yelled the catapult operator.

"Concentrate fire over the lower bank!" Stoick ordered, having to yell over the utter pandemonium of the raid.

The operators of the catapults take aim at some Dragons before their leader gives the command.

"Fire!"

Rocks are lobed at a few flying Nadders… just as a huge red Dragon whips past, shooting the base of the catapult with sticky fire. This fire is likely formed from Kerosene Gel.

{"And then there's the Monstrous Nightmare. Only the best Vikings go after those. They have this nasty habit of setting themselves on fire."}

The huge Dragon emerged from the flames, climbing the catapult with a leering, toothy grin. If one were to ever come face to face with this baby, they'd definitely understand why they call it a Monstrous Nightmare. And likely wet themselves in the process.

Seeing the danger he and his men were in due to this flaming beast, Stoick grabbed his hammer and ordered his men to leave.

"Reload! I'll take care of this!"

And so, Stoick the Vast began to take on the Nightmare face to face. And by that, I mean he's practically slapping it silly using a war hammer, drawing both pain and ire from the massive beast that is practically a more feral version of a Pteranodon. Quite amazing how Stoick's hammer hasn't caught fire from the repeated smacks against the burning flesh of the dragon.

Suddenly, a loud ballistic moaning streaked overhead, causing the catapult crew to duck at the sound. Within the blacksmith stall, Hiccup stopped working as he too heard the sound of the one creature said to be a legend among the Vikings.

{"But the ultimate prize is the Dragon no one has ever seen. We call it the-"}

"NIGHT FURY! GET DOWN!" yelled a Viking.

Vikings everywhere try to take shelter as they tried to predict where the attack would hit. The moaning steadily got louder and louder as the Night Fury got closer and closer. At the catapult where Stoick and the Nightmare were doing battle, the Dragon suddenly stops fighting and takes flight as it tried to get away.

Stoick looked skyward and quickly came to a startling realization. Luckily, his instincts are sharp, and his reflexes are sharper.

"JUMP!" he shouted frantically.

He and the other Viking men working on the catapult got out of the way just in the nick of time as a purple energy blast hit the catapult, causing it to explode as though it were hit by a common military howitzer artillery shell.

{"This thing never steals food, never shows itself and…"}

The smoke cleared, revealing the smoldering remains of what was once the catapult. A rather daunting display of power from any dragon, if I do say so myself.

{"...Never misses. No one has ever killed a Night Fury. And I intend to be the first."}

In the stall, Gobber quickly traded his hammer for an axe, making sure it was on tight so he wouldn't lose it mid-battle.

"Man the fort, Hiccup! They need me out there!" Gobber ordered.

Before he left, he quickly turned around and gave Hiccup some final orders.

"Stay. Put. There." upon seeing Hiccup's face, he adds "You know what I mean."

Gobber unleashed a war cry as he ran into the fray, completely oblivious to the look on Hiccup's face. A look that has spelt trouble for the entire village on more than one occasion. Mostly due to the fact that he just up and decides to do things his way. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing… most of the time.

On one of the houses below, Nadders have cornered a flock of sheep, ready to pounce on them. These particular Nadders are lead by a male Nadder who is primarily orange and pale green in his color combination, with some light blue on his nose and legs.

But before the Nadders could pounce, Stoick appears in time to save the sheep by throwing fishnets over the Dragons. The surprised Nadders are easily caught as Stoick and his men rush in. One of the Nadders manages to get it's head freed from the net by shooting a burst of its Magnesium flame. However, Stoick is quick to hold its jaw shut.

"Mind yourselves! The devils still have some juice in them!" Stoick warned.

Hiccup wheeled his contraption over to an unlit cliff overlooking an unmanned catapult. Placing it where he wanted to, he transformed it into his bola launcher. Once he finished setting it up his eyes scoured the skies for a sign of the Night Fury.

"Come on. Give me something to shoot at. Give me something to shoot at." he said to himself.

