Archive of Our Own ^beta

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“Duh duh duh, we’re dead” Hiccup announced to Toothless as Astrid ran back towards the village through the woods. Realistically it would take her a while to get back there, and even longer to get others to follow her back if she mentioned that the dragon she saw was a night fury.

He had come down into that hole ready to leave Berk forever. To go off, and maybe find others like him. Others, who also couldn’t kill a dragon as it laid helpless in front of them. There had to be someone else out there yah? He wasn’t just the odd one out again? Either way, he was willing to take that risk, no matter what he ended up finding.

This time, Toothless let him put the rudimentary saddle on his back and hook it up with his tail so that Hiccup could help the dragon fly again. He had made sure to load a basket up with a decent amount of supplies. He was confident in his, well in Toothless’s, ability to couch some fish, so most of what he brought wasn’t food. There were a few journals, pencils, solid metal balls to be welded down later, some tools, and other basic things like that, that Hiccup wasn’t 100% confident in his ability to re-make.

It was as Toothless got to the top of the tree line that Hiccup heard his name called. It was his dad. Astrid stood next to him, with Gobber and a few of the other cadets. Their faces shone with fear, even from this far away Hiccup could see that. But he could also remember all the times of being pushed to the side, of being ignored, of not feeling good enough.

So he turned back to face the front again. Not truly feeling the desire to turn around and steal another glance until well after Berk could no longer be seen in the distance. After that, he glanced back a few more times, not expecting to see anything at all, but just to know that off in that direction was the family and life he had just left behind forever.

They spent that first night huddled up in a cave on a small sea stack. It was clearly well above where the sea level would rise too during the night, so the two of them collected some logs and had a nice warm fire to sleep next to all night long.

The first few days were tough. Hiccup kept feeling like he should just turn around and go home. He had made it well out of the archipelago by the 3rd week after he had left. The two of them had to regularly find smaller caves to wait out some storms and to hide from some dragon trappers. Hiccup had been shocked to see how many other Vikings there were just trapping and killing dragons.

“Come on bud” Hiccup urged as the hunter’s net launcher aimed at them. Then there was a sudden explosion behind them on the ship, Hiccup held onto the rudimentary handles on Toothless’s saddle as tightly as he possibly could as the black dragon sped off as far and as fast as his wings could take them. It was after Hiccup was sure that the hunters couldn’t see them anymore.

The sound of wing flaps behind him did catch his attention after a while though. The first few times it came from below the clouds where Hiccup couldn’t see, but he could see how Toothless kept getting more and more anxious as the noise grew louder. Then, all at once, the noise vanished. No more wing flaps. No more sounds of another dragon. Nothing.

Toothless was on edge for the rest of the day. It wasn’t until they had found a really nice lake to sleep by that he didn’t seem quite as anxious anymore. They, Toothless, caught some fish from the lake as Hiccup started on a fire so that he didn’t have to eat raw fish, again anyway.

As the Night Fury did his routine of warming up the ground underneath him Hiccup couldn’t help but wonder what was happening on Berk right now. “Do you think they miss me bud?” Toothless lifted up his head at the question and gave a sad coo. “Yah, but what would have happened otherwise? It’s not like they would go ‘Yah all right let's live together with dragons now’” Toothless laid his head back down.

A russell in the bush nearby was Hiccup’s only warning before his vision went black and he saw Toothless’s head fall back down.

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When Hiccup could finally open his eyes again he saw a person with a strange mask on. As soon as he opened his eyes though the person lept back towards the dragons who were surrounding the two of them in a small circle. They must have brought him somewhere because the ground under him was now stone instead of grass or dirt.

As soon as Hiccup’s brain actually processed what in Thor's good name was happening he started looking around at the dragons for Toothless. “Toothless?!” The mystery person tilted their head at this, “Where is he?” He asked the masked person, who shook their staff, making the little beads inside of the decoration rattle.

Almost in unison fires started in the thoughts of all of the dragons standing around in the circle. A moment later a large red dragon, maybe a Nightmare, placed a half asleep Toothless in the middle of the circle. Hiccup ran to check on the sleepy dragon as soon as he made contact with the ground, he made some happy noises towards the boy. Hiccup hugging Toothless as he mumbled “Hey hey hey bud, you ok? Yeah? Good good good”

That's what really caught the person’s attention it seemed, they made their way over, most of their movements seeming to mimic dragons movements unconsciously. Hiccup moved in front of Toothless, as the dragon was still unable to defend himself well yet. The mysterious person reached their hand towards his face, and as he tried to back his head away from their hand, which was covered by long sharp dragon scales, he heard a gasp as their hand was centimeters away from his chin.

“Hiccup?” A feminine voice asked.

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“Hiccup?” A feminine voice asked. “Is, is it really you?”

“Uhh, sorry, do I know you?” He asked, still being wary of the stranger’s hand touching his face.

