Chapter Eight:

All eyes froze as everyone turned to face us. Belatedly, I realized that no one here as ever seen me loose my cool before. Glaring at Johan, who looked honestly surprised to see me here... perhaps I should really make a point of going to visit Berk as a regular thing, I handed Briar off to someone behind me, finish as I jabbed a finger at the large boulder next to me. "That's your face..." Johan visibly paled as he caught on to what I was about to say. Swinging my fist up, I swung it as hard as I could at the boulder. "This is my fist meeting your face." I ignored the gasps of surprise from the Hairy Hooligans as the boulder crumbled to dust within seconds of my fist connecting to it.

"You...you...mm...mm...must...h...h...h...have me mistaken for someone else young man." Johan stammered out, quickly playing up the confused, terrified of his own shadow, trader that he had everyone fooled into thinking he was.

I snarled at that, moving to shake him... how dare he pretend that I don't know what I'm talking about! I still had the scars from when...! A large hand clasped onto my shoulder, halting my movement. Whirling around, I opened my mouth to inform Fishlegs that I was not about to do something idiotic, only to swallow the words upon seeing that it was Stoick, not my best male human friend. Stoick gave me a rather concerned look, silently begging me to once again hold my tongue. "Hiccup my boy, it's just Johan. You know him. He would never harm a fly. Relax, whoever it is you think he is, he isn't that person."

"Hiccup? I thought you said that he was gone forever?" Johan was really pressing my buttons. Where were the twins when I really need them to blow something up called Johan... I mean Johan's ship!

I whirled around, swinging my fist up to punch regardless in the face since the jerk really deserved it, only for a loud explosion to almost knock everyone backwards. Johan was knocked forward, and well... I'm sure used to explosions that they simply don't knock me around anymore. Arching an eyebrow upwards, I glanced up at the sky to see a familiar Monstrous Nightmare hovering in the sky, casually breathing fire down onto the remains of Johan's ship.

"Nice timing Snotlout, Hookfang." I purposely stepped on Johan's hand as I walked past him towards the now burning trader's ship.

Hookfang landed next to it, shaking his head even as Snotlout jumped down, fury dancing in his eyes. "Give me one second chief, I need to punch someone in the face..." I quickly gave Snotlout the universal sign for go ahead.

I'm gonna go look for Toothless... Hookfang sprang into the air before he finished his sentence, flying further inland. Snotlout glanced over from where he was now holding a bloody Johan, at least he just broke the guy's nose and hadn't used his own flames yet, confusion creasing his features. "Uh... where's Hookfang going?"

I rubbed the back of my neck as I shrugged at him. "Horace went to join up with Toothless." Hookfang didn't have a preference over which name he was called, which meant that his nickname and real name were both used equally.

"Cool." Snotlout none too gently dropped Johan onto his face.

Johan groaned, I highly suspect that he is currently wondering what he did to end up on Berk when not one Rider, but two, where here. Speaking of which... "I thought you were back on the Edge?"

Snotlout shrugged, leaning against a boulder that wasn't the one that I just pulverized. "I was... but then Lalou sent a Terror Mail to us requesting help. Stupid pirates wouldn't leave her alone."

That was when I noticed the Roaring Star pulling up next to the other ship. A minute later a young woman with long green hair tied back into a braid that barely brushed the top of her trousers. Of course her outfit was just as interesting as her hair. Her trousers were mostly brown with multicolored splotches covering it, and she wore a loose, long sleeved off-white tunic that gave her some pretty major pirate vibes. A pair of woven hoops made from gold that was designed to look like vines hung from her ears. Her skin was deathly pale, her eyes a dark brown that was so dark that it appeared to be black instead. A strange dark red mark covered the left side of her face, looking suspiciously like a burn scar. Her boots didn't make a sound against the wooden dock as she approached me.

"Hi Hiccup! How's my best customer doing?" Lalou grinned widely at me, her teeth almost as white as her skin.

I laughed as I shook her offered hand. "I've been doin great. Why'd ya change your hair color again? I was just getting used to it being pink."

Lalou laughed at that, before gesturing towards her ship. "My little sister is with me... and Kaieska (Kai-esh-ka) is positive that pink is a terrible hair color."

A shout of green's worse came from the ship, though the younger Zombian didn't make an appearance. I laughed at that, before turning to see if I couldn't spot my new little sister. "Well, I recently discovered that I have a little sister that appears to be a couple of years older than Hiccstrid." I finally spotted her in Valka's arms. "Briar come here, I want to meet my friend Lalou."

"No! She's the weird one with the changing hair... and hair isn't supposed to change colors!" Briar buried her face into Valka's shoulder.

Snotlout shrugged at that, before turning to face Lalou. "Honestly this isn't the craziest I've seen from you."

I hummed in agreement with that comment, she once had changed her hair so that it was all the colors in the rainbow. Of course that was two days after we had reunited her with her people, before she became a trader. Surprise flashed across everyone's features upon hearing that, before realizing that the show was over, wandered off to see what the none burned to a crisp ship had to offer.

~Gothi's POV~

I hobbled over to where Johan lay in pain on the dock, somewhat concerned about Hiccup's, and apparently Snotlout's, reactions to seeing the trader. Something told me that Stoick's presumption that they were just mistaking the man for someone else however couldn't be true. I had noticed Snotlout's arrival before his assurance that it was just Johan... and both young men appeared to be more distressed hearing that than they should have been if that were the case. Which meant something about Johan himself triggered that explosive scene earlier.

Hopefully the warm welcome Hiccup gave the odd trader with the ever changing hair colors meant that they could trust her more so than they originally believed that they could. After checking over Johan to make sure that Snotlout didn't accidently leave him so injured from both the explosion and the punch to the face, that he might die.

Johan groaned as he turned to face her. "I have no idea what any of that was about... you by chance have something I can use to dull the pain?"

I quickly shook my head no at him, before handing over a yellowing piece of fabric to wipe the blood off. I didn't wait for him to take it before I let go, allowing it to fall to the ground. Turning, I walked off, smirking to myself as I left him behind whining about the pain. My search for injuries on him showed the same bruises that everyone else had from the explosion, which weren't real bad to begin with, and a broken nose from when Snotlout punched him. He would live. And I wouldn't waste my precious medicine on someone that my great-grandsons didn't trust, for what I suspect must be for a very good reason.

A/N: Okay, so there aren't any reviews for the last chapter. I can deal with that. In case you are all wondering, yes I posted this chapter earlier than planned. I...uh... lost a bet to catlovingmermaid, and she asked me to post this instead of the next one on my update schedule for her reward for winning.