Squinting, he was able to make out the outline of the Night Fury as it covered the stars that it flew between. The whistling scream started again, signifying anther attack from the mighty beast. Hiccup took aim at the catapult, waiting for the one chance he had. The plasma blast was shot obliterating the catapult, causing the dragon's' form to be illuminated by the blast. He trailed the dragon and fired, sending himself into the turf. When he looked up, there was the sound of a dragon scream and the outline of the dragon was seen by Hiccup plummeting into the forest.

"I hit it…! Yes, I did it! Oh, did anybody see that?" Hiccup exclaimed.

However, his victory was short lived as a Monstrous Nightmare snuck up behind him and crushed his machine beneath its talons.

"Except for you." Hiccup said dryly.

Stoick and his men had managed to tie down the Nadders in the net. However, he found himself turning around when he heard the familiar sound of Hiccup screaming and saw his son running away from a Monstrous Nightmare. Grabbing his warhammer, Stoick ran off to try and save his son.

"Do not let them escape!" he ordered his men.

"Right!" one of them replied.

With that done, Stoick ran off to try and protect his son.

As for Hiccup, he was running through the village as fast as his legs could carry him, trying desperately to remain away from the jaws of the Nightmare. He kept running until he managed to find and duck behind the remaining brazier that was standing. He yelped at the heat as the Nightmare's fire hit the brazier instead of him, but he could still feel the heat of the flame as the attack went on.

When it was over, Hiccup realized that he couldn't run and hide anymore and leapt out of his hiding place. He got into a fighting stance, readying himself for battle. If he was going to die, he would at least die trying to fight. At least, that was the idea… but it couldn't be implemented since Stoick jumped in front of Hiccup and interrupted the fight. Or rather, what would have been either a fight or a slaughter. The Nightmare tried to roast Stoick with its flame, but came upon a horrible discovery. It reached its shot limit, as proven by the smoke that came from its mouth instead of fire.

Stoick smirked cruelly and readied his hammer.

"You're all out." Stoick growled smugly.

Stoick proceeded to pummel the Monstrous Nightmare in the face using his hammer, making the Dragon grunt in pain with each hit. Hiccup winced each time the hammer made contact with flesh. Good thing Dragons have very strong bones, tendons, and other such internal structures, or the Nightmare would have died of a broken neck by now.

Shaking its head after another hit, the Nightmare decided that it had had enough of being used as a living pinata and flew off. Huffing and puffing from fighting so much, Stoick turned around to face Hiccup. His expression was clearly unamused, both by the fact that Hiccup thought he could take on that Dragon alone, and that he didn't stay at the forge like Gobber told him to.

"Oh, and there's one more thing you need to know." Hiccup started to say.

Unfortunately, the brazier had taken more damage than suspected from the Monstrous Nightmare and its fire. It slowly broke apart and fell right in the direction of the Vikings holding down the captured Nadders, forcing them to run for their lives unless they wanted to get crushed under tons of wood.

The Nadders seized the opportunity and freed themselves from the net before flying away with all of the other Dragons. It seems like it was a tie between the Dragons and the Vikings during this raid. The Dragons still got away with their kill, but their haul wasn't big enough to have any sort of impact on the villagers. So, in a way, Hiccup's intervention was actually a blessing in disguise this time rather than a nuisance. Hiccup and Stoick stared at the downed brazier for a moment, both having raised eyebrows at how convenient the timing of that was.

Finally, Hiccup broke the silence. But not with one of his usual sarcastic quips.

"...Sorry, Dad…" Hiccup mumbled before adding "But I hit a Night Fury…"

Stoick just grabbed Hiccup and dragged him through the village.

"It's not like the last few times, Dad! I mean I really, actually hit it! You guys were busy. I had a very clear shot. It went down off Raven Point. Let's get a search party out there before it …"

"Stop! Just stop. Every time you step outside, disaster follows. Can you not see that I have bigger problems? Winter is almost here and I have an entire village to feed!" snapped Stoick.

"Between you and me, the village could do with a little less feeding. Don't you think?" Hiccup asked in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

A few of the more robust Vikings shifted unconsciously as they began to feel a bit self conscious about their weight. True, they might eat just a tiny bit more than their fair share, but does the lad really need to point it out like that? And of course, Stoick was clearly not amused.