“No, no, you wouldn’t remember” She said, mostly to herself. Hiccup didn’t think that she had spoken to other people in a while, the woman took off her dragon-like mask, and Hiccup could see her face for the first time. Then the woman said something that left Hiccup completely speechless, “But a mother could never forget”

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“How could he do this Gobber?” Stoick asked. The two were alone in the great hall, Stoick having ordered everyone else out. No one argued, they had all heard what had happened, news travels fast in such a small village. “If it hadn’t been for the lass would I even have noticed? Ever since he was born he’s been different, but he was still my son. What reason could he have to abandon his people”

Gobber took a swig of his drink, “You said it yourself, he’s different then us, he’s never fit in. Not that that’s a bad thing” Stoick sighed, being able to understand exactly what the other man was saying, “He’s just like his mother in so many ways, if only she had been here. She would be able to give him far better advice than I could” The chief sat back in his chair, “What am I going to do Gobber?”

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“Slow down for a moment!” Hiccup yelled at the woman (his mother?) as she was running through the cave system, there was some light coming through small cracks in the walls and ceiling that must have led to open air somewhere above. Toothless was squeezing his way through behind Hiccup as well.

As Hiccup ran through the opening to the cave system he was stunned, the area was ginormous. There were large dragons flying around from place to place with smaller dragons right next to them. There were some species that Hiccup had never seen before, and most he’s only ever read about in the Book of Dragons which seemed to be wrong about most things concerning dragons.

Toothless was surrounded by some baby dragons, who seemed to be deciding what they should think about him. “Well?” Valka questioned, being let back down to the ground by a large Stormcutter dragon’s wing. “What do you think?” Hiccup was still stunned, “This is where you’ve been? For 15 years?” Valka just nodded.

“This is amazing” Hiccup couldn’t help but smile, “There’s so many different dragons in here!” “So, you’re not mad?” She asked, the Stormcutter moved to sit by her side, looking down at the two humans, Toothless was still preoccupied with the younger dragons that he was half heartedly trying to get rid of.

“Course not, this seems great!” Hiccup Was still looking around, “May I?” Valka asked, gesturing at Toothless, he shrugged and nodded. The baby dragons moved away as Valka crouched down in front of Toothless, who let the woman look at the insides of his mouth. He retracted his teeth, to the utter amazement of the woman.

“He is amazing, how on Earth did you ever manage?” She trailed off as he spoke, “Hahaha, well, I kinda shot him down in the woods, but we got past that, didn’t we bud?” He shook Toothless’s face as he said the last bit. Valka only looked a tad worried, but did seem to be able to brush it off somewhat fast.

It took a hot minute for Valka to show Hiccup all around the den of the great Bewilderbeast. But before too long she showed him to where she usually stayed and cooked her food. It was a cave halfway up the mountain that the large den was built around. It had an opening inside, and one outside the den, and was probably high enough for a fully grown Timberjack to fit into.

“What did your father think about your Night Fury friend?” Valka asked as Hiccup took a big bite of fish. “Well” His face was still half full with fish, “I kinda left before he got a chance to find out” Valka nodded solemnly, “People aren’t capable of changing Hiccup. That’s why I've stayed away for so long, I have to protect these dragons, especially Cloud Jumper” She gave her Stormcutter a pat on the leg. “I never would have guessed after all this time that you took after me” Valka reached to touch Hiccup's face, and this time he didn’t back away.

“Oh Hiccup, could you ever forgive me for staying away, we can travel the world! Mother and son! I can show you all I’ve learned through the years!” Valka was grinning, and Hiccup couldn’t wait to see the world.

Hiccup would only have to get used to the semi raw fish. He had so many ideas on what he could change on Toothless’s saddle, and how he could make it so Toothless could fly by himself too. He’s got to find where the nearest trading post was so that he could get the metals and fabric he needed.

Hiccup spent the entirety of the next day out flying, he was using some paper from one of the notebooks he brought to make a map, one that detailed all the abandoned islands that no human had ever set foot on. Toothless warned Hiccup many times when people were nearby, and usually when Hiccup ignored the warnings is when they’d need to make a speedy exit to prevent being shot out of the sky.

Toothless ended up getting a tail that was fully automatic so he didn’t need Hiccup to come with him whenever he wanted to go somewhere. Valka and Cloudjumper did have to learn how to be around Hiccup and Toothless, as it had been years since Valka had really spoken to another person and she didn’t always say things that she thought she did.

He seemed to like his new tail, mostly so that he could go off to catch fish from the air by himself and of course so he could quickly and easily bail Hiccup out of the numerous dangerous situations he often gets himself into. Which has definitely plateaued since the days of him getting captured for days on end and Toothless, Valka, and Cloudjumper having to bail him out every other week.

