Zephyr climbed over a log in the very small, new dragon ball forest. They had been banned from using the other one, just in case of more attacks. It had been two weeks since her conversation with her father.

Zephyr threw the dragon ball into the hole carved in the new dragon ball tree. She glanced inside the hole to see her lone ball. Good; Nuffink hadn't made it to the tree yet. Zephyr ran back to her base where Fourlegs was waiting.

"Go," she said to him. He hurried off as fast as he could manage.

The war meeting was in a couple of hours. Zephyr was honestly thrilled to attend an actual war meeting; besides the fact they could be doomed. Nuffink of course was only excited about getting to know how war meetings worked so he could use that knowledge someday. Zephyr didn't know if Spearhead was going. If she was, she hadn't mentioned it. Fourlegs was probably going, since his parents obviously were. He hadn't said anything about it, but he was Fourlegs. Shy and quiet.

Fourlegs finally returned. "Go. Spearhead wasn't far behind."

Zephyr sighed and grabbed a dragon ball from her pile and ran. Why did Fourlegs have to be so slow? And they had had such a good lead.


Zephyr left her house with her mother and brother. Her father had left way earlier to prepare. In fact, he'd probably spent less than five minutes at their hut in the afternoon.

They reached the Great Hall. The walls were still scratched up, but there were new tables and the fire pit in the center had been repaired. The meeting hadn't started yet, so that gave Zephyr some time to stroll around.

"Zephyr, where are you going?" her mom asked her.

"I'm just walking around," Zephyr replied. "What else would I be doing?"

"Fine," her mom said.

Zephyr started walking. Fourlegs was in the corner reading a book. His parents stood by the meeting table and his brothers were causing trouble by stealing the provided food for the guests, taking bites, and putting it back.

Nuthead and Fourlegs looked exactly alike, and Tunabreath looked similar, since they were triplets. Zephyr mostly distinguished them by personality. Nuthead: idiot, Tunabreath: idiot who is looking for trouble, Fourlegs: her shy friend.

She said, "Hi" to Fourlegs as she passed him. He looked up, then quickly looked down. He often acted really strange sometimes, like he didn't know how to respond. Sometimes he responded, and sometimes he didn't. She figured it was just the way he was.

Zephyr passed by others who had gathered for the war meeting. Two of New Berk's most important residents caught her eye. Leif the First had special connections with merchants, which made trade easier. No one knew why he was called "the first." His wife, Yestnasa, kept records of important events.

"Leif," Yestnasa said. "Would you fetch your little brother?"

That was weird. She told her husband to fetch his little brother? But he didn't respond Instead it was Booboo who was over in the corner that responded. He grabbed his brother, Richskull, a little boy with brown hair. The boy bit him two times before he put the boy in front of Yestnasa. Was Zephyr the only one that hadn't known Booboo's real name was Leif the Second?

A horn sounded. Zephyr jumped, ready for attack, or, well, not ready for attack. But then she remembered that was the signal to start the meeting. She joined everyone else sitting down at the central table, her brother on her right, her mother on her left.

She recognized nearly everyone at the table. Each of them was considered important leaders to the people of New Berk. Other villagers had also attended, but they were standing around the table. Zephyr eagerly waited for the first words to be spoken.

"So," her father began. "As you all know, New Berk was attacked a few days ago. We need to discuss how to protect ourselves from future attacks, and how to fight against anyone who threatens to step foot on this island."

Her father began introducing the people at the table. Of course, she knew her family and Fourlegs's parents, and she vaguely recognized Snotlout. The person she didn't know was Snotlout's wife, Mindon, and their daughter whose name Zephyr didn't catch. Also, Tuffnut was there, but she hadn't recognized him.

"Uh, Snotlout here has a few things to say about the enemies we are up against," Zephyr's father said.

"Thank you, thank you," Snotlout said. "As you know, I'm chief of Wingmaiden Island." He lifted his right arm and flexed a bicep. Zephyr's father bowed his head into his hand and she thought he might have rolled his eyes. "I've dealt with this tribe quite a lot. They're pirates and you can't reason with them."

"Can you tell us anything else?" Zephyr's father asked.

"Sorry, Hiccup, that's all I know," Snotlout said.

Her father sighed, then proceeded to talk about the attack. It was rather dull and boring. Honestly, what had she expected? This was her dad. Though she had expected him to be way more animated since he had killed a Viking, and even more back when he flew Toothless.