"This isn't a joke, Hiccup! Why can't you follow the simplest orders?" the Viking chief snapped even more harshly.

Perhaps a little more harshly than he meant.

"I-I-I can't stop myself. I see a dragon and I have to just kill it. It's who I am, Dad." stuttered Hiccup.

Stoick sighed as his anger slowly began to eb away at his son's words. It was still there, but it was considerably less than it once was. He knows that Hiccup means well, but he tends to cause more harm than good. And it's like the old saying goes: the road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

"You're many things, Hiccup. But a dragon killer is not one of them. Get back to the house." Stoick ordered his son before turning to Gobber. "Make sure he gets there. I have his mess to clean up."

Gobber hit Hiccup on the back of the head before following him to his house. On the way they passed the teens.

"Quite the performance." laughed Tuffnut.

"I've never seen anyone mess up that badly. That helped." Snotlout quipped cruelly.

"Thank you, thank you. I was trying, so…" Hiccup began to say.

But he couldn't finish that train of thought as he just wanted to get away from the many disappointed stares of the villagers. At times, Hiccup wished that he could just disappear and never come back. Or that he was dead. That would definitely be infinitely better than having to deal with all of this.

Gobber grabbed Snotlout by his helmet and shoved him to the ground, not at all amused by how he was treating his young apprentice. Fishlegs and Ruffnut were just laughing. Astrid was sitting on a ledge, looking at her axe until Hiccup spoke, then looking at him.

As Snotlout got up laughing he looked at Astrid, who just rolled her eyes and started to leave.

Gobber and Hiccup made it to Hiccup's house, Hiccup complaining about Stoick. And quite honestly, the boy has every right to complain. I mean, you would too if you had a father like that man.

"I really did hit one." sighed Hiccup.

"Sure, Hiccup." said an unconvinced Gobber.

"He never listens." Hiccup complained.

"It runs in the family." Gobber quipped.

"And when he does, it's with this disappointed scowl, like someone skimped on the meat in his sandwich. 'Excuse me, barmaid. I'm afraid you brought me the wrong offspring. I ordered an extra-large boy with beefy arms, extra guts and glory on the side. This here, this is a talking fishbone'." Hiccup said while doing his best impression of Stoick.

Gobber would have laughed at such a spot-on impression any other day. But today was not one of those days.

"Now, you're thinking about this all wrong. It's not so much what you look like, it's what's inside that he can't stand." Gobber said giving one of his 'pep talks'.

"Thank you for summing that up." Hiccup replied in his usual dry, sarcastic demeanor.

"Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not." Gobber advised.

And in his mind, it was indeed very sound advice. He can tell from the way Hiccup behaves and that gleam in his eyes that the lad is no dragon killer. He's just trying not to be as blunt and tactless about it as Stoick had been earlier. Really, would it kill Stoick to handle these situations like a father instead of a chief?

"I just want to be one of you guys." Hiccup said, barely above a whisper.

Yet Gobber still heard every word.

Hiccup closed the door with Gobber sighing. Gobber then hobbled off before we see Hiccup leaving through the back door of the house, heading for the forest.

***To Be Continued…***

Ending A/N: Not a bad chapter, eh? I liked it. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter, as well as it being the longest one currently posted on this story. Sixteen pages long, wow! Anyway, please don't forget to leave a review and tell me what you thought of the chapter. Also, please don't give me any suggestions for Max's dragon partner. I've already decided on that. But just know if you do leave a suggestion, I probably won't use it, but I like the enthusiasm and appreciate the support. Oh yeah, quick side note; the site has been kind of buggy recently and has been messing with the publishing dates of the chapters on people's stories which makes it so that people can't review on chapters for stories. So, if you find yourselves unable to leave a review because of this, that's probably why. So, if you find yourself unable to leave a review, PM me your review for the chapter so I can read them, because I love getting feedback from all of you! Anyways, thanks for reading and I'll see you next time!