It had been almost a year since Hiccup had left Berk when he encountered a ship flying Berk colors on one of his flights. He was quite sure that he was still at least a week’s boat ride away from that island, so what were these Vikings doing this far out?

Hiccup purposefully showed himself while flying over the single ship, and heard the long forgotten words of “Nightfury!” “Get down!” They all ran to hide at the other end of the boat as he landed. He was wearing his riding outfit, one made out of some of Toothless’ shed scales that he had made after literally catching on fire multiple times.

He wore the mask, which completely hid his face, designed to protect his eyes when Toothless was flying fast against the wind. But it did make him probably look crazy to these men. These z Vikings who were hiding behind their many barrels starting and gaping at Toothless.

”Why are you so far away from Berk?” He asked, unclipping himself from the saddle of the dragon’s back. “We were sent to find the dragon riders” Hiccup didn’t recognize any of these men, but they were probably part of the group that used to head out and try to find The Nest.

It was also pretty likely that the dragon riders they were talking about were Hiccup and Valka, mostly because he and Toothless haven't encountered any other riders during their flights.

“And what does the mighty dragon killer Stoick the Vast want from a pair of dragon riders?” Hiccup asked the obviously very frightened Vikings as Toothless sat watching with his wings spread out slightly.

It took the Vikings a moment to respond, there was one who was clearly the leader among them who stepped forward, towards the Night Fury he feared, to answer. “He wants help. The raids have gotten far worse and many are going to die this next winter if the raids keep coming”

Hiccup had heard that the dragon raids at Berk had been growing stronger, but not to the point of what he was hearing now. “Then sail back to Berk, and we’ll think about coming to your aid. If we decide to come, we’ll meet with you again just before you get to Berk”

“Come on bud, let's go see what she thinks about this” He motioned for Toothless to stop intimidating the poor men. Within a few seconds Hiccup and Toothless were in the air, Toothless was kind enough to help push the boat back around to make it easier for them to start the journey back home.

Valka had started cooking some fish for dinner by the time Hiccup and Toothless flew back in. “We’ll you were out later than usual, you’re usually back to help get the fire started, I know how Toothless likes to light it” “Yah well we had a little run in with some Vikings” Valka sighed, “Please tell me you weren’t captured again Hiccup” “Hey give me some credit, it was only one ship,” “That hasn’t stopped you before” His mom interrupted,

“They were from Berk” This got the women to pause for a moment, “And? What were they doing so far out?” “They were asking for our help, apparently the rumors of us have made it all the way back to Berk” “What do you want to do then?” Hiccup wasn’t really in a hurry to see Berk again, but he also didn’t want people to starve, even if they had never really been nice to him.

“I don’t know. I want to help them, but I can’t let them hurt those dragons and don’t want them to treat me like they did before” Hiccup sat down with his back against a large rock, “Then we could go, and leave if they don’t agree to your terms” Valka suggested, but Hiccup knew she also wasn’t in too much of a hurry to see Berk again, especially not after hearing how Hiccup wasn't treated too well there as he grew.

“We should leave in the morning, we can bring those poor Viking sacrifices some food that’s not fish” She tossed a raw fish up into Cloudjumper’s mouth.

Hiccup was left to dream off all the changes that Berk must have gone through in the last year for the chief to send people that kill dragons to ask dragon riders for help.

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Hiccup and Valka spent the morning packing their few belongings into some saddle bags that they had made from old clothes. They ate an early lunch before heading out, knowing that they’d be landing soon to feed the Vikings that surely hadn’t gotten too far with the minimal amount of wind the night before.

And sure enough after a little over an hour the Berk ship was in sight. “Make sure to head down slowly, we don’t want a dead Viking on our hands” Valka joked as they started their, somewhat slow, descent towards the ship.

This time there was no voice telling everyone to get down, but they were all standing behind each other trying not to be the closest to the dragons when they landed. This time Toothless wasn’t trying to intimidate them so he was smiling at them and at Cloudjumper.

“We brought you some food other than fish,” Valka said, removing her mask after she sat the bag of meat down. “Eat up” Hiccup also took off his mask. That was when the Vikings seemed to recognize who were standing in front of them, “You know, everyone thinks that you two are dead” said one of them who was definitely the first to remember their faces.

“Well, that’s their mistake” Valka said, tossing a raw fish into the mouths of both dragons, who happily ate them, and the Vikings watched them warily. “We’ll pull your ship the rest of the way so you're not sailing for a week again” Valka told them as she got the rope out of one of her bags and tossed it down onto the deck of the ship.

One of the braver, or stupider, vikings spoke up as Hiccup and Valka were finishing up connecting Toothless and Cloudjumper to the ship with the rope that Valka had found who knows where. “The chief’s changed since you left lad, gave up on the nest as well” That did make the boy pause for a moment, “Guess I’ll have to see all that for myself when we get there”

It was past sundown when the group finally could see Berk, it looked near identical to when hiccup had left, sure the houses were all new, but that was to be expected since he had assumed correctly that the raids hadn’t stopped when he had left, why would they. “Wow” Valka muttered, “The raids have gotten far worse since when I left” They landed back on the ship to unsecure the dragons while they were still a ways away from the port.