Even more when he flew Toothless. Shadow Streak could fly as quickly as a storm, disappear without a trace, and fire plasma from her mouth. Claw could do the same. Fleets of ships could be wiped out with only a few dragons.

"And for those of you who are worried about the food this winter, I think we'll have enough, especially if plenty of merchants stop here. I trust you can manage that, Leif," Zephyr's dad said.

Zephyr listened with half an ear as she thought. Even one dragon alone could stop a whole ship and destroy a few boats. No wonder Vikings used to kill dragons on sight. They were scary and powerful.

"Our enemy's ships fly sails with a blue symbol of a shield and a sword. If you see any, inform me immediately," her father said. "Now, we need to discuss why they attacked us. What could they even have been after?"

"I can tell you that," Snotlout said with a laugh.

"Why didn't you say anything earlier?" Zephyr's father asked.

"Because that information is useless," Snotlout said. "Unless you really do have an underground 'hidden world' made of gold on this island. Though they could have attacked to receive your, the, blessing of Hiccup, god of dragons. Or maybe they came to find the location of your dragon army."

Zephyr's father sat dumbfounded.

"What?" her mother said.

Snotlout laughed. "Apparently, Astrid, according to the legends over in the archipelago, you're supposed to be a dragon Hiccup turned into a Viking and fell in love with."

"And you haven't tried to stop any of these rumors?" Hiccup asked.

"Since dragons aren't supposed to be real, I didn't see any harm in the rumors," Snotlout said. "Plus, they're saying I'm the head general of the entire dragon army." He grinned widely, clearly enjoying his imaginary status.

"Well that doesn't help if they are attacking us over things that aren't even true," Astrid said.

Well, some of the legends were kind of true. He parents had pretty much had a small dragon army. Yeah, they had told their dragons to go to The Hidden World, but maybe that was a dumb decision. Who would be able to overpower New Berk with dragons on their side? Zephyr saw one way to defend New Berk—a team of dragon riders just like when her parents defended dragons.

"The real question is, how are we going to protect ourselves?" her father was saying. "If we train lots of warriors and craft advanced weapons then we could hold the enemy off."

"And that's where I come in!" Tuffnut announced.

Zephyr could tell her dad wasn't sure they could hold the enemy off. Everyone wasn't sure if they were going to be alive a week from now. They needed dragons.

"Thank you, Tuffnut. Tuffnut's our weapons specialist," her father addressed everyone in the Great Hall. "He'll help us design some new weapons in case of another attack."

Zephyr couldn't take it. "Or we could just use the drago—" Zephyr felt a sudden grip on her arm that made her stop mid-sentence. Her mother glared at her, tightening the grip on her arm.

Zephyr's mother stood and wrestled her out of the Great Hall.

"What's the problem?" Zephyr asked, once they were outside. "Aren't I allowed to speak my mind? Aren't I allowed to speak the truth?"

"Zephyr. You know you're not allowed to talk about the dragons anywhere in public. If someone finds out where The Hidden World is, everything your father and I worked for is ruined," her mother said.

"But we need them!" Zephyr complained. "I talked to dad about it."

"And he said 'no.'"

"How did you know?"

Her mother stared at her. "Were you going to lie? Seriously, Zephyr! Were you going to lie again?"

"Maybe, but it was for the best!"

"You can't keep doing this. We're in a war, Zephyr. I need you to be honest now. We all do. At least your brother has been taking this seriously."

"First thing, that's only because he got hurt and is scared he might get hurt again. Second, I am taking this seriously! That's why I suggested dragons."

"We can't use the dragons."

"Yes, we can! You and dad used them all the time."

"We did use them, and dragons died. Died, Zephyr. Shadow Streak could too if you used her in a battle."

"You and dad both have the same excuses—'dragons died,' 'dragons hunted,' 'dragons are safe now.' Maybe it's time to bring dragons back! Our enemies won't know what to do with dragons. We could hit them by surprise!"

"Then they would learn how to fight against them. When Old Berk was getting attacked by dragons, we learned how to fight dragons. We got very good at killing them."

The cold wind howled through a sudden silence. Her mom looked towards the horizon. "Listen, Zephyr. What I'm saying is…"

A black shadow was sailing away from New Berk across the waves—a ship with telltale blue sails. Zephyr felt her stomach drop and twist. "A scout ship?"

"We need to tell your father now," her mother said, grabbing her arm. She directed Zephyr back into the Great Hall, exiting the cold night that had become dark and unwelcoming.