“Wanna stop the raid? Or should we wait till morning?” Valka asked, seeming to want to follow Hiccup’s lead on this, as she had been away for far longer than Hiccup had. “Stopping it may make at least some of them a tad less wary of Toothless and Cloudjumper” Hiccup said, sliding into Toothless’s saddle. “My thoughts exactly Hiccup” Valka smiled and was now standing on top of Cloudjumper with her staff in one hand, the other pulling down her mask. Hiccup did the same as both dragons took off, letting the vikings still on the ship worry about getting to the port, which wouldn’t be too hard to get to if they started rowing sometime soon.

They flew above most of the other dragons, who were close to the ground to pick up anything they could off of the ground. They stayed out of sight until they saw the entirety of Berk, one well placed plasma blast from Toothless made the dragons scatter after they heard his roar that came after it. There were many shouts of “Nightfury! Get down!” across the village, but none of them noticed the Storm Cutter land by the outskirts of the houses.

Valka had wanted to see what Stoick had decided to keep in his hut after all these years. Hiccup and Toothless hovered over the shocked vikings as the other dragons left in a large group with very few things to haul into their queen tonight.

They slowly peaked out at the Night Fury who had gotten all of the dragons to leave, Cloudjumper and Valka landed next to them a moment after Toothless’s feet touched the ground. The vikings were starting to stand up and come towards the odd scene, they stayed well away from the dragons though, he did hear quite a few whispers of ‘The riders’ but most went away or grew even quieter when Stoick the Vast made his appearance.

“The ones you sent should be coming into your port soon,” Hiccup said, only looking at his father. His voice had deepened from breathing in so much smoke over the last year so it didn’t come as too much of a surprise that no one seemed to recognize his voice, especially if they all truly thought he was dead.

“Now, what is it that you wanted so badly that the chief of the dragon killing hooligan tribe of Berk sent for two dragon riders?” That seemed to be what made everyone in Berk stare at their chief, he must not have consulted the entire village about this choice like he would have done just a couple years ago.

“We want your help with the stopping the dragon raids” Stoick glanced between Hiccup and Valka, not knowing who really stood in front of the village. Hiccup glanced at his mother, wondering what she thought about that, “They’re getting worse, and if it continues, we may not have enough to make it through the worst of winter” The village seemed to know this part, glancing between their chief and the riders, wondering if they’ll need to come up with a new plan.

He looked over at Valka again, this time, there was a slight nod, which he returned to her after a moment. “Alright, we’ll help, but you have to do it our way” Hiccup’s eyes wandered over the crowd now, he saw many faces he recognized. Astrid was standing behind Stoick, an axe was still in her hand, but she seemed very intent on staring right at Hiccup, he wouldn’t put it past her to have already realized who he was.

Snotlout was standing behind his dad, glancing towards him every few minutes, probably to decide how he needs to react towards things. Ruff and Tuff were standing in front of a, quite large, cart of various weaponry, Hiccup could only imagine the chaos that those two have caused in the last week alone. Fishlegs was staring at Toothless and Cloudjumper, probably trying to break them down and see where to put them on his mental scale of powerful dragons, that was if he still did that of course.

Just before Stoick turned around, probably heading back up to his hut to get some sleep before the sun rose in a few hours, Hiccup spoke up again, “I’d like access to your forge for the time we’re here though” He saw Stoick immediately turn towards Gobber, who wasn’t far from the chief, “Aye, that’s all right,” Gobber stepped forwards towards Hiccup as he said that, “Been a good long while since another’s been in there with me”

The chief took that as his sign that he could leave, and since he left everyone else started to turn towards their huts, giving the dragons, and the people on them, a very wide berth. It wasn’t until everyone, but Hiccup, Valka, and Astrid were the only people left in earshot that Astrid spoke.

“I convinced him to send for you, the way that Night Fury looked at you that day, I never thought he wasn’t going to kill you” Hiccup got off Toothless as she kept talking, Valka and Cloudjumper moved to stand behind Toothless. “He’s closed off now, I’m surprised that he’s still alive with how rash he’s been more recently”

Hiccup took off his helmet. There was no one but Astrid there to see him, and she had clearly already figured it all out after seeing Toothless. “I heard that he’s changed, and sending for riders shows that clearly. All mighty Stoick the Vast, pleading for us to help him” “I do look forward to hearing what your plan is though” Astrid said, before walking away from the clearing and back to where Hiccup vaguely remembered her family hut being.

“So, where’d you want to sleep for tonight?” Valka asked as Hiccup got back on Toothless and pulled his mask back down, “I know just the place”

Hiccup and Toothless led Cloudjumper and Valka up the hill towards the Great Hall, and if you looked from just the right angle, there was a decently large cave sitting just to the side of the large doors. The cave went into the mountain, and for some reason they didn’t use it when first making the hall, who knows how many years ago.

Toothless and Hiccup fell asleep together in a way that no one but them could ever find comfortable enough to sleep like that. Valka slept half propped up on Cloudjumper. They slept lightly and woke up when people started to leave their huts around sunrise to start their days.

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It wasn’t long after sunrise when Hiccup and Toothless got up to take a few laps around the island. Toothless definitely got a good laugh at how many people screamed to get down at the sight of him. After their 2nd lap around the island that Hiccup used to call home, Toothless took them down to the cove that they were both sure they’d never see again since they left.

“I thought I’d find you down here this morning” Astrid said from behind them, she was on the ground, leaning up against a large rock, slightly smirking at Hiccup. Toothless trotted up to her, and to Astrid’s credit, she only tensed up instead of running away like the last time those 2 were face to face.

“What’s his name again?” Astrid asked, letting the Night Fury sniff as the back of her hand, “Toothless” Hiccup let out a small chuckle at how ironic the name was, but nevertheless Toothless showed Astrid his bare mouth before snapping down, very much with teeth now, on a stick that hiccup had thrown towards him. He laughed at how Astrid had startled at the sudden appearance of teeth, as it was something that Hiccup had grown quite used to after spending pretty much all his time with Toothless since he left Berk.

“Some of us really have missed you ya’ know” She said, standing up to lean on her axe, while making very direct eye contact. “The chief’s not doing what he used to for Berk, do you plan on telling him who you are or no?” Astrid did not let Hiccup avoid this question, and he wondered why she wanted to know. “Not at the moment, he made his choices and now he gets to see what they cost him”

“Then that being said, when you leave Berk after this is all over, I want to come with you.” This was very much not where Hiccup had thought Astrid was going with this. “Ok, you can come with us, you’ll have to get really comfortable with the dragons though” Hiccup got back into Toothless’s saddle, “I’m going to go use the forge to make Toothless a new tail, we need something strong to beat a queen in battle huh bud?”

He glanced back at Astrid, “You have likely at least a week to think about it more, make sure you're sure before our fight with the queen” and with that Hiccup was up in the air again, flying slowly towards the village forge. If Astrid truly wanted to come with them she’d have to find a dragon that likes her, Toothless wouldn’t want to be the one to carry her everywhere whenever they had to go somewhere. Hiccup would also have to introduce her to his mother formally, and teach her how to avoid getting shot down by the trappers and hunters who made their bases all over. It would definitely be a change from the only other human around being his mother.

He’ll have to wait and see how she reacts to his plan to kill the queen.

He had his mask down before he landed in front of Gobber’s forge. The few who had been talking nearby had hid behind various things around them when they saw Toothless approaching in the sky. Gobber stayed well out of his way as he worked. He’d had lots of ideas on gadgets that he didn’t have the ability to make himself without access to a forge.

He made Toothless a new tail fin, and added some little things to his saddle to make it more comfortable for both of them and so it could hold a few more hidden trinkets. Hiccup also added a few more doodles in one of his notebooks on a few different alterations he could make to his mask to make it better for being worn for an extended amount of time, it was really starting to rub on some parts of his face since he had never worn it constantly as it had been made to protect his face from the wind during fast flying. He couldn’t care less if the hunters whose ships he sank saw his face.

Hiccup’s flight suit was still an in progress project, and he was debating finishing it up for the battle with the queen, but he did ultimately decide that he’d get parts that he would be able to do better with access to a forge, but the rest could wait. He did also help on a few orders from the berkians each day he worked in the forge. He just got some stuff started, never too much, but enough that Gobber stopped being quite as wary of Hiccup. He still stayed away from the Night Fury laying in the corner of the shop.

Valka was doing recon on the nest, which was how they learned just how hated this queen was by her nest. Most queens were at least respected by their nest, but the nest closest to Berk was an outlier, which was probably why they continuously raided the vikings. They had to bring back their body weight in food for their queen.

Hiccup started to notice Astrid watching Valka leave the island each day, and look at what Hiccup was working on when he was taking a short break. Maybe she was trying to figure out what to expect if she decided to actually leave Berk for good.

After spending a week on Berk, the dragons from the nest hadn’t been back since that first night. It was clear that the chief was getting anxious from not doing anything since Hiccup and Valka arrived. Hiccup and Valka had made a plan to attack in 3 days. They had mapped out their path into the center of the nest and were going to use quite a few tricks to use the queen’s size against her in the tight area inside the nest.

All of their planning went out the window when Hiccup left the forge after not taking a break almost all day to find Astrid, Ruff and Tuff, Fishlegs, and Snotlout arguing about how to tell him something.

When they noticed that he had left the forge it was Astrid who had yelled out what they wanted to tell him. “The Chief launched a pre-emptive strike against the nest, they left earlier and he told us not to tell you or her” She motioned above to where Valka and Cloudjumper were coming down for a landing by where Toothless was standing, just behind Hiccup.

“Hiccup, all the fighters are gone” Valka called out as Hiccup moved his mask on top of his head as he looked through the saddle bag that kept a few tails for Toothless. “Wait what?” Snotlout yelled, “Hiccup? I knew you were still alive!” Fishlegs smiled, the twins just stared. “Hiccup,” Astrid stepped forwards, “I want to help, they’ve messed up your plan already, can’t hurt right?” A clammer of the others agreeing and also wanting to help came after Astrid said that, “Well,” Valka commented, “Looks like we need to find us some dragons then”

Lucky for them there were still some dragons in the arena that had been kept there to teach the kids to fight them. Asrid got the Nadder, Fighlegs the Gronkle, Ruff and Tuff got the Zippleback, and Snotlout got the Nightmare.

Hiccup showed them where they should sit and how to hold onto the rope he had gotten secured in place of a harness. Hiccup had them all fly around the island first before handing in the direction of the nest, he couldn’t let them hurt the dragons with how they were sitting or something.

There were luckily no cases of anyone almost falling into the sea on the way there. Hiccup had pulled his mask back on to protect himself from the wind, just like Valka, but the others had to depend on their dragons to keep flying them straight and to not veer off course until they got used to the feeling of flying.

When the group of 6 arrived at the nest the Vikings had made a Viking sized mess. The regular dragons seemed to be hiding from the queen, which is also what most of the Vikings were doing, but there were two who were trying to get the attention of the queen, it should be no surprise that those two were Stoick and Gobber. They were waving their weapons around in the air like lunatics.

“Is no one else freaking out about how Hiccup is riding a Night Fury right now?” Snotlout called out as Astrid sighed, “I’m going to check on the hiding dragons” Valka said, veering off towards the nearby sea stacks where the dragons were likely hiding from their queen. “I for one am” Tuffnut replied to Snotlout, “I’m just trying to hold on!” Ruffnut commented, slipping down one of the Zippleback’s necks a little.

Hiccup was the first one to take a shot at the queen,the others followed after Toothless, they definitely had her attention now. Hiccup saw Stoick and Gobber give Hiccup all their attention now that they weren’t being chased by the queen.

Snotlout fell off the Monstrous Nightmare, and was lucky enough to fall onto the queen’s face. He was stupid enough to try and use his feet to kick her in the eyes, as he must have dropped his axe at some point, and not expect her to fling him off. Hiccup and Toothless caught him, he kept screaming bloody murder until Toothless dropped him onto the ground at a distance where he wouldn’t be hurt.

Astrid and the Nadder she was on had done some nice damage to the queen’s wings, which now had a few tears in them. The twins and the Zippleback saved Astrid from being sucked in and eaten while Hiccup had saved Snotlout, and now everyone but Hiccup was on the ground.

Chapter Text

Hiccup and Toothless shot the queen in the back.

Just as he and Valka had predicted, she opened up her wings and took off. It had likely been quite a while since she had flown anywhere. Queens of nests weren’t known to move after they had settled into their nests, but judging by her size, she was a relatively new queen, as Red Death’s are known for getting absolutely massive, some getting almost as large as juvenile Bewilderbeasts, towards the end of their lives. This queen was probably just older than Berk, as they mature quite slowly compared to most other species.

The queen chased the two of them through the sea stacks, making some of the hiding dragons have to leave their spots right before the queen rammed into the sea stacks, sending them under the water. It wasn’t long before she had almost caught up to them. Toothless’s size and speed could only do so much as the queen was hurdling through pillars of rock.

Toothless started to pull up and away from the sea stacks. Up into the heavy cloud cover. The queen followed them, seeming to struggle with the steep incline that Toothless had taken. As soon as they were protected by the clouds they took a sharp turn to end up behind the queen as she rose into the clouds. They took random shots, hitting her wings and chest the hardest.

The queen had started to twist and randomly fire around her into the clouds, which was when Hiccup and Toothless decided to dive down right in front of her, towards the ground. It didn’t take too long before they were out of the clouds and could see the people standing, all in one large group, staring at what must have been quite a scene for them to witness.

It seemed to take entire minutes, but was simply seconds, before Toothless flipped around with Hiccup and his back facing the rapidly approaching ground, and shot directly into the queen’s open throat just moments before she would have taken a shot at them. Toothless spread his wings out as far as they could go, and they both shot up just as the queen collided with the ground.

Hiccup swore that he could feel the slight touch of the queen’s tail ball along his back as Toothless took them safely out of reach of the gigantic flames given off by the burning queen.

Hiccup and Toothless hovered above the warriors of Berk and took in their shocked silence, one of the only times that most of the tribe was quiet while in one space together. Of course, that wouldn’t last long. The vikings started yelling and congratulating each other, even though they did next to nothing.

Hiccup saw Astrid, Fishlegs, Ruff, Tuff, Snotlout, and even Stoick watching him hover on Toothless above where the vikings were celebrating the win of the great battle. He wondered if Astrid had changed her mind about leaving Berk, or if everything that had happened only increased her drive to leave that way of life.

Valka came up to hover next to Hiccup, not wanting to go down in the middle of the chaos that was happening as people tried to organize themselves back onto the few boats that had survived the queen’s initial attack.

Those who came on the backs of dragons had been given a pretty wide berth around them from the others, who very much did not want to get close to the dragons standing next to them. Everyone but Snotlout, who got helped by Tuff, was able to get back on their dragons without help.

Stoick hadn’t gone up to them yet, but he had given them a curious glance. Hiccup flew back to Berk faster than the ships could go, Valka had set her pace to match that of the ships, simply to ensure that no dragons got close to the vikings who were drunk on the feeling of success.

It was his old friends who were the ones who ended up chasing after him, they ended up landing on Berk a few minutes apart. They couldn’t go nearly as fast as Hiccup, as this was their first times flying on the backs of dragons. Hiccup also wasn’t trying to drastically outpace them.

Hiccup was placing his riding mask into Tothless’s saddle bag as the rest of them landed. “So what have you decided?” He asked, glancing up at Astrid. The others gave them a weird look before interrupting, “Um, decided about what?” Fishlegs asked Astrid. “I’m coming” She said, “Coming where?” Tuffnut asked, “Can we come?” Ruffnut followed up. “Oh” Snotlout spoke, staring at Hiccup.

“You’re both leaving then, huh” Fishlegs gasped and what Snotlout revealed, “What? Astrid?” He turned to plead with her, “Why are you leaving, and Hiccup, don’t you want to stay longer?”

Hiccup absolutely did not. He did exactly what Stoick had asked for, and he had always planned to leave immediately afterwards. His dad used to use him as the punishment for those who wouldn’t go search for the nest with him. His mother was interested in what he did day after day, and he loved having the freedom to explore, that just wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t left Berk behind.

“No one’d be happy for long if I stayed and they knew who I am” Hiccup said, “Sure, tell Stoick I’m alive or whatever, but I’m leaving with my mother” Hiccup turned to Astrid, leaning onto Toothless, and started to tell her some of the things she'd want to make sure she brought with her.

“Make sure to bring any clothes you can fit, bring bags, any books you have, those you don't want we can trade with, any thing you don’t want to leave behind. Assume you’re never coming back. I can stuff some things into Toothless’s bags too since you don't have saddle bags”

“Hold on a minute, why’s she the only one who gets to come with you?” Tuff blurts, “Yah! We still want to come!” Ruff follows, “I mean it would give me a chance to expand my dragon cards” Fishlegs smiled, “See” Snotlout motions to all of them, “Berk’s gone downhill, let us leave with you”

Hiccup was shocked that all of them actually wanted to leave Berk, none of them had been all too interested in anything about him until he started to achieve something in dragon training classes with Gobber. They had done pretty well for themselves during the fight with the queen, maybe they could be useful for larger battles Hiccup sometimes partook in.

“Alright, if any of you ever want to come back to Berk I wont be taking you back here” Hiccup said, “You all here what I told Astrid she may want to bring?” They nodded, actually listening to what he was saying instead of acting as if they knew everything and him nothing. It was a welcome change. “Meet back here once you're ready to leave. We’ll be flying passed the fleet, so any goodbye’s can get made there”

Hiccup and Toothless flew back to the cave that they’d been crashing in during their stay on Berk, and packed up his things as well as his Mother’s stuff and shoved it all back into the bags. They had brought relatively little with them to Berk, so it wasn’t too much that Toothless couldn’t carry all of it. He attached the bags to his saddle so they wouldn’t fall off without Hiccup holding onto them. They would have to clear out some of the nearby caves in the home of the bewilderbeast so that they would all have their own spaces, but in the meantime, they should all be able to fit in their main cave with Hiccup and Valka.

It would be weird to share a space with so many other people, but Hiccup would adjust. It would only be for a short amount of time. “What do you think about letting them follow us bud?” He asked while adjusting Toothless’s saddle, repositioning some of the padding in between him and the metal parts. Toothless chirped, “Yah, we’ll have to see how long they can last on their dragons. They also need to name them huh” There was a lot Hiccup would have to teach them, and just tell them before they get to the nest.

“Do you think that we can ride the whole way back without stopping?” Toothless laughed, there was absolutely no way that people who’ve sat on dragons 1 singular time would be able to handle the journey. Their dragons likely weren't adjusted to carrying them yet and would need at least 2 breaks during the trip. Especially since they’d be carrying extra stuff as well as people.

“Do you think we should take them on a tour?” Hiccup questioned as he climbed onto Toothless’s back, making sure that everything was secured and there wasn’t anything left laying around. “Come on, lets see if anyone’s ready to go yet” The two of them shot out of the cave, taking a quick lap around the island, there were still no viking ships in sight. It would take another day or so for them to come back to Berk based on the current winds. Berk ships were built to last, definitely not to be able to go very quickly.

Astrid was there, gently petting and talking to the Nadder. She didn’t seem to have overpacked, but did have a significant amount of weaponry. Hiccup dismounted and went over to her. “Are you sure you want to do this? Once you leave there's no taking it back”

“There hasn’t been anything truly exciting that has happened since you’ve left. There's no new inventions happening, there’s nothing to work towards, and now there won't even be dragon raids to fight against at night” She was just as stubborn as Hiccup remembered, “I’m sure”

Hiccup began to show her how to wrap a rope around the Deadly Nadder in a way that wouldn’t hurt her as she flew, the Astrid could hold on to, and that they could tie some of her stuff to. Hiccup should finally get around to building a force at the den, it was nice to have a fly functional one to perfect some of his gear while he’s been on Berk. He could also see the benefit of not having to trade for usage of a forge now that there’ll be 6 of them instead of just 2.

They should also expand their food storage, and increase how many rain barrels they have out. Hiccup was also thinking up ways to improve his shower design. He also would have to teach them the different cultural norms of all the places that he tends to visit.

Fishlegs was the 2nd to show up. He brought quite a lot of books, Hiccup was excited to possibly read more, he didn’t often buy books unless there was a need for them as most of his knowledge is enough for him to get buy. So most of the books he has are about engineering and creating different shapes without the ‘right’ tools.

Snotlout had a large red metal ‘s’ that he insisted on bringing with him, which the Nightmare was eyeing warily. The twins had multiple large bags of things that Hiccup couldn’t think up any use for. This was going to be a long trip.

“Well bud, ready to go get mom and Cloudjumper?” he coo’d as Hiccup got positioned in his saddle. It took a minute for the others to get on their dragons with all their stuff this time. But they were all able to end up on their dragons before too long.

“Does everyone have everything that they want to take?” Hiccup glanced around at the nodding heads, “Great, you all can land on the ships, say goodbye to anyone you want to, then there won’t be another break for awhile” Hiccup made sure that he had his smaller notebook within reach, as well as had his map as close as possible so that he could reach it quickly if he ended up needing to.

After they had taken off from Berk, with only mild screams from some of the others, Hiccup made sure to have Toothless slow his speed down a bit so that the others wouldn’t have a hard time staying caught up to them. They didn’t have to go too fast to be able to see the slow moving ships within around an hour of flying.

Valka had come up to Hiccup when she saw that the others were still there on dragons. He gave her the rundown about what all was said and that they all know that leaving Berk may be a hard task. “Astrid, you get to tell the chief, there's no way I’m going down there” She gave him an odd look before she and the Nadder went to land on the head ship.

The ships didn’t slow down, but a hush came over everyone. They were losing a large amount of children today, sure there was a possibility that one day they’ll come back to Berk, after they've had their fill of wild adventures, but who knows when that will be.

Hiccup still hasn’t fully forgiven his dad for how he enabled the village to treat and act towards him, and watching people cry saying goodbye to their children, it made Hiccup accept that maybe, one day far in the future, he’ll end up actually sitting down and talking to his dad, and actually being listened to.

While that may be something that Hiccup will remain open to the idea of, that day is a long way off, and right now Hiccup has to start coming up with a plan of how they're going to have to change their habits to incorporate 4 more people.

He watches as Ruff and Tuff hug all their relatives, how Snotlout gets a pat on the shoulder from his dad, how Fishlegs is hugging his family, and how Astrid hugs her parents while speaking to Stoick. Who looks up at Hiccup with a shocked face. Astrid probably told him who Hiccup was. That’s alright though, he isn’t going down there. They’ll have a conversation the next time he sets foot on Berk, whenever that may end up being.

Hiccup didn’t know what tomorrow would end up bringing, but it would certainly be an adventure trying to educate the four of them over how to act at the inter-tribal markets that Berk had never sent people to, as well as how he’d introduce them to the many islands of which he’s formed alliances with, and which islands to avoid at all costs.

He’s been without people his own age to truly connect with throughout his whole life. Before Valka he would long for someone to understand him, someone to say that he is a viking, that he does fit in. Now he knows the truth. That being part of the group is overrated, that he is so much more fulfilled by doing his own thing.

Now he gets to teach his thing to others. Others his own age. Others who actually want to listen to him. Others that will get to experience the freedom that riding a dragon can bring for the first time.

Hiccup can’t wait to get started.